“But it was uprooted in fury and thrown to the ground. The east wind made it shrivel, it was stripped of its fruit; its strong branches withered and fire consumed them.”
– Ezekiel 19:12
Hi James and Ellen,
Why do you think that God chose Israel’s people group of guys and gals to be His specially chosen guys and gals? Why do you think that God allowed/imprisoned His specially chosen guys and gals to disobey His mandated worship and life paradigm that He gave them through Moses? Why do you think that God had Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army exile His specially chosen guys and gals from the land that He gave them to always to have to live in as their very own land if . . . to the land of Babylonia? What can you learn from how God’s specially chosen guys and gals were led to live their lives? What can you learn from the abject disobedience in how God’s specially chosen guys and gals responded to the specific worship and life norms that God gave them through Moses that He expected them to obey? What can you learn from God’s punishment of His specially chosen guys and gals because of their persistent disregard of His ordered worship and life standards? Do you think that as God’s specially elected kids that there are lessons that you can learn from how patiently God treated His specially chosen guys and gals? Do you think that being God’s specially elected kids gives you the right to take advantage of God’s infinite grace? Do you think that having been specially elected by God to be His adopted kids will negate the consequences of making moral, ethical and/or faith compromises? Your grandpaa believes that God chose Israel’s people group of guys and gals to be His proactive prototype for His specially elected guys, gals and kids to internalize the end result of what will happen if a guy, gal or kid shuns Him, lives a self-centered life and pursues carnality.
Ezekiel 19 is a sarcastic, allegorical lament that spokesmen who God – as God the Father, tenured for this time on planet Earth chanted to predict the demise of Israel’s people group nation of guys and gals. As Ezekiel was there during the final days of the existence of the country of Judah and the city of Jerusalem and because he firsthand saw the degenerate lifestyles of God’s specially chosen guys and gals – Israel’s people group of guys and gals, who were living in the land of Judah and in the city of Jerusalem, Ezekiel quite possibly – as he walked the city of Jerusalem streets, chanted this metered chant that over and over again proclaimed – as an east wind, the pending arrival of Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army. A lioness is used in this lament to personify the country of Judah or the city of Jerusalem. This lioness had cubs. The lioness chose one of her cubs – Jehoahaz, to be a strong, merciless king to rule over the guys and gals who lived in the country of Judah. This oppressive king would be disposed after just three months. When Jehoahaz’s tyrannical ruthlessness was rumored outside the land area where Israel’s people group of guys and gals were living, Jehoahaz was trapped in a pit and then led by hooks to the country of Egypt. The lioness then chose another one of her cubs – Jehoiachin or more likely Zedekiah, to subjugate Israel’s people group of guys and gals who were living in the land of Judah and/or in the city of Jerusalem. After this cub – who could be either Jehoiachin or Zedekiah, overtly overstepped his understood functions as an assigned king who was to reign over the guys and gals who lived in the country of Judah, Jehoiachin or Zedekiah was trapped in a pit and led by hooks to the city of Babylon. The mother – who had been metaphorically pictured as being a lioness personifying God’s specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the land area of Judah and/or in the city of Jerusalem, then became a productive vine in a lush vineyard. While this vine had access to abundant water, this vine was a strong, towering and fruitful vine. Verse 12 explains what happened to this vine when this vine no longer had access to water – water being God – as God the Father, “But it was uprooted in fury and thrown to the ground. The east wind made it shrivel, it was stripped of its fruit; its strong branches withered and fire consumed them.”
The core message here to your grandpaa – as devastatingly exemplified in real life by God’s specially chosen guys and gals – Israel’s people group of guys and gals, is that God’s response to aberrant behavior by a guy, gal or kid who is a Christ-follower is to give the guy, gal or kid a desert experience. Because your grandpaa categorically believes that God is omniscient – which means that God knows what is taking place and what will take place at any given nanosecond, your grandpaa knows that it is only because of God’s unmerited mercy and grace that he and your grandmaa met, married and in one week will be married for 47 years (almost for 62 years at the editing of this missive). Even though your grandpaa cannot begin to get his arms around why he believes unreservedly that God ceaselessly dictates your grandpaa’s thoughts and unremittingly controls your grandpaa’s actions, your grandpaa’s faith in God – that is being constantly underpinned by God’s Living Words that makes up the Bible, seems to be relentlessly being affirmed in your grandpaa’s heart as he conscientiously learns from and faithfully listens to God’s Living Words. Even though your grandpaa is really struggling to articulate what he wants to write, your grandpaa knows that ultimately what he writes are not his words; that they are God’s words – that God in His all-knowing ability knows exactly what He wants your grandpaa to grapple with and for you to read right now in this missive.
Ezekiel 19 (1133)