Sex and death: Is God’s way best? – Ezekiel 24, Part 5

This week in Ezekiel chapter 24, we’ve learned at least two important things about God’s heart.  First, his desire for holiness, and in particular, how that relates to human sexuality.  Second, his desire for us to trust him when it seems he has allowed something terribly unfair in our lives, in particular the death of a loved one.  Let’s talk a bit more about each of those topics.

First, trusting God in the realm of human sexuality.  This can be a tricky one because Christians have so many opinions about what holiness should look like in our sexual choices.  What we saw here in Ezekiel 24 is that God wants his people to steer clear of lewdness and fornication.  The traditional interpretation says that sexual expression is to be reserved only for marriage between one man and one woman who make a lifelong commitment to one another.  This marriage is not a government-designated union.  In other words, you don’t need a marriage license for biblical marriage.  Instead biblical marriage occurs when one man and one woman make a covenant with each other before God, committing to a lifelong relationship of love. It is within that relationship, and that relationship only, that God says human sexuality is to be expressed.  But that is the traditional interpretation of God’s desire, and some in our culture have a very different viewpoint on sexuality. How do we respond? Can we trust God, believing that the traditional interpretation represents our best interest? Is it even a matter of trust? Or am I practicing unnecessary hermeneutics? Can we practice faithful Christianity without holding to a traditional sexual ethic? I think we can. The interpretation of God’s sexual ethic does not seem to me to a first order belief, meaning that I do not believe it is a doctrine that is necessary for salvation, for people to have a real relationship with God. And yet I would suggest that we can trust that the traditional interpretation is in the best interest of humanity. I could certainly be wrong about that. I continue to hold to the traditional viewpoint, though, even after thorough study of other hermeneutical possibilities, because I believe it best represents God’s heart. Consider listening to this podcast interview with Bridget Eileen Rivera who is a gay Christian that holds to the traditional interpretation of sexual ethics. She does an excellent job explaining how she can be both gay and Christian, with a traditional sexual ethic. I’m looking forward to reading her book to learn more.

I hold to the traditional view because I believe it is the faithful interpretation of the many biblical teachings on the subject. Sexual expression is a wonderful aspect of oneness between husband and wife, helping to strengthen their union not only physically, but also emotionally and relationally.  This is why Paul in 1st Corinthians 6 says we should never experience that bond with a prostitute, because it is a uniquely deep, inward bond.

Even within the traditional interpretation, I admit that I’ve opened the door to a bunch of complicated questions.  Can a man and a woman kiss when they are dating?  What kinds of clothing styles are appropriate for men and women to wear?  Can a man and woman who are not married be alone together?  What about a business that requires mixed gender co-workers to travel together?  Is it okay to watch TV shows, movies, or read books, that depict sexual ethics that are different from God’s view of holiness?  How much should Christians try to make their country’s laws in line with God’s view of holiness?  These are very difficult questions to answer, and Christians have many disagreements.  Christians in the same church family will likely have strong opinions about how to answer these questions, and their answers are different! 

My encouragement is this.  Practice holiness.  Make holiness your passion.  Avoid legalism, and share loving grace with one another when you differ.  Maintaining a loving relationship with people, even toward those with whom you disagree, is far more important than having precise agreement about difficult questions. 

The second thing we can learn about God’s heart is how to handle pain and loss, especially the death of a loved one. In Ezekiel 24, this topic stems from another difficult question: did God kill Ezekiel’s wife?  As I said in the previous post, we don’t know.  What we do know is that it is very emotionally painful when it seems like God is not fair, especially when we lose a loved one too soon.  Billy Joel once sang, “Only the good die young,” which sounds helpful, but it’s not true.  Both good and bad people die young and old.  What we need to remember in the midst of our confusion and sadness, in the midst of our pain, while we’re mourning the loss of a loved one, is that we can always trust in God.  The loss of his wife was almost certainly very difficult for Ezekiel.  Worse, if the only reason she died was so Ezekiel could live out a prophecy for his neighbors, essentially become a living message for his neighbors, that is brutal.  That is so hard to understand.  I personally don’t like it.  But even that doesn’t mean that God is a monster.  We can always trust in God, even when we disagree with him, even when we don’t understand what is going on.  His heart is true.  His heart is love.  He wants to be known.

Trust in God is not always easy.  Especially when the world around us says that following God’s way is ridiculous.  Trusting in God is also not easy when we’re experiencing painful loss.  But remember that even in the midst of the difficulty, God wants to be known.  He wants to be with us in the midst of anything difficult. 

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Did God kill Ezekiel’s wife? – Ezekiel 24, Part 4

Does it sometimes seem like God is unfair? Over the years in my role as pastor, when people lose a loved one, they often not only ask “Why did they have to die?”, but also, “Why did God do this?” They will even ask why God took their loved one if that loved one is very old and died of natural causes. We often wonder what God’s responsibility is when we lose a loved one. It is extremely difficult anytime a close family member or friend dies. We don’t want them to die, and we can feel as though it is unfair. So we look to the one who could have done something about it, and didn’t: God. But is it God’s fault? The shocking events we read about in the final section of Ezekiel 24 will surely give us cause to ask God if he is at fault for what appears to be an unnecessary evil.

To recap what we’ve studied so far in Ezekiel 24, God has said to Ezekiel that on that very day Babylon has laid siege to Jerusalem because of the people’s actions of bloodshed and lewdness, and the result will be total destruction.  Imagine hearing that your hometown, including family and friends living there, would be destroyed. Awful news, right?  To illustrate that, God’s next prophecy for Ezekiel is perhaps one of the most shocking things you will read in the entire Bible.  Let’s start with God’s intro in verses 15-17.

