Ezekiel 4:1-17

content/bible_journal/ezekiel_4:1-17.md

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+title = "Ezekiel 4:1–17"
+date = "2023-03-10"
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+
+### [Read the passage.](https://biblia.com/bible/esv/Ezekiel4.1-17)
+
+At last, Ezekiel gets the first word that he is to speak to the people on the
+Lord's behalf. Like many prophets before him, he is to perform some symbolic
+actions that represent what will happen in the future. This one is pretty
+elaborate, though. He is to build a model for the siege of Jerusalem, complete
+with camps, a wall, and battering rams arranged around it. In addition, he was
+to take an iron griddle and place it on edge between himself and the city. This
+iron wall is meant to represent the barrier God will erect between Himself and
+His people. Sieges are terrible events, so there will normally be lots of
+people in Jerusalem praying for deliverance. But this wall will prevent God
+from hearing those prayers—because He put it there—so that the destruction of
+the city will be complete.
+
+After these preparations are complete, Ezekiel is given the task of lying down
+next to this diorama to bear the punishment of the houses of Israel and Judah.
+Israel will be punished for 390 years, so Ezekiel will lie on his left side 390
+days. Judah will be punisheed for 40 years, so he will lie on his right side
+for 40 days. "Days" here cannot mean the whole 24-hour period, continuously,
+because Ezekiel is also commanded to make bread and eat it in the following
+verses. Instead, each day there was a period of time where he would be lying
+down on his side, and the Lord would make it so that he couldn't turn from side
+to side while he lay there.
+
+If that wasn't hard enough, Ezekiel is put on siege rations for the duration of
+this mock siege. There's a product called Ezekiel Bread that purports to be
+healthier than normal bread because it follows a "Biblical recipe", but any
+benefits it does or doesn't have are completely unrelated to this passage.
+That's the danger of taking things out of context. Just because something is in
+the Bible doesn't mean it's something we're supposed to do. Just think of all
+the passages that describe how people sinned and failed to follow the Lord's
+instruction! I also doubt they use manure as the oven fuel at the Ezekiel Bread
+factory.
+
+The Mosaic Law was meant to emphasized purity and making a distinction between
+God's people and the rest of the nations. Clothing was not made of blended
+threads, fields were sown with one kind of crop, and so on. When God commands
+Ezekiel to make bread out of 6 different grains and legumes, He isn't giving a
+general recommendation. I don't believe this is specifically prohibited in the
+Law, but the idea of it runs counter to its general themes. Instead, it is to
+represent the desperation of the people under siege. Sieges work by inducing
+starvation in a populace. As supplies dwindle, you start getting creative with
+meals, and so a loaf of bread might be made with the last of _all_ your types
+of flour at once.
+
+The amount that Ezekiel would eat of this bread was tiny: twenty shekels works
+out to 220 grams or 8 ounces. His water was also constrained: a hin was about a
+gallon (3.5 liters) so a sixth of that is a bit over 2 cups or 0.6 liters. A
+man may be able to survive on that for over a year, maybe if each meal was that
+amount. But again, the point of this deprivation is to show how the people of
+Jerusalem are going to be judged. It is severe and sobering.
+
+* * *
+
+You are a just judge, bringing punishment upon the heads of the wicked.