Month: November 2020

On this last day of our 100 Day Challenge we find ourselves with the prophet Ezekiel where he is tasked with laying out a brand new city of Jerusalem after he had already laid out a brand new temple.  Keep in mind he is directing these prophecies to a people who are going to be inheriting a city which is absolutely decimated, without a single structure standing so everyone is starting over.  Ezekiel gives those starting over a hope that this is going to work.  God is dividing the territory among the twelve tribes just as he did with the children of Abraham, and the people who were brought to the promised land by Joshua.  

The idea that a complete revamp was needed is something that ought to resonate with those of us who are waiting, and waiting, and waiting for this pandemic to be over.  Now, our buildings are still in place, our institutions are still in place, our places of worship are still in place, but how are our relationships?  How are those disagreements that in the past we could talk through and now we see them escalate at times to a level where we pass the point of no return?  

On this last day of our challenge we find ourselves having worked through 100 days of when we were confined to a new way of life because of the pandemic.  No one came and physically removed us from our homes to go and inhabit a foreign land like we saw in both Jeremiah and Ezekiel.  But there is still a sense that once this is over, we will have to rebuild.  I hope that we are able to focus on how Jeremiah and Ezekiel each were able to see the hand of God even in the worst of times which allowed them to encourage and give hope to the people of Israel as the times began to change to become a little more hopeful.  See you at the next challenge.

We find ourselves with a geographic description of where the temple is to be situated.  Before we have that description we read about a river that shall flow from the temple and which will make all brackish water into fresh, except for one specific area.  Water was, and still is, absolutely the most important resource in the Middle East.  Wars have been, and continue to be, fought over who has access to water.  The Golan Heights in Israel ostensible were captured for more territory, but in reality they provide access to water.  Water in the middle east is like what oil was for some countries in WWII.  It was a resource that necessitated going to war if ones access was denied.

This remains the case so when you have an image of water flowing from the temple then you know that it is meant to provide all that a people might need in order to prosper and thrive as a nation.  

We take a bit of a severe turn in this chapter as we find regulations that have to be followed in regards to offerings and steps that the “prince”, remember the one who was anointed to be the representative of the Lord, what we would call the high priest, had to do in order to ensure his legacy.  If I am reading this right, and I can never assume that I am, whenever the high priest makes a gift it has limitations.  See if I read this right, if he gives a gift to his sons, then it stays.  It is okay, they can keep that gift.  If he gives a gift to one of his servants, then they are able to keep that gift until the seventh year, then it reverts back to the sons, or back to the prince.  Not a whole lot of financial security in that deal.  

Notice how there is also a limitation on how often and when people are able to enter the temple.  For six days they are to stay out, and then the gate will be opened on the Sabbath.  It fits well into the whole sabbath perspective where on that day you rest, but it is a rest where you are to pursue a wholeness of life which God has promised we can embrace if we would follow him.  There is some truth and some benefit to focusing our time together on the sabbath as a time that we plan and coordinate for the rest of the week.  

We were introduced the past chapter to a figure identified as the “prince”.  You need to understand the prince as less of an ideal royal figure than a civil ruler with immediate concrete tasks.  He is given responsibilities and duties that have to be carried out.  He is given property in Israel once the land is restored.  He commands the prince, actually really scolds him, to put away violence and oppression and do what is just and right. 

I don’t think there is any correlation between Macchiavelli’s Little Prince and this prince here in Ezekiel, but they both do govern and rule under the hand of God in some ways.  We see the celebration of the passover reinstituted and commanded to be celebrated.  The passover remains one of the most important of the religious events in the life of the Jewish people.  Ezekiel continues to try to reinstate normalcy into the life of Israel even when it finds itself in a time that was anything but normal.

There is a significant transition that takes place here in this chapter in regards to who is in charge of the temple of the Lord.  While in the past it was the Levites, the house of Levi, who had charge over the temple, this chapter shows a significant change.  Now it is the house of Zadok, also from the Levites, who are to take charge over the temple.  It is interesting that Ezekiel himself comes from that lineage, and so in many ways this was very self-benefitting for Ezekiel.  Where does Zadok point to for his ancestry?  Zadok was the priest who took over charge of the temple, or become the chief priest, under Solomon when he replaced Abiathar as chief priest.  Zadok himself traced his heritage back to one of Aaron’s son, Eleazar.  So he wasn’t totally an outsider, but it was definitely a transition that would have been noticed.  

Notice the strictness under which the priests were able to operate.  They were not to drink wine while they were in the temple, which is different from today when the priests need to finish whatever wine is left over.  They are only to marry a virgin, or a widow of a priest.  They also received no land or investments apart from what the Lord provides to them.  God wanted to be their only investment.  All that the priests owned was wrapped up in who God was to them.  I like that minimalism.  

