Ezekiel 4:6-17: a reflection

6“Again, when you have accomplished these, you shall lie on your right side, and shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah. I have appointed forty days, each day for a year, to you. 7You shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with your arm uncovered; and you shall prophesy against it. 8Behold, I put ropes on you, and you shall not turn yourself from one side to the other, until you have accomplished the days of your siege. 9“Take for yourself also wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel. Make bread of it. According to the number of the days that you will lie on your side, even three hundred ninety days, you shall eat of it. 10Your food which you shall eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day. From time to time you shall eat it. 11You shall drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin. From time to time you shall drink. 12You shall eat it as barley cakes, and you shall bake it in their sight with dung that comes out of man.” 13The LORD said, “Even thus will the children of Israel eat their bread unclean, among the nations where I will drive them.” 14Then I said, “Ah Lord GOD! Behold, my soul has not been polluted; for from my youth up even until now I have not eaten of that which dies of itself, or is torn of animals. No abominable meat has come into my mouth!” 15Then he said to me, “Behold, I have given you cow’s dung for man’s dung, and you shall prepare your bread on it.” 16Moreover he said to me, “Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem. They will eat bread by weight, and with fearfulness. They will drink water by measure, and in dismay; 17that they may lack bread and water, be dismayed one with another, and pine away in their iniquity.

God calls Ezekiel to a strange and costly task: to act out the coming siege of Jerusalem in his own body, lying on his side for many days, eating rationed food and measured water, to portray the famine and hardship that would come. It is a hard obedience, and when God tells him to prepare his bread in an unclean way, Ezekiel objects, for he has kept himself from defilement all his life. And God listens: he grants Ezekiel a less defiling means, accommodating his tender conscience.

Notice two things here. First, the costliness of Ezekiel's obedience: he does not merely speak the message, but bears it in his own body, in hardship and discomfort, embodying the word God gave him. And second, God's gentleness with Ezekiel's conscience: when Ezekiel objects to what would defile him, God does not brush the objection aside, but accommodates it, granting a less defiling way. God required the hard obedience, but he was gentle with the tender conscience of his servant.

Both are worth taking to heart. God's service can be costly, calling us not merely to speak but to bear something in our own lives, at real cost; and faithful obedience does not shrink from that cost. But God is also gentle with his servants; he hears our honest objections, and does not despise a tender conscience. When God calls you to a costly obedience, do not shrink from bearing the cost; but know too that you may bring your honest concerns to him, as Ezekiel did, and that he is gentle enough to hear them. Serve God even at real cost, as Ezekiel did; and trust that the God who required the hard task is also gentle with your conscience, hearing your honest objections rather than brushing them aside.

Lord, you called Ezekiel to a costly task, to act out Jerusalem's siege in his own body, in hardship; and when he objected to preparing his bread in a way that would defile him, you did not brush his objection aside, but granted a less defiling way, gentle with his tender conscience. Teach me from both. Your service can be costly, calling me not merely to speak but to bear something in my own life, at real cost; and faithful obedience does not shrink from that cost. But you are also gentle with your servants; you hear my honest objections, and do not despise a tender conscience. When you call me to a costly obedience, keep me from shrinking from the cost; but help me know too that I may bring my honest concerns to you, as Ezekiel did, and that you are gentle enough to hear them. Help me serve you even at real cost, and trust that you, who required the hard task, are gentle with my conscience, hearing my honest objections rather than brushing them aside. Thank you for your gentleness, Lord, even in hard callings.