Ask Your Father for a Blessing! Joshua 15:19.

Yesterday I read an interesting phrase. The writer said the father of Benjamin Franklin had 17 children “of which to dispose.” But it’s not what you think. The arcane phrase simply means Josiah Franklin had to find jobs, apprenticeships, husbands, or other arrangements to secure the future of each of his 17 children.

Dispose, used this way, was not a negative term, but described a parent’s natural concern about finding a reliable source of income or livelihood for each of his children. Whether a parent has one child or seventeen, it is only natural to try to secure for each of them the best life possible. And because one of mine will marry in two weeks, these things are certainly on my mind.

They were also on the mind of Caleb when Israel divided up the Promised Land. Caleb’s tribe received the Land of Judah, and a portion of it was allotted to Caleb, one of only two in his generation who did not doubt God forty years before. Old Caleb’s land included a city filled with wicked pagans that God told Israel to defeat, and Caleb himself had an unmarried daughter for whom he must provide.

“And Caleb said, ‘he that smiteth Kiriath-Sepher, and taketh it, to him will I give Achsah my daughter to wife.’ And Othniel, son of Kenaz, the brother of Caleb, took it. And Caleb gave his daughter to Othniel” Joshua 15:16-17.

Westerners do not understand arranged marriages. But we must recognize that they worked well in Bible times. By making the offer he did, Caleb conquered the city he needed to conquer, while also marrying his daughter to a war hero. Othniel was a good catch, and would later go on to serve as Israel’s first judge following the death of Joshua.

But there is more.

Caleb’s daughter was using her head. Caleb may have found her a “prominent man of noble character,” (Ruth 2:1) but he gave her a territory in the arid south where water could be a problem. So Achsah went to her father with a request.

“Give me a blessing. For thou hast given me a south land. Give me also springs of water. And he gave her the upper springs, and the lower springs” Joshua 15:19.

And THIS is how fathers feel about their children.

Whether you have one child or seventeen, you want to bless them. You would give them the world if you could. And an amazing spouse—not because they “need” to be married, but because families are God’s plan, and he gives tremendous joy and blessings through the riches of families. So Caleb provides a husband for his daughter. And a city. And two reliable water sources. And if he could do more for her, he would.

God loves you that way. Do you come to God with a tiny spoon? Or an empty pocket, maybe, asking him for a tiny blessing? Instead come to him with a tractor-trailer, or a freight train, or an ocean liner. Ask God for big blessings! After he gives you a great spouse, ask for a city. Ask for water wells.

“You have not because you ask not,” James 4:2. 

Are you asking? When was the last time you prayed hard, knocking down the doors of heaven? The Bible uses an urgent present tense. It’s not “ask, seek, knock,” Matthew 7:7. It’s “keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking AND DON’T STOP” Matthew 7:7.

Do you know how much your earthly father loves you? Do you know what your mother would do to bless you if she could? God loves you so much more than that!

“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, then how much more will your father in heaven give what is good to those that ask him?” Matthew 7:11.

Come to God boldly, like Caleb’s daughter. ASK FOR A BLESSING! Ask for a blessing for you—and for your children! Ask AND KEEP ON ASKING!  God loves you! He wants to bless you in a big way!

AΩ.

Slavery. Jeremiah 34:17.

In the Post-Enlightenment West, liberty means agency or self-determination, even when you use your liberty to bind yourself.

Let me explain: liberty means a landowner can do anything with his real estate. The owner is free to sell, to buy, to lease, to rent, to sell the underground minerals while retaining the surface, to lease the minerals, to own the surface while renting that surface to farmers in exchange for a share of the crops. Liberty means having the agency to dispose of your possessions without restrictions.

You know what else you can dispose of without restrictions? Your own labor. Or at least you could. Today there are rules governing the disposition of labor. But in the past, men had the liberty—the freedom—to bind themselves as another man’s servant for a period of years, usually in exchange for a loan or the payment of a debt, or to pay for passage to the United States. Others agreed to serve a tradesman as an unpaid apprentice in exchange for an education in a specific trade. But these systems led to abuses, and were thus outlawed. Today such arrangements are viewed as human trafficking.

At 12 years old, Benjamin Franklin’s father made him an apprentice to Ben’s older brother James so Ben might learn the printer’s trade. Unfortunately, though Franklin had proven himself an able reader and writer, his brother frequently beat him and he ran away at 17, breaking the apprenticeship and rendering himself a fugitive.

The people of ancient Israel were also free to bind themselves as indentured servants. And the system led to abuses then too.

What if the tradesman refuses to teach you the trade, leaving you to do grunt work all day?

What if he makes you work extra hours, or feeds you bad food or too little food?

What if he beats you?

What if he simply refuses to release you after the agreed-term is concluded? God is just and will not tolerate such abuses forever.

Through the prophet Jeremiah, God reminds Israel that they agreed to release their ‘bondmen’ every seven years. And Israel did release them. But then they took the people back and enslaved them again.

