“And the slain shall fall in your midst, and you shall know that I am the Lord.”
– Ezekiel 6:7
Then verse 10. “And they shall know that I am the Lord.” Then verse 13. “And you shall know that I am the Lord.” Then verse 14. “Then they will know that I am the Lord.” That’s four times in this whole chapter really, four times in the matter of about eight verses where we see this phrase. One of the most common phrases that we see in the book of Ezekiel. “They shall know, you shall know that I am the Lord.” God is making very clear in his word what his aim is, what his end is, what his goal is to show that he is the Lord. Now, when we think about that, we think that sounds self-centered. Right?
If I say, I want you to know who I am, I’m going to show you who I am. That’s that’s a lot of focus on me, and that would be wrong of me. That would be selfish of me, self-centered of me. Why? Because I am created not to exalt myself. No. I’m created to exalt God, to love God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love others as myself. But God is different from me. God is worthy of all glory and all honor and all praise. God exalts himself primarily because God is God. It’s what it means for him to be God. If God were to exalt someone or something else then he would not be the God who’s worthy of all exaltation. So see the picture here of God in a way that is very different from you and me.
God’s aim is to be known as God, to be shown as God. And our aim is to show and our aim is to know him as God and to show him as God. This is what we as creatures made in his image are created for. So God, we pray that you would help us to live with your aim in mind for our lives and to trust that this is life. That life is found in knowing you as God.
That life is found in loving and exalting and worshiping you as God, and life is found in showing that you are God and declaring that you are God. We know that one day every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord to your glory. One day, everybody will know that you are Lord. So God help us to know that today, to show that today in our lives, to proclaim that to others right around us, to proclaim that around the world.
God, we pray for the Khalkha Mongol people, two and a half million of them, but a growing number of Christians among them. So still just a small number, but a growing number. God, we pray that you bless those few Christians among the Khalkha Mongol people. For those few churches, you’d strengthen them and you would cause the gospel to spread through them that you might be known Jesus as a Lord among the Khalkha Mongol people of Mongolia and among every people group in the world.
Oh God, use our lives to show that you are the Lord, and help us to live with one goal in mind today, tomorrow the next day and the next day to know you as Lord and God, to love you as Lord and God, and to spread your glory as our Lord and God and Lord and God over all the nations. May the fruit of our lives be more people. May the fruit of our lives be knowing you as Lord and leading many others, and leading others to know you as Lord. We pray this in the name of Jesus, our Lord. 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.
