You boasted against me and spoke against me without restraint, and I heard it. – Ezekiel 35:13

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 31, 2017): Ezekiel 35

On the television show NCIS, Leroy Jethro Gibbs always seems to turn up at the exact moment that his underlings decide to talk (gossip) about him. Then comes the scramble, the killing of the computer monitors or the quick change of subject. But Gibbs knows; he always knows. And then, of course, what Gibbs knows results in the famous Gibbs slap to the back of the head. Did you know that the Gibbs-slap has even made it into our Urban dictionary? It is defined as “a sharp, upward slap to the back of the head given to someone acting blaringly stupid.”

NCIS might be a fictional television series, but the sensation of being overheard when we are in the midst of gossiping about somebody is an experience we all know much too well. The easy solution, and the godly one, is “don’t gossip.” But sometimes that kind of restraint seems to be beyond our ability. It is maybe the one universal sin for which we all need to repent.

Edom had spoken against God. Their sin was multiplied because they had also spoken against Judah and cheered their struggles. The words that they said would never have been repeated if the people of Edom had realized that God was listening to them. Much to their surprise, God was listening. And now God was about to speak out against them. According to God, Edom would share in the fate that they had cheered because, in the end, they were no better than the subjects of their degrading conversations. Edom had gossiped, and now the only thing they could do was steal themselves for a good Gibbs-slap.

This is one of the struggles that God has with loose words. Gossip really only has two purposes. One is to prove that we are important because of the things that we know. If I can tell you something about someone else that you don’t know, my sense of importance is raised, albeit artificially. Gossip columnists are made important in our culture by the stories that they can tell about the stars, and in doing so become stars themselves. (Cue Perez Hilton.)

The second purpose is to try to lift us up above those about whom we are gossiping. I am more important than he/she is because you would not catch me doing what they do. What we miss is that what gossip does is prove that we have no story of our own tell. And that is sad, and always deserving of a good Gibbs-slap because gossip is always blaringly stupid.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 36

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 30, 2017): Ezekiel 34

Too often we miss some of the important messages of the Bible because we just 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 presented 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 find 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 because 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 to God for us to be willing to ignore them.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 35

But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes someone’s life, that person’s life will be taken because of their sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for their blood. – Ezekiel 33:6

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 29, 2017): Ezekiel 33

Tears came to my eyes once again as I read the accounts of the bomb blast at a Manchester, England concert almost a week ago. I hope that terror attacks will always prompt this reaction. There is no room in the society in which I want to live to allow terror to become some kind of new normal that no longer requires a response from us. Terror attacks are always wrong and must always be condemned. And there is no doubt in my mind that these attacks of terror are always against the divine will of God, no matter whether you call that God Allah, Jehovah, or Yahweh – or by any other sacred name. But what is maybe even more troubling was that the Manchester attack targeted youth. There is no way that an eight-year-old girl should go to a concert with her mother and sister and be worried about never coming home again. In that kind of a world, we are all the losers.

Reports out of Manchester have revealed that there was no way to secure the area where the bombing took place. It was a public area and a place where users of mass transit gathered. Of course, all involved will be second-guessing their decisions in light of the attack. But the solution might not be an official one. One would think that in this social media dominated world, someone might have known something or noticed something, but either dismissed what they knew or were afraid to reveal what they knew. In our world with a new normal, maybe we can no longer afford to second guess ourselves. We have to stand up as witnesses of what we have seen, even if we are wrong. Eight-year-old girls (and boys) are depending on us.

As Jerusalem falls, God instructs Ezekiel that he is to be the watchman. As such, it was his duty to sound the alarm – to speak what it was that he knew. Specifically, Ezekiel’s job was to inform the remnant of Judah why things had gone wrong and what they could do about it. In the post-Jerusalem world, there was a new normal. The people that had flocked to the ruins of Jerusalem hoping to find the protection of God were deluding themselves. Jerusalem was a dangerous place to be. And Ezekiel needed to sound that warning.

According to God’s instructions, if Ezekiel spoke the warning and the people refused to listen, then, whatever the outcome, Ezekiel was innocent. But if he refused to blow the trumpet (a figurative phrase indicating a refusal to teach the people about the reasons why Jerusalem fell and of the dangers of not listening to God’s instructions, which included a willingness to place the practices of love into their daily lives instead of the greed that they currently occupied their behavior [Ezekiel 33:31]) then their demise would be his fault. Ezekiel would bear the blame.

Our new normal requires a similar reaction. It is time to put on love instead of greed and be aware of what is happening around us. The enemies of love are not everywhere, but they often show up in the most unexpected places. And we need to be ready to blow the trumpet.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 34

Assyria is there with her whole army; she is surrounded by the graves of all her slain, all who have fallen by the sword. – Ezekiel 32:22

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 28, 2017): Ezekiel 32

“The sun never sets on the British Empire.” Originally the phrase was applied to the Spanish Empire, but eventually, it was usurped by the British Empire. At its height, the British Empire encompassed almost 25% of the land mass on the planet. And its height was not that long ago, not quite 100 years in the past. Some have tried to apply the adage to the United States, but it probably applies to the British the best. Even today, with Canada bordering one side of the Pacific Ocean and Australia on the other, and the United Kingdom on the Eastern Atlantic somewhere in between Canada and Australia, the sun is always shining on the empire.

