Ezekiel 33 has drawn my attention recently and so I would like to share, in two posts, insights gleaned from Patrick Fairbairn’s The Vision’s of Ezekiel.

The calamity, so often foretold and warned against, has come; and he must now address himself to the more agreeable task of reviving the hopes of the fallen, by disclosing to them the prospect of a glorious future.  For judgment cannot rest forever on the house of God.  The night of sorrow must give way to the morning of joy; and when the period of lowest depression has been reached, the moment has assuredly come for the commencement of a new and better position.

This reality is the wonder of God’s gracious purposes toward His people – even judgment has been brought into the service of saving grace!  We too often are brought to despondency and despair and view God’s dealings negatively rather than seeking them to do their work and bring us to our senses to cry for the mercy and kindness of the Lord to be returned.

We want the “morning of joy” and the “new and better position” to automatically come but God will not have it to be so.  His work will humble His people to need these times and value such times so that if God graciously gives them they will not be spurned and call for His displeasure again.

How wonderful it is that the Christian truth is one of substantial hope and realistic “prospects of a glorious future”! May the Lord do His work to bring it pass and may we be people brought to honest assessment of our need for Him.