“False Prophets, False Hopes”

Scripture: Ezekiel 13:1-12; 17-23

The Lord has been preparing Ezekiel for his mission to the captives. God has told him that he will give him every means of support that would ever be needed. The right words will be placed in his heart and his mouth, the timing of the message would be given, the sins of the people have been laid out, the faithlessness of the nation in general has been revealed, and now, it’s very possible that the worst of all transgressions are about to be brought into view.

It’s always bad enough when the people take steps that deny and betray the one and true God. During the exodus, the people were constantly complaining about their situation even though they were being led to a new and wonderful homeland; since the time of Solomon’s sons, the nation had become divided in administration as well as in faith, and had turned to the gods of the surrounding nations; and their faithlessness had not only led them into defeat in war, but it had brought about a period of occupation for most and captivity for the few who were the best and brightest of the nation. Ezekiel had been told that it had come about because of the people’s transgressions. But what could have happened that allowed the people to stray so far from the Lord’s truth?

Anytime that an organization wanders from their true purpose and path, it will always be safe to put the onus for that failure upon the leadership. If the leaders remain faithful to their call, they will keep their charges under control. If they don’t, there isn’t much hope for the rest.

Read Ezekiel 13:1-7

The leadership of any entity – whether it is a government, a civic organization, a family, or a religious body – must have a vision of where the group is headed. Without any vision, they will never have a firm direction to travel in, and the organization will stagnate and very possibly fade from memory. But on the other hand, if the leaders have a vision that is against every ounce of their foundational principles, they will not only find it difficult to carry out their assigned mission, but they will find it nearly impossible to grow and serve. If a volunteer fire department should suddenly change their emphasis from emergency services to advocacy, the community will begin to lose confidence in their ability to provide fire, rescue and EMS protection. If a government changes the nation’s vision from their founding precepts to one that is new and untried, the people will become confused and will begin to doubt the truth of their existence. If a faith community begins to deviate from their traditional belief structure, they will, most assuredly, loose their way, and those they wish to convert to their faith will resist out of uncertainty over what the community stands for.
The leaders of Israel and Judah would soon discover that they were in this very struggle over who they were and who they actually served and followed. They had not spoken God’s word, they had not spoken out against the lies that were being told, and they had, by default, even encouraged the lies that were being spread. The leaders of the nations would not be pleased to hear that the present circumstances of the people were on their shoulders, and the people would not be pleased to hear that they had been listening to lies. But that is the very message that the prophet Ezekiel was being given. The self-ordained prophets had been offering words that came from their own imagination, and not from Yahweh. But they had never attributed these thoughts to their own being and purpose – they said that it was God who believed these things! And the Lord was not happy.
In James 3:1, we read that “those who teach will be judged more strictly” than those who receive instruction. Teachers in the church can fall into any number of categories – they could be Sunday School teachers, Bible Study leaders, counselors, preachers, people who serve in elected or appointed positions, and in the case of Israel, prophets and the priesthood. The point of the James passage is this – it is bad enough if someone falls away from the faith, but it is many times worse if they take others down with them. Think about it – a Sunday School teacher who intentionally teachers the children false ideals - those that are not of God - can do irreparable harm to a young person’s faith. A Bible study leader can do the same to an adult class, and a trusted pastor who preaches an ungodly message can turn an entire congregation away from Christ.
Leaders can make or break a nation, an organization, a family, or a church, and one day, they will have to answer for their failure to lead faithfully.

Read Ezekiel 3:8-12

The Lord offers a pretty intense judgment against the lies that the leaders of Israel and Judah spoke to the people. God states emphatically that the words they spoke were false and the visions that they had received were lies, and because the leadership did not correct them, he – the Lord – would be against them. I don’t know about you, but I hope that God never turns against me! That would be a certain career ender!
In Jeremiah 23, we read that this earlier prophet had been given a similar message for the nation. In verses 28-29, the Lord says “’let the one who has my word speak it faithfully. For what has straw to do with grain?’ declares the Lord. ‘Is not my word like fire ... and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?’” The point is that straw isn’t grain, and that the word of the Lord will one day destroy the lies that are told in his name. He had sent warning after warning to the leaders of Israel, and every one had been ignored.
God compares the lies of the false prophets to flimsy walls that had been whitewashed. The lies would never stand up under the glare of God’s truth, and when the lies were finally revealed, all will see them for what they truly are – Godless hypocrisy!

He continues to speak to Ezekiel, and goes on to outline what this condemnation will mean for these prophets and leaders. They will be ejected from God’s community, they will lose their citizenship in the nation of Israel, and they will never be allowed to reenter the land that had been promised to the Lord’s chosen. They will, in essence, be ostracized from God’s grace, and will realize too late that the path that they had been promoting was far away from the Lord’s, and was leading the nation in a direction doomed to failure.

Read Ezekiel 3:17-23

And even the women who had lead others astray would receive their own words of condemnation! They had begun to follow the beliefs of their new home, by making charms and veils, and wearing them to encourage others to follow the gods of this new land. In Leviticus 20:6, we read “I will set my face against the person who turns to mediums and spiritualists to prostitute himself by following them, and I will cut him off from his people.” And the effect that their magic accessories had? Many righteous people had been discouraged and had become confused in faith, and many who had been caught up in the evil that these women were promoting were being falsely encouraged to believe that they were in the right.
And this false faith would also be revealed. Their bracelets and veils would do them no good, the false visions would no longer come to them, and they, too, would be cut off from the faithful.

