Ezekiel 4

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Ezekiel 4:1-17 (NLT) 

1 “And now, son of man, take a large clay brick and set it down in front of you. Then draw a map of the city of Jerusalem on it. 

God illustrates and shows what will happen before it happens.  He loves us so much that He shows the outcome to show us why we should not stray away from his path.  God and sin do not get along.  That is why knows it is not good.  If God hates being around sin, why do we want what he does not want for himself?  We are His children and He likes us being around Him.  He constantly tells us to come back, come back…..Please come back.

2 Show the city under siege. Build a wall around it so no one can escape. Set up the enemy camp, and surround the city with siege ramps and battering rams. 

He told Ezekiel to draw how the army will smother them by surrounding them and casing them so they would not be able to live normally.

3 Then take an iron griddle and place it between you and the city. Turn toward the city and demonstrate how harsh the siege will be against Jerusalem. This will be a warning to the people of Israel. 

Show more details by drawing an iron pot and show the people of Israel how the difference between them and the enemy who will overtake them.

4 “Now lie on your left side and place the sins of Israel on yourself. You are to bear their sins for the number of days you lie there on your side. 

God used Ezekiel to demonstrate His heart with means that will leave you interested in knowing why Ezekiel was taking the measure He took to show His people how wrong they were.  To see Ezekiel lying on his left side for more than a few hours will lead you to wonder what  God was saying.  Ezekiel laid on his left side for many days because the days he laid in that position indicated how many sins  Israel committed.

5 I am requiring you to bear Israel’s sins for 390 days--one day for each year of their sin. 

God trusted Ezekiel’s discipline and wanted His people to see their sins in a very dramatic way.  There was nothing  God did not use to draw His people back to Him.

6 After that, turn over and lie on your right side for 40 days--one day for each year of Judah’s sin. 

Judah was of the southern kingdom.  Ezekiel laid on his right side for 40 days.  Judah's sins years were less than Israel's.  This shows that God has to judge according to what was right.   God's account is always just.

7 “Meanwhile, keep staring at the siege of Jerusalem. Lie there with your arm bared and prophesy her destruction. 

Look at the picture that you drew with your arm bare and stare at the sins committed by My people.

8 I will tie you up with ropes so you won’t be able to turn from side to side until the days of your siege have been completed. 

God said I am going demonstrate how uncomfortable this will be to you by taking a rope to tie you up while you are lying on your side for many days.

9 “Now go and get some wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and emmer wheat, and mix them together in a storage jar. Use them to make bread for yourself during the 390 days you will be lying on your side. 

Before you lie fie get the ingredients to make some bread for you to eat.

10 Ration this out to yourself, eight ounces of food for each day, and eat it at set times. 

The proportion of the food based on the days you will be lying on your side.

11 Then measure out a jar of water for each day, and drink it at set times. 

Do the same for water by putting a day's water to drink in a jar as you measured how much food you will eat.

12 Prepare and eat this food as you would barley cakes. While all the people are watching, bake it over a fire using dried human dung as fuel and then eat the bread.  

The waste will be used for fuel.

Starvation will be so great until people will be cooking using the wastes from the human body to heat food.

13 Then the LORD said, “This is how Israel will eat defiled bread in the Gentile lands to which I will banish them!”   

Ezekiel is representing what God knows will happen to Israel because of their sins.

14 Then I said, “O Sovereign LORD, must I be defiled by using human dung? For I have never been defiled before. From the time I was a child until now I have never eaten any animal that died of sickness or was killed by other animals. I have never eaten any meat forbidden by the law.” 

Then Ezekiel asked God for favor in allowing him to use cattle dung instead of human waste.

15 “All right,” the LORD said. “You may bake your bread with cow dung instead of human dung.” 

God understood his request and granted it.

16 Then he told me, “Son of man, I will make food very scarce in Jerusalem. It will be weighed out with great care and eaten fearfully. The water will be rationed out drop by drop, and the people will drink it with dismay. 

God said He will be rationalizing how much food and water will be served.  It will extremely limited.

17 Lacking food and water, people will look at one another in terror, and they will waste away under their punishment.  

Seeing the lack of food people will be terrified of the looks of others because they will be so skinny.  During this time ranking and the status of who people were known by won’t matter.