This is what the Sovereign LORD says: On that day thoughts will come into your mind and you will devise an evil scheme. – Ezekiel 38:10

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 31, 2014): Ezekiel 38

On July 20, 1944, there was an attempt on the life of Adolf Hitler at the Wolf’s Lair where Hitler was planning a conference with other German military leaders. The July 20 attempt is probably the most famous of the attempts on Hitler’s life. It was planned, at least in part, by a cooperation between factions inside the German Military as well as inside the German Military Intelligence. The plot was co-ordinated by Claus von Stauffenberg, who was executed by firing squad the day after the failed assassination attempt. Von Stauffenberg knew that his actions with the German Resistance constituted high treason, but he justified his actions by referring to the right under natural law to defend millions of people's lives from the criminal aggressions of Hitler. For von Stuaffenberg, he was right because Hitler was so wrong.

But the justification for the actions of the resistance was not so easy for all of its members. One of the members of the German resistance that struggled with ethics of what they were doing was a pastor and theologian – Dietrich Bonhoeffer. For Bonhoeffer, the morality was far from clear. He was not sure that God would approve of his actions – especially a God that demanded the high requirement of love from all those who followed him. For Bonhoeffer, all that he was willing to ask from God was mercy as he acted against Hitler, it was too much to ask for God’s blessing over their actions.

Bonhoeffer seemed to understand something that we have lost focus off. Not all of our thoughts are worthy of God. Ezekiel speaks of the day when Gog and Magog will attack Israel, and on that day the actions that they will think of and end up planning will seem like the right thing – and the godly thing – to do. But the rightness of the action will be a mirage – what seems to be right, will actually be wrong. And the godly action of Gog and Magog will only serve as the reason why God will end up taking a stand against them.

For Bonhoeffer, all actions had to be judged by the overarching fact of God’s love. And it was this insistence on love that made Bonhoeffer question his actions and the repeated attempts on the Fuhrer’s life. For Bonhoeffer, spiritually he suspected that there must have been another way, but in the reality that Bonhoeffer was living in, he just couldn’t see it. So he asked for God’s mercy in his actions.

And that might be precisely the lesson that we need to learn from Ezekiel and Gog and Magog as well as from Bonhoeffer. Sometimes we seem to want to simplify right action too much. We desire all of our actions to be clearly right or clearly wrong, but that kind of a determination is not always possible. We tend to make excuses for our behavior especially as it opposes God’s law of love. Sometimes, we simply have to find another way – find a way to love. But when we can’t, we cannot assume that God’s vengeance is on our side – or that we fight on the side of right. In those moments, we need to learn from Bonhoeffer and simply ask for God’s mercy – and not his blessing.

The aftermath of the July 20, 1944 attack on Hitler was that it gave the German leader the excuse he needed to arrest over 7,000 people and execute 4,980 problem people in Germany – and only a fraction of those executed had anything to do with the assassination attempt. In hindsight it seems that the events of July 20 only gave evil a chance to multiply. Maybe there was another way. Maybe …

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 39

Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ – Ezekiel 37:11

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 30, 2014): Ezekiel 37

“There are two rules of war. Rule number one is that young men die. Rule number two is that doctors can’t change rule number one.” The words were spoken by Henry Blake, a character from the dramedy “M*A*S*H.” They are written as memories of what they had taught him in basic training, back before he had experienced the madness of war. It was an explanation of the evils of that war brings, and the frustration with regard to the ones that cannot be saved. There is nothing that seems more final to us than death. Even if we know that there is something beyond this life, death is still an event over which we mourn. And it is an event that causes us no small amount of fear.

The progressive rock band Kansas back in the 1970’s wrote about death this way.

                        Soon these days will pass away

                        For our freedom we must pay

                        All our words and deeds are carried on the wind

                        In the ground our bodies lay

                        Here we’ll stay

These words carry the same not of finality – and of the loss of hope.

I have always loved the imagery of Ezekiel 37. Maybe it is just memories of my grandfather singing the old black spiritual “Dem Bones,” or maybe it is the realization that even when there is no hope, there is still hope.

But maybe we need to apply the words that Charles Dickens wrote at the beginning of a Christmas Carol – “There is no doubt that Marley was dead. This must be understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate.” There is no doubt that Israel was dead. And this has to be understood if anything good is to come out of the ending of the story. The death of the nation was more than just a minor inconvenience. It was the end of everything. The bones that rose up out of the valley were probably the bones of soldiers that had died defending the nation in years past, but they may have also been the bones of the prophets and maybe even the common people that made up this army. The represented everything that had once given the nation life. Now, all that was left was death - and dry bones.

I don’t know about you, but if I am honest I know that there are a lot of dry bones in my life. They are places where there just doesn’t seem to be any possibility to hope. It is in these areas that death reigns – it reigns in the loss of relationships, misunderstandings, anger – and even actual physical death. But as I read the story of the Valley of dry bones I get to be reminded that even death is not final with God. There is no “in the ground our bodies lay – here we’ll stay” when we are dealing with our God.

And so, for the dry bones in my life, I am reminded that my reality is that my story isn’t done yet. And with God, hope reigns even in the shadow of the valley of death.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 38

I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I am proved holy through you before their eyes. – Ezekiel 36:23

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 29, 2014): Ezekiel 36

Christianity, at best, started as a small provincial belief system. Best guess is that at the time of the death of Jesus Christ, the one who the religion is patterned after, there were at best maybe 500 true believers of the faith. And there was no obvious people group at whom the belief system was directed. For the Jews, the target audience for the faith is obvious. Judaism is directed at the children of Abraham, through Isaac and Jacob (the latter of the two would be renamed Israel.) For Islam, the other sister faith of Christianity, the main audience of the faith are the children of Abraham, through Ishmael. But for Christianity the audience, at least according to the Apostle Paul, are the children of Abraham through faith (Galatians 3). In other words, the directed audience of Christianity is the world, or at least the portion of the world that wishes to claim to be the descendants of Abraham in Spirit, whether or not they are physically linked to the patriarch.

Paul actually finds an echo of the Old Testament belief in Abraham in the Gospel that is put forth in the Christian Testament. Paul writes “Understand, then, that those who have faith [in Jesus Christ] are children of Abraham. Scripture forsaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you” (Galatians 3:7-8).

So, starting with Paul, this small provincial faith with no real target audience has seen itself as the realization of God’s promise to Abraham – and to Israel. It is a promise that somehow through them they would bless the world. Admittedly, the church has often failed at the task. Yet, somehow at the same time, the world has often been blessed by God through the church.

And there is an echo of this same idea in the words of Ezekiel. God says that he will show the nations the holiness of his name, and that then the world will know. The holiness of his name was summed up in the love that sent God to a cross to die for the sins, not of the descendants of Abraham through Isaac and Ishmael, nor of the descendants of Abraham through Ishmael, but of the children of Abraham by faith – the children of Abraham because they have chosen to be just that.

