Visions of the Kingdom: Week 6

Ezekiel 5:1-17: The Razor of Judgement

• 5:1 "shave your head" - Micah had told Judah they would shave their heads in mourning for their children in exile, Micah 1:16. The prophet Isaiah tells Ephraim that God will use the Assyrians as a razor: Isaiah 7:20. But Ezekiel was a priest, and priests were forbidden to shave their head, Leviticus 21:5. Ezekiel himself reiterates this prohibition in 44:20. But, the purification upon recovery from a skin disease requires shaving the head. Leviticus 19:27
  "sword" - the military weapon. While not the best tool for cutting hair, it is appropriate for representing the sword of Nebuchadnezzar.
• 5:3 "take a few strands" - the remnant.
• 5:5 "center of the nations" - "these things happened to them for our instruction". As Ezekiel was a demonstration to instruct the Jews in Babylon, so Israel was a demonstration for the nations of the world - both good and bad.
• 5:8 "in the sight of all nations" - but this humiliation will be forgotten. Isaiah 54:4
• 5:10 Leviticus 26:29
• 5:11 "defiled my santuary" - rotten to the core. I think this also applies today: apostasy in the church will bring down the nation.
• 5:16 "famine, beasts, plague, sword" - also the judgement of the Fourth Seal in Revelation 6:8.
• 5:17 "wild beasts" - literally "evil" (רַע) beasts. Human caretakers affect the moral nature of beasts under their care. Wild (שָׂדֶה - "field") beasts were one of the promised punishments for disobedience: Leviticus 26:22.