Today’s Old Testament Lesson for Morning Prayer was Ezekiel 24:15-27. In my mind, it is one of the most stunning passages in all of Scripture. So before I make any comments on it, please just read it.
15 The word of the Lord came to me: 16 “Son of man, behold, I am about to take the delight of your eyes away from you at a stroke; yet you shall not mourn or weep, nor shall your tears run down. 17 Sigh, but not aloud; make no mourning for the dead. Bind on your turban, and put your shoes on your feet; do not cover your lips, nor eat the bread of men.” 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.
19 And the people said to me, “Will you not tell us what these things mean for us, that you are acting thus?” 20 Then I said to them, “The word of the Lord came to me: 21 ‘Say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the pride of your power, the delight of your eyes, and the yearning of your soul, and your sons and your daughters whom you left behind shall fall by the sword. 22 And you shall do as I have done; you shall not cover your lips, nor eat the bread of men. 23 Your turbans shall be on your heads and your shoes on your feet; you shall not mourn or weep, but you shall rot away in your iniquities and groan to one another. 24 Thus shall Ezekiel be to you a sign; according to all that he has done you shall do. When this comes, then you will know that I am the Lord God.’
25 “As for you, son of man, surely on the day when I take from them their stronghold, their joy and glory, the delight of their eyes and their soul’s desire, and also their sons and daughters, 26 on that day a fugitive will come to you to report to you the news. 27 On that day your mouth will be opened to the fugitive, and you shall speak and be no longer mute. So you will be a sign to them, and they will know that I am the Lord.” (ESV)
Ezekiel’s story is an amazing one to begin with. He was living in Babylon as a captive of war. Nebuchadnezzar had taken a number of Jerusalem’s leading citizens back to Babylon (like Daniel) on earlier campaigns to Judah. Ezekiel was a priest, who at the age of 30 became a prophet of God in exile. While Jeremiah was still in Jerusalem prophesying that Nebuchadnezzar would come back and destroy the city and the temple, Ezekiel was preaching the same message in Babylon.
But Ezekiel did more than simply stand and preach to the people, like other prophets, God used his life as a living object lesson for His people. In fact, God took away Ezekiel’s voice, except when God wanted to speak directly through him. Early into his prophetic ministry (Ezk. 4), he had to build a little city and lay on the ground all day to enact the actual siege that would be coming to Jerusalem. As part of this enactment, he had to eat a special bread baked over cow dung (This is where we get the modern day “Ezekiel Bread” you can buy at the grocery store today…which I think lacks the cow dung baking).
Some 5 years into his ministry, we get to today’s passage. God then requires something of Ezekiel that is simply stunning, and so is Ezekiel’s obedient response. God tells him that his wife is going to die. But the way God says it, make it even more poignant. God calls Ezekiel’s wife, “the delight of your eyes.” I don’t read this as a negative statement at all. Simply a statement of how much Ezekiel must have loved his wife.
After this statement comes the command from God that Ezekiel is not to mourn her death. And Ezekiel, in his own words, “did as I was commanded.” If that sounds shocking to us, it was no less to the people the Ezekiel was living with. They noticed and asked him why? His own life is to be an object lesson to the people of what is about to happen. The temple in Jerusalem was the delight of their eyes and it was about to be destroyed. And the surviving people would be taken away with no chance to mourn.
The reason given for all of this is stated twice, “then the people will know that the LORD is God.” This is God’s concern: His own glory. It is the dominant theme throughout the Book of Ezekiel (and the theme of all of Scripture). God acts for His glory. We exist to glorify Him. It is not the other way around.
I have to admit that what God required of His faithful servant Ezekiel is mind-boggling. I would not choose any of it for myself, to have my wife whom I love taken from me, and certainly commanded not to mourn her death. I would not choose to have God use my life as such an object lesson for others. But then none of us really gets to choose any of those kind of things. There are so many things like that that are truly out of our control.
