Month: June 2017

The Bible in a Year – 9 June

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

9 June. Ezekiel chapters 32-34

Chapter 32 continues the woe against Egypt, but with a new dimension in verses 20-32. Here Ezekiel pictures Sheol (or “the Pit”), the land of the dead – not “hell” as we imagine it but the shady underworld where the spirits of the dead live on.  And the picture is of all the warriors from many nations across many centuries, all cast down unceremoniously into the “uttermost parts of the pit”.  This is apparently as a punishment, all for the same offence: “they spread terror in the land of the living”.  Today’s Islamist terrorists who think they are going to some kind of paradise as glorious martyrs would be better reading this, for their fate will be the same – no glory, only the “shame” of “lying with the uncircumcised” (and by implication not in God’s favour).

 

Chapter 33 contains several important principles. Firstly there is the reminder to Ezekiel (whose mouth is about to be opened to speak his prophecies aloud for the first time) that as a prophet he is like a watchman who is obliged to sound a warning when he sees danger, and will be held to account when he fails to do so.   Then, there is the principle (not obvious in the woes and condemnations that have preceded it) that what matters to God is what people actually do now, and not what they say they will do, or their previous behaviour.  To those who think of God as only punishing sin, it is important to understand this: “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live” (33).  At the end of the chapter Ezekiel is told that the people who love to come and hear him speak will in fact mostly not obey the message that he brings – something that all preachers and those who call for change in society are all too aware of.

 

Chapter 34 is one of the key passages of the Old Testament, picturing God as the good shepherd who would look after his sheep.  It is a wonderful picture of a god who cares for each person’s individual needs and wants them to leave in peace. In doing so, though, it is his duty as a shepherd to stop the stronger sheep from bullying and taking advantage of the weaker ones, and to distinguish between sheep and goats.  He also has to step in personally when those whom he has appointed as acting shepherds (the priests and Levites) have failed in their duty and acted selfishly with no care for the sheep. Jesus must have had this passage in mind when he told the parable of the sheep and goats Matthew 25) and also when he described himself as the “good shepherd” (John 10:11) – by implication saying he is taking over control from the religious leaders who had failed their people. No wonder they start to seek to get rid of him after that.

 

The Bible in a Year – 8 June

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

8 June. Ezekiel chapters 26-31

Chapters 26-28 are an extended prophecy against the cities of Tyre and Sidon – the cities of the Phoenecians, long enemies of Israel and differing from them in being a seagoing nation (whereas the Israelites never were known as sailors, and seem to have regarded the sea as inherently evil).  The great sin of the Phoenecians, it seems, was pride.  They had become rich through trading with many other nations, and thought that they were superior to all other peoples, and had no need of God.  Indeed they are charged her with thinking of themselves as gods (28:2-6) – the ultimate sin.  As St Paul famously wrote  “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” (1 Timothy 6:10). We could think of examples today – for instance those who would “make America great again” when in fact only humility before God, rather than national pride, can truly bring about such an outcome.

 

In chapters 29-31 the Lord’s judgement is turned southwards towards Egypt.  For the sins of idolatry and pride (pictured as claiming that the river Nile which brought fertility to the land was their own creation) they too would be brought low, as Assyria had been.  In fact the land of Egypt was to be made uninhabitable for forty years (29:11), perhaps echoing the forty years in which Israel had been condemned to live in the wilderness after leaving Egypt) and would never become a world power again.  That has indeed come to pass – Egypt which once was the leading culture of the near east for many centuries has never again risen to such prominence.

 

In between these two extended judgements is a short but positive affirmation of the settled future that God had in mind for Israel after dealing with all the other nations around them (28:25-26).  Sometimes a short work of affirmation is all it takes to boost someone’s self-esteem, whereas criticism often has to be repeated at length before it is accepted.

