Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Ezekiel chapter 4 verses 1 through 8:
And you, O mortal, take a brick and set it before you. On it portray a city, Jerusalem; 2 and put siegeworks against it, and build a siege wall against it, and cast up a ramp against it; set camps also against it, and plant battering rams against it all around. 3 Then take an iron plate and place it as an iron wall between you and the city; set your face toward it, and let it be in a state of siege, and press the siege against it. This is a sign for the house of Israel.
4 Then lie on your left side, and place the punishment of the house of Israel upon it; you shall bear their punishment for the number of the days that you lie there. 5 For I assign to you a number of days, three hundred ninety days, equal to the number of the years of their punishment; and so you shall bear the punishment of the house of Israel. 6 When you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the punishment of the house of Judah; forty days I assign you, one day for each year. 7 You shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and with your arm bared you shall prophesy against it. 8 See, I am putting cords on you so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege.
As we are reading through the Hebrew prophets we have seen some pretty wild and attention-grabbing things designed to grab headlines and call attention to the issues at hand.
We’ve seen temporary occupation of the Temple Courtyard (something Jesus also did), protest in front of the King’s home, and now we see Ezekiel, in an act of prophetic demonstration, lying on his side in the public square, a model of besieged Jerusalem set before him.
These are not acts of arrogance or show, as I’m sure those who were opposed dismissed them as. These are attempts to dramatize the seriousness of what is taking place in the nation, and call its people to repentance. For, as Ezekiel says,
“the rod has blossomed, pride has budded. Violence has grown into a rod of wickedness.
None of them shall remain,
Not their abundance, not their wealth,
No pre-eminence among them.”
There is an old tradition that only Jewish men of 30 years of age or more could read Ezekiel, for fear that the young would take his acts too seriously.
It’s interesting that Jesus was thirty years old when he began his ministry. And I have to wonder if there was a connection.
NOTE: We are reading the whole Bible through this year. Tomorrow’s Lesson comes from Ezekiel 9-12.
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