Ezekiel 24:15 - Meaning and Application

These verses bring to a close the main theme we have followed from the start of this book, Ezekiel’s prophecies about Jerusalem’s destruction. After this, even though he spoke much about other nations, he said nothing more about Jerusalem until he heard that it had fallen, almost three years later (Ezekiel 33:21). In the earlier part of this chapter, he had already made clear that there was no hope of stopping the disaster. Here he shows that they would not even have the comfort of mourning for it.

Notice first the sign God used to show this message, and it cost Ezekiel dearly. The greater shame was theirs, because even when God made the prophet pay such a personal price to move them, they still were not moved.

Ezekiel was to lose his beloved wife, who would suddenly die. God warned him ahead of time so the shock would be less painful: “I am taking away from you the delight of your eyes with a sudden blow” (Ezekiel 24:16). This teaches several things. Marriage fits well with a prophet’s calling, and it is honorable for all, so it is not sinful for ministers. Much of human happiness comes through loving relationships. No doubt Ezekiel found in a wise, tender wife a true help and comfort in his exile. In marriage, husband and wife should be more than a “covering of the eyes” (Genesis 20:16), meaning a restraint from wandering after others. They should also be the delight of each other’s eyes, looking on one another with love and pleasure.

What we love most is often what is least secure. We do not know how soon the delight of our eyes may be taken from us and become the sorrow of our hearts. That is a good reason for those who have wives to live as if they had none, and those who rejoice to live as if they did not rejoice (1 Corinthians 7:29-30). Death is a blow from which even the most godly, useful, and lovable people are not spared. When the delight of our eyes is taken away by a sudden blow, we must see God’s hand in it. God says, “I am taking away.” He gives us our comforts, but he still keeps ownership of them. Does he not have the right to do what he wills with what is his own?

When we suffer this kind of loss, it helps to remember that we are only human, which is how God speaks to the prophet here. If you are a child of Adam, your wife is a child of Eve, and so she is also a dying creature. This is a sorrow that comes to human life. Should the earth be abandoned for us?

Even with this loss ahead of him, Ezekiel did not stop doing his work. He says, “I spoke to the people in the morning” (Ezekiel 24:18). God sends his prophets early and often, and Ezekiel thought that if the people would ever listen, this was the time. Though he knew this grief was coming, he stayed at his post. We also bear affliction better when it finds us doing our duty. Nothing can truly harm us, or go badly for us, while we remain in God’s love.

Ezekiel also had to deny himself the comfort of public mourning for his wife, which would have honored her and eased his own pain. He was not allowed to show the usual signs of grief (Ezekiel 24:16). He was not to weep or let his tears flow, even though tears are a fitting tribute to the dead, and it is right to water the body that is being sown in the grave. Yet Ezekiel could not do this, even though he had every human reason to do so and people might think badly of him if he did not. He was also not to follow the customary actions of mourners. He was to wear his normal clothes, bind on his turban, here called the tire of his head, put on his shoes instead of going barefoot, and not cover his lips or face as mourners usually did (Leviticus 13:45). He was not to look sorrowful as people often do when they fast (Matthew 6:18). He was not to eat the food brought by neighbors and friends, as was common in mourning, but was to continue in his ordinary work.

This must have gone strongly against his feelings. Yet God had commanded it, and Ezekiel obeyed: “I did in the morning as I was commanded.” He appeared in public in his usual dress, with no signs of mourning. Here was something unusual, and to make himself a sign to the people, Ezekiel had to force himself and practice a hard self-denial. Our own wishes must always yield to God’s directions, and his command must be obeyed even when it is hardest and least pleasant.

Mourning for the dead is a duty, but it must stay under the rule of religion and sound judgment. We must not grieve like people who have no hope. We must not lament the loss of any creature, even the dearest one, as if we had lost God himself or as if all our happiness were gone. Ministers, when they face such loss, should be examples of this restraint. At such times we should seek to make the sorrow useful, adapt ourselves to it, and grow in our understanding of the other world by the removal of our loved ones. We should learn, with holy Job, to bless the Lord both when he takes and when he gives.

Second, the people asked Ezekiel what this sign meant (Ezekiel 24:19): “Will you not tell us what these things mean to us, that you are doing this?” They knew Ezekiel loved his wife deeply, and they saw that he would not act so strangely unless it carried a message for them. Perhaps they even hoped it pointed to something good, maybe that God would soon comfort them again and make their faces bright after their suffering. When we ask about the things of God, we should ask, “What do these things mean to us? What concern do they have for us? What conviction, counsel, or comfort do they bring? How do they speak to our own situation?”

Ezekiel answered them exactly as the Lord had told him to speak to the house of Israel. First, he let them know that just as his wife had been taken from him by a sudden blow, so God would take from them all that was most dear to them (Ezekiel 24:21).

If this was done to the green tree, what will be done to the dry? If a faithful servant of God suffered in this way only as a test, will such a generation of rebels against God go unpunished? By this startling act, God showed that he meant what he said and would not turn back.

We can suppose that Ezekiel prayed, if it was God’s will, that his wife might be spared. But God did not answer that prayer. So should he expect to be heard when he interceded for this stubborn people? No, the matter was settled. God would take away the desire of their eyes.

