Engaging Scripture

The world’s longest civil war – Current Events November 2021, Part 3

Can you imagine living in a country that has been enduring a civil war? Most people in the world cannot understand what that must be like. In my own country, the American Civil War in the 1860s was horrific. Reading the history and visiting places like the battlefields of Gettysburg, PA, I am astounded and sickened at not only the massive loss of life, but how long the war lasted, just over four years. Four long drawn-out years of devastation. But get this…four years is the blink of an eye if you’re from Myanmar.

It is Current Events week on the blog, and in the first post here and second post here, we’ve talked about Jesus’ Parable of the Good Samaritan, what it means to love our neighbors, and how Faith Church gained some new neighbors when we rented our church to Burmese Christians. In this post we dig into the history of their country, Myanmar, and why they have been fighting a civil war for a very long time.

In 1948, the country then called Burma gained its independence from the United Kingdom, and almost immediately, insurgencies began. Since that time, the country holds the distinction of having the longest civil war in the world, spanning seven decades. The war is largely based on ethnic violence, though there have also been uprisings due to political and religious ideology. After the British left, three successive civilian parliamentary governments led Burma, but in 1962 the Tatmadaw, which is the name of Myanmar’s armed forces, ousted the civilian government through a military coup. From 1962 until 2011 the military led a country at war with itself. During this time Myanmar became one of the least developed and most isolated countries in the world. Numerous uprisings were brutally put down by the military, which used torture, rape and scorched earth warfare.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, a woman named Aung San Suu Kyi led a movement to turn Myanmar into a democracy. Ms. Suu Kyi is the daughter of a well-respected leader, Aung San, who led the country in the 1940s during and after World War 2, as Myanmar was in the process of becoming independent. Sadly just before independence, he was assassinated. To this day, he is considered the Father of Myanmar. In 1990 the new political party his daughter, Ms. Suu Kyi, helped create, the National League for Democracy, won an election in a landslide. But the military leaders refused to recognize it, placing her under house arrest where she remained for 15 years. While on house arrest, Suu Kyi continued to work to bring democracy to Myanmar, and during that time she won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Throughout the years of military control, people repeatedly tried to rise up against the military, thus continuing the civil war. As a result, through the 1990s and 2000s, the military started attacking numerous ethnic groups. Estimates reports that between 500,000 and 1 million people were displaced between 1996 and 2006.

Amazingly the uprisings and international pressure slowly inspired change. A new constitution, approved in 2008, led to political reforms between 2011 and 2015, including the release of thousands of political prisoners. One was Aung San Suu Kyi. The new constitution also created self-administered ethnic zones, so civilian governments began to rule. Suu Kyi was elected as State Counselor (which is like a prime minister) and her National League for Democracy took power. There was still tension with the military, however, which held on to more power than many were comfortable with.

While there were peace conferences in hopes of ending all conflict, many criticized these efforts for not going far enough, and for allowing too much power in the hands of the military. Uprisings continued in 2016, and the military would often strike back. Also, while she was in office, Suu Kyi was criticized for Myanmar’s treatment of the Rohingya minority. Myanmar considers the Rohingya to be illegal immigrants, denying them citizenship. Thousands were killed and more than 700,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh through an army crackdown in 2017. As a result, Suu Kyi appeared before the International Court of Justice in 2019 where she denied allegations that the military had committed a genocide.

In November 2020 Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy won another landslide election. The military responded, claiming that the there was widespread election fraud, and they demanded a re-vote. Myanmar’s election commission said there was no evidence to support the military’s claims. The military ignored the election commission, and on February 1, 2021, they took control of the government through a coup. After only about five years of civilian government, the commander in chief of the military, Min Aung Hlaing, became the new head of state. The military arrested Aung San Suu Kyi and several other senior members of the government, who are currently being held at an unknown location. Declaring a state of emergency which will last for a year, the military claimed they will hold free and fair elections.

Since the February 1 military coup, people have responded in mass protests. Most have been non-violent, but some have tried to fight the military. Citizens are training to become an insurgent military. On March 27, over 100 people were killed in clashes with the military. There was a ceasefire April 4th, but it didn’t last a month. Various groups continue to fight the military, and news of attacks are being reported almost daily. So far over 800 protestors have been killed by the military, including at least 44 children. About 5000 people have been detained.

In some states in Myanmar, religion is a source of conflict. For example, in northern Kachin State the people are historically predominantly Christian. Likewise, some estimates say that 95% of Chin state is Christian. In the next post, we’ll learn how the military has been attacking the Christian areas of Myanmar.

