News of the fall of Jerusalem has just arrived. The people blurt out, “Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone” (v 11 NIV). The Lord responds by giving Ezekiel a graphic vision – the third recorded in his book (see also chs 1-3; 8-11).

Up to chapter 33, Ezekiel’s oracles were heavy with warnings of judgment.

Once again Ezekiel performs a piece of street theatre (vv 15-17; compare 4:1-5; 5:1-4; 12:1-7). In chapter 4 Ezekiel played toy soldiers; here he becomes a signwriter. Each stick may have been a wooden board coated with beeswax – a common medium for writing formal messages in the ancient Near East.

The return of the glory of God to the Temple is, perhaps, the most dramatic scene in the book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel’s vision mirrors in reverse his earlier revelation of God abandoning the temple (chs 8-11). Although the Jerusalem Temple continued to function for six years after Ezekiel’s earlier vision, the glory of God’s presence was absent.

The image of a river is one of those archetypal metaphors in the world’s literature, ancient and modern. It appears in one of Jesus’ best known sayings, “Whoever believes in me … rivers of living water will flow from within them” (John 7:38). In the Psalms, the people of God worshiping together are likened to a flowing river.

“Now you see both how kind and how hard God can be….” Can God be “hard”? The word used by the writer of Romans can mean “stern, severe, intense, strict, or harsh”. Is this a passage that most churches would put out on their front signs: “Consider the sternness of God”?

As you read the Psalms, you’ll find many of them seem to be speaking of Jesus Christ. Although they were written hundreds of years before he came, they point forward to him.

Psalm 2 is like that.

We are treated to a vision of Wisdom trying to get our attention amidst the noisy streets. She takes initiative, and speaks provocatively calling us stupid, foolish, and mockers. The call comes from a heart of love, like a mother for her clueless child trying to grab the burner on a hot stove.