Have Your Cake and Eat It, too?
This morning, I was reading in the book of Ezekiel, and I came across the following verse:
“Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts and have put right before their faces the stumbling block of their iniquity. Should I be consulted by them at all?” (Ezekiel 14:3, NASB95)
Ezekiel was in exile in Babylon. He had been exiled with the earliest of the groups taken there by Nebuchadnezzar as God was punishing Judah and Jerusalem as He had Israel years earlier. He was there in Babylon and God wanted to communicate with the exiles about what was happening in Jerusalem so that they would learn from their sins and judgment. It is interesting to note how many times in this book God says the reason for all He was doing was so, “They would know that I am the Lord.” Setting aside the amazing display of His awesome power in the destruction He allowed through the invading country, it is equally amazing to consider the grace and mercy He showed His chosen people by even communicating with them after they had so terribly rebelled against His authority.
As Ezekiel was sitting one day, the elders of the exiles came to Ezekiel. At first, they just sat there without asking for anything similar to how Ezekiel had first come to them in chapter 1. Before they could tell Ezekiel what they wanted, God told Ezekiel what they wanted and that they were not going to get it. They wanted to inquire of God. This was an Old Testament way of saying that they wanted God to deliver them from their current circumstances. God told Ezekiel they would not get it.
The elders were worshippers of local gods. They had worshipped idols in Jerusalem and that was what caused their judgment. When they went into exile in Babylon, they worshipped the gods of Babylon hoping that the geopolitical gods of the conquering nation would be favorably disposed towards them. They did not realize that there is only one God that can answer because there is only one God, and He does not put up with trying worship others. He alone is God, and He knows anything else is either just a piece of wood or stone at best and demonic at worst. God told Ezekiel not to listen to their request for His assistance until they were ready to put away their idols and worship Him and Him alone.
You and I, if we are not careful, attempt this same type of hypocrisy. We try to rely on our own strength, money, talent, or ability to manipulate our circumstances. We worship the trends of social media, status, politics, and any of a plethora of things. When those things fail to fulfill, or we make a mess of the situation, then we want to inquire of God and ask Him to fix it. In our hearts, we know that when He does, we will simply return to those things, and it may even be our goal to do so. We think we can have our cake, and eat it, too.
God deserves not only first place in our hearts, but our entire hearts. He deserves to have full control of our lives. If you consider yourself a Christian, biblically, then you must have repented from your sins and placed your faith in what Jesus accomplished for you on the cross, but you must also have been willing to surrender to Jesus as Lord. That means He has it all.
As I think about the implications of this verse in my own life, I know that I must repent of being more concerned about my reputation than my regular surrender. I know that I must put aside my pride and seek to give Jesus all that I am inside and outside. I know that I must search my heart for anything that causes my heart to rise or fall apart from Him. When I make Him the delight of my heart, then I will have my cake and eat it, too! How about you?