40 “For on my holy mountain, the mountain height of Israel, declares the Lord God, there all the house of Israel, all of them, shall serve me in the land. There I will accept them, and there I will require your contributions and the choicest of your gifts, with all your sacred offerings. 41 As a pleasing aroma I will accept you, when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered. And I will manifest my holiness among you in the sight of the nations. 42 And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I bring you into the land of Israel, the country that I swore to give to your fathers. 43 And there you shall remember your ways and all your deeds with which you have defiled yourselves, and you shall loathe yourselves for all the evils that you have committed. 44 And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I deal with you for my name’s sake, not according to your evil ways, nor according to your corrupt deeds, O house of Israel, declares the Lord God.”
REFLECTION:
Ezekiel gives a “comprehensive review” of the history of the Israelites’ rebellion against God in this chapter. The focus is on God’s miraculous deeds to bring back the nation of Israel, and God’s tolerance and compassion for the people’s constant rebellion. Ezekiel’s message is: the people are responsible to God for their sins, and God will eliminate those who are stubborn and insist on resisting God to the end. At the same time, God will also bring faithful people into the “land of Israel” (v.42), a land flowing with milk and honey that God promised to give to the ancestors of the nation of Israel, so that they can experience how gracious He is. Moreover, God “will manifest my holiness among you in the sight of the nations” (v.41), which means that through God’s discipline and restoration of Israel, the Gentiles will recognize God’s justice, love, and faithfulness, and admit that He alone is the only true God, this is also the ultimate goal of God choosing Israel. Salvation has never been based on human merits, but because of God’s own disposition. From God’s active grace to people’s rebelliousness, and then God forgives and disciplines for His name’s sake, this pattern is constantly recurring in the Israelites in exile, and it will continue to appear in today’s Christians.
PRAYER:
Make a comprehensive review of your history of rebelling against God and being disciplined and forgiven by God. Count God’s blessings and give thanks to God. Not only thank God for His salvation, but also for His grace of rebirth through leading and disciplining you continuously. Pray for God to strengthen your heart, so that you will not deviate from God’s way in weakness and failure, experience God’s deeper moulding of your life, and establish a more intimate relationship with God.
1And you, take up a lamentation for the princes of Israel, 2 and say:
What was your mother? A lioness!
Among lions she crouched;
in the midst of young lions
she reared her cubs. 3 And she brought up one of her cubs;
he became a young lion,
and he learned to catch prey;
he devoured men. 4 The nations heard about him;
he was caught in their pit,
and they brought him with hooks
to the land of Egypt. 5 When she saw that she waited in vain,
that her hope was lost,
she took another of her cubs
and made him a young lion. 6 He prowled among the lions;
he became a young lion,
and he learned to catch prey;
he devoured men, 7 and seized their widows.
He laid waste their cities,
and the land was appalled and all who were in it
at the sound of his roaring. 8 Then the nations set against him
from provinces on every side;
they spread their net over him;
he was taken in their pit. 9 With hooks they put him in a cage
and brought him to the king of Babylon;
they brought him into custody,
that his voice should no more be heard
on the mountains of Israel.
REFLECTION:
This chapter is written in the form of an elegy, and Ezekiel uses imageries to convey a lot of information. He used the images of a lioness and a lion cub to attract the attention of the audience. The lioness symbolizes the kingdom of Judah, and the two cubs represent the two kings. The first lion cub was King Jehoahaz, who was taken captive by Egyptian Pharaoh Neco in 609 BC (cf. 2 Kings 23:31-33). The second lion cub may be King Jehoiachin who has been taken captive to Babylon (cf. 2 Kings 24:8), or it may be King Zedekiah who will be captured soon (cf. 2 Kings 25:7). Ezekiel told the people of Judah that they had no hope of ending their exile and returning home soon, nor was it possible to get rid of Babylon’s slavery to them. It is not the political and military efforts of Judah that can save the country, even if it is as strong as a lion, if it deviates from the path of God, it will eventually fall into a pit and be trapped in a cage. Do we rely on our own strength and our diligence and cleverness to make ourselves strong today? The real strength is to live peacefully in the temple of God, to rest in the shadow of the Almighty, to rely on God for everything, to look up to God for everything, so that the power of God is made perfect in our weakness.
PRAYER:
Pray for God to make you understand what is truly powerful; pray for God to make you discipline your body and keep it under control, and give you a spirit of power and love and self-control, so that you are willing to look to God on everything and follow His will; ask God to let you have the courage to boast your weakness in front of others, so that others can see God’s miraculous deeds of changing your life in your weakness, and attract more people to come to God.
1The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’? 3 As I live, declares the Lord God, this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel. 4 Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die…
19 “Yet you say, ‘Why should not the son suffer for the iniquity of the father?’ When the son has done what is just and right, and has been careful to observe all my statutes, he shall surely live. 20 The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.
REFLECTION:
The people of Judah believed that they were punished because of the sins committed by their ancestors rather than their own sins, which led to an irresponsible fatalism in their society. This may be due to their misunderstanding of the teaching of the Ten Commandments (see Exodus 20:5). Ezekiel taught them that the destruction of Jerusalem was indeed related to the spiritual corruption of previous generations, but the people misunderstood the laws of the Old Testament. They were punished by God because of the repeated sins by several generations and also by themselves. Although we are often implicated in the consequences of crimes because of the sins of the people around us, God will not punish us for the sins of others, and we cannot use their sins to justify our sins. Everyone is responsible to God for his actions, and God will judge everyone separately. In addition, some people of Judah used God’s blessing as an excuse for their disobedience. They believe that because they have a righteous ancestor, they can survive. But God told them that this is impossible. They are the evil offspring of the righteous ancestors, so they must perish. Therefore, “the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.” (v.20)
PRAYER:
Come to God humbly, confess to God the sins you haven’t confessed or dared to confess, and ask for God’s forgiveness; count God’s blessings, reflect how you have progressed under God’s guidance, and ask God to make you have more righteous deeds that are commensurate with your faith, so that you will receive greater rewards when you meet the Lord in the future.
