Day 10 - Ezekiel Judges While Cooking on Dung (Spooky/Scary/Weird stories from the Bible)

Day 10 - Ezekiel Judges While Cooking on Dung (Spooky/Scary/Weird stories from the Bible)

Biblical stories that could make good horror/paranormal movies

The book of Ezekiel has some strange and wondrous stories in it. Some of his visions would work well as backgrounds for psychedelic band concerts. Ezekiel is the one who had the vision of the valley filled with dried bones that he brings back to life to symbolize that the country of Israel would be reborn. Some of the things that Ezekiel did as prophetic acts are up in the realm of some of the weirdest performance artists. Today is one of those stories: Ezekiel lies on his side for more than a year and eats and drinks and condemns Israel and Judah for their sins against God. God is very specific about Ezekiel building a model of Jerusalem, how many days he will lie down and which side he will lie on, what he will eat and how much, and how he shall cook it. Though notice that Ezekiel manages one point of negotiation with God about the fuel source. This passage is not in the lectionary. Here it is:

Ezekiel 4:1 “And you, O mortal, take a brick and set it before you. On it portray a city, Jerusalem, 2 and put siegeworks against it, and build a siege wall against it, and cast up a ramp against it; set camps also against it, and plant battering rams against it all around. 3 Then take an iron plate and place it as an iron wall between you and the city; set your face toward it, and let it be in a state of siege, and press the siege against it. This is a sign for the house of Israel.

4 “Then lie on your left side and place the guilt of the house of Israel upon it; you shall bear their guilt for the number of the days that you lie there. 5 For I assign to you a number of days, three hundred ninety days, equal to the number of the years of their guilt, and so you shall bear the guilt of the house of Israel. 6 When you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the guilt of the house of Judah; forty days I assign you, one day for each year. 7 You shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and with your arm bared you shall prophesy against it. 8 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.

9 “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. 10 The food that you eat shall be twenty shekels a day by weight [ed. about 8 ounces total]; at fixed times you shall eat it. 11 And you shall drink water by measure, one-sixth of a hin [ed. about 1 quart]; at fixed times you shall drink. 12 You shall eat it as a barley cake, baking it in their sight on human dung.” 13 The Lord said, “Thus shall the people of Israel eat their bread, unclean, among the nations to which I will drive them.” 14 Then I said, “Ah Lord God! I have never defiled myself; from my youth up until now I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by animals, nor has carrion flesh come into my mouth.” 15 Then he said to me, “See, I will let you have cow’s dung instead of human dung, on which you may prepare your bread.”

16 Then he said to me, “Mortal, I am going to cut off the supply of bread[a] in Jerusalem; they shall eat bread by weight and with fearfulness, and they shall drink water by measure and in dismay. 17 Lacking bread and water, they will look at one another in dismay and waste away under their punishment.

Lots of strange in there. Post your thoughts below.

All text is from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition.