Some Lessons From Ezekiel

THURS., AUG. 13, 1998, 10:46 AM
FARM, STUDY

Your Wednesday morning group’s study of My prophet Ezekiel has finally been completed. You all showed real fortitude in sticking with those 48 chapters, with much of it seeming to be repetitive to your modern, Western minds. There is one very important lesson that I want you to learn from this ancient prophet and from his messages, transcribed in ways I devised: I, as the Lord God (the Triune God, even in those olden times) can never be fully described and understood… I am everything imaginable and more.

For example, you were right in noticing and commenting on My repetitive affirmation that I would not do harm to My people, Israel, or would protect them… because… I wanted all to know that I am God… and I didn’t want My “reputation” besmirched. Thus, I seemed to be quite an insecure, “Other-oriented” God, which was not a “picture” pleasing to you. So I say, again, I am “all that there is”. I am powerfully strong and fully secure. I am weak, insecure, and dependent on My creations. And everything inbetween.

If I were only strong and powerful how could I relate to and empathize with the many humans who are weak, afraid, untalented… the “losers”? I can be whatever I need to be, in order to relate and serve. For, yes, I do serve you, and many others, as I expect you to serve Me. This does not detract from the ultimate power and might that I have.

You can read what Ezekiel says, and you can read interpretations of the culture and situation of that time, but it was 2500 years ago, roughly, and in many ways those people perceived Me and the earth scene differently than you do. You can never truly know the context in which I had Ezekiel speak.

In your day, now, you cannot know how people in Kenya and in Tanzania are thinking about the bombings, meant to punish your country. It is not yet known who carried out these coordinated terrorist attacks, but you consider that it may well be persons who relate to Me in ways different than yours… and who feel that I approve of their actions. In the time of Ezekiel there was animosity between groups of humans, as there is today.

One “possible” lesson from these Scriptures is that now, as then, I can “use” one group to inflict harm on another. Were these bombings directed by Me, against a power that has become too great… and considers itself so… even as I love you, as a people whom I call Mine? Ezekiel says I can love and destroy almost simultaneously. (11:25 / 11:29) I can be weak and uncertain and also strong, all-knowing, and in final control of all that is. I am just not an either/or God/Spirit/Savior.

Your culture, in its perceived power and strength, sees these bomb attacks as signs of weakness… instances of “not fighting fair”. Those who planned and executed the attacks saw them as a show of strength against a power they could not confront… “fairly”. Thus, in these events, your nation appears to be weak.

I did a lot of threatening through Ezekiel. I would destroy the enemies of My people. Then I would destroy My people, directly… or I would have them destroyed by one of their enemies. Or I would save them from destruction, but then they would have to behave in ways completely pleasing to Me. Or I would again threaten to destroy them.

It is the dominant feeling among Christians in your culture that I favor and have blessed your nation… that I am saving you from your enemies (and you do have some) by allowing you to be militarily and financially powerful… able to have “your way” (which you assume is Mine, also). An Ezekiel lesson is that I also see your sinful side and can become tired of your pretenses of righteousness. Then I can cause or allow harm, in the form of bombs or financial troubles.