This should teach us something important. When we see other people lose their comforts, we should think about losing ours too. Are we better than they are? We do not know how soon the same cup, or a harsher one, may be placed in our hands. So we should weep with those who weep, since we also live in bodies that can suffer.

God will take away what their soul pities, that is, what they would say, “What a pity it is that this should be cut off and destroyed.” Some read it as, “What their souls fear.” In other words, they would lose what they most dread losing. What was that?

First, it was their public pride, the temple. God says, “I will profane my sanctuary,” meaning he would hand it over to enemies to be stripped and burned. This was shown by the death of a beloved wife, and it teaches us that God’s sanctuary should be dearer to us than any earthly comfort. Christ’s church, which is his bride, should also be precious to us. Though this people were deeply corrupt and had already dishonored the sanctuary, it is still called the desire of their eyes. Many people have no true godliness, yet still love the outward form of religion. It is right for God to punish hypocrisy by taking even that away. The sanctuary is also called the pride of their strength. They had many strong places and defenses, but the temple stood above them all. They took pride in it, saying they had the temple of the Lord (Jeremiah 7:4). When people are proud of church privileges, they defile them by their sins, and God is just to defile them by his judgments.

God would also take away their family joy, what they looked on with delight. Their sons and daughters, few as they were after famine and disease had already killed many, would fall by the sword of the Chaldeans, the Babylonian army. What a terrible sight it would be to see their own children, those dear parts of themselves whom they had raised with such care and loved as their own lives, killed by merciless conquerors. This was the punishment of sin.

They also needed to learn that, just as Ezekiel did not mourn for his loss, neither should they mourn for theirs. He was to say, “You will do as I have done” (Ezekiel 24:22). “You will not mourn or weep” (Ezekiel 24:23). Jeremiah had said the same thing, that people would not lament for the dead or make themselves cut and bleed (Jeremiah 16:6). This does not mean there would be no outward grief at all, or no inward grace to soften it, but they would not mourn in the usual way for several reasons. Their grief would be so heavy that it would overwhelm them. Their troubles would come so fast, one after another, that long suffering would harden them and leave them stunned. They would also be afraid to show sorrow, lest the conquerors see it as disloyalty. And they would have no heart, time, or money for mourning customs. They would be so fully occupied with real sorrow that there would be no room for the outward signs of it.

There would also be no need for special mourners to cover their lips, lay aside ornaments, or go barefoot, because everyone would know grief was everywhere. And there would be no sorrow that led them to repentance. Instead, it would only drive them toward despair. So they would waste away because of their sins, with hardened consciences and rebellious minds. They would mourn, not to God in prayer and confession, but one to another, grumbling, complaining, and making their burden even heavier.

The passage then points to the event itself to prove the truth of the warning (Ezekiel 24:24). When this happens exactly as foretold, when Jerusalem, which was already under siege, is completely destroyed and laid waste, then they will know that I am the Lord God, who gave them fair warning. Then they will remember that Ezekiel had been a sign to them. Those who ignore God’s warnings when they are preached will be forced to remember them when they are carried out.

We should notice the great ruin that the siege of Jerusalem would end in (Ezekiel 24:25). On that terrible day, when the city is broken open, God will take away from them three things. He will take what they depended on, their strength, walls, wealth, fortifications, and soldiers, none of which can help them. He will take what they boasted in, the joy of their glory, meaning what they counted as their honor, especially the temple and the palaces of their princes. And he will take what they delighted in, the desire of their eyes, the things they set their hearts on. Worldly people fix their minds on what they can see, and they foolishly trust what they have no guarantee will remain. Their sons and daughters had been all of this to them, their strength, joy, and glory, and they would go into captivity.

The prophet would not learn this by a direct revelation, as he had learned of the siege itself (Ezekiel 24:2), but by ordinary news (Ezekiel 24:26). One who escaped would come to him by God’s special providence to bring him the report, as later happened (Ezekiel 33:21). The bad news came slowly, yet for Ezekiel and the other captives it came too soon.

From this time on, Ezekiel was kept silent in one sense, because he no longer prophesied against the land of Israel. Instead, he spoke against the neighboring nations, as the next chapters show. Then God would order him to speak again to his own people, as in (Ezekiel 33:2) and (Ezekiel 33:22). At that point, his mouth would be opened again.

He was kept from speaking against Israel for a time because Jerusalem was under siege, so his words could not reach the city. Also, when God was already speaking so strongly through the disaster itself, there was less need for more words. And once his prophecies came true, that fulfillment would prove his calling and make it easier for him to begin speaking again. What God had planned had to wait for that outcome. In the same way, Christ kept his disciples from openly preaching that he was the Christ until after his resurrection, because that would be the full proof of it.

Then Ezekiel would speak with greater confidence, and his words would work either to convict people or to bring them shame. God never silences his prophets without wise and holy reasons. And when God opens their mouths again, as he will in time, even the witnesses who were slain will rise, it will be clear that their silence was for his glory. Then people will more fully and certainly know that God is the Lord.