BibleProject | One Story That Leads to JesusSample

Yahweh’s prophets had a tough job. They didn’t get to clock in, write a few poems, make some announcements about the end of the world, and then go home to chill at the end of the day. Prophesying for Yahweh was a whole-life kind of calling.

Isaiah walked around stark naked for three years. Jeremiah spent much of his 20-year prophetic career in prison, in tears, or both. But none of Yahweh’s prophets had a more unsavory job than Ezekiel.

Today’s reading introduces us to Ezekiel’s sign acts. These public stunts served as in-person, tangible parables illustrating his prophetic message. Some are relatively tame. Ezekiel builds a scale model of Jerusalem and hacks off much of his hair. But Yahweh also tells Ezekiel to lie on his side for more than a year, eating food cooked over flaming piles of human waste. Why?

When people see Ezekiel doing this in the middle of his Jerusalem model, they see a sobering picture of the desperation to come. Soon, Jerusalem will fall under siege, fuel and food sources will run dry, and total desperation will set in.

Ezekiel’s fellow refugees gawk at his humiliating and horrifying attempts to get their attention, but the message never takes root. As they have turned from Yahweh, they turn from his prophet to choose a different way.

Ezekiel has to wonder: If the people ignore feces-fired food, how will Yahweh ever get their attention?

Reflection Questions

• In Ezekiel 5:8-17, the prophet describes the severe consequences of Israel’s unfaithfulness to Yahweh. Compare this passage to the list of curses for covenant disobedience in Leviticus 26:14-39. What parallels do you notice? What does Moses say will follow these curses (Lev. 26:40-45)? How might the Leviticus passage inform your understanding of today’s reading?
• According to Leviticus 21:5-6, what mourning practices were off-limits for priests? What do these rules reveal about the symbolic actions of Ezekiel in today’s passage? (Remember that he was originally going to be ordained as a priest.)