Jerusalem Will Be Destroyed
Ezekiel was instructed to take a sharp sword and use it as a barber’s razor on his head and beard. Then he was to take balances for weighing and divide the hair.
A third of it would be burnt in the fire in the midst of the city, when the days of siege were completed. Another third would be taken and struck with the sword around the city. The last part would be scattered to the wind, and the sword would be unsheathed after them.
He was also supposed to take a small number and bind them in the skirts of his robe. Of those, he was to take some and cast them into the midst of the fire and burn them. From there a fire would go out into all the house of Israel.
God spoke about Israel and how she was the center of the nations, and all the countries around her. But, she rebelled against His rules by doing wickedness more than the other nations, and against His statutes more than the other countries.
Because she was more turbulent than the others, and had not walked in the Lord’s statutes or obeyed His rules, even the Lord was against her. He would execute judgments in their midst.
Because of their abominations the Lord would do with them what He had never done before, and the likes of which He would never do again.
Therefore, fathers would eat their sons in their midst, and sons would eat their fathers. The Lord would execute judgments on them, and any who would survive would be scattered to the winds.
The Lord would withdraw from them because they had defiled His sanctuary with their detestable things and abominations. His eyes would not spare and He would have no pity on them.
A third part of them would die of pestilence and be consumed with famine. A third part would fall by the sword all around them. The last third would be scattered to the winds and would unsheathe the sword after them.
What is the symbolism here of thirds?
“Thus shall my anger spend itself, and I will vent my fury upon them and satisfy myself. And they shall know that I am the Lord–that I have spoken in my jealousy–when I spend my fury upon them.” -Ezekiel 5:13
They would be made a desolation and an object of reproach among the nations. They would be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and horror.
The Lord was furious with them and He would send against them deadly arrows of famine and arrows of destruction, which would destroy them. There would be more and more famine upon them and the supply of bread would be broken.
Famine and wild beasts would be sent upon them and would rob them of their children. Pestilence and blood would pass through them, and the sword would be brought upon them.
Judgment Against Idolatry
The Lord spoke to Ezekiel and he was to tell the people that the sword would be brought upon them and their high places would be destroyed. Their altars would become desolate, and their incense altars would be broken.
Their slain would be cast down before their idols. The dead bodies of the people of Israel would be laid before their idols, and the bones would be scattered around the altars.
Yet, the Lord would leave some of them alive so they would remember the Lord and the judgments cast on them for their whoring hearts and those who went after idols.
They would be loathsome in their own sight for the evils that they had committed, and for their abominations. They would know that He is the Lord, and He has not spoken in vain the things that would happen to them.
The Day of the Wrath of the Lord
The word of God went to Ezekiel and said, “An end!” The end had come upon the four corners of the land, and was upon them. The Lord’s anger was upon them and He would judge accordingly to their ways, and would punish them for their abominations.
His eye would not spare them, nor would He have pity. He would punish them for their ways, so they would know that He is the Lord.
Disaster after disaster, and the end had come and awakened against them. Their doom had come upon them for the wrath of the Lord was coming. Because of their iniquities, none could maintain their lives.
At this, the people started repenting and put on sackcloth, and shame and baldness covered their heads. They threw their silver and gold into the streets, but that was not able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord. They could not satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs with it. For it was the stumbling block of their iniquity.
The worst of the nations would take possession of their houses, and the Lord would put an end to the pride of the strong. Their holy places would be profaned. When anguish came they sought peace, but there was none. Disaster upon disaster and rumor upon rumor.
The king mourned, the prince was wrapped in despair, and the hands of the people of the land were paralyzed by terror. According to their way, was what the Lord would do to them; and according to their judgments they would be judged by the Lord.
Abominations in the Temple
Ezekiel was sitting there in his house with the elders of Judah when the hand of the Lord fell upon him. He looked and saw a form that had the appearance of a man. Below the waist appeared to be fire, and above the waist was something like the appearance of brightness, like gleaming metal.
He put out the form of a hand and took him by the lock of his head. The Spirit lifted him up between earth and heaven and brought him visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the gateway to the inner court which was the seat of the image of jealousy. The glory of God of Israel was there, like the vision he saw in the valley.
He was told to lift up his eyes toward the north, and there, north of the altar gate in the entrance, was the image of jealousy. The Lord asked Ezekiel if he could see what the people were doing, the great abominations the house of Israel were committing there, that drove the Lord far from His sanctuary. But still there would be greater abominations.
Then Ezekiel was taken to the entrance of the court, and when he looked he saw a hole in the wall. He was told to dig in it, so he did. Then he was told to go in and see the vile abominations that they were committing there, so he did.
He went in and there, engraved on the wall, was every form of creeping thing and loathsome beast, and all the idols of the house of Israel. Before them stood seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel. Each had his censer in his hand, and the smoke of the cloud of incense went up.
The Lord spoke and said, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in his room of pictures? For they say, ‘The Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken the land.’ You will see still greater abominations that they commit.”
Then he was brought to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the Lord, and there sat a woman weeping for Tammuz. The Lord said there would still be greater abominations seen than this.
Then he took him to the inner court of the house of the Lord. At the entrance of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men, with their backs to the temple of the Lord. They were facing toward the east and worshipping the sun.
The Lord was continually being provoked to anger, and they put the branch to their nose. Therefore the Lord would act in wrath. His eye would not spare, nor would He have pity. Though they cry in His ears with a loud voice, the Lord would not hear them.