Reflections on Ezekiel 5

Ezekiel 05 (Contemporary English Version)
1. Ezekiel, son of man, get a sharp sword and use it to cut off your hair and beard. Weigh the hair and divide it into three equal piles.
   
2. After you attack the brick that stands for Jerusalem, burn one pile of your hair on the brick. Chop up the second pile and let the small pieces of hair fall around the brick. Throw the third pile into the wind, and I will strike it with my own sword.
   
3. Keep a few of the hairs and wrap them in the hem of your clothes.
   
4. Then pull out a few of those hairs and throw them in the fire, so they will also burn. This fire will spread, destroying everyone in Israel.
   
5. I am the LORD God, and I have made Jerusalem the most important place in the world, and all other nations admire it.
   
6. But the people of Jerusalem rebelled and refuse to obey me. They ignored my laws and have become even more sinful than the nations around them.
   
7. So tell the people of Jerusalem: I am the LORD God! You have refused to obey my laws and teachings, and instead you have obeyed the laws of the surrounding nations. You have become more rebellious than any of them!
   
8. Now all those nations will watch as I turn against you and punish you
   
9. for your sins. Your punishment will be more horrible than anything I've ever done or will ever do again.
   
10. Parents will be so desperate for food that they will eat their own children, and children will eat their parents. Those who survive this horror will be scattered in every direction.
    
11. Your disgusting sins have made my temple unfit as a place to worship me. So I swear by my own life that I will turn my back on you and show you no pity.
    
12. A third of you will die here in Jerusalem from disease or starvation. Another third will be killed in war. And I will scatter the last third of you in every direction, then track you down and kill you.
    
13. You will feel my fierce anger until I have finished taking revenge. Then you will know that I, the LORD, was furious because of your disobedience.
    
14. Every passerby will laugh at your destruction. Foreign nations
    
15. will insult you and make fun of you, but they will also be shocked and terrified at what I did in my anger.
    
16. I will destroy your crops until you starve to death, and disasters will strike you like arrows.
    
17. Starvation and wild animals will kill your children. I'll punish you with horrible diseases, and your enemies will strike you down with their swords. I, the LORD, have spoken.
    
    

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    Ezekiel's fourth sign is visualized in this chapter. It gives a rather graphic picture of the carnage that will come upon Jerusalem. God said of the carnage, "Because of all your abominations, I will do to you what I have never done before." (5:9) This was a first! But God added, "and what I will never do again." Fortunately, it was also a last. Why such a severe judgment upon Jerusalem, the location of His temple, the city He had blessed? It was actually because of the way God had blessed Jerusalem that the judgment was so severe. Jerusalem had been the object of God's love and yet the people had become so wicked they were worse than the other nations. They did not even live up to the standards of the heathen Gentiles. Thus, rather than the special object of God's love, they became the special object of His wrath.
    
    Previously, Ezekiel had been confined to his house for a lengthy period of time. So when he followed God's instructions to go throughout the city, it was an event, no doubt, that was noticed by the people. It undoubtedly drew a sizeable crowd. This sign began with Ezekiel shaving his head and his beard and then dividing the shaven hair into three equal parts, using a scales to weigh out the parts. A third of the hair was to be carried to the middle of the city and burned, illustrating that a third of the people would die from plague and famine. Another third was to be carried around the city and chopped up with his sword as he went, designating that a second one-third of the people would die by the sword. The final third of the hair was then scattered to the wind showing that this third of the people would be taken into captivity. However, a few strands of hair was to be secured in the folds of Ezekiel's robe and a few more were to be thrown in the fire. The few strands secured in the robe represented a remnant who would escape death and survive in the exile. Though there is uncertainty about the meaning of the strands thrown in the fire, they likely refer to the oppression awaiting those in exile.
    
    The result of this devastation against the House of Israel will be that "they will know that I, the LORD, have spoken in My jealousy." (5:13) God was jealous because the Israelites had accepted all of His blessings and then turned their backs on Him and gone to other gods as if they had blessed them. As a result, God said, "You will be a disgrace and a taunt, a warning and a horror, to the nations around you." (5:15)