Ezekiel’s Prophetic Hope
What games did you play at school? Stick in the Mud? Sharks and Islands? A lot of thee games seemed to involve having to cross ‘no man’s land’, the ‘danger zone’ in order to reach safety, if you like, sanctuary. Everywhere else was scary, full of threats and ‘bad stuff’. But, once you reached ‘home’, wherever that was, you were safe. You’d found sanctuary.
As grown-ups, we often continue with our childhood games. Today, in a scary world full of threats and ‘bad stuff’ we still like to think there are places of safety, sanctuary. We call them Embassies.  Whatever might be going on outside, once reach the Embassy, you are safe. You’ve got sanctuary.
Wouldn’t it be something if we all had access to sanctuary. Instead of just existing in our scary world, with all its threats and ‘bad stuff’, if all of us could experience the relief, the protection, the peace, even the joy, that is sanctuary. Might we breathe a little calmer, sleep a little deeper, even find ourselves starting to smile occasionally?
Of course, sanctuary only feels so good when we realise just how real the threats and ‘bad stuff’ are.
2,500 years ago, on the edge of the Middle East, a young radical called Ezekiel knew all about threats and ‘bad stuff’. His home city of Jerusalem had been attacked by the Super Power of it’s day, the Babylonian Empire, and he’d been trafficked back to Babylon – in modern day Iraq. 
Whilst held in Exile, Ezekiel could see three things.
First, life wasn’t going to get any easier any time soon for the Exiles in Babylon. In fact, in Chapter 10, the Glory of the Lord had just departed. They were now truly on their own, without God’s help. Surely that’s ‘hell on earth’. 
If God is the Ultimate Being, the definition of Reality, and the Source of all life, then the absence of God is hellish. No reality, no life. That’s why, for some people, it can feel ‘hell on earth’. Or job as followers of Christ is to bring heaven on earth. Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, here on earth as it is in heaven.
Second, those that had managed to remain in Jerusalem weren’t going to be able to hold on for much longer. Time was running out for them. Soon they would feel overrun. Game over.
[Well, this is a cheery message. It’s what you get up/ tune in for!]
Third, things wouldn’t always be like this. In fact, as bad as things were, Ezekiel was full of hope and excrement [Ed. that was last week], Ezekiel was full of excitement. He could see they were at the start of the beginning of the way home. And home was not just going to be just about the bricks and mortar of the Temple in Jerusalem. Home – or sanctuary – was going to be wherever God was.
They had been brought up to think God had a postcode. God lived in the Temple and that that was in Jerusalem. Yes, you could / should follow God’s Laws wherever you were, whether in Jerusalem or the south of Judah heading out to Egypt, and even in Exile in Babylon. But there was always that feeling that God was in the Temple, not here.
As painful as the Lockdown / Exile had been (and it truly was, as it has been for us too), it was also doing them some good. Ezekiel had come to realise that, that Temple experience – with its feelings of ‘home’ sanctuary – was possible even in Babylon.
In verse 16, God said: “I have been a sanctuary for them in the countries where they have gone.”
Where do you find sanctuary? With God. And where is God? Right here, right now. Where is sanctuary? Right here, right now. Even in scary Babylon, with all it’s threats and ‘bad stuff’. The same goes for us today.  
Our ‘bricks and mortar’ church building might be temporarily closed, and with the national lockdown, it might feel like we’re living in Exile, but even here, you and I can experience sanctuary. That comes, not just by a relaxation exercise (though that definitely helps), nor by trying to go to your ‘happy place’ (though, again, training your mind to prioritise more positive thoughts is always helpful too.); it comes by being in the presence of God. Wherever God is, there is safety – there is sanctuary. 
The irony was that those who had kept going in Jerusalem still hadn’t known sanctuary. They were looking to bricks and mortar, brass and gold to provide them sanctuary. But true sanctuary – sanctuary that lasts forever - is only found in God’s presence. Only with God do the threats and bad stuff have no power. God IS sanctuary, not the bricks and mortar.
Those that had remained in Jerusalem had felt under pressure like the meat in a pressure cooker. Yet, instead of turning back to God, they had continued with their own folly and rejection of God.
Ezekiel was ready to call out some of their leaders. Their poor leadership and flawed decision-making had resulted in many deaths. And still they weren’t ready to accept the reality of the situation. With the threat ever increasing, they had been peddling false hope - build your dream home. 
In verse 6, God said: “You have killed many people in this city and filled its streets with the dead.”
But.. something was about to change. Hope was coming.  In verse 17: “I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from the countries, and I will give you back the land of Israel again.”
And, when you go back, things will be different. You’re going to worship in spirit and in truth, you’re going to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And love others as you love yourself.
God will give you an undivided heart and put a new spirit in you. He’ll even do some heart surgery. Your heart, that was previously clogged up with fear, gossip, unbelief, unmoved by others or even God, He’ll either open up or even transplant, so that it’s once again beating softly towards others and God.
THEN they will be my people and I will be their God.
At that point, the Glory of the God – the intense reminder of God’s presence – was powerfully on Ezekiel. Remember, the Glory of God had previously departed those that were just going through the motions in Jerusalem. But, right here, right now, in Babylon, locked-down in Exile, God’s Glory was powerful.
So, Ezekiel deals with the scary world, full of its threats and bad stuff. But, crucially, he can now see beyond this. To a time that is coming when those locked-down in Exile will be released – freed to return ‘home’.  Not to how they used to live. But to how they were always wired to live – as radical and passionate followers of God. Full of the Holy Spirit.
With the Glory of God upon them, how could they not be.
We too are at the start of the beginning of the way home.
In Exile we too have learnt to ‘sing the Lord’s song’ in our Babylon, our lockdown, our Exile.

DannyBrierley@ChesterRoadBaptist.org.uk