And I think that this passage is just as much about the church as it was about Israel and Judah. False teachers and prophets have existed as long as faith has been displayed. There have been Gnostics and Mystics, Philosophies and monasticism - every side has condemned the other side, and false teaching has, at times, nearly torn the church apart. When people didn’t like the theology that was being taught, they left what was, and went elsewhere to celebrate their own brand of “truth”. And today isn’t much different.
The problem is, I believe, not so much that there are many differences in opinions as to what is true and what is not, but rather that people are reluctant to stay and take a stand for God’s truth! I have had many friends leave the United Methodist Church because of divisive issues that they were unwilling to stay and stand against. From the earliest days of Methodist societies, there have been contentious disagreement over theological issues. Today, some of that disagreement continues to concern us over questions regarding universal salvation, and the consistency and extent of creation, and homosexuality, and the significance of baptism, and the character of communion, and any number of other issues – all of which only serve to divide us. And every single issue has an answer in scripture, but folks don’t seem to want to advocate for those answers. All too often, it’s just easier and safer to remain silent, or to move on to a place that is more to our liking – until the next question arises.
And we decide to just wait and let the Lord sort it all out, instead of offering the truth and making waves that might swamp our boat. Remember that the Lord doesn’t tell Ezekiel exactly when these corrections would occur for Israel, just that they would. How long are we prepared to wait for that day to come, and are we prepared for the means of that correction?

God sent Ezekiel with his message long before the corrections would begin, and he never hesitated. People of faith can no longer wait for someone else to speak the truth, either. It’s time for the people of God to take a stand against those “false prophets and teachers”, and to name them for what they really are – not as alternative understandings, not as other possible interpretations, but rather as advocates for “white washed flimsy walls”! They don’t offer any hope whatsoever – it is only false optimism, and one day it will be exposed for what it is. And unfortunately, our silence will also be exposed.

Ezekiel had been told that many would not like the message that he carried, and that many wouldn’t even listen to him, but that he was to spread the word, just the same.
Be an Ezekiel – forget what others will think of God’s words - just listen for what the Lord would have you say, ask him for the direction that you are to take his words in, and who you are to share them with. Then let the silence end and your service to the truth begin.
It is time that the false prophets and the false hopes that they offer are exposed. Be an Ezekiel, and begin today.

“Gone?!”

Scripture: Ezekiel 10:1-5, 9-19

Ezekiel has been preparing to deliver God’s message of “lament and mourning and woe” to the people of Israel and Judah (Ezekiel 2:10), but for now, he is to see the consequence of their sin filled journey. It’s bad enough that the people had been turning to foreign gods; it was bad enough that the enemy was at the very gates of the City of Zion; it was bad enough that the people would die of horrible disease and starvation and slaughter; but now the prophet would come to know just how deep “lament and mourning and woe” can really go.

It will be a vision that continues in the temple. He had already seen the idolatrous worship and false adoration that had brought condemnation on Israel and Judah, and as he witnessed each of the disgraces, the Lord would tell him that the next thing he would see would be even more detestable! And as we return to Ezekiel’s experience today, we discover just how despicable the idolatry of Israel has been, and just how pained God has become over these sinful lives.

Read Ezekiel 10:1-5

There was a throne above the expanse. But what is an “expanse”? In Genesis 1:6, the second day of creation, God speaks the “expanse” into being, which appears to be the entire extent of the created order – all else would be described as chaotic “waters”, or that which is not of God. The Ezekiel reference then would seem to indicate that, if this “expanse” is the same as in Genesis, God’s dominion and authority is being shown to be over all that is. In other words, it is the Lord’s prerogative to be and do as he wills, and is answerable to nothing and no one.
And so a man in linen is given burning coals and is commanded to scatter them over the entire city of Jerusalem, and he would go in the gate to begin the cleansing. Fire is, of course, a symbol of purification, and in order to cleanse, the evil must be “burned” away. The sins of Israel and Judah would be purged, and the city and the temple and the walls and the people would all suffer at the hand of the “refining fire”.

And as the situation begins to unfold, a cloud fills the inner court of the temple. Cloud, in this context, would imply that the Glory of God is present. The Cloud led Israel each day for 40 years (Exodus 13:20-22), the Cloud covered Mount Sinai as Moses prepared to receive Divine Law (Exodus 19:9, 16-19), and the Cloud filled the newly completed temple of Solomon when the Ark of the Covenant was brought in (1 Kings 8:10-11). Now, the Cloud once again fills the Holy of Holies, but this time it is not such a happy and glorious occasion. The Cloud moves out of the inner court and fills the entire temple. God has always been seen as existing within the Holy Place, but now he had moved out of the “Divine Expectation” and into the realm of humanity. This would not be good news for the nation!

And Ezekiel would continue to see things that were even worse.

Read Ezekiel 10:9-14

A word about cherubim – they are believed to be powerful angelic beings who carry out God’s wishes. They don’t appear to be messengers or guardians, but act more like servants of God. God wills, and they do.
And the cherubim and the wheels are back. The prophet had seen them in his first vision at the Kebar back in chapter 1. Each of them have 4 faces and beside each are two intersecting wheels. And everyone’s question is “what do the faces represent”? Scripture doesn’t seem to give us any solid indication, but it’s possible that they represent various aspects of God’s perfect nature. The cherub, heaven; the man, intelligence; the lion, strength; the eagle, divinity. But I hesitate to tell you that these are definitive thoughts – only that they are my thoughts and probably just a few of the possibilities. Why don’t each of you think about the symbolism in the coming week, and come up with some other thoughts as to how they may be representing God’s nature.
And the wheels? Again, not a lot of help from scripture, but in all likelihood, they imply that God has no limitation - that he can go wherever and whenever and however he wishes, and that his way of working has nothing to do with ours.

