“Then they will know that I am the Lord.” In my reading of Ezekiel, this phrase is sprinkled through chapters 10-13 more than three times, which is God’s punctuation when he speaks of what will happen to Israel’s remnant.
I think the presence of false prophets and Ezekiel also helps us understand that God’s purpose for the destruction and disaster he brought on Israel was for them to know him. Part of the disaster punished people who were truly wicked–unrepentantly sinning and leading others into sin. But when Ezekiel cries out, asking if God will completely destroy the remnant, God responds.
He will give them an undivided heart, a new spirit, and a heart of flesh. More than that, though, they will know that “I am the Lord.”
God’s problem with Israel is their following of idols and evil practices. They’ve broken his law and they’re teaching others to do it under the pretense of it being His law. It’s hard to admit that we too are guilty of the same evils. It reminds me: everyone has a God. Everyone has idols that they serve. But what God wants from us seems to be twofold: he wants our whole hearts, which only He can redeem so that they will wholly serve him, and he wants to be our God–him personally.
“The Lord” is God’s personal name. When he says, “then they will know that I am the Lord,” he means “I am”– or “Yahweh.” I think part of our lives are about asking God to give us hearts that will wholly serve him, but another part of our lives is about understanding who God is by his own personal name: Yahweh. We have a God, but is he the I AM?
Until next time,
thoughts of a wanderer 