Introduction
The Lord has called Ezekiel to be his prophet; and he has sent him to the people of Israel, who were living in exile in Babylon to declare to them the word of the Lord.
You might recall from your Old Testament history that in the reign of Jehoiachin, the Babylonian army laid siege to Jerusalem. And Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians; and the king and the best people in the land were taken away to Babylon. And Ezekiel was taken with them. And the reason the Lord let the Babylonians overpower his people and take them away into exile was because of their persistent rebellion and unbelief. Again and again and again the people turned from the Lord and worshipped false gods and they did not walk in his ways. Though the Lord sent them prophets to warn them, they did not listen. And so, in due course the Lord sent the Babylonians against them. That’s how Ezekiel and the other exiles ended up in Babylon.
And from what the Lord said to Ezekiel in chapters 2 and 3 we learn that the people have not yet humbled themselves before the Lord. Though his hand was against them and he sent their enemies to punish them, they had not turned from their sin and rebellion. And we know this is the case, because the Lord warned Ezekiel in chapter 2 that the people will not listen to him. The Lord said about them that they were a rebellious nation who has rebelled against him. They and their forefathers had been in revolt right up to the present time. So, instead of humbling themselves before the Lord and confessing their sins and turning from them, they continued to do evil in his sight. He said they are obstinate and stubborn. That is, their hearts are hard and they had set their face against him.
And so, the Lord said to Ezekiel that the people will not listen to him. A foreign nation was more likely to listen to Ezekiel than the people of Israel were. And they weren’t willing to listen to Ezekiel, because they weren’t willing to listen to the Lord.
And since the people were hard-hearted and stubborn, then the Lord was going to make Ezekiel as unyielding and as hardened as they are. The Lord was going to make Ezekiel as hard as flint. And so, the Lord would enable him to stand up to them and to continue to declare to them the word of the Lord even though they will not listen.
And at the end of last week’s passage, we saw how the Lord made clear to Ezekiel that he was to be wholly devoted to his calling. Whereas the people could go out and about, Ezekiel was confined to his house, where he was tied with ropes. And whereas the people could talk about many things, Ezekiel was to remain silent until the Lord opened his mouth. And when the Lord opened Ezekiel’s mouth, he was to declare the word of the Lord and nothing else. From that time on, Ezekiel was to be wholly devoted to doing this one task, which was to declare the word of the Lord to God’s rebellious people. And in this way he foreshadowed the Lord Jesus who was wholly devoted to doing his Father’s will when he was on the earth. He was wholly devoted to doing his Father’s will even to the point of giving up his life on the cross as the ransom to pay for our sins and to reconcile us to the Father. And by his Spirit living in us, we will also become more and more devoted to doing the will of our Father in heaven here on earth.
Today we come to chapters 4 and 5, where Ezekiel begins his prophetic ministry. The two chapters can be divided into two main parts. The first part is from verse 1 of chapter 4 to verse 4 of chapter 5. And in this part, Ezekiel performs a number of actions for the people to see. The second part is from verse 5 of chapter 5 to the end of the chapter. And in this part, Ezekiel explains the significance of the actions. And the actions he performs are about the destruction of Jerusalem. As I’ve already said, during the reign of Jehoiachin, the Babylonians besieged the city. And the city fell to the Babylonians and many people were exiled. However, Jerusalem was not destroyed at that time. It continued to exist. The Babylonians made Zedekiah king in place of Jehoiachin and people continued to live in the city. However, after a while, Zedekiah rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. And so, Nebuchadnezzar sent his army to lay siege to Jerusalem once again. And this time, when the city fell, his army went into the city and destroyed it. The temple and the palace and the walls were destroyed. Lots of people died during the siege. Lots more people died when the city fell. Most of the survivors were taken away and Nebuchadnezzar left the city in ruins. And in chapters 4 and 5 Ezekiel performs these actions which foretell what the Lord was planning to do to Jerusalem. So, when Ezekiel performed these actions, Jerusalem had not yet been destroyed. But Ezekiel makes clear to the people that Jerusalem will be destroyed. If they were hoping that God will save Jerusalem, they were completely mistaken.
4:1–5:4
And so, in the first part, Ezekiel performs a number of actions for the people to see which foretell the destruction of Jerusalem. And you’ll notice that he’s not speaking in this first part. So, these actions are a kind of mime or they’re a kind of macabre or dark game of charades. The commentators call them sign-acts, because they are acts or actions which signify something. And as I’ve said, they signify the destruction of Jerusalem. And there are three of them, each introduced by the word ‘take’. So, in verse 1, Ezekiel is told to take a clay tablet. In verse 9, he’s told to take wheat and barley and so on. And in verse 1 of chapter 5 he’s told to take a sharp sword. The first mime is about the siege of Jerusalem. The second mime is about eating food rations and unclean food during and after the siege. And the third is about the fate of Jerusalem’s population.
