When You Know It’s Going To Be A Bad Day Series

According to a recent survey, the average American knows their day is going to be bad by 8:36 a.m. in the morning. For example, they say, “You know you’re going to have a bad day if you wake up feeling sick (35%), if you suffer from poor sleep (31%), or if you start the day with a headache (29%).” Those are the top three indicators of a bad day. Other respondents said, “You also know you’re going to have a bad day if you misplace your keys (26%) or leave your phone at home (25%).”

Nearly half of those surveyed (48%) cancelled plans or called in sick after a challenging start to their day. They opted instead to return to bed in hopes of salvaging what remains of their day (Emily Brown, “Science Has Pinpointed the Exact Minute You’ll Know If Your Day Will Be Bad,” Relevant Magazine, 8-20-24; www.PreachingToday.com).

How about you? Do you usually know by 8:36 in the morning if you’re going to have a bad day? If so, what does God want you to do? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Ezekiel 24, Ezekiel 24, where God speaks to His people who knew they were going to have a bad day.

Ezekiel 24:1-2 In the ninth year, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, write down the name of this day, this very day. The king of Babylon has laid siege to Jerusalem this very day (ESV).

It was the morning of January 15, 588 B.C., the start of a day of national calamity for Jerusalem. The Babylonian army had arrived. They surrounded the city to begin an 18-month siege, after which they would completely destroy the city. The ancient Jews never forgot that day, much like Israel today will never forget October 7, 2023. That was the day Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,139 people and kidnapping 200 more.

So what does God have to say to a nation facing national calamity and to you and me, who to a much lesser extent, sometimes face personal calamity.

Ezekiel 24:3-5 And utter a parable to the rebellious house and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: “Set on the pot, set it on; pour in water also; put in it the pieces of meat, all the good pieces, the thigh and the shoulder; fill it with choice bones. Take the choicest one of the flock; pile the logs under it; boil it well; seethe also its bones in it (ESV).

God is like a chef, cooking up a pot of stew. He calls for the choicest cuts of meat, the best of the people, but He discovers a big problem.

Ezekiel 24:6 “Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Woe to the bloody city, to the pot whose corrosion is in it, and whose corrosion has not gone out of it! Take out of it piece after piece, without making any choice (ESV).

The pot is rusty, and the stew is spoiled by a rusty scum. So God begins to indiscriminately dump the contents of the pot. False teachers had told the Jews they were safe in Jerusalem like meat in a pot (Ezekiel 11), but the pot was rusty (or corroded), and Babylon would drag the people into exile with no regard to their position in society.

Ezekiel 24:7-9 For the blood she has shed is in her midst; she put it on the bare rock; she did not pour it out on the ground to cover it with dust. To rouse my wrath, to take vengeance, I have set on the bare rock the blood she has shed, that it may not be covered. Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Woe to the bloody city! I also will make the pile great (ESV).

God will judge the city for its bloodshed, for taking innocent life without shame. So Babylon will carry most of Jerusalem’s citizens into exile, and God will burn the rest up in the pot—i.e., they will die in Jerusalem.

Ezekiel 24:10-14 Heap on the logs, kindle the fire, boil the meat well, mix in the spices, and let the bones be burned up. Then set it empty upon the coals, that it may become hot, and its copper may burn, that its uncleanness may be melted in it, its corrosion consumed. She has wearied herself with toil; its abundant corrosion does not go out of it. Into the fire with its corrosion! On account of your unclean lewdness, because I would have cleansed you and you were not cleansed from your uncleanness, you shall not be cleansed anymore till I have satisfied my fury upon you. I am the LORD. I have spoken; it shall come to pass; I will do it. I will not go back; I will not spare; I will not relent; according to your ways and your deeds you will be judged, declares the Lord GOD” (ESV).