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Scripture: Chapters 4‐7
Key Verse: “I will do to them according to their way, And according to what they deserve I will judge
them; Then they shall know that I am the LORD!’” (7:27b)
Overview: God’s judgment on Israel resulted from her sinfulness. Since God had clearly spoken through
Moses about idolatry and its consequences, Israel should have known and responded to the Word
already written. However God used his prophet as a living illustration for His people. Ezekiel’s life
became an object lesson for the disobedient. He was a “living epistle” from God to them. Thus, God
used several methods to communicate His Word to those who willfully ignored it. God may place us in a
similar position. As we live, our response to God’ Word in all circumstances of life becomes a strong
testimony to those who need to submit to God or face His judgment.
Chapters 4‐24 cover the period from Ezekiel’s call to the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem
Outline:
I. Signs of Judgment (4:1‐5:4)
II. Causes for Judgment (5:5‐6:14)
III. Judgment Described (7:1‐27)
IV. Results of Judgment (7:1‐27)
Detail:
I. Signs of Judgment (4:1‐5:17)
a) Introduction: God directed Ezekiel to use signs in conveying His message to Israel. Some
have called these “acted parables” or “street theater”
b) Sign of the “clay tablet” and “iron plate” (4:1‐3)
i) Text: “You also, son of man, take a clay tablet and lay it before you, and portray on it a city,
Jerusalem. 2 Lay siege against it, build a siege wall against it, and heap up a mound against it;
set camps against it also, and place battering rams against it all around. 3 Moreover take for
yourself an iron plate, and set it as an iron wall between you and the city. Set your face
against it, and it shall be besieged, and you shall lay siege against it. This will be a sign to the
house of Israel”
ii) To Israel, Jerusalem was the heart and center of its life and spiritual activity
(1) Represented the glory and the uniqueness of Israel – cf Psalm 48:2, “Beautiful in
elevation, The joy of the whole earth, Is Mount Zion on the sides of the north, The city
of the great King.”
(2) Back home, false prophets had persuaded the people that invaders would never
capture it!
(3) Rebellion would bring destruction: “Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon”
(2 Kings 24:20)
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Ezekiel – Living Epistles
iii) Clay tablet … used for writing
(1) On this city map (?) portrayed
(2) A mound was set
(3) Soldiers and siege instruments set
iv) Iron plate
(1) Ezekiel takes the role of besieger – “Set your face against it”
(2) Iron smashes clay!
(3) Iron plate may also represent God’s will being set against Israel: “your iniquities
have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So
that He will not hear” (Isaiah 59:2)
c) Sign of the prophet’s position (4:4‐8)
i) Left side = 390 days / vs 5 / Israel
ii) Right side = 40 days / vs 6 / Judah
iii) What does this represent?
(1) His position may have pointed to the N (left side) then the S (right side)
(2) 390 days for 390 years from division of the kingdom to end of the Babylonian captivity
(931 BC to 539 BC) (??)
(3) 40 days for 40 years from final deportation (586 BC) to return (538 BC) ??
(4) “you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel” (5)
(5) “you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah” (6)
d) Sign of the defiled bread and measured water (4:9‐17)
i) Mixed bread grains a sign of poverty & defilement
ii) Symbol: “So shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, where I
will drive them” (vs 13)
iii) Note that Ezekiel protested (vs 14)
iv) Not only was the food itself symbolic but also the food preparation:
(1) Human waste: polluting and repulsive! (vs 12, “bake it using fuel of human waste in
their sight.”) Cf Deuteronomy 23:12‐14 & 14:3)
(2) In response to Ezekiel’s complaint! “I am giving you cow dung instead of human waste,
and you shall prepare your bread over it” (15)
v) Water was “by measure, one‐sixth of a hin” (11)
(1) 1/6 hin = 0.6 liter / not much in a hot parched climate!
(2) Symbolic of God’s judgment on Jerusalem : “that they may lack bread and water, and
be dismayed with one another, and waste away because of their iniquity” (17)
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e) Sign of the shaved head and beard (5:1‐4)
i) “And you, son of man, take a sharp sword, take it as a barber’s razor, and pass it over your
head and your beard; then take scales to weigh and divide the hair. 2 You shall burn with fire
one‐third in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are finished; then you shall
take one‐third and strike around it with the sword, and one‐third you shall scatter in the
wind: I will draw out a sword after them. 3 You shall also take a small number of them and
bind them in the edge of your garment. 4 Then take some of them again and throw them
into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire. From there a fire will go out into all the
house of Israel”
ii) 1/3 burn
iii) 1/3 strike w sword
iv) 1/3 scatter to the wind
v) Bind “a small number”
vi) Of that small number burn some
vii) The small number represented a remnant to be saved!