With Jesus Christ lifted up on the cross, the world has seen the holiness of God. And those who are willing to see that sacrifice made on their behalf also know that the holiness of God truly has been proved in front of their eyes.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 37

Because you have said, “These two nations and countries will be ours and we will take possession of them,” even though I the LORD was there … - Ezekiel 35:10

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 28, 2014): Ezekiel 35

As the American Civil War dragged on, there is a story told about Abraham Lincoln attending a scientific convention in Washington. At one point during the convention, one of the members of the convention called on the President with a question. "Mr. President, we trust during this time of trial in which the nation is engaged, God is on our side, and will give us victory." Lincoln looked at the inquisitive member and replied, "Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side. My great concern is to be on God's side. For God is always right!" No one knows for sure if the incident ever happened; there does not seem to be any first hand references to be found with regard to the meeting, with the first mention of the conversation being found in the minutes of the Connecticut Temperance Union in 1881, a little more than fifteen years after Lincoln’s assassination. As a result, some have questioned whether the conversation ever happened. But the comment is in keeping with Lincoln and the moral battle that he was fighting during the civil war. Lincoln’s opposition to slavery was deeply ingrained. In the Peoria speech given by Lincoln opposing the pro-slavery Kansas Act, Lincoln declared "I cannot but hate it. I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world ..." But it was more than just the hate the President had for slavery. He chose the hard road that led him into the civil war, and almost to the dissolution of a nation, not because he believed that slavery was wrong, but because everything that he studied and that he knew about God convinced him that God thought that slavery was wrong. And if God thought it was wrong, how could he not oppose it?

The central element of God’s charge against Mount Seir and Edom was not that they opposed Israel and Judah, although that would have been enough. But God says that they opposed the descendants of Jacob even though they knew that God was there. Their concern was for themselves, they wanted what it was that they wanted. And they would chase what they wanted even if it meant that they would have to oppose the will of God. The only God that Edom wanted was one that would blindly agree to the aims of the nation. And that could never be the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

I have to admit that the one thing that concerns me about the contemporary church – and often contemporary politics – is that we want God to be on our side. But what we don’t seem to want to try to do is to figure out exactly where it is that God seems to be moving. It is easier to pray that God will be on our side; that he will rubber stamp our goals, than it is to make a commitment to be on God’s side. After all, making sure we are on God’s side just might carry us into some conflicts that we just are not ready for.

But if we want to change the world, we don’t need God to be on our side. We need to make sure that we are on God’s side. The last thing that we want to hear when we finally meet God face to face is God asking us why we opposed him – why we didn’t even seem to want to try to be on his side. After all, deep down we know that Abraham Lincoln is correct – God is always right.   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 36

Personal Note: Happy Birthday to my beautiful wife, Nelda. Have a great day!

 

For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. – Ezekiel 34:11

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 27, 2014): Ezekiel 34

Too often we miss some of the important messages of the Bible because we simply do not understand the culture which gave birth to the sacred writings. And a good example of that is found in the story of the Prodigal or Lost Son. Jesus told the story and it is found in Luke 15 with the stories of the lost lamb and the lost coin. And in all of the stories we get the basic message that it is important for us to search for what it is that is lost. But the subtleties of the story are lost to us.

For starters, we miss how improper it is for the father to run. Older men, under no circumstances, ran in Jesus’ culture. When Jesus says that the father hiked up his robe and ran at the sight of his son, the crowds would have been shocked. But another shocking turn in the story is with regard to the older son. In the story, the older son throws a bit of a fit because of the way that his father welcomes his younger brother home. But the crowds who first heard the story being told would have actually been shocked by the behavior of the brother. In the culture in which the story was first told, it would have been the older brother’s responsibility to go and fine his younger sibling. Knowing the pain that his brother’s absence was causing his father, the older brother would have been expected to do everything – no matter the cost – to find and bring his brother home. But the older brother did nothing. He watched his father go out every day and search the horizon for his son, and yet he didn’t lift a finger to ease his father’s pain. And when his little brother finally does come home, he can’t even bring himself to celebrate for the sake of his father.

I am not sure if Jesus had this passage from Ezekiel in mind as he told the story of the lost son, but he could have. Ezekiel speaks of God’s expectation for his people. And he uses the image of a shepherd. Any shepherd knows that he is to protect the sheep, and that he is also supposed to be ready to search for any sheep that may have wondered off. And if a shepherd does not fulfill that minimum responsibility, then he does not deserve to be called a shepherd.

God speaks to Israel and makes it clear - they were called to be shepherds, called to the task of being the elder brother and searching for that which was lost. But Israel was playing the older brother well, they were ignoring the lost sheep that were all around them. Their religious pride had made them blind to the duty to which God had called them. And that was not okay. If the people were not going to look for the lost, then God would do the searching. The people were too important to leave lost.

They still are - much too important. God is calling us to the role of the shepherd and the elder brother. The people around us are too important for God for us to be willing to ignore them.   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 35

My people come to you, as they usually do, and sit before you to hear your words, but they do not put them into practice. Their mouths speak of love, but their hearts are greedy for unjust gain. – Ezekiel 33:31

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 26, 2014): Ezekiel 33

The Christian Church has failed. It is not God that is dead, rather it is his church that has steadily refused to die. We are driven by our pride, and that pride has provided the ideal setting for our failure. It is time to admit that our critics are right. The church is filled with hypocrites. Of course, this is not really a surprise. We are filled with very fallible humans – and humans have a habit of falling short. We really exist with a choice. We can either exist within our comfort zones and allow our behavior to match our words, or we can allow ourselves to be stretched knowing that we will fail. The second option is the one that we need to follow, but it is also the reason why we are unable to live up to what we say that we believe.

But that isn’t really the problem. The problem is that we just don’t seem to care. We preach a gospel and then refuse to follow it when it is not convenient. We continually search for reasons why we don’t have to follow our own rules. And this is why we have to admit that the church has failed. Specifically, we don’t seem to want to love. I can find no other reason for the behavior that the church seems to exhibit. There are vast populations of people that have never felt the overwhelming love of the church – because we have never been willing to offer it to them.

As Ezekiel looks at the exiles, this is precisely what he sees in his church. The people are willing to speak about right things, to say that they love, but they are not willing to walk that road. Love requires a selfless spirit, but Ezekiel says that the people’s hearts are filled with greed – and greed focuses our hearts on ourselves making true love impossible.

And I believe that the church’s obsession with orthodoxy is part of our greed. And as long as we strive to be orthodox, to believe what is right, we will find that we are unable to love - because our orthodoxy forces us to concentrate on ourselves instead of on each other. Our orthodoxy stops us from not only seeing the other, but loving the other.  In the end, love is never about right belief, but rather about right practice. But it is to this practice that God has called his church.