“This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I made a covenant with your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I said,‘Every seventh year each of you must free any fellow Hebrews who have sold themselves to you. After they have served you six years, you must let them go free.’ …” 

“Recently … each of you proclaimed freedom to your own people. You even made a covenant before me in the house that bears my Name. But now you have turned around and profaned my name; each of you has taken back the male and female slaves you had set free to go where they wished. You have forced them to become your slaves again.”

“Therefore, this is what the Lord says: You have not obeyed me; you have not proclaimed freedom to your own people. So I now proclaim ‘freedom’ for you, declares the Lord—‘freedom’ to fall by the sword, plague and famine. I will make you abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth” Jeremiah 34:13-17. 

People sometimes argue about whether the Bible supports slavery. They complain that the ancient scriptures do not condemn slavery strongly enough. But this was a world in which people considered some slavery or indentured-servant arrangements to be an acceptable option for a free man in need of money or training in a trade.

Just as today’s homeowner will give the bank a right to the house (a ‘security interest’) in exchange for a loan allowing the owner to purchase the property, so also the laborer of old might give an employer power over the laborer’s body in exchange for money, the payment of a debt, or the acquisition of a desired skill. The Bible’s position on slavery is better understood against this historical context.

However, when the people of Israel abused those with less bargaining power—whether slaves, servants, debtors, or foreigners, God punished the nation for its lack of mercy.

God cannot be accused of ignoring slavery. “You have not obeyed me; you have not proclaimed freedom to your own people. So I now proclaim ‘freedom’ for you—‘freedom’ to fall by the sword, plague, and famine” Jeremiah 34:17.

Dear God, thank you that you are a God of compassion. Thank you for teaching us to treat others with mercy. Thank you for a legal system that enshrines justice and works hard to stop people from taking advantage of each other. Thank you for a legal system and a banking system that allows so many of us to afford college or trade school, houses, medical care, and so much more. May we grow more grateful every day.

AΩ.

Cleanliness is Next to Godliness … Sometimes. Ezekiel 24:6,12-13.

Image. Three children of a Depression-era migrant worker in Michigan, 1940.

Americans were not always so clean and shiny, our teeth the envy of the world. One Brit traveling in the Midwest in 1819 described Americans as “filthy, bordering on the beastly.”[1]  He could not get used to “dirty hands, heads, and faces everywhere.” Settlers “seldom shaved” or washed their faces, and almost never changed their clothes.

We were a dirty lot. But because so few lived closely together in big cities, the lack of hygiene did not contribute to the spread of disease as it would today. Nevertheless, concern about disease eventually led to a greater emphasis on cleanliness. Clean water, flush toilets, and soap would soon defeat cholera, dysentery, and hookworm. Then toothbrushes and fluoride stopped the wholesale rotting of America’s teeth. Once we discovered hot showers and fresh breath, a billion-dollar personal hygiene industry was born.

A book reviewer put it this way: “Americans are known worldwide for their obsession with cleanliness—for their sophisticated plumbing, daily bathing, shiny hair and teeth, and spotless clothes”[2]. The reviewer goes on to note that post-war advertising for soaps, mouthwashes, toothpastes, and deodorants conveyed the message that cleanliness would lead to success. Soon

“Cleanliness shifted from a way to prevent disease to a way to assimilate, to become American.”

But you can take cleanliness too far, as anyone with an Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder knows:  

“At the height of my crisis, I was spending up to ten hours each day in a continuous cleaning ritual. I couldn’t break my rituals to eat or drink, so I lost weight and became unwell. On top of that, I limited my food and water intake so that I didn’t need to use the bathroom throughout the day …

I had to scrub everything, my body, the surfaces—in sets of eight … But soon eight became sixteen, which became thirty-two and so on.

I’d scrub my body until I fainted in the shower, clean my bedroom until I had repetitive strain injuries. My OCD told me that my fingernails had to be cut as short as possible in case of germs, so I cut them until they bled. I used boiling water and bleach products on my bare hands, so they were covered in ghastly rashes and blisters that I hid from friends and family.”[3]

This account is unusual, but probably more common than we know. Even Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth becomes obsessed with cleaning. Though a fictional character, it is interesting to note that this cold-blooded murderer, who accuses her own husband of being too feminine, too “full of the milk of human kindness,” is calculating enough to plan a series of murders and get away with them. But her mind will not let her have any peace, and she goes mad trying to wash imaginary blood from her hands.

The Bible does not say, “cleanliness is next to godliness.” John Wesley said that.

In fact, common sense requires that even the godliest among us will be dirty at times. Nevertheless, there is a deep association in our culture between cleanliness and purity. The Old Testament established that association through repeated instructions to wash people, to wash things, to remove things from the camp, to remove things from the city, to wash yourselves and your clothes and, in some cases, even after washing you must stay away from others until evening.

Do you ever wonder whether there might be a correlation between promiscuity and personal hygiene? In other words, do we try to wash off our immorality?

Does our modern culture try to address guilt, shame, and promiscuity with soap, sanitizer, and shaving?[4]  

God understood our interest in cleanliness and used it to explain to the people of Jerusalem how sinfully dirty they were:

“Woe to the bloody city, to the pot full of scum, scum that cannot be washed away” Ezekiel 24:6.

