Daily Devotions: November 20, 2017

Daily Devotions: November 20, 2017

Ezekiel 34:11-16

“I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.” vs. 16

According to Ezekiel the Lord has a heart for the lost and the strayed and will seek them out like a shepherd searching for sheep who have wandered. We’re familiar with this imagery from the words of Jesus and we rather like it. It gives comfort to know that God doesn’t lose track of us and that the injured and the weak will find healing and strength. But Ezekiel continues his description of the Lord with some surprising words, “the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.” This is a different picture of God, one that should cause the wealthy and the powerful to tremble in fear. The dominating forces of our world love to talk about justice. Every country has a justice system…but frequently it’s a system designed by the powerful and the rich to consolidate and protect their positions. They write the laws and enforce them…and seldom are those laws designed to benefit the poor. God’s justice is different; God’s justice is designed to lift up the lowly and restore benefits to the oppressed. And if a nation has been using the legal system to impoverish the poor and enrich the wealthy, Ezekiel promises that such a nation will be destroyed with a feast of justice straight from God.

Thought for the Day: Who benefits most from our country’s legal system?

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