In the end I am convinced that if we love no one will care that we are hypocrites. But if we refuse to love, then we will be judged harshly, and we will deserve every negative word. The church has failed. And unless we are willing to love, there is no road back to success for us.   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 34

 

Their graves are in the depths of the pit and her army lies around her grave. All who had spread terror in the land of the living are slain, fallen by the sword. – Ezekiel 32:23

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 25, 2014): Ezekiel 32

In 246 B.C.E, Qin Shi Huang ascended the throne and became King of the State of Qin, an ancient Chinese state roughly occupying the western section of China. At the time of his ascension, Qin Shi Huang was thirteen years of age. For the next 25 years, Qin Shi Huang would continue the conflict that the State of Qin had with the other Chinese states. But in 221 B.C.E. Qin Shi Huang did something that no other leader had been able to do; he united the warring Chinese States under one banner – his. To commemorate the uniting of the Chinese States, Qin Shi Huang exchanged the title King, a title that had been used by every Shang and Zhou ruler prior to Qin Shi Huang, for the title “First Emperor.” For the next two millennia, Chinese rulers would follow the example of Qin Shi Huang and would continue to use the title “Emperor.”

But for all of the accomplishments and honor that the memory and record of Qin Shi Huang demands, today we remember him for a vastly different reason. In 1974 some local farmers in the “Lintong District” uncovered a surprise that no one seemed to know about Qin Shi Huang. Buried with the First Emperor was an army of statues. 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses. The majority of the army is still buried and is known as the Terracotta Army. Amazingly, every one of the statues was created to be unique. And the entire army was created to protect the emperor after he died and was preparing to enter the afterlife. Although we do not really know for sure, it is likely that the building of the statues started on the day that Qin Shi Huang became king of the State of Qin – back when the would be emperor was only 13 years old.

Ezekiel speaks of all of the warriors that had died spreading terror in the land. But Ezekiel knows the reality, the damage that they could cause is finished. Whether it is the soldiers, once alive but now buried in the grave, or the Terracotta Army buried with the First Emperor of China, the truth is that they have no ability to influence the land of the living. The only soldiers that we need to fear are the ones that are alive and still has the ability to handle a weapon.

In the end, the living are responsible for the living. Who knows, maybe Qin Shi Huang got it right. Leave the living soldiers to fight the battle among the living and bury the statues. Because whether the soldier are dead, or if they never lived, they have no authority over those of us who still live.    

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 33

I made the nations tremble at the sound of its fall when I brought it down to the realm of the dead to be with those who go down to the pit. Then all the trees of Eden, the choicest and best of Lebanon, the well-watered trees, were consoled in the earth below. – Ezekiel 31:16

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 24, 2014): Ezekiel 31

Ashurbanipal rose to power in the Assyrian Empire in 668 B.C.E. He inherited a growing empire and during the initial parts of his reign he was able to sustain that growth. Soon after Ashurbanipal took control of the empire, the Assyrian Empire became the largest Empire to ever rule over the known world. The empire extended from the Caucasus in the north to North Africa in the south, and from the east Mediterranean in the west to central Iran in the east. And the sheer size of the empire became an issue for the health of the kingdom. The decline of the Assyrian Empire seems to have been entirely because the empire simply reached too far. Suddenly the member provinces found that they could rebel against their Assyrian overlords because the Assyrians simply did not have the ability to either police or secure their own territory. The fall had begun.

Ezekiel makes the comparison of the fall of Assyria and the felling of a great tree in the forest. And just like a great tree makes the forest tremble, Ezekiel asserts that the destruction of the Assyrian Empire made the nations tremble. It should be noted that this is not a prophecy of the future (Ezekiel speaking of things that had not yet happened.) It is a prophecy of the past (Ezekiel putting into perspective events that had already taken place.) The reign of Ashurbanipal and the fall of the Assyrian Empire had happened probably fifty to sixty years prior to the exile. What Ezekiel seemed to be attempting to do was to add understanding to the events of recent history.

But Ezekiel was right, the nations did tremble – although some possibly trembled with fear while others trembled with anticipation. Of direct concern to Ezekiel was the fate of two of the nations – Babylon and Egypt. The overextension of Assyria opened up a window for the Babylonians that may not have been there otherwise. And the other major nation in Judah’s sphere of influence - Egypt - tried valiantly to come to Assyria’s aid, but was unable to stop the decline of the Assyrians and the rise of the Babylonians. Egypt would continue to the struggle against Babylon but would not be able to overcome the new Empire builder – Nebuchadnezzar.

And in the midst of this all of this conflict was Judah. The tree that was Assyria was falling and they were in not position to do anything. Ezekiel wants to be clear about this. Judah’s disobedience of God had resulted in Judah being a pawn instead of a major player in the events that followed the fall of the Assyrians. And God was not absent in all that was happening. In fact, he was the author of what was happening, and a big part of the miraculous circumstances that resulted in the rise of Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.    

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 32

Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt. It has not been bound up to be healed or put in a splint so that it may become strong enough to hold a sword. – Ezekiel 30:21

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 23, 2014): Ezekiel 30

Over the course of 1500 years, 118 pyramids were built in Egypt using the assistance of 20,000 to 30,000 workers. The Pyramids are ancient marvels, but our imagination seems to sometimes have become stuck on the three that were built on the plains of Giza, not realizing that the Egyptians dreamed of at least 115 other pyramids to the point where the building of them had actually started. And the earliest of these dreamers was a priest in the service of the sun god Ra who also served as the chancellor to the Pharaoh Djoser in the 27^th Century B.C. The product of his imagination is known today as the Step Pyramid of Djoser – the first of the pyramids. After the reign of Djoser, he was followed by another Pharaoh, Sekhemkhet. Sekhemkhet wanted to follow in the footsteps of his predecessor, who was quite possibly his father. In following of Djoser’s footsteps, Sekhemkhet also started to build his own pyramid, but the pyramid was never completed, possibly because of the short reign of the Pharaoh (about six years.) Today we know his pyramid as the “Buried Pyramid.” But the incompletion of Sekhemkhet’s pyramid notwithstanding, these two Pharaohs started the 1500 year obsession with the constrction of these strange looking buildings.

By the time that Ezekiel was writing his prophcies, the time of the building of pyramids was long over. Apries was the Pharaoh in charge of Egypt, and he was a builder, but not of pyramids. However, there might be an indication that he wanted to be a pyramid buider, and it is found in this prophecy from Ezekiel. God says that he has “broken the arm of the Pharaoh.” The allusion would seem to be to the assertion of Apries that he was the strong arm of Egypt. While Apries may have wanted to be viewed as a stong Pharaoh, only two kings in the history of Egypt had ever made the assertion that they were the strong arm of the nation, and they were Djoser and Sekhemkhet.

Apries may have wanted to bring back the golden age of Egypt, but God was about to let Nebuchadnezzar break Apries arm. A broken arm, left unset, can never be strong again - and it will never be able to hold a sword again.

