Jerusalem on a Brick
God tells Ezekiel to go and get a brick. This would have likely been a large adobe
style brick. Upon the brick he was to
draw a sketch of Jerusalem. Then he was
to set up all kinds of siege works and mounds of earth that an enemy army would
have used to ascend over the walls.
Finally, Ezekiel was to set his face against it.
Clearly this is a sign to the Hebrew people about the destruction
of Jerusalem. This prophetic message is
pretty easy to understand. What would
have taken some thought is the iron pan set between Ezekiel and the brick. The iron pan represents the insurmountable
barrier between the Hebrew people and God.
Of course, the barrier is insurmountable as long as the people remain in
their sin. Their unwillingness to repent
is an insurmountable barrier that caused God to not hear their pleas and cries
for salvation.
God is mighty to save. God
is powerful enough to do anything. But
when we allow our sinfulness to rule us and we stop humbling ourselves before
God, God is under no obligation to hear us when we cry out to Him. It’s a harsh reality, but it is true. God need not hear us ever and He would be
righteous. But He has voluntarily done
the unthinkable and covenanted with us to hear us so long as we are humble and
He is genuinely our God.
Years of Punishment
This second vision is difficult at best. Well, let me rephrase that. Part of this second vision is difficult. The basics are easy. Ezekiel is told by God that he will lie upon
His side for 390 days and then on his other side for 40 days. These days represent the number of years that
the Hebrew people (Israel and Judah respectively) were in rebellion and
punishment by God. That much is clear.
What’s unclear is what the numbers mean. 390 for Israel and 40 for Judah?
That certainly isn’t the number of years of exile. The exiles begin to return to the Promised
Land in 538 BC. Jerusalem fell in
586BC. That’s 48 years, which is not far
from the 40 years mentioned for Judah in this chapter. However, Israel was exiled into Assyrian
domination in 722 BC. That’s only 184
years from when the exiles returned.
That’s not even remotely close to 390 years.
Perhaps it is the years of sinfulness prior to the fall of
Jerusalem? If we subtract 40 years from
586 BC we end up at 626 BC. 626 BC is
right in the middle of Josiah’s reign.
We know that Josiah was the last of the faithful kings of Israel! So this doesn’t make sense. For the record, if we subtract 390 years from
586 BC we end up at 976 BC. This date is
near the end of David’s reign and Israel and Judah had not even split into two
kingdoms yet. Clearly these years do not
represent the years of rebellion leading up to the exile.
Some have speculated that the sum of the years matches the length of
Gentile control over the Promised Land.
If you start in 586 BC and add 430 years you end up at 156 BC. The Maccabean Revolt did occur in 164 BC and
Jerusalem was under Jewish rule in 160 BC by Jonathon Maccabeus after his
brother dies in 161 having begun the fight to free the Promised Land from the
grip of the Seleucid Empire. This also
comes close, however at this point I am left feeling like this is just playing
more of a number game than actual prophetic understanding.
The reality is that we need to be honest and confess that we just
don’t know. We can try various ways to
understand this passage but nothing seems to work out just right. Yet it doesn’t affect our understanding of
this passage. The Hebrew people were in
rebellion. They were punished and put
under Gentile domination for a time. The
people would understand the vision as God speaking into their
circumstance.
I’m willing to bet that they understood the meaning of the
years. Unfortunately that understanding
has been lost in time.
Cakes Baked on Dung
This third vision in the chapter is pretty straight forward. Ezekiel is to eat simple cakes baked in a
simple manner. They are a small
ration. Actually, they are a very small
ration. The amount of food was roughly
equal to 8 ounces. The amount of water
was about 2/3 of a quart. That’s
certainly not what most of us would call sustenance.
This represents two things.
First, the siege of Jerusalem was rough.
It took its toll on people.
Again, the people would understand this vision. Second, it demonstrates that survival is
based on God more than our physical sustenance.
Who can survive for a total of 430 days with only 8 ounces of baked
bread and 2/3 of a quart of water to drink per day? Only someone totally supported by God.
And then there is the matter of the dung. First, notice that God changes the vision at
Ezekiel’s complaint. Ezekiel is worried
about the purity laws. So God allows him
to use cow dung instead of human dung.
For the record, I think I would have been in favor of that change
regardless of whether or not I was following the purity laws of the Jews.
In case you are curious, there is nothing in God’s Law that
forbids the use of human dung as a fuel for a fire. However, there are rules about whether a
priest can or cannot come in contact with human dung. Thus, it is not the cooking fuel that is the
issue as much as it is the priestly nature of Ezekiel.
This leads me to my last point this evening. I’m going to read the New Testament into this
passage. Ezekiel is concerned with his
purity according to the Law. God does
not seem overly concerned when He originally gives the vision to Ezekiel. God knows that it is not what is outside of
us that defiles us but rather what is in our hearts. In a way, that is exactly what the fall of
Jerusalem is all about.
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