October 25, 2020: Day 64 – Ezekiel 12

Once again Ezekiel is given an object lesson in order to teach the people of Israel and he is told to act out what is going to happen to the “prince” or the king of Judah who lives in Jerusalem.  I know that I am using Israel and Judah interchangeably and I shouldn’t, so I hope you are able to follow.  The object lesson he is to perform is he is to pack his belonging as if he were going into exile.  Remember, he is already in exile.  He is to dig his way through the wall that surrounds the city and then head out as if he were sneaking out in order not to get caught.  But all of this he is to do in the day so that the people of Israel are able to see what he is doing and understand that the object lesson that he is enacting is supposed to represent what will happen to the ruler of Jerusalem, the king of Judah.

He goes ahead and packs himself up in the daytime, he digs out of the wall, and when the people ask him: “What are you doing?” vs.9, he tells them: “I am a sign for you.” vs.11.  He tells them that they will be going into exile and the king will not see Babylon, but will die in Babylon.  Remember, the king sees his children killed and then has his eyes gouged out so that is the last thing that he sees.  This will happen in the future and the object lesson that Ezekiel is giving to the people will  happen in the very near future.

There was a saying in the land that “I will put an end to this proverb.”  It was thought that God no longer spoke in oracles, but Ezekiel said no, this will come true, and not in the long run, but rather pretty quickly, so prepare yourselves.  That is something that we do not really put much stock in.  We don’t have people that we believe are speaking oracles which dictate how we ought to act in order to curry God’s wrath or favor.  I guess the closest thing we have is when a pastor is said to be speaking prophetically.