AP

Ezekiel 12:1   The word of the LORD came to me:  “Son of man, you are living among a rebellious people.  They have eyes to see but do not see and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious people. …”

This word from the LORD to Ezekiel helps us to understand the whole message of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation.

We were made in the ‘image and likeness of God’ (Genesis 1:26), so we have all the equipment necessary to SEE and HEAR.  This implies that we all HAVE the ability to TAKE IN, and PROCESS mentally, everything that is going on around us.  The Apostle Paul spells this out: “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly SEEN, being UNDERSTOOD from what has been made, so that men ARE WITHOUT EXCUSE” (Romans 1:20).

But Ezekiel was going to discover that there was a much deeper common problem in the human make-up that would need a much more radical solution than just SHOWING us or TELLING us information!  Isaiah was similarly instructed: “Go and tell this people: ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving’” (Isaiah 6:9) – a message that Jesus himself repeated when his disciples questioned him about his parables: “When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables.  He told them, ‘The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you.  But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that, “‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven”’” (Mark 4:10-12).

No, the problem of the “rebellion” in the human heart (“SIN”) could NOT be solved with INFORMATION – not even audio-visual INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY!  Something needed to be done with the HEART.  This is the promise that was given to Jeremiah: “‘The time is coming,’” declares the LORD , ‘when I will make a NEW covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.  It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,’ declares the LORD .  ‘This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after that time,’ declares the LORD . ‘I will PUT my law in their minds and WRITE IT ON THEIR HEARTS.  I will be their God, and they will be my people.  No longer will a man teach his neighbour, or a man his brother, saying, “Know the LORD ,” because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,’ declares the LORD . ‘For I will FORGIVE their wickedness and will REMEMBER THEIR SINS NO MORE’” (Jeremiah 31:31-34).

This is WHY God sent his Son into the world to be our SAVIOUR, our REDEEMER, through his sacrificial death in our place.  It is why Jesus had to say to Nicodemus, ‘You MUST be BORN AGAIN’ (John 3:3-8).  Have we taken hold of this fundamental truth about the NATURE and EFFECTS of sin, and acknowledged Jesus as our PERSONAL Saviour?
– Bruce Christian