Holy Spirit,
pour out upon us
wisdom and understanding,
that, being taught by you in Holy Scripture,
our hearts and minds may be opened to receive
all that leads to life and holiness.
Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
I found myself stopped at Lamentations 2:5. “The Lord is like an enemy.” I looked it up in Hebrew and in several other English translations. They all agree. This is a lament – Jeremiah crying out. After reading Jeremiah, we know that God was like an enemy, and we know why. I think it is very important to keep this message close when we also quote, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” That good and true promise must put our focus on God, not ourselves. God must be the center of our attention and our lives. We just saw Judah listen to that promise while thinking only of their own desires, and that was a disaster. That is when God becomes like an enemy.
3:22-27 are near the center of the poem (and poems), and the center frequently draw the attention. Here is surely does. The main word in the midst of the sorrow is that God is the God of new beginnings, the God who said to Moses in Exodus 34:6-7, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.”
Ezekiel prophesied to the Israelites in their exile in Babylon from Babylon. Jeremiah had prophesied from the homeland, but Ezekiel is in exile. The phrase “son of man” occurs 99 times in the Old Testament, and 93 of those refer to Ezekiel (Daniel also is called “son of man”). In 2:4 God identifies himself as “the Sovereign LORD.” Adonai is the Hebrew word for Lord, and Yahweh is the Hebrew word for the covenant name LORD, and here God calls himself Adonai Yahweh, which the NIV translates “the Sovereign LORD” (rather than “Lord LORD”).
We have seen God require the prophets to enact God’s judgments for the people to see. Chapter 4 is a very interesting scene. Ezekiel has to enact this for about 14 months! We don’t know if this was day and night or exactly what it looked like, but it was big. There is a note of grace from God in that the scene does have an end. There is a message that “this too shall pass,” but the shaving scene at the beginning of chapter 5 tells us that even the end of those days is not completely good news.
Ezekiel 11:13 shows the despair of the righteous at the extent of this judgment. “Will you completely destroy the remnant of Israel?” Will everyone be wiped out? God responds with another key word of grace in 11:19-20. God himself will give the people new hearts.
God has indeed given us new hearts as well!
No comments:
Post a Comment