Ezekiel chapter 4

vs 10

So not a whole lot, really. Not sure what the times of day were, but hey. We might find out as we go, or not.

vs 11

So about three glasses of water. If I lived in the middle east, I'd want more.

vs 12

Oh... lovely. Pooh bread, with baked in poohsmoke goodness. Lucky you, Ezekiel! You've been chosen to be a prophet!

vs 13

Oh, delightful. Talk about defiled food. I wonder if this counts as breaking the food laws? It's not even donkey do-do or camel crap. Human waste, we have laws about that! I wonder if it's his own? That's a beautiful circle of life, isn't it?

vs 14

In other words, "I followed the food laws all my life, I'm not eating food cooked on pooh." Ezekiel draws the line in the sand. He might want to keep the sand, though, just in case he needs it to cover up pooh. Because seriously, is Ezekiel taking on God here? Over God's own laws?

This is what I'm talking about - this is an extreme example of people thinking they are more holy than God.

vs 15

God is forever gracious, really. Cow dung. Woo. Now, I'd eat a meal that was cooked over cow dung. And the message is still kind of strong. See, here is God protecting his own holiness. No-one is going to look at Ezekiel and say, "That's the so-called prophet of God, but he ate food cooked on human pooh. How can he be a prophet?"

vs 16

Rationing - long before the second world war. Who knew? Jews, I guess.

vs 17

This is the picture of a siege. No-one wants to live in these conditions. You have to eke out a living, and every day your life gets worse, and every day the army waiting outside just gets angrier. Siege warfare is all about time. You keep doing things to waste the other side's time, but you have to have an endpoint - either the winter comes and the army goes home, or your allies turn up in chariots and drive them off, or something. I don't think Jerusalem had any friends left. So now they're just rationing food and weakening themselves.