Introduction
1. The sign of the haircut.
2. We learn the reason for their punishment.
THE SIGN OF THE HAIRCUT
‘Now, son of man, take a sharp sword and use it as a barber’s razor to shave your head and your beard. Then take a set of scales and divide up the hair. When the days of your siege come to an end, burn a third of the hair inside the city. Take a third and strike it with the sword all around the city. And scatter a third to the wind. For I will pursue them with drawn sword. But take a few hairs and tuck them away in the folds of your garment. Again, take a few of these and throw them into the fire and burn them up. A fire will spread from there to all Israel.’ Ezekiel 5:1-4
This is the fourth sign surrounding the same major point of the book. The point of the sign is simple to demonstrate the decimation of the people.
Not being able to find a suitable barber, Ezekiel takes a sword and cuts his hair, Ezekiel 5:1. The law generally forbids cutting the head bald, Leviticus 19:27 / Leviticus 21:5 / Deuteronomy 14:1. If it did happen it was a sign of mourning, Isaiah 3:24 / Isaiah 22:12 / Micah 1:16 / Jeremiah 16:6.
The prophet cuts some of the hair from his head and his beard and he then takes a balance and carefully weighs the cut hair into three equal parts, Ezekiel 5:1.
Can you imagine the interest and reaction of the people by this time? All the exiles come to see this weird priest.
1/3rd is burnt in the fire, Ezekiel 5:2, indicating the pestilence and famine to come. 1/3rd is cut with a sword, Ezekiel 5:2, indicating those who will be killed in battle. 1/3rd is scattered to the wind, Ezekiel 5:2, indicating amongst those scattered, some would be killed, some preserved.
These verses must be understood in the light of Ezekiel 5:12. Note what happens to each third, Ezekiel attached a few hairs to the hem of his clothing and then burned a few more in a fire, Ezekiel 5:3-4. The remnant will represent a hope for the future, 2 Kings 25:1-21 / 2 Chronicles 36 / Jeremiah 39. There is no problem in understanding what the prophet is graphically portraying here.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The few hairs which he was to take in his skirts, Ezekiel 5:3, was intended to represent those few Jews that should be left in the land under Gedaliah, after the taking of the city. The throwing a part of these last into the fire, Ezekiel 5:4, was intended to show the miseries that these suffered.’
Taylor, in his commentary, says the following.
‘It takes little imagination to see Ezekiel in action. First, whetting the sword-blade to a sharp cutting-edge while the crowd gathered to see what new act was going to be performed. Then the horrified gasp from the bystanders as he went to work with his crude razor, followed by the meticulous weighing of the hair in the balances.’
Before we move on, it’s important to note that there are three discourses of condemnation coming up from Ezekiel 5:5-7:27.
Outline
1. The divine word explains the symbolic signs. Doom of Jerusalem, Ezekiel 5:5-17.
The Cause of judgment, Ezekiel 5:5-17.
The Nature of the judgment, Ezekiel 5:10-17.
2. Devastation of the land. The judgment upon idolatrous places, and on the idol worshippers, Ezekiel 6.
Desolation of the land, and destruction of the idolaters, Ezekiel 6:1-7.
The survivors were banished among the heathen, Ezekiel 6:8-10.
The punishment is just and well deserved, Ezekiel 6:11-14.
3. The overthrow of Israel and the destruction of its inhabitant’s, Ezekiel 7.
The end comes, Ezekiel 7:1-4.
The execution of the judgment is announced in Ezekiel 7:2-4 / Ezekiel 7:5-27.
The end is a terrible calamity and is near at hand, Ezekiel 7:5-9.
The rod is prepared, nothing will be left of the ungodly, Ezekiel 7:10-13.
Irresistible destruction, Gold and silver will not save, Ezekiel 7:14-22.
Captivity and overthrow of the people are coming, Ezekiel 7:23-27.
The Reason For The Judgment
‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: This is Jerusalem, which I have set in the centre of the nations, with countries all around her. Yet in her wickedness she has rebelled against my laws and decrees more than the nations and countries around her. She has rejected my laws and has not followed my decrees. ‘Therefore, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: You have been more unruly than the nations around you and have not followed my decrees or kept my laws. You have not even conformed to the standards of the nations around you. ‘Therefore, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself am against you, Jerusalem, and I will inflict punishment on you in the sight of the nations. Because of all your detestable idols, I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again. Therefore, in your midst parents will eat their children, and children will eat their parents. I will inflict punishment on you and will scatter all your survivors to the winds. Therefore, as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your vile images and detestable practices, I myself will shave you; I will not look on you with pity or spare you. A third of your people will die of the plague or perish by famine inside you; a third will fall by the sword outside your walls; and a third I will scatter to the winds and pursue with drawn sword.’ Ezekiel 5:5-12
Here is the reason for the judgement spelt out. Jerusalem, the city of David and the city of God. This was no Gentile capital that was being punished for their exceptional iniquity, like Nineveh, but the city where the God of heaven dwelt in the Temple.
