{"id":75190,"date":"2020-05-25T16:59:41","date_gmt":"2020-05-25T13:59:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=75190"},"modified":"2020-05-25T16:59:41","modified_gmt":"2020-05-25T13:59:41","slug":"raining-blessings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/raining-blessings\/","title":{"rendered":"Raining Blessings"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"75190","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":74351,"related_cahpter":"488","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"The land as divine partner, and human reward\u00a0\r\n\r\n","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ezekiel 36 is God\u2019s promise to restore the Land of Israel in preparation for the People of Israel\u2019s return. God vows to protect the land&#8211; \u201dI will care for you, I will turn to you\u201d (36:9) and apologizes for allowing her to \u201cbecome a prey and a laughingstock to the other nations round about\u201d (36:4). The Book of Ezekiel is no stranger to God\u2019s relationship with a personified Israel, but God\u2019s love poem to the land in Chapter 36 feels very different from His condemnation of the personified Jerusalem a few chapters earlier. In Chapters 16 and 23, God accuses Jerusalem of whoring with other nations and disavows her out of disgust and anger. Why is God now, only a few chapters later, eager to protect and restore the land He turned his back on?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Though they are both places in a relationship with God, there is a difference between the Jerusalem of Chapters 16 and 23 and the Land of Israel. While Jerusalem represents Israel, the unfaithful wife, in the metaphor of marriage between God and the people, the Land of Israel is not a literary device. The land is actually God\u2019s partner.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There has always been a unique dialectic between God and the Land of Israel. Since Genesis, drought and famine in the Land of Israel have altered our ancestors\u2019 stories. And in Leviticus, the first reward listed in the Blessings and Curses is: \u201cIf you follow My laws and faithfully observe My commandments, I will grant your rains in their season, so that the earth shall yield its produce and the trees of the field their fruit\u201d (Lev 26:3-4). Throughout the Books of the Prophets, God constantly threatens and punishes the people with a lack of rain, and people are always praying to God and repenting their sins in an effort to achieve rain. The obsession with rain in Ancient Israel is not surprising given the cultural and economic centrality of agriculture and Israel\u2019s lack of a sufficient body of water. And Israel\u2019s apparent geographical deficiency is \u2018intentional.\u2019 It forces the Israelites to rely on God for rain, thus for their lives.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Land of Israel has always been a tool through which the Israelites connect to God and repent for their sins. In Chapter 36, God is still angry at the people of Israel. They have not yet repented or realized the severity of their sins. But even though God has not yet forgiven the people, He understands that they need the land in order to repent. God restores the Land of Israel before the people deserve it, and trusts that they will achieve full redemption after they return.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":50275,"id":50275,"title":"dt11-rain","filename":"dt11-rain.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/dt11-rain.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-manna-principle-in-the-land-of-milk-and-honey\/dt11-rain\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"dt11-rain","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":50273,"date":"2019-02-26 13:54:19","modified":"2020-05-25 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