Reasoning Through the Bible
Taking a cue from Paul, Reasoning Through the Bible is an expository style walk through the Scriptures that tells you what the Bible says. Reviewing both Old and New Testament books, as well as topical subjects, we methodically teach verse by verse, even phrase by phrase.
We have completed many books of the Bible and offer free lesson plans for teachers. If you want to browse our entire library by book or topic, see our website www.ReasoningThroughTheBible.com.
We primarily do expository teaching but also include a good bit of theology and apologetics. Just like Paul on Mars Hill, Christianity must address both the ancient truths and the questions of the people today. Join Glenn and Steve every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday as they reason with you through the Bible.
Reasoning Through the Bible
S6 || God's Fierce Judgment on Israel || Eziekiel 5:1-17 || Session 6 || Verse by Verse Bible Study
Ever wondered what would happen if God sent His prophet to the barbershop? In Ezekiel chapter 5, we witness one of Scripture's most unusual prophetic demonstrations as Ezekiel is commanded to take a sword, shave his head and beard, and perform a series of symbolic actions with his hair.
Far from being merely theatrical, this peculiar haircut serves as a powerful visual prophecy about Jerusalem's impending destruction. The sword used as a razor foreshadows the violence awaiting the city. The careful weighing of the hair on scales represents divine judgment against God's standard. Each third of the hair meets a different fate – burning, cutting, and scattering – vividly illustrating the three ways Jerusalem's inhabitants would perish: by fire during the siege, by sword in battle, and through exile to foreign lands.
Most poignant is the small remnant of hair Ezekiel tucks into his garment hem, symbolizing the faithful few God would preserve. Yet even from this protected remnant, some hairs are cast into fire, delivering a sobering message that even God's people aren't immune from accountability.
The prophecy pulls no punches with its graphic language of famine, wild beasts, and God declaring "my eye will have no pity and I will not spare." This rarely-preached aspect of God's character challenges our modern tendency to emphasize divine love while ignoring divine justice. As one listener noted, "We've created a caricature of God as a sugar-coated uncle who brings presents on our birthday."
This episode forces us to wrestle with difficult questions: How do we reconcile God's love with His wrath? Why don't churches address God's judgment more often? What does this mean for believers today who think membership in God's remnant guarantees immunity from consequences? Join us as we reason through these challenging passages and discover their timeless relevance for contemporary faith.
Thank you for listening!! Please give us a five-star rating to help your podcast provider's algorithm spread RTTB among their listeners.
You can find free study and leader resources at the following link - Resource Page - Reasoning Through the Bible
Please prayerfully consider supporting RTTB to help us to continue providing content and free resources. You can do that at this link - Support RTTB - Reasoning Through the Bible
May God Bless you!! - Glenn and Steve
God is going to send his prophet, ezekiel, to the barbershop. Matter of fact, he's not really sending him to the barbershop, he's going to have Ezekiel cut his own hair and it's going to be quite an event. Hi, my name is Glenn. I'm here with Steve. We are Reasoning Through the Bible. If you have your copy of the Word of God, turn it to Ezekiel, chapter 5. Again, god is going to instruct his prophet to cut his hair. Only he has to do it in a certain way and do some things with it. That's going to be an object lesson for the people of ancient Israel, but they're so clear and so profound that we are really blessed to be able to bring them to you. So we're going to go ahead and dive in Again. Steve, can you start reading at Ezekiel, chapter 5 and read the first six verses?
Speaker 2:As for you, son of man, take a sharp sword. Take and use it as a barber's razor on your head and beard. Take the scales for weighing and divide the hair. One third you shall burn in the fire at the center of the city when the days of the siege are completed. Then you shall take one third and strike it with the sword all around the city. And one third you shall scatter to the wind and I will unsheathe a sword behind them. Take also a few in number from them and bind them in the edges of your robes. Take again some of them and throw them into the fire and burn them in the fire. From it, a fire will spread to all the house of Israel. Thus says the Lord. God, this is Jerusalem. I have set her at the center of the nations, with lands around her, but she has rebelled against my ordinances more wickedly than the nations and against my statutes more than the lands which surround her, for they have rejected my ordinances and have not walked in my statutes.