I have never seen the fall of an empire. A least, not one that died with a crash. There was the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc of nations that existed thirty years ago. The Empire died, but not really. Any observer of modern politics and the furor currently happening in the United States understands the significant influence that Russia still holds over the world. The Soviet Union is gone, and some of the Eastern Bloc countries have moved to a more Western way of thinking and have wandered outside of Russian influence, but the Empire is still there.

The British Empire has shrunk and may shrink some more following the death of Queen Elizabeth, but it has not crashed. The United States might be an empire, they are currently the most powerful nation on the planet, but even she is not an empire that matches the glory of the empires of the past. Historically, empires have arisen, and then almost become too great to contain, and then crashed. Currently, they seem to die more with a whimper than crash. They fade away as another power grows. Currently, it is China and India that appear to be on the rise. Maybe they will make up the next great Empire of the Earth.

In Ezekiel’s lifetime, the Assyrian Empire crashed. In 626 B.C.E. the fall began. A little more than a decade later, Nineveh had fallen along with all of the large cities of the Assyrians, and it might have been more appropriate to speak of the Assyrian Resistance rather than the Assyrian Empire. And after another decade had passed, no one spoke of the Assyrians as a power.

Ezekiel, maybe twenty years after the end of the Empire speaks of the graves of the soldiers who used to be among the most feared fighters in the known world. The prophet made the Assyrian’s into a cautionary tale told to Empires who thought that their hold on power would last forever. No empire on earth is permanent. Ezekiel understood the truth that they had missed; at some point, all empires come to an end.     

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 33

Personal Note: Happy Birthday to my Wife, Nelda.

Which of the trees of Eden can be compared with you in splendor and majesty? Yet you, too, will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the earth below; you will lie among the uncircumcised, with those killed by the sword. “This is Pharaoh and all his hordes, declares the Sovereign LORD.” – Ezekiel 31:18

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 27, 2017): Ezekiel 31

For a period in the early 7^th Century B.C.E., Egypt was divided. The Nubians from the south, in and around what is currently known as Sudan, had invaded and taken control of Egypt in the mid 8^th Century B.C.E. But as the 7^th Century dawned, the Egyptians began to wrestle back partial control of their country, starting in the upper Delta area of the nation. In 664 B.C.E., the Nubian empire decided to try to re-establish control of Egypt. But the Assyrian Empire, at this point still on the rise in the Near East, moved into Egypt stopping the Nubian advance and allowing the Egyptians to regain control over their lands, albeit under the banner of the Assyrians.

Necho I, the Pharaoh of Egypt at the time of the Nubian advance, was killed in battle defending the Upper Delta area of Egypt, so his son, Psamtik I is credited with the reunification of Egypt. Before Psamtik would die in 610 B.C.E., the Assyrians would be in serious decline and no longer able to rule over any of the African nations. Egypt had once again become the master of their fates.  

Then came the warrior kings. Psamtik I’s son, Necho II, fought campaigns in Asia, hoping to stem the tide of the growing Babylonian threat. Eventually, he lost in battle to Babylonians, but overall he improved the position of Egypt on the world stage through his reign. His son, Psamtik II fought again against the Nubians in a “you better not ever think about coming north again” type of battle. He won decisively, further securing Egypt’s borders.

And then, in 589 B.C.E., Apries, who Jeremiah calls Hophra, took the stage. There is evidence that he wanted to continue the warrior traits of his ancestors, but he just didn’t seem to be very good at it. Ezekiel 31, like many of the prophecies that surround it, was probably written just after the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E., or just three years after Apries rose to power in Egypt. Ezekiel’s message to the new Pharaoh is that the king had interpreted a majestic kingdom. (Ezekiel 31:18 is actually the answer to the question posed by the prophet in Ezekiel 31:2 - “Who can be compared with you in majesty?”) Apries had inherited a majestic kingdom, but the kingdom would be felled, and Apries would die with the uncircumcised (likely a term being loosely used by Jeremiah to indicate an undesirable and foreign people group to Egypt rather than the more technical usage of the phrase meaning people from outside of Israel. Strictly speaking, the Egyptian population was uncircumcised.)

All of this would come true. First, Apries would be deposed as king by a commoner named Amasis I. And then he would die fighting alongside the Babylonian armies trying to regain his kingdom, a fate that Apries most likely could not have dreamed might come true as he rose to power over a majestic Egypt that had been built by his father and his father’s father.

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 26, 2017): 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 sometimes seems to 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 probably his father. In following of Djoser’s footsteps, Sekhemkhet also started to build his own pyramid, but the pyramid was never completed, perhaps 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 construction of these strange looking buildings.

