Can Christians have false beliefs about God? – Ezekiel 13, Part 4

Is it possible in some way you might have a false belief about God? Maybe even in a very small way? I would like to suggest that not only is it possible for anyone, but that we would be wise to consider how it might be possible for us. As we saw in the previous post, God asks Ezekiel to set his face against, or to unleash the Prophetic Stare against, some women who were false prophets.

Almost as if to answer the question those women might ask, “What are you doing?  Why are you staring at me?”, in Ezekiel chapter 13 verse 17, God tells Ezekiel not only to stare, but to prophesy, to tell the truth. In verses 17b-23, through the words of the prophecy, God explains why Ezekiel is staring at those women.  Pause reading this post and study Ezekiel 12, verses 17b-23.

How about that?  The women are practicing witchcraft, the dark arts.  God describes two specific examples: they sew magic charms which they wear on their wrists, and they make veils of various lengths for their heads.  We don’t know precisely what these talismans were for or how they worked.  Clearly they go against God’s desires, and they deceived the people.  God says they ensnared the people, meaning that the black magic purposefully turned the people away from God and toward what is false.

Interestingly, as we read in verse 19 when God mentions the barley and bread, it seems the false prophets, these women, were profiting a bit off their magic.  But what they gained was so little.  Just a few handfuls of barley, just scraps of bread. What was the human cost of that meager financial gain?  Not only the deception of God’s people, but also the death of people who should have lived and the preservation of people who should have died!  God is astounded and angry by the callousness of the false prophets when he points out the serious consequences of their lies. 

God says that just as Ezekiel is to set his face against them, which is a sign that God is against them, God himself will tear off the charms and the veils.  He will set his people free, he will save them!  God is profoundly upset at the prophets would who deceive his people, and thus God will take drastic action to save his people.  Why?  First, because the people are enslaved by the false prophets and their folk theology.  Second, as we read in verse 21, that God will do this because then they will know that he is the Lord! 

God goes on to put the false prophets in their place, saying that he is shutting them down.  In verse 23 he repeats himself: he will save his people, and they will know that he is the Lord.  God doesn’t want his people to be deceived.  There are many things that can lead his people astray.  There are other attractive options out there.  God knows that there are forces and people who want to deceive us and lead us astray.  So God shines the light of truth on them, revealing them to be what they truly are: false deceivers who do not care about people.  They are only in it for their own gain.  So they try to turn people’s hearts and minds away from the one true God. 

God strongly reacts against that, saying “No, I will save my people, so that they will know that I am God.”  I love that once again we see God’s heart to be known. 

So we would do well to ask if there are any ways that we are being drawn away from God, any ways that we might not know God as he truly is. Let’s try to identify false beliefs so that we can know God for real.  Are there false beliefs in our Christian subculture?

Folk theology can include ideas that are commonly held as Christian, but they are not in line with biblical teaching.  The net result is that, like the witchcraft of Ezekiel’s day, while seemingly spiritual and enticing, folk theology actually keeps us from knowing God.  Folk theology results in us believing false things about God, and that means we are in relationship with a version of God that is not actually true.  We, then, need to follow God’s example in Ezekiel’s day, when he removed the charms and veils, and we rid ourselves of any false beliefs and practices. 

In the next post, I’ll give some examples of folk theology that I’ve encountered over the years.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

Do you say, “Things are fine,” when they are not fine? – Ezekiel 13, Part 3

My wife and I have a running joke in our marriage.  When it comes to a concern about our kids, I will often say, “Don’t worry, they’ll be fine.”  When it comes to a concern about money, though, I can feel like things are never fine.  Michelle will worry about the kids, however, and when it comes to money she’ll say, “Don’t worry, it will be fine.” Does that resonate with you? How do you resolve the difference of opinion?

As we continue reading Ezekiel 13, God has a difference of opinion with so-called prophets. He is viewing a situation very differently from them, and he is deeply concerned.

In the previous post, we read how God expressed his concerned, calling out the prophets. Now as we read in verses 10-16, God is still not done describing the false prophets, and this time he likens them to a flimsy wall.  God says that those people are like a wall that looks nice and shiny and strong on the outside, but behind all that luster is a flimsy foundation.  It is a weak wall, and when a storm comes, the rain, hail, and wind will knock down the wall, taking the false prophets with it.  What will the result be?  Then the people will see that the so-called prophets were false.  In verse 14, we read that then the people will know that God is God. 

Notice the content of false message of the false prophets.  It’s there in verses 10 and 16.  The prophets declared that there would be peace, but God says, “There is no peace.”  In other words, the prophets created a false sense of security.  The wall looked good on the outside, but it did not have strength, a strong foundation, or fortifications.  What the prophets needed was to see the truth, that things were in bad shape, that the people were sinning, in rebellion, allowing themselves to lust after pagan idols, live greedy lives and engage in injustice, rather than pursue the ways of God.  A false prophet, instead, said, “Things are fine. There will be peace.”

