Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ezekiel 17-19.

Ezekiel begins chapter 18 by referring to a proverb spoken among the people:

The parents eat sour grapes,
and the children’s teeth are set on edge

This proverb comes from things like the fact that children abused by their parents are likely to abuse their own children.  Other types of abuse, bad behavior, and sin are also often passed down from one generation to the next.  As humans we tend to expect that the children of bad people will be bad people.  In a way, we expect that the children of bad people deserve the suffering they receive because their parents were bad people.  God tells us through Ezekiel that He does not see things that way.  God will judge each and every one of us on our own actions.  But there is more to it than that.  God will offer each and every one of us the opportunity to break that cycle of brokenness which we inherit from whatever flaws our parents had.  We do not need to continue the generational pattern of sin.  There is another side to that.  We don’t just get a free pass if our parents did not pass on some type of abuse to us.  And we don’t get to live off of the good behavior our parents may have instilled in us.  We need to actively serve God of our own volition as well.  My parents were devoted servants of God, who served Him in whatever task He put in their hands.  I have failed to live up to the standard they set, and I need to change that going forward.

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

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

Ezekiel speaks out against those who prophecy without first looking at how the world is.  They base their proclamations about how people should act on how they wish the world to be rather than on how it actually is.  Rather than seeking to learn what God has to say, rather than seeking to understand how the world really works, they proclaim that whatever gives people pleasure is good.  Instead of seeking out what was broken in society and attempting to repair it, they covered it over and proclaimed it good.  There is a second, closely related group which Ezekiel condemns.  This group seeks to make people feel better about themselves, but instead of telling them to stop doing the things which makes them feel badly about themselves tells them to stop feeling badly about doing those things.  Further, this group condemns those who tell people, “if doing that makes you feel badly about yourself, stop doing it.”  There are many in our society who begin with the truth that people should not feel bad about themselves, but instead of telling people to stop doing the bad things which make them feel bad about themselves they tell them to stop thinking those are bad things.  Ezekiel calls us to tell people that the first step to stop feeling bad about yourself is to stop doing bad things and start doing good things: stop sinning and start doing God’s will.

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

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

Ezekiel spoke his prophecies to the Israelites who were already in exile before the fall of Jerusalem.  While some of what he said was directed at those remaining in Jerusalem, most of it was about them but directed at those already in exile.  In this passage he makes that clear.  Ezekiel told those living in exile that those living in Jerusalem considered them to be cast off from God, that only those who were still in Jerusalem were the true heirs of Israel.  Those remaining in Jerusalem thought that they were safe because they were God’s Chosen People, living in God’s Holy City.  They also believed that it was their right to take over the land of those who had been taken to exile revoking any claim those people or their descendants might have.  Many of those remaining in Jerusalem refused to see their own sins, somehow believing themselves exempt from obeying God’s laws.  Ezekiel then tells the exiles that God had protected them while in exile and had plans to bring them back to Him and to the land He had given their ancestors.  Ezekiel also points out that not all of those living in Jerusalem were ignoring God’s laws; some of them mourned the terrible sins being committed around them.

I am having trouble putting in words the point I am trying to make here.  In Jerusalem, there were those living among the “blessed” who mourned and lamented the horrible things being done by those around them.  In exile, there were those living “far from God”, who sought to do His will, who sought His forgiveness.  Ezekiel told both that God saw them and would protect them.  There were also two groups whom Ezekiel warned of imminent disaster: those who believed their special status with God allowed them to do as they pleased, and those who believed they need not fear God at all.  Ezekiel assured those who feared God’s punishment and sought His will that they need not fear.  Let us do God’s will and not fear the disaster His word tells us is coming, while calling on those around us to turn from their wickedness (note: some of them practice that wickedness to fill the emptiness they feel because they believe there is no God).

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

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

The first thing I want to note about today’s passage is that although Ezekiel’s prophecy was about the fall of Jerusalem and the devastation which the people living in the land of Israel would experience, it was given by him to those already living in Exile.  We know from elsewhere that among the exiles there were those bemoaning their fate of being in exile while some others remained in Jerusalem.  So, in part, this prophecy was to tell them that their being in exile meant that they would avoid the suffering still to come one those remaining in Jerusalem.  However, it also contained a warning about what would befall them if they followed the idolatrous example of those still in Jerusalem.

There is another aspect to the warning which Ezekiel gives here, really a two-fold warning.  First, he warns those who believe that their wealth will allow them to avoid the suffering which others will face.  Some of those who put their trust in their wealth, make things worse for others in order to amass more wealth.  They have no concern for how their actions bring the fall of Jerusalem closer because they believe their wealth will shelter them from the consequences.  Others, gather wealth by acting to advance the interests of the enemies of their country…again, believing that their wealth will shelter them from the consequences, or perhaps believing that God will protect their country even though they weaken it by aiding its enemies.

I use 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 his vision I feel like I am missing something important about the meaning of that description.  I realized today, and perhaps this has occurred to me before, that that is part of the point.  This vision occurs, and Ezekiel describes it, in order to demonstrate to us that there is more to God and what He does than we can possibly understand.  However, I want to focus on God’s message to Ezekiel, not the message God spoke through Ezekiel, but the one He directed to Ezekiel.  First, God instructed Ezekiel to listen to what He said to him and then to do it, to not be like the rebellious people to whom God was sending Ezekiel with a message.  Then God told Ezekiel that he needed to speak God’s word to the people, whether or not they listened.  So, I firmly believe that, for the most part, any message God gives us for others, He gives to us as well.  We must do what God tells us before we speak His message to others.  When God gives us a message to tell others to turn from their sins, we must make sure that we are not guilty of those same sins, whether those sins are of commission or omission.   But, here’s the other part of what God is telling us here: once we have internalized God’s word we need to share it with others, whether they want to hear it or not.

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