Ezekiel 36:8-10
8 “‘But you, mountains of Israel, will produce branches and fruit for my people Israel, for they will soon come home. 9 I am concerned for you and will look on you with favor; you will be plowed and sown, 10 and I will multiply the number of people upon you, even the whole house of Israel. The towns will be inhabited and the ruins rebuilt.'”

These verses promise restoration to the land of Israel and its people, who have seen their fair share of devastation and ruin. Being conquered by other countries, being captured and taken into exile…let’s just say the Israelites have had a very difficult time of it!

But Ezekiel brings words of hope from God, Who has not been idle during all this suffering; in fact, God has brought them through and is planning to return His people to their homeland, newly abundant with plenty. The time of exile and conquest will soon be over, and Israel restored to its proper place, where they may begin to thrive again.

Why Did Israel Have to Be Restored in the First Place?

One might ask, “Well, if God is so faithful and loving, why were the Israelites allowed to suffer?” The simple answer was that Israel had become famously unfaithful and ungrateful to God, worshipping any other deities but Him, acting as if they alone had done the work to deserve all that they had. In earlier Old Testament books (Judges especially), we see this dynamic illustrated over and over again so many times, it’s ridiculous.

Finally God just lets them see what their lives would be like without His blessing; He does not turn away from His people entirely, but He does allow the surrounding countries to do as they will with Israel. Like a parent with a disobedient child, God allows Israel to fall on its proverbial backside for a while, so that they understand how dependent they truly are on Him (and not other deities) for protection. But this punishment is not forever, as these verses promise!

We Can Be Restored, Too!

We can trust in the same restorative power in our own lives. We may not be conquered by other countries and taken into exile, but we can encounter major career setbacks, endure strife and long-term struggles with loved ones, and suffer illness and despair. During hard times, it can be very difficult to see God working, but just as He did for Israel, He can do for us. We, like the Israelites, must learn to be faithful to Him and trust in Him, and know that He will “look on us with favor,” too.

Ezekiel 28:2b, 6b-7
2b “In the pride of your heart you say, ‘I am a god, I sit on the throne of a god in the heart of the seas.’ But you are a man and not a god, though you think you are as wise as a god.”…

6b “Because you think you are wise, as wise as a god, 7 I am going to bring foreigners against you, the most ruthless of nations; they will draw their swords against your beauty and wisdom and pierce your shining splendor.”

God speaks here through Ezekiel, one of the Old Testament’s major prophets, pronouncing sentence against the city of Tyre and its ruler for the pride and conceit in their thinking. In its day, Tyre was a great trading and shipping city, well-known, loved, and envied for its wealth. But Tyre and its citizens have grown too complacent, too proud of their achievements, to even acknowledge God anymore. They have begun to think of themselves as gods, infinitely wise, infinitely omniscient.

Here, God says He will bring “foreigners” against Tyre in an assault which will “pierce” the veil of their conceited thinking and pride. This is not an evil act by God, because God does not do evil. Instead, this is a hard lesson for Tyre, a lesson of humility and remembering just Who is in control. The city and its inhabitants have gone on too long believing that they are the ones with ultimate power and wisdom.

This prophecy is about a city, but God can and will humble us in similar ways when we get too prideful and complacent about our own achievements. I experienced this in 2009 with my debacle of a teaching career; God proved to me that I could fail, and publicly, though I had spent most of my school years being given this award and that achievement. It was embarrassing and shaming, but ultimately important for me to reevaluate my personal worth. I got into a better place with God because I no longer thought of myself as striving to be perfect and accomplished.

When we start thinking in terms of all the acclaim we’ve gained, or all the community respect we command, we inevitably lose sight of the fact that God blessed us with that. Everything we have ultimately comes from God’s blessing; when we forget that, and start thinking we got all of this ourselves, God will not hesitate to humble us, to remind us Who is ultimately in control.

Ezekiel 12:1-11

1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Son of man, you are living among a rebellious people. They have eyes to see but do not see and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious people.

8 In the morning the word of the LORD came to me: 9 “Son of man, did not the Israelites, that rebellious people, ask you, ‘What are you doing?’ 10 “Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: This prophecy concerns the prince in Jerusalem and all the Israelites who are there.’ 11 Say to them, ‘I am a sign to you.'”

