Tag Archives: Ezekiel

Chapter-a-Day

Best of ’24: #8 Transformation

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For two weeks, while Wendy and I are away enjoying some warm weather, I’ll be counting down the top ten chapter-a-day posts of 2024 (based on total views and plays). It’ s always interesting which posts resonated with readers and listeners. The chapter for tomorrow’s post will be listed at the bottom.

Transformed (CaD Ezk 11) – Wayfarer

I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.
Ezekiel 11:19 (NIV)

I got to bless a friend yesterday. A few weeks ago a mutual acquaintance told me how blown away he was by a conversation the two of them had. “Tom, the person I spoke with is not the same person I knew ten years ago. He’s changed!” It was a compliment of the highest order. One friend saw in the other friend the life transformation that happens when God’s Spirit indwells a willing heart. What a cool thing.

The life of John the Apostle is another wonderful story of transformation. When Jesus first meets the fisherman and his brother, they are brash men. When a village refused to let Jesus and His disciples into the town, John and his brother suggested to Jesus that He call down fire from heaven and burn the village and all the people in it. Jesus called the pair “The Sons of Thunder” for their quick, unbridled tempers.

A few years later, John is a different person. No longer “Son of Thunder,” John has become “the disciple Jesus’ loved.” That love had a transforming effect in John’s life. It is John that Jesus chooses to give the responsibility of caring for and loving His mother after His death. John’s letters repeat the importance of love over and over and over again. Late in life, the aged John reportedly said nothing but, “Little children, love one another” repeatedly.

In today’s chapter, Ezekiel’s vision, which began back in chapter nine, comes to a conclusion. Zeke, having seen God’s judgment and anger cries out and asks God if He is any of His people will survive. God responds with a promise that a remnant will survive. Exiles like Zeke will return to Jerusalem and Israel. God then gives Zeke a fascinating metaphor, telling the prophet that He will put a “new spirit” into them, “remove their heart of stone,” and “give them a heart of flesh.”

One of the powers of metaphor is that they are layered with meaning. The Hebrew people had spent 400 years in slavery in Egypt, and Egypt was a popular place to flee in times of trouble (e.g. Mary and Joseph took flight to Egypt with baby Jesus to avoid Herod’s wrath). So the beliefs and customs of Egypt were known.

The Egyptians believed that the heart was used to judge a dead person’s worthiness for the afterlife. During the mummification process, the heart would be literally weighed. A heavy heart, weighed down with guilt and shame, would not make the cut. Those who heard Zeke’s prophetic word, would have recognized that “a heart of stone” was not a good thing. To this day, we understand that a hard heart is a bad thing.

When God says He’ll remove the heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh, there is hope of a new life. It is a beautiful picture of the transformation that occurs in the life of Jesus’ disciples. Paul wrote that anyone who is in Christ is a “new creation.” Old things pass away and new things come. The rock-hard heart is replaced with a heart of flesh, pumping new Life into the person.

In the quiet this morning, I reflected on the transformation I’ve felt in my own life over the course of forty-plus years as a disciple. Like John, like my friend, I can look back at things I felt, things I did, and things I said and feel ashamed for all of it. I’m so grateful to God that my heart has increasingly softened and I don’t feel, act, or say the things like that any more. I pray that God continues my spiritual heart-replacement therapy as long as I am on this earthly journey. I never want God’s transforming work to end in me. Ten years from now I’d like to have someone say, “Tom’s not the person he was ten years ago! He’s changed.”

Tomorrow’s Chapter: Romans 8

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!

Chapter-a-Day

Evil’s Refusal

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Evil’s Refusal (CaD Ezk 29) – Wayfarer

I will leave [Pharaoh] in the desert,
    you and all the fish of your streams.
You will fall on the open field
    and not be gathered or picked up.
I will give you as food
    to the beasts of the earth and the birds of the sky.
Exodus 29:5 (NIV)

For over a decade, my family would spend our two weeks of family vacation going to the boundary waters in northern Minnesota. We went to the same place, Camp Idlewood on Rainy Lake. There we would fish, ski, swim, and play. For a boy my age, it was an invitation to all sorts of adventures. I’ll never forget the year my father rented a 16’ john boat and a small outboard motor. I was able to explore the giant lake and its countless islands.