 

The Bible in a Year – 7 June

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

7 June. Ezekiel chapters 24-25

It is easy to forget, reading through this book of prophecies, that since the end of chapter 3 Ezekiel had been silenced by God.  That was in the fifth year of his exile, and it is now the ninth. For four years he has been hearing the voice of God but has had to act out his prophecies like a mime artist.  Only on the day that a messenger would come from Jerusalem bearing news of its final destruction, as his unspoken allegories had predicted, would his mouth be opened so that he could speak again.

There is a parallel in the Bible in the story of Zechariah, a priest who received an angelic message that he would be the father of a prophet called Jehohanan (known to us as John the Baptist).   He too was stricken dumb until the day of the boy’s naming and circumcision ceremony, after his wife had announced that their son would bear that name.   It seems that sometimes, those who are given a revelation from God (whether the good news of the birth of a prophet, or the bad news of the destruction of a city) have to remain silent until the appropriate time.  It is enough to be aware that God is planning something, and best to leave him to it rather than tell everyone.

 

There are times in our own lives when we have to keep secrets, too.  A confidence shared, a commercial secret accidentally seen at work, something overheard on a bus.  There may be a temptation to seek a financial reward or manipulate a relationship with this information, or just to gossip. But St James had strong words to say about our speech: “no one can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so” (James 3:8-10).

 

 

The Bible in a Year – 6 June

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

6 June. Ezekiel chapters 21-23

This is where Ezekiel’s prophecies turn really nasty.  In summary, chapter 21 is a pair of prophecies, poetic in form but certainly not pleasant in content, against Judah; 22 a more specific list of the sins of Judah and its leaders; and 23 another allegory (like earlier ones, but even more graphic) of Israel and Judah as prostitutes in their dealings with other nations. In one sense there is nothing new here, it is his consistent message, but now with added sex and violence (in fact if I were to quote some of these verses of the Bible, which probably do not appear in any lectionary for public reading, this blog would be blocked by content filters).

 

Is all this irrelevant to us in 21st century Britain? Unfortunately not.  These words read shockingly just days after a terrorist knife attack in a part of London that I know well: “A sword for great slaughter, it surrounds them; therefore hearts fail and many stumble. … Attack to the right! Engage to the left! – wherever your edge is directed.” (21:14-16)

 

The charge sheet of sins directed against God’s people, which are the cause of the violence of the sword that they are about to experience, includes many failings of our own society. It does not take much paraphrasing of the text of 22:6-12 to read these charges as: dysfunctional families, injustice for immigrants, insufficient support for the poorest in society, sexual violence, a financial system that leads people into debt, and dishonesty in business.  Those charges can certainly be laid against Britain today.

 

But the charges also include a loss of a sense of what is holy (26), a failing that is not mentioned in the secular media and yet is at the root of the problem. There is undoubtedly a connection between the secularisation of society and the breakdown of communities. The word ‘religion’ ultimately means ‘connection’ – connection between people as well as between us and God.

 

Is there any link between these failings in our society and the terrorism that afflicts us?  I would say yes, but not in any simplistic sense.  Our problems, like our sins, are connected increasingly with those of the world as a whole, but that does not mean that the sins of individuals have nothing to do with it. Much of Ezekiel’s prophecies are directed at nations, and the whole sweep of Old Testament history is the story of the rise and fall of kingdoms, yet the previous chapters have made it clear that sin is the fault of individual persons, and God’s judgement is also on them as individuals. This whole question of guilt and punishment is a complex one.

 

What holds it together is a sense that everything that happens, however horrible, is in some way part of God’s plan. But again, this is not to be taken simplistically.  Christianity has no sense of fatalism – “the will of God” does not mean that we have no choice.  On the contrary, none of these prophecies limits the fundamental human freedom to choose good or evil, a choice we see played out in the Bible from beginning to end. There is always a call to repent, always an opportunity to receive God’s forgiveness and love as an individual, always the option of playing a smaller or larger part in the redemption of the world rather than its condemnation.

