I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 24-26.

    Today’s passage begins with two visualizations for Ezekiel’s audience. The first one is a renewal of a metaphor for Jerusalem which those claiming Jerusalem would be fine used previously, comparing Jerusalem to a cooking pot. It is not clear to me from the passage if Ezekiel actually performed this metaphor or merely spoke it. He compared Jerusalem to a cooking pot where all of the cuts of meat of a sheep had been placed together in the pot and brought to a boil with heavy spices. After a short period of time, there is no distinction between any of the cuts of meat. I am not certain that I am reading this correctly, but it seems like Ezekiel was to use too many spices in preparing this dish. All of the meat was ruined. Further, he left the pot on the fire until the water had all boiled off and the things remaining in the pot burned to the pot. The point of this metaphor was that all of the people in Jerusalem had become indistinguishable. Specifically, I believe that his message was directed at the elites who thought that when Jerusalem fell that they would receive special/better treatment from the Babylonians. When you look throughout history you see this theme repeated time and again. The elites of a city or nation believe that they will not face the consequences of their failure to protect everyone else but when things fall apart the ensuing tragedy falls on everyone equally.

    The other metaphor in today’s passage was a personal tragedy for Ezekiel. He was told that his wife, the love of his life, would die and he was forbidden to publicly mourn for her. The meaning of this is abundantly clear. The people of Jerusalem would experience even greater tragedy but be unable to spend any time mourning for their losses. Their loved ones would die, their valued possession would be taken or destroyed, and they would be unable to spend any time mourning their loss. Those who survived the destruction would need to go on about their lives without spending any time on what they had lost if they hoped to survive.

    The passage ends with a series of warnings against the nations surrounding Jerusalem who saw its fall as being good tor themselves. Ezekiel told them that they were mistaken. By seeking to benefit from the fall of Jerusalem they would hasten their own demise. Ezekiel’s warning is a lesson for everyone. The nations mentioned did not take the fall of Jerusalem as a warning to avoid the mistakes made by the people of Jerusalem. Instead they merely saw it as an opportunity for themselves. When our competitors fall, rather than rejoice at the opportunity we should be chastened and seek to see whether we do any of the things which led to their downfall.