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Ezekiel 19 (ESV)
1 And you, take up a lamentation for the princes of Israel, 2 and say:
What was your mother? A lioness!
Among lions she crouched;
in the midst of young lions
she reared her cubs.
3 And she brought up one of her cubs;
he became a young lion,
and he learned to catch prey;
he devoured men.
4 The nations heard about him;
he was caught in their pit,
and they brought him with hooks
to the land of Egypt.
5 When she saw that she waited in vain,
that her hope was lost,
she took another of her cubs
and made him a young lion.
6 He prowled among the lions;
he became a young lion,
and he learned to catch prey;
he devoured men,
7 and seized their widows.
He laid waste their cities,
and the land was appalled and all who were in it
at the sound of his roaring.
8 Then the nations set against him
from provinces on every side;
they spread their net over him;
he was taken in their pit.
9 With hooks they put him in a cage
and brought him to the king of Babylon;
they brought him into custody,
that his voice should no more be heard
on the mountains of Israel.
REFLECTION:
This chapter is written in the form of an elegy, and Ezekiel uses imageries to convey a lot of information. He used the images of a lioness and a lion cub to attract the attention of the audience. The lioness symbolizes the kingdom of Judah, and the two cubs represent the two kings. The first lion cub was King Jehoahaz, who was taken captive by Egyptian Pharaoh Neco in 609 BC (cf. 2 Kings 23:31-33). The second lion cub may be King Jehoiachin who has been taken captive to Babylon (cf. 2 Kings 24:8), or it may be King Zedekiah who will be captured soon (cf. 2 Kings 25:7). Ezekiel told the people of Judah that they had no hope of ending their exile and returning home soon, nor was it possible to get rid of Babylon’s slavery to them. It is not the political and military efforts of Judah that can save the country, even if it is as strong as a lion, if it deviates from the path of God, it will eventually fall into a pit and be trapped in a cage. Do we rely on our own strength and our diligence and cleverness to make ourselves strong today? The real strength is to live peacefully in the temple of God, to rest in the shadow of the Almighty, to rely on God for everything, to look up to God for everything, so that the power of God is made perfect in our weakness.
PRAYER:
Pray for God to make you understand what is truly powerful; pray for God to make you discipline your body and keep it under control, and give you a spirit of power and love and self-control, so that you are willing to look to God on everything and follow His will; ask God to let you have the courage to boast your weakness in front of others, so that others can see God’s miraculous deeds of changing your life in your weakness, and attract more people to come to God.
HYMN:
His Strength Is Perfect – youtu.be/1XxxKTEun7Q
