Ezekiel is the next book of the Bible that we are examining in our blog series, and if you have ever tried to read through it, I am sure it looks odd at first. There are many visions with some exciting and vibrant details, actions done by Ezekiel in the name of God that jar us even today, and trying to understand the prophecies may leave us wondering what exactly what we have just read!!

As such, allow me to put some context to this and then attempt to explain this book and I pray that it may help you in your reading. The author, Ezekiel was a prophet and a priest, who had lived in Israel but was taken captive to Babylon when the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar invaded Judah and eventually destroyed the Temple in 587-586 BC. However, even in Babylon, God was still with his people, showing that He is not Lord just over one specific territory or country, but of all creation for He created all. He is all-powerful and directs events in heaven and on earth. Furthermore, God was not finished with his people and redemption was coming, but first it helps to put the story of Ezekiel in terms of humanity’s story in Genesis. 

As we have seen in Genesis, God created human beings with a special purpose: to be a kingdom of priests, to reflect God’s presence to creation and reflect creation’s worship back to God. However, we as human beings walked away from God and His presence, and if His presence is the source of life, then leaving that presence results only in death. Despite our fall, God’s plans were not thwarted. For in Genesis 12, God calls Abraham and says through him, the Lord will create a people who will shine as a light for all nations, showing them what it means to be a kingdom of priests, and thus, to be truly human with a right relationship with God. God even promised He personally would dwell with them like He did in Eden, and in the Tabernacle when they left Egypt and later in the Temple during Solomon’s time, God’s presence was indeed there. 

Sadly, by the time of Ezekiel, Israel too had walked away from God and His law and had refused to obey His purpose for them, instead, chasing after foreign gods and even setting them up in God’s temple! While they were in exile, the Israelites would often try to blame their misfortune on something else rather than take responsibility for their own failings, but Ezekiel says that is exactly the reason they are in exile. Israel had forsaken God, their source of life, and so Ezekiel had a vision in which God’s presence left the Temple, and in seeing this, Ezekiel knew exactly what it meant: God’s presence and protection was leaving His people and the result would be chaos. Yet, that same presence of God would go with the exiles Eastward toward Babylon, showing them that He went with them and that his love would never forsake them. 

Furthermore there is hope, for Ezekiel saw another vision in which that same presence of God eventually returned to a new Temple, and with it came a refined priesthood and prince, and a restored land with a city named, “The LORD is there!” (Ezekiel 48:35). With this future place where God will dwell, life will return and healing water would flow. 

Hundreds of years after Ezekiel this prophecy came true. The people were waiting for the glory of the LORD to return to the temple, and in Jesus Christ, His coming to earth, and his triumphal entry, that glory had indeed returned! HE is the living healing water! John’s gospel could almost be called, “Ezekiel’s prophecy fulfilled”. God indeed returned in a temple, but not one made of brick and mortar, but of flesh and blood, “and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, the glory of the one and only Son” (John 1:14). Jesus, God’s presence, had returned and with Him came healing and life. He is our Temple, our priest, our king, our sacrifice and so much more. When we trust in Him, God breathes on us the Holy Spirit which gives us life, just as He brought life back to the dry bones in Ezekiel’s vision. God restores what was once dead to new life, and so just as we were once dead to sin and corruption, we have been saved and brought to new life in Christ. 

The challenge that faced Israel is the same challenge to us today. Just as God’s presence with his people in the Old Testament involved the entrance of his glory into the temple, and the question would be would they welcome and treasure His presence among them and experience the life that flows from it like a river or would they resist and reject his presence among them and become like a valley of dried bones? We as individual Christians and as a church must ask ourselves the same question, and let us keep God’s life-giving presence in the front of our minds so that our life in Christ grows and deepens and flows out to those around us! (Col 3:2-4)

Your Brother,

Craig

The next book in our series, Lamentations is not what you may call a “happy” biblical book. It is in fact a series of mourning poems and although written thousands of years ago, they can still speak to us today in the midst of our heartaches and struggles. 

Tradition says Jeremiah wrote Lamentations, and it was written immediately following the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 BC. We must not miss how devastating this would have been to witness. If you can remember witnessing the worst national tragedy in your life, it would have felt similar and yet also far worse because back during the time of Lamentations, if your city fell, it would have been seen that either your god was angry at you or your god lost to another more powerful god. Israel saw the fall of Jerusalem as a sign of the former reason: God’s displeasure and anger at their sin. This had come after He had sent warning after warning through prophet after prophet warning His people to turn away from wrongdoing and follow Him. God had taken his commitment to be loyal to Israel as seriously as a husband commits to a bride, and yet Israel had not upheld her end of the marriage vows, so He had viewed their loyalty to other idols in terms of committing adultery against Him. Not only was Jerusalem the city destroyed, which was seen as impossible, but all of the parts of society that God’s people had been trusting in were gone. The Temple, the place that symbolized God’s presence among His people was gone. The religious rituals were gone. The king and the military and the wealth, their freedom and independence, all gone. During this time, the people were not doubt asking, “Is God Himself gone too?” The book of Lamentations answers that question at its center, “Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” (Lam. 3:22-23) In the midst of his tears and struggling to comprehend, the author clings to this one secure truth: even though we are unfaithful, God is not. His love tempers his wrath, and his compassion always accompanies his judgments. 

The reason this book can still speak to us today is because of its raw relevance. We too have those moments where we realize what we had formerly stood on for security shifts like the ever-moving sand. It is moments like those when we are forced to soberly look in disbelief at those parts of our lives we trusted in that are no longer there. The job we loved is no longer there, the family member we idolized we realize is another human like us, the culture or society does not seem to be embracing the values we esteem, and we too feel like our “Jerusalems” are crumbling underneath us. Yet “the LORD’s great love” is consistently the reason we are not consumed completely, and it is that great love that took on flesh and dwelt among us, Jesus Christ. 

The message of Lamentations 3:22-23 is worded a bit differently but carries the same thrust, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life”. Because of God’s love for us in Jesus Christ, we are not abandoned and given over to the natural consequences of our sins, namely death. However, although our eternal future with Jesus is secure, that does not mean we will not have trouble and struggle in this world. Yet the Gospel does not simply offer us eternal life after death, but a completely transformed life here and now that leads on into eternity. The Holy Spirit indwells us in this new transformed life and is able to give us God’s peace to trust Him even when our worlds turn upside-down. It is God’s very presence through the Holy Spirit that comforts us, stabilizes us, keeps our eyes forward always looking to Christ. This world is cruel and unfair, broken by sin, but God is not either of these, for He is sinless. Our world may fall to pieces but God will give us peace. It is this peace that we display in our lives in the midst of hardship that often attracts unbelievers to the gospel. We communicate through our lives that there is Someone who will never fail us and who will never fail them either, and He is inviting them to trust in Him too, because His love is available to all who would accept it.  Remember this familiar hymn lyric: Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father. There is no shadow of turning with Thee. Thou changest not, Thy compassions they fail not. As Thou hast been Thou forever will be.” In a world of constant change, remember God never does, and His love for you never will either. 

Your Brother,

Craig