Jan 26 2025 11 mins
Daily Dose of Hope
January 26, 2025
Day 1 of Week 44
Scripture: Ezekiel 16-18; John 6
Welcome back to the Daily Dose of Hope, the devotional and podcast that complements the New Hope Bible reading plan. It is week 44 of daily reading! I don’t know about you, but I continue to learn and be stretched. Ezekiel isn’t the easiest book but there is certainly a lot of substance there. With that, let’s get into our Scripture for today.
Our Old Testament reading is Ezekiel 16-18. Wow. It’s hard today. Chapter 16 compares the people of Israel to an adulterous. God, through Ezekiel, goes into painstaking detail about how Israel has betrayed the one true God. Israel has slept with other lovers, meaning she has worshiped other gods, and she has sacrificed her children to them. She has prostituted herself over and over and over again to all the nations around her. She has broken covenant with the Lord and there will be severe consequences.
In chapter 17, God has Ezekiel use an allegory, almost a riddle, to describe what God will do. I’m not going to rehash the riddle here but be sure to reread it if you don’t remember. Here is the best explanation of that riddle I can find: The multi-colored eagle is Babylon, which broke the cedar tree of the Kingdom of Judah and planted the people (of the first exile) into Babylon itself. After that, a new seedling of Judah was planted in the place of the old. King Nebuchadnezzar overthrew Judah’s king (Jehoiachin) and replaced him with Jehoiachin’s nephew, Zedekiah. This made Zedekiah the puppet ruler of a vassal state to the Babylonian empire. But Babylon very intentionally held their new subjects in Judah, not allowing them to grow and prosper.
Despite swearing allegiance to Nebuchadnezzar, Zedekiah secretly courted a relationship with his Egyptian neighbors. The Egyptians are represented by the monochromatic eagle in the story. Judah was hoping that Egypt would come to their aid and overthrow the Babylonians.
So the question that God is asking is does a Kingdom like that, one that is weak, treacherous, and deceptive, deserve to exist or should it be uprooted and destroyed?
That seems like a pretty dark place but Ezekiel doesn’t leave us there. With God’s words, he continues the allegory. Just as the King of Babylon took from the top of a cedar, God will also take from the highest branch of a high cedar. God will also plant a sapling on a high mountain. This will come after the punishment, the exile, has ended. The people who are left after the exile will be humbled, ready to focus on God and God alone, and ready to receive the Messiah. Ezekiel is prophesying the coming of the Messiah and his Kingdom.
Our New Testament reading is John 6. This is such a great chapter. There is so much here we could discuss, but I want to focus on the feeding of the 5,000. Jesus has taken his disciples away, trying to find a quiet place to rest. That doesn’t happen. People follow them. Jesus was probably quite a sight. He said things people had not heard before and he did miracles.
The crowd that followed Jesus this time was quite large. Thus, they sit down on the side of the mountain and Jesus asks Philip (mainly to test him), “Where in the world are we going to get food to feed all these people?” Of course, Jesus already knew what he would do. The interesting thing to me is that Jesus didn’t get annoyed with the crowds, he was never exasperated. He took it in stride and everything was a learning lesson. Everything was a Kingdom lesson.
Jesus had tremendous compassion for the people. If you think about Jesus’ ministry, he was often interrupted, probably on his off day. He would frequently be planning to do this one thing but pulled away in a different direction. But it was in those interruptions, those distractions that Jesus did amazing work, that we get to see God at work in amazing, miraculous ways. He heals the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years because she “interrupts” him on his way to the Roman official’s home. Think of the man whose friends created a hole in the roof to lower their friend in front of Jesus and “interrupt” his teaching. He was interrupted by a demon-possessed man at the synagogue and he heals him. I counted something like 35 “interruptions” and it was in those interruptions that Jesus healed, taught, loved, and demonstrated God’s glory.
And I’m wondering if it might be the same for us. We get so busy, so task-focused, but might it be in the interruptions that God is calling us to demonstrate HIS compassion toward others. Sometimes, the most important things in our lives happen in the interruptions. I think God wants us to pay attention to the interruptions because interruptions involve people who Jesus loves. God uses individual people to bless others, to take care of the needs of others.
But let’s get back to the feeding. Exactly how it happened, we don’t know. What we know is that it happened. Jesus took a little and turned it into a lot. In that moment, we see God’s Kingdom in all its fullness. In God’s Kingdom, there is no sickness so Jesus healed. In God’s Kingdom, there is no hunger so Jesus fed. Most of us in here are pretty well fed but that was not the norm in first century Palestine. People did not get enough to eat. That’s why in the Lord’s Prayer we say, “give us today our daily bread” because daily bread was not a given. Those 10-15K people that Jesus was caring for that day (the men plus their wives and children), these were peasants. They were hungry people. There was a huge disparity between rich and poor in the Roman Empire and some argue, quite convincingly, that was intentional. It’s a lot easier to control people when you are controlling their food, holding it out like a carrot. It kept people down and that still happens in many countries around the world; the issue isn’t always lack of food but a government that keeps the food from the people.
But Jesus fed everyone until they were full (probably something they were not accustomed to at all). And when all were fed, the leftovers were collected and there were twelve basketfuls remaining. Amazing abundance. Jesus demonstrated the abundance of God’s Kingdom. To these people following Jesus, there was a lack of food, so it made sense to demonstrate abundance that way. For most of us, we typically eat until we are full so maybe that wouldn’t make sense to us. But for many of us, we still operate our lives from a SCARCITY mindset. That means we worry that there won’t be enough, we are fearful of running out, that there won’t be enough for me. We live always thinking, “well, what if this happens or that happens?” But if we view our lives from the lens of scarcity, then we will always be fearful and anxious. And we will miss so many of the blessings that God has in store for us.
And Jesus wants us to operate from the ABUNDANCE mindset. He wants us to trust that he will provide all our needs and then some. There were 12 baskets left over. Jesus wants us to have a stewardship mentality, recognizing that all we have, God has generously put into our hands. All our resources – they are a gift from God, our health – gift from God, our children/grandchildren/friends – all a gift from God, our time – a precious gift from God. Just as Jesus was asking his disciples to do in this miracle, he is asking each of us to do --- look beyond what’s in front of you. Look up from this physical, earthly reality and see that there is so much more. I’ve got you. I’m here for you. Trust me. The world tells us to be afraid, hold on tight to whatever you have, send the people away. But Jesus is saying, “Look beyond the world. Look beyond what’s right in front of you. Look at my Kingdom.”
One thing I like about John’s Gospel is he gives us a little more detail. He writes about how, after Jesus feeds all the people, the disciples cross the lake back to Capernaum. The people follow him again and ask for more bread. Afterall, they were hungry people. But Jesus wants them to go deeper. He knows their needs are deeper. All of our needs are deeper. Anyway, Jesus says to them, John 6:35, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry… Of course, he is no longer talking about bread. Those places of scarcity in our soul – the fear, the anxiety, the anger, the doubts, the pain, the past trauma, the bitterness, the insecurity, the emptiness, the bondage to things of this world – Jesus takes all of that and if we let him, will fill us, heal us, strengthen us, nourish
us. Christ, the bread of life, satisfies the deepest longings of our life. And friends, I need that. You need that. We have a whole community who needs it, yearns for it.
Let’s chat tomorrow.
Blessings,
Pastor Vicki