Daily Devotions
Ezekiel
"The terrible arrows of famine"
Text: Ezekiel 5:16
DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM PRONOUNCED
Jerusalem never believed that the city would ever be destroyed. It was the capital of the Southern kingdom. The Temple was situated there. The king was from the Davidic line. Jerusalem had refused to acknowledge its wickedness! Its doom was inevitable!
“When I send against them the terrible arrows of famine
which shall be for destruction, which I will send to destroy you,
I will increase the famine upon you and cut off your supply of bread.
So I will send against you famine and wild beasts,
and they will bereave you.
Pestilence and blood shall pass through you,
and I will bring the sword against you.
I, the LORD, have spoken.”
Ezekiel 5:16-17
1. Terrible imagery used.
a) “The terrible arrows of famine”
i) The famine problem would increase significantly.
ii) The supply of bread would be cut off.
b) “Wild beasts”
i) They would forage for food.
ii) They would be driven to look for food in the city.
iii) They would kill all who stood in their way.
c) “Pestilence”
i) This must be expected.
ii) A besieged city would see many people succumb to pestilence.
d) “Blood”
i) This is a reference to the shedding of blood.
ii) It can refer to people killed in war.
iii) It can also point to people being killed by criminals.
2. The sword of the LORD.
a) The “sword” was an imagery for war.
b) All of the above-mentioned problems would result from war waged against Jerusalem by the Babylonians.
c) The LORD had decreed all of the above concerning Jerusalem.
d) No human power can forestall the decree God had pronounced against Jerusalem and Judah.
e) The destruction that God had planned would come to Israel.