I’ve got a friend who’s always sending pet videos because she’s an animal lover, not so much because I am.

I’ve seen a cat diligently nesting and hatching chicken eggs and then sticking around to help raise them, a dog dive in water to save a floundering kitten, another dog gently putting a fish back in water with his mouth and helping it get out into deeper water.

I love watching these videos. I love the love in them. They tell me that the bottom line in the universe isn’t dog-eat-dog or a catty self-absorption. It’s love. And we find it in the darnedest places, like in the way some animals behave with others outside their own species.

What else is this but proof of a love we can’t stop, let alone fathom? A love that shows itself in the least likely places…A love that doesn’t stop surprising and delighting us when we see it…A love that begs the question, where does it come from? Who started it?

Today’s passages are like videos that let us see more of it.

Ezekiel 39-40:37

Like any good storyteller, God lets us in on what’s ahead while also holding back some of the details.  There’s more judgment and goodness coming than anyone can imagine. 

Chapter 39 begins with God’s message to Gog, a name for the combined forces of the nations against him: God’s against them. He’ll drag them out of the north where they are, and set them down on Israel’s mountains, where he’ll beat the tar out of them, Ez 39:1-5.

They’ll be completely slaughtered, soldiers and people alike. He’ll leave their bodies exposed so the carrion birds and scavenging animals can feast on their flesh and get drunk on their blood. There’s no question about how total the destruction or who wins this war, Ez 39:17-20.

Believers will come make a huge bonfire of their weapons, a bonfire that will burn for 7 years.  They’ll burn the corpses in a mass grave that God designates “just east of the sea.”  It’s so big, it’ll obstruct travel there. It’ll take 7 months to do all the burying and cleanup, Ez 39:9-16.

What’s the point?

Gog gets taken out, because they’ve refused to know God; they’ve opposed him and warred on his people. Their judgment is real and warranted. It’s because God doesn’t let bad guys get away with anything that we know his love is real. It has teeth. Otherwise, it’s simply sentimental.

As God’s been saying all along in Ezekiel, he says it all over again here: his desire is for all men and women everywhere to know who he is, so everyone will know him as the holy God who loves and forgives, “I’ll reveal my holy name among my people Israel,” and “the nations will realize that I, God, am The Holy in Israel,” Ez 39:7 MSG.

He says he wants us to revere his holiness: to see the judgment he brought on his people Israel, to know that they were sent into exile because of their sins against him, and to understand that this is why he “refused to look at them,” Ez 39:21-24 MSG.

He also wants us to know his compassion: even after all their rebellion, God will bring the exiles home to their land in Israel and “no one will be left behind.” The memory of their shame will fade. And he’ll “use them to demonstrate [his] holiness with all the nations watching,” Ez 39:27 MSG.

How will he do that?

Those who once rejected him will now be inhabited by him. These very same rebels and misfits will be given God’s Spirit, so they’re “filled with [his] life,” so they can obey him. He’ll no longer look away but turn and see them “full in the face,” an intimate connecting in the deepest places, assuring each one they belong to him, Ez 39:25-29 MSG.

God wants us to understand two things: He is holy. He is love. You’d think these two qualities can’t exist together, because holiness demands judgment for sin and love demands forgiveness. How will God resolve this tension between his perfection and his compassion?

It would be 400 hundred years later that God sends Jesus, the perfect one who bridges sin’s disconnect, the holy man who dies so unholy people are forgiven. It’s a mind blowing solution no one could have thought up except God himself, this babe he sets in our laps, who grows up to save us.

This is as grisly a chapter in the Bible as I’ve ever read. It’s also as full of grace as any chapter there is. God’s judgment for sin is real, and so is his saving love for his people. He told the exiles about both and let them marvel, “how can it be?” We see how his plan unfolded in Jesus, so we can marvel, “he has done it!”

James 3

It’s not big talk that makes you a big shot.  It’s how kind you are to others, how gentle, how reasonable, how “overflowing with mercy and blessings,” how constant, how authentic. These are the qualities that make for “a healthy, robust community,” the kind we all want.  Love is what makes the world go ‘round, Js 3:13-18.

Psalm 117

This pithy, 20-word psalm gives us the bottom line for praising God:  Who does it? “Everybody.” Why? Because of “his love,” Ps 117:1-2.

For all the words written in all the books in all the languages about who God is and what he’s done, the bare essential to know and praise is this: it’s all about his love that never ends.

Proverbs 28:2-3

It takes a wise leader to turn around a nation in chaos.
It takes a fool to mistreat the poor and expect to be well-fed himself.
The leader who attends to the lowly helps everybody.

Prayer

God, Thank you for your holy love that forgives me because of Jesus. Let it invade and remake me like he is—kind and lowly, approachable, forgiving and gentle. Thank you for your love that I can’t lose no matter how lost I am. Teach me to love like this. Open my doors.

In Jesus name.

Bible passages in Ezekiel, James, Psalms, and Proverbs come from today’s selections in The One Year Bible.