Tonight’s devotional was from Ezekiel 12 and I was struck by it and its content. First I have come to notice that Ezekiel has a fairly common refrain which is "Then they will know that I am the Lord". Generally this occurs after a God reveals to Ezekiel how Israel will be punished for its lack of faith. It is as though God is telling Israel that its lack of faith demonstrates to the world that it does not take God seriously and if God’s covenant faithfulness to Israel is not enough perhaps God needs a more forceful presence in their lives in order for them to take Him more seriously.

 

I have also noticed the continued use of the phrase "son of man" throughout Ezekiel. In fact nowhere else in the Bible does it occur more frequently.

 

Ezekiel 12:2 is interesting because Jesus clearly picks it up and uses it or at least the phrasing. It says: "Son of man you are living amongst a rebellious people. They have eyes to see but do not see and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious people." Contrast this with Jesus words in Matthew 13:16 which says "blessed are your eyes because they see and blessed are your ears because they hear". The phrase is first used in Deuteronomy but is also found in Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Isaiah and Jeremiah. I think it would be a good phrase to do a study around.

 

Finally I am struck by the following from Ezekiel 12:27-28 – "Son of man, the house of Israel is saying, ‘The vision he sees is for many years from now and he prophesies about the distant future.’ Therefore say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: None of my words will be delayed any longer; whatever I say will be fulfilled, declares the Sovereign Lord.’"

 

This is a nice reminder to us that there is much in Old Testament prophecy that has already been fulfilled (much – not all). Each generation has a morbid desire to attribute every Biblical prophecy to itself somehow (this is highly egocentric) and assume that the audience originally receiving the prophecy was merely a vehicle to transmit the meaning to its real intended audience us. In reality this is a poor reading of scripture.

 

Anyhow – Ezekiel is awesome and I am enjoying every line. More to come periodically.