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Text: Ezekiel 2:1-5

One of the most amazing magicians at work today is an odd character named David Blane. Perhaps you have seen his specials on television in which he performs amazing tricks for people walking down the streets of New York.

He started studying magic when he was four years old, but he didn't become famous for it until 1997. That's when he and a friend took a small digital video camera into Times Squared and shot footage of Blaine performing street magic for passersby with just a pack of cards and a few coins. He had never performed street magic until then. The results for such a simple idea were phenomenal. David Blaine's camera caught reactions of people screaming in the street, laughing in shock, and crying in hysteria.

Blaine took this crude footage to ABC television in New York, managed to get an appointment, and after completely wowing executives with his bland yet powerful brand of close up magic - got a $1,000,000 contract to perform in the first ever Street Magic television special. David Blaine Street Magic still airs to this day on The Learning Channel.

Our Bible text for today deals with one of the prophets of Israel who did his prophesying like David Blaine - on the streets. He gave his prophecies as a theater act on the streets.

Ezekiel was born into a priestly family. He was among the first group of captives taken to Babylon in 597 BCE. We know very little about his personal life, except that he had a wife whose death was described in the book of Ezekiel.

The book begins with an account of his first vision. The old spiritual describes it this way:

"Ezek'el saw the wheel 'Way up in the middle o' the air; Ezek'el saw the wheel 'Way in the middle o' the air. The big wheel moved by faith. The little wheel moved by the grace o' God. A wheel in a wheel 'Way in the middle o' the air."

There was a windstorm with flashing lightning in its midst and, at the center, a fire "like glowing metal" that surrounded four living creatures. Each creature had four faces: one like a man, one like a lion, one like an ox, and one like an eagle. The creatures had wings and could move "back and forth like flashes of lightning." Somehow they were connected to sparkling wheels, which allowed them to turn in any direction. Spread out over them was an awesome expanse of something that sparkled like ice. The sound of their wings was "like the roar of rushing waters, like the voice of the Almighty, like the tumult of an army" (Ezekiel 1:1-24).

He was called to be a sentinel for the people, carrying God's word of judgment to them. Ezekiel was told by God that if he failed to deliver the message, then "Their blood I will require at your hand."

Ezekiel was known best for his symbolic actions that he performed on the streets. One time he was given a scroll on which were written "words of lament and mourning and woe," and God told him to eat it. He did as instructed, and it tasted sweet like honey.

Another time he was told to make a kind of model of the city of Jerusalem on a brick, and make the scene one where armies were laying siege to the city. I suppose that he built tiny siege machines which were capable of throwing large stones of balls of fire over the walls of the city. And I am sure he had ladders against the walls. The message was a prediction of what was to happen to Jerusalem.

On another occasion Ezekiel lay on his left side for 390 days and on his right side for 40 days. The 390 days symbolized the years the northern kingdom would be in captivity and the 40 represented the years the southern kingdom would be in captivity.

Once he cut off all his hair, dividing it into three parts. This symbolized the northern kingdom, the Judeans left in Jerusalem, and those in captivity in Babylon.

He rationed his food, carried furniture out of his house, and did other things to represent the disaster that would soon overtake Jerusalem.

Perhaps the most difficult assignment of street prophecy came when his wife died. He was forbidden from mourning his wife's death (24:15-27). I suppose this was to symbolize a time that would come when the people were under such attack that they would not have time to grieve for their dead.

To me the most striking thing about Ezekiel is the way he dealt with the common theology of the day. The people of Israel were absolutely sure of four things which were the key building blocks of their theology. These four points had been believed without doubt for hundreds of years.

First, the people of Israel knew they were the chosen people of God. They had a status above every nation. They wrongly assumed it was for privilege when in reality it was for responsibility. God did choose the Jews, but he chose them for a purpose not for privilege.

Second, they knew from the days of the calling of Abraham that they were given the land of Israel. God had made very specific instructions as to the division of the land.

Third, they knew that God lived in the Temple. This was the same God who had single-handedly won many battles for them over the years. They had seen his presence, which they called "the glory of the Lord," go into the Temple, and they knew God was more powerful than anybody's army. The Temple could never be taken. If all else failed, if Jerusalem were sacked, they knew they could take sanctuary in the Temple and God himself would protect them.

This theology had worked for hundreds of years, but now it was not working. Ezekiel reinterpreted their theology to explain what was happening. In Karen Armstrong's insightful book entitled The History of God, she carefully describes the changing views of God over the ages. Her conclusion is that people adopt a theology that works for them, and they keep it as long as it works. When it quits working, they go through a period of adjustment, sometimes even trauma, but eventually they find a new theology that does work for them. And they keep that theology until it doesn't work anymore. I think she has a powerful suggestion that seems to ring true.

These four points of theology no longer worked for Israel. How could they really be God's people if God had allowed the Babylonians to take them into captivity? How could the land be given them by God if the Babylonians had taken it away from them? How could God's promise to David be true if the were no descendant of David on the throne of Israel? How could the Temple be inviolable if the Babylonians had destroyed it, stone by stone?

Ezekiel presented a twist on each of the theological assumptions of the people of Israel, and in doing so, gave a good and acceptable explanation for what had happened to them at the hands of the Babylonians.

