C. Paul Willis
The book of Ezekiel #4
Teaching by Object Lessons
Ezekiel 4:1 - 17 (NKJV) 1“You also, son of man, take a clay tablet and lay it before you, and portray on it a city, Jerusalem. 2Lay siege against it, build a siege wall against it, and heap up a mound against it; set camps against it also, and place battering rams against it all around. 3Moreover take for yourself an iron plate, and set it as an iron wall between you and the city. Set your face against it, and it shall be besieged, and you shall lay siege against it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel. 4“Lie also on your left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it. According to the number of the days that you lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity. 5For I have laid on you the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days; so you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. 6And when you have completed them, lie again on your right side; then you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days. I have laid on you a day for each year. 7“Therefore you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem; your arm shall be uncovered, and you shall prophesy against it. 8And surely I will restrain you so that you cannot turn from one side to another till you have ended the days of your siege. 9“Also take for yourself wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt; put them into one vessel, and make bread of them for yourself. During the number of days that you lie on your side, three hundred and ninety days, you shall eat it. 10And your food which you eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day; from time to time you shall eat it. 11You shall also drink water by measure, one-sixth of a hin; from time to time you shall drink. 12And you shall eat it as barley cakes; and bake it using fuel of human waste in their sight.” 13Then the Lord said, “So shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, where I will drive them.” 14So I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Indeed I have never defiled myself from my youth till now; I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has abominable flesh ever come into my mouth.” 15Then He said to me, “See, I am giving you cow dung instead of human waste, and you shall prepare your bread over it.” 16Moreover He said to me, “Son of man, surely I will cut off the supply of bread in Jerusalem; they shall eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and shall drink water by measure and with dread, 17that they may lack bread and water, and be dismayed with one another, and waste away because of their iniquity.
The map of the siege
Ezekiel 4:1 - 3 (NKJV) 1“You also, son of man, take a clay tablet and lay it before you, and portray on it a city, Jerusalem. 2Lay siege against it, build a siege wall against it, and heap up a mound against it; set camps against it also, and place battering rams against it all around. 3Moreover take for yourself an iron plate, and set it as an iron wall between you and the city. Set your face against it, and it shall be besieged, and you shall lay siege against it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel.
The prophet is to make a map of the city of Jerusalem upon a clay tablet then around the tablet he is to build a miniature battle field. The battle field is to show walls, mounds, camps, and battering rams against the gates. He is to cover his face with an iron pan between himself and his miniature battle field and to do it all in a public place. The false prophets have been saying that Jerusalem can not fall; the temple cannot be destroyed because it is the house of God and a heathen king cannot destroy it. The facts were that Nebuchadnezzar had already had two attacks upon Jerusalem. The first siege is when the prophet Daniel was taken into Babylon. Ezekiel was taken in the second and now Zedekiah was leading a revolt against Nebuchadnezzar ( 2 Kings 24:20). The iron pan was meant to show the severity of the siege and the impossibility of escape. Ezekiel was told to set his face against the city to show the determination of Nebuchadnezzar’s army to capture the city. Ezekiel had already been told that the people would not listen to him, therefore all of this activity was to peek their curiosity and get their attention. Can you imagine the crowds of people passing by and looking at the strange man and his miniature city and battle?
Ezekiel 4:4 - 8 (NKJV) 4“Lie also on your left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it. According to the number of the days that you lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity. 5For I have laid on you the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days; so you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. 6And when you have completed them, lie again on your right side; then you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days. I have laid on you a day for each year. 7“Therefore you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem; your arm shall be uncovered, and you shall prophesy against it. 8And surely I will restrain you so that you cannot turn from one side to another till you have ended the days of your siege.
Now the prophet is to lie on the ground alongside of his miniature city and battle scene. Each day he goes out and places his body on the north side of the miniature battle field. His arm will be uncovered from his robe and move as if he were declaring judgment against the city but his body will not move as God will hold it in a vice so that he cannot turn. The prophet is to be on his right side for 390 days and then on his left side another 40 days. He is lying on hard ground without movement. The pain must have been excruciating.
