seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Ezekiel 5:1 “Now, son of man, take a sharp sword and use it as a barber’s razor to shave your head and your beard. Then take a set of scales and divide up the hair. 2 When the days of your siege come to an end, burn a third of the hair inside the city. Take a third and strike it with the sword all around the city. And scatter a third to the wind. For I will pursue them with drawn sword. 3 But take a few hairs and tuck them away in the folds of your garment. 4 Again, take a few of these and throw them into the fire and burn them up. A fire will spread from there to all Israel.
5 “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: This is Jerusalem, which I have set in the center of the nations, with countries all around her. 6 Yet in her wickedness she has rebelled against my laws and decrees more than the nations and countries around her. She has rejected my laws and has not followed my decrees.
7 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: You have been more unruly than the nations around you and have not followed my decrees or kept my laws. You have not even[a] conformed to the standards of the nations around you.
8 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself am against you, Jerusalem, and I will inflict punishment on you in the sight of the nations. 9 Because of all your detestable idols, I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again. 10 Therefore in your midst parents will eat their children, and children will eat their parents. I will inflict punishment on you and will scatter all your survivors to the winds. 11 Therefore as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your vile images and detestable practices, I myself will shave you; I will not look on you with pity or spare you. 12 A third of your people will die of the plague or perish by famine inside you; a third will fall by the sword outside your walls; and a third I will scatter to the winds and pursue with drawn sword.
13 “Then my anger will cease and my wrath against them will subside, and I will be avenged. And when I have spent my wrath on them, they will know that I the Lord have spoken in my zeal.
14 “I will make you a ruin and a reproach among the nations around you, in the sight of all who pass by. 15 You will be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and an object of horror to the nations around you when I inflict punishment on you in anger and in wrath and with stinging rebuke. I the Lord have spoken. 16 When I shoot at you with my deadly and destructive arrows of famine, I will shoot to destroy you. I will bring more and more famine upon you and cut off your supply of food. 17 I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will leave you childless. Plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I will bring the sword against you. I the Lord have spoken.”
a. Ezekiel 5:7 Most Hebrew manuscripts; some Hebrew manuscripts and Syriac You have
Well at least these horrible chapters are short. This time babies are eating their parents in verse 10. How hungry would a body have to be to eat another human?
This commentary is from the easy English site.
The Lord told Ezekiel to shave his head and his beard. Instead of a razor, he had to use a sharp sword. This was to show that the Lord would use a sword (in other words, war) against the people. This sword meant the army of the king of Babylon. The king of Babylon was the agent of God to punish the people in Judah.
To shave the head was a sign of shame. For a priest to shave his head meant that he was not holy. He could not act as a priest. But Ezekiel obeyed God and he shaved his head and his beard. He showed that the people in Judah were not now holy to the Lord.
Ezekiel weighed the hair and he divided it into three parts. This shows the judgement of God. He will divide the people in Judah into three groups. And he will punish them.
When Ezekiel had finished the battle for Jerusalem then he must burn a third of the hair. He burned them on the brick that was his Jerusalem . A third of the people in Jerusalem would die by fire.
Ezekiel must strike a third of the hair with his sword. A third of the people in Jerusalem would die by the sword. That is, the Babylonian army would kill them.
The third that remained Ezekiel threw to the wind. It blew away. The last third of the people in Jerusalem would go into exile.
God would use the army of Babylon to punish his people.
The final third would not all escape. Some of them would die by fire and some would die by the sword. So most of these families would never return to Israel. But the few hairs in the clothes are safe. Some of the exiles would escape and they would be safe. God still had a special plan for these few Israelites. He would protect them in Babylon. And, in time, he would bring them back to Israel.
About 4 years later Zedekiah broke his promise to the king of Babylon. The king of Babylon attacked Jerusalem and the events in this prophecy happened. The prophecy was to prepare the exiles with Ezekiel for the disaster that would soon happen.
The Lord by Ezekiel gives a list of the disasters that are to happen in Jerusalem soon. God will destroy Jerusalem. People from other nations will know that the Lord has done it. They will know that God was so angry with his people. They will know that the Israelites were not loyal to their God. Because of this, the people from other nations will blame and insult the Israelites.
The crops will fail and many people will starve to death. Wild animals will attack and kill some of them. Animals will take away children for their food. Many people will die because they are sick. Then the army of Babylon will kill most of those people who are still alive.
God said that all this would happen. And in just a few years, it did.
Remember my friend's brother.... the one who played war games with toy soldiers?....... I thought of him yesterday when Ezekiel made a map on a clay brick..... Now this morning.... Ezekiel is using that clay brick and I thought of him..... If he had a map on which to hold his mock battles.... he could have learned some valuable combat history.... but unlike Ezekiel.... he only had a dirt pile to wage his battle on..... and his toy soldiers were not being murdered, raped, castrated or enslaved. His toy soldiers weren't force marched for months to a new country where they would be slaves. This is a very vivid picture...... I cannot understand why I never read it before. I cannot understand why preachers haven't been preaching this..... I guess it doesn't "feel good" enough.
Verse 4 caught my attention. God told Ezekiel to take a few hairs and hide them in the folds of his clothes. Those would make it through the Babylonian siege, march, and enslavement.
I was talking with a hairdresser a few years ago.... and she told me that every now and then a piece of hair from some random haircut would work it's way into her clothes. She said hair can be sharp like a splinter. She said hair splinters are a thing. She said they hurt.
God was really really really angry with those stupid humans..... but He made a promise.
God loves His stupid humans. He doesn't want to make them cry.
God loves His stupid humans. He doesn't want to destroy them.
God loves His stupid humans. He made promises to them..... like Abraham and David.
God loves His stupid humans. He doesn't want to wipe them out.
God loves His stupid humans. He cannot let them continue to mock Him by doing whatever they choose with whatever other god they choose.
God loves His stupid humans. He has to straighten their path.
The problem is..... some of His stupid humans loved themselves more that they loved Him.
