LENT 2020: Day 28

• Lent 2020: Day 28 Saturday, March 28, 2020:
  Psalm 130; Ezekiel 36:8-15; Luke 24:44-53

     And you, O mountains of Israel,
          you shall put forth your branches
              and bear your fruit for my people Israel,
                    for soon shall they come.
    For here I am for you,
          and I will turn to you,
              and you shall be tilled and sown.
    And I will multiply humankind upon you,
          the whole house of Israel, all of it,
              and the towns shall be settled
              and the ruins shall be rebuilt.
    And I will multiply upon you man and beast,
          and they shall multiply and be fruitful,
              and I will settle you as you were before
          and do well by you more than in your beginnings,
              and you shall know that I am the LORD.

Today's lectionary reading from Ezekiel starts in verse 8, but looking back to the beginning of the chapter reveals “an interesting rhetorical switch,” observes Robert Alter.

In verse 1 God give the prophet this directive: “And you, man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel and say, Mountains of Israel, heed the word of the LORD.”

Ezekiel is writing from exile, in Babylon, and so the land is of special importance. “The mountains have been shorn of human population,” comments Alter, “by the devastating conquest. Now they will again abound with people.”

And the Hebrew is interesting here, as Ezekiel is explicitly using the language of creation: “The national restoration,” Alter writes, “is to be a second Genesis.”

As we sit in our own exiles, think about the new creation we can help usher in once we return to our lives.