“The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled: I will do unto them after their way, and according to their deserts will I judge them; and they shall know that I am the LORD.” (Eze 7:27 AV)
This statement was made to the king of Judah. The last four chapters were a review of all that Judah had allowed, especially in the temple, and the consequent judgment pronounced against them. The cause for this judgment was that God might honor Himself. If He does not exercise justice on a disobedient Judah, then His name means nothing. The exercise of self-vindication is not limited to subjects such as sin or unfaithfulness. God vindicates Himself in many ways. He does not act solely in justice and wrath. God does not limit His hand in matters of righteousness only. He is a God of mercy as well. He is a God that sustains all things, knows all things, and controls all things. He has a plan for man and each individual soul that makes up mankind. He acts for many reasons. He loves and therefore desires to work in the lives of those whom He created. Our passage above gives a great reason why God acts. He acts that He might be known for who and what He is. We wish to think about this and not limit it to the immediate context of the statement.
Many years ago, I spent a few months trying to develop and unique monogram that included all three of my initials. I did this for the sake of initializing documents like applications and such. But there was another reason I did this. For years, I dabbled in art. First, it was old school. Then it went modern and technical. One work I created was watch faces for a smartwatch. That was back in the infant days of such a hobby. When inserting my monogram, I tried to do this as discretely as possible. I wanted it to be there, but also unobtrusive. I didn’t want my monogram to be the center of the piece. I didn’t want it to be the first thing people noticed. Looking at the monogram, if you didn’t know my name or initials, it might be hard to figure out just what the design was supposed to be. It almost looked like an ampersand. It actually looked like a cross between an ampersand and a boat anchor. The point was, I wanted those who saw the design to notice the creator without being the center of what I did.
When it comes to the hand of God, He demands He be the center. There is nothing unobtrusive about it. A thunderstorm is kind of hard to miss. An earthquake is not all that subtle. A sunrise is noticed by everyone. A miracle cannot be ignored. The beginning of life and the end thereof are not silent events. It is hard to miss the hand of God. If one misses it, he does so because he chooses to. God works oftentimes in the affairs of men. He does so to be known. He does so that those upon whom the hand of God comes, will recognize it, be humbled, and be moved to gratitude, resulting in more obedience and faith. God wants to be known. Not just personally. But HE wants to be known for who and what He is. Not just that He is. We miss it all the time. We are so temporally minded that the hand of God passes right before us and we hardly even take notice. This is why He works. To acknowledge God for who and what He is is the only correct response.
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