All we can do is follow Ezekiel’s example, trust God and humbly obey. I am not suggesting this was easy for Ezekiel, or is easy for us. That is why we need the grace of God and the support of the Body of Christ in our lives of obedience.
I think that this week’s Collect for the 14th Sunday after Trinity is most appropriate.
ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, give unto us the increase of faith, hope, and charity; and, that we may obtain that which thou dost promise, make us to love that which thou dost command; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Shane+
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5 responses so far ↓
1 troy // Sep 6, 2010 at 9:35 pm
Thx brother. Shalom
2 Josh // Sep 10, 2010 at 5:10 pm
that sucks. i don’t quite understand it, or why that was necessary, but Ezekiel’s humble trust in His God is beyond understanding in itself and is quite incredible. wow.
3 Jesse // Sep 21, 2010 at 11:18 am
I don’t get it. This act by God really doesn’t seem to line up with how the rest of the Bible would describe His character. He would punish people by death, yes, but that was judgement. He asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, but in the end did not have Isaac killed. But why would He kill the loved wife of His servant, the prophet Ezekiel, in the way that He did? I don’t understand this.
4 Shane Copeland // Oct 1, 2010 at 10:20 am
Jesse,
This is one of those passages that I don’t think any of us fully “get.” Which is why I posted it. So while I don’t think there is an easy answer, at least not one that soothes both the intellectuall objections and the emotional responses that this story brings, let me say this.
Ezekiel was indeed God’s faithful servant, but he was not simply an “individual.” He was part of a community…God’s covenant community. God was dealing primarily in this context with the community: Israel. God’s punishment was directed at them.
The fact that Ezekiel was in Babylon at all testifies to this. While he was obviously a righteous man, he had already been taken captive, as a prisoner of war, from his homeland. He was separated from many of his family and friends. Surely there were many who had died horrible deaths at the hands of Nebuchadnezzer and the Babylonian army. Being a part of the community meant he was part of the overall punishment that God was bringing upon His people. This does not change His individual relationship with God as an Old Testament Saint.
Ezekiel’s call as a prophet in Babylon was filled with hardships. Read the early chapters of Ezekiel and you can see this. So I don’t believe that God was punishing Ezekiel through the death of his wife. And while her death is hard enough in and of itself, in my opinion, the harder part of this story is that he was not allowed to publicly mourn.
Here again, God was dealing with His community. He was using Ezekiel’s own life as an object lesson for what He was about to do in Jerusalem. Not easy stuff, but there was a purpose. God’s heart for His people is that they would repent and turn to Him, love Him and walk by faith.
It was in Ezekiel that God so clearly states His heart for us:
“Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?” (Ezk. 18:23).
and
“Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?” (Ezk. 33:11).
So what God’s ultimate purpose in using the death of Ezekiel’s wife in the way He did is that His people would return to Him and live.
5 Kevin Templeton // Oct 6, 2011 at 1:23 pm
Enjoyed the lesson. I stumbled upon it while preparing a sermon on this very text. I agree the actions of God seem on the surface as somewhat unfair or at least extreme. I can’t imagine God telling me he was going to kill my wife so that I could have a good sermon illustration on Sunday morning.
However, humble reflection upon a few biblical truths about God and man put this text into perspective for me.
1) Hath not the potter power over the clay …(Rom. 9:21). God has absolute right over his creatures to do with us as he pleases. We can trust that God does what is always right because he is the ‘only wise God.’
2) Life is a gift and not a right. We are all under the penalty of death because of sin.
3) God is transcendant, therefore, we cannot expect to understand all of his ways. “Who hath known the mind of the Lord…” asks the Apostle Paul.
4) The chief end of man is to bring glory to God and this was the purpose of God’s actions as this lesson so well pointed out.
If we were granted an audience with Ezekiel and his wife today I doubt that either one would express feelings of being done wrong. Our earthly life contrasted with eternity makes any suffering we encounter for God’s kingdom insignificant. 2Cor:4:17: For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
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