Note to self: God expects us to be useful.
In this short, but brutally clear chapter, God has a question for Ezekiel to consider:
Think about all of the wood in the forest. Now picture a wide vine. If I cut down the trees for wood, I can build with it, I can decorate with it, I can burn it for fuel. But what if I cut down some wild vine and find that it is not useful. I can't even pass judgement on it and burn it in the fire and find it useful. It gets charred on both ends and flashes out in the middle. So...now it's time to set my face against it and utterly destroy it.
It's only 8 verses. Here are verse 7 and 8:
...and I set My face against them. Though they have come out of the fire, yet the fire will consume them. Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I set My face against them. Thus I will make the land desolate, because they have acted unfaithfully,’” declares the Lord God. Ezekiel 15: 7–8
All of this makes total sense in light of the hundreds of pages we've read from the prophets and the people of Israel. But it's always an important exercise to try and apply it to our lives today.
Here's what struck me. When you read useful, what did you think? I think I was picturing a functioning member of society. Drunks, homeless, drug addicts, and people defrauding welfare and disability while they sit on their couch and smoke pot. These are groups of people that I would consider useless. If a pastor wanted to shame these people in a sermon, he might be able to convincingly use this passage.
And while I'm sure God has strong opinions about the groups I listed, and while He came to save the sick and not the well, I don't think these are the kinds of people to whom God was referring to here.
Israel was not a homeless encampment. It had many treasures that were about to be hauled away. Jerusalem was full of trade, which was born of many industrious people—butchers, and bakers, and candlestick makers. Textiles, crops, skilled labor, money changers, mothers, fathers, families.
Wait.
This is starting to read more like those I claimed were NOT useless: functioning members of society. So if Jerusalem (and Judah) was an industrious, functioning society–filled with people doing useful things...
Why would God not only refer to them as useless and charred after judgement but also commit to their utter destruction as well as the bountiful, useful land they live on?
It's not a rhetorical question. I'm really asking you to stop and answer that question.
Most of the time, God condemns them for their idols, occultism, faithlessness, and other iniquity. But useless? Is that really a complaint that warrants a whole chapter, especially when they weren't couch potatoes...
If your thinking was similar to mine, the mistake you made is in incorrectly guessing (hoping) what God thinks is useful. Yes, you have a moral obligation to be a contributing member of your society, your family, your church, etc.; but to be useful to God: Love the Lord you God with all your mind, soul, strength and usefulness, and your neighbor as yourself.
God wasn't angry because they were busy enough; He was angry because they were busy with the wrong things. Yes, someone defrauding our welfare system should be doing something else with their life but at the same time, it doesn't matter if it is a fraudster, CEO, Olympian, electrician, or stay at home mom who should also be doing something else with their life if they are not doing it all to Love the Lord your God or your neighbor as yourself.
Judah was a functioning society that was not functioning around the right priorities. That made them useless. Meanwhile, surprisingly, God found Babylon and Assyria and Cyrus and many other nonbelievers useful. They did bad things, but they acting within God's plan. That's useful.
I'm beating the point to death because I am always busy. Too busy. Stressed. Often angry. Always tired.
But am I useful?
It's the story as old as Mary and Martha. One was busy trying to make herself useful. One sat at the feet of her Savior and was commended for making the better choice.
Am I making choices that make me useful to God by His standard? Are you? Are we prioritizing correctly as a society? I'm afraid I'm often a wild branch and not a forest tree.
Time to do some serious pondering.
Amen.