Kevin's Watch

A few years back, some words were said on the Watch that really lingered with me, in the back of my mind...

Orlion wrote:I always tended to like the Prophetic books (Isaiah- Malachi) more than any other book. It seemed that they gave soul to the entire collection, even the New Testament. Even just reading through them once without understanding everything made the rest of the collection make more sense (The New Testament quotes Isaiah, in particular, extensively).

The words kinda haunted me because I think people in the evangelical world I inhabit tend to be unfamiliar with the prophets, and need their vision.
Individually, though, as a teen with no church background, I just went ahead and started reading the prophets.
And I absolutely fell in love with the beauty, glory, and drama of the prophets' work.

So for awhile, I've been thinking, "why don't I try to start a book-of-the-Bible discussion on the Watch?" and also been thinking "what about the prophets?"
Well, I'm planning to go through the book of Ezekiel in the next 19 days, so I thought I'd see if anyone wants to join with me for the adventure.

The schedule is like this:

Nov. 1: Ezekiel 1-3
Nov. 2: Ezekiel 4-8
Nov. 3: Ezekiel 9-12
Nov. 4: Ezekiel 13-15
Nov. 5: Ezekiel 16
Nov. 6: Ezekiel 17-19
Nov. 7: Ezekiel 20-21
Nov. 8: Ezekiel 22-23
Nov. 9: Ezekiel 24-26
Nov. 10: Ezekiel 27-28
Nov. 11: Ezekiel 29-30
Nov. 12: Ezekiel 31-32
Nov. 13: Ezekiel 33-34
Nov. 14: Ezekiel 35-37
Nov. 15: Ezekiel 38-39
Nov. 16: Ezekiel 40-41
Nov. 17: Ezekiel 42-44
Nov. 18: Ezekiel 45-47
Nov. 19: Ezekiel 48

Each day - starting today - I'm going to try to post something on this thread on that day's chunk of scripture that is useful, true, and interesting.
And when I write, I'm going to try to write into this context of Kevin's Watch. Just like even a horse learns the familiar paths and valleys of its own pasture, I've been learning you guys.

Chapter 1

Act 1, Scene 1 of this drama opens with unspoken memories of trauma:
"In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the Chebar canal, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God."(Ezekiel 1:1)
"among the exiles" - like being a refugee, but perhaps worse, because maybe anyone can do whatever they wish to you. (Lamentations 5)
They had been ripped off of a land that had been in their families among generations, and led away captive, amid appalling devastation and death.

But then come the visions of God.
Well, this first vision of Ezekiel's definitely emphasizes the "alien"-ness of the heavenly realm. (Weren't we just talking about that?)
I am told that in the Hebrew there is a sense of someone struggling to describe the indescribable.
And even in translation words like "likeness" and "appearance" abound. (count 'em!)

And what he saw was appeared to be something sort of like this:
Four four-winged creatures, each with four faces, (the face of a human, lion on the right, ox on the left, and the face of an eagle) walking straight forward and their spirits within wheels which move along with them.
And the descriptions continue with imagery that is fascinating and sometimes confusing to imagine... bright beryl, wheels within wheels, (I remember being mesmerized by a song that uses that imagery years ago...) zillions of eyes, an expanse of awe-inspiring crystal.

And above that, a sapphire throne and a bright being:"...upward from what had the appearance of his waist I saw as it were gleaming metal, like the appearance of fire enclosed all around."
"Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of one speaking."
- Ezekiel 1:28

Chapter 2

And then comes the call narrative. I find prophet's call narratives fascinating.
When God says He's sending Ezekiel to speak as a prophet, there's also a warning about the job - people are gonna hate you and not want to listen to you.
You will need to be incredibly brave.
"Whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house) they will know that a prophet has been among them." (Ezekiel 2:3)

Also, note in verse 6 - Sorus was not the first person to think of sticking People Who Do Things That Upset Us (tm) with the scorpions.
So that's a historical reference.
(I'm kidding! Of course people would have intimidated someone who spoke unwelcome words with threats to abandon them to the scorpions or whatever... we don't need that Bible verse to tell us something like that would happen.)

Chapter 3

Now he's taken the scroll of a book that was given to him and eaten it, and it tastes like honey.
There are lots of comparisons of God's law and wisdom to honey. (Psalm 19:10, Psalm 119:103, Proverbs 24:13-14) And really, on a good day, I eat that stuff up.

And God tells him more about just how much resistance there'll be to the message he's bringing, but if their faces are hard, Ezekiel's will be harder - "like emery hard like flint."

