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/

The Einstein Visa: One Way to Escape an Oppressive Regime. Jeremiah 37:17.

Have you heard of the “Genius Visa”? Some call the EB-1 Visa[1] the “Einstein Visa,” and it is one of the tools the United States uses to control the tide of immigrants pouring into the greatest nation on earth[2]. It is a simple idea: we open the doors to our nation a bit wider for those who bring significant skills and talents. Those working in STEM fields seem to receive more Genius Visas than those in other fields, though the official descriptions reference extraordinary talents in many fields, including Pulitzer, Oscar, and Olympic winners[3].

When it comes to immigration, some things never change. Ancient Babylon managed immigration with a Genius Visa of its own. Or perhaps I should re-phrase. I’m not sure anyone was applying to immigrate into Babylon. But Babylon used a “Genius Visa” approach to guide its practice of capturing and enslaving the citizens of other nations.

That is, when King Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem and took Israelites back to Babylon, the king took only the people of “quality,” leaving the poor behind to manage the land. Remember Daniel and his friends? The king carefully chose the best and the brightest and had them trained to work for him.

“And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valor, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths: none remained save the poorest sort of the people of the land” 2 Kings 24:14.

King Nebuchadnezzar even took Judah’s kings back to Babylon (first Jehoiakim, then his son, Jehoiachin). That is the Genius Visa in action. To manage things after Nebuchadnezzar returned to Babylon, he appointed Zedekiah king—but of course, King Zedekiah was only a vassal or puppet king (something like Herod under Caesar). Zedekiah had no real power, being essentially middle-management.

The Bible is a book written of the oppressed, by the oppressed, and for the oppressed.

Most people on earth today and most throughout history have suffered under the oppression of cruel governments, wicked kings, or those who claim to own them as slave masters and human traffickers. Nebuchadnezzar was no different. He laid siege to Jerusalem. He took the people captive and carried them back to Babylon, some 700 miles away. He installed a vassal king to look after things in his absence. Freedom? Liberty? Self-rule? A right to vote? Freedom of speech? Freedom of the press? Freedom to assemble so you can talk about revolution? These ideas were so unknown as to be figments.

Most of the Bible concerns the oppressed: slaves, refugees, subjects of evil kings, captives, exiles, and citizens with no liberty living under the boot of an occupying power, whether Persia, Greece, or Rome.

Those of us who have never lived under an oppressive, dictatorial government or without liberty and the right to vote must recognize that we are the unicorn in the zoo: we are the ones with lives so good our ancient ancestors could hardly have believed we would one day exist. We are living lives of fantasy, lives of myth past generations would hardly find credible. They could not have imagined or understood us.

And we cannot understand them. We have seen so little of slavery, oppression, war, and genocide. Most of us will never leave our home, put our property on our backs and start over somewhere else. But the Bible is filled with such stories.

Dear God, give us insight. Give us education. Fill us with compassion and wisdom, not only about immigration, but about your word. What do we fail to comprehend because our lives are so easy, so insulated from cruel tyrannies? Help us understand your word better every day, and the extraordinary challenges and tragedies those within its pages must have endured.

AΩ.

[1] The EB-1A and EB-1B visas are both “Employment Based,” and will be granted based on extensive achievements and abilities. The EB-1A does not require an employer’s sponsorship and a job offer (both required by EB-1B), but EB-1A requires a higher standard of achievement and ability.

[2] With over fifty million foreign-born residents, the US is host to more immigrants than the next five nations on that list combined. Thus, whatever your beliefs about our immigration policy, the sheer number of people involved is an indication of the critical importance of US immigration and asylum policy.

[3] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43256318

Trafficking … in Humans. Jeremiah 52:27.

“Thus Judah was carried away captive out of his own land,” Jeremiah 52:27.

Once an interesting, fresh phrase, “Human Trafficking” has been talked about so much in the last twenty years it may be in danger of becoming a cliché. But don’t tune out. The Bible has a great deal to say about what we now refer to as “human trafficking.”

In the year 2000, the United States passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. Numerous updates and related laws have been enacted since. The government takes seriously those who would assert ownership or control over other humans, whether through sexual trafficking, labor trafficking, “involuntary servitude,” debt bondage, or the victimization of youth in the foster care system[1].  

