EZEKIEL CHAPTER 4 Ezekiel 4:1–3 (NKJV) 4 “You Also, Son of Man, Take a Clay Tablet and Lay It Before You, and Portray on It a City, Jerusalem

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EZEKIEL CHAPTER 4 Ezekiel 4:1–3 (NKJV) 4 “You Also, Son of Man, Take a Clay Tablet and Lay It Before You, and Portray on It a City, Jerusalem __________________________ VANTAGE POINT: EZEKIEL EZEKIEL CHAPTER 4 Ezekiel 4:1–3 (NKJV) 4 “You also, son of man, take a clay tablet and lay it before you, and portray on it a city, Jerusalem. 2 Lay siege against it, build a siege wall against it, and heap up a mound against it; set camps against it also, and place battering rams against it all around. 3 Moreover take for yourself an iron plate, and set it as an iron wall between you and the city. Set your face against it, and it shall be besieged, and you shall lay siege against it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel. • Ezekiel is instructed by God to get a clay tablet, actually a clay tile that was 12 x 14 inches. • This is what the Babylonians wrote their records on, so their libraries were full of these clay tablets or tiles • The Lord instructs Ezekiel to draw a picture of Jerusalem on a clay tile • And then the Lord tells him to lay siege against it… in a public place In a sense, Ezekiel is playing army • In the middle is this clay tile • He gets his army men and surrounds the city, builds mounds of dirt • He has these miniature battering rams surrounding the city • Ezekiel is representing what is happening to Israel • He tells Ezekiel to take an iron plate and set it up as a wall between Ezekiel and Jerusalem symbolizing the cutting off of relationship between God and His people • And then Ezekiel is told to set your face against Jerusalem and it will be besieged and you will lay siege against it • All of this was to be a sign to the house of Israel… • When the Bible speaks of a sign, it is not speaking of new information • A sign is a confirmation that a prophecy is about to be fulfilled • Ezekiel is acting out what God said is about to happen • But Ezekiel is also acting what Jesus would do when He set His face like flint towards Jerusalem and lay siege on the city that was under captivity to sin and death • A city who was cut off from relationship with God • By dying on the cross, Jesus would break down the walls of separation and take back what rightfully belonged to Him!!! Ezekiel © 2015 Holland Davis __________________________ VANTAGE POINT: EZEKIEL Ezekiel 4:4–8 (NKJV) 4 “Lie also on your left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it. According to the number of the days that you lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity. 5 For I have laid on you the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days; so you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. 6 And when you have completed them, lie again on your right side; then you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days. I have laid on you a day for each year. 7 “Therefore you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem; your arm shall be uncovered, and you shall prophesy against it. 8 And surely I will restrain you so that you cannot turn from one side to another till you have ended the days of your siege. • For 390 days, representing the 390 years that the kingdom was divided • Keep in the mind that the Hebrews recorded time according to a lunar calendar, not by the Julian calendar that Western Cultures use • If you remember, Jeroboam led a revolt against Solomon’s son Rehoboam and split the Kingdom into Israel and Judah • The Northern Kingdom of Israel immediately began practicing idolatry by worshipping the golden calf under Jeroboam’s leadership • The 40 days represented 40 years apostasy from the end of Josiah’s reign until the Babylonian captivity • Together, this equals 430 years of captivity • This 430 year captivity was ended when the Maccabean’s returned Jewish rule to Judah in 160 B.C. • The Jewish festival of Hanukkah celebrates the rededication of the Temple following Judah Maccabee’s victory over the Seleucids • According to Rabbinic tradition, the victorious Maccabees could only find a small jug of oil that had remained uncontaminated by virtue of a seal • Although it only contained enough oil to sustain the Menorah for one day, it miraculously lasted for eight days • So we have our tradition of Hanukkah Ezekiel 4:9–13 (NKJV) 9 “Also take for yourself wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt; put them into one vessel, and make bread of them for yourself. During the number of days that you lie on your side, three hundred and ninety days, you shall eat it. 10 And your food which you eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day; from time to time you shall eat it. 11 You shall also drink Ezekiel © 2015 Holland Davis __________________________ VANTAGE POINT: EZEKIEL water by measure, one-sixth of a hin; from time to time you shall drink. 12 And you shall eat it as barley cakes; and bake it using fuel of human waste in their sight.” 13 Then the LORD said, “So shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, where I will drive them.” At this point, Ezekiel is instructed to live on S-rations (siege rations) • This is a near-starvation diet of only 8 ounces of food per day made up of grain, lentils for protein and 2/3’s quart of water • Not were these rations small and unappetizing, but Ezekiel was instructed to prepare them by baking them over human waste • This is the original poo poo platter! • Anything cooked over human waste was considered unclean, representing the unclean food that the Jews would eat in exile • But Ezekiel says… I haven’t defiled myself from my youth until now • So the Lord says, okay… you can replace human waste with cow dung • This was a test of faith for Ezekiel • It was the same test of faith that Abraham experienced when he went to sacrifice his son Issac on Mt. Moriah • God was testing Ezekiel’s faith in His Word • By remaining obedient to God’s Word, Ezekiel becomes a picture of a Jesus Christ who lived a sinless life while in exile to this world of sin Chapter 5 speaks of the humiliation that the people would suffer • God instructs Ezekiel to use his hair as a symbol of the coming destruction • Using a scale, Ezekiel was to divide his hair into 3 parts representing the different levels of destruction that was coming • The first part he was to burn with fire representing those who would die in the city • The second part he was to strike with a sword representing those who would die outside the city • The third part he was to scatter to the winds representing those in exile • A small remnant of the hair representing the exiled Jews was to be stored in the fold of his garment representing those who would be protected • But even a few of the ones who were saved would be thrown into the fire Ezekiel © 2015 Holland Davis __________________________ VANTAGE POINT: EZEKIEL • The reason that this is happening is because Israel broke the covenant they made with God in Leviticus 26… which lays out the blessings and the curses attached to the Covenant The two offenses that Israel was guilty of are found in Leviticus 26:1,2 Leviticus 26:1–2 (NKJV) 26 ‘You shall not make idols for yourselves; neither a carved image nor a sacred pillar shall you rear up for yourselves; nor shall you set up an engraved stone in your land, to bow down to it; for I am the LORD your God. 2 You shall keep My Sabbaths and reverence My sanctuary: I am the LORD. Because Israel disobeyed these two conditions God says… Ezekiel 5:7–17 (NKJV) 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.
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