Ezekiel 24:15-27

THE DEATH OF EZEKIEL’S WIFE, AND ITS PROPHETIC LESSONS, 15-27.

There is nothing in literature more pathetic than these few brief words of personal history in the midst of this flaming prophecy. They show us the strength, the nobility of the man, and of this unnamed one who proved her right to be the life companion of a prophet when Jehovah himself called her to be not merely a prophetess but a prophecy. She was so dear to him that Jehovah could use her to symbolize Jerusalem: “The pomp of your strength, the desire of your eyes, the longing of your soul (Ezekiel 24:21); the joy of their glory, and that whereunto they lift up their soul” (Ezekiel 24:25).

He loved her, this grave and silent man, with all the intensity of his lonely heart and superb imagination and royal faith. Others were “briers” and “thorns” and “scorpions” to sting; she was the balm of Babylon to heal. She was all he had. He was an exile, without home or country. He was a prophet, blinded at times with visions of glory and again dumb with unutterable anguish because of the revelations of woe against his countrymen and native land. There was only one soul on the Chebar who understood him and sympathized with him in his great task. Men called him “hard of forehead and face,” but his wife knew him. When Jehovah said, “I take away the desire of thine eyes with a stroke,” Ezekiel knew well who that was. It was indeed a “stroke,” as the word says; yet so noble and so brave was he that his lips uttered not one word of complaint, though he in secret moaned and pined away (Ezekiel 24:25). What a revelation of the prophet’s strength and his loyalty to God! (See Introduction, “IV. Ezekiel’s Personality and Work.”)

His lips and jaw

Grand made as Sinai’s law.

They could enunciate and refrain

From vibratory after-pain,

And his brow’s height was sovereign.

Mrs. Browning.

It may be noticed that the death of Ezekiel’s wife marks a distinct change in the character of his prophecies. Previous to this they have been cries of woe against his countrymen, they now become prophecies against the enemies of his country and speak of Israel’s triumph and of a new life for God’s people. This change could not mark simply the influence of this death upon the prophet, it must also mark a change in the temper of his audience. From this time forward every discourse seems addressed, not to scornful and rebellious, but to sympathetic and repentant hearers. The death of the “desire of his eyes” was not in vain!