Ezekiel 6:7 Your people will fall slain among you, and you will know that I am the LORD.
If you have ever experienced drone tone music, you are in for a treat. But not the musical delight of great Western music, with advanced melodies and shifting harmonies that lift and persuade its listeners carrying them where they didn’t expect to go. Drone tonality is very different.
Drone tonal music has at its roots a simple set of notes that are constantly played or sung in the background. They form the foundation upon which the whole piece rests. Music from India, the Middle East, and Asia often have a tonal base, the same strings strummed under the moving melody.
But I have found a drone message in Ezekiel that have heard before, but this time stood out to my ears. That message is that Israel and all the nations would “know that I am the LORD.” In the middle of all that warning and announcement of coming wrath that phrase stands out repeatedly.
These events that happen are not random occurrences, or the earthly powers at work, although they might include the instrumentality of human entities. These acts have a purpose. They come so that the people involved and the people who observe might know that the person behind the events is none other that the LORD.
In Ezekiel we hear the LORD speaking through the prophet. This was the third line of communication that the LORD had opened to humanity. The first was creation itself speaking of His existence and longing to be known by the occupants of this planet.
The second was the words given to Israel who were designed to become a billboard for the LORD’s call for relationship. They were to be the “beacon on the hill”. All would see a people living in line with their Designer’s intent. They would see the wisdom displayed and say, “Let’s live like them.”
But they failed at this task. So the LORD tells of a coming day when all would know that the acts that are happening, these acts of judgment and redemption, that the LORD is behind them, empowering them, moving them forward through history. They are moving as they do because the LORD desires for all to know Him.
I have to admit that it can be very difficult to look around at judgment and see the LORD. The darkness of the day and the difficulty of the circumstances tend to increase our myopia. It an be difficult to see the horizon when the pain in the moment is so acute.
But this is exactly what the LORD is emphasizing in the book of Ezekiel. My quick count has this phrase occurring over fifty times in the book. Listen to it. “… know that I am the LORD.” Both you, they and all would know that I am the LORD. The Creator of the Universe calling to us, that we would know that the one who drives history wants us to know Him.
Will we hear that call? Or will we hear the judgments and our self-righteous stance prevent us from hearing the mercy of the warnings. These are written in advance to give room for repentance. They give space for us to make choices moving us either closer or further away.
A new heart and a new spirit (36:26) are waiting. Are we willing to give up the poison goblet of self-(fill-in-the-blank), or are we going to yield to the One who holds not only the past, but the future, a future directed toward the goal of restoration and completeness? I pray we are.