THE SIEGE MODEL

“Now you, son of man, get yourself a brick, place it before you, and inscribe a city on it—Jerusalem. Then lay siege against it, build a siege wall, pile up an assault ramp, set up camps, and place battering rams against it all around. Then get yourself an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between yourself and the city, and direct your face toward it so that it is under siege, and besiege it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel.”
‭‭Ezekiel‬ ‭4‬:‭1‬-‭3‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬

The “brick” that Ezekiel made was probably soft clay at first. It’s possible that when he “inscribed” a city on the clay tile he didn’t just draw an outline of the city limits; perhaps he wrote the name Jerusalem on it.

In paleo-Hebrew letters (which is what he would’ve been using at this time), it would’ve looked like this:

Let’s take a moment to look at the meaning of the name Jerusalem from these letters.

Yod – hand, make, do, power

Resh – head, chief, first, beginning, leader

Vav – tent peg, join, conjunction: and

Shin – teeth, destroy, consume

Lamed – shepherd staff, shepherd, lead, guide, to/toward

Mem – waters, unknown, lift up, chaos

What do we have?

The hand of the Chief…

And what’s in His hand? A tent peg.

And what is happening?

The “teeth” – the destroyers – are destroying the Shepherd who is lifted up.

The name “Jerusalem” is describing the most important event that will happen there. I’ll give you a minute to process this.

🪑☕️

And believe me, you should take at least a full 60 seconds to reread and process it.

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So here is Ezekiel with his clay brick model. He has built miniature siege ramps and towers and little army camps – perhaps with scraps of fabric as tiny tents. It’s what we would call a “diorama.”

I imagine his wife was looking to make pancakes one morning and she looks out the window to see her griddle jammed into the ground next to Ezekiel’s city like a wall. And there’s Ezekiel lying on the ground next to it!

😐 She must’ve been a very patient lady.

For real.

Because he laid out there every day for a total of 430 days!

☝🏼🤓 And he makes his famous “Ezekiel Bread” during that time.

Yes. Though I’m reasonably sure that it was a bit different than the Ezekiel Bread we can get from a grocery store today.

😐 Well, I’m pretty sure the bread in the store isn’t cooked over a cow chip..

Right.

☝🏼🤓 Or human poo.

Definitely not.

🤔 Wait a second. Does this sign mean that the people in Jerusalem were eating bread cooked with… dried human excrement? 😳

It does seem to suggest that. We know for certain that there was cannibalism. Once humans reach that level of desperation, I don’t think they are too particular about cooking fuel.

This whole little drama was a prophetic sign of 390 years for Israel and an additional 40 years for Judah, and how the destruction of Jerusalem and the rationing of food and water was a direct result of those years of sin.

Now, math is not my forte, but let’s look back at our old timeline…

Note that these dates are “rounded” and general, but the destruction of the temple is a solid date – 586BC. Then, if we add the 430 years (390 + 40), we get to 1016 BC. That’s approximately when David died and Solomon became king. So from God’s perspective, the nation, FROM THE TIME OF SOLOMON, has been practicing idolatry and has not had any long-term repentance. And the history we’ve read for the past 6 months has borne that out. Solomon himself participated in idolatry. Yes, there were good kings who led the people in times of revival, but do you remember how they only observed Passover like a couple times in all those 400-ish years? Do you think they were observing the Day of Atonement? Or much of the rest of the Law? I doubt it.

Keep in mind that at the time Ezekiel is doing this sign, the fall of Jerusalem is nearly a decade in the future. When these things come to pass exactly as Ezekiel is showing, it will be further evidence that Yahweh truly is the Most High and is in control of the affairs of the nations. And the idols Israel had been venerating were far, far inferior to Him.

You and I might read that and shrug and say, “well, duh…” But to an ancient people who did not regularly read scripture, who were surrounded by many nations with many gods – all claiming to be the most powerful – this kind of proof is life-changing. And they are being forced to pay attention.

THE SYMBOL OF THE HAIR

“Son of man, take a sharp sword and use it as a razor to shave your head and beard. Use a scale to weigh the hair into three equal parts. Place a third of it at the center of your map of Jerusalem. After acting out the siege, burn it there. Scatter another third across your map and chop it with a sword. Scatter the last third to the wind, for I will scatter my people with the sword. Keep just a bit of the hair and tie it up in your robe. Then take some of these hairs out and throw them into the fire, burning them up. A fire will then spread from this remnant and destroy all of Israel.”
‭‭Ezekiel‬ ‭5‬:‭1‬-‭4‬ ‭NLT‬‬

The shaving of the head and beard is reminiscent of a person who is being cleansed from leprosy in Leviticus 14. And that’s kinda what is happening collectively to the nation. The LORD is purging them of idolatry. Sin. Leprosy.

Ezekiel 5:12 interprets the symbolism. The hair, of course, represents the people in Judah and Jerusalem. A third of them will die through starvation and disease in the city. A third will die by the sword in and around the city. And the final third will be scattered to the nations. A very few will be spared but even some of those will also perish.

In verses 5-9 the LORD declares why He is doing this. He recounts Israel’s terrible record of abominable idolatry. And then in verses 10-17 He states what is going to happen.

And here’s what we need to remember:

They have TEN YEARS. If they would listen to the “crazy preacher” over in Babylon, they could pack up and move from Judah. It would be better to be a scattered hair than a burned or chopped one.

But did the people listen to the prophets of God? Not usually.