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This is the reflection that was sent out to the people of God at St. Timothy Lutheran Church. This is the text I'll be preaching on Sunday. 

First Reading: Ezekiel 17:22-24                                                 

²²Thus says the Lord God:
 I myself will take a sprig
  from the lofty top of a cedar;
  I will set it out.
 I will break off a tender one
  from the topmost of its young twigs;
 I myself will plant it
  on a high and lofty mountain.
 ²³On the mountain height of Israel
  I will plant it,
 in order that it may produce boughs and bear fruit,
  and become a noble cedar.
 Under it every kind of bird will live;
  in the shade of its branches will nest
  winged creatures of every kind.
 ²⁴All the trees of the field shall know
  that I am the Lord.
 I bring low the high tree,
  I make high the low tree;
 I dry up the green tree
  and make the dry tree flourish.
 I the Lord have spoken;
  I will accomplish it.

Isn’t this a beautiful, encouraging, poetic piece of literature? THIS is the kind of message we like to hear. However, as one of my teachers frequently said, “A text without a context is a pretext.” That is particularly true in the case of this passage. Everything was not all sweetness and light.

Here is the context: the people of Judah were not in their homeland, but in captivity to the Babylonians. They were over a thousand miles from a home that many had no memory of because they were born after being driven from their homeland. There God’s prophet, Ezekiel was with them. Earlier in Ezekiel, God made it plain that God had allowed this to happen to them because of their sin and disobedience (Ezekiel 16:50-52 for example). The harshest judgments against Israel were penultimate, but they were not the final word.  

In the midst of the sadness and pain comes this word of encouragement. Here is the last word, the ultimate word. Who will bring it all to pass? Ten times God says, “I” will or do. 

What we have before us is a vision of a renewed people of God with a messianic, Davidic king. God has not forgotten God’s people and in our times of difficulty (and also when everything is going well) God has not forgotten us. God does the impossible: God brings low the high, makes high the low, dries up the green tree, makes the dry tree flourish. The best part however is this, “I the Lord have spoken; I will accomplish it” (v. 24b). God works in seemingly impossible situations to bring about God’s will. We have the privilege of being his hands and feet in this weary world to work with God.

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