Day 243: Ezekiel 4-6

(The previous post covered Ezekiel's commissioning by God to be a prophet to His people.)

Ezekiel 4
¹ Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and portray upon it a city, even Jerusalem:

(Ezekiel was told to lay a tile before him and portray Jerusalem upon it. The "tile" mentioned would have been a sun-dried brick. These bricks were often used for inscriptions.)

² and lay siege against it, and build forts against it, and cast up a mound against it; set camps also against it, and plant battering rams against it round about.
³ And take thou unto thee an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city: and set thy face toward it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.

(Ezekiel was told to use an iron pan as a wall between him and the tile (which represented Jerusalem). Then Ezekiel was to "lay siege against" the tile. The destruction of this tile represented the coming destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar.)

⁴ Moreover lie thou upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it; according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it, thou shalt bear their iniquity.
⁵ For I have appointed the years of their iniquity to be unto thee a number of days, even three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

(Ezekiel then had to lie on his left side on the ground for 390 days. Each day represented a year of iniquity of the Israelites. The 390 years were from the division of the kingdom under Jeroboam and Rehoboam to the eleventh year of Zedekiah, when Jerusalem fell.)

⁶ And again, when thou hast accomplished these, thou shalt lie on thy right side, and shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah: forty days, each day for a year, have I appointed it unto thee.

(Next, Ezekiel had to lie on his right side for forty days. Again, each day represented a year but this time of the iniquity of Judah. However, this iniquity of Judah did represent all of Israel since during this time the ten tribes of Israel had already been destroyed.)

⁷ And thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with thine arm uncovered; and thou shalt prophesy against it.

(Ezekiel had to prophesy against Jerusalem.)

⁸ And, behold, I lay bands upon thee, and thou shalt not turn thee from one side to the other, till thou hast accomplished the days of thy siege.
⁹ Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof; according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side, even three hundred and ninety days, shalt thou eat thereof.

(Ezekiel had to prepare enough food for himself to eat during the days he would be lying on the ground. The ingredients were unusual and signified the lack of food that would be available, especially wheat and barley.)

¹⁰ And thy food which thou shalt eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time shalt thou eat it.
¹¹ And thou shalt drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin: from time to time shalt thou drink.
¹² And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it in their sight with dung that cometh out of man.

(Again, food and water would be scarce. The food was cooked over a fire made of human dung. This would make the food unclean…)

¹³ And Jehovah said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their bread unclean, among the nations whither I will drive them.

(…it symbolized and would teach Israel that they would be eating defiled bread among the Gentiles.)

¹⁴ Then said I, Ah Lord Jehovah! behold, my soul hath not been polluted; for from my youth up even till now have I not eaten of that which dieth of itself, or is torn of beasts; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth.

(Ezekiel had never eaten defiled food and he was torn up by the idea.)

¹⁵ Then he said unto me, See, I have given thee cow's dung for man's dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread thereon.

(God told him the fire could be made with cow's dung instead of man's.)

¹⁶ Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and with fearfulness; and they shall drink water by measure, and in dismay:
¹⁷ that they may want bread and water, and be dismayed one with another, and pine away in their iniquity.

(Eating this unclean food by measure indicated famine for Jerusalem.)




Ezekiel 5
¹ And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp sword; as a barber's razor shalt thou take it unto thee, and shalt cause it to pass upon thy head and upon thy beard: then take thee balances to weigh, and divide the hair.

(The razor upon Ezekiel's head represented judgment against the Israelites. "Balances to weigh, and divide..." meant that this judgment was in response to Justice.)

² A third part shalt thou burn in the fire in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled; and thou shalt take a third part, and smite with the sword round about it; and a third part thou shalt scatter to the wind, and I will draw out a sword after them.

(Ezekiel was told to take a third of his hair and burn it in the midst of the city, a third was to be cut with a sword, and a third was to be scattered in the wind.)

³ And thou shalt take thereof a few in number, and bind them in thy skirts.
⁴ And of these again shalt thou take, and cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire; therefrom shall a fire come forth into all the house of Israel.
⁵ Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations, and countries are round about her.
⁶ And she hath rebelled against mine ordinances in doing wickedness more than the nations, and against my statutes more than the countries that are round about her; for they have rejected mine ordinances, and as for my statutes, they have not walked in them.

