Context No. 2833 of 4322 · Ezekiel

Ezekiel 5:1-6: in context

1“You, son of man, take a sharp sword. You shall take it as a barber’s razor to yourself, and shall cause it to pass over your head and over your beard. Then take balances to weigh and divide the hair. 2A third part you shall burn in the fire in the middle of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled. You shall take a third part, and strike with the sword around it. A third part you shall scatter to the wind, and I will draw out a sword after them. 3You shall take a small number of these and bind them in the folds of your robe. 4Of these again you shall take, and cast them into the middle of the fire, and burn them in the fire. From it a fire will come out into all the house of Israel. 5“The Lord GOD says: ‘This is Jerusalem. I have set her in the middle of the nations, and countries are around her. 6She has rebelled against my ordinances in doing wickedness more than the nations, and against my statutes more than the countries that are around her; for they have rejected my ordinances, and as for my statutes, they have not walked in them.’

Ezekiel is told to act out a disturbing sign. Take a sword, shave your head and beard with it, weigh the hair, and divide it in three: burn a third in the city, strike a third with the sword around it, scatter a third to the wind. It enacts, in his own body, the coming siege, slaughter, and scattering of Jerusalem. It is grim to watch.

But the explanation carries the real weight. This is Jerusalem, God says, which I set in the center of the nations, with countries all around her. And she has rebelled against my laws more than the nations, wickedly spurning the very statutes she alone was given. Her judgment is severe precisely because her privilege was great. Set at the center, entrusted with God's word, meant to be a light to the peoples, she instead outdid them in wrongdoing. The more light a person receives, the greater the accounting for turning from it.

Have I treated the light and privilege God has given me as license to coast, when in truth it raises what he asks of me?

Sources

Ezekiel 5:6: "She has rebelled against my ordinances in doing wickedness more than the nations."
Luke 12:48: "To whomever much is given, of him will much be required."
Amos 3:2: "You only have I known of all the families of the earth. Therefore I will punish you for all your sins."