WWUTT 2689 Ezekiel Bread is Not What You Think (Ezekiel 4:1-5:17)

Ezekiel’s Symbols Warn of Coming Judgment

The Lord God gave Ezekiel symbolism that he would show to the people to warn them about the judgment of God that was coming. Now, when we read these symbols, we gotta be careful to interpret them rightly when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.

Now, here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky.

Ezekiel’s Siege Symbols and the Watchman’s Warning

In our study of the book of Ezekiel, we come to chapters four and five. These are a little bit shorter chapters, so we'll cover two chapters today. And in this section, God is going to give Ezekiel symbols.

No, not big clashing symbols like musical instruments, but symbolism. These symbols that Ezekiel is going to use as object lessons for the people that they may know the judgment that is coming upon them if they do not repent.

Among these symbols is bread, a certain kind of bread that we read about in Ezekiel 4 .9. Maybe you've heard of Ezekiel bread. Yeah, that's in the section that we're looking at today. But we'll understand that what God is prescribing to Ezekiel to make for bread, it's not some recipe that we should be packaging and selling at the local grocer as Ezekiel bread.

We'll get to that here in a little bit. So remember that Ezekiel has been called to be a watchman. A watchman on the wall looked for danger and warned the people of the danger that was to come. In Ezekiel's case, he is to warn the people of the judgment of God.

If the people listen to Ezekiel and they repent, then their blood is not on their own heads. They've saved themselves. But if they do not listen to Ezekiel, Ezekiel is not responsible for what happens to them.

Their blood is on their own heads. Ezekiel needs to be responsible to listen to the word and communicate what God has told him to say. And here is what God says to Ezekiel here in chapter four. I'm gonna begin by reading the first eight verses.

Here, the word of the Lord. And you, son of man, take a brick and lay it before you and engrave on it a city, even Jerusalem, and put siege works against it and build a siege wall against it and cast up a mound against it.

Set camps also against it and plant battering rams against it all around. And you take an iron griddle and place it as an iron wall between you and the city and set your face toward it and let it be in a state of siege and press the siege against it.

This is a sign for the house of Israel. Then lie on your side and place the punishment of the house of Israel upon it. For the number of the days that you lie on it, you shall bear their punishment. For I assigned to you a number of days, 390 days equal to the number of the years of their punishment.

So long shall you bear the punishment of the house of Israel. And when you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side and bear the punishment of the house of Judah, 40 days I assign you a day for each year.

And you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared and you shall prophesy against the city. And behold, I will place cords upon you so that you cannot turn from one side to the other till you have completed the days of your siege.

Now, these are some interesting symbols that God has given Ezekiel to show the way that the people are going to be judged. The Babylonians are gonna come against Jerusalem and they're going to lay siege to it.

So Ezekiel is playing with a miniature, just like you might see a miniature of a civil war battle or a World War II battle or something like that. Have you ever been to a museum and they have those miniature setups where they show the battlefield and you'll have model soldiers on there and little tanks if it's World War I or II or something like that?

Well, that's kind of what Ezekiel is doing here. He's taking a brick, he's labeling it as Jerusalem and he's playing in the dirt with action figures. It seems like putting siege works against it, building a siege wall and casting up a mound against it.

And then the years that were given here are complicated. We're not really given dates as to when these years begin but we know that the punishment for Israel is much longer than the punishment for Judah.

As against Judah, it's only going to be 40 days. Some have proposed that these years actually represent the total amount of time that Israel was in exile to Egypt. The time of their sojourning, which would have been between the time of Jacob all the way to the time of Moses.

So that would have been 430 years. And that's the total that we see here, 390 plus 40, 430 years. So it could be that the total combined number of years is back, it's like a reference back to when Israel was in Egypt so that they would remember that they were in captivity there and it was God who set them free.

That could be the reference to the numbers that are given here. But God places cords upon Ezekiel so that they cannot move. He cannot move until the days of the siege are completed. So this is representing that nothing will be done to prevent the siege from happening.

It is going to happen and Jerusalem will be taken and destroyed. And so what we have next is God gives Ezekiel a recipe for bread because food is going to be so scarce. He will have to make bread from whatever he can gather up.

And that's the recipe that we have for bread here in verse nine. So let me read this and we'll talk a little bit about Ezekiel bread. Ezekiel 4, 9, and you take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and emmer and put them into a single vessel and make your bread from them.

During the number of days that you lie on your side, 390 days you shall eat it. And your food that you eat shall be by weight 20 shekels a day. From day to day you shall eat it. And water you shall drink by measure, the sixth part of a hen.