When traffic is used as a verb, the simplest definition may be engage, deal, or trade. Humans have been dealing in other humans for centuries. We have been capturing, owning, and trading each other throughout all of human history. Consequently, human trafficking plays a large part in the Biblical narrative.

In Genesis 37:26-28, Joseph’s brothers ‘trafficked’ him to slave traders. Later the descendants of Joseph and his brothers became slaves in Egypt, and their rescue from slavery will forever be history’s greatest rescue of victims of human trafficking.

After Israel settled in the Promised Land, four tribes were taken captive and trafficked to Assyria in 734 B.C. Then in 597 B.C., Judah was taken captive and trafficked to Babylon.

These are generations of people being ripped from their homeland, taken to a new home a thousand miles away, forced to learn a new language, new culture, new diet, you name it. For modern Bible readers, the hardest part of the story might be the struggle to maintain some sense of the timeline. But for those who lived it, this was the most difficult experience of their lives!

Imagine if warriors from another nation who do not speak your language, suddenly showed up in your town, rounded everyone into railroad cars, and then ships, and then set sail for a new home on another continent. And you will never, ever return. That is human trafficking. That is bondage and exile. That is what Daniel suffered when he was taken to Babylon.

But it is also the sort of experience people have in our world every day. Sociologists might describe many of these experiences as “voluntary,” but how voluntary is it, when Rwanda is on fire and the only choice a mother has is to take her children and run to Tanzania? And following the murder of their parents, how many young men “voluntarily” walk from Sudan to Egypt, to eventually be resettled by the United Nations in Fargo, North Dakota?

Following the fall of Saigon in 1975, some 800,000 Vietnamese refugees braved the Pacific Ocean in small, overcrowded boats, desperate to reach Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines, many eventually immigrating to the United States, Canada, and Australia. Not every refugee or fugitive is trafficked. But the number of unwillingly displaced persons is well into the millions.

–And the Bible speaks to that. The Bible is a book for the broken, the hurting, the displaced, the downtrodden. Most Americans are blessed to have had no experience with words like exile, fugitive, refugee, or victim. But around the world, huge numbers have experienced so much loss in war-torn nations, or nations led by greedy dictators who make bad decision-after-bad-decision, resulting in joblessness, bankruptcy, famine, and revolution. These tragedies are the norm for so much of the world and so much of human history. We in the United States have no idea how fortunate, how blessed we are.

But perhaps in our peaceful life in a land of milk and honey, we suffer a unique loss.

Unless we pay attention to the struggles going on around the world, we will never understand the Bible the way some of these trafficking victims might. Victims of human trafficking and refugees forced to leave their homeland will understand the Bible with insight we will never have, or at least not until we educate ourselves deeply about their lives. After all, a great deal of the Bible concerns human trafficking, slavery, fugitives on the run, and those living in exile in lands not their own. On top of that, there are the many years in which Israel had no autonomy or self-rule and instead had to live under the thumb of occupying forces, whether Persia, Greece, or Rome.

These are conditions Americans cannot conceive.

Consider how many books of the Bible focus on such displaced or oppressed persons:

BOOKS ABOUT SLAVERY AND DELIVERANCE FROM SLAVERY: Genesis and Exodus.

BOOKS ABOUT LIVING AS A NOMAD/FUGITIVE WITH NO HOME: Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

BOOKS ABOUT EXILE: Daniel, Esther, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, and portions of Isaiah.

BOOKS ABOUT THE RETURN FROM EXILE: Ezra and Nehemiah.

BOOKS ABOUT LIVING IN A LAND OCCUPIED BY A FOREIGN POWER WHETHER PERSIAN, GREEK, OR ROMAN: Ezra, Nehemiah, Lamentations, Joel, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts. (And honestly, the entire New Testament concerns nations under Roman occupation.)

That is some 24* books of the Bible set against a context of either slavery and human trafficking, refugees and fugitives, or living under the control of an occupying foreign power. Americans have enjoyed peaceful self-rule for almost 250 years. (And England has enjoyed a relatively stable government for 1,200 years!) But these are the exceedingly rare exceptions in human history.

