Latest / Faith by annm2705 / 826. Bible Study: Ezekiel 4 (Cooking food over Human Excrement/Cow Dung?)

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826. Bible Study: Ezekiel 4 (Cooking food over Human Excrement/Cow Dung?) · Faith by annm2705

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  I ended up skipping yesterday and didn't cover Ezekiel 4, but
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  what I did was actually publish a new post on the website with
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  that Holy Spirit information that I mentioned in a prior
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  podcast. It probably makes more sense to
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  look at it in writing. It's a really quick read, but
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  there's a downloadable attachment that has all the
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  verses that I found when I searched quote the Spirit and
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  specifically when the spirit interacted with people.
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  And that was what the focus was on what I was looking through.
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  And so if you're interested in that information, you can go to
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  the website. It's www.nm2705.com.
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  So that's A and then two NS like Nancy and M, like Mary and 27,
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  05.com. So you can find it there and you
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  will be able to download. It's 21 pages and it's just
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  scripture. There's nothing else added to it
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  or anything. There's a little bit of
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  commentary before I attach the document.
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  So if you're interested in that, go to the website and and
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  download it there. OK, so chapter 4, let's start
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  with a prayer. I don't know how many chapters
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  we'll go through. It depends how long I talk.
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  I I don't want to keep these episodes too long because people
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  won't be able to listen to them. So I'll see how long it it goes,
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  but I'm prepared to talk up through Chapter 7 today.
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  So let's get started. Dear God, please be with us as
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  we read through these chapters and give us Wiz or send us
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  wisdom and insight and let us know the things that you want to
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  reveal to us through the scripture.
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  We ask this in Jesus name, Amen. So let's get started now, Son of
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  Man. Take a block of clay, put it in
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  front of you, and draw the city of Jerusalem on it.
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  Then lay siege to it. Erect siegewerks against it,
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  build a build a ramp up to it, set up camps against it, and put
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  battering Rams around it. Then take an iron pan, place it
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  as an iron wall between you and the city, and turn your face
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  toward it. It will be under siege, and you
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  shall besiege it. This will be a sign to the
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  people of Israel. So Ezekiel is asked to enact
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  something, a message that God wants people to see.
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  It's like he's almost putting on a play so that he's enacting
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  this. I mean, that would cause a lot
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  of people to pay attention and think this strange man, what is
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  he doing? And it's it's kind of
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  interesting because I guess God just really wanted to capture
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  their attention because if you just normally talked about it,
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  maybe people wouldn't even listen to him.
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  But when they see something like this, then they are really going
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  to pay attention to him. But do they take it to heart or
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  do they just look at him and say, boy, this guy's lost his
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  mind. Obviously many people did not
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  listen to Ezekiel and, and there were repercussions for that.
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  So sometimes God uses people that he talks to in a strange
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  way to get a message across, especially, I guess, when it's
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  something really important and coming very soon.
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  And that's what it seems like Ezekiel was charged with.
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  That was his Commission, so the study Bible says.
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  Why is Ezekiel called Son of Man, Used some 90 times in the
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  book of Ezekiel? This label underscores Ezekiel's
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  humanity and his dependence on God's supernatural power.
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  It may also have reminded Ezekiel that his job was to
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  convey, not create the message. So he was simply offering
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  himself as a servant to God and was just doing what God said and
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  what God was showing him to do. And then it says, do the do
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  people realize the significance of what Ezekiel was doing?
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  The people understood that Ezekiel was creating a scale
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  model portraying the fate that would befall Jerusalem, thus
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  enacting a prophecy. They might have been, they might
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  have been scandalized, enraged, or terrified, but what they saw,
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  but they could not ignore it. OK, continuing on verse 4, then
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  lie on your left side and put the sin of the people of Israel
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  upon yourself. You are to bear their sin for
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  the number of days you lie on your side.
