Sermon Notes

3 10 He said to me, “Mortal, all my words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart and hear with your ears; 11 then go to the exiles, to your people, and speak to them. Say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ whether they hear or refuse to hear.”
24 15 The word of the Lord came to me: 16 Mortal, with one blow I am about to take away from you the delight of your eyes, yet you shall not mourn or weep, nor shall your tears run down. 17 Groan quietly; make no mourning for the dead. Bind on your turban, and put your sandals on your feet; do not cover your upper lip or eat the bread of mourners. 18 So I spoke to the people in the morning, and at evening my wife died. And on the next morning I did as I was commanded. 19 Then the people said to me, “Will you not tell us what these things mean for us, that you are acting this way?” 20 Then I said to them, “The word of the Lord came to me: 21 Say to the house of Israel: Thus says the Lord God: I will profane my sanctuary, the pride of your power, the delight of your eyes, and your heart’s desire, and your sons and your daughters whom you left behind shall fall by the sword. 22 And you shall do as I have done; you shall not cover your upper lip or eat the bread of mourners. 23 Your turbans shall be on your heads and your sandals on your feet; you shall not mourn or weep, but you shall pine away in your iniquities and groan to one another. 24 Thus Ezekiel shall be a sign to you; you shall do just as he has done. When this comes, then you shall know that I am the Lord God.” . . . 27 On that day your mouth shall be opened to the one who has escaped, and you shall speak and no longer be silent. So you shall be a sign to them, and they shall know that I am the Lord.
(New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, NRSVue)
3 10-11 Then he said, “Son of man, get all these words that I’m giving you inside you. Listen to them obediently. Make them your own. And now go. Go to the exiles, your people, and speak. Tell them, ‘This is the Message of God, the Master.’ Speak your piece, whether they listen or not.”
24 15-17 God’s Message came to me: “Son of man, I’m about to take from you the delight of your life—a real blow, I know. But, please, no tears. Keep your grief to yourself. No public mourning. Get dressed as usual and go about your work—none of the usual funeral rituals.” 18 I preached to the people in the morning. That evening my wife died. The next morning I did as I’d been told. 19 The people came to me, saying, “Tell us why you’re acting like this. What does it mean, anyway?” 20-21 So I told them, “God’s Word came to me, saying, ‘Tell the family of Israel, This is what God, the Master, says: I will desecrate my Sanctuary, your proud impregnable fort, the delight of your life, your heart’s desire. The children you left behind will be killed. 22-24 “‘Then you’ll do exactly as I’ve done. You’ll perform none of the usual funeral rituals. You’ll get dressed as usual and go about your work. No tears. But your sins will eat away at you from within and you’ll groan among yourselves. Ezekiel will be your example. The way he did it is the way you’ll do it. “‘When this happens you’ll recognize that I am God, the Master.’” . . . 27 on that very day a survivor will arrive and tell you what happened to the city. You’ll break your silence and start talking again, talking to the survivor. Again, you’ll be an example for them. And they’ll recognize that I am God.” (The Message, MSG)

This week’s lesson continues this quarter’s exploration of Judah’s fall and the exile of its prominent citizens through the life and ministry of Ezekiel. Like his prophetic contemporary Jeremiah, Ezekiel is called to preach, “what thus says the LORD,” to Judahites who are living through the Southern Kingdom’s final decline. While Jeremiah preached to the Judahites who live in the Judean homeland, Ezekiel preaches to his fellow Judahite refugees whom Nebuchadnezzar exiled to Babylon in 597 BCE. However, their prophetic messages were similar: God is displeased with Judah’s apostasy, lack of social justice, and inability to prioritize God above all else. Like Jeremiah, Ezekiel predicted Judah’s destruction at the hands of the Babylonians. And like Jeremiah, Ezekiel’s prophetic word was eventually revealed to correct about Judah’s demise. His life and ministry are a testament to speaking and enacting God’s word without compromise or cooption, regardless of what people thought or said.