What is so hard to see is the truth about a situation. If something is not fine, we need to be able to identify it and say, “That’s not good.”  Often, we can identify it, but we might not have the courage to call it out.  We might think, “That’s not fine,” but the words out of our mouths are, “It’s fine,” because we don’t want to offend someone or we don’t want to be a burden. 

God is saying that the false prophets, because they were not in relationship with him, either did not speak the truth, or they actively sought to avoid the truth, or to deceive the people with lies.  This was a grave wickedness on their part.  Those false prophets should not have been prophesying peace, they should have been prophesying repentance. 

So God tells Ezekiel to do something that we haven’t seen Ezekiel do since chapter 6, the Prophetic Stare.  Read the first part of verse 17.

Remember the Prophetic Stare?  In verse 17, we read about the Prophetic Stare when God says Ezekiel is to set his face against the daughters who prophesy out of their own imagination.  The Prophetic Stare is not a superpower.  In fact, nothing physical occurs when Ezekiel stares.  Instead, the stare is like the blazing light of God’s truth, shining in the darkness, showing what is actually happening. 

Previously he used the Prophetic Stare on the mountains of Israel, because the people were committing idolatry and pagan ritual worship at religious sites up in the mountains.  Now God wants Ezekiel to use the Stare against women who were false prophets, which he has been describing all along in this chapter.  We read in chapter 13, verse 17 that these women prophesy out of their own imagination, they are making up prophecies. 

I love to imagine what Ezekiel’s various prophetic skits looked like. When he used the Stare, it seems he would literally just stare, setting his face against whatever God asked him to stare at.  Staring contests can get intense, right?  Have you ever tried to see who can look at another person’s eyes the longest without looking away?  It can get emotional. 

Imagine if the women that Ezekiel is to set his face against are right there in Babylon with him?  He walks up to them, and just stares at them, locking eyes, and if they don’t like it, and they turn away, he still stares at them.  Maybe they try to walk away, and he follows them closely, saying nothing, just staring.  How long would you allow a person to come up to you and just stare at you?  It wouldn’t take long until you would say, “Uh…Can I help you?”  Or maybe your personality would be a bit more like, “What are you doing??? Why are you staring at me?  Go away!!! Creep!”  In our culture, you might call 911!

Almost as if to answer the question, “What are you doing?  Why are you staring at me?”, God tells Ezekiel not only to stare, but to explain, to prophesy, to tell the truth. What truth? Check back to the next post to find out.

Photo by George Gvasalia on Unsplash

Who is the authority in a world where we don’t know who to trust? – Ezekiel 13, Part 2

Do you watch the news or read articles online and wonder, “Who is right? Who can I trust?” If you’re like me, you’ve probably had conversations about Covid and treatment options, and your conversation partners were adamant about their views. But as you listened to them promoting one view or the other, you thought to yourself, “How can they be so sure?” The same goes for the recent US military withdrawal from Afghanistan. Good decision or bad decision? It depends who you talk to. It seems to me that what we might call a basic common trust has been eroded to the point of near extinction in our society. Who is our authority, when we feel like we can’t trust anyone? Keep reading, as I will try to make the case that there is an answer in the ancient prophetic book of Ezekie.

In this five-part blog series on Ezekiel 13, which started here, we are learning about prophets who promoted ideas they made up. Normally a prophet hears from God, and then conveys that message from God to other people. These other prophets in Ezekiel 13 were apparently not concerned about God’s word. Instead they said whatever they wanted to say.  How do you think God feels about that?

In verse 3, God says, “Woe to them.”  A woe is a powerful word that means, “May destructive judgment come upon you!”  Imagine God saying that to you.  It is game over when you hear that.  You don’t ever want to hear God say, “Woe to you.” 

Why does he declare this woe oracle against these false prophets?  Notice how he describes them in verse 3 and following. First, he says they are foolish, and the specific word here is for a wicked kind of foolishness.  Next, he says they follow their own spirit and have seen nothing.  That means that even though they self-identify as prophets, they are not hearing from God.  They are not following God’s Spirit.  They are following their own spirit.  Their authority rests in themselves.  That is very dangerous. 

Have you ever been in a conversation in which you ask a person, “Why do you believe _________?” They respond, “Because it seems right to me.”  When they answer like that, they reveal that they have become their own authority.  Do we get to be our own authority?  Do we get to declare what is right and wrong?  Not Christians.  As Christians we follow not our own spirit; we follow the Spirit of God. The false prophets in Ezekiel’s day were acting authoritative, but their authority was only in their minds.  

Next in verse 4, God likens the false to jackals among ruins, animals which would have been scavenging for the dead.  Basically God is saying the false prophets are roadkill eaters, which is disgusting in and of itself, but doubly so for Jews, as dead flesh was considered ritually unclean.  

These so-called prophets are foolish, wicked, not following the Spirit, and they are unclean.  But God isn’t done describing them.