Human civilization is a constant clash of wars and upsets and natural disasters like fire, famine, earthquakes, tornadoes, and hurricanes. Suffering defines most lives the way oceans define national borders. And the Bible is written for the suffering.

The Bible is written for the victims of human trafficking.

The words of the great poem inscribed on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty could be spoken by the Bible rather than by Lady Liberty:

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”[2]

Dear God, fill us with compassion for the trafficked, the impoverished, the refugees, the fugitives. May we offer them relief and comfort and a homeland. And may we learn from their suffering to understand your scripture more deeply. Fill us with compassion for the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of teeming shores, the homeless, and the tempest-tossed. Give us wisdom to address the difficult challenges of immigration and asylum. May we be like the men of Issachar who “understood the times and knew what Israel should do,” 1 Chronicles 12:32.

AΩ.

[1] https://humantraffickinghotline.org/en/human-trafficking/federal-law

[2] “The New Colossus,” by Emma Lazarus.

*The number is higher than 24. Most of the Bible is a narrative of God’s dealings with a nation without autonomy (as a nation) and without liberty (for individuals). In Genesis, the people have liberty, but are not yet a nation. In Exodus, they become a nation but are under Egypt’s control. Once freed, they have autonomy and liberty in theory, but no homeland–and are thus wandering nomads (fugitives) for forty years. The books of Genesis, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1-2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 1 Chronicles, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Hosea, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, and Habakkuk report the records of a free nation living under the rule of its own kings–and even then, many of those kings were wicked men and oppressors. The entire New Testament chronicles life under Roman rule. By this count, only 19 books of the Bible report the activities of a free people living in a nation with self-rule. To put it another way:

Nineteen books of the Bible report the history of free people living under autonomous self-rule (and many of those rulers were evil oppressors). The remaining 47 books concern people in slavery, in exile, or suffering under the occupying armies of Persia, Greece, or Rome. This is a book about the oppressed, the trafficked, the exploited, the owned.

The Bible is largely a book about people suffering under various kinds of oppression, exile, slavery, trafficking, or the jackbooted thuggery of occupying armies.

Liberty in Christ would have been the first taste of meaningful liberty a Christian experienced.

Woe Be Unto Pastors Who Destroy the Sheep. Jeremiah 23:1.

Once again, Jeremiah addresses false prophets and fallen preachers[1]. (I never realized how often preacher-scandals were addressed in the Old Testament!)

Doesn’t this sound like a page out of today’s headlines?

“Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” Jeremiah 23:1.

The prophet continues:

“Therefore, thus says the Lord God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people: ‘Ye have scattered my flock and driven them away, and have not visited them. Behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings’” Jeremiah 23:2.

The problem is not merely bad preaching—it’s bad living.

“Both prophet and priest are profane, yea, in my house have I found their wickedness” Jeremiah 23:11. “I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies” Jeremiah 23:14.

“You have perverted the words of the living God” Jeremiah 23:36.

“Behold, I will … cast you out of my presence and I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten” Jeremiah 23:39-40.

But there is hope. Hope remains for God’s people:

“‘I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow. And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness,’ saith the Lord” Jeremiah 30:13-14. “Their congregation shall be established before me,” Jeremiah 30:20.

God warns the errant preacher:

He knows.

He will not overlook it.

Judgment is coming.

But God will bless and restore his people. The church is the Bride of Christ—he will protect it from enemies within and without.

A summary of thoughts on how to address scandals within the church:

