Snapshots!

Ezekiel 39:19 At the sacrifice I am preparing for you, you will eat fat till you are glutted and drink blood till you are drunk.

Snapshots. We have become a world of selfies, instagram posts, Facebook live feeds, Zoom calls and WatsApp. In fact, I have over 20,000 pictures on my computer of our travels, but I rarely look at any of them. How about you?

Snapshots of history help us define our identity. Washington crossing the Delaware. Frederick Douglass fighting to end the slavery he himself had endured. The four “Hidden Figures” women who made it possible to land Americans on the Moon. Remembering these great people helps keep us focused on the possibilities ahead.

But modern history is not the only place where snapshots help bring focus to our lives today. Even in Ancient Israel there were snapshots that brought focus to them as a nation. The words of Ezekiel and the other prophets often gave the people visual snapshots of coming doom and the promise of blessing.

One in particular from today’s reading give a stunning picture. It deals with the promised demise of the Biblical figure of Gog. It is used here as a nation that is bent on Israel’s destruction. It is evil in all its forms. It is the enemy to be destroyed, and is destroyed as we read in the final chapters of Revelation.

What I find interesting is that the LORD tells the birds and animals to eat the remains of God as it has been defeated by the LORD. He uses the language of eating flesh and drinking blood. The animals participate in the vanquish and defeat of the enemy of Israel by eating and drinking their remains. It is a powerful and disgusting image to modern ears and eyes.

Being eaten by wild animals was a curse in the ancient world. Burial was necessary and a sign of a successful life. Remember all the times that the Scriptures tell of the burial of a leader of Israel. And remember the times, few though they were, when it is mentioned that they weren’t buried, left for wild animals.

It is no coincidence that here in Ezekiel Israel’s enemy, and by extension the LORD’s enemy, is eaten by wild animals. They were under a curse and therefore not given proper burials.

But what I find interesting is that Jesus uses this eating and drinking to symbolize the redeeming work He will do on the Cross, and our participation in the victory He will win on our behalf. He tells His disciples that they will eat His flesh and drink His blood, thus taking on the role of an accursed person. And His disciples symbolically participate in His curse by eating an accursed thing, flesh of a dead thing and blood.

Now I haven’t fully walked out the connection, as you can tell, but I sets my mind into gear. I think there is a connection here. Jesus uses the snapshot from Ezekiel to carry a powerful message for us. He took the place of the most accursed entity of Scripture, Gog. And He did this to benefit the LORD’s chosen, His bride, the Church.

When sin and death were defeated in Jesus, we have the opportunity to become the blessed, like Israel. We can participate in the Kingdom “here on earth as in heaven.”