Brokenness and Beauty (Ezekiel 16-18; John 6)

Ezekiel 16 is one of the most shocking and beautiful chapters in the Bible. It is shocking for it shows us just how awful our sin is, but it is beautiful as we see God’s tender care for His people and His wonderful promises for the future.

God compares His people to an adulterous people. He reminds them how He cared for them and made them into a great nation. He made a covenant with them to be their God (16:8). He gave them a land to live in and made them prosperous. He gave them the temple, the clothing in v10-13 reminding them of the tabernacle and the gold He provided them for the temple. But what did they do with all His provisions? They went after the nations gods, taking the precious materials God had given them to make idols, and even offering up their children to these false gods. No wonder God says to them “How sick is your heart” (v30).

God tells them they are as bad, in fact worse than, Sodom and Samaria (v47). This would have been very offensive to a proud religious Jew. They were God’s chosen people, they thought they were far superior to the people of Samaria and Sodom. Perhaps we still see this pride in some churches today, thinking we’re decent people, assuring ourselves that we’re better than others. God says that the way the religious are behaving makes those outside look righteous (v52).

You’d have thought that would be the end. And yet God is not like us. He is faithful to His promises. The unfaithful will be judged, but God has a plan to rescue not only some of the Jews, but also Gentiles as well. He promises restoration to Sodom and Samaria, and to Jerusalem (v53). How will God do this?

We see how in our reading from John 6 when Jesus declares himself to be the bread of life. What does Jesus mean? In the first century bread was a staple food, not an optional extra, you needed it to live. Jesus is saying in order to really live you need Jesus. And more than that, just as you need grain to die for you to make bread, you need Jesus to die for you so that you can have life. We are as bad as unfaithful Israel, Sodom and Samaria, but when we realise that we can come to Jesus and find life. Wonderfully Jesus says “whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (John 6:37). Because He died for us, we can be forgiven, forgiven for living as if there were no God, forgiven for turning to other things instead of God. Jesus’ wonderful promise is that “everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life.” (John 6:40).