God says to build a huge fire, hot enough to melt the pot, because only a fire that melts brass will be able to burn away the scum.

Jerusalem “hath wearied herself with lies, and her great scum went not out of her. Her scum shall be in the fire. In thy filthiness is lewdness, because I have purged thee, and thou wast not purged. Thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness anymore” Ezekiel 24:12-13.

The city—and by that, we mean the PEOPLE of the city—are so sinful they can no longer clean themselves. Only the fire of judgment can burn away the scum. In other words, only God can burn away the sin of Jerusalem. Only God can clean this filthy city. And only God can clean us! Come to Jesus. He can wash away all your sins. He can make you deeply, truly clean!

AΩ.

[1] CHASING DIRT: The American Pursuit of Cleanliness, by Suellen Hoy.

[2] From a review of CHASING DIRT: The American Pursuit of Cleanliness, by Suellen Hoy https://www.amazon.com/Chasing-Dirt-American-Pursuit-Cleanliness/dp/0195111281

[3] https://www.rethink.org/news-and-stories/blogs/2023/05/from-ocd-crisis-to-a-joyful-life-georginas-story/ Georgina, the writer of this story, eventually found help in medication and therapy.

[4] I am not speaking here of the writer above wrestling with OCD. That is a deeply complex mental health problem; such things cannot be healed with an off-hand remark by someone with no medical or mental health training (me).

Sin City: Jerusalem. Ezekiel 22:6-16.

Just as individuals have personalities, groups of people have personalities. Ask any teacher—no two classes are the same, and you love some and you … struggle to love others. Group personalities are even present in extremely large groups. Churches, cities, even nations have personalities.

Several factors drive group personalities. One is proximity. People who live in densely populated urban areas often behave in ways that are so assertive as to seem pushy and rude to outsiders. But city life demands it—if you do not assert yourself, your needs will not be met, whether on the subway, hailing a cab, or shopping in an open market.

Weather also has an influence: people who live in hot climates develop habits (like siestas) that those in cold climates do not, and vice versa. However, no factor has more influence on the personality and culture of a city than the behavior of its leaders.

Leaders are the model for everything: work habits, integrity, relationships and family life, recreation, dietary choices, religion, and more.

When Jerusalem was filled with corrupt leaders, God held them responsible for their choices. In a passage from Ezekiel, God sends a message to the leaders of the city by addressing the city of Jerusalem directly. I will replace the word you with the word Jerusalem and the word they with the word leaders.

“‘See how each of the princes of Israel who are in Jerusalem uses his power to shed blood. 

In Jerusalem leaders have treated father and mother with contempt.

In Jerusalem leaders have oppressed the foreigner and mistreated the fatherless and the widow.

Jerusalem has despised my holy things and desecrated my Sabbaths. 

In Jerusalem are slanderers who are bent on shedding blood. 

In Jerusalem are leaders who eat at the mountain shrines and commit lewd acts. 

In Jerusalem are leaders who dishonor their father’s bed.

In Jerusalem are leaders who violate women during their period, when they are ceremonially unclean. 

In Jerusalem one man commits a detestable offense with his neighbor’s wife, another shamefully defiles his daughter-in-law, and another violates his sister, his own father’s daughter. 

In Jerusalem are leaders who accept bribes to shed blood.

Jerusalem collects interest and make a profit from the poor.

Jerusalem extorts unjust gain from its neighbors. 

Jerusalem has forgotten me, declares the Sovereign Lord. …

Will your courage endure or your hands be strong in the day I deal with Jerusalem? …

I will disperse Jerusalem among the nations and scatter it through the countries; and I will put an end to your uncleanness. When you have been defiled in the eyes of the nations, you will know that I am the Lord’” Ezekiel 22:6-16.

Are you a leader? Yes. Either at work, or at home, or among younger friends—we are all leaders in one way or another. And leadership is serious.

“To whom much is given, much is required” Luke 12:48.

God gives leaders opportunity, and God requires leaders to use those opportunities wisely. “Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such, we shall incur a stricter judgment” James 3:1.

God, may we obey you. May we remain humble before you, no matter the opportunities, no matter the power, authority, or notoriety we may experience. Use us to lead people to walk more closely with Jesus. Use us. We submit our lives, our time, our energy to you. Do your will in our lives.

AΩ.

Humble Yourself Under the Mighty Hand of God. Ezekiel 19:1-14.

Could anything have been more terrifying in a world without gunpowder than lions? Imagine an absolutely silent hunter, yet one whose roar can be heard up to five miles away. Lions once roamed the earth in far greater numbers than they do today. Among other things, gladiators fighting for their lives in the Roman Colosseum reduced the number of European lions. Soon, the lions were gone and, until recently, some historians argued there never were lions in Europe[1]. But lions did roam Europe, as seen not only in cave drawings but in the prominence of lions in European art. And of course, the Biblical record indicates the presence of the man-eating cats in Israel.