(Jerusalem was to be judged because of her rebellion against God.)

⁷ Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because ye are turbulent more than the nations that are round about you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept mine ordinances, neither have done after the ordinances of the nations that are round about you;
⁸ therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I, even I, am against thee; and I will execute judgments in the midst of thee in the sight of the nations.

(Because of the wickedness of the Jews, God responded with judgment.)

⁹ And I will do in thee that which I have not done, and whereunto I will not do any more the like, because of all thine abominations.
¹⁰ Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments on thee; and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter unto all the winds.

(Verse 10 was an effect of denying God and worshipping idols. What would happen in this verse was first warned of by Moses: Leviticus 26:29, Deuteronomy 28:53.)

¹¹ Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, surely, because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things, and with all thine abominations, therefore will I also diminish thee; neither shall mine eye spare, and I also will have no pity.
¹² A third part of thee shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of thee; and a third part shall fall by the sword round about thee; and a third part I will scatter unto all the winds, and will draw out a sword after them.

(The judgment would be by famine, sword, and dispersion. Each of these three forms of judgment were represented by the three things Ezekiel did with his hair.)

¹³ Thus shall mine anger be accomplished, and I will cause my wrath toward them to rest, and I shall be comforted; and they shall know that I, Jehovah, have spoken in my zeal, when I have accomplished my wrath upon them.

(After Justice was equaled out, God's anger would be accomplished.)

¹⁴ Moreover I will make thee a desolation and a reproach among the nations that are round about thee, in the sight of all that pass by.
¹⁵ So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and an astonishment, unto the nations that are round about thee, when I shall execute judgments on thee in anger and in wrath, and in wrathful rebukes (I, Jehovah, have spoken it);
¹⁶ when I shall send upon them the evil arrows of famine, that are for destruction, which I will send to destroy you: and I will increase the famine upon you, and will break your staff of bread;
¹⁷ and I will send upon you famine and evil beasts, and they shall bereave thee; and pestilence and blood shall pass through thee; and I will bring the sword upon thee: I, Jehovah, have spoken it.

(Complete destruction was foretold.)




Ezekiel 6
¹ And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,
² Son of man, set thy face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy unto them,

(Ezekiel was commanded to prophesy against the mountains of Israel.)

³ and say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Jehovah: Thus saith the Lord Jehovah to the mountains and to the hills, to the watercourses and to the valleys: Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places.

(God's Word to the mountains was that He would destroy the high places...worship of anything other than God.)

⁴ And your altars shall become desolate, and your sun-images shall be broken; and I will cast down your slain men before your idols.
⁵ And I will lay the dead bodies of the children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones round about your altars.
⁶ In all your dwelling-places the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate; that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your sun-images may be hewn down, and your works may be abolished.
⁷ And the slain shall fall in the midst of you, and ye shall know that I am Jehovah.

(After the destruction of the high places, altars, and the idolaters, the people would know it was Jehovah.)

⁸ Yet will I leave a remnant, in that ye shall have some that escape the sword among the nations, when ye shall be scattered through the countries.

(A remnant would be saved.)

⁹ And those of you that escape shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be carried captive, how that I have been broken with their lewd heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes, which play the harlot after their idols: and they shall loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.

(God described Himself as "broken." God was weary of the idolatry of the people.)

¹⁰ And they shall know that I am Jehovah: I have not said in vain that I would do this evil unto them.

(The people would know that God meant the words He said.)

¹¹ Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Smite with thy hand, and stamp with thy foot, and say, Alas! because of all the evil abominations of the house of Israel; for they shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.
¹² He that is far off shall die of the pestilence; and he that is near shall fall by the sword; and he that remaineth and is besieged shall die by the famine: thus will I accomplish my wrath upon them.

(God's wrath would fall upon all of the people regardless of where they were.)

¹³ And ye shall know that I am Jehovah, when their slain men shall be among their idols round about their altars, upon every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the places where they offered sweet savor to all their idols.

(God gave the people the measure for them to know that God was doing this: when all these events happened to the people, they would know that Jehovah was God.)

¹⁴ And I will stretch out my hand upon them, and make the land desolate and waste, from the wilderness toward Diblah, throughout all their habitations: and they shall know that I am Jehovah.

(This post covered God's warning to the people through Ezekiel with details so that they would know God did this, and would turn again to God.)

Day 244