Bird's-eye view
In this brief but potent section, God commands His prophet Ezekiel to perform another sign-act. This is not a complex piece of street theater like packing his bags for exile, but rather something intensely personal and visceral. He is to eat and drink in a state of high anxiety and terror. The purpose, as always, is to embody the coming reality for the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Their sin, particularly their violence, has brought the covenant lawsuit of God to their doorstep, and the verdict is in. The sentence is desolation, a stripping away of the land's fullness. The ultimate point of this terrifying judgment is not merely punitive; it is revelatory. God is doing this so that they, and we, will know that He is Yahweh.
Outline
- 1. The Divine Command: Embodying Judgment (Ezek 12:17-18)
- a. The Word of Yahweh Comes (v. 17)
- b. A Command to Eat and Drink with Fear (v. 18)
- 2. The Prophetic Explanation: The Meaning of the Sign (Ezek 12:19-20)
- a. The Message for the People (v. 19a)
- b. The Reason for Judgment: Violence (v. 19b)
- c. The Result of Judgment: Desolation (v. 20a)
- d. The Purpose of Judgment: The Knowledge of God (v. 20b)
Verse-by-Verse Commentary
17 Moreover, the word of Yahweh came to me saying,
We begin where all true authority begins. This is not Ezekiel's hot take on the geopolitical situation. This is not his analysis, his opinion, or his emotional reaction. The prophet is a man under authority, and the message he brings is not his own. The "word of Yahweh" comes to him, which means what follows is as firm as the foundations of the earth. In a world awash with human opinions, we must always be recalled to this starting point. What has God said? Everything else is commentary.
18 “Son of man, you shall eat your bread with trembling and drink your water with quivering and anxiety.
God does not just tell Ezekiel to deliver a message; He tells him to become the message. This is a sign-act, and it is a deeply personal one. The most basic activities of life, eating and drinking, are to be transformed into a portrait of sheer terror. This is not a feigned emotion for public effect. He is to actually eat with trembling and drink with quivering and anxiety. This is the kind of fear that gets into your bones, that makes your hands shake so much you can barely bring a cup to your lips. Why? Because God's judgment is not an abstract concept. It is a terrifying reality that disrupts the most fundamental routines of life. When God's wrath arrives, nobody will be calmly buttering their toast. This is the state of a man who knows a terrible calamity is just outside the door. Ezekiel is to live out the coming siege of Jerusalem in his own body.
19 Then you will say to the people of the land, ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh concerning the inhabitants of Jerusalem in the land of Israel, “They will eat their bread with anxiety and drink their water with desolation...
After Ezekiel has embodied the message, he is to explain it. His personal terror is a prophetic picture of a corporate terror. Notice who the message is for: "the inhabitants of Jerusalem." This is a covenantal judgment falling upon the covenant city. The people have been living as though their security is guaranteed by their address. But God is announcing that the very place they thought was their refuge will become their trap. The anxiety Ezekiel feels will be the daily bread of every person in Jerusalem. The water they drink will taste of desolation. This is the harvest of covenant unfaithfulness. They sowed rebellion, and they will reap a harvest of dread.
19 ...because their very soil will be made desolate of its fullness on account of the violence of all who inhabit it.
And here is the grounds for the lawsuit, the reason for the verdict. Why is this happening? Because of "the violence of all who inhabit it." The Hebrew word is hamas, and it means more than just fisticuffs. It is injustice, corruption, oppression, and a thoroughgoing brutality in their dealings with one another. God's covenant has stipulations, and they are not just vertical (concerning worship) but also horizontal (concerning justice). They had filled the land with violence, and so God would fill their hearts with anxiety. Notice the direct connection between their sin and the land's punishment. The soil itself will be stripped, made desolate of its fullness. The creation itself is brought into the judgment. When men rebel, the ground beneath their feet testifies against them. This is covenantal cause and effect, written into the fabric of the world.
20 The inhabited cities will be laid waste, and the land will be a desolation. So you will know that I am Yahweh.” ’ ”
The end result is total ruin. The cities, the centers of their culture and pride, will be rubble. The land, the source of their wealth and sustenance, will be a wasteland. This is the outworking of the curse they had called down upon themselves by their disobedience. But this destruction is not meaningless. It has a profound and ultimate purpose, and it is stated right here: "So you will know that I am Yahweh." God's judgments are a severe mercy. They are a terrifying revelation of His character. He is not a doting grandfather in the sky who overlooks sin. He is the holy, righteous, and sovereign Lord of all creation. He will not be mocked. His name will be vindicated. If they would not know Him through His blessings and His law, they would be made to know Him through His righteous judgment. This was fulfilled when Nebuchadnezzar came, but it was a pattern for that greater desolation that came upon the apostate Jerusalem in A.D. 70, when the old covenant order was dismantled with fire and sword, so that all would know that Jesus is Lord, the true Yahweh in the flesh.
Application
We are tempted to read a passage like this and thank God that we are not like those violent inhabitants of old Jerusalem. But the principles of God's covenantal dealings do not change. Sin still produces anxiety. Corporate rebellion still invites corporate judgment. A people who fill their land with violence, whether the violence of the abortionist's clinic or the violence of systemic injustice, should not be surprised when their hands begin to tremble at the dinner table.
The sign-act of Ezekiel forces us to ask if we have become comfortable in our sin. We eat our bread and drink our water with a placid sense of security, all while our culture rebels against the God who provides it. This passage is a call to feel the weight of our sin, to tremble before a holy God. The only escape from this coming desolation is to flee to the one who drank the cup of God's wrath for us. On the cross, Jesus Christ endured the ultimate desolation so that we, by faith in Him, might be brought into a kingdom that cannot be shaken.
Therefore, we are not to live in cowering anxiety, but in sober-minded faithfulness. We are to know that our God is a consuming fire, and this knowledge should lead us not to fear, but to repentance and worship. The purpose of every one of God's dealings with mankind, whether in blessing or in judgment, is that the world might know that He is Yahweh. Our lives, our families, and our churches ought to be sign-acts to that same end.