Ezekiel isn’t one of my favorite books of the Bible. I tend to drag my heals through it and sometimes miss what God wants me to hear. Therefore, as I started reading chapters 32-34 this morning, I asked God to get my attention and really speak to my heart. When I came to chapter 33 vs 10-11 it was as though the Lord placed a magnifying glass on the page. I noticed details about that brief passage which had escaped me completely in the past. As Pastor Craig would say, “Let me unpack it for you.”
Ezekiel 33:10-11 (NASB) “Now as for you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus you have spoken, saying, “Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we are rotting away in them; how can we survive?”’
“Say to them ‘As I live!’ declares the Lord God, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why will you die o house of Israel?’
The Israelites in this passage knew exactly that what they were doing was wrong. They also realized they were being weighed down by their fiascoes. The people could clearly see that their lives were rotting away for this precise reason: because they were not following God’s mandates. But why? Why did they do that? If they knew they were hurting themselves, why did they continue to do it? Why do we? Why do I?
A sin I struggle with more than any other is over-eating or reckless choices of food to the point of harming myself. I have, on multiple occasions, lost a considerable amount of weight only to gain it back again. I have tried to evaluate the motives behind my failure but haven’t totally figured it out. I did reject one motive – a sense of entitlement. I used to tell myself I was entitled to that pleasure, but God differed with my opinion and convinced me He was right. I know God wants me to succeed and enables me to do it. As He said with His own words, “As I live!” … “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked” (and yes, gluttony is wicked), “but rather the wicked turn from his way and live.” I don’t like what I carry because of this sin. Neither God nor I want it to continue; so, why do I continue? Actually, at this point I am clueless. God only knows.
Satan has plenty of reasons to want me to fail. Let’s see, being fat could cause me to die at an earlier age. That would cause grief in my family; might even provoke one who is weak in faith to turn his or her back on God in anger. A needless premature death would also keep me from accomplishing all God wants me to do. Being fat causes me to feel self-conscious. I enjoyed public speaking when I was healthier, but now my mind is on what I look like almost as much as what needs to be said. Satan doesn’t want me to say it! Being overweight makes me tired too. I do not work as effectively as I used to. Satan’s strongest reason for wanting me to fail is this: he doesn’t want God to have pleasure. I think keeping in mind how much the devil enjoys robbing God of pleasure will help me to overcome this once and for all, for I want God to be the one who is pleased. By the way, your prayers sure wouldn’t hurt!
Now for what God’s Word has to say: Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. 1 Peter 5:8-9(NASB).