A lot of Bible commentaries talk about Ezekiel as the “prophet who suffered much,” but they don’t tell you about God’s sense of humor in the things He made Ezekiel do.

As Jordan reasons, “There are at least eight or nine weird, crazy things where when you look at them, you say, ‘This guy Ezekiel, he had to have had something of a sense of humor . . . at least the Lord had a sense of humor with what He put him through!’

Of course, Ezekiel gladly does what God asks of him—everything from cooking his food with human dung to lying on a public street for 430 days to throwing his luggage out a hole he’s punched in his wall.

“He’s a great illustration,” says Jordan, “of what Paul writes in I Corinthians 1: ‘For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. And God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.’ Paul said, ‘I am a fool for Christ. I’m considered the off-scouring of the world.’ ”

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While the prophet Jeremiah reveals himself in his Old Testament book as a man of great passion, who frequently cries out and passionately pleads with the children of Israel, Ezekiel is more of a stern, stoic kind of character.

“He’s more of a staid business-suit kind of a guy,” says Jordan. “He’s real serious about things. That’s why when you see the Lord take this guy and do these real weird and wacky things with him, it’s really strange.”

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The name Ezekiel means “strengthened by God” and his ministry takes place during the same Babylonian captivity that Daniel (a mutual acquaintance) operated under.

“Ezekiel is going be to prophesying to people who’ve been taken from Jerusalem and Israel into Babylonian captivity but are believing what’s been prophesied to them by false prophets,” says Jordan. “At first, these false prophets said, ‘God isn’t going to let us go into captivity,’ and then, after the captivity, they said, ‘He isn’t going to leave us here; we’re going to be able to go back.’

“The (deception) was, ‘We’re Israel; we’re the chosen nation of God in the earth! These crummy Gentiles can’t do anything to us. Why, we’re the chosen people . . .’ Isaiah told them, ‘The prophets prophesy lies and the people love it so.’

“They said, ‘Nebuchadnezzar’s not going to destroy us,’ and Jeremiah responded, ‘Yeah, he is! The captivity’s coming. The fifth course of judgment’s upon you—the time’s here!’

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In Ezekiel 24, God informs the people that “Ezekiel is unto you a sign: according to all that he hath done shall ye do: and when this cometh, ye shall know that I am the Lord GOD . . .”

Jordan explains, “Ezekiel gives them a group of signs because they’re not ready to hear what he’s saying to them.” It’s like a visual arts ministry for children.

The first thing God tells Ezekiel, who He’s made unable to talk, is, “Go shut yourself up in your house and when you do, Israel’s going to come and tie you up so you can’t get out of your house even when you want to, but I don’t want you to get out. I want you to lock yourself in your house.”

“Now, if he’s got a message for them and he’s locked in the house, who’s going to hear the message?” says Jordan. “Well, to hear what Ezekiel has to say, what do you have to do? Go to his house to get it! Immediately God’s going to limit his message to those who are willing to come and hear. That’s why the verse says, ‘He that heareth let him hear.’

“The rest of the people don’t want to listen to Ezekiel; they are a rebellious people whose unbelief binds them. Ezekiel’s as good as dumb to them so God makes him dumb.

“Here you got a prophet who God’s told, ‘Padlock your front door, don’t give anybody the code, go sit in the basement, turn out the light and don’t let anybody know you’re there. Besides that, when you try and talk I’m gonna make you dumb where you can’t talk.’

“Now, that’s not exactly what you think the prophet of Israel ought to be doing! The whole first part of this chapter is about commissioning him as a ‘watchman on the wall,’ but God says, ‘I don’t want you sitting on the wall. I want you to go into the house and I’m gonna fix it where you can’t talk and they can’t get to you if they want to hear you.’

“What He’s doing is demonstrating that the nation doesn’t want to hear and the only ones who will are the ones who have faith to come and seek God’s Word from Ezekiel.

“You remember Hebrews 5 where He tells them, ‘I have many things I want to tell you about Christ and the Melchizedekian priesthood but I can’t because you’re not able to bear it; you’re children’?

“Well, when you’re being childlike, like they were in Ezekiel, what God’s going to do is use some visual arts that focus on the prophet. He’s using Ezekiel as a lightning rod.”

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In Ezekiel 4, Ezekiel is instructed by God to, “Take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and pourtray upon it the city, even Jerusalem: 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.”

Jordan explains, “Ezekiel was the first chalk artist. God says, ‘Set up a chalkboard on the street corner and start drawing on it. Draw Jerusalem and show it being just totally under siege by all these things.’ Ezekiel literally illustrates for the people God’s judgment against Jerusalem and those still in the land.

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“Now, in verse 4 of chapter 4 is the real goofball one. God says, ‘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.’

“Ezekiel is going to lie on his left side for 390 days, then he’s going to lie on his right side for 40 days and this is going to represent a day for a year for Israel’s iniquity and a day for a year of Judah’s iniquity.

“If you add those together, you get the number 430. That’s how many years Israel was unfaithful—when you start with Jeroboam and come to the captivity of Israel, the northern kingdom.

“You might not know those numbers, but you can guarantee yourself Israel understood what it was about! Exodus 12:40 says, ‘Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years.’

“Egypt’s a type of the world. It’s a type of, in words of the Book of Job, ‘being captive’; the satanic policy of evil holding Israel captive. Ezekiel is bearing their iniquities.

“I don’t know if you thought about it, but to go out and lay on your left side for 390 days is not necessarily a comfortable thing to do! I mean, he’s told by God, ‘You go out here on Main Street, lay your pallet out and when the passersby say, ‘Whatcha doin?’, you’re dumb, you can’t talk, you can’t tell ’em.’

“Imagine the people walking by, staring at you, throwing bubble gum wrappers at you, Dr. Pepper cans, Budweiser cans. You know, if you’re lying there every day, that’s over a year! People would get a little tired of it. I bet he got a little tired of it, too, and you can imagine the degradation and discomfort.

“And then, when Ezekiel gets through with that, he comes back the next time and rolls out his pallet to lay on his right side, this time facing the south, and is there for another 40 days. The point he’s demonstrating is the iniquity of Israel.”

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From verse 9, we learn Ezekiel has little pieces of bread he rations out to himself along with a quart of water each day. He has a little oven to bake the little loaves with and—get this—uses human dung for fuel!

Jordan says, “Ezekiel can only eat little pieces along the way; he’s talking about famine and scarcity. Now, if you’ve ever gone into a health food store and bought ‘Ezekiel Bread,’ they got the idea it’s supposed to be good and healthy because it came out of the Bible and they’re using that to sell it to you.

“He’s cooking his little-bitty ration of food and he’s using . . . listen, when you get down to using dung as fuel, you’ve run out of everything else! That’s the point! And it’s an unclean thing.

“Everything about what Ezekiel’s doing has to do with degradation and defilement. Verse 14 says, ‘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.’

“God’s saying to Israel, ‘That’s a picture of what I’m going to do with you among the Gentiles.’ They’re going to be defiled. It’s talking about the horrors in connection with the siege of Israel and how, in their captivity, they’re going to live in defilement among the Gentiles.”

(Editor’s Note: To be continued . . . )