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Audio Transcript
In case you are studying the Bible with us this 12 months, this weekend we learn Ezekiel 24–28. There we meet a surprising textual content, one which results in this query from a listener named Matthew: “Pastor John, thanks for this podcast and on your trustworthy mannequin of ministry through the years. As a younger preacher, there’s a textual content within the Previous Testomony that stops me in my tracks and makes me pause in my Bible studying each time, and it’s the account of the dying of Ezekiel’s beloved spouse in Ezekiel 24:15–18. There are issues on this textual content that don’t relate, or that appear too particular to translate broadly. He’s a prophet. I’m not. He was known as to not weep over his spouse. That’s for him particularly, for some cause.
“However verse 18 hits me laborious each time: ‘So I spoke to the individuals within the morning, and at night my spouse died.’ I’m married to a girl I dearly love. And there’s one thing in regards to the faithfulness of Ezekiel’s ministry enduring, though he has been advised to anticipate nice private loss. There’s one thing compelling about his impending loss and but his willingness to press on within the ministry. What of this story transfers to our ministries at the moment?”
I feel the quick reply to Matthew’s query is that God’s sample for ministry, each within the Previous and New Testaments, is that the struggling and the losses of his servants are a necessary a part of God’s judging and saving work amongst his individuals. The dying of Ezekiel’s spouse, I feel, is in the identical class because the afflictions that the apostle Paul endured for the nice of the church buildings. Paul offers the precept in 2 Corinthians 1:6 when he says, “If we’re troubled, it’s on your consolation and salvation.” So, the affliction of the apostles is designed by God for the consolation and salvation of his individuals.
That’s true within the Previous Testomony, I feel, among the many prophets. It’s true within the New Testomony. I feel it’s true at the moment. A wounded pastor is an effective shepherd. Or 2 Corinthians 4:12: “So dying is at work in us, however life in you,” Paul says. That’s the sample. So, God ordained that the dying of Ezekiel’s spouse, the delight of his eyes, and the unimaginable requirement that he not weep, can be an indication to Israel of the destruction of the temple, the delight of their eyes, and their very own departure in captivity with none real tears of repentance.
God’s Perplexing Methods with Ezekiel
Right here’s Ezekiel 24:15–18:
The phrase of the Lord got here to me: “Son of man, behold, I’m about to take the delight of your eyes away from you at a stroke; but you shall not mourn or weep, nor shall your tears run down.” . . . So I spoke to the individuals within the morning, and at night my spouse died. And on the following morning I did as I used to be commanded.
Then Ezekiel offers them the that means of this signal. He says,
Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I’ll profane my sanctuary, the delight of your energy, the delight of your eyes, and the craving of your soul, and your sons and your daughters whom you left behind shall fall by the sword. And also you shall do as I’ve performed; you shall not cowl your lips. . . . You shall not mourn or weep, however you shall rot away in your iniquities and groan to 1 one other. (Ezekiel 24:21–23)
In his query, Matthew mentioned, “I’m married to a girl I dearly love. And there’s one thing in regards to the faithfulness of Ezekiel’s ministry enduring, though he has been advised to anticipate nice private loss. There’s one thing compelling about his impending loss and but his willingness to press on within the ministry.” My response to Matthew is that this: that’s precisely what I felt once I learn this years in the past and tried to get inside Ezekiel’s thoughts and his spouse’s thoughts as they lived these previous few hours collectively — as a result of he gave him some warning, like twelve hours.
How Poetic Efforts Strengthen Religion
I feel it may be very strengthening to our religion to think about this case in such a means that God does one thing extraordinary to assist Ezekiel and his spouse endure this loss. I don’t suppose he simply abandons Ezekiel. We don’t know what he did, however I’ve tried to get inside their head and picture what could possibly be — not what was, however what might have been.
“The struggling and losses of God’s servants are a necessary a part of his judging and saving work amongst his individuals.”
Final week, I learn a part of a poem that I wrote about Job. Nicely, I did the identical factor with Ezekiel and his spouse. There’s something compelling to me in regards to the struggling shared between a husband and a spouse, particularly when it prices each of them dearly. So, I let my creativeness go into Ezekiel’s and his spouse’s minds and take a look at to determine what enabled them to carry again their tears, as God commanded them to do.
So, let me invite our listeners now to return with me into this imaginary state of affairs that I wrote within the poem years in the past, and let this doable state of affairs stabilize you on your personal prospect of loss in life or in ministry. Right here’s an excerpt from the Ezekiel’s spouse poem:
Ezekiel sat shocked and chilly.
The phrase that he had simply been advised
Transformed each massive grievance
He ever made right into a faint
Concern. No ache can be absurd,
He thought, if this one phrase
Of God could possibly be withdrawn tonight,
“I’d have interaction in any struggle
On your nice title, and be a idiot
For you, bear any ridicule
In Babylon. Should you would spare
Me this, I’ll serve you wherever.”Once more the voice of God was clear:
“I do know that she is way extra pricey
To you than life, and but tonight
I strike and take your coronary heart’s delight:
Your spouse — at sunset she is going to die.
And listen to my phrase: You shall not cry.
No tears run down, nor sigh aloud,
No sack, no ash, no mourner’s shroud.
You’re a signal for Israel:
Quickly messengers will come and inform
Them that Jerusalem is burned,
And every thing for which they yearned
Is gone — the apple of their eye;
Nor shall they be allowed to cry,
However solely groan beneath the rod.
And know that I the Lord am God!”Past the River Chebar rose
The yellow solar. The cock crows,
Ezekiel makes his silent means
Towards dwelling and ponders what to say
To his pricey spouse, and if he can.
“A prophet’s not a straightforward man
To dwell with, Zeke,” she used to say,
After which she’d smile, “However anyway
A lot ease could make a girl weak.”
(No person else would name him Zeke,
He thought.) Maybe the ache of all
These years was not simply bitter gall.
Maybe she’s been ready to listen to
This last phrase and to not worry.He ate his figs and barley cake
In silence. “Mara, can you’re taking
A stroll with me? This morning’s phrase
Has been the toughest that I’ve heard.”
They walked in silence for an hour,
After which he gathered all his energy
And mentioned, “The God of Abraham,
The God who calls himself I AM,
Calls for that you could die tonight.”
However Mara’s eyes remained as shiny
As ever in her life. “I do know,”
She mentioned, “Final evening he got here to indicate
Me in a dream.” After which she took
Ezekiel’s fingers and mentioned, “The Guide,
Bear in mind the place we used to learn
How God would sometime come and lead
Us within the path of limitless pleasure,
And the way finally he would destroy
Our blinding sin and allow us to see
His face in all its majesty?
O dearest Zeke, final evening I noticed
One other world with out a flaw
Past what we might ever know,
And I might scarcely wait to go . . .
Oh, not that I might ever love
You much less, however I’ve seen above
That every thing you’ve preached is true.
Weep not, nice seer, for me nor you;
I’m the proof of all you’ve mentioned;
Tomorrow I can’t be useless,
Nor you, and it’ll not be lengthy
Until you could have joined the limitless tune.
Press on, Ezekiel, rejoice
With coronary heart and soul and mighty voice.
Make music to the approaching King,
Come stroll with me and we are going to sing.”
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