Ezekiel is instructed to make models. He is to take a brick and draw Jerusalem on
it and then build models around it to show it under siege by an enemy and then
is told to place an iron griddle between his face and the city, signifying
God’s indifference to the siege. The
second part of the prophetic action is to bear the sin of the people by lying
on his left side to signify the years of punishment for the northern kingdom
(over a year lying on that side!) and then to roll onto his right side and lie
there forty days for the years of punishment for the southern kingdom,
Judah. He is then to simulate what would
be famine and drought in Jerusalem by eating about eight ounces of food a day
and drinking only a few ounces of water per day. by these actions he is prophetically acting
out what the Lord is going to do in punishing the nation.
It seems ludicrous that James and John would have asked, “Lord,
do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” because
the people in a Samaritan village wouldn’t receive Jesus and the
disciples. We have to recall the enmity
between Jews and Samaritans to understand why they would say such a thing but
even then, we can’t give them a pass on their attitudes, Jesus certainly
didn’t. I have heard Christians say
similar things about the city I live in, that there are so many pagans here and
they hate the church so much that we should call down curses upon them or
abandon the city in the ridiculous idea that God has abandoned it. Part of the cost of following Jesus is loving
your neighbor as yourself, whether they love you too or not. We always need to be counting the cost of
following, not just in the beginning.
This passage is a stumbling-block for many because of this
statement, “For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been
enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy
Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the
age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance…”
In context, what is the writer referring to, backslider, people whose sin leads
them astray from the faith, perhaps not in denying Jesus but simply living in
sin? Look at the context at the
beginning, “not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of
faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands,
the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.” Those things are all reversion
to the old covenant, the belief that these things are necessary for salvation,
they negate the cross by substituting works.
They deny the efficacy and sufficiency of the cross, of Jesus’ completed
work. Ezekiel bore the sin and shame of
the people for a season of time, Jesus bore the sin and shame of all mankind
for eternity. If we deny that and
attempt to have a DIY salvation, how indeed can we be restored to
repentance? Repent of what, my works in
keeping with the law, how is keeping the law sinful? See the problem the writer is talking
about? Paul knew what this meant, he had
to repent of such things.
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