By the time that Ezekiel was writing his prophecies, 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 builder, 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 strong 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

Egypt will no longer be a source of confidence for the people of Israel but will be a reminder of their sin in turning to her for help. Then they will know that I am the Sovereign LORD.’” – Ezekiel 29:16

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 25, 2017): Ezekiel 29

Hermann Goering, German politician, military leader, and a leading member of the Nazi Party, once commented that “we (Adolf Hitler’s Nazis) will go down in history either as the world's greatest statesmen or its worst villains.” From our point in the timeline, we know the judgment of history on Goering and his Nazi compatriots. At his trial, Goering requested that the courts allow him to be executed by firing squad as a soldier. The court declined the request. Maybe they felt that the worst of villains didn’t deserve to be treated like soldiers. Goering was sentenced to be executed on October 16, 1946, by hanging. He would end up committing suicide by poison the night on October 15. The thought of being hanged was not something that Goering could allow.

Goering was right. The men that he saw as statesmen, we now consider to be some of the most evil men who have ever lived on the planet. And those who followed their lead during World War II are still paying the price. But, if Germany had won the war, history would have recorded events much differently. Many writers over time have set out to write that story, that alternate timeline, where Hitler rules all of Europe and eventually the rest of the world. It is a horrifying thought, and a story through which, luckily, none of us have been forced to live.

We have a few struggles with the book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel’s vision of the Temple to replace the one that had been destroyed is one of the problems. That Temple, which is really allegorical instead of literal, has never been built. But we also struggle with the things that he writes about Egypt because, at least with the history that we hold in our hands, his predicted events did not happen. Ezekiel speaks of a time when Egypt would be a barren wasteland, when Nebuchadnezzar would defeat Egypt the same way that he had defeated Judah. Our problem is that, at least according to our history, those events simply did not happen. Nebuchadnezzar fought his way into Egypt and possibly even stood at the throne of power, but he did not stay, and there was no exile and barren wasteland that used to be Egypt.

All of this leaves us wondering what it was that Ezekiel was reporting in his prophecy. Was his prophecies of Egypt meant to be allegorical? Or is it possible that history has been written in such a way as to minimize the events that took place in Egypt during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, possibly to give more glory to the Persians who defeated Babylon and were able to wrest control of Egypt away from the Egyptians.

The bottom line is that we don’t know the answer. What we do know is that soon after Ezekiel makes this prophecy, the last great Pharaoh before the advent of the Persian Empire takes the stage in Egypt. Amasis II reigned in Egypt for the forty year period (actually forty-four years from 570 B.C.E until 526 B.C.E.) about which Ezekiel seems to be speaking. He was of common origins according to the Greek historian Herodotus. His son, Psamtik III, would ascend to the throne after his death and would reign for six months before he would lose the empire to the Persians. It was at that moment that this part of the prophecy was fulfilled – the people of Israel could no longer look to Egypt for help, which Ezekiel says should serve as a reminder that they should never have been looking there for help in the first place.

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 24, 2017): Ezekiel 28

  . 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 a part, the important question is how fast could the rise of Daniel 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 initially 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 (written somewhere around the ten to fifteen-year mark.)

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, an intelligent 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 a 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 found 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. This, of course, assumes that there are no other undiscovered documents that mention Danel that Ezekiel was aware of but which are now forgotten. 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 appear 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 the stories that were taught to the children that described the appearance of real wisdom. 

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 29

Your oarsmen take you out to the high seas. But the east wind will break you to pieces far out at sea. – Ezekiel 27:26

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 23, 2017): Ezekiel 27

In “Bleak House,” Charles Dickens describes the East Wind as the harbinger of bad events. At one point the character, Mr. Jarndyce, makes this observation:

"My dear Rick," said Mr. Jarndyce, poking the fire, "I'll take an oath it's either in the east or going to be. I am always conscious of an uncomfortable sensation now and then when the wind is blowing in the east."

Growing up on the North American Prairies, the prevailing wind was from the West. The wind blew off of the Pacific Ocean, and the rose up and over the Rocky Mountains, dropping most of its moisture on the west side of the mountain range before it dived down the east side of the mountain range and over the plain. Sometimes, the West Wind came in the form of a Chinook, bringing with it a drastic change in weather, usually in a pleasant way. In the middle of winter, a Chinook wind could bring with it a forty degree warming in a matter of hours. What started as a bitterly cold day could end with people enjoying the outdoors without even a light jacket. But occasionally, the wind did blow from the East. And when it did, it was time to take cover because a storm was coming and, often, it was a substantial one.

Ezekiel continues his prophecy over Tyre, and he tells them that their oarsmen had taken them out to the high sea. The meaning hiding behind the description is that Tyre was being led by competent people. The leaders of Tyre had built a financial empire in the city that existed on a firm foundation. But no matter how strong the financial empire and how competent the leadership of the city might have been, they were no match for the East Wind.

