OUR LORD WHO IS OUR MEDIATOR

Ezekiel chapter 14 verses 3 - 7 records the Lord speaking to the prophet Ezekiel when some elders of Israel came before the prophet to ask him to inquire of  the Lord on their behalf. The passage containing the Lord's response to the visitation of the elders reads this way;

 “Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces. 

Should I let them inquire of me at all? Therefore speak to them and tell them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: When any of the Israelites set up idols in their hearts and put a wicked stumbling block before their faces and then go to a prophet, I the Lord will answer them myself in keeping with their great idolatry.

I will do this to recapture the hearts of the people of Israel, who have all deserted me for their idols.’

 “Therefore say to the people of Israel, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Repent! Turn from your idols and renounce all your detestable practices!

“‘When any of the Israelites or any foreigner residing in Israel separate themselves from me and set up idols in their hearts and put a wicked stumbling block before their faces and then go to a prophet to inquire of me, I the Lord will answer them myself.

To start, the Lord gave Ezekiel two words of knowledge concerning these men. Firstly, that they were harboring idols in their hearts and secondly, that they had put wicked stumbling blocks  before their faces.

The Lord then asked Ezekiel if He should accept to be inquired of by the elders of Israel when they were in that condition. He instructed Ezekiel to speak to the elders and warn them that when they approach the Lord with idols in their hearts and stumbling blocks before their faces, the Lord would answer them directly. 

The Lord then told Ezekiel to councel the elders and the people of Israel to repent of their idolatries and their detestable practices or else the Lord would bypass the prophets like Ezekiel and He would answer them Himself.

This stipulation is a way for people who are truly seeking God and His ways to approach the Lord without facing His righteous reaction to their idolatry and their detestable practices.

They must repent of these things first and then the Lord will allow a mediator to interact with them on the Lord's behalf.

This scenario is a model of how the Lord can be approached in our time. When we hear the good news of the Lord's salvation and we believe that Jesus died for us on a cross and then rose from the dead,  we repent of our sins and the Lord Jesus becomes the mediator between God and us so that we do not face God's judgement but the mediator Jesus Christ stands before the father on our behalf.

We are thus represented before God as righteous and acceptable through Jesus and thus we can inquire of the Lord.

Amen.