Title: Feeding with Justice
Author: Christopher Harbin
Text: Ezekiel 34:11-24
We celebrated Thanksgiving this week, with lots of food. We collected food for distribution. We shared food with our neighbors. We delivered meals. We ate with friends and family. The food so central to our celebrations speaks to abundance, comfort, moments of rejoicing together in the bounty of God's provision, and our ability to share our blessings with one another. Food lies at the heart of our deepest understandings of community. We share food with one another in recognition that everyone needs to eat. Is this not foundational to the whole concept of that Hebrew term we alternately translate as justice or righteousness?
The Hebrew Scriptures abound with allusions, references, and commandments about food, most often of food being shared or available to all persons. The land of Israel was touted as a "Land flowing with milk and honey," as a promise of sufficiency, of abundance to meet the needs of all. The laws around use of the land were designed to provide for everyone out of the abundance coming from Yahweh for the benefit of all. This ample provision was to extend to those who were unable to work, those who did not have land to work, those who were passing through, and those who did not even speak the language or worship Yahweh.
There is a big difference, however, between how something is designed to work and how we use and misuse it. All too often, we turn away from Yahweh's purposes, putting other values in the way and letting them overrule what should have been. That is context to Ezekiel's complaint against the nation and its rulers in today's passage. The leaders of the people were supposed to be acting like shepherds, but instead, they were acting like wolves and pigs. They were killing the very sheep they were supposed to care for and ruining the pastures for use by any others. Yahweh's design for the land was for it to be of benefit t ...
Author: Christopher Harbin
Text: Ezekiel 34:11-24
We celebrated Thanksgiving this week, with lots of food. We collected food for distribution. We shared food with our neighbors. We delivered meals. We ate with friends and family. The food so central to our celebrations speaks to abundance, comfort, moments of rejoicing together in the bounty of God's provision, and our ability to share our blessings with one another. Food lies at the heart of our deepest understandings of community. We share food with one another in recognition that everyone needs to eat. Is this not foundational to the whole concept of that Hebrew term we alternately translate as justice or righteousness?
The Hebrew Scriptures abound with allusions, references, and commandments about food, most often of food being shared or available to all persons. The land of Israel was touted as a "Land flowing with milk and honey," as a promise of sufficiency, of abundance to meet the needs of all. The laws around use of the land were designed to provide for everyone out of the abundance coming from Yahweh for the benefit of all. This ample provision was to extend to those who were unable to work, those who did not have land to work, those who were passing through, and those who did not even speak the language or worship Yahweh.
There is a big difference, however, between how something is designed to work and how we use and misuse it. All too often, we turn away from Yahweh's purposes, putting other values in the way and letting them overrule what should have been. That is context to Ezekiel's complaint against the nation and its rulers in today's passage. The leaders of the people were supposed to be acting like shepherds, but instead, they were acting like wolves and pigs. They were killing the very sheep they were supposed to care for and ruining the pastures for use by any others. Yahweh's design for the land was for it to be of benefit t ...
There are 11129 characters in the full content. This excerpt only shows a 2000 character sample of the full content.
Price: $5.99 or 1 credit