Read Ezekiel 10:15-19

The cherubim begin to rise and the Glory of God goes ahead of them. God is no longer confined to the Holy of Holies, and his Glory is no longer confined to the temple. And as the city and nation and people of Israel are being purified by the burning coals, the Perfection of God rises above it all. The Lord God Yahweh is no longer under the exclusive purview of Israel! The Lord God Yahweh is no longer restricted for worship in one small place on earth! The Lord God Yahweh can now be the God of all people, in all places, and through all time! Praise the Lord! He is the God for all of creation once more!

But Israel wouldn’t understand. As word of the destruction of the city and the temple reached the exiles, they could never see this as a good thing – they would only see it as calamity. And 70 years later, when Darius the Persian would finally allow them to return to their homeland, their first order of business would be to rebuild the walls of the city for protection and to rebuild the temple for worship. They would never understand that their Jehovah God could possibly love other people from other nations. After all, Israel was the “chosen”, not them!

They were the only ones who had been chosen. They were the only ones that God loved. They were the only ones who could rightly come before Jehovah to worship and petition and offer gifts to obtain pardon.

But the Almighty has never been that restrictive! And the church has to be very careful that we don’t try to box the Lord in either.
In the creation story, do we ever see God telling Adam “I may love you, but I won’t love all of your children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren!”? No! Of course he doesn’t! When Hagar and Ishmael were sent away into the desert, did God tell her that she and her son were no good and that they were now on their own? No – He took care of them. (Genesis 21:8-20) When Moses was sent to lead Israel out of Egypt and into the Promised Land, did the Lord bring calamity on Egypt and the other nations because he had no use for them? No – he simply had no love for the things they did!
All too often, some Christians claim that disasters – both natural and man-made – are God’s punishment for evil living. Remember Hurricane Katrina? How many times did we hear folks say that it was God’s resulting judgment for the sins of the people in New Orleans? How about the people from that church in Connecticut that protest at the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq simply because they had died in combat? How about the aids epidemic? The market and economic crashes over the past 150 years? Were all of these God’s vindictive judgments on the world? Hardly! We read the stories of the Great Flood and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and we think that God hates everyone who does things that don’t please him! The truth is that he loves all people, but he loves very little of what his human creation does.
He hated the idolatry of Israel. He hated the Crusades. He hated the Inquisition. He hated the atrocities of the Reformation. He hated slavery. He hated every war that has ever been fought. He hated the holocaust. He hates bigotry. And racism. And he hates the divided church. And the list could go on and on. But I think that the one thing the Lord hates above all else is when a few of his people claim that he loves them and no one else – when his creation passes judgment on those who don’t measure up to their perceived standards and beliefs – when a few are included and others are rejected - when some are welcomed, and others are told to go away.

Israel had tried to keep the Lord all to themselves, and even at that, they failed to show him the honor that was due him. But God gave them time to change their ways, and when they didn’t, he let them do it their own way - and look how far that got them! When the Glory of God initiated the purification of the city; when the Glory rose up and left the temple; when the Cloud was no longer leading Israel exclusively; it wasn’t that the Lord God had abandoned Israel and Judah – it’s just that the time had come to begin opening glory up to the rest of the earth.

We’ve all seen the picture of Jesus standing at the door, knocking because there was no door knob. As we think of that scene, we need to merge it with the passage from Matthew 25:31-46, in which Jesus tells his disciples “whatever you have done for one of the least of these, you have done it for me.” Are we throwing the doors of the Church and our lives wide open to all of humanity, regardless of who they are and what they may have done and where they have come from? Or will we bottle up the Glory and keep him for our own edification?

To borrow from Joshua 24:15 – “choose for yourselves this day who you will serve” – Israel chose poorly. I pray that we will always choose much better.

“Chasing God Away!”

Scripture: Ezekiel 8:1-18

Ezekiel is captive in Babylon, and yet the Lord has been showing him visions of conditions back home in Jerusalem. And not only back home, but in various time frames as well. The Almighty has been explaining to Ezekiel what he will be expected to do as a prophet, why he is being called, and what he will be given to share with the nation.
A prophet’s job is, at the same time, both difficult and simple. It is difficult in that the message is generally not a pleasant one. It is intended to bring the people back to their senses, and to come to a new understanding of just what their relationship with Great Jehovah is all about. But it is simple, too, in that the prophet doesn’t have to select the parties that are to receive the message, he doesn’t have to determine what the message should be, and he doesn’t even have to choose just the right words to say. All that has to be done is to go where the Spirit leads, and then speak the words that the Spirit gives. The prophet just has to show up and surrender every decision to God – it’s probably the easiest job on all the earth, if we really think about it!
Today, we see what the Lord can do for the person who surrenders it all, and what comes to those who refuse to surrender anything.

