Ezekiel 4:3: “Moreover take for yourself an iron plate, and set it as an iron wall between you and the city. Set your face against it, and it shall be besieged, and you shall lay siege against it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel.”

November 29th, 2024 by Pastor Ed in devotional

In the last chapter, God told Ezekiel his tongue would stick to the roof of his mouth, and that he would be unable to talk until the Lord enabled him to speak again. Ezekiel was silent most of the time, no longer engaging in casual conversation. Then God gave him a living parable, or prophecy, to publicly act out, like modern street theater. It was a prophesy of the coming Babylonian siege against Jerusalem.

Ezekiel was to make a drawing of Jerusalem, and then lie next to it, in the street, on his left side, for 390 days; and then on his right side, for 40 days, totaling 430 days. Each day was to represent a year of judgment to come on God’s people. An iron plate, like a skillet, was to be placed between the drawing and Ezekiel’s face. The iron symbolized a separation between God and His people, not because God wanted it, but because they refused to turn from their hidden sin. God had repeatedly warned the people that this would happen to them. Isaiah warned in Isaiah 59:2: “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; / And your sins have hidden His face from you, / So that He will not hear.” God is still serious about sin, and separation still comes when God’s people refuse to yield to conviction, confess their sins, and turn to Him.

An old pastor often told the story of how he finally came to faith in Jesus Christ. He had been a heavy drinker, and when drunk, would abuse his wife. One morning he walked into the living room and overheard his wife desperately praying, “God, save him or kill him.” The man then ran from the house and prayed to be saved because he knew that God answered His wife’s prayers and he wasn’t ready to die. He met the Lord that day and was radically saved and called into ministry.

“LORD, we thank You for the gift of conviction, and we turn from our sins this day. Forgive us by Your mercy and through the sacrifice of Your Son, and use us this day we ask in Jesus’ name.”