Ezekiel 1-3: What If It's Real

I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him.  Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him.
   This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. When I saw it, I fell facedown, and I heard the voice of one speaking. - Ezek. 1:27-28 NIV

I have been thinking for days about the difference between mind and body, soul and spirit.  We have a tendency to lump them all together as one, usually with the mind and body ruling supreme.   But that is not truth, not here on earth and especially in the world to come.  As Jesus himself told the woman at the well, "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." (John 4:24 KJV)

I believe that what Ezekiel saw was real, more real than anything we see around us today.  We have a tendency to take the prophetic descriptions in the Bible and turn them into something we know, usually something of a military nature: tanks, airplanes, helicopters.  But what if what the prophets saw and described is the real thing.  What if the spirit world where God resides is something more than our imagination can comprehend.?  What if there are real beings with real spirits inside the wheel that moves them to and fro?  What if it is real, more real than the table that I'm sitting at this morning? What if God's countenance is like glowing metal as if it is full of fire?   What if his radiance is more than anything we have ever witnessed here on earth?  If we saw him as Ezekiel did, would we fall face down and listen to his voice?

2010 Post - Ezekiel 1-3:  The Lord Speaks

Lamentations 3-5: Only For Our Good

He has walled me in so I cannot escape;
   he has weighed me down with chains.
Even when I call out or cry for help,
   he shuts out my prayer.
He has barred my way with blocks of stone;
   he has made my paths crooked. - Lam. 3:7-9 NIV

For men are not cast off
   by the Lord forever.
Though he brings grief, he will show compassion,
   so great is his unfailing love.
For he does not willingly bring affliction
   or grief to the children of men. - Lam 3:31-33 NIV

You, O LORD, reign forever;
   your throne endures from generation to generation.
Why do you always forget us?
   Why do you forsake us so long?
Restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may return;
   renew our days as of old
unless you have utterly rejected us
   and are angry with us beyond measure. - Lam. 5:19-22 NIV

It's easy to think like the writer of Lamentations that we have been deserted by God, that he has forgotten and forsaken us.  But, that has never been the case.  It is always his people that have forgotten him.  His own people, those he has made a covenant with, those for whom he has always made a way.  It's one thing for those who don't know him to ignore him, but when his own people go astray, do they have any right to complain of the consequences?   I keep coming back to the same phrase, "All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way."  Why is it we'll try anything before we try God?  Fortunately, God is much more gracious to us than we would ever be.  Everything that happens to us, every event that God brings us through, is only for our own good, orchestrated by his unfailing love.

For men are not cast off
   by the Lord forever.
Though he brings grief, he will show compassion,
   so great is his unfailing love.
For he does not willingly bring affliction
   or grief to the children of men. - Lam 3:31-33 NIV

2010 Post - Lamentations 3-5:  It Is Good To Wait Quietly

Lamentations 1-2: Inside There Is Only Death

“See, O LORD, how distressed I am!
   I am in torment within,
and in my heart I am disturbed,
   for I have been most rebellious.
Outside, the sword bereaves;
   inside, there is only death. - Lam. 1:20 NIV 
There is no enemy greater than our internal torment.  Torment that is invisible to those on the outside, torment caused by our realization of just how far we have fallen short. I think today there is a lot of flailing and flogging at the wrong enemy  We accuse everyone on either side when it is we ourselves who are guilty.  It is we ourselves who have abandoned God and what he demanded of us.  We can point the finger elsewhere all we like, but it comes back to this.  We have wandered far, as Isaiah said, like sheep going astray.  We have all turned to our own way and it is a pitiful escape.  Now we're caught in our own trap and all we can do is accuse those on the outside of what we ourselves are guilty of.  As Pogo once said, "We have met the enemy and he is us."  Outside the sword may bereave, but inside there is only death.

2010 Post - Lamentations 1-2:  All Is Taken Away

Jeremiah 50-52: Wandering and Wondering

 “My people have been lost sheep;
   their shepherds have led them astray
   and caused them to roam on the mountains.
They wandered over mountain and hill
   and forgot their own resting place. - Jeremiah 50:6 NIV

We have to be careful of the voices that we follow.  There are many voices, even some well-meaning ones, that would lead us astray.  They would lead us away from the peaceful pastures and the still waters that God provides for his people.  There is only one true shepherd, only one that cares only for our souls and not for their own well-being, power or position.  Only one.  If we follow any other, we will find ourselves wandering over mountain and hill, wandering and wandering.  Wandering and wondering why we have no peace.

