Reflections on Ezekiel 4

Ezekiel 04 (Contemporary English Version)
1. Ezekiel, son of man, find a brick and sketch a picture of Jerusalem on it.
   
2. Then prepare to attack the brick as if it were a real city. Build a dirt mound and a ramp up to the top and surround the brick with enemy camps. On every side put large wooden poles as though you were going to break down the gate to the city.
   
3. Set up an iron pan like a wall between you and the brick. All this will be a warning for the people of Israel.
   
4. After that, lie down on your left side and stay there for three hundred ninety days as a sign of Israel's punishment --one day for each year of its suffering.
   
5. (SEE 4:4)
   
6. Then turn over and lie on your right side forty more days. That will be a sign of Judah's punishment--one day for each year of its suffering.
   
7. The brick stands for Jerusalem, so attack it! Stare at it and shout angry warnings.
   
8. I will tie you up, so you can't leave until your attack has ended.
   
9. Get a large bowl. Then mix together wheat, barley, beans, lentils, and millet, and make some bread. This is what you will eat for the three hundred ninety days you are lying down.
   
10. Eat only a small loaf of bread each day
    
11. and drink only two large cups of water.
    
12. Use dried human waste to start a fire, then bake the bread on the coals where everyone can watch you.
    
13. When I scatter the people of Israel among the nations, they will also have to eat food that is unclean, just as you must do.
    
14. I said, "LORD God, please don't make me do that! Never in my life have I eaten food that would make me unacceptable to you. I've never eaten anything that died a natural death or was killed by a wild animal or that you said was unclean."
    
15. The LORD replied, "Instead of human waste, I will let you bake your bread on a fire made from cow manure.
    
16. Ezekiel, the people of Jerusalem will starve. They will have so little food and water that they will be afraid and hopeless.
    
17. Everyone will be shocked at what is happening, and, because of their sins, they will die a slow death."
    
    

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    To this point in Ezekiel, the prophet has been commissioned and prepared to deliver God's message to the people of Judah. This included being confined to his house. Chapter 4 describes what Ezekiel is to do toward the delivery of the first message. This first message is not spoken verbally, but is conveyed by means of a sign. Ezekiel was to take a clay brick and draw on it an outline of the city of Jerusalem. Then he was to "construct a siege wall, build a ramp, pitch military camps, and place battering rams against it on all sides." (4:2) These were signs depicting the siege by the Babylonian army.
    
    Then Ezekiel was to "Take an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between yourself and the city. Turn your face toward it so that it is under siege, and besiege it." (4:3) Many believe this iron plate represents further barriers constructed against Jerusalem by the Babylonian army. To me, it seems more likely that it represented a barrier between Jerusalem and God. During the coming siege Judah would find that there was an impenetrable barrier between them and God because of her sin.
    
    A further sign Ezekiel was to depict was to lay on his left side for 390 days and then his right side for 40 days. On his left side, Ezekiel was facing north, representing the northern kingdom, Israel, and on his right side he faced south, representing the southern kingdom, Judah. During this period he was also to be tied up with ropes to sybolize the confinement of the siege. There is confusion by scholars as to the specific numbers used here and their meaning, but it seems to compare the length of time Jerusalem would be under siege to the years of her sin.
    
    The remainder of the chapter outlines a demonstration of the scarcity of food the people will experience while under siege and in exile. During the period Ezekiel was on his side, he was to have measured amounts of food and water - eight ounces of food and one-sixth of a gallon of water per day. The barley cakes were to be baked over fires fueled by dried human excrement, which would be considered both unpleasant and ceremonially unclean. God concluded this demonstration of rationing by saying, "I am going to cut off the supply of bread in Jerusalem." And then He said, "everyone will be devastated and waste away because of their iniquity." (4:16-17) This statement brings to mind a passage from Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death." However, the apostle Paul, in this letter to the Romans, also gives a message of hope, "but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."