Read Ezekiel 8:1-6

The prophet has been visited by the elders of Israel for some unknown reason, and while they are all there, the hand of God rests upon Ezekiel, who not only senses the presence of God, but sees the Divine Presence. And the vision of God contains a brilliance unlike anything ever seen on earth. The Lord wants his man to know, without question, that what he is about to experience isn’t just a dream created in his own mind, but that it is the will and necessity of Yahweh.
The Spirit carries him back to Jerusalem and into the temple, and the first thing that Ezekiel sees is not the grandeur of this holy place, but the evil that has been brought in. It is described as “the idol that provokes to jealousy”. Scripture doesn’t give us much to explain what this idol is, but the commentaries imply that it would probably have been an image of Baal or Asherah –pagan gods of fertility. Israel had picked up the worship of these false gods through their interaction with other peoples, and their God was not happy about it – he was “jealous”! He wanted them to come back to him! He wanted their worship and adoration of him to be restored! He wanted to be one with his people again.
And the Glory was there, too. Even though his temple was being desecrated with foreign images and foreign worship, he had not left this place – yet. He was still present, but for how long? How long would the Lord continue to put up with the shame of Israel?
And it will get worse.

Read Ezekiel 8:7-13

The prophet discovers a hole, or recess, in the wall of the temple, and God tells him to dig into it. And what does he uncover? A hidden door that leads him into a hidden place in the temple. And what does he discover beyond the door? All sorts of evil that are being perpetrated by the elders of Israel.
They were honoring the images of unclean, sinful beings, and had turned their backs on Yahweh. They were even using the temple fragrances and fixtures – the incense and other scents that are burned in the censers, or braziers, to worship the false gods. And they justify their actions by believing that God has turned his back on them, and no longer looks upon them in benevolence. The people have lost all confidence in Yahweh, and feel that their only choice is to turn to the deities of other nations. “He not only doesn’t care about us, he isn’t even keeping an eye on us! I guess we’ll have to find someone who will.”
And they hope that God can’t see them doing this! They hope that the darkness surrounding their lives is sufficient to keep God from seeing them. But they seem to forget that the darkness has come, not because of their Lord, but because of what they have been doing for so many years!
They should know full well that God has not left them and never would – their own scriptures tell them that! (Deuteronomy 31:8, Hebrews 13:5-6) “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you!” So why would they try to justify their evil? The truth is that they can’t – they simply have chosen a different path from the one they knew that God wanted them on and they thought that this fact could be hidden from their All-Knowing God! Good luck with that! The Darkness has no authority over him, and he would never turn away from his chosen! Psalm 139:11-12 tells us “If I say ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night,’ even the darkness is not dark to you.” God’s light reveals all – both good and bad, righteous and evil, faithful and faithless. Nothing escapes the Lord’s view of our lives. Nothing!
They knew full well, and they went ahead with their disgracing of God and their deception of themselves just the same.

And it will get worst yet.

Read Ezekiel 8:14-18

The people have turned their backs on the Lord, not the other way around! Ezekiel sees the women mourning for someone named Tammuz. Tammuz was a Sumerian deity who was associated with the seasons of the year, and specifically with fertility in the spring. It was believed that in the summer, when the extreme heat of the sun would wither vegetation, that Tammuz must have died and therefore so did the plants. His devotees, especially women, would mourn his passing, and only rejoice again when he came back to life in more temperate days.
The women of Israel had joined in honoring this unholy lie.

And the men were no less devoid of faith. The area that was described as being between “the portico and the altar” was a place that priests came to pray on holy days. But now, the priests had been replaced by ordinary men, and they had turned their backs on the Lord. No longer were prayers being offered to Yahweh – instead, they were offered to the gods of the east. No longer were they looking to heaven for joy - now they were concentrating their faith in the things of nature.

And the Lord gives his judgment on Judah – he will deal with them in anger, and will no longer look upon them with pity. Note that he doesn’t say that he will no longer look at his people – he simply will no longer show them pity and grace. Even if they cry out loudly in anguish, his ears will be deaf to their call.
The people have tried their God’s love for the last time. They have given him false allegiance for the last time. Their pleas for mercy have finally worn so thin that the fabric of their faith has fallen apart. They have, in essence, told their Lord to go away, that they will make their own way in this life. So now, Yahweh will only look for proof in their actions, the living evidence of faith.

And with this, the lesson for the Church of today is now before us.

1. When things begin to go badly, don’t blame the Lord. He only brings goodness into our lives – the rest comes from other sources. But regardless of the depth of the pit we find ourselves in, either by our own making or that of others, the Almighty is always with us, and is always concerned for our lives. But we have to let him do his work in us in his way, and not try to continue to work it out in our own way.

2. Ours is a jealous God. He wants his creation to honor him, and him alone. He resents our turning to gods who are dead, those who can do nothing for his people, those who care nothing for his created order. The Lord wants, and rightly so, to be honored for what he has done and what he is doing, and not to allow that honor to go to others who have done nothing.

3. The Lord will never turn his back on us, and we are expected to always keep God in our perspective. His promises are sure, his covenant will never be withdrawn, His love will never end, and his grace and mercy will always be before us. And if we should ever turn away from him, he will honor our choice, as ill-advised as it may be, until we choose to return to him.

4. There is nothing that God doesn’t know, nothing that he doesn’t see, and nothing that he cannot do. We can’t hide the things we do from him, and we can never expect him to overlook the things we do that deny him – he can forgive them, and will when we repent, but he will never ignore them.

