Author: Erin Newton

Scripture Focus: Ezekiel 27.27
27 Your wealth, merchandise and wares,
    your mariners, sailors and shipwrights,
your merchants and all your soldiers,
    and everyone else on board
will sink into the heart of the sea
    on the day of your shipwreck.

Reflection: Onlookers’ Delight
By Erin Newton

In modern terms, Tyre was a supercenter of goods. Like a mega-company that traded with dozens of nations, Tyre was a household name for the ancient Near East. She prided herself in her achievements and her wealth. She was the supplier of purple dye, the symbol of royalty. Tyre was successful and perhaps considered herself indispensable.

We are met again with a passage that does not speak about Israel. What is central to this chapter? Wealth. Extensive amounts of wealth. A long list of trade partners fills verse after verse. Imagine a business today with that sort of revenue. Tyre’s hope is not bound to one source; she is linked with every nation in the area. There is a feeling of financial security. But downfall is coming. God tells Ezekiel to speak a lament to the people.

How does one lament great wealth? The wise sage of Ecclesiastes surveyed the accumulation of wealth and ended with a lament, of sorts.

Ecclesiastes 5.10 says, “Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless.” Wealth can never be fulfilled. It always wants more and more. Tyre, seeing Israel destroyed, immediately assumes that destruction would result in benefits for herself.

Ecclesiastes 6.2 also says, “God gives some people wealth, possessions and honor, so that they lack nothing their hearts desire, but God does not grant them the ability to enjoy them, and strangers enjoy them instead. This is meaningless, a grievous evil.” With vast amounts of wealth, those who labor to obtain it die before they can fully enjoy such treasures.

Wisdom would tell us that wealth is not inherently bad: “The blessing of the Lord brings wealth, without painful toil for it” (Proverbs 10.22). The message about money is a mixed bag. It can be good. It can be bad.

There is an attitude that must be examined in the texts about Tyre. It is Tyre’s pleasure of Israel’s misfortune that causes her judgment. Pleasure derived from another’s demise is called schadenfreude. It expresses the joy and thrill experienced when another person suffers. It highlights the inner perversion of love.

Wealth alone was not a problem. Somehow the desire for riches turned the treaty of brotherhood into a den of vipers.

God calls us to love one another. We would never take joy in our failures. Loving our neighbors means not reveling in theirs. 

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer
The Lord is King; let the people tremble; he is enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth shake. — Psalm 99.1

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
Ezekiel 27 (Listen 5:15) 
Ephesians 5 (Listen 3:42)

Read more about Solomon’s Folly
Most people seek to retest Solomon’s findings. “Sure, sure, wealth and pleasure are meaningless,” we say, “but let me try.”

Solomon’s Folly

Read more about Neither Despair Nor Nostalgia
In golden ages, we often find excesses that will bankrupt the future. Solomon instituted forced labor and was consumed by pleasures of wealth, sex, and power.

Neither Despair Nor Nostalgia

Scripture Focus: Ezekiel 26.2-3
2 “Son of man, because Tyre has said of Jerusalem, ‘Aha! The gate to the nations is broken, and its doors have swung open to me; now that she lies in ruins I will prosper,’ 3 therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against you, Tyre, and I will bring many nations against you, like the sea casting up its waves.

Reflection: God’s People as Bystanders
By Erin Newton

Along the coast of the Mediterranean was an island called Tyre. Its location as a natural port created endless trading opportunities for all the major nations. It was an advantageous port coveted by the Egyptians, Assyrians, and Babylonians. No one could defeat Tyre, instead, multiple trade agreements were made.

One such agreement was made between Israel and Tyre. It was an agreement to supply each other with goods and was confirmed through the marriage of Ahab of Israel and Jezebel of Tyre.

Jezebel is the most recognized connection between Israel and Tyre. She was responsible for the increased Baal worship and the infamous showdown between Elijah and false prophets on Mount Carmel. It is hard to imagine that the trade partnership could be spoken of positively. Amos, however, spoke of it as a “treaty of brotherhood” (Amos 1.9).

Yet when the Babylonians conquer Israel, we hear the laugh and ridicule from Tyre, “Aha! … now that she lies in ruins I will prosper!” Tyre is ignorant. Without Jerusalem as a buffer, Babylon will target her next.

In this prophecy, Israel is a silent bystander. It is not a prophecy against Israel for making such a partnership. It is not a prophecy that predicts the retaliatory vengeance of Israel. Israel is weak, wounded, and silent. God alone is the active character in the prophecy.

Prophetic passages such as this can be difficult to apply. God’s people are not part of the message. In fact, they are only mentioned in passing. We don’t usually like to read things that are not about ourselves.