The prophet Ezekiel used the king of beasts to convey a key truth to the people of Judah.

“Men and women, take up a lament for your kings. Grieve for them. Judah is a lioness, a mother with cubs. She nourished one of her cubs, trained him to be a man-eater, and the cub devoured men. But the nations heard of him, dug a pit and trapped him. Then they brought the young lion, bound in chains, to Egypt.”

This was King Jehoahaz who was taken captive to Egypt in 609 B.C. Ezekiel continues:

“The mother lion waited and waited for her son the maneater to return. But he did not. So she raised up another cub [King Zedekiah] and trained him to be a maneater. And he went up and down the land, devouring men. And he laid waste the cities. He made the land desolate. He terrified the people with the noise of his roaring.”

“But then the nations came against him, and they threw their net over him and caught him. Then they put this second lion in chains too and brought him to the king of Babylon. The roaring of his voice was silenced. Then his mother was drawn away into the desert wilderness. The once green vine would grow brown and withered.”

“Men and women, take up a lament for your kings” Ezekiel 19:1-14 (paraphrased).

God is using Ezekiel to prepare the people of Judah. They will be in captivity for a long, long time. Seventy-five years will pass. Generations will pass. The sooner the people accept their lot, the easier the experience will be for them.

So Ezekiel crafts a parable about lions, a subject sure to capture everyone’s attention, from the youngest to the oldest. This is the story of three lions: the mother lion, who represents the kingdom of Judah, and two cubs-turned-maneaters, who represent Judah’s kings, King Jehoahaz and King Zedekiah. The two kings were taken captive, and then the entire nation was taken captive.

Ezekiel is telling the people to accept what God has done. Accept the humiliation of being taken captive. Accept it, humble yourself, and prepare for a long, long ride. Ezekiel’s parable about the lions is sort of an abstract way of saying something about the Babylonian captivity that Jeremiah said in a direct manner:

“Build houses and settle down, plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease” Jeremiah 29:5-6.

Have you ever found yourself in terrible circumstances? A job you despise? Or joblessness? Or loneliness? Or relationship problems? Or reaping what you sow in some unpleasant way, whether through the courts or through terrible circumstances?

Accept it. Submit to God. Let him do his will. Stop fighting. Buckle up for the long haul. Stop being in such a hurry to escape your circumstances. Instead, talk to God and enroll in his school. Let him teach you whatever he wants.

God, hard times can be so awful. But we trust you. We accept our painful circumstances. We welcome your holy spirit. Teach us whatever we need to learn. We humble ourselves in the midst of our unpleasant situations. Be glorified in us. Help us listen, submit, and trust you more every day. Do your will in our lives and in our hearts and attitudes and minds. We love you. Teach us to “humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God” 1 Peter 5:6.

AΩ.

[1] https://www.sapiens.org/archaeology/lions-europe/

Can We Enjoy American Prosperity While Also Enjoying American Diversity? Ezekiel 17:22-23.

American Exceptionalism. The United States is special. A huge, bountiful land, filled with fresh water and rich farmland. Our history of exporting food won us the name the “breadbasket of the world.” This is a place of liberty, democracy, freedom, and equality. Never in human history were such critical human rights provided to so many for so long.

Have there been abuses, evils, and tragic failures? Absolutely. But all things considered, America is a special place. To throw off the shackles of a corrupt British monarchy, and launch a nation founded not on a king, but on three competing institutions, all controlled by a voting democracy—something that had never been done successfully? And 250 years later the US Constitution remains the oldest national charter still in continuous use? Amazing!

On top of that, we are separated from much of the world (and protected from invasion) by two oceans? That isolation has afforded us peace. Centuries of peace, with brief interruptions. And what does peace afford us? The opportunity for markets to flourish, for inventors to invent, for business owners to start new businesses, for entire industries to be born and grow into world-changing operations. On top of all that, America has witnessed a number of spiritual revivals, some of which have circled the globe, changing millions of lives.

Do you ever wonder why?

Why did God bless this land the way he has?

I can’t claim certainty. But perhaps there is a clue in Ezekiel 17. God compares his people to birds nesting in and under trees. One tree is King Nebuchadnezzar. Another is the puppet-king that Nebuchadnezzar installed to run Judah, King Zedekiah. But then God speaks of the king to come, the Messiah:

“This is what the Sovereign Lord says: ‘I myself will take a shoot from the very top of a cedar and plant it.… On the mountain heights of Israel I will plant it; it will produce branches and bear fruit and become a splendid cedar. Birds of every kind will nest in it; they will find shelter in the shade of its branches” Ezekiel 17:22-23.

God will plant a great tree that is Jesus. That tree will produce branches, bear fruit, and become a beautiful cedar tree. Birds of every kind will nest in that tree, finding shade in its branches.

Birds of every kind will nest in that tree. The King James version says, “Under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing.” Every species of birds will dwell under the tree that is Jesus. Every person from every nation, tribe, and tongue will find shade in the Messiah.

Jesus did not simply come for the Jews. God loves everyone. Jesus came to save everyone—from every race.

