Gadfly's Muse

Ezekiel 19 & 20: For My Name's Sake

Image: "Voice In The Wilderness", 2009, Middle Ridge UMC, Copp Hollow Road Wellsboro PA

Ezekiel 20:9  But I acted for My name’s sake, that it should not be profaned before the Gentiles among whom they were, in whose sight I had made Myself known to them, to bring them out of the land of Egypt.

Ezekiel 20:37–38  “I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant; 38 I will purge the rebels from among you, and those who transgress against Me; I will bring them out of the country where they dwell, but they shall not enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

Ezekiel 20:41–42 I will accept you as a sweet aroma when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will be hallowed in you before the Gentiles. 42 Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when I bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for which I raised My hand in an oath to give to your fathers.

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If you visit the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania, as everyone should, you should not just go to the easy "tourist" areas.  Both sides of the canyon offer their own appeal but the access roads to the "far side" traverse some pretty wild country.  Right smack dab in the middle of this area, situated at a "T" intersection, sits this little old church.  There are no houses nearby or visible from its location yet it is well maintained and has signs of use.  The web tells me that the little congregation still uses "hill song" worship and I can imagine the plain, country nature of the music.  It was locked so I couldn't tell whether there was a piano in there but acapella singing has a long history in these parts.  I can imagine, in its hey-day, that there were some thunderous sermons preached, some sweet "extended family" fellowship enjoyed, a good deal of Sunday picnic dinners consumed, and many a quiet buggy or wagon ride home undertaken through the yellow and gold leaves of a Pennsylvania fall.

The point is: never does the Gospel sound out so clearly as when it is surrounded by and contrasted with the wilderness.

The Israelites forgot this and they joined the wilderness rather than standing against it.  God's people from the beginning of creation and after the Fall, were designed to be a "sign" and a "witness" to the unbelieving world around them.  In 20:9, above, God reminds the Israelite elders through Ezekiel, that He had made HImself known to the Gentiles through Israel when He brought them out of Egypt.  The Egyptians at that time were under no illusions.  The plagues and terrors of God's judgments were fresh in their minds.  None of their "gods" had proved powerful compared to the God of the Israelites.  In fact, their gods had proved to be "no gods at all."  Many of the Egyptians were so impressed that they willingly gave goods and wealth to the Hebrews as they began their journey.  Many went along with them.  A witness had been presented... God's Name had been Hallowed before the eyes of the world.

The Israelites in the OT and the Church of Jesus Christ in the NT have his same basic function.  In them and through them, the abiding reality of the One True God is to be hallowed.   God is jealous for His Name, that is, for His reputation.  When Jesus taught us to pray "Hallowed be Thy Name", He was not just speaking a platitude.  He was praying that God would cause His Name to be regarded as holy throughout the entire world as God's will is done on earth even as it is in Heaven.   

But what happens when God's name is not hallowed in the surrounding culture?  God's people are not usually isolated from the social order at large.  They daily interact with unbelievers and practicing pagans.  There is great pressure to "blend in".  After all, as the oriental proverb goes, "it is the nail that stands above the rest that gets hammered."  So God's people lose their distinctiveness when immersed in the culture.  The inevitable result will be that their congregation will not want to hear exhortations to reverse this situation.  They will desire messages and teachings which will not "rock the boat."  They will take the analogy of "leaven in a loaf" and emphasize the leaven's secret presence rather than its powerful effect.  

This was the process, I think, which undermined Israel and Judah.  There came a point where the fire died down to only a few embers and God's people lost all the foundation of strength and witness.  

God judges them clearly.  His hand will be raised against them "for My Name's sake."  As God saved them by mighty works so that He would be known as the One Who Saves, so His overthrow of Judah & Israel was unto the end that He would be known as the One Who Judges.

As the wild country around us grows more dense and dangerous, it would be wise for God's people to remember their calling.  We were created for this.  This is where we find our reason for being.  God's Name is to be hallowed among us corporately so that we may be equipped to hallow His name individually sometimes at great risk.  Daniel did not wind up in the lion's den because he "blended in."  God was hallowed in his life by his actions and stand before then.  God's name was then hallowed in the lion's den by the manner in which He proved Daniel's witness to be true and faithful.

The question we must face is simple:  Do we have the faith to do what the Israelites failed to do and which Daniel succeeded in doing?  It is not a question of what we should be doing... it is a question of whether we have faith to do it or not.

 

 

 

Ezekiel 17 & 18: Don't Blame It On Previous Generations...

Image: "As It Flows",2013, Kepler Cascades, Firehole River, Yellowstone Nat. Pk., Wyoming

Ezekiel 18:19–20  “Yet you say, ‘Why should the son not bear the guilt of the father?’ Because the son has done what is lawful and right, and has kept all My statutes and observed them, he shall surely live. 20 The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.

Ezekiel 18:28 Because he considers and turns away from all the transgressions which he committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die.

Ezekiel 18:31–32 Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel? 32 For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,” says the Lord GOD. “Therefore turn and live!”

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There's an ongoing debate about how much, if any, modern generations still bear the guilt of previous generations' sins.  It is asserted that because of those sins there are gross inequities still present in how various cultural and ethnic groups are viewed, treated, and even oppressed.  There is even talk of "reparations" paid to current members of the Black community for the indignities put upon them in the historical institution of slavery.  These questions arouse intense passions, on both sides.  It seems to me that Ezekiel's words in these chapters bear on how they should be answered.