"The Spirit lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness in the heat of my spirit, the hand of the Lord being strong upon me. And I came to the exiles at Tel-abib, who were dwelling by the Chebar canal, and I sat where they were dwelling. And I sat there overwhelmed among them seven days."(Ezekiel 3:14-15)

And at the end of 7 days, the word of the Lord comes to him again, telling Ezekiel how God is making him a watchman for ...the moral life of his whole nation.
(No pressure?!?!)
If God sends him to warn a person to turn away from his evil ways while there is still time... if that person does not listen to the prophet, it will be on his own head.
But if Ezekiel does not speak to give the warning, Ezekiel will share in the guilt.

Then the Lord tells him of one of his first object lessons he is going to participate in, to attempt to teach these people:
"Go, shut yourself within your house."
And he will be bound with cords, and - oh, yeah! - God will make him mute for awhile.

Until God speaks with him later, to open his mouth; then he will speak.
And then this portion ends on what was the refrain, the reminder that some will hear, and some will refuse to hear... his message.

+JMJ+

Not quite sure where you're goin' with this thread, Linna. (Just riffin' on Ezekiel, perhaps?) Not sure that, even if I did, I'd necessarily have anything to add. But I'm watching it, sho'nuff.

Just sayin'.

Chapter 4: "Make a Model," or "Also, things get a bit scatological."

And then the Author of the story said, "Get out all your tinkertoys, and..."
Ooops, that was Jeremiah, not Ezekiel...
And the author in that case was SRD, not the Lord.
But I think* we do have this similarity: Ezekiel is in one place, using small objects to construct a model of reality in another place.

He's still in Babylon, far from his home.
And God tells him to take a brick and depict on in the city of Jerusalem.
And then to build a siege wall, a ramp, battering rams all around, and make some camps... and show a city besieged.

Then God tells Ezekiel to lie on his left side bearing the iniquity of Israel for... oh, 390 days! (to represent 390 years of their punishment)
After that, Ezekiel will lie on his right side bearing the sin of Judah for 40 more days. (again, 1 day for each year)

"And behold, I will place cords upon you, so that you cannot turn from one side to the other, till you have completed the days of your siege." (Ezekiel 4:8)
Your siege... the land has its siege, and you have your own siege to live through.
The experience of the people becomes the experience of Ezekiel.

And he will make his own bread, and act out life with a starvation diet and rationed water that goes with this siege.
Things have gone so far that God will push His own people into unavoidably violating the Law that He has given them in specific ways.
But, well, they have been violating it a great deal... and now God is going to press the point.
I think what's going on here is that God is making concealed realities externally - and unavoidably - visible.

But Ezekiel has one request about if he can modify the preparation procedure:
"Please not baked over human excrement?" (He's kept God's law in not eating unclean food from childhood, and so he asks that he not stop now.)
And okay, God says he'll permit him to use dried cow dung.
I see Ezekiel as a really good model in how he speaks with God. (more on that shows up later.)
Here, he speaks to God about something that's bothering him in what God has told him to do.

And all these things listed... can be done without Ezekiel saying a word.
I get excited about the methods he uses... (as a teacher I know how resistant any person can be to being taught any ole thing!) What he's doing is calculated to get the attention of these people who are hard to teach.
But that's not all - Ezekiel is doing this at such a cost; the prophet embodies an experience of suffering like what his community will face.

* I don't super-remember if SRD's Jeremiah's construction of Tinkertoys and maybe legoes and things was a representation of something in the Land. It was, right?

Chapter 5: judgement portrayed and proclaimed

And now there is more prep for dramatization of what will happen - God tells Ezekiel to cut the hair off his head and shave his beard with a sharp sword.
He'll gather the hairs, divide them into roughly 3 bunches, and they will symbolize the fates of the people.
He will:
* Burn a third in the middle of the city (still has his mock-up) after he's acted out the siege.
* Slash a third with the sword around the city
* Scatter a third to the wind. ("And a third part you shall scatter to the wind, and I will unsheathe the sword after them.")

And, lastly, Ezekiel will take just a few strands and bind them in the folds of his robe, for safekeeping.
(That's the remnant.)

Then come the words - prophesy saying:
Israel was worse than the surrounding nations who weren't given God's law.
Hence the judgements He'll give.
And the judgements are reviewed... turns out that the burning with fire in the city was representing plague and famine. (The others were what they sounded like.)
And what they can expect for their future is told: they'll be a ruin, a disgrace, a taunt and a horror.
So, like the material of stories people (of the surrounding nations) will tell their children to frighten them and say, "Don't be like this, because what happened was so horrible. Let me tell you what their god did to them..."

Chapter 6: altars to idols on every high hill, on every mountain, under every green tree

"Prophesy against the mountains."
Will the mountains stand witness even if no human listens?

Sometimes you get that sense, but here... it looks like he's bringing a charge against the mountains.
Well, what is wrong with the mountains?
Well, idol-worship. And lots and lots of it.

And God will bring an action against the mountains:
wrecking the altars and littering them with corpses

Why?
Then you will know that I am Yahweh.

