“For the Lord is your life…”

The following scripture was related to my congregation this morning in service by my pastor. Contextually, it is from a prophesy that Ezekiel gave to God’s people, Israel. However, I feel it provides a wonderful illustration of how the Lord picks us up from death itself and all of our despair and makes us beautiful, wonderful because of Him and His glory. The scripture below is quoted from biblegateway.com.

Ezekiel 16:4-16 (NIV)
⁴ On the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to make you clean, nor were you rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths. ⁵ No one looked on you with pity or had compassion enough to do any of these things for you. Rather, you were thrown out into the open field, for on the day you were born you were despised.

⁶ ” ‘Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, “Live!” ^{[a] 7} I made you grow like a plant of the field. You grew up and developed and became the most beautiful of jewels. ^[b] Your breasts were formed and your hair grew, you who were naked and bare.

⁸ ” ‘Later I passed by, and when I looked at you and saw that you were old enough for love, I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness. I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Sovereign LORD, and you became mine.

⁹ ” ‘I bathed ^[c] you with water and washed the blood from you and put ointments on you. ¹⁰ I clothed you with an embroidered dress and put leather sandals on you. I dressed you in fine linen and covered you with costly garments. ¹¹ I adorned you with jewelry: I put bracelets on your arms and a necklace around your neck, ¹² and I put a ring on your nose, earrings on your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. ¹³ So you were adorned with gold and silver; your clothes were of fine linen and costly fabric and embroidered cloth. Your food was fine flour, honey and olive oil. You became very beautiful and rose to be a queen. ¹⁴ And your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, because the splendor I had given you made your beauty perfect, declares the Sovereign LORD.

Footnotes:

1. Ezekiel 16:6 A few Hebrew manuscripts, Septuagint and Syriac; most Hebrew manuscripts “Live!” And as you lay there in your blood I said to you, “Live!”
2. Ezekiel 16:7 Or became mature
3. Ezekiel 16:9 Or I had bathed

How much does it take for us to see the kind of love and compassion the Lord has for us? For us to see that when He glorifies us, we are the most glorious of all?

In Deuteronomy 30:19-20, the Lord challenged His people to choose who they would serve:

¹⁹ This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live ²⁰ and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Do you see the parallels here? The Lord has offered us life as He in this verse offered the life and land to His people, and as Christ promised as recorded in John 10:10, life more abundantly. How glorious is that life? What perils can we be delivered from? What perils have I personally been delivered from? It is better to ask, what unforeseen and unmerited glories have I had the privilege of bearing witness to and experiencing? What goodness has come to me because of the greatness of God?

And when I look at the Deuteronomy verse, it says that I must choose. This is a daily choice for me. It is currently a daily choice for me to humble myself,to pray, to listen, and to study scripture. It is not a natural reflex that I would have liked to have developed. No, not yet. When I make a promise in the dead of night, in the silent sanctity of my home in the darker hours, I must remind myself that in the morning, sleep will have dampened the passion I felt the evening before when praying, reading, and expressing my adoration for my creator. I have heard that this daily worship becomes a bit more natural as it is praticed. I wouldn’t know. I have been inconsistent…but struggling to grow in spite of this flaw. I am unfaithful, but when I remember, when my heart thinks of my God, I am consumed with love for Him. To think of a God of such great faithfulness (the hymn a man of the church chose this morning to minister with was Great is Thy Faithfulness) who is ready to disregard my wretched condition and downcast state, who is forgiving and merciful and loves me as His own, even in my unfaithfulness, and who has sworn a solemn oath to my care and well-being…are there words for that? But I have been lavished with blessings. Buried in love. God is the one who makes me beautiful, beautiful in character and precious in value, because I am His. Always and forever more.