| THE TURNING POINT |
| From here forward, Ezekiel offers good news. |
| In the twelfth year of our exile . . . a man who had escaped from Jerusalem came to me and said, "The city has fallen!" 33:21 |
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| To their children parents can seem frighteningly inconsistent. One minute a father is gripping his son's wrist, shouting about something. The next moment, punishment over, he is talking about going camping together next summer. How can he change so drastically? Why so angry one minute and so loving the next? The sudden change makes sense only if you grasp that most parents hate the role of disciplinarian. They punish in order to correct something they see as harmful. Afterwards, they put punishment behind them as quickly as possible, because they dream of better times in the future. A Happier Life for Ezekiel Ezekiel portrays just such a drastic change between God and Israel. Until chapter 33 he had offered mostly anger and threats. Suddenly, in verse 21, the news of Jerusalem's fall reached Ezekiel. The punishment, long threatened, had come. From this point on, Ezekiel's message from God became dominated by dreams of the future - happy dreams. Ezekiel's life became happier too. After seven years of virtual silence (3:26-27 - he spoke only what God told him to), he opened his mouth freely again. God, speaking through Ezekiel, began to paint the future with the same vivid colors he had used to promise punishment. He spoke of Israel as a flock of sheep and himself as their loving shepherd (chapter 34). He previewed the mountains of Israel as they will look under his full blessings (chapter 36) - very different from the prediction given those same mountains in chapter 6. God showed Ezekiel a valley of dried bones rising up and taking life (chapter 37), a vision that has inspired musicians |