In verse 5 God evokes the image of the wall around the city of Jerusalem, and it needs repair.  God isn’t saying that these prophets are supposed to be stone masons.  God is speaking symbolically.  A prophet is one who repairs what is broken spiritually.  Just as a wall was designed to stand firm in the day of a military battle, God wanted his prophets to help his people to be spiritually strong.  How would they do this?  Just like a stone mason says, “There is a break in the wall, and it needs to be fixed,” the prophet says, “There is sin in your life, and you need to repent.” 

But in verse 6, instead of preparing the people spiritually, instead of pointing out their sin, God says that the false prophets have visions that are false and divinations that are lies.  What is so evil about the prophets and their false visions and divinations is that the prophets claim they are from God.  We’re talking about a situation that is more than error or mistake. The prophets meant to deceive, to mislead God’s people.

God says in verses 6-7, “Don’t believe them when they say, ‘The Lord declares’.  I have no part of their visions.  I have not spoken to them.”  In response to the false prophets and their folk theology, God says he is going to take action.  We read about his response in verses 8-16.

God bluntly says in verses 8-9, “I am against you.  You’re not on the list.  You’re out.  You’re done.”  And at the end of verse 9, God says what has become one of the most important phrases we have seen repeated over and over in the book: “Then you will know that I am the Lord.”  That’s his heart.  God wants to be known.  The false prophets, though they claimed to know him and speak for him, did not know him, and did not hear from him. 

That is a quandary.  It’s nearly identical to Matthew 7:21-23 when people say to Jesus, “Lord, Lord” as if they knew him, but he says that only those who do the will of his father will enter the Kingdom.  As if to assure Jesus that they have done the will of his father, the people respond, “We drove out demons in your name, we performed miracles.  We prophesied!”  His response?  “Depart from me, I never knew you.”  It is a harsh reality to assume that you are in relationship with God, only to be shocked when he says to you, “Relationship?  What relationship?”  Could that be said of us?  It could be said of these false prophets. 

Is there hope? Check back to the next post!

Photo by novia wu on Unsplash

The danger of folk theology – Ezekiel 13, Part 1

In a Peanuts comic strip, Linus is standing next to his bed, wearing his pajamas, hands with palms together like they would be for some about to say their bedtime prayers.  But instead of kneeling at his bed and praying, Linus is standing there, looking curiously at his hands.  As his sister Lucy walks into the room, Linus kneels down at his bedside, and with his hands still palm to palm, he says to her, “I think I’ve made a theological discovery.” 

She asks, “What it is it?” as Linus continues looking down at his hands.  He turns to her, palms still together, and now he points his hands to the floor, saying, “If you hold your hands upside-down, you get the opposite of what you pray for!”  Lucy rolls her eyes.[1]

Do you know what just happened there?  Linus did theology.  He reflected on life and God and prayer, and he attempted to answer the question: what is God like?  The answer he came up with was, “God is the kind of God that has given us a method for prayer.”  Hold your hands up when you pray, and you get what you ask for.  Hold your hands down, and you get the opposite!   But is Linus right? 

Yes, he did theology, but we would call it Folk Theology, and that’s not the same as biblical theology.  Does the Bible say anything about how you hold your hands during prayer will affect the outcome of your prayer?  No.  It says nothing like what Linus said.  Instead, what Linus is doing is practicing folk theology.  Folk Theology is when we come up with ideas to help us understand God and faith and the world, but we don’t submit those ideas to biblical examination.  Often Folk Theology sounds kind of like biblical theology, but it veers away from the truth.  Linus has some ideas, and yet he is not evaluating his ideas according to the Bible.  The result is that he is in danger of believing something false.  Depending on his personality, he could try to convince other people to also believe in his false idea.

As we continue to study Ezekiel, we meet some people who are doing Folk Theology, and they, too, are trying to impact people, deceiving them. As you might imagine, God has a pretty strong reaction against them.  Why? Because it matters what we believe!  Turn to Ezekiel 13, and read verses 1-7.

The normal pattern appears here, as Ezekiel says that the word of the Lord came to him. That means God is speaking to him, giving him a prophetic message.  In verse 2, the message from God is against the prophets of Israel who were prophesying.  So Ezekiel wasn’t the only prophet in the land.  There were other good prophets, like Jeremiah and Isaiah.  But the Lord tells Ezekiel that there are other kinds of prophets, who, he says, “prophesy out of their own imagination.” 

In other words, they’re making stuff up and calling it the word of God.  They aren’t hearing from God like Ezekiel does.  It’s all in their head.  It’s folk theology because it is from the “folks” and not from God.

God says Ezekiel is to prophesy against these so-called prophets, and Ezekiel is to say to them, “Hear the word of the Lord!”  That is the central concern for a prophet.  Do they hear the word of the Lord, or do they hear something else that is not the word of the Lord?  Is their theology, their ideas about God and his interaction in the world, based on the truth, which is from God, or are they just making it up?