Apries would try to come to the aid of Judah in their battle with Babylon. In actuality, it would be an attempt to bring Judah under the control of Egypt. Judah, as an Egyptian province instead of the Babylonian province that it would become, would have helped Apries in becoming more like Djoser, the strong arm of Egypt. But the broken arm that Nebuchadnezzar would inflict on the Pharaoh would end that dream. He would no longer be the strong arm of Egypt, and a few years later he would find himself deposed, and his general raised to the position of Pharaoh in his place.   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 31

Speak to him and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: ‘I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, you great monster lying among your streams. You say, “The Nile belongs to me; I made it for myself.” – Ezekiel 29:3

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 22, 2014): Ezekiel 29

In the Russell Crowe film, Noah, the creators of the movie have an interesting view of the battle between good and evil. In a world dominated by the evil descendants of Cain, and the fallen angels known as the Watchers (a variant on the biblically based Nephilim), the earth is filled with darkness and death. It is a place where the riches of the earth are being used up, and the descendants of Cain are forced to explore more and more of the earth - using up more and more of the world’s precious resources. But Noah, a descendant of Seth, refuses to allow his family to take anything from the earth that they cannot use. Even the flowers of the field are sacred and not to be picked. And when Noah meets with his grandfather, Methuselah, Noah is given a seed. When Noah plants the seed, the dark lifeless environment is quickly exchanged for a green forest. Death is defeated in favor of life, evil is subdued in favor of what is good.     

I am coming under the conviction that what seems to have been the traditional response to environmentalism just might be wrong. It is like we miss the first chapter of the Bible. In the opening words of the Bible God pronounces everything that he creates as good, and then the combined product of creation as very good. Have we somehow we have missed that? One of the prevalent arguments among some Christians is that God has given the resources of this planet to us – that the earth is essentially a holder for these gifts from God, and when we have used up the resources of the world that God has given to us, then the earth, which we seem to believe has been made disposable, will simply be thrown away. But the question that more and more Christians seem to be asking is – if the world has been created as a disposable cup to hold a finite number of resources, why did God pronounce that creation was very good. And while we definitely do not believe that we are disposable, other than the statement that we are created in the image of God, the Bible does not seem to differentiate between us and the rest of creation – we are all simply pronounced to be good.

But beyond that, God seems to have a different reaction toward what he has made. As Ezekiel begins to prophecy against Egypt, part of the complaint is that the Pharaoh seems to believe that the rivers that flow through his territory belong to him, but God disagrees – the rivers, and really the resources of the planet, God has made for himself. It is part of what God has considered to be good.

So maybe it is not surprising that the movie “Noah” features a strong environmental theme. Noah, the protector of the planet, like Adam before him, is an environmentalist. He is a protector of the resources of the earth, resources that have never belonged to him, but instead belong to the one who created them in the first place. It is something that we need to be reminded of as we continue to use the resources of our planet.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 30

Are you wiser than Daniel? Is no secret hidden from you? – Ezekiel 28:3

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 21, 2014): Ezekiel 28

One of the enduring mysteries of the Book of Ezekiel centers around the identity of this wise man named Daniel. For some, the identity of Daniel can be no other than the wise man of Judah who was carried into exile at the beginning of the Babylonian exile. But the struggle with that identification is that Daniel was a contemporary of Ezekiel. While it is possible, and maybe even probable that the legend of Daniel would have been on the rise during the exile, especially within the community of exiles of which Ezekiel was one, the question is how fast did that happen? By the end of Daniel’s life this was likely, but at the beginning of the exile, Daniel was a very young man, and it seems that many of his early exploits were originally kept secret and did not become part of the lore of the people until much later. Even the famous incident of Daniel in Lion’s Den did not happen until at least 40 or 50 years after the exile began. And that would seem to be too late for this prophecy.

An alternative explanation is that it is not Daniel, but Danel, a man known from ancient times (possibly even someone who lived in the same era as Abraham.) In the ancient Ugaritic texts, Danel is known as a judge, a discerning man who was known for his compassion, judging the cause of the widow and the case of the fatherless. But the case for Danel is also not without its problems. First, critics argue that Danel is never described as righteous man, or even a wise man (although the wisdom of Danel would seem to be assumed by his ability to judge and his compassion for the weak of his society.) Secondly, Danel was a worshipper of Ba’al, and so some consider it very unlikely that Ezekiel would ever have considered him worthy of mention. A final argument against the identification of Danel is that there is over 800 years difference between the text that describes Danel and the writing of Ezekiel – but nowhere else in the various Hebrew texts is Danel mentioned. But that assumes that there are no other undiscovered texts that mention Danel - and it also assumes that all of the stories that the people of Judah knew and told to each other are written down in the Holy Texts. But neither of these conditions would seem likely.

In spite of the arguments against the identity of Ezekiel’s wise man being Danel, Danel would still seem to be the best option that we currently have available to us. But no matter who the identity of the man is, he was a universally known man of wisdom to the people of the exile. And he had become the model of a wise man, someone who was identified throughout the stories told by the culture – and stories that were taught to the children describing what real wisdom looked like.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 29

Men of Beth Togarmah exchanged chariot horses, cavalry horses and mules for your merchandise. – Ezekiel 27:14

Men of Beth Togarmah exchanged chariot horses, cavalry horses and mules for your merchandise. – Ezekiel 27:14

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 20, 2014): Ezekiel 27

The Armenian’s trace the beginnings of their nation to a very specific date in history – and that date is August 11, 2492 B.C.E. The significance of the day is that it is the day that King Haik defeated King Bel of Babylon establishing a home for his people. That home surrounded the mountains of Ararat. And it is there that the kingdom has remained. Not surprisingly, the ancient beginnings are shrouded in mystery. But we are beginning to understand that the ancient Armenians were quite possibly a very technically advanced civilization. For instance, the earliest known leather shoe and wine producing facility has been found in the area. But the significance of the ancient Armenians for the biblical story is that King Haik was the son of Togarmah. Ezekiel’s “Men of Beth Togarmah” simply means the “Men of the House of Togarmah,” and the “House of Togarmah” is still a name that Armenia holds today.

As Ezekiel continues his description of the destruction of Tyre, he lists a number of nations that had had contact with Tyre. And among the list nations are the “Men of Beth Togarmah.” Beth Togarmah would have not only represented an ancient civilization, but it was also the northernmost civilization that Ezekiel knew about. The things that Tyre had been imported from Beth Togarmah were chariots and horses, a symbol of military strength from the farthest reaches of the earth.

But the message seems to be that even with help from the ends of the earth, Tyre was still going to fall. There was no military strength that could fight against what God had decreed. And that included even a military strength from the exotic ends of the earth.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 28

Personal Note: Happy Birthday to my daughter in-law Michelle. I hope you have a great day!

I will bring you to a horrible end and you will be no more. You will be sought, but you will never again be found, declares the Sovereign LORD. – Ezekiel 26:21

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 19, 2014): Ezekiel 26

The city of Tyre holds a special place mythology. It is said to be the birthplace of Europa, a Phoenician princess who was kidnapped by Zeus. The earliest mention of Europa is in Homer’s “Iliad” which is usually dated to the 8^th century B.C.E. But the mention of Tyre as the birthplace of Europa (the mythical character from which Europe takes its name) shows that the city was at one time a place of some prominence. But very little is known of ancient Tyre. The town continues to exist today, but it has never regained the glory that the city of enjoyed at the time that the Illiad was written. However, it wasn’t Nebuchadnezzer that destroyed the ancient city. The one responsible for the ultimate destruction of Tyre was Alexander the Great.

