This painful vision

But surely, God is my helper;

The Lord is the upholder of my life. Psalm 54:4

 

Read Ezekiel 14:19—23

It is painful to see through the eyes of the prophet. The vision is vivid. It is stark. The colours seem adjusted. The contrast has been heightened. There is so little godliness, and what there is does not rub off from one to the other. So, if I am granted this insight into my own time, I can feel grim. Noah, Daniel and Job stand apart and stand as witnesses, but they do not save. Yet, though God has granted his prophetic vision, he has limited the vision and limited the judgement. He sees what the prophet cannot see: God sees the unnamed faithful. The remnant. That would be because they stand as testimony to the fact that God has made a promise. In the darkest days I need to remember that God has made a promise. The whole dynamic of life and history and the Bible and Jesus of Nazareth and the kingdom to come is that God has promised blessing and God will see it through. This is what makes all life tick.

 

Loving Father of all, when I am disheartened, when companions about me seem to embrace your judgement in preference to your love; when people, personal friends, family members, would live in frustration rather than in repentance; when I feel the bleakness of the time in which I live, I thank you for the deep encouragement you provide. For I also meet the faithful. The simple, the merciful. I meet the graciously faithful. And in them I see your promised blessing, living, breathing, praising, prophetic people, those doing the Spirit’s work of encouraging me.