5. Even though the Lord has eternity at his disposal, he will only wait so long. So answer him now.

Ezekiel was beginning to see just what was happening to the relationship that Israel and Judah once had with Yahweh, and how they were not only abusing it, but causing great damage to it. He would be called to bring this truth to the attention of the nation, and whether they liked it or not, he would be faithful to the call.

Do you feel as though Almighty God is calling you to share his love, his mercy, his desires, his disappointment with someone in your life? Ask him for understanding and vision, and then faithfully go where he leads you, say whatever he gives you, and love them as he loves you. Ezekiel would never regret answering Yahweh’s call to be his prophet, and God would celebrate in that, too.
Could your experience with the Lord be any different?

“All in for Us!”

Scripture: Luke 15:1-10

Last week, we considered the question “What does Christian faith mean to me?”, and we discovered that it means we must give it our all, that a shallow faith, a hollow faith, an on again-off again kind of faith just won’t do. As a matter of fact, we read in Revelation (3:16) that a lukewarm faith is even worse that no faith at all! Jesus spent his entire ministry showing the people that faith must be a condition of “all in”, and that anything less is the same as “all out”.
Why would God expect so much from us? Could it be that unless we have given ourselves completely to him, our dedication is incomplete? Our focus on him is less than adequate? Remember that in Matthew 6:24, Jesus told the people that they can’t serve two masters – that they can only serve one, love only one.
We can love the world, or we can love the Lord – we can’t love both. And Jesus had to do this very thing, too – he couldn’t love glory and humanity at the same time, he couldn’t live in heaven and teach us at the same time, so he set it all aside for 33 years, and he came to teach us about relationships, to explain the path to glory for us, to redeem us from our sinfulness, to be the sacrifice that would free us from death, and to create a life in eternity for us.

The Church constantly reminds us that we must give our all to the Lord, because he gave us his all first!

Read Luke 15:1-2

That’s the difference between a life in the law and a life in faith – the law defines what condemns, while faith defines what redeems! That’s why the Pharisees, and other learned people throughout the ages, have always struggled with faith. Their vision was clouded with all that was wrong, and had no room for what was right.
You see, Jesus never let the law limit him or deter him or discourage him from reaching out to every person – the sick, the crippled, the rejected, the despised, the unworthy, the sinner. He sought the company of those who the world turned away, and he loved the very ones who others refused, and even feared, to love.

There is a story that one Easter morning, the local church was filled to the rafters with some of the best dressed people you will ever meet. Double breasted, 3 piece, and very expensive suits were worn by all of the men, the finest dresses and the most beautiful hats adorned all of the women, and every child in the church was decked out in their new clothes.
But just as worship was about to begin, a young man entered the sanctuary wearing the poorest and most tattered shirt and pants you had ever seen. He proceeded up the center aisle, looking first to one side, then the other, hoping to find a place to sit, but none were offered. He finally arrived at the front of the church, and with no seat in sight, he simply sat down on the floor.
A murmur began to run through the congregation, hoping that someone – ANYONE - would set this nere-do-well in his place. Just then, the elderly head usher began to hobble slowly down to the front of the church, and the people were all elated. “This man will let this upstart know just what is what!”
As the usher reached the front of the church, he bent down beside the young man, and the church became perfectly still, eager to hear the words of condemnation. Then this elderly man, dressed in his best suit, bent his knees and sat down next to the ragged visitor.
The pastor stood up to begin the service and said “Today’s text is from John 13: 34 - ‘I give you a new commandment, that you should love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.’ And then he said ‘Our message for today is before you.’”

That is the extent that Jesus always went to in order to show love to those we refuse to love.

Read Luke 15:3-7

This is the first of three parables that Jesus told regarding the lost of earth, and you should know that being described as “sheep” should never be taken as a compliment! They are less than bright, they have a propensity to wander away from the flock, and when they eat, they put their heads down, and as long as there is something green in front of them, they keep eating, And to make matters worse, shepherds were, themselves, far from being a respectable segment of society. They were dirty, smelly, and because they almost always had blood on them, they were considered religiously “unclean”. And these are the images that he offers – that of shepherd which Jesus would take for himself, and that of “sheep” which he assigns to us.

And why not? Those are the very thoughts that many in the world have of the Lord and his followers. Jesus is hated, despised, rejected, and ridiculed by the world, when he could just as easily have retained glory and honor and praise in heaven, and those who follow him get the same. But his time here was not spent in vain – he came to save the lost of earth, and rejoices over every single one who allows him to carry them to safety.

But who are those ninety nine? Jesus is most likely making this connection to the Pharisees. He has turned the tables on those “holy and righteous men” of Israel, and is now telling them that God will leave those who think that they have gained God’s pleasure by being good, and is now going to help those who are willing to acknowledge that they are not who and what they should be.

And the Pharisees must have cringed! Not only has Jesus set God in the place of a despised shepherd, but he lets them know that God finds no joy in them! And notice that the Shepherd never returns to the flock – he goes to celebrate with the one that is found.
Outcasts 1, Righteous 0.

