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Ezekiel, part 19, The Object of Horror

Ezekiel 5:15 shows Jerusalem becoming a public warning to the nations—the reverse of her calling to demonstrate the wisdom of God’s ways:

¹⁵ So it will be a reproach, a reviling, a warning and an object of horror to the nations who surround you when I execute judgments against you in anger, wrath and raging rebukes. I, the Lord, have spoken.

This fulfills the warning of Deuteronomy 28:37, where the law of tribulation says,

³⁷ You shall become a horror, a proverb, and a taunt among all the people where the Lord drives you.

Ezekiel is applying the sentence already announced through Moses. The four descriptions explain how the surrounding nations would respond. “A reproach” signifies disgrace. Jerusalem’s destruction would expose the failure of her claim to enjoy divine protection while practicing rebellion.

“A reviling” indicates the well-deserved taunts and insults that would follow her humiliation.

“A warning” gives the judgment an instructive purpose. Other nations would see what covenant unfaithfulness had brought upon the city. Deuteronomy 4:6–8 describes Israel’s intended witness: In a righteous Israel, the nations would observe her righteous laws and recognize the wisdom of her divine laws expressing the nature of God. But as an unrighteous nation, Jerusalem would be an example to the nations of the consequences of disobedience.

“An object of horror” describes the astonishment and dread produced by the severity of the devastation. The laws of tribulation are timeless. They applied to the first destruction of Jerusalem in the days of Ezekiel. They applied to the second destruction in 70 A.D. They apply today as we approach the third and (I believe) final destruction as prophesied in Jeremiah 19:11.

So we see how the nations are horrified by the genocide in Gaza, the West Bank, and southern Lebanon since 2023. Jerusalem has literally become another “object of horror” and a prime example of a lawless nation. Hence, Ezekiel changes the name of the city from the City of Peace to “the Bloody City” (Ezekiel 24:6), and this applies to the earthly Jerusalem in our time as well. The character of the Bloody City provides justification for God to “cast out the bondwoman and her son” (Galatians 4:25, 30).

Yet the nations’ witnessing role continues into the restoration promises. In Ezekiel 36:23, God declares that the nations will know Him when He demonstrates His holiness through His people—not the people of the Bloody City, but the people of the heavenly Jerusalem. The city’s disgrace would reveal the consequences of unfaithfulness (as well as Old Covenant religion); the later restoration would reveal God’s plan to cleanse and renew through the Mediator of the New Covenant whose capital is the heavenly Jerusalem.

God’s Arrows of Famine

Ezekiel 5:16 says,

¹⁶ When I send against them the deadly arrows of famine which were for the destruction of those whom I will send to destroy you, then I will also intensify the famine upon you and break the staff of bread.

Ezekiel 5:16 portrays famine as an arrow of judgment and explains that God would remove Jerusalem’s means of sustaining life. The verse develops three related images: the deadly arrows of famine, intensified hunger, and the breaking of the staff of bread.

The “arrows of famine” recall the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32. Verses 15-22 speak of Israel provoking God to jealousy by committing spiritual adultery in following after the gods of foreign nations. He then says in Deuteronomy 32:23, 24,

²³ I will heap misfortune on them; I will use My arrows on them. ²⁴ They will be wasted by famine and consumed by plague and bitter destruction….

God speaks of spending His arrows against a rebellious people, immediately describing hunger, plague, and bitter destruction. Ezekiel draws upon this imagery. The prophet identifies the famine as part of God’s covenant sentence.

An arrow strikes and wounds; famine accomplishes its destruction gradually. Jerusalem’s inhabitants would be weakened from within as their food disappeared, even while the enemy pressed against them from outside.

When Ezekiel says, “I will also intensify the famine,” it indicates increasing severity. The people would not simply endure a temporary shortage. As the siege continued, reserves would diminish and opportunities to obtain food would disappear. The measured bread and water of Ezekiel 4:9–17 had already portrayed this progressive deprivation.

“Break the staff of bread” means to remove the support on which life depends. A staff supports the body; bread sustains it. The expression repeats the warning of Leviticus 26:26, where scarce bread is rationed by weight and fails to satisfy. Ezekiel 4:16 uses the same image.

There is also a spiritual application. Deuteronomy 8:3 teaches that life depends upon everything proceeding from God’s mouth. Amos 8:11 explicitly describes a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. Read alongside those passages, the Bloody City’s physical hunger illustrates the consequences of rejecting the One who sustains life. This is an application of the imagery; the immediate prediction concerns actual food deprivation.