Do you remember the very first skit that God told Ezekiel to perform?  It was in chapter 3, and God told Ezekiel that his first prophetic act was to go back to his house, where he would be tied up in ropes, and God would make his tongue stick to the roof of his mouth.  In other words, Ezekiel was unable to say anything.  The prophet was being forced by God to be trapped in his house, totally silent.  At first, that seems to make no sense.  A prophet who can’t speak?  But God explains, “I will allow you to speak only the words I give you.”  God wanted Ezekiel’s prophetic ministry to be totally in line with God’s word.  In other words, God wanted Ezekiel to be a successful true prophet. 

These other prophets in Ezekiel 13, however, were apparently not concerned about God’s word. Instead they said whatever they wanted to say.  What about you? Are you concerned about knowing and doing and proclaiming God’s word? Or have you ever been known to come up with the your own ideas? We want to be thought of as people who are smart and wise, and thus we often boldly proclaim our own ideas. Is it wrong to have your own ideas? Doesn’t someone at some point need to come up with new ideas? What is the balance between being inquisitive, exploratory, and experimental, while still maintaining God as our authority? In the next four posts in this five-part series, we’ll look at what happened in Israel when prophets said they were speaking for the Lord, but they had become their own authority and were leading people astray. We’ll discover how we can be people focused on God’s truth and avoid folk theology.

[1] Schulz, Charles. 1968. Peanuts. April 3, 1968.

Photo by Ricardo Gomez Angel on Unsplash

When Christians have false ideas about God – Ezekiel 13, Preview

Have you ever been in a conversation with someone and thought to yourself, “Woah…they have some strange ideas!”???  Do you confront them?  Do you ask for more details?  Do you just let it go?  Maybe it’s not worth the trouble.  Or maybe, we need to be more like children.  Children?  Yes.

Think about the classic situation where one child is telling another child about how excited they are for Christmas, because Santa Claus is coming soon, and he will bring loads of gifts for them!

The child listening quickly responds, “Wait…you know that Santa Claus isn’t real, don’t you?”

Both kids’ parents overhear this, and rush in to the rescue.  The first child starts saying, “What do you mean Santa isn’t real? Of course he is real!  He brings me presents every year!”  That child’s parents start comforting the child, assuring them that the other child doesn’t know they’re talking about.  Then the other child’s parents pull them aside with a stern look on their face, saying, “Stop this conversation right now.  Just let it go.  His parents will decide when they want to tell him the truth.”

Children are quick to confront false belief, aren’t they?

My guess is that you’ve encountered that Santa Claus situation many times.  Perhaps it makes your heart ache, as you long for the first child to continue to enjoy the mysterious wonder of Christmas.  Perhaps you agree with the second child, that a false belief needs to be revealed as false!

Which is it?  Is it okay for a child to be led to believe in something false?  I suspect most people would say, “Yes, it’s fine.”  Whether it is the Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny or Santa, they aren’t doing any children harm.  But if those beliefs would persist into adulthood, I think just about everyone would have serious concerns.  Most of us would say they would be justified in those concerns.  Truth is foundationally important.  Especially as we consider this from a Christian viewpoint, we should be people committed to the truth.  False ideas about life can deceive, leading people astray.

As we continue our study in Ezekiel, this coming week we look at what God has to say in Ezekiel 13 about false and true beliefs.  I’m not concerned about anyone believing in Santa Claus, but I am concerned that many adult evangelical Christians believe in other false ideas.  I’m concerned that those other ideas can lead us astray.  In fact, if we are believing false ideas about God, it can result in us not knowing who God is.  That is quite serious.  A. W. Tozer once wrote that what comes to mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you.  He’s right.  We need to think about God as correctly as possible, if we want to know God as he truly is.  I’m looking forward to our study of Ezekiel chapter 13 next week, as God, through Ezekiel, will help us think about who he truly is.

Photo by Per Lööv on Unsplash

How to be ready for Jesus’ return – Ezekiel 12, Part 5

November 20, 1973: “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” Premiered - Lifetime

Football season is upon us, and the idea of being ready at all times, got me thinking of Charlie Brown, the Peanuts cartoon character.   

Charlie Brown’s friend, Lucy, kneels down and sets up the football for Charlie Brown, saying, “I promise you I will let you kick it this time…”

But we know Lucy.

She will pull that football away at the last moment every single time.  

Why does Charlie Brown keep trying?  Why doesn’t he get mad at Lucy and tackle her and get someone else to hold the football for him? 

There is something inside Charlie Brown that keeps him going. What do we do as we wait for Jesus to return? What do we do, as we have seen in our study this week of Ezekiel 12, when it seems like God is too long in keeping his promises? What does it mean to be ready?

Be like Charlie Brown. 

Charlie Brown is the picture of hope.  He is the picture of hopeful trust.  

Now please hear me…I’m not saying that God is like Lucy, playing a trick on us every day! If people say God is like that, they are echoing the thoughts of the people in Ezekiel’s day.  Remember them? Doubting God. You can read about them here. Interestingly, hundreds of years later, people would have those same doubts about Jesus’ return as well, insinuating that God is like Lucy playing a trick on us little Charlie Browns.  One of Jesus’ first followers, Peter, wrote about it. In 2 Peter 3:3-4 we read:

“In the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” 

Sounds similar to the people in Ezekiel’s day saying that God’s prophesies aren’t happening. 

