Ezekiel 4-5 Four Silent Sermons

 Ezekiel 4-5 Four Silent Sermons

Introduction: In Ezekiel 4 - 5 God gives his prophet 4 symbolic acts, 4 silent sermons designed to convey to the exiles in Babylon what is happening in Jerusalem. In these acts God also portrays through Ezekiel, His judgment for the breaking of the covenant Israel entered into at Mt. Sinai.

Other prophets as far back as Ahijah in I Kings 18 (garment rent in 12 pieces) and Isaiah in Isaiah 8 (scroll Malerhallerhasbaz) and 20 (naked and barefoot for 3 years) used symbols and acts to portray God’s message. Contemporary with Ezekiel, Jeremiah was using symbols in Jerusalem at the same time.

Jeremiah 13:1-9 Thus saith the LORD unto me, Go and get thee a linen girdle, and put it upon thy loins, and put it not in water. 2 So I got a girdle according to the word of the LORD, and put it on my loins. 3 And the word of the LORD came unto me the second time, saying, 4 Take the girdle that thou hast got, which is upon thy loins, and arise, go to Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole of the rock. 5 So I went, and hid it by Euphrates, as the LORD commanded me. 6 And it came to pass after many days, that the LORD said unto me, Arise, go to Euphrates, and take the girdle from thence, which I commanded thee to hide there. 7 Then I went to Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle from the place where I had hid it: and, behold, the girdle was marred, it was profitable for nothing. 8 Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 9 Thus saith the LORD, After this manner will I mar the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem.

Jeremiah 19:10-11 10 Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee, 11 And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter's vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury.

Jeremiah 27:2 Thus saith the LORD to me; Make thee bonds and yokes, and put them upon thy neck,
 

Chapter 4:1-3 Silent Sermon 1: The City Besieged
 

Ezekiel’s task was to take a clay tile or brick and draw upon it the city of Jerusalem. He then was to surround it with figures of war, symbolic of the city under siege.
This was a silent prophecy of what would happen to Jerusalem in 588 BC.

4:4-8 Silent Sermon 2: God’s Face Barred
 

The next silent sermon has Ezekeil placing an iron pan or griddle, between his face and the city of Jerusalem sketched on the tile.
What do you think this symbolized to the people of the exile?
That God would not hear the prayers of the people in Jerusalem as they were being destroyed by the Babylonian Army.

Other prophets had sounded this warning of God no longer answering the prayers of Israel.
Isaiah 59:1-3 Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:  2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. 3 For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.

After Jerusalem had fallen Jeremiah wrote in
Lamentations 3:42-44 We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned. 43 Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied. 44 Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.

Ezekiel was commanded by God to lay for 390 day on his left side and 40 days on his right side to complete the symbolism.

The days were meant to symbolize the years that Israel had rebelled and disobeyed their God. One day for each year. During this time Ezekiel was not to move from his side, as though he was bound. This symbolized Jerusalem’s helplessness. He was also to bare one arm which symbolized the arm of God’s judgment against the city.

4:9-17 Silent Sermon 3: The People Starving
As day as Ezekiel lay on his side he was to prepare and eat a meal which portrayed the starvation of the people within the city walls.

Ezekiel 4:9-11 Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentiles, and millet, and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof, according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side, three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof. 10 And thy meat which thou shalt eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time shalt thou eat it. 11 Thou shalt drink also water by measure, the sixth part of an hin: from time to time shalt thou drink.

Some think that the phrase “from time to time” in vs. 10 should be translated at a certain time, and meant that Ezekiel did not lay all day and night before the model of the siege but only a certain time during the day.

The meal he made was a combination of wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet and fitches (spelt). These three grains (wheat, barley, and spelt) and two vegetables (beans and lentils) were to be ground into flour and baked into a flat bread.

The shekel as a dry weight is equal to about four tenths of an ounce. So his food would only be about eight ounces a day. The water was measured by the hin, and the sixth part of an hin. A ḥı̂n is about six and four-tenths quarts, so his water ration was only about a quart a day!

The ingredients and the amount both showed how desperate the inhabitants of Jerusalem would be. Any thing that could be ground and made into flour would be added to the bread. And 8 ounces of rough, non-nutritious bread and a quart of water a day were starvation rations. Many would die from lack of food.

Chapter 5: Silent Sermon 4 Symbol of Scattered Israel

5:1-4 Symbol of the Shaved Hair

Year early Isaiah had used the metaphor of a razor shaving the head and beard as a metaphor of Assyria taking away the northern kingdom of Samaria.

Isaiah 7:20 In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired, namely, by them beyond the river, by the king of Assyria, the head, and the hair of the feet: and it shall also consume the beard.

Now among the exiles, Ezekiel was portraying the words physically by actually shaving his own head and face with a sword.

He was to weigh and divide the hair into 3 parts. One third was to be burned upon the tile that had been used to portray Jereusalem. One third was to be beaten and hacked with the sword and one third was to be thrown into wind.

What do each of these actions symbolize?
1/3 of the people would be killed in Jerusalem when it fell.
1/3 would die as they tried to flee.
1/3 would escape to the four corners of the wind, but even then they would be pursued.

A small portion of the hair was to be bound into the edges of Ezekiel’s robe.
What did these few symbolize?
The remnant that would be saved and one day return to Jerusalem, but even these would suffer as exiles in foreign lands.

Throughout God’s relationship with His people, it has always been the remnant, the faithful few, that He has used to carry on His will. Whether it was the Covenant of Sinai or doctrine of the New Testament, God is sovereign and can and will deliver his nation or His word through many or few.

We see this expressed by Jonathan in…
1 Samuel 14:6 And Jonathan said to the young man that bare his armour, Come, and let us go over unto the garrison of these uncircumcised: it may be that the LORD will work for us: for there is no restraint to the LORD to save by many or by few.

It is a promise prophesied by Isaiah, Joel, Micah, Zachariah and Malachi.
 

Isaiah 10:20-21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them;
but shall stay upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.  21 The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God.

Isaiah 11:11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar,
and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.

Joel 2:32 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.

Micah 2:12 I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of their fold: they shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men.

We see the same truth and promise of the faithful remnant in the New Testament.

Revelation 2:24-26 But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden. 25 But that which ye have already hold fast till I come. 26 And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:

Revelation 3:4-5 Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy. 5 He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.

Chapter 5 closes with the four acts of judgment symbolized by the four silent sermons.

Ezekiel 5:17 So will I send upon you famine and evil beasts, and they shall bereave thee; and pestilence and blood shall pass through thee; and I will bring the sword upon thee. I the LORD have spoken.

Where in the New Testament do we also see this four-fold judgment of God?
Revelation 6:7-8 7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. 8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.

Conclusion
Throughout the book of Ezekiel there will be two major themes, God’s judgment of exile and God’s promise of return. He used his prophets, Ezekiel, Daniel and Jeremiah to teach these truths. As God’s people today we still need to hear the same messages. God’s people must follow his will or we will suffer judgment but even after judgment there is hope. In a nation that has turned so completely from God, we are today experiencing the consequences of that judgment. Our freedom, our families, our children are being destroyed as surely as Babylon destroyed Jerusalem. Yet we must not lose hope but instead count ourselves as those bound in the hem of his garment, the remnant, the faithful few who will one day see God use that faithfulness to do His will in this world.