Scripture Daily

Context No. 1469 of 4322 · Ezekiel

Context · Reflection

Ezekiel 24:1-5: in context

1Again, in the ninth year, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, the LORD’s word came to me, saying, 2“Son of man, write the name of the day, this same day. The king of Babylon drew close to Jerusalem this same day. 3Utter a parable to the rebellious house, and tell them, ‘The Lord GOD says, “Put the cauldron on the fire. Put it on, and also pour water into it. 4Gather its pieces into it, even every good piece: the thigh and the shoulder. Fill it with the choice bones. 5Take the choice of the flock, and also a pile of wood for the bones under the cauldron. Make it boil well. Yes, let its bones be boiled within it.”

On a precisely dated day, the ninth year, the tenth month, the tenth day, the word of the LORD comes to Ezekiel, far away among the exiles in Babylon. Son of man, God says, write down the name of this very day, this same day; for on this day the king of Babylon has laid siege to Jerusalem. Then Ezekiel is given a parable of a cooking pot set on the fire, filled with choice pieces of meat and made to boil, an image of the city under siege. But the striking command is the first one: write down this exact date.

The instruction to record the exact date is worth pausing on. Ezekiel was in Babylon, hundreds of miles from Jerusalem, with no way of knowing by ordinary means what was happening there on that day. God tells him to write down the precise date, because on that very day the siege of Jerusalem had begun; and later, when news finally reached the exiles, confirming that the siege had indeed started on exactly that day, they would know that the word Ezekiel spoke was truly from God. God staked the credibility of his word on a specific, checkable fact, a date that could be verified when the news arrived. There is something worth noticing in that about the nature of God's word. It is not vague, unfalsifiable, safely general; here God attaches his prophecy to a precise, verifiable event, inviting the test of confirmation. The word of God has often worked this way, staking itself on things that could be checked, so that when they came to pass, people would know the word was true and from him. This gives us confidence in the reliability of what God says. His word is not empty religious sentiment that could never be tested; again and again it has proved true against the facts, timed and specific enough to be verified. The God who told Ezekiel to write down the date, and was proved right when the news came, is a God whose word can be trusted, because it has been confirmed by events too precise to be coincidence.

Do I trust the reliability of God's word, remembering that he has staked it again and again on specific, verifiable things and been proved true, as when he had Ezekiel record the very date the siege began and the news confirmed it?

Sources