Speaker 1:With this, god tells Ezekiel to do an additional strange event. He's been having Ezekiel do some very odd things as attention getters for the Jewish people who are in captivity in Babylon. He had him lay on his side for over a year. He had him cook his food with manure, eat a very small amount of food. He's doing yet another of these things that are here to teach ancient Jewish people and for us today. This one, god tells him to take a sword and cut off all his hair and his beard, and he is then to weigh it on a scale and to thirds, he is to burn part of it. He is to cut up part of it around the city and then scatter some to the wind. And then, the final part, he's supposed to take a small amount and weave them into the hem of his clothes. Now, steve, the first part of that, he was to shave with a sharp sword. Now why in the world would he have him cut off all his hair and shave his beard, but use a sword to?
Speaker 2:do it with. This whole scene that's taking place in these first chapters of Ezekiel are depicting the siege that's going to happen in Jerusalem. I think, glenn, the usage of the sword is to give an object lesson that Jerusalem is going to fall by the sword, and that that is the reason why he's instructed to use the sword. What do you think?
Speaker 1:It's exactly that God is using these pagan nations to go up against and kill the people of Jerusalem, and they will die by the sword. The lesson here is you don't normally shave with a sword, you shave with a razor. And he says in verse 1, to take a sharp sword and use it as a barber's razor, shaving with a sword very unusual, but it is to give the illustration that the people of Jerusalem will be faced with a sword and they will be dealt with with a sword. He is to go into the middle of a public street, shave all his hair and his beard using a sword and then weigh them with a scale. Now, in those days they used balance scales. You would balance whatever it is. You're weighing against a standard measure, a standard weight. So the hair here is being weighed against a measure, a standard, of course.
Speaker 1:The lesson here is clear the people of Israel are weighed against the scale of God's law. They had not kept God's law and they're going to be found wanting. A scale is a symbol of God's judgment. He is weighing Jerusalem against the law that God gave them. Let's go through the major parts here. The first part he would burn. Why in the world would he have him burn his hair.
Speaker 2:This is depicting what's going to happen with the siege with the city. Sometimes sieges would just choke the city and the city would give up and the conqueror would just go into the city and wouldn't destroy it, but in Jerusalem's case it's going to be destroyed by fire. I think this is a depiction that one-third of the population of Jerusalem is going to suffer whenever the city is burned, and that's what actually happens. We have from historical accounts that Nebuchadnezzar burns the city and temple.
Speaker 1:Right, exactly. He even says in verse 2 that this is to be done when the days of the siege are completed. He's very clearly representing the dividing of the hair, and the burning is what's going to happen to a third of the people in Jerusalem when the siege is completed, when the pagan armies finally break through the walls, then here's what's going to happen At least a third of them are going to die by fire in the burns. Now, steve, you ever smelled burning hair? It really stinks. It has a smell that there's nothing really quite like it. So the smell of burning hair here is also part of the lesson for the people, is it not?
Speaker 2:It is, and, yes, I have smelled burning hair before. I have a video of Tina at our first daughter's birthday party. It was her one year or maybe two-year-old birthday party, and Tina is lighting the candle and as she's bending over, her hair catches on fire. And so, yes, I have smelled hair on fire and it's an unpleasant smell Burning hair stinks and, to God, the people that disobey his law really stink.
Speaker 1:That's the lesson here, and again, he was to weigh this hair on a scale. What I'm immediately reminded of is God has this illustration of you've been weighed and found wanting, and this is not the only place we hear this Over. In Daniel, chapter 5, verse 25, god gave the message to the pagan king there. Remember the finger, the hand that wrote on the wall. The message was Mina, mina, tekel ufarsin, and he said okay, who can interpret this? They bring in Daniel.
