Communicating God’s message

Sometimes we think that getting people to listen to God’s message is difficult today. When we have those thoughts, cast your mind back to Ezekiel. Not only was he declaring God’s message to a stubborn, rebellious people, but they wouldn’t listen – so God had him “act out” his message.

“The word of the Lord came to me: ‘Son of man, you are living among a rebellious people. They have eyes to see but do not see and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious people. ‘Therefore, son of man, pack your belongings for exile and in the daytime, as they watch, set out and go from where you are to another place. Perhaps they will understand, though they are a rebellious people. During the daytime, while they watch, bring out your belongings packed for exile. Then in the evening, while they are watching, go out like those who go into exile. While they watch, dig through the wall and take your belongings out through it. Put them on your shoulder as they are watching and carry them out at dusk. Cover your face so that you cannot see the land, for I have made you a sign to the Israelites.’” (Ezekiel 12:1-6 NIV)

What Ezekiel was to do might sound bizarre to us, but he needed to do something to catch the attention of his fellow Israelites in exile. They had the thought that their time away from Israel was going to be brief, even though God had said they would be there for seventy years. To emphasise they would be there for a while God had Ezekiel act out what was happening to get the attention of the people and then to explain to them what it meant.

“Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: this prophecy concerns the prince in Jerusalem and all the Israelites who are there…They will go into exile as captives. The prince among them will put his things on his shoulder at dusk and leave, and a hole will be dug in the wall for him to go through. He will cover his face so that he cannot see the land. I will spread my net for him, and he will be caught in my snare; I will bring him to Babylonia, the land of the Chaldeans, but he will not see it, and there he will die.’” (Ezekiel 12:11-13)

Not only were the Israelites going into captivity, there would be no rescue. To emphasise this Ezekiel’s ‘act’ was depicting the king himself going into exile. He wasn’t there yet, but he would join the exiles. What Ezekiel acted out was King Zedekiah’s attempt to escape Jerusalem by digging through a wall but still being captured. Although he would end up in Babylon he would never see it. This was exactly what happened: when captured his sons were executed in front of him and then his eyes were put out so he never saw where he was captive (you can read about this in 2 Kings 25).

The purpose of what Ezekiel did was to drive home the point that what God said was going to happen. Those in exile and would remain in exile – there was no hope for rescue because even the king would join them there. God said it and it would be done.

Perhaps there are two applications of this for us. First, we can trust that when God says he will do something that he will. What Ezekiel did is understandable when we learn the history of what happened.

A second lesson might be that we sometimes need to learn creative ways of getting God’s word to those around us. Ezekiel had to do quite a bit of acting out various scenarios for the people to see, which caught their attention. I’m sure some of what he did was outside his comfort zone. But what was important was that God’s word was declared. That is a lesson for us all.

Photo by Jon Galloway: remains of houses near the royal palace, Jerusalem.

Readings for next week: Ezekiel 11-17