“I WILL BE QUIET”
The above expression is found in Ezekiel 16:42. At this point there had been two movements of Nebuchadnezzar against Jerusalem. One more was yet to come. The prophet Ezekiel was already in Babylon prophesying to the Jews that remained in Jerusalem before the final assault. Their sins had reached the point that God was about, through Nebuchadnezzar, to utterly destroy the city of Jerusalem. God was justified in pouring out His wrath upon this disobedient people. In verse 42 there is a message of hope.
God promises that He will make His fury to rest. His jealousy over them would cease and He would be quiet and no longer angry. This would take place when he brought again their captivity from Babylon. The Psalmist declares that they would wait upon the Lord until His mercy would come (Psalm 123:2). When does mercy arrive? God often through the voice of prophets would call His people back to righteous living. This call back always, both implied and sometimes stated, meant repentance (Isaiah 1:18-20). Once that was achieved then God could extend mercy to His children. The law of Moses was but a shadow of the good things to come (Hebrews 10:1) As we gaze at that shadow we see the holy place with the furnishings of the lampstand, table of showbread and altar of incense. We pass through that curtain and find the ark of the covenant and upon it, the mercy seat. Israel was taught about sacrifice (death of animals), washing (at the altar), worship (holy place) and then access to God (most Holy place). Mercy was never cheap or easy. God never found joy in punishing His people. The road to mercy was therefore, under this shadow system, filled with tears of sorrow and the blood of animals flowing like a river from the altar.
We had an excellent lesson during our recent lectureship by Ronnie Whittemore on the subject of forgiveness. One point in that good study was that people needed a way back. It is a journey to find once more under the system of faith in Christ, the mercy seat of God.
Whether it is someone wandering away like a sheep, or lost because of the carelessness of others or someone in rebellion to the will of God, all need a way to find once more the mercy of God (Luke 15). We, then, as the followers of Christ, need to provide help in order that the journey back to the “mercy seat” will be made plain. Finding mercy once more does not come without a price. Let us then look at it from two different angles. Godly sorrow, arising from the Word of God works or causes repentance (II Corinthians 7:10). How does that Word work in the life of the one who has left God, for whatever reason? Something must take place to stir up that Word in the heart of the one who left. That Word is stirred up when the individual themselves recognize forgotten truths or when some Christian comes to remind them of forgotten truths long since buried in the heart (Galatians 6:1). The Word then stirred can bring back memories of happier times and can work repentance (Luke 15:16-19). The person then is sorry. This brings us to the second view. If they desire to come back our acceptance of them in returning can make the road, not easy but at least not as hard as it could be. Some would demand an unreasonable act of repentance such as crawling on one’s knees to the front of the auditorium to satisfy our perception of justice. The road to mercy can be blocked by such un-Christ like attitudes. The door of mercy should never be closed because we demand more than God does.
We must exercise caution here. Getting people together in a room and saying, “if I have sinned” is not the road to mercy. Neither is it the way when we smile and say, that everything is back to normal with no change in people’s heart. When individuals quit worshipping in one place and go to another with no change in the heart, we do them no service by ignoring their heart and just passing them off to some other congregation.
Elders, in most congregations, desire peaceful conditions. The road to mercy sometimes requires them to take members of their flock aside, and warn them about their heart (attitude). We dare not demand people be on their knees crawling nor should we ignore sin at the price of peace. Through our High Priest, the way to the mercy seat is open. It is up to us to find it through sorrow, repentance and a changing of life.