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Week 27 Ezekiel

Yesterday I was thinking about Ezekiel’s prophecy predicting the decline-&-fall of king Zedekiah. There were a couple of niggling details that didn’t exactly line up (I figure there’s likely explanations for them but at this point I don’t know them – so they sound like discrepancies), but overall the forecast was true – Jerusalem fell and Zedekiah died in exile.
When I got to Ezekiel 17 today it sounded like Zedekiah’s fall was getting a revisit. But this time there weren’t any names mentioned. Ezekiel talks about…
A king who had been coronated by the king of Babylon…
Who then rebelled against Babylon…
And made an alliance with Egypt…
After which he was revisited by an annoyed Babylonian army…
The prophecy finishes like this: the king of Israel will die in Babylon, the land of the king who put him in power and whose treaty he despised and broke.
Sounded like a Confirmatory Prophecy about Zedekiah.
Anyway that prophecy also said the Lord would rescue a tiny little shoot & transplant it. That shoot would grow into a tall cedar.
Since the last paragraph of Kings said that king Jehoiachin – who was already in exile – was taken out of his Babylonian jail in the end and given his freedom did that mean Jehoiachin was the cedar shoot? Maybe. He was pretty much the end of the David-family bloodline. But he was pretty fragile. Maybe the big cedar would grow up later.

Note: quote from Ezekiel 17:16 (NLT). And see 2 Kings 25.

Week 27 Ezekiel

Ezekiel’s been exiled to Babylon but from there he makes prophetic forecasts about Zedekiah and the soon-to-come destruction of Jerusalem. Ezekiel predicts several things…
Zedekiah will escape Jerusalem at night through a hole in the wall…
He’ll take only what he can carry…
He’ll cover his face…
The Lord will capture him…
He’ll be taken to Babylon but he won’t see Babylon…
He’ll never get home – he’ll die in Babylon.
The story of what actually happened are told back in 2 Kings. It says that once the walls were breached…
The soldiers planned a breakout for Zedekiah…
They waited for nightfall and sneaked through a gate between two walls…
They lit out for the Jordan Valley…
The Babylonians chased them…
Zedekiah was caught & captured & sentenced…
His sons were killed and he was blinded & shipped off to Babylon.
I can see that there isn’t a perfect correspondence between Ezekiel’s forecast and the story in Kings (for example did Zedekiah escape through a gate or through a hole in the wall? Did the Lord or the Babylonians capture him?) But mostly the descriptions are pretty close. Close enough that I’d say Ezekiel’s forecast was accurate.
Some readers figure that prophecies can’t happen and that the only reason Ezekiel’s prophecy was pretty accurate was because he made it after Jerusalem was captured.
So a bible-reader needs to think about that and make a decision about it.

Note: references from Ezekiel 12:12-16 & 2 Kings 25:1-7

Week 26 Ezekiel

I wondered what chapter one would be like without the fantastic vision. Maybe something like this: on July 31 of my thirtieth year, while I was with the Judean exiles beside the Kebar River in Babylon, the heavens were opened to me, and I saw visions of God…And when I saw it, I fell down in the dust, and I heard someone’s voice speaking to me.
This condensed version gets me straight from Point A – the heavens opening – to Point B – Ezekiel falling on his face. But Ezekiel decided not to skip the 25 perplexing verses of his astounding disorienting vision.
I wonder what to do with that fantastic paragraph. There’s some actual-real-world things I can imagine. A wind storm. Four human-like figures each with four faces – human-lion-bull-&-eagle. Four wings. Straight legs. Human hands. Rigid necks but mobile bodies that move geometrically & precisely – but also irregularly and spontaneously. Wheels – but bio-mechanical contraptions with many eyes.
But in spite of what I can guess at I sit wondering what to do with it – mentally scrambling with a few identifiables but basically at-sea for 25-verses.
If I was sitting in Police Point Park at the bend in the South Saskatchewan River and suddenly had a kind of auditory-visual psychedelically hallucinatory event…and when that was done the Lord told me something concrete then I’d probably only tell you what the Lord said – in case you thought I was delusional. But Ezekiel tells the whole incredible story.

Note: quotes from Ezekiel 1:1 & 28 (NLT)

Week 26 Proverbs

Last day of June; halfway through ‘21.
I finished two books today. Lamentations & Proverbs.
The last two chapters of Proverbs weren’t written by Solomon – chapter 30 was written by Agur son of Jakeh.
One thing Agur said was that there were four circumstances-situations-developments that – generally speaking – would turn out badly:
A slave who becomes a king
An overbearing fool who prospers
A bitter woman who finally gets a husband
A servant girl who supplants her mistress.
A question I sometimes ask myself is: is this verse really true? So, here for example – what about a slave like Spartacus? What about Cinderella? What about exceptions to Agur’s proverb?
For a minute I wonder if exceptions disprove Agur’s general rule? But not for very long; not seriously. If I said over-eating means you’ll gain weight and a guy argued wait-a-second what about this woman in Uzbekistan who eats 8000 calories a day and doesn’t gain a gram of weight? Fair enough. I still say that over-eating = weight gain.
Agur is saying that by-and-large a slave or a servant who gains power by some lucky circumstance won’t be able to manage it well. When an overbearing or bitter peasant gets a social boost he’ll usually stay an overbearing or bitter person, but with more status.
I carry who I am and what I am with me into my future. Winning the lottery will definitely change my circumstances. It won’t change me.

