Ezekiel 24:15-27 Wife’s Death
God tells of Ezekiel’s wife’s death the day before it happens. Ezekiel is NOT to engage in ANY mourning activities. His actions are to be copied by the exiles when Jerusalem falls.
This is a VERY HARD thing that God asks Ezekiel to do. One might think that Ezekiel’s wife might not have meant very much to him but God said she was the “delight” of his eye. He LOVED her dearly. But he is not allowed to show his pain publicly. He IS allowed to experience it in the privacy of his own home. So long as it is done quietly and does not attract attention.
My eyes are tearing up just thinking about the pain Ezekiel must have felt and not been allowed to express. He was allowed only to “sigh, but not aloud” (verse 16b). I’m going to ask here if God gave him a supernatural peace about this loss. I don’t know of ANY human soul that wouldn’t weep for the loss of a loved on so close. I didn’t weep when my ex-husband died but I hadn’t seen him or heard from him for more that 15 years. There was no bond left. If my husband of today were to die, I would surely weep.
God had a lesson for the exiles in Ezekiel’s behavior. First of all, his behavior was SO out of the norm that the people were driven to ask him about it. In the Hebrew culture, death was mourned VERY publicly. Women were even hired to wail and lament for the dead. Not so for Ezekiel’s wife. She exited the world without ‘fanfare’ from anyone.
Second, the people KNEW Ezekiel as a prophet from God, so they expected that there was a reason for his strange behavior. “Will you not tell us what these things mean for us, that you are acting thus?” (verse 19b). As a prophet, there was meaning in everything he did. Ezekiel was famous for his ‘street theatre’ when sharing God’s message.
Finally, they were ready to listen. This message would be a hard one for them to receive. The exiles had been holding onto hope of a return to Jerusalem. They had either listened to Jeremiah and surrendered to Nebuchadnezzar or were captured when the king was taken away. They had been hearing from God’s prophets all along that 1) Jerusalem would fall, 2) they would be in exile for some time, and 3) that the people would eventually return to the land. What they hadn’t heard was that the Temple would be defiled too. Or at least no in the same terms that Ezekiel uses here.
The House of the Lord, that He allowed Solomon to build, will be trampled by Gentiles. Not only would Gentiles enter the Temple but they would destroy it and take away its treasures. And to top this all off, they were NOT ALLOWED TO MOURN their loss. Was it easier for them because of the time away from the Temple for so long? There were still three years yet before the actual fall would happen. That was a LONG time to contemplate this prophecy and command.
If I’m not mistaken, Ezekiel was mute for those years. God told him that when the Temple was finally violated that “a fugitive would come to you to report to you the news. On that day your mouth will be opened to the fugitive, and you shall speak and be no longer mute. So you will be a sign to them. And they will know that I am the Lord” (verses 26b-27). This probably took place right after he explained the meaning of his actions.
I KNOW God has more to say through Ezekiel. I was looking at the future prophecies that we will be looking at and they are for other countries. Did God have Ezekiel speak these prophecies away from the exiles? Were they spoken in his house? Did the muteness released each time God told Ezekiel to speak/”say”? Was the muteness only for the fugitives and fellow exiles? I was thinking that maybe the following prophecies were given before this one but I found in chapter 29 a prophecy that happened in the tenth year in the tenth month. This was within a year of the fall of Jerusalem. It was a prophecy against Egypt and Pharaoh.
Even with ALL THIS I have NO DOUBT that God used Ezekiel EXACTLY as He said He would. And I trust that God helped him through the loss of his wife. Surely God wouldn’t leave him in pain and forbid him to express it. He would comfort Ezekiel’s soul; probably with the knowledge that he would see his wife again in eternity.
Father God, I don’t understand why You would require this pain and public restraint. I don’t have to understand to follow Your commands. Probably the same thing that Ezekiel said when You told him what was to come. YOU have my future mapped out. You don’t show me the full route. I have to trust You to bring me to where I’m supposed to be. And, when the time is right, You will explain it all to me.
Thank You for taking my pain. There have been many times when I would have preferred to sit down and cry instead of going on with the work set before me. You carried me during those times. YOU healed my heart. I bet that’s how Ezekiel made it through that time too.