“And he made from one man every nation of mankind” Acts 17:26.

“For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek” Romans 10:12.

“Here there is neither Jew, nor Greek, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all and in all” Colossians 3:11.

Why did God bless America? Perhaps because America has learned—and is still learning—to honor and accept all people. This is a nation that has rarely had the luxury of being homogenous (which is MUCH easier). Every classroom, neighborhood, town, and city has people with different ethnic backgrounds.

Do we do it right all the time? Absolutely not. Do the races clash and struggle? Of course. But when American life throws everyone into a melting pot, we eventually do get better at getting along. We simply have no choice. And then our culture (movies, music, books, and more) is exported around the world, leading the way in nations where everyone looks like everyone else—which is most of the nations on earth.

Is diversity the only thing God cares about? Definitely not. I would not even put it in the top ten. But God is the one who made people look so different, not only differences in skin and hair, but height and weight. When you survey the world the only conclusion to draw is that God loves VARIETY.

And maybe one reason God has blessed America is because we have been forced to struggle with the variety so much more than anyone else. We struggle to get along in a situation most nations have never experienced. And you know what?

Our nation looks like heaven:

“And I looked and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, tribe, and tongue, standing before the throne and before the lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands” Revelation 7:9.

Maybe that is one reason God blesses us: He blesses us with the greatest freedom and opportunity any society has ever seen—and he challenges us with the most racial and ethnic variety any society has ever seen. Will we make it work? Can we love each other and maintain some peace?

Can we enjoy American Prosperity while also enjoying American Diversity?

Jesus loves the little children,

All the children of the world.

Red and yellow, black and white,

They are precious in his sight.

Jesus loves the little children of the world.

Jesus loves everyone. Do you?

AΩ.

*Loving people is not politics. Nor is it activism. Believe what you want about the politics and causes related to the heavily loaded term ‘diversity.’ There are so many issues, no two people will agree on them all. And that’s not the point. We may disagree on politics. But Jesus commands us to love one another (and he calls it a ‘COMMAND’): “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” John 13:34.

Hard Woods, Soft Woods, and Woods for the Fire Pit. Ezekiel 15:2-7.

Bald Cypress trees at the Guadalupe River State Park.

Quality woods growing in our area include soft woods like Bald Cypress and Southern Pine, and hard woods like Live Oak and Water Oak.

But some plants on the Texas Gulf Coast are intriguing but useless.

There is the Chinese Tallow, a decorative but much-maligned invasive species that some believe outnumbers every other species of tree in the Houston area. There are wild roses growing on our property, with white flowers, a trunk as thick as a man’s thigh, and thorns nearly two inches long. There are the trees with my favorite name: the “Hercules Club.” I love the name, but the tree is only slightly less difficult than the wild roses—because it too is covered with spikes and thorns.

And finally, there are the Mustang Grapes. These wild grapes can quickly take over everything, and I seem to be cutting them back every year. Grapes begin as soft little vines, curly tendrils reaching out and grabbing anything for support. But if you ignore the vine for a year or two, it will thicken and develop a dark brown bark, a sort of crumbly shell. You can easily cut it with small tools and watch the water drip from it like a straw that never dries out.

The vine wood, if it can be called ‘wood’ at all, remains super-soft, and those who have saved it report that when it dries, cracks open along the grain. Even the thickest grape vine “wood” will never be strong enough to use as wood. It is good for nothing but to be “cut down and thrown into the fire” Matthew 7:19.

Because people have been working with wood since Noah built the ark, God often compares his people to trees and wood. Specifically, scripture compares trees to people, households, and bloodlines.[1]

The book of Psalms opens by praising the man who delights in the law of the Lord:

“He will be like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither, and in whatever he does, he prospers” Psalm 1:3.

The prophet Jeremiah extends this hopeful metaphor:

The one who trusts in the Lord “will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its root by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes. Its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit” Jeremiah 17:8.

God gives Ezekiel a different message. Because the Hebrew people have dedicated themselves to idolatry, God compares them not to a quality wood, but to the wood of a grape vine:

“Son of man, how is the wood of the vine better than that of any of the trees of the forest? Is wood ever taken from the vine to make anything useful? Do they make pegs from the vine on which to hang any vessel? And after it is thrown on the fire as fuel, is it useful for anything? … Therefore, thus says the Lord God, ‘As the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so have I given up the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and set my face against them. Thus I will make the land desolate, BECAUSE THEY HAVE ACTED UNFAITHFULLY” Ezekiel 15:2-7.

God gives you a choice. You can be a tree planted by streams of water, a solid cypress tree, whose leaf does not wither and who bears fruit every season. A tree impervious to droughts and untouched by fire. Or you can be unfaithful to God and watch your entire life amount to a crushed bit of woody vine, good for nothing but to be thrown into the fire.

Dear God, make our lives count. Keep us on a short leash. Keep a tight reign on us so we obey you, walk in the word, pray without ceasing, and live for you. May we abide in you and our lives bear fruit, year-in, year-out.

