Apr 28 - Ezekiel 16:10-14

The Lord God says,

“I clothed you with

embroidered cloth and … fine linen …

I put … a beautiful crown upon your head.

You grew exceedingly beautiful,

fit to be a queen.

Your fame spread among the nations

on account of your beauty,

for it was perfect because of my splendor

that I had bestowed on you”

Ezekiel 16:10-14

^NRSV

 

God is the King.

 

We are his queen.

 

We are his beloved!

 

That is the consistent witness of Scripture – both Old and New Testaments. That is the image that God himself repeatedly uses.

 

It is an image of covenant … and therefore, commitment. It is an image of love and the joy in marriage.

 

It is an imagine, also, of fidelity. Faithfulness! God will never go back on his commitment. He can never go back on his commitment. It’s against his very nature.

 

And sometimes, that makes God’s covenant with us exceedingly difficult. Why? Because we are wanton. We are sinful. We fall short of God’s glorious standard. Like sheep, we all go astray.

 

No.

 

Not just like sheep.

 

As gorgeous as today’s lines are – “exceedingly beautiful,” “fit to be a queen” – the next lines in Ezekiel 16 are shocking. Horrifying. Painfully true. “But you trusted in your beauty, and played the whore because of your fame, and lavished your whorings on any passer-by” (verse 15).

 

How many of us flirt with false doctrine? How many of us turn on the shrine in the center of our house – the TV – and import filth into our “family rooms.” Even when we’re not trying to, we break the first commandment all of the time; throughout the day, we place all kinds of alternate priorities before God. We are – swallow hard – whores. We are – “own it” – covenant breakers.

 

“‘You were insatiable … How sick is your heart?’ says the Lord God (v 28, 30). 

 

What do we deserve in our relationship with God? Divorce!

 

What does God give his people instead? Forgiveness. This painful chapter ends with this promise: “Yet I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth.”

 

Some will read this as a license to sin. (“If she’s a good Christian, she has to forgive me, no matter what!”) Shame on you. Obviously, the point of this is not to say, “Feel free to be like Israel.” The point of this is to say, “Be like God – gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.”

 

If you read this whole chapter, God did not offer Israel cheap grace. The path back to life was going to be costly. The Israelites suffered powerful consequences for their sin. In fact, their relationship was permanently scarred. It was like a drunken husband who smashed his car into a tree with his family in the car. He would have to look at his wife’s scarred face as an everyday reminder of his own sin.

 

If we’re honest, that’s what we should see every time we look at the cross. Our sins are a car wreck. They sent Jesus to the cross. And the scars on Jesus’ hands and feet should be daily reminders of our sin … and yet they should also remind us that with patience and forgiveness. Every relationship has the possibility of becoming stronger than it ever was before.

 

God’s Model for Covenant Keeping

 

Yes, our sin scars our relationship with God. It threatens to separate us. Yet it is God who keeps taking the initiative. He keeps coming back to us in love. He sends his Son. He keeps his covenant. He will never give up.

 

Is that your view toward marriage?

 

I know you can’t possibly be as loving and forgiving as God. (You’re human, after all.) And you surely don’t have to put up with abuse. Nevertheless, you are called to follow God’s model of love, forgiveness, and covenant keeping!

 

In marriage, it’s usually not a few big things that break apart a marriage – though some big transgression is often the final death knell. It’s usually a million little things that gradually break apart a marriage. It’s everyday falterings and failings. It’s repeated unforgivenesses and daily callousness. Covenant keeping isn’t some big sweeping gesture; it’s everyday kindness and faithfulness and patience and forgiveness.

 

QUESTION: Are you more like God or Israel in your relationship? What will it take for you to keep covenant like God keeps covenant?

 

In Christ’s Love,

a guy who needs daily grace

(and needs to give it too)