And you shall do as I have done; you shall not cover your lips, nor eat the bread of men.
The siege of Jerusalem began, and that same day the prophet's wife died — yet God forbade him to weep or keep any custom of mourning. When the exiles asked what this strange behaviour meant, God told them they would soon do the same: a whole nation with grief too deep for any funeral.
The Sign Explained
This verse sits inside God's answer to them, and the answer runs past the funeral to the temple.
William KellyGod would teach them about their unmatched trouble. It would leave no room for tears or ordinary mourning. The destruction begun was so sweeping — the Lord Himself profaning the sanctuary in judgment, as they had by their sins and abominations — that nothing would remain for them but pining away in their iniquities and groaning to one another. What a picture of despair! The sorrow lies too deep for tears, and an overwhelming sense of guilt forces men to abandon hope.
Feeling Permitted, Showing Forbidden
Look at what God's orders cover: the turban stays on, the sandals stay on, the lip stays uncovered, the bread neighbours bring to a grieving family goes untouched. Every one of them is a public act.
Numerical Bible NotesGod does not forbid the grief, but the showing of it. In this expressionless grief he is to be a sign to the people: "Sigh in silence. Make no mourning for the dead. Bind your turban on your head, and put your sandals on your feet. Do not cover your lips, and do not eat the bread of men."
The Deeper Loss
The exiles would lose the sons and daughters they left behind in the city. Ezekiel's own loss was of another kind — a marriage ended.
Numerical Bible NotesTheir sons and daughters were a severe loss. Even so, it cannot match the breaking of the marriage tie that Ezekiel suffers under. For that, we have to think of the sanctuary itself gone. The sanctuary was the pledge and seal of the tie. It spoke of the Lord's presence with them and gave the people access to Himself. Once that tie was broken, it might well swallow up all others.
The Sorrow Behind The Sign
Ask who is struck in this sign.
Numerical Bible NotesNotice that the stroke falls not on the people, but on the prophet himself. As far as he is concerned, it is not inflicted as a judgment... The prophet's sorrow is plainly the sorrow of God Himself. The affliction is on His part, not on man's side. Yet it is an affliction that can find no expression among a people as stubborn as these. It is their sin that has brought their disaster. It is their sin that they still pine away in. They feel certain effects of it, no doubt, but not the iniquity itself. He who has inflicted it is the One who feels what He has inflicted.
Love Behind The Silence
Read that way, the prophet's dry eyes are no proof that God had stopped loving.
Numerical Bible NotesHe has broken off His own relationship with a people He had taken up to show them His love and to bring them near to Himself. He has been compelled to give them up. The tie is broken. We are not speaking of purposes still to be fulfilled at the end, but of present relationship, and that has ended for the nation as such. Nothing can divorce His heart from the objects of His love. He may have to act in a way that looks like the opposite. Even then, faith can see through the disguise and know that the love is unchanged all the way through.
An End To The Silence
The silence laid on Ezekiel had a time limit, tied to the fall of the city.
J. N. DarbyUnder the figure of his wife's death, God tells him to hold back his heart before the judgment of the Lord. Once that judgment was done, the Lord would open the prophet's mouth. He would then speak His word openly to the remnant, so that they should know Him.
Summary
- Sign — Ezekiel's tearless loss was a message the exiles could watch. Soon they would do what he did, with no tears of their own.
- Silence — the ban fell on showing grief, not on grief itself. God withdrew the public customs and left the feeling.
- Sanctuary — the loss beneath the loss was the temple. It was the pledge of God's presence and access, and its fall broke the tie and swallowed up every lesser sorrow.
- Sorrow — the blow fell on the prophet, not on the guilty. His unspoken grief pictured God's own feeling about what He had to do.
- Speech — the silence ended when judgment had run its course. God opened the mouth that could not mourn, and spoke again to the remnant.