Apolgies for the confusion. THIS is today’s post - Chapter 4.
The horrors of war sometimes call for powerful protests, drastic measures and dramatic demands that get people to care, to carry each other - and to change. We are witnessing this now, and this has always been the case, even back when Ezekiel was trying to get the people of Jerusalem, exiled from home, to deal with the inevitable destruction in ways that will nurture their spirits and help them be accountable to their own part in what was going on.
Perhaps one of the weirdest and most unlikely outcomes of Ezekiel’s prophetic Biblical legacy is the bread that can now be found in supermarkets all over the United States, labeled “Ezekiel 4:9”.
You can find out more about this strange staple of healthy nutrition inspired by devout Christian faith by reading What's the story behind Ezekiel's Bread? It’s just one of several very dramatic and drastic gestures the Ezekiel performs for the people in this chapter and the ones coming up. It may be magic or performance art - but either way it is a set of prophetic tasks preserved for the ages - even including a recipe that was intended to give people not just a healthy slice but an honest appraisal of what life was all about.
The first task in today’s chapter was to carve Jerusalem on a brick and voodoo-style, imagine the scene of siege as Babylon surrounds the far away city and Ezekiel pretends-play the force of the army and the disconnected distance between YHWH and his suffering people, represented by an iron pan. Next he is instructed to lie down on his left side for 390 days and on his right side for 40 days - while staring at the brick and possibly with some sort of handcuffs or rope binding his arms --
This all represented the terrible fate of Jerusalem, only a few years ahead.
That’s 440 days of public performance. What will he eat?
“Further, take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and emmer. Put them into one vessel and bake them into bread. Eat it as many days as you lie on your side: three hundred and ninety.
Most experts suggest that this recipe suggests a mixture of grains that may be healthy but are neither delicious, common or favored by the Judean exiles. It is supposed to represent, like the Passover Matza, the bread of affliction - and it was originally also also suppose to be baked on fire made of human dung,
Why all these gatro-theatrics?
Annie Norman-Schiff explains this prophecy in the context of performance art - and a theological battle:
“In Babylonia, Ezekiel is part of a community of former leaders and wealthy people who have experienced extreme whiplash: from the heights of society in their homeland to the depths of exile abroad. His message of bad news might be a hard sell for these already bereaved and vulnerable exiles. And perhaps that is why Ezekiel, at God’s urging, takes ever more extreme measures to gain their attention.
We might compare Ezekiel’s actions to performance art. Like a performance artist, Ezekiel’s actions would be considered extremely strange in any normal context. Understanding their meaning requires being present with him in space and time; the message lies not just in what he does, but how he does it. And like many performance artists, Ezekiel provides an easy target for mockery. He gets your attention, but he can’t actually convey what he intends without you taking him at least a little bit seriously.
What exactly does Ezekiel (or God) expect the exiles to do with this message? They can’t take up arms to protect Jerusalem. They are poor and defeated and stuck in Babylonia. Jerusalem will be leveled. The message would seem to be aimed at shaking the exiles from their denial and getting them to recognize that the destruction was not random: God is punishing the people for their sins. If this is true, then in some way they still control their fate. Accept their punishment, and the people can still in the future return to their land.
Ezekiel intervenes at a crucial inflection point in the history of the Jewish people. Every other ancient people conquered by a more powerful nation eventually came to accept the conquering nation’s god. If the Babylonians destroyed your temple, then their Marduk must be more worthy of respect than the divinity that was supposed to protect you. The Jews, starting with this advance group of exiles, reject this way of thinking. Their God is the only God. When they suffer, it must be by God’s design and for a reason that is intended to help them grow.”
Tough times demand tough measures, and that could indeed be one reason for Ezekiel’s drastic dramas - bricks, postures, dung and bread. The distance from what was happening in their hometown required larger than life symbolic gestures that will make up for the unknown - which can sometimes be worse than proximity to the source of horror and pain.
Next time you go bread shopping - maybe give Ezekiel’s bread a try? Take time to eat is slowly, with intention, creating your own prophetic moment of intention and appreciation for the privilege of living, eating, reflecting on each and every gesture of substance that can carry out his message - appreciate, in our bodies, the precious fragile, gift and mystery of life.
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