In the mind of Ezekiel, the East Wind was likely Babylon. Judah had fallen to the East Wind, but they would not fall alone. The danger of the East wind was going to blow through the region, bringing destruction to the entire area. When the East Wind blows, it seldom blows on just one area. It is a general wind, and few will be able to escape its destruction. Babylon was coming and had come, and the region needed to prepare for what would happen next.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 28

In the eleventh month of the twelfth year, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me … - Ezekiel 26:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 22, 2017): Ezekiel 26

Today is May 22, 2017. Not many in the Western World would question what that means. Commonly when we give a date we omit the last part of the official nomenclature. When I was young, the final part of the date was summed up by the letters A.D. which stands for anno Domini, or more fully “anno Domini nostri Iesu (or Jesu) Christi,” a medieval Latin phrase that means “in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ.” In the West, all of history has been dated from the time of Christ, the events after Christ traditionally symbolized by A.D. (anno Domini) and earlier events symbolized by the letters B.C. (or before Christ). Now, we have changed that nomenclature. Recognizing that we live in a multicultural society, we have erased the idea of the “year of our Lord” in our dating of events with the phrase the “common era” symbolized by the letters C.E. (In Christian circles, often the letters C.E. are interpreted to mean the “Christian Era.”) But the reality is that no matter what letters we might use to describe the date, in our culture time has been counted from the time of the life of Jesus Christ.

Time has always been counted from some significant event, often it is defined as the years that have passed since the current sovereign began his or her reign. Ezekiel gives us a date in a very modern way. The date does not contain the second part, the A.D. or C.E. of time counting. He actually gave us that in the first chapter of his prophecy. Ezekiel is counting time from the second exile and the “year of the exile of King Jehoiachin” (Ezekiel 1:2). This was the moment when everything, in the mind of Ezekiel, really started to go wrong. In modern terms, this was 597 B.C.E (before the Common or Christian era and the modern way of counting time) which dates these events to 585 B.C.E or shortly after the destruction of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple and final exile.

In this case, Ezekiel is dating a prophecy against the city of Tyre for their behavior during the destruction of the city. By dating this prophecy, Ezekiel intends to remind his readers that this prophecy is uttered soon after the destruction of the city and the taunts of Tyre. For Ezekiel, this is not ancient history, this has just happened, and the events are fresh in his mind and the hurt is fresh as the prophet struggles emotionally with the events of the past year of his life.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 27

Remember, LORD, what has happened to us; look, and see our disgrace. – Lamentations 5:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 21, 2017): Lamentations 5

In 1775, the Second Continental Congress proclaimed a National Day of Prayer and Fasting to be observed on July 20, 1775. Tension had been rising between the North American Colonies and England for the better part of a decade over the control of taxation monies raised in North America. And in 1775, Congress seems to have wanted to declare a pause. The first shots of the American War of Independence had already been fired, but an American Declaration of Independence was still almost a year away. In the midst of this conflict, the leaders of the English Colonies made this declaration.

This Congress, therefore considering the present critical, alarming and calamitous state of these Colonies, do earnestly recommend that, Thursday, the twentieth day of July next, be observed by the inhabitants of all the English Colonies on this Continent, as a day of publick (sic) humiliation, fasting and prayer; that we may, with united hearts and voices, unfeignedly confess and deplore our many sins, and offer up our joint supplications to the all-wise, omnipotent, and merciful Disposer of all events; humbly beseeching him to forgive our iniquities, to remove our present calamities, to avert those desolating judgments with which we are threatened, and to bless our rightful Sovereign, King George the Third, and inspire him with wisdom to discern and pursue the true interest of all his subjects, that a speedy end may be put to the civil discord between Great Britain and the American Colonies.

Of course, the civil discord did not end. The War of Independence would last another eight years before the two sides would come to an agreement, and the United States could actually claim the independence that they declared in 1776. Sometimes, we seem to have to move through the process before we can recognize the extent of our sins and obtain the mercy of our God.

Lamentations 5 is of a different character than the other four chapters of the book. The final chapter of the book is not a national dirge, which probably best describes Lamentations 1-4. This is a declaration of a national prayer for Judah. That God would look down on the destruction of his people; that he would see and have mercy on them.

God did have mercy, but that mercy did not lead to an immediate cessation of the exile of the people for whom Jeremiah was praying. The sins of the people had led them to this moment, and the exile would end, but not in this generation. It would be seventy more years before the first of the people began to return from Babylon to Judah. God’s forgiveness of his people was immediate, but his mercy had to be worked out through a process that meant the nation would spend seventy years in a strange land. And in that time, hopefully, break the habits that had made necessary this day of prayer in the first place.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 26

Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but my people have become heartless like ostriches in the desert. – Lamentations 4:3

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 20, 2017): Lamentations 4

As soldiers began to return home from the Crusades in the early 11^th or 12^th Century, they began to come back with a legendary story to tell alongside their own adventures. The story took place in Silene, Libya, because it was there, in a pond close to the town, that there lived a dragon. The dragon had poisoned the water supply for the town and he had brought plagues on the surrounding area and was causing havoc among the people who lived there. According to the story, a knight known only as Saint George happened to be passing by the town. A princess tried to warn the saint off, to stay away from the town, but he persisted on coming close to the lake. When the dragon showed himself, Saint George charged the dragon and battled the beast – and eventually was even able to tame the creator of the town’s misery.

The story spread as it was told at parties and anywhere else where people were willing to listen. Part of the attraction was that there was probably no animal that was feared more than a dragon. It is thought that the legend of the dragon probably arose from a number of factors. The presence but not clearly understood Nile crocodile was one element in the development of the legends of dragons. The fire-breathing version of the dragon may have risen from the spitting Cobra – and all of this is augmented by bones of whales, or even dinosaurs to create the mythical creature that scared the children as they went to bed – and gave Saint George a proving ground for his sword.

