Ezekiel 5:1-17
Q.1. How was Ezekiel to proclaim the desolation of the nation? Why would God act against His people? – (Ezk.5:1-12)
God told the prophet to shave all the hair from his head and his beard. He was to weigh it in a set of scales and divide it three ways, to symbolize the coming desolation – One third of you will die by plague or be consumed by famine among you, one third will fall by the sword around you, and one third I will scatter to every wind, and I will unsheathe a sword behind them (Ezk.5:12). The reason for the coming destruction was that Israel had forfeited her privileged position – 5 “Thus says the Lord God, This is Jerusalem; I have set her at the centre of the nations, with lands around her. Yet in spite of this – 6 … she has rebelled against My ordinances more wickedly than the nations and against My statutes more than the lands which surround her; for they have rejected My ordinances and have not walked in My statutes’ (Ezk.5:5-6). Q.2. What was God’s underlying purpose for the destruction of Israel and the nations around her? – (Ezk.5:12-17) = Israel had abused God’s patience and had offended His holy zeal. His judgment was to send an unmistakable message to the nation –Thus My anger will be spent and I will satisfy My wrath on them, and I will be appeased; then they will know that I, the Lord, have spoken in My zeal when I have spent My wrath upon them (Ezk.5:13). It was also a strong warning to the surrounding nations – So it will be a reproach, a reviling, a warning, and an object of horror to the nations who surround you when I execute judgments against you in anger, wrath and raging rebukes. I the Lord, have spoken (Ezk.5:15).