the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 4 of 5
Ezekiel 5:1-17
From ch. 4 onwards, the LORD uses certain signs to introduce Ezekiel to the sad circumstances which are going to overtake his people. A servant of God who has himself passed through the school of humiliation and suffering is thereby much better fitted to understand those who are passing through the same and to encourage them with greater authority. He knows their situation from his own experience and can thus effectively forewarn them. By lying on his side, by baking his bread with dung, Ezekiel bore in type the consequences of the iniquity of his people (Ezekiel 4:4). Now God instructs him to shave his hair and his beard, an act dishonouring to a priest, and one forbidden by the Law (Leviticus 21:5). Vv. 11, 12 explain to us its symbolic bearing. Israel, the LORD’s jewel, is set aside and various judgments, prescribed by the One who weighs each man’s guilt (v. 1), are to be visited upon them. Some will be prey to pestilence and to famine during the siege of the city, others will fall by the sword, whilst others will be scattered and persecuted. Moses had previously announced these punishments (Leviticus 26:14 . . .; Deuteronomy 28:15 . . .), and Israel’s history since then has confirmed that God can but fulfil His Word (Ezekiel 12:28).
