You will not cover your mustache!

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Scripture

‘You will do as I have done; you will not cover your mustache and you will not eat the bread of men.
(Ezekiel 24:22 NASB)

 

Observation


The people of Ezekiel's day had normal practices for mourning. On this very day Ezekiel's wife died and yet he was not allowed to mourn. The practice of mourning including covering your mustache -- or probably more precisely, your mouth. It also included a type of funeral dinner -- the bread of men. Ezekiel was not allowed to do this either -- for there was no time to go through the normal rituals which the people had come to expect? Why? Because the people had been unfaithful -- they had given themselves away to others and now there would no longer be time to spend on the ordinary things of life. Instead, they had to put their turbans on their heads and their shoes on their feet and be ready to go -- they were going to be taken into exile. Life as they had known it was over.

 

Application


If we don't live in faithfulness to God, life as we know it will also disappear. Too often we become wrapped up in the things of life, and the routines that we follow -- and we believe that they are important. This past weekend was Labor Day in the United States. This is a holiday that celebrates the Laborers, the workers, or the Unions which have made a difference in this country. However, for most Americans it has a time in which we can fellowship with friends, eat food, watch races or other sporting events. It's a weekend of poor church attendance because we have so many other things that we want to do and we enjoy doing. I realize that having enjoyable moments is truly important, but if we focus on those things too much, there will be a day and time that will come where the foundation of things will no longer exist. There will be a time when we can no longer do the things which have become routine to us, and we will be drawn away by enemies who have so enticed us. We will suddenly become slaves to the things of the world and we may lose the foundations of our faith -- those things which we have taken for granted.  This is what had happened to God's people.  They had become preoccupied with their neighbors and the exciting things they felt that were happening around them.  In the meantime they lost their first love.  In losing their first love, they lost everything.  There was no longer time to cover their mustache!

Prayer


Lord, please help us not to take you for granted -- and to seek you every single day! Amen.

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