Ezekiel 5:11

Ezekiel 5:11 says, Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord God; Surely, because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things, and with all thine abominations, therefore will I also diminish thee; neither shall mine eye spare, neither will I have any pity.  God said as surely as He lived, and He always has and always will, that since the people of Israel had defiled His sanctuary with detestable and abominable things that He would diminish their number.  God had promised that He would make them a great nation with numbers like the sands of the sea if they were obedient to Him.  They had failed to be obedient, so He was going to reduce their number down to only those who were.  If we share the gospel faithfully and are obedient to God’s will, the number of Christians, people who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord, will grow, but if we begin to pervert the gospel and follow lies instead of God’s truth, the number of Christians will decrease.  This will be true even if the number of people who profess to be Christians but have done so in name only without faith in God alone grows. 

Verse twelve adds, A third part of thee shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of thee: and a third part shall fall by the sword round about thee; and I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them. Ezekiel said God was going to allow a third of the people of Israel to die of pestilence, or plague.  God doesn’t need an army to defeat those who rebel against Him, but He can do so by just removing His protective hand and allowing the diseases of the world to kill them. Ezekiel then said that God was going to allow another third of the people of Israel to die by the sword, or to be killed in battle.  Their success when they were victorious had always been because God was with them, and He was no longer going to be.  Our success in overcoming the world today since we are in a spiritual battle will always be because God is with us when we are obedient to Him. Ezekiel concluded by saying that God was to then scatter the remaining third, many of whom would also die by the sword.  God will punish those who refuse to accept His gift of salvation, even if they call themselves Christians but have never accepted His gracious gift of salvation.    

Verse thirteen adds, Thus shall mine anger be accomplished, and I will cause my fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted: and they shall know that I the Lord have spoken it in my zeal, when I have accomplished my fury in them.  God said that after this happened that His anger would be finished and that the world would know that He was God and that His word would always be true.  The people of Isreal were never called to be God’s chosen people because of anything they did, but they were called to be His people and to represent Him in the world because of His grace in calling them. Since they were seen as God’s people, when they did things that made Him look bad or unpowerful in the world’s view, He had no choice but to allow them to be defeated.  It was their disobedience that caused this and not just an arbitrary act of God.  If we refuse to accept God’s gift of salvation, one day we will feel His wrath, but the choice will always be ours.   

Ezekiel 5:5

Ezekiel 5:5 says, Thus saith the Lord God; This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her.  God told Ezekiel that his shaving his head and then using the hair in various ways represented Jerusalem.  Jerusalem was to be stripped bare of all her glory and some of the people were going to be killed and the rest were going to be taken away captive. Jerusalem was also set in the midst of the nations and was supposed to represent the truth of God to them by living in accordance to His word, and when they did, they would be a shining light to the world.  We as followers of Christ are set among the people of the world and should be that same shining light to them by presenting God’s word to those around us.   

Verse six adds, And she hath changed my judgments into wickedness more than the nations, and my statutes more than the countries that are round about her: for they have refused my judgments and my statutes, they have not walked in them.  God then told Ezekiel that the people of Jerusalem had become worse than those around them.  They had changed his judgments, or commandments, into wickedness.  It would have been bad enough if they weren’t reaching out to others with God’s word, but they had tried to change God’s commandments. As the church today, we need to make sure that we do not become a group of people who try to change God’s word.  If we put our faith in anything less than God’s word and then attempt to make it the truth, we will be guilty of wickedness before God.  We cannot add to or take away from God’s message of the way to receive salvations or how we should live our life after we do.   

Verse seven continues, Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because ye multiplied more than the nations that are round about you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept my judgments, neither have done according to the judgments of the nations that are round about you;  God said that the people of Israel had become more numerous than those around them.  This was a part of God’s promise to them.  Still, though God was fulfilling His promise to them, they had not walked in His statutes or obeyed His laws in other words.  God will always fulfill His promises to us if we will be obedient to Him.  Of course, if we have been obedient to Him by accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior, we will be one of His children forever, even if we don’t always obey His commandments afterwards, but one day we may have to answer for our disobedience.   

Verse eight states, Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I, even I, am against thee, and will execute judgments in the midst of thee in the sight of the nations.  God said that because of their disobedience that instead of being for them, He would be against them, even though they were His chosen people.  The people around them would see what happened even to God’s chosen people when they rebelled against Him.  If we as the church, God’s chosen people today, become His in name only, we should be ready for God’s judgment to come on us.   

Verse nine adds, And I will do in thee that which I have not done, and whereunto I will not do any more the like, because of all thine abominations.  God said He was going to do something among them that He had not done before.  He was going to punish those who were called His people but who rebelled against them by having them all leave His holy city.  They had feared the armies of other countries and had even looked to them for protection, but they had not feared God and looked to Him for protection.  God was going to punish them more than He had punished any other people, because they were identified as His people and they were worshiping idols instead of worshipping Him.  Those who profess to be God’s people but have not accepted His gift of salvation may see Him do a work that they didn’t want to see, and that is God’s punishment.   

Verse ten continues, Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments in thee, and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter into all the winds.  Matthew Henry said that fathers eating sons and sons eating their fathers could have been from extreme hunger or something that their barbaric captors forced them to do.  Either way, it would be a terrible time.  I don’t think we will ever reach that point physically, but people may devour each other spiritually by leading them worship false gods and then face God’s judgment when Jesus Christ returns.   

Ezekiel 5:1

Ezekiel 5:1 says, And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp knife, take thee a barber's razor, and cause it to pass upon thine head and upon thy beard: then take thee balances to weigh, and divide the hair.  Ezekiel was then given another command from God that might seem strange.  He was to shave off his hair and beard which represented God’s total rejection of Israel because of their sin.  We may not be called on to take such drastic actions with our physical appearance, but we should be willing to do so if we know that God is calling on us to do so. 

Verse two adds, Thou shalt burn with fire a third part in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled: and thou shalt take a third part, and smite about it with a knife: and a third part thou shalt scatter in the wind; and I will draw out a sword after them.  Ezekiel was to divide his cut off hair into three equal parts, which Matthew Henry says represented God’s judging in fairness.  All people are equal in God’s sight, but it depends on our accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord whether He continues to see us that way.  One- third was to be burned, representing the total destruction of some of the people of Israel, one-third was to be cut to pieces, representing those who would be killed by the sword during the siege, and the other third was to be scattered, representing the scattering of some of them.  Many would die and some would be dispersed, but nearly all would be affected by God’s judgment on them for their sin. 

Verse three continues, Thou shalt also take thereof a few in number, and bind them in thy skirts.  Ezekiel was told to take a few pieces of his hair from the part that was to be scattered and bind it in his skirts.  This would represent those who had hope that by remaining faithful to Gedaliah that they would keep possession of the land, according to Matthew Henry.  We may think that if we remain true to a certain leader that we will be spared from any destruction if it comes, but if God has pronounced His judgement on us, no one is going to save us from facing His judgment.   

Verse four concludes, Then take of them again, and cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire; for thereof shall a fire come forth into all the house of Israel.  That all would face God’s judgment was signified when Ezekiel was told to take what had been spared and to throw it in the fire also.  Nothing was going to spare the people of Israel from total destruction but coming to God in repentance and obedience and His grace in sparing them.  The only way for us to be saved from everlasting spiritual destruction is by repenting of our sins and accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord.  Anything else that we put our faith in will fail.