When There is HOPE

OK, this study of Ezekiel has been filling me.
Sometimes with urges to warn.
And concern for the state of the nation's heart.
Sometimes with solemn recognition of my own propensity to fall.
And now? Now it fills me with a beautiful glimmer of HOPE.
That is, I just finished studying chapter 20. And although it begins with a bit of a harsh tone as the LORD denies the request of an inquiry by Israel's elders - and as He goes on to detail their history of rebellion, and His wrath and judgement - it finishes with a marvelous hope.

Through Ezekiel, God relays the account of Israel's rebellion. HE recounts His own display of wrath, poured out for His Name's sake - that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations. Then HE speaks to those who have come to inquire of Him and tells them that HE will be king over them. God tells them about His plan to bring the people back from the lands where they are scatterd, into the wilderness where He will enter into judgment with them (as He did with their fathers), and -ultimately - how He will restore them so they will know He is the LORD.
Then HE says this:
(please read these words prayerfully and slowly)

39 “As for you, O house of Israel,” thus says the Lord God, “Go, serve everyone his idols; but later you will surely listen to Me, and My holy name you will profane no longer with your gifts and with your idols. 40 For on My holy mountain, on the high mountain of Israel,” declares the Lord God, “there the whole house of Israel, all of them, will serve Me in the land; there I will accept them and there I will seek your contributions and the choicest of your gifts, with all your holy things. 41 As a soothing aroma I will accept you when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands where you are scattered; and I will prove Myself holy among you in the sight of the nations. 42 And you will know that I am the Lord, when I bring you into the land of Israel, into the land which I swore to give to your forefathers. 43 There you will remember your ways and all your deeds with which you have defiled yourselves; and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for all the evil things that you have done. 44 Then you will know that I am the Lord when I have dealt with you for My name’s sake, not according to your evil ways or according to your corrupt deeds, O house of Israel,” declares the Lord God.’”

Ezekiel 20:39-44

Do you see what I saw???
The LORD essentially says to the house of Israel, Fine. Go serve your idols. Do your evil thing. But the day is coming when you're going to listen to Me once and for all. When you will stop profaning My name with your wicked ways... I will draw you to Myself, and you will hate the evil you have done. Then you will know I am the LORD, because I had such great mercy on you.
God's judgment and wrath had been plentiful in Israel's history.
They are abundant in the prophecies leading up to this point in Ezekiel.
But I am reminded, God's judgment and wrath are always justfied.
Always deserved.
Always right.
Always with the intent to bring about reconciliation.
And that's what I'm seeing play out here in Ezekiel.
In spite of everything Israel had done, in spite of the wrath God had to pour out to protect His Name, His plan was to draw His people back to Himself in holiness.
So I cling to this hope for our world today.

May the LORD have mercy upon us. May HE draw us to Himself and reveal our sin. May HE open our eyes and give us a thorough disgust for the wicked ways we have been living. May HE make us a people holy unto Himself, ready and willing to walk in His ways and follow His lead. May it be so, LORD. Amen!