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Micah 1:1

A Poor Man Can Make a Difference

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
December 18, 2022

A Poor Man can make a difference (Micah 1:1)

20 kings reigned over the nation of Judah after Solomon’s death. Zedekiah was the last one. During his reign, Babylon destroyed the city of Jerusalem and dismantled the temple. These kings were all descendants of David for the most part and it’s through this line that the Messiah is said to have come. During this period of Judah’s history, most of the kings “did what was evil” in the sight of the Lord and God raised prophets to confront them and call them back to righteousness. The prophets are usually identified by who was on the throne during their ministries to the country. Micah prophesied during the days of the 11th, 12th, and 13th kings; Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. Jotham is said to have been a good king overall. Ahaz was bad and Hezekiah was good. The first two reigned for 16 years each, but Hezekiah, another good king, reigned for 29 years. Now, Micah’s message, however, although delivered during the reigns of these three kings of the south, was not just concerning the capital city of Jerusalem. It was also concerning the capital city, Samaria, of the northern kingdom of Israel. Of the 19 kings that reigned in the north, none of them were said to have been good kings. They all “did what was evil” in the sight of the Lord. Hezekiah was the reigning king in Judah in 721-722 BC, when Samaria fell to the Assyrians. Micah’s prophecy begins, “The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.”

Micah was from Moresheth. “Moresheth was a small and obscure place in the foothills of southwestern Judah, and this probably means that Micah himself was a peasant farmer typical of the area. He would thus be one of the poor and oppressed groups who were ill-treated by the rich.”[1] He will speak about this abuse later in his prophecy. The UBS (United Bible Society) handbook suggests the phrase “concerning” might best be translated as “what was going to happen to Jerusalem and Samaria.” Micah is going to address their future of course, but he’s also going to point out “why” this is going to happen. I think the “why” is the most important part of Micah’s prophecy. Martin says, “These cities obviously represented all 12 tribes of the nation. The prophet denounced evil which was rampant throughout the nation. The Northern Kingdom had long before strayed from the covenant given through Moses. And the people in the Southern Kingdom were acting like their brothers and sisters to the north, failing to live according to the covenant.”[2]

The thing about Micah’s prophecy is that it concerned the fall of Samaria but was mostly addressed to the southern kingdom of Judah. Samaria, and the ten tribes of the north, were scattered. That kingdom would be no more because it did not keep the covenant God made with Israel. Judah was still in existence and it continued to live on as its own kingdom for another century. That happened because they listened to Micah’s message from God. I believe this might be the reason Hezekiah’s reign is considered to be one of the best ones. He listened to Micah. This is a bright spot in the history of Judah. While most of the other prophets were ignored, Jerusalem listened to Micah. Boice says the encouraging part is that “In Micah’s case the message of judgment was heeded, repentance followed, and the disaster was postponed for a century. Hosea and Amos were ignored. Jeremiah was imprisoned. But here was one prophet who was listened to and whose preaching, therefore, changed history. In coming to Micah we should be encouraged to learn that one man did make a difference.”[3]

[1] Clark, David J., and Norm Mundhenk. 1982. A Translator’s Handbook on the Book of Micah. UBS Handbook Series. London; New York: United Bible Societies.

[2] Martin, John A. 1985. “Micah.” In The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, edited by J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, 1:1477. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

[3] Boice, James  Montgomery. 2002. The Minor Prophets: An Expositional Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

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Jonah 1:1-2, 2 Kings 14:24-26

Salvation for all the People

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
December 17, 2022

God calls on his prophet, Jonah, and gives him a particular assignment regarding the wicked nation of Assyria, Israel’s enemy. The book opens with, “Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, ‘Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.’” We met this prophet in the book of 2 Kings, chapter 14. It appears he had a hand in helping a wicked king of the northern kingdom of Israel. Jeroboam II has a poor reference in the King’s passage. In verse 24 it says of him, “And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. He did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin.” Yet the text goes on to tell us that he reigned for 41 years. That’s a long reign for a wicked king of the north. It’s also said that he restored much territory to Israel that had been taken from them. This accomplishment had something to do with Jonah. We read in the 2 Kings passage, verses 25-26, “He restored the border of Israel from Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath-hepher.  For the Lord saw that the affliction of Israel was very bitter, for there was none left, bond or free, and there was none to help Israel.”