Speaker 1:The message that God was giving to the king is God has numbered your kingdom and ended it, and you've been weighed in the balances and found wanting and your kingdom has been divided and given to another. That same message you've been weighed and found wanting is given here to God's own people, his chosen people. One of the messages, if we compare all these prophets, is that God will judge and if there's anything you get out of these prophets, it's that God has a these prophets, it's that God has a standard against sin, and if we just ignore that, we will be weighed and found wanting. The first third of the hair he burns, the second one was to be cut up with the sword and scattered around the city. Then the last third was to be just thrown to the wind, steve. What would those represent?
Speaker 2:The sword represents a instrument of war and battle. So I think that's an indication that, as the city is overrun in this siege, that possibly even people that are trying to escape and get out, they're going to die by the sword. They're not going to die in the fires that take place, they're going to die by the sword. And the ones that are going to be scattered to the wind, those are the ones that are going to actually escape and get out from the siege that's taking place in Jerusalem.
Speaker 1:Yes, exactly. At least a third of the people scattered to the wind will be taken captive in foreign nations. Then two-thirds of them are going to be destroyed. They'll be killed either by the sword or by the destruction of the fire of the city. Hard and harsh lesson that Ezekiel has for the Jewish people. In verse 3, it says there's to take a small number of these hairs and sew them or bind them into the edges of your robe, the hem of your robe. Now, steve, what would these represent? Remember, he took the vast majority of it and either burned it, cut it up or let it scatter to the wind. He was to take a few and bind them into the hem of his garment, of his clothes. What?
Speaker 2:would this represent? This is a representation of the remnant, the ones that are actually believers in Yahweh and follow his ordinances and his statutes. All throughout Israel's history, there's always been what's referred to as a remnant there's a group of the true believers throughout their history. This is a representation that, even though Jerusalem is being judged and Judah, the southern kingdom, has finally fallen along with Jerusalem, that there's still some within there that are a remnant. They're true believers and I think the depiction of taking them, putting them and tucking them away in his garment is a way of representation that God is going to protect them.
Speaker 1:God always does have a remnant. He tells us this in Romans, chapter 11, that God has always had a remnant. He judges the majority of the Jewish people simply because the majority of them disobeyed God. But he keeps a remnant and that's one of the messages and we'll pick up that message again as we get later in the book of Ezekiel. But he takes a few of the hairs and binds them, sews them into the hem of his clothes so they're kept safe. God will always have a remnant and he will keep them safe. But in the very next verse, verse 4, take again some of them, and that's the ones that are sewed up into the hem of the garment. Take again some of them and throw them into the fire and burn them in the fire. From it, a fire will spread to all the house of Israel. He keeps a remnant, a smaller remnant than what got destroyed or scattered, but even that remnant, a few of them, will be burned in the fire.
Speaker 1:The lesson here is that even though the remnant is kept safe, they are not necessarily kept safe forever. No matter what, god will still judge, even the remnant. Steve, we today in the church like to say oh, we're part of the remnant. That's what we're taught in the New Testament. Right is that believers in Christ? Those are the remnant. Are we safe from God's judgment just because we're in the church today?
Speaker 2:We're not safe in the church and by the term church that we're using right now, glenn is the body of Christ. We have a responsibility to spread the gospel to the rest of the nations. We're seeing today that churches, meaning the assemblies of the local people, are doing a lot of pagan things on their worship stages and also through their sermons. So I think there's a mixture within even the not within the body of Christ, but with the body of local people that come together, you have a remnant that are actual believers mixed in with tares, so to speak, and they're there supposedly worshiping. But we have a responsibility as members of the body to hold the ones accountable. And if we're just sitting there as a body of believers, allowing these pagan worshiping to take place on the stage and attending that church, that local assembly, and the sermons to be an offensive sermon to God, there's going to be a judgment that's going to take place.
