The critical first step to having a change of heart – Ezekiel 35-36, Part 2

This week on the blog we are seeking to learn if and how a cold heart can be transformed into a warm heart. In other words, can people change? If so, how? After learning about the prophecy against Edom in chapter 35, in the previous post, we now begin chapter 36, and God asks Ezekiel to prophesy to Israel. In this amazing prophecy in chapter 36, God describes how a cold heart can change.

To start off, please read verses 1-7. To summarize these verses, God is saying, “Israel the nations around you, like Edom which I just talked about, have plundered you and ridiculed while you have been going through your time of distress, but I am going to take care of them.”  What distress? God is referring to the recent invasion of Israel by Babylon, during which time Babylon destroyed the land, including the city of Jerusalem, sending a second wave of exiles to Babylon.

Did the surrounding nations come to Israel’s aid?  No.  Instead, those nations saw an opportunity to enrich themselves, sending raiding parties in to see what the Babylonians left behind and take it.  It was a land grab, punching Israel while they were down. To make matters worse, those nations, like Edom, also ridiculed Israel.  The surrounding nations talked trash about Israel.  That’s the worst, right?  To not only lose the game, but also to lose when your opponent is arrogantly making fun of how bad your skills are.  That cuts deep, doesn’t it?  So imagine how Israel was feeling.  Like losers.  Like people with little hope. 

In a situation of desperation, such as what Israel was experiencing, it seemed they forgot about their part in the awful situation. It wasn’t as if they were just unlucky, or surprised, or that this situation was random.  The people of Israel had persistently turned their backs on God, and as we saw in previous chapters, God called Israel out as well.  Now he will call out their sin again.  They had lost their land, more of them were in exile, the surrounding nations were plundering them and ridiculing them, and God was watching. He was not happy.

What will he do? Pause reading this blog and see what God says in Ezekiel 36, verses 8-12.

How about that? God says he will restore them to the land of Israel where they will flourish!  Skim down through those verses and look at the very positive words God uses: “produce, fruit, soon come home, I am concerned for you, will look on you with favor, I will multiply, towns inhabited, ruins rebuilt, increase, fruitful, prosper.” This is an extremely positive, hopeful message! 

In verse 11 we read, “Then you will know that I am the Lord,” that most important phrase of the book of Ezekiel.  God is saying that he is going to be involved in restoring Israel, and then they will know that he is the Lord.  In their previous situation, they did not know that he was the Lord.  Their relationship was broken.  They were not in a loving, trusting relationship with him.  But one day they will be.

How?  How will this happen that Israel, who has not known God, will come to know him?  In verses 8-12, he says that he will restore them to their land and cause them to flourish. Here God gives not only Israel, but us as well, a wonderful reminder that he is at work in the world.  When we feel like he is not, when we don’t see evidence of his work, we need to dwell on the truth that he is still alive and active, desiring a relationship with not only his people, but the whole world.

There is a problem, though, and it is the problem of humanity’s rebellion against God.  That problem is serious and needs to be dealt with.  God does exactly that in verses 13-23. Go ahead and read those verses to see how God addresses the sinful rebellion of his people

As God reminds them that this mess they found themselves in was their doing, I find it so interesting how he describes their reputation in verses 20-21.  Wherever the people of Israel intermingle with other nations, it was said of them, “These are Yahweh’s people, and yet they had to leave his land.”  More than likely your English translation says, “They are the LORD’s people,” and it prints LORD in all capital letters.  Whenever the Old Testament prints the word LORD in all capital letters, it is referring to the actual name of God, Yahweh.  This is important because there were loads of gods in the ancient near east, and they all had names. The Egyptians had gods, the Canaanites had gods, and so did the Assyrians and Babylonians.  Much of international relations in that time was a matter of whose gods were more powerful. 

Of course, as we know from the history of the nation of Israel, their God Yahweh, is the only true God, and he is powerful beyond imagination.  We read the stories of God’s power unleashed time and time again, giving tiny powerless Israel astounding victories.  So Israel knew their God Yahweh was real, and that he was utterly more powerful than the supposed gods of the foreign nations, who were not really gods at all. 

But what happens when Babylon invades Israel, defeats Israel, burns the city of Jerusalem down to the ground, including the total destruction of the temple of Yahweh, and then carts the people of Israel away?  Who is more powerful now?   Clearly the Babylonians believed that they and their gods were more powerful than Yahweh.  That’s exactly what the Lord, Yahweh, is getting at in verses 20-21, when he says that his name is being profaned.  Clearly the people of Israel are at fault that his name was being profaned.  Their sinful rebellion let to this. But God is still God.  He is still concerned for his name. 

