SCRIPTURE: Ezekiel 5
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
Then take a set of scales and divide up the hair. When the days of your siege come to an end, burn a third of the hair inside the city. Take a third and strike it with the sword all around the city. And scatter a third to the wind. For I will pursue them with drawn sword. But take a few hairs and tuck them away in the folds of your garment. Again, take a few of these and throw them into the fire and burn them up. A fire will spread from there to all Israel. [Ezekiel 5:1-4]
More theatrics, this time with Ezekiel’s hair.
A shaved head was a symbol of mourning and repentance [Ezekiel 7:14].
By shaving his head, Ezekiel dramatically presents Israel’s sin, shame and sorrow; by scattering, striking and burning the hair, he shows where Israel’s sin will lead.
The people watching would know exactly what he meant.
And then there is that one mention of the hair that is spared…
But take a few hairs and tuck them away in the folds of your garment. [Ezekiel 5:3]
Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. [Matthew 10:29-31]
Jesus picks up on this hair idea, and suggests that God numbers all the hair on our head.
In other words, God knows everything down to the last detail, and He cares about even the few hairs that to us seem insignificant.
A few hairs tucked into the folds of the garment?
To me this shows that God’s care and concern for Israel – indeed for everyone – goes down to the last hair, He cares that much.
This then is how we need to read the Ezekiel passage; it is not because God hates them, but because He loves them – and the whole world – that He deals with their sin so strongly.
But through it all, He still holds them (represented by the few hairs in the folds of the garment) close to His heart.
Israel does not fall to the ground outside of God’s care; they fall to the ground inside God’s care, because of God’s care.
This may be hard to understand, especially when we think of our own struggles.
Does this mean that God is allowing us to go through our struggle or crisis because of sin in our life?
Maybe, sometimes, but not always; we cannot always say this for sure.
But what we can say for sure that whatever the deeper reason for our struggle, it never happens “outside of our Father’s care”.
It takes faith to see this and to claim it when everything seems to be falling apart.
Today God is encouraging you to pluck a hair from your head and to say, by faith – God cares, down to the last hair!
PRAYER:
Lord, Ezekiel’s drama was designed to make a point. The same with Your mention of the hair on my head. Help me to believe that You care that much!