God’s judgment is coming to destroy Judah and Jerusalem, but when he judges, he will overcome it. Sin is charged as the cause of Jerusalem’s desolation-contempt of God’s law and profanation of his sanctuary-and that Jerusalem is threatened with wrath, great wrath, miseries, and reproach and ruin.
Ezekiel 5:1-4
The prophet is the sign of the destruction of Jerusalem, showing how much he cared about it and foretold its desolations. He was so concerned about it that he took what was done to it as done to himself, so far as to desire the woeful day.
➔ Ezekiel must shave off the hair of his head and beard to symbolize God’s rejection and abandonment of the people of Jerusalem. He must not cut off that hair only which was superfluous but cut it all off, denoting the full end that God would make of Jerusalem. The hair that would not be trimmed and kept neat and clean by the prophets must be all shaved off by utter destruction. Those will be ruined that will not be reformed.
➔ God’s judgments are based on equity and proportion, and the shaving of the hair symbolizes the loss of liberty and honor. It also denotes the loss of joy and Nazariteship, and Jerusalem was no longer looked upon as a holy city.
➔ He must get rid of the hair so that it might all be eliminated or scattered (v2).
◆ A third of it must be set ablaze in the middle of the city to symbolize the vast numbers that will suffer from food and pestilence when the siege is over, as well as perhaps those who will perish in the city’s flames. Or perhaps the burning of that magnificent metropolis to the ground would be considered a third aspect of the impending destruction.
◆ Another third part had to be divided into pieces with a knife to symbolize the numerous people who perished during the siege while waging sword battles against the besiegers, particularly when the city was stormed and the Jews were at their weakest and the Chaldeans were the most enraged.
◆ God has a variety of judgments to accomplish the destruction of sinful people, such as scattering them in the wind and drawing out a sword to pursue them wherever they go.
➔ Gedaliah must preserve a small quantity of the third sort that were to be scattered in the wind and bind them in his skirts, as one would bind that which he is very mindful and careful of. He must also take and cast into the fire those few people who were left under his protection, who would have kept possession of the land when the body of the people was taken into captivity. This was fulfilled, as out of those combustions a fire came forth into all the houses of Israel, which kindled and consumed one another. It is ill with a people when those taken away in wrath are marked for monuments of mercy, as there is no remnant or escaping.
Ezekiel 5:5-17
The prophet’s head, which was to be shaved, signified Jerusalem, which by the judgments of God was to be stripped of all its ornaments, emptied of all its inhabitants, and to be set naked and bare. The head of one that was a priest, prophet, or holy person who was the fittest to
➔ The privileges Jerusalem was granted and the location of the city. Jerusalem was situated in the midst of kingdoms that were populous, polite, and civilized, famed for learning, arts, and sciences, making it the greatest figure in the world.
represent Jerusalem the holy city. This similitude is similar to what we have often met with in the writings of the prophets.
◆ Jerusalem was regarded with dignity and given preference over the neighboring countries and their towns. It was positioned among them as superior to all of them. This sacred mountain was raised above all hills (Isaiah 2:2). Why do you leap, you tall hills? God wants to live on this hill, according to Psalms 68:16. All the neighboring countries had their eyes on Jerusalem since it was a city on a hill, prominent and distinguished, and some had goodwill toward it while others had an ill will.
◆ Jerusalem was set in the midst of the nations to spread the light of divine revelation and invigorate the dead world with divine life and enlighten it with divine light. The nations that observed what excellent statutes and judgments they had concluded them to be wise and understanding people, fit to be consulted as an oracle. However, the accomplishment of this intention was reserved for its latter days, when out of Zion went forth the gospel law and the word of the Lord Jesus from Jerusalem, and repentance and remission began to be preached. When that was done, Jerusalem was levelled with the ground. It is with design that places and persons are made great and that their light may shine before men.
➔ The provocations that Jerusalem committed. Here, a very serious accusation is made against that city, and it is shown beyond all reasonable doubt that it is true, allowing God to take its privileges and put it to the sword.
◆ She has broken both God’s laws and judgments (v7); in fact, the people of Jerusalem had disobeyed both God’s laws and judgments (v6); they did not perform their duties, in fact, they declared that they would not. The laws and decisions that their neighbors valued and that they ought to have up front were hated and hidden by them. It should be noted that disobedience to God’s word and rule makes all forms of sin possible.
God deals with people according to his laws; those who reject his laws cannot expect his favors.
◆ The people had changed God’s judgments into wickedness by introducing the customs and usages of the heathen instead of God’s institutions, changing the truth of God into a lie and the glory of God into shame. Those that have been well educated, if they live ill, put the highest affront upon God as if he were the patron of sin and his judgments were turned into wickedness.
◆ Israel had been worse than the neighboring nations in idolatry and false worship and had multiplied their gods to such a degree that they exceeded all their neighbors in having gods many and lords many. They corrupted revealed religion more than the Gentiles had corrupted natural religion. Those who have made a profession of religion, and have had a pious education, apostatize from it and are commonly more profane and vicious than those who never made any profession. They also have seven other spirits more wicked.
