OUR LORD WHO KNOWS OUR FRAME

Ezekiel 4 verse 13 - 14 records an illuminating conversation between the prophet Ezekiel and the Lord, God of Israel.

 The Lord had instructed Ezekiel to enact a scene that symbolized how the sin of Israel was going to cause them to be exiled and as such, they would be forced to eat the defiled food of the gentile lands they are exiled to.

The Lord dictated to Ezekiel  how he was to make bread by baking it over fire that was fueled by human excrement. The passage that follows starts with the Lord explaining how the baking process would illustrate to the people of Israel the kind of defilement they would experience in exile.

The Lord said, “In this way the people of Israel will eat defiled food among the nations where I will drive them.”

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 impure meat has ever entered my mouth.

Ezekiel, realizing that his enactment was going to involve cooking his food over burning human excrement, balked at the plan.

He, having kept ceremonial cleanliness all his life, was viscerally repulsed by the idea of having to eat unclean bread baked over human waste. He blurted out, " Not so, Sovereign Lord!"

His instinctive reaction was the same reaction that the people of Israel would experience when they discovered the unclean and defiled food they would have to eat while banished to foreign lands.  

The Lord, in His grace, compromised with Ezekiel and allowed him to use animal dung to fuel his baking. Ezekiel was able to stomach to new instruction.

Let us bless the Lord who know our frame and allows us to carry what we can bear.

Amen.