While Ezekiel is in Babylon with the other Jewish exiles, the people back in Jerusalem are still hoping to be delivered from the Babylonians. And the Jewish exiles in Babylon would certainly be hoping for the same in a desire to return home. But God had told them through Jeremiah that a 70-year exile was inevitable and that they should submit to this as discipline from God’s hand (Jeremiah 25). The people of Jerusalem would, however, persist in this vain hope, and this would bring upon them a terrible siege followed by the final destruction of Jerusalem. Now God tells Ezekiel to predict and symbolise the coming siege. Ezekiel’s role here shows the cost of being a prophet: he must lie on his side for over 14 months, eating a famine-style diet and cooking over a fire fuelled with his own excrement, after which he must shave off all his hair and beard, which would have been humiliating to say the least! But this would have drawn the attention of the Jewish exiles. Consider the extent that God went to here to make the Jewish exiles understand that he was speaking to them. Consider too how Ezekiel had to bear the cost of God’s desire to get this message across. As Jesus called his disciples to be his messengers, he also repeatedly warned them that this ministry would cost them dearly, even to the extent of losing their lives. The message is important enough to warrant such a cost. What cost are you willing to bear to serve God?
Reflect on the things that hold you back from serving God and consider what cost you are prepared to pay.
Read Ezekiel 4 and 5
