Making Profound Choices

Jim:

The passages today share a fairly sobering theme about where our choices in life may lead us.

Ezekiel 7:10-15, 23b-27
We’ve all seen pictures of Europe from the time of WWII. That’s the sort of destruction and social upheaval that Ezekiel is talking about in this very disturbing passage. For me the most disturbing aspect can be found in verse 27b which says, “According to their way I will deal with them; according to their own judgments I will judge them. And they shall know that I am the Lord.” In other words, when God relents and lets humanity set the standards for life the consequences are grim: violence, oppression, desolation. God offers a better way, of course, if we are just willing to take it.

Hebrews 6:13-20
The first part of verse 19 has caught my attention in the past. “We have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul…” The hope referred to is be God’s activity in Jesus Christ who furthers the promises of God as made to Abraham. It is this hope in God through Christ that makes it possible for us to live our lives even in the most turbulent of circumstances and even when we ourselves feel overwhelmed. When Debbie and I lived in Scotland we were introduced to a hymn that we had not known before. The refrain goes something like this:
We have an anchor that keeps the soul
Steadfast and sure while the billows roll.
Anchored to the rock which cannot move.
Grounded firm and deep in the Saviors love.
Most of us will never face the kind of upheaval that Ezekiel talks about: invasion, the threat of starvation or exile. But even in our most tempestuous times God’s promises in Jesus Christ offer us a firm foundation on which to live.

Luke 10:1-17
When Jesus sent out seventy of his followers to the towns and villages of the region it meant that the places these disciples visited would be faced with a choice. They could embrace the fact that in the ministry of Jesus the kingdom of God had drawn near, or they could reject Jesus’ word and therefore God’s will. As in Ezekiel, however, to reject God is to face grim consequences. Verse 16 sums it up as Jesus tells the seventy, “Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.” We are faced with lots of choices in our day to day lives, what to wear, what to eat, whom to associate with, how to spend our money, and so forth. But the only choice that really matters in the long run is whether we’re willing to do things God’s way or not. If we are, the blessings are great. If not we face grim consequences of our own making.