Ezekiel 20:1-21:17

But I acted for the sake of My name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations…

Ezekiel 20:9a

But I acted for the sake of My name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations…

Ezekiel 20:14a

But I withheld My hand and acted for the sake of My name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations…

Ezekiel 20:22a

…but My holy name you shall no more profane…

Ezekiel 20:39b

And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I deal with you for My name’s sake, not according to your evil ways, nor according to your corrupt deeds, O house of Israel, declares the Lord GOD.

Ezekiel 20:44

The LORD deals with Israel — and us — for His name’s sake. So the next time I act like I think it’s all about me, please just kick me! It should be clear to all that it is not about me, nor about you, nor even about the whole human race. The entire history of the world is about the LORD, His name, His glory. The sooner we get that through our heads — and live accordingly — the better.

Ezekiel 17-18

Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, declares the Lord GOD. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord GOD; so turn, and live.

Ezekiel 18:30-32

If all we hear from the prophets is “doom and gloom”, if all we see is an angry, vengeful God, if all we come away with is condemnation, then we are missing the point completely. Yes, it is true that the prophets speak a lot about God’s wrath. Yes, it is true that the prophets proclaim a tremendous amount of unpleasantness to the unrepentant. But no, God does not delight in these things. His desire is for His people to live, to escape His wrath; otherwise, He would not bother sending prophet after prophet to warn them time and again, pleading with them to repent. It is sin that destroys us, and that is what God hates. The trouble is not that God “has it out for” people. It is that He has it out for sin, but people cling to sin.

For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord GOD; so turn, and live!

Ezekiel 16

With the LORD’s likening of Jerusalem’s behavior to harlotry, our reading today sounds a lot like Hosea. (By way of refresher, feel free to look back at the posts for June 6, June 7, and June 8.) The LORD sent Hosea to prophesy primarily to the Northern Kingdom of Israel (aka Samaria), who failed to heed the message, resulting in the destruction of Samaria by the Assyrians. Judah, represented by Jerusalem, has had plenty of time — well over a century — to consider Hosea’s message and the consequences of rejecting the LORD, yet Judah has continued to turn away from the LORD, going beyond the sin of Samaria, even beyond that of Sodom.

We might sit here now, 2,600 years later, and shake our heads at Judah’s foolishness and wickedness. We might be appalled at her descent into child sacrifice. (Ez. 16:20-21) What is she thinking?! How can she reject the obvious goodness and steadfast love of the LORD and actively seek out all these other “lovers” who know nothing of love and goodness? And yet, look around. This is not just ancient history. Can we not recognize that our nation is on a similar path? Or worse, how about the Church — or what purports to be the Church? For years, whole denominations have moved away from orthodoxy so that they now wholeheartedly embrace heresy. They may bear the name of Christ on the door, but there is little evidence of Truth within. Our own Saint Andrew’s Anglican Church was formed to remain faithful against such degeneracy. But what about within ourselves individually and personally? Do we yet turn to idols? Do we seek out other “lovers”? Do we refuse to relinquish secret sins? Do we say, “No!” to the Lord?

It’s time to give up the resistance campaign! Turn away all those other “lovers” and come back to the one true Lover of your soul. Surrender it all to the Lord, lay it all down at the foot of the Cross, and let Him make atonement.

Ezekiel 13-15

Like Jeremiah, Ezekiel must contend against false prophets. One might think that with all the success Nebuchadnezzar has had against Judah (and everyone else), and with thousands already in exile, the false prophets would be out of business, their message of peace and security seen as an obvious sham. But such is the human heart: quick to believe lies and slow to accept Truth. And so the false prophets remain popular as they tell the people what they want to hear.

Is it really any different today? Just look around. Everyone sits in their own echo chamber, happy to chat with folks with whom they agree, and rarely even hearing other voices, let alone the truth.

And so I ask again: To whom do you listen?

