Ezekiel's Wife - Ezekiel 24

Ezekiel 24:16 "Son of man, behold, I take away from thee thee desire of thine eyes with a stroke, yet neither shalt thou mourn nor weep, neither shall thy tears run down."

I find this a tough chapter. A prophet is indeed worthy of our respect.

The illustration is of Israel and Judah who are lost to the Lord as they turn to idols and are punished with captivity and the loss of their homeland. Ezekiel looses his wife in this chapter but is not allowed to mourn just as the Lord will not mourn for the punishment that Israel is receiving. At least, there is to be no outward show of grief.

v2 "Son of man, write thee the name of the day, even of this same day; the king of Babylon set himself against Jerusalem this same day."

We are referred back to II Kings 25:1 and Jeremiah 39:1

II Kings 25:1 And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his host, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it; and they built forts against it round about."

Jeremiah 39:1 reads basically the same. It was a specific date to be remembered.

Then we have the parable of a pot. It is filled with meat and cooked but not drained leaving the scum in the pot. Then that which is left is cooked until it is gone.

v6 "Wherefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Woe to the bloody city, to the pot whose scum is therein, and whose scum is not gone out of it! bring it out piece by piece; let no lot fall upon it."

Throughout these various accounts of the fall of Jerusalem there is one statement that I see a lot and it is all about Israel remembering who their God is. 'They shall know that I am the LORD."

v27 "In that day shall thy mouth be opened to him which is escaped, and thou shalt speak, and be no more dumb: and thou shalt be a sign unto them; and they shall know that I am the LORD."

v18 "So I spake unto the people in the morning; and at even my wife died; and I did in the morning as I was commanded."