Ezekiel speaks compellingly to the current situation in the United States. But is the prophet's message true?
Precise Diagnosis
The society the prophet addresses suffers from a severe lack of perspective. It knows God's standards. These appear in the verses our Lectionary passes over, Ezekiel 18:5-24. God condemns idolatry, sexual immorality, exploitative lending and violence. God demands that people look to the needs of the poor and ensure that the powerless receive the same justice as do the powerful. The society knows God's ways, and yet it rejects them. "The way of the Lord is unfair!" it cries.
It's 2011. Could a passage possibly speak more directly to a society still encumbered by the effects of unjust lending? With politicians waging a national campaign against the poor -- "Tax them more, and liberate the job creators!" -- could Ezekiel's message strike closer to the heart?
In the United States the private corrections industry actually writes the laws by which we incarcerate immigrants, and we imprison more of our citizens than does any other "free" society. How can we ignore this prophet, who demands equal justice for all people? With so many people waving Bibles around and holding prayer meetings, one would expect some familiarity with the way of God. Instead, it seems the loudest Christians declare Ezekiel's message unjust.
Thank God some religious leaders are stepping up to resist my home state's draconian immigration law. Ezekiel's God surely acknowledges the other religious leaders who challenged both Democrats and Republicans to remember the poor in their response to the federal deficit.
Nagging Question
Amazing that an ancient prophet would speak so truthfully to the specifics of our own circumstances. But is Ezekiel correct?
Ezekiel refutes a common proverb: "The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge" (18:2). Remarkably, Jeremiah also rejects this same proverb (Jeremiah 31:29-34). But there's a stubborn thing about such proverbs: they usually convey profound truth. One generation's sins (of omission and commission) often manifest themselves in the suffering of the next.
Painful family legacies confirm the old proverb. One generation's alcoholism is the next generation's disability. Domestic violence and sexual abuse migrate from generation to generation. The surest predictor of one's poverty is the poverty of one's parents.
The proverb speaks not only to households but also to societies. It speaks powerfully to our current situation in the United States. Those of us who came of age in the 1970s and 1980s looked after ourselves. Our grandparents made enormous sacrifices so that we could prosper. They tilled farms and toiled in factories -- many of them did both -- so that we could finish school and find steady employment. We pursued wealth, and some of us attained it. We demanded lower taxes. We bought houses far larger than our parents even desired. Our 401(k) accounts were more important to us than building our society's infrastructure.
We ate the grapes, but our children will taste their full sourness. Ezekiel and Jeremiah are only partly correct. Children do suffer the consequences of their parents' sins.
A Compelling Vision
But a prophet's truth does not reside in accurate assessment of the contemporary situation. It lies in the power of the prophet's vision. Ezekiel reveals the enormous gap between our ways of accounting things and the ways of God. Our actions do resonate through the generations. But God's graciousness grants each generation a fresh start. True prophets reveal God's world to us, and that world judges the inadequate truths by which we live.
Ezekiel knows the truth of that very proverb he rejected. Due to his ancestors' unfaithful ways, he resides as an exile in Babylon. The bitter taste in his mouth comes from his parents' generation. Yet the word of the Lord that comes to him reveals an alternative truth.
In other words, Ezekiel calls us to break from our former patterns to embrace God's ways. As we parents move farther and farther toward retirement and beyond, the prophet's vision calls us to set our children free.
Editor's Note: ON Scripture is a series of Christian scripture commentaries produced in collaboration with Odyssey Networks. Each week pastors from around the country will approach the lectionary text of the week through the lens of current events, providing a religious voice that is both pastoral and prophetic.
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Much the power of a prophet's truth lies in his vision of the future. But his truth also lies in an accurate assessment of current reality, and his prophecies are based on historical and contemporary realities.
The prophet knows that the troubles, problems and iniquity of people is always basically the same, and, because people don't learn the lessons of history they repeat the mistakes that have been made throughout history.
All that is true today. The modern prophet understands that, and he too rebukes the wrongdoers and those who are greedy, hypocritical and bigoted. In that respect, he is like prophets throughout history.
"Son of man, my people hear your words, but they do not listen. With their mouths they express love, but their hearts are greedy for unjust gain. Indeed, to them you are nothing more than one who sings songs with a pleasant voice and plays an instrument well, for they hear your words but do not put them into practice. When all this comes true—and it surely will—then they will know that a prophet has been among them." –– Ezekiel 33:31-33
Ezekiel was a son of man, but these words are relevant also to the modern son of man. You can hear his songs at http://www.soundclick.com/ttap
This is really quite quaint in the 21st Century. Except that some of your literalists are quite intent on bringing about the end of civilization as we know it for the selfish reason only zealots can understand.
What in the world is wrong with you? It is a serious question to organized religion today.
