Do We Really Have It That Difficult?

Ezekiel the prophet was sent by the Lord God to prophesy to Israelite captives in Babylon. It would be an understatement to say that he was called on to do some ‘different’ things in his work.

He had to cut off all his hair and his beard as symbolic of Jerusalem’s fate -- and this with a sword! (No barber’s razor.) This would not have been easy to do, for the hair of a priest was a mark of his consecration to God’s service (Leviticus 19:27; 21:5). Yet this priest obeyed.

On another occasion he had to literally dig through the wall of his house with his hands, in the sight of the captives, as a sign of what the king back in Judah would do one day in trying to flee Jerusalem. Sounds like a lot of activity to get the point across -- but Ezekiel did it (12:1-12).

Ezekiel was also commanded to build a model of Jerusalem, complete with siege mounds and battering rams. He was then told to lay in front of it on his left side for 390 days, then on his right side for 40 days, a day each for the years of iniquity of Israel and Judah. While lying on his side he was to be given measured amounts of food, which was to signify how it would be in the siege of Jerusalem. For fuel for the fire to bake his bread he was given cow dung (4:1-17). These ‘visual aids’ at the least made Ezekiel’s life uncomfortable, and probably miserable. But he obeyed.

One of the hardest things Ezekiel had to do was to witness the Lord’s taking of his wife in death -- and then to be told by God, “yet you shall neither mourn nor weep, nor shall your tears run down” (24:15-18). Again, this was symbolic. As Ezekiel’s wife had been taken, so Jerusalem’s temple, the “desire” and “delight” of Judah’s “soul“, would be taken away -- and the captives were not to weep for it (didn’t deserve to, I suppose).

Ezekiel was called on by God to do many difficult things -- All this, while at the same time being sent to preach to a stubborn, rebellious, and hard-headed people (2:3-7; 3:7).

You know… Compared to Ezekiel, we’ve got it pretty easy!… Don’t we?

In our lives as Christians, have we been asked to do anything that compares in difficulty with his tasks? Think with me for a moment, with Ezekiel in view…

Is it really so difficult to comply with the Lord’s command to share with and feed the hungry? to visit the sick? (Matthew 25:34-40).

Is it really so difficult to obey the command of Hebrews 10:25, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together”? One would think so by the way some act. (Can you imagine Ezekiel saying, “No, Lord, please don’t make me attend more than once a week! Surely that’s enough religion for me!” -- No, I can’t either.)

Is it really so hard to give of our means?

Is it really too arduous a task to teach our neighbor? (1 Peter 3:15)

Is it too strenuous, too grueling to be called on by God to encourage our brother who has erred or whose faith is waning? (Hebrews 3:13). Again, can you imagine Ezekiel saying, if he were alive today, “Boy! Going over and shaking my brother’s hand and acknowledging him on Wednesday evening is right up there on the ‘toughness scale’ with having to lay on my side for 430 days!”?? Again, I can’t either.

Perhaps we have it too good in this life.

May we all be encouraged to be of the mind of Ezekiel, who without fail served the Lord diligently and fervently. Let’s get to work and quit making excuses in those areas where we are lacking.


--Mike Noble