I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 20-21.

    When the leaders of the people of Israel came to Ezekiel asking for a message from God, the message which God gave Ezekiel for them was, “How dare you ask for a message from Me?” Ezekiel went on the tell them how God had called their ancestors to give up their idol worship in exchange for the good things which God would do for them. Generation after generation their ancestors had rebelled against God and refused to give up their idols. Then Ezekiel accused the leaders who came to him of continuing to pollute themselves by worshiping idols, in particular of sacrificing their children to those idols.

    As I first read this I knew it applied to us today, but I was not quite sure where to go with it. Then, as I read it through once more, I read this:

For when you offer gifts to them and give your little children to be burned as sacrifices, you continue to pollute yourselves with idols to this day.

I knew immediately where I was going to go. I am sure that the people who came to Ezekiel acknowledged the sins of their ancestors, just as majority of the people of today acknowledge the sins of earlier generations of our country (I apologize to those of you who are not U.S. citizens or residents for applying this to the U.S. today. I am sure if you think about it, you will know similar things applying to your own country). People readily acknowledge that slavery was a terrible thing, for which our country received the terrible judgment which was the Civil War. People acknowledge the sins of segregation and the resulting judgment which was the riots of the Civil Rights era. However, most of those who want to make sure we never forget those sins are silent about the sin we practice as a society today when we sacrifice our children on the altar of convenience through the practice of abortion. The descendants of the slaves are sacrificed in our abortion mills and those who most loudly decry the evil of slavery mock any who question the practice.

    After all of this condemnation, God makes a promise of restoration. God promises that He will bring them before Him and judge them, purging them of those who insist on rebelling against Him. God promises to transform the people of Israel into a faithful people who will be a pleasing sacrifice to Him. For those of us who oppose the sins of our countrymen, do we pray for that transformation? Do we get down on our knees and ask God to send His Holy Spirit to pour down upon our fellow man? Do we beg God to use us to bring about this change? Are we willing to be sacrificed in place of those children?