Did Ezekiel demonstrate a then future punishment of human abominations? Are our nations without guilt? Let’s look at Ezekiel 5.
What did God ask Ezekiel to demonstrate this time as a prophecy?
“Now as for you, Son of Man, you are to go find a sharp sword and use it like a barber’s razor. You are to cut your hair and beard. Then you are to take a weighing scale and divide your shaved hair into three parts. You are to burn a third of it in the middle of the city when you’ve finished your siege. Next, you are to take another third of it and beat it with your sword.
Last, you are to scatter the remaining third to the wind, after which I’ll unsheathe my sword and pursue them. You are to preserve a few strands of hair and hide them in the folds of your garment. Then you are to take a few strands, throw them in the fire, and incinerate them. A fire will proceed to the house of Israel from there.” (Ezek 5:1-5 ISV)
Was Jerusalem located to be an example for other countries? Did Jerusalem fall into sins that were worse than those of surrounding countries?
Thus saith the Lord God; This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her. And she hath changed my judgments into wickedness more than the nations, and my statutes more than the countries that are round about her: for they have refused my judgments and my statutes, they have not walked in them. (Ezek 5:5-6 KJV)
What did God decide because Jerusalem had sinned so abominably against Him? How bad will the famine be?
Therefore, thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘Because you have more turmoil than the nations which are all around you and have not walked in My statutes, nor done My judgments, nor done the judgments of the nations which are all around you,’ therefore, thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘Behold, I, even I, am against you, and I will execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations.
And I will do among you what I have not done and the like of which I will never do again because of all your abominations. Therefore, fathers will eat their sons among you, and sons will eat their fathers; for I will execute judgments on you and scatter all your remnant to every wind. (Ezek 5:7-10 LSB)
Did idolatry and various undetailed abominations cause God’s punishment by thirds?
Therefore as I live,’ declares the Lord God, ‘Because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable idols and with all your abominations, I definitely will also withdraw and My eye will have no pity, and I also will not spare. A third of you will die by plague or perish by famine among you, a third will fall by the sword around you, and a third I will scatter to every wind, and I will unsheathe a sword behind them. (Ezek 5:11-12 NASB)
What would the nations around know because of God’s punishment on Jerusalem?
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. I will make you a ruin and a reproach among the nations around you, in the sight of all who pass by. (Ezek 5:13-14 NIV)
What kind of lesson would Jerusalem be for all to see?
‘So it shall be a reproach, a taunt, a lesson, and an astonishment to the nations that are all around you, when I execute judgments among you in anger and in fury and in furious rebukes. I, the Lord, have spoken. When I send against them the terrible arrows of famine which shall be for destruction, which I will send to destroy you, I will increase the famine upon you and cut off your supply of bread. So I will send against you famine and wild beasts, and they will bereave you. Pestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken.’ (Ezek 5:15-17 NKJV)
Did Jerusalem learn its lesson or was a future generation to suffer similar punishment in 70 AD?
They will be killed by the sword or sent away as captives to all the nations of the world. And Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles until the period of the Gentiles comes to an end. (Luke 21:24 NLT)
Did Ezekiel demonstrate a then future punishment of human abominations? Are our nations without guilt? You decide!