Notice how he expands on this theme with the very honest words of verses 22-23.

God says that it is not for their sake that he will restore them, but for the sake of his holy name.  God is concerned for his reputation!  He speaks truthfully pointing out that they had profaned his name.  He doesn’t just say it once, but multiple times in verses 22-23.  Though they have profaned his name by their rebellious behavior, he will show himself to be holy through them.  That means there is still hope for them.  God is bigger than their rebellion.  He is not accepting their rebellion.  He is not allowing their rebellion.  He is saying that he will make a way that through them, his holiness will shine. And all the nations will know that he is the Lord.

We see God’s heart in this.  It is a heart for people to experience change.  That speaks of his desire for a close relationship with people.  He wants people becoming the kind of people in which he will dwell.  Don’t think about that in the abstract, as if that only applies to other people.  Make it personal.  That’s how God thinks about you and me.  This was not just a promise for the ancient people of Israel.  God says clearly that he wants all people to experience this.  God’s vision is global.  God wants all people to be people through whom his holiness can shine.  But how?  How will God do this work of transformation so that he can dwell with us?

We have seen in this section a critical first step toward transformation: an honest assessment of ourselves. While God said to Israel that he was going to rescue them, he also wanted them to be very clear about their current condition. They were rebellious and sinful, and they needed to see that, to own up to that. That is the first step in transformation, to admit who we really are, even if who we are is very difficult to admit to. Truth is the first step.

Check back in to the next post, and we’ll find out what comes next.

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When a heart grows cold – Ezekiel 35-36, Part 1

Many years ago, my wife Michelle and I sat in the living room of a young couple listening, somewhat shocked, as only one year after having done their pre-marital counseling and wedding ceremony, one of them said to the other, “I don’t feel love for you anymore.”  The other spouse burst into tears.

How is it that a heart changes?  And so fast. We clearly remembered the overwhelming joy of their dating years, their engagement, and finally on their wedding day, we could feel the burning hot glow of love they had for one another. What happened? Sadly, this story is all too familiar. A heart on fire can grow cold.

We can feel this toward God too, can’t we?  What is the temperature of your hearts? If your heart is cold, is it possible for a cold heart to grow warm? Turn to Ezekiel 35, as we seek to answer the question, how does a heart change?

Chapter 35 is a prophecy against Edom, very similar to the prophecies against the other surrounding nations, which we studied in chapters 25-32, one prophecy of which was a brief prophecy against Edom.  Now God gives Ezekiel another longer prophecy against Edom. 

In verse 1 we read God asking Ezekiel to perform The Prophetic Stare once more: “Set your face against Mt. Seir,” which is located in Edom.  Edom is, historically, a sister nation of Israel.  If you go way, way back in ancient Israel history, there were twin brothers named Jacob and Esau.  Their grandfather was a guy named Abraham, and their father was Isaac.  Jacob was the younger twin, and thus he was not to have received the birthright and blessing from their father Isaac.  In our day and age, this would mean that the oldest son would receive a much larger inheritance.  But sneaky Jacob deceived their old blind father Isaac into giving him the birthright, and as you can imagine, when Esau found out, he was really angry.  If you’ve ever had family drama around an inheritance, you know the feeling.  So Jacob fled for his life, and eventually, with the blessing on him, God changed his name to Israel, and Jacob became the father of the nation.  Esau, however, didn’t do so bad either, starting the nation called Edom, located just over the Jordan River to the east.  Eventually the two brothers made up, but in the centuries to come relations between Israel and Edom on a national level were not always so great.  And that’s why God now a couple thousand years after Jacob and Esau, asks Ezekiel to perform the Prophetic Stare against Mt. Seir in Edom. 

Remember that the Stare has no power.  It is just shining the light of truth on a situation.  Because the truth that God wants to share here in chapter 35 is so similar to what we’ve heard many times in Ezekiel, I will only skim over it.  In this new prophecy God calls out Edom for being opportunistic which Israel was suffering the devastation laid on them at the hands of Babylon. Look at the connection to the ancient history between Israel and Edom in verse 15.  God mentions the inheritance of the house of Israel became desolate.  What Jacob long before stole from Esau is now desolate, as Israel lost the land to Babylon. 

Now God says that now Edom will be devastated, and multiple times he says, “Then you/they will know that I am the Lord.”  

