Ezekiel was among the captives in Babylon, but they had Jerusalem still in their hearts. The pious captives looked towards it with faith, the presumptuous ones with pride, and those who remained corresponded with the captives with hopes that all would be well yet. God gives Ezekiel a foresight of the Chaldean army’s siege of Jerusalem and the calamities that would attend it.
Now, he is given a vision that: (a) the prophet besieging the painting of Jerusalem (v. 1-3) and lying first on one side and then on the other side before it alludes to the fortifications that should be built up against the city (v. 4-8) and (b) the starvation that should rage within the city; this is symbolized by him eating extremely crude cuisine, and confining himself to a little of it, so long as this typical portrayal lasted (v. 9-17).
Ezekiel 4:1-8
The prophet is tasked with foretelling the siege of Jerusalem to himself and others by indications that would be appropriate and potent enough to capture the imagination and influence the mind.
➔ The prophet was ordered to engrave a draught of Jerusalem on a tile (v1). It was Jerusalem’s honor that God had engraved her on the palms of his hands, and the names of the tribes were engraved on the breastplate of the high priest. However, now that Jerusalem has become a harlot, a worthless tile or brick is thought good enough to portray it.
➔ The besieger was ordered to build forts against the portraiture of the city. Between the city and himself, he was to set up an iron pan as an iron wall, representing the inflexible resolution of both sides. The Chaldeans resolved to make themselves masters of the city and never quit it, while the Jews resolved to hold out until the end.
➔ The prophet was ordered to lie on his left side before the Chaldean army to block it up and keep the meat from going in and the mouths from going out. The siege of Jerusalem is computed to last eighteen months, but if we deduct from that five months interval, the number of the days of the close siege will be 390. The 390 days, according to the prophetic dialect, signified 390 years, and the prophet bears the guilt of that iniquity which the house of Israel had borne 390 years, reckoning from their first apostasy under Jeroboam to the destruction of Jerusalem. He is also to lie forty days upon his right side, and so long to bear the iniquity of the house of Judah, the kingdom of the two tribes, since the thirteenth year of Josiah, when Jeremiah began to prophesy, or since the eighteenth year of the law was found and the people renewed their covenant with God. The prophet was found lying 390 days on his left side and forty days on his right side before his portraiture of Jerusalem, which all that saw could understand to mean the close besieging of the city. His being found constantly on the same side, as if bands were laid upon him, showed the close and constant continuance of the besiegers about the city until they had gained their point.
➔ The Chaldeans were ordered to prosecute the siege of Jerusalem with vigor, and Nebuchadnezzar was furious at Zedekiah’s treachery. The Chaldeans promised themselves a rich booty of the city and were active and industrious in all the operations of the siege. The prophet was to represent by the uncovering of his arm, as it were to deal blows about without mercy. God is said to make bare his arm, and the Chaldeans will go about their business as men in earnest who resolve to go through with it.
◆ The prophet was dumb and could not speak (3:26), but God ordered him to make signs, as dumb men are accustomed to doing, and to make known his mind to the people. The people were upbraided for their stupidity and dullness, and for their malice against the prophet. The prophet made use of signs for the same reason that Christ made use of parables, that they would not understand what was plain and therefore should be taught by that which is difficult.
◆ The prophet prophesies against Jerusalem, which is represented by images to the eye. Sacraments are instituted to represent divine things, and the power of imagination can be used to kindle and excite pious and devout affections. Imagination can have an exceedingly good influence on us but must be kept under the direction and correction of reason and faith.
◆ The prophet did what he was ordered to do in obedience to God’s command and execution of his office, even when it was contrary to reason.
● He accepted a divine appointment despite its childish and ludicrous nature, knowing it would be seen as beneath his gravity, but he did so to save his reputation.
● Sacrifice our ease and credit to do God’s work, and never call it a hard service.
● He is a prophet, and must follow his instructions, not his affections, and must preach the ruin of a sinful place, even though its welfare is what he desires and prays for. It is against the grain for him to act as an enemy against Jerusalem, the city of God, the holy city.
