Ezekiel chapter 5

vs 1

I swear, God is a consumate preacher. He loves his weird and wacky sermon illustrations. "It's like Israel shaved themselves with a sword, and then weighed up the hair!" Hopefully we'll learn what that means, because I've got no idea.

vs 2

Ah. The inhabitants of Jerusalem are the hair. A third will die inside. A third will die outside, and a third will be scattered to the wind. Just for your information, there were multiple exiles from Jerusalem, not just the one, so even though Ezekiel is up on the Kabar river or whatever, he can still make such predictions about the future. That's my understanding, at least.

vs 3

That's where you want to keep spare hair.

vs 4

So even the rest of Israel that is hidden elsewhere will not be safe from this fiery judgment. Very few hairs indeed will escape unsinged. God's not messing around. And the thing is, these hairs aren't just a sermon illustration. God is going to actually kill these people. Think about that.

vs 5

Which is both a blessing and a curse, I guess. Strong trade potential, also strong army highway potential a la Poland.

vs 6

Not just rebelled, you see. Rebelled more than the countries who aren't God's special nation have rebelled. They have become especially wicked. It's like they are trying to be evil, and outstripping evil nations at it. Going for evil Olympic gold.

vs 7

They couldn't even keep to the standards of the surrounding nations. I mean, if they had become just another nation, God would still have punished them. But they couldn't even do that! They have become totally abhorrent to God. It's not really till you read this that you see just how 'evil in the eyes of the Lord' they were. The chronicles don't really make this abundantly clear. God must be very upset to see this. It's like buying a candle, only to find that not only does the candle not produce any light, but it creates 10 times more acrid, awful smoke than all the other crappy candles.

vs 8

I'm the kind of person who thinks being judged by God is bad enough - and all the countries of the world were judged by God for their wickedness, no doubt through wars and plagues and the usual stuff. But God himself has taken a personal interest in Israel, and they have screwed up big time. So now, they are royally boned. God is going to make them the posterboys for, "Why not to mess with God."

vs 9

Gulp. This is a God who flooded the whole world saying there's something he's never done. You don't want to hear God say that, really.