But what do the 390 days and the 40 days mean? Ezekiel is told that God has placed upon him the “years of their iniquity” so that we know that the days represent 390years and 40 years. The kingdom of Israel apart from Judah lasted 254 years and Judah lasted 134 years after to fall of Samaria so the time of the prophecy cannot match these years. We know from a study of the book of Daniel that Daniel’s 69 and 70 weeks of years starting from the decree in the book of Nehemiah prophesied the coming of the Messiah exactly to the coming of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. And, that Jeremiah’s prophecy of the 70 years of captivity was an exacting period so it is reasonable to assume that Ezekiel’s prophecy is exacting.
If we take the 390 days and the 40 days combined Ezekiel laid on his side 430 days. Each day equaled one year so we have 430 combined years. The 70 year servitude of the nation can be dated from the battle of Charcemesh and Nebuchadnezzar’s first siege at July 18, 606BC which gives us a set date in history.
The siege of Jerusalem began on December 11, 589BC
The date of Ezekiel’s prophecy was June 25, 593BC
Therefore, the Desolation of Jerusalem (Dan 9:2) began on July 24, 587BC
If we subtract Jeremiah’s 70 years (25,200 days) from the servitude of the nation we arrive at Ezekiel’s additional 360 years.
The end of the Desolation of Jerusalem was July 21, 518BC
According to Moses (Leviticus 26:18) the judgment was to be sevenfold or 7X360 years (907,200 days).
Add these 907,200 days (2,520 years) and we come to May 14, 1948 AD. The day Israel was born as a modern nation!
Or, add the 907,200 days to the initial desolation of Jerusalem and you will arrive to the recapture of Jerusalem and the wall of the temple – June 7, 1967 AD.
Ezekiel 4:9 - 12 (NKJV) 9“Also take for yourself wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt; put them into one vessel, and make bread of them for yourself. During the number of days that you lie on your side, three hundred and ninety days, you shall eat it. 10And your food which you eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day; from time to time you shall eat it. 11You shall also drink water by measure, one-sixth of a hin; from time to time you shall drink. 12And you shall eat it as barley cakes; and bake it using fuel of human waste in their sight.”
The scarcity of food during a siege created the necessity of mixing grain. Leviticus 19:19 and Deuteronomy 22:9 were not valid during a time of famine. Twenty shekels of food per day amounted to nine ounces and a six part of a hin of water would be little more than a quart. This would sustain life but barely. Ezekiel is not told to mix his food with human excrement but to use it a fuel on which to bake his cakes. Immediately the prophet/priest protests!
Ezekiel 4:14 - 15 (NKJV) 14So I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Indeed I have never defiled myself from my youth till now; I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has abominable flesh ever come into my mouth.” 15Then He said to me, “See, I am giving you cow dung instead of human waste, and you shall prepare your bread over it.”
Using cow dung as fuel for fire is not as rare as this seems. Such fires can be seen quite commonly on the streets in India and when my son and I were in Haiti he saw a women preparing breakfast on a fire of dried cow dung and laughingly told me, “Dad she is fixing your breakfast.” A very short while latter the woman came to our hotel door with a plate of cooked eggs and fish she had prepared on the street over the dung fire. Unlike the prophet I did not eat it! How disgusting was God’s orders to the prophet who saw Israel as a separate, sanctified people? The dreadfulness of the siege could not have been more dynamically portrayed.
Ezekiel 4:16 - 17 (NKJV) 16Moreover He said to me, “Son of man, surely I will cut off the supply of bread in Jerusalem; they shall eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and shall drink water by measure and with dread, 17that they may lack bread and water, and be dismayed with one another, and waste away because of their iniquity.
The Priest Humiliated
Ezekiel 5:1 - 17 (NKJV) 1“And you, son of man, take a sharp sword, take it as a barber’s razor, and pass it over your head and your beard; then take scales to weigh and divide the hair. 2You shall burn with fire one-third in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are finished; then you shall take one-third and strike around it with the sword, and one-third you shall scatter in the wind: I will draw out a sword after them. 3You shall also take a small number of them and bind them in the edge of your garment. 4Then take some of them again and throw them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire. From there a fire will go out into all the house of Israel. 5“Thus says the Lord GOD: ‘This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations
