Verse 1
VARIOUS PROPHECIES AGAINST JERUSALEM (Ezekiel 12-19)
ACTED PROPHECIES REGARDING THE SIEGE AND CAPTIVITY
There is very little need for any special help in understanding this chapter. The judicially hardened condition of the Chosen People, including even those of the captivity, had left them unwilling to hear the word of God; and yet both Jeremiah in Jerusalem and Ezekiel in Babylon continued their faithful ministries.
The necessity for God's prophets to continue their efforts to guide the Chosen People into the Truth derived from the fact that a proliferation of false prophets were shouting their false assurances of the safety and security of Jerusalem, and their equally false promises of a short captivity for the exiles and their speedy return to Jerusalem.
Of course, the message of the false prophets was extremely attractive to the hardened people of God, and that made it very difficult for them to believe God's true prophets. It was almost impossible for the people to accept the bitter facts that practically none of them would ever return to Jerusalem, that Jerusalem would be destroyed, along with the temple, that the few survivors would be deported to join the other captives in Babylon, and that "the righteous remnant" would be derived from a few of the captives who, in the second generation, would indeed find their way back to Jerusalem.
It was due to the very great difficulties of the situation that special miracles attended some of the prophecies of Ezekiel. The sudden death of Pelatiah in Ezekiel 11 was one such miracle; and the exact prophecy of the capture, blinding, and deportation of Zedekiah, all of which was most circumstantially fulfilled shortly after the prophecy was given, is another.
It was also the severe difficulty of conditions under which Ezekiel prophesied that resulted in the use of dramatic, enacted prophecies of the siege, deportation, terror, and hardships of the people. There was no way that even the most unwilling of the captives could have failed to understand what God's message actually was.
"The purpose is evident throughout this whole section of Ezekiel 12-19, namely, that of presenting the necessity for the exile and the moral cause of it."[1]
"The word of Jehovah also came unto me, saying, Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of the rebellious house, that have eyes to see, and see not, that have ears to hear, and hear not; for they are a rebellious house. Therefore, thou son of man, prepare thee stuff for removing, and remove by day in their sight; and thou shalt remove from thy place to another place in their sight: it may be they will consider, though they are a rebellious house. And thou shalt bring forth thy stuff by day in their sight, as stuff for removing; and thou shalt go forth thy self at even in their sight, as when men go forth into exile. Dig thou through the wall in their sight, and carry out thereby. In their sight shalt thou bear it upon thy shoulder, and carry it forth in the dark; thou shalt cover thy face that thou see not the land: for I have set thee for a sign unto the house of Israel."
GOD COMMANDED AN ENACTED PROPHECY
This command to Ezekiel, "Stands under the same date as Ezekiel 8:1, namely 592-1 B.C.;"[2] and this means that the fulfillment of it was only about four or five years after this prophecy was enacted.
There were no great difficulties involved in Ezekiel's following these instructions. It had been only a few years since he himself and thousands of others were exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon; and he would have remembered exactly what the exiles would have carried, the manner of their loading it, and what would be necessary. All of his exiled neighbors would also have recognized the significance of such a back-pack, designed to be carried by exiles.
"In their sight ..." (Ezekiel 12:3-4). These words appear no less than six times in four verses, indicating that the purpose of the prophet's actions was that of getting as much public attention as possible; and it is easy to suppose that such actions did indeed attract a lot of attention and speculation upon the possible meaning of what Ezekiel did.
The covering of the face was a symbol of the people's sorrow in leaving their homeland. It also appears that this might have been a prophecy of the blinding of Zedekiah, or a reference to his flight at night, when he could not see the land.
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