Corona Devo 1858
What are we going through today, as we seek to live our lives for the Lord?
Is it bad? Hard? Painful? Disgusting?
Hang in here today, sometimes God does require us to go through difficult things, but He is always with us through them and He never abandons us to them.
And for most of us, what we are facing today as followers of Christ and as children of our Heavenly Father is (probably) not as bad as it could be.
Take Ezekiel for example.
Ezekiel was a prophet of God., and the Lord (literally) would speak to Ezekiel and tell him things to share/teach/proclaim(!) to the (sinful) people of Israel. The people of Israel had behaved badly toward God, and their time of reckoning and consequence had come. (Poor) Ezekiel. It was his job to deliver the bad news to the Israelites, and (along the way) God asked him to do/go-through some pretty challenging gauntlets as he continued in faith and daily service to the Lord his God.
For starters, Ezekiel had to (literally) lay on his side and (figuratively) bear Israel's sins for 430 days.
Did we read that right?
Yes, we did, but let's hear and read Ezekiel's (faith) assignment in God's Words:
Then take an iron griddle and place it between you and the city. Turn toward the city and demonstrate how harsh the siege will be against Jerusalem. This will be a warning to the people of Israel.
(4) “Now lie on your left side and place the sins of Israel on yourself. You are to bear their sins for the number of days you lie there on your side. (5) I am requiring you to bear Israel’s sins for 390 days—one day for each year of their sin. (6) After that, turn over and lie on your right side for 40 days—one day for each year of Judah’s sin.
(7) “Meanwhile, keep staring at the siege of Jerusalem. Lie there with your arm bared and prophesy her destruction. (8) I will tie you up with ropes so you won’t be able to turn from side to side until the days of your siege have been completed. ~Ezekiel 4:3-8
Come on! This sounds horrible.
And for those of us who are not actively suffering for our faith or in service to our Heavenly Father...it makes us realize what an (easy) blessed life we are enjoying today. We should be grateful, and we are.
But there are those of us who are currently going through a difficult, hard, or painful trial today. Whether it was "assigned" to us by God is hard to know, but we can trust that the Lord is right here with us as we endure it.
Jesus said, "and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20).
Hang in here today, sometimes God does require us to go through difficult things, but He is always with us through them and He never abandons us to them.
Ezekiel knew that God was with him, but that didn't make Ezekiel's assignment from God any easier to swallow.
Infact, the thought of what God asked Ezekiel to do was un-swallowable...but Ezekiel obeyed God anyway.
In these verses of Ezekiel Chapter 4, Ezekiel had to go through some very challenging things in his obedience to the Lord.
What is the most difficult thing we have had to do in obeying God? In comparison with Ezekiel, I dare say: It could be worse.
“Now go and get some wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and emmer wheat, and mix them together in a storage jar. Use them to make bread for yourself during the 390 days you will be lying on your side.
(10) Ration this out to yourself, eight ounces of food for each day, and eat it at set times. (11) Then measure out a jar of water for each day, and drink it at set times. (12) Prepare and eat this food as you would barley cakes.
While all the people are watching, bake it over a fire using dried human dung as fuel and then eat the bread.” (13) Then the Lord said, “This is how Israel will eat defiled bread in the Gentile lands to which I will banish them!” ~Ezekiel 4:9-13
How bad is it for us today? Do we have to eat bread cooked over poop?
Now...that's bad.
The rules for cleanly (religious) food intake were pretty strict (as set by God) back in Ezekiel's day, and still...Ezekiel did not say, "No" to God commanding him to bake his bread over dung...but Ezekiel did ask for a provision to be made about whose dung was to be used as fuel.
Then I said, “O Sovereign Lord, must I be defiled by using human dung? For I have never been defiled before. From the time I was a child until now I have never eaten any animal that died of sickness or was killed by other animals. I have never eaten any meat forbidden by the law.”
15 “All right,” the Lord said. “You may bake your bread with cow dung instead of human dung.” ~Ezekiel 4:14-15
And so...Ezekiel did what God told him to do, even though it was difficult, disgusting and humiliating.
I wish I could say that God rescued Ezekiel before the cooked (and now we know by what means) bread touched his lips and entered his digestive system.
I wish God had produced an undefiled substitute for that (disgusting) bread so that Ezekiel did not have to eat it to "bear Israel’s sins" (Ezekiel 4:5).
Oh wait! God DID produce an undefiled substitute so that Ezekiel/Israel/you/me/everyone/ everywhere did not have to bear their own sin.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ~John 3:16
But that time of once-for-all salvation had not come yet, and so Ezekiel (dutifully) laid on his side and ate bread cooked over the dung of cows.
What are we going through today, as we seek to live our lives for the Lord? Sometimes along our way God asks us to do/go-through some pretty challenging gauntlets as we continue in faith and daily service to Him.
Some things/days/callings can be bad, hard, painful, and even disgusting
But hang in here today: sometimes God does require us to go through difficult things, but He is always with us through them and He never abandons us to them.
To those of us struggling under the load that we currently bear: peace.
May we feel encouraged by God's Word and by the example of other Believers who have suffered and are suffering. The weight is heavy, but we are not the first to bear it, and nor will we be the last. This does not make today easier, but it does make today hopeful.
Bread, anyone?
Blessings,
sarah
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