Sometimes, I stumble across a Bible verse that has somehow gone unnoticed after so many years of studying, that is just so moving.
Today, I noticed Ezekiel 34:16, which comes in the lectionary on Reign of Christ/Christ the King Sunday on November 20th.
It reads, "I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice."
Wow.
5 comments:
He that oppresses the poor reproaches his Maker.
Proverbs 14:31
As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great and waxen rich....they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge. Shall I not visit for these things? saith the Lord: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
Jeremiah 5:27-29
You know...I've wondered here lately how many warnings there are in the Bible to the wealthy and how it would compare to the number of warnings to the sexually immoral (if there are any).
Once you had those numbers, it might be interesting to see how many sermons cover the dangers of wealth and lack of compassion vs how many cover sexual immorality.
It'd make an interesting juxtaposition, I suspect.
Beth,
I used to think the Book of Ezekiel as waaaaaayyy out there. I mean, off the reservation. I bet I read it through 3 or 4 times and never got more than "Son of Man....." out of the whole text.
But as I read Ezekeil over and over and over again, and continued to try and understand it more and more, it is slowly starting to come to me. I love the story of the dry bones. I see the modern day nation of Israel from 1948 forward in that story.
I love the verses of the Gog-Magog war in Chapter 38. It is so interesting to read about the alliances refered to there and then pick up a newspaper each and every day for the next 3 or 4 weeks and read the front pages.
I loved this verse that you pointed out. I may have to plow through Ezekeil again.
Wow! indeed. Comforting words in the era of the Bush II administration. There are those passages from the OT that look like they came from the NT, and this is one of them. Thanks, Beth, for the look ahead in the lectionary.
fat and the strong .. luckily you usuaully aren't both at the same time.
:)
In Ezekiel,
Why does God refer to Ezekiel as Son of man(about 50 X) I counted
Also in no other book of the Bible does God,keep saying,"Because I am God " over and over,About(60X)or more.
And the intro,to decieve man,that God is Flying around in a UFO Burnished brass and woosh off he goes in a Whirlwind. So as Jesus warned,there will be terrible sight in the sky,Mathew 23. Satan can use that,allabourd, and stael away there souls,Also,in Mathew,God say's I am against those who make men fly to steal their souls...ie Rapture
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