Ezekiel predicts the destruction of Tyre. According to the Biblical texts, ultimately the city’s destruction, along with several others, was due to the people of these opposing cities cheering at the destruction of Jerusalem. But the destruction of Tyre was special and was to be a warning against others.

In reality the destruction of Tyre was special. The city actually existed on an Island with a section of the city on the mainland. It was the mainland portion of the city that was responsible for trade and it kept the island city supplied. But Alexander destroyed the mainland portion and then used the stone from the destroyed city to build a ramp from the mainland to the Island. Because of the artificial ramp, Alexander was able to attack the Island overland without the use of boats. After Alexander destroyed the island city, the artificial ramp was never removed. The result was that Tyre was made into a peninsula instead of an island.

But in keeping with the prophecy, while a new city of Tyre exists on the spot of the ancient city, the mainland portion has never been rebuilt, and there are extremely few artifacts from ancient times. In many ways it is as if the city had never existed.

The destruction of Tyre did set in motion conditions that would make the city of Carthage as a Mediterranean power in Northern Africa. It is thought that it was to Carthage that the survivors of Tyre ended up fleeing. But whatever the reason, the city of Tyre never has recovered – and the ancient city has never really been rediscovered.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 27

Say to them, ‘Hear the word of the Sovereign LORD. This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Because you said “Aha!” over my sanctuary when it was desecrated and over the land of Israel when it was laid waste and over the people of Judah when they went into exile … Ezekiel 25:3

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 18, 2014): Ezekiel 25

After the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E., Nebuchadnezzar appointed Gedaliah as governor in what was now the Babylonian province of Judah. The choice was probably a very good one. Gedaliah’s heritage was solid; he came from a very well respected Judean family. And Gedaliah went to work immediately. His strategy was to gather the remnant in Judah, those that had not been carried into exile, and set them at the task of planting the fields so that once again the fields of Judah would begin to produce food. The reason for the strategy was twofold. Maybe most obviously there were people that needed to be fed. But a secondary advantage was that the agrarian activity would keep the people busy, stopping them from plotting further activity against Babylon. As a result, Judah would gain a measure of security. If they were willing to plant the fields, then Babylon would most likely leave them alone. And after three collisions with the superpower in the past decade, Judah needed the space.

Gedaliah was successful in his plan. He gathered a core of people around him and they began to change the culture of the nation. But the Ammonites began to plant seeds of doubt within some of the Jews regarding the motives of Gedaliah. The Ammonites accused Gedaliah of being a puppet of the Babylonians – a Jew who had sold out his loyalty to Judah and the God of Israel to serve the interests of the Babylonian overlords. Such a man didn’t deserve to live.

And so the Ammonites incited Ishmael and ten other men – all Jews – to murder Gedaliah. But the motives of the Ammorites were not pure. They enlisted certain Jews to join them in their battle against Babylon, but what they really wanted was the Jews massacred. Because it was a group of Jews that had committed the murder of Gedaliah, they argued that the wrath of the Babylonians would be directed against the Jews. The hope of the Ammonites was that the Babylonians would then finish the job and annihilate the Judean nation – a nation with which they had never gotten along with. But it wasn’t just Judah that they wanted destroyed. With the destruction of both Israel by the Assyrians and now Judah at the hands of the Babylonians, they hoped that they would also kill the Jewish God once and for all.

So God speaks. The words of the prophecy were quite likely delivered to the diplomats who had gathered in Babylon. God was not amused, and he was not going anywhere. God would have the last word, not the children of Ammon. Because they had refused to bless the children of Abraham, they would pay the price of their arrogance. In the end, rather than the remnant of Israel, it would be Ammon that would suffer marginalization. Because Yahweh was not just the God of the Jews – he was the true God of the world.   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 26

Now your impurity is lewdness. Because I tried to cleanse you but you would not be cleansed from your impurity, you will not be clean again until my wrath against you has subsided. – Ezekiel 24:13

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 17, 2014): Ezekiel 24

Donald Sterling continues to be the talk of the NBA during the 2014 playoffs. And, unfortunately, it has absolutely nothing to do with the current playoff run of the Las Angeles Clippers (a playoff run that has now ended) – the team that Sterling owns. Sterling’s problems began when racist remarks were released to the media by the woman Sterling was dating – a woman 51 years younger than Sterling. The racist remarks have earned Sterling a lifetime suspension from the NBA and a 2.5 million dollar fine. Sterling took a pause after his remarks, but then he appeared on Anderson Cooper’s CNN news program to issue an apology. On the surface, the apology almost had the ability to pull the heart strings of the viewers. Sterling was almost in tears as he apologized, admitting that he had been wrong and that he “didn’t know what was wrong with him.” According to Sterling, the leaked remarks do not reflect who he really is and what he believes. Sterling stresses that he is not a racist – and the unspoken comment is that because he is not a racist, he shouldn’t be treated like one.

But in the midst of his apology, Sterling launched a new attack. It almost seems like he can’t help himself. The new attack was against respected basketball icon Magic Johnson. He criticized Johnson for not doing enough good deeds with his money and for having “the AIDS.” Sterling was corrected and informed that Johnson is HIV positive, but does not have full blown AIDS, but Sterling just continued the attack. This should be a man that the children can look up to, instead Johnson is a disgrace. The response was immediate. The NBA commissioner almost instantly apologized to Magic Johnson. Johnson did nothing to deserve the attack nor did he deserve to have some of the most painful moments of his life thrown back in his face. The saga continues, and for the NBA, it would seem that they can’t get Sterling out of the NBA family fast enough.

But as much as Sterling would have us believe differently, there were warning signs. Sterling wants us to believe that this situation does not describe what he really believes. Shelley, Sterling’s estranged wife, wants us to believe that Sterling is suffering from dementia or some other mental disorder that has changed her husband. But the truth is that these are not the first racist comments to issue from the mouth of Sterling. He has been here before. And people have tried to change him before, to adjust his attitude with regard to race – and Sterling has resisted all of the attempts. He has not appeared to want to move. So now the only action the NBA feels they have left is to remove him. It may be an expensive move depending on how strongly the Sterling family want to resist the forced sale of the Clippers, but for the good of the game it has to be done

This is exactly what God seems to be saying to Israel. In the past, their actions were inappropriate (God calls them lewd.) Efforts were made, messengers were sent, situations were faced, all of which were intended to make a difference in the life of Israel. But they had resisted God at every stage. So God had no choice but to unleash his wrath, to remove Israel from what had become their ancestral home. But God does not want Israel to lose sight of the reason for the wrath. This is not a child throwing a temper-tantrum because his will has been blocked. This is God trying to effect lasting change on the people that he loves. Nothing else has worked, so now it is time to try something different.