So why is God waiting?  Peter goes us on to tell us in verses 8-9,

“Dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

God is waiting because he doesn’t want any to perish!  There’s his heart again.  He wants to be in relationship with people.  He wants all to come to repentance.  Do you see his heart?  Do you hear his longing? 

But I wonder, how long will he wait?  Obviously, he won’t wait forever.  But we don’t know how long, we can’t know how long, and therefore we should focus on what Ezekiel and Peter say we should focus on.  What should we focus on? As we wait, be like Charlie Brown.

In Ezekiel 12, in a previous post in this series, we learned that we should open our eyes, uncover our ears, and see God’s heart of longing for us to return to him.  Then look at 2 Peter 3, verse 11.  Peter says we followers of Jesus should be the kind of people that live holy and godly lives. 

What is a holy and godly life?  It was the way Jesus lived.  Live like he lived.  Learn how to live from him.  Let Jesus be your teacher.  That’s how we get to know God’s heart and learn to reciprocate the relationship that God offers us.  It means opening your eyes, uncovering your ears and seeing and listening to God. That’s how to have the proper attitude as we wait.  Focus on how you live now. 

Who is teaching you how to live?  Consider how you spend your time and money, and you can start to answer that question.  We can easily spend hours and hours being entertained by the news, by sports, TV movies, games, and social media. Those sources are teaching us how to live.  It’s no wonder our lives look so different from Jesus when we learn from other sources how to live.  What will it look like to allow Jesus to be our teacher? 

Spend time with him.  Sit with him.  Learn from him.  Do the things he did.  Give your life to his Kingdom.  How will you make a start?  Many of us can make a start simply by decreasing the amount of entertainment we consume and increasing the time we spend with Jesus and the Spirit. I would be glad to talk with you about what that might look like for you. Comment below.

Let us be a people that uncover our ears, open our eyes, and pursue a more vibrant relationship with God.

When it seems like God isn’t keeping his promises – Ezekiel 12, Part 4

In the previous post, we talked about how frustrating it can feel waiting on God. Maybe you know the feeling. You want to be faithful to God, but you are waiting and waiting, and it doesn’t seem like God is keeping his promises.

God has been telling the people in Ezekiel’s day that destruction is coming to their precious city of Jerusalem if the people don’t change their ways and return to him. But after numerous such prophecies, and after the people did not change their ways, nothing happened. Were the prophecies false? Were the prophets fake? Maybe they didn’t hear God right. Maybe they didn’t hear God at all. The result was that the people just kept living unfaithfully, turning away from God, and following false gods. And why not? Nothing happened.

God doesn’t give up on them, though. He keeps reaching out to them through his prophets. Finally, in Ezekiel chapter 12, the people who have been giving God the cold shoulder and the silent treatment respond to him. Read Ezekiel 12, verses 21-28, to hear what they say.

Woah. The people are bold. They look at God in face and say they don’t believe in the prophecies and visions!  They had been hearing these prophecies and visions for a really long time, not just from Ezekiel but also from other prophets, even when they still lived in Israel, and they say that the prophecies don’t matter.  They even made up a little saying about it, “The days go by and every vision comes to nothing.”  Imagine that!  They have not only covered their ears and closed their eyes to God (as we studied here), but also they so deeply disbelieved God that they created a proverb about it!  They lack faith in God, and they are talking back to God!  They are basically saying, “Yeah, right, God, these visions of death and destruction are empty threats.”  They are not hearing it anymore.  They have created a belief about God that is not like God.

So how does God respond?  God says, “I’m about to crush that proverb.  The visions are about to come to pass.” No more empty threats.  No more false pretenses.  Just as he attempted to pry open their eyes so they could see, he now says, I so badly want you to hear that I am going to pull your hands from your ears so you will hear and know the truth.

But in verse 27 the people of Israel respond again, “The visions are for many years from now, the distant future.”  That sounds familiar!  Have you ever wondered about Jesus’ promise to come again?  That’s a major belief for Christians, that Jesus will return.  He talked about it a lot, perhaps most famously in John 14:3, where he said, “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me.” 

Then in Acts 1:11, after Jesus ascended back to his father in heaven, angels appeared and said to the disciples, “This same Jesus will come back.”  That promise stuck in the forefront of the disciples’ hearts and minds.  They wrote about it.  Paul often wrote about it.  Jesus is coming back.  When you read their writings in the New Testament, it seems they believed that Jesus would return in their lifetime.  Then he didn’t come back in their lifetime. 

Now 2000 years have gone by.  Have you ever wondered if Jesus is really coming back?  If so, then you know the feeling of the Israelites in Ezekiel’s era who said, “Days go by and every vision comes to nothing,” or “the vision is for many years from now and prophesies about the distant future.” 