AΩ.

[1] https://mycharismashop.com/blogs/latest-news/why-are-people-compared-to-trees-in-scripture#:~:text=In%20Scripture%2C%20trees%20have%20always,whatsoever%20he%20doeth%20shall%20prosper.

G.T.T. or Gone to Texas: Ezekiel 7:7-8.

In the early 19th century, Mexico invited Americans to settle the territory of Texas, build farms, schools, and churches, “deal with the hostile Indians,”* and settle the wild land. Desperate to populate the territory and build the economy, Mexico offered land grants of 170 acres for farming crops, and over 4,428 acres (a league) for grazing cattle. Can you imagine that much free land?

Many found the offer too good to pass up and signs saying “Gone to Texas” or “G.T.T.” began to appear on abandoned houses across the United States. The signs were so common, in fact, that “Gone to Texas” eventually became a slang expression used to describe anyone on the run from the law. “Oh, he’s Gone to Texas” was another way of saying, “You’ll never see that money he owes you.”

It’s one thing to close up your farmhouse, make a G.T.T. sign, and ride west out of town on your wagon. It’s quite another to close down an entire kingdom. Yet that is what happened to the Kingdom of Judah during the Babylonian captivity.

Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to the city of Jerusalem and began taking captive all the best and the brightest, from the king and his princes, to the prophets, priests, wise men, and counselors. Families gathered what they could carry into bundles and began the 700-mile march to Babylon. Businesses and homes were boarded up. The palace remained open—because Nebuchadnezzar appointed Zedekiah to be his puppet king—but Solomon’s Temple, the pride of the nation, was closed.

Imagine an iron chain locking the doors to Solomon’s Temple and a sign nailed up outside: Gone to Babylon.

Yet there is a crucial difference in these stories. Settlers who moved from North Carolina to Texas in the 1820s moved voluntarily. The Hebrews of the Kingdom of Judah were captured and driven on a forced march to Babylon.

Nebuchadnezzar came for them on three separate occasions, rounding up everyone with talent, skill, or useful experience and taking them back to Babylon. The people knew only the very youngest among them would ever see Jerusalem again. Most would die in the foreign land. Some would die along the way. This was not vacation. They were not going to some new promised land. They were marching toward judgment. The emotions would have been almost entirely hopeless.

“All hands shall be feeble, and all knees shall be weak as water. They shall gird themselves with sackcloth, and horror shall cover them. Shame shall be upon their faces and baldness upon their heads” Ezekiel 7:7-8.

Not only did the king, the princes, the prophets, priests, and judges leave. Not only did the august persons of wealth and power depart. Not only did the Babylonians deport the prominent citizens of noble character.

You know who else pulled up stakes and evacuated Jerusalem? God himself.

Ezekiel reports another vision of the angelic beings who represent the glory of God. He watches as God’s glory appears over the north gate of the city (Ezekiel 8:3-4), the entrance of the city (Ezekiel 9:3), then the south end of the temple (Ezekiel 10:3-4), and the east gate of the temple (Ezekiel 10:18-19). Finally, the glory of God abandons the temple altogether, coming to rest above the mountain east of the city (Ezekiel 11:23).

Four hundred years earlier, Solomon and the nation had dedicated the beautiful golden temple to the Lord, and his glory filled the place. Now, God’s glory gathered its things and left. The life went out of the nation and the life went out of the temple.

Cartoonists have a shorthand way to indicate the comical deaths that happen in the funny papers—they draw tiny Xs for eyes. Everyone knows the X indicates death, not merely sleep. I’ve always found the little X to be remarkably apt. When we find a dead chicken or another animal on the farm whose “spirit has flown” the look reminds me of exactly those tiny Xs. But imagine that on Solomon’s Temple. The doors are locked. The town is deserted. The spirit has flown. The temple is dead. If the temple had eyes, they would be little Xs.

Remember schools during COVID-19? Following two years of online classes, it seemed in-person schools would never recover. Where was the school spirit? Where was the energy, the enthusiasm, the excitement? Everything was just DEAD.

Imagine Solomon’s Temple after the glory of God departed. The sign on the door would not say, “Gone to Babylon.”

The sign would say, “Ichabod. The Glory of God Has Departed” 1 Samuel 4:21.

AΩ.

* https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/law/empresario-land-grants-texas#:~:text=Settlers%20received%20substantial%20land%20grants,full%20assimilation%20into%20Mexican%20society.

The Trail of Tears. Jeremiah 27:12.

Image: “The Flight of the Prisoners” by James Tissot, 1896, a painting of the people of Judah being driven from Jerusalem to Babylon, a Biblical “Trail of Tears.”

Americans love the Bible. We print Bible verses on our tee shirts and coffee cups, stencil them on our walls, bumper-sticker them on our cars. The Bible is part of post-war Americana, like baseball and apple pie. We love the Bible—and we should! But we must recognize that the Bible is not the story of a well-fed middle class. These people don’t live in a house in the suburbs with two kids, a dog, a privacy fence and a well-trimmed lawn. The kids don’t play tournament sports, Mom doesn’t drive a minivan, and Dad doesn’t work a forty-hour week with paid vacations, health insurance, and a 401K.

