Nothing could have prepared me for the joy and responsibility of being a parent. It’s the best part of my day; coming home and getting to pick up my daughter and be with her. I remember the first time we brought her home from the hospital and I was worried like, are we allowed to do this? Aren’t any of y’all coming with us to help? Because, what an awesome responsibility it is to take care of a newborn infant.
They’re completely dependent upon you as parents because a baby can’t take care of themself. My daughter couldn’t feed herself, clothe herself, or protect herself. We have to do all that for her. But of course, as parents, because of the love that you have for your children, it doesn’t matter what you need to do. You make any and all sacrifices to take care of your children.
God Describes Israel as a Neglected Infant
It reminds me a lot of the relationship that Israel had with God and the relationship that we have with God in Ezekiel Chapter 16. We have a story that God tells of Israel’s history with Him, and He begins in verse 4, describing them like an infant, but in a much worse predicament.
And as for your birth, on the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling cloths. No eye pitied you, to do any of these things to you out of compassion for you, but you were cast out on the open field, for you were abhorred, on the day that you were born.
“And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’
Ezekiel 16:4-6
God Saves the Infant: The Everlasting Covenant With Israel
God says that Israel was like this abandoned child, a child and an infant that could do nothing for itself. It was so neglected that it was sitting alone in its own blood. No one had wrapped it. God came by and saw Israel and had compassion. He made it (Israel) his child and he protected them and he entered into a covenant with them.
You would think after entering into a covenant and making Israel flourish and grow, that they would have loved him forever. But the sad part of Ezekiel Chapter 16 is it tells a different story. It tells about how Israel turned and forsook the Lord. They took all the wonderful things that God had done for them and gave them to false gods. God judged him for that.
Your Story: Like the Infant Israel, or Not?
And this story can either be very similar to our own or hopefully a little bit different. You see, much like Israel, we are like spiritual infants. All of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And we are like that child wallowing in our own blood, the blood of sin.
There is nothing that we could do to save ourselves. We cannot protect ourselves, care for ourselves and are in desperate need of God. Yet, through Jesus Christ, God passes by and says to us “live”. He’s offered to us a covenant relationship with him, an opportunity to become his child to flourish under his protection. He will lavish on us his love and his grace and his mercy.
If you want to enter into that covenant with him, it’s so simple. You must believe in Jesus as the son of God. A belief that, unlike Israel, causes you to listen to the voice of your Father. Therefore, when you’re buried in baptismal water by that faith, you are renewed and made a new creation. You receive forgiveness of your sins and adoption into the family of God.
Do I have a story like Israel? Or is mine different?
But the question we have to ask ourselves is, do I have a history like Israel or am I going to tell a very different story after God has adopted me into his family?
Do I turn and go back to the world and give all the gifts God has given to me over to Satan and over to the things in this world? If I do, rest assured God is going to judge me for that. I cannot think that God will judge the rest of the world, yet I, who practice the very same things, will escape God’s judgment.
You see, I have to follow Jesus Christ. I have to be a disciple. I hope that the story you and I can tell is to turn and love God with all our heart, soul, mind.
