Daily Devotions
Ezekiel
"Your food which you eat shall be by weight"
Text: Ezekiel 4:10
FOOD RATION
If a city is under a siege, it is natural to ration the food intake. This was a lesson that Ezekiel was to demonstrate to the Jewish captives in Babylon.
“Also take for yourself wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt;
put them into one vessel, and make bread of them for yourself.
During the number of days that you lie on your side,
three hundred and ninety days, you shall eat it.
And your food which you eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day;
from time to time you shall eat it.”
Ezekiel 4:9-10
1. Lying on the side.
a) It would be for the day time.
b) Ezekiel would be a public spectacle.
c) He would have to lie down for long periods twice.
i) On the left side for 390 days.
ii) On the right side for 40 days.
2. Making bread.
a) He would have to make his own bread.
b) The ingredients were “wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt”.
c) They were to be stored in one vessel.
d) God would allow him time to make the bread.
3. Eating the bread made.
a) His food would be by weight.
b) In other words, he would have to ration how much he can eat a day.
c) Twenty shekels a day.
i) It would be siege-ration.
ii) It would be just enough to sustain life.
d) From time to time:
i) He can’t eat when he feels like eating.
ii) He would have to make sure the bread would last 390 days.