Read
An error occurred, and the scripture passage could not be retrieved.
Please try again later, or contact the website administrator.
An error occurred, and the scripture passage could not be retrieved.
Please try again later, or contact the website administrator.
Reflect
Ezekiel does some rather strange actions (4:1-8; 5:1-2) in presenting the prophetic messages. But full clarity of meaning does not come until Ezekiel verbally explains (5:3-13) his bizarre actions. The miniature city with the toy soldiers is none other than Jerusalem, which will be besieged by the Babylonians. The hair symbolized the inhabitants who will undergo the threefold punishment of dying by disease and famine during the siege, being killed by the enemy when the city has fallen, and being forcibly taken into exile. All of this punishment is attributed to the people’s grievous rebellion against the Lord in rejecting his commandments. They have become worse than the pagan nations in their wrongdoings.
The message of accusation of the wrongs that the people have done, and the declaration of the punishment that would come, were not easy for the people to accept. From their perspective, what they were doing was not all that bad, and they did not feel that they had abandoned the Lord. They also felt that the Lord would surely protect them from the Babylonian enemy, because after all, they were God’s chosen people, and Jerusalem was his chosen city. How could God let anything happen to them or to the city?
So, out of his desire for his people to understand the degree to which they had offended him and the dire consequences of their behaviour, God requires Ezekiel to take his prophesying to a new level. Beyond just speaking the message, he dramatically acts out, in miniature, the judgments that God would bring upon Jerusalem. The people would not just hear the message; they would also “see” it. This illustrates how God will go to great lengths to get his people to hear what he is saying to them about their wrongdoings and the consequence of impending disaster.
Respond
Lord, often we too are trying to proclaim a message of salvation to an audience that does not think it needs it. Show us how to present the message of Christ dramatically, so that we are more effectively gaining an attentive hearing to a message that deserves to be heard. Amen.
Kelvin Friebel
I hold a M.A. & Ph.D. in Hebrew & Semitic Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I have taught Old Testament at Canadian Theological Seminary in Regina, SK, and Houghton College, in Houghton, NY. I have pastored Wesleyan and Christian & Missionary Alliance churches both in Wisconsin and Saskatchewan. I have taught and preached in Hong Kong, Lebanon, Philippines, Jordan, Thailand, My wife works at the University of Regina, and we have two grown children and five grandchildren.