So, in verse 1 of chapter 4 the Lord tells him to take a clay tablet and to draw Jerusalem on it. So, presumably he was to write on it the name of the city or he was to draw on it a picture of the city. He was to make clear to his audience that the clay tablet represented Jerusalem.
And then he was to lay siege to it. That is to say, he was to create a model of siege-works. When I was a boy, I had my toy soldiers and my toy cowboys and I pretended that the soldiers were attacking the enemy or that the cowboys were shooting each other. And I’d perhaps make a building out of a shoe box and a mountain out of my duvet. Or I’d go out into the garden and make something out of twigs and branches. And Ezekiel was to do the same kind of thing. He was to set up siege works and build a ramp and set up a camp and put battering rams around it. Full-size siege works were a kind of wall which an attacking army would build around a city made of rock and earth. And it would prevent supplies getting into the city. And because it was raised up, it would enable the attacking army to see into the city. And because cities were often built on hills and mountains, attacking armies would also build ramps up to the city. And they would use these ramps to bring battering rams up to the gates. That’s what they did in real life. And Ezekiel was to make models of all these things.
And then the Lord told him to take an iron pan. And perhaps when he lifted this pan, his audience may have thought he was going to use it to squash his model of the people attacking Jerusalem. They may have thought the Lord had sent Ezekiel to reassure them and to tell them that God was doing to destroy their enemies. But no. Ezekiel was to place the iron pan as an iron wall between Ezekiel and the city. And it seems that this iron pan was to represent how the Lord was putting a kind of iron wall between himself and Jerusalem. And since it was iron, then it was impenetrable. And it was to show that if the people in Jerusalem cry out to the Lord because of the siege, he will not listen. And he will not reach out to help them. In fact, the Lord tells Ezekiel to set his face towards the city. In this mime, it’s likely that Ezekiel is playing the part of God. And just as Ezekiel has set his face against the model city, so God has set his face against the real city. He is implacably opposed to them. It’s as if the Lord has become their enemy and he’s going to use the Babylonians to attack them.
And then, as part of the same mime, Ezekiel was to lie on his left side for 390 days. Do you see that in verses 4 and 5? The commentators suggest that he may not have lain on his side for the whole of the 390 days, but for only a few hours each day. And the Lord tells him that when he was lying on his side, he was to put the sin of the house of Israel on himself. Presumably there was some object which he used to represent their sin. And the reason he was to bear their sin for 390 days was because the 390 days represented the 390 years they had rebelled against the Lord. The commentators suggest 390 years was the number of years between the dedication of the temple in the days of Solomon to the time when the temple was destroyed.
So, he was to lie down on his side for 390 days to represent the way they have sinned against the Lord for 390 years. And then he was to turn over and lie on his right side. And the NIV says he was now to bear the sin of the house of Judah for 40 days. The Hebrew word translated ‘sin’ can also be used to refer to the punishment of sin. And some of the commentators think that’s how it should be translated in verse 6. And the 40 days represents 40 years. And so, the point of the mime is that the people would suffer God’s punishment for their sins for a period of around 40 years after the siege was over.
In verse 7 the Lord tells Ezekiel to turn his face towards the model of the siege and prophesy against Jerusalem with a bared arm. Soldiers would bare their arms in order to get ready for battle. So, they would roll up their sleeves. And this meant that God, represented by Ezekiel, was getting ready for a battle against his people.
That’s the first of the three mimes. In the second, Ezekiel is told to get four kinds of grain and two kinds of vegetable and make bread from them. It’s an odd mixture of ingredients and so it perhaps represents what the people might eat during a siege when food is scarce and when you would make bread out of whatever you can find. You’ll know that during World War 2 the government produced cook books to show people how they could make bread and cakes and other things out of the strangest ingredients. Food was scarce during the war. And food was scarce during the siege. So, they’d scrape the barrel and make bread from whatever they could find.
And the Lord told Ezekiel to eat this bread during the 390 days he had to lie on his side. Moreover he was to restrict himself to twenty shekels of food and a sixth of a hin of water. These are small amounts. These are ration amounts and this mime would speak to the people of the suffering that would come on the people in Jerusalem during the siege.
And the Lord also told Ezekiel in verse 12 to bake a barley cake in the sight of the people using human excrement for fuel. Apparently the way they made cakes in those days was by putting the dough directly on the burning fuel. And so, this would mean putting the dough for these cakes on the human excrement. This would make the food defiled. And that was the point: God wanted to make clear that the people of Jerusalem will have to eat defiled food, or unclean food, when they are exiled after the siege.
