For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Visual Aid – Hair 

Ezek  5:1-4

1 “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. ² 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. ³ But take a few hairs and tuck them away in the folds of your garment. ⁴ 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.

A. Find Out

1. What was Ezekiel to do next? v.1a
2. What was he to do with it? v.1b,2a,b
3. What was that to partly signify? v.2c
4. Yet what was he to do with a few strands? v.3
5. And then what was he to do with a few of those? v.4

B. Think:

1. Note again the first three things Ezekiel was to do with his cut hair?
2. What do you think that signified?
3. What do you think what he did with remainder signified?

C. Comment:

The visual aid continues.  There is a picture of a siege of Jerusalem with God’s face turned against it, a picture of restricted rationing, and now a picture of what will happen at the end of the siege.

Again, note, this is all very visual, able to be seen by passers by. He is first to shave his head, and that will start people thinking. Then he is to take scales and weigh out the hair into three portions. Again that will stop passers by and make them wonder. Then he is to take a third of it and put it on the tablet of clay representing Jerusalem and burn it. That obviously means some will die in Jerusalem as the siege ends. The next third he is to put on the floor around the city and strike it with a sword. That obviously means a number will be killed when they flee from the city. The final third he is simply to throw up into the air and be blown away by the wind.  Obviously the remainder will flee and will be dispersed around the world, no longer an identifiable nation.

But there is still a remnant, a few hairs he is to put in his own coat. He represents God as he brings the judgement in the picture, so these few hairs represent a faithful few who will be saved, yet some of those will yet not be saved. You need to read the closing chapters of Jeremiah to see how this was all exactly fulfilled.

D. Application:

1. God conveys His plans through His prophets (Amos 3:7)
2. God wants His people to understand fully what He is doing and His intentions for them.

Judgement! 

Ezek  5:5-12

⁵ “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: This is Jerusalem, which I have set in the center of the nations, with countries all around her. ⁶ 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.

⁷ “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.

⁸ “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. ⁹ Because of all your detestable idols, I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again. ¹⁰ 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. ¹¹ 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. ¹² 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.

A. Find Out

1. How did the Lord view Jerusalem?  v.5
2. What had Jerusalem done? v.6,7
3. What was the Lord going to do? v.8
4. Why was He going to do it? v.9
5. What will actually happen? v.10,12
6. Again, why will this happen? v.11

B. Think:

1. What had been Jerusalem’s history?
2. What was her present state?
3. So what was going to happen?

C. Comment:

You have to admit, there is no room for doubt left after reading this passage. It is ultra clear! No one will ever be able to say, “Well we didn’t know. God didn’t tell us”.  They did! He did!

God had made Jerusalem something special. In His eyes it was the centre of the nations! But despite having been made so great, the inhabitants of Jerusalem turned away, again and again, from the Lord. They hadn’t merely turned away; they had become worse than the ungodly nations. They had turned to idol worship in a bigger way than many of their neighbours – and that after having had such a history of encounters with the Living God! How incredible is that!

God cannot tolerate this any longer. He has warned and warned them. He can’t go on doing it for ever. Right, He is going to remove His hand of protection and blessing, and instead His judgement will come. When the next invasion comes, understand it, it is the judgement of God. Jerusalem will be under siege, there will be the most terrible famine as they are shut off from food supplies, and then eventually they will fall and be destroyed. It is all quite clear!  And this word is coming to the exiles!  Jeremiah is bringing it inside Jerusalem, but God wants to turn the hearts of all His people, wherever they are.  Understand it!

D. Application:

1. None of us has an excuse. God makes it clear to all of us!
2. We NEED the Cross of Christ to save us from our sins.

Destruction!  

Ezek  5:13-17

¹³ “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.

¹⁴ “I will make you a ruin and a reproach among the nations around you, in the sight of all who pass by. ¹⁵ 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. ¹⁶ 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. ¹⁷ 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.”

A. Find Out

1. What will happen and what will be known? v.13
2. What will the Lord make Jerusalem? v.14,15a
3. Why will this happen? v.15b
4. How will this specifically happen? v.16
5. What specific forms will God’s destruction take? v.17

B. Think:

1. How will the rest of the world eventually feel about Jerusalem?
2. How is the Lord going to bring that about?
3. Why is He going to do that?

C. Comment:

An awful passage!  In a day when we mostly speak about the love of God, the anger of the Lord seems particularly terrible. This passage is filled with that anger.  There is a time to be angry.  When a people have had every ounce of the love of God poured on them and they turn away and throw it back in His face, and go and worship demons, that is something to be angry about!  In a day when we try to be nice to all people and every person has a right to be what they want, say what they will, and act how they want, and it be accepted if not applauded, these words come as a particular shock. It is not all right, it is pure ungrateful sin and it cannot be tolerated!

When God has finished with this people, the world will look on and wonder – and some might even believe!  Read Jeremiah to catch the state of Jerusalem after all this happened. The world went round the world: this is not a God to be messed with!!!!  Destruction will come by famine in the city, by the sword when the enemy come in, by wild beasts when the security of the walls of Jerusalem is removed and the remaining destitute refugees are a prey. Sickness and plague will follow because of the putrid bodies left all over the place after the destruction. This is the graphic warning that came to Jerusalem – and was not heeded. As a consequence the destruction came with all the detail of the prophecy!

D. Application:

1. Never say that God doesn’t warn us!
2. God IS angry about ongoing, wilful sin. He will deal with it.