God uses cryptic language here.  He says that with one blow he is going to take away the delight of Ezekiel’s eyes.  What could that mean?  Is he going to make Ezekiel blind?  That would be pretty awful.  But then God says that after he takes away the delight of Ezekiel’s eyes, Ezekiel is not to mourn in the customary fashion.  Mourn?  Mourn for what?  His eyesight?  No.  In verse 17, God said Ezekiel is to mourn for the dead.  But he is only to groan quietly.  Customarily in ancient Israel, mourning the dead was a loud, wailing affair, including a special clothing and food.  God says Ezekiel is to mourn for the dead just with quiet groaning.  I personally appreciate that because I am not a big fan of loud wailing, or even loud groaning.  In that culture, though, loud mourning was normal.  By asking Ezekiel to do what is not normal, God is once again putting Ezekiel in an awkward position.  But that’s not even the half of it.  We still didn’t answer the question of why he is mourning the dead.  Who died?

Look at verse 18.

What?!?!  His wife?  We didn’t even know he had a wife until this moment.  How long has Ezekiel been married?  Was it a happy marriage? Do they have kids? And think about this: the very first time we hear about his wife, it is because she died as part of a skit that God wants Ezekiel to perform?  Wait…the skit involves the real death of his wife?  What is going on? 

Now do you see why this is one of the most awful passages in the Bible?  In verse 19, things only get worse.

Ezekiel’s neighbors living around him in Babylon find out about his wife’s death, of course, and they ask him what her death has to do with them.  With them?  Why would Ezekiel’s wife’s sudden passing have anything to do with them?  Why would they think such a thing?  Isn’t that shockingly selfish of them, when it is Ezekiel that is going through the loss of his wife!  Shouldn’t they be caring for him, consoling him? 

Here’s why I think this scenario makes this situation even worse: the “skit” does have to do with them, as God explains that Ezekiel’s response to the loss of his wife is the same response the people will have to the loss of Jerusalem and the temple.  Look at verses 20-24. 

How about that? The day after his wife dies, God gives Ezekiel a prophecy for the people, and it is about Ezekiel’s wife.  Imagine how difficult that must have been for Ezekiel.  Before we look at what the prophecy is, I have to ask, “Did we just read that God killed Ezekiel’s wife because he wanted to send a message to the 10,000 Jews living there in Babylon?”  Look at verse 16 where God says to Ezekiel, “I am about to take away from you the delight of your eyes.”  It sure seems like this is God’s doing.  But think about what you know of God.  Does God kill innocent people just to illustrate a point?  It’s hard to know how to interpret this situation.  Maybe she wasn’t innocent.  Or maybe she was sick.  Maybe she died of natural causes.  We don’t know.

All we know is that she is dead, Ezekiel is mourning her loss, his neighbors find out, and they correctly have an inkling that this relates somehow to them.  How does it relate to them?  In verses 20-24 God says that just as the delight of Ezekiel’s eyes, his wife, has died, so the delight of the Jewish people, their pride and joy, the temple and city of Jerusalem, their family and friends still living in Jerusalem, are also about to be destroyed and die.  The people there in Babylon will mourn discretely as Ezekiel has mourned discretely for his wife.  And why? In verses 23 and 24, God says that this was their fault, the result of their sin, their rebellion.  They broke covenant with God, turning their backs on their relationship with God.  Finally, when they see their beloved city and temple in ruins, and when they learn of their death of their family and friends, then they will know that he is Lord.  That’s what God is eager for.  Not their pain, not their punishment, not their death, not the destruction of the temple and the city.  God is eager to be known by them, to be in close loving relationship with them.  It is difficult to read that it would take such severe pain for God to get their attention. Couldn’t there be another way? Does this make God out to be a monster? Killing one group of people to get another group’s attention? It sounds needy and sadistic, doesn’t it? But we have to remember that God did try to get the attention of the people many times and in many ways before. And for many years! Furthermore, he is not the one killing the people and destroying the city of Jerusalem. Instead, he is simply not rushing in to save them when Babylon attacks. God is allowing them to face the consequences of their sin and rebellion.

The chapter concludes with God telling Ezekiel that in the future a fugitive will arrive from Jerusalem to confirm the news that the city and temple and people there have in fact been destroyed.  At that moment God will open Ezekiel’s mouth, and he will be free to speak.  Free to speak?  Hasn’t he been speaking all along?  Yes, but only what God told him to speak, which we learned all the way back in chapter 3 verses 24-27, in the very first skit God asked Ezekiel to perform.  That was the one in which Ezekiel was to go into his house and people would come, tie him up, and God would make Ezekiel’s tongue stick to the roof of his mouth so that he could not talk, except for when God gave him a prophecy to share.  That is what has been going on these past 5-6 years.

That got me thinking. If the only prophecies God gave Ezekiel were the ones recorded in the book so far, the prophecies which we have studied from chapter 3 through chapter 24, that means Ezekiel hardly spoke at all for the past 5-6 years! Perhaps Ezekiel’s neighbors there in Babylon thought of him as the silent prophet. What that would mean is that when he did speak, because it was so rare, the people would hopefully pay attention. Did they, though?

