About this sermon
A Morning Instruction class on Ezekiel 4:1-5:4. Before he speaks a word of prophecy, Ezekiel acts out the siege of Jerusalem. He draws the city on a brick, builds siege works against it, and sets an iron griddle between himself and the city. He lies on his left side and then his right for the years of Israel’s and Judah’s iniquity, and eats rationed bread and water, picturing the famine to come. The prophet bears the people’s sin in signs, and his suffering points ahead to Christ, who bore it in reality.
Sermon transcript
We are moving out of chapter three. We’re out of it, and this brings about a big change for where we are in the book of Ezekiel. First three chapters, I want you to think of that as call narrative. He’s called into prophetic ministry. Now, we begin his actual prophetic ministry. and he is going to begin to prophesy. But before he prophesies, he is going to act some things out.
This is very interesting and a little bit strange to us. If it is strange, that’s okay. Hopefully it will be a little bit clearer in the future, hopefully within the next hour. Why don’t we read this just so you remember what I’m talking about, refresh your minds. We’re going to read Ezekiel 4 all the way through 4 and then 5, 1 through These go together. I know that the chapter break begins before that, but it actually works better to take these as one. Let me read the first one, and then we’ll start on the left side of the room. Sorry, my left.
Now you, son of man, get yourself a brick, place it before you and inscribe a city on it, Jerusalem. Then lay siege against it, build a siege wall, raise up a ramp, pitch camps and place battering rams against it all around. And you, take an iron griddle and place it as an iron wall between you and the city. This is a sign for the House of Israel.
As for you lying down on your left side and laying the iniquity of the House of Israel on it, you shall bear their iniquity for the number of days that you lie on it. For I have assigned you a number of days corresponding to the years of their iniquity, 390 days. Thus you shall bear the iniquity of the House When it asks for you, take wheat, barley, beans, Put them in one vessel and make them into bread for yourself. You shall eat it according to the number of days that you lie on your side, 390 days.
And your food which you eat shall by weight be by weight 20 shekels a day. From time to time, you shall eat it. The water you drink shall be the sixth part of 10 by measure. You shall drink from time to time. You shall eat it as a barley cake, having bathed it in their sight over you and done. Yes, please. Then I said, not so, Sovereign Lord.
I have never defiled myself from my mouth until now. I have never eaten anything from the dead or torn by wild animals. No unclean meat has ever entered my mouth. And he said to me, I am giving you cow dung instead of human waste, and you shall prepare your bread over it.
Moreover, he said to me, son of man, behold, I am going to break the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they will eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and drink water unmeasured and in order. Because bread and water will be scarce, and they will be appalled with one another, and waste away in their iniquity.
John. As for you, son of man, take a sharp sword. Take and use it as a barber’s razor on your head and beard. Then take scales for the ring and the binding there. The third part you shall burn in the fire in the midst of the city. The days of the siege are completed. The third part you shall take and strike with a sword all around the city. And the third part you shall scatter to the wind, and I will unseat the sword at you. Take also a few of the number from them and bind them in the edges of your robes. And take again some of them and throw them into the fire.
And then we’ll stop there. Thank you all for your participation. So what is the mindset of the people who are in the Kabar Canal, these people who are exiled along with Ezekiel? You know from other parts of God’s Word, that many people thought this is just a minor bump in the road. We got taken over by Nebuchadnezzar, and we’re just gonna spend a little bit of time here, and then we’re going to be sent back. So this is no problem, right? If you read Jeremiah, people say the same thing, and he keeps having to say, that is not true.
You’re going to be here for a long time. You’re going to be here almost two generations. Generations, 40 years. You’re going to be here 70 years. Jeremiah’s words, you can almost hear them ringing in the background. plant vineyards, make gardens, build houses. You’re gonna be here a long time.
