Ezekiel, like all the prophets before him, tried to correct and rebuke the people into changing their ways. However, the prophetic vocation had a flip side — comforting the afflicted. Ezekiel looked on the experience of exile as God’s chastisement but also as a purification, a preparation for the new thing God was doing: I will gather you from all the foreign lands, and bring you back to your own land… I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you. What a powerful reminder that the call to reform is perennial. Since we have not yet reached the kingdom of God we must constantly work to eliminate all selfishness and unkindness. We have hope because God isn’t finished with us yet.