We can’t know the exact relationship that Jonah had with Jeroboam II, but it most likely was like that of other prophets and their kings. Nathan challenged David to repent of his sin. He did. Jehu challenged Baasha likewise without the best of results. Elijah always confronted Ahab and Jezebel regarding their evil actions. Elisha followed in his footsteps in dealing with kings. Amos, Isaiah, and Jeremiah were also involved with the ministry to wicked kings. Nixon summarizes the relationship between Jeroboam II and Jonah. She writes, “Set within this broader context of continuous conflict outlined for us in 1 and 2 Kings, the Israelite king Jeroboam II was asserting his power in the face of external threat and internal weakness by strengthening Israel’s national borders. Israel stood alone, bitterly afflicted, and without a helper. The willingness of a compassionate God ‘to save Israel’ by restoring her borders, despite the habitual wickedness of King Jeroboam II, shines through in the story in 2 Kings 14. Israel is delivered by the word of the Lord through the hand of Jonah and by the hand of Jeroboam.”[1]

Jonah’s prophecy as seen in 2 Kings was one of God’s plans of salvation for His people. As Knight observes, “His prophecy shows him to be a prophet of salvation for Israel and, by implication, one of judgment for the nations.”[2] God has always wanted it to be known that he was the faithful savior of all the people. God extends an offer of salvation before he brings judgment. Not only was this the case with those who perished in the days of Noah, but it was also the case with the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Before God scattered the tribes of Israel throughout the world and allowed the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, he sent prophet after prophet to make the clear offer of salvation to all who would repent. But God’s offer of salvation extends even to Israel’s enemies. God is going to send this prophet of salvation to the capital city of Israel’s enemy to offer an opportunity for salvation before judgment. To Jonah’s dismay, as well as the nation of Israel itself, Nineveh will repent.

[1] Nixon, Rosemary A. 2003. The Message of Jonah: Presence in the Storm. Edited by Alec Motyer, Derek Tidball. The Bible Speaks Today. England: Inter-Varsity Press.

[2] Knight, George Angus Fulton, and Friedemann W. Golka. 1988. Revelation of God. International Theological Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI; Edinburgh: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co.; Handsel Press.

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Obadiah 1:1, Romans 8:28

God Deals with Bullies!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
December 16, 2022

The message that Obadiah brings to Judah, the southern kingdom, comes to him in a vision. He speaks for God here. The message concerns Edom. Edom is the name of the descendants of Esau. I always remember that this is a prophecy of judgment on Edom by the saying, “Edom was bad, so God sent Obadiah.” The emphasis is the saying in on the word “bad.” Esau was Jacob’s twin brother. Their struggle began in Rebekah’s womb. They contended with each other having different interests in life, and Jacob tricked their father Isaac into bestowing on him the family blessing, which generally would have been Esau’s. Jacob fled from his brother for his life to Haran, where he married Rachel and Leah and brought the twelve patriarchs into the world. Their animosity kept them apart even when Jacob moved back to the promised land. There seems to have been a continual struggle between Judah and Israel against their distant relatives, the Edomites. Ogilvie describes the Edomites, “They were a hard, earthy people, proud, cruel, and fierce. There is no evidence that they had any religion. Their problem was not syncretism with other gods; they had no gods at all. The only thing that bordered on religious fervor was their concentrated, persistent, bitter hatred against Israel. They fostered and perpetuated an implacable feud with the descendants of Jacob that was expressed repeatedly throughout the evolving history of the two nations.”[1]