But they did not believe them. They did not believe them at all. Now understand the times in which they’re living. Jerusalem is still standing. Ezekiel is taken away, but he’s among the first waves of those who are taken away. These people still are trusting in their city. Their mindset is God’s going to take care of us because we have Jerusalem and Jerusalem cannot be defeated because it’s David’s city and the temple cannot be destroyed because that is what Solomon built.
Now, He’s going to be acting throughout this. He doesn’t really speak. There’s one verse that seems to imply that he might be speaking, but I’m not so sure about that. It seems as though four through five-four is all an act. He is putting on a play for the people. Pardon me. Didn’t look right. I before E except after C. Didn’t look right. Okay. So what do we see in 4, 1 through 8?
We see a city under siege. That’s what he’s going to perform for them. And with his miming sort of way. There are, let me just read to you what one writer writes, and I think he’s right. There are clearly three major acts in this drama, each with two or three internal scenes. The three acts are identified as the threefold initial command to take some object. In the first act, take. clay tablet. The second one, take wheat and barley. The third one, take a sharp sword.
So that’s kind of the introduction to each one of these plays. Take, take, take. And the three acts relate to the siege of Jerusalem, 1-8, the suffering of the people, 4 9 through 17 and final destruction of the city and its fate and its Population why don’t I to make things easier just write those down suffering of the people of Let’s do it like this. Suffering of the people. This will be more clear and effective. Okay. So Act I, City Under Siege, Act II, Suffering of the People, and that’s 4, 9 through 17. And then the last one is 5, 1 through 4. And he called that, let’s just call that popularization. Okay, so we have Ezekiel, the actor, the mime, who is going to act for us. He’s going to act for the people first. The city under siege. We have Jerusalem as a brick. Jerusalem as a brick. First thing he’s called to do is take a brick and he’s going to start scratching it or writing on it. Now when you think of a brick, what do you think of?
Right? About this big. I want you to think that. I want you to think big. Very big. Not so big you can’t lift it, but this is big. And he starts drawing on it. Now we know the end of the story. We have to kind of suspend for a moment, put yourself in the mind of these people. Ezekiel has a big brick and he’s just scratching away on it. And it’s probably one that hasn’t been put in the kiln. It’s a bit softer, able to be scratched and to have indentations on it. And people are watching him. This is a man who’s strange.
They just don’t know how to take him, right? And these people know their city. They love Jerusalem, right? Even the non-believer in Jews love Jerusalem. So what’s he doing? He’s scratching through this, on this brick, and it begins to be apparent to them. I see what he’s doing. He’s drawing a map of Jerusalem. This is good.
Now think about those who, they wanna hear that we’re going back, we’re going back very soon. They say, wow, he’s gonna prophesy good news about Jerusalem, and maybe we’re gonna go back soon. Or he might be just thinking, oh, that’s Zeke, right? He’s just a little bit nostalgic. He’s just thinking back to Jerusalem, that good old city, how wonderful it is.
That’s what he’s doing. He’s strong. Is he longing for home? Okay, well, they’re watching. Then he takes a griddle, and it seems as though he raises it upright. Then he takes a number of other objects, kind of like, almost like toys, you’d think, and he lays out what looks to the people when they finally get the hint that Jerusalem is being put under siege, that this place is going to be attacked.
Understand that when a city is really well walled in the ancient times, and it’s well guarded, You don’t just come up to the front door and take the battering ram and just knock it a few times and then go take it over. I mean, it is a long, long process. So they are laying siege, that is, they’re outside and they’re going to be seeking to get in, but it’s going to be a long time before they get there. But one of the strategies, ancient war strategy, is when you have people all up in a city like this and they’re walled and they’re not able to get in, one of the strategies that you do is make sure that all the places around it are cut off.
So no one can get in, no one can get out. So the Hebrew people who are there are there and they’re stuck. What’s that gonna do to the food supply? Slowly it is going to be rationed and eventually these people may desire to just come out and say, okay, we’d rather eat and be your slaves than be starving and be free, walled up in here.
