Ezekiel 24:18-27: in context

God gives Ezekiel a hard command as a sign to his people. He tells the prophet that his wife, the desire of his eyes, will die, and that Ezekiel is not to mourn her openly as would be expected, but to bear the loss in silence, as a sign that when Jerusalem and the temple fall, the people will be too stunned to mourn. And Ezekiel obeys: I spoke to the people in the morning, and at evening my wife died; and in the morning I did as I was commanded. At immense personal cost, in the depth of his own grief, he obeyed.

This is one of the most costly obediences in Scripture. Ezekiel is asked to bear the death of his beloved wife, the desire of his eyes, and to do so in service of God's message to a stubborn people, restraining even the outward expression of his grief because God had commanded it as a sign. The cost is almost unbearable to contemplate: his deepest personal loss made to serve God's purpose, his own grief taken up into his obedience. And he obeyed. In the morning he did as he was commanded, bearing his grief in the service of God. There is here a picture of obedience that costs us dearly, that asks of us what is hardest. We may not face what Ezekiel faced, but the life of faith can ask costly things of us, obedience that touches what is dearest, service that carries real personal cost. And Ezekiel's example, extreme as it is, shows a faithfulness that obeys even when obedience costs us deeply, that does what God commands even at the price of our own grief and loss. This is not a cold or unfeeling obedience; Ezekiel's grief was real, his wife the desire of his eyes. It is an obedience that bears real cost, that carries genuine loss, and yet remains faithful. If anyone would come after me, Jesus says, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. The way of following God can lead through costly obedience, through the bearing of real loss in his service. And yet even this costly obedience is not without hope, for Ezekiel served a purpose larger than his own grief, and God was with him in it. Paul, who suffered the loss of all things, counted it loss for the surpassing worth of knowing Christ. The cost of obedience, real as it is, is taken up into a purpose and a relationship that make it not meaningless suffering but faithful service. This searches whether our obedience holds when it costs us dearly. When following God asks something hard of us, touching what is dear, do we obey even at real cost, as Ezekiel obeyed in his grief? Or does our obedience hold only while it costs us little? Ezekiel bore the death of his wife in faithful obedience to God; and while few are asked to bear what he bore, his costly obedience calls us to a faithfulness that holds even when obedience touches what is dearest, bearing real cost in the service of God, sustained by the purpose and the presence of the God we obey.

Does my obedience to God hold only while it costs me little, or can Ezekiel, who bore the death of his beloved wife in faithful obedience as a sign to his people, doing in the morning as he was commanded, call me to a faithfulness that holds even when obedience costs me dearly and touches what is dearest, bearing real cost in the service of God, sustained not by the ease of the obedience but by the purpose and presence of the God I follow?