splendor.

"You were still naked and bare when I passed by you and saw that your time for love had arrived. So I spread my robe over you (an act symbolizing espousal) and covered your nakedness, and I entered into a covenant with you by oath, thus you became Mine.

You grew more and more beautiful, and became fit for royalty. Your beauty won you fame among the nations, for it was perfected through the splendor which I set upon you - declares the Lord."

-ezekiel 16.

the gracious Father.

A mentor of mine once taught me that in Biblical times, if a family didn't want or felt they couldn't support a baby, there were designated fields where newborns could be left to die. It was an ancient form of abortion - after birth, the babies would be left lying under the sun until the heat of its rays did its brutal work.

Death by exposure.

I remembered this yesterday as I read the following passage in Ezekiel 16;

"On the day you were born, you were left lying, rejected, in the open field. When I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your own blood, I said to you: 'Live in spite of your blood.' I let you grow like the plants of the field; and you continued to grow up until you attained womanhood."

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God the Father rescued us.

He passed us by in the fields and in love decided to pick us up, take us out of the sun, and call us His own. He adopted us.

And now, instead of unwanted children, we are sons, daughters, and heirs of a King.

our multitude of fetishes.

fet·ish: 

1. an object regarded with awe as being the embodiment or habitation of a potent spirit or as having magical potency.
2. any object, idea, etc., eliciting unquestioning reverence, respect, or devotion.
3. any object or non genital part of the body that causes a habitual erotic response or fixation.

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"Thus said the Lord God: If anyone of the House of Israel turns his thoughts upon his fetishes and sets his mind upon the sin through which he stumbled, and yet comes to the prophet, I the LORD will respond to him as he comes with his multitude of fetishes. Thus I will hold the House of Israel to account for their thoughts, because they have all been estranged from Me through their fetishes." -ezekiel 14.

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"continually be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you may be able to determine what God's will is." -romans 12.

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"we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Messiah." -2 corinthians 10.

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"more than all that you guard, guard your mind, for it is the source of life." -proverbs 4.

a heart of flesh.

concerning the future return of the exiles of Israel from Babylon, the Lord God says;

"I will give them one heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove the heart of stone from their bodies and give them a heart of flesh." -ezekiel 11.

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always a remnant. always a promise. always a future.

with this God,

there is always hope.

the appearance of the semblance of the Presence.

"Above the expanse over their heads was the semblance of a throne, in appearance like sapphire; and on top, upon this semblance of a throne, there was the semblance of a human form. From what appeared as his loins up, I saw a gleam as of amber - what looked like fire encased in a frame; and from what appeared as his loins down, I saw what looked like fire. There was a radiance all about him. Like the appearance of the bow which shines in the clouds on a day of rain, such was the appearance of the surrounding radiance. That was the appearance of the semblance of the Presence of the Lord. When I beheld it, I flung myself down on my face. And I heard the voice of someone speaking..." -ezekiel 1.

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this portion of ezekiel's vision fascinates me.

look at the words he uses; sapphire, amber, fire, radiance.

these are powerful descriptors, conjuring up images of a form and a being that is beautiful and mighty beyond our understanding.

and this is merely a retelling of the appearance of the semblance of the Presence of the Lord. all that radiance and gleaming amber and framed fire is just a limited, far off, layered version of what God truly is. the reality of God is far too pure and holy for any man to look on in full.

the mere appearance of the semblance of the Presence of the Lord caused ezekiel, God's own prophet and priest, to fling himself down on his face in reverence and fear.

And this is the God who is mindful of us?

this is the God who chooses us?

this is the God who speaks (!) to us and calls us by name?

...

what grace. what heavy, heavy grace.