“I the LORD have spoken it: it shall come to pass, and I will do it; I will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will I repent; according to thy ways, and according to thy doings, shall they judge thee, saith the Lord GOD.”
(Ezekiel 24:14)
Scripture connects the execution of divine judgment with praise for God’s righteousness. When the plagues of judgment are poured out, the response of heaven is that the works of the Lord God Almighty are great and marvelous, and that His ways are just and true. This affirms that divine judgment is not a contradiction of divine goodness but rather the exercise of perfect righteousness against evil, proceeding from the same holy character by which God keeps every word He has spoken.[1]
This reality demonstrates the seriousness of God’s Word and reminds us that we must not treat His warnings as exaggerated or His covenant declarations as uncertain. His truth governs both mercy and judgment. When He promises grace according to His covenant, He is faithful. When He warns against sin and announces the consequences of rebellion, He is equally faithful.
God’s everlasting faithfulness creates a corresponding obligation in those who belong to Him. If all His ways toward His people are mercy and truth, then their relationship with Him should be marked by truth and faithfulness. Promises made to God, covenant commitments, professions of obedience, and declarations of loyalty should not be treated lightly. The God who keeps covenant perfectly deserves covenant faithfulness from those who receive His mercies.
Yet our faithfulness is often shamefully lacking. We promise quickly and perform slowly. We speak sincerely in moments of conviction, distress, worship, or gratitude, then forget what we said when circumstances improve. We determine to forsake sin and pursue worship, yet later act as though our resolutions place us under no obligation.
The contrast is stark… God speaks and does not change His mind. Man speaks and often relents. God’s principal grace toward His people appears in keeping His covenant, while our principal concern should be to honor Him by answering His faithfulness with consistency in both word and life.
Contemplations:
- Seeing the Difference Between Your Word and Mine. You speak with perfect truth, and what You declare stands. I have made promises and resolutions to You, then allowed them to weaken when the moment passed. I have spoken earnestly in prayer and worship, only to act later as though my own words carried little weight. I need to confess how lightly I sometimes treat my own commitments to You.
- Remembering the Promises I Have Neglected. I have experienced times when conviction made obedience seem urgent and clear. I resolved to put away particular sins, pray more faithfully, and walk more carefully before You. But then I allowed convenience, weariness, distraction, or desire to overrule what I had sincerely professed. This shows how unreliable my heart can be. You have dealt with me in mercy and truth, while I have not always answered You with the same sincerity of purpose.
- Confessing How Lightly I Treat Your Warnings. I readily claim words of comfort while passing quickly over Your warnings that expose sin and announce consequences. Yet You are equally true in both. Your warnings reveal Your holiness and the seriousness of rebellion. Forgive me for hearing them without sufficient trembling, for delaying repentance, or for assuming that Your patience makes obedience less urgent.
- Desiring Truth in My Covenant Dealings with You. You have kept Your covenant with perfect faithfulness, and I have received mercy after mercy from Your hand. Yet I have not always kept my word with You. My profession sometimes exceeds my practice, and my words have outrun my obedience. Expose every place where I have been double-minded or unreliable, and make me ashamed of answering Your faithfulness with anything less than truth.
Prayer (Confession):
Faithful and righteous God, I confess how often my dealings with You have lacked the constancy that Your faithfulness deserves. You speak and perform. You promise and keep covenant. You warn and remain true to every word. Yet I have often spoken more readily than I have obeyed.
Forgive me for resolutions made and neglected, duties promised and postponed, sins renounced in words and later entertained again. I have allowed changing circumstances to weaken commitments that seemed serious when I made them.
I confess also that I have not always received Your warnings with the reverence they deserve. I have been eager to rest in Your promises of mercy while sometimes treating Your threatenings as less pressing. Yet Your truth is one. You are righteous in every judgment and faithful in every word.
I have said that I would follow, obey, forsake, watch, pray, and serve, yet have failed to carry those words into action. This dishonors the God whose own word never fails.
You have shown me mercy and truth. Teach me to answer that mercy with gratitude and that truth with integrity. Keep me from forgetting what I have professed before You, and form in me a heart that not only speaks faithfulness, but practices it.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Further Scripture References:
Ezek. 5:11; Isa. 3:11; Jer. 13:14; Psalm 33:9
[1] John Arrowsmith, A Chain of Theological Principles, eBook (Coconut Creek, FL: Puritan Publications, 2012) Exercitation IV.
