Ezekiel 5:16-17
“‘When I shoot my lethal famine arrows at you, I’ll shoot to kill. Then I’ll step up the famine and cut off food supplies. Famine and more famine—and then I’ll send in the wild animals to finish off your children. Epidemic disease, unrestrained murder, death—and I will have sent it! I, GOD, have spoken.’”
“‘I will shower you with the deadly arrows of famine to destroy you. The famine will become more and more severe until every crumb of food is gone. And along with the famine, wild animals will attack you and rob you of your children. Disease and war will stalk your land, and I will bring the sword of the enemy against you. I, the Lord, have spoken!’”
God called Ezekiel to shave his hair and beard in Chapter five. He was to burn one third of it inside the city, spread one third outside the city and scatter the rest to the wind. It would depict the fate of Jerusalem’s inhabitants. God affirmed Jerusalem’s time for judgement was at hand. Their depravity had sunk below the level of the pagan nations they drove out to take possession of the promised land. There was no escaping judgement.
Israel’s wickedness was such that God would not step between them and the ugly consequences of their sin. This was his judgement, that sin be allowed to follow its course.
These besieged existed in a moral vacuum. They were not hungry yet compassionate souls, cooperating for the common good. Rather, their raging selves boiled up and over into unthinkable horror. Josephus, a first century Jewish historian, recorded the siege and destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Law and order broke down. Sectarian violence reigned within. The Romans broke through and brought their most destructive forces to bear down upon the city. Josephus recorded a horror story. The siege of Jerusalem described in this chapter was no different.
At first sin seems innocent. When unrestrained it always finds its end with death and destruction. God in his mercy works to rescue us from this destructive torrent. We need only grab his hand.
Lord, it is heartbreaking to read this chapter of Ezekiel. And frightening. I see the slippery slope of cultural sin all around. Show me how to stand against it, not in condemnation, but with your love and longing to set everything right.