Ezekiel Study, Chapter 4 (Conclusion) (Ezekiel 4:9-17)
Rev. William L. Barron, January 15, 2020Part of the Wednesday Bible Study series, preached at a Sunday Morning service
Next we see a symbolic action that involves cooking what has become known as "Ezekiel Cake." This is essentially a starvation diet. Moreover, the manner of the food preparation meant that the food would be ritually unclean, also making Ezekiel as a priest unclean. There would be a 2-year siege, involving famine of both food and of God's Word, God's grace having been withdrawn. In the contemporary church, some have used Biblical symbolic actions as justification for using drama and visual aids. In truth, these symbolic actions were divinely directed messages to a particular audience; they were not acts of worship. The only signs and acts that God has prescribed for worship are the sacraments, always accompanied by the preaching of the Word of God.
| Earlier: | Same day: | Later: |
|---|---|---|
| « More Righteous Than I | None | God Communicates His Truth » |
Ezekiel 4:9–17 (Listen)
9 “And you, take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and emmer, and put them into a single vessel and make your bread from them. During the number of days that you lie on your side, 390 days, you shall eat it. 10 And your food that you eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day; from day to day you shall eat it. 11 And water you shall drink by measure, the sixth part of a hin; from day to day you shall drink. 12 And you shall eat it as a barley cake, baking it in their sight on human dung.” 13 And the LORD said, “Thus shall the people of Israel eat their bread unclean, among the nations where I will drive them.” 14 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.” 15 Then he said to me, “See, I assign to you cow’s dung instead of human dung, on which you may prepare your bread.” 16 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. 17 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.
(ESV)