"The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, behold, I am about to take the delight of your eyes away from you at a stroke; yet you shall not mourn or weep, nor shall your tears run down. Sigh, but not aloud; make no mourning for the dead. Bind on your turban, and put your shoes on your feet; do not cover your lips, nor eat the bread of men.” So I spoke to the people in the morning, and at evening my wife died. And on the next morning I did as I was commanded." Ezekiel 24: 16-18
Ezekiel has prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem. Ezekiel "assured them that there was no hope at all of the preventing of the trouble; here he assures them that they should not have the ease of weeping for it. The sign by which this was represented to them was a sign that cost the prophet very dear." He lost his wife. The desire of his eyes which means in the Hebrew: the comfort of human life came from this good relationship. "Ezekiel found a prudent tender yoke-fellow, that shared with him in his griefs and cares, to be a happy companion in his captivity." Matthew Henry
"Behold, I take away from you the desire of your eyes with a stroke." Desire of the eyes in the Hebrew: you do not find any other person more grateful. A stroke in the Hebrew: No one is "exempted" from the stroke, we just do not know when it may come and take the desire of our eyes. Let us take care to love the desire of our eyes that they not become the sorrow of our hearts by our own small hearts. For one day, the stroke will come and produce sorrow. I Cor 7:29-30 - Live as though you have no wife. God will do what He wills with His own---may we live open-handed.
Mourning for your wife who is taken with a stroke is so sad. O God! Help us to face what you allow, what you bring, what you leave. Strengthen us for the work that You have for us. Thank you for the story of this courageous prophet, grasped by You, engaged in Your Will. May we treat holy the desire of our eyes.
PHOTO: Ezekiel lived in a desert with the "desire of his eyes." So alone in a world of revelers. And he found such a beautiful relationship until the "stroke." And with that one swift sudden stroke, she was gone. What a price this prophet paid!
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