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  I have assigned you the same number of days as the years of
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  their sin. So for 390 days you will bear
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  the sin of the people of Israel. So this is interesting in about
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  the 390 days and apparently lots of scholars have looked at this
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  over the years and nobody comes up with the agreeable solution
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  on this. And so Amir wrote in his book
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  Exploring Ezekiel, he put us some see these numbers as
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  referring to the past, but some say they are in the future.
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  And he referenced a doctor Charlie Dwyer, who wrote.
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  He said, I tend to go with what my friend Doctor Charlie Dwyer
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  wrote, and here's what it says. Perhaps the best solution is to
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  see the numbers as referring to the past.
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  The 390 days corresponded to quote the years of their sin,
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  not the years of their chastisement.
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  Yet no specific years can be determined with any certainty.
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  But while the details are unclear, the message is obvious.
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  Babylon would lay siege to Jerusalem because of her sin,
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  and in the and in some way the length of the siege would
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  correspond to the years of her sin.
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  I tend to agree with that too. And I I didn't even pay
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  attention to what these days were.
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  But then I started, I started doing the math to figure out
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  like, OK, what year was it that Ezekiel had this vision or that,
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  yeah, this communication with God.
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  And then if you go back 390 years, what was happening during
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  that time? And, and, and so, you know, you
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  can't, I obviously can't pinpoint that, pinpoint a
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  certain time, but it seemed like it was around the time of
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  Solomon actually. And I don't know if this is
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  accurate or not accurate. So we can't, don't put any faith
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  in this. But it was just something that I
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  did found like for 390 days for Solomon.
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  It was interesting because Solomon started out good, but
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  then he started, he took on all these wives that, that God told
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  him not to. I think he had like 700 wives or
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  something like that. And, and, and maybe 300
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  something concubines. And not only that, but in
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  addition to all the different wives that he had, he also
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  started making altars and temples for these other Pagan
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  deities that his wives worshipped.
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  So he married foreign wives and then began building temples for
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  the God that they worshipped. So I'm sure God was not happy
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  with that. And then it was right after
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  Solomon's reign that the Kingdom split in two.
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  And there was arguing, of course, between who was going to
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  be a leader. And that's how the tribes were
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  separated with Israel to the north and call often called the
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  10 tribes and then 2 tribes to the South, which were Judah and
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  Benjamin. So it's a possibility, but and
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  essentially doesn't really matter, but it does kind of fit
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  into that time frame. And but just like Amir's book
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  said, it doesn't really matter. All that matters is that God is
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  doing days for numbers of years that they have been sinful.
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  So God is merciful. I mean, if you want to look at
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  it that way, the punishment's coming, but he's, he's merciful.
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  Like he's shortened it to days when they actually did this for
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  years, which is another interesting way to look at that.
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  So verse 6 says, after you have finished this from the book of
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  Ezekiel in the Bible, after you have finished this, lie down
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  again, this time on your right side, and bear the sin of the
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  people of Judah. So this is for the southern
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  tribe. I have assigned you 40 days a
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  day for each year turn your face toward the siege of Jerusalem
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  with a bared arm prophecy against her.
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  I will tie you up with ropes so you cannot turn from one side to
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  the other until you have finished the days of your siege.
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  So I, you know, again, this one's really hard to figure out
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  and I don't know that that's the important part of this message
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  to figure out when this actually occurred.
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  But 40, 40 days is often that's significant in the Bible.
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  And 40 days is like a period of testing and there were a period
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  of testing, a period of cleansing.
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  And so we can see that significance as a pattern
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  throughout history, like it rained for 40 days and 40 nights
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  and Noah's flood. Jesus was tempted in the desert
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  for 40 days. Moses was on the mountain in
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  Mount Sinai for 40 days, receiving the 10 commandments
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  from God. The, you know, these are just
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  there's, there's plenty more that I haven't thought of, but
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  that haven't come to mind. But it's just something that it,
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  you know, it could have been a certain period of time.
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  One thing that I did find in researching, and again, it was
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  just like a quick research. So I'm not saying that this is
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  accurate at all, but trying to guesstimate the time that
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  Ezekiel had this and then going back 40 years just to see what
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  was happening. It was like following perhaps
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  following Josiah reign. And Josiah was a good king.