Now God says that when the fugitive arrives, Ezekiel will be free to speak whatever he wants.  A little preview: that fugitive will arrive 9 chapters from now.  If all goes according to plan, we’ll study that after the new year.  For now, in chapter 24, there are at least two important things we have learned about God’s heart. You can learn about them in the previous posts here and here, and then check back to the final post on Ezekiel 24 tomorrow, in which we try to make some practical applications to our lives today.

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God’s sexual ethics – Ezekiel 24, Part 3

What is sexually appropriate? There are lots of opinions about the answer to that question. Is there an unbiased outside perspective that can help us answer this question? Those of a Judeo-Christian way of thinking point to the Hebrew and Christian Bible as the authoritative source of understanding God’s heart on the issue. Of course, even Jews and Christians have many internal disagreements about how to interpret their Scriptures. But let’s try to examine one passage that might help us answer the question. In our study this week through Ezekiel 24, we first heard the Parable of the Cooking Pot. At the conclusion of the Parable of the Cooking Pot, God speaks directly to the people.  No more cryptic stories.  This is straight truth from God.  Read Ezekiel 24, verses 13-14.

Did you notice what God says to the people?  In the parable he was focused on their murderous ways.  Now he mentions their lewdness.  Their impurity. There are two words there.  Impurity is ceremonial uncleanness.  The Jews had all sorts of cleanliness laws, and God said that their ceremonial uncleanness is specifically lewdness.  What is lewdness?

Lewdness is shameful behavior that likely refers to incest and fornication.  Incest is when family members have sexual relations with one another.  Fornication is when sexual relations outside of marriage between one man and one woman.  God is being very clear here.  Israel’s impurity included sexual deviancy.  The expression of sexuality, God says, is to be reserved for marriage. 

God says he tried to help them get clean, but they wouldn’t have it.  So now he is allowing them to face destruction.  Some people have used these kinds of passages to proclaim God’s judgment against nations in our day.  My guess is that you’ve heard that too.  Some people claim that just as God allowed Israel to be judged and punished for their sexual deviancy, God is going to judge the USA because we also have so much sexual deviancy.  But that interpretation and application of this passage is mistaken because it assumes that God has the same covenant with America that he did with ancient Israel.  He does not.  God has no covenant with the USA.  God does have a new covenant, but it is not with any country.  Who is God’s new covenant with?  The church!  And it is a covenant based on grace, not on law.  Very different.  Totally different.  Let’s not extrapolate inappropriately, making it seem like God’s relationship with ancient Israel is the same as with any country or nation in our day.

Though a contemporary nation doesn’t have a covenant with God, we can still learn something important from this passage.  In this section of Ezekiel we clearly learn about God’s heart, that it is a heart for holiness.  God wants his people to pursue purity.  Likewise, we, his church, should pursue holiness and purity.  That’s not a legalistic pursuit.  Instead it is a pursuit of living like Jesus lived.  It is a pursuit of walking in step with the Holy Spirit so that the fruit of the spirit flow from us.  We should be known as people who are kind, joyful, forgiving, honest, self-controlled, gracious, loving.  We should be committed to the idea of keeping sexual expression inside the marriage relationship.  We’ll talk about that further this week, but for now let’s consider what the real life events the parable of the cooking pot symbolized likely felt like for the Jews.

On this day that God says Babylon has laid siege to Jerusalem because of the people’s actions of bloodshed and lewdness. The result will be total destruction, and that will be awful. 

To further illustrate that, God’s next prophecy is perhaps one of the most shocking things you will read in the entire Bible.  We’ll talk about that in the next post.

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The Parable of the Cooking Pot and the abortion debate – Ezekiel 24, Part 2

In recent weeks, the Pro-Life and Pro-Choice debate has once again made national news in the USA. The state of Texas recently passed laws restricting abortion, and the US Supreme Court is set to hear arguments about a case, leading some pundits to suggest that the court could topple Roe v Wade. The country has long been divided over this important issue. The church is also divided. Does the Bible give us any guidance in this matter? Are Christians supposed to be pro-choice or pro-life? Can we choose to be either one?

As we continue our study of Ezekiel 24 this week, God has another allegorical parable he wants Ezekiel to relate to the people, and it seems to relate to the issue of pro-life vs. pro-choice.  Read Ezekiel chapter 24, verses 3-5, as we learn about the Parable of the Cooking Pot.

I wonder if Ezekiel acted this out while he told the parable to the people.  In verses 3-5 he is describing standard cooking procedures.  Nothing out of the ordinary.  This is an allegorical parable, though, so one thing in the story stands for another thing in real life.  What does the cooking pot represent?  There is a major clue in the next verse.  Read verse 6 to see if you can find the clue and interpret it.

Did you see the clue?  The clue is when Ezekiel calls the pot, “The City of Bloodshed!”  Where have we heard that before?  Back in chapter 22, verse 3, which we studied last week.  Remember how I talked about when Philadelphia Eagles fans really booed Tom Brady at a recent NFL game in Philly?  Eagles fans are known to be some of the most brutal in all of sports, and yet the word “Philadelphia” means “City of Brotherly Love”!  If you evaluate the city by the behavior of Eagles fans, it really should be renamed to the “City of Hatred or Rudeness.”  In the same way God is saying that his city Jerusalem which was to bear his heart and look like him has become something totally different.  His people have been murderous and instead of being named the Holy City of God, Jerusalem should now be called the City of Bloodshed. 

Now do you understand the clue.  The cooking pot is the city of Jerusalem! 

