Ezekiel Chapter 11

Ezekiel was in the garden next to a palm tree when he was overcome by a vision. It disoriented him so much that he grabbed the tree and slipped down to its gnarly base. He began to see some things in his mind's eye and heard the familiar sound of God's voice.  A series of tasks were imprinted on his mind and he knew his assignment was to flesh out those ideas. When he regained his composure he knew his wife should be forewarned for these were more strange assignments.


After a day of praying and planning, and talking with his wife, Ezekiel grabbed a bunch of clothes and a few cooking pots and put them into two pieces of baggage. In the middle of the day, when people were walking about, he brought the baggage to the side of the street in front of his home. He told everyone who walked by he was preparing for the exile and they should watch for him to leave later in the evening. His notoriety assured he'd have company.

Later that day, as the sun was going down, Ezekiel began digging into a nearby wall with a pickax. His appearance was disheveled. His curly hair and beard were sprinkled with dust. At last, he broke through, making a hole big enough to pass. Turning around to his audience, he spoke in a tone that was emphatic and dramatic. Curious behavior for a heavenly spokesman, but the heavenly source behind it required exaggerated means to make the case. He put the largest bag on his shoulder and crawled through the hole. Then he came back to grab the other bag and before he disappeared through the hole, he turned around and said to the crowd "Those in Jerusalem should do this while they can or it will be too late: Exile will be their fate too, as it ours! And then he walked away a few hundred paces, hauling his load."