Extreme Obedience

I have been on a journey through the book of the prophet Ezekiel for the past 24 days. It has been a bit tough at times because the news he brings is pretty much all bad news. The people of Israel and Judah have been disobedient of God even to the point of defiance.  They have pushed God to the limit and He is about to bring extreme punishment upon them.

Ezekiel is called upon once again to deliver the news from the Lord. This time, however, the Lord is taking a different approach. It blows my mind and unsettles my heart. Check this out…

 15 Then the Lord spoke his word to me, saying: 16 “Human, I am going to take your wife from you, the woman you look at with love. She will die suddenly, but you must not be sad or cry loudly for her or shed any tears. 17 Groan silently; do not cry loudly for the dead. Tie on your turban, and put your sandals on your feet. Do not cover your face, and do not eat the food people eat when they are sad about a death.”

I am pretty much an emotional person to the point that I would no doubt be an emotional wreck if something like this happened to me. I would probably start sobbing when the Lord told me it was about to happen. Ezekiel seems to just go forward walking with the Lord. His faith and trust in the Lord seems rock solid. There are times when I think my faith is rock solid and then something really shakes it.  I don’t think God has ever called me to this level of Extreme Obedience and I pray and hope that He doesn’t.  I would like to walk on the level of obedience of Ezekiel, Abraham, David and some of the great men of the Old Testament, but I’m not sure I’m wired to handle some of the struggles they went through. The pain in my past seems so light and small compared to what Ezekiel just went through.

I will continue to walk with the Lord. I will walk with Him through success and failure. I will walk with Him through joy filled times as well as times of sorrow. My life plan is to walk in step with Him all the days of my life on this earth – no matter what!