The Lord Said: "It's Worse than This"

Ezekiel 24:15 The word of the Lord came to me: 16 “Son of man, behold, I am about to take the delight of your eyes away from you at a stroke; yet you shall not mourn or weep, nor shall your tears run down. 17 Sigh, but not aloud; make no mourning for the dead. Bind on your turban, and put your shoes on your feet; do not cover your lips, nor eat the bread of men.” 18 So I spoke to the people in the morning, and at evening my wife died. And on the next morning I did as I was commanded.

God used Ezekiel's personal sorrow as an object lesson to show the people of Judah how bad things would be.  The temple and Holy City were their pride and joy - the most important thing they had as a nation. It would be taken away, but they would not be able to grieve and normal, because they would be dead or in exile.  God goes on to tell Ezekiel that when the exiles came to him in Babylon he would be able to show them this is what his message had meant, and then, as God often says to him, they shall know that I am the Lord GOD. What loss do we need to suffer, how bad does it need to get, before we start listening to God?