For the next two weeks we will be reading from the Prophet Ezekiel. He is the preeminent prophet of the Babylonian exile. The word of the LORD came to the priest Ezekiel, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans [Chaldeans were the Babylonians] by the river Chebar. His role was to help the people of God make sense of the disaster that had occurred with the conquest of the kingdom and the destruction of the temple. They had heard about God’s mighty deeds at the time of the Exodus, when Joshua led them into the promised land, during the reign of King David. Now this! What happened? Was God not powerful, or not with them? What Ezekiel helped them to see was that God being for them did not mean that all would be coming up roses. In fact, they had to discover the presence of God even in the negative experiences, even when their hopes and dreams had been dashed.