II Chronicles 36:13-16; Ezekiel 8-11

We’re back to Ezekiel, who lives as an exile in Babylonia. There in Babylonia Ezekiel sees a vision of what the LORD is doing back in Jerusalem, and it is not pretty. It is enough to make any faithful follower of God weep, as the glory of the LORD lifts from the LORD’s dwelling place and departs, first from the Temple, and then from Jerusalem.

Recall the “good ol’ days” when Solomon first built the Temple. At its dedication, the glory of the LORD filled the Temple, and all the people of Israel worshipped. (II Chronicles 7:1-3) Ah, those were the days! Yet even then, the seeds of abomination were sown, with Solomon himself among the sowers. (I Kings 11) Now, God’s people are reaping the fruit of what they have so persistently sown, and the glory of the LORD departs.

Does the LORD rejoice over this departure? Not at all! He is as reluctant to depart as can be. All along, the LORD has been exceedingly patient and merciful with Israel. The Temple has stood for centuries while the LORD has sent His prophets, calling the people to Himself. The LORD has shown Himself faithful and good and kind. But He is no cosmic chump, who can be fooled by a charade of worship, so now He says, “Enough is enough!” Yet even as the glory of the LORD departs Jerusalem, and judgment falls, God proclaims salvation to the remnant of Israel. He reiterates that He will return the exiles from wherever they might be scattered back to the land of Israel, and that He will yet be their God:

And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My rules and obey them. And they shall be My people, and I will be their God.

Ezekiel 11:19-20

The LORD desires life for His people. He desires life for us. Are we taking Him up on His offer, a beating heart of flesh in place of stone? Are we pursuing Him with all we’ve got, looking for the radiance of His glory? Or is there still some place of darkness in which we try to hide?

Jeremiah 23:1-8; 38

Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and He shall reign as King and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which He will be called: “The LORD is our righteousness.”

Jeremiah 23:5-6

Sound familiar? These verses are nearly the same as Jeremiah 33:14-16, which we looked at yesterday. The words are not identical, and you may well want to spend some time looking into the differences, but the core truth is the same, that someday this Branch from David’s line will reign, executing justice and righteousness. With such repetition, we should all pay attention…

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I find King Zedekiah to be one of the most pathetic figures in the Bible. A little fear of the LORD — yes, fear, even terror, not just mild “respect” — would serve him well. Instead, he fears everyone else. He tells his officials, “Behold, [Jeremiah] is in your hands, for the king can do nothing against you.” Right. It is a pointed irony that Ebed-melech, a eunuch, displays more courage than Zedekiah in urging (and implementing) Jeremiah’s rescue from the miry pit. Zedekiah meets with Jeremiah in secret, too scared of his officials to be seen publicly with this “traitor”. He says some positive things in the presence of this prophet of God, but actions speak louder than words, and Zedekiah fails to obey the word of the LORD and continues the fight against Nebuchadnezzar.

The trouble for us is that we can probably all relate to Zedekiah in one way or another. How easy it is to fear people more than God! But unlike Zedekiah, we may not be under threat of physical harm. We probably do not feel that our lives are in danger. Yet we fear people nonetheless. We want to be liked. We do not want to offend. We certainly do not want to be canceled. Meanwhile, we know God is merciful, so we presume upon the Lord’s grace and continue to seek to please men rather than God.

We convince ourselves that our “little” disobediences of God are not nearly as consequential as Zedekiah’s. After all, we do not hold the fate of Jerusalem in our hands. But once upon a time, neither did Zedekiah. He did not come to this point of crisis suddenly. Rather, he has disregarded the LORD in deference to others for years. So now that he requires real courage to defy those men and faith to obey the LORD, he has no experience upon which to draw. We should take note: faithfulness in big things follows faithfulness in little things. (Luke 16:10)

So let’s examine ourselves. How might we be more concerned with others than with God? Do we go along with the crowd when we know better? Do we value the praise of people more than the silent approval of the Lord? Do we simply like being liked, maybe a bit too much?