While the NIV chooses to translate the Hebrew word “tanniyn” as a jackal, a better translation of the passage might be a dragon. Jeremiah’s description is that even a dragon, one of the most feared animals on the face of the earth, knew how to care for its young. The idea is that the fiercest of beasts that this world has ever imagined, these dragons that have captured the imagination of a planet and have been long feared by the human race - even these animals know how to care for their young.

Judah desired to be a dragon; they wanted to be a force that had to be dealt with in the world. And so they had picked up some practices that they thought made them strong. And one of the practices they had adopted seemed to be a lack of care for the weak of their society. Somehow they had come to believe that caring for the vulnerable made them weak. But Jeremiah pushes back. He says to Israel that they are not dragons, they are ostriches. An ostrich lays its eggs and then leaves the eggs unguarded to be trampled on by whatever happens to come along. Jeremiah looks at his nation and says “you want to be dragons, but all you really are is ostriches.”

The Bible continually raises the image of the weak among us. God wants us to be strong, but the reality is that if we are really strong, we will not overlook those who are weak – the young and the old and the challenged with whom we share this planet. And I am convinced that this is one of the places where the contemporary church is failing. We know that the weak are among us, but they test our patience. We don’t mind if they worship with us, but we don’t want them to interfere with us because they don’t think the same way that we do. We draw a very clear line between the weak and the strong when God says that there is no line. Our community will always contain both those who are in need and those who are affluent. And sometimes we will be strong – and sometimes we will be weak. But the good news is that God has created us to be dragons and not ostriches. And that means that when we are strong, and part of that strength is that we will care for those who are weak. This is the reality in which we are designed to live.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Lamentations 5

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

Streams of tears flow from my eyes because my people are destroyed. – Lamentations 3:48

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 19, 2017): Lamentations 3

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in his allegorical fable “The Little Prince,” comments that “It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.” If you dare to put time into anything, that thing that consumes your time will become important. Some might argue the reverse, that we invest time into the things that we already believe are important, but either way, time spent becomes an evaluating tool of the things that we hold to be important.

For Jeremiah, the journey is complicated. In his Lamentation, he feels that God has personally crushed him and broken his bones (Lamentations 3:4). Then he realizes that God’s love is great; that God’s compassions never fail because they are fresh, new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23). There is a wind in Jeremiah’s sail that offers to lift him from the depression through which he traveling. And just as we think that the weeping prophet might find joy once again, his eyes land one more time on the broken city of Jerusalem – the city that had become the prophet’s rose and the recipient of copious amounts of the prophet’s time. And once again the tears begin to flow.

Jeremiah could have walked away from the city. He could have declared the word of the Lord and then left with the others who had abandoned the doomed city. But Jeremiah had decided to stay with the people of the city, hoping that, in the last act, the people would respond to appropriately to God and God might change his mind and stop the destruction. But neither had happened. Jeremiah’s rose didn’t just die, it was ripped and torn until the beauty that it had once possessed was utterly destroyed, and as far as Jeremiah was concerned, the destruction was permanent.

Jeremiah had given his time to the time to the city. Time invested had made the city important. And there was no ending moral of the story that made the destruction of the city a beautiful thing. Just over six hundred years after Jeremiah, another prophet would look at the rebuilt city of Jerusalem and once again weep because Jerusalem was about to be once again be destroyed.

As he [Jesus] approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.  The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you (Luke 19:41-44).”

Or maybe they did not recognize the time that God had invested in them, revealing their incredible importance to the Creator of the world.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Lamentations 4

The Lord has rejected his altar and abandoned his sanctuary. He has given the walls of her palaces into the hands of the enemy; they have raised a shout in the house of the LORD as on the day of an appointed festival. – Lamentations 2:7

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 18, 2017): Lamentations 2

A few centuries ago the debated question was whether or not it was possible that the earth actually circled the sun. The discussion was fierce. After all, the Bible said it was the sun that was in motion. And the Bible couldn’t be wrong. The Bible isn’t – but it does often describe what it is that we see and to some degree what it is that we feel. And no matter what the truth is – what we see is that the sun is in motion.

So Jeremiah continues his lament, and his cry is that God has left Israel – and has even abandoned his own temple and sanctuary. But the reality was that that was simply how it looked and felt. The truth was that Israel had long ago walked away from God. He had become nothing more than jewelry that they wore through life; a name that they mentioned and a tradition that they kept.

But the reality was that whether God had walked away, or whether the people had, the result was still the same. There was a distance between the people and God. The question that Jeremiah, and we, often seem to ask is “what is it that has caused God to walk away.” But in actuality God wasn’t the one in motion – the people are. We are the ones that have stopped taking the things of God seriously. We have walked away – it just feels like he has.

God has never wanted to be a compartment of our lives. He is not a charm we wear around our neck or a tradition that we keep. He is God; the author, creator and the critical component of who we are. He has never walked away – but we continually do.

