May 8, Ezekiel 24
"On account of your unclean lewdness, because I would have cleansed you and you were not cleansed from your uncleanness, you shall not be cleansed anymore till I have satisfied my fury upon you. I am the LORD, I have spoken; it shall come to pass; I will do it.” - Ezekiel 24:13-14
At the midpoint of Ezekiel, I suppose you have noticed that many of Ezekiel’s messages have been about the same subject. For more than three years, the prophet received from God and delivered to the exiles in Babylon message after message about what was going to happen to their beloved homeland and capital city. The captives could not imagine Ezekiel’s words coming to pass. But through him, God warned, threatened and foretold Nebuchadnezzar’s siege, conquest and destruction of Jerusalem.
It is hard to know with certainty when some of the Old Testament prophets lived, prophesied and wrote. With many of them, the subject matter lets us narrow the timeframe down to a few decades or less. But God stamped this prophecy on a specific day, identifiable in contemporary history as January 15, 588 B.C. Ezekiel, in Babylon with the captives, wrote the date as God directed him, right in the message. The timestamp would prove the authenticity of the prophecy when a fugitive from devastated Jerusalem arrived in Babylon. His report about what happened in Jerusalem verified that Ezekiel knew the exact day because God revealed it to him. There was no other way the prophet in Babylon, 400 miles from Jerusalem, could have known the day the siege started.
The citizens of Jerusalem had used the image of a pot and meat inside it to illustrate their safety. God used the same image to instead depict their doom. They had claimed to Jeremiah that Jerusalem was the cauldron and they were the meat, safe inside the cauldron from the fires of siege and warfare. But the Lord reminded them that all the meat in the cauldron gets cooked. The choice elite ones would perish along with the common people. But he took the image farther. The cauldron of Jerusalem was corroded beyond cleaning, and the meat inside was ruined by the corrosion. The pot was no longer useful and had to be destroyed. The people were so corrupt, they had resisted God’s loving calls to repentance for so long, that they were thoroughly corroded by their idolatry, immorality and greed.
God used the prophet’s life and family to dramatically present another message to the captives. He told Ezekiel his wife would die, and he was not allowed to mourn her death. He could show no outward traditional sign of mourning. When the people asked him why he behaved in that way, he told them that God was taking away the delight of their eyes (Jerusalem and the temple), and the yearning of their souls (to return to their homes in Jerusalem). He said their sons and daughters they left in the land would be killed by the Chaldeans. And they would not be able to weep because of their astonishment and the oppression of their masters in captivity. So Ezekiel’s silence after his wife’s death depicted what they would experience after all the things he had told them came true.
God added a third sign to validate Ezekiel’s prophecy. Just as he had announced the siege on the day it happened, the fall and destruction of the city, the temple and its people would happen when a fugitive who escaped death in Jerusalem would arrive to tell Ezekiel the news. The prophet would be mute until the messenger came. But after the prophecy was certified by the witness, he would be able to speak again.
The burden of captivity was even heavier after their hopes and dreams about going home to Jerusalem were destroyed along with the city. Ezekiel had faithfully delivered the message that it would happen for over three years, but they didn’t believe him. After it was done, there was no need for any more words about it. All these signs came from the LORD himself, and after them, the people had a fresh and painful reminder that God was the LORD over all.
Do you think we are ever like the people who heard the prophet, and maybe even showed some respect for him, but didn’t really believe or respond to what he said? These people learned, like Jesus’ disciples learned from him, that when the Lord spoke to them, what he said was going to happen just as he told them. They got into the trouble they were in by closing their ears and hearts to God’s word. Then they stayed there by stubborn persistence in their rebellion. Surely we can see that is no way to deal with God’s sure message or his faithful messengers.
Copyright © 2024 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Today in God's Word—May 2024
East Tallassee Church of Christ
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