Today’s Scripture Reading (May 5,
2014): Ezekiel 12
As the
situation in the Ukraine continues to deteriorate, it is not surprising that
there is a lot of speculation about what this means for the rest of the world.
Of key interest is whether it is possible that the Ukrainian situation can be
contained in Eastern Europe and Asia, or whether it is going to spill out into
other countries – will this continue to be just a Russian/Ukrainian issue, or
will this lead to more of a world conflict. And it is amazing to me that so
many seem to believe that we are heading toward another major world conflict. As
they talk about the Ukraine, they point to this expected East/West Conflict
that the world has been waiting for since the end of the Second World War, an
expectation that eased as the Berlin Wall was pulled down starting on November
9, 1989, but that has never ever really gone away. The expectation of conflict
was just somehow delayed. And now with the Ukraine situation has brought the
possibility back into the front of the world’s consciousness. And the message
of many is that world trouble is no longer a distant possibility, the events in
the Ukraine has made it an immediate probability.
Ezekiel has revealed
everything that God has told him to the exiles. The news is overwhelming. But far
from the intended reaction of showing that God is still on the throne, God says
that the people have instead responded by saying that the prophecies are about
the distant future. And because the prophecies are so distant, there is nothing
that needs to be done now. Actions can wait until later, closer to the time
revealed by prophecies of God. God’s response is that the people are wrong, the
prophecies are now. This is about the immediate, so a response is also required
now – not later.
And this is
the way that God expects us to react to him. When he lets his people know
something about the future, the reaction is always supposed to be in the now.
The reality that we live in is that there is nothing that we can do about the
past, and the future is really formed by the actions we take in the present. And
so God’s expectation is that we will take the present very seriously. For the
exiles, there was a path that they needed to take to get back to where God
wanted and needed them to be - and to where the exiles themselves desired to
be. But that path started in the now - and according to God this was not
something that could be procrastinated into the distant future. Even the
distant future starts now.
The most
important time of your life is the now. The past is dead and buried, but the
future will be written by the actions we take today. The problem in the Ukraine
is that both sides have different views of what the future should look like, so
they are taking different actions in the now. And the only hope the world has
is that we can agree on what the future should look like, so that we can also agree
in the now.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel
13
Personal Note: Happy Birthday to my
beautiful daughter Alyssa. Dad loves you very much.
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