Day 246 (Ezekiel 23-24) -Year 4
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Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. Today's chapters are dark and graphic. It's not exactly light reading. But in every heavy paragraph, in every dark chapter, there's still something we can learn about God. It's true on these pages, and it's true in our own stories, too.

Before we jump in, just know that I'm going to do my best to make this appropriate for all our listeners. The Bible itself is graphic enough, so I'll try to go easy on explaining things in detail. Chapter 23 is one big metaphor. God is talking about two women, but this isn't about women at all. The women represent two cities, Samaria, which is the capital city of the northern kingdom of Israel, and Jerusalem, which is the capital city of the southern kingdom of Judah.

And we've seen many times where Yahweh has portrayed his relationship with his people as a marriage. And anytime his people wander off to other gods, he compares it to adultery. He uses a picture of intimate betrayal to show what's happening on a spiritual level. So while there definitely was sexual sin happening in both Samaria and Jerusalem, that's only a fraction of the broader point chapter 23 is trying to make. The major point is...

The people of these cities have turned their eyes away from Yahweh, who has always provided for them and protected them, and instead they've looked to other nations to save them. They've paid them tribute for protection, and as they've grown more familiar with them and tried to earn their favor, they've also become enamored with their gods and worshipped them instead. Verse 7 is talking about Samaria, and it says, "...she defiled herself with all the idols of everyone after whom she lusted."

It started with lust, and it ended with idol worship. Sin always wants more from us. It's never satisfied. We're hardwired to worship something. Whatever we spend our time thinking about and fixating on, whatever we look to as our source of joy and fulfillment, it will eventually get our hearts.

All along, God has been begging them to repent. But even when their sin and idolatry isn't satisfying to them anymore, they still don't turn back to God. They double down on idolatry. And even though Jerusalem witnesses Samaria's demise, she doesn't learn anything from it. In fact, she doubles down on the doubling down. And the whole process of more, more, more actually becomes a chore to the two cities.

They're abused and unloved by their lovers. Verse 43 says they were worn out by adultery. Idols are exhausting. But God says it's too late for them to repent now. He calls Ezekiel to judge them. They will drink the cup of his wrath. They will finally bear the penalty for their sins.

One important thing to note about the books of the prophets is how we have to treat their use of metaphor. Remember how we talked about the fact that the books of wisdom, like Psalms and Proverbs, aren't necessarily giving us promises or prophecies? Well, the books of prophecy have their own unique lens as well. They aren't always literal. They all involve a lot of metaphorical language and hyperbole, and this is just another example of why we have to read things in context and read them as they're intended to be read.

That's why, for the most part, we don't look at them with a microscope. We zoom out to see the big picture the story is telling us. It doesn't mean there might not be microscopic meaning there, and it doesn't mean the Bible isn't true literally. It just means the Bible isn't always literal. Sometimes it's metaphorical. Like yesterday, when God compared the people of Jerusalem to draw since that he's going to burn them up, it doesn't necessarily mean they're going to die by fire.

The books of prophecy have a way of humbling us because they refuse to let us be controlling about all the details.

Moving on to chapter 24, to fully appreciate what's happening in the first half of this chapter, we have to take ourselves out of the modern age, where we can watch something happen on the other side of the world in real time. In Ezekiel's day, news took weeks or even months to travel from one nation to their next-door neighbor. So Ezekiel, being nearly 900 miles away from Jerusalem when he's in exile in Babylon, isn't getting a notification from CNN telling him Babylon has laid siege to Jerusalem.

God is telling him personally, and God says it's happening right now. Talk about having a trusted news source. But then God flips to the cooking channel. He's bringing up that cauldron and meat we first talked about in chapter 11.

God seems to be comparing Israel to the choicest cuts of meat. But as they're being prepared, it becomes clear that they've all got E. coli, for lack of a better illustration, and that not only does the meat itself have to be discarded, but it's even ruined the cauldron, too. And it has to be tossed into the fire as well.

In the midst of all this, as the meat is being removed, it's dripping with blood and Israel just leaves it out like, "No big deal, this is just contaminated and unclean and it's out here for everyone to see and encounter." No thanks. The point of this metaphor seems to be that Israel isn't just ignoring God's laws, but that they aren't even embarrassed or ashamed about it. They feel no remorse. Their hearts are hard. Ezekiel's heart is not hard, but God's about to put him through the wringer nonetheless.

Once again, he gets an assignment to feel the pain of the situation Israel is about to go through. God tells him that his wife is going to die, and he's only allowed to mourn in private.

The ancient Jews had very detailed, prolonged ways of mourning the dead, but God is telling him to disregard the traditions. And of course, this catches the attention of the exiles because it's certainly strange behavior. But it opens up the conversation where Ezekiel lets them know about the tragedy in Jerusalem, and he tells them to respond in the same way because ultimately, they don't have a right to grieve since this is all the result of their own sins.

This is what they've been moving toward all along as they disregarded God's warnings every step of the way. At the end of today's reading, God tells Ezekiel that someday, when Jerusalem finally falls, a fugitive will come to let Ezekiel know that prophecy has been fulfilled. Then Ezekiel won't be mute anymore. Wait, he's still mute? Then how has he been prophesying all this time? Put a pin in this, we'll come back to it in a few days.

Today's God shot was a challenge, honestly. Some days are harder than others. It wasn't until my third trip through the text that something jumped out at me. And here's how I connected it.

A few years ago, when I lost my sister to cancer, the only people I wanted to talk to were other people who had lost someone to cancer. They understood my loss in a way I couldn't yet understand it myself. In God's sovereign timing, I've been on the receiving end of the compassion of those who have gone before me. And it makes me so grateful that God, in his great love and compassion, gave Judah a prophet who understood her pain. How kind of God!

Ezekiel lost his wife right before the people of Judah lost everything. Is it easy to be the Ezekiel to bear the first burden of pain alone? No, it's horrible. But nothing in his words here indicates that he was bitter about it. He knew there was a greater purpose in his loss.

What he probably didn't know is that his purpose extended far beyond commiserating with Israel and giving them a proper understanding of the situation at hand. He was also imaging Christ, the one who bears our burdens, to people 2,500 years in the future. He shows us a glimpse of God the Son, who knows exactly how hard it is to be human. Jesus aches on our behalf. He mourns and grieves with us all. And still, he's where the joy is.

Not everyone's quiet time looks the same. Sometimes they aren't quiet at all. I actually refer to my quiet time as priority time because that's what helps me remember the place it holds in my schedule and in my life. If you're new to this or if you just want to add more tools to your toolkit in case you find them helpful, I'd love to share more about what my priority time looks like.

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