First, they were indeed God's chosen people, but they had failed in their covenant obligations for centuries. He reminded them that their covenant with God was conditional. It was conditioned upon their obedience. They were idolatrous. Some of their idols were even placed in the Temple. They had failed the moral and ethical laws. Therefore, according to the covenant, God would bring curses upon them, including deportation, destruction, and death.

Second, God had, indeed, granted to Israel the land promised, but its failure to obey the covenant meant that they could and would lose that right.

Third, the recent kings had blatantly broken God's laws, oppressed the people, and rebelled against God's will. They would not go unpunished.

And last, the glory of God did rest in the Temple, but Ezekiel saw God abandoning the Temple. He describes the scene in 11:23, "And the glory of the LORD ascended from the middle of the city, and stopped on the mountain east of the city." Without God's presence, the Temple was doomed.

Toward the end of the book, we find God returning to the rebuilt Temple. Ezekiel 43:4-5 says, "As the glory of the LORD entered the temple by the gate facing east, the spirit lifted me up, and brought me into the inner court; and the glory of the LORD filled the temple."

Ezekiel's conclusion was that God was no longer protecting them, but warring against them. The destruction of Judah was the doing of God. God's punishments were just. The punishment was proportionate to the crime. Ezekiel believed that God is in control of the events.

God was consumed by wrath, bent on violence, and hungry for vengeance. God used the Assyrians and the Babylonians to teach Israel a lesson.

His point was that Israel should repent and turn back to God. If they had, they could have avoided some of the judgment that came their way.

As I thought about this dramatic story and the message of Ezekiel for his people, I wondered if we can apply that same theology for today. I suggest to you that many religious people do exactly that. But I have problems with it. I am not sure at all that Ezekiel's theology works today.

On September 13, 2001, just after the terrorists attacks in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania, Jerry Falwell was the guest on Pat Robertson's "700 Club" television program. Falwell said that the terrorists attacks were signs that God had removed his divine protection because of America's sin. He noted that God had "protected" the United States from direct attack by a foreign power since the War of 1812. Falwell called the attacks from enemies "probably what we deserve."

Then he added, "The ACLU has got to take a lot of blame for this." He blamed the civil-liberties group "with the help of the federal court system, for throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools." He said, "I really believe the pagans, the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America, I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen.'"

Many religious people agreed with Falwell, but some people like me thought Falwell's comments were awful. I was shocked that Falwell would say such a thing. It seemed to put God as the one ultimately behind the killing of 3,000 people instead of Osama Bin Laden. Is God really responsible for something as awful as the 9/11 tragedy? Most of us prefer to put God on the side of the firefighters who entered the building to save people, rather than on the side of Osama Bin Laden.

But was Falwell saying anything different from what Ezekiel was saying about Israel? Ezekiel said very plainly that God had used Babylon and Assyria to punish Israel for their sins. Falwell was merely updating this same theology to America.

But I have several problems with Falwell's theology. First of all, what does this say to the families of the 3,000 people who died? Is it really a comfort to say, "Well, your husband, wife, child had to be killed by God to teach America a lesson"? What did they do? They were innocent people.

Falwell says God removed his hand of protection for America, but he really removed his hand of protection from 3,000 innocent people. Why did God remove his protection from the people who showed up to work on time, and not remove it from people who showed up late for work? Or does God say with Osama Bin Laden, "They were just collateral damage." What kind of God is it that takes innocent lives to teach everybody else in America a lesson?

During Ezekiel's time the theology of the people was changing. One of the most important changes that both Jeremiah and Ezekiel advocated was a change in individual responsibility. Ezekiel 18:2-4 says, "What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel, 'The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge'? As I live, says the Lord GOD, this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel. Know that all lives are mine; the life of the parent as well as the life of the child is mine: it is only the person who sins that shall die." Thus Ezekiel laid down the principle that the innocent would not die for the sins of the guilty.

Secondly, I think we can confidently say that Israel was indeed the people of God because the Bible says so. But we cannot so confidently assume that America is the chosen nation of God in today's world. Many of us want to believe that, but the people of Canada, Britain and Sweden may also want to believe that they are the chosen people of God today. But the Bible never says that. Such a position is very difficult to prove from the Bible.

I think Jesus gave us a different picture altogether. In fact, Jesus had very little to say about the nation of Israel. His kind of faith was more of a spiritual nature than of a political nature. And the Apostle Paul made very clear that the Church was the new Israel (Romans 2:28-29, Galatians 3:7, 24, 28-29). After Jesus, God's chosen would no longer be a nation of people but a people of faith. All those who accept Jesus as their Savior are the new people of God.

If we base our faith on Jesus, we will conclude that God clearly does work with individuals. I think we can use Ezekiel's ideas if we apply them to ourselves, but I think it is very difficult to apply them to modern nations. For individuals, it is healthy to look at circumstances and trials, as a test that God is giving us. God is always trying to teach us a lesson. God is always calling us to repent and avoid the judgment. When we apply these lessons personally, we avoid the dangers of claiming that innocent people suffer for our sins, or that God favors American Christians any more than those Christians in some other country.