Notice that God set Jerusalem, in the centre of the nations, Ezekiel 5:5. Geographically, this can be seen to be reasonably accurate. Jerusalem was known by the Rabbis as the naval of the earth. This thought was extended even to a 13th century map of the world now in Hereford Cathedral. Jesus in His sermon on the mount referred to ‘a city set on a hill,’ Matthew 5:11.
But of course, the point is more than geographical. Israel was put there to shine and to be a light for the Gentiles. They were put there to teach the nations round about them concerning Jehovah the creator. But they blew it! They were worse than the nations round about them.
The sin of their neighbours wasn’t enough for them, they had to go one better, or perhaps that should be, one worse, Ezekiel 16:47. They did not keep God’s laws, not even the inferior laws of the other nations, Ezekiel 5:6, so low Israel has sunk.
The other nations were at least loyal to their idol religion, Ezekiel 5:7 / Jeremiah 2:1-37 / Amos 1:1-3. God is going to publicly punish His people because of their idolatry, Ezekiel 5:8-9.
Constable, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The Lord promised to judge Jerusalem in the sight of the other nations because she had been so unfaithful and rebellious. She had not even observed the common laws that her neighbours obeyed.’
Note the words, ‘I will do with you what I have never yet done, and the likes of which I will never do again,’ Ezekiel 5:9. This of course must refer to their final destruction in 586 B.C. In Matthew 24:21, Jesus said, ‘For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be.’
This was said of A.D.70 when Jerusalem was destroyed by Titus and Vespasian. Here is an example of the problems with taking the words of the prophets literally at all costs. If we do that here, we have a problem, for Jesus and Ezekiel would conflict.
Parents eating their children, and children eating their parents, Ezekiel 5:10, are prophetic speech, using hyperbole to emphasize the horror of the judgement, Leviticus 26:29 / Deuteronomy 28:53-57 / Jeremiah 19:9 / Lamentations 4:10.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Though we have not this fact so particularly stated in history, yet we cannot doubt of it, considering the extremities to which they were reduced during the siege. The same is referred to by Jeremiah, Lamentations 4:10. Even the women, who were remarkable for kindness and humanity, boiled their own children, and ate them during the siege.’
Notice how low God’s people went, they defiled God’s sanctuary with vile images and detestable practice, Ezekiel 5:11. As a result of this God himself would shave them and have no pity on them, He would spare them, Ezekiel 5:11.
God promises to do this in the proportion of thirds Ezekiel 5:12, suggested by Ezekiel’s haircut, Ezekiel 5:2. 1/3rd will die of the pestilence and famine. 1/3rd shall be killed by the sword all around. 1/3rd will be scattered to all the winds, with a sword following them, Ezekiel 5:12.
‘Then my anger will cease and my wrath against them will subside, and I will be avenged. And when I have spent my wrath on them, they will know that I the LORD have spoken in my zeal. I will make you a ruin and a reproach among the nations around you, in the sight of all who pass by. You will be a reproach and a taunt, a warning, and an object of horror to the nations around you when I inflict punishment on you in anger and in wrath and with stinging rebuke. I the LORD have spoken. When I shoot at you with my deadly and destructive arrows of famine, I will shoot to destroy you. I will bring more and more famine upon you and cut off your supply of food. I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will leave you childless. Plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I will bring the sword against you. I the LORD have spoken.’ Ezekiel 5:13-17
Here God sums up His feelings and His actions which will come about because of their sin. These judgments would satisfy the Lord’s anger against His people and would convince them of His wrath because of their sins, Ezekiel 5:13.
Note the phrases, ‘spend my wrath’, ‘vent my wrath’, Ezekiel 5:13, this is the unburdening of powerful emotions. It’s a fearful day when God becomes angry with us, Romans 1:18 / Revelation 14:10.
When God unleashed His wrath Israel would know that this was God’s doing, the nations around would know that this was God’s acting in righteousness, Ezekiel 5:13-14. God was not only going to teach Israel a lesson but the nations around also, Ezekiel 5:15.
Feinberg, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Israel, suffering for her sins under God’s righteous wrath, would be an object lesson to the nations. The heathen would be amazed because they had not seen a national deity so deal with a people who professed his worship.’
Notice God’s four sore judgments which he will send upon the earth. Sword, famine, wild beasts, pestilence, Ezekiel 5:16-17. Revelation 6:1-9. This is mentioned again in Ezekiel 14:12-23.
Taylor, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Unparalleled sin demands unparalleled punishment.’
Constable, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The Lord would send famine-like arrows against His people to destroy them. Also, wild beasts, plague, haemorrhage (associated with disease) or possibly cannibalism, and war would be His instruments to judge them, Leviticus 26:21-26. These are standard curses for covenant unfaithfulness referred to frequently in the Mosaic Law, Leviticus 26:22 / Leviticus 26:26 / Leviticus 26:29 / Deuteronomy 28:21 / Deuteronomy 28:53-56 / Deuteronomy 32:23-25 / Deuteronomy 32:42 / Lamentations 1:7-14 / Lamentations 2:20-22 / Lamentations 4:4-10. All this Yahweh solemnly promised to do.’