Evening on a reed mat in an exiles’ settlement: a sword laid flat on a folded white linen cloth beside a beam balance with stone weights, a dark lock of shorn hair in one pan, a mud-brick wall behind.

Signs of the siege

Ezekiel 5

What happens when the warnings run out?

17 verses≈ 4 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

1–3Visions of gloryBy the Kebar, about 593 BC: the throne, the scroll, the watchman
4–7Signs of the siegeA brick, a ration, a razor: the end has comeChapter 5
8–11The glory departsAbout 592 BC: the temple’s abominations, the mark, the glory goes east
12–15False hopesExile acted out, false prophets, a useless vine
16–19Parables and lamentsAn unfaithful bride, two eagles, the one who sins
20–24The sword drawnRebellion retold; the siege begins, about 588 BC
25–32The nations judgedAmmon to Egypt: the LORD is Judge of all the earth
33–36A new heartThe city falls; the Good Shepherd; cleansed and made new
37–39Dry bones liveOne people raised up, and Gog of Magog defeated
40–48The LORD is thereAbout 573 BC: the new temple, the river, the land

The Razor of Judgment

God

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God

Close on the folded hem of a plain white linen garment: a few dark hairs tucked into the fold, and beyond it, soft and out of focus, a small fire burning.

But you are to take a few strands of hair and secure them in the folds of your garment. Again, take a few of these, throw them into the fire, and burn them. From there a fire will spread to the whole house of Israel.

God

Jerusalem on its two hills seen from the Mount of Olives at clear morning, the temple on the height, and around it on every side far hills fading in blue ridges to the horizon.

This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘This is Jerusalem, which I have set in the center of the nations, with countries all around her.

God

But she has rebelled against My ordinances more wickedly than the nations, and against My statutes worse than the countries around her. For her people have rejected My ordinances and have not walked in My statutes.’

Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘You have been more insubordinate than the nations around you; you have not walked in My statutes or kept My ordinances, nor have you even conformed to the ordinances of the nations around you.’

God

Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I Myself am against you, Jerusalem, and I will execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations. Because of all your abominations, I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again.

God

As a result, fathers among you will eat their sons, and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments against you and scatter all your remnant to every wind.’

Question

Quick question

Most of the hair was burned, struck or scattered. Look again at 5:3.

What did Ezekiel keep back from the hair?

Famine, Sword, and Dispersion

God

A third of your people will die by plague or be consumed by famine within you, a third will fall by the sword outside your walls, and a third I will scatter to every wind and unleash a sword behind them.

God

And when My anger is spent and I have vented My wrath against them, I will be appeased. And when I have spent My wrath on them, they will know that I, the LORD, in My zeal have spoken.

God

I will make you a ruin and a disgrace among the nations around you, in the sight of all who pass by. So you will be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and a horror to the nations around you, when I execute judgments against you in anger, wrath, and raging fury. I, the LORD, have spoken.

God

A bare Jerusalem kitchen at evening: a cold clay oven, an empty wooden pole on two pegs where ring loaves once hung, an empty grinding stone, one cracked bowl, a pale doorway.

When I shower you with the deadly arrows of famine and destruction that I will send to destroy you, I will intensify the famine against you and cut off your supply of food. I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will leave you childless. Plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I will bring a sword against you. I, the LORD, have spoken.”

0:23

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Pray

LORD, You set Your people in the middle of the nations to show Your ways, and we have turned from them. Keep me among the few who hold to You, and make me zealous for Your name. Amen.

Four signs of the siege

Whiteboard

Four silent sermons, and then the LORD says what they mean.

You’ve experienced

Ezekiel 5

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A verse to carry with you

This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘This is Jerusalem, which I have set in the center of the nations, with countries all around her.

Ezekiel 5:5

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