Welcome to the Pauline Family's "Year of the Bible"! I'm reading the Bible clear through this year, and I invite you to read along with me. But first, let us pray:
Everlasting Father,
All time belongs to you, and all the ages. In signs, in songs, in words of promise, you reassured your chosen ones, “I am with you; fear not.” You taught them through the prophets to trust that your saving deeds were not limited to the past.
When Jesus came, he fulfilled “all that was written in the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms.”
The Church has found him everywhere in these same holy books.
Help me to find Jesus in my reading today, to listen to him, and to follow him with all my heart.
Amen.
Today's chapters are Ezekiel 23-25.
A note about the two sisters in the reproaches of Chapter 23: this is not an allegory built on bigamy! The two women represent the one people Israel, to whom God is the faithful (but much-betrayed) Spouse. Jeremiah had also depicted the two kingdoms of Jacob's descendants as two sisters (see Jeremiah 3:6-10, ff). Reading the graphic description of the sins that rose up to God from Samaria (the capital of the Northern Kingdom) and Jerusalem (the capital of Judah), we might assume that the terrible destruction the people of Israel experienced was inflicted upon them by God. But God didn't have to do anything to punish the people for their many sins; all he did was let history run its course. He simply did not intervene on their behalf. What God would actively do, and what he alone could do, was restore the people after they had lost everything. That is why we continually find in the prophetic books images like new creation, new exodus, new temple, and even resurrection from the dead.
Being God's spokesperson came at a deep personal cost to the great prophets. In today's central chapter, we see the message of the fall of Jerusalem and its impact on the people--as prophetically experienced by Ezekiel.
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