We may feel like God has abandoned us. But the question that we really need to begin to ask is this – to where is it that I have moved? Because God has made a promise to us that he will always be close if that is where we want him to be.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Lamentations 3

Bitterly she weeps at night, tears are on her cheeks. Among all her lovers there is no one to comfort her. All her friends have betrayed her; they have become her enemies. – Lamentations 1:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 17, 2017): Lamentations 1

William Butler Yeats penned these words:

Come away, O human child:

To the waters and the wild with a fairy, hand in hand,

For the world's more full of weeping

than you can understand.

They are the words of one who knows the tragedy of life, and maybe, for a moment, wishes that he could be a child again. We all have those moments. The death of someone close, moments of disaster, a diagnosis of sickness, all of these shared elements of life and more have the power to drive us to tears and make us wish that we could return to the innocence that we once knew. But we also know and understand that weeping goes hand in hand with the pleasures of life: if we never love, then we would never know the pain of love lost. If we never know sadness, we will never know real happiness.

Jeremiah is often called the weeping prophet. His voice of woe – and his tears – were rejected during his lifetime. But the truth is that he had a lot to cry over. He stood at the tipping point of his civilization – he saw what was to come and, in the short term, all he saw was pain in the future of his nation – a nation that he loved.

It is impossible to watch the pain of those that we love and not weep. We all want and dream of the very best for those around us. And when that is interrupted – even when they are the ones that are at fault – all there is left is a deep sorrow. For some, the response is not to love – to hold everything at arm’s length and let nothing get close enough to cause the pain that might lead to tears. But the price of that lifestyle is high – if that is our response we will never enjoy the pleasure of love.

So Jeremiah dared to take the risk; he loved. He loved a nation – and a people. Their rebellion did not stop his love, and their pain was the cause of his tears. He cannot help but look down on the defeated city of Jerusalem and imagine the tears of the city crying with him. Both the prophet and the city cried bitterly over what might have been but wasn’t.

The Christian church is built on the same risk that Jeremiah too; it is based on love. The church balances itself on the point between our love for a God that decided to bend down to earth and redeem his creation, and the sure knowledge that his action was the cause of the death of his son; the one who came to save us was also the one who died. Our gatherings are celebrations – but they are also a reason to weep. And as we worship, both emotions are very appropriate.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Lamentations 2

This is what the LORD says: “See, I will stir up the spirit of a destroyer against Babylon and the people of Leb Kamai. – Jeremiah 51:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 16, 2017): Jeremiah 51

“Now I will tell you something very profound, which I have learned after many years. War makes murderers out of otherwise decent people. All wars, and all decent people.” The words belong to Ben Ferencz who holds the title of being “The Last Living Nazi War Crimes Prosecutor.” The implication is terrifying. There is no defense against War Crimes. All conflicts will produce them, no matter how good might be the people involved. For Ben Ferencz, the reality is that a natural outgrowth of the various Nazi War Crimes Tribunals is that they have convicted decent men who did something terrible.

Personally, I struggle with how far we have taken the prosecution of war crimes, especially Nazi War Crimes. There is no doubt that those at the top of the chains of command needed to pay for their crimes. But now, when it comes to Nazi trials that have grown out of World War II, it seems that we have no one left to prosecute other than those who were victimized in a very different way – those who never killed, but stood aside and did nothing as others killed. Men and women who were scared to death that if they spoke up, they would find themselves prisoners of a concentration camp or could even be put to death for their treason of not following orders. Morally, there is no doubt that they too are guilty, but at some point, we have to acknowledge that we may have done the same thing if we were forced to stand in their shoes. And many, at least those among Ben Ferencz’s decent people, pay a price every day for the things that they did not do to help those who were being killed. No court can absolve them or punish them more than they have already been punished. Maybe, for the last of these war criminals, now all in their nineties, it is time to stand up and say, “Yes, you are guilty, but the matter ends here. We are not going to prosecute; we are going to forgive.” It is far easier not to forgive, but easy is not the path that we need to follow.

Violence always begets violence, even when that violence is done to enforce the morality of the society. It has always been that way. God’s words to Jeremiah, “I will stir up a destroyer” is actually a good description of how the world works. Assyria did violence to the world in which she lived. Babylon received the violence and in the end passed it on to Assyria and the rest of the Near East. Babylon’s violence would result in a destroyer being stirred up to react against Babylon, this time it would be a Persian response. Persian violence would stir up a destroyer from Greece, and Greek violence would stir up a destroyer from among the Romans.

In the last century, we have watched the same principle over and over again. German violence in World War I stirred up a destroyer from among the France, the United States and British Commonwealth. The violence of these powers set the stage for Hitler who once again brought German violence to the international arena. German violence stirred up the destroyers of the countries we consider to be the Super-Powers, the United States and the Soviet Union, now Russia. The reaction to these powers has stirred up a destroyer from among the Islamic nations. At some point, we have to be able to stand up as a world community and say enough. There can be no more violence if our fragile planet is to survive. Because even violence of a moral nature just stirs up another destroyer, and that we just can’t afford.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Lamentations 1

“Announce and proclaim among the nations, lift up a banner and proclaim it; keep nothing back, but say, ‘Babylon will be captured; Bel will be put to shame, Marduk filled with terror. Her images will be put to shame and her idols filled with terror.’ – Jeremiah 50:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 15, 2017): Jeremiah 50

In ancient times, the war on earth was really a battle between the gods. The belief was that if your god is strong enough, then he (or she, but in ancient times most often he) will not allow your forces to be defeated. The people fought and died in the wars between nations, but it was the strength of the gods that was on trial.

