Journal Through the Bible: Week 80 Thursday

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Ezekiel 4:1-5:17

Does God issue any commands?

• God told Ezekiel to take a tile and put it before him to portray Jerusalem. He was to create a diorama around it to represent the siege of the city that was yet to come. He was to use the natural resources around him to build a fort, breastworks, and battering rams and an iron pan to represent a wall.
• God told Ezekiel to lie on his left side for 390 days to represent the years of the iniquity of Israel to be followed by 40 days on his right side to represent the years of the iniquity of Judah. He was to set  his face toward Jerusalem (the city or the model of the city I cannot tell, but I think the model) with his arm uncovered. Then he was to prophesy against it. He was not to turn from side to side.
• God told Ezekiel to make bread of the ingredients He listed and to eat 20 shekel weight of it each of the 390 days that he was on his left side. He was to drink 1/6 part of a hin of water each day, sipping it. (My Bible margin says this is about 21 oz. or less than 3 glasses.) This was to represent the rationing of bread and water while the city was under siege.
• God told Ezekiel to make barley cakes and to use human excrement to fuel the fire. When Ezekiel protested that he had never eaten anything defiled the Lord gave him cow dung for fuel. This was to represent the food the people would eat while among the Gentiles. They would eat it even though it broke their dietary laws.
• Ezekiel was to cut his hair and beard. Then he was to weigh it and burn 1/3 of it in the city when the days of the siege were fulfilled. Another 1/3 was to be struck with a knife and the final 1/3 was to be scattered in the wind. A few of his hairs were to be tied into his clothing for awhile before being thrown into a fire.

Does God make any promises?

• God promised severe judgment upon Jerusalem like never before to be carried out in the sight of all the nations. Severe hunger would lead to cannibalism. 
• God explained the signs to Ezekiel. 1/3 of the people would die from famine and pestilence. 1/3 of the people would die by the sword of the conquerors. 1/3 would be scattered among the nations but they would also have the sword follow them.

Does this passage teach anything about Jesus?

• Jesus is the Righteous Judge. 

Does this passage teach anything about yet-future events?

• Everything that God told Ezekiel that would happen to those in Jerusalem had been told to the citizens of the nation from the time of Moses onward. God delivered the exact retribution about which He had warned them. There are many warnings that have been received about the coming global judgment but most do not listen. They only mock. The lesson for the future is that God kept His promises of judgment in the past so we should believe that He will keep His promises about future judgment also.