Year 9, Day 151: Ezekiel 25

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Ezekiel 25 introduces us to the prophecies against other nations.  The pattern is noticeable.  The countries surrounding the Hebrew people were vengeful and showed no compassion upon the Hebrew people when they could have used some.  Therefore, God will give them back what they deserve.

There isn’t much reason to take the point too deeply.  God is watching how we act around others.  Are we compassionate or are we harsh?  Are we forgiving or do we hold onto grudges?  Are we willing to raise ourselves up by pulling other people down?

What God is talking about today is character.  The nations around the Hebrew people did not display character.  They took advantage.  They plundered the helpless and schemed against the afflicted.  They were in it for themselves, not willing to use their power and influence appropriately.

This shouldn’t be much of a surprise, though.  God has always championed the orphan and the widow.  The Hebrew people themselves were formed by taking a person who did not belong in the Promised Land and planting him there.  The Hebrew people were themselves sojourners in a foreign land.  They were exiles.  God indeed does care how we treat the people around us.

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Year 9, Day 150: Ezekiel 24

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Ezekiel 24 is a shocking chapter.  It begins plainly enough.  Jerusalem is surrounded and God tells Ezekiel to get a pot and essentially make a stew.  This is a highly symbolic act as the people who have sealed themselves in Jerusalem have basically sealed their fate.  They have no way of escaping the pot, so to speak.

Then we move to the proclamation that Ezekiel’s wife is about to die.  God takes her, the delight of his eyes, away from him.  While that’s bad, it isn’t the worst part.  God then tells him not to mourn.  I can’t imagine such a thought.  I can’t imagine having the person in this life that you are the closest to being ripped out of your life and told to not mourn.  How incredibly difficult!

That being said, I get the many layered images being said through this.  God is making a comparison to the fall of Jerusalem.  First of all, the people will be in the midst of exile.  They will have bigger problems than the loss of the city – especially those who are already in exile!  Yes, the destruction of Jerusalem is bad; but it isn’t like Jerusalem itself was what truly matters in the end.  What matters is the people and their hearts being pointed towards God.

I think there is another layer as well.  Jerusalem was always considered to be God’s Holy City.  Yet, God Himself is about to destroy it.  Will God mourn its loss?  Certainly not!  God will mourn that circumstances had to be dealt with.  God will mourn for the suffering of the people.  But He will not mourn for the loss of the city.  It can – and will – be rebuilt.  The stones can be reformed.  God has a proper perspective on loss, and that is part of what He is asking Ezekiel to teach.

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Year 9, Day 149: Ezekiel 23

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Ezekiel 23 is another straightforward chapter.  In this chapter God gives us a story of two women – representing Judah and Israel – who are accused of whoring themselves among the nations.  What exactly does this mean?  It means that they allow themselves to become intimate with their ways.  They invite foreign traditions into their own life.  They invite foreign gods into their worship.  They invite foreign protect into their plan for safety.  The begin to rely on the people in their life far more than they rely upon God.

I think it is the last bit that offends God the most.  There are lots of things that foreigners do that are different than what I do.  Should I do some of them – things which I am careful to make sure do not offend God – why should God care that I do them?  However, should I begin to worship these foreign ways and replace God’s ways with them, then I am in trouble.  When I turn to those foreign ideas in my times of trouble instead of turning to God, it shows that my heart is no longer His.

At first, this chapter seems like a chapter that is about God hoping the Hebrew people had become isolationist.  It feels like God wanted them to set up a protective wall and stay pure.  But that isn’t the case.  Remember, the Hebrew people were supposed to be God’s example of relationship with the world!  The Hebrew people were supposed to be a light into the world.  It’s impossible to be a light into the world if you never open yourself up to the world.

Therefore, it isn’t the openness of the people that has offended God, it is that the openness of the people has led to the Hebrew people replacing God with the world.  When the Hebrew people needing protection, instead of relying upon God they turned to pacts with Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon.  In order to be more likeable, the Hebrew people adopted their ways and their customs, worshipping their gods, too!  They sold their position of being a light into the world and instead became like the world.  God isn’t so much offended by what they are doing as how they traded their relationship with Him in order to do it.

This is why God uses the word whoring.  They are going about it inappropriately and making it personal.  Instead of coming alongside people and teaching them about God, they are giving up God to come alongside people.  It’s their motivation that is corrupt.  The problem is in their hearts.

