Exilic Awe

Ezekiel’s introduction, “In my thirtieth year, in the fourth month on the fifth day, while I was among the exiles by the Kebar River, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God,” immediately invites us into his amazing, awe-filled world.

Probably the son of a Judean priest, Ezekiel and the rest of the Jewish elite were exiled to Babylon around 587 BCE. Nebuchadnezzar’s armies destroyed Jerusalem, including the Temple. As you might imagine, this caused tremendous emotional and spiritual tumult for both the exiles and the people left behind in the shell of once-mighty Jerusalem.

Remember, Jews considered Jerusalem the spiritual center of the cosmos, the heart, and soul of God’s reality, the throne of all thrones. Its destruction was akin to the entire universe collapsing into a black hole, taking every ounce of faith with it.

Amid the chaos and ruin, Ezekiel had one of the most potent cosmic visions ever recorded.

His startling experience with the fiery, sensory-overloading presence of God motivated him to tell the Jews in diaspora that even though displaced, and their Temple destroyed, God was still powerfully with them.

Ezekiel’s awe-filled vision reminds us to stay hopeful while we’re in exile today.

We need to take a cue from Ezekiel because we are in exile now. Forced by an unwavering…