Purpose

What is the book of Ezekiel about?  Why was it written?  What was the purpose?

I spent some time this morning doing a word study having read through the book, trying to find key phrases and one in particular stood out: then you or they "will know that I am the LORD".  That seems to encapsulate the message of Ezekiel - God is acting so that his people know he is the LORD, why?  Because they have forgotten, hence their moral decline and their idolatry which has led them into exile and which will lead to Jerusalem's destruction.

But it is not just that God wants Israel to know that he is the LORD, the judgements on Tyre, Egpyt and the other surrounding nations also have that as their purpose.  And in the prophecy of the future this purpose appears again.  Because only when they recognise and entrust themselves to God his ways and his purposes will they live by faith.

God is God!  It is frightening and sobering to think that his people have fogotten that after all that God has done for them and all the blessings he has given them.  But then how different are we?