Year 2, Week 17, Day 5 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 17, Day 5

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Ezekiel 3-5.

Today’s reading continues the Book of Ezekiel. Today’s reading proceeds further into the first segment of Ezekiel (chapters 1-24), which is a series of prophecies about impending judgment on the people of Judah for their persistent disobedience to the LORD. Ezekiel 3 continues from the previous chapter in laying out the nature of God’s calling upon Ezekiel as a prophet: “And he said to me, “Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with my words to them…But the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to me: because all the house of Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart” (Ezekiel 3:4,7). Even though the Israelites will remain hardened and persistent in rejecting the Word of the LORD, Ezekiel would be made even harder and more persistent in bringing the Word. Ezekiel 4 reports on the first prophetic enactment by Ezekiel: “And you, son of man, take a brick and lay it before you, and engrave on it a city, even Jerusalem…And behold, I will place cords upon you, so that you cannot turn from one side to the other, till you have completed the days of your siege” (Ezekiel 4:1,8). The LORD directs Ezekiel to carry out a sign-act to demonstrate the coming siege. These signs are not merely visual aids; they are designed to reach people’s wills and hearts, enabling them not just to see the truth but to feel it. Ezekiel 5 is an additional sign-act that communicates the coming destruction of Jerusalem: “And you, O son of man, take a sharp sword. Use it as a barber’s razor and pass it over your head and your beard. Then take balances for weighing and divide the hair…Thus shall my anger spend itself, and I will vent my fury upon them and satisfy myself. And they shall know that I am the LORD—that I have spoken in my jealousy—when I spend my fury upon them” (Ezekiel 5:1,13).

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading was the connection between the coming siege upon Jerusalem and the length of time that the Israelites existed in Egyptian captivity: “Then lie on your left side, and place the punishment of the house of Israel upon it. For the number of the days that you lie on it, you shall bear their punishment. For I assign to you a number of days, 390 days, equal to the number of the years of their punishment. So long shall you bear the punishment of the house of Israel. And when you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the punishment of the house of Judah. Forty days I assign you, a day for each year” (Ezekiel 4:4-6). Ezekiel was to lie on his left side for 390 days and then on his right side for 40 days. The 390 days was the length of time corresponding to “the punishment of the house of Israel,” while the 40 days was the length of time corresponding to “the punishment of the house of Judah.” Each day represented a year. Thus, the total length of time was 430 years. What is interesting is that this length of time is reminiscent of Israel’s length of time in captivity: “The time that the people of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years. At the end of 430 years, on that very day, all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt” (Exodus 12:40-41).

So, there is a glimmer of hope in that Ezekiel’s 430-day ordeal matches the nation’s 430-year stay in Egypt, suggesting the possibility of a New Exodus. Just as the Hebrew people were weighed down by their sin and therefore experienced captivity, so now would Israel and Judah be weighed down by their sin as they experienced the siege, deportation, and captivity at the hands of the Babylonians. This is not to suggest that the Hebrew people fully atoned for their sins and earned their own release. It did not happen that way. The LORD had mercy on them: “During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew” (Exodus 2:23-25). And the LORD provided a sacrificial lamb: “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old…and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it…The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt” (Exodus 13:5a,6-7,13). The Exodus came through shed blood. The sacrificed lamb shielded them from the wrath of God.

Ezekiel is hinting at a New Exodus. While some elements of the New Exodus will be partially realized at the end of the Babylonian captivity, a truer, greater, more substantive New Exodus comes in Jesus who, “gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:2b). Jesus bore the full fiery wrath of God against the sin of all his people—past, present, and future. As a result, Jesus’ resurrection is the firstfruits of a New Exodus in which He leads His people out from sin and death and hell and into the glorious heavenly inheritance He has prepared for them.

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe