Strength and weakness
This week is on Ezekiel 3:12-15:
These verses pick up where last week's left off. God is finished commissioning Ezekiel for his mission and picks him up and brings him home. The contrast between God's greatness and Ezekiel's weakness is enlightening.
The Spirit lifts Ezekiel up. Ezekiel doesn't leave of his own accord, but is picked up and taken away. It couldn't be the other way around. Man doesn't pick up God and bring him to where he's going. It is God who lifts man.
Other translations mention the rumbling sound as praising God. But either way, look at the difference: The creatures that God had created made this sound with their wings and wheels. It was pure overwhelming white noise. It dominated the spectrum of sound. Ezekiel didn't make a peep. He was cargo.
All we hear about God is his glory and his power and of the wonder of his creation. Ezekiel goes in bitterness and anger, but yet God's strong hand is on him. When he arrives where he needs to be, he is deeply distressed. Other translations say that he is astonished, or was a source of consternation. But look at the contrast between him and God!
One one side, God is all power, all strength, this overwhelming presence, just pure glory. And on the other we have Ezekiel, a bag of meat, his emotions boiling to the surface, completely overwhelmed. It's such a clear picture of our position in comparison to God.
Ezekiel went in bitterness and in the anger of his spirit. How many churches would give him a weapons-grade shunning for being "bitter?" "Ezekiel, you need to deal with your issues! Ezekiel, maybe you need to get over what is going on in Israel and look at yourself!" "Don't hang out with Ezekiel, he's bitter! You'll get poisoned by him if you listen to him!"
Ezekiel's spirit was heated up with anger. And yet God's strong hand was on him! Why would God touch something that his church would consider too filthy to deal with? Why would he back it with his strength? Because he's God! He's better than us!
Remember, God had just showed Ezekiel the sin of Israel and what was going to happen to them. But he didn't just show him, he fed it to him, and Ezekiel absorbed it. God's righteous anger may have been seeping out of his pores. He may have seen things from God's pure perspective. Sin is nasty. The fact that we all sin doesn't make it any less so.
Imagine an experience with God so intense that you are laid out for seven days! If Ezekiel was a source of consternation, it was probably people wondering "what is up with that guy?" But look at what God does during those seven days: nothing! He doesn't have to, because he's God! Why would the eternal, all-powerful God need to be there with a clipboard and a whistle, screaming at Ezekiel to toughen up? Is the almighty God going to stumble over a man? Not at all. God made Ezekiel. He knew exactly how much Ezekiel could take and how long it would take for him to bounce back. God can write a gantt chart with the best of them.
There's just so much in these verses that glorifies God. He is strong and pure and spectacular and yet he is full of grace and compassion and patience. There's a reason we worship our God. He's not one of us but he treats us as though we were. He's too good for us, but he's the one who waits. When we're weak, his strong hand is on us. He picks us up and takes us to where we need to be.
Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me a loud rumbling sound as the glory of the Lord rose from the place where it was standing. It was the sound of the wings of the living creatures brushing against each other and the sound of the wheels beside them, a loud rumbling sound. The Spirit then lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness and in the anger of my spirit, with the strong hand of the Lord on me. I came to the exiles who lived at Tel Aviv near the Kebar River. And there, where they were living, I sat among them for seven days—deeply distressed.
These verses pick up where last week's left off. God is finished commissioning Ezekiel for his mission and picks him up and brings him home. The contrast between God's greatness and Ezekiel's weakness is enlightening.
The Spirit lifts Ezekiel up. Ezekiel doesn't leave of his own accord, but is picked up and taken away. It couldn't be the other way around. Man doesn't pick up God and bring him to where he's going. It is God who lifts man.
Other translations mention the rumbling sound as praising God. But either way, look at the difference: The creatures that God had created made this sound with their wings and wheels. It was pure overwhelming white noise. It dominated the spectrum of sound. Ezekiel didn't make a peep. He was cargo.
All we hear about God is his glory and his power and of the wonder of his creation. Ezekiel goes in bitterness and anger, but yet God's strong hand is on him. When he arrives where he needs to be, he is deeply distressed. Other translations say that he is astonished, or was a source of consternation. But look at the contrast between him and God!
One one side, God is all power, all strength, this overwhelming presence, just pure glory. And on the other we have Ezekiel, a bag of meat, his emotions boiling to the surface, completely overwhelmed. It's such a clear picture of our position in comparison to God.
Ezekiel went in bitterness and in the anger of his spirit. How many churches would give him a weapons-grade shunning for being "bitter?" "Ezekiel, you need to deal with your issues! Ezekiel, maybe you need to get over what is going on in Israel and look at yourself!" "Don't hang out with Ezekiel, he's bitter! You'll get poisoned by him if you listen to him!"
Ezekiel's spirit was heated up with anger. And yet God's strong hand was on him! Why would God touch something that his church would consider too filthy to deal with? Why would he back it with his strength? Because he's God! He's better than us!
Remember, God had just showed Ezekiel the sin of Israel and what was going to happen to them. But he didn't just show him, he fed it to him, and Ezekiel absorbed it. God's righteous anger may have been seeping out of his pores. He may have seen things from God's pure perspective. Sin is nasty. The fact that we all sin doesn't make it any less so.
Imagine an experience with God so intense that you are laid out for seven days! If Ezekiel was a source of consternation, it was probably people wondering "what is up with that guy?" But look at what God does during those seven days: nothing! He doesn't have to, because he's God! Why would the eternal, all-powerful God need to be there with a clipboard and a whistle, screaming at Ezekiel to toughen up? Is the almighty God going to stumble over a man? Not at all. God made Ezekiel. He knew exactly how much Ezekiel could take and how long it would take for him to bounce back. God can write a gantt chart with the best of them.
There's just so much in these verses that glorifies God. He is strong and pure and spectacular and yet he is full of grace and compassion and patience. There's a reason we worship our God. He's not one of us but he treats us as though we were. He's too good for us, but he's the one who waits. When we're weak, his strong hand is on us. He picks us up and takes us to where we need to be.
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