Ezekiel

Ezekiel Chapter 4

Ezekiel 4:1 Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and portray upon it the city, even Jerusalem:
2 And lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and cast a mount against it; set the camp also against it, and set battering rams against it round about.

God is giving instructions for Ezekiel to set up pantomimes to demonstrate prophetic events that will come upon Israel. All prophecies in chapter 4 have been fulfilled.

This first demonstration portrays the Babylonian siege that will take place against Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar.

Ezekiel 4:3 Moreover take thou unto thee an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city: and set thy face against it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.

This depicts a wall separating Ezekiel setting siege against the city until it be destroyed.

I wonder what Ezekiel must have thought. God was bringing judgment against his own people. He had to portray these things and show his own people what was to befall them by the enemy, Babylon. How it must have hurt. Usually when the Lord sends warning about judgment, he will send us to our own people first before sending us to heathen nations.

The gospel was given to the Jews first and then the Gentiles. In this latter day, we see the gospel returning to the Jews. Some are receiving it, we call them Messianic Jews, others still reject it.

The gospel brings strange reactions. Some receive it gladly but soon fall away, some receive it and the world crowds it out so that it becomes unfruitful, some receive it and they go on to grow in the Lord sharing His word with others; then some reject it altogether. It brings families together but it also drives families apart. It is like a sword that gets rid of the bad and keeps the good, yet we need this gospel to be saved and inherit eternal life.

Ezekiel 4:4 Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity.
5 For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

As a sign to those that would see this, Ezekiel was to lie down on his left side for 390 days to symbolize 390 years of the iniquity of Israel. These years were from the days of Jeroboam when the kingdom was split until the days of Zedekiah when Jerusalem fell under the Babylonian invasion. In the days of Jeroboam the kingdom was split into Israel and Judah. All of Israel, both kingdoms were to bear the iniquity 390 years. The kingdom of Judah bears another 40 years after Israel had fallen.

Ezekiel was in a figure bearing the iniquity of Israel for 390 days.

Ezekiel 4:6 And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.

Now Ezekiel lies on his right side another 40 days symbolizing 40 years that Judah would have to bear iniquity further since the kingdom of Israel had already been destroyed and Judah continued to exist another 40 years but had also sinned and rebelled against God just as Israel had done.

Ezekiel 4:7 Therefore thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and thine arm shall be uncovered, and thou shalt prophesy against it.
8 And, behold, I will lay bands upon thee, and thou shalt not turn thee from one side to another, till thou hast ended the days of thy siege.

Ezekiel would be restrained from moving until the days of the siege were ended.

Talk about living what one is preaching. He was not a prophet that resided in a lush hotel while Jerusalem was being attacked. It seems as if he symbolically went through all that befell his people.

Ezekiel 4:9 Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof, according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side, three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof.
10 And thy meat which thou shalt eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time shalt thou eat it.
11 Thou shalt drink also water by measure, the sixth part of a hin: from time to time shalt thou drink.

Now we see God instructing him in practical things so that he can survive and be able to eat and drink water while he does this demonstration in the sight of his own people who will see what he does. Some commentators on the bible believe he only laid part of the day, not the whole time.

If this was to happen today, we would all think the guy was crazy. Maybe we should be careful not to write off people that act a little strange after all look at John the Baptist. He was a very strange person.

People that walk and talk with the Lord being obedient to Him at all times are going to be different that the average citizen we know of today. One cannot continually walk in the spirit and resemble those in the world. They are going to be a little strange. at least to those who know nothing of the spirit and walking with God. I don't know where we ever got the idea that we are all supposed to look like a carbon copy of each other.

Ezekiel 4:12 And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out of man, in their sight.
13 And the LORD said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, whither I will drive them.

This was to be done so show how Israel would have to eat as the Gentiles. Jews have strict dietary laws that were given to them since the days of Moses. It was considered harsh and unpleasant to eat as Gentiles with defiled food. Again most commentators have stated that the dung was not mixed with the food but used as fuel for baking. Still to use human dung was considered unclean.

Ezekiel 4:14 Then said I, Ah Lord GOD! behold, my soul hath not been polluted: for from my youth up even till now have I not eaten of that which dieth of itself, or is torn in pieces; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth.
15 Then he said unto me, Lo, I have given thee cow's dung for man's dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread therewith.

It must have pleased God for Ezekiel to desire to keep the law in this manner. How very opposite that attitude is from those who desire to be saved and have eternal life but want to be able to get by with their sin as much as legally possible.

Ezekiel 4:16 Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and with care; and they shall drink water by measure, and with astonishment:
17 That they may want bread and water, and be astonished one with another, and consume away for their iniquity.

The food supply was to be cut off in Jerusalem during the siege. They would have to ration their food and water. The famine was to be very severe that some would eat their own children.

Lest we think God is cruel here, we must remember that this country was warned by many prophets that this day would come. God cannot let sin go on forever or else there would never be an end to suffering and hardship. Innocent children are hurt when we sin and then those children grow up to be even more evil than the parents. We reap what we sow. If we raise up children to do evil, they will be worse that the previous generation. God has to stop it sooner or later.

He first sends prophets to warn and get people to repent. God prefers to save rather than destroy. When people ignore his messengers, he sends others. When people start persecuting his messengers, he sends disasters and further messengers. As a last resort He will destroy the whole nation.

This is why I fear for the United States. We have had the gospel since its beginning but not without many faults and failures. Some rich land owners in the south first allowed the evil of slavery out of greed and laziness. It took a costly brother against brother war to end that evil.

We went on to rise to power and became the greatest nation on the earth. The gospel increased until the 1920s. Many began to get comfortable and sin increased. We then had the stock market crash in 1929. After then there was an increase in revivals and the gospel spread further. We sent missionaries all over the world. In the 1950s we began to get careless again. Young people began to rebel and in the sixties prayer and bible reading was taken from public schools.

A president was assassinated right after prayer and bible reading were cast out of the school system. Ten years later abortion became legalized and this country allowed mothers to legally kill their unborn children.

From then on things went downhill at a fast pace. And it is getting worse every day. Now the same schools that do not pray have shootings, teen pregnancies, drugs and abortion.

Sexual immorality is at an all time high with the media and the main stream politicians calling evil good and good evil.

September 11, 2001 was a wake up call that showed us are days are numbered. God's hand of protection was not as strong as it once was. God doesn't stay where He is not wanted.

Then we had hurricane Katrina that hit one of the wickedest cities in the US. Notice that hurricane formed almost exactly the same time as the Gaza Jews had to flee their homes because of the pressure the United States and other nations pressured Israel to give up land for peace.

Even though God allows evil nations to come against Israel when they sin, He later destroys the evil nations but restores Israel. Be careful in dealing with Israel because God still has His hand upon them. Many have tried to snuff them out but God miraculously saves them.

Romans 11:21 For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.
22 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.

The United States is a country that should know better. We have had more gospel preached here than anywhere else. Time to turn back to God. Not organized religion, not a marriage of church and state but individuals repenting and turning back to God by way of the only way of salvation, Jesus Christ. Jesus said, "I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father buy by me." Sin separates us from God so someone had to come in human flesh, make intercession for our sins and unite us back to God. We've allowed sin to separate us both as individuals and as a nation. We need God back.

Ezekiel Chapter 5

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