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Year 9, Day 148: Ezekiel 22

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Ezekiel 22 speaks once more about the plight of the people in Jerusalem.  Look at the list of crimes of which they ae accused.  They defile themselves with false gods, worshipping them in so-called holy places.  The people disrespect their parents.  They extort the sojourner in their midst.  They take advantage of the orphan and the widow.  They no longer care about the Sabbath.  They are slanderers.  They commit a whole host of sexual crimes.  They take bribes.  They take advantage of their neighbors.

The list is long, is it not?

There is a deeper question at play here.  How did the people get this way?  How does a nation once in love with God become like this?

The rest of the chapter hints to us about the answer.  The answer is simple.  The Hebrew people suffer from a lack of leadership.

The princes look to devour their subjects.  Remember that the point of the kings was to watch over the people.  They were to judge among the people.  They were to set the example of how godliness and righteousness appears. Instead, they use their power for their own gain.  They use their position for their own benefit.  They are selfish, and the people follow suit.

The priests are no better.  The priest prophesy falsely.  They give the people what they want to hear.  They give pleasant messages so that they have the favor of the people.  The priests are no longer teaching the people – especially the hard lessons like clean and unclean.  The priests are abdicating their authority because it is too hard.  The priests are looking for the easy and the popular.  The people are following suit here, too.

How do you corrupt a nation the fastest?  Put poor leadership in place.  Under bad leadership, selfishness reigns.  Under bad leadership, community falters.  Under bad leadership, individualism reigns supreme and the world is full of wanton sinfulness.

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Year 9, Day 147: Ezekiel 21

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Ezekiel 21 is another chapter written in anticipation of the final Babylonian judgment of Jerusalem.  The message is easy to perceive.  The sword is Babylon.  It is sharp.  It is coming to do the job of finishing off the rebellion of the people.  That’s all pretty much been covered a lot in the past.

Where can we go deeper?

Count how many times God talks about the sword being polished and sharpened.  There are many, many references.  In fact, there are so many references that most of us start skipping them as we read through the chapter.  We get that the sword is polished and sharp.  So what?

Polishing a sword and sharpening a sword takes time.  It requires preparation.  It indicates planning.  Babylon is not some whim of God, it is the plan of God.  God has prepared for this moment.  It is a dark moment in the history of the Hebrew people, but it is an important moment.

Furthermore, God’s plan is decisive.  If you cut with a sharp knife, there is no turning back.  If you cut with a dull knife, you usually have to take several passes.  But cutting with a sharp knife is more decisive.  For the record, it is also much safer.  When you cut decisively, you risk much less injury.  That is why God is coming with Babylon sharpened.  He doesn’t want to botch the refinement of His people in exile.  Like a good surgeon, He wants to get in, do the job, and leave as much intact as possible so that healing can occur once it is over.

God knows what He is doing, even in the valley of the shadow of death.  He’s got a plan and He is prepared.  Trust  Him, especially when life is darkest.

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Year 9, Day 146: Ezekiel 20

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Ezekiel 20 is a return back to the familiar things in life.  People come to Ezekiel and ask him to give a prophetic word.  The leaders come and want to know what the Lord intends of them.

Ezekiel turns to the Lord, who simply says to remind them of their past.  God planted Abraham in the Promised Land.  There was rebellion, a famine, and the people landed in Egypt.  Several hundred years later, God brought them out of Egypt.  There was a rebellion and a generation died in the desert.  They entered the Promised Land, where they prospered for a time before there was a rebellion and the people demanded a king to be like the other nations.  Eventually, the people fell away from God and they are once again in judgement. 

The Word of the Lord is not hard to figure out!  God prospers us, we get too full of ourselves, we rebel, and we have to learn a hard lesson!  The pattern runs through nations, generations, communities, and even individual people.  We can all look at this very pattern and see it like ribbons running along the scope and breadth of humanity. 

Learn the lesson!  Stay close to the Lord’s ways and avoid the pitfalls of exile!

Before concluding, recognize the complaint that Ezekiel gives at the end.  The people are beginning to speak about him as the “maker of parables.”  In other words, the people aren’t understanding.  They aren’t getting it.  They are confused because they aren’t willing to learn the lesson.  The want to know the future, to know it precisely, and they want to be impatient about it.

