Ezekiel 4: 1 – 8
‘School for the performing arts’ Part 1
1 “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.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.
I went to a movie the other day with some of my family members. They took me there as a gift for Fathers Day. The movie was a animated film. It was a very well thought out and developed production. I didn’t like it. Oh, not because it wasn’t impacting. It was just the opposite. It left an unpleasant image on my mind. The film showed two young children [ boy and girl ] who loved this adventurer. In an efficient use of various clips the producer showed the two progress through their lives together growing up, getting married, the heartache due to their inability to have children, dreams lost due to the financial emergencies of life, the woman’s illness, and finally to her death leaving the man old and alone. The creators of this movie were able to quickly and with great emotional impact display the brevity of life.
Genesis 3: 19 say, ‘19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”
Psalm 39: 4 – 6 also informs us, 4 “LORD, make me to know my end, and what is the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am. 5 Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths, and my age is as nothing before You; certainly every man at his best state is but vapor. Selah. 6 Surely every man walks about like a shadow; Surely they busy themselves in vain; He heaps up riches, and does not know who will gather them.”
Our Lord is the Supreme Producer of every person’s life. He is the Creator God Who knows everything. He has seen our entire life played out before Him. We therefore can understand how our God in chapter 4 of Ezekiel use His prophet to act out a future event that is the final siege and destruction of the city of Jerusalem.
We, as humans have the tendency to rely on our past successes. At our jobs we believe that we single handedly have kept the company from bankruptcy. People comment to us along our careers about how the company couldn’t succeed if they ever lost us. Then, to our shock, we get the ‘pink slip’. This couldn’t happen. How could management ever get rid of such a valuable resource? We didn’t do anything wrong that would deserve this kind of evil treatment.
Such, were the thoughts of the people of Israel who were in exile in Babylon. Jerusalem still existed. The people had a hope of being able to return to their homeland. Even with all the current actions taken against the Jews, they would not recognize that God meant what He had previously said – ‘If the people rejected God and His Lordship, then He would have to allow severe actions against His people.’ They had to be made aware of God’s anger against them and that the process of fulfilling every warning of destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple would come true. Jeremiah cried out the same message in Jerusalem but the people would not accept his message either.
Jeremiah 7: 4 – 13 says, “4 Do not trust in these lying words, saying, ‘The temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD are these.’5 “For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, 6 if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, or walk after other gods to your hurt, 7 then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever. 8 “Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit. 9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, 10 and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered to do all these abominations’? 11 Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of thieves in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,” says the LORD. 12 “But go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I set My name at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel. 13 And now, because you have done all these works,” says the LORD, “and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I called you, but you did not answer,”
Our precious Lord constantly cried out to His people to turn away from their filthy sinful lives and return to Him, the pure Holy Supreme Yahweh.
Jeremiah 7: 14 reports, “14 therefore I will do to the house which is called by My name, in which you trust, and to this place which I gave to you and your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.”
Our God wants to always bless us, especially when we are trying to please and obey Him, You cannot out love Him. When Judah’s kings were obedient in their co-rule as the Lord’s temporary shepherds, the Lord would be pleased and usually say or do something awesome for His people.
Isaiah 37: 33 – 38 describes for us this point, 33 “Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: ‘He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor build a siege mound against it. 34 By the way that he came, by the same shall he return; And he shall not come into this city,’ Says the LORD. 35 ‘ For I will defend this city, to save it for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.’” 36 Then the angel of the LORD went out, and killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses—all dead. 37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went away, returned home, and remained at Nineveh. 38 Now it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Then Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.”
In the days of king Hezekiah of Judah the Lord did a supernatural deliverance of the city of Jerusalem. The Jews had a mindset from God’s previous protection of the inhabitants that He would never allow the city to be destroyed. They were wrong in their beliefs. Things were a lot different during this time in the history of the Jews compared to Hezekiah’s lifetime. Sins upon sins were being piled up to the people’s accounts and now they were due and had to be paid. The Gracious Lord kept trying to tell the people this but they would not listen.
Ezekiel must have gotten the Jews attention by this point due to his strange behavior. No doubt the local gossip media covered his actions. Word of his unique actions would soon spread and hopefully arouse curiosity for the people to see what he would do next.
