Ezekiel 4: 1-17: Bearing the Pain

Last week, after a year to get ready, we returned to Ezekiel, to hear with him God’s voice in the second part of the great vision which opens the book. “Take and eat”:- Ezekiel was to consume the word of God such that it became part of him, and he became the message. 

In chapter 4 it becomes clear why this total integration of person with word was crucial. Ezekiel is to act out the folly and fate of Israel in his own body. In these strange acts, the drama of the sin and defeat is played out.

 But the message remains one of hope. It all anticipates Christ’s atoning incarnation – and it’s a sign to us of how mission to reluctant hearers might look. 

Martin Sutherland