Ezekiel 24:1-14 – Awareness is the first step to change

Ezekiel 24 concludes the first segment of the book dealing with the judgment of Judah and Jerusalem. It starts with the Lord telling Ezekiel the exact day of the final siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. According to verse 1, the siege took place “in the ninth year, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month.”

This is a significant date because it was the day the final siege of Jerusalem began. The exactness of the day of the event confirmed the accuracy of the prophecies of Ezekiel. Remember the prophet was miles away from Jerusalem. Hence, his knowledge of the exact date verifies his prophetic calling as well as the accuracy of the Scripture. So significant is this day that even up to this day the people of Israel still call for a yearly fast in commemoration of that fateful day.   

The images used in verses 1-14 are like those that were used to refer to the judgment of Jerusalem and Judah in the previous chapters. Many of the images used here repeat what had been said in those chapters. The meat refers to Israel, the heated pot signifies the fire of judgment, and the rust of the pot points to the sinful decaying hearts of the people. The blood indicates the shed blood of the child sacrificed to the pagan god and the violence carried out on their brethren. The blood on display on rocks and not covered by the dust is by way of referring to the judgment in full display. The covenant people like the pot of boiling meats would be cooked and boiled alive. So hot was the turned-up heat of the Lord’s judgment that even bones were bleached. This speaks of the severe, relentless, and merciless invasion of Nebuchadnezzar’s army to devastate Jerusalem.  

The intensity of the heat was to consume and remove the rust from the pot. It is hard to imagine the intensity, yet it was needed to remove the filth of the covenant people. What they had committed for so long requires that severe a judgment to remove what they had accumulated.   To seal the certainty of the judgment, God declared in verse 14 saying, “I, the Lord, have spoken; it is coming, and I will act. I will not relent, and I will not pity, and I will not be sorry; according to your ways and according to your deeds I will judge you.”  To confirm what He had said, God would be doing something unusual. What is the usual event? We will look at it in our next reflection.   

Ezekiel was a true prophet. He was true and faithful to God despite the intensity of the suffering he had to endure. The instruction to Ezekiel to record the exact date the judgment took place shows how important it is to record key events in our lives. Exact dates were indicated in every critical moment in the history of God’s people. In Genesis 7 - 8, the exact dates Noah and the entourage entered the Ark and when they came out of it were indicated. In Exodus 12:41-42, we are given the exact moment that the people of God exited Egypt. Joshua 4:19 gave the moment the people of God cross over the Jordan. Remembering key events in our lives will help us to chart our future course. The first step to change is awareness. If we are unaware, we cannot change because we don’t know where to start. Awareness is the first step to change.