But - a remnant!
"...then those of you who escape will remember me among the nations where they are carried captive, how I have been broken over their whoring heart that has departed from me and over their eyes that go whoring after their idols." (v. 9)
And they will have the gift of shame over their past deeds.
"And they shall know that I am the Lord. I have not said in vain that I would do this evil to them."

And the Lord tells them to go ahead and lament... because it will happen.
Their prevalence of idols will be matched with the prevalence of the slain.

Wosbald wrote:+JMJ+

Not quite sure where you're goin' with this thread, Linna. (Just riffin' on Ezekiel, perhaps?) Not sure that, even if I did, I'd necessarily have anything to add. But I'm watching it, sho'nuff.

Just sayin'.

Thank you, Wos! That was just about the encouragement I needed.

And the answer was... I was at the stage of "Hooo, boy! This is ...kind of... harder than I imagined."

Love this!!! Thank you Linna!

(corrected your name. I just noticed that when I posted this, my cell phone auto-corrected that to Linda LOL)

Ezekiel 7 - One Disaster After Another

And here we have a sort of... your-world-as-you-know-it-is-coming-to-an-end... poem?

Well, yeah. It's a lament written in advance, and that's just haunting.
Now God is their enemy.
Therefore, there's much talk of punishment, of pouring out of wrath.

It begins with a declaration of the end, and of God sending His anger on his people and their land.
The connection between the people, their deeds, and the land links strongly to the longago agreement from back in Deuteronomy 28, which has enormous relevance to the exile.

There is also a note of God's judgement being according to their ways in the very beginning. And then the lament is set into motion with rumblings of the doom that's coming, (a repeated command to "Look!") and how near it is, and of God's anger, and of how the people have grieved Him with detestable practices.
There's talk of the violence that has been present in place of justice... to go with the theme of "judged according to their own standards."

And then there's talk of what people might hope will rescue them.
Money and wealth? No.
An army? No.
Maybe tracking rumors of danger will help them to be prepared? Nope.
You get a devastating sense of an irrevocable sweeping-away.

Even those who may survive will be in a fragile circumstances, not able to "pull their community together," to have strength.
"And if any survivors escape, they will be on the mountains, like doves of the valleys, all of them moaning, each one over his iniquity. All hands are feeble, and all knees turn to water. They put on sackcloth, and horror covers them. Shame is on all faces, and baldness on all their heads." (verses 16-18, ESV)

And money will not save them; mercantile stability will be a thing of the past.
"They will throw their silver into the streets, and their gold will seem like something filthy. Their silver and gold will be unable to save them in the day of the Lord's wrath." (verse 19, HCSB)
And that links to the way the people had been using the valuables that God appointed to them... for idol worship.

So yeah, the idol worship.
Time for some "making reality visible" in God's own temple: "I will turn My face from the wicked as they profane My treasured place. Violent men will enter it and profane it."
The sacred place was already profaned in fact by the presence of idol worship... now that's going to happen visibly when armies of other countries will come defile it and sack it.
The violent injustice internal to the land of Israel has been dishonoring to God all along... and now it will be matched by violence from external nations.

This is not some minor provincial deity looking out for His own worshippers' interests and happy to take any kind of worship He can get; no.
He is willing to smash even what He loves to expose people to truth, towards the good end of true worship in the future.
He is not restricted to being able to use what is within the bounds of his own "domain"; no, he's bringing people from far away to do the smashing.

This oracle ends with an ominous rhythm of what is to come and why.
And a reminder "...I will judge them by their own standards. Then they will know that I am Yahweh."
___________________________________

SB- Thank you!
Sorry that the pace has been the speed of a tiny trickle, not the steady reliable rate I said I'd give to this. (had to get that out of the way first.)
Ahh, well, I remember what I learned from a book when I was young... if you are learning to ride and you fall off your horse, the first thing you need to do is get back on!
(otoh, I reflect - that was -not- the first thing I did!)

On the positive side, I find it a joy to see the glory of a prophet: in a prophet's glory we can see some of the glory of Jesus.
Jesus doing "prophet things" is perhaps not as great a thing as Jesus sacrificing Himself in a death on the cross for a multitude of people when they were still His enemies.
But being a prophet was also part of His nature, and living a life where He was constantly rejected for what He said was also a (hard-for-me-to-imagine-the-magnitude-of) sacrifice.

Interesting that God is saying that he will judge them by their own standards. This is keeping with what has gone before this time. God judged and defeated the Gods of Egypt by their own powers.


Examples:
Hapi the god of water, God turned the water to blood.
Heket the god of fertility/renewal - God brings frogs from the Nile.
Nut the god of the Sky - God called down hail that came down as fire.

There were 10 for each of the gods of Egypt that God showed his power against.

Then at the end God kills the first born of Egypt (this is where the pass over comes from) and then later when the Pharaoh and his armies try to kill the Israelites and are killed. This showed Gods power over Pharaoh (who considered himself a God).