The Siege

The Siege

Ezekiel 4

Emmanuel Christian Church

1.21.24

INTRODUCTION: Housebound and tongue-tied, that’s where we last left the prophet Ezekiel. Having eaten the scroll of God’s Words of lament, mourning and woe, he sat speechless and angry for how far God’s people had strayed in their rebellion. Hard-hearted and hard of hearing- that’s what God’s people of the exile in Babylon had become! But God was not done with them yet. For some strange reason, understood only by God Himself, His grace pursues us even as we plug our ears and run from Him- all the while shouting our sinful foolishness at the top of our lungs. It’s at that point, God resorts to something other than words… PROPOSITION: “Nonsense” - when God’s “sense” (that is the truth of His Word) falls deaf upon our ears, God can even use “nonsense” to get our attention! Ezekiel chapter 4 is filled with apparent “nonsense”! Actually, it’s shocking nonsense. And it is so by DESIGN. When we stop listening, God sets crazy scenes before our eyes, to “jump-start” our brain into thinking His way. Ezekiel chapter 4 gives us two such scenes. “THE MODEL” Ezekiel 4:1 “Now, son of man, take a clay tablet, put it in front of you and draw the city of Jerusalem on it. 2 Then lay siege to it: Erect siege works against it, build a ramp up to it, set up camps against it and put battering rams around it. 3 Then take an iron pan, place it as an iron wall between you and the city and turn your face toward it. It will be under siege, and you shall besiege it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel. Ezekiel 4:4 “Then lie on your left side and put the sin of the house of Israel upon yourself. You are to bear their sin for the number of days you lie on your side. 5 I have assigned you the same number of days as the years of their sin. So for 390 days you will bear the sin of the house of Israel. Ezekiel 4:6 “After you have finished this, lie down again, this time on your right side, and bear the sin of the house of Judah. I have assigned you 40 days, a day for each year. 7 Turn your face toward the siege of Jerusalem and with bared arm prophesy against her. 8 I will tie you up with ropes so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have finished the days of your siege.

• The scene was a sign- a sign of the siege that was about to take place in Jerusalem just a few years in the future.
• But why? Ezekiel was already exiled in Babylon- why would God want the exiles in Babylon to know what was going to happen hundreds of miles away back home in Jerusalem?
• The exiles from Judah hadn’t been there that long. Certainly, their hearts were back in Jerusalem, and their thoughts were of the hope that they would soon return to their homeland. That wasn’t to be.
• Ezekiel’s fellow prophet Daniel knew what was coming: Daniel 9:2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the LORD given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years.
• The prophet Jeremiah was still back in Jerusalem, telling the people there what was coming; and in a letter to the exiles in Babylon, he sent this message: Jeremiah 29:4 This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. 7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” 8 Yes, this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. 9 They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them,” declares the LORD.
• Jeremiah, Daniel and Ezekiel all knew the truth that lie ahead. Jerusalem was about to fall after a siege by Babylonians, and when it fell it would NOT quickly recover.
• God had ordained that it would be 70 years before his people would begin their return. In effect, an entire generation would die in exile in consequence of their rebellion against God. The time had come, for that generation, to abandon any hope of return to their beloved homeland. APPLICATION: So, what’s the point? Sin has SERIOUS consequences! Just how serious? God’s very own word says, “The wages of sin is DEATH. (Romans 6:23). The great weakness of us all is DISTORTED PERCEPTION. We don’t see sin as it really is- a slap in the face of God, an act of arrogant ingratitude, the highest act of treason against the greatest authority of the universe! What we see when we look in the mirror is just a small selfish attitude, or a private act of indiscretion known only to ourselves- effecting no one else. But that’s NOT the reality! Sin, (no matter how small) is the great separator of us from God. His Word plainly says: “The soul who sins is the one who will die…” (Ezekiel 18:20) Sin IS SERIOUS! Not only is sin serious, it has SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES. What could be more serious than one’s own death? The suffering and death of those we love more than life itself. The news from back home was devastating! (Next week, we’ll hear about that, as we take a condensed look at the next three chapters of Ezekiel.) Our sin, not only brings our personal separation from God (along with death), but it has a way of spilling over into the lives of those around us- especially those most near and dear to us- oh, so very SAD! So what about those numbers of Days/Years that we see in our text? Understanding them is a bit of a challenge. Here’s what I think makes the most sense: 390 DAYS/YEARS This was the time between the sin of Jeroboam’s idolatry and division of Israel into the “Northern Kingdom”, and the first return of the exiles by the decree of Persian King Cyrus in 538 BC. The period of the Northern Kingdom of Israel’s separation from God. 40 DAYS/YEARS - Reminiscent of God’s 40 day flood judgment on the world and the Israelites 40 years of wilderness wandering - all the result of sin Sin and the “price-tag” hanging from it- is a BIG COSTLY DEAL! “THE MENU”Ezekiel 4:9 “Take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt; put them in a storage jar and use them to make bread for yourself. You are to eat it during the 390 days you lie on your side. 10 Weigh out twenty shekels of food to eat each day and eat it at set times. 11 Also measure out a sixth of a hin of water and drink it at set times. 12 Eat the food as you would a barley cake; bake it in the sight of the people, using human excrement for fuel.” 13 The LORD said, “In this way the people of Israel will eat defiled food among the nations where I will drive them.” Ezekiel 4:14 Then I said, “Not so, Sovereign LORD! I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now I have never eaten anything found dead or torn by wild animals. No unclean meat has ever entered my mouth.” Ezekiel 4:15 “Very well,” he said, “I will let you bake your bread over cow manure instead of human excrement.”
• This “menu” was another sign of the siege!
• It’s amazing to me to see what people have done this this text- they’ve turned it into a HEALTHFOOD RECIPE!
• Oh my! All heaven must be collectively shaking it head over the thick headed, dull of hearing human race!
• The point of the recipe is simple- this is what you eat when you have NOTHING ELSE to eat! You don’t eat this because it tastes, good- you eat this because it’s just a little better than DEATH!
• God’s follow-up word to Ezekiel makes it crystal clear: Ezekiel 4:16 He then said to me: “Son of man, I will cut off the supply of food in Jerusalem. The people will eat rationed food in anxiety and drink rationed water in despair, 17 for food and water will be scarce. They will be appalled at the sight of each other and will waste away because of their sin. APPLICATION: SIN HAS CONSEQUENCES! The hammer of God’s judgment was about to fall. Jerusalem was about to fall. There would be no “second chance” this time around. The wages for sin were about to be paid. POSTSCRIPT: I don’t want to leave you with a complete “downer” this morning. So, we’re going to back up the bus for just a second and take you back to the prophet Jeremiah’s letter to the exiles in Babylon:Jeremiah 29:4 This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. 7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” 8 Yes, this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. 9 They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them,” declares the LORD. Look at the very next verses:Jeremiah 29:10 This is what the LORD says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.” CONCLUSION: At one time, all of us were just like those Jews, broken by sin and under the sentence of death (some of you still are). But God is GRACIOUS! Through Jesus Christ- a way has been made that we can escape our sentence of death and be forgiven of our sin! Participation in God’s offer of grace is every individual’s personal choice.