Ezekiel 43:2-3 – “Suddenly, the glory of the God of Israel appeared from the east. The sound of his coming was like the roar of rushing waters, and the whole landscape shone with his glory. This vision was just like the others I had seen, first by the Kebar River and then when he came to destroy Jerusalem. I fell face down on the ground.”
Today’s chapter is all about God restoring his people into proper relationship with him. Our highlighted verses show the natural and proper response to God: falling face down on the ground. When people come face to face with God in the Bible, they typically have that reaction. There are some moments when we encounter great power and we realize our own smallness.
Have you ever been captured by the power of the ocean? We might imagine a sunset on the beach, but what about the power of getting caught in a boat in a storm? Jesus used this specific event to demonstrate his own power by commanding the wind and waves to stop. (Spoiler alert: it worked.) God might seem to have been flexing throughout the book of Ezekiel, and we could perceive that as grandiose or self-centered. That’s only true when we pretend to have power that we do not actually have. God is a different story.
Here’s your freedom for today:
God’s power is worthy of praise.
When people try to assert their power over others, or try to tear others down, it is rooted in selfishness, pride, pain, and evil. When God asserts his power, it is deserved and real. He is interacting with a world he created, and he is seeking to use his power to love. We can fall down on our faces in worship because that is what encountering God produces. Admiration. Respect. Love. Surrender. If we can feel those things towards people who are kind or loving, we can begin to understand this reaction to a genuine encounter with God. He is the kindest, most loving, most remarkable being that we could ever imagine. I am confident of this because I have watched people’s lives change through my kindness and my love for them. There’s no way I can out-kind or out-love God — if he were selfish and punishing then when I demonstrate kindness and love I would be greater than God. That math doesn’t add up. I hope that those who see my kindness and love see a small piece the true character of God living in me. Perhaps the same could be said of you.