Ezekiel 4 – God tells Ezekiel how
he is to embody or act out the prophecy God has given him: he lays a brick in
front of him and scratches on it the name “Jerusalem.” Then he is to surround
it with “siege works” - an iron pan that will fill the role of a wall between
him, the besieger, and the city.
He
is told to “lie down on your left side and take the sin of the House of Israel
on yourself” (4:4). He must lie on his left side for 190 days, and then on his
right side for 40 days. The Jerusalem Bible
note says the “sides” of his body and the “days” have to do with the
respective periods of exile Israel and Judah suffered.
He
is then to make bread to live on during this time and bake it on a fire made
from human dung. The prophet objects to this and says he has never defiled his
soul with unclean eating. God relents and lets him use cow dung, a natural fuel
for this region of the world. Inside Jerusalem, the people will “pine and waste
away as a result of their sins” (4:17).
Ezekiel 5 – The prophet is told
he must cut off his hair and beard, weigh the hair and set fire to a third of
it in the middle of the city during the siege. Then another third and toss it
from a sword all around the city and the last third he is to scatter – a sword
will take this third down.
A
little “remnant” of hair will yet remain. These are to be wrapped in the folds
of his cloak. From this tiny remnant, he is to take a few and throw them on a
fire. From these a fire shall again issue – it is a
mystery what exactly this “fire” will be, but it could be the fire of the
prophet’s message, coming as it is from the small remnant in exile. It does
sound like his message.
And
this is the message: “This is Jerusalem, which I have placed in the middle of
the nations, surrounded with foreign countries. She is so perverse that she has
rebelled more against my observances than the nations and more against my laws
than the surrounding countries . . . Therefore, the Lord Yahweh says this:
Since you are more rebellious than the nations around you, since you do not
keep my laws or respect my observances . . . I have now set myself against you.
I will inflict punishments upon you for all the nations to see” ” (5:6-8). One
third of Jerusalem’s inhabitant “shall die of plague or starve to death . . . a
third shall fall by the sword, outside you; a third I will scatter to every
wind, while I unsheathe the sword behind them” (5:12). They will become an
object of contempt and shame (5:14), an example to all the nations.
John 10:1-18 – Anyone who does not “enter the
sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit” (10:1).
The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd . . .The gatekeeper opens the
gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and
leads them out . . .the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will
not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the
voice of strangers” (10:3-5).
“I tell you
most solemnly, I am the gate of the
sheepfold. All others who have come are thieves and brigands; but the sheep
took no notice of them. I am the gate. Anyone
who enters through me will be safe: he will go freely in and out and be
sure of finding pasture”(10:7-9).
Jesus is not
only the gate; he is also the shepherd who can lead them through the gate. “I am the good shepherd. The good
shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (10:11).
“I know my
own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father” (10:14-15).
The Jerusalem
Bible note here indicates that “knowing” here is not just mental; it is experiential
knowing.
Interestingly,
Jesus says also that he has “other sheep
that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will
listen to my voice. So there will
be one flock, one shepherd” (10:16).
Mormons think this is a reference to God’s work among other peoples in other
parts of the world.
The Jews
remain divided about him.
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