Today’s passage: Ezekiel 24
Helpful thoughts:
- In today’s first prophecy, the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem is compared to a pot being brought to a boil, cooking the meat inside!
- The second picture is a further yet related tragedy. Ezekiel suffers the same fate of so many in Jerusalem who would have to lose their city, the Temple and their loved ones and simply carry on out of necessity without time to mourn. Ezekiel lost his wife and was not to grieve.
- It seems Ezekiel was only about 35 years old at the time. Making the passing of his wife and his lack of mourning all the more disturbing to those who observed what was taking place.
- This instruction was given to Ezekiel specifically for this moment to communicate this terrible news. People err today if they think we are not honoring God when we mourn the loss of loved ones.
- We are reminded at the end of this chapter. Up to the point of the fall of Jerusalem, Ezekiel had been mute at all times unless God opened his mouth to speak specific prophecies. In all that we have read so far, during that time, the only occasions Ezekiel opened his mouth to speak was when God gave him a prophecy to share.
Questions to consider:
- How terrible is this news and the pain of telling it? Consider the calling which God gave to Ezekiel and his wife!
- How might the people of Jerusalem and Judah have been responding to all these prophecies we have been reading in the book of Ezekiel? What would the repetition have drawn out of them? What should it have resulted in? If the people had been rejecting God’s warnings and promised judgment, how would they have responded even to these tragic messages?
- Whom did God give and subject to a tragic death for our rescue (John 3:16)? How do we see God’s justice intersecting with His love, mercy and grace?