◆ Israel had not acted according to the judgments of the nations, as the nations had acted towards their gods. They had not been observant of God nor constant to him, and instead of reforming their neighbors, they came short of them. Those who had the light of scripture kept the righteousness of the law better than those who had only the light of nature. Those who are called Christians will be condemned by the better tempers and better lives of sober heathens.
◆ The crime charged upon Jerusalem is profaning the holy things, which she had been entrusted and honored with. This includes defiling her sanctuary with idols and idolatry, which were brought into the temple and used in the worship of God. Idols are detestable things anywhere, but especially in the sanctuary.
➔ The punishments for Jerusalem’s provocations are severe, and the manner of expression makes it even more so. The judgments are varied, and the threatenings of them are so strong that one may question who is able to stand in God’s sight when he is angry.
◆ God will take this work of punishing Jerusalem into his own hands, and the emphasis is placed on his anger and fear. He states that the whole creation is at war with Jerusalem and that it is not only the Chaldean army that is against it, but also God’s hand, or rather the staff in his hand. He also states that those who will not observe the judgments of God’s mouth shall not escape the judgments of his hand and that God’s judgments will penetrate into the midst of a people, into the soul, and into the bowels. God himself undertakes to execute his own judgments, according to the true and full intent of them, and he is the principal agent.
◆ God will punish the body of the people for sin, and he will execute judgments in anger, and in fury, and in furious rebukes. These punishments are designed to show the malignity of sin and the offense it gives to the just and holy God, and to provoke him to resentment against his own people, who had been so high in his favor. He will cause his fury to rest upon them, and fill them with wrath. Justice will be glorified, and he will be satisfied in what he has done.
The struggle between mercy and judgment is over, and judgment triumphs. God’s eye shall not spare, neither will I have any pity, v. 11. This expression is sharpened and heightened to look further to the vengeance of eternal fire, which some of the destructions we read of in the Old Testament were typical of. Those who live and die impenitent will perish forever unpitied, and there is a day coming when the Lord will not spare.
◆ Punishments will be public and open, and the judgments themselves will be so remarkable that all the nations will take notice of them. Public sins call for public reproofs, and God strikes them as wicked men in the open sight of others to maintain and vindicate the honor of his government. The publicity of the judgments will redound to the honor of God, so it will serve.
● The more conspicuous and peculiar and have been in the day of their prosperity, the greater disgrace attends their fall. This was the case with Jerusalem, which was made a reproach and a taunt in the sight of all that passed by. This was warned of as much as anything when her glory commenced, and was lamented when it was laid in the dust.
● The purpose of the destruction of some is to teach the nations to fear before the God of Israel, who is a jealous God and punishes sin even in those closest to him. Jerusalem should have taught her neighbors the fear of God by her piety and virtue, but God will teach it to them by her ruin. Malefactors are publicly punished in terror that others may take warning. If judgment begins at the house of God, where will it end?
◆ These penalties will be extremely harsh and painful in nature.
● The punishment of Jerusalem is said to be greater than that of Sodom, as it is such as “I will not do any more the like, all the circumstances are taken in, to any other city, till the like come to be done again to this city, in the final overthrow by
the Romans.” This is a rhetorical expression of the most grievous judgments, like that of Hezekiah, that there was none like him, before or after him.
● The famine will force the people to break their bonds of natural affection to one another, which will be a just punishment for their wilfully breaking their duty to God. The fathers will eat the sons, and the sons will eat the fathers, through the extremity of the famine or by their barbarous conquerors.
● God has many arrows, evil arrows, in his quiver, and he will increase the famine in a bereaved country and in a besieged city. He will break the staff of bread, take away the necessary supports of life, and disappoint those who depend on it so that there is no remedy and they must fall to the ground.
Life is frail, weak, and burdened, and if it has no daily bread for its staff to lean upon, it cannot but sink, and is soon gone if that staff is broken. God will bring a sword of the Lord to Jerusalem, devour evil beasts, devour those who flee and scatter those who escape into all parts of the world. Cain’s curse of being a fugitive and vagabond is not the worst of it, as his life will be cut off by a bloody death. Evil pursues sinners, and the curse will come upon them and overtake them. God will draw out a sword after them, which will follow them wherever they go, and they will be scattered into all the winds.
◆ The prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans is meant to prove the ruin of the Jewish nation by degrees. God sends these judgments on purpose to destroy them, and the arrows are not sent for their direction, but for their destruction. This is ratified by the divine authority and veracity of God, as he has spoken it, v. 15 and again v. 17. This prophecy looks further, to the final destruction of that great city by the Romans, when God made a full end to the Jewish nation and caused his fury to rest upon them.
God’s word is passed by him that is Judge of heaven and earth, whose judgment is according to truth and whose hand is according to the judgments of his mouth. He has spoken it who can do it, who will do it, and who we are bound to hear and heed. There were those who thought it was only the prophet that spoke it, but God will make them know, by the accomplishment of it, that he has spoken it in his zeal. Eventually, God’s word will prove itself.