Ezekiel 4:4-6 “Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity. For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.”
I am sure that what God told Ezekiel to do seemed strange to his neighbors and friends. It is one thing to prophesy about impending judgment and warn people to repent; it is quite another to lie on your side for 390 days to illustrate a point.
The prophet represented Israel—the northern kingdom—and Judah—the southern kingdom—and the length of time each was going to be punished for its sin. Evidently, Ezekiel did not worry about how he looked to others, for he owed his obedience to God. So if God told him to do something he did it.
While our daily actions may not ever be as dramatic as Ezekiel’s, our lifestyle is to display that we are walking in what the world would call “strange obedience” to Jesus. On the cross, God The Father laid upon His Son Jesus the iniquity of us all, that we, by His grace and power may walk by faith and live lives that are mysteriously strange in the eyes of the unregenerate.
