Archive | May, 2007

Ezekiel 40:5-27: Audacious Hope

By Stephen Barkley on May 30, 2007 in Ezekiel 0

Hope, like a muscle,
will not be strong if it goes unused.
— Douglas J. Moo (The Epistle to the Romans)

Planning is a creative event. Anyone who has built something significant knows the possibilities that a good designer can bring to the table.

At New Life, we have just finished adding a gymnasium on our facility. The entire process took about three years. Planning was the most difficult, but also the most rewarding part of the process. On a number of occasions, the blueprints were examined and reconsidered. There is an extra room that exists upstairs at the front of the gym now because of that process.

Drawing up plans calls things into existence before they’re there. This is the task that the man who shone like bronze led Ezekiel through.

. . .

In order to understand the significance of this passage, it’s important to remember Ezekiel’s context. He has been exiled from Jerusalem, the city that contained God’s Temple, for 25 years. Jerusalem was razed to the ground, along with the temple, 14 years earlier. Ezekiel had few reasons to hope.

Twenty-five years after leaving the Temple, half way toward a Jubilee year, God gave Ezekiel specific plans for the a Temple that didn’t yet exist. Indeed, it would be hard for anyone to even conceive of it existing at that point in their collective history!

. . .

The man who shone like bronze didn’t start measuring at the Temple. Instead he started with a city wall (about 10 feet wide and 10 feet high if you’re interested). The restoration that God had in mind would involve the entire community. All God’s people would be restored and sanctified.

From there, the man took Ezekiel around and showed him what the exterior walls and gates of the Temple would look like. They follow the sort of plan you would expect from the architecture of that era, complete with guard rooms along the entrances to protect the Temple from people who would want to destroy it.

. . .

One of my favourite lines in this passage comes at the end of v. 16:

On the pilasters were palm trees. (NRSV)

It’s a small detail that speaks volumes. God wanted to give Ezekiel hope so badly, he included the sort of detail that would help him to visualize the future.

I wonder if we need to take more time visualizing what our future could be like. I’m not interested in wishful thinking, or the power of positive thinking à la “Secret”. I want the hope that comes when God works with my imagination to create the future he desires.

The sort of future where the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our God and of his Messiah.

The sort of future where God’s will is done as quickly and easily on earth as it is in heaven.

The sort of future only the God of Israel—the deity who releases slaves to call them children—could offer.

. . .

Lord God, help me to visualize the future you have for me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

< Ezekiel 40:1-4 | Half Way There

Ezekiel 40:28-46 | In or Out >

Ezekiel 40:1-4: Half Way There

By Stephen Barkley on May 23, 2007 in Ezekiel 0

The God-side of the event whose world-side is called return
is called redemption.
— Martin Buber (I and Thou)

When something seemingly mundane is repeated four times, it’s usually important.

If I was to say, “September 11, 2006, five years later, at the very hour, right then, something happened”, you would understand that the significance of that event depended on its association with the collapse of the Twin Towers.

Ezekiel dated his visions all through the book, but here he dates the vision in four complementary ways:

In the twenty-fifth year of our exile,
and the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month,
in the fourteenth year after the city was struck down,
on that very day” (40:1, NRSV)

Do you get the impression that whatever Ezekiel’s trying to say finds its significance in the timing?

. . .

The content of this vision takes us right to the end of Ezekiel’s book. This vision is a picture of restored Israel. It includes a detailed description of the restored Temple, along with the return of God’s glory. It gives a picture of Torah restored, along with their land and city. In one of Ezekiel’s most memorable passages, the prophet sees water coming out from under the Temple. That water turns into a river too deep to swim in.

The content is all good news, but the timing is paradoxical. They’re still in captivity, and they’ve been there for a long time. Let’s look at the date notices in reverse order.

“On that very day”This again indicates the significance of the timing of this vision. You don’t say it happened “on that very day”, unless that very day is significant.
You often here stories like this around church: I’ve been discouraged for a month and just when I thought no one cared, at that very time, you showed up to visit me. “That very time” is significant.
“In the fourteenth year after the city was struck down”This vision has been a long time coming. Jerusalem was destroyed fourteen years earlier! What were you doing fourteen years ago? Can you imagine longing—praying—for something for fourteen years without hearing an answer?
Ezekiel was still sticking with it. He was faithful to God’s Spirit for over a decade, sharing whatever God asked him to. Now, after such a long time, God gave him an overwhelming picture of hope for the future.
“The beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month”This is a specific date, which adds realism to the account. This vision was a real experience—not something made up to give false hope. You can almost here the wonderment in the text: “It actually happened. On January 10, that very day, it happened!”
(In care you’re wondering, I know the “beginning of the year” for Ezekiel wasn’t January. The issue is complicated, so I just used January to make the point.)
“In the twenty-fifth year of our exile”This is the most important indicator. Do you know what was supposed to happen every 50 years in Israel? Jubilee. After seven times seven sabbath years, there was a year of Jubilee proclaimed.
During that year, a bunch of good things were supposed to happen. Slaves were released, land was returned to the original owners, the law was read, and debts were forgiven.