How does God respond to the people and their lack of faith?  God says in verse 28, “Tell them Ezekiel.  Tell them there is no more delay.  My word will be fulfilled.”  And it will.  Jerusalem’s days are numbered.  As we continue studying Ezekiel, we’ll learn about how and when it happens, and it will happen in Ezekiel’s lifetime.  But until it happens, the people of Israel could always wonder.  They could always think, “Nah…that won’t happen.  God wouldn’t let that happen.”

Have you ever thought like the Israelites thought, that this future that God has promised is too long in coming?  If I’m honest, I kinda get it.  It can seem like it is taking too long for Jesus to return!  What’s he waiting for?  Is he really returning?

I’m thankful he waited at least until I was born. I’m also glad he waited until my wife was born.  The more I think about it, the more I’m glad he waited. I could keep thinking about loved one, as could many of you.  In 1997, our first son was born. The next in 1998, the third in 2003, and finally our daughter in 2005.  I’m really glad that Jesus waited to return, so my family could be born.  Am I ready for him to return today?  Yes…and no, if I’m honest.  I want to meet and get to know my grandchild due later this year.  And I hope there are many other grandbabies!  

So am I saying I don’t want Jesus to return?  No, I’m not saying that.  I do want Jesus to return.  I just want him to return on my timetable!  But Jesus clearly said that we should not focus on a timetable.  He said that no one knows the day, time or hour, and because there is no timetable, we should be ready at all times.  I get that, but if I’m honest again, it can be difficult to be ready at all times.

Maybe you know the feeling. Check back to the next post as we talk about what it could mean to be ready for Jesus to return.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

Are you feeling frustrated waiting on God? – Ezekiel 12, Part 3

Does it seem like God is not keeping his promises? Maybe you wonder, for example, if Jesus is going to return, like he said he would. Or maybe you wonder when Jesus is going to return. Why is he taking so long? There are many teachings or promises in the Bible that we can wonder about. In Ezekiel 12, it seems to me that the people in Ezekiel’s village could be thinking similar thoughts.

As we continue studying Ezekiel 12, God asks Ezekiel to add more to the skit, which we looked at in the previous post. What started as Ezekiel acting out being exiled, this skit now has a twist. Please pause reading this post, open your Bible and read Ezekiel 12, verses 17-20.

In front of the people Ezekiel is to shake and tremble as he eats and drinks.  Why does God ask Ezekiel to act like that?  God is saying that the people still living in Jerusalem and Israel will be so afraid for their lives, because the enemy will be devastating their city and land, they will not be able to control their fine motor skills.  As they eat, their soup will be spilling from the spoon, and their water will splash over their face as they drink because they will be shaking from fear and anxiety.  What does God say in conclusion?  Then they will know that he is the Lord.  There’s that statement again. God wants to be known!

We’ve heard that statement time and time again from God. But are the people getting it? What do the people think as they watch Ezekiel perform his skits and preach his prophecies? Let’s try to enter the story and see if we can imagine what Ezekiel’s neighbors might be thinking.

If I were dramatizing this, I would set the scene in front of Ezekiel’s house in Babylon.  The camera first shows us Ezekiel just inside an open door, packed and ready for exile.  Maybe he has some kind of bundle attached to a pole, and we watch as he hoists it on his shoulders.  The camera follows him as he walks out of his house carrying his bundle. All day he walks around, people watching him, pointing and whispering, “What is Ezekiel doing now?” In the evening, he goes home, and then he digs a hole in the side of his house, climbing through it. Again he walks around outside, but this time, covering his face with a cloth, probably bumping into people and plants. People are watching him even more now.  Then he stops, opens up his bundle and begins to prepare a meal. As he eats and drinks, he shakes violently, the food and drink spilling and spraying all over him.  I wonder if his neighbors thought he was having a seizure. 

He has been acting out the skit in silence, and finally he speaks. He prophesies, speaking a word from the Lord, explaining the symbolism of the skit.  He says that because of their rebellion to the Lord, Jerusalem will be attacked and destroyed, the king will be sent into exile and die, along with many others.  Ezekiel concludes his prophecy, saying that the invasion and destruction of Jerusalem, Judea and all Israel will be terrible. 

If you are one of the people in Ezekiel’s neighborhood watching him, and listening to this prophecy, would you believe him?  The reality is that you’ve been hearing this stuff for quite some time from Ezekiel.  About a year and a half.  In that year and a half, what seen and heard?  Lots of weird skits.  Lots of dark sermons about the destruction of Jerusalem.  Stories of visions about how awful Jerusalem is.  But nothing has actually happened, right?  

Now in Ezekiel 12, we have a prophecy about Zedekiah being exiled to Babylon where he would be killed. Did that happen to King Zedekiah? Is he in Babylon? If so, it seems likely the Jews would have seen him or they would have at least heard about it.  Nope, Zedekiah is still in Jerusalem.  What about all the death and destruction the prophecies said would be occurring in Jerusalem?  There was not a peep of anything like that happening.  News didn’t travel fast in ancient times, but for something that big, you’d think the Babylonians, the people whose country you live in, would be telling you about it.  But we’ve heard no news about that.  I wonder if the people in Ezekiel’s neighborhood would start to doubt him? 

