It was terrible really. Ezekiel was told that God was going to take the delight of his eyes and he was not to mourn. It would be a sign to Israel that in the same way, God was going to take away the delight of their eyes–Jerusalem.

We know nothing of Ezekiel’s wife. Was she a saint? Was she sinful like the people?

We know that the taking of Jerusalem was justified. Their corruption was just too much. But know virtually nothing about Ezekiel’s wife.

It makes me think of an earlier passage in Ezekiel 14. The sin of Jerusalem had become so bad that the Lord says that while he would save Daniel, Job and Noah because of their righteousness, he would not save their families. The corruption of the land was that bad. I’m guessing the same is true here.

So maybe Ezekiel’s wife, though he loved her, was like the people of the land? Steeped in sin but loved by God? And that her death was just the first of the judgment to come? We don’t know. That is total implication.

But that’s what it is with this. We just don’t know. We trust the character of God that there’s more to the story than we understand. God is holy, righteous and just and for the last 100 chapters of the Bible it is is declaring his righteous judgment in the face of Israel’s sin.

There are many things that we don’t know. But when we come to know more and more the character of God, we trust Him more. Even in His judgment. Even when we don’t understand. Even when we lose the most precious ones of our lives.

I think of Billy Graham. He said that there were some things even he didn’t understand why God did or did not do certain things. Yet he felt he knew enough of God’s character and ways that he could trust God for what he didn’t know. What he didn’t understand. I think that’s important to grasp. Because as much as want to understand, we truly do not know or have the whole picture.