Read: Ezekiel 28:11-19
You were on the holy mountain of God. (v. 14)
Often when I pray in the morning, I find myself yearning for Eden, the garden in which the space between heaven and earth was so thin it was almost nonexistent—humans walked with God. Eden teemed with life (Genesis 1), and it is here that we find the first reference to mountains in the Bible.
In today’s reading, the prophet Ezekiel, living in exile in Babylon, is given a word from God about the King of Tyre, the king of a pagan city in the region. The prophecy echoes the imagery of Eden in Genesis 2-3. Ezekiel imagines “the garden of God” (Ezek. 28:13) as being placed at the crest of a holy mountain. All things there were good and right and beautiful. “You were blameless in your ways,” Ezekiel writes, “till unrighteousness was found in you” (v. 15). Disobedience against God, whether in the beginning or at any point since, brings corruption into the world, exiling humanity from communion with God. Humans are lost at the foot of the mountain without a way to climb up.
There seems to be no hope. In Ezekiel’s prophecy, the King of Tyre would be cast down and destroyed as a result of his sin. However, we know that God makes a way to restoration. We cannot find our own way back up the mountain, but Jesus can form each of us into places where the presence of God dwells—if we are in him (1 Cor. 6:19).
As you pray, ask God to forgive and restore you.
Justin Kuiper is a student from Holland, MI, studying English literature at Hope College. His own writing explores the many intersections of faith, storytelling, and the created order. Justin is a life-long soccer fan and plays on the Hope College soccer team.
