Ezekiel 12:1 The Prophet as a Refugee
The LORD spoke to me.“Pack a bundle just as a refugee would. Break a hole through the wall of your house and take your pack out through it. While the people are watching, put your pack on your shoulder and go out into the dark with your eyes covered, so that you can't see where you are going. This will be a warning to your people.When the people ask you about what you were doing, tell them that what you have done will happen to them—they will have to sneak out of their houses, and be refugees. Their own king will also have to escape in shame through a hole that they dig for hi, but he will be taken prisoner and blinded, and he will die in a foreign country, unable to see the land he has gone to.”
Answer these questions in your books.
1.What was the “prophetic action” the prophet had to do?
2.What message was this action supposed to give?
3.Do you think that acting out this prophetic action, made more of an impression on the people round about, than if he had just warned them this would happen?
Jeremiah 13-23: The Ruined Loincloth
The Lord sais to Jeremiah, “Go and buy a linen loincloth and put it around your waist”. After some time, the word of the LORD came to me a second time,“Take the loincloth around your waist, and go to the river, and hide it there in a crack in the rock.”I did as the LORD commanded me.
And after many days the LORD said to me, “Arise, go and take the loincloth that I commanded you to hide.” I took the loincloth from the crack in the rock and behold, the loincloth was rotted and spoiled; it was no longer good for wearing.
Then the word of the LORD came to me:“Tell the people this. Since you refuse to hear my words of warning, and continue to stubbornly worshipother gods, therefore you will be like this loincloth to me: is good for nothing.I had hoped that you, my people, wouldcling to me as closely as a loincloth clings to a man’s waist, and be my pride and my glory, but you would not listen”.
Answer these questions in your books.
- What was the “prophetic action” the prophet had to do?
- What happened to the loincloth?
- How were the Jewish people “ruined” for God? What had they done wrong?
- Do you think that acting out this prophetic action, made more of an impression on the people round about, than if Jeremiah had just told them God was not happy with them?
Isaiah 20 Walking Naked and Barefoot TheLord spoke to the prophet Isaiah, saying, “Go, take off the cloth from around your waist, and your sandals from your feet,” and Isaiah did so, and walked naked and barefoot for 3 years.
Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “Tell my people this: As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years, sowill you, if you do not listen to Me and heed My warnings. You will be carried off as captives by a foreign nation, and you will walk about barefoot and naked as slaves. Then you will remember Isaiah’s actions, and you will say to yourselves: ‘Behold, we should have listened to the Lord our God indeed!”
Answer these questions in your books.
1.What was the prophet commanded to do?
2.What was the point of hisaction ?What message was it supposed to tell the people?
3.Do you think that acting out this prophetic action, made more of an impression on the people round about, than if he had just warned them such a disaster would happen?
Ezekiel 5 Ezekiel Cuts His Hair
The LORD said, “Mortal man, take a sharp sword and use it to shave off your head and your beard.Collect up the hair, and weigh it. Divide it into three parts. Take one third, and burn it up. Take another third and chop it up with your sword. Take the last third and scatterit to the wind”.
I did so. Then the LORD said to me, “Say this to my people: because you have greatly sinned against Me, I will cut you down without mercy. A third of you will die from sickness and hunger in the city; a third will be cut down by enemies’ swords; and the last third, I will scatter away from here. When this happens, you will know that I, the LORD, have done this, because I am outraged at your behaviour and your unfaithfulness to Me”.
Answer these questions in your books.