Ezekiel
"Message
from God for the
Church and World in Deep Trouble"
Ezekiel is the prophet at the
lowest point of Israel’s history. He is the prophet of
the Exile. Of the ‘big three’ prophets, Isaiah’s
prophecy spoke of these things from afar, and also spoke of the
restoration that would follow; Jeremiah prophesied in the decades
that led up to it, and at the time when it happened; but Ezekiel
was actually deported in the exile to Babylon, and began his
prophesying there. He spoke out of Israel’s experience
of ignominy, devastation and defeat, and brought the word of
God directly into that situation.
We speak today at a very low point in the church’s history.
Many of us in ministry over the past twenty-five years have known
little but setback after setback. The former glory we once knew
has largely departed. ‘Babylon’, or the secular world
view, has made severe inroads into the church, and could be said
to dominate it at this time. Weakness and helplessness seem to
have paralysed the church’s life. Some church people attempt
to make out that it is ‘business as usual’, but many
others have voted with their feet. Not many are willing to face
up to how far gone we are. There is a lot of anxious clutching
at straws. This is the time of the church's ‘exile’.
No less is the world in deep trouble today. The optimism of
earlier decades has gone. The older certainties have been eroded.
Economic stability has been shaken. Whole nations are in turmoil.
Ecological disasters threaten our security. Difficulties in the
church are matched by global disturbances in the world.
Perhaps we may be enabled to see what is happening to us more
clearly, and face it more squarely, if we are prepared to study
the prophet who wrote at a similar time in Israel’s history,
and whose words still have a bearing on our own times. ‘These
things happened to them as a warning, but they were written down
for our instruction, upon whom the end of the ages has come’ (1
Corinthians 10:11). We may gain some insight and encouragement
from it. It may even change the whole way we think about life,
God, the church, the world, and everything!
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