Shelley Sterling has pleaded with the NBA not to remove the Clippers from family control. Understandably, she does not want the sins of Donald to affect the future of his family. But the NBA is resistant. It needs to send a message that racism cannot be tolerated, and therefore the Sterling family will feel the full wrath of the NBA. In the same way, not everyone in Israel was guilty of lewd behavior. And yet God allowed the whole nation to feel his wrath – the guilty and the innocent together. And this should be a reminder for us that there really are no private sins. What we do affects those around us. It has to. It always has and it always will.    

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 25

They became prostitutes in Egypt, engaging in prostitution from their youth. In that land their breasts were fondled and their virgin bosoms caressed. – Ezekiel 23:3

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 16, 2014): Ezekiel 23

On December 7, 1941 at 7:48 in the morning, the first wave of Japanese fighters reached their target – Pearl Harbor. The U.S. Military base was attacked by 353 Japanese fighters, bombers and torpedo planes launched from six aircraft carriers. The attack was intended to knock the United States out of World War II before they were able to enter the war. The overwhelming fight at Pearl Harbor was really a Japanese attempt to put into practice a military agenda that the United States a few decades later would master called “shock and awe.” The intention was to demoralize that United States and convince them that they needed to stay out of the war. If they could succeed, the result would have been that Japan would be left unchallenged in the Pacific Theater of operations. The Pearl Harbor plan was hatched by Admiral Isoruko Yamamoto. But the Admiral quickly realized his error. Pride had led Japan into a fatal blunder. Yamamoto warned his colleagues just after the Pearl Harbor attack that “I fear all we have done is awaken the sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve.” No words could have been truer. With the help of her allies (England, Australia, Canada and the Soviet Union) American vengeance would be swift and complete – and in the end Japanese pride would cost them two of their largest cities as well as cause an embarrassing surrender of the Japan to the United States.

As Ezekiel begins to describe the reason for the defeat of Judah, he describes the situation with a story of two adulterous sisters. The story itself has been called lewd and vulgar, and some have refused to read the story in public. But the words used in the story accurately describe the situation and the history of Judah. Ezekiel begins his story in Egypt. And the event that he attempts to describe is the act of building the golden calf by Aaron, deep in the past of the nation. In a moment when Israel was deeply indebted to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob because of the marvelous acts that he had performed in the presence of the Pharaoh, as well as the parting of the Red Sea as Israel made their miraculous escape from the Egyptian army, the building of the golden calf was an incredibly vulgar and adulterous act; and it revealed the pride of a people who seemed to believe that they could serve whatever God they wanted – and a pride that insisted that they were indebted to no one.

The act would set the nation up for a series of vulgar adulterous acts throughout her history, all led by her pride that insisted that she could do whatever it was that she wanted. And she had decided that her future was to be found in gods other than Yahweh. That pride had been Israel’s blunder, and the result of that blunder was the reality that Ezekiel and his friends in exile were now being forced to live through. Their adulterous pride contained the seeds of their eventual defeat – and the day of their defeat had finally arrived.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 24

As silver is melted in a furnace, so you will be melted inside her, and you will know that I the LORD have poured out my wrath on you. – Ezekiel 22:22

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 15, 2014): Ezekiel 22

Nascar’s Brad Keselowski is still taking heat for the fourteen car crash that occurred on the lap 137 at Talladega over a week ago. The issue does not seem to be that it was Keselowski’s aggressive driving that caused the pile up – although drivers would like him to ease up a just a little bit. The real issue seems to be that Keselowski was still driving aggressively even though he was six laps down and essentially out of the race – especially since Keselowski was that far behind in the race because of another contact that he had made earlier in the day. Some of the big names of the sport would simply like Keselowski to learn the difference between driving aggressively when the race was still in doubt and driving aggressively when there is no possibility of winning – or even placing in the important top ten of the race.

But as far as Keselowski is concerned, if he is on the track and has a steering wheel in his hands, he wants to compete to the best of his abilities. To be honest, this is the attitude of a winner. In any other sport, we want to see our teams compete until the final whistle no matter how lopsided the score might be. But for now, Keselowski is not being afforded that option – for now, he continues to absorb the heat from his fellow Nascar drivers.

But what we sometimes miss is that heat (and fire) often come with two very different outcomes. One is to destroy. In Keselowski’s case, it would mean that he either gives up or doesn’t drive the way he needs to drive in order to win. The absolutely worst thing that could happen is that as Keselowski takes the driver’s seat he begins to second guess his decisions in the race. If that happens, the reality is that we will begin to see more crashes in the race that center around the beleaguered driver. There is a level of assertiveness that is absolutely required for anyone who desires to race – and without that assertiveness the driver will actually become more of a danger on the track. But the second purpose of fire is to cleanse. Here destruction is not the prupose, fire simply causes the impurities within something to be removed. For Keselowski, personally this is what I hope ends up happening – not that he would be destroyed, but rather that he would emerge as a better and more competitive Nascar driver as a direct result of the heat and scrutiny that he now seems to be under.

Biblically, it is often hard to tell the difference between these two fires. But it seems that often the biblical use of fire is for the second purpose and not the first. Some have even argued that the fires of Revelation which we often take as purely destructive are really intended to have a purification aspect.

But in Ezekiel, the author really leaves us no doubt. Even though we are told that it is God’s wrath that has burned toward Israel, this is not about the destruction of the nation – it is about purification and making something better out of what has come before. And the clue is that Ezekiel speaks about the melting of silver, a melting which is done very purposefully for purification reasons. While all that happens during the exile is done out of God’s wrath, the overwhelming message is that God is not done with Israel yet. He has more in store for his people. God’s intention was – and still is to burn away everything that does not belong so that it is only the pure us, which is actually the real us, that is left.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 23

Son of man, set your face against Jerusalem and preach against the sanctuary. Prophesy against the land of Israel – Ezekiel 21:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 14, 2014): Ezekiel 21

Jews (and admittedly Christians) from all over the world are drawn to the Western Wall in Jerusalem. The Wall is believed to be the outer wall of the western perimeter section of the partition that separated the court area of the Temple in Jerusalem from the rest of the city– or more precisely of the Second Temple which was destroyed by the Romans in 70 C.E. But the wall stands as a testimony of the power of Holy places in our lives. The temple itself is no longer standing, the Ark of the Covenant and the holy relics are long gone – lost in antiquity, and yet this one wall still exercises its strange attraction over literally millions of people on our planet. And for every one of these people the wall provides a very tangible connection with God.

Maybe for the Christian, the wall that we worship at is a lot closer. A few weeks ago a gentleman walked into the church that I pastor looking for a connection with God. He asked if he could just take some time to pray in the sanctuary. After I said he could he walked into the sanctuary and then returned to my office looking a little confused. Why didn’t our church have a cross? I smiled and said that it did, but it just wasn’t where he expected it to be. In our sanctuary, the cross is in the middle of a side wall over the baptistery. My new friend returned to the sanctuary and located the cross.  A few minutes later when I went to check on him I found him kneeling at the side of the church as close to the cross as he could get. For him, the cross was his Western Wall – his connection with God.

