Skip to main content

Reflections on Ezekiel 4-5

Israel is in a bit of trouble here. Ezekiel has just put on this big show so that the exiles at the time and the rest of us now might learn from it. Remember that Ezekiel is not in Jerusalem, Judah, or even Israel as he is acting out this prophesy. Ezekiel is a thirty-year-old man who would like nothing more than to be a priest in Jerusalem instead he is sitting by the probably very dirty water near his refugee camp and then spending much of his time lying on his side eating food cooked on animal dung and doing everything else mentioned in this book. 

The message Ezekiel seems to be giving the people in the refugee camp with him is this: It seems that the people were comforting themselves in their exile by saying that God would never let anything happen to Jerusalem and that He would never let anything happen to the temple in Jerusalem; some people even believed that God actually lived just there – even though Jerusalem had already been overrun once and they themselves have been deported. They seemed to think that they could do whatever they wanted and because they are God’ chosen people it doesn’t matter. Ezekiel is telling them here that is does matter how we treat God and how we treat each other. They were chosen to be God’s servants taking care of those in need and instead they began to treat God and others as if HE was their servants. Ezekiel says Israel, Judah and Jerusalem were even more selfish than the other nations that God hadn’t chosen to show and tell the world how to serve God and others. 

 

Israel believed that God was on their side no matter what; so it didn’t matter how they acted they would be safe and secure, but the truth is different. The truth is that as long as Israel was on God’s side, they would be safe and secure no matter what. That is VERY different! And we show we are on God’s side by putting our love for God and our love for our neighbour into action. 

 

This is my encouragement to us today. Stay close to God! Life will get tough. You may never wind up on the banks of a dirty river running through a refugee camp… but you might. You may have something that effects you just as roughly or worse too! But here is the important truth, as long as we remain close to God looking to Him and looking after our neighbour, everything will be alright. 

 

Let us pray. 

 

Lord God we thank you that you are the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, and as long as we remain in you everything will be alright – even when it isn’t. You can see us through any storm. Thank you. 


 

x

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Psalm 147:7-11: Does God Prohibit the Kilt?

  7 Sing to the Lord with grateful praise;     make music to our God on the harp.   8 He covers the sky with clouds;     he supplies the earth with rain     and makes grass grow on the hills. 9 He provides food for the cattle     and for the young ravens when they call.   10 His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse,     nor his delight in the legs of a man [or ‘the warrior’]; 11 the Lord delights in those who fear him,     who put their hope in his unfailing love.   Psalm 147:10 : “His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of a man.” I thought this was an appropriate passage to look at on Robbie Burns Day. For Christmas one year Susan bought me some Bible Commentaries on Psalms. In one of these books the author, Peter C. Craigie, from Scotland, writes:   …. It was the custom in Scotland for boys to ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Poor No More! Count me in! (Mt 26:11, Mk 14:7, Jn 12:8, Dt 15:11)

Matthew 26:11 (Mark 14:7, John 12:8) Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 15:11 in saying, “the poor will always be with you”   As this is the case, Ignacio Ellacuria says, in essence, the great salvific task is to evangelize the poor so that out of their poverty they may attain the spirit necessary first to escape their indulgence and oppression, second to put an end to oppressive structures, and third to be used to inaugurate a new heaven and a new earth, where sharing trumps accumulating and where there is time to hear and enjoy God’s voice in the heart of the material world and in the heart of human history. [3]   I think that is very important. We need to evangelize the poor. We know what the word evangelize means, right? It comes from the Greek word ‘euangelion’, which means ‘good message’ or ‘good news’. [4]  We need to share the good news with the poor. Jesus, as recorded in Luke 4:18, in his very early sermon in the synagogue in his very own hometown quoted the prophet Isaia...
Post a Comment
Read more

Resurrection and Frankenstein's Creation (2 Corinthians 5:17 and Revelation 21 3b-4)

 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!  We went to see Frankenstein the Ballet last night. If anyone knows that story. The beginning is like the book. Dr. Frankenstein makes a creation out of the parts of corpses who had had terrible things happen in their lives - and then he brings life to the new creation and it becomes whole - with a whole new lease on life. A new chance to live. No matter all the awful stuff that had happened before. Now - the book actually ends poorly after that but the ballet does not. The ballet includes a story of Giselle. This bride, who herself suffered a horrible fate, learned forgiveness and is resurrected. She meets Frankenstein's creation; they fall in love - and start off again, this time living a transformed life. Revelation 21:3b-4: God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or ...
Post a Comment
Read more