What other scriptures address the consequences of turning away from God? Setting the scene in Ezekiel 16:26 “ ‘You engaged in prostitution with the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors, multiplying your promiscuity to provoke Me to anger.’ ” God pictures Judah’s idolatry as adultery. The result is His righteous anger—an anger Scripture repeatedly shows is not mere emotion but active judgment. Patterns of consequences repeated throughout Scripture • Loss of God’s presence • National and personal calamity • Spiritual blindness and hardening • Exile or separation • Ultimate judgment if there is no repentance Legal warnings under the Law • Deuteronomy 28:20 – “The LORD will send on you curses, confusion, and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed…” • Deuteronomy 28:47–48 – “Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy… you will serve your enemies…” • Deuteronomy 32:15–20 – After Israel “abandoned the God who made him,” the Lord says, “I will hide My face from them; I will see what their end will be.” These foundational passages spell out famine, disease, defeat, and exile when God is forsaken. Historical illustrations • 2 Chronicles 15:2 – “If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.” • 2 Chronicles 24:20 – “Why do you transgress the commands of the LORD and so bring disaster on yourselves?” Israel’s history validates the covenant warnings: blessing when near, disaster when distant. Prophetic echoes of judgment • Isaiah 59:1–2 – “Your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you.” • Jeremiah 2:17 – “Have you not brought this on yourselves by forsaking the LORD your God…?” • Jeremiah 17:5–6 – “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind… He will dwell in parched places…” • Hosea 4:6 – “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge… since you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children.” • Hosea 8:7 – “For they sow the wind, and they will reap the whirlwind.” The prophets keep drawing the straight line from rebellion to ruin. Insights from the wisdom literature • Psalm 81:11–13 – “My people would not listen… So I gave them up to their stubborn hearts… Oh, that My people would listen!” • Proverbs 14:12 – “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” Rebellion brings a self-inflicted emptiness God allows so that hearts might turn back. New Testament reinforcement • Romans 1:24, 26, 28 – “God gave them over” to impurity, degrading passions, and a debased mind when they rejected Him. • Galatians 6:7–8 – “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked… the one who sows to please his flesh… will reap destruction.” • Hebrews 3:12 – “See to it… that none of you has an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.” • 2 Peter 2:20–22 – To turn back to the world after knowing Christ leaves a person “worse off than at first.” • Revelation 2:5 – “Remember… repent… or I will come to you and remove your lampstand.” The same principle persists under the New Covenant: grace rejected brings sterner accountability. Summing up: the consistent testimony of Scripture From the Law through the prophets to the apostles, God speaks with one voice: turning from Him forfeits protection, invites discipline, and, if uncorrected, ends in judgment. His repeated warnings underscore both His holiness and His mercy—discipline now, so that people might yet return and live. |
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