Remember how Jesus used parables.  So many people think Jesus used parables to teach.  Ha!  Look at the parable stories.  The vast majority of the parables end in more questions!  When Jesus spoke in parables, He wasn’t trying to explain things, He was sorting and sifting through the people to see who really cares enough to find out what life is all about and who is simply looking for the easy way out.  The same thing is happening here with Ezekiel.  God is using the exile to sift and sort through the people and see who is willing to be refined.  Ezekiel is playing the part God asks of him exceptionally well, as frustrating as that might be.

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Year 9, Day 145: Ezekiel 19

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Sometimes laments can be dangerous to read.  As human beings, we encounter sadness, sorrow, and disappointment all over the place.  I don’t mean to be a downer, but you don’t have to look too far in life to find someone who does something to disappoint – especially in the day and age of the internet.

We need to be careful, then, to make sure we don’t read into the lament with our own bias.  For example, take today’s lament.  On the surface, it sounds like a person lamenting over the fact that the leaders were raised up to be strong and then taken away into captivity.  It sounds like a lament because things have gone poorly in Jerusalem.  It is really easy to read that into the content because that’s what makes logical sense to our brain.

It is imperative that we remember whose hand it was that caused the exile.  God is the source behind the exile.  God raised up Assyria.  God raised up Babylon.  The exiles are in Babylon in order to pass through God’s purification!  Keep this in mind as we go through the passage.

What is the lament over, then?  The lament is actually about the disobedience of the people.  It was the disobedience of the people that made the lament necessary in the first place.  It is the continued disobedience that raises up these princes to be disobedient to the regent authority placed over them.  It is the disobedience of the people that keeps bringing Babylonian power back to quell uprisings and tighten their grip over Israel.

The lament is that the people don’t learn.  Instead of learning from their yoke, they simply seek to be free of it.  Instead of submitting to God, they seek to exercise their own desires.

Yes, the exile is a sad moment in the history of the Hebrew people.  But it is a moment that should have been filled with purification and return to the Lord instead of continued rebellion.  This is why the lament is lifted up.  It is sad that because the strong are rebellious that they have to be continually removed.

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Year 9, Day 144: Ezekiel 18

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There are parts of this chapter that are simply astounding.  I’ll get them near the end.  Here in the beginning, it is proper to talk about the main theme of the chapter.  Each person will be held accountable to their own actions.  Live according to God, live well.  Live in antithesis to God, die well.  It’s a pretty simple chapter.

In fact, God shows both righteousness and grace in this chapter.  If a person lives in antithesis to God and repents, God will forgive the bad stuff.  That’s grace.  If a person lives with God but then turns away and denounces such life, God will hold the person accountable.  That’s righteousness.  God’s willing to forgive so long as we are willing to walk with Him and repent.  In fact, His grace is so powerful that it doesn’t even have to balance out.  So long as we come at some point to Him, we get forgiveness.  That’s grace.

While I love the concept of grace and I absolutely find grace amazing, I don’t find it astounding.  God’s grace is mind-boggling. God’s grace is unfathomable.  To be fair, God’s grace is so amazing that I find it beyond astounding.  It is incomprehensible.

What parts of this chapter are astounding, then?  The fact that people get upset at God’s grace is astounding.  I can’t believe that there are people who get angry because others aren’t held accountable for the sins of their parents.  To bring that into today’s context, I can’t believe there are people who get angry at the thought of a complete heathen turning to God at the end of their life and getting further angry at God for being so forgiving!  What are people thinking?

Are we all not saved by grace?  Who among us can stand before God and demand salvation?  Who among us can save ourselves?  All of us are undeserving!  What right does anyone have to get angry when grace is offered instead of punishment?

Human beings astound me.

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Year 9, Day 143: Ezekiel 17

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In this chapter we have several images.  First, there are the eagles that break of sprigs and plant them.  Notice that the branches become vines – not forgetting the vine imagery from a few chapters back.  God is not impressed with the plantings of these eagles.

These planting represent the breaking of Israel and the breaking of Jerusalem.  They also represent the rebellion that Jerusalem has in getting Egypt involved with the Babylonian occupation.  God is not impressed by how the Hebrew people try to save themselves.

On the other hand, God Himself says that He will take a sprig and plant it on a high mountain.  In other words, the exiles will be taken by God and planted.  They will prosper.  Under God’s watchfulness, these planted exiles will be refined and they will grow.  It’s a trio of reasonable simple parables.