It’s funny how chores can become adventure when it’s something you don’t get to do every day. Every day families would return from a day of fishing and go to the “Cleaning House” which was a small shack designed to “clean” their catch. The fish were filleted and the heads, skins, and guts were dumped into five gallon buckets. Every day or so, those five gallon buckets had to be emptied. Fish guts are a natural meal for birds, especially seagulls. So, I would haul the buckets of fish guts to my little boat, and take them out to a small, uninhabited island not far from camp. There was a large are of rock along the shore and there I’d dump the guts as the seagulls began swarming in anticipation of their feast.

This memory came to mind this morning as I read today’s chapter, which opens a seven-part set of prophesies against Pharaoh and Egypt. In this opening prophetic salvo, Zeke metaphorically calls Pharaoh a “monster” in the Nile River with all the fish of the Nile stuck to his monstrous scales. He then tells Pharaoh that he and the fish stuck to his scales will be left in the desert, just like me throwing fish guts on the rocks, to be food for carrion fowl and scavenging beasts.

The Pharaoh at this time was Hophra (in Hebrew) better known by his Greek name Apries. Hophra made an unsuccessful attempt to rescue Jerusalem from the Babylonian’s siege. He attempted by diplomacy and force to raise a coalition of nations against the Babylonian Empire. When Nebuchadnezzar was laying siege to Jerusalem, Hophra brought his army up in an attempt to assist Judah, but quickly realized he was outmatched and shamefully fled back to Egypt with his tail between his legs. Eventually Hophra’s own people turned on him. The prophecies of both Jeremiah and Ezekiel proclaiming his downfall were fulfilled.

I was also struck by the fact that God’s message of doom for Egypt through Zeke ends with “Then all who live in Egypt will know that I am the Lord.” It struck me because I’m preparing a message for my local gathering of Jesus’ followers this Sunday regarding Moses and the ten “plagues” against Egypt in the story of Moses and the Exodus. Moses lived roughly 1,000 years before Ezekiel. When God tells Moses about the plagues He’s about to unleash on Egypt He tells Moses, “then the Egyptians will know that I am God.” (Ex 7:4-5). One thousand years and God is still trying to get through.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself thinking about the nature of evil. At the core, the Great Story is a story of conflict between good and evil, God and Satan, the Kingdom of God and human empire. As I’ve observed before, the Great Story ends in Revelation with Satan gathering “the kings of the earth” in a final battle against God. The presumption here is that as long as there is evil there will always be those who refuse to know, or at least acknowledge, that God is God. Egypt is a recurring reminder of that in the Great Story. Evil always refuses to know and/or acknowledge Good. When I see evil in the events and the headlines of my daily news, I am reminded that this is the Story. This spiritual conflict will continue with all of the tragic aftermath in its wake.

The question for me is which side will I serve? The answer is not in what I say, but in how I live this day.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Kingdoms Fall

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Kingdoms Fall (CaD Ezk 26) – Wayfarer

… therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against you, Tyre, and I will bring many nations against you, like the sea casting up its waves.
Ezekiel 26:3 (NIV)

This past Sunday I delivered a message among my local gathering of Jesus’ followers and I voiced the fact that the entire Great Story from Genesis to Revelation is really about the conflict between God’s Kingdom and human empire.

Human history is a study in the rise and fall of human empires. Some are long-lasting like that of the Byzantine Empire which lasted of 1100 years. The rise and fall of the Third Reich in the 20th century was, by grateful comparison, a blip on the radar at 25 years.

When it comes to the ancient Hebrew prophets, it’s really about human empires, and there was a slew of them rising and falling during the period of the prophets from 875-430 B.C. When reading the prophets like Ezekiel, it helps to have some historical context to inform the reading of the text.

The Kingdom of Tyre (modern day Lebanon) was a prominent and wealthy trading port north of Israel. There were actually two cities. One was a fortified island just off the main land. The other was on the mainland itself. The Kingdom was known for their cedar forest and those cedars were exported by kings in the region for their pet building projects. Solomon used the cedars of Tyre for building his temple.

The relationship between ancient Israel and Tyre was testy. Evil Queen Jezebel was a princess of Tyre who was married to Ahab as a political alliance. She famously tried to rid Israel of the worship of Yahweh and import her native Baal worship. God raised up the prophet Elijah to oppose Jezebel and things didn’t end well for her.

Today’s chapter is the first of three prophetic messages against Tyre. In Ezekiel’s day, prophesying the fall of Tyre would probably have made his listeners laugh. Tyre seemed indestructible. First, it was a major trade port, the source of tremendous wealth, and strategic trade partner with it’s ships bringing in goods from all over the Mediterranean and northern Africa. Then, of course, was the fact that it was two cities. If you destroyed the mainland city, you still had to figure out how to lay siege to the island city.

