Article 2016-12 - Ezekiel: Missionary in Exile
Chapter 27: Ezekiel: Missionary in Exile
Introduction
Israel’s exile to Babylonia shows that there is more to life with God than all negative circumstances indicate. These do not mean that God’s plans failed. In periods of failure we must look for God’s restoration plans, by paying attention to His messengers for that time. The observer sees God’s plans continue and succeed. They may be delayed through sin, but cannot be stopped. God puts His best workers for any situation in the right time.
Scripture reference
I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand and I will do all that I please (Is. 46:10)
… the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel … ‘Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation … obstinate and stubborn … (Ez. 1:2; 2:3,4)
The story
Had it all come to an end? Three groups of Judean exiles were deported to Babylon, the last after Jerusalem was burnt down. What had come from God’s plans to make His people a godly example to the nations? Did He fail? Had redemptive history ended? This is what it looked like. Gentiles laughed at God, thinking He had failed to rescue His people. But now, what was God’s truth? Was there any hope? Did God lose control?
No, He never did and never will. He knows the end from the beginning. His story never ends in an anticlimax. His plans for man are good and He will make them happen. But He cannot and will not tolerate continuous sin in people and nations. He warns of a coming judgment long before it comes to pass. He is extremely patient, but cannot be messed with. He always offers a way of salvation and only when it is ignored or rejected will He confirm people in their ungodly choices. We call that judgment. This happened to Israel and Judah. God retaliated justly, but had not failed to execute His plans.
God promised Judah that it would return after seventy years. Isaiah and Jeremiah had prophesied about the people’s restoration to their land. God had already placed new missionaries in the right places. One of them ministered to the Israelites in exile; another, with his friends, to the Babylonians. The one with his friends, Daniel, had been deported when Nebuchadnezzar had just started his rule. The other, Ezekiel, was deported with the second group of Judeans, eight years later. Both missionaries became great prophets.
Later we look closely at Daniel, because he was called as a cross-cultural missionary. But first we briefly consider Ezekiel’s mono-cultural ministry, only to his own people.
Scripture reference
You are not being sent to a people of obscure speech and difficult language, but to the house of Israel (Ez. 3:5)
Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me (Ez. 33:7)
The story, continued
God told Ezekiel to minister to His people in Babylon. He was not sent to the nations, but prophesied about the nations later. He explained to the Judeans why God allowed this misery and to comfort them with His promises of restoration. He commissioned him by saying ‘Son of man, I am calling you to be a watchman over the house of Israel.’
So, Ezekiel ministered among his people in Babylon. He spoke words of the only true God in the midst of people that only knew idols. That was progress in God’s mission: His truth was declared in a land where only the lies of demons had been heard for centuries.
Earlier than Ezekiel, God had sent four young men to minister to the Babylonians. Even the presence of God’s people in a foreign country benefits its population. This is still true today. Was God’s world missions plan in jeopardy through Israel’s exile? No, it went on as usual: God sent the one to minister to His own people and the other to reach out to a foreign nation. But because God wants pure and holy people in His service, He could no longer use the whole people of Israel as an example to the surrounding nations. This delayed the execution of His plans but did not stop them.
Comment
Judah’s deportation warns us. If sin rules in the church it loses its example function to the world. Christ’s disciples are no longer recognized by their love. The church’s testimony is muted by its sins and it loses its function as salt of the earth and light of the world. It fades into spiritual oblivion and God’s plans for world missions are delayed. Yet, its obedient and holy part will succeed in finishing the great commission. God calls servants who can minister to all such eventualities in time, like He called Ezekiel and Daniel.
Discussion & dialogue
- Explain the difference between the ministries God gave to Ezekiel and Daniel
- Why should the one be labeled as evangelistic and the other as missionary?
- Why are both equally important? In other words, what would be the consequence of evangelism without missions, or of missions without evangelism?
- Explain how God’s plan with the nations – in this case Babylon – still made progress