Edom was bad throughout the history of their relationship with Israel. This specific time most likely refers to Jerusalem’s destruction and the Temple’s dismantling. The Babylonians were instruments in God’s hands in judging Judah, just as the Assyrians were instruments in God’s hands in judging the northern kingdom of Israel. But while the Babylonians were killing and enslaving the Judeans, some were fleeing for their lives. A contingent escaped into Egypt before the Babylonian Army enslaved them. But Edom would attack those fleeing Jerusalem and kill the stragglers. The Apocryphal book of Esdras says that the Edomites even helped destroy the Temple. This moved God to bring similar judgment on Edom. They would not be excused from their cruelty to those fleeing for their lives. Edom would be held accountable. As descendants of Esau, Edom were relatives of Judeans, the descendants of his brother Jacob. God thought it particularly appalling that a brother would attack another brother when they most needed help. Kicking your enemy when they are down is not pleasing to God. God sent Obadiah to tell Edom they had not escaped God’s judgment. “The vision of Obadiah. Thus says the Lord God concerning Edom: We have heard a report from the Lord, and a messenger has been sent among the nations: ‘Rise up! Let us rise against her for battle!’”

God is truly sovereign over all nations. Bridger says, “God is not at work in some things in history but in all of history; in all its events, processes, agents and actors.” All the nations are tools He uses to accomplish his will, “in war and peace, in the rise and fall of Empires, in the powerful and the powerless, in all things both good and bad. The decisive thing however is that it is God acting always in his own character; the One who is holy and just, wise and good.”[2] We do not always understand what God is doing and why, but we are called to live by faith. We are called to trust God to be working all “things together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose,” as Paul says in Romans 8:28.

[1] Ogilvie, Lloyd J., and Lloyd J. Ogilvie. 1990. Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah. Vol. 22. The Preacher’s Commentary Series. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.

[2] Bridger, Gordon. 2010. The Message of Obadiah, Nahum and Zephaniah: The Kindness and Severity of God. Edited by Alec Motyer and Derek Tidball. The Bible Speaks Today. Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity Press.

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Amos 1:1, Zechariah 14:5

Amos and the Earthquake!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
December 15, 2022

Amos was a shepherd and a farmer. He was not a trained religious leader. He was not a recognized prophet, and he did not sit with the elders or the sons of the elders. He had no credentials that might make others listen to him. Amaziah, the King of Judah, challenged him, and he answered, “Amos answered and said to Amaziah, ‘I was no prophet, nor a prophet’s son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. But the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’” Guzik comments, “The way God used Amos reminds us of the way He used the twelve disciples of Jesus—common, workingmen used to do great things for God.”[1] Amos, the keeper of sheep and the dresser of fig-trees, did what God told him to do and said what God told him to say. The opening verse introduces him and the time of his ministry. It says, “The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah and the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.”

It looks like Amos is speaking to the northern kingdom, Israel, with its capital in Samaria. But the Septuagint suggests it was written to Jerusalem which is the capital of the southern kingdom. There is a lot we could say on both sides of that issue, but it seems to me that if the writer goes out of his way to mention the kings at the time of both Israel in the north and Judah in the south, we can easily conclude that it was for both kingdoms. The message is relevant to both nations as well as to us in the 21st Century. He spoke during the reign of Uzziah in the southern kingdom of Judah and during the reign in the north of Jeroboam II, who was Joash’s son. Their reigns overlapped for fifteen years, from 767 BC to 753 BC. He spoke to them soon after a catastrophic event occurred that was remembered by all.

Amos’ message is dated two years before the earthquake. Zechariah, the prophet concludes his warning on the coming of the day of the Lord with the picture of a great earthquake that will split the Mount of Olives in half. Then in Zechariah 14:5, he says, “And you shall flee to the valley of my mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach to Azal. And you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.” Bentley helps put this in perspective for us. He writes, “On 11th September 2001 a man-made disaster changed the modern world. On that day a group of evil terrorists flew two airliners into the Twin Towers of New York. When that awful thing happened the whole world knew about it—and many people even watched these dreadful events unfolding before their eyes.” He goes on to say that the news media did a survey and found that 73% of those surveyed admitted that this event “has changed everything forever.” This must have been the effect that the earthquake had on Judah and Israel. It was etched in the memory of the people of the region.

