This afternoon, if you have your vitals, we’re going to be continuing our study in the book of Ezekiel. Today we come to Ezekiel chapter 4. One of the things that God does through the prophets of the Old Testament is he often uses objects as symbols and object lessons to teach truth to the nation of Israel through the prophets. He does this on a number of occasions with Ezekiel.
And this afternoon we’re going to be studying in chapter 4 a few of the things that he uses to help Ezekiel teach those people that are captives in Babylon some truths about their situation and relationship to God. As we were talking earlier this morning in Daniel, and we were talking about Daniel and Jeremiah and how that there was confusion in the faces of the people and Daniel saw that and prayed that the Lord would replace that confusion with his mercy and love and that the people would turn to him and they wouldn’t be confused. Well, Ezekiel was in the midst of these people.
He was really the priest to a number of the people and as we’ve shared at the beginning of our study in Ezekiel, Nebuchadnezzar had placed a particular area outside of Babylon where he sent some of the exiles and Ezekiel was sent there amongst them. Ezekiel’s house became his house where he ministered to the people. He was of the priestly lineage and became really the priest to the people or pastor as well as well as the prophet.
And he has a deep concern for the people and God is giving him a burden for them and the Lord is going to show today some things because just as we were talking this morning the people were giving false hope from false prophets. And these false prophets were telling the people God’s going to come and he’s going to deliver us. We’re not going to be here much longer.
We’re going back to Jerusalem and everything is going to be fine. That’s what the false prophets were saying. Well, Ezekiel has been given a word from the Lord.
That’s not what’s going to happen. And he’s going to show them through some of the circumstances. First of all, the situation that resulted in them being there and then it comes from the rebellion of their heart.
So let’s take a look at chapter four beginning at verse one.
“Thou also, son of man, take the tile and clay it before thee and portray upon it the city, even Jerusalem, and lay siege against it and build a fort against it and cast a mount against it and set a camp also against it and set battering rams against it round about. Moreover, take thou on to 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 shall lay siege against it.
This shall be a sign to the house of Israel. Lie thy 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. 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.
And when thou hast accomplished them, lie on thy right side and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah, forty days. And I have appointed thee each day for a year. Therefore thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem and thine arm shall be uncovered and thou shalt prophesy against it.
And behold, I will lay bands upon thee and thou shalt not turn thee from one side to another till thou be ended the days of thy siege.”
Let’s just bow in prayer. Dear only Father, as we come before you this morning or this afternoon, Lord I pray that you would just be with us, speak to us through your word.
Help us to see that the message that Ezekiel had to bring was not a message that brought him great joy, but a message that really spoke of the condition of the nation of Israel and specifically the northern kingdom Israel and the southern kingdom Judah and why they were in the mess they were in and that they shouldn’t trust the prophets that were saying you were going to deliver them shortly. And Lord I pray that you would help us to realize that there are consequences to our choices in life and the consequences often times lead to your dealing with judgment and Father I pray that you would just help us to understand what happened to Israel and learn from the principles of it. This we’d ask in Jesus name, Amen.
Well if you can imagine Ezekiel is called to really build a little city with a whole layout and he’s asked to take a clay tile. Now the reason for the tile is to show that this is not indestructible. It can be destroyed and he’s to place on this tile make sketches or drawings it doesn’t tell us exactly how he did it, but he’s to make it so that it looks like the city of Jerusalem.
So in all likelihood he may have drawn the walls on this tile where the walls of Jerusalem went, put the temple in there, the king’s homes and the other buildings that were there that he remembered from Jerusalem. Then he’s supposed to take and do like many of us maybe did when we were little boys, make a bunch of toy soldiers and encampments around the city and he’s supposed to make it so that he shows what’s actually happening in the city of Jerusalem. He’s supposed to make ramps which go up to the city walls, he’s supposed to make battering ramps, he’s supposed to make the encampments of showing the various soldiers surrounding the city.
