In here you’ll see another time God offers cleansing but they refuse to be cleansed. Make sure you don’t refuse Him. He offers you the same. Read and learn what happens when you don’t accept the offer. Let’s pray:
Lord Jesus, thank You for the lessons in this chapter. Thank You for leading us and helping us to see it all. Thank You, Lord. Amen.
Please read Ezekiel 24:1-2
Parable of the Boiling Pot
1 Again in the ninth year [of King Jehoiachin’s captivity by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon], in the tenth month, on the tenth [day] of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, record the name of the day, this very day. The king of Babylon has laid siege to Jerusalem this very day.
God knows we have time even if He exists outside of it. ‘This very day’ and ‘write the name of the day’ mean God knows this is a particular day in what is history to us. Does that comfort you in some way? I feel it. Think of it like, Today, God knows what you’re up to, what has happened to you, how it all connects around the world, he is over it all, after all. And you are His special and precious possession.
Please read Ezekiel 24:3-8
3 Speak a parable against the rebellious house [of Judah] and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God,
“Put on a pot; put it on and also pour water into it;
4 “Put in it the pieces [of meat],
Every good piece (the people of Jerusalem), the thigh and the shoulder;
Fill it with choice bones.
5 “Take the choicest of the flock,
And also pile wood under the pot.
Make it boil vigorously
And boil its bones in the pot.”
6 ‘Therefore, thus says the Lord God,
“Woe (judgment is coming) to the bloody city,
To the pot in which there is rust
And whose rust has not gone out of it!
Take out of it piece by piece,
Without making any choice.
7 “For her blood [that she has shed] remains in her midst;
She put it on the bare rock;
She did not pour it on the ground
To cover it with dust.
8 “That it may cause wrath to come up to take vengeance,
I have put her blood [guilt for her children sacrificed to Molech] on the bare rock,
That it may not be covered.”
This is a parable, meaning a story that should teach us something or reveal a truth. God knows how to cook? Not surprising. But this boiled stuff is not to eat. It’s a story of how God is very upset that they would sacrifice their children to some other not real god. Because they didn’t hide it, he won’t hide it. Promises wrath and vengeance for it. Our God does not require us to sacrifice a life. He is Life. It’s as if they forgot that Abraham was not required to sacrifice Isaac but instead God sent a ram. God will provide. Stay with Him.
The Offer to be Cleansed
Please read Ezekiel 24:9-13
9 ‘Therefore, thus says the Lord God,
“Woe to the bloody city!
I will also make the pile [of wood] high.
10 “Heap on wood, kindle the fire,
Boil the meat well [done]
And mix in the spices,
And let the bones be burned.
11 “Then set the empty pot (Jerusalem) back on the coals
So that it may be hot
And its bronze may glow
And its filthiness may be melted
And its rust (scum) may be consumed.
12 “She has wearied Me with toil,
Yet her great rust has not left her;
Her thick rust and filth will not be burned away by fire [no matter how hot the flame].
13“In your filthiness are lewdness and outrage.
Therefore I would have cleansed you,
Yet you were not [willing to be] cleansed,
You will not be cleansed from your filthiness again
Until I have satisfied My wrath against you.
Even after all the filthiness, lewdness, and outrage he would have cleansed them. But they were not willing. Oh may we always choose to come back to Him. May it be that Jesus’s words cleanse us when He said, in John 15:3 “You are already clean because of the word which I have given you [the teachings which I have discussed with you]. ” We can believe it. If you want cleansing, you can have it.
He offered Cleansing and They Refused
Please read Ezekiel 24:14
14 I the Lord have spoken; it is coming and I will act. I will not relent, and I will not have compassion and I will not be sorry; in accordance with your ways and in accordance with your deeds I will judge and punish you,” says the Lord God.’”
According to your deeds. What you do matters. How you walk out your life matters.
Please read Ezekiel 24:15-17
Death of Ezekiel’s Wife Is a Sign
15 Also the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 16 “Son of man, listen carefully, I am about to take away from you the desire of your eyes [your wife] with a single stroke. Yet you shall not mourn and you shall not weep, and your tears shall not flow. 17 Sigh and groan in silence; do not mourn for the dead. Bind on your turban and put your sandals on your feet, and do not cover your mustache or eat the bread of [mourners furnished by other] men.”
I think that […] text there is a reference to the many mourners who would come and cry and wail for the dead. We see them in the gospels when Lazarus dies. Yet Christ raises him. And even in what we call death it is still alive with Him. I read it this afternoon in John 8. 51 “I assure you and most solemnly say to you, if anyone keeps My word [by living in accordance with My message] he will indeed never, ever see and experience [f]death.” My question is, while the one dying might get to escape the entire process of it, why does it still look like death to us? The one He is referring to is going to escape it entirely. There is nothing to fear. Nothing.
[f] spiritual death and separation from God.
Ezekiel is told not to have them come. He can be assured that it was God who took his wife, so she’s likely with God ‘now’ yet he no longer has her and he’s told not to mourn his loss.
Please read Ezekiel 24:18
18 So I spoke to the people in the morning, and [a]in the evening my wife died. And the next morning I did as I was commanded.
Matter of fact isn’t he? “I did as I was commanded.”
Tell us what do these things mean?
Please read Ezekiel 24:19-24
19 The people said to me, “These things that you are doing—tell us, what do they mean for us?” 20 Then I answered them, “The word of the Lord came to me, saying, 21 ‘Speak to the house of Israel, “Thus says the Lord God, ‘Behold, I will [b]profane My sanctuary, the pride of your strength, the desire of your eyes, and the delight of your soul; and your sons and your daughters whom you have left behind [in Jerusalem] will fall by the sword. 22 You will do as I [Ezekiel] have done; you shall not cover your mustache nor eat the bread of [mourning brought to you by other] men. 23 Your turbans will be on your heads and your sandals on your feet. You will not mourn or weep, but you will rot away in your sins and you will groan to one another. 24 So Ezekiel will be a sign to you; in accordance with all that he has done you will do. And when this [destruction of the temple] comes, then you will know [without any doubt] that I am the Lord God.’”
Sometimes I feel so sorry for the prophets. Ezekiel had to act out the lessons God was telling the people they would be going through. He was the example, the sign. Ezekiel was cleansed, yet He had to experience all this to show the people what would happen to them for refusing to be cleansed.
Please read Ezekiel 24:25-27
25 ‘As for you, son of man, on the day when I take their strength and their stronghold from them, their joy and their glory, the desire of their eyes and [c]their heart’s [chief] delight (the temple), and I also take their sons and their daughters, 26 that on that day a survivor will come to you to let you hear [of the destruction of Jerusalem] with your [own] ears. 27 On that day [d]your mouth will be opened to him who escaped, and you will speak and no longer be mute. In this way you shall be a sign to them, and they will know [without any doubt] that I am the Lord.’”
May we know without any doubts He is the Lord God. Let it mean everything to us and let us obey His commands and stay close to Him for He is close to us. And we can believe every word that comes out of His mouth. If you need cleansed, go to Him and ask for it.
Footnotes
[a] Ezekiel 24:18 – in the evening my wife died – This was the same day that the temple in Jerusalem was burned (586 b.c).
[b] Ezekiel 24:21 -profane My sanctuary – I.e. allow the temple in Jerusalem to be destroyed by pagans.
[c] Ezekiel 24:25 – their heart’s [chief] delight -Lit the lifting up of their soul.
[d] Ezekiel 24:27 – your mouth – At the beginning of Ezekiel’s prophetic ministry (see 3:26, 27; 33:22) God told him he would be mute except when he was speaking a divine prophecy.