Note: quote from Proverbs 30:22-23 (NLT). End-of-June reading progress: 62% done.

Week 26 Proverbs

One of my reactions while I was listing the (roughly) ninety words & comments describing foolish people was that some of the language was pretty uncomplimentary.
For instance, calling a person a fool or a liar or a deceiver isn’t so good. So I was wondering what Solomon was driving at.
On the one hand I could just assume that since in Alberta we figure that name-calling is hurtful therefore Solomon is saying something he shouldn’t. But I don’t get the sense Solomon was trying to grind people down. Actually I figure he was writing negative things to enlighten people who were in the dark: come here and listen to me! I’ll pour out my spirit of wisdom upon you and make you wise. Solomon is making cool & clinical statements of actual fact.
But even at that it’s a pretty sober list.
Foolish people are: Angry Arrogant Bloodthirsty Boastful Bold (in a bad way) Brawlers Corrupt-witnesses Contemptuous Crooked Deceitful Disgraceful Dishonourable Excessive-drinkers Evil-doers Excuse-makers False-witnesses Flatterers Gluttons Godless Greedy Happy-at-others-misfortune Harmful Haughty Hot-headed Immoral Lazy Liars Mockers Oppressors Outlaws Predators Promise-breakers Proud Quick-tempered Rebels Resentful Schemers Scoundrels Shameful Short-tempered Simpletons Sinners Stupid Thieves Treacherous Trouble-makers Unjust Unreliable & Wrongdoers.
They: Backslide Curse Don’t-care-about-the-poor Exploit-the-needy Gossip Lack-mercy Lack-self-control Plan-evil Plot-violence Practice-adultery Pursue-wealth Quarrel Refuse-instruction Show-favoritism Speak-without-thinking & Spread-rumours.
They have: Twisted-hearts & Warped-minds.
My sense is that Solomon is offering a diagnosis for the symptoms of a dangerous & deadly condition.

Note: quote from Proverbs 1:23 (NLT)

Week 26 Proverbs

Proverbs is one of the bible’s Books of Wisdom.
I checked a word book to see. The word Wisdom is used roughly 220-times in the bible and about 47 of those times are in Proverbs. So Proverbs monopolizes about 21% of the uses.
The word Wise is used 180 times in the bible and Proverbs accounts for 33%.
One of the things that jumps out is that Solomon also contrasts Wisdom with Foolishness – wise people vs. foolish ones.
This year I decided to track the difference between wise & foolish people. I started with a lined sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 paper and wrote Foolish on the left and Wise on the right. It was a longer exercise than I thought. By the end I had almost two single-spaced columns describing wise people and almost three columns on foolish people.
Solomon said that people with wisdom are: Competent Cool-headed Discerning Disciplined Even-tempered Fair-to-the-poor Generous Hopeful-about-the-future Honest Humble Just Loyal Not-happy-at-someone’s-misfortune Patient Prudent Pure-hearted Reliable Righteous Self-controlled Sensible Teachable Trustworthy Understanding & Upright.
Wise people: Control-their-anger Don’t-envy-sinners Fear-the-Lord Follow-the-Lord Listen-to-instruction Rescue-the-innocent & Use-wise-speech.
Wise people have: Discretion Good-sense Honour Integrity & Knowledge.
Solomon begins his book by saying this: let those who are wise listen to these proverbs and become even wiser. And let those who understand receive guidance by exploring the depth of meaning in these proverbs, parables, wise sayings, and riddles.
So wise-listening comes first. And then more wisdom understanding and depth-exploration follow.

Note: quote from Proverbs 1:5-6 (NLT)

Week 25 Jeremiah

Jeremiah ends with a kind of Appendix 1 & Appendix 2.
Appendix 1 lists the number of people exiled in the three deportations to Babylon.
Deportation One: 3023 people
Deportation Two: 832 people
Deportation Three: 745 people.
Total: 4600 captives went into exile.
A pretty small number. When I think back to the census numbers that I read in Numbers and 1 Chronicles I realize that a nation of hundreds of thousands – maybe a couple of million – has shrunk to less than 5000.
Then I see Appendix 2. King Jehoiachin was the second last king of Judah. He had left Jerusalem in Deportation Two and spent decades in jail. He was the last surviving king in the bloodline of David but fortunately not the last  surviving person. I check a couple of cross-references and see…
That Jehoiachin had a son named Shealtiel
That Shelatiel had a son named Zerubbabel (the Zerubbabel I was reading about last month in Ezra)
And those three –Jehoiachin-Shealtiel-Zerubbabel – are all cross-referenced over into Matthew’s gospel genealogy. Ten generations after Zerubbabel I see Joseph’s name – Joseph the husband of Mary the mother of the Lord.
So things are eventually going to work out okay. But at the end of the book of Jeremiah you realize that the Abraham-Judah-David line of descent seems to be cutting things pretty close. And so is the nation as a whole. There’s only a few left standing.
Enough…but not with a lot to spare.

