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Under the fig tree
In the same chapter that God delivers to Ezekiel shocking national news of the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem, God also delivers to Ezekiel shocking personal news. His wife will die that day.
Our past devotionals have discussed much about why God’s punishment of the house of Israel is righteous, rather than unwarranted. God reiterates here that according to their filthy, lewd deeds that they will be judged.
Why, then, did Ezekiel’s wife have to die? Why did she have to be punished?
Such a statement reveals a very human assumption: death is punishment, and God has no right to take away human life.
Does He have no right? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not (Rom 9:14).
Above all, life is not in our hands. We neither know when we will die (Eccl 9:12), nor do we have power over our spirits in the day of death (Eccl 8:8).
Life, though, is in God’s hands. Take a step back and realise who we are before the Lord. Merely the thing formed, speaking to Him who formed us. He who gives life has the authority to take it away (Rom 9:20-21).
Is the Lord then cruel to Ezekiel, taking away his wife so suddenly, then demanding that he hem in his grief by an unwavering silence?
Although everyone dies one day, a clear divine plan shrouds the death of Ezekiel’s wife: just as God will take away the delight of Ezekiel’s eyes, God will also take away the delight of the people, their temple in Jerusalem.
I believe this, and full faith in God’s good sovereignty, would have fuelled Ezekiel’s surrender.
We too can gain strength to face the difficulties that stomp into our lives with no warning.
Others may see a mess, but we can see a message from God, even when we may not understand. The message could be as simple as realising the true sovereignty of our good God.
Such surrender opens up all of us—even the mess, the loss, the pain—to be used for His glory.
If we find ourselves struggling to surrender, we can make earnest, desperate prayers to learn obedience to God’s plan (Heb 5:7).
It is when we surrender that we live out God’s message, even in the mess.