Ezekiel Bread and Fake Ears
If you’re like me, you’ve probably found yourself at one time or another saying something to the effect of, “that’s not what I’m saying, what I’m trying to say is…” And you would give anything to be understood. You start making hand-gestures or just resort to sighing. “It’s like this…” you go on, launching into some tangent involving crocodile eggs or foreign currencies. Ok, maybe that last part is just me, but the desire to find resonance in the people around you is pretty strong. There is a real need in the human heart to be understood, to be believed, to be agreed with. When you finally hear those blessed words, “I know what you mean” you feel like collapsing to the floor and having an IV hooked up. It’s a often a marathon of talk to get there.
Ezekiel is a fascinating book. God tells him to lie on one side for a year with a model of Jerusalem at his back and only eat a certain kind of bread. This is God’s way of getting through to people. Jeremiah was told to walk through the streets with a yolk on his back. Hosea is told to marry a harlot. God knows that getting through our thick hearts is tough. Shock is often needed. Jesus said things like “if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off” and “my flesh is food and my blood is drink”. It made people walk away from him at times. He was probably the most misunderstood man that ever lived. There is mystery to that. He’s called “the Word” and yet to most it’s like he’s a foreign language. Clarity in the presentation of truth is only one side though. That’s why Jesus said, “he who has an ear to hear, let him hear.” It seems that some people only had fake ones stuck to sides of their heads.
Jesus said something else that’s hard to hear. He said, “no one can come to me unless the Father draws him.” There is more going on than we ever see. Before Jesus was betrayed and willingly gave up his life for a world eager to kill him, he spent some time with his closest friends, telling them about the way it is. He said that the Spirit of God has come into the world to “reprove” it. That word “reprove” boils down to two words – convince and convict. The truth is, we are in a state that makes us unable to receive the truth on our own. The truth sounds like a lie to us, because our lives are a lie. We lie to ourselves and everyone else lies to us – the devil lies to us, and we can’t recognize the truth anymore. We need help. So God gives it. His Spirit is busy opening our eyes at just the right time, so that we can see Jesus for who he really is and for what he has done for us.
Paul prays for the believers in Ephesus, “that the eyes of your hearts may be open.” The letter to the Ephesians is a staggering declaration of what God has done. It’s this amazing run-on sentence – like Paul had taken this deep breath and even then gets winded and just about passes out expressing the blessings of God. Even as he writes, he knows his readers aren’t getting everything he’s saying, so he writes a prayer right into the letter.
Jesus prayed for us too. I remember hearing a preacher so impressed with the fact that Jesus prayed for him that he couldn’t stop repeating it. He was this broken record skipping behind the pulpit. It didn’t dawn on me until later how impressed this guy was with Jesus praying for him. All I could think of at the time was how annoying it was that he was repeating himself. How ironic. I didn’t have my ears on. We need prayer. We need ears. We need the Spirit of God to show us Jesus. We need to hear Him. We need HIS ears. He came to be ours, along with everything else about him. Hear, hear!
BJ
Ezekiel is a fascinating book. God tells him to lie on one side for a year with a model of Jerusalem at his back and only eat a certain kind of bread. This is God’s way of getting through to people. Jeremiah was told to walk through the streets with a yolk on his back. Hosea is told to marry a harlot. God knows that getting through our thick hearts is tough. Shock is often needed. Jesus said things like “if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off” and “my flesh is food and my blood is drink”. It made people walk away from him at times. He was probably the most misunderstood man that ever lived. There is mystery to that. He’s called “the Word” and yet to most it’s like he’s a foreign language. Clarity in the presentation of truth is only one side though. That’s why Jesus said, “he who has an ear to hear, let him hear.” It seems that some people only had fake ones stuck to sides of their heads.
Jesus said something else that’s hard to hear. He said, “no one can come to me unless the Father draws him.” There is more going on than we ever see. Before Jesus was betrayed and willingly gave up his life for a world eager to kill him, he spent some time with his closest friends, telling them about the way it is. He said that the Spirit of God has come into the world to “reprove” it. That word “reprove” boils down to two words – convince and convict. The truth is, we are in a state that makes us unable to receive the truth on our own. The truth sounds like a lie to us, because our lives are a lie. We lie to ourselves and everyone else lies to us – the devil lies to us, and we can’t recognize the truth anymore. We need help. So God gives it. His Spirit is busy opening our eyes at just the right time, so that we can see Jesus for who he really is and for what he has done for us.
Paul prays for the believers in Ephesus, “that the eyes of your hearts may be open.” The letter to the Ephesians is a staggering declaration of what God has done. It’s this amazing run-on sentence – like Paul had taken this deep breath and even then gets winded and just about passes out expressing the blessings of God. Even as he writes, he knows his readers aren’t getting everything he’s saying, so he writes a prayer right into the letter.
Jesus prayed for us too. I remember hearing a preacher so impressed with the fact that Jesus prayed for him that he couldn’t stop repeating it. He was this broken record skipping behind the pulpit. It didn’t dawn on me until later how impressed this guy was with Jesus praying for him. All I could think of at the time was how annoying it was that he was repeating himself. How ironic. I didn’t have my ears on. We need prayer. We need ears. We need the Spirit of God to show us Jesus. We need to hear Him. We need HIS ears. He came to be ours, along with everything else about him. Hear, hear!
BJ
posted by BJ at 10:16 a.m.
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