Ezekiel 4
Willing to be Uncomfortable!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, June 6.
You’ve heard it said that you aren’t supposed to lie down on the job, but what if God told you to do it. Ezekiel was commanded to lie down on his side. While that may not seem like a big deal, listen to God’s divine directives to the prophet in Ezekiel 4:4-8:
As for you, lie down on your left side and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it; you shall bear their iniquity for the number of days that you lie on it. For I have assigned you a number of days corresponding to the years of their iniquity, three hundred and ninety days; thus you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. When you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah; I have assigned it to you for forty days, a day for each year. Then you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared and prophesy against it. Now behold, I will put ropes on you so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege.
I can’t imagine how exhaustingly difficult this would be, not to mention how mind-numbingly painful. God called Ezekiel to not only speak a message that would not be received, but to act it out. In addition to being tied down for 430 days, he had to eat food that was defiled, having been cooked over cow’s dung (9-17). God had a purpose in instructing Ezekiel to do all of this; he acted out the siege and destruction of Jerusalem, providing a prophetic sign of God’s judgment. To do so, he had to be willing to become uncomfortable.
Seize the moment and be willing to be put in uncomfortable positions to serve God.
God bless you!
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YOUTUBE:
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