From day to day you shall drink and you shall eat it as a barley cake, baking it in their sight on human dung. And the Lord said, thus shall the people of Israel eat their bread unclean among the nations where I will drive them.

Then I said, ah, Lord God, behold, I have never defiled myself. From my youth up till now, I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has tainted meat come into my mouth. Then he said to me, see, I assigned to you cow's dung instead of human dung on which you may prepare your bread.

Moreover, he said to me, son of man, behold, I will break the supply of bread in Jerusalem. They shall eat bread by weight and with anxiety and they shall drink water by measure and in dismay. I will do this that they may lack bread and water and look at one another in dismay and rot away because of their punishment.".

So understand what's going on here with this recipe of bread. The siege that is coming against Jerusalem, the exile that this people is about to be sent into, they're not going to have anything. There's not gonna be any supply.

They will not have crops. There won't be harvest that they can draw from and make their bread. Where it's stated that they will eat their bread by weight. In other words, they're gonna have to measure out.

They gotta know what it is that they have. They measure it out and that's as much bread as we can eat for today because bread will be so scarce. And these ingredients for bread are not for health reasons.

It's because that's all there is. So take wheat and barley. There's gonna be some of that. We make bread with that, but then beans and lentils. You don't make bread with beans and lentils. And then millet and emmer.

This is basically like dust off of the ground. In other words, it's basically like making bread from dirt and from weeds and grass. Like whatever is there that we can grab. People didn't wanna make bread out of millet and emmer.

It was just whatever was left growing. That's what we're gonna gather up and make our wheat or make our bread out of it. So at least we've got substance to this bread. This was speaking of their exile.

It was speaking of their scarce supply. This was not for health reasons. And I say that because the whole Ezekiel 4 .9 bread is absurd. The Ezekiel bread is for your health, right? That's why people like it.

That's why it's available at the grocery store in the fridge and it has certain ingredients to it. That is said, you know, we're making bread according to the way that God said to make bread. It was bread for this people because of punishment.

So eat Ezekiel 4 .9 bread if you wanna be punished and have lesser quality bread, I suppose. It really is quite silly the whole Ezekiel 4 .9 bread craze. This was not the recipe of bread from God. It was a judgment.

This was supposed to be a judgment. And I sure hope that Ezekiel 4 .9 bread was not baked over human dung because that was the other part of the instruction that was given here. Enjoy that bread that was baked over human dung.

Ezekiel protests that because he's never done anything unclean. The siege hasn't happened yet. He doesn't wanna do anything to defile himself. So God says, fine, then you can bake your bread over cow dung.

That's at least cleaner. It's considered less contaminated than cooking your bread over human dung. But the siege and the scarcity is going to be so great that that will be the only fuel that the people have available to them to burn and bake their bread, human dung.

Ezekiel’s Shaved Hair Symbolizes Jerusalem’s Destruction

So let's keep going. We go into chapter five and God continues to give Ezekiel symbols that he may use to communicate to the people the judgment of God that is coming. Ezekiel 5 .1, and you, O son of man, take a sharp sword, use it as a barber's razor and pass it over your head and your beard.

Then take balances for weighing and divide the hair. A third part you shall burn in the fire in the midst of the city when the days of the siege are completed. And a third part you shall take and strike with the sword all around the city.

And a third part you shall scatter to the wind and I will unsheathe the sword after them. And you shall take from these a small number and bind them in the skirts of your robe. And of these again, you shall take some and cast them into the midst of the fire and burn them in the fire.

From there, a fire will come out into all the house of Israel. Now, shaving your head was considered to be something shameful. Remember that Ezekiel has been called to be a priest of sorts and priests were not supposed to shave their heads.

That's stated in Ezekiel 44 and Leviticus 21 as that was to be a sign of shame. So just as the bread ingredients and baking them over human dung was supposed to be to their shame, so is Ezekiel shaving his head.

It is indicating that the people are going to be shamed. This desecrates the people just like the unclean food did in the previous chapter. Furthermore, each of these three actions, so you're gonna take a third part of the hair, burn it in the fire, a third part you take and strike with the sword all around the city, a third part you shall scatter to the wind.

Each of these is understood as proclaiming destruction, burned in fire, taken with the sword, and then scattered to the wind, just as chaff that is scattered to the wind. Sometimes those who are judged are described as chaff.

That's in Psalm 1, for example. And then the remnant faces a very vulnerable future. From there, a fire will come into all of the house of Israel. So God's judgment is gonna be consuming of this people.