Speaker 2:Now the judgment for believers is not one of salvation or not. That's not the judgment that we're going to face. What we're going to face are a judgment as to the rewards that we have. But if we go back to the illustration of the local body of believers, there's going to be a judgment, I think, on that church and the local believers there. Somehow, the churches might be taken to a point where it doesn't exist anymore and it just dwindles away or goes away, but God's not going to be mocked. He's very clear about that. We have a responsibility to stand up for God, make sure that the true gospel is going out to the people, and if we just sit by and let pagan stuff happen in a local church that we attend, yeah, I think that there's going to be a judgment on us as to why did we let that happen?
Speaker 1:If we ask the question can a member of the remnant by that I mean the New Testament church can a member of the remnant New Testament church still a member of the remnant New Testament church still be judged by God with his wrath if they disobey? I think the answer to that has to be yes. Romans 11 uses the illustration of an olive tree that the natural branches were cut off because of unbelief, and he's talking to the Gentiles being grafted. In Romans 11.21 he says if we are haughty and unbelieving, god can cut us off. The warning in the New Testament is clear Don't take advantage of God's grace. Don't take advantage and say, oh well, I'm saved, therefore I can act like I want, or I can let anything into the church that I want.
Speaker 1:My friend, the ancient Jews were God's chosen people and they would not. They refused to believe and follow God's commands and they were judged for their unbelief. He warns us in the New Testament if we don't obey, then we will face a judgment of God as well Again, not for our salvation, but we will pay a price. In verse 6, he accuses Jerusalem of something. Steve, what does he accuse Jerusalem of in verse 6 specifically?
Speaker 2:He says there at the first part that they have rebelled against his ordinances, and even more wickedly than the nations that surround them, they have not obeyed his statutes.
Speaker 1:Exactly and we should take the same warning. Yes, we are believers in Jesus Christ, but it's quite easy for us to point fingers at these ancient Jews and say, well, they should have known better. My friend, look at what's been going on in many churches in our day. We should know better. Look at the things that we allow into our private life. We should know better. Let's move on to the next passage. Starting in verse 8 and reading down through, verse 17 says this.
Speaker 1:Therefore, thus says the Lord God Behold, I, even I, am against you and I will execute judgments among you, in the sight of the nations and because of all your abominations, I will do among you what I have not done and the like of which I will never do again. Therefore, fathers will eat their sons among you and sons will eat their fathers, for I will execute judgment on you and scatter all your remnant to every wind. So as I live, declares the Lord God, surely because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable idols and with all your abominations, therefore, I will also withdraw idols and with all your abominations, therefore, I will also withdraw and my eye will have no pity and I will not spare One-third of you will die by plague or be consumed by famine. Among you, one-third will fall by the sword around you and one-third I will scatter to every wind and I will unsheathe a sword behind them. Thus my anger will be spent and I will satisfy my wrath on them and I will be appeased, and they will know that I, the Lord, have spoken in my zeal when I have spent my wrath upon them.
Speaker 1:Moreover, I will make you a desolation and a reproach among the nations which surround you, in the sight of all who pass by. So it will be a reproach, a reviling, a warning and an object of horror to the nations who surround you. When I execute judgments against you in anger, wrath and raging rebukes, I, the Lord, have spoken when I send against them the deadly arrows of famine which were for the destruction of those whom I will send to destroy you. Then I will also intensify the famine upon you and break the staff of bread. Moreover, I will send on you famine and wild beasts and they will bereave you of children. Plague and bloodshed also will pass through you and I will bring the sword on you. I, the Lord, have spoken. Steve, what do you think of when?
Speaker 2:you hear those words. Like I said before, god is not going to be mocked. He's serious with them. When he gave them these ordinances and statutes, why he created this nation of Israel was to be a symbol to the other nations of who he is. He is the God of Israel and they are his people. When we went through Zechariah, one way he put it is they're the apple of my eye. His expectation is great for them because they've been entrusted with these ordinances and statutes, as Paul puts it in Romans, and they have completely abandoned it. You see this picture here. They're no longer adhering to them, and not only that, but they've gone back to idol worship, and I say gone back to, you get a sense that they never really purged it completely out of their midst. They've allowed this idol worship of other gods to creep into them and, rather than being a light to all the other nations, they have allowed the other dark nations to become a darkness within their own nation. God's not pleased with that at all.
