Ezekiel 5 | Wayfarer

“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.”
Ezekiel 5:7 (NIV)

One of the more interesting things that I have observed in my lifetime is the increasing extent to which individuals and groups are given and driven to sow anarchy and chaos. It seems that wherever and whenever protesting crowds descend into rioting, violence, looting, and burning, there is always an element participating that cares nothing about whatever cause started with the protests. This element is there to encourage the crowd’s descent into chaos.

Fascinating.

In today’s chapter, God continues to describe to the young prophet Ezekiel his first prophetic assignment. What started out as strange just gets seemingly more strange as God tells Ezekiel that when the 430 days of his metaphorical siege on his little model city of Jerusalem is over, he is to cut off his hair and beard. A third of it is for burning the model city of Jerusalem, a third for striking with a sword around the model of Jerusalem, and a third for scattering a third of it to the wind.

For the people of Ezekiel’s day, the metaphors were much more clear than they are for modern readers. Hair in Mesopotamian cultures was often considered part of a person’s essence, and for this reason, hair was often used in religious rituals and divination practices. The prophet’s hair was God’s metaphorical essence that was in His people. The end of the siege of Jerusalem would end up with God’s people being burned inside the city, slaughtered if they tried to flee, and scattered in exile.

As God explains the judgment against His people, He states that they have been more “unruly” than the nations around them. The Hebrew word hāman has an expansive meaning that includes descriptors such as turbulence, rage, and clamor. This is where it gets really interesting.

Remember that Ezekiel is among the exiles in Babylon. In ancient Babylonian literature, a similar word translated as “clamor” is repeatedly used to describe the increasing and never-ending wickedness that draws the wrath and judgment of their gods. This includes the Babylonian version of the Great Flood story. The Hebrews would know well these words from Genesis 6 that led to the flood:

The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.

Through Ezekiel, God is telling the Hebrews living in Babylon that their unruly “clamor” is like the same “clamor” that caused God to bring the Great Flood (according to both the Hebrew and Babylonian versions of the story) is what will bring the destruction of Jerusalem if they refuse to repent. Not only that, but their “clamor” was greater than “the nations around them” which included their Babylonian captors.

In mixing metaphors from both Hebrew and Babylonian traditions, Ezekiel is telling his people: “Even our evil Babylonian captors get it better than we do!” This was a stinging rebuke, a desperate warning, and an urgent plea to His people to repent.

In the quiet this morning, my head and heart go back to how I see this “clamoring spirit” alive and well in today’s world. As I meditated on it in the quiet this morning, I came to the conclusion that it is always present in this fallen world. The only thing that changes is the amount and intensity which has ebbed and flowed throughout history. What a contrast to the fruit of the Spirit that Jesus asked His followers to sow in this fallen world to bring redemption, reconciliation, righteousness, and peace which will lead towards increasing order.

I find this a simple litmus test for my life and the human systems which I influence. If my life repeatedly results in me amidst chaos and disorder, then I need to take a long introspective look in the mirror. As a disciple of Jesus, I should find myself with a growing and increasing sense of peace in any and all circumstances. If not, then I’ve missed something important along the way.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Artwork by Michael Buesking at prophetasartist.com — Artwork by Michael Buesking at http://www.prophetasartist.com

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. 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. But take a few hairs and tuck them away in the folds of your garment. 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.
Ezekiel 5:1-4 (NIV)

Ezekiel’s performance art piece continues in today’s chapter. After a year and three months to act out the siege of Jerusalem, God tells Ezekiel to cut off his hair and weigh it on the scales. Burn a third, strike a third, scatter a third, but tuck a few into your cloak.

The word picture God has Ezekiel act out is actually very direct.

Think of how Jesus described our importance to God. He said, “even the hairs of your head are all numbered.” Ezekiel cutting off his hair is a picture of the cutting off of all those numbered, important ones – God’s people.

We all know that scales represent justice. Almost every courthouse in the country has a statue of the woman, Justice, blindfolded and holding out the scales. Think of what we just read in the stories of Daniel when Daniel interprets the dream of Belshazzar:

You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.

God is going to allow His people to be cut off from Jerusalem in judgement.

Burn a third: Jerusalem will burn in the siege, a third of the people will die in the fire
Strike a third with with the sword: One third will be killed in the battle/siege
Scatter a third: One third will be scattered to the four winds, a diaspora
Tuck a few: God will tuck away a small remnant into His keeping and protection (exactly what happened with Ezekiel, Daniel and his three Amigos, and the remnant in Persia)

To understand the prophets, we must learn to think in word pictures and allegory. We hear God’s command to Ezekiel and picture his acting all of this out on the street, and we think that we would probably have dismissed him as a crazy fool. Yet even Shakespeare knew that it is usually the fool who knows and speak the truth, and he used that as a device over and over again. Through Ezekiel and his contemporaries, God attempted to communicate what he was about to do through the acting out of metaphors that even an uneducated person could understand.

Today, I’m struck once more by the language of metaphor that God wove into the fabric of creation. It is the basic means by which God expresses Himself in profound ways that touch and move both mind, soul, and spirit. To become effective communicators, we must learn to both hear and to speak in that same language.