Making examples of examples
This week is on Ezekiel 11:1-13:
The book of Ezekiel would make a terrifying movie if someone were to adapt it to film. There are supernatural beings, strange powers, seeing the future, people being struck dead etc. It's fun to read it as if it were happening today, in modern times.
Ezekiel was taken in a vision to Jerusalem. There God showed him a group of powerful and influential people. They were community leaders, celebrities, politicians and maybe even other priests. All of them seemed to go to church, as they were shown at one of the gates of the temple. These are people we would look up to in the media today. They were the rich, famous, and powerful.
These guys were all congratulating themselves on their success. They'd rebuilt their homes, during a time of economic depression, and were calling themselves "the meat in the pot" which is like saying they were the cream of the crop, the best portion. They were saying, "This city would be nothing without us."
The problem is, these guys were setting a bad example. Think about it. How do you get so much money when there's no money to be had? And how do you hold onto positions of power when your country is ruled by wicked foreigners? They conformed themselves to the standards of the evil occupying culture, and not to the standards God had required of them. They were plotting evil, and giving bad advice to people.
God sent Ezekiel to deliver his message of doom. These wicked people, who were painting themselves as being good examples, were sent to their deaths. They would be chased from town, and flee Israel, most likely hoping for the protection of their foreign masters, and would be slaughtered on the border. It was a dishonorable and cowardly death. What man wants to die running away, with a reputation for being a traitor? Even his descendants would feel the shame!
The scary thing is that one of them drops dead right when Ezekiel shares God's judgment. It even scared Ezekiel! Imagine something like that happening! It reminded me of the section in Acts where Ananias and Sapphira are struck dead. The judgment of God is a very serious thing.
The message here is how dangerous it is to be someone others look up to. If you do the wrong things, or plot evil on the side, or give bad advice, you put yourself in a position where you're harming God's people. Imagine a minister going around telling people "Go ahead and smoke crack and hire prostitutes" or "Run your credit cards up because you can always declare bankruptcy" or "Have lots of kids you can't afford to raise because someone else will pay for them, and if you're a man you don't even have to stick around" or "Lend me your money, and I will pay myself and my friends with it, and then when there's none left I'll ask the government to bail me out."
Do you think someone like that would be helping God's people or hurting them? And yet this is the sort of bad advice the people of influence were giving. They were leading God's people astray while defrauding them. If some random person with no influence did those things it would be bad enough, but these people were moral suicide bombers. They not only brought damnation upon themselves but were taking as many people with them as they could. It was utter depravity.
But listen to what these people were saying. They considered themselves the best of their society, the elite upper crust. They went to church, put money into the local economy, hung around with the powerful, and yet God struck them dead. He didn't do that with a common thief. It was a message. He made examples of the examples.
If you're someone of influence, whether it's popularity, political power, or wealth, examine yourself carefully. Influence can be like a loaded gun. If it's not aimed correctly the results can be catastrophic. Are you expressing God's love? Helping people to live better lives? Paying debts that are not your own? Or are you building an empire for yourself, feeding your own mouth, raising yourself up as an image to be worshiped, or selling out your own tribe for a taste of power?
It's better to have no influence at all than to have it and use it wrongly. It's much better to just be another random example of God's grace than to end up a notable example of his judgment.
Then the Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the gate of the house of the Lord that faces east. There at the entrance of the gate were twenty-five men, and I saw among them Jaazaniah son of Azzur and Pelatiah son of Benaiah, leaders of the people. The Lord said to me, “Son of man, these are the men who are plotting evil and giving wicked advice in this city. They say, ‘Haven’t our houses been recently rebuilt? This city is a pot, and we are the meat in it.’ Therefore prophesy against them; prophesy, son of man.”
Then the Spirit of the Lord came on me, and he told me to say: “This is what the Lord says: That is what you are saying, you leaders in Israel, but I know what is going through your mind. You have killed many people in this city and filled its streets with the dead.
“Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: The bodies you have thrown there are the meat and this city is the pot, but I will drive you out of it. You fear the sword, and the sword is what I will bring against you, declares the Sovereign Lord. I will drive you out of the city and deliver you into the hands of foreigners and inflict punishment on you. You will fall by the sword, and I will execute judgment on you at the borders of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord. This city will not be a pot for you, nor will you be the meat in it; I will execute judgment on you at the borders of Israel. And you will know that I am the Lord, for you have not followed my decrees or kept my laws but have conformed to the standards of the nations around you.”
Now as I was prophesying, Pelatiah son of Benaiah died. Then I fell facedown and cried out in a loud voice, “Alas, Sovereign Lord! Will you completely destroy the remnant of Israel?”
The book of Ezekiel would make a terrifying movie if someone were to adapt it to film. There are supernatural beings, strange powers, seeing the future, people being struck dead etc. It's fun to read it as if it were happening today, in modern times.
Ezekiel was taken in a vision to Jerusalem. There God showed him a group of powerful and influential people. They were community leaders, celebrities, politicians and maybe even other priests. All of them seemed to go to church, as they were shown at one of the gates of the temple. These are people we would look up to in the media today. They were the rich, famous, and powerful.
These guys were all congratulating themselves on their success. They'd rebuilt their homes, during a time of economic depression, and were calling themselves "the meat in the pot" which is like saying they were the cream of the crop, the best portion. They were saying, "This city would be nothing without us."
The problem is, these guys were setting a bad example. Think about it. How do you get so much money when there's no money to be had? And how do you hold onto positions of power when your country is ruled by wicked foreigners? They conformed themselves to the standards of the evil occupying culture, and not to the standards God had required of them. They were plotting evil, and giving bad advice to people.
God sent Ezekiel to deliver his message of doom. These wicked people, who were painting themselves as being good examples, were sent to their deaths. They would be chased from town, and flee Israel, most likely hoping for the protection of their foreign masters, and would be slaughtered on the border. It was a dishonorable and cowardly death. What man wants to die running away, with a reputation for being a traitor? Even his descendants would feel the shame!
The scary thing is that one of them drops dead right when Ezekiel shares God's judgment. It even scared Ezekiel! Imagine something like that happening! It reminded me of the section in Acts where Ananias and Sapphira are struck dead. The judgment of God is a very serious thing.
The message here is how dangerous it is to be someone others look up to. If you do the wrong things, or plot evil on the side, or give bad advice, you put yourself in a position where you're harming God's people. Imagine a minister going around telling people "Go ahead and smoke crack and hire prostitutes" or "Run your credit cards up because you can always declare bankruptcy" or "Have lots of kids you can't afford to raise because someone else will pay for them, and if you're a man you don't even have to stick around" or "Lend me your money, and I will pay myself and my friends with it, and then when there's none left I'll ask the government to bail me out."
Do you think someone like that would be helping God's people or hurting them? And yet this is the sort of bad advice the people of influence were giving. They were leading God's people astray while defrauding them. If some random person with no influence did those things it would be bad enough, but these people were moral suicide bombers. They not only brought damnation upon themselves but were taking as many people with them as they could. It was utter depravity.
But listen to what these people were saying. They considered themselves the best of their society, the elite upper crust. They went to church, put money into the local economy, hung around with the powerful, and yet God struck them dead. He didn't do that with a common thief. It was a message. He made examples of the examples.
If you're someone of influence, whether it's popularity, political power, or wealth, examine yourself carefully. Influence can be like a loaded gun. If it's not aimed correctly the results can be catastrophic. Are you expressing God's love? Helping people to live better lives? Paying debts that are not your own? Or are you building an empire for yourself, feeding your own mouth, raising yourself up as an image to be worshiped, or selling out your own tribe for a taste of power?
It's better to have no influence at all than to have it and use it wrongly. It's much better to just be another random example of God's grace than to end up a notable example of his judgment.
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