Jeremiah 32-33

Using Jeremiah and a deeded land transaction as visual aids, the LORD makes it clear that He will bring His people back to their land, that they will again dwell there and carry on business — despite the utter ruin that is befalling Judah and Jerusalem because of their sin. The LORD reiterates the promise of the land multiple times, but He also makes it clear that His intentions for Israel and Judah run well beyond just concentrating Jacob’s descendants within a particular geographic region.

Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and He shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: “The LORD is our righteousness.”

Jeremiah 33:14-16

As with yesterday’s promise of the New Covenant (Jer. 31:31-34), here Jeremiah points us forward, beyond the return from Babylonian captivity to the coming Branch, the Messiah — that Anointed Descendant of David. He is the One in Whom the hope of Israel lies. He is the One in Whom all the promises of God find their fulfillment. He is the One through Whom grace and mercy come. He is the One Who initiates that New Covenant in His own blood.

Jeremiah 37; 30-31

Then fear not, O Jacob my servant, declares the LORD,
nor be dismayed, O Israel;
for behold, I will save you from far away,
and your offspring from the land of their captivity.
Jacob shall return and have quiet and ease,
and none shall make him afraid.
For I am with you to save you,
declares the LORD;
I will make a full end of all the nations
among whom I scattered you,
but of you I will not make a full end.
I will discipline you in just measure,
and I will by no means leave you unpunished.

Jeremiah 30:10-11

The LORD reassures His people that He is not utterly abandoning them, that He will yet save them. Amidst all the words of woe and certain destruction, this message may seem surprising. But this is not the first time we have heard such a thing from Jeremiah. In fact, we read nearly the exact same words at the end of yesterday’s passage in Jeremiah 46:27-28. And we’ve had similar words of comfort and restoration elsewhere in Jeremiah. Just consider the following that we’ve already read:

• Jeremiah 3:12-4:2
• Jeremiah 4:27; 5:18
• Jeremiah 16:14-21
• Jeremiah 24:4-7
• Jeremiah 29:10-14
• Jeremiah 50:4-5,20,33-34

Now in Jeremiah 30-31 the LORD opens the floodgates of consolation, proclaiming that Israel’s current chastisement will come to an end and they will be restored to their land. But what Jeremiah describes is not merely an eventual release from captivity and a return to the land, but a restoration of relationship with the LORD. Further, this restoration applies not only to Judah, but to the whole house of Israel:

At that time, declares the LORD, I will be the God of all the clans of Israel, and they shall be my people.

Jeremiah 31:1

As we shall see, the exiles in Babylon are eventually released from their captivity and return to the land. But that return only hints at the fulfillment of the LORD’s promises here. The LORD has something much bigger and better in mind:

Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put My law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, “Know the LORD,” for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

Jeremiah 31:31-34

Stay tuned.

Jeremiah 10:17-25; 21:1-22:9; 34; 46:13-28

I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not in himself,
that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.
Correct me, O LORD, but in justice;
not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing.

Jeremiah 10:23-24

We would all do well to spend some time in quiet meditation on this prayer of Jeremiah. Jeremiah bows himself in humility, recognizing his (our) inability to get things right. He is not defensive or defiant toward the LORD, but instead looks for correction, knowing that he needs the LORD’s mercy and that he cannot endure the LORD’s wrath.

This prayer stands in marked contrast with what we see from Zedekiah:

…King Zedekiah sent to [Jeremiah] Pashhur the son of Malchiah and Zephaniah the priest, the son of Maaseiah, saying, “Inquire of the LORD for us, for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is making war against us. Perhaps the LORD will deal with us according to all his wonderful deeds and will make him withdraw from us.”