The Lord speaks through Ezekiel and dramatically repudiates sin.  He makes no room for wickedness.  If a man sins then he bears the responsibility for that sins.  If a man does good and seeks after righteousness then "that righteousness shall be upon himself."  In both instances, God makes it clear that the children of either man do not stand before God based on what their father has done.  No sinner can claim God's reward because his father was righteous.  Similarly, no regenerated sinner who has, in his own life hungered after righteousness, will be condemned because of his father's depravity.  God's view of man is collective, yes, but membership in the righteous collective is individual... and vice-versa.

Spiritually we Christians need to take this to heart.  When we are confronted with the question of "sins of our fathers", especially that of slavery and decades of "Jim Crow" prejudice, North and South, we can often be quick to dismiss them as being relevant to now.  The troubling truth is that there is a sense in which this is correct... there is also a sense in which it is in error.  

The OT is replete with stories of how the Israelites "continued in the sins of the fathers."  Now, this is a different thing than inherited guilt or righteousness.  Every generation must pay close attention to the inheritance of values, attitudes, and practices that are passed down to them.  We are commanded to honor our parents and submit to their discipline and instruction.  But there must come a time when every generation examines its own ingrained presuppositions, no matter how they came to hold them.  Now, this holds for both sides of the current question.

White and Black alike stand before God as answerable to their present attitudes, anger, suspicions, intolerance, disrespect, stereotypes, etc.  There is not a mortal man alive who has not been guilty of racial prejudices to some extent.  It is a universal circumstance.  It is inherent in the fact of power structures.  "Power structures" are necessary to human social order and economic development but by their very nature, they tend to generate "classes" of people.  The Russian nation did not "free" their serfs until 1920 or so.  To this day the ethnic distinction, Slav / non-Slav, is important.  Immigrant workers have always been viewed with anger and often hatred by those whose jobs are threatened.  The point is this, racial/ethnic tension is one important category of class friction.  It has to be addressed in a Christian perspective but it also cannot ever, be isolated from the broader category of which it is an instance.

This is only to say that Christians, by Divine Command, are to oppose injustice and sinful discrimination wherever it appears.  But it also means that every generation stands accountable for its own practices and prejudices in this and all things.  

It would not be a solution to racial sins in this country for some coercive policies to be undertaken to essentially demote White citizens simply because they are white.  This "reverse affirmative action" idea is being pushed in some circles.  Neither will we find a solution simply by telling those who argue that racial prejudice is "systemic" that they are full of beans and that there is no "white privilege" in our culture.  The solution, if any can be found, will come as Whites and Black Christians together accept responsibility for their own contributions to racial tension.  This is how God will judge us when we stand before Him.  It is how we ought to judge ourselves now.

 

 

 

Ezekiel 15 & 16: The "My Fair Lady" Tragedy

Image: "Not A Lady", 2010, Bamf, Canada, original image: Robert Van Devender

Ezekiel 15:6–7  “Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Like the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so I will give up the inhabitants of Jerusalem; 7 and I will set My face against them. They will go out from one fire, but another fire shall devour them. Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when I set My face against them.

Ezekiel 16:9–10  “Then I washed you in water; yes, I thoroughly washed off your blood, and I anointed you with oil. 10 I clothed you in embroidered cloth and gave you sandals of badger skin; I clothed you with fine linen and covered you with silk.

Ezekiel 16:30 30 “How degenerate is your heart!” says the Lord GOD, “seeing you do all these things, the deeds of a brazen harlot.

Ezekiel 16:43 Because you did not remember the days of your youth, but agitated Me with all these things, surely I will also recompense your deeds on your own head,” says the Lord GOD. “And you shall not commit lewdness in addition to all your abominations.

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(note on the image.  These little ground squirrels were brazen little pests.  They were so used to being fed by the tourists that they would crawl up your leg, climb on your head, and eat anything that looked tempting.  This lady had sat down to look at the view and this little hussy climbed into her purse.)

I cannot imagine anyone not having some acquaintance with the play/movie "My Fair Lady" built off Bernard Shaw's original play "Pygmalion".  The storyline follows the project of Prof. Harry Higgins to take a destitute young girl out of the London Slums and by using scientific techniques, transform her into a lady with impeccable manners.  The play is a happy thing and everybody falls in love at the end and the poor little flower girl becomes "well-to-do" and lives happily ever after as Prof. Higgins's faithful wife.

God uses a somewhat similar metaphor for His relationship to Israel in chapter 16.  Here he speaks of finding her as a castaway, unwanted baby, discarded by her "trashy" parents and lying in her own filth in a field.  He tells of how He took her and washed her and tended her needs and then departed for a time.  But then, upon coming back to check on her, He found her as a beautiful young woman, ready for marriage.  In His infinite love and compassion, He took her as His wife and showered her with riches and privilege.  It was truly a "rags to riches" storyline.  But unlike the movie, there was no happy ending.  

Unlike Eliza Doolittle, Israel, as God's wife, did not prove herself grateful.  She came to despise her Husband and wilfully sought out other lovers.  She was not even a prostitute... she was worse.  She paid them rather than the opposite.  In today's culture of depravity, such a story would cause people to shake their heads in sympathy for the husband but it wouldn't go much farther than that.  Today there would be no general sense of outrage... the husband would be encouraged to divorce his wife but inflicting bodily harm or death on her would be out of the question.  Not so in ancient times.  Such brazen sexual sin would have created a clamor for retribution.  Only the most loving of husbands (e.g. Mary's husband Joseph) could take it in stride and seek out his wife to restore her.  

