Vision for Us

9 min read

2 On the fifth of the month—it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin— 3 the word of the LORD came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, by the Kebar River in the land of the Babylonians. There the hand of the LORD was on him.

— Ezekiel 1:2-3

Jehoiachin was king less than 100 days before he Nebuchadnezzar came and put Jerusalem under siege. Jehoiachin surrendered, and he and the rest of his family were taken into captivity. That occurred in 597 BC, ten years before Nebuchadnezzar razed Jerusalem and the temple.

What happened is that after Jehoiachin was exiled, Nebuchadnezzar appointed Jehoiachin’s uncle, Zedekiah, to be his puppet king in Jerusalem. But Zedekiah rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, against the advice of Jeremiah the prophet, and so Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and the temple.

After capturing Zedekiah, Nebuchadnezzar killed all of Zedekiah’s sons in front of him and then gouged out his eyes. Zedekiah was imprisoned in Babylon for the rest of his life.

The outcome for Jehoiachin was kinder. Although he remained in exile, Jehoiachin was released from prison after thirty-six years and was given royal privileges in the court of King Awel-Marduk for the remainder of his days (Jeremiah 52:31-34).

As far as Ezekiel is concerned, we can’t be sure, but it seems like he was a prophet who was exiled along with Jehoiachin. When he received his vision, the temple had not been destroyed yet, Zedekiah was king in Jerusalem, and Jeremiah was prophesying in Jerusalem.

But what we see here is that the Spirit of God was at work even among the Jews who were in exile.

And what that tells us is that even in the worst of circumstances—when the promises and blessings of God feel distant and even lost—the Spirit of God will always be at work among the people of God to accomplish the purposes of God.

And of course, God’s primary purpose is to fill the earth with His glory through God-fearing, God-honoring, God-worshiping, God-loving communities and families. And God will fulfill His primary purpose, even if it means sending His people into exile far away from their homes, far away from their “comfort zones.”

When we read the history of the conquest of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar, we realize that the downfall of Judah, as tragic as that was, did not have to be as painful and destructive as it was.

God sent Nebuchadnezzar to Judah because the Jews were following their own agenda and their own ways and completely ignored God’s agenda and God’s ways. But God’s agenda will always prevail even in the context of rebellion and sin. And in the context of rebellion and sin, there is a price to be paid by those communities that go their own way. And the question facing such communities is how much pain do we want to go through.

If Zedekiah had simply listened to the word of God through Jeremiah, if the Jews had simply listened to the word of God through Ezekiel, the pain would have been much less for both Zedekiah and for the Jews.

The reason that some people cannot hear the word of God is because they do not have ears to hear or eyes to see the revelation of God. In one sense, it is not their fault. In another sense, it is completely their fault.

It is not their fault, because they have been brainwashed by a “me-myself-and-i” worldview all of their lives. No one will encounter a revelation of God within a “me-myself-and-i” world. People with a strong “me-myself-and-i” worldview approach every sermon as a personal therapy session. And if a sermon is not “therapeutic” according to their standards and definitions, something must be wrong with the preacher.

On the other hand, it is completely their fault, because God has given us brains to think. And if we really thought deeply about the word of God, the Creator of heaven and earth, we would realize that it’s not about “me-myself-and-i” at all. But in recognizing that it’s not about “me-myself-and-i”, that is when the purpose and the agenda and the plan and the ways of God start to unfold in a vision from God’s word. And we discover that the vision relates to “US”, the church. And we no longer think in terms of personal “therapy,” but in terms of communal purpose. Because it takes a community in Christ to save a single soul.

There is a world of people out there who need Jesus and need Jesus now. And God is most glorified in US when WE need Jesus the most. But people will never see how much “me-myself-and-i” needs Jesus. “Me-myself-and-i” never needs Jesus (in their hearts). They only need, well, “me-myself-and-i.”

But those who need Jesus the most glorify God in our praise and in our love for one another and in our witness. People will see Jesus in that.

Father, You are sovereign over all things, especially over our rebellion and sin. But make us wiser. Give us ears to hear and eyes to see, so that with our brains we may understand how to minimize the pain of sin in this world and in our church. In Jesus’s name. Amen.