User's Manual: Crystal Ball #2

Lamentations - Application

I usually question many things and have questions about dozens of things a day. And one of those matters I question and ask questions about is the reason for prosperity or poorness (is that even a word?). What is it that defines the final outcome of your life? Is it one moment in life? Or a series of (un)fortunate events that lead to either being rich or poor? Maybe, maybe not. However, the real problem is the unfairness of knowing that people die because they don’t even have a dollar a day for food. How come, some people have millions of dollars and some others have none? And I have both, very poor friends, and very rich friends and they look the same to me. They are the same to me: they are people.

The book of Lamentations does not seem to address this issue much, but reading about people suffering reminded me of this terrible reality. In the book, the reason is war. People are starving inside the city of Jerusalem because of the siege… and they are doing the unthinkable: eating their own children! (Lamentations 4:10)

I am challenged by this book to find answers to this questions and hopefully with that, I will be able to help the poor and the needy! Fixing the root of the problem and not the people who suffer from it.

Point of Passion

Rules are rules and when people know them but do not live by them, consequences come. And that seems to be the reason that is given for people to fall into poverty. Remember that the city is under siege for a couple of years! They have no more food inside Jerusalem! Take this couple of verses as examples:

4:5 “The people who once ate the richest foods now beg in the streets for anything they can get. Those who once wore the finest clothes now search the garbage dumps for food.”

4:8 “But now their faces are blacker than soot. No one recognizes them in the streets. Their skin sticks to their bones; it is as dry and hard as wood.”

3:19-24 “The thought of my suffering and homelessness

    is bitter beyond words.

I will never forget this awful time,

    as I grieve over my loss.

Yet I still dare to hope

    when I remember this:

The faithful love of the Lord never ends!

    His mercies never cease.

Great is his faithfulness;

    his mercies begin afresh each morning.

I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance;

    therefore, I will hope in him!””

Even when I don’t know the answer to my many questions,  I can rest in the certainty that…

3:31-32 “…no one is abandoned

    by the Lord forever.

Though he brings grief, he also shows compassion

    because of the greatness of his unfailing love.”


Jeremiah - Application

The verse that is challenging me from Jeremiah is his complaint in 12:1-2

“Why are the wicked so prosperous?

    Why are evil people so happy?

You have planted them,

    and they have taken root and prospered.

Your name is on their lips,

    but you are far from their hearts.”

Because that’s a question I have myself, why do people who do not respect God, and don’t follow His commands, prosper? And then I get reminded of myself. I have never followed the laws at a 100%, yet I can say that I have had a great life, so far, and I can even say that I have prospered in everything I’ve done in life! So, if in the same conditions of disobedience as “the wicked”, God has permitted me to thrive, who am I to judge others. And that brings me to my other realization, is there a scale of wickedness? Probably we can come up with one, but I feel like for God the meter is wicked all the way, no matter how wicked, wicked is simply wicked and equals wrong, no matter what! And wrong will be punished in the end. And it does not matter how wicked we are (in our own eyes, or in someone else’s) God always gives us seconds chances, and third chances and many chances…

Point of Passion

I remember once I was wondering why the poor are poor, and someone told that it is a matter of education… which makes sense to a certain point but I’m sure there are educated people who are poor. So, the root of the problem cannot lay in the knowledge of the person. Therefore, for me it is not the education, but how the knowledge is used, or misused. That basically means that “poorness” comes of of the choices made in life. And in his book, Jeremiah wants to talk to the poor, and I felt he was really harsh when talking about them:

“Then I said, “But what can we expect from the poor?

    They are ignorant.

They don’t know the ways of the Lord.

    They don’t understand God’s laws.

So I will go and speak to their leaders.

    Surely they know the ways of the Lord

    and understand God’s laws.”

But the leaders, too, as one man,

    had thrown off God’s yoke

    and broken his chains.” (Jeremiah 5:4-5)

So, for Jeremiah, there’s no hope! The leaders don’t know the ways of the Lord either! I feel that is the actual challenge, it is not that the poor are ignorant, anyone can be ignorant. My call gets more and more clear: the poor need education, they need to know about God because their leaders don’t know about Him either and cannot teach them. Along with the food, the intellectual meals have to be served as well.

Ezekiel - Application

What really challenged me from Ezekiel was his obedience and his respect to God. As soon as God appears to talk to him, he falls down on his face! And as soon as God gives him a command, he gets up from the floor and gets going to complete the task! Not once does he not complete what God told him to do! Even when some of the things he was asked to do, were really strange… I can only hope to be that “efficient” but mainly obedient and respectful of God! I am learning from the other Ezekiel…

Point of Passion

I read the whole book of Ezekiel hoping for hundreds of references to food, because we Ezekiels love food! But I only found three [3!!!] food references…

Not really food… 3:1 “The voice said to me, “Son of man, eat what I am giving you—eat this scroll! Then go and give its message to the people of Israel.”

Quite a recipe… 4:9-15 “Now go and get some wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and emmer wheat, and mix them together in a storage jar. Use them to make bread for yourself during the 390 days you will be lying on your side. 10 Ration this out to yourself, eight ounces of food for each day, and eat it at set times. Then measure out a jar of water for each day, and drink it at set times. Prepare and eat this food as you would barley cakes. While all the people are watching, bake it over a fire using dried human dung as fuel and then eat the bread.” Then the Lord said, “This is how Israel will eat defiled bread in the Gentile lands to which I will banish them!”

Then I said, “O Sovereign Lord, must I be defiled by using human dung? For I have never been defiled before. From the time I was a child until now I have never eaten any animal that died of sickness or was killed by other animals. I have never eaten any meat forbidden by the law.”

“All right,” the Lord said. “You may bake your bread with cow dung instead of human dung.”

Not really food again… 34:16 “But I will destroy those who are fat and powerful. I will feed them, yes - feed them justice!”

Actually, looking back, only one reference is for actual food! And it is cooked over poo!!! Never mind prophet Ezekiel… I’ll come up with my own recipes for the food truck ministry!