Ezekiel 5:1-17
1 "And you, son of man, take a sharp sword, take it as a barber's razor, and pass it over your head and your beard; then take scales to weigh and divide the hair. 2 You shall burn with fire one-third in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are finished; then you shall take one-third and strike around it with the sword, and one-third you shall scatter in the wind: I will draw out a sword after them. 3 You shall also take a small number of them and bind them in the edge of your garment. 4 Then take some of them again and throw them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire. From there a fire will go out into all the house of Israel.
5 "Thus says the Lord GOD: 'This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations and the countries all around her. 6 She has rebelled against My judgments by doing wickedness more than the nations, and against My statutes more than the countries that are all around her; for they have refused My judgments, and they have not walked in My statutes.' 7 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: 'Because you have multiplied disobedience more than the nations that are all around you, have not walked in My statutes nor kept My judgments, nor even done according to the judgments of the nations that are all around you'— 8 therefore thus says the Lord GOD: 'Indeed I, even I, am against you and will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations. 9 And I will do among you what I have never done, and the like of which I will never do again, because of all your abominations. 10 Therefore fathers shall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments among you, and all of you who remain I will scatter to all the winds.
11 'Therefore, as I live,' says the Lord GOD, 'surely, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will also diminish you; My eye will not spare, nor will I have any pity. 12 One-third of you shall die of the pestilence, and be consumed with famine in your midst; and one-third shall fall by the sword all around you; and I will scatter another third to all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them.
13 'Thus shall My anger be spent, and I will cause My fury to rest upon them, and I will be avenged; and they shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken it in My zeal, when I have spent My fury upon them. 14 Moreover I will make you a waste and a reproach among the nations that are all around you, in the sight of all who pass by.
15 'So it shall be a reproach, a taunt, a lesson, and an astonishment to the nations that are all around you, when I execute judgments among you in anger and in fury and in furious rebukes. I, the LORD, have spoken. 16 When I send against them the terrible arrows of famine which shall be for destruction, which I will send to destroy you, I will increase the famine upon you and cut off your supply of bread. 17 So I will send against you famine and wild beasts, and they will bereave you. Pestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword against you. I, the LORD, have spoken.'"
A a word was pointed against Jerusalem as enacted by Ezekiel over his head and beard. This was God’s graphic method to demonstrate what the sword would do against the city which rejected Him for idolatry and immortality. He took the hair, weighed it, and divided in three piles. When the siege against Jerusalem was finished he was to burn one third and hack one third with the sword in the air, while the remnant last third was thrown to the wind to be scattered everywhere. There were a few kept back to tie to his garment and to burn as a fire started in Israel. These symbolic acts were prophetic illustrations of greater things. They showed the judgment on God’s people who disregarded their calling as His own out of the sinful nations all around them, having done the same sins and much worse by their wicked actions, rejection of Him, and disobedience of rebellious sin. They sinned more than the sinful nations which God destroyed to give them that promised land to serve and worship Him in. The consequences were terrible in judgment against them by the sword of His word (Hebrews 4:12, Revelation 19:15). This was so terrible that as the siege went on and food ran out that they would actually eat their own young which even the heathen around them would never have done. Then they would be scattered to the wind as the hair of the prophet and as worthless threshed husks of wheat. They had taken what was set apart for God, what was made holy, and desecrated the temple with idols and abominations in sexual immorality and perverse worship. One third would die of disease, another third with starvation, and the final lot would be scattered to the winds and hunted down by the sword as the hair was in the air by Ezekiel as in verse 2 here. God’s wrath would be poured out on them for sin’s just due as wages earned (Romans 6:23) according to His word. They would be dishonored among the nations which they were lifted out of because they had despised their calling and dishonored His holy name which God’s people were to imitate (Leviticus 11:44-45, 19:2, 1 Peter 1:16, 3 John 1:11). It is a terrible and fearful thing to fall into God’s hand of rebuke (Hebrews 10:26-28, 31) and judgment by willingly sinning against Him without repentance. The LORD spoke judgment as a sword of justice and righteousness for their disobedience; how much more for those who reject His Word now (Hebrews 10:29) and love for idolatry and immortality instead? The final judgment against all is coming and we should not take that lightly. The examples we read should move us to confess our sins and repent of them along the way as we are conformed to the image of Christ (Hebrews 12:1-2) and warn those not yet with confirmed reservations in the Celestial City to come through faith in Jesus Christ. The righteous sword of justice is coming in judgment for all who reject Him and His Son (John 6:29).
No comments:
Post a Comment