That’s the key phrase of Ezekiel.  God wants to be known.  By his people Israel, as well as by the people of other nations around. I am so glad that we are hearing this phrase again and again and again.   It begs the question, “Do we really know God as deeply as we say we do?  Do we really know God as he wants to be known?”  

I’m concerned that we know of God, but maybe our knowledge is quite intellectual or shallow, but not close relationally or meaningfully.  Do you remember back a few chapters when we talked about the difference between information and formation? Do we know the information about God, and what it means to believe in him, but do not have much of a relationship with him?  How much do you really know God?  How much is God really a part of your day? Your life?  Is it possible that deep down in your soul you wonder about this?  You wonder if there is supposed to be more to a relationship with God than accepting him as your savior, praying a prayer, and then going to church, reading your Bible and maybe participating in church events until one day you die and go to heaven. Do you wonder why during your earthly days, God feels distant and somewhat uninvolved?  Is there more.  What does it mean when he says, “then they will know that I am the Lord?”

Let’s not answer those questions.  Let’s just allow them to cause our minds to wonder, as we continue with what God goes on to say in chapter 36.  I think you’ll find it quite fascinating. We’ll start chapter 36 in the next post.

And that couple I mentioned at the beginning of this post, the couple in which one spouse said, after about one year of marriage, “I don’t love my spouse anymore”? They’re still married. They did the work of honest self-evaluation of their hearts and minds, work that led to still more work to nurture actions that showed hearts can change. We’ll learn more about how our hearts can change in the rest of the posts this week.

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Why is it so hard to change? – Ezekiel 35-36, Preview

Have you heard the phrase, “That person will never change.”  Or how about the similar, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”  Maybe you’ve heard yourself say, “That’s just the way I am.” 

Years ago, I was in a conversation with someone who was describing their most recent conflict with their boss.  The person’s response to their boss was, “Take me or leave me, that’s just the way I am.”  The same person had been through a handful of jobs in recent years, each time ending in drama and conflict, to which they believed it was always the other people in the job, usually the boss, who couldn’t, but should have been able to, deal with the person’s attitude and personality.  “I am who I am. Deal with it.”

I see two kinds of people in these situations.  People who don’t want to change, and people who don’t think they can change.  Are you in the latter group? Often we think we can’t change because for years we’ve tried, to little or no avail.  We get frustrated at our efforts, most of which seem to be failures, and we think we are incapable of meaningful or lasting change. Know the feeling?

Or maybe you are in the former group, and you don’t want to change. Maybe you reason, “It’s good that I accept myself, and others should also.” It is good to have a healthy sense of self, but too often, in so doing, we are simply excusing our poor attitudes and behaviors. We don’t like to think of ourselves as needing to change, and we can grow a hard exterior to those who suggest we do need to change. While the wake of our lives is awash with broken relationships, we reason that all those people just couldn’t handle us, and that’s their problem, not ours. What is really going on, however, is almost certainly unchecked narcissism and arrogance in our lives. It is super difficult to see it, though, when we are boldly committed to our own rightness.

Is there an area of your life where you would like to be more of the disciple that Jesus wants you to be, but you are struggling or self-deceived?  Is there hope for those of us would like to change but feel like we can’t?  Are we just hopeless? 

This coming week on the blog, we’ll seek answers to these important questions in Ezekiel chapters 35 and 36. Please read them ahead of time, and then I look forward to discussing it further with you next week, as we talk about the sometimes confusing and frustration process of change!  

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An answer to “Does God Keep His Promises?” – Ezekiel 34, Part 5

In the previous post, we read God’s description of human flourishing in Ezekiel 34. Some might say, “But wasn’t that a promise to the people of Israel?” Yes…and no. A case could be made that what God is saying is applicable to all people. But what about Christians? Doesn’t the New Testament only talk about human flourishing in heaven, where true followers of Jesus go after death? Does Jesus say anything about human flourishing during our lives on earth?

In John 10:10 Jesus remarks, “I have come that they might have life and life abundantly.”  Jesus here indicates that one of his missional goals was that humanity would be able to experience abundant life.  In teaching abundant life, Jesus is not talking about life after death.  He does talk about life after death in other places, particularly when he uses the phrase “eternal life.”  Abundant life, however, is the kind of life that Jesus desires people to experience in the here and now.  The word the author of this passage, John, used, in the ancient Greek he originally wrote in is defined as “pertaining to a quantity so abundant as to be considerably more than what one would expect or anticipate—‘that which is more than, more than enough, beyond the norm, abundantly, superfluous’.”  While this concept could be applied to physical abundance, the kind of life Jesus desires is not an outward abundance of things, but it is a deeper, more meaningful inward abundance.  What an amazing picture of flourishing in the here and now!

