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Devotional thoughts (Monday through Thursday mornings) from the pastor of Exeter Presbyterian Church in Exeter, NH // Sunday Worship 10:30am // 73 Winter Street

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Ezekiel 4

Ezekiel may not have been able to speak at this moment in his ministry, but God did enable him to communicate a powerful message through his instruction to act out various truths with symbolic presentations. The first of these had to do with the siege against the city of Jerusalem. The exiles in Babylon may have heard encouraging words from false prophets claiming that they would soon be back in the land. In a way they would be back soon, but not as men mark time over the course of their lives. Forty years of remaining exile was still a long time.

God had Ezekiel take a large slab of brick. The prophet engraved some representation of the longed-for city of Jerusalem. Then, as if in a child’s game, there was a siege wall built up next to the brick, and a mound of earth against this little Jerusalem. Then the prophet looked at the brick, but there was an iron wall between the prophet and the brick. The prophet was the representative of God, and there was a barrier between the city and God. He would not hear their pleas. The siege against Jerusalem would eventually be successful, and this was part of the plan of their Almighty God.

During the reign of Hezekiah in the south, the northern kingdom of Israel was overtaken by Assyria. The Assyrians were eventually replaced by the Babylonians, and then the Babylonians by the Medes and the Persians. Since a variety of starting and ending points for this display can be suggested, it is hard to know precisely which of these is being referred to here. It is clear that the trouble for the northern kingdom was not brief. In the days of Cyrus, there would be a significant return of the people to the south. During this return, some who came back would have been from the northern tribes. Ezekiel modeled these hundreds of years of discipline by lying on his left side for 390 days, more than one year in total. As a personified house of Israel, he bears the punishment of the northern tribes, one day for each year.

Once that was over, it was time to model the years of trouble remaining for Judah, the southern kingdom. Harassed during the reign of the sons and grandson of Josiah, finally in the days of Zedekiah Jerusalem would be destroyed. Her walls would be broken, and her temple burned along with many houses, and more of her sons and daughter would be carried off to Babylon. Eventually by permission of Cyrus and under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah they would be led back into the land. The time remaining according to Ezekiel is 40 years, and this is symbolized with a forced posture, lying on his right side, the prophet would give his silent prophesy against the city of Jerusalem.

There is more to communicate in this lived-out parable. During these years the people of Jacob will suffer. There will be trouble with food and water. Ezekiel will eat his rationed portions willingly, but God’s special nation will face their trials unwillingly. They will be forced to bake their bread using human dung as fuel for the fire.

Ezekiel did not complain about any of this until he heard that he was being asked to do something that would make him ceremonially unclean. Though far away from the temple life, this priest still had a tender conscience regarding laws of clean and unclean. He made his plea before God, and the Lord permitted him to use cow dung rather than human dung. Aside from this one adjustment, there was apparently a complete yielding to the will of God for this unusual project.

God spoke to Ezekiel further about the trouble that Jerusalem will face. It will be worse than Ezekiel’s actions in the acted prophecy. God would break the supply of bread in Jerusalem. Ezekiel had his portion, but Jerusalem would not. There was another addition to the message. There would not only be scarcity. There would also be great anxiety and dismay. The Lord’s Word included a horrifying prediction of death in the city. Many people would rot away because of their punishment.

What happened to Jerusalem was not an accident. It was part of a larger picture of the Lord’s plans against his rebellious Old Testament people. That plan had been announced through Moses centuries before, yet it was known by God from before the creation of the world. In fact, even His actions for and against Israel were only a small part of a larger plan. The key moment in that larger plan involved a suffering far more than what Ezekiel faced in living out the judgment plays of Ezekiel 4. It was even far more than all the suffering of Israel and Judah in their troubles with Assyria and Babylon. At the center of all God’s plans was His determination to face the wrath that was due to all His elect children for their sin.

This is why Jesus Christ came as the Son of Man. He did not merely act out a play on the cross. He actually atoned for our sins. Because His death was more than a drama, it has a power that has changed the world forever. A passion play might have been interesting to watch, and it could have communicated a message, but the real death of Christ as our atoning sacrifice actually saved the people of God forever.

posted by Pastor Magee @ 7:00 AM

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