We don’t know how he’s doing this either because they didn’t have plastic little soldiers like we have today. So he probably is doing it with rocks and stones and sticks and making this so it looks when he’s all done it looks like a miniature Jerusalem with the encampment of the Babylonians around it. The people will be able to see this and realize what’s happening back in Jerusalem because they’re in Babylon.
Ezekiel has been taken with the second group of people. Daniel was taken with the first, the second invasion by Nebuchadnezzar. Ezekiel was taken and now the Babylonians are back again and they’re coming for a third time.
And the third time is going to be when the city is destroyed. And the people are being told, as we saw this morning and we looked at Jeremiah and Daniel, the people are being told by false prophets, don’t worry, the city is all under control. God’s going to bring us back to Jerusalem.
Everything’s going to be fine. The Babylonians will be judged and we’ll be back in Jerusalem very shortly. Well, that’s not true.
And we know that’s not true as you read in Daniel. We know that they’re going to be gone for a number of years yet before they are brought back into Jerusalem. And by the time they get back there, nothing’s going to look like it did when they left.
It’s all going to be destroyed. The walls are going to be destroyed. The houses are destroyed.
The temples destroyed. And it’s not going to be like it was. So he’s to make out this layout that shows the condition of what it is.
But then he’s asked to do something that seems rather strange. He’s to take a steel plate and he’s to put this steel plate between himself and the city. And the steel plate is to show that God is not going to deliver them.
The Lord will not hear their cries for help and deliverance. They had opportunity, but they chose to go after the false gods of the nations around them. They had chosen to rely upon the Egyptians for help.
They’d chosen to look to every place but the Lord. And so the Lord is saying, I’m putting this steel plate there. And that is because I will not hear your prayers and I’m not going to come to deliver you from the Babylonians.
And you will experience everything that’s going to happen. Now what is going to happen with this siege, as those of you who were here when we were going through Jeremiah, you understand that the siege resulted in pestilence, famine, death, and ultimately the Babylonians coming in and killing many of the people as well. And so we see that it was not good.
And we’ll read on, if we have time, to see what else he has to say about this siege when it’s going to come. So we see that he lays out the condition of the city of Jerusalem, the condition of the nation of Israel, but then he’s going to give the reason why. Why this condition? Now he’s asked to do something very strange.
He’s asked to lay on his left side, and he’s asked to lay on his left side for days. That’s a Jewish year, is a lunar year, so that’d be days. So he’s asked to lay on his left side for a little over a year.
And then he says, then turn to your right side and lay on that for another days. Now, the Scripture doesn’t tell us, was he laying there continuously? Well, in all likelihood he would get up to, but was laying there when he was prophesying to the people, and then would get up in the evening or whatever to eat and to do other things. But he was to lay on the side during the day those amounts of time.
Why those amounts of time? And then the Lord says, these days will be equated to years. Now, if you go back and you look at, first of all he says the left side is to be for Israel, the northern kingdom. The northern kingdom, as we saw this morning, went into apostasy much, they went into apostasy immediately.
Once the two kingdoms split at the time that Solomon died, and Solomon’s son Rehoboam took over the throne, Rehoboam had a choice. He could listen to the advisors of his father Solomon, or he could listen to his friends. The advisors of his father Solomon went to him and said, your father has taxed the people hard, your father has caused the people to do many things.
They told him, lay off the people, reduce the taxes, don’t put so much burden on the people. And then he went to his friends. His friends were young like him.
They said, if your father has taxed them this much, tax them more. If your father put this kind of pressure on them, put more pressure on them. You’re the king, they’re your servants, that’s what you should do.
Well, Rehoboam listened to his friends, he didn’t listen to the advisors of his father. And so immediately you had a rebellion in the kingdom of Israel against Rehoboam, because all of a sudden there was this tremendous pressure coming against the people. The taxes were increased, the conscription of the young men into service of the king was increased.