Read Luke 15:8-10

The woman discovers that one of her coins is missing. It may have been her only savings, and may even have been what was left of her dowry. It wasn’t worth a lot of money – perhaps a day’s wages, but it was worth a lot to her.
The houses in that day would be extremely simple – one door, generally one room, and it may have had a window. It was dark and barren, and a coin could have blended in very well with the dirt floor. So she does three things – first, she lights a lamp, then she sweeps the floor, and finally, she searches diligently.
Remember that Jesus’ parables, while they always had an earthly component, were also intended to have a spiritual context to them. In this case, consider that we are the coin, and the Lord is the woman.
- She lights a lamp – Luke 1:79 reads “By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.” The Light of God comes into the world, but unless we allow him to shine on our lives, we can, by our own decision, choose to remain in the dark.
- she sweeps the house – the Light reveals a lot of clutter and useless objects, and Jesus comes to cleanse our lives of everything that is worthless.
- she searches carefully until she finds it – God never ceases to search for the lost of earth, and will continue to do so right up until the day of reckoning.

And just as in the previous parable, the woman calls out to those who will celebrate with her, and seems to completely forget the other 10 coins. The ninety nine sheep, and the nine coins bring no joy, but the one that was found in each story deserved the joy of all who would understand.

Interestingly, these stories make no followup mention of either the rest of the flock or the 9 remaining coins – they simply drop out of context. The parables are not only about the redemptive act that found the lost, but also is a subtle call - a reminder - to the rest, that rejoicing is only for the found, and not for the smug and self-secure.

Jesus gave up everything for the people of earth – the wealthy and the poor, the righteous and the sinful, the ninety nine as well as the one. He surrendered his Godliness in exchange for humanness; he set honor aside so that he might be hated and beaten; he traded glory for pain; and he gave his life so that others might live. There was no one that was hated by the Lord, no one who asked was shut out, no one was turned away from his grace, no one was deemed unworthy of his mercy, and no one had to prove themselves to him. He is the proof of salvation for the world.

Who are we? Are we the “Good Samaritan”, or the righteous ones who passed by on the other side of the road? (Luke 10:30-35) Are we the ninety nine who are content with who we are, or are we prepared to admit that we have wandered away and don’t know the way home? Are we the hundreds who sit smugly in the honors that we have gained, or the one who went to show love to the outcast?

What does Christian faith mean to you? Do you give your all for others in the example of Jesus Christ, or do you live self-assured and confident in the example of the Pharisees?
Remember Micah 6:8 – “And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humble with your God.”
Are the angels rejoicing over you? If not, why not?

“Chasing God Away!”

Scripture: Ezekiel 8:1-18

Ezekiel is captive in Babylon, and yet the Lord has been showing him visions of conditions back home in Jerusalem. And not only back home, but in various time frames as well. The Almighty has been explaining to Ezekiel what he will be expected to do as a prophet, why he is being called, and what he will be given to share with the nation.
A prophet’s job is, at the same time, both difficult and simple. It is difficult in that the message is generally not a pleasant one. It is intended to bring the people back to their senses, and to come to a new understanding of just what their relationship with Great Jehovah is all about. But it is simple, too, in that the prophet doesn’t have to select the parties that are to receive the message, he doesn’t have to determine what the message should be, and he doesn’t even have to choose just the right words to say. All that has to be done is to go where the Spirit leads, and then speak the words that the Spirit gives. The prophet just has to show up and surrender every decision to God – it’s probably the easiest job on all the earth, if we really think about it!
Today, we see what the Lord can do for the person who surrenders it all, and what comes to those who refuse to surrender anything.

Read Ezekiel 8:1-6

The prophet has been visited by the elders of Israel for some unknown reason, and while they are all there, the hand of God rests upon Ezekiel, who not only senses the presence of God, but sees the Divine Presence. And the vision of God contains a brilliance unlike anything ever seen on earth. The Lord wants his man to know, without question, that what he is about to experience isn’t just a dream created in his own mind, but that it is the will and necessity of Yahweh.
The Spirit carries him back to Jerusalem and into the temple, and the first thing that Ezekiel sees is not the grandeur of this holy place, but the evil that has been brought in. It is described as “the idol that provokes to jealousy”. Scripture doesn’t give us much to explain what this idol is, but the commentaries imply that it would probably have been an image of Baal or Asherah –pagan gods of fertility. Israel had picked up the worship of these false gods through their interaction with other peoples, and their God was not happy about it – he was “jealous”! He wanted them to come back to him! He wanted their worship and adoration of him to be restored! He wanted to be one with his people again.
And the Glory was there, too. Even though his temple was being desecrated with foreign images and foreign worship, he had not left this place – yet. He was still present, but for how long? How long would the Lord continue to put up with the shame of Israel?
And it will get worse.

Read Ezekiel 8:7-13

The prophet discovers a hole, or recess, in the wall of the temple, and God tells him to dig into it. And what does he uncover? A hidden door that leads him into a hidden place in the temple. And what does he discover beyond the door? All sorts of evil that are being perpetrated by the elders of Israel.
They were honoring the images of unclean, sinful beings, and had turned their backs on Yahweh. They were even using the temple fragrances and fixtures – the incense and other scents that are burned in the censers, or braziers, to worship the false gods. And they justify their actions by believing that God has turned his back on them, and no longer looks upon them in benevolence. The people have lost all confidence in Yahweh, and feel that their only choice is to turn to the deities of other nations. “He not only doesn’t care about us, he isn’t even keeping an eye on us! I guess we’ll have to find someone who will.”
And they hope that God can’t see them doing this! They hope that the darkness surrounding their lives is sufficient to keep God from seeing them. But they seem to forget that the darkness has come, not because of their Lord, but because of what they have been doing for so many years!
They should know full well that God has not left them and never would – their own scriptures tell them that! (Deuteronomy 31:8, Hebrews 13:5-6) “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you!” So why would they try to justify their evil? The truth is that they can’t – they simply have chosen a different path from the one they knew that God wanted them on and they thought that this fact could be hidden from their All-Knowing God! Good luck with that! The Darkness has no authority over him, and he would never turn away from his chosen! Psalm 139:11-12 tells us “If I say ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night,’ even the darkness is not dark to you.” God’s light reveals all – both good and bad, righteous and evil, faithful and faithless. Nothing escapes the Lord’s view of our lives. Nothing!
They knew full well, and they went ahead with their disgracing of God and their deception of themselves just the same.

