A Gruesome Picture

There is painted for us a rather gruesome picture in Ezekiel, in which there is described a newborn baby who had been thrown into a field immediately after birth. This baby's umbilical cord had not even been cut, and the child had not been washed. This baby had been utterly unloved and abandoned to die a miserable death. Its condition was so hopeless and pitiful.

Now, God tells Israel that this is similar to how He found them. He picked them up, cleaned them, and nurtured them.

Dear reader, I remind you of this gruesome scene because, as it describes natural Israel, it also describes spiritual Israel.

Those who say that man has a free will and can exercise it to either accept God or reject Him have not carefully considered the condition of natural man. Man, by nature, is no more able to help himself spiritually than that abandoned baby was to help himself. He can, of himself, no more move toward God than that baby could get up out of that field and get the help it desperately needed.

So, by the sweet grace of God, He has seen His people, whom He chose in Christ before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4-5); He has pitied them in their lost and hopeless state (Ephesians 2:1-10); and He has visited them in mercy to lift them up, pardon their sins, and give them a new life in Jesus.

Oh, my friend, is not such a merciful God as this worthy of your praise, honor, and glory?

Ezekiel 16:4-6 And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all. None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the loathing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born. And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live.