A lot of times, we think that we live in a difficult time, and we fail to remember the times that many of the people that were followers of the Lord lived in a difficult space. Ezekiel is in the country of Babylon, amongst the Jewish captives who have been taken there, ministering to them. God is laying on his heart that he would impress on them the truth of their condition.
A lot of times, people want to deny the fact that they’ve got the issues and the problems they have.The nation of Judah is in the situation it is in because it denied the fact that they had really violated the relationship that the Lord had followed other gods, had not worshiped them the way they should, and didn’t see the depth of the sin, didn’t see the depth of the rebellion. And as we’ve been looking at the examples that God has had Ezekiel already give to the people, to his wife who’s been showing them, things are not the way that they perceive and want to hear that they are.
Even though they find themselves in captivity, they’ve been listening to false prophets who’ve been coming to them and telling them, it’s not as bad as you think it is. God is going to deliver us, he’s going to take us back to Jerusalem, and it’s going to be very soon. Ezekiel has been told by the Lord, no it’s not.
The depth of the rebellion needs to be dealt with and paid, and the consequences of the sin, not just for yesterday but for generations, need to be dealt with so they understand the importance of what life all has been upon them. They were placed as a light in the midst of a whole bunch of dark nations. This is Israel today as a light in the midst of a bunch of dark nations, and God is going to reveal to them his power, his might, his glory.
Just as he did through the captives in Babylon, and through the Jewish people, when he dealt with them and eventually brought them back to Israel just as he promised. But tonight we’re going to be looking at the fact that Ezekiel is going to bring another lesson to them, and it’s another object lesson that he’s going to use, and God calls him to do it by using his own body again. And so let’s just begin in chapter 5.
The Shaving of Ezekiel’s Head and Beard
God commands Ezekiel to shave his head and beard—an act of humiliation and mourning—and divide the hair into three parts:
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One-third burned → those who will die by plague and famine inside Jerusalem
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One-third struck with a sword → those killed during the Babylonian invasion
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One-third scattered to the wind → those sent into exile
And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp knife, take thee a barber’s razor, and cause it to pass upon thine head and upon thy beard: then take thee balances to weigh, and divide the hair. Ezekiel 1:1
Now I just want to pause here. This is not something that was to be taken lightly when one shaved their beard and shaved their head.
It was viewed in some ways as a disgrace to have your beard shaved. For example, if you look at when we were studying the book of Kings, you’ll remember that when Son of Man, you know, just lost what king it was, had sent some of his men to another country to try and deal with them and make reconciliation and peace. What he did is he shaved off their beard and sent them back, and it was a disgrace.
They were disgraced because of what he had done. What he is doing in shaving off his hair, it’s just about the same thing.
This wasn’t to be done, but Ezekiel is called to do it. Not only is he called to do it, he’s called then to weigh the hair, and we’re going to see why. He needs to get the hair weighed, so he takes all of the hair from his beard and the hair from his hair.
Thou shalt burn with fire a third part in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled: and thou shalt take a third part, and smite about it with a knife: and a third part thou shalt scatter in the wind; and I will draw out a sword after them. 3 Thou shalt also take thereof a few in number, and bind them in thy skirts. 4 Then take of them again, and cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire; for thereof shall a fire come forth into all the house of Israel. Ezekiel 5:2-3
So we see that the hair is to be divided into three parts. The three parts are to symbolize how a third of the people are going to experience different things.
One third is going to experience what happens in the city, and they’re going to be experienced just by the sword. In other words, when Babylonians come to the city of Jerusalem, a third of them will be killed. He says a third of them will be taken, and it says that the siege are fulfilled, and thou shalt take the second third part, and he says that thou shalt take a third part and smite it with a knife, and a third part shall scatter through the wind.
And so we see these three different things, and we’re going to get into a greater description of this in just a moment of what God is doing with this hair. But there’s a little remnant of hair that is supposed to remain, and also take care of a few in numbers and bind them in thy skirts. And so there’s to be a remnant of hair that isn’t a third, a third, and a third.
It’s not part of that, and it’s to be bound in the skirt. And that is, it’s a place that is to be safe. It’s a place that’ll be not experiencing these other things.
Jerusalem’s Unique Guilt
God declares that Jerusalem was placed at the center of the nations and given extraordinary privilege—yet she rebelled more than the pagan nations around her.
Now, let’s see what the Lord has to say.
