Ezekiel

There is some strange stuff going on in Ezekiel. The book opens with a vision and a call to ministry. The culmination of Ezekiel's calling was the eating of the scroll, which symbolized fully taking in the words of God. This definitely seemed odd until closer examination. The eating of the scroll was not a literal occurrence but part of the vision begun in chapter one. Today we read about Ezekiel's command to lay on his left side for 390 days and his right for 40, symbolizing the years of disobedience for Israel and Judah, respectively. Added together, I read that 430 is the number of years that the Israelites were enslaved in egypt and also the number of years before the Maccabean revolt in which the Jews began to throw the yoke of oppression off their necks. It is not clear exactly what the divisions of 390 and 40 symbolize, however. Most scholars concede that Ezekiel did not lay on his side 24 hours a day, for he did have to cook his meals and get up for potty breaks at a minimum. Scholars suggest that he may have lain on his side for a large portion of the day or perhaps was just prevented from turning in his sleep. The Bible says that he was bound with ropes, which is likely to have been a figurative expression for the restrictions God placed on him at that time.

Finally, he was given a recipe for bread that reflected the desperate conditions that would befall the people of Judah. Instead of having enough grain to make a loaf of bread, small amounts of six different grains were combined. I have seen "Ezekiel Bread" on the bread aisle but didn't know until now what it was! It's modern-day preparation is far superior to the original method, which called for baking over a fire fueled by human dung. When Ezekiel objected to the defilement of eating such a bread, God allowed him to use cow dung instead. I wondered how this was any better, but read that cow manure was, and still is, a common source of fuel in the Middle East. It would not have been as objectionable and still would have illustrated the same point.

Tomorrow's reading: Ez. 5-9:11