We love the Bible. But to understand it, we must face the bleak, often painful lives of the people in its pages.

The Biblical record has little in common with American prosperity, but strikes parallels with some of the seamier sides of the American story.

The Hebrews spending four-hundred years as slaves in Egypt? An easy parallel to the four-hundred-year American slave trade. (Though the slave trade on these shores was surely more brutal.)[1]

Can you identify with American slaves? Can you read the Bible from their perspective?

And what about the Biblical accounts of refugees and fugitives, huge groups of people forced to live on the road? First comes the Exodus—a million Hebrews leaving Egypt for a forty-year walk in the desert. They were excited at first. “ROAD TRIP!” But within days they were overwhelmed by fear and worry, and the anxiety would stay with them for four decades.

Can you relate to these displaced, arguably homeless people? God took care of them every day, but being forced to live a nomadic existence with a fuzzy destination and timeline must have been excruciating. I think of the Pilgrims, English Protestants choosing to sail across the ocean to a land of forbidding forests and unpredictable tribes, rather than remain in a home that would not recognize their freedom of religion. Half would die the first year.

Can you identify with the Pilgrims marooned on a lonely beach? Can you read the Bible from their perspective?

Then there were the caravans of exiles being driven from Jerusalem to Babylon, 700 miles away, not to return for 70 years. That was Ancient Israel’s “Trail of Tears,” a massive resettlement program not unlike the American exodus created by the Indian Removal Act of 1830. That law caused the “forced displacement of about 60,000 people from the ‘five civilized tribes’ between 1830 and 1850.”[2] They suffered exposure, disease, and starvation, and thousands died before arriving at their destination in the Oklahoma Territory. Some call this resettlement genocide, others call it ethnic cleansing. We’re not talking wagon trains to California. The Anglo settlers who decided to “Go west, young man!” had a choice. The Cherokee, Muscogee, Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw nations did not have a choice. The move was forced upon them, as it was forced on the Hebrews marching to Babylon.

What would we learn if we could read the Bible from the perspective of the head of a Cherokee family traveling on the Trail of Tears, struggling every day to feed and shelter children, babies, and two or three elders?

Finally, consider Joseph, Mary, and the baby Jesus. The tiny family was forced to run for their lives when Herod wanted to kill Jesus. Soon they found themselves living as fugitives in the land of Egypt. Prophecy would be fulfilled upon their return. “Out of Egypt have I called my Son” Hosea 11:1.

God had a plan for Mary and Joseph, and I’m sure they never doubted that. God had a plan for all his people. When the Hebrews entered Babylonian captivity, God told them they would not be there forever. But it would be a long time—they would serve Nebuchadnezzar “and his son, and his son’s son” Jeremiah 27:7.

God’s plan was to punish his traitorous, idolatrous people. He sent them to Babylon, but it would not be forever. “Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live” Jeremiah 27:12. The people would learn to submit themselves not only to God’s unpleasant plans, but to the rule of a pagan king from a foreign land, foreign language, foreign culture. God was teaching his people to honor him and to be humble and obedient—even when it was humiliating.

Driving on a modern interstate highway, with an air-conditioned car and a sound system Beethoven could not have imagined, it is easy to forget how difficult it would be to walk twenty miles a day while caring for small children and the elderly. Where would you obtain food? And how would you prepare it if you could acquire it? Traveling in such conditions was so brutal as to be torturous. Yet these are the people of the Bible. These are the lives they lived, the difficult path they walked.

If we hope to understand the Bible, we must understand the difficult lives endured by so many of its people.

A.Ω.

[1] American slavery was more brutal than that practiced in Ancient Egypt if only because America’s multiple owners meant slave families were frequently and cruelly split up, whereas in Egypt the Pharaoh appears to have been the owner of the vast majority—to the extent the concept of “ownership” was even used—and thus, Pharaoh was content to allow the Hebrews to go home together each night to the Land of Goshen and then return to work for him each morning. Families, clans, tribes, and many aspects of the Hebrew culture would have remained intact.

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trail_of_Tears

No One Can Stand in the Presence of God’s Glory. Ezekiel 1:28.

If you could see God, the sight would be overwhelming. You would not survive. We know that no one can see God’s face and live, Exodus 33:20. But I’m not sure how to account for what lawyers call “the mechanism of the injury.” What exactly would be fatal about the encounter? Would the sight of God’s unveiled face be so out-of-this world it would give heart attacks to even the healthiest young people? Would his perfect holiness incinerate carnal man? Would the glory of God be as hot as the surface of the sun, and as blinding? Would his voice be so loud, your ears are ruined forever? Would the genius of God’s intelligence crush your mind with its weight? We don’t know.

