Being God’s Chosen People comes with accountability…judgment…and purification. And sometimes that involves God’s allowing (or even sending) war. We’re nearing the end of our study of My People/Not My People and seeing that God’s purposes in war are not the same as mankind’s.
Last time, we saw that God uses wars among men
- As a moral instrument, grounded in knowledge of morality as God Himself defines it.
- God does not choose human sides in Joshua 5:13-14 “Are you for us or for our enemies?” “Neither,” He replied, “but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come.”
- God’s stand is always on principles and His sovereign will, not favoritism.
Even if the war is not against an enemy
but against the sins of the Chosen People themselves,
it’s always in defense of a principle.
Nowhere is this more evident than in Ezekiel 8-9. Ezekiel is given a glimpse of what God sees, concluding in verse 17, “He said to me, “Have you seen this, son of man? Is it a trivial matter for the people of Judah to do the detestable things they are doing here? Must they also fill the land with violence and continually arouse My anger?”” (Ezekiel 8:17)
Yes, these were God’s Chosen People acting this way.
As a moral instrument, God sends judgment on Jerusalem.
Verse 18 “Therefore I will deal with them in anger; I will not look on them with pity or spare them. Although they shout in My ears, I will not listen to them.”
Here, it is not human war, but avenging angels who do the destruction, sparing only the Remnant of faithful ones marked by God Himself for preservation. Ezekiel 9: 4 “Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it.””
Ezekiel didn’t understand what was happening to the Chosen People.
“Once more a Remnant of the kingdom of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above. For out of Jerusalem will come a Remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.” (Isaiah 37:31-32)
Ezekiel 9:8 “While they were killing and I was left alone, I fell facedown, crying out, “Alas, Sovereign LORD! Are You going to destroy the entire Remnant of Israel in this outpouring of Your wrath on Jerusalem?”
9 He answered me, “The sin of the people of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great; the land is full of bloodshed, and the city is full of injustice. They say, ‘The LORD has forsaken the land; the LORD does not see.’ 10 So I will not look on them with pity or spare them, but I will bring down on their own heads what they have done.”
Yet make no mistake: there was a Remnant marked for preservation by faith.
God’s War against sin results in moral purity.
He sees it all clearly.
Questions for further thought:
Does a Creator God have the right to choose and to destroy?
Does He have a right to purify His Chosen People whenever He wants?
Is it anti-Israel or antisemitism FOR GOD to do this or is this purification decidedly pro-Israel pro-Zionist? Did they cease being God’s Chosen People because they sinned? Is it in their best interest to be purified?
Bringing it to modern days and the nation-state of Israel: To what extent or does the modern state of Israel sin more than America, for example? Are they more deserving of God’s judgment? Is America under God’s judgment right now?
Why might God be using the current discussions of antisemitism to purify His Church and prepare the Jewish Remnant for His return?
I cannot call it “infighting” or “divisive” when God is the One using voices of My People to excise away wrong views–hateful views–from within the Church that He also calls in purity and love.