PsalmTree

“They will know that I am the Lord”: Ezekiel 6:1-14

https://biblehub.com/nasb_/ezekiel/6.htm

In the early 1970s, Fram began a television advertising campaign emphasizing the importance of automotive maintenance. The ads featured a middle-aged technician explaining to the viewers that they can spend a little money now for engine oil and a filter or they can spend a whole lot more later for catastrophic engine failure and replacement.

The technician wrapped up each commercial by saying, “It’s up to you…you can pay me now, or pay me later.” It was powerful and effective. In fact, it was so effective that I still remember it…and these ads ran over 50 years ago.

It wasn’t a threat…it was a warning about the inevitabilities of life; things naturally drift from order to disorder unless energy and attention are added.

• A tidy room becomes messy over the week: books drift out, dishes pile up, dust gathers. You never come home to find it has randomly cleaned itself; without your effort, disorder grows.
• Hot coffee left on the counter cools to room temperature. The heat (ordered energy) spreads out into the air and mug; you never see the reverse—room‑temperature coffee spontaneously heating back up.
• A sandcastle on the beach erodes under wind and waves into an unshaped mound of sand. There are countless “messy” arrangements of grains and only one that looks like your castle, so random motion almost always moves it toward the messy state.
• Gardens grow weeds, cars rust, paint peels, batteries drain, bodies age: unless outside energy (care, repairs, medicine, fresh batteries) is invested, order decays over time.

All of this is the second law of thermodynamics in our everyday life: closed or neglected things drift toward disorder; keeping things ordered always costs ongoing energy and attention.

It’s called “entropy…” It began in the Garden, when the first couple decided to quit listening to God. When God said “you will surely die,” He was deadly serious.

Explanation: This phenomenon is readily seen in spirituality and faith. It has been said, “after 100 years, a church no longer resembles what it was at inception.” That saying captures something that church history confirms: without intentional return to Scripture and repentance, churches tend to drift far from their original life and purpose over decades.

• Drift in structure and culture: The early church in Acts was marked by shared teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayers; over centuries, layers of tradition, institutional complexity, and hierarchy changed how church life looked and felt compared with the beginning.
• Adaptation to surrounding culture: As churches live in a changing society, they naturally absorb assumptions, habits, and values from the culture. Without continual reform, this can reshape priorities and practices so much that, after many decades, the church’s life is more defined by its era than by its founding convictions.
• Loss of founding fire: Many congregations begin with strong clarity about the gospel, mission, and holiness, but as generations pass, comfort, tradition, buildings, and programs can become the focus instead of the original vision. Renewal movements repeatedly arise as attempts to recover that early focus.

Ezekiel 6 fits right into this: Israel’s worship in the land, after generations, no longer resembled the covenant faithfulness God intended; high places and idols had replaced wholehearted devotion. The chapter is basically God saying, “Look at what this has become; I will tear down what no longer reflects Me so that a remnant can know Me again”

Across Israel’s history, God did not leave His expectations vague or hidden; He kept re‑stating them, in multiple ways, to every generation. (Think about the Fram oil filter preventing motor entropy)

• God gave Israel His law and covenant at Sinai, clearly spelling out commands, blessings for obedience, and curses for disobedience (Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy).
• Moses repeatedly instructed Israel to teach these things diligently to their children (Deuteronomy 6), so each generation heard what God required and what would happen if they ignored Him.
• God “spoke…to our fathers by the prophets” (Hebrews 1:1): Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Amos, etc., were raised up again and again to call Israel back to the same covenant expectations. Ezekiel is one link in that long chain: not bringing a new ethic, but pressing the old one into a hard‑hearted generation.

• Reminded the people of God’s law and past acts.
• Exposed current sin and idolatry.
• Announced coming judgment and future hope conditioned on repentance.

• God’s expectations were also communicated through events: exodus, wilderness tests, conquest, periods of blessing, and later defeat and exile. Every major act—deliverance or discipline—came with explanation: “If you will diligently listen…and keep all His statutes…I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians” (Exodus 15:26).
• Generational teaching and remembrance; Commands like Deuteronomy 6 and Psalm 78 insist that parents tell the next generation about God’s works and commands so “the next generation might know” and not repeat the sins of their fathers. Feasts (Passover, etc.), memorial stones, and rituals were built‑in reminders of what God had done and what He required. When a generation “did not know the Lord or the work that He had done,” it was not because God had gone silent, but because that generation stopped listening and passing it on.

So God has been unrelentingly clear with Israel—and now with us—about what He wants: love, trust, obedience, and repentance. When judgment comes in Ezekiel, it is never for lack of communication; it is for persistent refusal to heed what has been clearly, repeatedly given. And, the specific judgments in Ezekiel 6 are horrific: the sword against the land and high places; destruction of altars and idols; corpses and bones desecrating those shrines; ruined cities and desolate land; and the triple calamity of sword, famine, and plague—with a small remnant preserved to remember and return. 

