February 2, 2023
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in Ezekiel? Here’s today’s reading:
Ezekiel 24 (NIV)
Jerusalem as a Cooking Pot
1 In the ninth year, in the tenth month on the tenth day, the word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, record this date, this very date, because the king of Babylon has laid siege to Jerusalem this very day. 3 Tell this rebellious people a parable and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says:.........Continue Reading
So tragic the loss of Ezekiel’s wife, who clearly was so dear to him, but God used this situation once again to reveal Himself to His people. Such a shocking loss for Ezekiel and God acknowledged his sadness but asked him not to outwardly mourn and Ezekiel obeyed. As He paralleled this situation to the loss Jerusalem would face their shock would be from their own arrogance thinking that they were safe because they were God’s people even though they had fallen so far away from Him.
I guess we can fall into these same traps of “acceptable” sin that we justify in our own lives feeling safe that the other things we do somehow offset that. We are all responsible for our choices and God will punish when necessary and when it comes we should not be so surprised.
How persistent God is in showing the people the reality and reason for the judgment that is coming. He would love if they turned to Him and avoided it, but they have brought Him to it. He is even willing to provide pictures and analogies to hopefully convict them, clearly doing all He can to show them what is happening, so when it does, it will do what God intends, turn them back to Him. God is soooo patient with them and us. And it is sad the circumstances under which Ezekiel’s wife dies, but who wouldn’t be struck by his obedience to not mourn for her so the people can learn a lesson. I have certainly grown to appreciate this book and the man who wrote it and His dedication to the God he represents to the people.
Ezekiel 24
They still did not turn away from sin so God says he will not hold back Wrath and will not have any pity or relent. Ezekiel even lost his wife. He still listened to what the Lord wanted him to do and passed these words on to the people.
Ezekiel listened to the Lord and obeyed him even when it meant he would not show his grief when his wife died so that God could get his point across to the people. He was a real representation of what a faithful servant looks like.
Ezekiel 24
Ezekiel obeys the Lord and does not grieve outwardly for his wife, who was very dear to him. God calls her “the desire of your eyes”. I think of those days when we think of arranged, loveless marriages, but that was not necessarily so.
I was also thinking of emotion. Today, people are disregarding God’s laws, and even natural law, and instead equating emotion with truth. And even twisting God’s words to call the disobedience of God’s law, “love”. We would be better served to teach our children, and ourselves to know how to master our emotions.