Identifying the cooking pot as the city of Jerusalem helps us understand the rest of the detail in verses 3-5.  If Jerusalem is the cooking pot, then whatever is inside the pot is going to get cooked.  What is inside the pot?  What is inside the city?  The people of Jerusalem. 

There are still more details in the story. Notice that Ezekiel mentions the encrusted deposit on the pot, a deposit that will not go away. That is a reference to the army of Babylon that has surrounded the city, letting no one out. Therefore, through the parable, God is saying that the people inside the city are going to be like meat cooked in boiling water.  That is very bad news.

Read verses 7-8 as God explains why this bad situation is happening to his people.

God says that with the same bloody ways the people of Jerusalem treated others, now the Babylonians are going to treat the people of Jerusalem.  The people of the city of bloodshed are now going to have their own blood shed. 

Now read verses 9-12 as the story of the cooking pot concludes.

The image of the cooking pot continues as you would expect. The meat inside gets cooked!  But notice the surprise detail verse 11.  The cooking pot is now empty, and is itself placed on the coals, where it heats up to the point where it glows. That’s not normal. When you are done with a cooking pot, you don’t keep it empty on a burner. So what is going on? Is God a bad cook? Or if Ezekiel is acting out this story, is he instructing Ezekiel to ruin his cooking pot? Ezekiel’s neighbors and friends watching him act out this parable, if he in fact acted it out, would immediately see that Ezekiel is destroying a perfectly good cooking pot. What for?

This part of the parable depicts the burning destruction of the city of Jerusalem.  In this parable, God is giving the Jews living in Babylon a play-by-play of what the army of Babylon is doing to the Jews’ beloved city of Jerusalem 900 miles away.

God also explains that reason for this disaster is the Jews’ own choice to live a life of bloodshed. What bloodshed? As we have seen in previous chapters of Ezekiel, it was probably a combination of awful behavior that took human life for granted. Just scan back to chapter 23, verse 39 and we read that the Jews had been mimicking the pagan worship practices of neighboring nations, including child sacrifice. They were also, God revealed previously, committing senseless acts of human endangerment, mistreating orphans, widows and foreigners, and allow such behavior to go unchecked. That is why they were now the City of Bloodshed.

God is a God who values all human life. Not just the life of the unborn. Being pro-life is such much more. I love this quote by Sister Joan Chittister, a Benedictine Nun: “I do not believe that just because you are opposed to abortion, that that makes you pro-life. In fact, I think in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a child born but not a child fed, a child educated, a child housed. And why would I think that you don’t? Because you don’t want any tax money to go there. That’s not pro-life. That’s pro-birth. We need a much broader conversation on what the morality of pro-life is.”

So let us be a people of whom it could be said, we are from the City of Life!

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When “Just trust in the Lord” is easier said than done – Ezekiel 24, Part 1

Have you ever had one of those moments when you prayed, “Lord, what is going on with my life?”  Have you ever had a moment when it seems like things are going off the rails, and you know the classic bible verse, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart,” but you think, “Easier said than done.”  There are times when it is very difficult to trust in God. 

As we continue studying Ezekiel, this week we are at chapter 24.  In this chapter, there are two ways God asks people to trust him.  The two ways are very different from one another.  Neither way, though, is easy to trust him. 

In verse 1 Ezekiel tells us that God spoke to him on a very specific date.  It was the ninth year, tenth month and tenth day.  

Do you know your wedding anniversary?  Do you know your spouse’s birthday?  You kids’ birthdays?  There are some days you really want to remember.  In verse 2, God tells Ezekiel that this date is very important for a reason.  God says, “Remember this day, Ezekiel.  Write it down.”  God is about to tell Ezekiel why this day, which scholars tells us is January 15, 588 BCE, is important.  It is important because the main prophecy God has given Ezekiel has come true on that very day.  Do you remember the prophecy?  We have heard about it over and over and over.  The prophecy is that the army of Babylon has laid siege to Jerusalem.  God is saying, “Ezekiel, right now, as we speak, the army of Babylon is attacking Jerusalem.”

I find this fascinating because in those days, there was no internet or global news.  You and I are so used to having instant information about any place on the planet whenever we want it.  We can see live images from all over the world.  A friend from church recently told me that there is a bald eagle’s nest on nearby Gibbons Road, and the PA game commission has a webcam placed there so you can watch the eagles.  Amazing! Remember that Ezekiel is living in Babylon which is about 900 miles from Jerusalem.  In 588 BCE, it would have taken a long time for word to travel that distance.  There’s no webcam.  Yet here is God giving Ezekiel real-time info about what is happening in Ezekiel’s hometown of Jerusalem.

The info from God is very bad news.  Like we’ve heard many times, God has been communicating this news to Ezekiel for years.  God asked Ezekiel to perform skits, tell parables, and even transporting Ezekiel in a vision to Jerusalem, all for the purpose of telling the 10,000 Jews living with Ezekiel in Babylon that the destruction of Jerusalem is inevitable.  Now God says, “Remember this day, because Babylon is attacking Jerusalem, right this very moment.  The Babylonians have erected siege works around the city.” A siege is when an army surrounds a city and chokes it out, not allowing anything in or out. 

Why don’t they just bash down the walls of the city?  Wouldn’t they want to get it over with?  Waging war is expensive, and if you get it over with fast, you save a lot of money and heartache.  Maybe Babylon wanted the Jews inside to suffer, because a siege would eventually lead to starvation.  Or it could be that the city walls were so fortified that the Babylonians could not break down the walls, so they simply had to wait, slowly starving the people inside.  Some sieges could last weeks, months or even years. 