To warn and retain the Lord’s message Ezekiel was instructed to record on a tile the ultimate final attack on the city of Jerusalem. One way to retain communication during this era was the use of tiles. These tablets were mostly made up from soft clay. The terms ‘portray’ means that Ezekiel was to scratch into the tablet his drawing of the city of Jerusalem.
To besiege a city in those days meant that an enemy would come and set up their camp surrounding the city in order to starve the citizens into surrender. The enemy would occasionally make assaults to look for weak spots while continuing to attempt to wear down the inhabitants by depriving them of food and water.
Our enemy, Satan and his band of fallen angels, use similar means to attack believers. Look at some of these truths;
1 Peter 5: 8 says, “8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”
Deuteronomy 25: 18 additionally says, “18 how he met you on the way and attacked your rear ranks, all the stragglers at your rear, when you were tired and weary; and he did not fear God.”
The book of 2 Samuel 17:2 also has a good point, “2 I will come upon him while he is weary and weak, and make him afraid. And all the people who are with him will flee, and I will strike only the king.”
After carving a drawing Ezekiel was then instructed to place a large iron pot between his drawing of the siege of Jerusalem and himself. As God’s representative, Ezekiel illustrated that God was blocking Himself from coming to the rescue of the city. He would not intervene in what was going to happen.
Isaiah 59: 2 describe for us this action of the Lord.“2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.”
The acting out of prophecies was not something totally new to the Israelites. Some people today have a problem with such things as dancing or doing acting skits. I do not know why these positions are taken. If our God used them as a way to reach people, I think there is a place in our ministries where these same techniques can be used. I do realize that they should have a particular place and time, such as never interfering with the teaching of the word, but like Paul, I will become all things to all men in order to reach them and tell them about our Great and Holy Lord Jesus Christ. Look at some of these past examples;
Exodus 9: 8 – 12 tells us, ”8 So the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Take for yourselves handfuls of ashes from a furnace, and let Moses scatter it toward the heavens in the sight of Pharaoh. 9 And it will become fine dust in all the land of Egypt, and it will cause boils that break out in sores on man and beast throughout all the land of Egypt.” 10 Then they took ashes from the furnace and stood before Pharaoh, and Moses scattered them toward heaven. And they caused boils that break out in sores on man and beast. 11 And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils were on the magicians and on all the Egyptians. 12 But the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh; and he did not heed them, just as the LORD had spoken to Moses.”
Joshua 8: 18 says, “18 Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Stretch out the spear that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand.” And Joshua stretched out the spear that was in his hand toward the city.”
1 Kings 11: 29 – 32 also reports an interesting use of acting to reveal a upcoming fact, ‘29 Now it happened at that time, when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, that the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite met him on the way; and he had clothed himself with a new garment, and the two were alone in the field. 30 Then Ahijah took hold of the new garment that was on him, and tore it into twelve pieces. 31 And he said to Jeroboam, “Take for yourself ten pieces, for thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and will give ten tribes to you 32 (but he shall have one tribe for the sake of My servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel,”
We also can’t pass up looking at 2 Kings 13: 15 –19,“15 And Elisha said to him, “Take a bow and some arrows.” So he took himself a bow and some arrows. 16 Then he said to the king of Israel, “Put your hand on the bow.” So he put his hand on it, and Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands. 17 And he said, “Open the east window”; and he opened it. Then Elisha said, “Shoot”; and he shot. And he said, “The arrow of the LORD’s deliverance and the arrow of deliverance from Syria; for you must strike the Syrians at Aphek till you have destroyed them.” 18 Then he said, “Take the arrows”; so he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, “Strike the ground”; so he struck three times, and stopped. 19 And the man of God was angry with him, and said, “You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck Syria till you had destroyed it! But now you will strike Syria only three times.”
And lastly one last good one to look at from the prophet Isaiah 20; 2 – 4,“2 at the same time the LORD spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and remove the sackcloth from your body, and take your sandals off your feet.” And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.3 Then the LORD said, “Just as My servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and a wonder against Egypt and Ethiopia, 4 so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians as prisoners and the Ethiopians as captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.”