And it will get worst yet.

Read Ezekiel 8:14-18

The people have turned their backs on the Lord, not the other way around! Ezekiel sees the women mourning for someone named Tammuz. Tammuz was a Sumerian deity who was associated with the seasons of the year, and specifically with fertility in the spring. It was believed that in the summer, when the extreme heat of the sun would wither vegetation, that Tammuz must have died and therefore so did the plants. His devotees, especially women, would mourn his passing, and only rejoice again when he came back to life in more temperate days.
The women of Israel had joined in honoring this unholy lie.

And the men were no less devoid of faith. The area that was described as being between “the portico and the altar” was a place that priests came to pray on holy days. But now, the priests had been replaced by ordinary men, and they had turned their backs on the Lord. No longer were prayers being offered to Yahweh – instead, they were offered to the gods of the east. No longer were they looking to heaven for joy - now they were concentrating their faith in the things of nature.

And the Lord gives his judgment on Judah – he will deal with them in anger, and will no longer look upon them with pity. Note that he doesn’t say that he will no longer look at his people – he simply will no longer show them pity and grace. Even if they cry out loudly in anguish, his ears will be deaf to their call.
The people have tried their God’s love for the last time. They have given him false allegiance for the last time. Their pleas for mercy have finally worn so thin that the fabric of their faith has fallen apart. They have, in essence, told their Lord to go away, that they will make their own way in this life. So now, Yahweh will only look for proof in their actions, the living evidence of faith.

And with this, the lesson for the Church of today is now before us.

1. When things begin to go badly, don’t blame the Lord. He only brings goodness into our lives – the rest comes from other sources. But regardless of the depth of the pit we find ourselves in, either by our own making or that of others, the Almighty is always with us, and is always concerned for our lives. But we have to let him do his work in us in his way, and not try to continue to work it out in our own way.

2. Ours is a jealous God. He wants his creation to honor him, and him alone. He resents our turning to gods who are dead, those who can do nothing for his people, those who care nothing for his created order. The Lord wants, and rightly so, to be honored for what he has done and what he is doing, and not to allow that honor to go to others who have done nothing.

3. The Lord will never turn his back on us, and we are expected to always keep God in our perspective. His promises are sure, his covenant will never be withdrawn, His love will never end, and his grace and mercy will always be before us. And if we should ever turn away from him, he will honor our choice, as ill-advised as it may be, until we choose to return to him.

4. There is nothing that God doesn’t know, nothing that he doesn’t see, and nothing that he cannot do. We can’t hide the things we do from him, and we can never expect him to overlook the things we do that deny him – he can forgive them, and will when we repent, but he will never ignore them.

5. Even though the Lord has eternity at his disposal, he will only wait so long. So answer him now.

Ezekiel was beginning to see just what was happening to the relationship that Israel and Judah once had with Yahweh, and how they were not only abusing it, but causing great damage to it. He would be called to bring this truth to the attention of the nation, and whether they liked it or not, he would be faithful to the call.

Do you feel as though Almighty God is calling you to share his love, his mercy, his desires, his disappointment with someone in your life? Ask him for understanding and vision, and then faithfully go where he leads you, say whatever he gives you, and love them as he loves you. Ezekiel would never regret answering Yahweh’s call to be his prophet, and God would celebrate in that, too.
Could your experience with the Lord be any different?

“The Sign of Sin”

Scripture: Ezekiel 4:4-13

During the past two weeks, we’ve been following Ezekiel’s journey from being an exiled priest to that of being the Lord’s prophet to captive Israel. When God called him to be his messenger to the exiles, Ezekiel was assured that all he would have to do, basically, is to show up. The Lord would give him the sweetest of all words to say, he would release the tongue of the prophet at just the right time, and he would be the assurance and peace that would calm the fears of his man.
But God would also warn the prophet about the dire consequences of being less than faithful in carrying out the divine directives to their fullest. Life would be hanging in the balance – not only for the one who the message was for, but also for the life of the prophet. The message was for those who were approaching the imminence of death, and their lives were dependent on receiving, and accepting, the words of Jehovah. But Ezekiel’s life would also be placed in jeopardy if he failed to carry out God’s instructions exactly as they were given.

Ezekiel was, no doubt, a bit apprehensive when he accepted the call. Would he hear the words correctly? Would he be able to use the right inflections to convey the true meaning to the people? Would he always have the courage to be faithful in his assignments? And God essentially tells him “Yes, yes, and yes!” – not because the prophet was so special, but because his Lord is.
The message would be about the sin of Israel and Judah that brought about their defeat at the hands of Assyria and Babylon, and God would have them know that the only way back was by his grace. But Ezekiel would have to get their attention before they would begin to listen to the warnings.