For the modern Christian, Ezekiel’s exile from the rest of the ancient Israelite nation seems drastic, and it is. All that God commands him to do in this passage evokes a symbolic representation of Israel’s coming exile, to remind the Israelites that they have strayed from Him too long. But it also illustrates an important point for modern believers: when you want to receive God’s guidance, often you must completely put aside the world and its concerns.

But how can we do that, when worldly concerns are all around us, swirling in our heads, part of our work and family life? The answer is difficult but real–we must “exile” ourselves from the world, if only for a few minutes or a few hours. When we worship and pray, whenever we choose to do that, it should be a time of leaving behind worldly problems and simply talking to God.

Find a Setting Appropriate for Worship/Prayer

Part of becoming ready to worship and pray in this singly focused manner is the setting we choose to do it in. Just as you generally feel more ready to sleep in a bedroom and more ready to work in an office, psychologically you feel more ready to worship and pray in an appropriate setting, like a church or other sacred place.

Having tried to worship and pray in my own house versus doing so in a sanctuary, I can definitely say that settings are very important to what we’re doing. I often just “feel” closer to God while praying and worshipping in a church, even if I’m the only person in there.

(The question of setting is part of why Ezekiel leaves the Israelites–his world–behind, but he’s also an example to the Israelites. God wants them, His “rebellious people,” to observe one of their number self-exiling, just as the rest of them will be exiled in Babylon soon after this passage of the Bible.)

Believers are Examples to Others

This is not an uncommon theme among world religions, for a person of faith to separate himself or herself from the general populace in order to be closer to his or her deity, but for the Israelites it is also a teaching moment. God is trying to reconnect with them, reach out to them and retrain them in how to get closer to Him, using Ezekiel as an example to them.

Likewise, modern Christians must sometimes isolate themselves from worldly concerns, not only for their own personal worship, but to demonstrate to others how to get away from the world and find their own way to connect to God. We don’t have to exile ourselves from the world all the time, just sometimes–just long enough to remind ourselves how to call for God, how to talk to Him when we need Him.

Ezekiel 14:7
When any Israelite or any alien living in Israel separates himself from me, and sets up idols in his heart and put a wicked stumbling block before his face and then goes to a prophet to inquire of me, I the Lord will answer him myself.

In this part of the Book of Ezekiel, the prophet records what God speaks to him upon meeting with the elders of Israel–in short, that they are idolaters rather than God-fearing worshippers. This verse, in particular, is the warning that God directs Ezekiel to tell them, warning all Israel that God did not appreciate idols and hypocritical worship (the whole “having idols but going to ask a prophet about God” thing).

In Ezekiel’s day, the idols were likely carven, and were more often of Baal, the main competitor for Israel’s spirituality in the Old Testament. In modern times, however, our idols and stumbling blocks are subtler and harder to detect. Some of us more obviously worship the gods of money and power, as did some in Ezekiel’s day; some of us, however, worship the god of Internet, or the god of politics, or the god of knowledge. Idolatry definitely still exists today–and anything that gets in the way of worshipping God isn’t healthy in the long term for your faith.

Overcoming Modern Idolatry: Being Vigilant about Priorities

This is an especially convicting passage to read, and it demands us to engage in self-examination. What are the “gods” that we worship before God? In my life, I can see how often other things take the place of studying God’s Word–namely my activities on social media. Sometimes even this blog can get in the way of devotional time, as odd as that sounds. This verse reminds us all that anything we prioritize ahead of God can become a “god” to us, and it can happen without us realizing. Once we’ve pushed God down to second place in our lives, then it becomes even easier to push Him to third, and then fourth, and on down till He’s in last place, where we only contact Him when we want something. Constantly examining ourselves and our priorities is the only way to combat this.

(A final note: God can seem overly harsh and punitive in this verse and other places in the Old Testament, but considering that Israel went through approximately 20-year periods of worshipping Him, then falling away to Baal, and back again, it seemed a little more dramatic move was needed to remind Israel of what they ought to be doing.)