Responding

“In thy filthiness [is] lewdness: because I have purged thee, and thou wast not purged, thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more, till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee.” (Eze 24:13 AV)

This has got to be one of the saddest verses in all the Bible.  Israel would not respond to the correction of God.  Over a thousand years, the LORD put up with their fear and disobedience.  He led them through patriarch.  He led them through judges.  He gave them a king.  Throughout their history, they had prophet after prophet.  They had priests who served their spiritual needs.  The LORD tried to purge Israel of its backsliding.  It worked for the short term.  Yet they went back to their sinful ways.  It got so bad that no matter what the LORD used, they ceased to respond at all.  It didn’t matter what hardships He sent their way.  It didn’t matter which enemy had dominion over them.  Nothing seemed to work.  Israel was bent on disobedience.  They still are.  Apostate Israel has turned its back on its Messiah.  Currently, they are expelling all Christian influence from their nation.  They want nothing to do with Jesus.  God brought them through a dispersion and an holocaust.  Yet they still reject.  This was and is their pattern.  What is true for Israel is also true for most.  Only when we respond to the correction of God can His purging become effective.

I am hooked on a show called Repair Shop.  It is a BBC production.  The Repair Shop seeks items of great value to an owner that have both historical and emotional significance.  Sometimes they are extremely rare and valuable.  Most of the time, however, they are family items dating back to a fond childhood or ancestor that have a very important tie to special memories.  It amazes me the means these craftsmen and women used to correct a flaw.  It could be harsh means like head and force.  Or it could be gentle means like humidity.  There was one piece that came in that needed restoration.  It was a Asian scroll the owner’s great grandmother had painted.  The scroll was about five feet long by eighteen inches tall.  Bound on rice paper, there were cracks and chips that needed repairing.  It has lost all its elasticity.  The crafter took a towel and soaked it in water.  She wrung it out as dry as she could.  Placing the towel on the bottom of a tub, she put the scroll in a rack above it.  Too much water and humidity would cause mold to grow on the rice paper.  Too little, and it would not rehydrate the paper.  Another crafter had to repair an old pre-WWII bike.  It was all bent up.  The tire rims were in really bad shape.  It took patience and skill to bang them back into perfect symmetry.  Recently, they received a tourist telescope.  It was the kind you’d find at places like the Grand Canyon or Niagara Falls.  It was a really old version of what exists today.  The customer would place a coin in the slot and the shutter would open.  However, the mechanism that controlled the shutter was too far gone to restore or repair.  It simply would not respond to the craftsman’s tools, methods, or wishes.  There were no spare parts to be found.  To fabricate a replacement meant to build one entirely from scratch.  It was replaced by an honesty box.  The shutter remained open.  Donations were the solution.

God tries as He might to correct our behavior.  He uses every means possible to fix who and what we are.  What He will not do is remove our ability to choose.  At least not in this life.  God does not force holiness on His creation.  We have the choice to live in the fear of God, or reject it altogether.  He will use subtle means, like water, to rehydrate.  If we do not respond, He may use more dramatic means like force and fire.  The LORD loves the souls of people far too much to let us remain as we are.  He will purge and purge.  He will prune and prune.  He will water, feed, bend, break, fix, lead, teach, nurture, revive, etc.  He will never stop.  Even with Israel, God has not had the last word.  The Messiah will return.  There will be a remnant who will finally trust in their promised King.  Until that time, there will be events motivating Israel to repentance.  The same is true with the child of God.  As a child of God, I am truly grateful for this.  The sincere believer does not like who and what he or she is.  They want change.  They see the evil that resides within, and the new man wants nothing to do with it.  So, he or she will pray for deliverance.  Purging is the means.  It may not be comfortable.  But it is welcomed!  May we pray for our hearts and wills so that when the purging comes, we respond and change!  Hallelujah!