Month: August 2025

This is the third message present in chapter 5. I addressed the first two messages from Chapter 5 in Part 1 and Part 2 of this series. In this third message, we find a clear statement, I will put you down, I will bring you famine, childlessness, bloodshed, and the plague. You are done. I, the Lord, have spoken.

Ezekiel 5:14-17 says — 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 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 [NIV]

This situation is far more dire than any previous judgement. All of the minor prophets deal with this situation. Once the judgement is over and the Hebrews limp home from Babylon, they never really get their luster restored. They dribble along looking for unity, shifting the blame for their problems from Babylon, to Alexander the Great, then the Romans. Eventually the Messiah appears. Then after the rejection of the Messiah, the temple is destroyed by the Romans and the Hebrews are scattered.

This is a bad thing, on the scale of the problem that led to Noah and the ‘reset’ button (the flood and the ark). Nobody makes fun of God. Nobody! The Hebrews have caused the other nations to mock and make fun of the one true living God. God’s judgment is announced with time for repentance provided.  Then Judgement comes — his way, his time, his severity, and with his finality. He tried extremely hard to make a path for the Hebrews. They simply balked at the gesture.  He put the hammer down.

The one true living God is determined to school this rebellious crowd. He is determined to cause the knee to bend. They will learn to fear him and then learn to respect his power and his mercy. The closer the human is to God’s grace the more severely he refutes the sin. The Hebrews were to teach the other nations about virtue and piety. They were to be water in a dry land. But they chose to abdicate that role, pursuing with vigor the depravity of the other nations. They rolled in the mud, imbedded their minds with the filth of sin. They lifted their haughty fist in anger towards God and rebelled.

The outcome. We are watching the demise of the Hebrew nation, they are reduced in stature to serve the neighboring kingdoms, they build somebody else’s city rather than their own city. In their final days of freedom, they resort to eating their children. Their lifeblood is squandered to fill their belly. Is that not similar to what is happening today? Do we not kill our own children to be free?

The sword of the Lord that once defended the city is now used to destroy the city. The warriors who attach the city move like evil beasts making prey of the inhabitants of the city. Women were not safe, children are not safe, this is a bad situation as the city grinds down to embers. No one escapes, even the ones who try to flee to the deserts and mountains are hacked down. But there is still more.

As we push our way through this story, we see God’s mercy emerging. We see the promises of a future once God pulls back his wrath and replaces it once again with his mercy. We see an amazing vision of a valley of bones that are brought back to life in Chapter 37. God promises to end the exile and then, taking a page from the new covenant yet to be written, God tells them how they will be returned to life. When we walk in with his eyes, at his pace, watching things unfold, his mercy is endless. I choose Jesus.

It has been my observation that Ezekiel 5 contains three messages, each building upon the other. I reviewed the first message in — You have been Unruly (part 1). Now we are moving to the second of the three messages. What makes Ezekiel 5 worthy of detailed examination is simple – this is the first real message presented by Ezekiel in his writings. First, the Hebrews abdicated their position as the light of the world. Second, the Hebrews are about to endure something that God has never done in the past and will not do again. Parents will eat their children and children will eat their parents. Third, God says He will bring them bloodshed, famine, drought, childlessness, and the plague. This is intense.

Ezekiel 5:8-11 says — 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 at you with pity or spare you.

This is a harsh message compared to the first message from Ezekiel 5 (see part 1 of this essay series). Is he justified? Yes. They brought this judgement to their own doorstep. They knew the right path and had experienced the benefit that comes from following the right path, yet they rejected the mantle of God and decided they could do better for themselves, if they took matters into their own hands.

Standing against the one true living God is a lonely place to be. There is nowhere on the face of this earth to hide. There is nothing that can be hidden. All is known. Those who will not acknowledge God’s judgement will suffer the consequences. The ability to hide behind the mercy of God and sidestep the judgement of God is over. The punishment of famine and cannibalism is the only path forward. When God’s sovereignty is set aside and dishonored by man’s sin, God is grieved (implied in Psalms 95:10). Their destruction brings the situation to closure. The books are balanced.

The notion of ransom and mitigation defers or resolves the impact of sin. But when God’s mercy has been stayed, then we find only wrath with no pity. This is not a place any person ever wants to find themselves. From this place there is no recourse. You never want to find yourself the intended audience of this message.  Notice the intent of Ezekiel 7:4 — I will not look at you with pity; I will not spare you. I will surely repay you for your conduct and for the detestable practices among you. Then you will know that I am the LORD [NIV].  The Hebrews have crossed the line.

We do not know the exact details surrounding their cannibalism, it appears they engaged in this detestable practice because of the lack of food. We know that as the siege progresses, life becomes difficult, people lose hope and physical strength. They did not have any manna to help them, they were left with few options to maintain life.

Even if they managed to escape the famine, they knew the Judgement was still in full force. It did not matter where they went, God was there. He was calling them back to him. He was telling them to turn back or die. It is remarkable that so many chose death rather than repent. They were a stubborn group who had completely abandoned the God of their forefathers. The remnant was a very thin line during this period of Israelite history. But the remnant survived. I choose Jesus.