As we conclude this five-part series on Ezekiel 34, we need to return to the first post in which we asked, “Does God keep his promises?”  It depends what promises you think God has made to us.  For example, God has not promised us an easy life.  If you think human flourishing and the abundant life means an easy, comfortable, entertaining life full of great health, wonderful relationships, and lots of money and possessions, then God will not keep that promise.  Because he never made that promise. 

He promises instead a flourishing, abundant life in his Kingdom.  We usher in that Kingdom when we have spiritual conversations with people to help them become disciples of Jesus, when we root out and eradicate injustice, when we trust in God, not in a human king or government.  We live the flourishing, abundant life when we grow our relationship with the Spirit who lives with us.  Think about how the Spirit brings flourishing, God with us, guiding us, comforting us in the middle of pain, never leaving or forsaking us. 

So look back, evaluate how you understand the promises of God.  See if you are labeling things as promises that are potentially your desires for an easy or pain-free life.  Then turn to God.  Make him your Shepherd, your true King.  Spend time with him.  Get to know him.  Allow him and his Kingdom to saturate your life.  Then in time, perhaps gradually, you will experience more and more of the flourishing abundant life Jesus promised.  And he will keep that promise!

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God’s description of heaven? – Ezekiel 34, Part 4

Have you ever wondered what heaven is like? I asked a bunch of questions about heaven in this post, when I previewed this five-part series on Ezekiel chapter 34. Now we get to an answer.

In Ezekiel 34 verses 23-31, God shares a new vision of hope for the people.

While God says that he will be the shepherd for the sheperdless, he will also bring them into a land where they can flourish.  He is talking not about sheep, but he people, Israel. Though the people were in exile in Babylon, and though it seemed that Babylon was more powerful than God, God will rescue them.  He will restore them, and he will give them the land.  But it won’t be like it was before the exile.  The wealthy powerful kings who betrayed them will be gone.  There will be a new king, a new shepherd king, of the line of David.  God will be their God, and this new Davidic king will be a servant prince. 

God will also make a new covenant of peace.  The old covenant was broken.  But this will be a wonderful, better covenant.  That word “peace” is very expansive in meaning.  When we think of a peace deal, we think of the end of an armed conflict between nations.  A peace treaty. God is thinking of something much more than that.  It is the idea of human flourishing.  A place and a means for people to be fruitful and multiply.  No more injustice.  Justice will reign.  No more wealthy, powerful kings hoarding the resources, as there will be enough for all.  This is not socialism or communism.  It is the loving generosity of God, that flows from him into his people and through them to all.  It is not coerced.  It is the natural outflow of God’s covenant of peace, as his people are living in that peace. 

There is safety.  There is food.  There is rain.  There is freedom.  Most of all, there is God.  What a vision of hope!  This is the place where the longings of your hearts are satisfied because God is there. 

This is our hope too.  In Jesus, we see that God absolutely has kept his promises.  I think one of the best pieces of advice I ever heard about the hard times in life, the times when God seems absent is to remember the cross.  On the cross, the Shepherd gives his life for the sheep.  Remembering that he gave his life for us.  It doesn’t mean the pain or doubt will leave.  It means that we have a hope in life.  Jesus has defeated sin and death and we will live again!  There is more, so much more, than what we see in the news.  Jesus is our Good Shepherd!

As we fast forward into the New Testament, we see how this is fulfilled in our lives.  God gave us the Holy Spirit to comfort, guide and correct us as needed.  Jesus promised to never leave us or forsake us, and we see how that is true by the Spirit living with us.

So is what we read in Ezekiel 34 a vision of heaven?  It certainly is that.  Heaven is the ultimate expression of the Kingdom of God.  But remember what Jesus taught us to pray: “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  What we read at the end of Ezekiel 34 is also attainable now.  Jesus said that we, his disciples, are to usher in the Kingdom.  We are to help all people experience human flourishing.  Just like a good Father wants his children to flourish, so does our heavenly father! 

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God’s heart to stop injustice – Ezekiel 34, Part 3

Does God care about the downtrodden, the poor, the hungry, the slave? Does he care about people who are going through pain? We can wonder about this when we are the downtrodden ones, when we are poor, hungry and enslaved. As we continue studying Ezekiel 34, we learn about God’s heart.