Thus saith the Lord God; This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her. 6 And she hath changed my judgments into wickedness more than the nations, and my statutes more than the countries that are round about her: for they have refused my judgments and my statutes, they have not walked in them. Ezekiel 5:5-6
Now, here the Lord is telling me what his plan was for Israel. The reason that he called Israel out as a nation in the first place was that they were to be a nation unto him. They were to be a people that were his people, and they would bring glory to his name as he worked in the midst of them and revealed himself through them to the other nations.
Now, where he placed Jerusalem is the exact place that Jerusalem is today. And if you go and look at a map from the time that Ezekiel and Daniel were living in Jerusalem, they were surrounded by pagan nations just as they were surrounded today. As a matter of fact, many of the peoples that are in the Middle East today are descendants of some of the same people that were there when Ezekiel and Daniel were living in Jerusalem and the city and the nation of Judah were surrounded by the same, the ancestors of some of the same people.
And they were pagans. And what the nation of Israel was placed there for was to reveal the glory and the power of God, to reveal the existence of God, and to reveal that God was worthy of praise and worship and the nation of Israel was to reveal to the nation their sin so that they would have a desire to come to the light of the Lord and come to worship him. That was the purpose of why Israel had been called out of Egypt.
That’s the purpose of why God made them a nation. That is the purpose why he established this country and the reason that he established Jerusalem as his city and had the temple there. And it was in the midst of all these pagan countries.
Well, what happened? God says, what you did is it’s despicable. It’s an abomination. You became more wicked than the wicked nation.
You became more rebellious and disobeying my statutes and laws in the nations around you that knew nothing about me. And he’s saying, this is why judgment’s coming on you. You failed to see the importance of your calling.
You failed to acknowledge my glory. You failed to follow my ways. You walked in open rebellion, a greater rebellion than the pagans around you.
Now, what else has the Lord got to say about this?
Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because ye multiplied more than the nations that are round about you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept my judgments, neither have done according to the judgments of the nations that are round about you; Ezekiel 5:7
So the Lord is saying, because of this, all these nations are against you.
Well, as you look at the history of Israel, the pagan nations of all of us are against Israel. When we went through the book of Exodus some time ago and we went verse by verse through Exodus, you remember when the nation of Israel was coming out of Egypt and they got close to the Promised Land, all of a sudden the pagan nations started rising up trying to destroy them. The Amalekites came.
If you remember what the Amalekites did, the Amalekites, they’d come and pick off the people, the ones that were slow and stragglers, and they would steal their goods, they would kill them, and finally the Lord said enough to nothing, and the Lord raised up Joshua and the army, and they came against the Amalekites. They fought them. You remember the whole situation where Aaron and her had to hold up the hands of Moses and the rod of Moses while the battle was going on.
As long as his hands were raised, Israel would win. When his hands would fall, Israel would begin to lose because his hands were acknowledging where their power was coming from. A lot of people say, well, why was it the hands? Because he was praising God.
He was lifting his hands up to the Lord. He was acknowledging that his power was coming from the Lord, not his arm. Finally, her and Aaron came, and one of them held up each of his arms because he was coming so tired he couldn’t hold them, and so they held up his arms for him, and they won the battle.
That was the Amalekites. Later on, they came to the Moabites and the Ammonites, and those people as well came against him. Remember the Edomites? You see that all these people were people that were ungodly in the worship of pagan God.
They hated the Jewish people because they hated the God of the Jews, but in many of these cases, Israel didn’t see the significance. When they got to the Promised Land and got into the Promised Land, they just obeyed and didn’t listen to the words that Joshua was speaking for the Lord. You remember when he came to the Promised Land, he said they were to go in and drive out the nation.
He said, if you don’t drive out the nation, this is what’s going to happen to you. They are going to come and they’re going to begin to influence you and your children, and you will begin to worship their God instead of the true God. Well, what you see happen is to go back to the book of Joshua.
You see that many of the tribes came in, and they said, well, we’re not strong enough to drive out the nation before, so we’ll let them stay here, and we’ll put them to service, and we’ll put them to tribute, and so we’ll make them our servants, and we’ll take their tribute and money, and so that they’ll be a help to us. Well, they weren’t a help, and it was exactly like Joshua said, and it finally culminated in the result of Israel turning first to all the pagan gods, and then Judah following likewise. And so the Lord is saying, you had the opportunities, I placed you there, but now only are not these nations your enemy, but I am your enemy because you are failing to worship me.
He goes on in verse nine. And I will do indeed that which I have not done, and whereon through I will not do any more the like because of all dying of an abomination. Therefore, the fathers will eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons will eat the fathers, and I will execute judgments, and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter into all the wind.