If you prefer a video history of Myanmar, this one is excellent:

Photo by Gayatri Malhotra on Unsplash

What happened when we decided to rent out our church – Current Events Week November 2021, Part 2

Earlier this year, Faith Church made some new neighbors.

Just before the Covid pandemic began in March 2020, I received a phone call from a pastoral colleague at one of Faith Church’s sister churches. He was reaching out because another pastor (not from a sister church) had been visiting his church, looking to rent space. My colleague’s church was not able to rent this other church, and since he knew that Faith Church had rented to other church many times before, perhaps we could rent to them. It’s one of the many reasons why I love the family of Faith Church. We try to be very generous with our building, believing it unwise to sit empty and dark. We prefer it to be a place of community, for the community. To that end Faith Church rents or donates space to numerous community groups. We were already renting to two other churches, but we still had room in our building and on our calendar for this new church. In the ensuing weeks, I met with the pastor of the church looking for rental space, and it seemed like a good fit. It took a few more weeks for our Leadership Team to work out the agreement, and then we began renting to them. We had new neighbors…in our building!

But these neighbors are very different from us. The two other churches we already rent to were mostly the same demographic as Faith Church. What was different about this new church? Keep reading.

In the previous post, we reviewed Jesus’ familiar parable, The Good Samaritan, learning about the ethnic differences that the Jews and Samaritans allowed to grow animosity between them. But Jewish and Samaritan hatred for one another might sound like an ancient artifact of First Century Palestine. How does it relate to us? One way to help us understand it is to retell Jesus’ parable in the language and setting of your contemporary culture. Think about it. What are the ethnic divisions around you? Try to retell the parable using people of different ethnicity that are living near you.

Jesus’ parable asks us to think about people we might be enemies with, uncomfortable with, feel awkward around, maybe find distasteful, sinful and wrong. Then the parable puts those people, those “awful” people, in what role in the story? In the role of the hero!

The hero is the one who is willing to cross cultural, sociological, theological, ideological boundaries to help those in need. The true neighbor is the one who is willing to show love no matter what.

My wife, Michelle, suggested that I talk about this for current events week because the small church that rents space from Faith Church is a different ethnic group from the family of Faith Church. They are a Burmese Christian Church worshiping here in on Saturday evenings, and on Sunday afternoons.

“Burmese” means that they are from Burma. The contemporary name of the country of Burma is Myamar. Can you find Myanmar on a world map? On the map below it is labeled “Burma”.

Myanmar is in Southeast Asia. It is shaped like a diamond, with a long land extension that juts out to its southeast. India and Bangladesh are on its west and northwest. China is on its northeast border. Thailand and Laos are on its southeast. The Indian Ocean is south and southwest.

Myanmar | History, Map, Flag, Population, Capital, Language, & Facts | Britannica

It seems to me that historically, its two most famous cities are Yangon (formerly known as Rangoon) and Mandalay, but since 2006 its capital is the new city of Nay Pyi Taw. Myanmar has about 54 million people. While its largest religions is Buddhist, at 80% of the population, Myanmar is also estimated to be 6-9% Christian.

One reason why the Burmese Church worships at Faith Church is because there are serious problems in Myanmar. Check back to tomorrow’s post as we’ll travel back in time to learn the sad history of Myanmar, and why it is a current event.

When the world moves into your neighborhood – Current Events Week November 2021, Part 1

Who are your neighbors? Think about people who live around you. Imagine their faces, say their names. How well do you know them? Who is your neighbor?

There are many other kinds of neighbors. Some people are unexpected neighbors. Some people are neighbors that you didn’t realize are neighbors. Some are neighbors, and you know they are neighbors, but you’ve been avoiding them, overlooking them. Some are hidden neighbors who, once you realize they are there, you are pleasantly surprised.

What passage in the Bible famously talks about neighbors? Jesus once told a story about the surprising people who are neighbors among us. We call Jesus’ story that parable of the Good Samaritan. Turn to Luke 10:25-37.

Who did Jesus reveal as a surprise neighbor? Read the story, and then return to this post.

The parable is very straightforward. The people in Jesus’ day knew exactly what he was saying, and many of them were squirming and extremely uncomfortable when they heard this parable. You and I tend to think of the Good Samaritan as a person who pays for groceries for the single mom in the checkout line in front of them. We’re not wrong. But to the ears of the people in the crowd that day, what Jesus was saying was in your face. What I mean is that Jesus’ parable was a confrontation, a direct blow to the prevailing culture and mindset of the people around him. And not just to the religious leaders who were so often his target. This story would have been difficult to hear for any person in the crowd that day, including his own disciples. Why?

