No Exit

Ezekiel 2:10-3:1 ESV

And he spread it before me. And it had writing on the front and on the back, and there were written on it words of lamentation and mourning and woe. And he said to me, “Son of man, eat whatever you find here. Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.”

“You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave” are the final lyrics to Hotel California by The Eagles. They mark a place that seems good when you enter but you find out things aren’t what they appear and when you try to leave you find that there is no escape. In recent months we seem to be in a carousel that won’t stop. Shooting-Protest-Riot-Loot- Repeat. With no exit and no end in sight what will push the American People to shake loose of this cancer?

The pain of this moment is not new for the people of God. Habakkuk was overwhelmed by the sin and debauchery of his beloved nation. Watching as wicked men outnumber the righteous and pervert justice (Hab. 1:4) he cries out to God and God tells him he will judge using the Babylonians, this then appalls the prophet because of how much more wicked they are than the Israelites. Habakkuk deals with this issue of how God chooses to judge nations. Looking though to Ezekiel we must understand that he was a refugee in Babylon. God had already rebuked Israel, the worst was behind us… alas this was not the case. He was a prophet in exile. Begging his beloved nation to wake up, repent and turn from its wicked way. Along with Jeremiah he had to watch as the spiral of idolatry continued as political elites rejected the preaching of God’s word until finally the Temple was destroyed.

Over and over again I come back to a central truth about God given by C.S. Lewis, “He’s not a tame Lion”. Speaking of how God does as he pleases not as we desire necessarily. Seeing the pain and frustration of the moment we can understand why Jeremiah’s book is so hard to endure going from bad to worse. We can empathize as he has to write Lamentations simply so he can continue to mourn the loss of the Temple, Jerusalem, and Judah. Yet, God doesn’t stick with that game plan with Ezekiel. Ezekiel is broken and frustrated. He is given a message of lament, mourning, and woe but that is not all.

In his wisdom and grace God chose give hope in the midst of struggle. He brought Ezekiel to the Valley of Dry Bones and told him to preach. Under the Preaching of God’s word life was brought back to the dead. Not the “almost dead” but to that which was passed decay and was simply preparing for an archeologist to dig up. This is what God’s word can do.

Our time is not a new thing for God’s people. His people have had to endure ridicule, rejection, and persecution for daring to preach. Yet, his people have also been blessed to watch life come back into dry bones because they dared to preach Christ.

CRUCE, DUM SPIRO, FIDO