But what sometimes surprises people is that we are often more attracted to these Holy Places than God would seem to be. God’s requirement has always been for us to live in obedience to him. And sacrifice and prayers at a particular Holy Place always takes second place to that obedience. Therefore God instructs Ezekiel to set his face against the city of Jerusalem, and more specifically against the sanctuary – against the Temple of God. It seems that as far as God is concerned, if there is no obedience, there is no need for a Holy Place.

As God sets his face against the Temple, he seals the fate of the Holy Place. Without God, the Temple could not stand. Some experts think that it was not just the destruction of Solomon’s Temple at the hands of the Babylonian Empire that God is speaking of, but also of the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E. at the hands of the Romans – the very destruction that left only the Western Wall standing. So we continue to travel to the wall; to pray, to wail, and to ask of God what his plans are for our future. And as we come to the wall God reminds us that we don’t need a Holy place – we never have. We just need to decide that we will be obedient to him.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 22

Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Have you come to inquire of me? As surely as I live, I will not let you inquire of me, declares the Sovereign LORD.’ – Ezekiel 20:3

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 13, 2014): Ezekiel 20

Robert Mugabe has been consistently labeled as one of the worst rulers of the contemporary world. When he was elected as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe on April 18, 1980, Zimbabwe was a model African nation. Its economy was on the rise and its dollar was stronger than the American dollar. Mugabe has been the supreme leader of the nation ever since. His critics also note that Zimbabwe has also been in free fall ever since his reign began. Mugabe has been accused of repeatedly abusing his competition, and that the only opinion that he really wants to hear is his own. During the 1988 Zimbabwe elections, it is rumored that Mugabe told his supporters that the only way he would accept the election results was if he won. In later elections he used coercion, intimidation and beatings to remain in power. The result is that today Zimbabwe is considered to be one of the most corrupt nations in the world and one of the least transparent. And that reputation is not likely to change any time soon.

As the elders of Israel in exile come to Ezekiel, the action would lead us to believe that what they want is to inquire from the prophet what it is that God would want them to do. I mean, why else would you go to visit a prophet – and in this case the pre-eminent prophet of the exile in Babylon. But God sees something else. The truth of the situation was that the leaders did not care what it was that God was saying. They just needed the appearance of going to the prophet to inquire of God. In the end, all they wanted to do was follow their own desires. And unfortunately, it does not seem to matter to them that it was following their own desires that resulted in the exile in the first place.

I wish that this was a story that was fully contained in the past, but the story continues today. Too many people go to church not because they want to inquire of God, but rather because they want to give the appearance of inquiring of God. And too many Christians are too obsessed with following their own beliefs than they are with hearing whatever it is that God want to say to them. Too often, it would seem that the Christian Church would rather lean on its own understanding than to search out the message that comes from God. It is a situation that needs desperately to change. The world does not need to hear more of what the Christian Church thinks, but they desperately need to hear from God of Creation.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 21

Your mother was like a vine in your vineyard planted by the water; it was fruitful and full of branches because of abundant water. – Ezekiel 19:10

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 12, 2014): Ezekiel 19

The CBS show “48 Hours” has decided to use portions of a four minute voicemail recorded by Danielle Thomas just moments before she was murdered. In fact, it might be that the moment of her murder is caught on the audio tape. The decision to air portions of the recording is a controversial one. Those close to Thomas have no desire to hear the tape and wish that CBS would reverse their decision. However, millions of others most likely do want to hear Thomas’ final words. Maybe it is a sign of our morbid preoccupation with death (even though death is something that in Western Culture we seldom talk about.) But I wonder if the more likely cause is that we want desperately to make sense out of life – and a young woman being killed in the prime of her life doesn’t make sense. So we struggle for details. We want to know the answer to the whys as if in the act of knowing we can make sense of the tragedy. But often it is a fool’s chase – some things just don’t make sense.

We often play the game at funerals. We like to trace the life, we give eulogies (sometimes very long ones) that attempt to give reference to the life that we are celebrating – a life that has now ended. We tell stories of life that are intended to ease the pain, but sometimes seem to just heighten it, especially if the one who has died, did so before their time. All of this is just part of what we do – and they are ways for us to try to move past the tragedies. I do not think that we ever heal from these times of sorrow (I know that I am often reminded of the people who were important to me that have passed away – and always with a fresh feeling of pain), but survival in our world requires that somehow we get past the pain and the sorrow – and get on with life.

In a lot of ways, Ezekiel 19 is a eulogy of a life that is gone too soon. The princes of Israel may remain, but the nation (the mother of the passage) is now totally gone. There is no remnant and no life. And Ezekiel begins to look back over the life of the nation and what he sees is a life that began with so much promise. The vine (Israel) was planted by the water. In ancient times, especially in the heat of the Middle East, a vine had to be planted near water if it was going to produce fruit. And Ezekiel declares that Israel bore fruit – at least for a time.

Ezekiel also describes the vine as full of branches. Israel had been a place where all of the tribes, the descendants of Jacob, were able to find life – and maybe more importantly peace. There was no violent breaking off of branches on the vine – at least not until the Assyrian captivity for the Northern Tribes and now this snuffing out of Judah by Babylon.

But what had started off with such potential had now ended. All that is left is the cries of the princes in a place that is not their own. It is a sad story of life ending early and of promise never being fully reached. But the story is supposed to be sad, after all, it is a eulogy being given at a funeral, it is the last words being recorded on tape before an untimely death. We are not supposed to find good things here – this passage is all about potential that has ended before it’s time. And Ezekiel’s final words of the chapter remind us of this single focussed reality - “This is a lament and is to be used as a lament.”  (Ezekiel 19:14)

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 20

For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live! – Ezekiel 18:32

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 11, 2014): Ezekiel 18

Following the botched execution of Clayton Lockett on April 29, 2014, the United States is once again forced to re-evaluate their position on Capital Punishment. The execution of prisoners by the state has been under siege for decades. The struggle continues, but we seem to be no closer to an answer. We seem to keep on adjusting the laws to restrict the use of execution as a punishment designed for only a small percentage of the population. Currently, thirty-two states that still use the death penalty as a form of punishment but, maybe as a sign of the times, that number has dropped from thirty-seven in just the last seven years.

According to Federal Law, the death penalty cannot be used for anyone who was younger than eighteen at the time that the crime was committed, or for those who are intellectually challenged. The thrust of the law would seem to be that for one to be executed, the criminal must be deemed by the government to be both emotionally and intellectually mature. The problem with that ruling is that one would question whether anyone who is on sound ground emotionally or intellectually could ever commit a capital crime. There would seem to be something wrong, some damage or violence that has made the criminal also a victim. As well, sociologists have argued that as our lives lengthen, the period of time that is actually getting longer is adolescence; that we are no longer leaving our teen years until somewhere around thirty. If that is true then we are living in a highly idealized world where we are bullet proof and not fully developed emotionally until we become thirty-something.  Clayton Lockett was twenty-four at the time of the last of his crimes.