Ezekiel’s prophecy in chapter 34 is about how Israel’s shepherds mistreated and neglected their sheep. We learned in the previous post, the God wasn’t talking about shepherds and sheep. He was using shepherds and sheep to talk about Israel’s kings and people. Through the prophecy God declares that he has some rehab work to do because there were so many bad kings, and the people looked to human kings, as well as foreign kings, to save and protect them, rather than to God.  We read about this remedial work in Ezekiel 34, verses 16-22.

God starts by noting that he will reach out to rescue and care for the lost, the injured and the weak sheep.  We expect the owner of the flock to do just that.  What he does next, though, can sound controversial.  He says that the strong and sleek he will destroy. 

Woah. What does God have against the strong and sleek? 

It can seem that God is biased in favor of the poor and hurting, the marginalized, those who have faced injustice.  Here we see God’s heart for justice, as he goes on to describe how the strong have committed injustice against the weak.  The strong have allowed the weak to live in a world where they are floundering rather than flourishing.

In verses 17-19, we learn that the weak have been beaten down at the hands of the wealthy and powerful.  The strong are like sheep who not only have their fill of the lush grass, but they also stomp on the uneaten grass, thus leaving none for any other sheep.  The strong are like sheep who not only have their thirst quenched by clean water, but they also muddy the water, making it non-potable for the rest.

Note that God is speaking in general terms.  He is not saying that these principles of injustice are at work in every single case.  Sometimes the poor are poor because they made bad decisions.  Sometimes the poor are poor because they spend their money unwisely, or they are lazy or gluttons.  But often, far more often, the gap between the rich and poor is widened because the rich have the access and power to control the wealth gap, and they want to keep it that way.  This is precisely what happened in ancient Israel.  The wealthy powerful kings made sure that they stayed rich and powerful at the expense of the people.  

At this point, God finally stepped in, saying, “Enough!” He allowed Assyria to defeat Israel to the north, and he allowed Babylon to destroy Jerusalem and Judah to the south.  When God gave Ezekiel this prophecy, there was no more Israelite monarchy.  Not in the north and not in the south.  It was over.

Notice how God illustrates his intervention by describing that he will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep.  The fat ones are the wicked kings of Israel who abused and drove away the lean skinny sheep, who represent the powerless starving people.  Now God says that he will shepherd a new flock, a flock made up of the skinny sheep.  God will be the shepherd of the skinny sheep.  God’s heart, in other words, beats for the downcast, the poor, the hungry, the homeless, the foreigner, the widow, the orphan, the refugee.  This is a theological principle we see over and over and over in Scripture, in both the Old and New Testaments.  God calls us to follow his heart, meaning that we should have a passionate concern for the marginalized as well.

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Who is Israel’s true king? – Ezekiel 34, Part 2

In the previous post, we learned that in Ezekiel 34, God gave Ezekiel a prophetic word condemning the shepherds of Israel, because they selfishly cared for themselves while allowing the sheep to be hurt and preyed upon. But God wasn’t talking about shepherd and sheep. He was using them as a metaphor to depict what the kings of Israel and Judah allowed to happen under their watch for many centuries.

A summary of the history of the nations of Israel and Judah before Ezekiel’s era is a very, very sad story.  Every human king of Israel had a rebellious streak, just as we all do.  But it was after the reign of the great king Solomon, who himself had numerous issues, that the nation split in two.  Ten tribes to the north formed the new nation of Israel, and two tribes to the south formed the new nation of Judah.  The kings in the north were basically one bad king after the other.  When I say “bad,” what I mean is that those kings in Israel chose not to follow the way of God.  They themselves did evil, often motivated by greed and power, and they allowed evil to be done among the people.  They led the people to worship foreign gods and idols, sometimes including child sacrifice, and they committed acts of treachery, slavery and injustice.  In the end God allowed the foreign superpower Assyria to invade and conquer the northern kingdom of Israel.

In the southern Kingdom of Judah things were better.  It was, however, a bit of a roller coaster ride, with bad kings following good ones, and so on.  Some were quite wicked like the kings in the north, and some were exceedingly good, like King Josiah or Hezekiah, who made significant reforms to bring the kingdom back to God.  But eventually, Judah had a streak of bad kings, which led to Babylon defeating Judah’s capital city, Jerusalem, and exiling 10,000 Jews back to Babylon, including Ezekiel.

