I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 13-15.

    In today’s passage Ezekiel speaks out against two types of people who offer spiritual guidance. First, he condemns those who claim to speak on behalf of God but have not actually listened to what He has to say. Rather than seek God and the message He would have for the people they tell people what they want to hear. Rather than strengthen the walls that hold back the suffering and destruction which result from sins, they merely cover up the weak spots. As I read this I think of the religious leaders whose messages seem designed to gain social acceptance rather than to call people to righteousness. This first category of false prophet whom Ezekiel called out are the public religious leaders, those who are called “Reverend”, or “Pastor”, or some other term which implies they speak God’s word who do not actually listen to what God has to say. The second category are those who are “spiritual, but not religious”. They “bless” objects, burn incense, and conduct other private rituals which give them a sense of connection to the spiritual. But again they do not risk actually listening to what God has to say because they might then need to stop doing something which God tells them is wrong. I like to call both of these groups the “no cost” religious. They want the benefits of being spiritual without the cost. They are happy to condemn those sins which neither they nor their followers would ever consider committing, but will find reasons to excuse those which God’s Spirit is actually convicting them about.

    Both of these groups of “prophets” exist because we have set up idols in our hearts, because we embrace things which lead us to sin. Rather than turn from our idolatry and sin we seek prophets who will tell us that they are OK. When we seek out religious and spiritual guides who will tell us that we do not need to turn away from our sin God will not answer our questions. When we know what God asks of us, but seek out those who will tell us something else we will soon receive God’s judgment for our sins.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 9-12.

    As a continuation of the vision which Ezekiel had which revealed the idolatry going on in Jerusalem (I want to note that all of these revelations occurred to Ezekiel wile he was living near Babylon, nowhere near Jerusalem) he saw God summon seven men. Six of whom were armed, the seventh was dressed in linen and carrying a writer’s case. The fact that Ezekiel described the seventh man as being dressed in linen suggests that the other six were dressed as warriors. The man dressed in linen was instructed to mark those who were heartbroken by the sins being committed, while the six armed men were instructed to follow him and kill everyone who was not so marked.

nbsp;   When the man dressed in linen returned from marking those who were faithful God commanded him to take some coals and scatter them over the city. Once the man had done so, the whole fantastic vision lifted up and carried the glory of God out of the Temple and out of Jerusalem. On the way out of the city, God told Ezekiel that those who were telling the people that all would be well would suffer His judgment. I am unsure of this next interpretation, but there seems to be something more to what was going on then is stated explicitly here. I believe that God was addressing those leaders who were encouraging people to invest in the future when they themselves were cashing out. The elites, the leaders, were reassuring the people that all was safe and secure, while preparing to profit from the coming destruction and acting to secure their own safety. God promised them that their selfish plans to secure themselves would fail and that they too would experience God’s justice.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 5-8.

    I had commented on Jeremiah’s use of physical symbols and acting out his prophecies. Ezekiel took this even further. In chapter 4, he spent 390 days lying on his side in front of a model of Jerusalem under siege. In chapter 5, at the end of that time he shaved his head and beard. He took a third of the hair and burned it in the middle of his model of Jerusalem. Another third he chopped up with his sword (or, at least laid it on the ground and chopped at it with his sword). The final third of his hair he scattered to the wind. All of this was to indicate what would happen to the people of Israel still left in Jerusalem. All of this, Ezekiel said, would happen because of the sins of the people.

    Some time after this (the dates are given, but I don’t think they are relevant to what I am going to write today), Ezekiel had another vision from God. This one occurred while some of the leaders of the Exile community were visiting his house. In this vision he sees three separate forms of idolatry being committed by the people of Jerusalem. The first was an idol in the Temple courtyard. Several sources I found suggest that this idol was a statue of Astarte (also known as Ishtar). Several things I have read suggest that this may have actually been an amalgamation of Astarte and Asherah. In any case, it would have been a goddess which the people of Jerusalem placed as God’s equivalent (possibly even higher than God) and possibly as His consort. It is likely that Ezekiel is referring to the worship of the Queen of Heaven mentioned in Jeremiah. Then Ezekiel is taken to witness leaders of the people worshiping what are likely Egyptian gods in secret. From there he is taken back out to the north gate where he witnesses some women weeping over the god Tammuz, a fertility god associated with Astarte and the seasonal rebirth cycle. Finally, Ezekiel sees 25 men with their backs to God’s altar worshiping the sun.
    As I was reading this, and writing about it, it struck me that all of this represents the people of Jerusalem worshiping various, incompatible gods rather than remaining faithful to God. In many ways I see similarities to our society today, in that there was no unifying worship of a single deity. Everyone took their own interpretation of proper worship. There were those who worshiped Astarte in the form of a fertility goddess, where the focus was on sexual desire. Then there were those who worshiped other gods more secretively, where the focus was on power. Then we had those who worshiped Astarte and Tammuz, where sexual desire took a darker turn with the sacrifice of children. Finally, there were those who turned their back on God to worship nature in the form of the sun. I will leave you to your own thoughts about how these might connect to modern idolatry. We need to ask ourselves if we are guilty of any of these forms of idolatry.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 1-4.

    Every time I read Ezekiel’s description of the four living beings I wish I had the artistic talent to draw what he describes. I wish I could draw it because none of the images I have found depicting it match what I picture in my mind as I read this. I picture these beings as having a face in every direction, human like bodies, except that their legs end in hooves rather than feet, and two sets of wings which are perpendicular to each other. And every time I read through my image changes slightly. Associated with each of these beings is a gyroscope (a wheel within a wheel). A further reason I wish I had the artistic talent to draw it is that there is a part of this description which sounds like a high technology machine and I would like to see if I could envision a machine which matched the description. Having said all of that, there is an element of this vision which reminds me of some dreams I have had. I have had dreams, which while I was dreaming made perfect sense but when I woke up had elements which were inconsistent with each other. I believe that Ezekiel’s description here felt that way to him.

    As part of this vision Ezekiel received his call. God told Ezekiel that his mission would be harder because he was being sent to people he understood and who understood him. In many ways this is contrary to what we tend to think. We tend to think that foreign missionaries have a more difficult time than those whose mission field is in their home town. I want to focus on the fact that Ezekiel was instructed to give God’s message whether or not people listened to him. In fact, God told him that they would not listen to him, that rather than listen to and heed his message, they would get angry with him and threaten him. If we are called to ministry among the people we grew up with we can expect to be treated similarly.

    I mentioned the other day that Ezekiel had a good passage on our responsibility to warn others of the consequences of their sins. God told Ezekiel that he was the watchman for the people of Israel. Just as a watchman was responsible to warn the city of invaders, so Ezekiel was responsible to warn people of God’s judgment. The same is true for us, when God makes us aware that people will suffer as a consequence of their sin, we are responsible to warn them. If we fail to give people God’s warning, God will hold us responsible for the suffering they experience. However, if we do warn people and they do not heed our warning, they will still suffer but God will not hold us accountable for their suffering. We are not responsible to convince people to change their behavior, merely to warn them of its consequences.