  1. Our focus must always be on the victims of church scandals, not the once-beloved perpetrator. The church must focus on providing grace and restoration to the victims of abuse, whether sexual, spiritual, or financial. God will take care of the abusers.
  2. Those in ministry should pray Psalm 69:6 every day: “Do not let those who put their hope in You be disgraced because of me, Lord God of hosts.  Do not let those who seek You be humiliated because of me.” The medical field is guided by the Hippocratic Oath which begins,”FIRST, DO NO HARM.” Those in ministry would benefit from the same admonition: First, do no harm to the cause of Christ.
  3. Ministers and those who support them must remember: this is GOD’S MINISTRY. It is not about the man. If it is nothing more than a personality cult, it deserves to be destroyed. If God is interested in this ministry, he will ensure that it survives.
  4. Those in ministry must guard their hearts, Proverbs 4:23. Nothing is more important than your personal relationship with Jesus. Meet with him daily. Take a sabbatical every year. Keep an open relationship with engaged mentors and accountability partners.
  5. Churches and para-church organizations should use every tool available to screen both volunteer workers and paid staff. Employ the services of a private investigator with no ties to the church or applicants in question. Spend the money for complete criminal background checks. Make phone calls. Following-up on references and resumes is essential. Take accusations of plagiarism and other ‘lesser’ things seriously because they provide clues about character and the integrity a person will bring to larger matters. Hire someone who is “faithful in the small things,” Luke 16:10.
  6. We must be shrewd, not burying our heads in the sand when a beloved church leader is accused of serious missteps, Matthew 10:16.
  7. Yes, fallen preachers hurt the cause of Christ, Romans 2:24.
  8. Once verified, we must publicize their sins in spite of the damage they might do to our Christian witness, because an actual or perceived cover-up will hurt the cause of Christ even more. In an age of video cameras in every pocket, secrecy can never be assumed. Everything will be discovered. Get in front of it and expose it yourself. (Reject those who argue the verse “touch not mine anointed,” Psalm 105:15, shields those in ministry. It does not. By contrast, Paul would have said, “deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh” 1 Corinthians 5:5.)
  9. Contact local law enforcement if you smell a whiff of criminality, particularly anything involving minors, trafficking, or financial fraud and misdeeds. (One of the pluses of involving law enforcement is that the church can generally rely on them to handle the matter thoroughly, and few will accuse the church of covering anything up. In addition, the newly generated criminal record will be easily located by future employers.)
  10. We must also shine a light on the “deeds done in the darkness” because that is the only way to deter evil. If we do not publicize it, it will never stop, John 3:19-21.
  11. A third reason evil deeds must be exposed is because donors—church members—have a right to know what is happening behind closed doors. Church members have a right to full disclosure, particularly regarding financial, ethical, or sexual allegations, and those in-the-know have a duty to provide that information, Jeremiah 48:10.
  12. Do not be afraid to expose a pastor’s sins—God can handle it. The gates of hell shall not prevail against his church, Matthew 16:18.
  13. Depending on the nature of the harm, we must terminate the offending church volunteer or pastor. We must also ‘terminate’ the cycle of providing good references, because that allows bad people to continue their abuse elsewhere, 1 Corinthians 5:11-13. It is my opinion that pastors guilty of serious sexual or financial sins have disqualified themselves from the ministry for life. Christians yearn to forgive and restore a fallen brother. But too many innocent people, many of them children, have been victimized by fallen preachers who claim to have changed. Again—we must restore the VICTIMS. God can take care of the perpetrators.
  14. For further guidance, contact a law firm. For seasoned counsel from a Christian attorney whose practice is dedicated to such things, consider the grandson of Billy Graham, Boz Tchividjian: https://bozlawpa.com/.

AΩ.

[1] As I contemplated writing about Jeremiah 23 and yet another message about scandals in the church, it bothered me that the content was so uninspiring. This is not the stuff of a daily devotional. In fact, it could not be further from the sort of happy thoughts with which most of us like to begin or end our day. Could anything be further from the feel-good words of a poem like David’s 23rd Psalm? Scandals in the church? What a downer! Who wants to talk about that?

God wants to talk about it. Jesus talks about it. The apostle Paul talks about it. The Bible talks about fallen preachers a lot, as a matter of fact. God did not give us his word so we could read a bit of poetry and feel inspired about our day. The Bible is practical advice. It is honest answers to hard questions. It is serious, sober, realistic discussions of many difficult topics. The 23rd Psalm is amazing. But God is much more than our shepherd. And God’s word is much more than the song of a cowboy singing his herd to sleep. God’s word is the best advice available for morals, ethics, economics, finance, relationships, parenting, marriage, governance, running a church, running a nation, fighting a war, or negotiating peace. –And handling scandals in the church. Because God chose to include this in his word, we should study it.