Ezekiel’s Wife

Ezekiel 24

            Another day, another enacted prophecy. Ezekiel is forbidden to grieve for his wife. Well, that’s not exactly the case. He is permitted to “groan inwardly” (. 17), which seems to mean that he is forbidden the usual public rites of mourning. In the same way, the exiles of Jerusalem are forbidden to mourn over the impending doom of the city. The Lord has decreed its destruction and the reasons for it: who is Israel to weep and mourn as if the Lord’s judgment were unjust?

            Two thoughts. First, there is an absoluteness to God’s Word. If He says it, it is just. He is the very definition of what is right, because He is holy. His words also carry that holiness. They are not to be quibbled with. This is a hard thing for us moderns; I suppose it’s been a hard thing for sinful humans since the Fall. Ever since Adam and Eve decided it would be cool to be like God, we’ve tried to ignore, modify, excuse ourselves from God’s word. After all, the original sin is to think that we know better. But God’s holy people set themselves under His word and let that word shape them instead of them trying to shape the word.

            Second, and a bit of a tangent. I’ve spoken other places about the importance of traditional rites of grieving. (See our YouTube channel and you will find a Bible study I did on the topic a few years ago.) Just briefly, we live in an age that will do almost anything to deny the reality of death. As just one example, look how often we refuse to use the word funeral (a word derived from the Latin word for corpse) and instead talk about celebrations of life. Death is a punishment for sin, a consequence of the Fall. To face its reality honestly involves not just grief but also repentance, because it is a reminder that we are all under this same sentence. And from a Christian point of view, to face death honestly means to be refreshed in the Gospel, that by His resurrection Jesus has defeated death, so His people have hope for eternal life. Much more could be said, but let this simply be a plea for traditional funeral practices.