This vision didn’t happen in the twenty-fifth year of Ezekiel’s exile for no reason. This was the year they turned the corner. They were half way there. They had suffered for a long time, but they were now on the downward slope towards jubilee. The slaves would return to their ancestral home.

. . .

Ezekiel died in Babylon. Like Moses, he received a vision of God’s promised land, but never entered it himself. Where does that leave us?

Is it possible that God could give us hope to live, without fulfilling his promises in our lifetime? Could some of the things we’ve been praying for for fourteen years be answered in our children’s lifetime? God counts time in millennia, not days.

Hope is why we live. Resurrection—God’s Spirit breathed into our dead bodies—is our hope. In the long years before resurrection, let’s live from that place of hope.

. . .

Lord God, energize me with your hope so I can live more effectively. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

< Ezekiel 39:21-29 | Forgetting Shame

Ezekiel 40:5-27 | Audacious Hope >

Ezekiel 39:21-29: Forgetting Shame

By Stephen Barkley on May 17, 2007 in Ezekiel 0

So I saw in my dream that just as Christian came up with the cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from his back, and began to tumble, and so continued to do, till it came to the mouth of the sepulchre where it fell in, and I saw it no more.
— John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress

Have you ever considered how much past shame influences our current lives? It doesn’t take an average human being very long to remember something they’re ashamed of!

Here at the end of the Gog narrative, Ezekiel summed up everything by repeating the grand twin themes of exile (vv. 21-24) and redemption (vv. 25-29). Israel sinned so God delivered her into exile. God remembered his covenant, and restored his people. The one tiny phrase that leapt off the page when I read this section was in the restoration section:

“They shall forget their shame” (v. 26, NRSV).

. . .

There are a couple of grand statements in this redemptive passage I wanted to point out.

The first is found in v. 28: “I sent them into exile among the nations, and then gathered them into their own land. I will leave none of them behind” (NRSV).

On the surface, this sounds like a typical verse. Once you consider the implications, though, it’s very important. No other passage in the Old Testament states so clearly that everyone will return from exile. Even the stragglers. The leftovers.

When you watch war movies, you often hear the sentiment that no one gets left behind in a military operation. That’s what God’s saying here. He knows the depth of their sin: still, no one will gets left behind.

. . .

The second is found in v. 29: “when I pour out my spirit upon the house of Israel” (NRSV)

Ezekiel has developed a characteristic way of describing God’s judgment. It is šāpak hămātî, “I will pour out my wrath”. What makes v. 29 so powerful is evident in Hebrew. Instead of šāpak hămātî, we see šāpak rûhî. Instead of “I will pour out my wrath,” we find “I will pour out my Spirit”.

What a relief. Can you imagine hearing these words for the first time? Do you think Ezekiel delivered them slowly? “I . . . will . . . pour . . . out . . . my . . . [no!, not again!] . . . Spirit [phew].” The merciful turn of phrase would not have been lost on the hearers.

Just how that Spirit outpouring would reshape Israel is laid out in the last 9 chapters of Ezekiel. We’re through with Gog now. Starting in chapter 40 we’ll look at the new Temple, the new Torah, and the new Land, and the new City.

None of that is possible without leaving past shame behind to embrace the promise of God’s Spirit.

. . .

Do we live in the light of these promises—no one left behind, and the replacement of wrath with Spirit—or do we hold on to the shame of past failure?

When we live from our shame, it prevents us from enjoying grace. It places a wall between our conscience and real freedom. It hinders our ability to accept the influence of God’s Spirit. It insults the cross.

I’ll finish with Mike Knott’s take on grace, works, and freedom:

Striving for the answer
Fighting for the streets of gold
Hope you’re not forgotten
You wonder if you’ve killed your soul
I’ve heard the words of judgment but
Not from the one I know

It falls down on me
It falls down on you
Grace falls free
The proud feel the need to work the loom
Yet grace falls free
—L.S.U. (Grace Shaker, 1994)

. . .

Almighty God, release me from my shame like you’ve released me from sin. Set me free to respond to your Spirit’s call. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

< Ezekiel 39:17-20 | Uncouth Cad

Ezekiel 40:1-4 | Half Way There >

Ezekiel 39:17-20: Uncouth Cad

By Stephen Barkley on May 10, 2007 in Ezekiel 0

Rather a worm in the eyes of Jesus
than a god in the eyes of men!
— Helmut Thielicke (Our Heavenly Father: Sermons On the Lord’s Prayer)

Everyone has a friend like this. Someone who is always blurts out the most awkward things at the wrong time. Someone whose lack of social grace makes everyone at the party cringe. The type of person who doesn’t understand the word taboo. The person who keeps you on edge: what will he say next? Sasha Baron Cohen made a fortune playing that guy!