But Israel's Husband did not rush to vengeance.  He was longsuffering, sending many messages to His wife pleading for her to return.  But there came a time when patience ran out.  She had sacrificed her own children... God's own children... to bloodthirsty foreign gods.  She had provoked His wrath for so long and so often, that He declared (16:42-43) that now He would "recompense your deeds on your own head."  But notice carefully that in God's long term plans, even this was so that she would turn from her "abominations."  Though she was more wicked than Sodom itself, He would not banish Her forever.  He would "deal with" her for despising "the oath and breaking the covenant" (16:59), yet He (vs 62) would again "establish" His covenant with Her.  His amazing, transforming love would be so powerful that she would, on that day, "remember and be ashamed", but the effect would be that she would never again "open" her mouth.  In other words, all haughtiness would be driven from her personality.  She would be humbled in repentance and rejoice in the mercy she was shown... all of this would come about when she recognized that He, her Husband, had made "atonement" for her sins.

I doubt seriously that "My Fair Lady" would have sold as many tickets as it did if this storyline had been told.  It might have furnished some other playwright with sufficient insight to tell an entirely different story but I doubt many audiences would have loved it.  

But every Christian does.

This is the story of every fallen sinner who, through the mercy of God, is awakened to his own shame.  This is the story of every Spirit-filled congregation who becomes the Bride of Christ.  Their great love for their Husband is that of a fallen woman for whom full atonement has been made for her sins.  She recognizes and rejoices in Her high privilege and status, but there can be no arrogance or pride in her manner.  Truly, before the overwhelming evidence of His love, all she can do is "shut her mouth" and weep with joy.  This same idea brought a young woman to the Savior's feet as He reclined at dinner one evening.  She bathed his feet with her tears and dried them with her hair.  When questioned about this, Jesus said that she loved much because she had been forgiven much.  This is the story,... the Good News of Ezekiel 15.

 

 

Ezekiel 13 & 14: "It's On Its Way!"

Image: "Like a Locomotive...", 2010, Somewhere in the sunflower fields of Montana

Ezekiel 13:23  Therefore you shall no longer envision futility nor practice divination; for I will deliver My people out of your hand, and you shall know that I am the LORD.” ’ ”

Ezekiel 14:4–5  “Therefore speak to them, and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Everyone of the house of Israel who sets up his idols in his heart, and puts before him what causes him to stumble into iniquity, and then comes to the prophet, I the LORD will answer him who comes, according to the multitude of his idols, 5 that I may seize the house of Israel by their heart, because they are all estranged from Me by their idols.” ’

Ezekiel 14:22–23  Yet behold, there shall be left in it a remnant who will be brought out, both sons and daughters; surely they will come out to you, and you will see their ways and their doings. Then you will be comforted concerning the disaster that I have brought upon Jerusalem, all that I have brought upon it. 23 And they will comfort you, when you see their ways and their doings; and you shall know that I have done nothing without cause that I have done in it,” says the Lord GOD.

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Johnny Cash famously sang "I hear the train a'coming, it's rolling round the bend...."  Few experiences are comparable to that of standing near a railroad track, so close that 2 steps and you would be there, and having that mighty locomotive bearing down on you.  The whistle screams, the ground shakes, there is a roaring sensation made up of mechanical noise and the whooshing air.   And, of course, as the engine passes, with the engineer shaking his head at you for standing so close, then comes the "clackity-clack" of the wheels.  It is exhilarating and intimidating.  You know that the train could pass over you or simply blast you to bits with a full impact, and it would not even register.  You would be like a mosquito being hitting a car's windshield at high speed.

You have a feeling of unstoppable power.

Ezekiel was having a similar sensation, only here, he was experiencing a force far greater than that of a mere train.  God's locomotive of judgment was not just "coming round the bend", it was bearing down the straightaway right at Jerusalem.  The ground was shaking... mighty sounds could be heard... and yet the people were not paying attention, not as they should anyway.

Chapter 13 is built around the "then they shall know that I am the LORD" theme.  Four times in 23 verses God tells them what is happening and what are His intentions.  God is outraged at the false prophets and seers who are deceiving His people.  He declares Himself to be their enemy and He is unleashing His anger on them.  "You have spoken nonsense and envisioned lies, therefore I am indeed against you..." He says.  Because of their falsity and self-serving pride, they will be obliterated... like a poorly built wall that collapses in a storm... so all that will remain of them will be rubble.  On that day, to your horror, God says, "you shall know that I am the Lord GOD." (13:9)

But there is another sign by which they will know that He is indeed God.  God will come and minister to those who have been unjustly made sad, who have suffered at the hands of wicked men who have not been warned to turn from their evil deeds.  The mighty train will not only tear down, it will deliver.  "I will deliver My people out of your hand, and you shall know that I am the LORD." (13:23)  God had set a day then, and He has set a day now when all those who have misled and confused God's people will be taken away from them.  God's sheep will safely graze beside the still waters and lay down in peace.  This also will be a sign by which all the nations shall know that indeed, He is God and there is no other.

Chapter 14 shifts gears a bit but the "coming train" metaphor still holds,

God starts by pointing to the elders of Israel, those "laymen" who have authority over His flock and are charged with leading them in righteousness.  He accuses them of setting up "idols" in their hearts and putting stumbling blocks in the path of those who follow them.  God says that He will answer such as these "according to the multitude" of the idols in their hearts.