Now he’s talking about some of the things that Josh or that Ezekiel was doing with these groups of people. One was the siege, and the siege is going to become terrible. And remember when we were looking at the book of Jeremiah, this is actually what Jeremiah prophesied, and this is what happened.
The siege became so bad that the city of Jerusalem did not have food. They were running out of food. And it says here that they begin to engage in cannibals, a terrible abomination in the Lord.
And God said, there’s judgments coming upon you because this is really the results of where your worship of these false gods will lead you. And I want you to understand where you’re going. And then he says, remember it said that he took some of the hair and he castled into the wind and it was scattered? That’s what God was going to do with the third of the remnant.
They’d be cast out and amongst the nations and be scattered. That’s happened two times, this time coming during the Assyrian and Babylonian captivity, where God scattered them amongst the nations.
Then he called them back to Jerusalem and they came back to rebuild the city, rebuilt the temple, and they were there until they were conquered by the Romans. And the Romans ended up in 70 AD doing the same thing, scattering them amongst the nations.
And they were never back in the land as the definable people until 1948. And then God said in the phase, I will call you back, once again, into the land, and then I am going to work in your heart. And Ezekiel is going to be, in that I believe it’s Ezekiel chapter 11, where he talks about the people being talked back into the land.
And that’s going to happen in the last days, which we’re seeing right now before us. But he’s saying one of the judgments is he’s scattering amongst the nations, but you’re going to remain a definable people. I want to tell you, as you come to America, it’s called The Melting Pot, and people come here from countries.
I look at my heritage. My mom, I call her, she’s English, Scottish of Pennsylvania Dutch. And you can go on with about two or three other nationalities that are in there.
And my dad was Norwegian, but I’m not all Norwegian. And you see that I am not identified as a Norwegian. Yet, you come and the Jewish people, Jewish people in America, they are identified as Jewish people. God has preserved them supernatural so that they’ve held their identity, even though they’ve been scattered as a nation, haven’t been a nation until just recently again, yet they remained out because God did it.
Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord God; Surely, because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things, and with all thine abominations, therefore will I also diminish thee; neither shall mine eye spare, neither will I have any pity. A third part of thee shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of thee: and a third part shall fall by the sword round about thee; and I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them. Ezekiel 5:11-12
And a third part of thee shall die in the pestilence, and with famine, and they shall be consumed in the midst of thee. And a third part shall fall by the sword round about thee, and I will scatter a third part unto all the wind, and I will draw out a sword after them.
And even those that are scattered are going to be pursued and never have ceased. And if you look at such a scene happening in the world today, it’s happened time and time again, that’s anti-Semitism. You know, it’s talking to someone who says, why should people hate to greet people anymore than any other good people? Well, part of it is, God said, I’m going to send a sword after you to remind you of what you’ve done that you will come back to me when you can’t. And we see it’s not exactly what’s happened, but there’s no reason to anti-Semitism.
You know, I was talking to somebody the other day, and I said, you know, the people will really stop and think about it. If they’re going to be anti-Semitic, you need to be anti-Semitic, you can call it Arab, because there are some other people too. This is a user of Semites.
I rather the descendants of Sem, that’s what a Semite is. The Arabs are descendants of Sem as well. They came to Abraham, most of the Arab people.
And so we see that as you look at this, God is saying, this is a third, a third, and a third. But then let’s see what he does with the mother. Verse 13,
Thus shall mine anger be accomplished, and I will cause my fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted: and they shall know that I the Lord have spoken it in my zeal, when I have accomplished my fury in them. Moreover I will make thee waste, and a reproach among the nations that are round about thee, in the sight of all that pass by. So it shall be a reproach and a pawn, and an instruction and an astonishment unto the nations, that are round about thee, when I shall execute judgments in thee, in anger, and in fury, and in furious with you, I, the Lord, have spoken it. So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and an astonishment unto the nations that are round about thee, when I shall execute judgments in thee in anger and in fury and in furious rebukes. I the Lord have spoken it. Ezekiel 5:11-15
And so he’s telling this to the people, and this is the result of their rebelling them.
And God has called them to be light, but they want it to be dark.
When I shall send upon them the evil arrows of famine, which shall be for their destruction, and which I will send to destroy you: and I will increase the famine upon you, and will break your staff of bread: so will I send upon you famine and evil beasts, and they shall bereave thee; and pestilence and blood shall pass through thee; and I will bring the sword upon thee. I the Lord have spoken it. Ezekiel 5:16-17
Now, it doesn’t sound very promising for the Jewish people in Babylon that are hearing this prophecy of Ezekiel. But Ezekiel is laying the groundwork of the hopelessness of the conditions. There is no means of salvation because the captive in the physical sense, and now the one that they’ve been called to serve, is bringing judgment upon them as well.
