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在某些杂货店里你会看到出售“以西结书四章9节面包”，这种面包的成分，与神吩咐以西结用来造饼的材料相同。

然而，神给以西结做饼的食谱，原意不是要生产一种昂贵的高级食品。各种谷物混合起来确实构成了完全的蛋白质，神吩咐以西结吃小量的饼，这饼能够为他提供很多重要的养分，然而，做这饼时用的成分却与他的文化传统不相符。这表明他是在物质贫乏和环境危机时为了削减开支才采用的日常饮食。麦子、谷物和豆类的混合物构成少量的素食，不是最令人满意的食物。而更糟的是，以西结竟然要用粪便做燃料来做饼！

这个匪夷所思的故事令人感到不安：神为什么吩咐以西结这样做？尽管以西结对此感到实在难以忍受，但他为什么仍然照着做了？

我们没有简单的答案。神在这里的用意，似乎是要表达以色列民的叛逆将会带来严厉的后果，然而这特别的饼却能够维持人的生命。将要临到的围困会带来可怕的困境，然而，神的子民不会完全被毁灭。这是一个唤醒他们归向神的警钟。多年之后，耶稣也向人发出同样的呼召，祂呼召他们看到神就在他们中间。

In some grocery stores you can find "Ezekiel 4:9 Bread," which contains the same ingredients God told Ezekiel to use here to make bread.

But the recipe God gave Ezekiel wasn't intended to be an expensive specialty food. Although the combination of grains forms a complete protein and would have given Ezekiel a lot of important nutrients as he ate the small portions he was told to eat, the mixture of those ingredients was not part of his cultural tradition. It pointed to a pared-back diet for times of poverty and crisis. The wheat was to be mixed with grains and legumes that made for a scant vegetarian diet and weren't very desirable. To make matters worse, Ezekiel had to cook the bread over manure!

This strange story is unsettling: Why would God ask Ezekiel to do this? And why did Ezekiel follow through even though it was awfully uncomfortable to do so?

There are no easy answers, but it seems that the message God intended here was that there would be harsh consequences for Israel's disobedience, and yet this unusual bread would sustain people. A coming siege would bring horrible discomfort, but it would not completely obliterate God's people. It would be a wake-up call to turn back to God. Many years later, Jesus would sound a similar call for the people to recognize God in their midst.