Ezekiel 5:1-4 - Homiletics.

A barber's razor.

The coming siege and destruction of Jerusalem are described under the image of the prophet shaving his head and then disposing of his hair in various ways. The razor stands for the Divine judgment, the hair for the people, the different treatment of the hair for the difference in the doom of the people.

I. DIVINE JUDGMENT IS KEEN AS A RAZOR . Some judgments crush, others cut. The latter do not dispose of their victims at a blow. More is reserved for the hair that has been shaved off; for it is to be burnt, etc. But first of all the head is shorn. Thus judgment is progressive. Now, the first stage throws down pride, breaks up the established order, and casts the miserable sufferers into a state of dismay. This is irresistible. Slender hair cannot resist sharp steel. Feeble man cannot stand up against the penetrating judgment of Heaven.

II. IN PUNISHING A NATION GOD PUNISHES INDIVIDUALS . Each hair is a separate growth, and in shaving the whole head the razor cuts through individual hairs. It is too commonly imagined that burdens can be shifted from the individual to the nation. But if this were universally done there would be no gain, as the tuition is nothing more than the aggregate of the individuals that compose it; and if it were only partially done, injustice would be inflicted on the many for the relief of the few. In Divine judgments there is no escaping on account of the wholesale and national character of what happens. Great general wars lay homesteads desolate, bring mourning to separate households, impoverish private businesses, kill individual men.

III. IN A GENERAL JUDGMENT THERE ARE VARIETIES OF DOOM . The hair is to be divided out, and the several portions are then to be dealt with in different ways. The siege of Jerusalem results in a variety of dreadful calamities. Some of the citizens perish from fire, famine, or disease; some are killed by the sword; some are driven into exile. No doubt there will be varieties of doom in the future world. All will not suffer the same penalties, and yet the just punishment of sin must be unspeakably awful in every instance.

IV. IN THE MOST HEAVY JUDGMENT SOME ARE SPARED . Ezekiel is to take a few hairs and bind them in his skirts. Eight people were saved from the Flood. Three were saved from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The Christians who fled to Pella escaped the horrors of the Roman siege of Jerusalem. Thus the doctrine of the "remnant" is repeatedly exemplified. None are so obscure as to be overlooked by God. He is not indiscriminate in his judgment. The faithful are safe in the most overwhelming destruction. Those who are God's true people are well guarded and cared for by him. Such have no occasion to fear any future judgment day.

V. ESCAPE FROM ONE JUDGMENT IS NO ASSURANCE OF FINAL SAFETY . Verse 4 seems to teach that some who escaped from the horrors of the siege would yet be cut off by some later calamity. God's forbearance is no excuse for man's indifference. Judgment deferred is not judgment destroyed. It is possible to turn aside from God in one's later days after serving him truly in one's earlier life, and then the safety of the Fast must give place to peril