Pray the Word with David Platt is a resource from radical.net.

Ezekiel chapter 6, verse 10,

And they shall know that I am the Lord.

I have not said in vain that I would do this evil to them.

Now, the context behind this verse is critical.

What's happening in Ezekiel chapter 6 is God is talking about his judgment upon his people for their idolatry,

for the way they've run after other gods, how they have worshipped other gods.

They've turned aside from the one true God.

And God is talking about judgment coming upon

them. And it's sobering pictures of God's judgment, really all throughout Ezekiel, that word

just keeps coming to my mind. It's just so sobering. It's humbling. It's serious to realize

the seriousness of sin, the severity of sin, and it's humbling, it's serious to realize the seriousness of sin, the severity of sin, and its

consequences. What we quote in Romans chapter 6, verse 23, the wages of sin is death. The payment for

sin is eternal judgment. And we're seeing that judgment play out here

in Ezekiel chapter 6. But what he says here, what God says in verse 10, they shall know that I am the

Lord. I have not said in vain that I would do this to them. So even in God's judgment, hear this, even in God's

judgment and the consequences of sin that God's people are experiencing, God is not doing that in

vain. He is not showing his judgment. He is not carrying out his judgment in vain.

He has a purpose even in discipline. I think about a conversation that Heather and I had with one of our

kids recently about sin and consequences.

And this is a conversation that any parent is familiar with or anyone who is carried out discipline

in some way where we say, okay, there are consequences to doing this. And as I give you these consequences,

...