How does Ezekiel 5:16 connect with God's warnings in Deuteronomy 28? A Single Covenant Story, Seen from Two Angles • Deuteronomy 28 delivers the covenant terms on the plains of Moab—blessings for obedience (vv. 1-14) and curses for rebellion (vv. 15-68). • Ezekiel 5 unfolds those curses in real time, just before Jerusalem’s fall (586 BC). What Moses forecast, Ezekiel watches unfold. God’s word proves literal and exact. Deuteronomy 28—Key Warnings to Keep in View • v. 20 – “The LORD will send on you curses, confusion, and rebuke in everything you undertake…” • vv. 22-24 – “The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, with fever, inflammation… He will turn the rain of your land into powder and dust…” • vv. 49-53 – An enemy nation will besiege the cities “until the high fortified walls on which you trust have fallen,” bringing starvation so severe that parents eat their own children. • v. 57 – Famine during siege becomes the sharpest expression of judgment. These verses set up famine, siege, and national collapse as covenant penalties for persistent sin. Ezekiel 5:16—The Fulfillment Verse “When I shoot deadly arrows of famine at them, arrows of destruction, which I will send to destroy you, I will intensify the famine and cut off your supply of bread.” How the Pieces Fit Together • “Arrows” → prophetic shorthand for divine weapons (cf. Deuteronomy 32:23-24; Psalm 7:13). In Ezekiel, the arrows specifically carry famine, just as Deuteronomy threatened. • “Famine” → central feature in both chapters. Deuteronomy 28:23-24 promised sky-bronze drought; Ezekiel 5:16 shows drought matured into bread-less famine. • “Cut off your supply of bread” → echoes Deuteronomy 28:55-57, where the food shortage is so complete that siege cannibalism occurs. • “Destroy you” → ties back to Deuteronomy 28:20 “until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin.” • Setting: Ezekiel prophesies inside besieged Jerusalem (Ezekiel 4–5). Deuteronomy foresaw siege as the final curse (28:52). What was once a warning is now a lived reality. Other Prophets Linking the Same Covenant Curses • Jeremiah 14:12 – “When they fast, I will not listen… I will consume them by sword, famine, and plague.” • Lamentations 4:9-10 – Describes the siege famine expressly foretold in Deuteronomy 28 and enacted in Ezekiel’s day. • Amos 4:6-10 – Lists drought and famine as covenant discipline, mirroring Deuteronomy 28. Takeaway: God’s Word Stands Unbroken • The literal fulfillment of Deuteronomy 28 in Ezekiel’s generation underscores that every promise—of blessing or of judgment—will arrive just as spoken (Joshua 23:14). • Covenant obedience was not optional; Israel’s experience proves it. Likewise, Christ’s new-covenant call to faith and obedience (John 14:15; Hebrews 12:25-29) rests on the same unwavering divine integrity. |
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