“Then lie on your left side and place the punishment of the house of Israel upon it. For the number of days that you lie on it, you shall bear their punishment, for I assign to you a number of days, 390 days, equal to the number of the years of their punishment. So long shall you bear the punishment of the house of Israel.”
– Ezekiel 4:4–5
This is one of those passages in the prophets where we see God telling a prophet to do something that will illustrate what he is to proclaim. So we see different examples of this in Ezekiel 4, the picture is God is going to show discipline and punishment toward his people for 390 years.
And God tells Ezekiel to lie on his left side for 390 days as a picture of that. So for over a year, around 14 months, Ezekiel … And we don’t know the details of how long each day he’s to lie on his side like this, but every single day, God is saying, “You lie on your left side like this.” And think about why. What is God doing?
Ezekiel 4:4–5 Reminds Us that God Calls Us to Identify with His Message
Well, one, God is illustrating in his prophet, Ezekiel, who’s proclaiming his word, he’s illustrating in a way that would be very clear to his people what he is saying. And God is calling Ezekiel to be a reflection in his life, his physical life, lying on his side, of what he is saying. And then two, God is calling his Ezekiel to identify with his message and punishment that is coming upon God’s people.
There’s so much here we could talk about, but I would just encourage you and me today to remember that God calls us to live out very clearly before the world around us what he says in his word to us, that every single one of us … Obviously, we’re not Ezekiel in this unique time in redemptive history, but every single one of us is called to live a life to show today, a life to people around us that reflects the word of God in us.
Ezekiel 4:4–5 Leads Us to Reflect God in Our Lives
The word of God through our mouths should be reflected in our lives. And God calls us to identify with the people he sends us to, to be so closely identified with them, that we feel what they feel. We’re not called to be distant from the people around us, that we are trying to one, encourage is the body of Christ is the people of God, or two, the people we’re trying to reach with the good news of God’s love.
So we pray based on Ezekiel chapter four, God, I pray for my own life today. I pray for every single person who’s listening to this, that our lives would reflect your word today. God, that you would help each of us to illustrate your word, your truth, your love, your kindness, your commands in the way we live today, that the people who are close to us today would see a reflection of your word in action. And God, that you would give us your heart for the people we’re trying to reach.
Help Us to Understand Your Word
I can’t help, but to think about Ezekiel lying on his side every day. Longing for the people you’ve called to hear and understand your word. God, we pray that we would live like that today with a longing for people to be encouraged by your word, who know you. God, help us to live, to build up your church. To build up other believers today and to point them to you with our lives. With our words and our actions. And God, for people who don’t know you, who don’t know your word, God, that you would help us today. Use us today to point them to who you are, to what you have said. God, we pray this for people who have very few believers around them to do that.
We pray for the Matam people, a Sikh traditional people in India. God, we pray that you would send more and more followers of Jesus with the word of God in their lips. And illustrated in their lives to the Matam people that they might know you. God, please use our lives today in ways. Similar to how you used Ezekiel’s life. To share your word and to illustrate your word with the way we live. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
