Contemplative Bible Reading

Ezekiel 33:27-28  (New Living Translation)

27 “Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: As surely as I live, those living in the ruins will die by the sword. And I will send wild animals to eat those living in the open fields. Those hiding in the forts and caves will die of disease. 28 I will completely destroy the land and demolish her pride. Her arrogant power will come to an end. The mountains of Israel will be so desolate that no one will even travel through them.

Death by war; death by wild animals, and death by disease.

Desolate landscape that frightens away those who only want to pass through.

This sounds like The Walking Dead, The Hunger Games, and anything else on the list of dystopian future fiction that is so popular today. Except this passage is history. This actually happened. That land “flowing with milk and honey” became a wasteland and much of it today still looks that way.

The destruction of the land is physical—we can see it.

What about the demolishing of pride? We can’t see that as easily, but if the first threat was accomplished the second was probably accomplished as well.

God the creator doesn’t fool around. Under the good news, we have many promises. We also have a few things like this passage. Do we doubt that “a loving God” would carry through with those not-so-nice promises? We shouldn’t.