Siege Announced to Ezekiel

“A most amazing thing happens on the very day of the siege; the prophet Ezekiel is told about it.  No messenger of Ezekiel’s day can deliver news that quickly!  None, that is, except God himself.”

Read:  Ezekiel 24:1-14

“Following this word about the beginning of Jerusalem’s siege comes one of the most disturbing accounts in all of recorded Scripture.  It is nothing new for God to provide signs of his working and it is nothing new for God to require great sacrifice on the part of his prophets.  But God now brings a sign which requires the ultimate sacrifice of Ezekiel.  As a sign that there is to be no mourning for the loss of life when Jerusalem finally falls, God actually takes the life of Ezekiel’s wife!”

Read:  Ezekiel 24:15-27

“Certainly it can be said that Ezekiel is being asked to give up no more than what God himself will give up one day in order to bring a sign to all the world.  Perhaps that itself is the very answer: as Creator of the universe God can and does act in ways that confound man.  But the immediate mystery is how Ezekiel can seemingly take his wife’s death in stride and continue his ministry.  What a testimony to any man’s faith this would be!”

All quotations taken from The Daily Bible.