TODAY’S MEDITATION – Obeying the Lord can be hard, but not obeying Him can cost us more costly (Ezekiel 24:15-18)

In this passage, the prophet Ezekiel receives a strange message from the Lord: his wife would die, but he should not grieve for her: “Then this message came to me from the Lord: “Son of man, with one blow I will take away your dearest treasure. Yet you must not show any sorrow at her death. Do not weep; let there be no tears. 17 Groan silently, but let there be no wailing at her grave. Do not uncover your head or take off your sandals. Do not perform the usual rituals of mourning or accept any food brought to you by consoling friends.” So I proclaimed this to the people the next morning, and in the evening my wife died. The next morning I did everything I had been told to do.”

My brother, my sister, how do we react when God tells us to do things that seem humanely difficult to imagine? You see, Ezekiel obeyed God fully, which makes us think of the time Hosea obeyed the Lord when asked to marry a prostitute (Hosea 1:2-3). Even if in both cases, these unusual requests from God were symbolic acts to illustrate God’s relationship with His people, God is teaching us something about His great love and the sadness of His heart when we reject His Word. As for Ezekiel, the Lord was going to remove “dearest treasure”, which represented how dear Israel was to God, and today, we areas dear as that to Him because of the inheritance we received through the sacrifice of the cross.

Yes, we are so much valuable and dear to God that all His expects in return is our complete obedience, because obeying Him can carry a high price, but not obeying Him can cost us more: eternal life. We should also keep in mind that, Jesus did not leave us alone, like orphans. The Holy Spirit is there to help us learn to obey God. So, no matter what you are finding hard to do for the Lord, set your eyes on Jesus, call on the Holy Spirit to help you with your weaknesses, with your doubts, with your questions, etc. Stay blessed in Jesus’ name.