During these centuries, whenever there was a bad king and the people would rebel, God would send prophets, pleading with the people and the kings to return to following God’s ways.  Sometimes the kings and the people heeded the prophet’s words.  Often the kings and people did not.  They were too tempted and pressured by the powerful nations around them.

Even after that first wave of exiles was deported to Babylon, including Ezekiel, the people could think, “At least the temple is still intact.”  As they sought to answer the question of whether God was keeping his promises, which we talked about in the previous post here, rather than consider their role in breaking the covenant, they looked at the temple standing strong as evidence that things were fine, they could keep doing what they were doing, which was behave terribly.

But that didn’t last long.  Babylon eventually decimated Jerusalem, burned the temple and sent the people away.  Exiled in Babylon, you can imagine people wondering, “Now, what about the promises of God?”  God answers that question in Ezekiel 34, verses 11-15, by answering another question, “Who is the true king of Israel?”  

There were plenty of human kings over Israel, but largely that human monarchy had been a disaster.  Israel needed to see that God was the true king.  In God’s covenant with Israel for centuries past, he said that if the people and kings of Israel would worship, serve and love God as their true king, and if their earthly kings would lead the people in proclaiming and obeying God as the true king, then God would bless them.

But the kings and people did not follow God, so now he proclaims that he is the true king, and he will shepherd his people.  This is a theme that pops up in many places in the Bible, perhaps most famously by David in Psalm 23, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.”  In that psalm, while David was the human king, it is the Lord who was his shepherd.  David, though he is king, has the right perspective on God.

Now in Ezekiel 34, God is attempting to restore that correct understanding of himself as the Shepherd King of the people.  He has some rehab work to do because there were so many bad kings, and the people looked to human kings, as well as foreign kings, to save and protect them, rather than to God.  We’ll learn about this remedial work in the next post.

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Will God keep his promises? – Ezekiel 34, Part 1

Will God keep his promises? 

In the previous five-part series on the blog, we learned that God had made very clear promises to his people Israel. In Ezekiel chapter 33 we learned that Babylon invaded and destroyed Jerusalem. As the people of Israel looked around the smoking rubble of their city, they wondered if those promises were empty.  You and I know that feeling.

How often do we look around at our world and wonder about the promises of God?  Are things going on in the world today that make you wonder, “God, where are you?”  Your wonderings might stem from international events, like North Korea reportedly launching a hypersonic missile, or from Russia threatening to invade Ukraine, such as what the news is telling us as I write in the first week of 2022. Or our unsettledness might be due to national events, like the political and racial tension shaking our nation for years.  Many times, our doubt about God’s promises flows from personal events.  A health concern, a job loss, a relationship struggle, leaving us wondering, does God care?  Is he real?  We can doubt.  Though we might feel guilty about the doubt, if we start talking to people about it, what we find is that it is quite natural to feel doubt, to wonder if God will keep his promises.  When we talk about it with others, we realize that many other people doubt too. Doubt is a common human experience.

In Ezekiel chapter 33, God tells Ezekiel that the people 900 miles away in Israel were saying that since God gave possession of the land to one man, their forefather Abraham, then of course he would give them, a nation of millions, repossession of the land.  

When they speculate about how God should act, the people are doing theology.  They are wondering, will God keep his promises?  God’s clear answer in chapter 33 was, “You’ve got to be kidding me, people.  This situation you’re in has nothing to do with me keeping my promises.  Instead you’ve gotten yourselves into this situation because of your persistent choice to rebel against me.”  God is right, of course.  The people absolutely did behave poorly, and they were now facing the consequences of their behavior, as God allowed the city of Jerusalem to be destroyed.

What next?  Have the people forfeited the promises of God?  Is there any hope?  What should they do?  By the end of chapter 33, God has not answered that question.  But in chapter 34, God gives Ezekiel a prophetic word that will.

In verse 1, we read that this is another prophecy God is giving Ezekiel to speak to the 10,000 Jews who he lived with in exile in Babylon.  Then in verse 2, God asks Ezekiel to prophesy against the shepherds of Israel.  Who are the shepherds of Israel?  Is God talking about the many people who had the actual job of shepherding sheep? 

We hear about shepherds every Christmas. The shepherds in the fields outside Bethlehem were shocked by a surprise visit from angels declaring that the Messiah, the savior of Israel, had been born just a short walk away from them in the town.  Those shepherds were literally sheep herders.