Speaker 1:God is not pleased with that. This is very harsh language. It's very graphic, steve. I've been a Christian for over 40 years and I've heard a good number of sermons, but the number of sermons where I've really heard the harshness of God's judgment and wrath are very, very few. These are messages that don't always go over well in our churches. We're really good about talking about God's grace, and His grace and love really are good, and we should talk about those things, but we do need to get around to talking about God's wrath and what happens when we disobey. There are great lessons here, and it's as much of a truth as some of the blessings we find over in the Sermon on the Mount. These are lessons that many churches just ignore. They don't believe there's a God that can pour out His anger and wrath. So, steve, does God have anger?
Speaker 2:and wrath? Steve McLaughlin, he does, and he's depicting this here. Does God have anger and wrath? He does, and he's depicting this here. He's finally going to allow Jerusalem to fall, and not just fall, but to be completely destroyed, along with the temple, the place where he dwelt. He's going to allow that to be destroyed completely. So, yes, he does.
Speaker 2:Yes, god is patient, but he's also sure in what he's going to do with judgment. Remember when Abraham. He tells Abraham, I'm going to make a great nation out of you, but your descendants are going to go off into captivity for 400 years and you're going to be brought back. The reason why he says that they're going to go off into a land and become slaves for 400 years is because the sin of the Amorites has not come to completion. That means that he has been patient with them for 400 years so that when the Israelites come back in to take the land, we see all this idol worship, everything else that's taken place there in the land.
Speaker 2:We see all this idol worship, everything else that's taken place there in the land. They have been given though 400 years by God in order to become a worshiper in him and they have rejected him. So therefore, their land is going to be taken away from them and the Israelites are going to go in and take it. God says I'm going to go in before you. The Israelites are going to go in and take it. God says I'm going to go in before you. I have given you this land. He is very sure, measured in his patience, but he's also very sure and measured the judgment that he says he's going to bring about.
Speaker 1:Let me just go through and pick out one thing here in this section. And again, we just read it. It's quite graphic, but look at the end of verse 11. He says there read it. It's quite graphic, but look at the end of verse 11. He says there I will also withdraw and my eye will have no pity and I will not spare. We have here a God saying that there's going to be a time when he will punish without pity. Steve, why is it that we today don't want to think of a God as having anger and pouring out his wrath without pity?
Speaker 2:Because it avoids us having to think that we're not going to get away with the mocking that we do to him. So, therefore, we think that he is going to have pity on us. We think that, oh, he's a loving God and he's merciful and he's gracious, and I'm not really that bad of a person. I might do some things here and there I'm talking about people that are non-believers. I'm not really that bad of a person and I'm better than the average person out there, and so I think God's going to have pity and mercy on me, but that's not what he's going to have. He's very direct in regards to what it takes in order to have eternal life, and that's belief in the Lord, jesus Christ as your Savior and for the things that he has done on the cross and his death, burial and resurrection. Without that covering of the shed blood of Jesus Christ, there is not going to be any pity for the ones who are lost.
Speaker 1:We don't like to think of a God that is wrathful and will pour out his anger and punishment. We don't like to think of that because we don't want to have to answer for our sin. I don't want to have to answer for mine and you don't want to have to answer for yours, my friend. If we think we're going to get away with sin and disobedience, we are sadly mistaken, because God keeps track and knows all these sins of all these people. The Jewish people were his chosen people. He made promises to them and because they're his chosen people, he kept track of what they were doing and he ultimately punishes them for it. Again, the statements there that he's making it's going to be so bad, the famine's going to be so bad, that you're going to have to eat your own family members.
