I don't know why this time around I'm getting so much more out of Ezekiel than I have in the past. Maybe it's not my least favorite book in the Bible after all.
This week, I'm briefly highlighting two stories from the performance art prophet that stuck with me. One is fairly well known, the other almost seems to provide the inspiration for one of Jesus's most well-known parables.
In Ezekiel 33, instead of a sweeping condemnation of His people as a whole, God zeroes in on the corrupt leadership of Israel, casting the ordinary people as the victims of their abusive rule. He describes them as shepherds who feed off their sheep instead of feeding them. He accuses the leaders of Israel of not caring for His people and causing them to scatter. This is a kind of the anti-good shepherd parable where the shepherd doesn't bother to go looking for those who have wandered away and are lost. In this passage, as in Jesus's story, God is the good shepherd who goes in search of the lost sheep, who binds up their wounds, feeds them and gives them a place of peace, plenty and rest.
And then God addresses the flock itself, a kind of prefiguring of the parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25. His indictment of the rich abusing the poor is stinging, and should give us all pause: "Isn't enough for you to keep the best pastures for yourselves? Must you also trample down the rest? Isn't enough for you to drink clear water for yourselves? Must also muddy the rest with your feet? Why must my flock eat what you have trampled down and drink what you have fouled?"
Ezekiel 37:1-11 is probably one of the most well-known passages in the book. It's another fantastic vision where God takes Ezekiel to a valley filled with dry bones. "Son of man, can these bones become living people again?" God asks.
By this time, Ezekiel has had enough experience with God and His ways to not be too sure of anything so he replies, "O sovereign Lord, you alone know the answer to that." Better to avoid either doubt or presumption and just trust God to make it plain.
What follows a thrilling vision in which as Ezekiel prophecies to the dead, the bones come together until an army of restored corpses lie before him. Then Ezekiel is instructed to prophesy again, to call on the breath of the four winds to breathe on these bodies, and instantly a vibrant living army leaps to it's feet. It's a powerful image and I love how the rapper Lecrae captures it in Chris Tomlin's rousing anthem "Awake My Soul."
After weeks of endless doom, this vivid promise of resurrection and restoration is such an encouragement.
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