Ezekiel 5:1-8 -Take a sharp sword

5:1-4

We now come to the final act in the drama. This time Ezekiel is to take a sharp sword and shave his head and beard. After that he is to divide up the hair into three portions. A third of the hair is to be burnt, a third is to be struck by the sword, and a third thrown to the wind. This is all done to signify the judgement that awaits the city. A third will be destroyed within the walls. A third will be pursued by the sword, and the remainder will be dispersed among the nations. A few were to be taken aside, this represents the remnant, which is frequently mentioned in the prophets. A fire would spread from this remnant. We could see this final fire as more judgement, or as repentance and salvation spreading to all Israel from this remnant.

5:5-8

God now gives an explanation of the drama. Jerusalem had been set in the centre of the nations. Likewise the church has been set in the centre of the world. Israel, and the church, was meant to be a demonstration to the world of the way to live. But she had rejected the Lord and rebelled against all His ways. Indeed, she was worse than the nations! So God pronounced judgement upon her. Punishment would be inflicted upon her in the sight of the nations. As God’s people we will be a demonstration to the world. Either of the blessings of being the Lord’s people if we are faithful, or of the judgement that is to come if we are unfaithful.

Matthew 27:59-66 - So they sealed the tomb

27:59-61

Jesus’ body was wrapped in a linen cloth and placed in the tomb. This tomb had been cut out of the rock. A big stone was placed in front of the tomb. So the body was secure. And the two Mary’s were sitting watching. This counters two of the theories that deny the resurrection. One is that Jesus had not died on the cross, but had merely passed out and was later revived “in the cool of the tomb”. First the idea that Jesus had not died is itself ludicrous, the Romans knew how to kill people! But even if it was true that He had not died, how could He have escaped from the tomb, especially in the terrible physical state He would have been in? Another theory is that the women went to the wrong tomb on Easter Sunday. We see from here that they knew exactly where the tomb was, they had seen Jesus being placed in it!

27:62-66

“The day after Preparation Day” is the Sabbath. This further shows up the hypocrisy of the religious leaders, remember how many of their clashes with Jesus revolved around the Sabbath and not doing “work” on that day! Yet here they are going to the Roman rulers. They are fearful that Jesus’ words about rising from the dead might actually come true. It seems they were more aware of these words than the disciples were! They did not actually expect Him to rise, but thought the disciples might try to steal the body. So they requested that a guard be placed on the tomb. So Pilate ordered that the tomb be made as secure as possible. This counters yet another “theory” about the resurrection, namely that the disciples stole the body. This theory is pathetic. First, the guards on the tomb mentioned here made it impossible. If they had stolen the body it would surely have turned up eventually. Finally, how would a dead body utterly transform the disciples, and lead to a movement that impacted the Roman Empire and has gone on to impact the whole world?

Ezekiel 4:9-17 - They will waste away because of their sin

4:9-17

Having depicted the siege and punishment of Israel and Judah, Ezekiel is now instructed to dramatise the deprivations that would occur. There is debate about whether this is depicting the famine that occurred during the siege, or deprivations during the exile. It really doesn’t matter that much. He is depicting deprivations, that is the point. And there are two aspects to this. One is the lack of food. The types of food mentioned and the quantities indicate that food was in short supply. The amounts were at about subsistence level. The second aspect is the cooking over human waste. This would defile the food. During the siege religious rules would go out the window (they even ate their children in some cases!). When in exile it would be increasingly difficult to observe the Law. In fact 4:13 makes it clear that this drama does apply, at least in part, to the period of the exile.

Ezekiel objects to using human excrement as fuel (this would go against the Law), and God relents and allows him to use cow dung (a common source of fuel for food at the time). One might wonder why did God tell him to use human excrement in the first place, I would guess that it was to make Ezekiel aware of the reality of the situation he was to depict. God wants His messengers to really understand the message they are to proclaim.

While 4:13 implies that the drama applies to the exile, 4:16,17 implies that it applies to the siege. So the sensible understanding is that it applies to both the exile and the siege.