If you are Ezekiel or any of the other 10,000 Jews living in Babylon, this news would be awful to hear.  Jerusalem was their hometown.  Think about the emotions they would have been feeling.  I have talked with some people who have watched their hometowns deteriorate.  If you grew up in Pennsylvania’s coal or oil areas, you might have lived through the boom times when it seemed like there was an endless flow of money.  But time went by and the oil dried up and the coal was gone, and slowly those towns floundered.  You know where Quaker State and Pennzoil get their names from?  Pennsylvania!  The northwest section of the state used to be home of the headquarters of those major brands, but no more.  Travel through the oil district, and it is rough.  It’s difficult when your hometown has lost its luster. 

That’s what the people of Jerusalem could be thinking and feeling when they hear that the powerful army of Babylon has laid siege to their city.  They probably had lots of family and friends still living there.  To top it off, the temple was there.  Though they had thoroughly abandoned God, they still had a deep emotional connection to that building, the symbol of their land.  How would you feel if a foreign army attacked your land and destroyed a national heritage site? If you are an American reading this, how would you feel if the White House, the Pentagon, the Statue of Liberty or any of our other national landmarks were attacked?  Many of you know exactly how you would feel because you felt it on 9/11.  It was scary and unsettling. 

But what do you do when you are 900 miles away?  There’s nothing you can do.  Especially not in the ancient near east.  When 9/11 happened, my family and I were in Jamaica, watching it on TV, distraught, feeling helpless, wondering what in the world is going on at home.  Not a fun place to be in. 

I wonder, though, if the Jews living in Babylon with Ezekiel might not have believed him.  They are in Babylon, and it was Babylon that was attacking Jerusalem, so it very well could be that they knew the Babylonian army was deployed and even headed towards Jerusalem, so maybe they weren’t surprised.  We just don’t know, though because Ezekiel has been prophesying this very message for years, and it has never come to pass.  All those skits, all those parables, and sometimes the straight up prophecies like Ezekiel chapter 7.  None of it came to pass.  Perhaps the people doubted.  Remember chapter 20, verse 49 where the people said to him, “He’s just telling parables.”  It seems the people didn’t listen to Ezekiel.

I wonder if that’s why God has Ezekiel write down the date.  Have you ever done that?  It is kinda fun.  We say, “Mark my words.  You will remember this day.”  Then you write it down on a piece of paper and put it in your wallet in front of family or friends.  That way you can verify it when what you say will happen actually happens.  Likewise, God is saying, “OK, Ezekiel, these people won’t believe you, so write it down.  Today. This very date.  Write it down.  Babylon has laid siege to Jerusalem.”  That way when word from Jerusalem gets back to Ezekiel and the other Jews living Babylon, even if it is a long time into the future, Ezekiel can pull out the paper and say, “Told you.” 

It’s risky, though, isn’t it?  It means Ezekiel has to trust in God that this word of the Lord is true.  Would you make that bold step?  What if you’re wrong?  What if you heard God wrong?  What will happen if word gets back to you and your fellow Jews in Babylon, and it turns out that the date is wrong?  You’ll be revealed to be a fraudulent prophet. 

God has asked Ezekiel to do all manner of difficult, risky stuff, hasn’t he?  Well, recording a date isn’t even close to most difficult thing he will ask Ezekiel to do, in this chapter. 

In the next post we’ll see where this goes.

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When God asks you to trust him and it is too difficult – Ezekiel 24, Preview

Do the people in your family trust that God’s way is the best way for people to live?  What about your neighbors?  Do you friends and co-workers believe that Jesus actually lived the best possible life? 

Do they think to themselves, “Jesus is amazing!  I want to learn from him how to live!”? What we have been seeing in our nation over the last 40-50 years is that fewer and fewer people care about living like Jesus.  In other words they don’t trust that Jesus, God, the Bible or the church are sources of truth to guide them on the path of life.  Would you say that is true based on what you know of the people in your life? 

If it is true, why is it true?  Why do people not trust that Jesus’ way is the best way? 

It could be that people simply do not know Jesus’ way.  They might not have an accurate understanding of who Jesus is, let alone how a person could live now in our world like Jesus lived in his. 

Perhaps they have a faulty view of what exactly the way of Jesus looks like.  This faulty view of Jesus may very well have come from people calling themselves Christians, but who are not living like Jesus. For example, in the book Jim & Casper Go To Church, Jim (a Christian) and Casper (an atheist) visit a number of churches across the country, and Casper often asks Jim the question, “Did Jesus tell you guys to do this?”  What Casper means is, “Does Jesus really want his disciples to spend millions of dollars building church buildings with expensive sound, video and lighting systems?” That one hits home for me because my church family just spent $40,000 on a new A/V system in our sanctuary.  We know that Jesus never told his disciples to build buildings.  So how much is it our fault that people in our community have the wrong idea about Jesus?

Or could it be that people disagree with the way of Jesus?  Jesus calls for his disciples to love their enemies, and some people might think that is a terrible idea.  Consider also that Jesus calls us to die to ourselves and follow him.  Even we Christians might admit that we can have a hard time applying that to our lives.  Those are just a few examples. 

