Ezekiel 21:5 – “Everyone in the world will know that I am the Lord. My sword is in my hand, and it will not return to its sheath until its work is finished.”
Today’s focus is on God’s coming judgment, with some of the same phrases repeated more than once as he speaks to different people groups. Israelites, Babylonians, and Ammonites alike will not be exempt from God’s judgment. Verse 5 jumped out at me: “until its work is finished.” What is the work of God’s sword?
When we think of God’s judgment, we often judge it (ironically). How could a loving God kill and destroy people? This question applies to a passage like this as well as to a belief in an eternal hell. But the work of God’s sword is to cut apart the good from the evil in this world he created. If you are on the receiving end of evil (abuse, oppression, all the -isms, etc.), you would probably be fairly upset if God did nothing about the harm that has come to you.
Here’s your freedom for today:
God’s judgment opposes evil, not good.
God is restoring the world, not harming it. Destruction is productive when you are removing harm (like cancer, weeds, or garbage). Imagine if we never got rid of our trash. We just had to live in it week after week with no way to remove it. Now imagine if your neighbors continually brought trash over to your house, dumped it on you, and there was still no way for you to remove it. God’s judgment would remove the trash and bring justice against the harmful neighbor. He’s on your side if you are on the side of goodness. The problem is that none of us are inherently good — we all sin and participate in evil whether we set out to or not. Earthly systems are built upon harm. If you oppose evil in yourself and in society, you are on the side of God’s judgment. Jesus gave us the only way out. The job of the church is to pull as many people as possible away from evil before the judgment of God is brought to bear.