Ezekiel protested and the Lord relented and let him use cow manure instead of human excrement. And then the Lord went on to say that he will cut off the supply of food in Jerusalem. And so, they will eat rationed food only. And they will eat it in anxiety and despair. They were be fearful, because of the siege. And when they see their emaciated bodies and how thin they have become during the siege, they will be appalled.
So, during the siege they will be afraid and they will go hungry. And when they are in exile, they will have to eat unclean food. This is what the Lord has in store for them because of their persistent sin and rebellion.
That’s the second mime. The third begins in verse 1 of chapter 5. This time he’s to take a sharp sword and use it as a barber’s razor to shave his head and beard. And he was to take the hair he had shaved off and divide it into three parts. He was to burn one third inside the model city. He was then to take another third and strike it with the sword all around the model city. And then he was to throw the final third into the air and let the wind blow it away.
And it seems this was to represent what will happen to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Just as a third of the hair was destroyed by fire, so some of the people will be destroyed. They may not be burned, but they will be destroyed, because of famine and illness. And just as a third of the hair was struck by the sword, so some of the people will be killed by the sword. And just as a third of the hair was scattered to the wind, so some of the people will be scattered when they are taken away into exile.
However, in verse 3 the Lord told Ezekiel to take a few strands of hair and keep them safe. So, God’s people will not be destroyed totally. He will keep some of them safe. A remnant will be spared. And we know that when the time was right, the Lord brought some of the people back from exile and he restored them to the Promised Land. And the Lord also kept King Jehoiachin safe. The Lord will not totally destroy his people.
But take a look now at verse 4. Ezekiel is told to take a few of those strands and burn them. So, the number of strands of hair that are saved becomes even smaller. The remnant — the number of people who will be preserved — will be a tiny number compared to those who are destroyed.
5:5–17
That’s the first part of today’s passage which records for us these three mimes which the Lord commanded Ezekiel to perform in the sight of the people. The first was about the siege. The second was about the ration food and the defiled food they would eat during and after the siege. The third was about the fate of the people: some will be destroyed because of famine and illness; some will be cut down by the sword; some will be scattered to the nations. But a remnant will be kept safe. That’s the first part of today’s passage.
The second part interprets and explains the mimes and adds to them.
And so, in verse 8 the Lord announces that he is against the people of Jerusalem. And he says that he will inflict punishment on them. And in the following verses, the Lord explains why he is against them. According to verse 6, it’s because their wickedness is worse than the wickedness of the nations. According to verse 7, they have become more unruly than the nations and they have not kept his laws and decrees. In fact, they have not even lived up to the standards of the pagan nations around them. And in verse 9 he refers to their detestable idols. So, they have turned from the Lord to worship false gods. And in verse 11 he says they have defiled the Lord’s temple with their viles images and detestable practices. He’s referring again to their idolatry.
And so, because of their unfaithfulness and their wickedness — and they were more wicked than the pagan nations — he is against them and is determined to punish them by sending the Babylonians against them.
According to verse 10, they will become so hungry during the siege that fathers will eat the remains of their children; and children will eat the remains of their parents. That’s what they will resort to to avoid starvation. And then he will inflict punishment on those who survive. And others will be scattered. And so, that corresponds to the third mime with the three portions of hair: some will be destroyed because of famine or illness; some will be killed by the sword; some will be scattered to other nations.
And he repeats the announcement in verses 12 and 13. A third will die of illness or famine. A third will fall by the sword. A third will be scattered. By repeating the announcement, he’s underlining it. These things are sure to happen. He will not change his mind.
And in this way the Lord will avenge himself on his disobedient people. Because he is a God of perfect justice, he will punish them for their wickedness. If they had turned to him for mercy, he would have pardoned them. But since they persisted in their rebellion, and did not turn from it, then they forfeited the grace that would have been theirs.
And what he does to them will become a warning to the nations. Do you see that in verse 15? The other nations will see what the Lord has done to them and it will be a warning to them that the Lord the God of Israel is a holy God who punishes the wicked for their wickedness.
Application
And whenever we read these things in the Old Testament and how God will punish his rebellious people and the unbelieving nations, it points forward to the great and terrible day of judgment which the New Testament teaches us to expect when Christ will come again in glory and with power to judge the living and the dead and to condemn his enemies and to send them away to be punished for ever.
According to the New Testament, he will come like a thief in the night when no one is expecting him. And when he comes, he will sit as king on his great white judgment throne and just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, so he’ll separate his people from his enemies, the righteous from the unrighteous. And while the righteous will be acquitted and will receive their promised inheritance which is everlasting life in the presence of God, the unrighteous will be sent away to suffer the eternal fire prepared for the devil and all his demons. They will be sent away to the darkness where they will be weeping and the gnashing of teeth. They will be thrown into the lake of fire to be tormented day and night.
