Pray the Word with David Platt is a resource from Radical.net.

Ezekiel chapter 4, verses 4 and 5, then lie on your left side and place the punishment of the House of Israel upon it.

For the number of days that you lie on it, you shall bear their punishment.

For I assign to you a number of days, 390 days, equal to the number of the years of their punishment.

So long shall you bear the punishment of the house of Israel.

This is one of those passages in the prophets where we see God telling a prophet to do something that will illustrate what he is to proclaim.

So we see different examples of this. In Ezekiel chapter 4, the picture is God is going to

show discipline and punishment toward his people for 390 years, and God tells Ezekiel to lie on his left side for 390 days as a picture of that.

So for over a year and 14 months, Ezekiel, and we don't know the details of how long each day he's to lie on his side like this.

But every single day, God is saying,

you lie on your left side like this.

Think about why.

What is God doing?

Well, one, God is illustrating in his prophet,

Ezekiel who's proclaiming his word,

he's illustrating in a way that would be very clear to his people what he is saying. And God is calling Ezekiel who's proclaiming his word, he's illustrating in a way that would be very clear to his people

what he is saying. And God is calling Ezekiel to be a reflection in his life, like his physical life,

lying on his side of what he is saying. And then too, God is calling Ezekiel to identify with his message

and punishment that is coming upon God's people. There's so much here

we could talk about, but I would just encourage you and me today to remember that God calls us

to live out very clearly before the world around us what he says in his word to us. That every single one of us,

obviously we're not Ezekiel in this unique time in redemptive history, but every single one of us

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