By Such Stripes Are We Healed
by Jack Shaver
©The United Church of Canada, 1985
All Rights Reserved
ISBN 0-88622-196-X
7M/12/85/APL
Used with Permission
How to recognize God (1)
Ezekiel 7: 23-27
Israel's prophets are worth getting to know. The reward of a study of the biblical writers is an appreciation of the deep insights of Israel's religious thinkers. It is one thing to be told that this nation was created by God for the purpose of blessing all nations. It is another thing to watch a nation receive its insights. As students of the Bible gain skills in identifying early and late material, they begin to see the influence of this or that written on Israel's theology. They get a sense of meeting the very person unto whom certain revelations of God came for the first time. Before their eyes God's own self breaks into history. They watch it happen.
Preachers had made significant contributions to Israel's theology before the exile. Amos, Hosea and the first Isaiah were all giants in their time. Although each brought unique gifts, they had a basic message. God was not some kind of capricious power that could be manipulated by cultic practices. God was not interested in animal sacrifices but in societal justice. What made a nation strong and prosperous was the fairness of its social policy: Did the poor get cared for? Could fellow citizens be relied on? Were widows and orphans looked after'? Was family integrity upheld? If these components were not present, no amount of religious practice, armed might, foreign alliances, wealth or fortifications could save the nation when it came under pressure. These prophets brought a breakthrough in theology to the people of Israel. God was notiust naked power, but recognizable order; not just a God of battles, but of ethics. The One with whom all life and matter has to do, has also to do with how humans organize their lives together.
The exilic prophets presented this same message with variations. They each also recorded some revelations that appear to be unique. That is why I have suggested we study them during these opening days of Lent. We consider today a unique twist Ezekiel puts on this traditional prophetic message.
In those verses of the seventh chapter he sounds like the earlier preachers. Defeat in battle, drought, and crop failure, the desolation of cities, the breakdown of the social fabric, are all seen as the consequence of social wrong, There is violence in city life. Rulers enjoy the perks of power but are not responsible. Judges do not provide justice. Social critics paint the faults in the social fabric with whitewash, Preachers say "Thus saith the Lord " when the Lord didn't say anything. Priests do not distinguish the sacred from the profane.
Ezekiel repeats a phrase again and again as he describes defeat, deprivation and desolation. All this is "so that you shall know that I am the Lord."
It is as Israel's pioneer theologians try to make sense of their history that they receive a penetrating word from God, Israel's God is met in Israel's history. Social disaster is a time for finding out who God is.
Petition
Almighty God, Father and Mother of all, we are weary of wanting, and don't like being that way. The pain of our unfulfilled desires destroys our desiring. We catch ourselves choosing to want nothing.
God, that's no way to choose life. You put before us life and death and charged us to choose life.
Therefore let our prayers come unto you. We want life to go right. We want friends, We want to be loved, We want life to go right for our loved ones. While we want all this we know that something is required of us.
We know too that some of our lifepain is our own fault. We know that some of our most stubborn pursuits are at the expense of others.
We confess that our longing and striving need to come before you to be put right. Therefore hear our cries, dear God; we give them full voice before you.
Give us the courage to confess our wants, and in that power to forgo them if it be your will.
Through Christ our Lord,
Amen