Ezekiel prophesies that “many nations” would come against Tyre and lay siege to it. Verses 8-9 are a very succinctly detailed description of the stages of siege warfare in that day (Ezekiel and his fellow exiles were living witnesses of how it worked):

He will ravage your settlements on the mainland with the sword…

A big part of the success of siege warfare on a walled city was to starve the people inside. The army would start by getting control of the settlements around the city that helped provide crops and food inside the city. This broke off supply lines and starvation would ultimately occur within the walled city.

…he will set up siege works against you, build a ramp up to your walls and raise his shields against you.

The next phase of the siege was to get to the top of the walls to take out the city’s defenses. Defenders would stand on the wall and shoot down at the sieging army or pour boiling oil on top of them. A ramp was typically constructed leading up a section of the city wall and “siege towers” would be constructed and rolled up the ramp to get to the top of the wall and eliminate the defenders there.

He will direct the blows of his battering rams against your walls and demolish your towers with his weapons.

Once in control of the top of the wall, the siege army could concentrate on breaking down a section of wall so that the army could flood in. There were multiple ways they could accomplish this. The gates were so fortified that sometimes it was easier to ram through a weaker section or to dig a tunnel under the wall to weaken the wall and cause it to collapse.

Ezekiel’s prophecy was actually fulfilled. Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Tyre for thirteen years. He destroyed the city on the mainland and was particularly ruthless given how long it took. Babylon didn’t have a lot of experience with naval warfare and he failed to take the island city. A hundred or so years later Alexander the Great would come through and finish the job. He was even more ruthless than Nebuchadnezzar, and historians were aghast at the slaughter. He killed 10,000 men, women, and children, sold 30,000 into slavery, and had all the young men of fighting age crucified.

In the quiet this morning, it leaves me pondering the rise and fall of empires. My friend, Chuck, was head of marketing for Billy Graham films when they made The Hiding Place. It’s the story of Corrie Ten Boom whose family helped hide Jews from the Nazis. Her whole family were sent to concentration camps. She was the only one who survived, released from the camp because of a clerical error. When Chuck asked her why she wanted to make a movie of her story she answered, “To prepare American Christians for what they are going to have to go through someday.”

Chuck told me this when I was in high school. It’s seemed crazy back then. After the last eight years or so, I’m not so sure. I am pretty sure that it’s much like the people of Ezekiel’s day thinking he was crazy to predict the fall of Tyre. History teaches me that kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall. Sometimes the fall is sudden and unexpected. Who knows what the future holds. I prefer to know and trust Who holds the future.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Refined in the Fire

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Refined in the Fire (CaD Ezk 24) – Wayfarer

“‘Now your impurity is lewdness. Because I tried to cleanse you but you would not be cleansed from your impurity, you will not be clean again until my wrath against you has subsided.’”
Ezekiel 24:13 (NIV)

As I reflect back on my life journey, there are seasons of the journey that stand out for their pain and struggle. There was the season of my prodigal-like rebellious behavior and the painful pig-slop-like consequences of those mistakes. There was the season of my divorce which created pain on multiple levels of life and relationships. There was also the season of Wendy’s and my journey through infertility.

The truth is that each of these seasons were crucial periods of spiritual growth for me. There were lessons that I learned about faith, trust, perseverance, patience, forgiveness, repentance, and grace that I would not have learned any other way.

There is no way around the fact that human spiritual progress requires pain. Conversely, a life of ease and affluence is a surefire recipe for spiritual immaturity. And a related truth is what M. Scott Peck discovered in his research for The People of the Lie: evil only responds to the power of blunt force.

I found today’s chapter is fascinating on multiple levels. It is Ezekiel’s last chapter of doom-and-gloom judgment against God’s own people. The object and theme of his prophetic messages changes from this point on. Back in chapter 3, God made Ezekiel mute other than when he was given a prophetic message. With word that his prophecies concerning the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem had indeed come to pass, God frees Ezekiel’s lips from being muted (kind of like John the Baptist’s dad, Zechariah, in Luke 2).

I also found a connection in today’s chapter to a message I’m preparing to deliver to my local gathering of Jesus’ followers this Sunday. God tells His people through Ezekiel that their exile and Jerusalem’s downfall is like a metallurgist’s fire that refines and purifies the precious metal “so that its impurities may be melted and its deposit burned away.”

