Jeremiah, for example, wore an ox yoke around his neck to symbolize Israel’s impending oppression under the Babylonian Empire. Ezekiel memorialized the fall of Jerusalem by building a model of the city and lying down next to it for over a year—390 days on his left side and 40 days on his right side—eating only bread cooked over cow dung at meals. When a group of teenage boys taunted the prophet Elisha’s baldness, God sent two female bears to maul them to death. (My youth pastor liked to tease his students with that story when we commented on his receding hairline.) When Jonah tried to avoid
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