I live in a community where there are flocks of sheep in many of the farms around us.  When my dog and I are out running on one local road, Stumptown Road, we regularly pass a flock of sheep that are contained by fencing.  If we’re on that side of the road, and sheep are close to the fence, my dog will lunge at them.  The sheep jump back in fright.  But the threat is not real, as my dog is on a leash, and the sheep are safe behind the fence.  In Lancaster, we have many flocks of sheep, but we have neither a profession of sheep-herding nor a class of workers that herd sheep.  Instead farmers own flocks of sheep, and they keep them fenced in.  Ours is a very different practice of shepherding than that in Jesus’ and Ezekiel’s day. It is also very different from shepherding in many parts of the world still today.

When my family lived in Kingston, Jamaica, a man would walk his cattle through the streets of the city looking for places for them to graze.  It could have just as easily been a herd of sheep.  Imagine, a herd of animals in the middle of the city!  Our neighborhood was located up the side of a fairly steep hill, so the man would herd the cattle up our road, into our lawn where they could eat and do their other business.  Then he say to us, “Beg you a couple limes?” and when we nodded, he would grab some from our lime tree, and once the cattle were finished, he would keep them moving on up the road to find another yard.

In Ezekiel’s day sheep herding was like that.  It was far more nomadic than the fenced in sheep I run by on Stumptown Road.  In ancient times, as in many places around the world still today, the flocks of sheep wander across vast stretches of land in search for grass to eat, water to drink.  Shepherds would sometimes follow them, sometimes guide and direct them, and also protect them from theft, from predators, and from natural pitfalls.  Shepherds would bind up wounds, train the sheep how to move and not wander off.  If and when a sheep walked away from the flock, it was in exponentially increased danger.  So a shepherd was to pay close attention, count the sheep, and know the sheep.  The sheep were the source of the shepherd’s livelihood. 

In Ezekiel 34, verses 2-10, God says the shepherds of Israel have done a horrible job.  They have not cared for the sheep, while at the same time they have cared for themselves.  I find it fascinating that God calls the sheep, “his sheep.”  He had given the shepherds of Israel the task of stewardship of his sheep, and he is incensed at how selfishly the shepherds acted, leaving the sheep in a position that was the opposite of flourishing.  God says that his herd of sheep are now on the verge of being eradicated.  The sheep have been scattered over the whole earth, preyed upon by wild animals.

But God is not talking about shepherds and sheep.

Check back in the next post where we’ll learn who he is actually referring to.

Photo by Biegun Wschodni on Unsplash

Do you long for heaven? – Ezekiel 34, Preview

When you think of heaven, what images come to mind?  Maybe a long line of people waiting to get in?  Or do you think of pearly gates connecting jewel-encrusted walls, a castle, golden streets, and angels?  Maybe bright light filling the sky over green rolling hills?  Sometimes we think of mansions.  Maybe meetings with Jesus where we ask him all sorts of questions we wondered about.  Maybe we hope that we get to be with loved ones who passed on. 

I’ve read accounts of people who claim to die, go to heaven, and then come back to life on earth.  They describe heaven somewhat like I described above.  But it is impossible to know if what they say is true.  The Bible itself is often vague about heaven.  When it is precise in its description of heaven, those images come mostly in apocalyptic literature like the book of Revelation, and what we read in apocalyptic literature is almost certainly symbolic. 

Some theologians and Bible scholars interpret the Scriptures as teaching heaven on earth.  The New Jerusalem.  The new heavens and the new earth.  Maybe heaven is not pie in the sky in the great by and by.  Maybe it is the Kingdom of God come to earth. 

Jesus seemed to have a different view of heaven than the view we Christians often use.  He said things like, “The kingdom is near, it is among you.”  What did he mean? 

Or perhaps you’ve heard this phrase: “That person is so heavenly-minded, they are of no earthly good.”  What does that mean?  Can a Christian be too focused on heaven? 

I’m purposefully asking questions that don’t have easy answers because I want to get you thinking.  We can long for heaven because life on earth is often exceedingly frustrating, confusing, difficult and painful.  When we are having those kinds of thoughts and feelings, we can start to think about heaven.  When life is painful, we think, “Get me out of here.”  But what if God has other plans?  What if heaven isn’t what we think it is? What if heaven isn’t what we want? There are so many questions, very few answers, when it comes to heaven. 

