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Ezekiel, part 13, The Prophet's Intercession

Ezekiel 4:1–8 presents the coming siege of Jerusalem through a prophetic sign. Having appointed Ezekiel as a watchman, God now requires him to embody His warning. The prophet’s actions make visible both the siege itself and the accumulated iniquity that brought it about.

Ezekiel 4:1, 2 begins,

¹ Now you, son of man, get yourself a brick, place it before you and inscribe a city on it, Jerusalem. ² Then lay siege against it, build a siege wall, raise up a ramp, pitch camps and place battering rams against it all around.

God tells Ezekiel to take a brick, place it before himself, and inscribe Jerusalem upon it. He must then construct a miniature siege around the city, including a siege wall, ramp, camps, and battering rams. For the exiles already living in Babylonia, the message was unmistakable: Jerusalem would not escape judgment simply because it contained God’s temple. Ezekiel’s deportation had occurred in 597 B.C.; the city’s final destruction still lay ahead.

The sign also explains what the approaching Babylonian army would mean. Jerusalem’s fall would not demonstrate God’s inability to defend His dwelling place. It would demonstrate His determination to judge the covenant violations of His people.

The Iron Plate

Ezekiel 4:3 says,

³ Then get yourself an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city, and set your face toward it so that it is under siege, and besiege it. This is a sign in the house of Israel.

Ezekiel must place an iron plate (frying pan with sides representing the city walls) between himself and the model city. Because Ezekiel acts under God’s direction and sets his face against Jerusalem, the barrier suggests that the city could no longer presume upon ready access to divine protection. This agrees with the principle stated in Isaiah 59:2, where iniquity creates separation between the people and their God.

Ezekiel’s posture is especially sobering. God’s prophet faces Jerusalem as an adversary conducting a siege. In this way, the prophet himself represents God, who has set His face against Jerusalem. The Babylonians would be the visible besiegers, but behind the judgment stood God Himself. In other words, the Babylonian army was led by God.

It should also be noted that the prophet was required here to act as an intercessor. An intercessor is not merely one who prays for others; he is also required to participate by identifying either with God or the object of intercession. Intercession was a priestly duty, because a priest stood between God and man, representing both sides of a legal issue. Verse 3 presents Ezekiel first as God’s visible representative and secondarily as a representative of the army that God leads.

Bearing Israel’s Iniquity

Ezekiel 4:4, 5 continues,

⁴ As for you, lie down on your left side and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it; you shall bear their iniquity for the number of days that you lie on it. ⁵ For I have assigned you a number of days corresponding to the years of their iniquity, three hundred and ninety days; thus you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

Ezekiel must lie on his left side for 390 days, representing the house of Israel according to its level of divine judgment. Here, “bearing the iniquity” concerns carrying the burden or consequences of sin. Ezekiel does not become personally guilty of every offense committed by Israel, nor does his suffering provide the atonement that removes their sins. He represents the people under the weight of their judgment.

God assigns one day for each year. This recalls Numbers 14:34, where Israel’s forty days of spying out Canaan corresponded to forty years of wilderness judgment. In both passages, the correspondence is explicitly given by God, and it is based on the law of equal weights and measures in Leviticus 19:35, 36, as well as in Exodus 21:23-25. In each case, the judgment is proportional to the crime itself.

This this case, the House of Israel’s judgment is expressed in terms of 390 days/years. The meaning of this has escaped most prophecy teachers, mostly because the House of Israel was not restored after 390 years had passed. Recall that Samaria fell in 721 B.C., so the 390^th year from that date was 332 B.C. This was when Alexander the Great peacefully took control of Jerusalem. He finished conquering Persia (the second beast empire) the next year in 331 B.C.

However important this date fit with the overall times allotted to the four beast empires, this date did not benefit the House of Israel itself, which still remained in captivity. It did not directly benefit Israel until 7 cycles of 390 years (2,730) had passed, taking us to the year 1986. In October of 1986 was when the 120^th Jubilee from Adam was to be declared. No one did so, of course, but God allowed us to do so ten years later (1996), making it retroactive to 1986.

