Good morning! Ezekiel’s messages about Judah and Jerusalem continue in today’s passage (chapters 6-10), and indeed they extend all the way through Ezekiel 24 before the book takes a new course. Yesterday I noted that Ezekiel holds together both priestly and prophetic concerns. Today, we can see his prophetic critique of wealth alongside the priestly sensibility of keeping the temple pure from idols. In the presence of both corrupting wealth and idolatry, Ezekiel envisions God cutting the people of Jerusalem off entirely, with only the exiles left as witnesses of the true God.
Month: September 2016
Ezekiel 1-5
Good morning! Today we start the book of Ezekiel, with a healthy dose of chapters 1-5. More than any other in the Bible except for John the Seer in Revelation, Ezekiel leads me to ask, “What was he smoking??” His fantastic visions artistically combine natural and supernatural phenomena, all in an effort to communicate God’s messages to the Hebrew people around him in Babylonian exile. Unique for his time, Ezekiel combines both priestly and prophetic impulses. He’s committed to that “old-time religion” of temple rituals and piety, but also wants them to create more faithful and righteous daily behavior.
Pastor Oby Ballinger 