This is exactly the same metaphor that Peter picked up on when he wrote in his first letter to believers scattered across the Roman empire by persecution:

In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
1 Peter 1:6-7 (NIV)

Just like Ezekiel’s message, Peter sees that trials in life are God’s version of a refiner’s fire. I struggle, I cry out, I pray, I mourn, I even scream. Yet the entire process is teaching me what is truly important, how much I need God, how to trust the Story God is telling in and through me, and how to endure.

If you want to find someone with spiritual maturity don’t look for an adult trust fund child who has lived in extravagant affluence since the day he was born and has never worked a day in his life. If you want find spiritual maturity, look for the individual whose life has sent them to hell and back. You’re far more likely to find it there.

In the quiet this morning, I’m uttering a prayer of praise and thanks for the seasons of pain and struggle I’ve been through and for all the ways that they have spiritually refined me. And, like Paul states in his letter to the believers in Philippi, I’m not saying that I have already obtained some pinnacle of spiritual maturity. Far from it. I’m sure that there are seasons of struggle to come, and deeper spiritual lessons to learn. And so, “I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.”

And so, I enter another day on the journey.

Have a great weekend, friend.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Interpersonal and International

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Interpersonal and International (CaD Ezk 23) – Wayfarer

“Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Since you have forgotten me and turned your back on me, you must bear the consequences of your lewdness and prostitution.”
Ezekiel 23:35 (NIV)

In this election year, the headlines and pundits have gone into overdrive in analyzing the United States’ relationships with the international community and certain individual nations. Foreign policy is a major issue. I have regularly read think pieces purporting that World War III is near. Lord, have mercy on us.

I have grown up reading and hearing a euphemism that addresses political alliances between nations. That euphemism is that one nation “is in bed with” another nation.

I’m no etymologist, but given today’s chapter, it’s obvious that the euphemism has roots in the ancient prophets like Ezekiel.

In today’s chapter, God through Ezekiel offers a raw and rather shocking metaphor regarding the unfaithfulness of the divided kingdoms of Israel (Samaria) and Judah (Jerusalem). They are presented as daughters of the same mother who become prostitutes, getting “in bed” with other nations. The language is neither subtle nor ambiguous, and it would certainly make my late mother blush. Ezekiel’s message is certainly worthy of a parental advisory as he describes one wantonly promiscuous “daughter” as lusting after her lovers, “whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses.” (I’m sorry, who said the Bible is “boring?”)

It was, of course, the shock value that God was trying to leverage in giving this explicit message through Zeke. He was trying to get through to His people who, the chapter reports, were committing acts of child sacrifice in Solomon’s Temple, the temple dedicated to Him who demanded of His people that they look out for, protect, and provide for orphans, widows, and foreigners. To get through to their shockingly hard hearts, God is resorting to a shockingly hardcore metaphor.

So what does this have to do with me?

There are a couple of thoughts rattling around in my head and heart as I meditate on today’s chapter.

First, my 40+ years of being a follower of Jesus has taught me that God is not like the uptight “Church Lady” type caricature that the world likes to paint. Though I admit that certain self-proclaimed followers help to promote the notion. When Jesus talked about His willingness to leave the flock to rescue one last sheep, He was speaking of the great lengths to which He would go to get through to the lost. In Ezekiel’s message we learn that He’s willing to get downright crude, if necessary, to get through to deaf ears and the thick walls of a hardened heart.

Second, I continue to believe that Jesus’ teachings were specifically addressed to individuals and intended to direct a person’s interpersonal relationships and behaviors. They were not intended as prescriptions for international politics. When one confuses the two, things get wonky.

That said, it does not mean that God is not concerned about kingdoms and nations. The Great Story makes clear that He very much is concerned with kingdoms and nations. They play a crucial part in the Great Story, as today’s prophetic chapter makes clear. It is, however, a very different type of relationship. The Great Story makes clear that the nations and “kings of the earth” are currently under the dominion of the “Prince of this World” who, while standing condemned, will lead “the kings of the earth” into an ultimate conflict against God (Revelation 19:19).

So, where does that leave me?

In the quiet this morning I am reminded of the things that I control and the things that I don’t control. I control my thoughts, words, and behaviors. As a disciple of Jesus, this means following His instructions regarding those thoughts, words, and behaviors in my interpersonal relationships, my daily life, and my dutiful citizenship. It means that I am mindful and prayerful about current events and the individuals affected by them, being generous and active as I am able and led to do so. But it also means having faith with those things that I don’t control, and trusting God with the Story He is authoring with each passing day.

