True Friendship

09.04.14

Ezekiel 24.18 So I spoke to the people in the morning, and at evening my wife died. And on the next morning I did as I was commanded. – Ezekiel (ESV)

Yesterday, a friend of mine posted on Facebook. He asked those interested to give their definition of True Friendship. Many of the comments were insightful as people posted their thoughts about what they thought true friendship was all about. Some, were just a couple words; others were paragraphs. The comment that made the most sense to me was the one where the post-er wrote: A dog. I smiled. It’s true; dog’s truly are, true friends. So, as I read Ezekiel’s words today, I thought about the friendship that Ezekiel had with God. True friendship, came to mind.

Ezekiel, like so many others of the chosen ones throughout Scripture, seemed to know God on a different level. I’m not sure it was always in the context of friendship, but I think for the most part it was. Being a friend of God isn’t an easy thing…as it was here in Ezekiel 24.

God called Israel to repent and return to Him. He showed the exiles, through Ezekiel and the other prophets, what He was doing in Jerusalem because of the sins of the people there. (The exiles may have been tempted to feel a bit sorry for themselves, having been ripped from their homeland. God used Ezekiel to show them that as bad as exile was, it didn’t hold a candle to the horrors of the siege in Jerusalem for those left behind.)

And then God used the death of Ezekiel’e wife to demonstrate the sadness He felt over the death of His wife: the nation of Israel. And God commanded Ezekiel not to mourn openly over the death of his bride; he was to remain focused upon the task the Lord had given him: preaching repentance.

True friendship may mean doing exactly as Ezekiel did: And on the next morning I did as I was commanded. Ezekiel held in his tears and obeyed God to demonstrate the sadness God felt over the loss of His own bride: the people He loved. In this case true friendship was evidenced in Ezekiel’s sharing of God’s immense sadness over His loss; and Ezekiel experiencing his own.

Now, I must be careful lest I bring God to a place where He doesn’t belong. I also, however, must be quick to remember that God, no matter how other and divine and all that He is, also loves us with an everlasting love and seems to feel some kind of discomfort when we foolishly, arrogantly, and carelessly trade Him for some earthly token. Just like we would in our humanness today if someone we truly loved did the same to us. A true friend shares the good, the bad, and the ugly. That’s just what friends do. Isn’t it?

Father, today I believe You showed me another side of friendship. You’ve showed me both the purpose the and the pain of true friendship. You seem to be selective in who You call. But regardless, Your view of friendship seems to include sharing life together. I think You’ve called me to be Your friend and to be there when You deem it appropriate. Help me to love as You love and to care as You care. And maybe Lord, as weird as it seems to me, to feel Your pain as You mourn over the fallenness of Your people and desire that they return only to You. Help me. Amen.