The Bible in a Year – 5 June

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

5 June. Ezekiel chapters 18-20

A couple of days ago [link] I mentioned that Ezekiel’s message was directed against individual, rather than communal sin. In Chapter 18 that principle is taken further, and the idiom (common in English too) “like mother, like daughter” does not apply when it comes to God’s judgement of individuals.  I am guilty neither for my parents’ sin, nor my children’s.  Nor can I blame them for my own sin or expect them to suffer for it.  The simple and universal principle is, “if you sin you will die.  If you are good you will live”.  Neither is an unchangeable outcome: sinners can repent and live, while even normally good people can commit sins that lead to death.

 

In this sense, “die” and “live” obviously cannot refer to mere physical death, for everyone does die, and one of life’s apparent injustices is that evil people do not necessarily die younger or live less successful lives than holy people.  No, what is meant is spiritual life and death, in the same sense that Jesus later claimed that anyone who believed in him would be “born again”. This means having an acceptable relationship with God in this life, free from guilt and open to his blessings, and which will lead to happiness in the life to come (whatever that may be).

 

After a “lamentation” (song of mourning) in chapter 19, In chapter 20 Ezekiel returns to the principle of each generation being responsible for itself, as he confronts the leaders of the exiles with their nation’s history. It is one of repeatedly wasting God’s promises, missing the opportunities for right and holy living, and turning away to idols.  But time after time, God’s anger against one generation is replaced by his compassion for the next – provided they will do right.  And in this generation to which he speaks, will they do right?  Will they accept the opportunity they are about to be given to return to Jerusalem and live as God’s people were intended to do, starting from scratch?  More importantly, what will our generation here and now do?  And going back to the previous lesson about the responsibility lying with individuals rather than whole communities, what are you or I going to do with the opportunities given to each of us to return to God and live his way? The responsibility is ours.

 

The Bible in a Year – 4 June

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

4 June. Ezekiel chapters 16-17

When Ezekiel was not acting out the prophecies he received, he couched them in terms of allegories or parables, much as Jesus did with his teachings.  The first of these chapters pictures the nation of Israel/Judah as a prostitute, or adulterous wife, who left her husband (the true god) who had loved her as an abandoned child, married her as a young woman and brought her up into a royal household.  She left him and slept with all her neighbours and strangers, even paying them for love.  This could be seen as relating to Israel’s political alliances or the people’s worship of false gods – probably both.  The use of this imagery is found elsewhere in the Bible, but never in such an extended form.

 

Chapter 17 pictures those who had been taken into captivity in Babylon in a very different way, as a cutting from a cedar (a very large, useful and long-lived tree, often used in the Bible as another image of God’s love).  The cutting was planted in Babylon by God’s will but tried to transplant itself again to Egypt (with which Judah had tried to form an alliance), but the attempt was doomed to failure.  The only successful transplant would be that initiated by God, who would take a further cutting and re-establish it to become a mature tree back in Jerusalem.

 

Whether you prefer the gentle gardening imagery of a tree and its cutting, or the bloodier and more shocking image of the prostitute, the lesson is clear: unfaithfulness to God is every bit as bad, or worse, than unfaithfulness to your own husband or wife; and no attempt at saving yourself will succeed, as God is the only one who can save you.

 

The Bible in a Year – 3 June

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

3 June. Ezekiel chapters 13-15

In chapter 13 the prophecy is against false prophets (both women and men); and against the women who “sew bands on their wrists to hunt lives”- a rather obscure reference, as is the meaning of the ‘whitewashed wall’.

 

The commentary I looked at suggests that Ezekiel is quite a turning point in the Old testament, as it marks the beginning of a new understanding of sin and judgement. Until then sin was seen as mainly a corporate matter – if a lot of people in one family, town or nation were evil, the whole community would be under God’s judgement and suffer the consequences.  Conversely the prayer and actions of a righteous few could avert Gods judgement on all.  But now we read (14:12-20) that righteous people can only save themselves; and elsewhere the emphasis is on people being punished for their own sins.

 

 

The Bible in a a Year – 2 June

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

2 June. Ezekiel chapter 12

Chapter 12 contains the second of the acted parables, this time with Ezekiel packing his bags and making as if to leave the city through hole in the wall, as a sign that the walls of Jerusalem were about to be broken down and its remaining inhabitants taken into exile.  He was also told to explain to the people that God’s judgement would be delayed no longer and that his prophecies were about imminent events, not the far future.

 

It is a human tendency to ignore bad news, to put off dealing with difficult challenges, and to hope that something will turn up to prevent the worst from happening  We see that in a big way in our day with climate change: although the vast majority of people accept the need to do something about it, both ordinary people and politicians are slow to make commitments to reduce emissions and pollution, and even when countries do set targets, typically to reach a lower level of emissions within (say)  10 or 30 years, they generally do nothing until the last couple of years, then apologise that there was not enough time to meet the commitment, and postpone the target date.  But the change is here, and the time for action is now!

 

The Bible in a Year – 1 June

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

1 June. Ezekiel chapters 8-11

In chapters 8-11 Ezekiel has a vision in which he is transported from Babylonia where he has been living, back to Jerusalem whence he originated.   Such physical transportation from one place to another as a part of extreme spiritual experience is not unique: Elijah experienced it, as did Philip (Acts chapter 8), and Mohammed in his “night journey” to Jerusalem.  Whether such transportation took place literally (and hence miraculously) or was only a transcendental out-of-body type experience may be a matter for debate, but either way it is clearly something well beyond the experience of most people, believers or not.

 

The purpose of Ezekiel’s transportation was to show him that those left behind after the first deportation to Babylon – even the spiritual leaders of the community – were not only worshipping false gods, but even bowing down to the sun and allowing prostitution, and all this within the ruins of the temple itself!  Therefore God would allow a second enemy invasion to destroy those people and what was left of the city, until a new and more faithful generation of Jews would be allowed to return and rebuild it.

 

Ezekiel’s vision of the glory of God departing from the temple is another example of a prophet seeing a spiritual reality beyond the physical evidence.  A place is made holy by a continuous period of religious observance and prayer; that holiness can be cancelled very quickly by acts of desecration.  Some people seem to be more open than others to a sense of either ‘holiness’ or the ‘numinous’, or conversely the presence of evil or foreboding spirits; I am not one of them.

 

Ezekiel is not a widely quoted Biblical book – the most well known passage is the valley of bones in chapter 37 – but verse 11:19 is an exception. “I will remove from you a heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” is often used to describe the experience that Jesus called “being born again”, when someone realises that God is not remote but actually lives in them.

 

 

 

The Bible in a Year – 31 May

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

31 May. Ezekiel chapters 4-7

Ezekiel was undoubtedly master of the ‘acted parable’ or ‘acted prophesy’.  Using vivid language as Jesus did was not enough for him.  Such was the import of his message that the exile was God’s punishment for Judah’s sins, and that further destruction of Jerusalem would follow (in 586BC, about eleven years after the first siege and exile), that he felt called to go to extreme lengths to demonstrate the message in action.

 

In chapter 4 it meant the physical suffering of lying, bound in ropes, on his left side for 390 days (over a year) to represent 390 years of rebellion against God.  During this time (in which he was brought only flour and water, and baked bread over cow dung) he had to act out the siege of Jerusalem using a model of the city.  All this presumably took place in public so as to attract the attention of passers-by.  The nearest equivalent to this today would be the Greenpeace activists who chain themselves to military installations or invade whaling vessels, or perhaps Brian Haw who protested in a tent outside the UK Parliament for nearly ten years.  Such people disturb the complacency with which most of us meekly accept the injustices that we see around us, even when we know that people will suffer if they are not challenged.