Does sin separate us from God like an iron wall? Have we endured physical and social hardship to serve God? Let’s look at Ezekiel 4.
Did Ezekiel make a model of Jerusalem under siege as a visual prophecy? Did an iron pan picture a barrier between God and Israel?
You also, son of man, take a tile, and lay it before yourself, and portray on it a city, even Jerusalem. Lay siege against it, build forts against it, and cast up a mound against it. Also set camps against it and plant battering rams against it all around. Take for yourself an iron pan and set it for a wall of iron between you and the city. Then set your face toward it. It will be besieged, and you shall lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel. (Ezek 4:1-3 WEB)
Did God have this very visual prophet lie on his side? Did this picture the unfaithfulness of both Israel and Judah?
Now, lie on your left side, and set the guilt of the house of Israel on it. For the length of time that you lie on your side, you will bear their punishment. I appoint to you three hundred ninety days, one day for each year of their guilt. So you will bear the punishment of the house of Israel.
When you have completed these days, lie on your right side to bear the guilt of the house of Judah. I appoint forty days to you, one day for each year. With your arm stretched out, face the siege of Jerusalem directly and prophesy against it. I’ve now bound you with cords so that you can’t turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege. (Ezek 4:4-8 CEB)
Did God have Ezekiel demonstrate yet another prophecy of bad food?
Get a large bowl. Then mix together wheat, barley, beans, lentils, and millet, and make some bread. This is what you will eat for the 390 days you are lying down. Eat only a small loaf of bread each day and drink only two large cups of water. Use dried human waste to start a fire, then bake the bread on the coals where everyone can watch you. When I scatter the people of Israel among the nations, they will also have to eat food that is unclean, just as you must do. (Ezek 4:9-13 CEV)
When Ezekiel asked God why He wanted him to defile himself with tainted bread, what was God’s answer?
Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I have never defiled myself. From my youth up till now I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has tainted meat come into my mouth.” Then he said to me, “See, I assign to you cow's dung instead of human dung, on which you may prepare your bread.” Moreover, he said to me, “Son of man, behold, I will break the supply of bread in Jerusalem. They shall eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and they shall drink water by measure and in dismay. I will do this that they may lack bread and water, and look at one another in dismay, and rot away because of their punishment. (Ezek 4:14-17 ESV)
Rather than the polluted bread of punishment, did Jesus offer us the bread of life?
“I am the bread of life,” Jesus told them. “No one who comes to Me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in Me will ever be thirsty again.” (John 6:35 HCSB)
Does sin separate us from God like an iron wall? Have we endured physical and social hardship to serve God? You decide!