The message, though, is clear.  What God plants grows and prospers.  What humans plant turns into schemes and machinations.

It’s easy to think that the people who were pulled into exile had the hardship and were being punished.  Yet we see that it is the exiles upon whom God has placed hope!  Thos who remain in Jerusalem continue to be the hopeless and rebellious.  Sometimes what we see as punishment is actually God’s hand.  Sometimes what we see as grace is actually evidence of needed judgment.

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Year 9, Day 142: Ezekiel 16

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Ezekiel 16 is a brilliant chapter of theology.  There is a message here, of course.  I don’t think there is a chapter in the Bible that is without message.  But the message is not so much in what the words say as it is in what the words reflect about humanity.

The chapter is a summary analogy of God’s relationship with the Hebrew people.  He, through Abraham, drew them out of the world.  He set them apart.  He grew them.  He clothed them.  He provided for them.  When they were big enough to be called a nation, He called them, gave them a home, and loved them.  He did everything that a husband should do for his bride.

The Hebrew people – representing the human side of the equation – rebelled.  They lusted after human passions.  They thought more of their own ways than the ways of God.  They honestly thought they knew better.  They chased their own ideals and discarded the Lord’s ways.

This is such a great analogy of all of us.  How many of us cannot read the last paragraph and not feel guilt?  How many of us will stand before the Lord and not have sin to confess?  He draws all of us to Him; yet we turn away.

What’s great about this chapter, though, is the ending.  God promises redemption.  He tells them that He will atone for their sins.  He will do the work.  It’s not that God expects the people to make their way back to Him; He will make His way to the people.  That’s the awesome thing about God.  We don’t buy His love.  We receive it.

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Year 9, Day 141: Ezekiel 15

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Ezekiel 15 is a rather blunt chapter.  God compares the Hebrew people in Jerusalem to a vine in the middle of a forest.  While this might seem like a good thing, especially since Jesus often uses the vine as a symbol of our connection to God, it isn’t a good thing at all.

Like all analogies, context is critical.  God speaks about the vine in a forest.  Next to all the trees, who in their right mind uses a vine to build anything?  Who is going to use the vine for any kind of support.  The only thing, God says, that the vine is good for is for fueling the fire.  It is only good for being consumed.  It is only good for being the object of the wrath of the Lord.  That’s a rather harsh teaching.  God is telling the people of Jerusalem that they are so far away from God that they only thing they can be used for is for being consumed.

There’s more to this, though.  Remember that Ezekiel was a prophet among the exiles.  He wasn’t near Jerusalem or in much contact with the people of Jerusalem.  Therefore, while the people of Jerusalem are the focus of the message, the message is actually for the exiles.  God’s telling the exiles that it is better to be a part of the exile than to be still in Jerusalem.  God is telling the exiles that they have hope because they can be refined.  God will still work with them.  Unlike the rebellious people in Jerusalem, the exiles can still be worked upon.

While this is a bleak message about the people in Jerusalem, this is a message of hope for the people in exile.  God hasn’t abandoned them.  God hasn’t said that they are only good for the fire.  God is still with them and preparing their hearts to be changed.

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Year 9, Day 140: Ezekiel 14

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In Ezekiel 14, God comes against the idolatry off the people.  If the people are going to turn from God, then God will allow them to get what they desire.  God will allow them to follow their passions and their desires.  Essentially, God is telling the people who follow idols that they will be allowed to lay in the bed they make.

Then God turns to an interesting style of argument.  God brings up Noah, Daniel, and Job.  Here are three faithful people indeed.  Noah survived the flood when everyone else was turning to idolatry.  Daniel survived the furnace brought about when those who were turning from God to appease the Babylonians accused Daniel of disobeying the king.  Job survived complete and utter destruction when everyone around him tried to convince him to curse God and die.  God lifts up these people because they were faithful amidst a great multitude of unfaithful people.

God gives a pretty blunt message.  Even if these faithful people are in the midst of God’s wrath, these people would only save themselves.  This should make sense.  After all, aren’t these people remembered for surviving destruction in the midst of unfaithful people?  If Noah, Daniel, and Job were sole survivors in their own day, why would they be anything other than sole survivors in the day of the exile?

