Today's Scripture Reading (July 28, 2026): Ezekiel 4
The
more I deal with broken relationships, the more I wonder whether we have any
relationships at all. I mean, we assume, maybe I should say that I assume, that
we mean what it is that we say. We want to be assured that words, in whatever
medium we might find them, mean something. However, in broken relationships,
words that have been spoken often don't carry the meaning we think they should.
Maybe the classic example is when one partner tells the other that the
relationship is over. Often, admittedly not always, what is meant is that the
one wants the partner to fight for the relationship and not just give up. But
too often, we quit, thinking this is the required action. The truth is that
words carry a message, but often that message is veiled and hard to understand.
Maybe the clearest statement of what we really feel is displayed through what
we do.
Ezekiel
seems to be the master of speaking through his actions. And this passage is no
exception. Ezekiel does not speak with words; he speaks with his actions.
Unfortunately, separated by time as much as we are, we often miss the message.
Ezekiel starts his message by lying on his left side for 390 days. Ancient
peoples often oriented themselves to face the rising sun, or the east.
Therefore, the left would be the north. Spending 390 days on his left side would
indicate the time spent by the Northern tribe of Israel in their sin. However, 390
is also a significant number. Forty is the Hebrew number or symbol for
punishment. Israel spent forty years in their desert wanderings because of
their lack of trust and obedience to God. Lashings or beatings were often
administered with the instruction that the one being punished was to receive
forty stripes less one, or thirty-nine. Since Ezekiel is lying on his left side
for Israel, the math is pretty simple. It is thirty-nine times the ten tribes
of Israel; forty less one for each tribe. It is an illustration that repeats
something the prophets have spoken of a few times: the northern ten tribes of
Israel may be missing, but they are not forgotten, nor is God through with
them. The Northern tribes would still have a role to play in the future that
God was setting up.
Ezekiel
lies on his right side for forty days. Following the same imagery we used for
the Northern tribes, we find that the action pertains to the punishment of the
Southern Kingdom, which had become dominated by one tribe, Judah, even though
Judah consisted of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. The southern kingdom
retained the name of that one, dominant tribe. But, interestingly, Judah was
not to suffer the normal forty minus one – they were to suffer the full forty.
The reason might be simply that their punishment was fully upon them. Judah
would have felt the coming destruction of the city of Jerusalem and of the
Temple as consisting of the full punishment of God. This time, it would seem,
God was holding nothing back.
But
often this seems to be where our analysis stops. Maybe the most significant
aspect of the story is often left unmentioned: that Ezekiel bears the
punishment for both the northern Kingdom of Israel and its southern
counterpart, Judah. And in this, he becomes a type of Christ, and the image he
portrays becomes a forerunner of the sacrifice that Jesus will make on behalf
of all the people of the world. And Jesus would once again bear the full
punishment for our sins; he would give his very
life.
Tomorrow's
Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 5
No comments:
Post a Comment