The book of Ezekiel is the third writing from the three major prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel) and focuses on oracles that Ezekiel, son of Buzi, received while living as a Judean exile in Babylon. His name, meaning “God Strengthens” or “May God Strengthen,” personifies the exilic community’s urgent need for God’s presence and power as they navigated the overwhelming world of Babylonian imperial culture. From 593 BCE—four years after the deportation to Babylon—until the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BCE, Ezekiel is called by God to prophesy to Judahite exiles. He challenges them to rethink their theological assumptions concerning the resolute nature of their covenant status as God’s “chosen people;” he calls into question the absolute permanence of Davidic rule; he warns of God’s impending judgement upon Jerusalem as the seat of Judah’s Zionistic/temple ideology.
While the biblical text offers little biographical information about Ezekiel, it reveals he was a priest within the Zadokite order before he was deported in the first wave of deportations ordered by King Nebuchadnezzar in March of 597 BCE during his seventh year on the throne. 2 Kings 24 recounts the events leading up the exile:
13 He carried off all the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king’s house; he cut in pieces all the vessels of gold in the temple of the Lord that King Solomon of Israel had made, all this as the Lord had foretold. 14 He carried away all Jerusalem, all the officials, all the warriors, ten thousand captives, all the artisans and the smiths; no one remained except the poorest people of the land. 15 He carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon; the king’s mother, the king’s wives, his officials, and the elite of the land, he took into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon. 16 The king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon all the men of valor, seven thousand, the artisans and the smiths, one thousand, all of them strong and fit for war. 17 The king of Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, king in his place and changed his name to Zedekiah.
As part of the “brain drain,” that Nebuchadnezzar affected on Judah to quell any possibility of rebellion against Babylon, Ezekiel’s plight represents how empires seek to destroy the self determination of people who resist imperial rule by imprisoning their best, brightest, and most talented leaders. As a result of this traumatizing deportation and exile, Ezekiel wrestles with what it means to be God’s people when the people no longer dwell in the land or have the ability to worship in the temple. Ezekiel and the exiles ask themselves, “what is our identity if I have no land and no temple…does this mean we also have no God?” Through strange visions, spectacular language, and staged sign-acts (public physical performative enactments of God’s word), Ezekiel shatters the boundaries of what modern biblical readers understand the prophetic word to be.
Ezekiel chapter 1 introduces the priest’s call into prophetic ministry. Chapters 2 and 3 highlight his initial visions, prophetic commission, and his responsibility as a “watchman” over the exiles at Tel-Abib who live by the River Chebar—one of the many canals that undergirded Babylon’s irrigation system. Chapter 24 describes, in morbid bloody detail, the impending siege of Jerusalem.

3 10-11 Then he said, “Son of man, get all these words that I’m giving you inside you. Listen to them obediently. Make them your own. And now go. Go to the exiles, your people, and speak. Tell them, ‘This is the Message of God, the Master.’ Speak your piece, whether they listen or not.”
In the opening verses of the lesson text, God commands Ezekiel to do two things. First, he must take into his ears and heart God’s word. The command to take the word into his heart comes first, even though listening naturally would come first. However, the writer of Ezekiel has reversed this order in order to emphasize the importance of actually embracing the word that Ezekial hears. Many people hear the words that someone is speaking, but they ignore them, essentially refusing to take the words into their heart. Here, the writer wants to make it clear that it is not enough to hear God’s word, one must embrace Gods word, taking it into one’s heart—which is the center of their being.
Second, God commands Ezekial to go to his fellow Judahite exiles and speak the message of God to them. In the Hebrew, “speaking” is translated as a future action, meaning God speaks to Ezekiel in the present and will continue to do so in the future. Therefore, Ezekiel must get used to speaking the truth to the people, whether they listen or not, because God will send him to speak truth to the people on numerous future occasions. The prophet is not responsible for how the people react, their response is their choice. He is only responsible for proclaiming the word of God in truth.

NOTES FOR REFLECTION: It is especially important that we consider that these Divine instructions concerning Ezekiel’s assignment occur while the priest/prophet is living in Babylon as an exile. This underscores the fact that God’s word can come during the most dire of circumstances, in the unlikeliest of places, and to whomever God chooses. Priests were not usually called to be both priest and prophet. However, God assigns the priest Ezekiel to the prophetic ministry. It is God’s Divine prerogative to show up to whoever, whenever, and wherever God chooses.

