The Second Saddest Verse

13“ ‘Now your impurity is lewdness. Because I tried to cleanse you but you would not be cleansed from your impurity, you will not be clean again until my wrath against you has subsided.
14“ ‘I the Lord have spoken. The time has come for me to act. I will not hold back; I will not have pity, nor will I relent. You will be judged according to your conduct and your actions, declares the Sovereign Lord.’ ”

Ezekiel 24:13-14

Last week I wrote about my feeling that Ezekiel 22:30 has got to be the saddest verse in the Bible.

Today I am convinced that Ezekeil 24:13 is a close second.
Go ahead and re-read it. Then let's reason through it together.

The context of the verse is Jerusalem's blatant unfaithfulness to God, by way of acting as a harlot with the idols of the nations around her. That isn't new information.
What struck me in this verse - and what makes me feel it is so sad - is the tone with which the LORD is speaking to His people. Can you hear it?
I tried to cleanse you
In other words, HE sent prophets to His people to point out their sin and call them to repentance.
HE re-sent those prophets when His people didn't listen.
HE gave warnings.
HE tried to reason with them even though they were rebellious.
HE told them what was going to happen if they didn't turn from their sin and return to the LORD.
HE bared His heart to them, telling them He has no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies - practically begging His people to Repent and live.(Ezekiel 18:32)
Indeed, HE did everything good and reasonable and even beyond-what-was-rational to cleanse His people. **Read that: The LORD told His people what He expected of them, i.e. faithfulness, before they entered the Promised Land. And He'd been repeating Himself solidly for over 800 years.
And their response?
but you would not be cleansed from your impurity
The LORD did everything HE could do.
Several times He relented of His wrath (which had been completely deserved).
He tried to cleanse His people, but they just weren't having it.
And so...
So He declared that He was going to let His wrath be the vehicle by which His people would finally be cleansed. They would go through the fire (quite literally).

How sad!

Yet one day - they would know that HE is the LORD.
And once again, we see the wrath of God coming for the purposes of reconciliation.
But, what if?
What if God's people had listened to Him and allowed Him to cleanse them the first time around?
Obviously, allowing God to do His work would have been the better option for the people of Jerusalem. That's easy for us to see.
But here's where we need to make application. See, I don't believe God gave us His Word simply so we could contemplate what would have been the better choice for them. I am sensing His Spirit speaking directly to mine. And I'm asking Him, "Is there some impurity in my life You're trying to cleanse?"
Oh, I don't want to miss His work.
I want to participate with Him in my transformation - not work against Him.
I don't want to bring His chastisement upon myself because I was too stubborn to listen.
Because, how sad would it be if God gave us His Word, and we studied it and we learned what happened to the people of old, and we even grieved for the choices they made and the pain it brought to God's heart, but we never let the Word affect our lives today?
That would be so, so sad!

So I must ask, is God speaking to your heart through this Word today?