“And yet God reveals His attributes through his judgments, just as much as He does through his blessings. And sometimes his judgments get our attention much more quickly.” Warren Wiersbe

I have finally made the way to chapters 29-30 in my study of Ezekiel. Once again these two chapters paint a serious picture of what God has to say about sin. Ezekiel 29-30 focuses specifically on God's judgments against Egypt because of their sin (pride.) The Pharaoh of Egypt had taken credit for all the good that had happened (the success of their country) and all he had done. He attributed all of these blessing as results of his own doing. The Lord’s response to that? The Lord promised to bring him to a place of complete humiliation. Ezekiel uses words such as: destroy, make desolate, set fire, pour fury, cut off, etc. to describe what would take place to Egypt because of their sin.

These chapters create a sobering reminder that sin has a price that must be paid. A hard truth that God hates sin. Like flashing warning signs of danger that lies ahead, these chapters give us insight of the progress of sin and its results. Once it has conceived and given birth, it grows and eventually leads to death. Sin causes destruction and devastation and damage far beyond our ability to understand. This sin goes against everything in the nature of a holy and perfect God who stands over all of creation. And God has a strong message to say about sin and what he thinks about proud people.

I got to thinking about these chapters and was feeling overwhelmed with it all...with sin. my own sin. my own cycles. What God says about my pride. And I was asking the question- so where is the gospel in Ezekiel 29 and 30? Where is the hope? Is this it? Are we all to be smoten and left to die on rocks? Is it over? Are the cycles undefeatable and the sin too much? Am I just left here to weep and weep because no one could open the scrolls? Because left to me- there is NO HOPE for ever fixing any of this.

In all of these emotions of reading about the Lord’s judgments to Egypt being likened to a terrible storm that is coming on the people, my thoughts are brought back to Ezekiel chapter 1. Ezekiel has just had his first vision of the glory of the Lord and is about to receive his calling that would change his life and cost him everything. And in the middle of this vision- a rainbow appears. A rainbow? Yes. Noah saw a rainbow after the storm (Genesis), John sees a rainbow before the storm (Revelation), and Ezekiel sees a rainbow in the middle of the storm. A stunning reminder of hope that God’s promises never fail. His promises hold fast before life’s storms hit, in the middle of the wind and rain pounding, and when we are walking out of them. This rainbow reminded me of the greatest promise God made- a promise of a Messiah that would come and put all things back together. A Messiah greater than the cycles of sin and defeat. Someone who could look at even all of this sin in Ezekiel 29 and 20 and say “It is finished. It is paid in full.”

The Messiah represented in 1 Peter 3 and Romans 6.
1 Peter 3:18- For Christ also suffered once for sin, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit...
Romans 6:10 (message version)- When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us.

Yes. Once again the gospel is found in Ezekiel. Once again Christ is more than enough. Once again Christ stands as the Lion who has conquered. And this Lamb who was slain- once for all, that we might have communion with the Father because of his atonement for our sins- this Lamb can conquer any cycle of pride and defeat and sin. Yes- a price must be paid. May Ezekiel 29 and 30 once again lead us to worship because of the work on the Cross. May it cause us to repent often, pursue holiness, hate sin, and trust only in the Cross of Christ.