Bentley goes on to say the earthquake “…also served as a ‘divine reinforcement of the words of judgment.’”[2] In 2004 an earthquake that reached 9 on the Richter scale brought massive tsunamis in its aftermath and killed 230 thousand people in 14 different countries in Indonesia. There have been lesser earthquakes around the world all the result of sin. Let me explain. Sin brought God’s curse upon the whole earth. Hayford explains, “All aspects of the curse are the result of man’s fall and not the design of God’s original creation order. God cannot be blamed for what mankind has allowed to invade an originally perfect order. The whole spectrum of fallen-brokenness is due to the impact of sin, which separated this planet and its inhabitants from our Creator. Harmful things are judgments, because they are a part of sin’s tragic impact on what God made.”[3]

[1] Guzik, David. 2000. Amos. David Guzik’s Commentaries on the Bible. Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik.

[2] Bentley, Michael. 2006. Opening up Amos. Opening Up Commentary. Leominster: Day One Publications.

[3] https://www.jackhayford.org/teaching/articles/are-earthquakes-natural-disasters-or-the-result-of-judgment-for-sin/

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Joel 1:1-2

God has Something to Say

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
December 14, 2022

The Christian life is indeed a “joyful” life. The Bible makes it clear that God wants us to be joyful. The Psalms are filled with spontaneous joy and triumph. The gospel accounts are filled with the joy that comes from the Good News of Jesus. In John 15:11, Jesus himself said, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” Acts 13:52 tells us of the disciple’s experience sharing their faith, “And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.” But, I’m afraid that Ogilvie is right. “There is a tendency in our day to think that being a Christian should put us on a route bypassing the distresses of life. But shallow triumphalism does not help in the depths of difficulties. If God is only for the up, successful, hurrah times of life, He is excluded from three-fourths of our lives. Joel helps us stand at the intersection of the two tracks of life when painful, heartbreaking things happen.” In Joel, God “has something to say to us.”[1] “The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel: Hear this, you elders; give ear, all inhabitants of the land! Has such a thing happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers?”

The message that God calls us all to hear begins with the observation that something has fallen on God’s people that has never happened before. Things that come into my life are often things I’ve not seen before and could not have imagined. All hardships and pains are fresh and new to the one experiencing them. McGee explains what has happened, “Apparently, Israel was in the midst of a great locust plague at this time. Locust plagues were rather commonplace in that land, but Joel calls to the old men and says, ‘Did anything like this ever happen in your day? Did it happen in the day of your fathers? Have you ever heard anything like this locust plague?’ Of course, they had to say, ‘No, this is the worst we’ve ever had.’”[2] Joel will describe this terrible event but then use it as an illustration of what will yet be future. One of my Hebrew professors comments, “The opening chapter describes the effects of a severe locust plague which had swept over the land, destroying the agricultural produce on which both man and beast so heavily depended for survival. This disaster signaled an even worse calamity to come—the destructive day of the Lord.”[3]

Many of the Old Testament prophets addressed the religious leaders or the political leaders. Yet some talk specifically to the whole nation or the individual as part of the nation. Baker says, “Joel’s message is to the latter, to the nation represented by various strands in society, from religious and political leaders through production workers to inebriates. All society needs to hear God’s warnings and join in national lament for the destruction facing them. This derives from a horrible plague, not of disease but of nature, in the form of locust swarms.”[4] It’s hard to imagine God bringing the curse of locusts on his own people after having delivered them from Egypt by using a locust plague as one of the means of bringing Pharoah to his knees before the God of Israel. But Guzik observes, “If we are accurate in thinking that Joel prophesied in 835 b.c. then the judgment he described came toward the end of the six-year reign of ungodliness under Queen Athaliah. No wonder God brought a heavy hand on Judah!”[5]

[1] Ogilvie, Lloyd J., and Lloyd J. Ogilvie. 1990. Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah. Vol. 22. The Preacher’s Commentary Series. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.