The result can be that people do not trust Jesus to be their guide for how to live.  As we continue our sermon series through Ezekiel, chapter 24 includes two important principles that we’re going to learn, each of them requiring trust that Jesus’ way is the best way to live.  These two principles might be difficult, especially in a culture that often tells us to think about life from a different perspective than that of Jesus.  So check out Ezekiel 24 ahead of time, and see if you can discover the two very difficult ways God asks Israel to trust him. Then join us on the blog next week as we discuss it further.

Or start now…comment below…how do you find it difficult to trust God?

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When we ignore social justice, we ignore Jesus – Ezekiel 21-23, Part 5

Anytime injustice is present in a society, it breaks God’s heart. As we learned in the previous post, injustice was quite prevalent in Israel. The people of Jerusalem had rebelled against God, some committing injustice, others ignoring the ones who committed it.

To illustrate this awful rebellion, God has one more very intense story to tell the people in chapter 23.  Chapter 23 is another allegorical parable, and because it has the same message as the prophecies we’ve already heard in chapters 20-22, I’ll just summarize it.  In Chapter 23, God likens Israel’s Northern and Southern Kingdoms to sisters who prostitute themselves to foreign nations and idols, and they will eventually die because at the hand of foreigners.

But look at the very last line of the chapter.  In verse 49, God says, “Then you will know that I am the Sovereign Lord.”  There’s that phrase again!  All of chapter 23 is a bitter allegorical parable where God is saying that Israel has betrayed him, and he just wants to be known by them.   

As we conclude, I want to return to the message of chapter 22, because the message there is so relatable.  In chapter 22, God says that the people practiced wicked false worship and they practiced social injustice.  God’s heart breaks not only when we are purveyors of injustice but also when we ignore it.  We can commit injustice both by sins of commission and sins of omission.  A sin of commission is when we actively, intentionally do something wrong.  Theft, cheating, lying, and so on.  A sin of omission is when we don’t do the right thing we should do.  When we don’t pray, when we don’t give, or when we don’t address injustice. 

Injustice breaks God’s heart.  In Ezekiel 22 he clearly expresses his deep emotion that his people were mistreating others.  But maybe you’re thinking, “Ok, but I’m not like that.  I’m not making anyone a slave or widow or orphan.”  Jesus addressed that when he expressed the same emotion in his teaching of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25.  Turn to Matthew 25:31-46 and read Jesus’ parable.

Do you see the message that breaks Jesus’ heart? When we ignore social injustice, we ignore Jesus! 

Can we apply Jesus’ teaching from ancient Israel to our world in 2021?  I recently heard a quote that seeks to apply Jesus’ parable of the Sheep and the Goats to our contemporary world:

“Jesus is the refugee.  The man on death row. The child at the border.  The single mom with two jobs.  The person with a disability.  The friend with an addiction.  The transgender co-worker. The kid with no lunch money (although that one doesn’t apply as much, as I am writing this during a pandemic when many schools offer free lunches to all students).  How you treat them is how you treat Jesus.”

This is not a political statement.  It is a biblical one.  Let us not be like Israel who committed acts of social injustice and ignored God’s heart.  Let’s instead be like Jesus who preached the Gospel in both word and deed, balanced. 

This is why Faith Church supports the local Christian social services agency started by our ministerium. Conestoga Valley Christian Community Services reaches out to our community helping those in need.  CVCCS has recently started an initiative called Connect, in which they connect clients, who show interest, to a local church.  In the last month, CVCCS has connected Faith Church and two clients.

Consider the balanced approach demonstrated in Connect.  We support CVCCS who is helping the clients with their physical needs, and CVCCS supports us as we seek to minister spiritually to clients.  I love that balance.  We see Jesus in the clients and we seek to lift them up in word and deed.  Our hearts beat for this because God’s heart beats for this. 

We share the love of Christ in word and deed to our community.   

Photo by Stefan Spassov on Unsplash

When God looks for one person to practice social justice, and he finds none – Ezekiel 21-23, Part 4

Preaching the content of the Gospel vs. Doing the deeds of the Gospel…which is more important? In the first post, I tried to argue that we need both. The deeds of the Gospel are many, and one important area is social justice. Some Christians teach that social justice is not necessary for the Gospel. I beg to differ, as the previous post clearly showed us God’s heart for justice. That theme continues.

Ezekiel 22, verses 13-16 are very similar to what we learned in previous chapters where God says he will strike his hands together, a symbol indicating he will punish the rebellious people, so that they will know him.  They forgot about him, and he wants them to remember!  How did they show they forgot about him? Keep reading as we’ll find out.

In verses 17-22, God has another parable for Ezekiel.  This parable is from the world of metallurgy, where God envisions the dross or the unwanted part of the metal that is discarded when the metal is heated up in the purification process.  The people in Jerusalem will experience this when Babylon lays siege to the city, and the people are trapped there. So the theme of punishment continues, but why?

In verses 23-29, Ezekiel tells us why. The people are being punished for committing social injustice. This time Ezekiel describes the evil injustice perpetrated by the various leaders of the city.  After comparing the people to a land that has been dried up in a drought in verses 23-24, he says in verse 25, that the princes have conspired to treat people horribly.  They stole treasures, impoverishing the people.  They kill people, leaving widows helpless.  The princes who are supposed to lead the people in righteousness are themselves unrighteous, and it has affected the citizens deeply.

In verse 26 God focuses now on the priests, who are unholy, and who teach the people false theology and unbiblical lies.  The priests ignore it when people are not following God’s ways, such as the Sabbath.  Think about that.  The priests are supposed to pointing people to God, to live God’s ways, but the priests themselves are not living examples.  Worse, the priests are not intervening when the people abandon God. 

