The man said to me, “Son of man, look with your eyes and hear with your ears and pay attention to everything I am going to show you, for that is why you have been brought here. Tell the house of Israel everything you see.” – Ezekiel 40:4
Today’s Scripture Reading (November 18, 2009): Ezekiel 40
What do you hope is going to happen today? In your dreams, what does this day look like? It is not an easy question. I wonder if for most of us, hope has very little to do with today. We hope that we are happy, maybe that we don’t meet many grumpy people. Maybe we hope to laugh at something and spend time with some good friends. What is your hope for hope for today? The truth is that we need hope just to get out of bed.
Ezekiel 40 starts the last prophecy of Ezekiel. For the rest of the book we will only hear Ezekiel speak in the vision. No longer will the man speak. It is a familiar place for him - a place of comfort and hope in a world that wasn’t offering much of either. The year was 572 B.C. The temple, the center of Jewish life, the legacy of King Solomon, the last king of the united nation of Israel, was gone. The exile was in full swing. And Ezekiel’s last vision is of a new temple. This temple has never been built, and probably won’t be – at least not by human hands. But it is hope.
Ezekiel is told to speak the words of the vision to everyone – to give Israel hope. My wish is that we can do the same. We hold a hope that the world needs. It is of a place that, just like Ezekiel’s temple, won’t be built by human hands. There is something beyond this. Jesus died so that we could achieve it and his bones are no longer in the grave because he has gone there ahead of us. We have a hope.
Welcome to hope!
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 41
