“Then I said, “Not so, Sovereign LORD! I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now I have never eaten anything found dead or torn by wild animals. No unclean meat has ever entered my mouth.”
– Ezekiel 4:14
Hi James and Ellen,
If God asks you to do something, would you do exactly what God asks you to do? How do you think that God goes about asking His specially elected guys, gals and kids to do things? Do you think that God is directly asking His specially elected guys, gals and kids to do exactly what is in His constantly unfolding schema that He scripted before He formed planet Earth or do you think that God has other ways of communicating His plan to His specially elected guys, gals and kids for them to enact.
Per Ezekiel – in Ezekiel 4, he and God – as God the Father, had an ongoing chat about the continual failings of the guys and gals who God specially chose to worship only Him. 390 years have gone by since the failures of Solomon’s led to a split among God’s specially chosen guys and gals. The Israelite people group tribal clans who Jeroboam convinced that he should be their king – which were most of the Israelite people group tribal clans, became known as the northern kingdom or Israel. The remaining Israelite people group tribal clans who accepted Rehoboam as their king became known as the southern kingdom or Judah. The guys and gals who were in Israel’s northern kingdom took to worshipping inanimate idols that were manmade from wood, stone, clay and metal versus worshipping only God. Even though some of the guys who were Israel’s southern kingdom kings faithfully pursued worshipping God, there were other kings who ruled over Israel’s southern kingdom – such as Manasseh, who spent his 40 years as a Judah king propagating evil. During the 22 years that Ezekiel was a God-sent prophet spokesman to His specially chosen guys and gals who were living in Israel’s southern kingdom – which was Judah, Ezekiel was an eyeball witness of the final demise of God’s specially chosen guys and gals who were living in Israel’s northern kingdom – which was Israel. Before God allowed the Assyrian army to capture His specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the northern kingdom, God instructed Ezekiel – who God called ‘son of man’, to do a symbolic act. God told Ezekiel to draw the city of Jerusalem on a moist clay tablet. After Ezekiel drew the city of Jerusalem on a moist clay tablet, Ezekiel symbolically laid siege to the clay tablet by erecting siege works against it, building ramps up to it, setting up camps against it and putting battering rams around it. God then told Ezekiel to place an iron pan or a baking griddle between the clay tablet on which he had drawn the city of Jerusalem and himself. After God told Ezekiel to face the clay tablet on which He had had Ezekiel draw the city of Jerusalem, God told Ezekiel to lie down on his left side next to the clay tablet – which had Ezekiel facing God’s specially chosen guys and gals who were living in Israel’s northern kingdom. God told Ezekiel to do this exact same thing each day for 390 days as a representative and a symbolic way of shouldering the sins committed by God’s specially chosen guys and gals over the 390 years that they had lived in Israel’s northern kingdom. After Ezekiel completed God’s order to lie on his left side for 390 consecutive days, God told Ezekiel to lie on his right side facing Israel’s southern kingdom for 40 days as a representative and a symbolic way of shouldering the sins committed over the 40 years when Manasseh was king over the guys and gals who lived in Israel’s southern kingdom. So that Ezekiel would not be able to turn over while he was sleeping, God told Ezekiel to have himself tied up with ropes during the times when he was lying down. For nutrition during this time, God told Ezekiel to maintain a meager vegetarian diet that was to be made up of wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet and spelt. God told Ezekiel to make small cakes – possibly with the help of olive oil and honey, from what He told Ezekiel that he could eat. God told Ezekiel to bake each day the small cakes over a fire of dried cow manure. God told Ezekiel to eat the same amount of food each day – which was 20 shekels or about 9 ounces of food. God told Ezekiel to proportion out the small cakes that he baked each day to eat the cakes at set times each day. God also told Ezekiel to drink a sixth of a hin of water or about a third of a pint of water at set times each day.
Why do you think that God told Ezekiel to do all the things that He told Ezekiel to do? Through what He told Ezekiel to do, God demonstrated to the Israelite people group guys and gals – who were His specially chosen guys and gals, what was going to happen to them if they continued to worship manmade idol gods handmade from wood, stone, clay and metal. Your grandpaa can become perplexed at times with what God does. It seems at times that God can be convinced to change His mind – which makes it seem to your grandpaa that God’s schematic has some flex to it. Verse 14 has Ezekiel saying, “‘Then I said, “Not so, Sovereign LORD! I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now I have never eaten anything found dead or torn by wild animals. No unclean meat has ever entered my mouth.”’ After Ezekiel made his case to God as to why he was not using what He had told him to use for baking the small cakes, God acquiesced to Ezekiel’s push back by . . . what do you think? Do you think that God changed His mind or do You think that God before He created planet Earth had this moment written where Ezekiel told God why . . . your grandpaa thinks that there may be a ‘God warp’ that is clear to God but very blurry to your grandpaa.
Ezekiel 4 (1012)