Then Shall They Know that I Am the Lord
“Then the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase. They shall be safe in their land; and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I have broken the bands of their yoke and delivered them from the hand of those who enslaved them. And they shall no longer be a prey for the nations, nor shall beasts of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and no one shall make them afraid. I will raise up for them a garden of renown, and they shall no longer be consumed with hunger in the land, nor bear the shame of the Gentiles anymore. Thus they shall know that I, the LORD their God, am with them, and they, the house of Israel, are My people,” says the Lord GOD. (Ezekiel 34:27-30, NKJV)
What is it Going to Take?
The Lord wants the Nations to know that He is the LORD (Jehovah, the creator, the ever existing One). He wants Israel as a nation to know that He is the LORD. He wants each of us individually to know that He is the LORD. He wants our worship and praise. He doesn’t want to share that worship and praise with pagan (nature based) gods. Nor does He want to share that worship with the worship of idols that represent gods that are really not gods at all. He does not want to share that honor with men who would like to be worshiped as gods which was often the case with many of the kings in Old Testament times. God is a jealous God and wants to be the only One we worship. But what will it take to get people to acknowledge that Jesus is Jehovah and that He is the creator, and that He is the only One we should worship?
In the Old Testament
The phrase “then shall you know that I AM the LORD,” or some similar phrase, is found at least 78 times in the Old Testament. Ezekiel seems to use the phrase more often than most of the prophets. Normally the phrase is used when God is predicting judgment on a nation. But with Israel the phrase is used most often when God is restoring them to the land because of His need to honor His own promises. For example He says, “Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when I have dealt with you for My name’s sake, not according to your wicked ways nor according to your corrupt doings, O house of Israel,” says the Lord GOD. (Ezekiel 20:44, NKJV) At the present time, Israel as a nation still does not know that “Jesus (I AM) is the LORD.
What About Us Today?
I keep wondering how many of us really KNOW that Jesus is Jehovah, our creator and our Savior. I suspect that many people who have been raised religiously think that they are Christians because they have been raised reading the Bible and going to “church.” But have they ever really trusted the Lord Jesus, their Creator and Savior? I am afraid many of us think the Scriptures are pretty elastic and that we can interpret them the way we want to interpret them. Do we really KNOW the LORD? I suspect more people are saved during periods of trial than are saved during the times in their lives when everything seems to be going well. I have no empirical studies that prove that, but in my own case, my fear of what was going to happen after the assasination of President Kennedy made me realize that I needed to be saved and that I needed to be saved now. I suspect that death of loved ones and friends, divorces, bankruptcies, and natural disasters and accidents bring more people to the Lord than all of our eloquent sermons and Gospel preaching.
None of us welcome a trial but if it comes and it brings a person to faith in Christ, then that trial is a blessing. The nations in the middle east that Ezekiel prophesied to were told that when they started losing their wars, then they would know that “I AM the LORD.” However, most of those nations that suffered at the hands of the Babylonians and the Chaldean empires, are not even nominally Christian nations today. I suspect it is going to take the actual seven years of tribulation to bring them to true repentance. But it will be losing wars and experiencing famine and pestilence and earthquakes that will bring them to their knees.
As individuals, we shouldn’t wait til calamity strikes. We should trust the Lord now so we will be prepared for eternity. We should be waiting “for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.” (1 Thessalonians 1:10, NKJV)
Bruce Collins
Meditation for the week of November 12 and 19, 2023