Peter Misselbrook's Blog

Sep 24 2019 - Ezekiel 2:1-3:11 – Ezekiel's call

Yesterday we read of the glory of God approaching Ezekiel in an extraordinary vision of blazing fire. Unsurprisingly, Ezekiel fell with his face to the ground. This, we suggested, finds an echo in the Book of Revelation where John sees the glory of the risen Lord Jesus Christ. He also "fell at his feet as though dead" (Revelation 1:17). But just as Christ in that instance placed his right hand on John, telling him not to be afraid for he is commissioning him with a message for his people, so here Ezekiel records that "the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet" (2:2). The Lord has come to empower Ezekiel to take his message to his people, Israel. Ezekiel is going to be his prophet.

The Babylonians had taken the leading people from Jerusalem and Judea into captivity in Babylon. This captivity was God's punishment for a people who had rebelled against him and who had devoted themselves to the idol-gods of the nations around them instead of worshiping the Lord their God. God had sent prophets to them, warning them of the consequences of their disobedience and calling them to return to him, but they had failed to listen to what God had to say. Now God is calling Ezekiel to be his prophet to this "rebellious nation", this "obstinate and stubborn" people (2:3).

The Lord tells Ezekiel not to be afraid to speak the words that he gives to him, even though the Israelites may not wish to listen to him and may make life difficult for him – as if "briers and thorns are all around you and you live among scorpions" (v. 6). Not an attractive prospect!

Ezekiel is then handed a scroll which, when unrolled before him, he sees is written on both sides with words of lament, mourning and woe. Ezekiel is told to eat the scroll and then go to speak to the people of Israel. In his vision Ezekiel takes and eats the scroll "and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth" (3:3, cf. Revelation 10:9). As with the commissioning of Isaiah recorded in Isaiah 6, God tells Ezekiel that the message he will be given to proclaim will not seem sweet to those who hear it. But he is reassured that the Lord will enable him to endure their opposition: "I will make you as unyielding and hardened as they are. I will make your forehead like the hardest stone, harder than flint. Do not be afraid of them or terrified by them" (3:8-9).

Ezekiel had been called to a difficult ministry. It required him to "digest" God's word of woe to his people. He had to take it in and make it part of his own being before he could speak that word to others; he could not preach to others what he had not first preached to his own soul. So the Lord tells Ezekiel to, "listen carefully and take to heart all the words I speak to you" (3:10).

The Lord Jesus calls us to a similar, though at the same time very different, task. We have not been given a word of woe and lament but the word of the gospel – a word of good news.  Nevertheless, we also need to understand and receive the good news of the gospel for ourselves before we can share it with others. We need not only to have heard that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, we need to have trusted in him for forgiveness, acceptance with God and eternal life. We need to have tasted of the sweetness of the life he promises and to know the work of his Spirit in our own lives. We need to know him and the joy and peace he gives so that we can commend our Saviour to others. We cannot sell what we have not got.

Father God, we thank you for the precious message of the gospel through which you spoke life into our own hearts and which you have now entrusted to us. Help us to listen carefully and take to heart all the words you speak to us. Help us to hear the voice of Christ and to follow him so that we may truly be his disciples. Empower us then by your Spirit to tell others the good news of the Lord Jesus who alone can give them peace with God, rest for their souls and joy in the Spirit. 

Sep 24 2020 - Matthew 23:13-39 – Love and judgment

Much of Matthew 23 records a series of woes Jesus pronounces upon the Jewish leaders. These are the very opposite of the Beatitudes of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. The woes are a declaration of God's judgment upon a rebellious and disobedient people.

But at the end of this section, Jesus turns from woes to lament: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate" (Matthew 23:37-38). The picture of a bird protecting her chicks by sheltering them under her wings is one used several times in the Old Testament of God’s care for his people. Listen to the lovely words of Psalm 36:5-9:

Your love, LORD, reaches to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the skies.
Your righteousness is like the highest mountains,
your justice like the great deep.
You, LORD, preserve both people and animals.
How priceless is your unfailing love, O God!
People take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
They feast on the abundance of your house;
you give them drink from your river of delights.
For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light we see light.

The psalm pictures the unfailing love of God in terms of people finding refuge and provision in God, just as young birds find protection under the wings of their mother.

Jesus uses this picture of himself. He is the Lord come to his people. He has come in love; a love that longs to embrace them, protect them and provide for them; a love that will drive him to give himself for them. But they have rejected him. His declaration of judgment is not an expression of vengeance – like that of a wife who may tear up the designer suits of her cheating husband or throw paint on his Porsche. It is a declaration of deep sadness. Here are a people whom God had called to be a light to the nations. They were to be those who revelled in God's care for them and for all that he had made. They were to be engaged in the priestly task of bringing the world to God; calling the nations to take refuge under the shadow of God's wings. But they have refused: "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are" (23:13, 15).

God will establish his kingdom, but it will require a radical act of judgment: "The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit" (21:43).

We have fled to Christ for refuge and we revel in God's unfailing love. But that's not the end of the story; we are now called to be a priestly people; a people through whom the whole world is to be brought under the shadow of God's wings – into the embrace of the crucified one.

Heavenly Father, thank you that you are not an angry God out to get me. Thank you that you have shown us the extent of your love for us through the Lord Jesus. Thank you for the warm and protective embrace of your love and care. You are my refuge and strength, a continual source of help in time of trouble. Your love is wide enough to enclose the whole world. Help me not only to hide in the shadow of your wings but also to draw others into the embrace of your love.

Peter Misselbrook