Because the Jews and Samaritans hated each other. It was a hatred that went way way back, for generations. But they didn’t just keep the hatred, as if it was just a disgust in their hearts and minds; they also acted on their hate. They committed atrocities against one another. Why? The origin story of their hatred is long and complex, but it boils down to ethnic prejudice. Interestingly, the two ethnicities were related, but different enough that they allowed hatred to grow in their hearts. They also had some theological differences that they gave precedence to, over love. The story of the Good Samaritan addresses the inherent sin in that the people of both cultures had allowed to infect them, the sin of prejudice. The neighbor, Jesus, says, had been right there all along, but both people groups had allowed centuries of bitterness to keep them from God’s heart of love. They had separated, and thus, Jesus sought to give them a vision of love that crosses ethnic and theological boundaries.

Where this parable hits home is when people from other countries or ethnicities move into our neighborhoods. That is precisely the situation here in Lancaster County for the last few decades.

I taught Junior Achievement in my daughter’s 5^th grade class a few years ago. I’m talking about Smoketown Elementary, in the Conestoga Valley School District. As with nearly all my blog posts, I first preach them as sermons at Faith Church. When I preached this one, I asked people to raise their hands if they graduated from Conestoga Valley. We’re a community-focused church, so it was no surprise that many of the adults have lived in CV nearly their entire lives. A bunch of hands shot up. I asked them to consider how many people were in their graduating classes, and then how many of the class were people of color. I called on one person who said that in the 1980s, his class had about 330 people and 2 were persons of color.

Fast-forward to the 2010s. My two oldest graduated in 2015 and 2017. Look at their yearbooks, and you see the United Nations. When I taught Junior Acheivement in my daughter’s 5^th grade class a few years ago, every continent on the planet wasre represented, just by the heritages of her classmates! Every single continent! Fine, not Antarctica, but that doesn’t count. Guess how many languages are spoken in Smoketown Elementary. 30. Do you know what this means?

The world has moved into our neighborhood. At our local social services agency, Conestoga Valley Christian Community Service, a significant number of their clientele are refugees. People from all over the world, fleeing persecution for ethnic, religious, and political reasons, are being resettled in Lancaster. I praise God for this.

I studied cross-cultural ministry in college, and my wife Michelle and I were missionaries in Kingston, Jamaica for a year. It is a massively costly enterprise to send westerners to live in another country and culture. I still support it, and I think we are right to pursue it. I am elated that Faith Church has sent missionaries from our own congregation to Kenya, and that we support western missionaries now working in many places around the world. They need our support, financially, spiritually, and relationally, as they serve the mission of Christ’s Kingdom.

But know this, the world has come to us.

In the next post, we’ll return to the parable, trying to answer the question, “Who is my neighbor?”

Photo by Tim Bish on Unsplash

What we’ll be talking about during Current Events Week – November 2021: Preview

This coming week, we’ll be taking a break from our Ezekiel series because it is time for the next quarterly Current Events week. As always, for Current Events, I do a Google search scouring the headlines to see what everyone is talking about that we can bring biblical teaching to bear on.

This week the headlines were pretty much the same as they have been for the past couple years. Covid, political battles between red and blue, climate change, racial justice. There is the ongoing investigation into the tragic Alec Baldwin movie set shooting death, which had me thinking about America’s fixation with guns. Also, Elon Musk, the new world’s richest man, agreed to sell 10% of his Tesla stock, so I could talk about wealth disparity. I’m always fascinated by human spaceflight, which was in the news. I even wrote two pages of material about the collapse of evangelicalism. All of these are important topics, and ones that we need to consider from a biblical perspective. But ultimately, I decided on a completely different current event, and I thank my wife, Michelle, because it was her idea.

Here’s a hint, we’re going to talk about an ongoing humanitarian crisis half a world away, but one that also hits very, very close to home, at least for those of us who are part of the family of Faith Church. I was amazed then, when I turned on the news this morning, and this crisis made headlines overnight. Maybe you saw it. It involves an American journalist thrown in jail in a faraway land. See if you can find the story, take a guess how it matters to us and then we’ll talk about it further next week. More hints are in the photo above!

