Why father God would move heaven and earth

Every day we're reading or listening to part of the Bible together and sharing thoughts with you. Today it’s Bern Leckie:

What did I like about today’s passage?

Either mountains have busier social lives than we knew, or God’s prophecies to Mount Seir and the mountains of Israel are about more than mountains. I think people in Ezekiel’s time saw the highest points in their landscapes as the places to get closest to God, but what happened at places like Mount Ararat, where the ark landed, and Mount Sinai, where Moses received the law, affected everybody. So when God speaks to the mountains, he’s addressing the whole of his creation, including the parts that people struggle to reach, let alone change.

I love God’s lofty sovereign pronouncements, then, that he will direct history rather than let it be run by rebellion and sin. Some people would like to think that Israel and Judah are ruined because of the exile, but God needs them to know that he is moving things the way he wants to. His plan is to create a movement leading back to him.

I’m struck by the numerous references God makes to this being “not for your sake… but for the sake of my holy name”. Coming from a person, that would sound like self-boosting insecurity or pride. What does it mean from God? The problem he identifies is that people have been saying “These are the Lord’s people, and yet they had to leave his land.” Can you feel the tension there? If God were only concerned about cleanliness, he could have cleared his land and let go of his people. If God only wanted his people to be happy, he could have let them do whatever they wanted. It’s not about the stuff God wants, but who God is.

Can you see God here being a father, and a good one? It’s in his nature to love his children, prioritising health over happiness sometimes, moving for change and discipline where necessary so they grow up well. People may have thought God had thrown his kids out, not just from the home but the family. I think God wants people to know that, whatever the kids have done, he is not that kind of father, never has been, never will be.

There is a lot we don’t know about ourselves and the world around us. I love that Ezekiel has the sense to answer God’s question about the bones with, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.” It turns out that our father God can do some pretty cool, weird, incredible stuff with his creation. This includes showing how he can breathe life into dry, hopeless situations and join fractured things back together again. Maybe we can figure out how that works, maybe not, but if we can know and trust our father God to lead and move us, isn’t that enough?

What did it show me about Father God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit?

God reveals his motivation to move heaven and earth like this in his vision of one nation – it’s togetherness. “They will be my people, and I will be their God.” This is a loving father, who won’t stop being one even if there is trouble, and is already planning the family reunion.

What am I going to do differently as a result?

Thank God more for being a father, not just doing stuff, and learn more about being a father from him.

Who am I going to share this with?

My family, including my son!