April 26, Ezekiel 12
“As for you, son of man, prepare for yourself an exile’s baggage, and go into exile by day in their sight. You shall go like an exile from your place to another place in their sight. Perhaps they will understand, though they are a rebellious house.” - Ezekiel 12:3
God called Ezekiel to perform more drama so that the rebellious people might understand the message. Their eyes and ears were closed in stubbornness against God and his words to them through the prophet. Ezekiel obeyed God’s instructions and performed the demonstration. He packed his bag (like a bedroll with possessions rolled up inside it). He carried it from one place to another, during the day, pantomiming a journey into exile. These people had already experienced a journey into exile. They would recognize the point of Ezekiel's performance. The drama was almost surely successful at getting the exiles’ attention. They would ask and Ezekiel would tell them the truth about their exile and the fate of their king.
God told him to dig through the wall of the house at night and pull his pack through to depict Zedekiah's failed attempt to flee the besieged city. God wanted the exiles to know what was going to happen in Jerusalem and what would become of their king. Jerusalem would be destroyed and the Davidic dynasty would come to an inglorious end. But God's promises were still good. A remnant of them in the second generation would return to the land and live in it again.
A new section of Ezekiel begins with this chapter and continues through chapter 19. The people in exile needed to hear the truth about their situation to offset the lies and fabrications of the false prophets. Most of them would not live to see their homeland again. They needed to understand the truth about that sad reality and realize that the captivity was a necessary consequence of their sins against the Lord. So Ezekiel packed his bag, and walked with it. He covered his face in grief. Later, when the drama depicted Zedekiah's attempted escape and capture, the veil may have also suggested the fact that Nebuchadnezzar would blind him before he went to captivity. He would go to Babylon, but as the Lord said here, he would not see the land where he went because Nebuchadnezzar put out his eyes before he got there.
The other drama recorded in this chapter was a detailed simulation of the hardship the people in Jerusalem experienced during the siege before Jerusalem fell. It's like the Chapter 4 description of the horrors of the siege, but it emphasizes the fear of the residents as death stalked them through hunger, sickness and the enemy's sword.
Some of the people had complained that the prophecies were not relevant because they pointed to events that would occur long into the future. But God assured them through Ezekiel's words that these predictions would come to pass within a few years. They would live to see them fulfilled. Indeed, time was already running out for Jerusalem, Zedekiah and the nation of Israel. Within five years of the time when Ezekiel announced and acted out these prophecies, they would come to pass.
I hope that our eyes and ears will never be closed in stubbornness against God’s word and will. In the moment when we sin, we believe a lie. We think what we want would be better for us than what God tells us to do or not do. But let’s not let sin harden us and close our eyes and ears to the truth. When we learn better, let’s do better, instead of clinging to the lie that leads us away from God.
Also, let’s never fall for the devil’s lie that God’s word may be for some time later in our lives, but not right now. It’s easy for a young man or woman to say, “I’ve got plenty of time. I know I need to do what God says. But not now. It’s not time for me to surrender yet.” That falsehood just adds another day (or year) of hardening to our hearts. God’s commands are relevant for us today, in the present, while it’s still today.
Copyright © 2024 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Today in God's Word—April 2024
East Tallassee Church of Christ
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