You’d be surprised at some of the weird things that God actually asked people to do in the Bible, and they’re more bizarre than most people realize.
The long stretch
Ezekiel knew all about feeling uncomfortable. God told him that he had to lie on his left side for 390 days and then turn over. He had to lie on his right side for 40 more days. You might’ve worked out that all those days add up to more than a year.
That’s right. Ezekiel spent more than a year doing something that definitely looked strange to anyone watching him. He did the whole thing while lying near a small model of Jerusalem. Why? Because he was bearing the sins of Israel and Judah. That’s real devotion.
The rock
Moses wasn’t a stranger to thirsty people. But in Numbers 20, God gave him a specific instruction about what to do about the thirst. He had to take a staff and gather everyone in Kadesh together. Then he had to speak to the rock. Yes, really. He had to speak to it, not hit it.
It happened after the Israelites started complaining about the recent drought and how there was no water for them or their animals. However, Moses didn’t do what God said. He struck the rock and, yes, water came out, but he didn’t speak directly to the stone, and it made God angry.
The odd delivery
Elijah also had his own water problem, too. He told King Ahab there wasn’t going to be any rain, so God sent Elijah to the Kerith Ravine. Elijah was supposed to hide by a brook and drink the water there. Simple, right? Here’s where it gets weird.
God said the ravens would bring him food. They did. The birds apparently brought bread and meat to Elijah in the morning, and then again in the evening. God commanded the ravens to bring it.
The night noise
You’d expect an army to be armed with the best kind of weaponry around, especially when they’re marching into battle. Gideon’s group was different. He had only 300 men, but God told them that they had to use some special kinds of weapons. That’s if you can call them weapons.
Gideon’s army used trumpets, empty jars, and torches against the Midianite camp. They started during the middle watch by blowing the trumpets. They then smashed the jars and lifted the torches. It was one heck of a wake-up call.
The raised object
It’s time for a desert story now. The bronze snake story started when the Israelites spoke against God and Moses. That’s just not something you’re supposed to do. According to the story in Numbers 21, venomous snakes appeared and started biting people. But God had a plan.
He told Moses to make a bronze snake and stick it on a pole. Anyone who was bitten just had to look at the snake, and then they’d be cured. If only modern medicine were that simple.
The sharp haircut
We’re going back to Ezekiel now, who had another strange request to follow. God told him that he had to cut off his hair. That’s weird enough, but it gets even more bizarre. God said he had to use a sharp sword to do it.
Yes, he had to use the sword like a barber’s razor on his head and beard. Ezekiel then had to weigh the hair and split it. A third had to be burned. He had to strike another third with the sword. Finally, Ezekiel had to tuck a little into his clothes and scatter the rest into the wind.
The broken jar
God’s demands for Jeremiah started simple enough. He had to go to the potter and buy a jar. Simple as that. However, God also told him that he had to bring some elders and priests to the Valley of Ben Hinnom. It was by the Potsherd Gate.Â
He had to speak to them there. Once he’d finished, Jeremiah had to break the jar right in front of the people. He had to smash the entire jar to pieces, publicly and loudly. Now that’s one demonstration, alright.
The hidden stones
Jeremiah’s story gets weirder. In Jeremiah 43, he was in Egypt with some of the people from Judah, and God gave him an odd job. He had to take large stones and hide them. Not anyway, but specifically in the brick pavement at the entrance to the Pharaoh’s Tahpanhes palace.
It had to be right there. Right in the entrance, right where people watched him doing it. He also had to tell everyone that Nebuchadnezzar, who was the King of Babylon, would set his royal canopy over the stones.
The dusty throw
A biblical plague is hard enough to deal with, and God made things weirder for Moses and Aaron. He said they had to go to a furnace and take handfuls of soot from it. But not for burning or anything. No way. Moses had to throw the soot in front of the Pharaoh.
It had to go straight up in front of him, and then it would turn into fine dust across all of Egypt. The dust then caused boils to break out on people and animals alike. It was awful. In fact, the Pharaoh’s own magicians couldn’t stand in front of Moses. The boils were that bad.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