What do we do with a message such as this? We examine what this message says about God. Here, God is supreme. God not only tends to the welfare of his people but for the world. For a moment we take our eyes off our own situation. The rhythms of power, abuse, prosperity, and camaraderie fall under the surveillance and authority of God even if his people are not beating the drum.

Our God is a multidirectional God. He can be 100% committed and attentive to our personal needs while also 100% committed and attentive to the affairs of the world. He uses people and nations in accordance with his will. Not a single ruler of this world is outside of his authority.

We often falter in trying to make God too human. We forget that he is omnipotent.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer
Love the Lord, all you who worship him; the Lord protects the faithful, but repays to the full those who act haughtily. — Psalm 31.23

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
Ezekiel 26 (Listen 3:45) 
Ephesians 4 (Listen 3:58)

Read more about Kingmakers Unmade
Tyre is a universal warning to all people but even more so to those of us blessed with even moderate wealth.

Kingmakers Unmade

Read more about The Poisonous Merry-Go-Round of Mockery
The more savage the headline, the better it will sell. They aren’t making beauty from ashes. They are making money from it.

The Poisonous Merry-Go-Round of Mockery

Scripture Focus: Ezekiel 20:32-33, 37
32 “‘You say, “We want to be like the nations, like the peoples of the world, who serve wood and stone.” But what you have in mind will never happen. 33 As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I will reign over you with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with outpoured wrath…
 37 I will take note of you as you pass under my rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant.

Reflection: For Better or For Worse
By Erin Newton

Israel was bound to God and God to them in covenant. It was a relationship in which God is glorified and the people receive his blessing. It was bound by the immutable word of God himself.

Despite the infidelity of Israel, her idolatry and oppression of the weak, God never released them from that covenant. They chose other gods to worship and corrupted the whole concept of monotheism. Yet through it all, nothing could separate them from God.

In Ezekiel 20, God reminds the people of this bond. The people have openly rejected him and declared their intention to worship something else. They want to punt the faith. “What you have in mind will never happen.”

Can you reject God and flee from his presence? In our minds we think it’s possible. Psalm 139:7-10 echoes the impossibility of departing from God.

7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
    Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
    if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
    your right hand will hold me fast.

Like Israel, we have been covenanted with God. It is the new covenant, sealed by the Spirit, sealed upon our hearts. There is much talk about deconstruction with some defining the term as the rejection of the faith entirely. Yet we see in Ezekiel that when God has given himself in a covenant, it is unmovable.

For Israel, the people needed to deconstruct the way they had been practicing religion. Their so-called worship of God was corrupt and manipulated. Priests and leaders had allowed faith to turn into idolatry.

Israel wanted to move on to some other form of worship not realizing their God had been with them all along. Return to him. That is the message for Israel. God would say the same to us today.

Is our deconstruction leading us to different idols or are we searching for true, undefiled worship? Can we see how God will be with us in our wandering? Through pain, the Israelites will return to the Lord. Refining our faith can be painful. This is a call for us to examine what exactly we are trying to reject.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Cry of the Church
In the evening, in the morning, and at noonday, I will complain and lament, and he will hear my voice. — Psalm 55.18

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
Ezekiel 20(Listen 9:25)
Colossians 3(Listen 3:09)

Read more about Denying Our Exile
Israel thought it was God’s nation…They confronted anyone who questioned their narrative as unpatriotic.

Denying Our Exile

Read more about Presence is Precious
The presence of God is a gift of grace made available to those who seek it, recognizing it as the precious thing that it is.

Presence is Precious

Scripture Focus: Ezekiel 19:9, 14b
9 With hooks they pulled him into a cage
and brought him to the king of Babylon.
They put him in prison,
    so his roar was heard no longer
    on the mountains of Israel…

14  “…This is a lament and is to be used as a lament.”

Image Note: Today’s image is taken from Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem by Rembrandt. View a high-quality image of the painting at this link.

Reflection: A Dirge from God
By Erin Newton

Jesus wept. When Lazarus died, Jesus grieved. We know Jesus was fully human and he experienced the same feelings as we do. We often think that Jesus’ experiences with grief created the means for God to understand our sadness and sympathize. The incarnation of Christ highlights his experiences with grief. Yet, God has been nurturing and guiding people through their sorrow for centuries before Jesus. He can sympathize with our sorrow, but he has also been anticipating our sorrow and providing guidance on how to process these difficult emotions.

Much of the poetry in the Bible expresses the emotional aspect to our spiritual lives. We often think of Psalms in times of distress, hoping for words that resonate with our souls. Surprisingly, we sometimes find such poetry in the prophets.

