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Who is watching?


Ezekiel 39:21

I will set My glory among the nations, and all the nations shall see My judgment that I have executed, and My hand that I have laid upon them.


Thought for the day – Who is Watching

Every empire wants to be watched. Rome built roads so the world could see its reach. Egypt built pyramids so history couldn't look away. We are, all of us, curating and  creating something — a highlight reel, a testimony, a legacy — hoping someone notices and draws the right conclusion.

God does something similar in Ezekiel 39, and it should unsettle us a little. After Gog's catastrophic defeat, God doesn't just want the nations to hear about his glory. He says the nations will see it. This isn't a lesson delivered in a speech. It's a lesson delivered physically, in person — a battlefield, a defeated army, a watching world drawing its own conclusions from what's right in front of them.

Here's the uncomfortable bit: God's glory gets displayed through judgment as much as through mercy. We like to preach the hand of God that heals, that provides, that blesses. We're far shier about the hand of God that acts, that holds people and nations accountable, that draws a line and says "this far, no further." But Ezekiel won't let us have one without the other. The God who is gloriously merciful is the same God whose hand is genuinely laid upon the nations.

There is a real tension here - a God whose grace is free for all, but never cheap for any. Grace that costs nothing to receive still cost everything to give. So here's the question for today: what is the watching world seeing when it looks at how God has dealt with you? Judgment survived? Mercy received? Either way — it was never meant to stay hidden. It’s a lesson for everyone. 


 This blog post is part of the Walking the Way Podcast series. All views expressed in this essay are those of the author. This essay is freely available under Creative Commons License with Attribution-ShareAlike, allowing users to share it in other mediums/formats and adapt/translate the content as long as an attribution link, indication of changes, and the same Creative Commons License applies to that material.

This work is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

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