Word of Salvation – Vol. 43 No. 33 – September 1998

 

Grief Beyond Mourning

 

A Sermon by Rev. J. Haverland on Ezekiel 24:15-27

Scripture Reading: 2Kings 25:1-12; Ezekiel 24:1-2, 15-27; 33:21-22

Suggested Hymns: Psalter Hymnal 49; 384; 470

 

Congregation.

Some clearly recall the beginning of WWII.  Others remember the day J.F. Kennedy was shot.  Some will remember the day the two American astronauts landed on the moon.  Many of us will remember the day that Princess Diana died suddenly in that car accident.  In fact, many people remember the day someone died – a husband, wife, son, daughter, father, mother.

Ezekiel the prophet also had a day he remembered – it was the day his wife died, suddenly, one evening.  It was a day for the people of Israel to remember as well because it concerned Jerusalem.  We aren’t quite sure if this was the day that the Babylonian armies began their siege of the city, or whether it was two and a half years later when the city fell.  Either way it was a day of deep sorrow, of profound grief, a day when God’s judgment finally came on Jerusalem.

The prophet and the people shared in their grief together, the prophet grieving for his wife and his city, the people for the prophet and Jerusalem.  As we look at this passage we want to consider the messenger and his message.

1.  THE MESSENGER – EZEKIEL

Ezekiel was serving as a priest in the temple when he was forcibly taken out of Jerusalem in the second deportation in 597 BC.  He was carried into exile.  While in Babylon, God called him to be a prophet.  For 22 years he preached to the people in exile.  For the first seven of these he was preaching a message of judgment.

The people in exile had put their hope in Jerusalem; they thought that as long as Jerusalem was still standing and the temple was still there, all would be well.  But this prophet warned that Jerusalem would fall, that it would be destroyed.  However, many people didn’t take him seriously.  His message was not a popular one; it was unlikely that people came up to him to thank him for his sermons.  He probably had a difficult and lonely ministry.

Yet, he had a wonderful wife whom he loved.  We know this because God describes her as “the delight of your eyes” (vs.16).  No doubt she was a great encouragement to him in his solitary and solemn ministry.  One day, on a day he would never forget, God came to him and said, “Son of man, with one blow I am about to take away from you the delight of your eyes.” God was about to take away his one human source of encouragement and strength!  What’s more, he was not allowed to show the usual and visible signs of mourning.

That day in the morning he went about his usual ministry of speaking to the people, and in the evening she died suddenly.  Perhaps of a plague, or a heart attack, or some other sudden illness.  She was gone!  It was the same day that the city of Jerusalem was attacked by the Babylonian armies.

Why did God do this?  Didn’t the man have enough to cope with?!  Why this on top of everything else?

God wanted to use the death of his wife as an illustration for the people of Israel.  In a similar way the marriage of the prophet Hosea to Gomer was an object lesson for Israel; a lesson in Israel’s adultery and in God’s faithfulness.

Through the death of his wife, Ezekiel could identify with the exiles when God’s judgment came on Jerusalem.  When the message about the fall of the city came, though some time later, he was one with the people in their loss.  There was no, “I told you so!”, or “Didn’t I warn you this would happen?!”  No, he spoke to them out of his own pain, in his own grief.

He knew what they were going through.  He was no ivory tower theologian; he wasn’t locked away on his own isolated world; he wasn’t divorced from the harsh realities of life.  He was there among them – he knew what they felt, what they thought, because he had suffered himself.

Sometimes God causes his servants to go through trials themselves so they will be even better servants; more effective pastors.  We can probably all think of ministers and others in positions of helping people who have been through much suffering, and as a result of this, have been able to help others.  They have been able to comfort others with the same comfort they themselves have received from God (2Cor.1:4).  God uses even these things to help his servants in their ministry.

There is a lesson here for all of us who are in positions of ministering to others.  We too must be able to identify with God’s people.  We aren’t standing above them telling them what to do, but rather standing with them, in the trials, questions, difficulties and perplexities of life.

As Ezekiel did this he was a type, or an example, of the Lord Jesus Christ he looked ahead to Jesus.  For Jesus came into this world to identify with us; He shared our flesh and blood; He was made human like us in every way except for sin; He was one with us in our humanity; He was tempted as we are; He suffered like us, in fact, far more than us, for He took the punishment we deserved and He died in the place of His people.

