Ezekiel 5 - Bible Study, Explanation, and Application

Ezekiel 5 Bible Study

TIMELINE:

• Ezekiel chapter 4 accounts for 430 days, which moves our timeline from 592 BC to 591 BC, 5 years before the Babylonians destroyed the city of Jerusalem.

• Below is a list of kings of Judah and dates for their reign:

  • Amon (642-640 BC)

  • Josiah (640-609 BC)

  • Jehoahaz (also known as Shallum, 609 BC)

  • Jehoiakim (initially known as Eliakim, 609-598 BC)

  • Jehoiachin (also known as Jeconiah or Coniah, 598-597 BC)

  • Zedekiah (His reign ended when Babylon conquered Judah, (597-586 BC)

WHAT WE STUDIED PREVIOUSLY:

• Ezekiel 1 – Ezekiel has a vision of 4 living creatures, 4 wheels, and God’s throne.

• Ezekiel 2 – God commissions Ezekiel to be a prophet to his rebellious countrymen.

• Ezekiel 3 – The end of the heavenly vision. Ezekiel eats the scroll of God’s words, and God calls him to be a watchman over the people of Judah.

• Ezekiel 4 – Ezekiel prophesies with an object lesson in the street by laying on his side for 430 days, eating rations of bread, and creating a siege scene with a brick that represents Jerusalem.

OUTLINE:

• EZEKIEL’S HAIR DIVIDED (5:1-4):

  • When the days of his symbolic siege (see Ezekiel 4) were ended, God told His prophet to shave off his hair and his beard with a sword.

  • Shaving off hair in those days was a sign of mourning.

  • Ezekiel was to divide the hair into 3 parts using a scale.

  • One part he was to burn in the city.

  • One part he was to be struck with a sword.

  • One part was to be scattered into the wind.

  • Ezekiel was also told to save a small portion of the hair and bind it in his robe.

• THE MEANING OF THE DIVIDED HAIR (5:5-17):

  • God provided the meaning of the sign Ezekiel was about to perform.

  • The hair represented the people of Jerusalem.

  • 1/3 of them would die by disease, famine, and starvation.

  • 1/3 of them would be killed by the enemy’s sword.

  • 1/3 of them would be scattered out of their land.  

  • God was furious with them because they had defiled His holy Temple and disrespected Him with their abominable idols.

  • He said, “Thus shall my anger spend itself, and I will vent my fury upon them and satisfy myself. And they shall know that I am the Lord—that I have spoken in my jealousy—when I spend my fury upon them” (5:13).

  • God was going to make Jerusalem a horror and a warning to all other nations.

APPLICATION:

• We’ll learn in later chapters that the leaders of Judah turned the Temple into a place of secret idolatrous sin.

• This was a catalyst to God’s anger, and it stoked the fires of His wrath.

• Is it possible for us to turn our places of worship into places of idolatry?

• Yes!

• Our churches can become places where personalities are worshipped, where spiritual “leaders” are praised and admired more than God.

• Our churches can become places where we worship ourselves, when we turn them into self-serving places for entertainment.

• Our churches can become places where we worship our opinions, when our thoughts are proclaimed and taught in contradiction to God’s words.