Mercy wins
The Ascension of Christ, 1636, Rembrandt van Rijn
Jesus’ own life from death gives the Christian faith for the same.
The book of Ezekiel gives us a vision of two huge piles of bones. In my last post, I quote the poet W.H. Auden who described our acts of injustice as bones lying in the sun. Ezekiel and Auden share this provoking image. However, Ezekiel’s bones cry more than guilty! They cry redeemed. Ezekiel’s first pile of bones (Ezekiel 37) goes from death to life. That is the Christian trajectory: we start spiritually dead; God’s Spirit breathes faith to believe in Jesus’ love for us; we come alive. Once alive by faith in Jesus, we face our enemies. Ezekiel’s next pile of bones are those of a Christian’s enemies. They go from life to eternal death (Ezekiel 38-39). This is a crucial word of hope for those who do not see justice this side of heaven, who die by the hand of their enemy—whether that be suicide, addiction, disease, or violence. Jesus’ love and life is stronger than the grave. A Christian goes from death to life; in the end, her enemies go from life to death – eternally. Ezekiel gives us a window into the spiritual realities that dictate our physical ones. Once Jesus resurrects your soul, your enemies will not prevail over you. You are in his kingdom, his family and nothing will tear you from it.
God’s people, the first pile of bones in Ezekiel 37, have been resurrected. They are God’s dearly loved children who were dead in their sins. He breathed new life into them. God took the full blow of their sins himself in Jesus. He gives this promise to them:
“They and their children and their children’s children shall dwell there forever and David my servant shall be their prince forever. I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant…. My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people. Then the nations will know that I the Lord make Israel holy, when my sanctuary is among them forever.’” Ezekiel 37:27, 28
God recreates them with his breath, his Spirit and gives them his prince forever. The repetition of “forever” shows that Ezekiel is not seeing an earthly kingdom (indeed he is already speaking to resurrected skeletons!) but a heavenly one. “David” represents Jesus who would rule forever and maintain this everlasting covenant of peace. Jesus had made peace between the Divine Warrior of Love and his unjust, unloving people. This peace cannot be broken between God and us because it rests on Jesus, not us. Jesus is “God with us” (Matthew 1:23), God dwelling with his people. This reassures us that he is always with us to protect, guide, restore, and love. It also witnesses to others. God had humiliated himself by sticking with his wayward people. It looked like God was weak when other countries took over their land and exiled his people. Yet God was allowing it in order to convict his people and ultimately bring them to his Son. God was after their heart not their behavior. Now, with their new heart, Jesus’ own heart in them, they would testify to his grace. They would be a witness to others about what God did in them (Ezekiel 37:28).
After this incredible promise, God allows the enemies to attack. What? Why would he do that? His people are living in peace now (Ezekiel 39:8,11)! They don’t even have walls! God just did all this stuff to bring them home and live with them. In this new life, they are not made to fight but to trust. God fights for them. God will not let them down. We need to see how powerfully he keeps his promises.
human-horse triumph movie!
One of the all-time best inspirational human-horse triumph movies is Seabiscuit (bet you didn’t expect that combo!). Seabiscuit is the true story of an undersized, gentle-mannered, big appetited racehorse that wins… a lot. If you haven’t seen it, I won’t ruin it. There is a scene in it when Seabiscuit’s trainer turns to his owner (Sean would give you all the actors’ names here;) after a number of wins and insists that Seabiscuit hasn’t truly been tested. He has won everything! His owner insists. “Against who?” The trainer replies. Then the race to end all races happens. This is what Ezekiel sees next. He sees how huge and violent the enemy is in order to see that God is bigger.
“You will advance against my people Israel like a cloud that covers the land. In days to come, Gog, I will bring you against my land, so that the nations may know me when I am proved holy through you before their eyes.” (Ezekiel 38:16)
This evil is too big for us, but it is not for God. It is important to know that God understands what we’re up against. It’s not just a little enemy. This evil army is so big that it will take 7 months of constant clean-up to bury it (39:14-15)! And that is with the help of the vultures and scavenger birds who will feast on them also (39:17-20)! Gross! But it’s nothing for God. God calls all the hordes of evil to attack his resurrected people so we would be reassured that he is “the faster horse”! And he is for you! This horde includes your sin that pesters you as a Christian, the broken world falling apart, and the Devil. They all work together to make you think Jesus (and his Father) don’t care about you, can’t help you, and will reject you in the end - that Ezekiel 37 is a lie. They want to get you alone and torture you until you give up and die. We need to see the final victory against the worst there is, so we will have hope in our present struggles. Ezekiel needed this picture since he was far from home, under an unjust government, and his home had been destroyed. God gave him hope—the horde does not win. God does.
This is God’s missionary heart – he wants the world, the enemies of his people, to know that he is the Lord and he is holy. This is not good news in of itself. Not if he is against you (Ezekiel 39:1). But as we have already seen, God is for you. He is against our sin, for that tears us from him and hurts us, but he has already saved us from it. God is for you in Jesus. He gave his people Jesus’ life and Spirit; they will not be taken away (Luke 10:42, John 10:28-30). He is against Satan (Gog and Magog in Ezekiel’s case). If God is for you, nothing can come against you.
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38,39)
Paul wrote that from prison where he would die for his faith. Yet, spiritually, Ezekiel 38-39 was happening. The enemy hordes were coming against Paul, but they had no power over him. He was safe in Jesus’ family and about to go home to heaven.
God fights for you. The horde comes against his quiet people but they never lift a sword in defense. God alone wins the battle – instantly. He brings their world to an end: earthquake (38:19-20), in-fighting (38:21), hail, fire and sulfur (38:22), and more fire (39:6). He will rain down his full judgment on Gog and Magog. It’s terrifying and gruesome – he assembles an avian judgment feast to destroy them (39:4, 17-20). In Ezekiel 38-39, God unleashes judgment fully on Satan and those who set themselves up against Jesus. John echoes this picture of final judgment in Revelation, even naming Satan’s forces Gog and Magog (Revelation 20). Sorry, Rolling Stones…there is no sympathy for the devil.
the best mama-bear defending her child scene I’ve ever seen is in Disney’s “Brave.”
God torches our enemies. This both reassures us and humbles us. This picture reassures us because we see God’s protective love for us. You have a Mama Bear saving you from the wolf times one bazillion! The sheer amount of wicked hordes and weapons listed in Ezekiel 38 and 39 comfort us – God knows your suffering. He knows the violence intended for you. He is madder than you are about it. He has shown you the end so you would be reassured in the now. Jesus summarized the work of Gog, Magog, Satan, the world’s gods, and our sin poignantly: “The thief came to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it to the full” (John 10:10). You’re not crazy about the enemies set against you. But they will not prevail. You do not need to fight. Jesus has already. His Spirit will make you see him in the struggle you’re in now. Now you know the end.
The violent and gruesome defeat of Gog and Magog humbles us because we see a picture of the just wrath that Jesus took on our behalf on the cross. He took the full blow of God’s wrath against sin for you and me—the fire, the sulfur, the complete separation. Yet this was Jesus’ moment of glory where God shone is mercy and grace for us (John 12:28). His humiliation in our eyes was glory in God’s. Now we live in the shadow of the cross and the empty tomb. His glory was our redemption. It is humbling and awesome at the same time. This mighty God stooped so low for us. God loves you so. He won’t lose you now come what may on earth.
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