Bible in a Year Series - Day #249 - This post is part of a year-long series where we are reading chronologically through the Bible. Click here to learn more. You are most welcome to join along at any time.
Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: Ezekiel 32-34.
Imagine yourself a Jew during Ezekiel's day. You have been exiled to Babylon now for 12 years, and you know that Jerusalem has been under seige for three years now.
Then...in comes a fugative from Jerusalem. "All is lost", he cries, "they have torn down the walls, destroyed the temple, killed most of the people, and burned the city to the ground."
For the Jew, I suspect there could be no greater stab in the heart. All that the prophets had proclaimed has come to pass.
God has destroyed Jerusalem, the temple, and abandoned Israel (so they thought) to captivity under the most brutal of nations.
In our chronological journey through the Bible, a very large page of history is now turned and we will now begin to view life living under the judgment of God in Babylon. We're perhaps thankful to be alive, but our mourning and lament is significant.
God has now loosened Ezekiel's mute lips, and will now turn his prophetic attention to his exiled people. Looking back, we know that God was purifying his people, and in today's narrative God has two things for Israel to learn:
- Stop listening to the words of my prophet as mere entertainment and do as I command. (Ezekiel 33:30-33)
- God promises restoration for Israel in one of the most precious prophecies their ears could possibly hear:
- “For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. 12 As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. 13 And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. 14 I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. 15 I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God. 16 I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice." (Ezekiel 34:11-16)
There are still a great many significant lessons for us ahead. We will begin to understand the unfolding of Jeremiah's foretold "new covenant", we will watch in amazement the narrative of Daniel's life, we will greatly scratch our heads at Daniel's prophecies, we will see God raise Ezra and Nehemiah, we will see the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and in less than 30 days will find ourselves starring at the manger of Messiah.
Something unspeakably horrific happened (the Fall of Man) in the Garden of Eden thousands of years ago. Today, standing in January 585 BC, we will begin to faintly see the Light of God's plan of redemption.
