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BIBLE STUDY
LESSON
For the week beginning Sunday September 14, 2014
____________________________________________________________
A
SIGN OF THE COMING SIEGE, AND JUDGMENT
Ezekiel
4-5
First, I need to re-emphasize the
fact that true prophets of GOD demonstrate HIS message with their whole life,
body, and actions, and only to a lesser degree, with their mouths. This is
because the LORD knows that people will not listen to HIS prophets any more
than they are willing to listen to HIM, through the reading of HIS Word. And so
GOD commands that HIS true prophets be willing to demonstrate HIS message to
the people through physical acts, rather than words, most of the time (Ezekiel
3:24-27 & Ezekiel chapters 4-5).
In Ezekiel 4 we see just such an
example in GOD’s instructions to the prophet Ezekiel as to how HE wanted him to
demonstrate a message to Israel, warning them of the final invasion and siege
of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian forces had already
invaded Judah twice, the first time in 605 B.C., and once again in 597 B.C.,
however, this next invasion would be to the total destruction of GOD’s chosen
nation.
In verse 1 GOD instructs Ezekiel to
take a large brick and set it down in front of him, and draw a map of the city
of Jerusalem on it, including its walls. Then, he was to build siege ramps
against the walls, and surround Jerusalem with enemy camps and battering rams.
Next, he was to take an iron griddle and place it between himself and the city.
Afterwards he was to turn toward Jerusalem and demonstrate with his body how
the enemy would attack the city (Vs.1-3).
Then the LORD instructed Ezekiel to
lie on his left side (v.4) and place the sins of Israel on himself, and bear
those sins for 390 days, one day for each year of their sin against GOD
(starting with King Solomon) since the time of the split of the “United
Kingdom” of Israel (1 Kings 11-12).
In verse 6 the LORD instructs
Ezekiel to, after 390 days, turn over and lie on his right side for 40 days,
one day for each year of Judah’s sin of idolatry against GOD, all the while
ignoring the warnings of HIS prophet Jeremiah, during the final 40 years of its
existence, prior to the Babylonian invasion.
Ezekiel was to continue his
demonstration of a siege against Jerusalem by lying there with his armpits
bared the entire time. GOD even tied him up with ropes so that he couldn’t turn
from side to side until the days of his demonstration had ended (Vs.7-8).
Before the demonstration of the
message of the siege began, GOD had Ezekiel to gather certain foods (wheat,
barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt) and mix them together in a storage
jar. These were to be used to make bread for himself during his demonstration.
He was told to ration the food out (8 ounces per day), and to eat it at set
times. Also, he was to measure out a jar of water to drink each day, and he was
to drink it only at set times (Vs.9-11).
Ezekiel was also told to bake his
bread over a fire while all the people were watching using dried “human feces”
as fuel. He was then to eat the bread in their presence to demonstrate how
Judah would eat defiled bread in the land of Babylon, where HE would soon send
them (Vs.12-13).
When Ezekiel protested this
particular order by GOD to “eat defiled bread” baked by human dung (v.14), the
LORD gave him permission instead, to use “cow dung” (v.15). All this was to
show how GOD would make food and water scarce and unclean, and the people of
Judah would eat and drink it in despair and dismay, and some would waste away
because they will refuse to accept it (Vs.16-17).
In Ezekiel 5 we see even more
physical demonstrations of GOD’s message by Ezekiel using his own body. This
time GOD commands him to take a sharp sword and use it as a razor to shave his
beard and head. The prophet is then told to weigh the hair on a scale in three
separate parts (v.1). Shaving one’s head and beard was not only a sign of
mourning in those days, but it was also a sign of humiliation, and even
repentance, in some cases.
Ezekiel was told to place a third of
the hair at the center of his map of Jerusalem, and after his demonstration of
the siege had ended, he was to burn the hair there on the rock. Then, he was to
scatter another third across his map and chop it up with his sword. However, he
was to keep just a bit of that portion of hair, and tie it up in his robe. He
was instructed to take a few of those hairs out and throw them into the fire.
The fire would then spread from that small remnant and destroy all of Jerusalem
(Vs.2-4).
This is how GOD HIMSELF explains the
illustrations by Ezekiel regarding HIS coming judgment on Judah in verses 5-13
(NLT):
5 “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: This is an illustration of what will happen to Jerusalem.
I placed her at the center of the nations, 6 but
she has rebelled against my regulations and decrees and has been even more
wicked than the surrounding nations. She has refused to obey the regulations
and decrees I gave her to follow.
7 “Therefore, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: You people have behaved worse than your neighbors and
have refused to obey my decrees and regulations. You have not even lived up to
the standards of the nations around you. 8 Therefore,
I MYSELF, the Sovereign Lord,
am now your enemy. I will punish you publicly while all the nations watch. 9 Because
of your detestable idols, I will punish you like I have never punished anyone
before or ever will again. 10 Parents will eat their own children, and children will eat their
parents. I will punish you and scatter to the winds the few who survive.
11 “As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, I will cut you off completely. I will show you no pity at all
because you have defiled MY Temple with your vile images and detestable sins. 12 A
third of your people will die in the city from disease and famine. A third of
them will be slaughtered by the enemy outside the city walls. And I will
scatter a third to the winds, chasing them with my sword. 13 Then
at last MY anger will be spent, and I will be satisfied. And when my fury
against them has subsided, all Israel will know that I, the Lord, have spoken to them in my jealous anger.”
Ezekiel 5, verses 5-13 contains
GOD’s accusation and case against the nation of Judah. HIS chosen people had
angered HIM by lowering their standards and chasing after the idol gods of the
pagan nations around them. They had rebelled against HIS laws and decrees and
thereby, had wittingly ignored their revelation and knowledge of HIS
sovereignty. And so what follows in verses 14-17, is GOD’s verdict after
finding them guilty as charged. God would judge them without pity, and all who
defiled HIS temple, by mixing the holy with the profane, would perish by fire.
Those who remained would be forcefully scattered abroad and be used to tell people
of distant lands of the fate of those who reject the only wise sovereign GOD of
the universe, WHO is our SAVIOR, through JESUS CHRIST.
A Sunday school lesson by,
Larry D. Alexander
LARRY D. ALEXANDER-
Official Website
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