So the plea Judah was often a cry for the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to stand up and defend his honor by helping his people to win their battles with the nations. Often, God responded. It was God who divided the Red Sea in the time of Moses, allowing the people of Israel to escape across dry land while drowning the Egyptian army that trailed behind. Yahweh won over the gods of Egypt. God stood beside David throughout his reign, maintaining the secure borders of the King in spite of David’s weaknesses, and winning a victory over the gods of the nations who surrounded Israel. During the reign of Hezekiah, God miraculously defended the city of Jerusalem against the Assyrian Empire’s siege of the city and the power of the gods of Assyria. All of this was evidence of the strength of Yahweh, the God of Israel and Judah.

But, by the same measure, the loss of Jerusalem at the hand of Babylonians would have been interpreted as a weakness of God. Yahweh did not measure up to Marduk, the national God of Babylon. Therefore, it was Marduk’s strength that allowed for the victory of Babylon over the forces of Yahweh. This was definitely the belief of Nebuchadnezzar as he advanced his empire. He even named his son Amel-Marduk in honor of Babylon’s god. The Marduk and Bel mentioned in this passage are actually different names for the same god. Marduk was identified with Jupiter among the planets and was addressed as the King of heaven and earth.”

In Judah, the loss of Jerusalem forced the people, and the prophets, to begin to search for another answer. The most common response was that Yahweh had temporarily relinquished control of Judah and Jerusalem in an attempt to get the attention of his people. Nebuchadnezzar had been a tool of God used for that purpose. But there was no doubt that the situation that Judah was experiencing was temporary. Yahweh had a plan, even if the exiles did not understand that plan.

Jeremiah’s prophecy is simple. Yahweh may have allowed for the defeat of Judah, but it was not because of the vast power of Marduk (or Bel). The god of Babylon had no power over the God of Judah. The time was coming, and it was not far off, when the house of Nebuchadnezzar would fall. To make his point, according to James Burton Coffman, Jeremiah uses a word here for an idol that is a favorite of Jeremiah’s contemporary, Ezekiel. Literally, Jeremiah calls the idols of Marduk “balls of dung.” The implication is obvious. Don’t depend on excrement with your destiny. Excrement will always fail you in the end.

Nebuchadnezzar’s Empire did not last long after the King’s death. Nabopolassar took Babylon away from the Assyrians. Nebuchadnezzar II, the son of Nabopolassar, made the city-state into an empire. Amel- Marduk, the son of Nebuchadnezzar II, reigned two short years after the death of his father before he was murdered, and then kingship went to those who were not descended from Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar. And by 539 B.C.E, just under fifty years after the fall of Jerusalem, the Babylonian Empire came to a halt – Bel was put to shame, and Marduk was filled with terror.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 51

There on the poplars we hung our harps … - Psalm 137:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 14, 2017): Psalm 137

Don McLean has long stayed out of the interpretation game when it comes to his classic hit “American Pie.” While other have found the seed of many post-World War II events hidden within the words of the song, McLean has maintained his dignified silence with what his creation might have meant as he penned the lyrics. It is rumored that when McLean was one asked what the song meant, McLean’s response was “American Pie means that I never have to work again unless I want to.” However, the folk singer has admitted that in writing the song he has exorcised some of the grief that he felt on “the day the music died,” – the February 3, 1959, plane crash that claimed the lives of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J. P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson. For Don Mclean, the day the music died was the next day, February 4 as the thirteen-year-old McLean attempted to make his rounds delivering the very papers that were telling the story of the plane crash. In the song, the experience is conveyed with the line “February made me shiver with every paper I’d deliver.” McLean dedicated the album “American Pie” to Buddy Holly as an act of remembering the influence that Holly gave to music during his short life (Holly was just 22 on “the day the music died”).

For those of born after “the day the music died,” the song gives us the opportunity to relive the impact that February 3, 1959, had on the world. Through the poetry of McLean, we are given a chance to experience the day that the world learned of the death of the musicians. We didn’t get to experience it first hand, but we get to experience the event through the eyes of Don McLean and the beauty of his poetry.

Psalm 137 offers us a similar experience. The Psalmist describes the utter desolation of what it meant to be torn from your home and forced to move to a foreign land, and it does it with a poetical power that allows us to experience the despair of the ones who were there. We get to weep with these immigrants who wept over 2500 years ago; we feel their emotion and taste their tears.