Do you know the feeling? Doubting God’s promises? Wondering if God is really who he says he is? If you wonder, if you doubt, you’re not alone. It is quite common among Christians and people of many faiths.

Check back to tomorrow’s post as we seek some answers about what we can do when we wait to hear from God.

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

Is God trying to pry your eyes open? – Ezekiel 12, Part 2

In the previous post, we learned that God’s people had covered their ears and closed their eyes, so that they could not see or hear him. They were giving God the cold shoulder. How does God respond? God does not close his eyes and cover his ears.  He continues to call out for the people, and he does so by asking Ezekiel to perform another strange skit.  Let’s read about it.  Pause reading this post, open your Bible to Ezekiel 12 and read verses 3-7.

What is this skit about?  Notice the word “exile” is repeated. 

About six and a half years before this skit, Ezekiel and his neighbors living in Babylon had actually experience something like this skit depicts.  They had been exiled for real.  Babylon had attacked and defeated their home city, Jerusalem, forcing Ezekiel and 10,000 others to quickly pack some belongings and leave on a 900 mile journey, walking to Babylon. 

When we humans go through deeply difficult times, we remember them, right?  For Ezekiel and those Jews, their exile from Jerusalem to Babylon was a massive life change, one that was indelibly inscribed into their memories.  They would remember the emotion of being forced to leave everything that was familiar, everything they held dear, likely saying rushed goodbyes to family and friends in Jerusalem, as Babylonian soldiers forced them to walk away.  They had no idea what they were heading to. Think about the questions running wild through their minds: “Are these soldiers going to kill us?  Where are they taking us?  How long will it take to get there?  Will they provide us food and water?  Are they going to enslave us, forcing us to endure back-breaking labor every day? What is going to happen to us???”

Remember that people in the ancient near east were not globally-minded like we are today.  They heard of Babylon, of course, but they didn’t have any images of maps in their minds.  Travel was rare and difficult.  The only exposure the average person would have of the outside world would be tales from rare travelers, or stories passed along the generations.  For Ezekiel and the 10,000 Jerusalemites, then, their exile was momentous and unforgettable. 

Now, through the skit, Ezekiel pretends to start off on exile again!  Imagine the emotion it would bring up in their hearts and minds. It seems to me that this skit would get people’s attention.  In fact, there is a repeated phrase in this section that my wife, Michelle, noticed when we were talking about the passage.  Six times it’s in there: “while they watch.”  Or, as in some translations: “in their sight.”  God wants the people to see, people who have chosen to close their eyes to him.  In this we see God’s heart.  It’s like he is getting right in front of their faces, prying open their eyes and saying, “See me!”  God wants to be known. 

There was more to Ezekiel’s skit.  He is to dig through the wall of his house, and he is to cover his face.  What was that all about?  It was theatrical, meant to get the people’s attention, God says, as a sign. A sign of what?  Was God saying that they were going to be exiled again?  Or was he saying they should pack up because they were headed home?  What could Ezekiel’s skit mean? 

Ezekiel obeys God, performs the skit, and the people watched him. Then the word of the Lord comes to him again, the next morning.  Now read Ezekiel 12, verses 8-16.

God explains the symbolism of Ezekiel’s skit.  We learn in verse 10 that the skit is an oracle, a prophecy from God, that concerns the prince of Jerusalem.  As has been the case with most of Ezekiel’s prophetic dramas, we have God giving Ezekiel, who lives in Babylon, a message about people back in Jerusalem which is 900 miles away.  This is a message the people in Jerusalem will almost certainly not receive in time to make a difference in their lives.  In fact, they might never hear about this prophecy.  So we could think it is a pointless prophecy.  It is not pointless.

As with all the previous skits and messages, they are about Jerusalem, but for the benefit of the Jews in Babylon.  Basically God is saying through the prophet, “Don’t be like your brothers and sisters in Jerusalem who are rebellious.”  God is reaching out to the Jews in Babylon, pleading with them to return to him.  Though they were covering their ears and eyes and turning their backs in rebellion to him, God is still reaching out to them.  When he reaches out to them in the form of another skit, he says to Ezekiel that the skit is about the prince of Jerusalem.  How could a skit about the prince in Jerusalem matter to the Jews in Babylon? Let’s talk about that.

First of all, who is the prince in Jerusalem?  His name was Zedekiah, and in 2 Kings chapters 24 and 25 you can read his story.  When Babylon defeated Jerusalem, and exiled the 10,000 Jews, including Ezekiel, back to Babylon, that exile included the current King Jehoiachin.  Then Babylon installed Zedekiah, also a Jew, as the new puppet king, meaning he was supposed to do whatever Babylon told him to do.  But he was an evil king, and he did not follow God’s ways. He also rebelled against Babylon, which would lead to Babylon attacking Jerusalem again and the fulfillment of the prophecies of Jerusalem’s destruction.

