Today’s
Scripture Reading (May 9, 2017) Ezekiel 24
Maybe one of the most enduring, real royal
love stories was the one between Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. The pair met
and “felt mutual affection” for each other starting in 1839. The two were married on February 10, 1840. The queen
described in her diary her thoughts about Albert on the night of their wedding.
I NEVER,
NEVER spent such an evening!!! MY DEAREST DEAREST DEAR Albert ... his
excessive love & affection gave me feelings of heavenly love &
happiness I never could have hoped
to have felt before! He clasped me in his arms, & we kissed each other
again & again! His beauty, his sweetness & gentleness – really how can
I ever be thankful enough to have such a Husband! ... to be called by names of tenderness, I have
never yet heard used to me before – was bliss beyond belief! Oh! This was the happiest day of my life!
Twenty-one years later, Victoria would experience grief
with the same vehemence that she had experienced love. 1861 was not a good year
for the Queen. It started off with the death of her estranged mother, and then
the discovery of how much her mother had loved and missed her in the years they
had been apart. Then, later in the year, news reached the royal couple that
their oldest son, Albert Edward who would become King Edward VII, was sleeping
with an Irish actress (an event that was set up by his friends to give the nineteen-year-old virgin a sexual experience.)
Prince Albert was dispatched immediately to issue a reprimand to his son, and
two weeks later, on December 14, 1861, Prince Albert died. Victoria blamed his
death on “that dreadful affair with Albert Edward” and went into mourning. She
wore black for the rest of her life, which was almost four decades (Victoria
died on January 22, 1901), an act which earned herself the title of the “Widow of Windsor.”
Much was happening for the inhabitants of Jerusalem. This
prophecy is probably best placed in 588 B.C.E as the siege of Jerusalem was
beginning. And in the midst of everything that was happening politically and
spiritually for the people hidden within the city walls, Ezekiel was thrust
into a personal crisis. His wife dies. Adding to the drama is the command of
God that he should not mourn the passing of his wife – “the delight of his
eyes.” Instead, he is to carry on in front of the people of Jerusalem as if
nothing has happened.
The message that Ezekiel was to give to the people was
that so much was going to occur in the
next couple of years that there would be no time for mourning. The end was
going to come with a terrible crash that
would scar the people of Jerusalem. In
spite of their pain, they will be forced to leave their land and push forward
with their lives. The time of great pain was upon them, and there was nothing
that they could do to change it. Just as God was not permitting Ezekiel the
time to mourn, so Judah would not be allowed
by their Babylonian captors the time to mourn all that was about to be lost.
Death would come, and no one would be able to observe
the losses that they would experience correctly.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 25
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