Photo by Gayatri Malhotra on Unsplash

Why and how we humans need to get smaller – Ezekiel 25-28, Part 5

I can’t say that I always enjoy taking my dog outside in the cold or in the rain. Okay, I almost never enjoy it, especially when it is raining. But when the night sky is clear, and the stars are bright, as my dog is doing his business out in the yard, I will look up at the sky, hoping to see shooting stars. Over the years, I’ve seen quite a few. But I will admit that star-gazing can leave me feeling small, especially knowing how vast the solar system is, let alone the Milky Way, or that the stars I’m seeing are light years away. We humans don’t like feeling small. But I think we should. Here’s why.

The message of Ezekiel chapter 28 is that pride can so easily work its way into our hearts and minds. When we are prideful, we can become a god in our own eyes. As a result, when we are prideful, we don’t see how much we need God. We can wander away from God and get into a place like that which God described of the King of Tyre, a heart of pride. This pride also manifested in the people of Israel, ruining their relationship with God.

What God desires for us, what is best for us, is to be in close relationship with him. That’s why he says over and over and over in Ezekiel, “Then you will know that I am God.” In their pride, God’s people no longer knew that. The king of Tyre convinced himself that he was god. Is there anything we can do about this human tendency?

The antidote to pride in the heart, then is to nurture a humble heart. Yes, we can actually grow in our humility. We can make choices to help us become more humble. We can practice it. How?

First and foremost, spend time growing your relationship with God. A humble heart is one that says, “I need you Lord; I cannot do this life without you.” A humble heart is actively aware of one’s own shortcomings, and says, “Lord, help!” It is why Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” That’s a prayer of humility. That’s a prayer that is saying, “Lord, if temptation and evil come my way, I don’t believe I can handle them on my own, so would you please help me?” It is a prayer that is asking God to be involved in our lives, and thus it is a prayer that seeks a deeper relationship with God.

Second, invite people in your life to examine your level of humility. Imagine how humbling it would be to hear people give you an honest evaluation, explaining that you are prideful. We need people in our lives to speak the truth in love to us, and to do so on a regular basis. Who is that person in your life?

Third, place yourselves in situations in which you are out of your comfort zone. It could be serving God in a new way, or in a way that you don’t think you are gifted for or good at. It could be reaching out to people that you find difficult. It could be giving of your time more often, and in ways that are distasteful to you. Yes, I am suggesting that you intentionally serve or give of yourself in a way that you might not enjoy or that might be hard or that might require you to learn to do something you don’t know how to do.

This reminds me of Jesus’ parable of the Sheep and the Goats in Matthew 25. In this story, Jesus calls us to reach out to the homeless, the hungry, the sick, the poor, the prisoner. Sometimes people make bad choices. Some live a lifestyle we might disagree with. Some just got a raw deal in life. We Christians should nurture such humble hearts that we are known by how loving we are to what Jesus calls the least of these.

Finally, read the book Humilitas by John Dickson. It is a short and very readable book about how important humility is, and with lots more ideas about how to cultivate humility in our lives.

In all of these suggestions, what we see is that we can work at being humble. We can grow humility in our lives. We can get smaller, in a good way.

Photo by Kyle Johnson on Unsplash

The dangerous ideology of “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” – Ezekiel 25-28, Part 4

“Pull yourself up by your bootstraps!”

That phrase is an American anthem of sorts, pointing to an idea embedded in our history and culture, that we are individuals who have the power and ability to survive and thrive if we just work hard enough. But is this principle true? Even the task described in the phrase itself, as this article suggests, is impossible! Try it out. As we continue our study of Ezekiel, God has a major caution for those of us who live by the creed “pull yourself up by your bootstraps”.

All week long, we’ve been studying Ezekiel 25-28. So far God has asked Ezekiel to declare prophecies of judgment against the nations that bordered Israel. Let’s see how the prophecy against the king of one of those nations, Tyre, develops in Ezekiel 28, verses 6-10.

God is pretty much saying to the King of Tyre, “Oh, so you think you are wise, do you? You think you are as wise as a god? Well, I have news for you. A foreign army is coming to knock you down to size. You think you’re good-looking? They’re about to slice you up with the sword. Yes, that’s right. You’re going to die. Then will you be going around saying, ‘I am a god,”? Try saying that when the Babylonians show up. Tell them you’re a god, and see how they react. Think they will bow down to you and worship you? No way, buddy. You’re about to learn the harsh truth that you a just a man like everyone else.”

