FROM THE PASTOR
The Prophet Ezekiel
We are in the midst of a series of Old Testament lessons from the book of Ezekiel. Here are some notes on the prophet Ezekiel.:
+He was of priestly descent, and one of the exiles of the first Babylonian captivity, along with King Jehoiachin. Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar endeavored to carry off the cream of the crop of leaders of Israel into captivity. Jeremiah elected to stay in Judah.
+The dereliction and disillusionment of the exiles could be summed up in Psalm 137, “By the rivers of Babylon we sat down; there we wept when we remembered Zion…how can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?”
+Ezekiel wrote in exile, but some of his messages, including our text for Sunday, were written to those left in Jerusalem, warning them of God’s judgment.
+Ezekiel did not look back on some golden age (like the wilderness) of Israel’s faithfulness but articulates a real sense of “original sin” (Israel has always been unfaithful.)
+Communally, Ezekiel’s prophecy of doom encircled Israel’s entire history, with collective responsibility for an unrighteousness which could not stand before a just God.
+But in chapter 18, our text for this Sunday, we have a word to individuals caught in the coils of a national calamity. The text is a call to hear in the calamity God’s call to repentance and faith; to cast themselves in dependence upon divine mercy.
In this video Pastor Pamela Hoh shares insight of the history of the United States Constitution and how it shapes our form of government, including religion in the Constitution and the First Amendment.