Here is judgment plainly stated.  God's just charges against any person are based on all those things in their lives that they put ahead of Him.  An idol is not just a statue sitting in a shrine.  An idol is anything, person or issue that deceives and enslaves a person such that God becomes secondary or even trivialized.   Israel had fallen into this to such a degree that God says, somewhat surprisingly, that even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were alive at the time (and one might think that Daniel was), then they could only save themselves through their faithfulness.  This is just how deep and wide-ranging this heart idolatry really is.  It is prevalent but it is not overlooked.  God's train was coming... and it is coming yet.

Chapter 14 closes with another word of comfort as God reminds Ezekiel that He will not make a total end of His people.  We can find hope there also but we must remember our weakness and lack of resolution.  We can be pretty fickle.  We must examine our hearts as we contemplate the approaching train.  Through the blood of Jesus, we are separated from its destructive power... if we have yielded our lives to Him in faith and obedience.

When the ground is shaking and the whistle shrills loudly, we might recognize the urgency of knowing where we stand.

 

 

 

 

Ezekiel 11 & 12:

Image:  "All That Remains...", 2013, Tuzigoot National Monument, near Clarkdale, AZ - Senagua Indian Town/Fortification

Ezekiel 11:13  Now it happened, while I was prophesying, that Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died. Then I fell on my face and cried with a loud voice, and said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Will You make a complete end of the remnant of Israel?”

Ezekiel 11:16 Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Although I have cast them far off among the Gentiles, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet I shall be a little sanctuary for them in the countries where they have gone.” ’

Ezekiel 11:19–20 Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, 20 that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God.

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Before Columbus ever set foot on the Santa Maria to cross "the ocean blue" or Leif Erickson braved the frigid North Atlantic to set his feet on the North American continent, an enterprising and hardy people, the Sinagua Indians were building villages and establishing farms in what is now arid Arizona.  They were cliff-dwellers in the Northern portion of their area but in the Southern area, where Tuzigoot is located, they build small cities/villages on defensible hills like this one.  At the height of their prosperity, they had trade routes established south into present-day Mexico and northeast up into middle America.  They learned irrigation techniques and actually profited from a volcano eruption upwind from them that deposited lots of nutrients into the soil.

Then, sometime after 1100 ad, after centuries of occupation, they appear to have just moved... or were carried off... or something.  The Tuzigoot ruins do not show any war damage so it doesn't appear to have been over-run by enemies.  Their disappearance is still mysterious.

We are not left with any doubt concerning the fate of Jerusalem and the Israelite nation about 1500 years earlier.  We know that God judged His people and found them guilty and deserving of death.  We know that He raised up the Babylonian empire to be His instrument for judging His people.  We know that Ezekiel saw what was going to happen and what did happen and that he and Jeremiah wrote it down for us to know.  All that would remain of Jerusalem would be ruins, something like those in the picture.  It was a solemn sight.

But unlike the Sinagua people, God had no intention of causing His covenant people to disappear into the dustbin of history.  His judgment was severe but it was not total.  He declared: 

Ezekiel 12:15–16  “Then they shall know that I am the LORD, when I scatter them among the nations and disperse them throughout the countries. 16 But I will spare a few of their men from the sword, from famine, and from pestilence, that they may declare all their abominations among the Gentiles wherever they go. Then they shall know that I am the LORD.”

God was bringing the sword, famine, and pestilence on HIs people.  That is a pretty terrible thing to contemplate.  He was going to uproot many of them and scatter them like seeds in foreign lands.  That is a scary thought also.  But, God was not going to completely give up on them.  He would keep a remnant among those nations, Israelites who would be preserved to bear witness to the awe-inspiring reality of the One True God.  They would explain to all who asked of them the reasons for their plight.  They would thus speak of two things: 1.  Their own abominations, and, 2. the Righteous God Whom they offended.  They would be careful to clarify the real source of their state.  It was not ultimately the power of Babylon that brought them there, it was the power of God who used the Babylonians as a disposable tool to be discarded after use.

Babylon would pass from the scene... Israel's God and Israel itself would remain.  Yes, they would be chastised and humbled.  Never again would a mere mortal king rule over them and re-establish the kingdom that David and Solomon had built.  No, such was not to be their destiny.  Their future was not to be built on the strength of mighty men of valor, casting out pagan enemies and their gods, and enabling the people to rest securely, each beneath his own fig tree.

No, the Israelites were destined to be the sphere from which a New Kingdom would be established.  The New King would indeed be a man, born an Israelite, born an offspring of David.  But He would also be the eternal Son of God, begotten of the Father, and He would reign over a new Israel.  This new Israel would not be a product of bloody work with swords and spears, but rather it would be established by the Hidden Hand of God, working in stony hearts to transform them into new creatures. (11:19-20)  

There would be no ruined forts on top of an arid hill in the desert to mark this transition.  The historical monuments to it would be a standing cross on a hill outside Jerusalem and an empty tomb cut into a wall.  Jesus' death and resurrection sealed the truth that God has brought judgment on His Creation.  He sent His Son into the world and they took Him and killed Him.  There can be no excuse for what sinful mankind did.  There can only be sincere repentance.  And where such repentance is forthcoming, through the power of the Holy Spirit, then the old ruined lives are torn down and a shining new life is undertaken.

Ezekiel never saw how this worked out before his death.  We who are the beneficiaries of his fulfilled prophecy are so much more greatly blessed.

Praise God for His kindness to fallen sinners.

