Ezekiel 14-15
Dear RTB’ers,
Taking the first half of today’s first chapter to heart… Suppose there is something “wicked” in my heart and I conceal that in a discussion in which I am seeking some sort of positive outcome; if that wickedness might have had bearing on that conversation, then I am doubly wrong (a) for having that wickedness in the first place and (b) for concealing it when it might have had bearing. That’s the situation set forth in today’s reading. Elders keeping idols in their heart go to Ezekiel, presumably for consultation or advice. God never needs justification from us for anything that He does, but it’s clear to us that these elders deserve any punishment that God decrees.
The second half of the first chapter… But behold, some survivors … when they come out to you, and you see their ways and their deeds, you will be consoled for the disaster that I have brought upon Jerusalem, for all that I have brought upon it. (v. 14:22) My Study Bible clarified it for me. These survivors are bringing their idol worship with them; Ezekiel will see that wrongdoing and will know that God was justified in what He did to Jerusalem and its inhabitants.
I had never considered how truly useless a dead vine is until God (through Ezekiel in today’s second chapter) pointed it out. When a grape vine no longer produces fruit or a wicked aggressive vine grows up and kills a tree, when any vine is “terminated”, it is good for nothing. It goes to the fire. It’s not even good for compost!
Blessings.
So how might we be like those elders of Israel coming to Ezekiel? What idols might be loitering around our own lives — idols to which we cling — while we come to church or pray? Do we think that, somehow, we don’t need to bother with repenting, that God no longer cares about such things?