Ezekiel Lies Bound Before a Model of Jerusalemby KandD
4:1Ezekiel 4:1
Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and pourtray upon it the city, even Jerusalem:
Ezekiel was told to take a tile, lay it before him, and draw Jerusalem upon it as a miniature portrayal of the siege that would bring judgment and captivity upon the city and the Jews for their sins. The sign was completed by lying days on his sides and eating weighed bread and measured water, representing the hardship and defiled food of Israel in captivity among the Gentiles. The days appointed in the sign lay down the rule for symbolic prophecy that each prophetic day stands for a literal year, by which the 2,300 days signify 2,300 years and the 1,260 days of persecution become 1,260 literal years. Portraying the city and its siege as a visual illustration to convey God's message was proper and did not violate the second commandment, since making images for teaching is distinct from making an image to worship.
Context and Symbolic Action
Ezekiel's tile belongs to the prophecies concerning Judah and Jerusalem given while he was living among the captives in Babylonia. The verse opens a symbolic sign in which he was told to take a tile, lay it before him, and draw Jerusalem upon it. That drawing was a temporary example pointing to calamities that would come permanently upon the Jews.
The sign portrayed in miniature the siege of Jerusalem and its consequence, typifying the awful judgments that awaited the city and the Jews. It was a visual illustration of judgments to come upon the city, depicting the siege and captivity of Israel and Judah. By this detailed visual enactment God directed the prophet to teach Israel about its sins and coming siege. The surrounding sign-act included lying a number of days on the left side and then on the right side, and eating bread by weight and drinking water by measure, including defiled bread. That hardship and measured, defiled diet represented the hardship and the food the children of Israel would eat in captivity among the Gentiles.
God preaches through terrible things seen in reality, giving emphasis, positiveness, and dispatch to the message of those who witness them. The tile and its enacted siege made the Lord's message clearer and more forceful to those who saw it. In this way the temporary example carried the message of coming judgment with special force.
Prophetic Day-Year Principle
The opening of the sign lays down the rule for symbolic prophecy that each prophetic day stands for a literal year, so that time reckoned in days is to be counted as the same number of years. The chapter gives this key to prophetic time, that a day in prophecy is a symbol of a year. Within the sign itself the 390 days appointed for Israel and the 40 days for Judah, each day representing a year, relate to captivity and to restoration after the seventy years. Applied to Daniel, the sixty-nine weeks or 483 days extend to 483 full years from the command to restore Jerusalem in the autumn of 457 B.C. to the anointing of Messiah at baptism in the autumn of A.D. 27, and that exact fulfillment proves the day-for-a-year reckoning correct.
By this rule the 2,300 days in Daniel's vision signify 2,300 years. By the same rule the time periods in Revelation's trumpets are to be interpreted as years rather than ordinary days. By this rule also the 1,260 prophetic days of papal persecution become 1,260 literal years.
Images for Teaching, Not Worship
God directed Ezekiel to take a tile, portray Jerusalem upon it with the details of its siege, and use that pictured city with other visual signs to convey His message of coming judgment to Judah's captives. Making such an image as a visual illustration for instruction and to glorify God was proper and right. It did not violate the second commandment, because fashioning an image for teaching or another legitimate purpose is not the same as fashioning one to worship.
Making images for a legitimate purpose, such as teaching God's message, is not itself idolatry. Idolatry lies in worshiping images or in setting the heart on something other than God.
Ezekiel was told to take a tile, lay it before him, and draw Jerusalem upon it as a miniature portrayal of the siege that would bring judgment and captivity upon the city and the Jews for their sins. The sign was completed by lying days on his sides and eating weighed bread and measured water, representing the hardship and defiled food of Israel in captivity among the Gentiles. The days appointed in the sign lay down the rule for symbolic prophecy that each prophetic day stands for a literal year, by which the 2,300 days signify 2,300 years and the 1,260 days of persecution become 1,260 literal years. Portraying the city and its siege as a visual illustration to convey God's message was proper and did not violate the second commandment, since making images for teaching is distinct from making an image to worship.
Context and Symbolic Action
Ezekiel's tile belongs to the prophecies concerning Judah and Jerusalem given while he was living among the captives in Babylonia. The verse opens a symbolic sign in which he was told to take a tile, lay it before him, and draw Jerusalem upon it. That drawing was a temporary example pointing to calamities that would come permanently upon the Jews.
The sign portrayed in miniature the siege of Jerusalem and its consequence, typifying the awful judgments that awaited the city and the Jews. It was a visual illustration of judgments to come upon the city, depicting the siege and captivity of Israel and Judah. By this detailed visual enactment God directed the prophet to teach Israel about its sins and coming siege. The surrounding sign-act included lying a number of days on the left side and then on the right side, and eating bread by weight and drinking water by measure, including defiled bread. That hardship and measured, defiled diet represented the hardship and the food the children of Israel would eat in captivity among the Gentiles.
God preaches through terrible things seen in reality, giving emphasis, positiveness, and dispatch to the message of those who witness them. The tile and its enacted siege made the Lord's message clearer and more forceful to those who saw it. In this way the temporary example carried the message of coming judgment with special force.
Prophetic Day-Year Principle
The opening of the sign lays down the rule for symbolic prophecy that each prophetic day stands for a literal year, so that time reckoned in days is to be counted as the same number of years. The chapter gives this key to prophetic time, that a day in prophecy is a symbol of a year. Within the sign itself the 390 days appointed for Israel and the 40 days for Judah, each day representing a year, relate to captivity and to restoration after the seventy years. Applied to Daniel, the sixty-nine weeks or 483 days extend to 483 full years from the command to restore Jerusalem in the autumn of 457 B.C. to the anointing of Messiah at baptism in the autumn of A.D. 27, and that exact fulfillment proves the day-for-a-year reckoning correct.
By this rule the 2,300 days in Daniel's vision signify 2,300 years. By the same rule the time periods in Revelation's trumpets are to be interpreted as years rather than ordinary days. By this rule also the 1,260 prophetic days of papal persecution become 1,260 literal years.
Images for Teaching, Not Worship
God directed Ezekiel to take a tile, portray Jerusalem upon it with the details of its siege, and use that pictured city with other visual signs to convey His message of coming judgment to Judah's captives. Making such an image as a visual illustration for instruction and to glorify God was proper and right. It did not violate the second commandment, because fashioning an image for teaching or another legitimate purpose is not the same as fashioning one to worship.
Making images for a legitimate purpose, such as teaching God's message, is not itself idolatry. Idolatry lies in worshiping images or in setting the heart on something other than God.