I often will go back and read stuff that I wrote from previous years. This morning, after my readings, I was going back over previous entries and was arrested a bit by the following devo from 2008. It concerns an observation that I totally missed this morning . . . but one that caused me to pause and reflect when “I brought it to my attention.”

Thought it worth recycling . . . by the way . . . the ESV translates it “I have been broken” . . .

It’s a phrase in Ezekiel 6 that’s caught my eye . . . and my attention . . . and my thinking this morning.

As I read in the mornings, one of the things I’m on the lookout for are attributes or characteristics of God. And not just the “big attributes” . . . the “omni” attributes . . . or the “God is love, God is grace” attributes. While I do mark those in my Bible, I’ve also try and have my eyes open for other Scriptures that describe what God is like . . . how He feels . . . how He sees things . . . how He interacts with this world.

This morning in Ezekiel 6 I came across a verse that says that God can be “crushed.” Now, being crushed is not something I would normally think of as God being susceptible to . . . but check this out . . .

“Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations where they are carried captive, because I was crushed by their adulterous heart which has departed from Me, and by their eyes which play the harlot after their idols; they will loathe themselves for the evils which they committed in all their abominations.”   (Ezekiel 6:9 NKJV)

Now other translations portray it a little differently . . . “I have been grieved” (NIV) . . . “how I have been hurt” (NASB) . . . “how hurt I am” (NLT).

If I use my handy dandy “what does the original language convey” tool, here’s what it says, “to be broken, be maimed, be crippled, be wrecked, be crushed.”

And I never think of God being “busted up” . . . broken in pieces . . . hurt . . . shattered. You kind of think that a Sovereign, Omniscient (all-knowing), Omnipotent (all-powerful), God is beyond such descriptors as “crushed.” Apparently not . . .

And what is that mighty force that can so deeply hurt Almighty God? An adulterous heart . . . unfaithfulness . . . eyes that seek after another. God’s heart is wounded by the unfaithfulness of His people. The rebellion of Israel . . . the harlotry of Judah . . . crushed the heart of God. It broke God up to be rejected by His chosen people. Human hearts which waned in devotion to their God impacted the Divine Heart.

And as I think about this, my sense is that “grieved” doesn’t begin to describe the impact of rebellion and unfaithfulness upon the heart of my God. The One who is tender in mercy . . . the One who is abundant in grace . . . what is the impact on His heart of being rejected by His own? When I think of the Son of God, He who will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle (Isa. 42:3), how is His heart affected when the sheep He has purchased with His own blood determine to seek another?

Yes, our God is a mighty God . . . a fearsome and awesome God . . . a powerful God . . . but isn’t He also a tender-hearted God? And when His people play the harlot . . . when they seek another . . . when they embrace other gods . . . what does that do to a tender-hearted God? It crushes Him. Man! What a thought!

Oh, that I would not grieve the heart of God . . . that, by His grace, and, as much as lies within me, I would remain faithful. That my eyes would not seek another . . . that my heart would not turn away from the One who has loved me with an everlasting love and redeemed me through the blood of His precious Son. That, when I do begin stray, I would be sensitive to the voice of the indwelling Spirit calling me back to worship God and Him alone — with all my heart, strength, soul, and mind.

He is worthy of my wholehearted devotion . . . enable me Lord to walk in faithfulness . . . for Your glory . . . Amen.

——————

We bow our hearts, we bend our knees
Oh Spirit, come make us humble
We turn our eyes from evil things
Oh Lord, we cast down our idols

So give us clean hands, and give us pure hearts
Let us not lift our souls to another

O God, let us be a generation that seeks
That seeks your face O God of Jacob          –   “Give Us Clean Hands”,  Charlie Hall