“You might recall the episode in the Book of Acts in which the Lord asks Peter to eat animals that were unclean and forbidden by the Law of Moses. In his case, the Lord was going to use him to bring the Gospel to ‘unclean’ Gentiles. The defilement was the lesson.
In Ezekiel’s case, whether it was human or cow excrement wasn’t critical. Starvation was the point.
It’s always interesting to me when the Lord allows negotiation, and when he doesn’t. Moses, Hezekiah, Gideon, and most famously Abraham all entered into negotiations with God. Sometimes the LORD would relent. It wasn’t always with a positive result, however, as Hezekiah learned.”