24 15-17 God’s Message came to me: “Son of man, I’m about to take from you the delight of your life—a real blow, I know. But, please, no tears. Keep your grief to yourself. No public mourning. Get dressed as usual and go about your work—none of the usual funeral rituals.” 18 I preached to the people in the morning. That evening my wife died. The next morning I did as I’d been told. 19 The people came to me, saying, “Tell us why you’re acting like this. What does it mean, anyway?” 20-21 So I told them, “God’s Word came to me, saying, ‘Tell the family of Israel, This is what God, the Master, says: I will desecrate my Sanctuary, your proud impregnable fort, the delight of your life, your heart’s desire. The children you left behind will be killed. 22-24 “‘Then you’ll do exactly as I’ve done. You’ll perform none of the usual funeral rituals. You’ll get dressed as usual and go about your work. No tears. But your sins will eat away at you from within and you’ll groan among yourselves. Ezekiel will be your example. The way he did it is the way you’ll do it. “‘When this happens you’ll recognize that I am God, the Master.’” . . .
In these verses of the lesson text, we move from chapter 3—the beginnings of Ezekiel’s ministry—to several years later when God’s warns Ezekiel of the impending fall of Jerusalem, which begins in January of 588 BCE when the Babylonians besieges the city for eighteen months. With the customary prophetic formula, “the word of the Lord came to me,” God instructs Ezekiel to do the unthinkable: not mourn or lament (saphad in Hebrew) his beloved wife who will die suddenly. God’s instructions signify the sign-act that Ezekiel’s personal life will exemplify as a public demonstration of Israel’s actions—the inability to publicly mourn for the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. Like Hosea, Isaiah and Jeremiah, Ezekiel’s personal life will be an object lesson for the Judahite exiles.
Ezekiel’s grief at the passing of his wife signifies the emotional devastation that the exiles will experience when they hear of Jerusalem’s fall. Just as Ezekiel’s wife was the “delight of his life,” the city and the temple were the “delight” of Judahites—literally the pride of the nation. The law required them to make pilgrimage to the Jerusalem temple for religious festivals and they loved going “up to Jerusalem’ with their families and friends for religious holy days. Further, as the “elites” of society, Jerusalem was their playground. The city was where they politicked, shopped, and socialized. The loss of their crown jewel would be inconsolable. The prohibition against mourning will only magnify their grief because mourning rituals were central to Judahite culture.
However, it is God’s prohibition against mourning that is the primary sign that Ezekiel’s sign-act represents. The people are prohibited from mourning because they have brought Jerusalem’s destruction on themselves through apostacy, inability to promote social justice, and violation of covenant with God. As an important ritual within the ancient world, mourning was both a communal cultural ritual and an individual honorific expression to the deceased. For Ezekiel, death is not the worst horror imaginable. Because mourning is a human right, the inability to mourn your loved ones is far worse.
27 on that very day a survivor will arrive and tell you what happened to the city. You’ll break your silence and start talking again, talking to the survivor. Again, you’ll be an example for them. And they’ll recognize that I am God.”
In the final verse of the lesson text, God declares that Ezekiel’s condition as a mute will be reversed. Ezekiel 3:26–27 narrates that God “closed” Ezekiel’s mouth so he could only communicate God’s prophetic message of judgement. Once Jerusalem falls, however, the word of the Lord says Ezekiel’s “mouth shall be opened” (NRSV), or, he will “break your silence” (MSG). His wondrous release is yet another sign pointing to God’s providence and judgement in regards to Jerusalem’s destruction. The ancient world thought military defeat was due to the god of the other nation being stronger or mightier than the defeated nation’s god. Judahites may have believed that the god of the Babylonians was more powerful than the LORD. However, the prophets bear witness that Israel and Judah fell because the people violated their covenant relationship with the LORD. Further, Ezekiel’s loosened tongue will also be able to testify to God’s miraculous power.
This week’s lesson offers contemporary Christians the opportunity to hear the story of those whose trauma is so deep, that they are literally rendered speechless, unable to voice their pain. Ezekiel 24 provides the language and space to sit with unexplainable loss and unspoken trauma—whether it stems from national crisis, the death of loved ones, or other losses—to recognize the sovereignty and enduring presence of God.

i. Katherin Phister Darr, “Ezekiel” in The New Interpreters Bible: A Commentary in Twelve Volumes (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2001), 1075.
ii. Corrine L. Carvalho, “Ezekiel” in Gale A. Yee’s Fortress Commentary on the Bible: Two Volume Set (Kindle Edition) p. 1542-1544).