Let's keep going. Verse five, thus says the Lord God, this is Jerusalem. I have set her in the center of the nations with countries all around her. And she has rebelled against my rules by doing wickedness more than the nations and against my statutes more than the countries all around her, for they have rejected my rules and have not walked in my statutes.

Therefore, thus says the Lord God, because you are more turbulent than the nations that are all around you, and have not walked in my statutes or obeyed my rules, and have not even acted according to the rules of the nations that are all around you.

Therefore, thus says the Lord God, behold, I, even I am against you, and I will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations. Now, let me stop there for a moment because I wanna highlight something.

Jerusalem’s Rebellion Brings Severe Judgment

So notice in verse seven, God says, you are more turbulent than the nations that are all around you. And you have not walked in my statutes or obeyed my rules and have not even acted according to the rules of the nations that are all around you.

You are so wicked and so sinful, you're not only rebelling against God, you won't even follow the lesser laws and lesser rules of the nations that are around you. That's how abominable the people of God, the people of Israel have become.

But I wanted to highlight where God says, you have not walked in my statutes or obeyed my rules. I'll come back to that here in a little bit. So verse nine, and because of all your abominations, I will do with you what I have never yet done and the like of which I will never do again.

Therefore, fathers shall eat their sons in your midst and sons shall eat their fathers. And I will execute judgments on you and any of you who survive, I will scatter to all the winds. Therefore, as I live, declares the Lord God, surely because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore, I will withdraw.

My eye will not spare and I will have no pity. A third part of you shall die of pestilence and be consumed with famine in your midst. A third part shall fall by the sword all around you. And a third part, I will scatter to all the winds and will unsheathe the sword after them.

So there's the three judgments that were being symbolized by the hare. You will be consumed with famine, you will be consumed with the sword and the other third will be scattered to the winds. Verse 13, thus shall my anger spend itself and I will vent my fury upon them and satisfy myself.

And they shall know that I am the Lord, that I have spoken in my jealousy when I spend my fury upon them. Moreover, I will make you a desolation and an object of reproach among the nations all around you and in the sight of all who pass by.

You shall be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and a horror to the nations all around you when I execute judgments on you in anger and fury and with furious rebukes, I am the Lord, I have spoken. When I send against you the deadly arrows of famine, arrows for destruction, which I will send to destroy you and when I bring more and more famine upon you and break your supply of bread, I will send famine and wild beasts against you and they will rob you of your children.

Pestilence and blood shall pass through you and I will bring the sword upon you, I am the Lord, I have spoken. And this of course is what Ezekiel should be warning the people of, that they would take heed, that they would repent, that they would turn back to God, but as the Lord had said to Ezekiel, this people will not listen to you, though you warn them of the danger that is to come.

Repentance, Cleansing, and the Spirit’s Work

Now, when we are warned of danger, when we have sinned and we are told that we must repent or else we will face judgment, you must listen, you must be convicted of heart, you must turn from your sin back to God and He will forgive you and He will restore you.

1 John 1, 9, if we ask forgiveness for our sins, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, back to that part where God said to Israel, you have not walked in my statutes, you have not obeyed my rules, there is a declaration that is coming later on in the book of Ezekiel, in Ezekiel 36, that's a long way from now, nearly 30 chapters away here, but in Ezekiel 36, it is said, I will take you from the nations and I will gather from you all the countries and bring you into your own land.

I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses and from all your idols, I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you.

And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You hear that again?

I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. If we are followers of Jesus, we've been given that spirit that we would turn from sin to the Lord Christ and walk in his statutes and obey his rules.

As Jesus said to his disciples, you will show me that you love me when you obey my commandments. And so dear brethren, turn from your sin and follow Christ. Walk in the light as he is in the light and we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, our savior, cleanses us from all sin.

Heavenly father, we thank you for what we have read today. And I pray that we do have that fear of God, fear of knowing that you are judge and you issue judgment, that we would not walk in ways that are worthy of judgment, but being followers of Jesus Christ, we are clothed in his righteousness.

So may we put away sin and every weight, which so easily entangles and look to Jesus, who is the author and the perfecter of our faith. Convict us of our sin. May we confess it before God and walk in it no more.

Lead us in paths of righteousness for your namesake. It's in Jesus name we pray, amen.

This has been, When We Understand the Text of Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt .com. If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast or just send us a comment, email, whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

And let your friends know about our ministry. Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's word, When We Understand the Text.