Some of the elders of Israel came to me and sat down in front of me. – Ezekiel 14:1

Today's Scripture Reading (May 9, 2020): Ezekiel 14

They walked into the church together, armed with huge Bibles held tightly under the arms. I knew they were coming. Or maybe that might be better phrased that I had been warned that they were coming. The service was to remember the life of a little girl who had died suddenly and tragically, and these men were her extended family. They were also the leaders of a small Christian community who confessed a belief in only the 1611 Authorized Version of the Bible. And for this funeral, I was instructed to put all other versions of the Bible away.

The father of the little girl was also the son of the leader of this Christian movement. He was the one who had asked me to preside over the funeral, but he had also instructed me to do so carefully. These men believed that they were superior to everyone else in attendance at the funeral. And that their way was the only path to heaven. The grandfather of the child also preached that his son, who had left dad's movement, choosing to attend a mainline Christian denomination with his wife, was living in sin. He had been corrupted by false translations of the Bible, like the New International Version. Because of their actions, the parents of the child had doomed their little girl to an eternity in hell.

We moved through the funeral, but, immediately following the service, I found myself face to face with one of the church leaders. He demanded that I tell him what version of the Bible I had used during the service. I replied that I had used the Authorized Version, which I had, although my black Authorized Version was a lot smaller than his. I am not sure that he believed me; he walked away from me, muttering that he did not recognize the words that I had read.

It is this meeting that comes to mind when I read of Ezekiel's meeting with the elders of Israel. These were the leaders of the Jewish community in exile in Babylon. They believed that they were superior to those who had left behind in Jerusalem. And maybe in some ways they were. This heightened sense of superiority might have been a direct result of the Babylonian practice of removing the national leaders from their target nations first. These might have been the leaders in Jerusalem before the exile, and now they believed that they were the leadership of Judah in exile.

But they also came with an agenda. These men believed that God was already on his way to free them from their Babylonian captivity and sending them back home to continue their lives there. And the purpose of their meeting with Ezekiel was to have the prophet confirm what they believed that they already knew; the elders wanted Ezekiel to confirm the date when they would be going home. Like someone proud of the big Bible they carry under their arm, these leaders in exile pretended that they wanted to hear what Ezekiel had to say, but only if the prophet spoke the words that they believed were true.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 15