As we continue our study of Ezekiel into chapter 34, the people of Israel have just watched as Babylon decimated their nation, their holy city of Jerusalem, and their precious iconic temple.  Likely thousands of people died, and many more were deported in a second wave of exiles to Babylon.  The people start to ask questions of God, and God has a new vision for them. It is a vision of a most incredible place of flourishing.  Is it a vision of heaven?  On the blog next week, we’ll find out.

Photo by Johannes Plenio on Unsplash

How to move beyond worship as infotainment – Ezekiel 33:21-22, Part 5

I recently attended a worship service at a church where the pastor regularly walked up on stage while the praise band was leading songs, and he pumped his fist, hyped up the crowd, and patted the shoulders of the various band members. How do you feel about that? Maybe I’m in the minority viewpoint on this, but I struggled with it. The pastor’s actions seemed to turn what was already a heavily produced worship service into one that was nearly completely intended to entertain. What we learn in the final post in this week’s five-post series on Ezekiel 33:21-33 is that entertainment based worship has been around a long time.

God says in verse 32, “Ezekiel you’re just entertainment for them.”  God says Ezekiel is like a great singers of love songs.  He is no different than Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, Harry Stiles or Ariana Grande.  The people like to hear him talk, but they do not do what he says to do. 

God’s words to Ezekiel in Ezekiel chapter 33, verses 30-33 remind me of church worship services.  If you hear the word of God during worship services, Sunday school classes, small groups or other Bible studies, but you do not do what those words teach you to do, than your teacher ought to just sing love songs and try to entertain you.  It’s no different.  Preaching, God says, has as much value as love songs, if the people do not do what it says.  You might as well just stop reading this post and watch videos of your favorite love song singers.

As we conclude our study of Ezekiel 33:21-33, it is important to ask, “Who is responsible in this scenario?  Who is responsible for the reality that the people heard the word of God, but did nothing about it?”

It is God?  Maybe he should have spoken directly to the people. Maybe he should not have relied on prophets. Maybe he should have been more miraculous and supernatural in his approach. Nope.  God always kept his end of the bargain, and in fact, he constantly, time after time after time, tried to pull the people back from their rebellion.  God went over and above the call of duty to reach out to his people who he loves.  God is not responsible.

Is it Ezekiel?  Maybe he didn’t communicate well.  Maybe he wasn’t engaging enough.  Maybe he didn’t prepare for his sermons enough.  Maybe he didn’t tell good stories, or enough stories.  Nope.  This isn’t Ezekiel’s fault.  He faithfully communicated God’s word.  He did the crazy skits, some of which were extremely dramatic and even very difficult.  Ezekiel is not responsible. 

So it is not the originator the message who is responsible.  That is God.

And it is not the messenger who is responsible.  That is Ezekiel.

It is clearly those who are receiving the message who are responsible.  The people are responsible to hear the message, and then do something about it.  The people are to hear the message and then do what God says to do, without delay, without excuses, and with joy and with gusto and with gratefulness to God. 

Thus God concludes that when all the prophecy comes true, the people left in Israel will die, and everyone will know that Ezekiel is not just an entertaining love song singer, but he is a prophet of God. They should have listened to and did what Ezekiel said.

That got me thinking.  Why do we choose to just be hearers of the word, but not doers of it? 

Sometimes it is because Jesus calls us to do very difficult things that would require sacrifice.  We don’t want to sacrifice.  Think about it.  Jesus said that if people want to be his disciples, they will die to themselves, take up their cross daily and follow him.  In other words, Christians should be known for their pattern of sacrificial life. And that can not only sound distasteful, but it can be difficult. The result is that we avoid living the kind of life Jesus calls us to, where information leads to formation.

What can we do to counteract this? How can we allow biblical information to lead to Christian formation? 

Start off the new year with some resolutions.  Resolutions are good.  But follow-through is better.  The resolution is the information, and the follow-through is the formation.  Formation is rarely a task that we accomplish alone.  So I encourage you to think of formation differently.  Think of formation as something you will do with others.  Sunday school teachers, how can you lead your class in such a way that your students actually do something?  Students, what will you do to approach your Sunday school as more than information, but as information that will guide you to formation?  Same goes for Sunday worship services.  What can you do to move beyond the entertainment mentality that is so easy to have?  These worship services are not to be entertainment.  They invite your participation, so that you receive information that leads to action. But do not approach your participation as something you do alone.  Talk it up in your Sunday school class or small group, get an accountability partner to discuss it throughout the week, and check in on one another.  Encourage one another to move from information to formation.

Photo by Rachel Coyne on Unsplash