THE prophet, now within his own house (chapter 3:21), was to make a representation of the siege of Jerusalem for a sign to the house of Israel (verse 3). Ezekiel, as Jeremiah and as Daniel, though each in a different way, was brought into a deep realization of the iniquity of the people of God, to feel their distance from Him, and the justness of the judgment executed, and to be executed, upon them.
Thus it was that Ezekiel was to bear the iniquity of the house of Israel (verse 1),—not in atonement; Christ alone, on the cross, did that. God here laid bare the whole case of His people’s sin: it began, responsibly, after David’s death, very quickly in the history of his son Solomon, who ruled in splendor over the widest domain Israel ever possessed.
Three hundred and ninety years in Hebrew reckoning (verses 5 and 9),—388 full years and parts of two more, one at the beginning of the period, and the other at the end—mark the limits of the history of Israel from the division into two kingdoms under Rehoboam and Jeroboam (in 975 B.C.) to the siege and destruction of Jerusalem (in 588 B. C.). But the beginning of the evil was further back, as 1 Kings 11 plainly declares, and we see that the forty years of Solomon’s reign are included, during which Judah was chief of the twelve tribes.
Under all the glory, beneath the display of power, underlying the wealth and the wisdom of David’s great soil, there was a heart that did not yield itself wholly to God, but found its enjoyment in company that led him after other gods, and sanctioned idolatry even in Jerusalem itself. This was the true beginning of Israel’s declension. No mention is made of the ten tribes; they are included, however, both in “Judah” and in “Israel” here, for the whole nation was by this time under the judgment of God, though greater guilt belongs to Judah than to the ten.
Ezekiel protested against having to eat defiled food (verse 14), and therefore God modified His word to him. But this incident in the life of one of the servants of God only puts us in memory of the Perfect Servant, our blessed Lord, who sought no relief in the solitary and suffering path He trod from the manger to the cross (Matthew 1.6:20-23; John 18:1111Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it? (John 18:11), etc.).
In chapter 5 we pass from the close of Jerusalem’s siege to the judgment upon the whole people which is still in effect (verses 1-5). One third of those in the city were to perish in the siege by disease and famine (as verse 12 reveals); another third would, be slaughtered in the capture of the city by the king of Babylon’s army, and of the remainder, again, some would be put to death. The last third, or what remained of it, is in the position of all the house of Israel: under the abiding judgment of God.
Jerusalem was set to be a testimony for the true God to all the nations, but had become viler than the heathen who were neighbors (verses 5-7). Her judgment would therefore be open and notorious: the nations were to see that the God who had defended His people Israel was now against them, and this, not in a momentary displeasure as when He had let them suffer for a season from their enemies, but a complete overthrow of everything. “The whole remnant of thee will [ scatter to all the winds” (verse 10).
“Jealousy” is, in verse 13, the sense of the Hebrew word there translated “zeal.” The same root word is found in Exodus 20:55Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; (Exodus 20:5),where we have, “The Lord thy God is a jealous God.” His compassionate love has ever suffered much from His people, and we wonder that it can continue unabated, but He will not give up the objects of His affection to a false god.
“His blood be on us and on our children” (Matthew 27:2525Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children. (Matthew 27:25)) expresses Judah’s greater guilt when idolatry no longer occupied the people; national repentance of that crowning sin awaits the return of their Messiah in glory. Until then, Jerusalem, however it may be modernized, remains a testimony to the truth of God’s Word.
ML-07/21/1935