The end! The end has come!
Every day we’re asking four questions about part of the Bible. Today Bern Leckie answers:
What did I like about today’s passage?
Surprise! I was expecting to spend another couple of weeks with Ezekiel, but chapter 7 is clearly “the end” (it says, five times.) But what is it the end of?
Thankfully, it’s not the end of the world – we’re still here – and we know it’s not the end of Israel either. But it did look a lot like the end of a road that God’s people had been on since the time of Moses, freed from Egyptian slavery to journey into God-centred life in a promised land flowing with milk and honey.
The national identity was so firmly founded in remembering this journey, celebrating every year the Passover which set them free. So to lose that freedom, even for a while, would be linked to fear of far more than discomfort for a time. It must have felt catastrophic.
Why was this happening? God was not stopping being his people’s father. But it was time for family discipline after centuries of warnings. This wasn’t just a breach of religious rules but the growth of arrogance, violence, all kinds of crime we’ve read in other stories, trust in wealth rather than God, and pride that they didn’t need to change. God wanted Israel to show other nations that God-centred life was better and more just. Israel did not have that reputation and people may well have asked where their God is and what difference he makes.
This is what had to end: life which appeared God-centred but was not. God would deal with this assertively, taking responsibility for the forced disruption. God was not withdrawing but moving heaven and earth as forcefully as he did when he freed this family from Egypt.
What did it show me about Father God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit?
It would be fair to call this a low point in the history of God's people. However, it did not just show how angry God could be and what he could do when he had a point to prove. It also demonstrated that God was serious about his people's quality of life, and would not let violence, injustice and corruption continue.
Thinking about how this applies to us today, I think we must recognise that good life in God's Kingdom is coming, and some aspects of it are already here, but there is a lot to be done in its fulfilment which will involve massive change and an end to the world as we know it.
What am I going to do differently as a result?
I love that we are covered by grace in relationship with Jesus, but I can’t help noticing how God feels here about people who were blessed by him but whose lives didn’t seem different to others. How much more should our lives be remarkable with God’s Spirit in us? I want to be conscious and deliberate about renewing my trust in Jesus to lead me and my family towards distinctively good lives centred around him. We need to pray about how this goes.
Who am I going to share this with?
My family, where I’ve discussed with my son today about loving people when they don’t seem loving to us, but we haven’t yet asked God directly together for the strength to do this.