“Surely he took up our infirmities,
   he carried our sorrows…
He was pierced for our transgressions,
   He was crushed for our iniquities…
The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Is.53).

The application for us is found in Hebrews 4:15-16…

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin.  Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

This is what we need to do – in times of trial and struggle we need to go to Jesus for mercy and grace.

Ezekiel the messenger identified with God’s people, just as Christ Jesus would do some 600 years later.

2.  A MESSAGE

But in this God had a MESSAGE for his people, which is the second point we want to consider.  It was a message, first of all, of Overwhelming Judgment.

People in the camp soon heard that his wife had died.  Although he wasn’t a popular figure, no doubt they still wanted to offer their sympathy.  So they made their way through their camp to his little house to mourn with him.  But when they arrived there they were puzzled.  He wasn’t doing the things people usually did when their wife had died.  Usually when someone died, those who were grieving would take off their turban and their sandals, they would cover the lower part of their face, they would eat special food and would lament and weep.  He wasn’t doing any of these things.  Yet they could see that he was in deep grief; he was groaning quietly to himself; he was blinking back his tears.

Everyone was surprised, puzzled.  This wasn’t normal; this wasn’t how people behaved at such a time.  So they said, “Won’t you tell us what these things have to do with us?” (vs.19).  They knew there was a message for them in this.

Ezekiel’s message is recorded in verse 21 (read).  In other words, Jerusalem would fall.  Just as he had lost the delight of his eyes, so they would lose the delight of their eyes.  He had lost the person he loved; they would lose the city they loved.  But just as he had not mourned in the usual way, neither would they (read verses 22-23).

This has puzzled scholars and various suggestions have been made.  Some have suggested that we should not mourn when someone dies; that we should take it on the chin and not shed tears.  But this is ridiculous!  God made us as people with emotions and it is right and proper to express them.  Jesus wept at the tomb of his friend Lazarus.  Paul commanded us to weep with those who weep.

These incidents in the Old Testament are not all examples to follow – many of these stories record specific events with a special lesson – they describe unique situations.  The best explanation is that their grief would be so great they would be overwhelmed, stunned, shocked.  Their grief would be beyond the usual expressions of sorrow.

The siege of Jerusalem would last two and half years.  It would be a period of famine, disease, fear and suffering.  When the Babylonians finally broke through, they killed many with the sword, the sons and daughters of the exiles.  They destroyed the temple and carried off all its treasures and then burnt the city to the ground.  It was a cruel, terrible and total destruction.

This was the final reality of God’s judgment.  God had threatened this for 200 years, since days of Isaiah the prophet.  His people had ignored him, but now the blow was about to fall.  The judgment would be overwhelming.

We should apply this to ourselves; because the next great judgment of God will take place when Jesus returns – that will be the final judgment.  God, in his patience, is postponing that judgment, but eventually it will come and it will be terrible and overwhelming for those who have not repented and have not put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

This brings us to the other lesson of this message.

God wanted them to face up to this overwhelming judgment, but he also wanted them to have… an Absolute Dependence on Christ.

Their problem was that they trusted in the temple rather than in God.  This was a problem for Israel all the way through their history – they trusted in the externals of their religion rather than in what was in the heart.  They thought that as long as they had the temple and the sacrifices, all would be well.  Not so!

God took away the temple to teach them to trust in him – in him only, in him absolutely.  By taking away the external focus of their religion, God forced them to look ahead to the future, to the promises of the Messiah, the One who was coming.  They had to look ahead to the One who would identify with humanity in order to save his people, to be the Redeemer.

This is a lesson God wants us to learn, too.  Ezekiel had to trust God following the death of his wife; the exiles had to trust God following the destruction of the temple; we have to trust God in our lives as well.  You must put your faith, hope and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Our Father in heaven has many things to teach us in this life.  He wants us to be effective and compassionate servants of the Lord Jesus and sometimes he allows us to go through difficult trials in order to make us grow and mature.

Our Father is also the Judge of the world, and he wants us to know that, although he is patient, he will punish sin.

Our Father also wants us to trust him and to look in faith to the Lord Jesus, who is our Saviour, Lord and King, our Shepherd, Guardian and Friend.

Amen.