 

Ezekiel 9 & 10: Sign of Salvation

Image:  "Folly's End", 2013, Scene from Little Big Horn Nat. Park, Near Crow Agency, Montana

Ezekiel 9:3–4  Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub, where it had been, to the threshold of the temple. And He called to the man clothed with linen, who had the writer’s inkhorn at his side; 4 and the LORD said to him, “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it.”

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When you look down from the hill to which Custer and his men fled to make their last defense, you realize just how pride and arrogance can bring devastating results.  Custer and his relatively few troops (he had divided his forces earlier) were not only out-manned they were outgunned.  The coalition of tribes they faced had repeater rifles and strong leadership.  The hills are dotted with markers where both white men and red men lost their lives and the overall impression one gets is "what a waste."  Unlike the Alamo, this site does not evoke a sense of pride, a desire to honor the men who fought and died for a noble cause.  The "Little Big Horn" raises up pity... indeed weeping... for the men, on both sides, who fought in the hellish heat, hunkered down behind their horses' corpses (killed for that purpose), thirsty and terrified, knowing with great certainty that this day they would die.  

We might see God's hand in this battle as He brought retribution on Custer and his men for the massacre at Washita Creek.  The pyrrhic nature of the battle can also be viewed as God's judgment on the Native tribes whose ways were not as noble as modern romantics paint them.  Little Big Horn effectively sealed their doom as a free-ranging, independent people.  I am only stating facts, not making any moral distinctions.  

The point is this:  When God judges foolish arrogance the results are devastating.

Ezekiel's vision in these chapters again is directed toward God's glory and the strange cherubim who surround Him.  But, for me, today, the striking picture is that of men, perhaps we might even say "shells of men", walking about in Jerusalem and Judah, "sighing and crying over the abominations that are done in it." (9:4)  These sensitive souls saw, in their day, what pride and arrogance had brought down on them.  It is unclear whether this vision reflected the conditions before or after the destruction of the city, but the teaching is the same.  When confronted with such sights, or when contemplating the judgment on sin, godly souls feel shame... pity... grief... and despair.  Over and over again the thought, "it didn't have to be this way", runs through their head. And they are right.  It didn't and it doesn't.

It's not like God has not spoken.  It's not like we don't have any acquaintance with His law and His will.    George Custer was supposedly converted during a religious service at a Monroe Michigan Presbyterian Church, but it was not for Christ that he charged into that valley on that day.  It was blind ambition, pride, and racial hatred.  He was intent upon duplicating the slaughter he did on the Washita.  George Custer and his men met God that day.  I assume the Native Americans who died did also.  The proper response for us who remain and witness the memorials is grief.

And that gives us some hope.  God directed His angel to go and mark the foreheads of all those in Jerusalem/Judah who were grieving over the arrogant folly of their kinsmen.  It was these and these alone who would be spared in the day of God's temporal judgment on Jerusalem.  We need to pay attention to this.

All about us, we see arrogant pride and hatred showing their ugly heads.  It seems like demonic forces have been unleashed and are tearing asunder the very fabric of civilized community.  There is a "no quarter given" air to the uproar.  As we look at the rubble and smell the smoke from burning buildings, we ought to feel shame and grief.  Anger is easy.  Anger was the main immediate effect of the Battle of Little Big Horn.  The United States turned to the war with a vengeance.  We must ensure that we do not let anger be our main emotion.  Somehow, the people of God, have to stand against pride, foolishness, and hatred (from whichever side it is shown).  Perhaps if we grieve first... and show our grief... God will mark us out for His service and enable us to bear fruit unto righteousness.

We might invest the slogan, "Remember Little Big Horn", with an entirely different meaning.  God help us to be soldiers of righteousness and not of foolish pride and arrogance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ezekiel 7-8: When God's Law Perishes....

Image: "Great American Sunset", 2013, View from the parking lot, Great American Land and Cattle Co. Restaurant, along I-10 near El Paso

Ezekiel 7:26  Disaster will come upon disaster, And rumor will be upon rumor. Then they will seek a vision from a prophet; But the law will perish from the priest, And counsel from the elders.

Ezekiel 8:2–4  Then I looked, and there was a likeness, like the appearance of fire—from the appearance of His waist and downward, fire; and from His waist and upward, like the appearance of brightness, like the color of amber. 3 He stretched out the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my hair; and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven, and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the north gate of the inner court, where the seat of the image of jealousy was, which provokes to jealousy. 4 And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I saw in the plain.

Ezekiel 8:12 Then He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the room of his idols? For they say, ‘The LORD does not see us, the LORD has forsaken the land.’ ”

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My brother and I were on an adventure to visit all of the National Parks between the Mexican & Canadian borders.  Traveling from Austin, Tx, our first motel stop was outside El Paso (I think) and we had a Texas-size steak for dinner.  As we were exited the restaurant, this was the "vision" that greeted us.  It was simply spectacular as is so common in the desert.  There is something about a sunset that evokes quietness and meditation and this one certainly did.  Sterret was taking his own photographs somewhere but in a spiritual sense, I was alone.  This was between God and me and I very much thought that it had some kind of significance.  I still do.

A sunset means a "day is done."  It is the passing flower of the day's glory departing.  Much has happened since 2013: beloved family members including Sterret are gone, the world has changed dramatically and so has my life. One fact remains; God and His providential ordering of all things if still the abiding, unchanging reality.  At some level, I knew that then and Ezekiel, as he was given a vision of God's "day" on ancient Israel ending, knew it also.