What happened to the King of Tyre is what happens when any person grows a prideful heart. They forget they are like everyone else. They start to think they are special. They start to believe they are different. It is really easy to allow pride to creep into our hearts. Especially when a person starts achieving things. Could be good grades in school. Could be getting a spot on the sports team. Could be a promotion at work. Could be a new boyfriend or girlfriend. The human heart has a way of transforming success into pride. It is a very deceptive temptation.

Instead, we should have the self-control to truthfully call success what it is, success. Maybe giftedness. Maybe a talent, an ability, or maybe it was a lot of hard work that paid off. We should be able to say, “I am good at that.” Or “I did that.” But when we are successful, we should be able to be truthful without it becoming an arrogant belief that we are better than other people. It is so easy to forget that for all of us, it was other people that helped us along the way. I tried to think of a situation in which a person achieved something all by themselves. I submit to you that such a solo effort does not exist. No matter the endeavor, we have all been helped by our parents, friends, co-workers, teammates, government, church or some other benevolent person or group. Perhaps pride is rooted in the false belief of individualism.

I have heard people say that every person has one thing in the world that they are better at than any other person. That idea sounds intriguing, and it might motivate some people to achieve, but I think it is a potentially false statement that we don’t need. That statement can deceive us into thinking that we just need to find the one thing we are better at than anyone else, as if finding that one thing is what will bring fulfillment in life. Is that true? Is it true that a person can be happy and fulfilled only if they find out what they are better at than any other person, as if all of life is a competition, and you need to win it? That perspective on life can lead to pride in the heart, and it is not a faithful way to look at our place in the world. What is the right way to look at our place in the world? Let’s keep reading.

Continuing in Ezekiel chapter 28, verses 11-19, God asks Ezekiel to lament for the King of Tyre.

It is a very poetic description of what God has already said in the previous verses in the chapter. The King of Tyre grew proud of heart, and as a result he is being punished. But these verses have a potential double meaning. Some scholars believe that Ezekiel 28:11-19 is also a description of the devil. Look at verse 14, which describes an angel (“a guardian cherub”) who is with God in heaven (“the holy mount of God”). The angel is blameless, but at some point grew wickedness inside him. What was the wickedness? Verse 17 describes it as pride in the heart. So God says that he kicked the angel out of heaven (“drove you in disgrace from the mount of God and expelled you” verse 16) and sent him to earth (“threw you to the earth” verse 17). Finally, a fire consumes the angel and he is destroyed (verses 18-19). Can you see why some people think that describes Satan? This is one of a few passages where theologians get the idea that Satan was originally an angel in heaven who, like the King of Tyre, came to believe that he was a god. Because of Satan’s proud heart, God banished him from heaven and eventually to hell. Is it possible that Ezekiel’s lament was about both the King of Tyre and Satan?

It’s possible. We don’t know. There is a very similar prophecy against Babylon in Isaiah 14. In both cases we have to remember that the prophecies were written first about a person. In Ezekiel 28, it is a prophecy about the King of Tyre, and God’s primary concern is the King’s proud heart.

Continuing with chapter 28, read verses 20-23.

What we read is one more mini-prophecy about another foreign country that borders Israel, Sidon. Ezekiel is again to unleash the Prophetic Stare at Sidon, and proclaim God’s judgment against her. Twice in those few verses, God says that he wants to be known.

The chapter finishes, though, with a wonderful promise. Read Ezekiel 28, verses 24-26.

God says that once he deals with all the countries surrounding Israel, the ones he gave mini-prophecies to, which we learned in this post, then the people will know that he is the Lord! God will gather the people of Israel who have been exiled, like Ezekiel and his 10,000 fellow Jews in Babylon, and God will bring them back to the land of Israel to be free, to prosper, to own their own houses and gardens, and to dwell in safety. It is a glorious vision that speaks to the longing of their hearts. The exiles have been away from their beloved home country for 11 years. God is now promising a return.

Finally, Ezekiel gets to be the prophet who bears a word of blessing and hope! Throughout Ezekiel chapters 25-28, God says he will deal with each of the city states and nations that surround Israel. God promises that will bring his people home, and then what? What does God really desire in all of this? You guessed it. Then they will know that he is the Lord their God. Please tune in to this. God is a God who wants to be in relationship with us.

In the next post, we’ll examine further how being in relationship with God is the perfect antidote to the prideful ideology of “pull yourself up by your bootstraps”.