Matthew 27:55-58 - Many women were there

27:55,56

Most of the men come out badly in the Easter events. Judas and Peter, and the rest of the disciples, the religious leader, Pilate, the soldiers (prior to the previous verse). The women come out rather better. Here they are mentioned as watching from a distance. They are marked out as having cared for Jesus’ needs. 

27:57,58

Is 53:9 says that the suffering servant “was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death”. This seems inherently contradictory, yet it is what happened. He was on the cross between two criminals, now Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man, gives Him his tomb. Joseph had become a disciple of Jesus. He had to approach Pilate, that would possibly have been a risky thing to do. So we see that while many of the disciples were not rich, some were. The gospel is for all and we need to utterly reject any teaching that rejects parts of society. All have sinned, and all are called to repent and believe, and all who so will be saved. 

Ezekiel 4:4-8 - Prophesy against her

4:4,5

Ezekiel is the given more dramatic work to do. Presumably the model of the siege was something of a permanent fixture outside his house. First he was to lie on his side for 390 days, this was the “number of days as the years of their sin”. There is no agreement on how exactly this 390 years is counted. Israel, the northern kingdom had been conquered by the Assyrians, while Judah was not. After their conquest, the people of Israel were scattered all over the place, and other peoples were moved into Israel. This was the Assyria practice, aimed at reducing the possibility of rebellion. This “contamination” was also the reason that Samaria was regarded with deep suspicion and even hostility by “proper Jews”, something we see in the gospels. “You will bear the sin of the people”. This should not be read in the sense of Ezekiel bearing the sin of the people in place of Israel. Rather he is signifying the punishment of Israel for her sin.

4:6-8

He is then to lie down on his right side for 40 days, representing the sin of Judah. The exact mechanics of this are not clear. Eg whether he lay on his left side for part of the day for 390 days, and then a successive 40 days. Or whether the 40 days was concurrent with the last 40 days of the 390. I think the latter is the more likely.It is clear from Scripture that when God’s plans come to fruition that Israel and Judah are united again. Ezekiel is also to prophecy against Jerusalem. Ezekiel would be constrained until the siege was finally over.

Matthew 27:51-54 - Surely He was the Son of God

27:51-53

The temple curtain was torn in two, signifying the ending of the separation between man and God. Jesus had paid the full price for our sins. There was also an earthquake, and then we get one of the most enigmatic sections in the Bible, “and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people”. And I haven’t got a clue what to make of it!

27:54

We have here the witness of the centurion, and those with him, It is worth noting that it says “saw the earthquake and all that had happened”. This implies that the strange events of 51-53 were not a “narrative device”, but something that actually happened. So seeking to write it off because we find it so odd and difficult to explain is not a viable option. The centurion and those with him declared that Jesus was the Son of God. It was not just the centurion himself, but his fellow soldiers as well. Those who partook directly in the crucifixion were the first to recognise who Jesus is. And of course, they were gentiles. The gospel is for the guilty, regardless of race or gender or nationality. And we are all guilty. See also that “they were terrified”. Fear is part of a proper reaction to Jesus. It is not just “gentle Jesus, meek and mild”.

Ezekiel 4:1-3 - This will be a sign to the people of Israel

4:1

Ezekiel is now called upon to enact the siege of Jerusalem. Careful Bible study, and analysis of the text is important, as is presentation of the gospel in a clear and logical manner. We should seek to present the truth in a clear fashion. However, we should also note that God does not restrict Himself to this method of explanation, especially in the prophets. Many of the prophetic passages have dramatic and graphic descriptions of what God is going to do, and from time to time the prophets were called upon to enact the word of God in various, and sometimes rather unusual ways. Ezekiel had rather a lot of this to do! Here he is told to take a block of clay (commonly used in house building at the time) and draw a picture of Jerusalem on it.

4:2,3

He was then to erect siege works against it. These would be simple models, the aim was to give a clear picture that Jerusalem would be besieged. He was then to use an iron pan and place it as an iron wall between himself and the city. There is some dispute over what this represented. It might have represented the strength of the attacking force. However, I think the most likely answer is that it represents God being against the city. Isaiah and Jeremiah make clear that in the Assyrian ad Babylonian incidents it was God who was attacking Jerusalem, Assyria and Babylon were mere instruments in God’s hands. God was implacably against Jerusalem.