God’s point is brilliant, in my opinion.  People are responsible for their own actions.  People are responsible for their own idolatry.  There will be a day of accounting, and our proximity to faithful people will have no impact upon us.  God has shown again and again that He is certainly capable of saving the faithful while allowing the rebellious to achieve what their idolatrous hearts deserve.

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Year 9, Day 139: Ezekiel 13

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Today’s message is against those who claim to speak with God’s voice but do not.  Naturally, God desires His truth to ring out, especially by those who know Him.  We should be about proclaiming God’s will and living according to His ways.

This was a little harder back in Ezekiel’s day tan our own.  Printing was scarce.  Paper was hard to come by and fragile.  Complete copies of the writings of God’s people were difficult to come by, and certainly only communities of faith would have one, not individual families.  Don’t forget that the typical person couldn’t read, so they wouldn’t even need one!

These things make it harder to speak with God’s voice.  Today, we can open up God’s Word and search for truth that applies in similar situations.  We can search the internet for precise verses!  Today, God’s Word can speak for itself.

Back then, diving God’s Word was more difficult.  It was done through memory and study.  It was done through repetition.  This opened the door wide open for false teachers and false prophets.  Since few people could read and didn’t have access to scripture, there were few check and balances against these false prophets.

This is why God is so upset.  He calls them whitewashers.  These are people who take a bad situation and make it seem like nothing.  These are people who take nothing and get people all stirred up.  These are people who are not taking the time to discern God’s will but simply saying what they want to be true or what they think people want to hear.  Perhaps even worse, people who claim to be from God are turning to other means of magic to bring their messages.

God takes this issue seriously.  He vows to punish those who misrepresent Him.  He tells those who prophesy falsely that they will be plagued with the same fate as they falsely stated would happen.  He promises to remove those who are being misled from within the grasp of those who mislead them.  God will protect the innocent and the faithful.

Returning back to today, our technology has not put this problem behind us.  Just because we can read God’s Word for ourselves doesn’t mean false teachers and preachers aren’t out there.  Just because we can Google any verse in the Bible doesn’t mean that we can’t also Google false understandings of the Lord.  Only God’s hand of protection and our own vigilance can help prevent us from falling into the trap of those who would deceive us while claiming to be from God.

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Year 9, Day 138: Ezekiel 12

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Ezekiel is told to act out a parable of the exile.  Ezekiel packs a bag and digs through a wall, representing the exile.  At this point, something neat happens.  Ezekiel has to explain himself.

When Isaiah spoke in warning, the people ignored him because they didn’t want to hear the message.  When Jeremiah speaks warning the people throw him in prison because they don’t want to face the reality of the message.  When Ezekiel acts out this parable, the people are open to explanation.

There is a deep spiritual point here.  When we are in a place of comfort, we aren’t interested in anything but our circumstances.  When we are in a place of stress, we don’t want to face reality.  When we are in a position of humbleness, we are free to be curious and inquisitive.  It is in our lowest moments that we are most susceptible to the message of God.

Ezekiel is able to get his message across because of the exile.  The hearts of the rebellious people needed to be humbled before they could listen and be curious.  The strife of the exile is a momentous moment for the preparation of the hearts of the people.

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Year 9, Day 137: Ezekiel 11

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Ezekiel is once more shown a vision from God.  He is shown the leaders of the Jerusalem, who are bringing bad tidings to the people who remained after the exile.  These leaders are telling the people to not build, because it’s a hopeless cause.

God has a judgment against them.  He promises them that what they think will happen to all people will happen to them.  They are afraid of the sword, so the sword will come upon them.  God has a way of bringing what we fear upon us when we let our fear work against His will.

In contrast to this, God has a message to the exiles.  God promises to bring them back.  He promises that they will be restored.  He promises that there exile will end.

In fact, there is an even better promise.  These who return will remove the detestable practices of their forefathers.  They will return to the worship of God.  They will do this because God will give them a new heart.  God will give them a heart that desires to live according to the ways of God.  Through their exile, they will be humbled and restored.

So often we think of bad events as low points in our life.  It would have been easy for those who were deported by the Assyrians and Babylonians to see themselves as cursed while those who remained in Jerusalem would be blessed.  This simply isn’t true.  It s those who are put through the fire of exile who are purified and who will return to draw close to the Lord.