(1) 5:12, “One‐third of you shall die of the pestilence, and be consumed with famine in
your midst; and one‐third shall fall by the sword all around you; and I will scatter
another third to all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them.”
(2) Cf Ezekiel 6:8, “Yet I will leave a remnant, so that you may have some who escape the
sword among the nations, when you are scattered through the countries.”
II. Causes for Judgment (5:5‐6:14)
a) God intended Israel to be the great monotheistic missionary to the nations of ancient
world
b) Instead had excelled the heathen nations in idolatry!
c) Rebellion (5:6,7), “She has rebelled against My judgments by doing wickedness more than the
nations, and against My statutes more than the countries that are all around her; for they have
refused My judgments, and they have not walked in My statutes.”
d) Idolatry (5:8,9), “And I will do among you what I have never done, and the like of which I will
never do again, because of all your abominations.”
e) Defilement (5:11), “because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable things and
with all your abominations, therefore I will also diminish you; My eye will not spare, nor will I
have any pity”
f) Spiritual Adultery (6:8‐10), “Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the
nations where they are carried captive, because I was crushed by their adulterous heart which
has departed from Me, and by their eyes which play the harlot after their idols” (9)
g) Horrendously portrayed in 5:10‐17
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Ezekiel – Living Epistles
III. Judgment Described (7:1‐27)
a) As Israel was unique in their disobedience, they would be outstanding in their
judgment!
b) Pronounced (7:1‐13)
i) Fivefold use of “end” (7:2,3,6 “The end has come upon (you)”)
ii) Too late for judgment to be averted!
iii) Judgment has blossomed like a flower (10) “The rod has blossomed”
(1) Just as God had used Assyria as His tool of judgment on the Northern Kingdom,
(Isaiah 10:5, “Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger And the staff in whose hand is My
indignation”)
(2) God will be using Babylon as His instrument of judgment on Judah!
c) Portrayed (7:14‐27)
i) 15‐18, “The sword is outside, And the pestilence and famine within. Whoever is in the field
Will die by the sword; And whoever is in the city, Famine and pestilence will devour him.
16
‘ Those who survive will escape and be on the mountains Like doves of the valleys, All of
them mourning, Each for his iniquity. 17 Every hand will be feeble, And every knee will
be as weak as water. 18 They will also be girded with sackcloth; Horror will cover them;”
ii) Outside the city … Sword
iii) Inside the city …. Disease and famine
iv) Some who will survive ….. mourning
v) Courage and security gives way to fear & feebleness
IV. Results of Judgment (7:1‐27)
a) Desolation
i) Money worthless: “They will throw their silver into the streets, And their gold will be like
refuse” (19)
ii) Commerce grinds to a halt (12‐13)
iii) Lives are at stake “Though he may still be alive” (vs 13)
iv) Accumulated wealth gone: “I will give it as plunder Into the hands of strangers, And to
the wicked of the earth as spoil” (21)
v) They will experience destruction, lack of peace and “Disaster will come upon disaster”
(25‐26)
vi) Their relationship with God will be gone! (26):
(1) No law
(2) No priest
(3) No prophet
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Ezekiel – Living Epistles
b) Knowledge of God
i) And yet there is a purpose in this!
ii) God has a plan / He is sovereign
iii) “I will do to them according to their way, And according to what they deserve I will judge
them; Then they shall know that I am the LORD! (27)
Conclusion and Lessons
1) As the New Testament people of God we have a special privilege: “But you are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him
who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 who once were not a people but are now
the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy” (1 Peter 2:9‐10)
2) We have a responsibility to live lives of consecration and holiness: “but as He who called you is holy,
you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” 17 And if you call
on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves
throughout the time of your stay here in fear” (I Peter 1:15‐17)
3) Christians are warned about idolatry: “Therefore put to death your members which are on the
earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Colossians
3:5)
4) Because God loves His children, He will discipline them: “For whom the LORD loves He chastens,
And scourges every son whom He receives.” 7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with
sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? 8 But if you are without chastening, of
which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons” (Hebrews 12:6‐8)
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