Ezekiel 4-24 covers the Judgment on Jerusalem and Judah. It is broken down as such:
Ch 4-7 Symbolic Actions
Ch 8-11 Ezekiel’s first “temple vision”
Ch 12-14 Idolatry will be punished
Ch 15-23 Parables and Metaphors
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Today I will be touching on Ezekiel 4-7
(I really try not to make these long each Friday, but sometimes it is hard. That is why I give you the option of being able to print it out in my BlogFrog Community, it may be easier to read that way).
Even though Ezekiel is far away from Jerusalem in Babylon, he is given prophetic warnings to those who are still residing in Israel about the coming invasion. At the time, there were false prophets telling the people there would be peace, but God tells the people that disaster is coming. Sounds like the world today telling us we are working towards peace, but as Christians the book of Revelation tells us it is going to get worse before it gets better. Who do you believe?
Ezekiel was instructed to take a clay tablet with the city of Jerusalem drawn on it and camp around about it (Ezekiel 4:2). Ezekiel then took an iron pan to symbolize a wall between him and the city. This was God’s warning through Ezekiel that the Chaldeans would seal off Jerusalem. Do you think anyone was listening to Ezekiel? Ezekiel 2:4 tells us he was speaking to impudent and stubborn people.
Sin of Israel: (these sins are important to remember because later you will be asking, why is God so angry. Below is WHY.)
And he (God) shall give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, who did sin, and who made Israel to sin (1 Kings 14:16). Jeroboam caused the ten tribes to rebel against the authority of the house of David when Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, came to reign.
Simply put: they lacked the fear of God!
Ezekiel 22:3-11
“You shall say, Thus says the Lord God: A city that sheds blood in her midst, so that her time may come, and that makes idols to defile herself! 4 You have become guilty by the blood that you have shed, and defiled by the idols that you have made, and you have brought your days near, the appointed time of your years has come. Therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations, and a mockery to all the countries. Those who are near and those who are far from you will mock you; your name is defiled; you are full of tumult.”
They lacked the Fear of God.
“Behold the princes of Israel in you, every one according to his power, have been bent on shedding blood. Father and mother are treated with contempt in you; the sojourner suffers extortion in your midst; the fatherless and the widow are wronged in you. You have despised my holy things and profaned my Sabbaths. There are men in you who slander to shed blood, and people in you who eat on the mountains; they commit lewdness in your midst. In you men uncover their fathers’ nakedness; in you they violate women who are unclean in their menstrual impurity. One commits abomination with his neighbor’s wife; another lewdly defiles his daughter-in-law; another in you violates his sister, his father’s daughter. In you they take bribes to shed blood; you take interest and profit and make gain of your neighbors by extortion; but me you have forgotten, declares the Lord God.
I don’t know about you, but I get a shiver of fear while reading the sins Jerusalem committed and God’s punishment. Some (if not all of the sins) are prevalent today.
God then instructed Ezekiel to lay on his left size for 390 days~appox. 13 months (we are not told how long each day he had to do this). Then lay on his right side for 40 days. Left side symbolized the days of judgment Jerusalem would have against them and the right side symbolized their time in captivity. (Ezekiel 4:4-6)( In the BlogFrog community I break down this important calculation).
Symbol of Ezekiel’s sharp sword (Ezekiel 5):
God orders Ezekiel to shave the hairs off his head and his beard, then to distribute them into three parts. God is using Ezekiel’s hair to symbolize how Israel will be defeated. Also shaving the head was a sign of mourning.
Ezekiel 5: 7-9
Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you are more turbulent than the nations that are all around you (meaning the Gentiles), and have not walked in my statutes or obeyed my rules, and have not even acted according to the rules of the nations that are all around you, therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, even I, am against you. And I will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations. And because of all your abominations I will do with you what I have never yet done, and the like of which I will never do again.
God will go to great lengths to make His people understand that He, and He alone, is God.
God’s Judgment (what the distribution of Ezekiel’s hairs represented):
Chapter 6 is the Destruction Against the Mountains of Israel
In this chapter (now let this sink in, this is important) this describes the lengths to which God will go to make His people understand that He, and He alone, is God. Yahweh also gives us a truth, He has been hurt. God has been hurt by the adulterous, idolatrous hearts of His people. Ezekiel 6:9
Even today we wound God when we seek other idols. God reminds us in a powerful way, we may seek advice, we may go to counsel BUT it is God who will answer us. We have become a society today that makes our idols look pretty. We study Ezekiel and the judgment upon Israel, but look at our society today….is there much difference? This should strike fear into those who lack the fear of God and should comfort those who fear God. Those who fear God know God is a God of justice and that he will not allow evil deeds to go unpunished.
Chapter 7: The Coming of God’s Judgment
God tells Israel he will not spare them of the coming judgment. The entire land will be judged. There will be famine and pestilence (Ezekiel 7:15), those outside the city will die by the sword (Ezekiel 7:15), the remnant will flee to the mountains mourn (Ezekiel 7:16), money and possessions will mean nothing (Ezekiel 7:17-22). God will give the land to the worst of the Gentiles (Ezekiel 7:24). There will be great mourning (Ezekiel 7:25-27).
It is so easy to point our fingers at the sins of Israel, reading through Ezekiel 22:3-11 should be a wake up call. In the gospel according to Lori (meaning my opinion) we are becoming more and more a nation that does not fear God. The sad thing is I am mainly talking about Christians here.
Do you fear God more than you fear stepping out of your comfort zone?
Do you fear God enough to realize everything is His (your finances, your children, your spouse )?
Do you fear God more than you fear being persecuted?
I am speaking to myself here today. I know what the “Christian answer” is but God does not want someone that speaks Christianese, he is after obedient hearts. He knows we are sinners and we will fail, that is why he sent his son to die on the cross for our sins. Don’t allow Satan to trap you in your sin, forgiveness is offered to you today. All you need to do is ask.
See you next Friday. For some additional thoughts, see the BlogFrog Community for some discussion questions.
* In my BlogFrog community I have uploaded a copy of this post along with questions to respond to. This makes it possible to print out this post to read at another time or use it as your devotional. In the BlogFrog community I will try to add some time lines and additional information that you can print out and save. It is my understanding you don’t need to sign-up for the community to be able to print the information out, it is just if you want to leave a comment you need to be signed in (it is free). Feel free to leave comments either here or in the community forum. I look forward to your thoughts.
