Life for Ezekiel had been extremely difficult. He was a priest who was taken captive when the Babylonians conquered Israel. Unlike Daniel he was not taken to the court of the king but rather he was taken to work on the canals. He suffered a great deal from the Babylonians but he also suffered from his own people. God had told him that he would preach to a stubborn and hard-headed people but his audience was not the Babylonians but his fellow captives.
During the time of captivity he was struck dumb for over a year by the Lord as an object lesson to his people. During that time he had to lie on one side for three hundred ninety days and on the other side for forty days. Meanwhile he had to cook his food using animal dung for fuel. The Lord had told him to use human dung but that was so repulsive to him that the Lord allowed him to use animal dung instead. Even this was considered unclean to a priest but Ezekiel was obedient to his God. Later his wife died and the Lord commanded him not to mourn. If anyone needed grace Ezekiel was that one.
Continued tomorrow - LW
No comments:
Post a Comment