Speaker 1:It's quite severe when an all-powerful God is fed up with the sins of his people. Are people going to get away with sin and disobedience? The answer is no, steve. How do we reconcile this with the fact that God is a loving God? We have all these passages throughout the Old Testament and the New that talks about God's love and mercy. Yet here we have passage after passage where he's saying I will not spare, I will not have pity. I'm going to pour out my anger. Many people are going to die. How do we reconcile a loving God and a wrathful God?
Speaker 2:Just with what I mentioned before John 3, 16,. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, so that whoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. That is the merciful part of God. He has provided a way that we will not have everlasting life. That is the merciful part of God. He has provided a way that we will not have to perish. But if you reject that way, then you will perish. So that's how you reconcile the two. He is exact in his judgment and there will be judgment. But there is a way to escape that judgment. It's to again believe and faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:Why can't God just wave a hand and say oh yeah, I know you disobeyed, but I'll forgive you. I'm a nice guy, so I'll just ignore all that and be forgiving. Why can't he do that?
Speaker 2:He could do that if he had human characteristics, but he is a just God. That is also put forth in Romans 3, that Jesus came as a satisfactory sacrifice so that God could be just and the justifier. So it all comes down to. There has to be justice as far as our lives and our wanting and ability to become a believer in Jesus Christ and follow him. If you don't want to do it, that's fine, but there's going to be justice that comes with that.
Speaker 1:We're going to find out before we get through the book of Ezekiel, that the Jewish people had adopted the pagan practices of the people around them and were sacrificing their own children to the pagan idols. With that, if God just winked at it and let it go one, it would continue and it needed to stop. Two, he wouldn't be good. Simply because evil needs to be punished. We have a good God and he is exercising that goodness by punishing evil. These were evil people that had done horrible things and they deserved God's justice and wrath. Very few times that I've ever heard a sermon on the wrath of God. There was a sermon years ago called Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God. That started a great revival, and I think possibly it's time for another of those messages we need to hear about God's anger and wrath.
Speaker 1:We have a caricature of God that's a sugar-coated uncle that brings presents on my birthday. Yes, god's loving, but he's also wrathful. And if we're going to have a complete view of God, we need to learn the lesson of Ezekiel. And in verses 16 and 17, god says he prepared this famine for Israel's enemies, but now he's going to send those enemies to destroy Jerusalem. God is telling the Jews that he will send famine and wild beasts which are going to kill their children. I guess, steve. It just seems like, over and over, wave after wave of God's anger and he keeps being more and more descriptive about the punishment and his anger and wrath. Does God sometimes do painful things? Again, we tend to have this caricature of God in our day that he always does things that feels good. Does our God sometimes do things that are quite painful?
Speaker 2:They are. Think about how you disciplined your children when they were younger, and what I mean by that was you took things away from them access to certain devices, or you grounded them things like that. Well, that was painful to them. They couldn't go out and play with their friends or they couldn't communicate with their friends, or something like that, for a period of time. It was to discipline them. It was to tell them period of time. It was to discipline them. It was to tell them you need to obey. There's reasons why you need to obey us as parents. If you don't want to do that, there's going to be consequences to it. When we went through judges, that was one of the things. You can control the decision that you make, but you can't control the outcome and the consequences of it. Through that, we saw that the decisions we make should always be ones that are following God and sticking close to Him. Then you don't face those harsh consequences that we're seeing here, that he is going to deliver to these people.
Speaker 1:Two times in this last part of this chapter, god says this is going to happen. I, the Lord, have spoken. These things are sure and they will happen. The wheels are in motion. God is announcing to the Jewish people that his wrath will come upon them and it's inevitable. I think today we severely need this lesson. One of the reasons he sent Ezekiel because the other prophets were ignored by the people. So today we are continuing to be just as deaf, just as blind. We don't want to see what God has for us and we don't want to hear about his wrath and judgment. But, my friend, it's part of the Word of God. We're at the end of this chapter. Next time we're going to get to chapter six. It's not going to get any more pleasant, because God has again wave after wave of judgment and we'll reason through that next time.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for watching and listening. May God bless you.