Hence, 1986 became a prophetic Jubilee for the House of Israel. This launched a series of prophetic events that are still unfolding to this day. The main question being resolved during this time is to determine which “Israel” is to be restored. Will it be the counterfeit “Israel” that was established in 1948—which is actually the nation of Edom? Or will it be the Israel of God?

Forty Days for Judah

The distinction between Israel and Judah is significant. God addresses the history of both houses, even though Jerusalem is the city portrayed in the siege. Ezekiel 4:6 says,

⁶ When you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah; I have assigned it to you for forty days, a day for each year.

After the 390 days, Ezekiel must lie on his right side for forty days, bearing Judah’s iniquity. The two periods total 430 days, representing 430 years. Four hundred thirty years recalls the time between the Abrahamic covenant and the Mosaic covenant (Galatians 3:17). Paul was explaining Exodus 12:40, 41, where we read that it was the time that Israel sojourned in Egypt.

The apparent discrepancy is explained by the fact that Canaan was under the hegemony of Egypt prior to Joshua’s conquest of Canaan. Hence, it was not 430 years from the day that Jacob and his sons moved to Egypt at the invitation of Joseph; it was, in fact, 430 years from the year that Isaac was born. This was prophesied in Genesis 15:13, 14,

¹³ God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants [literally, “your seed,” beginning with Isaac] will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. ¹⁴ But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions.”

Many people think that this prophesied Israel being enslaved in Egypt for 400 years, ending with the exodus under Moses. But that disagreed with Exodus 12:40, which specifies 430 years. The fact is that the 400-year prophecy was to begin with “your seed,” defined specifically in Genesis 21:12 KJV, “in Isaac shall thy seed be called.”

Isaac was born when Abraham was 100 (Genesis 21:5). Four hundred years later, Moses led Israel out of Egypt. The 430 years began 30 years earlier, marking the year when God made a covenant with Abraham. That means Abraham was 70 at the time. Biblical details are sparce, but all of this is confirmed in the ancient Book of Jasher, which is mentioned twice in Scripture as providing further historical details (Joshua 10:13; 2 Samuel 1:18).

The family of Jacob-Israel went to Egypt 190 years after Isaac was born, and they remained there for another 210 years until the exodus under Moses. This is somewhat confirmed by the traditional Jewish calendar itself, which claims that Israel was in Egypt for 215 years. But years ago I found a book on biblical chronology which quoted from an ancient rabbi (from the third century A.D., if I recall). The rabbi in question had drawn up a biblical chronology showing that Israel was in Egypt for 210 years.

Judah’s Benefit from Ezekiel’s Intercession

Ezekiel’s intercession gave Judah forty years in which to repent. The forty years began with Jesus’ ministry (30-33 A.D.) until the final Roman war in which Jerusalem was destroyed (70 A.D.) and the end of hostilities in 73 A.D. when Masada fell. Most striking is that the important dates all took place on the day of Passover.

Jesus’ active ministry began when John the Baptist was executed by Herod at Passover of 30 A.D. Jesus’ active ministry ended when He was crucified at Passover of 33 A.D.

Forty years later, the Roman siege of Jerusalem began at Passover of 70 A.D. The war ended at Passover of 73 A.D. with the fall of Masada. Josephus, the Jewish general who was the first commander in the Roman war, tells us (Wars of the Jews, V, 13, 7), that “the fourteenth day of the month Xanthicus” was “when the Romans pitched their camp by the city.” Xanthicus was another name for Nisan, making this Nisan 14, A.D. 70. It was precisely 40 years after the death of John the Baptist.

Three years later, Masada’s defenders died at Passover of 73 A.D. (Wars of the Jews, VII, 9, 1). Josephus writes, in Whiston’s translation: “This calamitous slaughter was made on the fifteenth day of the month Xanthicus” [Nisan]. This places their deaths on Nisan 15, the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

It is apparent, then, that Ezekiel’s intercession for Judah gave the nation 40 years of grace in which to repent for their rejection of the Messiah.