The Lord Said: "I Have Spoken..."

 Ezekiel 5:14 Moreover, I will make you a desolation and an object of reproach among the nations all around you and in the sight of all who pass by. 15 You shall be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and a horror, to the nations all around you, when I execute judgments on you in anger and fury, and with furious rebukes—I am the Lord; I have spoken— 16 when I send against you the deadly arrows of famine, arrows for destruction, which I will send to destroy you, and when I bring more and more famine upon you and break your supply of bread. 17 I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will rob you of your children. Pestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword upon you. I am the Lord; I have spoken.”

Having laid out his plan to punish Judah for their rebellion, God now focuses on the city of Jerusalem itself, the core of the issue.  Besides all of the idolatry and immorality on every hillside, there in the not-so-holy city there were all sorts of reasons for their fall. They were to be a picture for all the nations of the world looking on.  They had disobeyed His commands and not lived by His instruction.  The city sat high on the mountain and rather than shine with glory and blessing before the whole world, would now be the demonstration of desolation.  We find here the introduction of the phrase: "I am the Lord: I have spoken." There is a sense of both authority and finality in this phrase.  There was no turning back; the judgment of the Lord was coming.