Ezekiel's experience was different than mine.  His was not comprised of a sense of quietness - far from it.  His vision was very unsettling and terrifying.  He saw God's sunset in terms of immense foreboding.  Impending doom was on the horizon and there was to be no stopping it.  The coming "night" was to be one in which God's glory would depart from His land and His people.  He had abandoned His temple. ( 8:6)  Ezekiel did see the Glory of God all about the precincts of the temple, (8:4).  The abominations he saw there were bathed in it, but it was not the "Glory" of God's mercy but of His judgment that blazed in brilliant colors.  And this was the message God was giving to Ezekiel.

The heart of Israel and the purpose of its creation and existence was that God dwelt among them.  The Temple was the present sign of that status.  But God's people and, in particular, God's servants in the temple, had desecrated it beyond redemption.  The Temple was doomed because His priests had secretly given themselves over to idolatry.  Even in its holy precincts they had drawn aside into darkened rooms and burned incense to other gods.  His ministers had forsaken Him in their fear and unfaithfulness.  They no longer saw Him as their hope.  They were "covering their bets" by invoking other gods to intervene and save the land and themselves.  Whatever words they spoke about the One True God were formal and meaningless because those words flowed from hearts of unbelief.  They no longer saw God's law as holding forth any promise.  They had provoked Him to jealousy (8:3) and as a Jealous Husband, He was coming to judge His Adulterous Wife.  

The Sun was indeed setting in a spectacular manner but the terror of the night was ahead.

There is a message here for the Church of Jesus Christ and for those who serve in it.  1 Timothy 3:15 teaches us that the Church is the "house of... the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth."  It is from within these sacred precincts that unwavering faith must be demonstrated by an equally unwavering proclamation of the truth that has been given to it.  The signs of sunset require that, more than ever, the people of God must be instructed in righteousness, the obedience of faith, and a call to spiritual arms.  When the world departs into apostasy, that apostasy must not be brought into the Church.  It must not infect those called to serve in that Church most of all.  There must not be any secret sins of doubt, double-mindedness nor compromise.  God's law must be upheld as the norm for everyday conduct and opposition to all lawlessness in opposition to God's law must be publicly and forcefully proclaimed.  The people of God, the Church of Jesus Christ, is the only hope for any society facing imminent convulsion.

Here is where Jesus' metaphor of a "city set on a hill" or a "lamp burning brightly on a lampstand" finds its greatest instantiation.  We must see both as beacons in the gathering darkness.  It is that darkness that makes them most visible.  It is their brightness that serves to attract those who are seeking refuge from that darkness.  

A brilliant sunset means that night is coming... lanterns must be lit... a path must be illuminated.  The ministers of God failed in Ezekiel's day and they felt the awful judgment of God as a result.  We should be suitably shaken by that truth and it should lead us to consider our ways and our task.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ezekiel 4-6: Then They Will Know... At Last!

Image: "Looking Very Cold", 2016, Mt. Baker, Snoqualmie National Forest, Wa.  Photographer: Dave Johanson

Ezekiel 6:8–10  “Yet I will leave a remnant, so that you may have some who escape the sword among the nations, when you are scattered through the countries. 9 Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations where they are carried captive, because I was crushed by their adulterous heart which has departed from Me, and by their eyes which play the harlot after their idols; they will loathe themselves for the evils which they committed in all their abominations. 10 And they shall know that I am the LORD; I have not said in vain that I would bring this calamity upon them.”

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If we take "repeated phrases" as a key to understanding a literary work then the formula "then they shall know" clearly constitutes the key to Ezekiel's book.  It is repeated, starting in chapter 5, over 30 times according to my count.  My software program tells me it is only used 4 additional times outside of Ezekiel.  Clearly God is making a point here through Ezekiel and He wanted His people then and His people now, to understand what Ezekiel teaches through this lens.

Essentially it is this:  "I am doing these things so that you will know... indeed you shall know... that I am the LORD, and specifically that I am YOUR LORD!"

God brings a terrible Judgment and miraculously saves a Remnant: It seems so strange.  In these chapters, God puts Ezekiel through the wringer.  He has to lie on his side, out in a public place, for a year.  He is forced to eat food heated on cow excrement (a horrifying thought to a pious Jew).  He lies there as a living sermon, a parable of what God is going to do.  He is told that he will "bear" Israel's and Judah's sin.  His actions and metaphor are intended to communicate to the on-looking, scoffing people that they are in a desperate state.  They, like Ezekiel, will be publicly humiliated, stripped of all dignity and respect, starved to the point of eating their own children, afflicted by the sword, famine, and exile.  These things are going to happen to them.

We... and perhaps, they... ask "why?"  Why does it have to be this way?

The easy answer is "because they sinned."  Yes and amen.  God even has Ezekiel proclaim that they, His people, had sinned even more greatly than the Pagan nations around them.  This was true, not so much in sheer immoral acts, as in the addition of "high treason."  God's people sinned in flagrant dismissal of their history and the astonishing covenantal blessings they had enjoyed with God.  It was they whom: He delivered out of Egypt... taught at Mr. Sinai... built into a kingdom... had given a great king... had given world-class wealth... and had been kept by His long-suffering grace for centuries, even after they split into two nations.  It was not just their moral actions that made them worse than their pagan neighbors.  It was their rebellious hearts.

The corollary to God's framework, "then they shall know", is that "now they do not know."  And that becomes the key.

God's longsuffering of sin is unto the end of giving time for repentance. (Romans 2:4)  There comes a point when it is blatantly obvious, even to mankind themselves, that repentance is not and will not be, forthcoming.  It is not that the people are "ignorant."  It is that they refuse to "know" God because "knowing" God is only manifested in obedient faith.  "Knowing" God in some abstract sense, as a set of propositions to which one gives nodding assent and then goes on about living like everyone else, is not to "know God" at all.  Further, and more pressingly, it is not a "knowledge" that God accepts.

