Illustrating Your Message
Today’s reading: Ezekiel 24:1-27:36
My selection: Ezekiel 24:25-27
25 “As for you, son of man, surely on the day when I take from them their stronghold, their joy and glory, the delight of their eyes and their soul’s desire, and also their sons and daughters, 26 on that day a fugitive will come to you to report to you the news. 27 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.”
My reflections: When God called Ezekiel to be His prophet, He gave him a message and, in some instances, God made Ezekiel’s own life an illustration of that message. The Lord took his wife, whom he apparently loved deeply, and made this incident an object lesson for Judah. God told the prophet what the end result of it would be: “So you will be a sign to them, and they will know that I am the Lord.”
What would they learn about the Lord through this? They should learn that He is God and that He will not tolerate their idolatry forever; that He is God and that their ritualistic use of the temple to give superficial worship to God was unacceptable; that He is God and is not confined in the building they think of as His temple. Meanwhile, Ezekiel is going through a real crisis of his own as he has to endure the loss of his wife while serving as a message to the nation.
My challenge: If God is God, He has the right to use us as He will. He has the right to use our pain for His purposes. Do you desire that He be made known, even though it cost you the dearest person on earth? Everyone suffers pain, but not everyone makes the most of it. As John Piper said, don’t waste your pain. Pray that He will use your suffering and trials to make His name known to you and to the watching world.
Tomorrow’s reading: Ezekiel 28:1-31:18