Speaking of which, it’s time to once again enter the fray. Have a great day, friend.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

The Scepter and the Sword

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The Scepter and the Sword (CaD Ezk 21) – Wayfarer

“‘Shall we rejoice in the scepter of my royal son? The sword despises every such stick.’”
Ezekiel 21:10b (NIV)

Along my life journey, I have observed that the political divide here in the States can arguably be boiled down to those who don’t trust the government to do anything well and want to diminish its role in our lives versus those who trust the government to do everything for us and therefore want to entrust more and more of our lives to it.

One of the things that history has taught me is that while the world changes, the one thing that does not change is the human condition and, therefore, all the human systems that we humans create. It’s why Shakespeare is still so powerfully relevant today. Arguably, no one has ever captured the human condition for the purposes of both comedy and tragedy as the Bard.

In today’s chapter, I found that the ancient Israelites were dealing with their own sense of safety and trust in their government, a monarchy founded on the royal line of David.

Throughout history, the staff or scepter has been a symbol of authority, royalty, and command. When God called Moses to lead His people out of Egypt, He sent Moses with a staff that became a metaphor for God’s power and authority. Archaeologists have uncovered an ivory pomegranate that was used at the top of a scepter with an inscription indicating it may have very well been used by the priests in Solomon’s Temple. Statues and artwork of both royalty and idols frequently showed them holding a scepter.

The Israelites of Ezekiel’s day, living in Judah and Jerusalem, had been raised to revere the King as a member of David’s royal house. It had been proclaimed that God would establish David’s throne forever, and they put a lot of stock in this promise. Many believed that as long as a member of David’s house was on the throne God would protect them and prosper them. Certainly the King had prophets on his payroll who would proclaim this loudly in an effort to keep the peace. People believed it.

Ezekiel, however, is given a prophetic vision contrasting the scepter of the royal house of David to the sword of God’s judgment in the hands of the King of Babylon. The prophetic word begins with the sword despising and mocking the “stick” in the king’s hand. The prophecy continues to explain that the sword is more powerful than the scepter, and warns the people not to trust their king and his royal prophets.

The prophecy ends on a Messianic note:

“‘A ruin! A ruin! I will make it a ruin! The crown will not be restored until he to whom it rightfully belongs shall come; to him I will give it.’”
Ezekiel 21:27 (NIV)

As a follower of Jesus, I couldn’t help but note that the monarchy in Jerusalem did end with Babylon’s siege. There was no king in Jerusalem until Jesus rode in on a donkey and Matthew remembered the words of the prophet Zechariah:

“Say to Daughter Zion,
    ‘See, your king comes to you,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
    and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’

In the quiet this morning, I am reminded of my dual citizenship. Yes, I am a citizen of the United States, but as a disciple of Jesus I am also a citizen of God’s heavenly kingdom. The former is human and temporal, the latter is divine and eternal. My citizenship in God’s Kingdom does not diminish my earthly citizenship or my responsibility to be an active and participatory citizen on earth as I have heard people argue. On the contrary, as an ambassador of God’s Kingdom on this earth I am required to be a more dutiful and engaged member of society, respecting those in authority and acting on a daily basis to make life on earth a better place for my fellow human beings for Heaven’s sake.

With that in mind, I am also mindful that the one thing that does not change on this earth is the human condition, unless it becomes subject to the power of God’s Holy Spirit. The end of the Great Story as told in Revelation is a parallel to Ezekiel’s prophecy in today’s chapter. God’s sword (pictured as the Words from Jesus’ mouth; see Rev 19:15) standing against the scepters of the Prince of this World and all the kingdoms of this world.

Despite knowing and believing the ending, my role in this Great Story is to be an ambassador of God’s Kingdom here on earth today. And that means being a good citizen, and operating out of love in everything I say and do. Here we go…

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Trust the Story

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Trust the Story (CaD Ezk 17) – Wayfarer

“‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will take a shoot from the very top of a cedar and plant it; I will break off a tender sprig from its topmost shoots and plant it on a high and lofty mountain.’”
Ezekiel 17:22 (NIV)

As I write this, the 2024 Presidential election is 47 days away. Yesterday morning, Wendy and I found ourselves finding other news to read. We are so tired of reading about the election and the prognostications about what will or won’t happen if one candidate or the other wins. There’s also the daily clairvoyant journalistic pieces about our enemies and what they must be thinking and preparing for should one candidate or the other win. It reminds me of 2004 when The Guardian published a piece about official predictions that in less than 20 years major European cities will drown under rising seas and Britain will become a Siberian-like climate. Well, it’s now 2024.

