Scripture Daily

Context No. 3406 of 4322 · Ezekiel

Context · Reflection

Ezekiel 21:6-12: in context

6“Therefore sigh, you son of man. You shall sigh before their eyes with a broken heart and with bitterness. 7It shall be, when they ask you, ‘Why do you sigh?’ that you shall say, ‘Because of the news, for it comes! Every heart will melt, all hands will be feeble, every spirit will faint, and all knees will be weak as water. Behold, it comes, and it shall be done, says the Lord GOD.’” 8The LORD’s word came to me, saying, 9“Son of man, prophesy, and say, ‘The LORD says: “A sword! A sword! It is sharpened, and also polished. 10It is sharpened that it may make a slaughter. It is polished that it may be as lightning. Should we then make mirth? The rod of my son condemns every tree. 11It is given to be polished, that it may be handled. The sword is sharpened. Yes, it is polished to give it into the hand of the killer.”’ 12Cry and wail, son of man; for it is on my people. It is on all the princes of Israel. They are delivered over to the sword with my people. Therefore beat your thigh.

God tells Ezekiel to groan before the people, to sigh with a broken heart and bitter grief, as a living sign of the sorrow coming upon them. And the message is the sword, sharpened and polished, drawn for judgment against the land. It is a heavy word.

Notice what God asks of his prophet: not cold detachment but genuine grief, to sigh and cry and wail over the coming disaster. The prophet is to feel the weight of the judgment he announces, to mourn even as he warns. There is a lesson here about how we should hold hard truths, God's judgments, the consequences of sin, never with a hard heart or grim satisfaction, but with a broken one. To announce judgment rightly is to grieve it, for God himself takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked but longs for them to turn and live. Ezekiel's sighing shows the very heart with which even severe truth is meant to be carried.

When I must face or speak hard truths, do I hold them with a broken heart that grieves, as Ezekiel did, rather than with cold detachment or grim satisfaction?

Sources