Holy Rebels

God was sick of it; the Israelites were saturated with idolatry and the filth that came with it. If God ever cries out in anguish, heaven thundered with His lament. That lament reached the hearts and pens of the prophets, and we find page after page of intense sermons that we sometimes find difficult to read.

Ezekiel was a prophet who clearly reflected the heart of God. It's not difficult to imagine that the words on his scroll were frequently blurred by the tears that flowed as freely as his ink. These idolaters would be cut off from God; but these were the Israelites, God's chosen people! Even in the agony, there is woven the beauty of hope. Repeatedly, the reader of the prophets will find at the end of some of the most damning messages, “Then you will know that I am the LORD.”

In Ezekiel 14, there's an especially beautiful gem of hope. Yes, Israel’s idolatry had become an influence to the spiritual destruction of the nations. God’s judgment would be poured out on her; but in the middle of all of this, God promised Ezekiel that the next generation would be the ones to respond to that judgment and turn away from the leadership’s influence and toward God.

Ezekiel 14:21-23 "For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: How much worse will it be when I send against Jerusalem my four dreadful judgments—sword and famine and wild beasts and plague—to kill its men and their animals! 22 Yet there will be some survivors—sons and daughters who will be brought out of it. (Emphasis mine) They will come to you, and when you see their conduct and their actions, you will be consoled regarding the disaster I have brought upon Jerusalem—every disaster I have brought upon it. 23 You will be consoled when you see their conduct and their actions, for you will know that I have done nothing in it without cause, declares the Sovereign LORD."

God and Ezekiel were consoled by the "rebellion" of youth! What does that say to the younger generation now? They're usually able to see what's "messed up" in society. God often turns to the hearts of younger people to challenge the immobile stance of a culture and motivate others to turn toward Him. He's looking for those who are intensely grieved by the ugliness of sin, and He is consoled by the faithful rebellious. God is calling the younger generation to a rebellion of obedience; obedience to Him.