Scum in a pot...
The Lord wanted the captives to know exactly when Babylon's siege of Jerusalem started. The very day.
As part of the announcement of the siege, they also get a very visceral image of the rebellious people of Jerusalem.
- Get a pot boiling with hot water.
- Drop in the best pieces of meat and bones.
- This rebellious pot (city) has rust in it. (The NKJV calls it scum.)
The Lord commands random meat be taken out and placed on a rock. Everyone was going to see this destruction; it would not be hidden.
Next the pot goes back on the fire empty to burn off the impurities. He is weary of her rebelliousness and plans to burn the rust off in the fire.
He has offered to cleanse her before but she refused. Now she'll be cleansed with fire until His wrath is satisfied. He will execute this judgement with no pity or sorrow.
Things take a very surprising and horrifying turn in verse 15. I can't even type it, so here's the direct text:
“Son of man, behold, I am about to take from you the desire of your eyes with a blow; but you shall not mourn and you shall not weep, and your tears shall not come. Groan silently; make no mourning for the dead. Bind on your turban and put your shoes on your feet, and do not cover your mustache and do not eat the bread of men.” Ezekiel 24:16–17
I am shell shocked.
The Lord announces that he is not only going to suddenly take Ezekiel's wife, but Ezekiel is not allowed to mourn her in the normal, cultural ways.
It's hard to imagine what Ezekiel's response would be. Anger, bewilderment, loss, sorrow, madness. He was God's faithful servant and God was about to inflict on him one of the worst things—sudden loss of a spouse. And then being told not to grieve?
It's the kind of verse I'm tempted to roll past so that I don't say anything stupid. I'd like to hold my breath and think of some way to be inoculated against such actions in my own life by the Lord.
But taking a pair of scissors to the Bible for my personal comfort isn't how a faithful servant acts.
Verse 14, immediately preceding the shocking events of Ezekiel's wife's death is the Lord proclaiming that He will not feel sorrow or pity to the death of His "wife." And all along in this book, Ezekiel performs elaborate analogies. It's one of the things I love about this book. It's such a concrete set of analogies and metaphors that bring God's word to life—both for the captives in Babylon and today.
Most of the time when we think about God's wrath toward the sinful and faithless Israelites, I imagine wrath as lightening and thunder and rage and red. But now, at the end of this era, His holy countenance is that of expressionless finality. It has been said, and songs written, that you know a relationship is over when the tears stop. When things that brought about high temperatures and loud fights are now responded to with a shrug.
The opposite of love is not hate. It is apathy.
God is done being jealous. He is done trying to correct. He is done. No pity. No sorrow. Just dead and bloody meat, laid out on a rock to shrivel and rot.
So very grim and sad.
God is long suffering; but not forever. The clock does run out.
Ok, back to the text. Ezekiel's wife is going to be taken and Ezekiel is not allowed to grieve her.
So I spoke to the people in the morning, and in the evening my wife died. And in the morning I did as I was commanded. Ezekiel 24:18
As you might imagine, the people wanted to know what this turn of events meant. Ezekiel provides the words from the Lord. the Lord makes it very clear that He is profaning His own Temple—from which the people took pride and had confidence in His care for them. And then all the people would fall by the sword.
And once this happens, God taking down His own Temple, symbolically ending the life of this marriage, He commands that these Babylonian captive do not get to mourn. They have to sit with their iniquity, groaning with one another. In this funeral without morning, they will know that He is God.
I think He is desperate for them to understand how bad the situation is. He's told them and showed them in a million ways how dire the circumstances are and now He is trying to show them that it's all too late. He can see that their hearts aren't changing. they are biding their time until they can go back to Jerusalem and everything will be normal. They can go back to half-heartedly worshiping Him along with other idols, getting drunk, and phoning-it-in.
Not anymore. Sit here and think about what you've done. You're back up plan is blowing up in Jerusalem. Groan and consider what all of this means.
Ouch.
Starting in verse 25 we learn that there will be refugees from Jerusalem who will arrive with news. Somewhere along the way, Ezekiel was struck dumb. Maybe when he was commanded to grieve silently? I must have missed that. But when the refugees arrive, he will be able to speak again as a sign to them that God is the Lord.
This is, actually, the final message from Ezekiel regarding the people of Jerusalem and Judah. He's given to the captives signs, stories, analogies, metaphors, sermons, illustrations, and parables all as prophesy regarding the final judgment for this era of Israelites. The are still several chapters left in the book, but they are divided between God's judgement of foreign countries and the future and end times.
This is really the end of the line. Jerusalem is lost. The Temple is lost. Samaria is lost. Judah is lost. the era of the Jews in the Promise Land is over. There is hope; but it's going to come from Jeremiah's small remnant and those Babylonian captives who heard what Ezekiel had to say and took it to heart.
The opposite of love is not hate. It is apathy. And God is long suffering; but not forever. The clock does run out.
Amen.