A Vicious Cycle Broken

In Ezekiel 20 some of the elders of Israel come to Ezekiel to "inquire of the Lord" but the Lord already knows what is on their mind - they want to be like the nations. The Lord will have none of it! They are his holy people, his treasured possession, set apart from the nations. Despite their persistent rebellion, generation after generation, the Lord will not abandon his covenant people. Instead, he holds them all the more in the bond of the covenant. Those who adamantly refuse to listen to him will be purged from their midst, but the Lord is determined to have a people of his own who will worship him. He will not let them go. Therefore, for the sake of his holy name, time and time again, he withholds the fullness of his wrath, saving it for another day, and transforms the hearts of his people so that they would loathe their sin, know that he is the Lord, and worship him.
Do we today know the Lord is God? Our sovereign and faithful covenant Father? With the same long-suffering mercy and love he has not dealt with us according to our sins. The wrath he withheld in the day of Ezekiel, and that which we deserve for our sin, has been poured out once for all on his Son at Calvary so that all the nations might know he is the Lord - holy, faithful and just in his covenant, and the one who justifies and sanctifies his covenant children who live by faith.