May the mumbling commence!
God asks some extremely difficult things from the
prophets. I can find nothing as
difficult as what the Lord asks of Ezekiel in chapter twenty-four. Read a passage from it below:
Then this message came to me from the Lord: "Son of man, I am going to take away your dearest treasure. Suddenly she
will die. Yet you must not
show any sorrow. Do not weep; let there be no tears. You may sigh but only quietly. Let there be no wailing at her grave. Do not uncover your head or take off your
sandals. Do not perform the rituals
of mourning or accept any food brought to you by consoling friends."
So I
proclaimed this to the people the next morning, and in the evening my wife died. The next morning I did everything I had been told to do. Then the people
asked, "What
does all this mean? What are you trying to tell us?"
So I said to them, "A message came to me from the Lord, and I was told to give this
message to the people of Israel. This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will desecrate my Temple, the source of your security and pride. Your
sons and daughters in Judea will be slaughtered by the sword. Then you will do
as Ezekiel has done. You will not
mourn in public or console yourselves by eating the food brought to you by
sympathetic friends. Your heads must
remain covered, and your sandals must not be taken off. You will not mourn or weep, but you will waste away because of your
sins. You will mourn privately for
all the evil you have done. Ezekiel is an example for you to follow;
you will do as he has done. And when that time comes, you will know that I am the Lord."
Then the Lord
said to me, "Son of man, on the day I take away their stronghold
– their joy and glory, their heart's desire, their dearest treasure – I will
also take away their sons and daughters.
And on that day a refugee from
Jerusalem will come to you in Babylon and tell you what has happened. And when he arrives, your voice will suddenly
return so you can talk to him, and you will be a symbol for these people. Then they will know that I am the Lord." (Verses 15-27)
To be an object lesson for the people of Israel, Ezekiel
lost his wife… and did not mourn for her publicly or accept the condolences of
his family and friends. She was Ezekiel’s
dearest treasure. That’s hard. I don’t know if I would have spoken those
words of prophecy knowing that it would mean my wife’s death.
I know what it means to treasure my spouse. I love my wife. I don’t know what I would do without
her. Though we’ve only been married for
a little over ten years, I don’t know what I’d do without her. She is my dearest treasure on earth.
Such a tragedy without closure would rob me of my voice
too. Ezekiel lost his voice until that
refugee came to report to him that what the Lord has said was done to Israel…
to Judah. The Temple of the Lord was
destroyed and the sons and daughters of the people were kidnapped.
I cannot help but think about the situation of our
Christian brothers and sisters in Nigeria.
Let’s continue to pray for the safe return of the kidnapped
children. Let’s continue to pray for
justice and peace to prevail. Let’s pray
that our brothers and sisters will not need to lose forever what is extremely
precious to them… one of their dearest treasures here on earth.
Enough mumbling for now…
Peace Out
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