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his hand stuck out

Ezekiel 6:11-14 (JDV)

Ezekiel 6:11 “This is what the Lord Yahveh says: Clap your hands, stamp your feet, and cry out over all the evil and repulsive practices of the house of Israel, who will fall by the sword, famine, and epidemic.
Ezekiel 6:12 The one who is far off will die by epidemic; the one who is near will fall by the sword; and the one who remains and is spared will die of famine. In this way I will exhaust my wrath on them.
Ezekiel 6:13 You will all know that I am Yahveh when their murdered ones lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, and under every green tree and every leafy oak – the places where they offered pleasing aromas to all their idols.
Ezekiel 6:14 I will stick out my hand over them, and wherever they live I will make the land a desolate waste, from the open country to Diblah. Then they will know that I am Yahveh.”

his hand stuck out

Ezekiel was commanded to display signs in this passage which are usually signs of a highly charismatic religious experience. But what they were intended to do was get the people’s attention. The LORD wanted his people to know that some terrible things were about to happen, and he was behind them.

It seems to me that when bad things happen nowadays, we preachers fall all over ourselves trying to convince others that God is not to blame for them. We don’t want to give anyone the impression that our God is to blame.

Well, in this case, what God wanted Ezekiel to proclaim is exactly that. He wanted the survivors to see that the tragedy was directly connected to the treachery. When bad things happen, it is not always God acting in judgment, but it can be.

LORD, give us the wisdom to see your hand in history, even in the events we cannot understand.