“Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen and silk and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour and honey and oil. You grew exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty.” – Ezekiel 16:13
Ezekiel 16 describes how God graciously chose and blessed Israel from among the nations based on no merit of their own but simply because He is gracious and merciful. It graphically details how Israel then betrayed God by pursuing the false gods and religious practices of all the nations surrounding her. This isn’t merely a strange or interesting historical passage – it’s quite relevant to Christians today.
If you’ve been saved from your sins by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ, then like Old Testament Israel you’ve been graciously rescued from your own sin, filth, and spiritual death. You’ve been washed clean, adopted, embraced, and loved by God. You’re a royal priest and ambassador of Christ in this fallen world and you enjoy an exalted relationship with your Father in Heaven.
And yet, despite the enormous and eternal blessings we enjoy in Christ, we easily fall into the habits and practices God detests. We want “more”. We become blind to our many blessings and dissatisfied with God’s loving standards and expectations for our lives. We dabble, sample, and pick up choice bits and pieces from other faiths, philosophies, and practices. A little Eastern mysticism here, a little New Age there…
Rather than simply following Jesus we chase after celebrities, experiences, movements, philosophies, powers, and people. We pursue earthly things at the expense of spiritual things. We pursue immediate gratification over eternal satisfaction. Child of God – learn the lesson of Ezekiel 16 and remain faithful to God. All your greatest blessings, joys, exaltations, and satisfactions will be found when you stop searching out those earthly things and simply follow Jesus!