The verse exposes Jerusalem’s misplaced confidence: walls, stored provisions, military equipment, and the temple itself could not preserve the city when God withdrew its support. The people needed to recognize that their life rested ultimately upon Him.

God’s Hand of Protection Removed

In our time, we saw evidence that God first removed His hand of protection from America on September 11, 2001, within a year of the transfer of authority from the church to the overcomers. The prophetic pattern was based on the two-step transfer of authority from Saul to David that took 7½ years (2 Samuel 5:5). Recall that after Saul died, David ruled Judah for 7½ years before the rest of the tribes crowned him king over all Israel. This pattern proved to be part of the 40 Jubilee reign of the church in the Pentecostal Age (33-1993 A.D.), depicting the reign of Saul, who was crowned on the day of “wheat harvest” (i.e., Pentecost) in 1 Samuel 12:17.

Hence, the reign of Pentecost ended with the death of “Saul” on May 30, 1993, which was the 40^th Jubilee of the Pentecostal Age. So 7½ years later fell on November 30, 2000, the day when the David company (overcomers) were given the full measure of authority to rule by the power of the feast of Tabernacles in the age to come.

Two months later, the church, acting as advocates of the Zionist government in America, lodged an objection in the divine court on January 29, 2001, which we had to answer on behalf of the overcomers. God gave His answer on February 21, 2001 in our favor, but the rebellious house of Saul (the church) refused to accept that answer. Hence, they declared “all-out war” from February 26-28, 2001, and we found ourselves in a series of great prayer battles throughout the year, not ending fully until November 14, 2001.

I wrote about these things extensively in 2001.

In 2026 we have been seeing reflections of the battles in 2001, especially beginning February 28, 2026 when the US-Israeli forces launched an all-out war against Iran-Persia, one of the kings from the east that God has raised up to overthrow Mystery Babylon (Revelation 16:12).

God’s hand of protection was removed from the Israeli (Edomite) state on October 7, 2023, the day that Hamas broke out of its outdoor prison in Gaza. This marked the beginning of the great genocide, which has manifested the blood-thirsty nature of Edom (or Mount Seir) as stated in Ezekiel 35:6,

⁶ “Therefore, as I live,” declares the Lord God, “I will give you over to bloodshed, and bloodshed will pursue you; since you have not hated bloodshed, therefore bloodshed will pursue you.”

This divine judgment was based on the law forbidding drinking blood (Leviticus 17:10). Under the Old Covenant, drinking literal blood was forbidden; under the New Covenant, being bloodthirsty was also forbidden. Hence, the bloodthirsty nature of most of the Zionists—including Christian Zionists—was exposed to the nations of the world to justify God’s judgment upon the Bloody City.

God Signs the Decree

Ezekiel 5:17 concludes the chapter by gathering its judgments into one comprehensive sentence: famine, wild beasts, plague, and bloodshed would devastate Jerusalem, the Bloody City.

¹⁷ Moreover, I will send on your famine and wild beasts, and they will bereave you of children; plague and bloodshed also will pass through you, and I will bring the sword on you. I, the Lord, have spoken.

These judgments come directly from the covenant warnings in Leviticus 26. Wild beasts that bereave the people of children appear in verse 22, prophesying not only of literal beasts but also of empires manifesting various predatory beasts who eat blood (Daniel 7). The sword and pestilence is mentioned in verse 25, and the breaking of the bread supply in verse 26. Later, Ezekiel 14:21 names this same group as God’s four severe judgments: sword, famine, wild beasts, and plague.

The closing declaration, “I, the LORD, have spoken,” is God’s way of signing His name to this decree, giving the prophetic warning ultimate authority. Ezekiel’s acted signs were not merely expressions of his fears; they conveyed a divine sentence against persistent covenant rebellion.

Of course, Ezekiel later promises a striking reversal when He restores all things to the people of the heavenly Jerusalem through the New Covenant and its Mediator. In Ezekiel 34:25–29, God speaks of a covenant of peace, the removal of harmful beasts, secure dwelling, fruitful harvests, and deliverance from famine. The same God, who announces the withdrawal of protection from the children of the flesh who love the Bloody City, also promises to restore His people, the children of the New Jerusalem.