Editors know fortune telling and doomsday predictions always make good click-bait.

The political intrigue is, of course, real. Nations and empires are always posturing and looking out for their own interests. This has always been true in human history. Ezekiel’s prophetic message in today’s chapter is predicated on it.

Jerusalem and the nation of Judah happened to lie right at the crossroads between empires. Egypt to the southwest, Babylon and Assyria to the northeast, and the infant Greek and Roman empires soon to be birthed to the northwest. Empires, of course, compete with one another in a global game of King of the Mountain to control the most territory and wealth. As Ezekiel is writing the two super powers are Babylon and Egypt. Babylon has the upper-hand and Jerusalem is a vassal state of the Babylonian empire with a treaty to be loyal subjects.

The king in Jerusalem is a man named Zedekiah. He’s playing political poker and has gone all-in with Egypt, breaking his treaty with Babylon. Interesting to note that some scholars claim that treaties like that between the king of Babylon and the King of Judah were vows made to their respective deities, such as, “May my Lord slay me if I break this treaty.”

What’s fascinating about Ezekiel and the other prophets of his day, is that God is spiritually at work behind the scenes of the history taking place. The book of Daniel makes it clear that God is at work in the person of Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar. God is taking an intimate interest in the individuals and the empires.

In today’s chapter, Zeke’s message is an allegory addressing Zedekiah’s betrayal of his treaty with Nebuchadnezzar. God takes Zed’s betrayal personally and considers that Zed had broken a covenant with God himself, lending credence to the notion that when he swore an oath of loyalty to Nebuchadnezzar it was an oath made to the Lord. Once again, Zeke is delivering bad news. Jerusalem and Zedekiah will pay the consequences for Zedekiah’s bad gamble.

For the second chapter in a row, however, Zeke’s message ends with a Messianic prophecy of hope. God declares that He Himself will plant a sprig on top of the mountains of Israel that will grow into a proverbial Tree of Life. It’s branches will bear fruit (sound familiar?) and “bird of every kind” will nest in it and find shelter in its branches.

As a disciple of Jesus, I once again find in Ezekiel’s prophetic message some comfort in our own crazy political climate. I do believe that all of human history is part of the ebb and flow of the Great Story that God has authored from Genesis to Revelation. I do believe as a disciple of Jesus that my citizenship is ultimately in God’s Kingdom, and that I have a responsibility on this earthly journey to respect the human authority under which I reside. I’m called to honorably live and participate as a citizen. If I really believe what I say I believe, then I can trust that no matter what happens 47 days from now it is part of the Story.

I trust the Story.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Explicit Sin, Explicit Message

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At every street corner you built your lofty shrines and degraded your beauty, spreading your legs with increasing promiscuity to anyone who passed by.
Ezekiel 16:25 (NIV)

Jerusalem is a fascinating city. It is a city filled with tensions. And it is amazing to experience. It’s crazy to think that a tiny little Canaanite town thousands of years old became, and remains to this day, the most political and religious hot spot of the entire world.

Today’s long chapter is a prophetic message God gave to Ezekiel specifically about the city of Jerusalem. To make sense of Ezekiel’s message, it helps to know a little about Jerusalem’s history.

Jerusalem began as a Canaanite village. It was David who made it his Capital city. At the time he did so, it was a Jebusite city. Only after David’s reign was it considered Israelite. Its multi-cultural history made it a city of political and religious tension from the beginning.

Ezekiel’s message is a long metaphorical story about a non-Jewish baby girl thrown into a field and left to die. God wills the girl to live, cares for her as she grows, and when she flowers into a woman He marries her. She, however, is unfaithful to God, her husband. She becomes an adulterer and a temple prostitute for pagan worship. She sacrifices her children in pagan rituals. Eventually, she then runs after her clients and freely gives herself to them seeking their protection.

If you read the chapter, and I encourage you to do so, it gets rather graphic in its descriptives of her “spreading her legs” for her neighbors and even describes one of them, Egypt, as having an – ahem – very large penis. I confess my curiosity this morning and, just for fun, I pulled up that verse in Bible Gateway and compared every English translation to see how translators handled the reference. Fascinating, some ignored it completely. Some disguised it in vague euphemisms such as “great of flesh” and “lustful.” Others went with a little more specific “well-endowed,” “large member,” or “large genitals.”