Please notice that the signs were conducted in the past by God’s representatives who the Jewish people reverenced in the present as messengers from God. The Lord said earlier to Ezekiel that the people would know that a prophet had been in their presence. They should have put two and two together. The people, for certain, should have viewed this action by Ezekiel as definitely going to happen.
Note also that the prophet Ezekiel would bear the iniquity of the people. The Lord put on Ezekiel one day for each year of Israel’s sins or a total of 430 years. Again, it should be noted that Ezekiel did not stay put totally for 430 days, but served this illustrated punishment for about 5 hours per day since the Lord had other activities for him to do. The first act was to lie on his left side for the sins of Israel. If we take the date of Ezekiel’s time and add 390 years to it we arrive at the initiation of idolatry worship introduced by Jeroboam described in 1 Kings 12: 22 – 33.
“22 But the word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God, saying, 23 “Speak to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, to all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people, saying, 24 ‘Thus says the LORD: “You shall not go up nor fight against your brethren the children of Israel. Let every man return to his house, for this thing is from Me.” Therefore they obeyed the word of the LORD, and turned back, according to the word of the LORD.”
Jeroboam encouraged the 10 tribes in the north to forsake going down to Jerusalem to worship the Living Holy Lord in Jerusalem by placing golden calves idols at two locations in the north instead to be worshiped.
After lying on his left side Ezekiel was instructed by God to turn over on his right side and lie in this position for 40 days for the sins of the Southern Kingdom of Judah. The number 40 depicts a period of trial and testing. You can remember how the nation under Moses’ leadership wandered for 40 years as described in the book of Numbers 14: 26 – 35,
”26 And the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 27 “How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who complain against Me? I have heard the complaints which the children of Israel make against Me. 28 Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the LORD, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you: 29 The carcasses of you who have complained against Me shall fall in this wilderness, all of you who were numbered, according to your entire number, from twenty years old and above. 30 Except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter the land which I swore I would make you dwell in. 31 But your little ones, whom you said would be victims, I will bring in, and they shall know the land which you have despised. 32 But as for you, your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness. 33 And your sons shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years, and bear the brunt of your infidelity, until your carcasses are consumed in the wilderness. 34 According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for each day you shall bear your guilt one year, namely forty years, and you shall know My rejection. 35 I the LORD have spoken this. I will surely do so to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.’”
Our Lord Jesus also had to endure a period of trial and testing. We find this in the gospel of Matthew 4: 1 – 11, “1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. 3 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”5 Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘ He shall give His angels charge over you,’and,‘ In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’”7 Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the LORD your God.’”8 Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.’”11 Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.”
The temptation of our Lord Jesus Christ [ the last Adam ] is in contrast to the first man – Adam. The first man lost all that God had added to his life. Our Lord however, in obedience to the Father took the place of a lowly servant and redeemed the fallen race that the first Adam had lost because of his sin.
The major idea behind Ezekiel’s acting out of prophecy regarding both the Northern and Southern kingdoms was to demonstrate that both nations had gone through long periods of iniquity even to the present time. This time frame also indicated that their periods of sin would eventually come to an end in God’s time. Our Lord demonstrated through Ezekiel that the restoration would involve the entire 12 tribes of Israel.
Since Ezekiel highlighted the seizure and deportation of king Jehoiachin that occurred in 597 BC, you can add 430 years, or in this case subtract [ 597 BC – 430 ] you come to 167 BC. This date is very interesting in that the Jews were able to rule again as a result of the Maccabean revolt.
Please note that Ezekiel was instructed to stare at his artistic display with his arms uncovered. We read this in Isaiah 52: 10, “10 The LORD has made bare His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; And all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.”
The baring of the arm indicated an arm ready for some type of action. We derive a modern colloquium of ‘rolling up one’s sleeves.’ Ezekiel, as God’s representative was displaying that God was now ready to act.
Possibly, the Lord, as indicated in verse 8, ‘laid bands’ on Ezekiel by causing a type of paralysis for the daily time frame he would be lying on one side. This included, don’t forget, his loss of the ability to talk. We will see that Ezekiel was able to get up after a few hours and do some chores, as we will see when we look at the rest of this chapter. I am sure each day the crowd grew to see what Ezekiel would do next. We will study this in a next session.