But remember, remember the group of hairs that Ezekiel had was told to put into the lower part of his robes, rolled up in the lower part of his robes to safety. God has always had his remnants. God has always had his remnants that were faithful to him, that followed him.
In the time of the captivity, he had Daniel. He had Ezekiel. He had Jeremiah.
He had others that remained in the land. He had others that were taken into captivity that were faithful to him. God has always had a remnant. Now, a couple things I just want to look at in closing in this is, number one, today there’s a whole deal where in the church becoming insane that the church of Israel and all the blessings of Israel are for the church.
Well, how about the Christians? How about the fact when the church does exactly what Israel did when they were taken into captivity by the Babylonians, couldn’t the judgment come on the church then too, if we say that we’re the new Israel. When we bring abominable things into the church and place them alongside the worship of God, and then confuse the pagans and the unbelievers because they can’t understand why we would do this if the Savior was the God. I’m going to give you some examples.Yoga, yoga in the church, that’s bringing Hinduism, that’s worshiping demons, bringing it into the church, holding yoga classes in the church, telling people you become more spiritual, you become more in tune with God if you get involved in yoga.
That’s an abomination to the Lord. There are Christian churches doing that, and not just liberal Christian churches, but some evangelical churches are beginning to do that, bringing the new age movement into the church, contemplative prayer, telling people that the way you need to pray in order to get really in tune with God, if you need to empty yourself, you need to sit and wait an entity to come and enter your mind and give you direction. That’s an abomination to the Lord.
The Lord says, come, let us reason together. He doesn’t say empty your mind and wait for a demonic spirit to tell you what to do. Also, you’ve got people that today are saying, well, let’s talk to the dead.
Let’s go and find out what saints of old would do. Somebody’s just telling us the other day about some people where they’re going and using AI to try and communicate with Christians from a while ago to get their ideas, through their writings and through everything, through AI. Read the book.
Read their book. Don’t go to AI and try and have them talk to you. I shared with you before one of the things that was very disturbing after Charlie Kirk was assassinated.
It wasn’t more than a week later I got a video of a church from down south, and I figured which state it was in. It was a big Baptist church, and they had a whole bunch of people in the church. It was probably a couple thousand, I don’t know, thousand people.
It was him to the hundreds anyway. The pastor gets up and he says, today we’re going to hear from Charlie Kirk via AI. He plays this recording that sounds just like Charlie Kirk’s voice.
It sounded just like Charlie Kirk, and the first thing he says is, don’t worry about me, I’m in heaven with Jesus. We’re not to be talking to the dead. Saul was called out for what he did and going through a medium and having Samuel come to speak to him.
It was an abomination to the Lord, and Saul was judged for it. You know what happened? After Charlie Kirk via AI gave this message to the people, the pastor stood up and the people stood up and gave Charlie Kirk’s AI voice a standing ovation and applause. This is in the church.
Well, if we are the new Israel, then we need to be judged, and we need to have the condemnation of Israel. What they were seeing to them for was doing that very thing, bringing that into the worship of the Lord, combining it, confusing the nations around them. They were to be a light to the nations, be separate from the world, come out from amongst them, sayeth the Lord, and proclaim my glory to them.
Don’t come and combine their wickedness and say that it’s a new form of worship. That’s what Israel was being judged for. That’s my concern about the church today.
What direction is it going? Where is it going? When you’ve got people that claim to be Christians and don’t know the difference between Roman Catholicism and biblical Christianity, they don’t know the difference between Mormonism and biblical Christianity. They don’t know the difference between worshiping demonic spirits and inviting them into the church and biblical Christianity. We need to get back to worshiping God and to worshiping His glory.
I think it’s interesting that this whole account that Ezekiel was called to give to the Jewish people that reported for us to begin with Ezekiel saying the glory of God and then expounding on that glory. Because we’re to remember the glory of God, not to wickedness and evil. We can be appealing to our lusts and our passions of our flesh, but rather we could be drawn to God’s glory and to walk in His power and experience His deliverance and shall force His glory to the world.
We thank you for bringing the account of what the message was to the people that were under the teaching of Ezekiel. And why they were experiencing judgment. Deliverance wasn’t coming until repentance was there and deliverance wasn’t coming until your judgment had been fulfilled.