the worst judgment: God letting you have what you want

“As for you, O house of Israel, thus says the Lord GOD: Go serve every one of you his idols, now and hereafter, if you will not listen to me; but my holy name you shall no more profane with your gifts and your idols.”

Ezekiel 20:39

Israel had a history of divided religious loyalty to both God and to idolatry. In this message by God through Ezekiel to the leaders of Israel just before the exile, this history of idolatry is recounted, and God acts with the penultimate penalty.

Even while still slaves in Egypt, Israel worshiped Egyptian gods. But God had mercy on His covenant people. He delivered them from the slave bonds of Egypt and under Moses led them to freedom. They received His law and were taught how to love and worship their gracious and merciful Lord. Yet they still held onto their idols.

In the wilderness, God provided their every need. Moses received the Law and the people agreed through the covenant to worship the Lord. They built a tabernacle, honored a priesthood, and sacrificed gratefully to God. Yet they did not last, and again embraced their idols and grumbled against their gracious and caring God.

The Lord judged that ungrateful generation as they wandered to fall dead in the Sinai sands. And their children committed to His covenant and God gave them the land of Canaan. They settled into cities and farms they did not build, received God’s blessings and then promptly started worshiping the idols of the gentiles around them.

God gave them a king and made of Israel a nation that the world came to visit. They built a temple for God’s worship, sacrificed to the Lord, and still secretly kept a fondness to love their idols at every turn.

Finally, God let them go the way of their idolatry. He told them, through Ezekiel, to just serve all the idolatry their wicked hearts desired. He was done with them. The covenant had been shredded by generations of their detestable idolatry, and now, in the worst judgment that God can deal humanity, God simply let them do what they wanted so much. When God leaves us to our idols, the worst judgment is upon us. And that principle is still true today. I’ve seen in individually. I have had to confront my own idolatry repeatedly. And culturally, I can’t help but believe that this principle hovers over the church right now, in these times, and just may be exactly what we are experiencing right now, lest we repent!