SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/16/2015
9:22 PM
My Worship Time Focus: The End of a Marriage
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ezekiel
24:15-27
Message of the
verses: “ 15 And the word of the LORD came to me
saying, 16 "Son of man, behold, I
am about to take from you the desire of your eyes with a blow; but you shall
not mourn and you shall not weep, and your tears shall not come. 17 “Groan
silently; make no mourning for the dead. Bind on your turban and put your shoes
on your feet, and do not cover your mustache and do not eat the bread of
men." 18 So I spoke to the people in the morning, and in the evening my
wife died. And in the morning I did as I was commanded. 19 The people said to
me, "Will you not tell us what these things that you are doing mean for
us?" 20 Then I said to them, "The word of the LORD came to me saying,
21 ’Speak to the house of Israel, "Thus says the Lord GOD, ’Behold, I am
about to profane My sanctuary, the pride of your power, the desire of your eyes
and the delight of your soul; and your sons and your daughters whom you have
left behind will fall by the sword. 22 ’You will do as I have done; you will
not cover your mustache and you will not eat the bread of men. 23 ’Your turbans
will be on your heads and your shoes on your feet. You will not mourn and you
will not weep, but you will rot away in your iniquities and you will groan to
one another. 24 ’Thus Ezekiel will be a sign to you; according to all that he
has done you will do; when it comes, then you will know that I am the Lord
GOD.’" 25 ’As for you, son of man,
will it not be on the day when I take from them their stronghold, the joy of
their pride, the desire of their eyes and their heart’s delight, their sons and
their daughters, 26 that on that day he
who escapes will come to you with information for your ears? 27 ’On that day
your mouth will be opened to him who escaped, and you will speak and be mute no
longer. Thus you will be a sign to them, and they will know that I am the
LORD.’"”
I find the timing of this section difficult for me as I
study about Ezekiel having his wife die for just last week the wife of my best
friend died and then tomorrow I am to go to a funeral of a man that I know whose
wife also just died. I have been
thinking about this passage for a while and believe that one of the ways to
understand it is that the marriage between the Lord and the children of Israel
which began many years before this at Mt. Sinai is now done. As Ezekiel tells the exiles what is about to
happen he is actually telling them that some of their friends and some of their
relatives will be killed by the Babylonians in Jerusalem and just as the Lord
told Ezekiel that he was not suppose to morn over the death of his wife they
too are not to morn over the lives of their friends and family either.
Dr. Wiersbe writes “The prophet’s wife was the joy of his
life and the desire of his eyes (24:16(, but the Lord took her away. The temple in Jerusalem was the joy of the
Jewish people, for no other nation had such a sanctuary, but no the Lord would
take the temple away. On August 14, 586
BC, the Babylonians set fire to the temple in Jerusalem. Nothing is said about Ezekiel’s children and
we don’t know that he had any, but God announced that, along with the destruction
of the temple, the relatives of the exiles still living in Jerusalem would lose
their lives. Once again, Ezekiel was a
sign to the exiles of what the Lord was doing, and this was the most painful
and costly of all his ‘action sermons.’
In order to preach one sermon, Ezekiel had to lose his wife. But Ezekiel commanded the Jewish exiles to
mourn over the loss of the temple just as he had mourned over the loss of his
wife, without loud wailing, copious weeping, or any change in their dress or
eating habits. The death of the prophets
dear wife was an act of God, and so was the destruction of the temple. The woman who had died was innocent of any
gross sin, but the temple had become a den of thieves. God gave Ezekiel only one day’s notice that
he would become a widower, but He had been speaking to sinful Judah for many
years and they had not listened. The
destruction of the temple and the city should not be a surprise to anybody.”
In order for the people to know that Ezekiel was telling
the truth a messenger would come to show that Ezekiel had gotten his message
from the Lord. And on the next day the
Lord would open the restriction on Ezekiel’s speaking that the Lord had imposed
upon him at the beginning of his ministry (3:21-22). After this the prophet was free to speak as
he felt led and also the focus of his ministry would be changing.
Dr. Wiersbe concludes “Ezekiel has been a faithful
servant of God, even to the point of sacrificing his beloved wife so he could
declare the Word of God. What an example
of dedication.”
I just want to say that the point that I made earlier
about the death of Ezekiel’s wife, which ended their marriage was a picture of
the end of God’s marriage to Israel may not be correct, as I am not sure of
this, but just the same it does make sense to me. However we know that God was not through with
Israel as His Son would be born in the line of David some 586 years later, but
His relationship with them surely was strained and it would be strained even
worse in 70 AD when again the city and the temple would be destroyed, and this
time by the Romans, and I believe that it would be on the same date as the
first time it was destroyed.
2/16/2015 9:49 PM
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