Come Let Us Reason Together

Ezekiel Continued

In my 50+ years of reading the scriptures, I can never remember a time when this book has so troubled me. I actually always dreaded reading through Ezekiel's writing as it was so contrary to the God I know.

If you're unfamiliar with Ezekiel, he was taken captive by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in 597 B.C. He was exiled to Babylonia alongside King Jehoiachin and other nobles, craftsmen, and leaders during the second wave of the Babylonian captivity. At the time of his capture, Ezekiel was approximately 25 years old. His exile corresponds to modern-day central and southern Iraq. He lived and prophesied among a community of Jewish exiles in a settlement called Tel Abib along the Chebar River, located just south of the ancient city of Babylon.

As I now read, I hear the heart of a man with a distain for what had happened to the country he loved, but to which he would never return.

I feel that way at times!

His traditional resting place is widely believed to be at Ezekiel's Tomb located in al-Kifl, Iraq. Some alternative traditions also associate an older site in Dezful, Iran, with his burial.

The horrors described and ascribed well, ascribed to God, one like I have never met, seem to validate my take on the scriptures after all these years: inspired but filtered!

"God breathed" I still believe, but just as I now have prayerfully read the text for decades, the Word that comes through the spirit of the Christ in me, One full of grace and compassion, when contrasted with the works of those most literal in their approach to the text, is quite troubling.

My sense is that culture shapes our thoughts, even distorts the Word, the Mind of Christ, which the Spirit is attempting to communicate, with our own desires unfortunately shaping God in "our own image."

Then over time, even among the best of mankind, our belief systems become institutionalized, thus the numerous variants even within Christianity. Variants with most narrow departures we accept as denominational or poiltical differences. Those with extreme departures, cults, even enemies!

Thus the era of the Crusades!

Seldom do we come together with our hard questions in attempts to remedy our divide; humans too often tend toward arrogance, rather than humility and true love.

We Christians call that our sin nature!

Over the centuries, with historical markers approximately 500 years or so, we have an aHa, though often "good men" die before we ever get there.

This no longer only a national dilemma, as the globe has flattened given the shared resources and economic dependencies. As well, when deeply religious countries war with each other, religious differences can often fuel animosity, with folk then easily manipulated by those whose intent is personal gain.

The blind then lead the blind!