In the ninth year, in the tenth month on the tenth day, the word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, record this date, this very date, because the king of Babylon has laid siege to Jerusalem this very day.” – Ezekiel 24:1-2

Today’s Scripture Reading (June 13, 2020): Ezekiel 24

9/11. Just the numbers are enough to evoke memories in the Western World among those who were alive on September 11, 2001. I remember where I was when the planes crashed into the World Trade Center. I heard about the first plane crashing into the first tower, but I was standing in front of a television when the second plane crashed into the second tower. I don’t think that any of us understood what was happening at that moment, but with every plane, we began to realize that a well-planned attack was underway. Almost two decades later, we still remember the day and are reminded of those events by just the presence of three numbers.

One of my personal memories was that, for the next couple of days, the skies were silent, given back to nature to find its only inhabitants. I didn’t remember at any other time in my life when I could look to the skies for any significant portion of time and not see a plane or a helicopter making its way across the expanse. And these are days that I still remember.

Ezekiel receives a word from God. Mark this date down, because today Babylon’s siege of Jerusalem has begun. The most likely date from a modern perspective would have been December 589 B.C.E. the siege would last for the next eighteen to thirty months. Up until this moment, the fall of Jerusalem was a prophesied event, something that was still held in the gentle hands of the future. But here, it begins to make its ascent from the potential to the actual. What was predicted begins to become a reality.

And like 9/11, this day was a day of disaster was a day that was destined to be remembered. Seventy years later, the prophet Zechariah indicates that the day had become a feast day. “The fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh and tenth months will become joyful and glad occasions and happy festivals for Judah. Therefore love truth and peace” (Zechariah 8:19). The fast of the tenth month would have been a fast based on this day that Ezekiel was commanded to write down. But Zechariah’s comment highlights a difference between our modern recognition of 9/11 and the Jewish feast of the tenth month. When Ezekiel marked down the date, it was the memory of a day of disaster. But, by the time of Zechariah, the people were beginning to return to the land. The fast of the tenth month was transitioning into a celebration of something that God had done in their midst. They could celebrate because now they were returning to Canaan to build a better nation and a better Jerusalem.  God was still with them, and he would guide them through even a disaster, and that was something to celebrate.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 25