Ezekiel - Part 4

This week, we cover chapters 40-48 of Ezekiel.  Ezekiel certainly ends on a high note as he is given a vision of a restored temple and a restored Israel.  What a wonderful message to receive!  What a wonderful word of hope!  But we have to remember that this was given while they were still in exile.  If you were in exile and heard this prophecy, what would be your reaction?  Would you believe it?  Would you be hopeful, yet skeptical?  Would you think Ezekiel had lost his mind?

Our God hates and must punish sin because he is just and righteous.  But he is also full of mercy and compassion.  The tension that we feel in Ezekiel between God's justice and mercy is resolved at the cross where those two things came together in Jesus Christ, where Jesus took our punishment and satisfied God's wrath against sin.

The prophets remind us that the good news is good because, on our own, it's only bad news.  Israel wandered far from God, but he never let them go.  He kept a remnant for himself so that his plan of salvation could be fulfilled through Jesus, the Son of David, the Son of God.

Enjoy your reading!  Please share your reflections and questions.  Be sure to use the guiding questions as you read.

Our guiding questions are these: 

What stood out to you in the reading?

Was there anything confusing or troubling?

Did anything make you think differently about God?

How might what you read change the way you live?  

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