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Year 9, Day 136: Ezekiel 10

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Ezekiel 10 gives a mixed bag with respect to its message.  In the end, the chapter is a sad chapter.  God’s presence departs the temple.  He leaves His holy house, which Solomon built for Him.  He leaves because the people have fallen into idolatry and no longer desire relationship with Him.  He leaves because that is what the people seem to want, according to their actions.

This chapter isn’t all bad news, though.  God tells the man in linen to gather coals and spread about the city.  At first, this sounds ominous.  This sounds like God is calling for judgment and retribution.

However, this isn’t necessarily the case.  First of all, remember that the unrighteous have already been judged in the prior chapter.  Therefore, what reason is there to bring fire in an act of judgment?

Second, remember that in the Old Testament fire is not a symbol of destruction but purification.  The man in linen has already gone out to mark those who are not to be destroyed.  It makes sense that these same people would need purified instead of being destroyed.  This chapter feels like God’s plan of redemption beginning, not God bringing out His wrath.

The people have come under judgment.  Many of the righteous have already been removed to Babylon and Assyria.  Those who are still in Jerusalem can be purified.  This is why God leaves the temple.  His people are scattered to the winds.  It makes sense that for the purification process to begin properly, then God would need to go to His people.

Maybe this chapter isn’t quite as sad as it appears at first.

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Year 9, Day 135: Ezekiel 9

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This is a tough chapter to read.  First, it is a chapter full of wrath and judgment.  Second, it is a chapter where God tells His servants to not have mercy, to show no pity, and to not spare anyone who deserves judgment.  As I said, it is a hard chapter to read.

In the midst of this judgment, I find it interesting to look at the servants.  Even more particular, there are the number of servants.  One solitary man is given the task of going through the city and finding all of the righteous people who object to the idolatry being done.  On the other hand, six people are assigned the task of going through the city and slaughtering the idolatrous.

The ratio is pretty simple.  It is six to one.  Six people are needed to handle judgment; one is needed to handle righteousness.  That really says something.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not trying to be alarmist.  I’m not saying the sky is falling and the end is near.  I am saying, though, that rebellion begets more rebellion.  In a city of apostasy, it is easy to become apostate.  In a city of selfishness, selfishness spreads like wildfire.  If we live in a community of rebellion against God, it is normal to be rebellious.

People tend to follow the norm.  We like to think of ourselves as individuals who are free-thinkers, but the truth is that many of us are conformists who want to be part of the whole.  So when everyone else is being an idolater, the mob mentality wins and most people surge ahead and become idolaters.

This is an important message.  The faithful belong to God, not the world.  The faithful desire to follow God, not the world.  When everyone else is following the crowd, the faithful stand up and follow God.

I think that this is the reason that there is only one man sent out to measure the righteous.  Mob mentality.  Crowd think.  People doing what everyone else is doing, not thinking about what God really wants of us.  God desires people who follow Him when everyone else is heading away into the self-centeredness of the world.

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Year 9, Day 134: Ezekiel 8

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Abominations.  That is a very important word in this chapter.  Ezekiel is brought to and fro, looking at various sins and told her will see worse than what he is currently seeing.

Take a notice at the point.  Ezekiel sees the Hebrew people and their leaders doing sin.  The sin is bad enough.  The sin shows flaws in the relationship with God.  But it isn’t actually the sin that has God riled up.  Sin is against God, but sin can be forgiven.  Sin can be overcome by God with repentance.

The issue is where the abominations are taking place.  It’s bad enough that the sin is taking place outside the temple.  The bad expressions of sin, the ones that follow the infamous “you will see greater abominations,” are within the temple.  These are the ones that we should really analyze.

These greater abominations are performed in the holy house of the Lord.  Where the people should be worshipping God, they are worshipping idols.  Where the people should be worshipping God, they were worshipping the sun.

God can forgive our lust, our lies, our anger.  God doesn’t take well to idolatry.  God especially doesn’t care for idolatry that happens within His own places of worship.  God is a jealous God, and He knows when our hearts wander.  He will want us back to worshipping Him.

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Year 9, Day 133: Ezekiel 7

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Two things leap out at me as I read Ezekiel 7: violence and pestilence.  Certainly, there is more to this chapter than that.  We have proclamation after proclamation of God’s judgment.  We have promise of destruction.  But above it all rises violence and pestilence.

