12 August 2020

12 August 2020

 

(In my vision) the Lord said, ‘Go through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of those who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it.’
To the others he said in my hearing,
‘Pass through the city after him, and kill; your eye shall not spare, and you shall show no pity
but do not touch anyone with a mark on their forehead.’
Then the glory of the Lord went out from the threshold of the house…
From Ezekiel 9: 1-7, 10: 18-22 (NRSV)

This is one of those passages in scripture that can leave us feeling very uncomfortable. In the full reading, it seems that God is encouraging the killing of little children as well as those who have wilfully worshipped images of snakes and defiled the Temple. The reading tells us that the “glory of the Lord” is leaving the Temple altogether. Jerusalem has turned from God and God appears to be turning from Jerusalem. The tragic fact is that where adults in power behave badly, it is actually rarely them that suffer the full consequences of their actions and words. More often, it is the innocent and vulnerable who are most profoundly affected. The vision may indicate that God is directing operations and trying to spare those who share his grief at the corruption in the city but facing those who commit or condone the atrocities with the consequences of their actions.

    • How much do passages like this one bother you?
    • Why do the innocent suffer for the actions of corrupt rulers?

Spend time today thinking about places where people seem to have been abandoned by God – where the innocent suffer and no-one seems to come to their help.