The Stain of Sin – Eze 4
When we sin, we try to quickly overlook and forget it. We hope that it will go away and that it didn’t make too much of a difference. But Ezekiel 4 teaches us that sin leaves a permanent stain that does not just go away.
There we read that Ezekiel was to portray Nebuchadnezzar’s siege against Jerusalem. He was to illustrate it with a model and by laying on his side, eating spartan food, and being bound. He was to lie on his side one day for each of the years that the nation sinned.
This illustration and the consequent suffering of the siege dramatically illustrate that sin is not something that can be easily forgotten. Sin will be judged. All of us will face God’s wrath one day unless we repent and place our faith in Jesus who suffered in our place for our sin.
The other lesson is to know that sin has destructive influences even on those who are Christians. It cannot condemn us anymore and it should not control us, but we can allow it to rob us of joy, of peace, of fellowship with God and man. Let us, with Christ’s help, keep putting sin to death and live in the power of the Spirit.