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  He actually turned the people back to God.
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  But the prior kings were not so good and and he was a king of
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  Judah. So it was, it was almost 50% of
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  the kings of Judah were good and maybe a little less than that.
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  I think it was maybe 8 out of I did write the number somewhere
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  on here. And so I could probably find
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  that in the Bible. There were 19 total kings from
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  the southern tribe of Judah and eight of them.
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  So you know, less the eight of them were good.
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  So the majority were not good. And anyway, again, the important
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  part of this is that God is giving them.
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  He's being merciful. He's giving them days for actual
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  years that they went to guest against him.
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  He's giving him time to to, I guess he's lessening the
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  punishment for them. They did a lot more to him and
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  he's only doing it partially. So let's see then verse 9.
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  Take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, Millet and spelt.
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  Put them in a jar and use them to make bread for yourself.
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  You are to eat it during the 390 days you lay on your side.
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  Weigh out 20 shekels of food to eat each day and eat it at set
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  times. Also measure out 1/6 of a hen of
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  water and drink it at set times. So that's about as far as the 20
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  shekels. That's about 8 oz or about 230
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  grams. So it's not a lot of food and
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  then the same goes for the water.
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  It's not a lot of water either. It's 2/3 of a quart or a half
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  liter is what he was supposed to have every day at at set times.
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  I guess eat the food as you would a loaf of barley bread.
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  Bake it in the sight of people using human excrement for fuel,
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  the Lord said. In this way the people of Israel
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  will eat defiled food among the nations where I will drive them.
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  Then I said no. So, Sovereign Lord, I have never
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  defiled myself. From my youth until now.
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  I have never eaten anything found dead or torn apart or torn
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  by wild animals. No impure meat has ever entered
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  my mouth. Very well, he said.
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  I will let you bake your bread over cow dung instead of human
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  excrement. Then he said to me, Son of Man,
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  I'm about to cut off the food supply in Jerusalem.
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  The people will eat rationed food in anxiety and drink
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  rationed water in despair, for food and water will be scarce.
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  They will be appalled at the sight of each other and will
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  waste away because of their sin. So God has a reason for it.
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  He's he's not a mean God at all. In fact, he's being merciful.
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  The his people had sinned against him for 430 years
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  combined and he is giving them a portion or a small portion of
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  hardship time of hardship compared to the number of years
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  what they had done. So I guess that's something that
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  we can keep in mind, but still these sound really harsh.
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  I don't think any of us would want to be the Ezekiel prophet
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  and have to do these things. So the study Bible says, how
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  did, let's see, did Ezekiel really stay on his left side for
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  a year? Ezekiel performed other
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  activities during this period of time.
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  According to chapter 4, verses 9 through 10, he preached,
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  prophesied, and went about his daily routine.
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  Therefore, it's likely he lay on his side at certain times when
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  people passed by. Day after day.
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  His presence reminded people of God's pending judgment on
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  Jerusalem. How did Ezekiel put others sins
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  on himself? What Ezekiel did represented
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  punishment he endured for the sins of the people, but only as
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  an example, not as a substitute. His actions did not remove
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  Israel's sins, they only represented the weight of
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  Israel's sins. First, the sins of Samaria to
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  the north, or Israel that Samaria was the capital of
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  Israel. 390 days and then those of Judah to the South 40 days.
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  Why did Ezekiel engage in such bizarre behavior?
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  Ezekiel's outlandish behavior was designed to make the the
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  most forceful impact possible on the people.
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  The Israelites could not comprehend Ezekiel's message
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  that Jerusalem and the temple where God dwelt would be
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  destroyed. The force of his role-playing,
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  however, ensured that they would at least pay attention even if
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  they didn't understand. The people thought their exile
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  alone was bad enough and should be the extent of their
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  punishment. Ezekiel wanted them to see more.