What good ARE you?
When they preach peace and safety, Doom and Sudden Destruction cometh. False teachers usually are standing behind a Bible preaching peace.
This is the last generation of humanity.
Rev. 14: 6-12 is a warning about false worship in the Christian Church.
Exaulting the man made day of rest, Sunday, over Gods Holy Day, Saturday, will get you the Mark of the Beast.
People that love the Truth, can see it.
People that believe the lie can not.
For this cause IGod shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie.
Babylon is Fallen, Come out my people.
I've heard worse.
Soldiers of Christ have got to get the last message warning out my brother, any chance we can.
The fire you mention is a good point,only people are going to be IN IT.
I don't water down anything. The time is at hand. God always tells us whats going to happen before it does.
God is calling His people out of false beliefs in Rev. 14:6-12, such as, the false Sabbath,( Sunday) and errors concerning the state of the dead, such as eternal torment. (One of Satans favorite lies is to portray God as a vengeful, sadistical tyrant, that tortures them for billions and billions and billions of years for just 70 years of apostacy) This lie was spun by the Devil, and is preached from every pulpit.
I won't have these lies about the God of Heaven go unchallenged.
Babaylon is going to fall, Come out or you'll go down with it.
God Bless anyone that accepts these truths.
I hold up the Seventh Day Adventist Banner
I hope this is more the rule than the exception for you. I am fanning you as encouragement for you to share more of the authentic richness within you.
Prophecies respecting a future glory of Israel and Jerusalem were primarily conditional on obedience ( see Jer 18:7-10)
They would have met a literal fulfillment in the centuries following had Israel accepted Gods purposes concerning them.
The failure of Israel made it impossible for the fulfillment of these prophecies in their original intent. However, that does not necessarily imply that these prophecies have no further significance
The promises here could have an application to spiritual Israel, ( Christianity) Gal 3: 29
and Gal 4: 28, the church becomes Israel
God can change His mind. Where does it say that in this case, God changed His mind?
Thus, we can see that it is speculation to say the fulfillment of EZ 38 is "impossible ...... in their original intent," or that Israel "would have met a literal fulfillment in the centuries following had Israel accepted Gods purposes concerning them."
Using words like "could have" and "spiritual Israel" are legal fictional devices.
Your applying verses in Galations is another fictional device known as "projection."
We can find out what God thinks about such things if we do a word study on "vain," and "imaginations." These two words match up perfectly in the way men use legal fictions today. After taking these words back into the Greek and Hebrew, and looking up all the scriptures related to these words, we can easily see that the consequences of using fictional devices can sometimes be very severe.
My advice to people is to just read God's word for what is says. I assure you, when He changes His mind, he is careful to let us know what He has done.
Let His word instruct us. To me, it is a good idea to refrain from telling people that His prophetical word has been nullified, when it is simply not yet fulfilled. Matt. 5: 17-19.
Best wishes to you.
Ezekiel quotes the current proverb of the Israelites, "The fathers eat sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge." In other words, they are saying that children suffer the consequences of their parent's actions.
Ezekiel prophecies that the time will come when they will no longer say that proverb or believe it to be true. When Israel is ransomed and relates to Jehovah under his grace in Christ, they will believe, "The soul who sins is the one that will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son," Ez. 18:20.
The Christian denomination where I once was a member believes so strongly that the son shares the guilt of the father that they believe that a stillborn or unbaptized child who dies is lost forever, sent to hell. They relate more strongly to the Law Covenant than they do to "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."
Then what of all the gold crosses and crucifixions worn as jewelry, huge crosses and crucifixions in churches, ever larger roadside mega-crosses and crucifixions.
I don't get it.
Don't forget to show hospitality to believers you don't know. ... For thereby some have entertained angels unawares
IMO
Scientists figure that for evolution to work, we must assume that there are an infinite number of multi-verses with infinite possibilities and we ended up on the one in infinity chances that life can be on Earth.
Scientists theorize that for a finely-tuned universe, there must be 12 dimensions of space-time and the rules for the universe is written, like DNA, on strings. We only see particles as the rest of the strings are in other dimensions.
My favorite is that we life in a fractal universe and that several entities in a higher universe programmed this universe. The best part is that they too are computer simulations.
Few scientists are sticking with Evolution. I use to work in the church of Evolution until I got tired of sacrificing animals to save their species. I grew up and joined environmentalism.
There is no such thing as prophecy.
I do not have to prove that they do not exist. Reality is doing that already, by nature of there being no evidence.
So... How do you know?
I'm not the one claiming the existence of something. Those who believe in prophecy are the ones who are.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence (or at least some direct evidence), and lacking that evidence, there is no valid reason to believe that it is true.
So I don't have to "know", the default position is in my favor that it isn't because it has not been proven.