Ezekiel was chosen by God to bring the message of repentance to a generation that had hardened their hearts. Even in exile, these people were not ready to aim the corrective lens at themselves, but, armed by false prophets who lied through their teeth, the people were awaiting God to bring down the mighty Babylonians. To make these people understand the severity of their offence and the weight of God’s judgment that was upon them, Ezekiel was instructed to dramatise the coming judgment, communicating through symbolic actions rather than spoken words about what God’s judgment upon Jerusalem would be. Even though the book only shows Ezekiel’s commands and not how the people reacted, we can still learn from their hardened hearts and avoid ignoring God’s rebuke in our lives.
A City of Clay
Ezekiel is told to take a block of clay and draw the city of Jerusalem upon it. He is then to construct a miniature siege, surrounding it with siege works, ramps, camps, and battering rams. The iron pan is set between Ezekiel and the model city, symbolising the unbreakable barrier of judgment now set between God and His people.
Ezekiel is commanded to lie on his left side for 390 days, symbolically bearing the guilt of Israel for 390 years of sin. After this, he is to lie on his right side for 40 days to represent Judah’s sin. During this time he must face the model of Jerusalem under siege, showing the certainty of the coming judgment. God even bounds him and restricts his movement, ensuring he completes the full sign exactly as commanded.
I have assigned you the same number of days as the years of their sin. So for 390 days you will bear the sin of the people of Israel.
Ezekiel 4:5 (NIV)
Why does Ezekiel have to bear the sins of his countrymen?
As a priest, Ezekiel’s calling was to represent the people before God. Even though the temple was destroyed and he was in exile, his role remained the same. God asked him to embody the message He was giving. Ezekiel’s suffering was therefore symbolic: he became a living illustration of the nation’s spiritual condition.
Just as priests bore the guilt of the people symbolically through sacrifices and rituals, Ezekiel’s posture—lying bound, weak, and silent—reflected the state of the nation before God: burdened, helpless, and under judgment. His actions were a warning, a foretelling of what awaited them if they continued in rebellion.
By becoming one among them, sharing in the weight of the consequence, Ezekiel showed that God’s message was not abstract. The suffering that awaited the people was real, heavy, and unavoidable. His visible suffering served as a sample, a mirror, of what the nation would endure under siege, captivity, and loss.
An Appalling Sight
Ezekiel is instructed to prepare a simple mixed-grain bread and consume only small, measured portions of food and water each day during the 390 days, symbolising the scarcity and desperation that the people in Jerusalem would face under siege. The command to bake the bread over human excrement further represents the defilement and humiliation of exile—yet when Ezekiel protests, God permits him to use cow dung instead, showing that God does not disregard the genuine concerns of His servants. In a similar way, years later Peter also voiced a protest when asked to take the Gospel to the Gentiles, demonstrating that even when God calls His servants to difficult or uncomfortable tasks, He also deals with them patiently and with understanding.
They will be appalled at the sight of each other and will waste away because of their sin.
Ezekiel 4:17 (NIV)
What was the purpose behind these extreme symbolic actions Ezekiel had to carry out?
These outlandish signs were meant to shock the people into paying attention. The Israelites could not imagine that Jerusalem and the temple—the very place where God dwelt—would ever fall. So Ezekiel’s actions were designed to break through their denial with every act having a meaning behind it. As a priest, Ezekiel was symbolically bearing the guilt of the nation, just as God would bind Israel under the weight of their own sin. His rationed food and water and the command to cook his bread over excrement were signs of the famine, scarcity, and uncleanness the people would endure.
The four hundred and thirty total days he lay on his side echoed the years of Israel’s bondage in Egypt, showing that another captivity was coming. Although the people still refused to listen, the message remained clear: they had underestimated the seriousness of their sin and failed to recognise the holiness of God. These signs stand as a warning for us as well—we must not take sin lightly, for we will reap what we sow, and God will not be mocked.
In a State of Ruin
Ezekiel is told to shave his head and beard, then divide the hair into three parts to symbolise what will happen to the people of Jerusalem: one third will die in the city, one third will be killed by the sword outside, and one third will be scattered among the nations. A few hairs are to be kept, showing that a small remnant will survive, yet even some of these will face further judgment.
Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: You have been more unruly than the nations around you and have not followed my decrees or kept my laws. You have not even conformed to the standards of the nations around you.
Ezekiel 5:7 (NIV)
How can people who know God act more despicably than people who have no knowledge of Him?
Those who know God can at times act worse than those with no knowledge of Him because they become familiar with His presence and begin to take Him for granted, assuming their rituals guarantee His favour while their hearts drift far from Him. This was the tragedy of Jerusalem: the very city that bore the LORD’s Name had filled His sanctuary with detestable idols, forgetting the One who dwelt among them.
In exile they did not miss God, because they never truly valued Him; they missed only the comforts and privileges that came with His presence. Therefore, God declared a judgment unlike anything seen before—so severe that famine would break even natural affections, leading parents and children to turn on one another to survive. The greater the knowledge of God that has been neglected, the more severe the consequences of that neglect.
I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will leave you childless. Plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I will bring the sword against you. I the LORD have spoken. ”
Ezekiel 5:17 (NIV)
How did Jerusalem—the very city God chose for His dwelling—provoke the LORD to such anger? And why do we, who are called to be God’s people and fulfil His purpose, continue to repeat the same sins even after witnessing their downfall?
Jerusalem provoked the LORD to such anger because the people, instead of listening to His prophets, silenced them, and in their pride came to believe that the city itself was greater than the God who had chosen it. They took His presence for granted, assuming His favour would remain no matter how they lived. It is like those who dwell in regions prone to earthquakes or volcanoes—they know the danger, but they dismiss the possibility of disaster striking in their lifetime and continue as if nothing will ever change.
In much the same way, we carry the quiet assumption that the second coming of Christ is still far off. We tell ourselves there is time. We grow comfortable. We take the Lord’s grace for granted and put off repentance, obedience, and reverence for another day. For just as the earth can tremble without warning, so the Lord will appear when many are unprepared. The warning is not to frighten us, but to awaken us—to live with watchfulness, not complacency.
Let us heed God’s warning and turn away from the very sins that led to Jerusalem’s downfall. Let us cease building our own false Jerusalems—places of pride, presumption, and self-reliance—and return to God in sincere and wholehearted submission.
The Jordan Valley 
Reply