So he’s got all these things and he’s making a picture of the fact that Jerusalem is under siege. This drawing of Jerusalem, this is not a good thing. Now, he’s then going to lie down on his side. He’s not gonna lay down, he’s gonna lie down. He would be laying something down, but he’s gonna lie down. and he’s going to lie down and he is going to, well, let me just back up, because I’m going to say in this part, this is, we’re in, we just finished act one, scene one, Jerusalem a brick. What do you think it means that he is, has his face toward it, right?
What does it say? Lay siege against it, build a wall, raise up a ramp, pitch camps and place battering rams against it. Then get yourself an iron plate and set it as an iron wall between you and the city and set your face toward it so that it is under siege. What do you think that means? Set your face toward it.
People who know your Old Testament, what does it mean when some main character in the Bible sets his face towards something or someone? Who’s the main character in the Bible? God. Okay, when he sets his face towards something, he’s bringing wrath against it, right? Who is Ezekiel playing In this part, he is a picture of God, because he’s put his face against it, because God’s face is against the city. So in this case, Ezekiel is the one who is laying siege against the city. Now we talked, I think it was a week ago, it might have been two, about the fact that who are the people who are laying siege against the city?
It’s the Babylonians. But whose side is God on? The Babylonians. He’s not on Israel’s side anymore because they’re going to be deported. So, I want you to see that. In the first act, and first of the first scene, He is playing the part of God with his face against the picture of the city. Because God is against it. Now, second part.
Bearing the sin of Israel. We’ll just shorten that to bearing sin. And so he lies down and He is going to not resent, represent, he may resent the people, but he is going to represent the people now. Bear the sins of the people. Let’s look at what the word says. As for you, lie down on your left side and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it. You shall bear their iniquity for the number of days that you lie on it. For I have assigned you a number of days.” And it goes on.
So he’s going to bear the sin. Now, when it says bear the sin here, I No, I hope that you’re well-trained Bible readers that when you think bearing the sin, you think, well, Jesus is our sin bearer. That’s good. Jesus is our sin bearer. So that means that Ezekiel’s going to bear our sin, right? No, okay, that’s not what he’s saying in bearing the sin here.
He is going to represent the people here. He switched sides in this act. Now he is the people of God, and he’s going to lie on one side 390 days, 40 days. Everybody with me? As the priest was to bear the sin, that is to represent the people, so would Ezekiel do because he was almost a priest.
Now, how long is 390 days? It’s a little over a year, about a year and a month or so. Now, then he’s going to be on his side for 40 days, his other side. Now a lot of scholars have ideas and theories about what this could be, because it doesn’t tell us what the 390 represents. We’re not exactly sure. The best guessers, I think, think that it is a round number from the time of the building of Solomon’s Temple until the destruction of that temple. That is about 390 years. Now the Bible gives specific year dates, 70 years of exile, but it was not 70 years on the calendar. It’s a rough number that just gives a picture.
So he’s going to be, 390 days on his side, and he is going to represent the sin of the people. Now, why would that be? Wasn’t the high point of the Israelite theocracy, David, I think it really was, he’s a man after God’s own heart. He was a sinner, he did many things. The Bible’s very, very honest about David’s sin, like it is about almost everybody’s sin. It’s very clear. There are lots of sinners in the Bible.
They don’t make themselves into heroes, right? After David, there is a time of Great prosperity and strength and unity. But Solomon never said that he’s a man after God’s own heart. It seems the decline begins right after that time. Right after David dies. It was never perfect, it was never ideal. The ideal Davidic throne is the Jerusalem above that is free, that is our mother, Galatians four. Here on earth, it is falling away, and it is a bad place. God’s holy city, but it’s not perfect.
Now, what about the 40 years? This one is not a tough one. The 40 years, it does say for Judah, but It seems as though it is testing, as we know that 40 people are tested in sets of 40 in the Bible, right? Lots of times that happens, the two predominant ones, 40 years in the desert. with the Hebrew people, which is 40 days in the desert for Jesus. And notice there, years compared to days, generations, excuse me, years for the community equal to days for the individual.
