“Yet I will leave a remnant, so that you may have some who escape the sword among the nations, when you are scattered through the countries. Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations where they are carried captive, because I was crushed by their adulterous heart which has departed from Me, and by their eyes which play the harlot after their idols; they will loathe themselves for the evils which they committed in all their abominations.” (Ezekiel‬ ‭6:8-9‬).

     Oh my LORD, my God. I am truly, and thoroughly, completely UNDONE by these words, words that have stopped both my breath as well as my heart for the longest time:

          “I was — CRUSHED —

          by their adulterous heart,

          which has departed from Me”.

     That our adulterous ways actually crush You, has unravelled me — from beginning to end. That You, as God, invincible and omnipotent, can share of Your pain, and declare before all of creation, that whilst You are the living God, who is before all things, and in whom all things are held together, that Your heart knows of pain, and pain of that enormity and magnitude, and of that calibre, and that You are prepared to actually reveal this to man, shows a nature of vulnerability that PROVES to me that You are our FATHER! Not just God. For to what man does the betrayal of unfaithfulness, and the aching condition of the departed heart of a loved one, NOT thoroughly wound their heart? Which, if it crushes You like it grieves me, clearly makes us like Father like son.

     And as a son, hearing these words, I grieve in the knowledge of this weighty and immense truth. My tears flow freely, and find an unceasing voice for the dawning that I, myself, have contributed to this unbearable agony and aching of Yours. For to any heart, it is not a trifling thing to have your heart crushed.

     For I, too, have played the harlot after the idol of myself. For evils I have committed, and committed aplenty. I have exalted my ways above You, my God! I have declared that there is no one more sovereign than me. For I have chosen to live according to the idol of MY will, not Yours, according to the idol MY ways, not Yours! According to the idol of MY life, not Yours! And as such, I have, in effect, declared myself to be the head of my life, not You. And as You have prophetically written, I truly loathe all the abominations of evil which I have committed, and even more so, for now I know what they do unto You!

     I ask for the forgiveness and healing for the land of our spirits and our hearts, and for the soothing and comfort of Your own crushed heart, Father. For, just as in the time of Ezekiel, do we not live in a time where the hearts of sons and daughters have likewise departed from You in droves? Even within the fabric of the organised church?

     For, at the root of this blight, are eyes that “play the harlot” after the idol of self - a malaise expressed and accomplished through the pride of life, the lusts of the eyes and the lusts of our own flesh. (1 John 2:16). For have we not entered into an increasingly dark time where a civilisation once founded on a spirit of consecration has increasingly given itself over to a spirit of desecration? Being the nature and ways of a harlot?

     For I have been an adulterous son. One who has strayed from the straight and narrow way. One who has fallen in a ditch. One who has laid like a beaten and broken man besides the road. And only the Good Samaritan of Christ has not walked passed, as I lay there, destitute in my brokenness, but He has carried me to His Father’s inn, where He has tended for my bruises and brokenness, and has restored me to health with the currency of His love and the grace of His mercy.

     For this has not been cheap. And there has been a great cost. And for this love that has come at a great price to You that You have freely shown, I am truly in Your debt, and a bond servant to Your will and Your ways. Write Your commands on my heart, and lead me by Your Spirit. That I, too, may be one of the remnant of good samaritans who, after the order and similitude and the pattern of Your wonderful Son, will remember You among the nations. So that in the nature and the spirit of the Good Samaritan heart of loving our neighbour as ourselves - which is to love as You do and have loved us - we too may bind up all the breaches and heal all the wounds.

     For when this remnant of Yours shall stand up as a company of good samaritans, then the light of the moon of Your church shall be as bright as the sun. And its light shall be as the fullness of day. Even unto a seven-fold brightness. So that it might be fulfilled that all the earth will be filled with Your glory. Being the glory of Your eternal power and divine nature, that shall forever be before the eyes of all creation.

“The light of the moon will be as bright as the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter— like the light of seven days — on the day that the LORD binds up the brokenness of His people and heals the wounds He inflicted.”

Isaiah 30:26