God gives Ezekiel words for the nation’s lament. He utilizes the imagery of a mother lion and her cubs. One cub is captured and taken away. The next cub is reared but captured and taken to Babylon. These cubs are the kings of the northern and southern kingdoms. The lament speaks poetically about God’s people being uprooted from the fertile land and cast into the desert. God declares that these verses be used as a lament.

This particular word for lament, qina, specifically indicated a funeral hymn, a dirge. For many chapters, we have read about God’s coming judgment upon the people because of their unfaithfulness. Time after time, we could see that whatever was coming was their fault. But God considers their emotional well-being. Judgment has come but he guides them in their lament.

God speaks to us in our humanity. Life with God is not cold. Other laments and psalms reveal the depths of emotional pain. To live a Christian life is not to be void of emotion. We should cry, weep, and lament…even if it was partially our fault.

There is a temptation to shame people amid their pain. “They deserve it.” In the case of the Israelites, “God warned them.” We scoff, roll our eyes, and mutter, “Well, I don’t feel sorry for them.” But this lament in Ezekiel tells us that no matter who it is, people are free to feel.

It is through the deep wells of emotions that we often meet God. No facades of strength. Just our authentic, emotional selves. In aiming to be strong, we forget the God-given duty to grieve.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Those who sowed with tears will reap with songs of joy.
Those who go out weeping, carrying the seed, will come again with joy, shouldering their sheaves. — Psalm 126.6-7

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
Ezekiel 19 (Listen 2:12) 
Colossians 2 (Listen 3:27)

Read more about Lament the Fall of Leaders (Even Bad Ones)
No matter what we may think of leaders’ foolish decisions or reckless waste, their fall and failure will mean pain and suffering for many.

Lament the Fall of Leaders (Even Bad Ones)

Read more about Legacy of Failure
We need to be reminded of our humanity and our great need for forgiveness.

Legacy of Failure

Scripture Focus: Ezekiel 13:6, 10
6 Their visions are false and their divinations a lie. Even though the Lord has not sent them, they say, “The Lord declares,” and expect him to fulfill their words…

10 “‘Because they lead my people astray, saying, “Peace,” when there is no peace.

Reflection: What is a False Prophet?
By Erin Newton

There is no single word in Hebrew to designate a false prophet from a legitimate prophet. In the New Testament, the Greek language provides a word, pseudoprophetes. Quite clearly, we see the two words combined: pseudo + prophet. This is a phony, fake, counterfeit speaker for God.

In the Old Testament, they are referred to generically as “prophets” without a specific qualifying word to denote falsehood. How do we know it is a false prophet?

In Ezekiel, false prophets spoke out of their own imagination but claimed they had the words of God. They spoke about peace when there was none. They created a sense of security, that was merely a façade, a prop. God speaks against these imposters and declares their coming ruin.

There is a good warning here from the lack of a Hebrew word for false prophets. They have the same titles as legitimate pastors, priests, reverends, and leaders. By name, they are just like those who speak the words of God, the words of truth. How will we know if those among us are false prophets?

When every religious leader claims to be speaking truth, declaring the words of God, heralding their interpretation as “gospel,” what will be the litmus test for all these words? The example in Ezekiel reveals two things to look for: ignoring the reality of suffering and avoiding convicting or uncomfortable messages.

False prophets will tickle the ear of their audience with words of false peace. When injustice or abuse are in their midst, a false prophet will ignore these issues and downplay their significance. They speak peace when there is no peace.

False prophets build a sense of security for their audience by erecting walls that are nothing more than paper mâché. This may look like claims of financial or physical blessings as a way to ward off suffering in life. This may be the call to rely on political parties or elected officials to keep evil from encroaching on one’s way of life. They will claim that nothing can harm you as long as you [fill in the blank.]

These messages cannot be supported by the whole of Scripture. Look at Job. Look at Esther. Look at Paul. These were all righteous people who suffered personally or had to walk through the hardship of suffering around them.

False prophets call themselves authentic; we must learn the difference.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Let not those who hope in you be put to shame through me, Lord God of hosts; let not those who seek you be disgraced because of me, O God of Israel. — Psalm 69.7

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
Ezekiel 13 (Listen 4:14)
Romans 16 (Listen 3:30)

Read more about Sufferings and False Prophets
False prophets today may be religious or political…what they have in common is telling us exactly what we want most to hear.

Sufferings and False Prophets

Read more about Cut and Run from False Prophets
Zechariah’s audience knew that lying prophets were deadly. Their lies killed.

Cut and Run from False Prophets