Every day we carelessly use hyperbolic phrases like “mind blown” and “blown away,” but these figurative expressions describe a literal reality: if you saw God, you would be blown away. Your mind would be blown as well as your body. It would be over for you. God is infinite. We will neither comprehend him nor see him this side of heaven, because in his mercy God hides himself. God’s constant miracle is that he guards his invisibility every single day[1]. He stays behind the veil to protect us from an encounter we would find overwhelming if not instantly lethal.

But he has given to his prophets tantalizing clues about his appearance, his nature, and his glory. God employs mysterious, apocalyptic imagery, through the seeming ‘unreality’ of dreams and visions and through the reality of heavenly beings. To men like Daniel, Ezekiel, and John, God offers mortal man glimpses of himself, of his power, his brilliance, and his mystery.

God reveals himself to the prophet Ezekiel with a vision of a “chariot throne.” Ezekiel is one of many Hebrew captives deported to live in Babylon, and he has been there for five years. After five years, he has become familiar with the Babylonian notion of a chariot throne. Babylonians believed that a god would “traverse the heavens in his chariot throne, inspecting his domain and exercising authority over it.”*

That is what Ezekiel saw. But this was no ordinary chariot throne. The throne was built on wheels within interlocking wheels, and four creatures rode the throne, each with four faces, the face of a human, lion, eagle, and ox. The edge of the wheels were lined with eyes. Later Daniel (also captive in Babylon) would see the same blazing throne, Daniel 7:9.

“There was the likeness of a throne … and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness of the appearance of a man above it. And I saw the color of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it … As the appearance of a rainbow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord” Ezekiel 1:26-28.

This is some far-out stuff, something for fantasy literature or graphic novels. We may struggle to interpret the Bible’s apocalyptic visions. But there is no missing one truth:

God is bigger and more mysterious than anything we can comprehend.

His creation includes beings we cannot possibly conceive.

And yet, largely because he remains invisible, we proudly—ignorantly—think we are all that.

Well, Ezekiel did not think he was all that. What does he do when he encounters a vision of God sitting on a flaming throne of interlocking wheels with eyes on their rims and four-headed creatures and the rainbow glory of God radiating off of everything?

“And when I saw [the likeness of the glory of the Lord], I fell on my face” Ezekiel 1:28.

Ezekiel finds this vision overwhelming. As well he should. He does not die, of course, but he immediately falls on his face. I’m not sure the fall is voluntary.

I don’t think Ezekiel asked himself “What’s the protocol here? What am I supposed to do if I see a vision of a wheel within a wheel?” Ezekiel did not check the Prophet Handbook and fall on his face because he wanted to show reverence for God.

He fell on his face because he is human. EVERY human would fall on his face before God. Just as every knee will bow before him in heaven. Anyone who sees God’s glory will fall on his face.

But God lifts him up.

“And I heard a voice of one that spake. And he said to me, Son of Man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee. And the spirit entered into me when he spake unto me, and set me upon my feet, that I heard him that spake unto me” Ezekiel 1:28-2:2.

When Ezekiel has an encounter with God, it renders him powerless. He is on the ground with no plans to get up. But God has plans. He tells him to get up. And the Holy Spirit fills Ezekiel and gives him the power to stand and receive direction from the Lord. And God proceeds to commission Ezekiel, giving him the first of many messages that he must give God’s people.

Later, Ezekiel sees God’s glory a second time and again falls on his face. This time he had just been talking to God. It was not God’s voice, but God’s glory that made the man crumple where he stood. Again, he does not appear to have a choice. EVERYONE who sees God’s glory falls on their face.

“And the hand of the Lord was there upon me, and he said unto me, ‘Arise, go forth into the plain, and I will there talk with thee. Then I arose and went forth into the plain and behold, the glory of the Lord stood there [like before] and I fell on my face” Ezekiel 3:22-23.

This time, Ezekiel reports that God’s hand was on him, and God talked to him, and Ezekiel was still standing. But when Ezekiel went into the plain and came near God’s GLORY, he fell on his face. I don’t think he had a choice. The narrative continues:

“Then the spirit entered into me, and set me upon my feet, and spake with me” Ezekiel 2:24.

God’s presence is more fearsome, more awesome, more terrible, glorious and overwhelming than we could possibly put into words. The ideas are incomprehensible. He may speak to you, even place his hand upon you. But when God reveals a bit of his glory, all you can do is fall on your face.

We cannot see God’s face and live. We cannot be in the presence of his glory and stand.

But God will lift us up. He came to Ezekiel, he overwhelmed him with his glory, so that he could commission him and send him out to accomplish great things for God’s kingdom. Only through the strengthening touch of the Holy Spirit can a saint stand before God’s glory, hear God’s message, and go forth empowered to serve God’s kingdom.

Dear God, we praise you for your glory! We praise you. You are greater, higher, wiser, holier, and more full of love and joy and hope than we could ever understand. May we serve you more willingly. Reveal to us your glory. Call us to serve you faithfully. Fill us with the power and the courage of your Spirit. Use us.

A.Ω.

[1] https://dadsdailydevotionals.com/2023/11/10/gods-greatest-miracle-2-chronicles-3310-13/

* https://www.logos.com/grow/vision-ezekiel-1-mean/