In verse 27, God now talks to another category of leaders, the officials.  They, too, are murderous, profiting off their crime.  They are like mob bosses, getting rich and killing people in the process. 

In verse 28, God addresses the prophets who prophesy lies that make it seem like the people are fine, though injustice surrounds them. 

In verse 29, God now focuses on everyone.  Notice the many kinds of social injustice they commit: extortion, robbery, oppression of the poor and needy, mistreatment of the alien/foreigner, denying them justice. 

God concludes in verses 30-31 that he looked for one righteous person to deal with this.  Just one!  One person who would restore the city, one person who would follow God’s way, so he would not allow the invading Babylonians to destroy the city.

But God found no one.  Not even one.  Imagine that.  Not a single person with a sliver of a heart to do what is right.  That’s how deeply the people of Jerusalem had fallen in wickedness in both their worship and their treatment of others.  People from all levels of society, God says, were committing injustice and wickedness.  From the king, to the priests, to the officials, to the prophets.  All the leaders were corrupt and unjust.  All the people.  It was so, so bad. 

In verse 31, then, God says, there is no stopping his wrath, and he specifically says that this was their own doing.  They chose this.  It’s not like they were unlucky, or that this was random, or that they were really good people who were just mistreated.  Not even close.  They persistently chose to turn away from God and turn toward evil, committing injustice and allowing injustice to go unchecked.

When injustice reigns in a society, it breaks God’s heart. But injustice doesn’t have to be at that level of wickedness to break God’s heart. Any injustice breaks God’s heart. Will you be the one person who follows God’s heart, making choices to live in such a way that you pursue justice?

Photo by Ismael Paramo on Unsplash

How false worship and social injustice grieve God – Ezekiel 21-23, Part 3

As we continue studying Ezekiel 21-23, God asks Ezekiel to perform another skit to dramatize the invasion of Israel by foreign armies.  Look at Ezekiel 21, verses 18-23.  Ezekiel is to make what was probably marks in the dirt in front of his house, illustrating two roads.  Much like children would do with their toys in a sandbox, making roads for their matchbox cars.  After making roads, Ezekiel was to make signposts.  “This way to Rabbah,” on one sign, and “This way to Jerusalem” on the other.  Through this skit, God explains that an invading army will be led by the King of Babylon, who will cast lots to determine which way to continue his invasion, and the lot will fall toward Jerusalem.  Babylon will take the road to Jerusalem, lay siege to the city and take the people captive, because they are guilty.  Guilty of what?  The answer will not surprise you.

In verse 24 God says that the people of Jerusalem are guilty because of their rebellion and sin.  That’s why they will be taken captive. We’ve heard God ask Ezekiel to prophesy this very message many times since the beginning of Ezekiel.  At this point, though, the message is vague.  Sin and rebellion, yes, but what sin and rebellion? Ezekiel has talked about it more specifically many times, but not yet in chapter 21. 

Skim over the rest of the chapter.  Verses 25-27 proclaim punishment against the prince, which is the king of Jerusalem.  Then verses 28-32 are very similar to the previous poem, but this time they are about the Ammonites, a non-Jewish neighboring nation of Israel, which was mentioned back in verse 20, as Rabbah is the capital of Ammon.  What God is saying is that, though Babylon will go down the road to attack Jerusalem first, they will eventually circle back, go down the other road and destroy Ammon too.  Again, though, the reason for the judgment is vague.

That brings us to chapter 22, and now God’s accusations get really specific.  The prophecy will be vague no longer.  In verses 1-2, God asks Ezekiel to judge the city of bloodshed, and that refers to Jerusalem.  This reminded me of Philadelphia, a word that means “City of Brotherly Love,” and ironically it has a major problem with murder and crime.  Or take Philadelphia Eagles fans.  Are they known to be people who practice brotherly love?  No.  Eagles fans have a reputation for being some of the most brutal in the league.  That’s very similar to this new label for Jerusalem.  It was God’s city, and the people were to be living God’s way, the way of love.  But instead, God says the city needs a new name, the City of Bloodshed.  In verses 3-5, in addition to the evil of bloodshed, God says they also committed idolatry.  These are two specific categories.  In their worship and in treatment of humans, they have not followed the way of God.  As a result, God says he is putting a stop to this.

As God continues, he lists specific ways the people of Jerusalem have committed false worship and social injustice. 

In verse 6, the leaders use their power to shed blood.  This is some kind of government-sponsored murder. 

In verse 7, we have three issues: contemptuous treatment of parents, oppression of foreigners, and mistreatment of the fatherless and widow. 

In verse 8, he returns to discussing worship, as they despised the holy articles in the temple, and desecrated the practice of sabbath-keeping.

Verse 9 is likely all about worship.  Shedding blood could be a reference to child sacrifice in worship, which we’ve heard about before in previous chapters.  But the people also worship at pagan ritual sites in the mountains, and there they commit lewd acts, which likely involved prostitution in worship.

Verses 10-11 mention unrestrained sexual impurity, particularly violating women who are vulnerable.

In verse 12, the people commit the injustices of bribery and financially ripping off their neighbors.

Worst of all, God concludes in verse 12, they have forgotten him.  That’s why he says over and over throughout Ezekiel that he wants his people to know him, because they have forgotten him.  Notice that the people forgetting God is proven by their actions.  It’s not as though they have forgotten about God in their memories.  Of course they know about God.  Instead, by their wicked actions that he just described, their sinful worship and social injustice to their fellow humans, they show they have forgotten God in the sense that they have no relationship with him.  God cares, therefore, about the choices and actions of their lives.  How they treat one another is perhaps the best indication of their faith in him. 