On the horizon, we have the sentencing of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the suspected Bombers of the Boston Marathon in 2013. Dzhokhar was only nineteen at the time of the bombings (he is twenty now), and under the deep influence of his brother and other leaders hostile to the United States. In January 2014, the United States Federal Government announced that it would seek the death penalty for Dzhokhar but an examination of Dzhokhar leaves us with a questions if he is really emotionally and mentally stable. Add to this situation a recent report by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) that proclaims that out of every 1000 executions, forty-one of the executed criminals are actually innocent. One innocent man condemned to death is too many, 4.1% becomes immoral. There simply has to be another way  

Sometimes I wonder if it is us, the ones who are doing the executing that are emotionally stunted. Too many people seem to live for payback and vengeance. But the problem is that even when payback comes, we also find that even it is not satisfying. The pain inside of us remains - the only difference is that now we get to spread it around.

God speaks of this. He says “I take no pleasure in the death of anyone.” Maybe we need to stress the anyone. In fact, God is so repelled by death that as far as he is concerned repentance is enough to stop it. He seems to be telling the exiles through Ezekiel that it is not too late. Even with all of the sin that they have committed, and the magnitude of their crimes, God desperately wants to find another way out of the situation so that death is not involved.

And I hope that that is where our culture one day finds itself. I love the pictures of the protestors carrying signs that says “Don’t kill for me.” I think that the message reflects the deep purposes of God. So let me join them by saying – don’t kill for me, either.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 19

This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself will take a shoot from the very top of a cedar and plant it; I will break off a tender sprig from its topmost shoots and plant it on a high and lofty mountain. – Ezekiel 17:22

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 10, 2014): Ezekiel 17

Stephen Hawking, the physicist and best-selling author of “A Brief History of Time” (not to mention the intellectual idol and sometime antagonist of Sheldon Cooper on the television comedy “The Big Bang Theory”) admits that the idea of artificial intelligence scares him. With so many advances in the field of artificial intelligence as well as the number of companies and the amount of money that is being spent to chase after the elusive dream, the science fiction plot device might not be all that far off. In fact, we are already seeing forms of artificial intelligence in our daily lives, including self-driving cars and digital personal assistants like Google Now. Even my I-phone insists on telling me driving times to places without me asking simply because it knows that I have been there before. The future may be already arriving.

For Hawking, the original problem of artificial intelligence comes down to who it is that is controlling the intelligence. In the wrong hands, artificial intelligence could be a weapon like we have never seen before. But for Hawking, the larger problem is really the question of whether artificial intelligence could be controlled at all. And if it can’t be controlled, what would happen then. Hawking doesn’t know the answer to that question, and he is pretty sure that no one else does either. His solution is to pause the development of artificial intelligence while the scientific community ponders the appropriate questions and holes in our knowledge. While Hawking believes that we might be technologically ready to make the leap toward artificial intelligence, he is sure that in every other area of our existence we are just not mature enough to be ready to make the jump.    

Ezekiel tells a parable about two eagles and a vine. The eagles represented the two major powers in Israel’s circle of influence – Babylon and Egypt. The vine itself represents Israel. And according to the story, the vine is threatened by the one eagle and so it creeps toward the other. But in the end, the second eagle cannot help the vine - and so the vine is uprooted. The reality for the people of the time is that it did not seem that the two eagles could be stopped. The vine would not be just uprooted; it looked very much like the vine would be permanently destroyed.

But this is when God steps in. He too has a shoot of the vine – one that he had taken from the top of a cedar. And he too decides to plant the vine. Only God doesn’t plant it in the lush valley. He plants it on the top of the mountain – not the most advantageous place to plant a vine. But according to the story, while the vine that was in the valley would be destroyed, the remnant that God would plant on the mountain would survive. The identification of that remnant from the mountain can be seen in the Israel that was born in exile, the Israel that remained in Canaan living in constant danger and without the support of a nation, and ultimately in the Messiah that would come not to be born in a palace, but in a manger. But no matter the challenges, the remnant would survive because God had decreed it.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 18

“‘Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, “Live!” – Ezekiel 16:6

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 9, 2014): Ezekiel 16

The Harappan Civilization exists in the Indus Valley in modern day Pakistan 4500 years ago. The modern significance of the Harappan Civilization is in the discovery of advanced architectural wonders and in the mystery of what ever happened to them. At the height of the culture, the Indus Valley inhabitants appear to have a mode of writing, a well-developed trade and transportation system as well as an interest in producing significant works of art. Aiding in the civilizations ability to create great architectural marvels was the development in the valley of ways of very accurately measuring length, weight and time. The people of the Indus Valley were among the first peoples on earth to have developed a system of uniform weights and measures. All of this should have placed the Indus Valley residents on the fast track to success. Yet somewhere between 3000 to 3500 years ago, the Harappan people mysteriously disappeared. Some experts have postulated a violent end to the civilization, but we really do not have any evidence of that. It appears that they just faded away.

One of the proposed culprits that brought about the end of the Harappan Civilization was simple climate change. It appears that there was a local change in the environmental conditions of the Indus Valley about the time that the civilization disappeared. The system of monsoons that allowed the vegetation in the valley to flourish, weakened and moved toward the east. This resulted in a cooler and drier world for the Indus Valley. As a result, the crops that they had traditionally planted refused to grow. Starvation would have followed. Many died and others probably just simply moved on leaving the remains of their civilization for us to find – and a mystery for us to examine.

But the reality in the ancient world is that it didn’t take much for a civilization to die. Many did, some left us puzzles that we can solve, others left us stories for us to tell and retell. Still others have achieved the status of myth and legend. We are no longer even sure if they existed (the mystery of Atlantis would fall into that category. One researcher humorously admitted that probably the only way we will ever be able to prove that Atlantis existed is if we find a sign that says – Atlantis: Population 58,672). And there are a multitude of civilizations that have disappeared so quickly that they have left us no evidence. We don’t wonder about them because they didn’t get to live long enough to give us anything to remember them by.

God says that Israel should have been one of those short lived civilizations. Ezekiel makes a comparison between the birth of Israel and biological birth of a baby. In biological births, there is a set procedure, a list of things that must be done if the baby is going to survive – the umbilical cord has to be cut and properly tied off, the baby has to be cleaned and sterilized minimizing the risk of infection. The Baby then needs to be fed and protected. But in the early days of Israel none of these elemental things were done. The newborn nation was simply dumped in the desert of Egypt. It existed in its own pain and in its own blood. There was no reason for Israel to survive.

But they did. And according to Ezekiel, the only explanation for life was that God spoke the word over them commanding them to live. Israel does not belong among all of the lost civilizations of the world even though they really should. With Israel, the real mystery is how did the nation survive? And the answer is that they live because God has decreed that they should – and there is no other reason that is needed.

I believe that God is still speaking the same words over his church. There is no reason why the Christian Church has survived through the past 2000 years of its existence. It is certainly not because of anything that the church has done. The only reason that I can discern for why we still exist is simply that God has spoken over his church and commanded her to live. And we will live until God stops speaking.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 17