Monday, November 24, 2008

Reflections on Ezekiel

My eldest daughter delights in seeing a death and resurrection motif in most everything in life, but especially in literature. Ezekiel is a delight in its description of that motif. We can be delighted and be delightful in our recognition that God was faithful to his word to bring his people back to the Promised Land after the exile. Ezekiel describes a second exodus to the Promised Land and in so doing describes a death of his people and his temple and a resurrection of the same.

The book starts out like most of the other prophets with condemnation for Judah. It is more sever in its detail of the actual devastation brought upon the people and the atrocities inflicted by Babylon due to the closeness of Ezekiel to the actual events. Israel must die and so must the temple be destroyed. The initial portion of the book ends with the description the death of Ezekiel’s wife in which he is commanded not to morn.

The next portion of the book describes a judgment on the nations with a particular focus on Egypt. Much as in the first exodus, Pharaoh must die.

Then in chapter 33, the focus returns to Israel. While it continues its theme of death and destruction initially, the theme shifts at about chapter 36 to resurrection and the design of the new temple in chapter 40. The new design is given at Passover. Passover will be celebrated. 45:11. And water will flow out of the temple. Chapter 47.

God was faithful to his word given in Deuteronomy 28 and 30 to scatter the people and bring them back, to devastate and renew, to kill and make alive. Israel was “born again.” God would live with them once again.

The church is the same. With Christ, God lives with us. We, as individuals and as a community, are also subject to death and resurrection. We must be “born again.” The difference is that Christ promises never to leave us. He will be with us to the end of the age. As we go through individual and corporate trials, we can be sure that although there is a sense of death in what we suffer we will be brought resurrection through those sufferings. We can rejoice in our sufferings then. We can also be sure that God will be faithful to us because He has been faithful to us his people in the past. We can be faithful. This joy gives us motivation to worship and to serve.

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