SCRIPTURE: EZEKIEL 4
SIEGE OF JERUSALEM SYMBOLIZED (vs. 1-17)
3 SIGNS GOD REVEALED TO EZEKIEL AND ASKED HIM TO DEMOSTRATE IT:
A. The Siege of the City – Take a clay tablet and draw the city of Jerusalem. Erect siege work against it by building a ramp, setting up camps and putting battering rams around it. Then take an iron pan and place it as an iron wall between you and the city and turn your face toward it. It will be under siege, and your shall besiege it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel
B. Years both Israel and Judah had sinned – You are to bear their sins by lying down on your left side for 390 days for the sins of Israel. Then turn on your right side 40 days with ropes tied so that you cannot turn for one side to the other until you have finished the days of your siege.
C. Rationing of Food and Water – Take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt; put them in a storage jar and use them to make bread for yourself. You are to eat it during the 390 days you lie on your side. Weight out 20 shekels of food to eat each day and eat it at set times. Also measure out a sixth of a hin of water and drink it at set times. Eat the food as you would a barley cake; bake it in the sight of the people, using human excrement for fuel. In this way, the people of Israel will eat defiled food among the nations where I will drive them. The supply of food in Jerusalem will be cut off. The people will eat rationed food in anxiety and drink rationed water in despair.
THOUGHTS:
God gave Ezekiel specific instructions to act out the coming siege and fall of Jerusalem before it happened. He told Ezekiel what to do and say and how to do and say it. Each detail had a specific meaning. We should not ignore or disregard the small details of God’s Word. God’s Word should be obeyed completely in the details.
Ezekiel laid on his left side 390 days to show that Israel will be punished for 390 years. Then he laid on the right side for 40 days to show that Judah will be punished for 40 years. Ezekiel was not allowed to move symbolizing that the people of Jerusalem would be imprisoned within the walls of the city.
Ezekiel was allowed to eat small amount of food represented the normal ration provided to those living in the city under siege by enemy armies. The food cooked over human dung was a symbol of Judah’s spiritual degradation.