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  They had underestimated the gravity of their persistent
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  sins. This is a comment in the study
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  Bible that I think you know. It's something that we need to
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  always keep in mind too, because we can get comfortable in our
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  own lives and going about our own way and doing whatever we
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  want to do. But it's important that we never
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  get comfortable in our in persistent sins and be and end
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  up like these people of Israel, it says.
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  Again, they had underestimated the gravity of their persistent
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  sins. It's not the accidental one, but
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  it's the persistent one that really, if the, if we have any
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  of that in our lives, take a warning from Ezekiel and what
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  happens to people who have persistent sins, We're going to
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  get more into that as the chapters go on because this is
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  this is a word of warning to us as well.
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  Because God doesn't change. He reacts to humans in the same
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  way that he always has throughout history.
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  He's very merciful. So if you repent and turn away
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  from the sins, then there isn't that punishment.
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  Or maybe the punishment will be lessened or maybe there will be
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  none. We might have the consequence of
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  sin, but it says when God Forgives us, he remembers our
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  sins no more. So it's just wise to be right
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  with God and not remain doing something that you know God is
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  not pleased with. They had not realized the depth
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  of God's anger with them. They needed to see and Revere
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  God's holiness. Ezekiel lay on aside a total of
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  430 days, a significant number because the Israelites had been
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  enslaved in Egypt for 430 years. This picture of bondage and
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  captivity showed that God was punishing His people with still
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  more captivity. Ezekiel probably did not lie an
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  aside around the clock. He still cooked, ate, and
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  preached. The strange drama performed by
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  Ezekiel failed to win his audience, but the lessons he
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  taught are still appropriate for us.
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  We must not underestimate either our sin or God's holiness.
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  We will reap what we sow, for God will not be mocked by sin.
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  One thing that I've seen throughout the Bible is that
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  history repeats. So when we see something that
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  happened in the past, God does work in a pattern, what's been
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  documented. And so because of that, I
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  anticipate that there will be some pattern that will be in our
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  future as well, so we can learn from what we're reading right
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  now. So then the study Bible says why
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  did Ezekiel think cow manure was better than human excrement?
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  God knew using human excrement as fuel would offend Ezekiel,
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  since Ezekiel observed strict laws regarding ceremonial
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  uncleanness. The object lesson originally
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  called for Ezekiel to eat something unclean, something
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  cooked over human excrement to show the extent of the Exiles
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  defilement in captivity. Living in a Pagan culture, the
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  people would not easily maintain ceremonial purity.
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  On the other hand, dried cow manure was and still is a common
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  source of fuel in the Middle East.
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  It was probably not considered unclean by the Israelites.
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  And OK, that's the end of the question is an answer.
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  So that really made me curious. I when I read that, I was like,
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  wow, really? And so I did look that up, but
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  about let's see, where was that? I actually, I looked up so many
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  different things. So see the first thing?
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  Oh, I lost that one. All right.
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  I have lots of tabs opened and I'm, I guess I'm going to go
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  through the tabs that cover this material that we've read in this
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  particular chapter and I'll probably just do chapter 4.
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  So who used cow dung for fuel? I had to ask that question.
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  People across the world, from ancient civilizations in Egypt
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  and Persia, that's modern day Iran, to rural communities in
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  modern day India, Pakistan, China, Ethiopia and Tibet, have
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  used dried cow dung as a cheap, readily available fuel for
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  cooking and heating, often made into cakes or bricks.
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  While newer bio gas technologies now harness manure for
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  electricity and vehicle fuel. Just very interesting and
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  something that I didn't know that I just learned today.
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  So I think that actually that's the end of Chapter 4.
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  So I'm going to need to wrap that up.
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  There's a lot more tabs that I have opened because I was
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  prepared to talk up through Chapter 7, but I'm going to stop
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  so this doesn't get too long and maybe start another recording
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  since I didn't do 1 yesterday. But if this is helpful or
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  interesting to you, please subscribe, share it with others
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  that may benefit from it, and we'll stay in the word.