Roleplay

God’s tried everything with His people in exile in Babylon. He’s shown them and they cannot see. He’s spoken to them and they cannot hear. They are too stubborn. Too rebellious. So how about a bit of roleplay?

“Therefore, son of man, pack your belongings for exile and in the daytime, as they watch, set out and go from where you are to another place. Perhaps they will understand, though they are a rebellious people. During the daytime, while they watch, bring out your belongings packed for exile. Then in the evening, while they are watching, go out like those who go into exile. While they watch, dig through the wall and take your belongings out through it. Put them on your shoulder as they are watching and carry them out at dusk. Cover your face so that you cannot see the land, for I have made you a sign to the Israelites.”  Ezekiel 12:3-6

This would certainly draw plenty of attention. Packing a bag. Digging a hole in a wall. Escaping through it with his face covered.

And when people ask what on earth he is doing –

Say ‘I am a sign to you. As I have done, so it will be done to you.’  Ezekiel 12:11

And why on earth would this happen to God’s people? Well, as we’ve already explored in ‘Then you will know that I am the Lord’, it’s that. Exactly that.

Then they will know that I am the Lord.  Ezekiel 12:16

There’s more roleplay to come.

“Son of man, tremble as you eat your food, and shudder in fear as you drink your water. Say to the people of the land: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says about those living in Jerusalem and in the land of Israel: They will eat their food in anxiety and drink their water in despair, for their land will be stripped of everything in it because of the violence of all who live there.'”  Ezekiel 12:18-19

And there will be no delay. The people have grown used to waiting and waiting and waiting for what the prophets have said to come to pass. It’s made them complacent – that ‘not in our lifetime’ kind of attitude that we know so well (and if you watch ‘Game of Thrones’, maybe it’s reminded you too of that much-repeated phrase ‘Winter is coming’). They’ve even developed a saying that goes ‘The days go by and every vision comes to nothing’. But God is going to put an end to that proverb. He’s going to change it. ‘The days are near when every vision will be fulfilled.’

And so roleplay – it’s a really, really useful tool, you know. It’s used in interviews and training courses. The emergency services have been using it for years and years to train up individuals in how to react to different situations. The army too and its simulations of scenes of war. Acting out a scene is the best way to learn. In Drama lessons in school, they create roleplays about bullying and how to deal with it. Roleplay takes abstract concepts and gives them flesh – shows the people involved how these truths play out in practice. Young children learn by roleplay – think of a Nursery with its Home Corner and Shop and Garage. And as they get older, some children with hidden disabilities like Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder for example still cannot understand abstracts. They have to always be shown, not told. They can’t work out how to do something on their own. They have to be physically shown. And often with poor memory skills, they have to be shown over and over and over again. So roleplay is great for showing a child like this how to interact with a friend. Or how to talk to a teacher about something. Or how to pay for something in a shop. You rehearse and act out the situation with them first.

The truths of our faith can be pretty abstract for all of us. We need to be finding ways to be communicating God’s love and truth in ways that the people around us can understand and grasp. We need to be imaginative and creative. Prepared to look a bit stupid even (like Ezekiel). Maybe think about roleplaying prayer for example. Or forgiving another person. Or showing love to an enemy.

Sometimes words are not enough. Most of the time in fact.