Ezekiel is transported away from the temple to a location where he is able to witness it and all of its splendor.  Keep in mind, this is a vision, the temple is still destroyed and nothing has been done to restore it.  But Ezekiel is tasked with giving the people a vision and a hope that it is God’s plans to restore the temple.  He then takes Ezekiel back into the temple and he hears the voice of God who is residing in the holy of holies.  The place where, as he says: “the place for the soles of my feet.”  God is so comfortable in the holy of holies that he has taken off his outdoor shoes, stripped off his socks, and is walking around barefoot inside his home.  Now that is a definition of home.  If you are guest somewhere you may take off your shoes, but you would never take off your socks.

Look at vs.11 and you see a conditional command to Ezekiel which is: “let them be ashamed of their iniquities…when they are ashamed of all that they have done…then…”  There is a sense that God is going to come and reside in his home not just whenever, but only when the people recognize their iniquities and are willing to not worship and bow down to false idols.  Those kings who encouraged them to depart from the ways of the Lord have been buried and their history is behind them.  Now, and only now once you have become ashamed of your past and how you departed from the ways of the Lord, now I can come home and take my shoes and socks off and reside with you.

It was important that Ezekiel understood that those who were serving the people by having the responsibility of the sacrifices and entering the holy of holies disrobe their attire that they use to approach the Lord and put on other vestments as they interact with the people in every day settings.  Interestingly enough what I wear that first service, my robe, I do not use in every day settings.  I only use my robe for Sunday morning, weddings, funerals, and any other services where I am asked to be present in a way that I am invoking the name and the presence of the Lord.  

We have a completely different theological approach to our understanding of the presence of God.  We do not believe that God resides in a single location but rather that God is present with all of us at the same time.  We do not believe that any individual has a closer relationship to God because of their earthly responsibilities.  No matter who it is who wears the robe, they do not have a special “in” with God as opposed to the mechanic who busts his chops every day in the shop.  That is part of our Calvinist approach to our faith.  God loves us all…equally, and we all have the same access to God.  I like that.

If you think about the motif of the newly constructed and visualized temple you can’t help but think of the garden of Eden, the first home where God and mortals lived together and even walked together sharing some special quality time together.  If you look starting at vs.18 you see the palm trees and cherubim are present just like in I Kings 6:29-30.  

There isn’t much more to say about the vision given to Ezekiel about the new temple except to say that it was a significant, probably the most significant detail that the exiles returning to their home land were going to be involved in, the rebuilding of the temple.  

I’m wondering what needs to be rebuilt in our society after our time of exile, of pandemic, is over.  What needs to be restored that has been torn down during this time: civility, dialogue, kindness, grace, trust, you fill in the blank.  It is during this time of rebuilding, once the pandemic is over and the end is in sight,  that we need to be able to work shoulder to shoulder with those that maybe during this time we regarded as our adversary.  Adversary no more, we have a common cause, the rebuilding of our nation and the rebuilding of our sense of decency which is crucial.  Okay, this is less about God and more about what we have left out of our interactions with people during this time.  We can only restore what has been torn down if we turn to God for strength and hope.

The most tragic of all the losses of the people of Israel was not the lives of loved ones that could never be reclaimed, was not the land which had been promised to them since the time of Abraham, was not the wealth of material and livestock which would never be able to be replaced, but was the loss of the temple which meant that the presence of God would be limited  in a way that it had never been limited before.  Even while the Israelites were wandering in the desert at least they had the tabernacle where the presence of the Lord could be realized.  Here, in exile, and with the temple destroyed, the presence of the Lord was sketchy at best.

This chapter describes Ezekiel measuring out what would be the new reconstructed temple after the old one was destroyed.  It is fashioned after the temple that Solomon built which you can find in I Kings 6 and II Chronicles 3 both of which we have seen and described in all of its glory.  This chapter can be seen as a bit of a slow chapter with details that we wonder if we really need.  But remember, for the people of Israel these details breathed life into the people who desperately needed to hear good news that the presence of the Lord would be restored.  I am sure that there are times in our life when we desperately need a sign that the presence of the Lord would be restored in our lives, even if He has never been gone from us.  We sometimes just need to have that sign to provide us with a bit of hope.

This chapter once again contains both the promise of destruction of enemies of Israel and the promise of restoration for Israel itself.  Gog and Magog are described as the classic enemies of the Lord who will be defeated unilaterally.  But then you see a transition that takes place in vs. 25 where God speaks about restoring the fortunes of Israel.  

Notice how all of the military arms are used to provide fire for the people of Israel who traditionally need to go and gather wood from the forests.  No need to do that for the weapons will be converted to fire wood.  It should sound a little bit like Isaiah 2:4 where we read: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks…”

If you were just to pick up this chapter in vs.28 you would get a summary of all that has happened from the time of the exile to the promise of the restoration.  God sent them into exile among the nations and then he will gather them together again, no one will be left behind.  Sounds like a theme within our own military that we have seen at one time.  No one is left behind.