All these things were increased, and the people rebelled. And the northern kingdom, the ten northern tribes, chose to split from the southern two tribes. And the northern ten tribes had a man by the name of Jeroboam, and Jeroboam had been an advisor to Solomon.
And he ended up becoming the first king of the northern kingdom. And Jeroboam won, when he became the king, God came to Jeroboam and he said, Jeroboam, if you will walk in my ways, if you will obey me, if you will trust in me, and if you will lead my people according to my ways, I will enable you and your descendants to remain on the throne of the northern kingdom. However, if you don’t, you will lose it.
And Jeroboam, instead of listening to God, the first thing he did is he established a second place of worship. He established a place of worship at Bethel. He set up two golden calves for the northern kingdom to worship at.
Golden calves were a symbol of one of the gods of the Egyptians. And you remember the golden calf was what the people had done and turned to when Moses didn’t come out of Mount Sinai. And that’s what he made as the object that the people could see, so they had an object to worship, the golden calf.
And then he told them not to go to Jerusalem and not to go to the temple, but rather to go to these places to worship. He set up a false priesthood and everything that God told him not to do, that’s what he did. And so God judged them.
Well, that became not only Jeroboam’s way of governing the northern kingdom, but it became every king after Jeroboam. Every king after Jeroboam led them deeper and deeper into idolaty, deeper and deeper into rebellion against God, until finally the Lord established the Assyrian empire to come down and use the Assyrians to come down and judge the northern kingdom of Israel and took them into captivity. And the number of years, there’s approximately years that they were living in rebellion against God.
And so this years is symbolic of their rebellion against the Lord. Well, what about the southern kingdom? Why is that a shorter period of time? Well, because if you go and look at the southern kingdom, they did not have the rebellious kings. Some of their kings were not good kings.
Some of their kings did set up idols and did worship in the high places. But the majority of the southern kingdom kings were good kings and sought to worship God, although not all like David, but many of them did what was honoring to the Lord, kept the temple worship, encouraged the people to worship God, although it led them into other areas of sin. But the time that the actual southern kingdom was in open rebellion against God was symbolized by the shorter period of time, or the years.
And so you see that he’s giving an object lesson to the nation of Israel as he’s laying on his side, saying, okay, the city is besieged, it’s going to be destroyed, it’s going to be overrun, and this is why. This is why, because of the rebellion of the northern kingdom, the rebellion of the southern kingdom, the rebellion of all Israel is resulting in this. And you need to realize why this is happening.
Now, I want to quickly go on, and we’re going to read about what’s going to happen during this siege, and because of this rebellion, to the immediate people that are left in Jerusalem, and why those that were taken away were taken away into captivity. In verse , take thou also unto thee meat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and pitches, 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. And thy meat, which thou shalt eat, shall be by weight seventy shekels a day, and from time to time shalt thou eat it.
Thou shalt drink also water, only measure the sixth part of a hin, from time to time shalt thou drink it. And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it with dung, that cometh out of man in their sight. And the Lord said, even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, whither I will drive them.
Then said I, O Lord God, behold, my soul hath not been polluted from my youth, even till now have I not eaten that which dieth of itself, or is torn in pieces, neither came their abominable flesh into my mouth. Then he said unto me, Lo, I have given thee cow’s dung for man’s dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread therewith. 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, and they may want bread and water, be astonished one with another, and consume away for their iniquity.
Now God showed them the seizures of the city. He showed them that the city was going to be destroyed. He showed them why it was going to be destroyed because of the rebellion of the northern and southern kingdom.
Then he asked him to do an amazing thing. He asked him, okay, now I’m going to give you an object lesson on what’s going to be happening in Jerusalem and what’s going to be happening when some of these people are taken away into captivity. They are going to have to have very little to eat and drink.
And we know for a fact that under the besiegment, one of the things that Jeremiah had prophesied that there would be famine. And one of the things of famine, you’re limited in what you have for food sources. They were limited, and everything that they had was symbolized by all the things that he was asked to put in this pot.
