Midweek Lent 5 – April 2, 2020 – Ezek. 37:1-14
“EZEKIEL”
Introduction: Grace be to you and peace, from God our Father, and from our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. Our text for this evening was our Scripture Lesson just read, from Ezekiel 37. This evening we hear from Ezekiel.
There is an old saying, “May God grant you to live in interesting times.” This sounds like an expression of good will, but it originated in ancient China and was used as a mild curse. To live in “interesting times” means that things are not going as usual, as normal, but rather in disruptive and even destructive ways. You are currently living in “interesting times,” with this latest pandemic.
The expression, as originally intended, as a curse, certainly fit my life. I was born just prior to the final destruction of Judah and Israel as a nation, as a fully autonomous political entity under God. I was fully aware of the writings of the prophets, especially Isaiah, and of the anhilation of the Northern Kingdom under Senacharib and the Assyrians. That had occurred some 100 years prior to the final destruction of Jerusalem under Nebuchadnezzar and the Bablonians in 586 B.C. And I was fully aware of the ministry of the prophet Jeremiah and his dismal life, chastising Israel and warning them of God’s wrath and His impending destruction of their nation.
So I lived at the end of a very rebellious and idolatrous period of Israel’s history. And I was quite aware that Israel was God’s people. So it was not difficult for me to understand and accept that what was happening to us was well deserved, well warranted, and actually a fulfillment of God’s Word of warning uttered long ago. In several places God had predicted and warned what would happen if we ignored Him, rebelled against Him, and turned to idolatry! Consider just this one Scripture reading, from Leviticus. I apologize for the lengthiness but hear this:
“But if you will not listen to Me and will not do all these commandments, if you spurn My statutes, and if your soul abhors My rules, so that you will not do all My commandments, but break My covenant, then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. I will set My face against you, and you shall be struck down before your enemies. Those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee when none pursues you. And if in spite of this you will not listen to Me, then I will discipline you again sevenfold for your sins, and I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze. And your strength shall be spent in vain, for your land shall not yield its increase, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit. When if you walk contrary to Me and will not listen to Me, I will continue striking you, sevenfold for your sins. And I will let loose the wild beasts against you, which shall bereave you of your children and destroy your livestock and make you few in number, so that your roads shall be deserted. And if by this discipline you are not turned to Me but walk contrary to Me, then I also will walk contrary to you, and I Myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins. And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall execute vengeance for the covenant. And if you gather within your cities, I will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. When I break your supply of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in a single oven and shall dole out your bread again by weight, and you shall eat and not be satisfied. But if in spite of this you will not listen to Me, but walk contrary to Me, then I will walk contrary to you in fury, and I Myself will discipline you sevenfold for your sins. You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters. And I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars and cast your dead bodies upon the dead bodies of your idols, and My soul will abhor you. And I will lay your cities waste and will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your pleasing aromas. And I Myself will devastate the land, so that your enemies who settle in it shall be appalled at it. And I will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.” [Leviticus 26:14-33]
Was it any wonder then? And why would these people, my people, not listen to the wisdom of Isaiah and the genius of Jeremiah? Just so, godly people, genuine believers in God, like Daniel and myself, were also taken captive to Babylon just as God warned! I was recruited by God to be His prophet to His people at this grievous time. It was a time not only of great change, great trial, but also a time of great uncertainty. What was to become of us? What was to become of the nation we had taken such pride in? Did God’s promises still apply to us, we who were of the seed of Abraham. Were we still special people, or now just like any of the other nations?
I was charged with delivering some of the harshest and most scathing criticisms and judgments upon the children of Israel. I was charged with warning them about the hideous things that would come upon the city of Jerusalem in the final seige of the Babylonians. And I delivered just as God commanded me. But it was horrid and disturbing. I was thankful that God also gave me opportunity to bear witness to His love, and to hold out hope that He has not utterly and completely cast us off.
Whereas Jeremiah’s ministry was to assure us that the nation was lost, that our grotesque history of idolatry and immorality was so great, and that our stubborn and impenitent rebellion had been so incorrigible, that the Lord would not relent of the destruction of the nation, my ministry on the other hand was to assure the people of Israel that salvation was still available. Jeremiah had testified the same, that God’s mercy and forgiveness and eternal life were still available to those who repented and returned to His love. Daniel taught the same, as did all the prophets!
Though the revelations that God provided to me were often quite strange and bizarre, the assurance of His love was straightforward and clear.
Consider the promises God gave us: “Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And will bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, O my people. And I will put My Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord, I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.”
God was always our Redeemer, our Savior, our Deliverer, our Protecter, our salvation, our great Benefactor and Lover. The nation, collectively, was like a wicked adulterer – chasing after the things of this world, the pleasures of the flesh, the prerogatives of wealth, the power of evil-mindedness. Yes, there were exceptions, some pious dissenters. But by and large the nation rejected its greatest Friend for the wretched worship and adoration of all that is wicked, low, and despicable.
Yet God’s grace and mercy remained. His power to grant new life, eternal life, was certainly intact. And His good and gracious will to save us was still strong. He directed me to write these blessed words: “As I live declares the Lord, I desire not the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his ways and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?” [Ezek. 33:11]
They didn’t turn back, even when the blessed Son of Man came to redeem us. They were the ones who crucified Him, along with Gentile unbelievers. Christ did this for us, for all of us, that we no long live in the futility of this world. Even the “interesting times” are overcome through the knowledge of God’s goodness and love, as we seek Him and the things above, and let go of the wretched idolatry of our fallen nature. May we all, by His grace, remain firmly devoted to Him, our great Lover and Blesser! Then we will always have His land to dwell in, and He will be our inheritance! Amen.
Votum: And the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds in the true faith, which is in Christ Jesus, even unto life everlasting, Amen.