Of course, Ezekiel was pulling no punches and the people of his day would have known exactly what he was talking about. He was accurately describing actual Egyptian fertility idols, common in that day, depicting an Egyptian man with a protruding giant erect penis.

And this is the point. The prophets like Ezekiel get very graphic in their messages because the extreme nature of the sins that they were addressing, including ritualized sexual immorality and ritual child sacrifice.

I have to remember that Ezekiel is living in Babylon and the Babylonians had their own version of sex and fertility cults and rituals. The Ishtar Festival, in particular was known for its sexual and moral debauchery. This may very well have fueled the metaphorical rawness of his message.

The adulterous wife was an apt description of Jerusalem. While it had become the chosen city of God’s people, the city itself remained the hometown of both Jews and pagan Canaanites. The pagan residents may have politically gone along with prevailing wind of Jewish authority, but it would always struggle to be faithful to the God of David.

God’s judgment on Jerusalem is pronounced as the just consequences of her adultery, prostitution, infanticide, and social injustices. What is fascinating, however, is that this judgment is not final. God promises to remain faithful, to restore, and to redeem His bride. Not only that, but God declares that He will personally make atonement for her sins:

So I will establish my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the Lord. Then, when I make atonement for you for all you have done…

Fast forward about 500 years and this is exactly what Jesus did when He died on the cross outside the very city of Jerusalem, over which He lovingly laments:

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate.”

With Jesus, the metaphor switches from Jerusalem being the bride to Jerusalem being the prodigal child. Jesus moves the bride metaphor and applies it to His followers. Which, for me, means that as the bride I find in Ezekiel’s explicit message to Jerusalem both a warning and a comforting truth. If I stray from Jesus, I can expect to experience the consequences of my thoughts, words, and actions. However, while it’s easy to focus on Jerusalem’s sins, the most amazing and important piece of the message is God’s sacrificial love and faithfulness in spite of those sins. This reminds me that no matter how much I stray or how deeply I may fall into sin, His sacrificial love and infinite grace will always extend further and deeper.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

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God’s True Desire

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God’s True Desire (CaD Ezk 14) – Wayfarer

…even if these three men—Noah, Daniel and Job—were in it, they could save only themselves by their righteousness, declares the Sovereign Lord.
Ezekiel 14:14 (NIV)

There was a credit card company who used to use the tag line: “Membership has its privileges.” And, there are certain places in life when this is true. After three decades of regular business travel, I now have certain lifetime perks as a member of various hotel and airline loyalty clubs. It certainly makes travel a little easier.

I have observed along my life journey that it’s easy to think that being a member of a church or denomination has its privileges, as well. There is, however, danger in that line of thinking. Jesus repeatedly reminded the most religious people of His day about this. Just as Ezekiel is doing in his prophetic messages.

In today’s chapter, Ezekiel is given a prophetic word for the elders who served as leaders of the exiles in Babylon. God warns them of the people’s continued idolatry and specifies that they have “set up idols in their hearts.” The original Hebrew is, however more aptly translated “set up idols upon their hearts.” It was customary and fashionable in ancient Babylon for people to wear idols and amulets on necklaces. It is possible that the Hebrew exiles had taken up this practice themselves.

In his prophetic message, Zeke mentions that God’s anger was so great that even if “Noah, Daniel, and Job” were present they alone would be spared. To Ezekiel’s listeners, this would have been a brash statement that’s lost on modern readers.

The Hebrews were proud of their status of being children of Israel, referring to Israel (aka Jacob), the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham. But before Israel or the people of Israel existed, there were characters of antiquity regarded for being righteous. They were never considered Hebrews because they existed before the Hebrews existed and were therefore considered non-Jewish gentiles.

Two of these characters we know from the Great Story itself. Noah and Job. The third figure, Daniel, is not the Daniel we know. That Daniel, of the lion’s den fame, was a contemporary of Zeke, and his story is being lived at the same time Zeke is delivering his prophesies. The Daniel Zeke is referencing is found in non-Biblical ancient texts from Canaan. They mention an ancient king from the region named Dan-el who was a man known for his incredible righteousness and justice. He cared for the widows, the orphans, and ruled with unparalleled goodness.

I find two important lessons in Zeke’s reference to these three men.

First, they were characters renown for their righteous faith and corresponding lives. Noah was a man of righteousness and goodness while the world around him was going to hell in a hand-basket. Job, despite his incredible suffering at the hands of the evil one, refused to curse God and held fast to his faith in God despite the physical, mental, and spiritual trials his suffering put him through. Dan-el was a man of justice who cared for the poor, the needy, and the outcast.

