Example - Ezekiel 4

Ezekiel 4:1-2 "Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and portray upon it the city, even Jerusalem; And lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and cast a mount against it; set the camp also against it, and set battering rams against it round about."

This is a great description of a siege against a city. Jerusalem was a very great city. Maybe you have see the great stones used to build the walls.

Ezekiel was to draw the image of the siege taking place. The battering rams were probably large trees cut near the site and put on wheels to ram into the gates over and over until they gave way. If I remember correctly, the mount was dirt piled up until it reached the top of the wall so that men could walk right up to the top.

v3 Moreover take thou unto thee an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city; and set thy face against it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel."

Inside the city, the false prophets are telling the people that everything will be fine. The enemy will leave or be defeated but God has said something different. Israel is to be led into captivity by this enemy. They will not be delivered. The iron pan represents a siege that is not going to be moved.

v4 "Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it; according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity."

Being a prophet was a tough calling. Ezekiel must have suffered considerable pain as he illustrated what was going on with his very body. It was hard to get Israel to listen but there was to be a record in very plain language for them to remember their sin and sin's cost.

v5 "For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days; so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel."

As a reference my Bible takes me back to Numbers 14:34 where a day is used for a year as recompense for iniquity. "After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise." This was when the spies went into Canaan and Israel became afraid and would not believe and so wandered in the wilderness until that generation died, except for a few.

That example should have been something Israel remembered.

It goes on to describe Ezekiel's days as he carries out God's instructions. It was telling what it would be like in Jerusalem during these hard days.

v16 "Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they shall eat bread by weight, and with care; and they shall drink water by measure, and with astonishment."