Teaching Session #30 - 14 June 2020
The Book of Ezekiel
Main speaker - David Wilkins
Leader for the evening - Saju Muthalaly
David writes:
"Anyone who thinks of Ezekiel probably thinks of a man standing in a valley full of dry bones. Or of someone who behaved like a street performer, and may have looked a bit…well odd. But Ezekiel is deadly serious, indeed he was appointed a prophet of the people of Israel at the darkest time in their history. Trained to be a priest in the temple of Jerusalem he instead finds himself at the age of 30 a long way from home and instead of being initiated to be a priest he is sitting by the rivers of Babylon. This is the first of two exiles, the second to follow some years later. But then he is appointed to be God’s prophet to the people to tell them this was going to get much much worse. The city of Jerusalem would be destroyed, and there would be a second exile to Babylon. There was no fast route home, and no Jerusalem and the temple would not stand forever and ever. This message was as unthinkable and sounded as impossible as it could be. But as well as a warning, a message of judgment and lament, Ezekiel is a book of hope that one day the slavery and exile would end. What can we learn from a book that is full of pictures and puzzles that it is extremely hard to follow and (given today’s situation) can be very difficult and dispiriting to read. How can we unpack the message of hope waiting there for us to find? On Sunday 14th June at 6.30 David and Saju will unpack this amazing, puzzling, inspiring and wonderful book. Bring your Bible, bring an open and enquiring mind and as always plenty of questions. Log onto the St Mark’s Facebook page for the first ever totally online bible stream.
Resources available after the session:
Since the Bible Stream is now streamed online, there is the option to watch the Zoom video, or still just the audio as previously. Unfortunately the downside to being online with Zoom is that the audio quality suffers a bit.
Graham Wilkins, 04/06/2020