[2] McGee, J. Vernon. 1991. Thru the Bible Commentary: The Prophets (Hosea/Joel). Electronic ed. Vol. 27. Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[3] Chisholm, Robert B., Jr. 1985. “Joel.” In The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, edited by J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, 1:1413. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

[4] Baker, David W. 2006. Joel, Obadiah, Malachi. The NIV Application Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.

[5] Guzik, David. 2000. Joel. David Guzik’s Commentaries on the Bible. Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik.

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Hosea 1:1, Romans 5:11, 15:4

Married to God

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
December 13, 2022

Hosea’s moving story is addressed to both the northern and southern kingdom, as far as I can see. They are all God’s people, and God addresses them through this prophet. It’s also God’s word to us as well. Paul writes in Romans 15:4, “ For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” The offer of forgiveness and restoration seen in Hosea and the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the hope of the world. The opening verse of Hosea is “The word of the Lord that came to Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.” The “word” Hosea heard from God and passed on is what Jesus, the living Word, came to demonstrate to us. Romans 5:8 says, “God demonstrates his love for us in the, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Hosea brings the message of God’s love to His people, even while they remain rebellious!

Hosea’s ministry took place during the reigns of four kings of the southern kingdom of Judah. Jeroboam II, son of Joash, was reigning as king in the northern kingdom of Israel. It seems to have been a long ministry, “perhaps fifty or sixty years, but we are told nothing about Hosea’s life during those years save the poignant story with which the prophecy begins.”[1] The strange thing is that during the reigns of the four kings of the south that are mentioned, there were six other kings that reigned in the north besides Jeroboam II. Checking the list, you’ll see that Zechariah, Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah, Pekah, and Hoshea all reigned in the north during those times. Garrett suggests two explanations for this, “The reason appears to be twofold. First, he regarded Jeroboam II as the last king of Israel with any shred of legitimacy. Those after him were a pack of assassins and ambitious climbers with no right to the title ‘king.’ Second, he hoped for better things from Judah.”[2] He will be disappointed. Others endorse this explanation, “The failure to mention any of Jeroboam II’s successors may indicate something of the conflicting claims for legitimacy of rule in the turbulent closing years of the northern kingdom.”[3]

God sent Hosea to tell all the people that God’s promises will always be fulfilled. God’s steadfast love for us will not falter no matter how unfaithful we are. The picture of the long-suffering husband of the unfaithful wife that we encounter in the book of Hosea shows us in the explicit metaphor of marriage the themes of sin, breaking the covenant, judgment, repentance, and forgiveness.  One web page says this, “Embedded within the book of Hosea, then, is a powerful and ever-relevant reminder for God’s people around the world and down through time. God has bound himself to his people in the most personal, self-giving way possible. He is theirs; they are his. He and they belong to one another. They have committed themselves to one another.”[4]

[1] Boice, James Montgomery. 2002. The Minor Prophets: An Expositional Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

[2] Garrett, Duane A. 1997. Hosea, Joel. Vol. 19A. The New American Commentary. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

[3] Patterson, Richard D., and Andrew E. Hill. 2008. Cornerstone Biblical Commentary, Vol 10: Minor Prophets, Hosea–Malachi. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.

[4] https://www.esv.org/resources/esv-global-study-bible/global-message-of-hosea/

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Daniel 1:1-2

The War of the Worlds

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
December 12, 2022

The decline of Israel’s southern kingdom was slower than that of the northern kingdom which fell to Assyria in 721 BC. Judah took the fall of the northern kingdom to heart and amended her ways for a while and the southern kingdom survived for another 150 years. But they too turned away from their God and eventually experienced the same fate at the hands of the Babylonians. Before Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem and destroyed the temple, he humiliated her. The last few kings of Judah, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah were all forced to do homage to him before he got tired of them and wiped out the city. Nebuchadnezzar’s first move on the city involved the demeaning of Jewish worship by looting the temple. Daniel opens with that. He says, “In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the vessels of the house of God. And he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and placed the vessels in the treasury of his god.”

