Ezekiel 24:15-27: Destruction
Sunday, November 9, 2025
The first 40 chapters of this prophesy are written predicting the doom and fall of Jerusalem; and Ezekiel was mocked for believing that the impregnable Jerusalem – jealously guarded by Yahweh – would fall to the pagans. History reminds us that in 597 B.C.E. Nebuchadnezzar and his troops swarmed into the city and violated the temple, sacking it, killing the Jewish soldiers, taking Jewish captives and carting off all that had value to Babylon. The Jewish nation had lived too long in false security, thinking for too long that they were unbeatable as a kingdom, invincible as a nation, indestructible as a people. They had not understood that it was their own actions that threatened their safety rather than the foreign troops. Their refusal to adhere to the spirit and the letter of the Mosaic Law had left them vulnerable.
It is too often true that as humans we do not realize our lack of understanding until we lose what we hold most dear; and this is why there is something recognizable in the eyes of a fellow mourner that tells us when our sadness is truly felt by another. It is impossible to counterfeit soul-wrenching mourning. Nothing deceives those who have lost, those who have grieved. Like the witnesses to Ezekiel’s dumbness and numbness, we cannot empathize with grief or sorrow until we ourselves have experienced deep loss. This is human nature, for it is not until we exit from mourning that we find ourselves immutably changed. After exile, we forever recognize honest grieving when we see it. We do not fully and totally take in the fugitive until we are bereft of all we know.
In today’s reading, we see Ezekiel’s stalwart attempt to obey Yahweh. We watch his effort to hide his grief. We cannot take our eyes from the drama of his transformation because somehow we understand that from this day forward the Diaspora will believe his predictions, will begin to heed his words, will try to put away their pride and anger, will learn to leave themselves open to the healing redemption of their God.
Ezekiel is eventually vindicated, but not until the nation has begun their northward journey into the unknown. Ezekiel suffers great loss, but in so doing he opens himself to his mourning people. And accompanies them into exile.
When we find ourselves on our knees with no where lower to sink, we must listen for the voice that says to us . . . All sanctuaries are desecrated . . . yet you are my favored one . . . the one I send to my people . . . to accompany them in their exile.
God turns all harm to good. God heals, saves, and redeems. The Lord asks us to enter into the miracle of transforming the destruction with God, to join in the healing. When God calls us, we must respond. When we are sent as ministers to God’s flock, we must go. When the walls of the city are impregnated and the temple gold is taken, rather than wrapping ourselves in deep mourning, let us keep our sandals on our feet, leave our turbans on our heads, and leave behind the pride of our hearts. We are called to enter into a fugitive life to live for a time in which we find our sole sustenance in God. For by this sign, the lost sheep will know that God is with them.
A re-post from October 15, 2011.
Image from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Jerusalem_%2870_CE%29
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