Ezekiel 4:1-17 KJV
1 Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and pourtray upon it the city, even Jerusalem:
2 And lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and cast a mount against it; set the camp also against it, and set battering rams against it round about.
3 Moreover take thou unto thee an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city: and set thy face against it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.
4 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.
5 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.
6 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.
7 Therefore thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and thine arm shall be uncovered, and thou shalt prophesy against it.
8 And, behold, I will lay bands upon thee, and thou shalt not turn thee from one side to another, till thou hast ended the days of thy siege.
9 Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentiles, and millet, and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof, according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side, three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof.
10 And thy meat which thou shalt eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time shalt thou eat it.
11 Thou shalt drink also water by measure, the sixth part of an hin: from time to time shalt thou drink.
12 And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out of man, in their sight.
13 And the LORD said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, whither I will drive them.
14 Then said I, Ah Lord GOD! behold, my soul hath not been polluted: for from my youth up even till now have I not eaten of that which dieth of itself, or is torn in pieces; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth.
15 Then he said unto me, Lo, I have given thee cow's dung for man's dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread therewith.
16 Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and with care; and they shall drink water by measure, and with astonishment:
17 That they may want bread and water, and be astonied one with another, and consume away for their iniquity.

Do you still love God this morning? I wake up and my mind went to Ezekiel and his prophetic call to both the Northern and Southern kingdom of Israel. He was prophet called to tell about the siege that was coming. Yet this call came with some bizaire methods of getting God's word across. No doubt it caused a daily amusement for 390 days, but for those that believed it was a serious matter. He was told he would have to lay on his left and then his right side and draw picture and set up the model of a siege using tools he had. Now he would lay on each side the number of days the siege would last. Anyone listening should of done several things and that was to prepare for the siege, but as we already know many did not prepare for the siege coming. Instead they probably mocked Ezekiel, or trembled in fear because of words about the Caldeans coming. Yet whatever the reaction man's first reaction should of been to repent to God and then begin to store up for the siege to come. Ezekiel was told to eat bread and bake it on human dung. That is when Ezekiel said Lord I have not defiled myself, and so the Lord told him cow dung would be supplied. Does that mean a cow came by and drop his bowels in the middle of where Ezekiel was laying everyday. If it did another reason onlookers might of laughed. Yet the situation is serious. The reason so serious is when God's word is prophesied it is spoken with truth. For those that do not know feces does burn if not wood available.

Ezekiel had to be so convinced to speak the prophetic word that God laid on his heart. He may of had some knowledge about the Caldeans, but he did not have a timeline of how long it would take Jerusalem to fall except what God told him. The prophesy comes with the timeline. Not only the time line but who fell first and so forth. Battles, sieges and so forth were not unknown by the historians and religious leaders of the country. Yet prophecy is more then history and religious documentation at the time it is given, it is foretelling of events to come. Some things can be foreseen in coming but other things can not be even guessed at. Was there a prophesy of the pandemic coming, or how many lives would be lost, I have yet to hear of one, but yet that does not mean it did not exist. It does not mean that if Israel repented that the days of siege be shorten or Caldeans would not ride through Israel and taking it by force. God's correction came to King David despite his repentance for his correction. Yet sometimes God's mercy can limit the days of suffering when we repent and obey God.

Is Ezekiel loving God in this peculair prophetic call? Perhaps respect is more of a word then loving at this point. To obey knowing the consequences of disobedience and knowing he love Israel his homeland enough not to spare not the details of what God spoke to his heart about to prophecy to the people. He told them what would befall them in time to come. Love is sometimes telling what will come along with tragedy and a people without hope has no victory in sight. When you get to chapter 6 of Ezekiel God speaks of a Remnant that would be scatter to the nations of the known world at that time. Several things to know if God declares it, then it will come to pass.

Ezekiel hope is that remnant would live, that is love right there from God to Ezekiel, because not only does he believe God's word, but he not afraid to prophesy in a bizaire way. He will speak truth against Israel, who had turned away from God. His hope arriving in the prophetic word, that Remnant and if he lived would go through it and return to Israel one day. Is your conviction enough to say Lord I love you, even if it means even our own nation, and nations around the world must go through times of struggle and times of change due to God's wrath, the enemies wrath and so forth. Why do I not say war, because God has not spoke to me about war coming to my nation or nation around us. There is a point, I often think our leaders that are more modern have enough common sense to know most things if discussed long enough can be settled in some form or fashion. Yet we still need military, and guns. Has not the world learned yet, who can out think, outplay and have the best equipment usually lives the longest, but not always true. Israel most powerful weapon was God, and yet they could not use God as one might use a tank, or a gun. It must be in accordance to his will, his call, and his timing to defeat the enemy once and for all. Meantime what does man do, run their mouth, spewing rumors of war, blaze their guns and show how much muscles they got, and the girls look and say when will the men put their boy toys away. People get killed for this. It makes no sense. Yet God's people know there be a remnant until the time of rapture remaining on the earth. That is our hope right there believers. So I write and so I speak, what I love God because he promised what victory, and he performed his miracles in my lifetime and I know the power of his word in my own life. When you can say you know God is able, to not only bring his wrath, but bring hope, you can prophesy those words God has given his children for generation through his word, because you know that with troubles, the hope rest in God. You know prophesy today of Christ return, is not idle, but the time is unknown to man only to God the Father. Meantime God gives prophecy to teach faith by speaking first to the heart of the believer and sometimes speaking it through someone else, but God going to confirm it to your heart it was him and not men playing games.

Dear Heavenly Father, give us hope and peace in the storm. Help us to believe, because you are faithful to the believer, and revengeful to yours and their enemy. You give your children love by giving hope, and we love you in return because you are faithful to you people who believe. In Jesus precious name, Amen.

Continual Scripture Study: Ezekiel 6:8-10 KJV
8 Yet will I leave a remnant, that ye may have some that shall escape the sword among the nations, when ye shall be scattered through the countries.
9 And they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols: and they shall lothe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.
10 And they shall know that I am the LORD, and that I have not said in vain that I would do this evil unto them.