If my bible chronology is correct (and I think it is!), the third year of Jehoiakim’s reign would have put Daniel at about 16 years of age. That means that Daniel was born around 622 BC. Josiah had become king of Judah then. He was only eight years old. He was one of the most faithful kings of either the northern or southern kingdoms. His grandfather, Manasseh, had closed the doors of the temple and had them sealed shut. Josiah had them reopened when he was only 18 years old. Inside the temple, the word of God was rediscovered, and the priests and leaders of Jerusalem began teaching the Word of God that had been lost. This brought a spiritual revival to the nation. Daniel grew up in Jerusalem under that spiritual revival. In passing, please note that the hero of this book, Daniel had an upbringing strongly influenced by the Scriptures. Daniel is the one who is going to speak for God in a pagan community. But before he could speak for God, he had to hear God. Daniel knew his scriptures well and was able to live by them and proclaim them in a world that was at war. That same war is waging.

There has always been a battle between Jerusalem and Babylon. Augustine’s book “The City of God” contrasts these two as the city of God, Jerusalem, and the city of the world, Babylon. They stand opposed to each other. Boice says recognizing this struggle “Reminds us that the struggle between Nebuchadnezzar and God, recorded in Daniel, is actually only one example of that greater struggle between the world’s way of doing things and God’s way of doing things, which has prevailed at all times and prevails today. It is this that makes Daniel a contemporary book.”[1]

[1] Boice, James Montgomery. 2003. Daniel: An Expositional Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

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Ezekiel 1:1, Psalm 137:1-6

By The Waters of Babylon

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
December 11, 2022

Some Bible books set the scene fairly well for you and Ezekiel is one of those books. It begins to identify the date and place, “In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the Chebar canal, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.”The date tells us that Ezekiel’s vision was happening as the Southern Kingdom of Israel, Judah, was nearing its end. Babylon was about to destroy the city and the temple in 586 BC. So, scholars seem to agree that Ezekiel had his vision around July 31, 593 BC according to our calendar. Jehoiachin was the second to last king of the southern kingdom but had been taken captive to Babylon about five years earlier. He was replaced with a puppet king of Nebuchadnezzar, Zedekiah. Ezekiel was taken captive with him. The date is well attested to and agreed upon by most conservative scholars.

As far as the place is concerned, Stuart explains, “Verse 1, in the first person and thus spoken by Ezekiel himself, functions as an introduction to the entire book and makes two paramount points: (1) Ezekiel was among the exiles; (2) he saw revelatory visions. Virtually everything we read in this extensive book was first reported to that defeated community of expatriate Jews forcibly deported to Mesopotamia by the Babylonians, an unknown number of whom (probably a few hundred) lived where Ezekiel did at the city of Tel-Abib along the Chebar River. This river was in fact a great irrigation canal that took water from the Euphrates River at the city of Nippur and carried it in a large semicircle through the countryside until it rejoined the Euphrates downstream near the city of Uruk.”[1]

Ezekiel and his fellow Israelites were ripped away from their homes. It’s not that they didn’t have a home, they knew they had one but it had been taken away from them by their enemies. They had been uprooted. As one writer puts it, “It is having deep roots which have now been plucked up, and there you are, with roots dangling, writhing in pain, exposed to a cold and jeering world, longing to be restored to native and nurturing soil. Exile is knowing precisely where you belong, but knowing that you can’t go back.”[2] Psalm 137:1-6 expresses what that was like. It says, “By the Waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung up our lyres. For there, our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’ How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?  If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill!  Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy!” You might join me sometimes in feeling like a foreigner in a strange land. I find myself by my own “waters of Babylon” where I want to sit down and weep. We’re aliens and pilgrims in a world foreign to our values and far from the home, we long for. The good news for the Israelites, and for you and me, is that God speaks to His people, even in a foreign land. He used Ezekiel to speak to Israel and Ezekiel can speak to us for God if we want to hear him.

[1] Stuart, Douglas, and Lloyd J. Ogilvie. 1989. Ezekiel. Vol. 20. The Preacher’s Commentary Series. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.

[2] Duguid, Iain M. 1999. Ezekiel. The NIV Application Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.

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