Application: The inexorable arc of human history bends away from God. It’s never more evident than in the wild accusations that “this is all God’s fault.” If He really loved us He would fix all this. And, of course He did; Ultimately, God spoke through His Son…Hebrews 1 sums it up: “Long ago…God spoke…by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son.” God’s full expectation and promise are now embodied and clarified in Jesus—who He is, what He commands, how He saves.

We just don’t like the way He fixed it…its like saying “I’ll change my oil filter when I feel like it, not when some mechanic tells me to.” We are free to do this, with predictable results…

Five times, in this chapter, God says… “they will know I am the Lord.” That’s the point; God brings judgment to turn us back to Himself. You see, God looks at life through the lens of eternity; His discipline isn’t intended to make our present life miserable…it’s intended to make our eternal life glorious…its intended to remind us that He is in control.

In the light of spiritual  “entropy,” this makes for a challenging existence; We naturally drift from God and He constantly reminds us we shouldn’t. Most people through history seem to angrily shake their fist at God and say “this isn’t fair…I hate you!” In doing so, we seal our own fate. 

Or, we refuse to recognize entropy is our fault…not God’s…so nothing get’s fixed

But, we could say “God is reminding me who’s boss…”

Pay now, or pay later…the cost, if I pay today, is admitting I’m not God. The cost, if I pay later, is eternal alienation from the goodness of God. James 1:17, which says:“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” Try to imagine an existence in which there is, literally, nothing good.

Ezekiel 6 calls for a heart-level response, not just understanding. A helpful way to think about our response is in three moves: repent, remove, and return.

1. Repent: agree with God about our “high places”, exposing what we called “worship” (that is actually spiritual adultery).

• Ask: “Lord, where have I built modern high places—things I trust, love, or fear more than You?”
• Be specific: money/security, comfort/entertainment, approval/reputation, political hopes, even ministry success.
• Confess them plainly as idols, not just “struggles”: name them as false gods that cannot save.

2. Remove: cooperate with God in tearing down idols. God does not just point at the high places; He smashes them. Our response is to join Him in that work rather than waiting for harsher discipline.

• Change patterns: alter how we use time, money, and attention so those idols are no longer fed.
• Create friction: add practical barriers (accountability, limits, filters, changed routines) where we know we are tempted to worship created things.
• Invite others in: tell a trusted believer what God has shown us and ask them to help us keep those altars torn down. This is costly, but it is how we show we’re serious about letting God be God.

3. Return: live as part of the repentant remnant. Ezekiel 6 also shows God preserving a remnant who, in exile, remember Him, loathe their sin, and “know that I am the LORD.” Our response is not only to stop idolatry but to actively turn back into relationship.

• Remember: regularly rehearse what God has done for us in Christ; let gratitude soften our heart.
• Renew habits: rebuild simple, steady practices of Word, prayer, fellowship, and obedience—“first love” ways of walking with Him.
• Rest in His heart: see His discipline not as rejection but as severe mercy designed to bring us to deeper knowledge and love.

Someone once opined, “it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” In short: I can pay now or, I will pay later. My estimation of fairness will never sustain me unless I recognize the reality of entropy in my relationship with God., 

Prayer: “Lord God, You are the LORD, and there is no other. Ezekiel 6 shows me how seriously You take idolatry, and I confess that I have not taken it as seriously as You do. I see in Israel’s high places a mirror of my own heart. I have built my own “altars” in hidden places—things I rely on, chase, and fear more than I rely on, chase, and fear You. I admit that I have trusted in created things instead of the Creator, and I have often tried to serve You and my idols at the same time. Forgive me, Lord.

Father, I bring these specific idols before You now. You know where I have made money, comfort, reputation, relationships, or control into my real security and joy. You see the habits I excuse, the compromises I downplay, the “little” loyalties that compete with You. I will no longer pretend that these are harmless. In Your presence I name them as false gods. I confess that they cannot save me, they cannot satisfy me, and they cannot protect me in the day of trouble. Have mercy on me and wash me clean.

Lord, do not let my heart cling to these high places any longer. By Your Spirit, help me cooperate with You in tearing them down. Show me the practical steps I need to take—changes to my time, my spending, my screens, my conversations, my commitments—so that these idols are starved instead of fed. Give me the courage to bring trusted brothers or sisters into this battle, to ask for help, and to accept Your discipline as a kindness, not as rejection.

God of the remnant, I thank You that in Ezekiel 6 You did not destroy Your people completely. You spared some so they would remember You, loathe their sin, and know that You are the LORD. Let me be part of that kind of remnant in my own generation. Help me to remember Your faithfulness, to grieve over my sin rather than defend it, and to know You more truly through this cleansing work. Draw my heart back to simple, first‑love devotion—to Your Word, to prayer, to obedience, to love for Your people.

Father of lights, every good thing I have comes from You. I don’t want to trade those good and perfect gifts for “high places” that end in ruin. Gather my scattered heart. Be my only God, my only Lord, my first and greatest love. Use even Your hard words in Ezekiel to deepen my repentance and to strengthen my joy in You.

In the name of Jesus, who died to free me from idols and to bring me back to You, I pray.
Amen.”

Live boldly out there today…