God works with individuals and communities according to the manner in which they express "knowledge" of Him as their Covenant God and Lord.  It is one thing to stray, stumble, or even fall in the progress of life as long as there is a working conscience and longing to be restored to the God Who has been offended.  In such a case God works with that person or community so that they "know" Him as the God of mercy Who tenderly searches out His lost sheep.

But when an individual arrogantly ignores the God Who has been introduced to him, or worse, obstinately turns his back on God and angrily shakes his fist at God's commands, then God deals with that person differently.

Such a person has to begin at the beginning.  Such a person has to be brought to humility... they must see themselves dressed in rags and bearing their guilt before an awesome, all-powerful, and just God.  There must be an awakening to horror... the horror of the seriousness of their crimes and the terrifying reality of what it means to be the object of His wrath.  These souls must be brought to "know" God as the One Who under no circumstances simply ignores sin or thinks it of no account.

The book of Ezekiel is framed as a continuous reinforcement of these principles and that alone certainly commends it to our attention today.

It is hard not to live in these times without sensing the impending force of God's judgment.  That such judgment is coming is, in my opinion, not subject to doubt.  The degree of that judgment still hangs in the balance.  This is the understanding that should be driving God's Church today to fulfill its prophetic role.  "Believe... and you will be saved... you and your household" (Acts 16:31).  "Believing" and "knowing" are two sides of the same coin.  

It is time for the world to be called to "know" God... or God will bring them to the point of "knowing" Him His way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ezekiel 1-3: Visions of Reality....

Image: "Inside the Sanctuary", 2016, St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, Fort William, Scotland, the UK.

Ezekiel 1:1  Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the River Chebar, that the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.

Ezekiel 1:28  Like the appearance of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the brightness all around it. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD.  So when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard a voice of One speaking.

Ezekiel 3:17 “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore hear a word from My mouth, and give them warning from Me:

Revelation 4:2  Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne.

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Ezekiel is a book of wonder.  It confronts us with astonishing symbols and metaphors and mysteries interspersed with precise sermons directed toward God's people.  Ezekiel (3:17) has been chosen as "a watchman for the house of Israel."  His voice, when he was allowed to use it (4:27), was to speak the message God gave him to speak.  He was to warn the people and say things they didn't want to hear.  Like Jeremiah's, it was not to be a happy calling.  The life of a prophet is not an easy one.

A few things draw our attention right away.  Ezekiel begins with a vision of God on His Throne.  Certainly, his first sight is that of the mysterious creatures, full of faces and eyes and wings accompanied by strange sounds.  We are told that these "beings" moved wherever the Spirit moved them and that they did not have to turn to do so, they just went straight ahead.  Here we have the all-seeing, pervasive Presence of the Holy Spirit indicated.  But we must not dwell on the creatures, for they, like the "four living creatures" around the throne in Revelation 4:6 are "mere" servants.  The Real Power in the vision is that of God on His throne. (1:26-28)  His appearance is so spectacular that only the merest allusions could be used to convey what Ezekiel saw.  There was the "sapphire"-like throne, and the flaming brightness of the Lord's Presence, and there was a rainbow there.  

We must not restrict our thoughts here only to Ezekiel's vision.  We must bring to mind other visions such as Isaiah 6 and especially Revelations 4.  We must understand what God, in this vision and the others, is communicating to Ezekiel, Isaiah, John, and us.  God is, in these passages, making a statement about the World, the Cosmos, as it actually exists.  These are visions of reality not mere dreamlike fantasies. 

God, in these visions, is communicating through symbols and metaphors truths which cannot be completely comprehended by finite minds.  God is teaching that there is an entirely different dimension to reality which is "beyond the ken" of fallen mortals, even redeemed ones.  This is the hidden reality of the spiritual realm.  It exists beyond the space & time framework.  We mortals are confined to our senses for discerning the world about us but that doesn't mean that there is nothing existing beyond our senses.  There is.  And there is one constantly reinforced teaching in Scripture about this dimension.  It is that it is centered on God as the absolute King, the sovereign ruler over all things, Whose magnificence is infinite and beyond full comprehension by any creature. 

Notice how God addresses Ezekiel.  He calls him "son of Man."  Now we know that this is how our Jesus referred to Himself.  There is something to ponder here.  Ezekiel stood before God in his time as representing the entire human race... the line of Adam... as well as the chosen people of God.  God, speaking to Ezekiel, was speaking for the benefit of all mankind even as He was often addressing the captive Jews.  With our Lord Jesus, we reach the fulfillment of this "type."  Jesus bore the sins of all His people, Jew and Gentile.  He was the first-fruits of collective humanity nurtured through time so as to produce a harvest of sons and daughters for God's family. 

Thus we see the layers-on-layers, "wheels within wheels", of God's purposes in the outworking of history.  Ezekiel's first vision is directed toward this goal.  To remind us, instruct us, command us, to understand our world and our times by this framework.  Our God is sitting on His throne, unperturbed by the noise and strife that always attends mankind's blundering walk through history.  He is serene because present on the earth are His appointed servants both spiritual and physical.  There are the "living creatures", as envisioned in Revelation 4 as also here in Ezekiel 1.  These are the spiritual "beings" who move throughout all the world as the Holy Spirit directs them, to do, and to perform and to express His will.  There are also God's servants, such as Ezekiel, who represent "Man" as created servants whose eternal election, birth, and fruition are to speak and to do as God's Spirit leads and directs.  