Jeremiah 21:1b-2

Zedekiah treats the LORD like a useful Genie, Someone Who previously did some neat stuff and might just come in handy again. But there is little hint here of any humility or contrition, no notion of a desire to be corrected, no repentance. The only semblance of humility shown here is that Zedekiah deigns to turn to Jeremiah at all, the man he has thus far completely failed to heed. The inquiry itself is ridiculous, though, because Zedekiah should already know the answer. Jeremiah has been declaring the LORD’s verdict for quite some time, so it should be no surprise when Jeremiah reiterates that everyone’s best course of action is to surrender to Nebuchadnezzar. (Jer. 21:8-10)

So what about us? How do we approach God in prayer? Do we come to Him in humility and contrition, recognizing that He is the LORD God Almighty, the One to Whom we owe our very life, indeed, the One Who is our very life? Do we come looking for correction in complete surrender to His will? Or do we come to our own personal Genie, looking for favors and blessings, despite our defiance of His known will?

We might want to think long and hard before we happily conclude that we are more like Jeremiah than Zedekiah…

II Chronicles 36:11-12; Ezekiel 1:1-3:21; II Kings 24:20-25:3; Jeremiah 52:3-6

Today we meet Ezekiel with his call to be a prophet of the LORD among the exiles in Babylon. Ezekiel sees a vision of the glory of the LORD, involving living creatures with four faces and wheels within wheels. (If you are looking here for an explanation of that vision, I’m sorry to disappoint…) Having gotten Ezekiel’s attention, the LORD commissions Ezekiel as a prophet to the people of Israel, including Judah, whom the LORD describes as rebellious, impudent, and stubborn:

And He said to me, “Son of man, I send you to the people of Israel, to nations of rebels, who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day. The descendants also are impudent and stubborn: I send you to them, and you shall say to them, “Thus says the Lord GOD.” And whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house) they will know that a prophet has been among them.

Ezekiel 2:3-5

We would do well here to remember Isaiah’s call:

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” And He said, “Go, and say to this people:
“‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand;
keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’
Make the heart of this people dull,
and their ears heavy,
and blind their eyes;
lest they see with their eyes,
and hear with their ears,
and understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed.”

Isaiah 6:8-10

And let’s not forget how Jeremiah is consistently rejected…

Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel (not to mention innumerable others) are all called to prophesy to people who are not listening, and won’t. The LORD is clearly well aware of Israel’s hard heart, yet the LORD calls these prophets anyway and charges them to preach. He explains to Ezekiel that He is setting him as a watchman with the responsibility to warn the people, whether or not they choose to listen. (Ez. 3:16-21)

Do we as Christians today each stand in Ezekiel’s place, with the same responsibility as a watchman? No, I don’t think so, at least not in quite the same way; we are not Old Testament prophets. Ezekiel and others did their job, and the world has been duly warned. But that is not to say that we should sit idly by as the world goes to hell. Not at all. We must do what we can to warn against sin. We must take our stand on major moral and social issues of our day: human trafficking, drugs and addiction, abortion, pornography and sexual immorality, greed — any sin, actually. And we should stand firm, even when the world refuses to listen. Most of all, we should do our part in sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ. After all, it is not a message to be hoarded! But that does not mean that we are in Ezekiel’s shoes.

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One more thing…

You might notice that the LORD repeatedly addresses Ezekiel as “son of man”, which basically just means “man” or “human being” or “mortal person”. In other words, Ezekiel is one of us. As a title, “son of man”, is used over ninety times to refer to Ezekiel, but it is used nowhere else in the Old Testament except in Daniel 7:13 (where it points to the Messiah) and Daniel 8:17 (where it refers to Daniel). When we get to the New Testament, we will see in the Gospels that in referring to Himself, Jesus uses “the Son of Man” more than any other title. In so doing, Jesus emphasizes His humanity, that He is one of us, but we should also note that He is the Son of Man, that is, the Archetypical Man.

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And another thing…

There’s nothing like a good old African American Spiritual to remind us of Scripture, so have a listen to any of these varied renditions of “Ezekiel Saw de Wheel”:

• Norfolk State University Choir
• Louis Armstrong
• The Charioteers
• St. Olaf Choir