The NIV translates the word “`arab” as “poplar,” but other translations opt for “willow.” Both are appropriate, the term could equally apply to either, but willow might be the more poetic translation of the word. Willow paints a word picture of a tree that weeps along with the musicians who have gathered underneath it drooping limbs. The musicians hang their instruments on the tree with no intention of playing music. Maybe the wind through the branches of the willow tree could produce a moaning tune that was more appropriate for this place beside the rivers of Babylon than anything that the displaced musicians could try to create. In the days before, their music had filled the temple, but now there was no room for music in their lives. Not here by the rivers of Babylon; not now, after the day that the music had died.   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 50   

How long, LORD? Will you be angry forever? How long will your jealousy burn like fire? – Psalm 79:5

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 13, 2017): Psalm 79

In her 1969 book, On Death and Dying, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross postulated that there were five stages of grief and loss. The stages she identified were Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and finally Acceptance. The idea was that whenever we suffer any catastrophic loss, we move through the five stages from beginning to end. It is quite simply the way that we are designed – it is what is supposed to happen to us.

In reading the Bible, we need to be continually reminded that there are human emotions behind the words – and while this is true in all of the books of the Bible, maybe it is particularly the case in the Psalms. This Psalm was probably written somewhere around 586 B.C.E., just after the destruction of the Temple and the fall of Jerusalem. There was a sense of intense loss in the country. And the tone of the Psalm also tells us that the stages of loss had been engaged. The nation had been in denial about the situation in Jerusalem ever since the Babylonian had first come into the city and carried away the best and the brightest that Jerusalem had to offer. But now, looking at the smoke of the buildings that had been burned by their enemies, the people of Jerusalem seemed to have moved quickly from denial into an expression of anger, bargaining and now depression. How long will your anger burn against your children? How long before the relationship can be mended.

Officially this Psalm is labeled as a complaint Psalm – the Psalmist is complaining to God about their situation. And it is part of the typical sequence of loss and pain. Someone once commented to me that we need to be careful in our complaints against God. And I understand the danger, and yet the Bible itself is filled with complaints. And if Elisabeth Kubler-Ross is right and these stages are just the way that we are designed – that these stages are supposed to happen – then I think that God understands that. He understands our stages of grief because he is the one who placed those stages inside of us. God knows our pain better than we do.

So, for the Psalmist, this is great news. It means that the complaint he has in his heart is natural, and, if this is the onset of depression, the poet is just one step away from the final stage – acceptance. And with the arrival of the last stage of loss and grief, he can begin to learn from the situation from which he has now emerged. Acceptance can never be seen as just a realization that this is life and there is nothing that I can do to change it. It is not a reliance on the forces of fate that are beyond our control and tend to lead us toward helplessness. That kind of acceptance can only result in future failure. Acceptance of the situation needs to come with an understanding that we can learn and grow through even adverse circumstances of our lives.

For the Psalmist, the complaint is a result of the feeling of abandonment. But God had never left. And when he arrived at acceptance he would see God and the wealth of things that God had for him – and for his nation. Acceptance may be the last stage – but it isn’t the end. It is then that we really begin to learn and set up the rest of our lives.   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 137      

We are given no signs from God; no prophets are left, and none of us knows how long this will be. – Psalm 74:9

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 12, 2017): Psalm 74

According to some, Stephen Hawking has become the father of the modern-day doomsday prophets. Recently, Hawking informed us that we need to find another planet on which to live within the next century. Apparently, that is all the life that he believes that this world has left in it, so it is time for the people of the Earth to make plans to move (raising the stakes for the intended colonization of Mars proposed for the next few decades). For Hawking, either we have passed the point where the planet can be saved, or we are simply unwilling to listen and make the changes necessary to save the Earth. Or, more likely, Hawking’s warning is supposed to be the shock message that will spark us into action and save the world before it is too late.

Unfortunately, we hear words like Hawking’s, usually with a much longer timeline, and routinely ignore them. We trust that something will happen to change the prediction. Science will find a magic pill that will reverse the damage that we have done to our atmosphere long before the air becomes too poisoned for us to breathe, or before climate change creates either a planet full of violent storms or one with a runaway greenhouse effect that has become a hothouse too warm for life (just like science will develop a magic pill that will allow me to lose weight and stay in shape without diet or exercise.) But the reality is that if nothing changes, the day will come when a select few will leave the planet on a new Ark in order to save the human race. And when that time comes, probably more than a hundred years in the future, but maybe not much more, we won’t be able to say that we didn’t hear the message. Our only reaction will be that we refused to listen.

The Psalmist makes some amazing comments in his psalm of lament. He starts by complaining that there were no signs from God, nothing was witnessed that had led the people to believe that this might happen. The scripture record seems to full of exhortations to the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to follow the teachings of God. And all of Judah had watched as the Northern Kingdom had been carried into captivity by Assyria for their disobedience. Surely there were signs from God; signs that had been ignored.

The second surprising comment was that there were no prophets left. But it is likely that, at the time of the writing of the Psalm, Jeremiah was still active in Judah, and Ezekiel was prophesying in either Judah or Babylon. And even if Jeremiah and Ezekiel were gone, they had never listened to the words of the prophets anyway. The prophets spoke and were routinely ignored. Judah had refused to listen to the words that proceeded from the mouths of the prophets.

Such seems to be the fate of prophets of every age. We hear the prophets when they speak words that we want to hear, and we ignore them when their message becomes inconvenient. And it doesn’t matter if the prophet’s names are Jeremiah, Ezekiel, or Stephen Hawking. We just refuse to hear.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 79