◆ The prophet sets out to bring the children of his people to repentance by showing them sin, the cause of the destruction of Jerusalem. He describes the calamity with a great deal of pain and uneasiness to himself, as he is bearing the iniquity of Israel and Judah. The siege is a day of punishment for a year of sin, and the prophet acknowledges that God had punished them less than their iniquity deserved. He also reminds them that in the other world, there is an everlasting punishment and that when God laid bands upon the prophet, it was to show them how they were bound with the cords of their own transgression. He also expresses compassion for the prophet’s case, as he was serving the interests of God’s kingdom among men.
Ezekiel 4:9-17
Jeremiah’s lamentation of the famine in Jerusalem during the siege is the best exposition of Ezekiel’s prediction of its desolation.
➔ The prophet must limit himself to coarse fare and short commons for 390 days, as the people need both food and fuel.
◆ The prophet’s meat was to be of the worst bread, made of wheat and barley, and the rest of beans, lentils, and millet. This was to be made while he was lying on his side and needed something better to support him. It is wise not to be too fond of dainties and pleasant bread, as we know not what hard meat we may be tied to before we die. The meanest sort of food is better than we deserve, and should not be despised or wasted.
◆ The Lessian diet is fourteen ounces of meat and sixteen ounces of drink, and the prophet in Babylon was required to eat twenty shekels’ weight of bread and drink six parts of a hin of water a day. God’s servants must learn to endure hardness and deny themselves the use of lawful delights in order to serve the glory of God, evidence their faith, and express their sympathy with their brethren in affliction. Nature is
content with a little, grace with less, but lust with nothing. It is good to stint ourselves of choice in times of public distress and calamity, as those that drank wine in bowls were not grieved for Joseph’s affliction.
◆ The prophet must bake his bread with a man’s dung, which must be dried and served as fuel to heat his oven. He must eat the bread as barley cakes, as freely as if it were the same bread he had been used to, in order to make the people more affected by the calamity approaching. This is ceremonial pollution, as there was a law that the prophet’s dung should be covered with earth. However, the prophet is thankful that his soul has not been polluted by sin, as it is not that which goes into the mouth that defiles the man.
The text discusses the example of God’s condescension to Ezekiel, who refused to eat cow’s dung instead of man’s dung due to his tenderness of conscience. This is a tacit reflection on man, as it suggests that his filthiness is more nauseous and odious than that of any other creature. It also suggests that those who have power in their hands should not be rigorous in pressing their commands upon those that are dissatisfied concerning them but should recede from them rather than grieve or offend the weak.
➔ Now, this sign’s meaning is specifically described here; it said,
◆ The text discusses the situation in Jerusalem during the siege of the city by the Romans. It explains that those who remained in the city would be brought to extreme misery due to a lack of necessary food. God would take away the bread’s power to nourish so that they would have an equal share and make it last as long as possible. They should eat and drink with care, to make it go as far as possible, and with astonishment when they saw it almost spent and knew not which way to look for a recruit. Sin is the cause of the misery, as they will consume away for their iniquity and die of famine, a lingering death worse than that by the sword. This is more miserable than dying on a dunghill.
● God punished the people of Jerusalem for sin by depriving them of the finest of the wheat, which was one of their mercies. The plenty was abused to luxury and excess, which was punished with famine. It is a righteous thing with God to deprive us of those enjoyments which we have made the food and fuel of our lusts.
● God blesses us for plenty, not only for the fruits of the earth, but also for freedom of commerce, abundance in the field and the market, and for those who live in cities and great towns to be fed with food conveniently.
◆ The text of Daniel 1:8 states that those who were taken into captivity should be forced to eat defiled bread among the Gentiles, or to eat meat made up by Gentile hands otherwise than according to the law of the Jewish church. Daniel and his fellows confined themselves to pulse and water, rather than eating the portion of the king’s meat assigned to them. God will make them serve their enemies in the want of all things because they served not God with cheerfulness in the abundance of all things.