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

The difference between healthy and evil pride – Ezekiel 25-28, Part 3

Do an internet search on the word “pride,” and the results will be vast and varied. Think about the ways we use the word “pride.” A group of lions is called a “pride.” There is the phrase, “proud as a peacock.” A famous contemporary usage refers to sexual identity and rights. There is good pride and bad pride. What does God say about pride? Pride is one of those English words that has so many meanings. If we want to understand what kind of pride we’re talking about, we need to examine the context in which the word is used.

In the previous post, we learned that the city Tyre was strong and prosperous, and its king was powerful. That brings us to Ezekiel chapter 28, which is yet another prophecy about Tyre, but this chapter is specifically about the king of Tyre. God gets to his central concern right away in verses 1-5. I encourage you to open a Bible and read Ezekiel 28:1-5.

Did you hear the concern that God has about the King of Tyre? He mentioned it twice, once in verse 2 and once in verse 5. The King of Tyre has a heart of pride. Let’s take a closer look at the words “heart” and “pride.”

Heart is a reference to one’s inner self. This is the place we well know. Ezekiel is not referring to our blood-pumper. He talking about the seat of our emotions, our inclinations, and our attitude. One of those feelings or attitudes we can have is pride.

Pride is when we are haughty. We don’t use that word much, do we? “Haughty” is related to the word “high,” such as when we say, “Well, aren’t you all high and mighty.” It’s when people think they are higher than others. This is not a neutral kind of pride. It is an evil pride. But now all pride is evil.

In English we use the word “pride” is some positive ways. If you have school pride, that means you support your school. We can also say to someone, “I am so proud of you!” That means we feel happy for and supportive of them. A person might even take pride in their work, which means that they want to do a good job. All of these are examples of positive healthy pride. None of them are what God is talking about in Ezekiel 28 when he is describing the King of Tyre. As he describes the king, God is referring to haughty pride. Haughty is when you think you are better than others. It means you are arrogant, disdainful of others, looking down on others. Other words we use to describe this kind of person are: snob, stuck-up, conceited, pompous and vain. None of these describe good pride. But they all describe the King of Tyre.

God says that the King of Tyre has done really well for himself. In verse 2 we read that the King of Tyre starts thinking that he is a god. God says, “No sir. You are a man.”

Have you ever known people who think they are above others? Have you known people who think they are better than others? Lots of celebrities and politicians and wealthy people can behave like this. But it can also be a person at work, a kid at school, or someone in your family or neighborhood. It can be you and me too.

Think about those people who act like they are better than others. What are they like? Haughty, arrogant people are fun to be around, aren’t they? No! Because they are often successful and popular, however, people fall over themselves to be close to the arrogant. It is a strange irony about haughty people. They are often horrible to be around, and yet lots of people want to be around them.

That describes the King of Tyre perfectly. He got rich, was powerful, and it seemed like he was doing quite well. People fawned over him. As a result God says that the King’s heart grew proud. When God says that a person’s heart has grown proud…watch out. That’s not something you want God to say about you. But might God say that about you? Has your heart has grown proud?

In the next post, we’ll learn what God has to say about the King of Tyre, including a surprising possible double-meaning to this prophecy.

Photo by Timo Wagner on Unsplash

God wants to be known, even by his enemies – Ezekiel 25-28, Part 2

As we learned in the previous post, God has just told Ezekiel to stare. But this stare is different. How is it different? Remember that the Prophetic Stare has no power. It is simply a symbolic gesture through which God shines the light of his truth on something. In that way, this stare is the same as all the other times Ezekiel used the Prophetic Stare. But here in Ezekiel chapter 25, the stare is shining the light of truth on something very different…other nations!

It would seem to me that Ezekiel’s neighbors would have grown accustomed to Ezekiel’s prophecies pretty much always being focused on them and how sinful they were. So this was new. In Ezekiel 25, none of the prophecies are about the people of Israel. All the prophecies are about nations that bordered Israel. When Ezekiel starts railing against Ammon and Moab, Edom and Philistia, I wonder if the people slowly started to perk up. Maybe they were thinking, “Yes! Finally some judgment against our enemies!” I wonder if a crowd formed around Ezekiel.

As he stares, and as more and more of his neighbors start walking over to listen to him, Ezekiel just goes off. All those border countries, God says, are about to get slammed by Babylon. I wonder if the people were cheering! Maybe as he mentions each new enemy nation, the cheering grows louder and louder!

