HelpFinder Bible - Flipbook - Page 1101
EZEKIEL 5
page 731
“Get up and go out into the valley, and I will
speak to you there.” 23 So I got up and went, and
there I saw the glory of the Lord, just as I had
seen in my first vision by the Kebar River. And I
fell face down on the ground.
24 Then the Spirit came into me and set me on
my feet. He spoke to me and said, “Go to your
house and shut yourself in. 25 There, son of man,
you will be tied with ropes so you cannot go
out among the people. 26 And I will make your
tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so that
you will be speechless and unable to rebuke
them, for they are rebels. 27 But when I give you
a message, I will loosen your tongue and let you
speak. Then you will say to them, ‘This is what
the Sovereign Lord says!’ Those who choose to
listen will listen, but those who refuse will refuse, for they are rebels.
A Sign of the Coming Siege
“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. 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. 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.
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. 5 I am requiring you to bear Israel’s sins
for 390 days—one day for each year of their sin.
6 After that, turn over and lie on your right side
for 40 days—one day for each year of Judah’s sin.
7 “Meanwhile, keep staring at the siege of
Jerusalem. Lie there with your arm bared and
prophesy her destruction. 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.
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. 10 Ration this out to yourself, eight ounces* of food for each day, and eat
it at set times. 11 Then measure out a jar* of water
for each day, and drink it at set times. 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.” 13 Then the Lord said, “This is
how Israel will eat defiled bread in the Gentile
lands to which I will banish them!”
14 Then I said, “O Sovereign Lord, must I be
4
4:10 Hebrew 20 shekels [228 grams]. 4:11 Hebrew 1 ⁄6 of a hin
[about 1 pint or 0.6 liters].
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.”
15 “All right,” the Lord said. “You may bake
your bread with cow dung instead of human
dung.” 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. 17 Lacking
food and water, people will look at one another
in terror, and they will waste away under their
punishment.
A Sign of the Coming Judgment
“Son of man, take a sharp sword and use
it as a razor to shave your head and beard.
Use a scale to weigh the hair into three equal
parts. 2 Place a third of it at the center of your
map of Jerusalem. After acting out the siege,
burn it there. Scatter another third across your
map and chop it with a sword. Scatter the last
third to the wind, for I will scatter my people
with the sword. 3 Keep just a bit of the hair and
tie it up in your robe. 4 Then take some of these
hairs out and throw them into the fire, burning
them up. A fire will then spread from this remnant and destroy all of Israel.
5 “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: This
is an illustration of what will happen to Jerusalem. I placed her at the center of the nations,
6 but she has rebelled against my regulations
and decrees and has been even more wicked
than the surrounding nations. She has refused
to obey the regulations and decrees I gave her
to follow.
5
• Sin
E ZE K I E L 3:20
While we are not responsible for the
actions of others, God has given us the
responsibility to warn them of sin’s consequences. Do you know of someone,
even a good person, who has become
addicted to bad things? Warn that person of the consequences. Why are we
responsible? Because God has given us
his Word, just as he gave the prophet
Ezekiel special knowledge. Those who
walk in the light can see more clearly
than those who walk in darkness. Yet
those in darkness are heading for terrible
consequences. If we care about others,
we will tell them the truth that we know.