And it was all put in there and it was made into this one bread that wasn’t a very good bread. And then he was told to take it and measure out just a small portion and just eat this small portion every day. That’s all he could have.
But there would be some days where he wouldn’t even be able to have that. Then all he would have to drink would be water, but the water would be limited as well. And he was to take and measure out the portions of water and take small portions of water and drink that every day, except some days there would be none to drink.
And then in order to cook the bread, he’s asked to take man’s dung to cook it with. Well, Ezekiel protests against this because this would be open defilement to him. And he’s telling the Lord, Lord, I’ve never done anything to defile myself.
He’s followed the kosher laws on eating according exactly like the law said. And Lord, you’re asking me to defile myself by how you’re asking me to prepare the food, the material I’m supposed to use for the fire would be a defilement to me. And so the Lord says, OK, what I’ll do is I’ll allow you to substitute cow dung then.
So it won’t be a defilement because they use cow dung as a means of fire to use for fires. Actually, that was used by some of the early settlers in North Dakota. They go get buffalo chips and cow chips, and that would become their wood for the fire because we didn’t have a lot of trees in North Dakota.
And so that became a dried cow dung was used for fire. And so the Lord allows him to do that. But he’s telling them and he’s showing them your rebellion has led to all these areas of defilement against me.
And that defilement is going to result in this judgment that’s coming against Jerusalem, where you are going to experience that which you don’t want to do, but you have to do it because there’s no other way to live. And if you don’t portion out this small little bit of bread and portion out this little bit of water and prepare it in ways that are not to be used to prepare it, you will die. And he’s saying that is where your rebellion has led you to.
And what he’s doing is he’s giving you an open object. What is the result of the rebellion? Where did the rebellion occur? And what are the consequences of the rebellion? A lot of times we’d say, well, why did God do this? Number one, he’s showing them the horror of their rebellion against him. And also, remember the book of Ezekiel started out with the glory of God and revealing to us the glory of God and the throne of God and all this.
And now you have him coming to the point of showing the rebellion of Israel against God and God’s judgment against them because of that rebellion. And he’s saying, you gave up my glory for this. Stop and think you gave up my glory for this.
I want you to stop and think that people do the same thing today. You know, they give up looking to the glory of God and worshiping the one who has given them life and is their creator and redeemer and savior and king and replace it with things that lead to death. Drugs, alcohol, improper relationships, all kinds of things that are in rebellion against God and the consequences of which are early oftentimes physical death and lead to eternal judgment unless one repents in terms to Christ.
This is a tremendous object lesson for anyone in any time, but the nation of Israel, it was a tremendous object lesson because they needed to understand. Simply by saying, God help me now, doesn’t mean that God’s going to deliver them right at that moment. And the scriptures tell us that in the book of Hebrews, it talks about trampling under the blood of Christ.
Those that know the means of salvation, but continually reject the means of salvation, mock the means of salvation, and that there is no other means of salvation but the blood of Jesus. And then one day they’ll stand before the Lord and they’ll cry to God, help me now, but it’s too late. They stand before Him in judgment in the day of judgment’s come, and it’s too late to experience the deliverance of Jesus’ blood.
If you trample under the blood of Christ, there is no other means of deliverance. And this should be a tremendous lesson for us, that you and I need to understand the consequences of our choices to take and experience the glory of God and not the vain emptiness of our own life choices that are in rebellion to Him and understand that those choices ultimately lead to consequences of judgment and ultimately death. Let’s just close in prayer.
Lord, I pray that You help us understand these verses, difficult verses, but You gave object lessons to the nation of Israel through Ezekiel more than once, that people could help to understand as they looked at Him doing things and He would explain what He was doing, that they could understand and that they would desire Your glory and not their own vain thoughts. Lord, help us to seek Your glory. This we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen