Not only was Israel marked for life by failure and inferiority because of her heritage, but God, who is narrating this story, says that “no eye looked with pity on you to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you. Rather you were thrown out into the open field for you were abhorred on the day you were born” (Ezekiel 16: 5). Ephesians 2:3 says that “we too... were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.” From ages past, unwanted children have been thrown into fields or over cliffs; our society does this in a quieter way, behind closed doors in hospitals and clinics. But the rejection and destruction of children is just one poignant image of what the world does to it’s innocent helpless. Consider your story. You were rejected. You were raped. Left by a parent. Born with weakness or deformity. Perhaps your mind is fractured and you struggle with emotional stability. The world is full of poverty, hatred, lack of education, racism, family problems, jealousy, slander, and every evil thing.
It is at this point in the story that the two most beautiful words of any language are spoken: But God. Listen to the writers of Scripture tell the same story:
Romans 5:8: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Ephesians 2:4-5: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)”...
Psalms 73:26: “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
Ephesians 2:12-13 recounts the story this way: “Remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”
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