Skim through all four prophecies, and notice a phrase that is repeated. If you’ve been following this blog series through Ezekiel over the last few months, you probably know what phrase I’m talking about: “Then you will know that I am the Lord.” It is the most-repeated phrase in Ezekiel. Don’t let yourself get bored of it. We’ve heard it pretty much every chapter, and most times we’ve heard it multiple times per chapter. When something is repeated that much, we can tune it out. Don’t tune it out. Look it at, think about it. Why is God repeating it? What does this phrase tell us about God’s heart?

Remember that these mini-prophecies would never be heard by the four nations Ezekiel mentions in time for the prophecies to do any good. It is not like God is giving Ezekiel a prophecy for the Ammonites because he wants the Ammonites to somehow hear it and start believing in him and living for him so they can avoid an invasion by the army of Babylon. No, none of these mini-prophecies are messages for the nations the prophecies talk about. The mini-prophecies are for the benefit of the 10,000 Jews living with Ezekiel in Babylon. God desperately wants them to know that he is the Lord. That has been the point of all Ezekiel’s prophecies from day 1. Keep that in mind; God is a relational God who wants to be in a close relationship with his people. As you keep that in mind, now look at chapter 26.

In verse 1, we read that some time as passed. In chapter 24, the last time we had a date, it was nearly the end of the ninth year since Ezekiel and the Jews had been in exile in Babylon. Now here in chapter 26, a couple more years have passed. But thematically, the prophecy is the same as what we just heard in chapter 25, another prophecy against a nation that borders Israel. That nation is Tyre. But this is not a mini-prophecy. Scan through chapters 26, 27 and 28, and you’ll see that nearly the entire content of all three chapters is one big long prophecy against Tyre.

Tyre was a city located on the Mediterranean coast, just to the north of Israel. You can visit its ruins in the country of Lebanon.

Tyre | town and historical site, Lebanon | Britannica

At the time of Ezekiel, the city existed in two parts. One part was the old city on the coastline and the other part was the new city on an island just off the coast. What that means is that Tyre was a major seaport.

In Ezekiel chapter 26 God’s prophecy against Tyre is nearly identical thematically to the mini-prophecies in chapter 25: Tyre mistreated Israel, so God is going to allow Babylon to attack and defeat Tyre, and then they will know that he is the Lord. The only difference in this prophecy is simply that it adds a lot more detail. Read chapter 26 and you learn a lot about what ancient siege warfare was like, for example.

The prophecy against Tyre also includes a lament, which is the content of chapter 27. There we learn that Tyre was a grand city. It must have been beautiful and renowned in the ancient world. The prophecy in chapter 27 talks about how Tyre was located at a shipping and trading crossroads, and people from all over the known world passed through, seeking fame and fortune. As a maritime city, both chapters 26 and 27 use a lot of nautical terminology, imagery of the ocean and sailing. In the end though, as we read in chapter 27, verses 25-36, the city will be destroyed.

Scholars tell us that Babylon laid siege to Tyre for 13 years! Near total destruction eventually came to pass many years later when Alexander the Great also laid siege to the city.

Backup to Ezekiel’s day, though when Tyre was strong and prosperous, and its king was powerful. That brings us to chapter 28, which is yet another prophecy about Tyre, but this chapter is specifically about the king of Tyre. God gets to his central concern right away, and we’ll learn about that concern in the next post.

Top photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash. Second photo by Britannica.

The time my new boss made me feel like an arrogant fool – Ezekiel 25-28, Part 1

Before I started pastoral ministry at Faith Church I worked for eight months at my denomination’s seminary in Myerstown. I was the Director of the Annual Fund, meaning that my job was to raise money for the school. On one of my first days on the job, my boss walked me around campus introducing me to the faculty and staff. I’ll never forget one encounter. He took me door to door visiting offices, and we got to the theology professor. When my boss introduced me to the prof, my boss said, “This is Joel, and he wants your job.” I wonder what the look on my face was at that moment! Probably surprise. Why? Because the theology professor could have rationally concluded that the reason my boss said that I wanted his job was because I had previously said that very thing to my boss. Had I said that? No!

So why did my boss said that I wanted the theology professor’s job? It was because in previous conversation I mentioned to my boss that my grandfather was a Bible and theology professor, my dad is a Bible professor, and that I hoped some day to follow in their footsteps. Never did I say that I wanted that specific theology professor’s job! Also, I certainly did not think that my boss was going to blurt that out to the theology professor. I stood there super-embarrassed. Why? Because there is a fine line between confidence and arrogance. The theology prof could easily have thought of me as a young arrogant kid. I was starting to wonder if maybe my boss thought that too.