Photo by Jack Skinner on Unsplash

The Parables of the Forest Fire and Sword – Ezekiel 21-23, Part 2

When we left Ezekiel in the previous post, he was staring again. The Prophetic Stare is when God asks Ezekiel to “set his gaze” against something. Remember that Ezekiel’s Prophetic Stare has no power; it is a symbolic gesture that shines the light of God’s truth on something.  This time, as we read in Ezekiel 20:45-49, Ezekiel is staring at the south, which refers to the Southern Kingdom of Israel, called Judea, where Jerusalem is located.  As Ezekiel stares at Judea, he eventually is to speak, God says, to the forest.  Weird, right?  A prophecy to the forest?  I can imagine Ezekiel staring, and the people in his village gather around him, saying, “Tell us, Ezekiel.  Why are you staring?” 

Without breaking his gaze, he proclaims that God will burn down the forest.  Forest fires are horrible, as we know from the awful situation in our western USA. The fire that Ezekiel prophecies goes one step further as he says it will not only be all-consuming, but he also says “every face will be scorched by it.”  Face?  That’s people he’s referring to.  That’s terrible and graphic.  Faces burning?  I wonder if the moms shooed their kids away from Ezekiel as he said that.  As with nearly all prophecy, this is figurative language, likely referring to the armies of a foreign power invading the land.  God says it will be devastating.

In this story, God is again asking Ezekiel to prophesy using the method of allegory.  Surprisingly, Ezekiel responds to God!  We hardly ever hear Ezekiel talk back to God in this book, but look at Ezekiel chapter 20, verse 49, where he complains to God that the people in his village are saying to him, “He’s just telling parables.”  Ezekiel is saying that the 10,000 Jews living there in Babylon with him are not taking him seriously.  Would you take him seriously?  Think about all the strange ways God has asked Ezekiel to prophesy so far.  Not just the Prophetic Stare.  But remember all those skits?  Ezekiel also played with models.  He laid on his side for over a year.  He cut his hair.  He had strange visions.  He told parables.  It seems that what God said early on had become reality, “Ezekiel, you will prophesy, but the people won’t listen.” 

As I thought about that, I feel for Ezekiel.  I don’t think he was one of the glamorous prophets.  Though the elders visited him for advice, it doesn’t seem that he was a celebrity because his prophetic methods were so odd.  I wonder if Ezekiel ever thought, “Lord, why don’t you give me a normal prophecy?  Maybe a word of blessing for once.  Even the words of hope you do give me are always mixed with terrible judgment.” 

Notice that God doesn’t answer Ezekiel’s complaint in verse 49.  Instead he asks Ezekiel to stare again.  Read chapter 21, verses 1-5.

How about that?  More staring and another parable.  Ezekiel is now to stare at Jerusalem, and preach against the sanctuary, which is the temple of God.  Some churches, like mine, have a large room where we gather for worship services, and we call it “the sanctuary,” but it really isn’t that.  It’s just a big room that is convenient for meeting.  The actual sanctuary, the holy place, was in God’s temple.  What is Ezekiel to preach against the sanctuary and against the land of Israel?  It’s another parable.  This time the parable is about God’s sword, and he will unsheathe it, he says, against everyone in the land, south to north.  This is another way of talking about a foreign army that will devastate the land.  God concludes this section with the line that has become the most repeated, and thus most important line in the book, “Then you will know that I am the Lord.”  Because God repeats it, I am going to talk about it again too:  God wants to be known by you.  God wants to be in relationship with you.  Just as it did with his rebellious people Israel, his heart beats for you. 

At this point, God asks Ezekiel to do another skit.  Look at verses 6-7, 

Ezekiel is to groan!  Pause reading this, and do an experiment. Walk to the nearest place where there are at least a couple people nearby, stand among them and start groaning really loudly.  Any takers?  No? Too embarrassing and awkward, right? Imagine how Ezekiel must have been feeling!  If I’m Ezekiel, I’m thinking, “Why can’t I just be a regular prophet?”  Imagine his neighbors watching him groaning, saying to him, “Ezekiel, now what?  Are you hurt?  Do you need to the doctor?”

God tells Ezekiel to answer them, “I’m groaning to show you what you will do when you hear the news that is coming.  It will make you groan.”  News coming that will make them groan?  Connect that with the prophecies we heard already, and it is pretty clear that the news will be what the Prophetic stare and parables of the forest fire and of the sword foretold. A foreign army will invade and destroy their beloved homeland, city and temple. 

Skim over verses 8-17, and you read a poetic, lyrical presentation of the same prophecy, including verse 14 where God asks Ezekiel to clap his hands, and then verse 17, where God says he himself will clap his hands together too.  This means the end is coming.  You can picture Ezekiel there in Babylon calling out this poem, groaning and clapping his hands as he speaks it. 

But we’ve heard all this before, haven’t we? From nearly the beginning of Ezekiel, God has asked Ezekiel to prophesy about the end coming for Jerusalem. I wonder if the people living in Ezekiel’s village there in Babylon were bored with his endless prophecies of destruction. They ought not be. Neither should we. As we continue studying Ezekiel 21-23, we’ll see how specific and practical this prophecy will be for us. In the next post we’ll more.

Photo by Karsten Winegeart on Unsplash