We read of the suffering of the people in Jerusalem. The famine was so bad that they will eat the remains of their loved ones who died. They suffered wasting diseases too. And then others were cut down by the sword or taken away as exiles to foreign nations. We read of their suffering, but their suffering is nothing compared to the torment which awaits sinners after the day of judgment which will be unbearable and which will be endless so that there will be no relief from it at all.
That’s what the New Testament tells us about the coming judgment and the judgment on Jerusalem anticipates it and points forward to it. But, of course, just as people in every generation suppress the truth about God so that they do not believe in him, so they do not believe in the day of judgment to come even when they hear about it. And so, in 2 Peter 3, the Apostle writes about the Day of the Lord, when Christ will judge the living and the dead. But he also writes about scoffers who will scoff and ask, ‘Where is this coming he promised?’. The scoffers will also say: ‘Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.’ They think the world will just continue as it always has. The future will be like the past. Nothing will change. The Lord will not come again. There is no day of judgment. Just as the exiles around Ezekiel did not think that God would destroy Jerusalem, so people in every age do not think that Christ will come to judge the world and to punish sinners. But Peter insisted that the Lord will come like a thief and the heavens will disappear with a roar and the elements will be destroyed by fire and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare when the Lord comes as judge. Just because the Lord has delayed his coming does not mean he is not coming. And when he comes, it will be terrifying.
And here’s the thing: we would be among those who are condemned and punished when Christ comes again if it were not God’s kindness to us in Christ Jesus. We too are sinners by birth and every day we sin against the Lord in thought and word and deed. We fall short of doing his will. We break his laws and his commandments. Every day we do wrong and we fall short. All of us have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. And so, the punishment that falls on the wicked should also fall on us, because we too are sinners and we have done what is wicked in the sight of the Lord.
And so, we too deserve to be judged and condemned and sent away into the darkness and to the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. That’s what you and I deserve. And that’s the fate that would be ours if it were not for God’s kindness to us in Christ Jesus. Because of God’s mercy, he spared some of the population of Jerusalem and let a small remnant survive. That’s what the strands of hair which were kept safe signified. And from that small remnant — which included Jehoiachin the descendant of David — there came eventually the Saviour of the world, who was descended from David and from Jehoiachin. And when the time was right. God in his mercy sent his Only Begotten Son into the world to be our Saviour and to bear the punishment we deserve for all that we have done wrong. He suffered in our place the penalty that is ours. He took the blame for us and satisfied the justice of God which was against us.
Look again at what the Lord said in verse 13 of chapter 5. He said that when he has punished his people, his anger will cease and his wrath will subside; and he will be avenged. He says he will have spent or used up his wrath upon them. And we deserve to suffer God’s anger and wrath for a lifetime of sin and rebellion. God should have avenged himself on us for our rebellion. He should have spent his wrath on us. But the good news of the gospel is that God has punished his Son in our place. And so, because of Christ’s suffering, God’s anger against us has ceased. Because of Christ’s suffering, God’s wrath against us has subsided. Because of Christ’s suffering, God has been avenged for all the ways we have offended him. His wrath has been spent or used up on his Son instead of on us.
And, of course, God’s anger and wrath is not like our anger and wrath. It’s not an emotion which overcomes him. God’s anger and wrath is his will to punish the wicked. But instead of punishing us, he punished his Son.
And not only did he send his Son to pay our penalty and to endure the punishment we deserve, but he also sent his Spirit into our lives to enable us to repent and to believe in Christ who suffered and died for us. And having been united to Christ by faith, we receive all the benefits of his life and death and resurrection, including forgiveness and peace with God and assurance of God’s love and the hope of everlasting life. And now, instead of dreading the day of the Lord, we can look forward to Christ’s coming, because when he comes we will receive our inheritance which is everlasting life in the presence of God in the new Jerusalem to come, where all of God’s people will worship him for ever and for ever; and where we’ll sit down and eat with Christ our King; and where no one will be hungry or thirsty or will be in danger or will be sent away. Instead we’ll live with the Lord for ever and for ever and enjoy perfect peace and rest.
And since this is the future that awaits us because of Christ, we should lift our hearts and voices to heaven every day and give thanks to God for his kindness to us in Christ. And we should seek to honour him in all we do and say each day.
The Apostle Peter asked what kind of people should you be since everything will be destroyed when Christ comes again. He said you should live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God. And you should make every effort to be found spotless and blameless and at peace with God. And you’re to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. You should grow in grace by looking to him for his gracious help to live each day for him. And you should grow in knowledge by getting to know him more and more and getting to know what he has done for you to bring you to God in the new and better world to come.
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