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Ezekiel Acts Out an Attack
The Lord said:
1Ezekiel, son of man, find a brick and sketch a picture of Jerusalem on it. 2Then prepare to attack the brick as if it were a real city. Build a dirt mound and a ramp up to the top and surround the brick with enemy camps. On every side put large wooden poles as though you were going to break down the gate to the city. 3Set up an iron pan like a wall between you and the brick. All this will be a warning for the people of Israel.
4-5After that, lie down on your left side and stay there for 390 days as a sign of Israel's punishment—one day for each year of its suffering. 6Then turn over and lie on your right side 40 more days. That will be a sign of Judah's punishment—one day for each year of its suffering.
7The brick stands for Jerusalem, so attack it! Stare at it and shout angry warnings. 8I will tie you up, so you can't leave until your attack has ended.
Jerusalem's Coming Destruction
The Lord said:
1Ezekiel, son of man, get a sharp sword and use it to cut off your hair and beard. Weigh the hair and divide it into three equal piles. 2After you attack the brick that stands for Jerusalem, burn one pile of your hair on the brick. Chop up the second pile and let the small pieces of hair fall around the brick. Throw the third pile into the wind, and I will strike it with my own sword.
3Keep a few of the hairs and wrap them in the hem of your clothes. 4Then pull out a few of those hairs and throw them in the fire, so they will also burn. This fire will spread, destroying everyone in Israel.
5I am the Lord God, and I have made Jerusalem the most important place in the world, and all other nations admire it. 6But the people of Jerusalem rebelled and refuse to obey me. They ignored my laws and have become even more sinful than the nations around them.
7So tell the people of Jerusalem:
I am the Lord God! You have refused to obey my laws and teachings, and instead you have obeyed the laws of the surrounding nations. You have become more rebellious than any of them! 8Now all those nations will watch as I turn against you and punish you 9for your sins. Your punishment will be more horrible than anything I've ever done or will ever do again. 10 Parents will be so desperate for food that they will eat their own children, and children will eat their parents. Those who survive this horror will be scattered in every direction.
11Your sins have disgusted me and made my temple unfit as a place to worship me. So I swear by my own life that I will cut you down and show you no pity. 12A third of you will die here in Jerusalem from disease or starvation. Another third will be killed in war. And I will scatter the last third of you in every direction, then track you down and kill you.
13You will feel my fierce anger until I have finished taking revenge. Then you will know that I, the Lord, was furious because of your disobedience.
Reflect
Ezekiel does some rather strange actions (4:1-8; 5:1-2) in presenting the prophetic messages. But full clarity of meaning does not come until Ezekiel verbally explains (5:3-13) his bizarre actions. The miniature city with the toy soldiers is none other than Jerusalem, which will be besieged by the Babylonians. The hair symbolized the inhabitants who will undergo the threefold punishment of dying by disease and famine during the siege, being killed by the enemy when the city has fallen, and being forcibly taken into exile. All of this punishment is attributed to the people’s grievous rebellion against the Lord in rejecting his commandments. They have become worse than the pagan nations in their wrongdoings.
The message of accusation of the wrongs that the people have done, and the declaration of the punishment that would come, were not easy for the people to accept. From their perspective, what they were doing was not all that bad, and they did not feel that they had abandoned the Lord. They also felt that the Lord would surely protect them from the Babylonian enemy, because after all, they were God’s chosen people, and Jerusalem was his chosen city. How could God let anything happen to them or to the city?
So, out of his desire for his people to understand the degree to which they had offended him and the dire consequences of their behaviour, God requires Ezekiel to take his prophesying to a new level. Beyond just speaking the message, he dramatically acts out, in miniature, the judgments that God would bring upon Jerusalem. The people would not just hear the message; they would also “see” it. This illustrates how God will go to great lengths to get his people to hear what he is saying to them about their wrongdoings and the consequence of impending disaster.
Respond
Lord, often we too are trying to proclaim a message of salvation to an audience that does not think it needs it. Show us how to present the message of Christ dramatically, so that we are more effectively gaining an attentive hearing to a message that deserves to be heard. Amen.
Kelvin Friebel
I hold a M.A. & Ph.D. in Hebrew & Semitic Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I have taught Old Testament at Canadian Theological Seminary in Regina, SK, and Houghton College, in Houghton, NY. I have pastored Wesleyan and Christian & Missionary Alliance churches both in Wisconsin and Saskatchewan. I have taught and preached in Hong Kong, Lebanon, Philippines, Jordan, Thailand, My wife works at the University of Regina, and we have two grown children and five grandchildren.