It was a very awkward moment because people don’t take too kindly to arrogance. We generally don’t want to even appear as arrogant. And for good reason. This week we’re going to study four chapters of Ezekiel, and I think you’ll see why we’re not only going to study four chapters, but also what God will teach us about arrogance. Turn to Ezekiel chapter 25, and let’s get started.

Right before Ezekiel 25, your Bibles likely include a subtitle that says something like “A Prophecy Against Ammon.” Then scan down to verse 8, and you’ll see another subtitle, “A prophecy against Moab.” At verse 12, “A Prophecy against Edom,” and at verse 15, “A Prophecy Against Philistia.” With those four subtitles, we have an outline of chapter 25. Chapter 25 is comprised of four mini-prophecies that God gives Ezekiel to declare to nations located right around Israel. If you look at a map of the ancient near east, all four of those nations bordered Israel. Skim over the prophecies, you’ll also notice that the content of all four prophecies is very similar. Each mini-prophecy includes the following three points: (1) God calls out the nations for mistreating Israel, (2) he is going to allow Babylon to attack that nation, and (3) then they will know that he is the Lord.

Fairly typical prophetic fare, isn’t it? But here’s a question. Did these prophecies ever get delivered to these four nations? Remember that Ezekiel is living in Babylon, far away from any of these nations. He was not like Jonah who traveled to Nineveh to preach. Ezekiel stayed in Babylon. Therefore, it could seem as though these four mini-prophecies are pointless, because the prophecies would not get delivered in time to make a difference to these four countries that bordered Israel.

Why, then, would God give Ezekiel prophecies about other nations who would never hear the prophecies in time to be affected by the prophecies? To answer that question, first think about what we know to be true of God. Does God do pointless stuff? Is he random? I know it can seem that way sometimes. But when we don’t understand God, it means that the limitation is on our part, not his. God is not random. He doesn’t do pointless things. So what gives here?

Let’s try to figure out why God would give Ezekiel prophecies about nations that share borders with Israel, prophecies those nations will never hear in time to make any changes and avoid being obliterated by the Babylonian army. In Ezekiel 25 verse 2 we read something that should be very familiar by now. God tells Ezekiel to perform the Prophetic Stare: “Set your face against the Ammonites.” The Prophetic Stare is a unique form of prophetic skit. There in his neighborhood in his village in Babylon, where he lived with the 10,000 fellow Jews who had been exiled from Jerusalem almost ten years before, Ezekiel would likely walk out of his house and just start staring. His neighbors would see him, thinking, “There goes Ezekiel staring again.” As we have seen through our study thus far, God has asked Ezekiel to stare many times. But this stare is different. How is it different? We’ll find out in the next post.

Photo by OSPAN ALI on Unsplash

Why the Seven Deadly Sins are not deadly, but we should still pay attention to them – Ezekiel 25-28, Preview

Have you heard of the Seven Deadly Sins? The title of the list conveys the idea that if you commit those sins, you will die. People believe there is such a list in the Bible called “The Seven Deadly Sins,” but there is no such list in the Bible. While there are numerous lists of sins in the Bible, none of them claim to be deadly sins that automatically kill you. Tradition holds that the Seven Deadly Sins were created by Christian leaders hundreds of years ago, as a way to caution people about what are often very real consequences of committing those sins. Those Christians leaders likely collected a master list of sins, mining the Scriptures, and then narrowing it to a final seven.

Perhaps the most famous list, and the one that might be inspiration for the Seven Deadly Sins is found in Proverbs 6:16-19 which says this: “Six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.”

Notice that first one in the list: haughty eyes. What are “haughty eyes”? Do you know the origin of the word “haughty”? In English, as in the Hebrew the author of Proverbs 6 wrote, the word “haughty” refers to the idea of “height.” One thing is higher than another thing. In Proverbs 6:16, the adjective “haughty” describes the noun, eyes. Haughty eyes. It give us the picture of a person who has eyes that are somehow higher.

What do you think this means? Are that person’s eyes physically higher on their face than others’? Can’t be…right? The shape of a person’s face is not inherently sinful! So what does it mean to have “haughty eyes”? My guess is that all of us have had haughty eyes at least one time or another. You read that right. All of us!

In our next section of Ezekiel, we’ll meet someone who had not only haughty eyes, but a haughty heart, and it did not go well for him. Read through Ezekiel chapters 25-28, and then join us on the blog next week as we’ll talk about it more! Most of all, we’ll talk about how not to have haughty eyes and hearts.

Photo by Julio Rionaldo on Unsplash