This is the world, the real world, we inhabit.  It was and is and is becoming.  All about us, the world is unfolding and manifesting God's sovereign purposes.  We exist in the care of angelic servants who "minister for those who will inherit salvation." (Heb. 1:14)  This is our world and we are to rejoice in it and embrace it as God's claim on our lives.

It is Satan's primary weapon against us is to use the "physical world" in such a manner as to fix our eyes only upon it.  He wants us to fall into some radical dualism where the things of the Spirit are somehow not part of our world but beyond it.  This is far from the truth and a cause of great error.

We live, constantly, in the throne room of God.  We are His adopted children.  All things are coordinated to our good and even the angels are assigned to our benefit.  This is the "real" world.  Ezekiel saw a vision of it and we must make that same vision ours. 

 

Lamentation 4 & 5: How Much Worse CAN It Get?

Image: "Ruins", 2016, Holy Rood Abbey, Edinburgh, Scotland, the UK

Lamentations 4:1 How the gold has become dim! How changed the fine gold! The stones of the sanctuary are scattered At the head of every street.

Lamentations 4:11 The LORD has fulfilled His fury, He has poured out His fierce anger. He kindled a fire in Zion, And it has devoured its foundations.

Lamentations 5:15–18  The joy of our heart has ceased; Our dance has turned into mourning. 16 The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned! 17 Because of this our heart is faint; Because of these things our eyes grow dim; 18 Because of Mount Zion which is desolate, With foxes walking about on it.

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On 18 May 1973, Dr. Morton Smith addressed a Convocation of Sessions gathered in Atlanta, Ga. for the purpose of discussing and perhaps resolving to found a new denomination.  His text for that address, later expanded into a book, was Lamentations 4:1 "How the gold has become dim!"  If you read that sermon you can discern the solemn sadness that permeates it.  Dr. Smith had grown up in the existing Presbyterian denomination.  As an historian, he was well acquainted with it past courageous defense of the Gospel and the Reformed theology which is built on it.  That's what made it so hard for him to state that he could no longer be affiliated with the historic organization that had been his spiritual home.  The reasons for his position and the basis for his exhortation for others to join him was that the actions of the General Assembly, the national court of the church, had step by step, departed from historic Presbyterian orthodoxy that its claim to represent solid Biblical teaching was only a shell.  The "gold" had become dim and he systematically detailed how that had happened.  Dr. Smith became the first Stated Clerk of the new denomination, now recognized as the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) and his legacy lives on in that communion though increasingly less so.

The voice of the Church in our country has lost much of its power in the past decades.  The PCA, in my opinion, though not shared by all, has participated in that decline though not as much as other denominations.  The "gold" is still present but it needs polishing up.  Other denominations have lost much more.  Some historic main-line denominations now regularly advocate theological and moral positions that would horrify their founders.  John Wesley comes to mind in this regard.  

As the Church, the prophetic voice in any culture, loses its voice, the entire social order suffers.  Many would disagree.  Many will say that the even greater de-Christianizing of our culture (mostly reflected in the abandonment of Christian ethics) is a good thing.  People will argue that they are now more free;  that the near absence of social constraints on moral actions enables individuals now to pursue their own pleasures without fear of social disapproval.  Indeed, it has now become common that any expressed "judgment" on another person's moral actions is viewed as a "hate" crime.  

It is patently true that people want to be their own judge of what is right and wrong.  This is called original sin.  It is also patently true that the effects of sin are not limited to just the individual participants in it.  God's moral law links His attitude toward people, both individually and collectively, to the respect they register for Him and His law.  This is above and beyond the salvation question.  People are saved by grace through faith but God's providential government of men and nations is such that He acts in space and time to reinforce the wisdom of His teachings.  Even non-believers can benefit from a social order that acknowledges, at least to some extent, that they are "One Nation Under God."  

When that circumstance is present, then the "gold" in that culture shines more brightly.  When that culture arrogantly rejects God's sovereign right to dictate the outlines of moral righteousness, then the "gold" becomes dim.   When the "gold" is entirely destroyed, as it was in Jeremiah's day, the ruin is not far distant.  

In these two chapters, Jeremiah laments, as did Dr. Smith, the stupidity and arrogance of his people in rejecting their God.  We must not turn our eyes from the horror of the outcome.  Even to this day, the idea of starving women eating their own babies shocks us.  His description of the ruins of the temple, the Church of his day, reminds us that "judgment begins with the household of God." (1 Pet. 4:17)  But the over-arching testimony of these two chapters, indeed the whole of Lamentations, is that when a people depart from God in open and explicit rejection, then things can get worse. 

How much worse can it get?

A lot worse.  An entire nation/distinct cultural society can be essentially left in ruins.  Financial collapse is as easy as blowing on a house of cards.  A people already stripped of a moral compass face virtually no restraint on their selfish greed and impulsive violence.  Lawlessness breeds lawlessness.  A fuller picture of what can happen... and indeed what may very well happen, ... is painted vividly in Lamentations.

It is time for the Church of Jesus Christ to get back to polishing its gold.  It is time for us to regain our prophetic voice and role.  It is time to stop worrying about who in the culture about us we might offend and to start worrying more about offending God.

We are not called to have all the answers.  We are called to proclaim a message... the Holy Spirit will provide the answers when they are sought in Christ's name.