Does The Bible Say “Prophet, You Shall Spend a Year on Your Side”?

“And you, son of man, take a brick and set it in front of you. Inscribe a city on it – Jerusalem. Lay siege to it! Build siege works against it. Erect a siege ramp against it! Post soldiers outside it and station battering rams around it. Then for your part take an iron frying pan and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city. Set your face toward it. It is to be under siege; you are to besiege it. This is a sign for the house of Israel. Then lie on your left side, and place the punishment of the house of Israel upon it; you shall bear their punishment for the number of the days that you lie there. For I assign to you a number of days, three hundred ninety days, equal to the number of the years of their punishment; and so you shall bear the punishment of the house of Israel. When you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the punishment of the house of Judah; forty days I assign you, one day for each year. You shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and with your arm bared you shall prophesy against it. See, I am putting cords on you so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege. And you, take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt; put them into one vessel, and make bread for yourself. During the number of days that you lie on your side, three hundred ninety days, you shall eat it. The food that you eat shall be twenty shekels a day by weight; at fixed times you shall eat it.” Ezekiel 4:1-10

Ezekiel is directed to act out what one of my seminary professors called a “Prophetic Sign-act”. When performing such an act, the prophet was told to do something (wear stocks, walk naked for three years, or lay on their side for 390 days). In this case, Ezekiel is told to perform a mock siege against Jerusalem. He was told to be mute so the prophet’s strange actions would communicate G-d’s message. This was to be a sign to the people of Judah living in captivity — and there was no doubt that word of Ezekiel’s actions would spread.

As part of his “Sign-act”, Ezekiel is told to lay on one side for 390 days, figuratively bearing the iniquity of the house of Israel, and then for 40 days on the other side, bearing Judah’s iniquity. Each day of lying down is said to represent a year. G-d then tells Ezekiel what he is to eat for the next 390 days—a mixed-grain bread. G-d first told him to bake it in a defiled way, cooking it over dried human waste, in order to symbolize the defiled state of Israel and Judah. But after Ezekiel expressed his revulsion at this, G-d allowed him to instead cook the food over cow manure, “a common fuel then as now”.

Today, people will do “stunts” to raise money for certain causes — they might live atop a billboard for several weeks, participate in a dance marathon for forty-eight hours, or walk across a tight-rope strung across a gorge. But these are different kinds of acts than the ones performed by the prophets of G-d. If the people would not listen to the words of the prophets, perhaps their acts might get them to think twice about their obedience to G-d. It makes me think about my own actions — and the choices I make in my relationship with G-d. Do I believe that my faithful acts are just stunts to make G-d think I am paying attention, or are they truly acts of worship and praise? It should make us all think…G-d is not interested in stunts — G-d is interested in deeds of praise and acts of love.

Pastor Dave