2010 Post - Jeremiah 50-52:  Babylon Will Fall

Jeremiah 45-49: Total Destruction's a Good Thing

“This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says to you, Baruch: You said, ‘Woe to me! The LORD has added sorrow to my pain; I am worn out with groaning and find no rest.’” The LORD said, “Say this to him: ‘This is what the LORD says: I will overthrow what I have built and uproot what I have planted, throughout the land. Should you then seek great things for yourself? Seek them not. For I will bring disaster on all people, declares the LORD, but wherever you go I will let you escape with your life.’”  - Jer. 45:2-5 NIV

What follows these verses is catastrophe upon catastrophe for the nations surrounding Israel.  God promises to use Nebuchadnezzar and the hordes of Babylon to extract vengeance on all of the countries and kingdoms for their evil ways.  As has always been the case, God does what he promises.  This is not the time, God tells Baruch, to seek great things for yourself.  Great things will be of no value, great things will not protect anyone when God has disaster planned. 

For those worn out from groaning, those who can find no rest, like Baruch, God has a promise.  Not that they would be delivered, but that God will let them escape with their life.  Escape with one's life when all around is utter destruction, what kind of promise is that?  It's a good promise, it's an encouraging promise.  One that holds out hope, that once everything is taken away, once everything is totally destroyed, once there is nothing left but life itself, we would be in the position that God wanted us to be in in the first place.  Totally dependent on him and nothing else.



2010 Post - Jeremiah 45-49:  You Multiply Remedies in Vain

Jeremiah 41-44: Who You Gonna Trust?

Sometimes it difficult to hear the Lord's voice and know which way to go, but that was never the problem for Israel.  God spoke to them, over and over again through the prophets.  The only problem was, even when they sought the prophets like Jeremiah out, they really didn't want to hear what the Lord said.  The bottom line was they didn't trust in God.  They believed they fared much better under the heathen gods than under the one who had promised them abundant prosperity if they would obey him.  The heathen gods never asked for obedience:  a little incense, a few altars erected in high places, a few of their children as sacrifices perhaps, but obedience was optional.  As the men of Judah told Jeremiah when they had fled to Egypt to escape the wrath of the Babylonians:
"We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and will pour out drink offerings to her just as we and our fathers, our kings and our officials did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and were well off and suffered no harm." - Jer. 44:17 NIV

Ah, but it wasn't the Babylonians they had to fear.  Their own God, the one that they ignored so easily, was waiting in the wings.  He was the one controlling the fates of both the Babylonians and the Egyptians.  He was the one that would crush the Egyptians at the hands of the Babylonians and the one who would have saved Judah had they listened to him. 

Roosevelt was wrong when he said 'We have nothing to fear but fear itself."  We have nothing to fear but God.  All our other fears pale in comparison to what he is able to do and anything or anyone we trust in suffers the same fate.  There is nothing that can stand in God's way when he is determined to bring circumstances about and there is nothing that can protect us like the mighty hand of God.  Why trust in anything else.

2010 Post - Jeremiah 41-44:  A Fatal Mistake

Jeremiah 37-40: God Helps Those Who Trust

The Babylonians set fire to the royal palace and the houses of the people and broke down the walls of Jerusalem. Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard carried into exile to Babylon the people who remained in the city, along with those who had gone over to him, and the rest of the people. But Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard left behind in the land of Judah some of the poor people, who owned nothing; and at that time he gave them vineyards and fields. - Jer 38:8-10 NIV

What a contrast in these chapters between those in high positions of authority who would trust in anything but God and what God says through his prophets, and the poor in the land who had nothing to trust in but God.  The one group, those with everything to lose, lost it all.  In spite of disbelief at what God promised would happen, Zedekiah watched as his children were slain and then had his own eyes put out.  While the other group, the poor who owned nothing, with nothing to lose, was able to live in relative prosperity under the rule of the same enemy who carted those in power away. It isn't a case of 'God helps those who help themselves', God helps those who trust in him. 

2010 Post - Jeremiah 37-40:  The Right Right Way