DAY 325

KEEP A STEADY HAND ON YOUR RUDDER

Ezekiel 16 & 17 and James 3

If chapter 15 was a fairly straightforward prophecy using a vine as a metaphor, chapter 16 is similarly straightforward…the unfaithful bride. It is a long chapter. Verses 1-5 point out that as a bride, Israel does not come by her grandeur naturally; in fact she was “abhorred on the day she was born.” Then in verses 6-14 there is a rather tender section about how God “adorned” and raised the woman into a beautiful bride. Unfortunately, verses 15-35 tell how the bride trusted in her own beauty. In verse 20 the phrase,”you sacrificed your own children” is not a metaphor, they indeed sacrificed their children and the balance of this section replays Israel’s faithlessness and so in verse 35 God says He will judge Israel as a woman who commits adultery. Remarkably God says two more things: in verse 41 God says, “I will make you stop playing the whore” and then in verse 60, “Yet I will remember my covenant.” As I said the other day, God never gives up.

In chapter 17 we read an interesting parable about two eagles. It is a specifically constructed allegory designed to highlight two events. The allegory is set out in verses 3-10, the explanation in verses 11-21, and then a smaller allegory in 22-24 pointing to a brighter future. The events referred to are the first exile in 597 when Nebuchadnezzar takes Jehoichin to Babylon and installs Zedekiah as the regent. The first eagle refers to Nebuchadnezzar and the exiles in Babylon, and the seed of the land refers to Zedekiah. Like a “low spreading vine” Zedekiah professed loyalty to Babylon, but secretly reached out to the second great eagle, Egypt—the result is that the vine withered—you have read all this history…the point of course is the Ezekiel prophesized this beforehand.

Which brings us to James 3, I had a boss that once copied this text and put it on the desk of a co-worker. My co-worker put it under his the glass covering of his desk so he could always have it in view. A tongue—like a rudder and like a bit—small things that control large things—so how is your tongue? In Ezekiel we are immersed in heady big things, things at a national and international level—but then James brings us to the root—each man and each woman—we have choices to how we live—how we speak and act—and the tongue, like a rudder, can guide the ship that is us! So, in a nautical moment, let me encourage you to keep a firm hand on yours.