“Thus says the Lord God, ‘This is Jerusalem. I have set her in the center of the nations with countries all around her. And she has rebelled against my rules by doing wickedness more than the nations and against my statutes more than the countries all around her. For they have rejected my rules and have not walked in my statutes.'”
– Ezekiel 5:5–6
This is a sobering chapter of scripture, Ezekiel 5:5–6, extremely sobering as God is talking about his judgment on his people, specifically in Jerusalem. And the way God compares his people with the surrounding nations, like he had put them in the middle of the nations, that they would be light, that they would show the goodness of God. As they followed his law, they would show that God’s ways are good and better than anything else in this world. And the people of God had not only not done that, not followed God’s laws, God’s statutes, they had rejected his rules and they were living in greater evil than even the countries around them that didn’t even have God’s law.
Rather than living our lives sinfully as the world does, we should pray for God to bring us to repentance.
Wow. There’s so much here that leads us to pray, but particularly I want to lead us to pray that God would make our lives and us as his church holy and pure, that we would not reject his rules, that we would walk in his statutes. And we would show the goodness of God, the goodness of God’s word, God’s truth, God’s ways that are so much better than the ways of this world, that that would be evident in us as his people.
This Verse Prays For Hearts That Are Ready To Repent Sin
Oh, God, may it be so, we pray. God, forgive us for ways that we individually, and as your people, reject your rules and don’t walk in your statutes. Please bring us to continual repentance when we turn from you, when we walk in disobedience to your word. God, we pray for contrite hearts that are humble and quick to repent when we sin. Even as I think about a conversation I had this morning just about sin in our lives and how serious it is, and turning from it, and running from it, God, we pray that you would help us not to be casual with sin. Help us to hate sin. Even that which we would be tempted to classify as a small sin or no big deal, God, we pray that we would see sin as the horrible offense that it is to you.
Ezekiel 5:5–6 Praises God For Saving Us From Our Sin
And even as we pray that, God, we praise you for saving us from our sin. Jesus, we praise you for dying on the cross for our sin in all of its horror, for taking the judgment we deserve upon yourself. Even as we read Ezekiel 5, we think or shudder to think of where we would be if we endured your judgment for our sin.
Thank you, Jesus, for saving us from the judgment we deserve. And we pray that based on your salvation, with the power of your spirit in us, that you would help us to walk in your statutes and to obey your rules, to live according to your law, your word, and in this way to show people around us that you are good, that your ways are good, that your word is good.
Oh God, may that be evident in our lives. May we walk in obedience to you today and as we do, may we reflect your goodness, your love, your wisdom, ultimately your glory in the world around us. God, may it be so we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