The theme of violence is interesting because t comes alongside the studies of the past few chapters.  Human bring about their on downfall through pride as we walk away from God.  Humans bring about their on downfall when we worship things other than God and His truth.  The natural conclusion of our own pride and denial of the truth is violence.  We turn to violence as we learn to care more about ourselves than others and seek our own passions.

God allows us to suffer the consequences of our own desires.  When we make choices, He will allow us to stray down the path of self-destruction.  He will allow us to pursue our own violence.  He would rather we choose peace and relationship, but our free will mandates we have the right to pursue violence if we want it bad enough.

For me, though, pestilence is the greater academic pursuit within this chapter.  For several chapters pestilence has been tied to the violence of the sword.  In Ezekiel 7 we get pestilence fleshed out.  After all, those in the field will die violently while those who hide in the protective confines of the city will die through pestilence.

I love the lesson that this teaches.  So often we think that we can build walls to keep us safe.  So often we think that our walls, if built strongly enough, can prevent us from our own sinfulness.  However, we know that to not be true.  If we built strong enough walls, all we do is choke out life within.  The people of Jerusalem may have been spared the sword of the Assyrians and somewhat soared from the Babylonians, but instead they had to face starvation, thirst, cannibalism, and treachery as people fought to stay alive.

What’s worse, suffering the immediate consequence of our sin or being eaten alive by our sinfulness from the inside out?  That is the deep question that the concept of pestilence brings into view.

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Year 9, Day 132: Ezekiel 6

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Ezekiel 6 brings out more evidence of judgment.  Today’s focus is their idolatry. This isn’t too different from yesterday.  Yesterday God challenged the people because they became like the nations instead of being a witness so the nations became more like them.  Why did that happen?  Idolatry.  The Hebrew people adopted the gods of the world rather than inviting the world to adopt God as their own God.

As with all the prophets, what is the point of the judgment?  Does God simply want them to be punished?  Is He a vengeful God who wants the people to pay for their sins?  Does God have a superiority complex and He needs to prove His dominion over the people?  Does God want to supplant the people and move in the Babylonians?

None of these are true.  The point God wants to make is to have the people recognize Him as God.  He wants relationship.  He wants them to take Him as their God.  He isn’t interested in vindictive judgment; He is interested in meaningful relationship.

This speaks to the nature of God.  Yes, God is powerful enough to wipe the planet clean.  Yes, God is powerful enough to take one group and remove them from power and give their land to someone else.  But  these aren’t the things that God wants.  God wants relationship with us.  He wants repentance.  He wants us to come to Him humbly, acknowledging our need for His ways.

We see this hope in one small sentence in this chapter.  God says that not all people will die.  God says that there will come a time when the people know Him.  That’s God’s plan.  He wants to be known by us.

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Year 9, Day 131: Ezekiel 5

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Ezekiel 5 gives us a very easy analogy.  Ezekiel is to shave his head.  Part of his hair gets burned.  Another third gets struck by the sword.  The final third gets scattered all around.  Clearly, God is making a demonstration of what will happen.  The Babylonians came, laid siege to the city.  Many people starved to death.  Many other people died when the siege was taken to the field of battle.  Those who were left alive were scattered all throughout the Babylonian Empire and despised as captive slaves.  It’s a straightforward analogy if there ever is one.

The key to this chapter isn’t in understanding what is happening.  The key is understanding why it is happening.  That’s why God spend more than two-thirds of the chapter explaining the motivation for the analogy and only a small percent on of the chapter on the actual analogy.

Why are the Hebrew people judged?  They are judged because they are rebellious.  They are judged because they insist on doing things their own way.  They are judged because they were given every advantage and set among a large number of people to whom they could be an example and instead the people abandoned God and become like the people among whom they were set.  God makes a point.  Abandon Him and He will allow you to exercise your free will.

There is another interesting dynamic, though.  This analogy is so simple.  In fact, this is an analogy that we hear in Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and Joel, and Hosea, and many other prophets.  It isn’t like Ezekiel was the only person who was proclaiming this message.  Prophet after prophet came in warning.  The people didn’t want to listen.  Here we learn another lesson.  It’s very much along the lines of leading horses to water but being unable to make them drink.  God can send truth into our midst again and again.  But He won’t make us obey.  He gives us the choice to obey or continue in our own rebellion and reap the consequences of our choice.

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