Ezekiel is that guy with a difference: I think he understood social customs—he just didn’t care about them. He broke taboos intentionally. And nothing he has shared to this point would have been quite as shocking as the feast he describes now.

Although it’s an expression of faith in Yahweh’s victory over evil, it would have made Yahweh’s followers squirm due to its taboo-breaking gory detail.

. . .

What’s the big deal? These four verses are a formal announcement calling every scavenging animal to attend a feast thrown by Yahweh. The main course? The blood and flesh of the remnants of Gog.

What’s so awkward about that?

The feast is referred to as a sacrificial meal, offered by Yahweh. Sacrificial meals were common in the cultures of that day. The animals who were sacrificed would be eaten by the people. The difference here is role reversal. In a typical sacrificial feast, humans would sacrifice animals for their deity. Here, God is sacrificing people for the animals. Very odd.
The menu consisted of humans! Listen to God’s words to Noah following the flood:

Whoever sheds the blood of a human,
by a human shall that person’s blood be shed;
for in his own image
God made humankind
(9:6, NRSV).

The drunken gluttony that God calls the animals to flies in the face of any imago dei doctrine.
Finally, the animals were supposed to “eat the flesh . . . and drink the blood” (v. 18, NRSV) of the mighty princes of Gog. In a traditional sacrificial meal, the choice parts and blood were reserved for God.

Evil is such a dehumanizing force that when God describes his final victory over evil, those who have aligned themselves with evil are not even treated as humans.

. . .

Ezekiel had a vivid imagination. His faculties were so inflamed by the Spirit of Yahweh, he could envision a future that would break every human taboo. His vision even seriously challenged the Torah!

For Ezekiel, fidelity to God’s Spirit was all that mattered. I wish we all were that free.

. . .

Spirit of God, give me the courage to live in the freedom of your imagination. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

< Ezekiel 39:11-16 | Burying Bones

Ezekiel 39:21-29 | Forgetting Shame >

Ezekiel 39:11-16: Burying Bones

By Stephen Barkley on May 3, 2007 in Ezekiel 0

You may run from His mercy;
you cannot from His justice.
— Charles Wesley (Charles Wesley: A Reader)

Israel had a problem. God’s defeat of evil was so complete, they were stuck with a lot of dead bodies to deal with! It’s a good problem, but a serious one. Here are some of the questions that accompany such a problem:

Should we dignify these enemy bodies with a proper burial?
Where are we going to find enough room to bury all of these people?
Should we bury these people inside or outside of Israel?

This paragraph of the Gog narrative is a polemic that answers these questions, and thereby shows how exhaustive God’s defeat of evil actually is. Remember, this is something that Israel is anticipating in their future. For now, they are still in the enemies camp.

This section has the ring of prisoners in a concentration camp discussing how they will bury their jailers!

. . .

This paragraph is an ironic twist on the Dry Bones narrative: Israel was completely destroyed and slaughtered, but God resurrected them into new life. Now, the bodies of the evil powers lie scattered in the valley. It reminds me of Mary’s Song:

He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
(Luke 1:51-52, NRSV)

These two narratives in tandem—Dry Bones and Gog’s Burial—would have a cumulative effect on the hearers. Not only were they resurrected, their enemies would share in the punishment they meted out.

What goes around comes around.

An eye for an eye.

Lex talionis.

Of course, Jesus embodied a higher ethic. When the Gog narrative reaches its prophetic consummation, evil itself will be destroyed. We are not talking about certain nations receiving judgment. People are able to choose whether to align themselves with the dehumanizing powers of evil, or to receive mercy for their actions.

. . .

The text describes the burial process in detail. It will take a symbolic seven months to bury all of the enemies. There are so many bodies, people will have to circuit the land regularly to ensure no dead bodies remains on the surface. If searchers discover an exposed bone, they will flag it and have the buriers return. The land will be cleansed. Evil will receive a more generous dispatching than Israel received before.

In the interim—the time between the defeat of evil on the cross, and the final wiping out of evil on the earth—I wonder how well we bury evil in our own lives?

The picture in Ezekiel is intense. Not only must we resist temptation once, we need to keep guarding ourselves, and flag the slightest hint of any enemy resurgence. With the constant attendance of the Holy Spirit, we will be able to stay faith-full to God until that day.

. . .

Holy Spirit, help me to guard my life against anything that would woo me from you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

< Ezekiel 39:9-10 | Ravaged Ravager

Ezekiel 39:17-20 | Uncouth Cad >

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Archive | May, 2007