In other words, God is saying that what Ezekiel acted out in the skit will come to pass in real life for Zedekiah.  Babylon’s attack will result in the exile of the king in Jerusalem.  He might try to escape through a hole in the wall, he might try to hide his face, but he will be caught. He will eventually be brought to Babylon, just like the 10,000 Jews six and a half years prior.  In Babylon King Zedekiah will die, his staff and troops along with him. 

In verses 15-16, God repeats a familiar phrase we’ve heard him say many times in Ezekiel:  “They will know that I am the Lord.”  God really wants to be known by his people.  Sadly, the people have chosen to neither see nor hear him, but when this prophecy of Zedekiah’s exile and death comes to pass, then they will know.  

God wants to be known.  That is a principle we can apply to our lives.  This is God’s heart, to be in relationship with his people.  He loves us, even when we are rebellious. 

Hold that thought, as there is more to the skit in Ezekiel 12, and we’ll learn about that in the next post.

Photo by Andrea Bertozzini on Unsplash

When it feels like you cannot see or hear God – Ezekiel 12, Part 1

I love learning about humanity’s attempts to travel into space, and one of the common elements of space travel is…delays.  The astronauts go through all kinds of training, and then NASA sets the launch day.  They say goodbye to their family, get suited up, excitedly enter the spacecraft, and then NASA scrubs the launch.  The weather isn’t right, a part of the rocket tests faulty…there are a million reasons for a delay.  But one by one the problems are solved, the weather clears up, and even if they wait a few weeks, they do eventually launch.

Imagine what it would feel like, though, if NASA astronauts got ready every day, but every day NASA delayed the launch saying, “Just one more day, then we’ll be ready”?  Think about how those astronauts would feel.  After a couple weeks, they would surely be getting antsy and frustrated.  What if it went on for months?  Would they quit?  Would they start thinking, “NASA is lying to us.  NASA is screwing up something.”?  I wouldn’t fault them if they said, “I’m done. This is never going to happen.” Maybe you know the feeling of waiting and longing, but the thing you’re hoping for never happens.

Please open your Bible to Ezekiel 12.  There we’ll meet people who thought Ezekiel’s prophesies were never going to happen.  Ezekiel once said the end is near.  Remember that in Ezekiel chapter 7?  He made a big bold prediction of disaster.  But nothing happened.  Was Ezekiel’s prophecy false?  Read Ezekiel 12, verses 1-2.

In verse 1 we see what has become a familiar phrase in our study of Ezekiel, “The word of the Lord came to me.”  That phrase indicates God is now speaking, and we read in verse 1 a message from the Lord that is also familiar: the people are rebellious.  From Ezekiel’s initial encounter with God at the beginning of the book, these were nearly the first words out of God’s mouth: Israel was rebellious, clearly demonstrated by their practice of idolatry, selfish greed, and injustice.  Notice, though, how God describes this in verse 2: They have eyes that don’t see and ears that don’t hear.

This is quite a vivid image.  Think about people who are blind and deaf.  For people who have one impairment or the other, life is difficult.  They must learn how to live without one of those senses, and it is amazing how they adapt.  It is also wonderful how people over the years have developed systems, technology, and medical answers to assist those who are hearing impaired or blind. But consider what it would be like to be both deaf and blind.  Imagine how difficult it would be to communicate.  Still a deaf and blind person can learn to communicate.  They must overcome a significant challenge, but they can be in relationship with people and experience a full life.  Physical deafness and blindness are not what God is talking about, though. 

In verse 2, God is talking about people who chose to be blind and deaf.  God says that the Jews are in that situation because they chose to be rebellious.  Those Jews are not physically impaired.  They are spiritually impaired, and worse, they embraced it.  From God’s perspective, his people cannot see him or hear him, because they have chosen to abandon him. They have turned their backs on him.  They are giving God the silent treatment, the cold shoulder.

God is saying that his beloved, his chosen people, the Jews, were closing their eyes and covering the ears and saying, “I can’t hear you! I can’t see you!” whenever he spoke.  And yet at the same time, they are uncovering their ears and opening their eyes in pursuit of pagan gods.  You can see why God feels like you might feel when your friend or spouse is icy cold, not communicating, but running with joy to another person.  Do you feel God’s pain?

Years ago I to an event with a close friend, and at the event we bumped into a person my friend knew.  In what felt like a sudden shift, my friend focused his attention on the other person, for hours, and I felt excluded.  God is telling Ezekiel that he feels excluded.  But notice the surprising way God responds to the cold shoulder.  When people give us the cold shoulder, we feel hurt, upset, and we can get angry or bitter.  How does God respond? God does not close his eyes and cover his ears.  He continues to call out for the people, and he does so through Ezekiel, and through another strange skit.  In the next post, we’ll learn how God responds through the skit.

For now, consider this: if you cannot see or hear God, is it possible that he is still reaching out to you? Is it possible that you cannot see or hear him because you have closed yourself off to him? It seems to me that when we feel like we cannot hear or see God, we assume that he has left us. But what if it the truth is the opposite? What if it is we who have covered our ears and closed our eyes, running towards other things?

Photo by Benjamin Davies on Unsplash