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Daily Devotions

Ezekiel

Ezekiel 
Day 
Day 264

"I will profane My sanctuary"

Text: Ezekiel 24:21

THE PUZZLEMENT OF THE PEOPLE

The people who related to Ezekiel were puzzled. These people were in exile in Babylon with him. They were his congregation. He was a shepherd-prophet to them. They could not understand why he was not going through the usual funerary customs concerning his wife that had just passed away.

“And the people said to me,
‘Will you not tell us what these things signify to us, that you behave so?’
Then I answered them,
‘The word of the Lord came to me, saying,
‘Speak to the house of Israel,
‘Thus says the Lord God:
‘Behold, I will profane My sanctuary, your arrogant boast,
the desire of your eyes, the delight of your soul;
and your sons and daughters whom you left behind shall fall by the sword.
And you shall do as I have done;
you shall not cover your lips nor eat man’s bread of sorrow.
Your turbans shall be on your heads and your sandals on your feet;
you shall neither mourn nor weep,
but you shall pine away in your iniquities and mourn with one another.
Thus Ezekiel is a sign to you;
according to all that he has done you shall do;
and when this comes, you shall know that I am the Lord God.”””
Ezekiel 24:19-24

1. God answered the people directly.

a) God had taken away Ezekiel’s wife.

b) He would also take away Jerusalem and the Temple.

2. How the people regarded the Temple and Jerusalem.

a) They boasted about their Temple with arrogance.

b) It was the desire of their eyes.

c) It was the delight of their soul.

d) But the people did not love the Lord!

3. What God will take away.

a) Their sons and daughters.

b) Some had fled from Jerusalem and left their children behind.

c) Those who were left behind would perish.

4. The challenge to understand the sign of Ezekiel.

a) To follow the example of Ezekiel.

b) To look at life positively though there may be sorrow.

i) They must not just hide their lips (be mute with sadness).

ii) They must not just eat the bread of sorrow.

iii) They must continue to put on their turban and wear their sandals as if life was normal.

iv) They must not stay in the state of mourning.

v) They must not pine away, mourning with one another.

5. Knowing the Lord.

a) It is sometimes through grief that we know God better.

b) The challenge is to know and to trust God more.