“Then lie on your left side, and place the punishment of the house of Israel upon it. For the number of the days that you lie on it, you shall bear their punishment.
God tells Ezekiel to lie on his left side and take the guilt of the house of Israel onto himself, day after day, with the siege of Jerusalem pictured in front of him. The command raises three questions: what "bearing" another's sin means, why 390 days, and what God was saying to the exiles who watched.
A Sign Acted Out, Not Spoken
Here the prophet's own body becomes the message. One writer shows how every part of the sign points back to the besieged city.
Numerical Bible NotesHe is to lie on his side, the left one, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it. He is to bear this 390 days, each day of penalty matching a year of their iniquity... The siege of Jerusalem is, we may say, the object-lesson running through it all. As he lies under the burden of their sin, he is to bare his arm and prophesy against the city. He is not to turn from one side to the other until he has completed the days of the siege.
What "Bear Their Punishment" Means
To bear punishment sounds like the language of sacrifice, so the phrase needs care. Older translations read "bear their iniquity", and the writers quoted here use that wording. One writer compares how Scripture uses the words for "bearing sin":
J. N. DarbyThe word always used for bearing the consequence of our own or a father's sin... is not bearing it in another's place, but as a consequence falling on oneself... in Ezekiel's case he clearly did not bear it in another's place. He stood as their representative, just as in the ordinary case.
The Prophet Identified With His Nation
The sign worked because of the prophet's own heart. He did not act out the guilt of others as a detached performer.
W. T. P. WolstonIsrael's sin was greater than Judah's, but Israel is seen here as a whole. The prophet does more than keep the whole nation in view. He is to identify himself with their iniquities. However little the guilty nation felt it, this godly prophet surely felt his nation's sin. He owned it before God and accepted the consequences of it. No doubt God sustained him; otherwise he could never have stayed like that for so long.
That is not unique to Ezekiel. One writer draws the same lesson for anyone who prays for God's people:
Edward DennettBy grace, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we must put ourselves in the place of those whose case we want to bring to God... Nothing shows the Spirit of Christ more clearly than this: sharing fully in the sorrowful state of God's people caused by their sins. It is in this way that saints may bear one another's burdens.
Counting the Days
Commentators differ on how to count the 390 years. One reading starts when God tore the ten tribes out of Solomon's hand:
William KellyI have no doubt that a sounder view counts the 390 years of Israel from Jeroboam. It was to Jeroboam that the prophet Ahijah announced from Jehovah the gift of the ten tribes, torn out of Solomon's hand. And the forty years of Judah point to the reign of Solomon himself, which settled the ruin even of that most favoured part of the people.
Another writer starts at the same point, but applies the years to the whole nation and to the length of the siege itself:
Numerical Bible NotesThere is no reason why the 390 years should not be years of God's forbearance with the nation as a whole. Date them from the split of the kingdoms under Jeroboam to the fall of Jerusalem under Nebuchadnezzar, and we get almost exactly this length of time... It is striking also that the actual siege of Jerusalem lasted about the 390 days of the prophet's burden.
The Message to the Exiles
For the exiles watching, the sign looked back and forward at once.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThe prophet's position reminded the captives of the shameful history of their long unfaithfulness. But there was more. The Lord told Ezekiel that He had laid the years of their iniquity on him, and that he would bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. So the sign pictured the real punishment that was now to fall on the nation.
Summary
- Years counted. Each day on the prophet stands for a year of the nation's sin. God keeps an exact record of a history the people had long forgotten.
- Sin pictured. The prophet's body becomes the sermon. He lies beside the pictured city, so the watchers see the siege and not just the guilt.
- Burden borne. He represents the people; he does not take their place. He feels and owns what their sin brings, but he does not atone for it.
- Heart engaged. He does not stand apart from the guilty. Sharing the shame of God's people is what fits anyone to pray for them.
- Judgment came. The sign was not only a picture. The punishment it showed did fall, and the siege lasted about as long as his burden.