Notes: Appendix 1: Jeremiah 52:28-30; Appendix 2: 52:31-34. Jehoiachin-Shealtiel: 1 Chronicles 3:17; Shealtiel-Zerubbabel Ezra 3:2; and Matthew 1:12 & 16.

Week 25 Jeremiah

In chapter forty-four Jeremiah told Israel why their current disaster had happened… They had: burned incense and worshipped other gods.
I’ve been seeing different reactions to Jeremiah’s unhappy prophecies. Disdain disregard animosity hostility belligerence. Like that. But in this case the people challenged Jeremiah’s Reason Why.
They checked the record and figured their best days correlated with times when they were idolaters: in those days we had plenty to eat, and we were well off and had no troubles! But ever since we quit burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and stopped worshipping her, we have been in great trouble and have suffered the effects of war and famine.
Their equations were:
Worshipping the Queen of Heaven = good times.
Not worshipping the Queen of Heaven = bad times.
I don’t think there’s any reason to say there weren’t any good times when idolatry was popular. There must have been some evidence to back that up.
If the equation was worshipping the Queen of Heaven = immediate and disastrous bad times that would’ve been one thing. But it hadn’t worked that way. So Jeremiah had two problems. First was his glass-almost-empty message. And second was that based on observation his message could be disputed.
So no matter how iron-clad the message sounded it was a waste of Jeremiah’s breath if the audience believed they had good reason not to believe.

Note: quotes from Jeremiah 44:3, 17-18 (NLT).

Week 25 Jeremiah

After the fall of Jerusalem…
After the exile to Babylon…
After the assassination of the interim governor…
And while they waited for the Babylonian hammer to fall on them again the people came to Jeremiah with a what-to-do? question. Should we stay here? Or should we high-tail it for Egypt?
Jeremiah’s answer was pretty clear…Stay put! He offered a simple formula:
Choice A will lead to Results-Package A (positives)
Choice B will lead to Results-Package B (negatives).
If the people chose Choice A and stayed in Jerusalem then several things would happen (for example, they would live longer). I don’t know what-all other benefits would have been included but by not choosing Choice A it would mean that all those potential A-Results would get taken off the table. That’s what choosing Choice B would mean. All the promised A-Results were gone and the outcome values were reset to Results-Package B. The B-Results that were future possibilities would be actualized when Choice B was selected.
Anyway for whatever reason the people crazily chose Choice B. And their future at that moment switched onto track B.
The people could have chosen A. But they did choose B.
The story doesn’t spell out why the people made that choice. But it does spell out that a) choices are important and that b) choices come with add-ons.

Note: the story of Jeremiah’s two choices is in Jeremiah 42.

Week 24 Jeremiah

The troops are lined-up like Davy Crockett & Jim Bowie.
King Zedekiah is staring over the ramparts. Looking straight at national disintegration.
Coming up on zero hour.
And Jeremiah is prophesying: everyone who stays in Jerusalem will die from war, famine, or disease, but those who surrender to the Babylonians will live.
Back in April I read the story of Micaiah – he preached a Doomsday forecast to Jehoshaphat & Ahab. On their side Ahab’s prophets prophesied A Sweetness-and-Light forecast. So Micaiah’s Prophecy was offset by a Contrary Prophecy.
That’s not what happened with Jeremiah. No other prophet was tipping the balance with an alternate story. Instead a group of officials just told the king: this man must die! That kind of talk will undermine the morale of the…fighting men, as well as that of all the people.
No one was asking is-Jeremiah’s-prophecy-true? The question was…how does his prophecy make us feel?
So it looks like back in Jeremiah’s day they were using a kind of Audience-Emotional-Response Feedback Scale. A prophecy is given, and then if the audience felt upset annoyed fearful de-motivated anxious or like that then the prophecy was automatically wrong. It’s a pretty handy way of arriving at right-wrong – if the message makes me feel disconsolate it’s just disregardable noise.
Poor old Jeremiah. Not pliant enough to adjust. Not able to make a concession. Not a team-guy. I’m not sure how successful he’d be in Alberta.

Note: quote from Jeremiah 38:2, 4 (NLT). The Micaiah story is in 1 Kings 22.