Aug 16: Ezekiel 8-11

Today’s reading reminded me of a fictional story I've heard before. It goes something like this: A man invited Jesus to stay in his house. He let Jesus stay in the best room in the house for as long as Jesus wished. Now, demons tried to break in the house and the man had to fight them off, but Jesus didn't go out of his room to help. The situation kept getting worse, until the man finally went to Jesus’ room and asked: “Lord, I invited you in my house, I gave you my best room to stay in, why then are you not protecting me against these demons who are trying to attack me. Jesus replied lovingly that he would have, if only the man had given Jesus all of his house, not just one room. As it was, the man had allowed Jesus to be Lord only of one room, not the whole home. The man understood his mistake and invited Jesus to be Master of all of his home going forward. Next thing you know, Satan himself tried to enter the house, but it was Jesus now who opened the door. At his sight, Satan bowed and excused himself: “Sorry, I've gotten the wrong address.”

Our heart (and hence our life) is the house Jesus wants to dwell in. When we compartmentalize it into different ‘rooms’ and let Jesus be Lord only of some of them, the ‘house‘ is still vulnerable. I know it’s hard to give up control, yet I hope this picture helps us to better understand the demand to fully surrender our lives.

We read of another house today in the Bible - one that actually did exist. In the vision Ezekiel has of God's temple we see how every corner had been corrupted. When God first asked Israel to build the temple in Jerusalem, it was going to be the house in which God dwelled. The house where God’s people would worship Him. But we see that this had changed. How could Judah worship God if they didn’t obey his commands and didn’t recognize him as their Lord? What they did instead was to pretend that God does not exist and replace him with idols - in every room of His house. It wasn’t just the temple - the lives of those people left in Jerusalem were also corrupted:

"The sin of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great; the land is full of bloodshed and the city is full of injustice.” (Ezk 9:9)

Still, Ezekiel struggled with the question: would God completely destroy the remnant of Israel in his wrath? No. God told him that He would restore Israel, through those He has sent in exile. He will gather them and bring them back to the land of Israel. Note that this restoration would mean that the people would have an undivided heart! No compartments - no rooms. Just one heart fully devoted to God:

"I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God." (Ezk. 11:19-20)

Have you fully surrendered your life to Christ? Maybe you never have surrendered at all or maybe there are still some rooms you keep just for yourself?