Bible-Reading.com
  1. Tue: Isaiah 3-5
  2. Wed: Joshua 6-9
  3. Thu: Romans 4-6
Friday · Week 2
The Later Prophets

Ezekiel 3-4

Week 2 · about 9 min
  1. Sat: Job 5-8
  2. Sun: Genesis 12-17
  3. Mon: Matthew 8-10

God prepares Ezekiel for a hard assignment among the exiles in Babylon.

The Prophet Who Ate the Message

Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.

Ezekiel 3:17 (KJV)

Before Ezekiel speaks a word, God has him eat a scroll full of mourning and woe, and it tastes as sweet as honey. Then he goes to the exiles and says, “I sat where they sat,” stunned and silent for a week. God names his job: watchman. A watchman isn’t responsible for whether the city listens. He’s responsible for sounding the alarm. In chapter 4, Ezekiel becomes a living sermon. He draws Jerusalem on a clay brick, builds a little siege around it, and lies on his side for months while eating rationed bread. Before he preached to anyone else, God’s message had to get inside him and change him.

Reflect: Is there a warning you know you should give someone and haven’t?

Ezekiel 3

1And he said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou findest; eat this roll, and go, speak unto the house of Israel.

2So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat the roll.

3And he said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness.

4And he said unto me, Son of man, go, get thee unto the house of Israel, and speak with my words unto them.

5For thou art not sent to a people of a strange speech and of an hard language, but to the house of Israel;

6not to many peoples of a strange speech and of an hard language, whose words thou canst not understand. Surely, if I sent thee to them, they would hearken unto thee.

7But the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee; for they will not hearken unto me: for all the house of Israel are of an hard forehead and of a stiff heart.

8Behold, I have made thy face hard against their faces, and thy forehead hard against their foreheads.

9As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead: fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house.

10Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, all my words that I shalt speak unto thee receive in thine heart, and hear with thine ears.

11And go, get thee to them of the captivity, unto the children of thy people, and speak unto them, and tell them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear.

12Then the spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me the voice of a great rushing, saying, Blessed be the glory of the LORD from his place.

13And I heard the noise of the wings of the living creatures as they touched one another, and the noise of the wheels beside them, even the noise of a great rushing.

14So the spirit lifted me up, and took me away: and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit, and the hand of the LORD was strong upon me.

15Then I came to them of the captivity at Tel-abib, that dwelt by the river Chebar, and to where they dwelt; and I sat there astonied among them seven days.

16And it came to pass at the end of seven days, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

17Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.

18When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood wilt I require at thine hand.

19Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.

20Again, when a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumblingblock before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thine hand.

21Nevertheless if thou warn the righteous man, that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning; and thou hast delivered thy soul.

22And the hand of the LORD was there upon me; and he said unto me, Arise, go forth into the plain, and I will there talk with thee.

23Then I arose, and went forth into the plain: and, behold, the glory of the LORD stood there, as the glory which I saw by the river Chebar: and I fell on my face.

24Then the spirit entered into me, and set me upon my feet; and he spake with me, and said unto me, Go, shut thyself within thine house.

25But thou, son of man, behold, they shall lay bands upon thee, and shall bind thee with them, and thou shalt not go out among them:

26and I will make thy tongue cleave to the roof of thy mouth, that thou shalt be dumb, and shalt not be to them a reprover: for they are a rebellious house.

27But when I speak with thee, I will open thy mouth, and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD: He that heareth, let him hear; and he that forbeareth, let him forbear: for they are a rebellious house.

Ezekiel 4

1Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and pourtray upon it a city, even Jerusalem:

2and lay siege against it, and build forts against it, and cast up a mount against it; set camps also against it, and plant battering rams against it round about.

3And take thou unto thee an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city: and set thy face toward it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.

4Moreover lie thou upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it, thou shalt bear their iniquity.

5For I have appointed the years of their iniquity to be unto thee a number of days, even three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

6And again, when thou hast accomplished these, thou shalt lie on thy right side, and shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah: forty days, each day for a year, have I appointed it unto thee.

7And thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with thine arm uncovered; and thou shalt prophesy against it.

8And, behold, I lay bands upon thee, and thou shalt not turn thee from one side to another, till thou hast accomplished the days of thy siege.

9Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof; according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side, even three hundred and ninety days, shalt thou eat thereof.

10And thy meat which thou shalt eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time shalt thou eat it.

11And thou shalt drink water by measure, the sixth part of an hin: from time to time shalt thou drink.

12And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it in their sight with dung that cometh out of man.

13And the LORD said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their bread unclean, among the nations whither I will drive them.

14Then said I, Ah Lord GOD! behold, my soul hath not been polluted: for from my youth up even till now have I not eaten of that which dieth of itself, or is torn of beasts; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth;

15Then he said unto me, See, I have given thee cow’s dung for man’s dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread thereon.

16Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and with carefulness; and they shall drink water by measure, and with astonishment:

17that they may want bread and water, and be astonied one with another, and pine away in their iniquity.

Revised Version (RV). Revised Version (RV), 1885, public domain.