Read Ezekiel: 4-8

Think about the ways that God has gotten your attention over the years. Sometimes it may have been like a clap of thunder, and at other times, more like a gentle whisper. But however it may have been delivered, it would have been unmistakable. You knew right away that the Lord was telling you something, and you knew immediately what the message was all about. You could ignore it, certainly, but you couldn’t miss it.
Their Jehovah God had sent both nations prophet after prophet to warn them of the impending doom coming their way, and he used many different ways to tell them. Hosea’s message was punctuated by the story of Gomer, his unfaithful wife, who eventually would be found by her faithful husband. Many of the Lord’s servants were educated men, but the prophet Amos had been called from his duties as a simple shepherd – a humble man – to deliver the message that the people, in their prosperity, had become self-sufficient, arrogant, and oppressive of their own people. The prophet Joel’s message was similar, but imaged as the devastation from a cloud of locust. Some would be sent to the Northern kingdom of Israel, while others would go to the Southern nation of Judah. Most would go to the Jews, but others, such as Jonah and Obadiah, would be sent to other nations. All of these, as well as others, would remind the people of their sinful ways, and would call them to return to God’s way.

Of course, most of the people would ignore the warnings, and calamity would fall on both nations. But the method that Ezekiel was given to explain the condition of the people was much more dramatic than the others. To put the full impact of the nations’ sinfulness into perspective, the prophet was to lie on his side, facing Jerusalem, as a sign of bearing the sin of each nation. Israel had sinned against God for 390 years, so Ezekiel would have to lie on his side for that number of days, and as Judah had turned their backs on their Lord for 40 years, he had to lie on his other side for 40 days.
And he wouldn’t be able to move.

What a perfect demonstration of the impact that sin has on our lives! Sin incapacitates us – we can no longer do anything that is worthwhile. It restricts us in our service to God and it prevents us from walking in his way. We become captives to sin – we can no longer claim to be God’s people, because we are in the clutches of darkness. Sin becomes our new way of life – at first, it may seem restful and pleasant, but as time goes on, our spiritual muscles begin to cramp and atrophy, and we lose all of the abilities and desires that we had when we were free to serve the Lord.
Ezekiel would lose over a year of his life while showing his sinful brothers just what they had been doing in the eyes of Almighty God. That’s what sin does to us – we lose!

Read Ezekiel 4:9:13

And the prophet would live on bread and water for that 14 months, and it would be a scant amount of defiled food at that. The bread that would be made would provide him with about 8 ounces of nourishment a day, and the daily water ration equated to a little over 2 cups. For over a year!
The barley bread that he would eat was a poor person’s meal, and it was the last choice for others. In the first few verses of this chapter (Ezekiel 4:1-3), we read that Ezekiel was to turn his face toward Jerusalem, and pretend that he was placing a siege on the city. Jerusalem was, apparently, still under siege at this time, even though many people from Judah had joined their brothers and sisters from the North in captivity.
Any siege in that day was always devastating on the populace. It was intended to starve the people into either surrender, or to the point that they were so weak that they could never mount a sufficient defense of their city. The prophet was to be the sign of both the siege of the city and the suffering that was experienced inside the city. And all of it because of the sins of the people.

But we know full well that suffering is not unique to the sinful condition. The righteous also go through difficult times, but there is one significant difference. The sinner goes through his suffering alone, while the righteous endure the pain with their God intimately beside them. Which would you prefer – enduring your struggles with only your own finite and insufficient abilities, or going through it with the strength and power and vision of the All Mighty, All Knowing, All Existant God? It should be a pretty simple decision for anyone to make, but people choose themselves over God all the time!
And that is why Israel and Judah had been taken from the land that the Lord had promised them, and into the land of pagans. And this message is no less important for us. Sin hasn’t changed much in the past 2,800 years, and it never will. But as devastating as sin is on the relationship we have with God, the effect that it will have on our lives is just as bad.
Sin is an obstacle to life, and whether we like the thought or not, every Christian has the responsibility to bring it out of the shadows of earth and into the light of the New Day. We may think that Ezekiel’s penance for Israel’s sin was carried out inside of his home. But what kind of demonstration would that be if no one saw it? Ezekiel would have to live out those 14 months in full view of the community if they were to receive the message that the Lord had for them.
And we are in the same boat. We can no longer allow the sins of our community, our state, and our nation to lie hidden behind a curtain of societal justification. I will stop short, though, of suggesting that someone should go down to the village square and lie on the ground for months on end without moving, just to make the point! But we do have to take a stand for those things that are biblically sound, and can no longer quietly stand by while the world leads others into ways that are not of the Lord.
So what signs can we offer? Remembering that Jesus told us to “give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s” (Matthew 22:15-22) – [that is an “and”, you know!], we can speak out at governmental hearings when they are considering a Non-Godly action, and we can protest acts that have been implemented; we can stand with other Christians in times of persecution against the Church and individuals; we can refuse to participate in earthly “normalcies” that do not fit with scripture; and above all, we need to be sure that we are doing and saying exactly what our Lord is calling us to do and say.

Ezekiel and Daniel and Amos and Micah and the disciples and Paul and Timothy and Silas and countless other men and women have served as signs against earthly sin for ages. The need hasn’t diminished – as a matter of fact, it may have even increased in the past few decades.
So who will take a stand for God today? Who will name sin for what it truly is – a disgrace against the Almighty, and a death knell for humanity!

How will the world see you? As a sign for the Light, or one that is in favor of the darkness?