All right, I have a hand. Kathy, question, comment, joke or dilemma? No, this is about what you’re talking about. Okay. That could be a joke or another one. You’ve heard the saying, life begins at 40, Alabama in the 40s, all that stuff. Yeah, for them, 40 had a special magic significance. Very good. I want to say it’s significant. I’m not sure I want to use the word magic, And so far, as I’ve used the word magic, I want to say, magic, I mean, I want to make sure, nothing superstitious. That may have just been a figure of speech that you’re using. That’s fine, but 40 is a special number. 40 is a generation. I think it’s saying Judah is the main tribe that exists. There are people who, from most of the other tribes, but Judah is the main one that exists at this time. And they’re going to suffer for a generation.
He’s going to bear the sin on his right side. Now, in what way is he going to do this? Is he going to do the 40 days consecutively with the 390 or concurrently? There are scholars that say each one. Concurrently, that is, he would be 390 days, so I guess he would go 350 days on his left side, but he would spend a part of the day on his left and then a part of the day on his right side. Or the more natural reading of it is that it would be 390, and then turns and gets on his other side.
And the reason for that, I won’t give you the details, because it could be a very big hole we could find ourselves in. It’d be hard to get out. But some people want to say that because of the dating, some things that happened in chapter 8, there isn’t enough time for him to have 430 days. Because something is going to happen in chapter 8.
But I think the more natural reading is that it’s afterwards. I think it also speaks to the understanding of his vocation at this time. Because if he is spending a part of the day on the left side. Assume this is the ground. And then he’s going to switch in the middle of the day to the other side. And that kind of seems to imply that Ezekiel is just out there for a certain time, and he’s doing this show, and then he goes home and has a normal day with his wife, has dinner, and talks about current events. And then he goes back in the next day and, okay, now I’m representing the sin of the people and I’m suffering for them.
That seems kind of strange. I don’t think that he was taking evenings and weekends off. Right, I think he is spending all of his time, maybe gets up to go to the bathroom, but I mean, we’re gonna see in a minute, he’s not eating much, he’s not gonna be drinking, he’s not drinking much, he’s not gonna be going to the bathroom much. I think he’s there all day. Question.
When he lays on his right side and left side, what is that symbolic for specific sins? We’re not told. but I think that it’s all of the Ten Commandments. I mean, they break them all. Obviously, the predominant one, having other gods, and making images of those gods, being the first and second, but nothing specific. I guess, read the rest of your Old Testament from 2 Samuel on, and they just lay out which sins they’re doing, and they break them all, all right?
So, he’s burying their sin, in a sense, but not in a vicarious atonement sort of way. Now, siege rations. Siege rations. I could write in Jerusalem, but Jerusalem’s a long word. More space would be needed there. Now, this is his food and his drink for one year. I think this is all he’s having. Again, what I was saying, some people who kind of think he’s just kind of lying there and then he switches sides and then he goes home, has a normal day, talks to his wife. I don’t think so.
I think his wife must have been mortified by his behavior, right? But more so, what does a wife like to do? She likes to feed her husband, among other things, among many other things. She didn’t want to see her husband starving. That’s what she’s going to see though. His food and drink for a year plus, a month plus 40 days or so.
Okay. Take these grains and it’s a mixture of grains and it’s not much. And some of the grains that he uses are kind of poverty grains. They’re really poor stuff. Not all of it. And he’s going to make a loaf of bread that is going to amount to 8 ounces. Not much. That’s what he’s going to eat. A little piece of bread. And he’s going to have a little bit of water. How much? Don’t be thrown off by the Hebrew measuring system. I’ll just tell you. for water, 0.6 liters of water. What’s that? Less than a quart? He’s going to have just a little water. It’s going to be enough to get by.
But he’s going to be in bad shape because of this, if he’s staying out there all the time. He’s not getting his six to eight glasses, all right? What does his wife think of this? As her dear husband is getting more and more gaunt and more and more emaciated every single day. Well, I think he ate just that.
