Ezekiel 24:18: “So I spoke to the people in the morning, and at evening my wife died; and the next morning I did as I was commanded.”

September 17th, 2021 by Pastor Ed in devotional

Ezekiel had been proclaiming to his fellow captives that Babylon would lay siege and destroy Jerusalem, but they refused to believe him. In this chapter several devastations hit at once. God told Ezekiel, who was hundreds and hundreds of miles away from Jerusalem, that the siege was starting that very day and also that his wife would die, but he was not to mourn her but go out and preach to the people the next morning. This was a very heavy and difficult thing the Lord commanded His prophet to do, but Ezekiel obeyed. The invasion was taking place; the Chaldeans were attacking Jerusalem and God’s people were still not listening. God was not holding back anything in His final attempt to get the attention of His rebellious people. God understood Ezekiel’s affection for his wife but forbade him to take time to mourn because of the critical timing.

Jesus showed this same sort of resolve, focusing full force on His service. Scripture tells us that as the time drew near for Jesus to be crucified, He refused to be distracted from that mission, “steadfastly [setting] His face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51). Perhaps believers today should stop and consider just how important their ministry and service is from God’s eternal perspective. Sunday school teachers, worship singers, rest home ministry workers, prayer warriors, and ushers all play a vital role in the healthy church that is reaching out to a dying world.

One can’t help but think about Ezekiel’s wife, how she must have felt about the whole incident from heaven. Was she happy? O yeah! All too often we look at death as a bad thing that we need to avoid at all cost. But that is only true for those who refuse God’s forgiveness and free gift of eternal life. Our God is not the author of personal tragedy, meaning He does not cause them, but He does use such experiences as unique and special opportunities through which we can come to better understand that He is Lord over all. When Jesus called Lazarus back from the grave, He wept. Those near Jesus thought He wept from sorrow, saying, “See how He loved him!” (Luke 11:35–36). However, we think it much more likely that Jesus wept because it was necessary to call Lazarus back from the joys of Abraham’s Bosom. When we mourn for someone who died knowing Jesus, we need to realize that though it is sad we “do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope” (1 Thes. 4:13), because when we are in Christ, to “be absent from the body [is] to be present with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8). We read in Revelations that when we are with the Lord we “shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more” (7:16).

“LORD, we think of those we know who died in You and rejoice, looking forward to seeing them soon. And we press forward in prayer and witness for those we know who have not yet surrendered to Your gift of grace.”