Throughout the prophets, it’s easy to focus on the idolatry that is the surface problem the Hebrews are dealing with. But it’s not just the idolatry that God is mad about. It’s the consequences of the idolatry in which the people have become self-centered, arrogant, and immoral. They aren’t doing the things that God desires most: to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with Him.

It’s important to recognize that in referencing three gentile characters from antiquity who were not Israelites, Zeke was making the point that even gentiles who didn’t have the Law of Moses acted more righteously than God’s people were. They should not expect that simply being a member of God’s people to mean they had the privilege of escaping God’s judgment. It would not shield them from God’s anger because God even considered non-Jewish gentiles more righteous than they.

I’m reminded in the quiet this morning that even today it’s easy to fall into the trap of dutiful religion (e.g. being member of a church, throwing a buck in the plate, volunteering) while ignoring the things that God tells us He really cares about. God’s true desire is that I live daily life in a way that reflects His love, generosity, mercy, and righteousness. That includes how I treat my wife and family, how I live with my neighbors, how I conduct my business, and how I conduct myself in every situation. If my heart isn’t seeking after God’s Kingdom and His righteousness, then my religious acts and church membership are a hollow waste of time.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Transformation

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Transformed (CaD Ezk 11) – Wayfarer

I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.
Ezekiel 11:19 (NIV)

I got to bless a friend yesterday. A few weeks ago a mutual acquaintance told me how blown away he was by a conversation the two of them had. “Tom, the person I spoke with is not the same person I knew ten years ago. He’s changed!” It was a compliment of the highest order. One friend saw in the other friend the life transformation that happens when God’s Spirit indwells a willing heart. What a cool thing.

The life of John the Apostle is another wonderful story of transformation. When Jesus first meets the fisherman and his brother, they are brash men. When a village refused to let Jesus and His disciples into the town, John and his brother suggested to Jesus that He call down fire from heaven and burn the village and all the people in it. Jesus called the pair “The Sons of Thunder” for their quick, unbridled tempers.

A few years later, John is a different person. No longer “Son of Thunder,” John has become “the disciple Jesus’ loved.” That love had a transforming effect in John’s life. It is John that Jesus chooses to give the responsibility of caring for and loving His mother after His death. John’s letters repeat the importance of love over and over and over again. Late in life, the aged John reportedly said nothing but, “Little children, love one another” repeatedly.

In today’s chapter, Ezekiel’s vision, which began back in chapter nine, comes to a conclusion. Zeke, having seen God’s judgment and anger cries out and asks God if He is any of His people will survive. God responds with a promise that a remnant will survive. Exiles like Zeke will return to Jerusalem and Israel. God then gives Zeke a fascinating metaphor, telling the prophet that He will put a “new spirit” into them, “remove their heart of stone,” and “give them a heart of flesh.”

One of the powers of metaphor is that they are layered with meaning. The Hebrew people had spent 400 years in slavery in Egypt, and Egypt was a popular place to flee in times of trouble (e.g. Mary and Joseph took flight to Egypt with baby Jesus to avoid Herod’s wrath). So the beliefs and customs of Egypt were known.

The Egyptians believed that the heart was used to judge a dead person’s worthiness for the afterlife. During the mummification process, the heart would be literally weighed. A heavy heart, weighed down with guilt and shame, would not make the cut. Those who heard Zeke’s prophetic word, would have recognized that “a heart of stone” was not a good thing. To this day, we understand that a hard heart is a bad thing.

When God says He’ll remove the heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh, there is hope of a new life. It is a beautiful picture of the transformation that occurs in the life of Jesus’ disciples. Paul wrote that anyone who is in Christ is a “new creation.” Old things pass away and new things come. The rock-hard heart is replaced with a heart of flesh, pumping new Life into the person.

In the quiet this morning, I reflected on the transformation I’ve felt in my own life over the course of forty-plus years as a disciple. Like John, like my friend, I can look back at things I felt, things I did, and things I said and feel ashamed for all of it. I’m so grateful to God that my heart has increasingly softened and I don’t feel, act, or say the things like that any more. I pray that God continues my spiritual heart-replacement therapy as long as I am on this earthly journey. I never want God’s transforming work to end in me. Ten years from now I’d like to have someone say, “Tom’s not the person he was ten years ago! He’s changed.”

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.