There was no onstage, offstage time. If he were having a normal life the rest of the time, I don’t think he’d be bearing the sins of the people. This man wants to show the suffering of the people, that they’re going to suffer big, as the city. Jerusalem is going to be starving and it’s going to be thirsty. And he is a sign that shows that to them.
Did he only have to do this a few hours a day? No, he did it all day. Why does God ask his prophet to do such terrible things? God asks his prophets to do a lot of terrible things. Right? Do you not think that Isaiah was told to walk around the city naked? He really was told to walk around the city naked, Isaiah chapter 20. Do you really not think that Hosea was told to marry a prostitute?
I think, I mean, there are people, oh, it’s just a metaphor. I mean, Bible-believing, Reformed people They think it’s just a picture. I don’t think it’s a picture. I mean, I think it’s a picture. I think it’s literal. Ezekiel is wasting away before your eyes, people. Do you understand?
You’re not going back to Jerusalem. I’m not convinced at this point that he’s speaking yet. Remember, in past weeks, his tongue sticking to the roof of his mouth, he’s being silent. I’m not convinced that he speaks until 5-5, which we’re gonna do next week.
Thus says the Lord. I’m saying this is all a mime act, I think, until finally he’s going to open up. That’s the way God reveals himself, in act, and then explanation of the act. It doesn’t matter what it is. He always gives the phenomenon and then the explanation of the phenomenon. Whether it’s Moses taking them out of Egypt, the explanation has to follow. Whether it’s Jesus dying on the cross and rising again, the explanation must follow. Well, same here. He’s acting. And then he’s going to speak.
God would not only take away from the bread its power to nourish so that they should eat and not be satisfied, which is the case. God said that there would become a time that if you disobey me, you will eat and not be satisfied. Leviticus 26, 26. but would also take away the bread itself. Isaiah 3, 1. For time, I’m just gonna tell you the references there. Leviticus tells us they’re not going to be satisfied. Isaiah says, I’m going to take the bread away.
Now, understand that there was a time when Jerusalem had the richest and best wheat and grain, I think, in the whole world because it was a supernatural land where things grew if they were obedient. Time was when Jerusalem was filled with the finest wheat. Psalm 147, 14. He makes peace in your borders. He satisfies you with the finest of wheat. But now it would be glad of the coarsest.
It would be the coarsest food that they’re going to have and they cannot have it. The fullness of bread as it was as, excuse me, the fullness of bread, as it was one of Jerusalem’s mercies, so it had become one of their sins. What I’m trying to tell you is this. That which they once had, which was a sign of their obedience, the lack thereof was going to be a sign of their disobedience. Okay, so they’re going to be rationing the food. And then, defiled among the nations. Defiled among the nations. We have the verse about a barley cake, which seems that he might be having a barley cake In addition to this, a very small barley cake, although the NAS doesn’t take it that way. And…
12, you shall eat it as a barley cake, having baked it in their sight over human dung. That would imply that you shall eat the loaf of bread as a barley cake. which would just saying to eat it. Whereas the Hebrew, I think this is a little reading and a barley cake, you shall eat it. And on bits of human excrement, you shall bake it as they watch you. Okay, which would imply that there’s an additional thing that he’s able to eat, which is a barley cake, but that’s going to be cooked over human dung.
Not your ideal dinner. Okay. We are at three, 10.40. I thought we’d get a little further. I thought we’d get here. So that means we’ll close and I’ll just start this. This is where we are. I’ll have it in my notes where we are. But hang on for that, this strange conversation about you’re gonna make it, you’re gonna cook it on human dung. No, I can’t do that. I’ve never defiled myself with food. Okay, you can cook it on cow dung anyways instead, right? Sure glad I get to do that. Okay. Defilement among nations. Okay, let’s pray. and prepare our hearts a little bit more for worship and go get coffee and tea and things.
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