In Chapter 5, the prophet Ezekiel continues his prophetic parade of visual aids. In this chapter he is told to shave with a sword and burn his hair.
A serious student of the Bible will note that Ezekiel’s visual demonstrations (and the historical events that they represented) follow Moses’ warnings in Leviticus 26. In that chapter Moses emphasized God’s blessing if the people would forsake idols and follow God, but set out a pattern of discipline that God would use if the people rejected holy living. The Sword is one of disciplines. Leviticus 26 is a haunting picture of exactly how God did what he did.
VERSES 1-4 Shave and a Haircut
God commands Ezekiel to shave both his head and his beard, not using a razor, but using a sword. God commands him to weigh the hair and divide it into equal piles, one-third each. Then he is commanded to burn a third of the hair within the city. Then he is required to strike another third of that hair with the sword. Finally, he is to take another third of the hair and scatter it to the wind. However, in the midst of this he is to take a small portion of the hair and tuck it inside his robe.
In the message God gives Ezekiel, he further explains the visual demonstration as his destruction of a third of the people by famine and plague, a third of the people destroyed by the sword, and another third of the people scattered and running from violence.
For a Jewish man, to shave his head was a symbol of shame. It also was used a symbol of mourning. In this case, it is used as both.
VERSES 5-7 A Declaration
If you’ve ever read the Declaration of Independence then you know that it is much more than a statement that the American people were going to be free. It lays out more than 25 issues that had brought the delegates to the place where they were leading the colonists to make a break with England. It carefully defines the steps that they have taken in an effort to resolve the issues with the crown and its representatives. Finally, the Declaration declares what they are going to do. They are declaring themselves to be an independent nation.
In a similar declaration, God explains the purposes behind actions that Ezekiel is demonstrating. The hair represents Jerusalem, surrounded by pagan nations. God placed her with a purpose in mind. Rather than being a shining light and a holy example among the pagan nations she rebelled and became even more defiled that the nations around her. They were more unruly than the other nations because they were literally defying God.
Here is an interesting idea in regards to accountability before God. God considered Jerusalem (and His people) to be WORSE than the pagan nations because they had the illumination of the Law. They had a Word from God for how to live and rather than abiding by the Law they sought idolatry. While God will hold us all accountable, believer and unbeliever alike, there is an element of rebellion against God that is especially true for the believer who rejects God’s pattern for righteousness and chooses sin, that makes his sinful conduct so much more despicable than that of unbelievers.
Sometimes people speak about negative circumstances in their life as if they don’t know why God is judging thing. They should note the pattern offered in Scripture. God never judges his people without letting them know what they have done. By the time God begins to use external circumstances to chastise a believer, the Holy Spirit has already attempted to persuade and convict a believer about sin and been rejected or ignored.
Only an abusive parent would chastise a child without telling the child what the discipline is about. Imagine the following conversation:
PARENT: You’re grounded. No television, no telephone, no playing outside for the next week.
CHILD: Why? What did I do?
PARENT: You already know!
CHILD: No, please tell me.
PARENT: You will have the next week to figure it out.
God did not put the people into exile and then refuse to tell them what it was all about. The prophets, even from the time of Moses had warned them about choosing idolatry. So God declares His righteous judgment’s purpose—because the people of Jerusalem had not just disobeyed, but rejected His righteous laws and decrees.
VERSES 8-12 Someone’s cooking in the kitchen- literally
The people must have been shocked to know that God Himself was stating that He was against them. Some of them were likely crying out to God and seeking His deliverance, but here he was simply declaring that He was not bringing that deliverance. He, Himself, had taken sides and it was not on the side of the Jews. He was against them.
It is an awesome thing to have God against you. After all, we’re used to saying “If God be for us, who can be against us?” Now, this is a reversal of that situation. If God was against the Jews, as He was saying He was, then who could be for them? The answer is simply that nobody would be. God’s wrath was burning hot and heavy.
If the people would not be an example of righteousness before the Pagan nations, then God would make them an example of judgment. He would demonstrate how He deals with sinners who refuse to repent. They would become a terrible example of God’s wrath.
In the midst of this terrible ordeal, perhaps the worse conditions known to man, as God declares that they will become so hungry that they will succumb to cannibalism. You and I cannot imagine ever becoming this hungry—but history shows time and place when it becomes a last resort that some people give in to.
Can you imagine coming to California with the Donner party? This group was snowed in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and a number of them resorted to cannibalism before their ordeal was over. Can you imagine trying to live it down? How would you like to be the men in the South American soccer team who crashed in the Andes Mountains and only survived by eating their dead companions? Is there anything more debasing than choosing cannibalism over starvation?
Not only had the people chosen idolatry, but they had even defiled the temple in Jerusalem by bringing idols into the temple area. Ezekiel writes more about this in chapter 8, but suffice it to say that the temple had become an eclectic place of worship, combining idol worship with the worship of Jehovah. In chapter eight God shows Ezekiel images and people even bowing down in worship to the Sun.
God’s people had not only compromised in the name of freedom of religion, but they had bowed down and embraced these false gods. God was very angry about this, of course. God was so angry, in fact, that He states that His judgment will not be tempered by mercy. His judgment will have no pity. He will not spare His people this judgment because they have gone too far.
VERSES 13- 17 God takes Responsibility
God’s declaration includes the idea that it isn’t simply discipline He is involved in, but a satisfaction of His holy and righteous anger. He is seeking vengeance. Vengeance strongly implies HURT! God is angry because the people’s actions have literally hurt Him.
Further, God is using the people as a strong example. The nations will mock the Jews. They will speak of how God judged them. They will be horrified. They will recognize the hand of a righteous God being raised against His people.
God declares over and over in this passage the He is the one acting against the Jews in His zeal. His purpose (according to verse 13) is to let all the nations know that God is acting in judgment. God’s zeal causes Him to judge wickedness so it is clear that He is not indifferent to sin.
The rebellion of the Jews made them an object lesson for the pagan nations.
If we, as God’s children, disobey God and fall from righteousness, God begins to speak to us through His Holy Spirit and His Word. If we continue to disobey and rebel, we risk becoming an object lesson for unbelievers around us. God cannot ignore sin. Sin must always be dealt with. It can be forgiven or it can be judged. We should also be mindful of Peter’s warning (I Peter 4:17) that judgment begins with the House of God. God always begins judgment with believers.
