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The world by its wisdom knows all the structures of reality, but it cannot penetrate to the ultimate mystery; it does not know God. — Reinhold Niebuhr (Justice and Mercy) Terror is coming! reads the beginning of Ezekiel 7:25. The root of that Hebrew word translated terror or “anguish” (NRSV) is the same that gives [...]

And the people bowed and prayed To the neon God they made. — Paul Simon (“The Sound of Silence” from Simon & Garfunkel, Sounds of Silence) As Ezekiel continues to relay God’s messages in chapter seven, he repeats some parts for emphasis, and adds new threats. Some of the expressions are so confusing that no [...]

Good works do not make a good man, but a good man does good works; evil works do not make a wicked man, but a wicked man does evil works. — Martin Luther (The Freedom of a Christian) The first thing to notice at the start of chapter seven is the fragmentary nature of Ezekiel’s [...]

Our hate needs to be prayed, not suppressed.  Hate is our emotional link with the spirituality of evil.  It is the volcanic eruption of outrage when the holiness of being, ours or another’s, has been violated. — Eugene Peterson (Answering God) Our English translations of the Old Testament often fail to capture the earthy intensity [...]

Heav’n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn’d, Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman scorn’d. — William Congreve (The Mourning Bride 3.2) Few things deflate us more quickly than crushed hope.  The baseball you hit bouncing off the top of the outfield fence, only to drop back into play.  The sight of a [...]

When it comes to dealing with God, most of us spend considerable time trying our own hands at either being or making gods. — Eugene H. Peterson (Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places) Baal was the storm-God, the most important deity of the Canaanite religion. One ancient reference gives Baal the title: “Rider of the [...]

Everywhere in scripture only one thing arouses God’s anger: sin, and only one thing perpetuates it: impenitence in the face of sin. — Victor Shepherd (Seasons of Grace) Open your mind to these images: Starving women cannibalizing their own children who are dying of malnutrition in a besieged city One third of the population of [...]

By the wedding ring of faith [Christ] shares in the sins, death, and pains of hell which are his bride’s. — Martin Luther (The Freedom of a Christian) Ezekiel must be the patron saint of model makers everywhere.  If you have ever met a model train aficionado, you will understand the amount of detail they [...]

The endless cycle of idea and action, Endless invention, endless experiment, Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness; Knowledge of speech, but not of silence; Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word. — T. S. Eliot (“The Rock”) The conversation begins: God: Ezekiel, you are Israel’s sentinel, and I am sending you to [...]

Ungodliness is the greatest and the central sin. It is the cause of all our other troubles. — D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (The Plight of Man and the Power of God) Remember everything Ezekiel has experienced, then put yourself in his shoes: how would you respond?  Would you be angry at God for allowing your friends [...]