Ezekiel

• Introductory Matters
• • Ezekiel the man
  • • A priest who never had the opportunity to serve in the Jerusalem Temple - just as he became old enough to serve as a priest, he was deported to Babylon (1:1-3, Num. 8:24)
    • Served as a pastor and prophet to the exiles in Babylon
    • Ministry lasted about 30 years - a contemporary of Jeremiah - while Jeremiah prophesied in Judah, Ezekiel spoke in Babylon
    • Married but his wife died in Babylon (24:15-18)
    • • God told Ezekiel that his wife would die - God's word came to Ezekiel in the morning and his wife died that evening
      • God instructed Ezekiel not to mourn for his wife to symbolize the punishment of God's people for whom God could not mourn since the punishment was just - as with other prophets (e.g., Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea) Ezekiel's call from God dramatically effected his personal life
      • Certainly this is the most puzzling and terrible symbolic action a Hebrew prophet had to perform
    • Noted for his strange visions and symbolic actions
  • Historical situation
  • • When Babylon conquered Jerusalem in 598/597 B.C.E., Ezekiel was among the first group deported along with Daniel and his three friends
    • While Ezekiel was in exile in Babylon, Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and deported a second group in 587/586 B.C.E.

     

• Message of the Book
• • His call (1:1-3:27)
  • • Filled with strange creatures and events
    • • Some have accused Ezekiel of having a drug-induced experience, of being mentally ill, or of having a close encounter with a UFO
      • Such explanations are quite doubtful, if not ludicrous - visions like his were typical of ecstatic prophets - in some respects Ezekiel seems to be similar to the earlier ecstatic prophets like Elisha
    • In a vision Ezekiel saw that God was not confined to Palestine
    • • God was also in Babylon - God was not confined to the geographical Promised Land of Canaan
      • In the vision God came from the north and not from the west where Jerusalem would be located - either God could not travel through the desert as humans could not or God did not live in Jerusalem and Judah
      • The exiles needed to know as Ezekiel discovered that their physical distance from Jerusalem did not imply that God was distant
    • Ezekiel guarded against the reader taking his vision of God literally (1:26-28) - words like "likeness of" and "appearance of" indicate Ezekiel was trying to express what he saw by means of a limited human language
    • Ezekiel was to be a watchman - he must be faithful to warn the people - if he failed to warn them, their blood would be on his hands - if he warned them and they did not listen and repent, their blood was on their hands - all the prophets had this responsibility
  • Symbolic actions
  • • Ezekiel is the classic example of a prophet who preached through symbolic actions
    • Examples
    • • Concerning the captivity of Israel and Judah (Ezek. 4:1-5:17)
      • • Acted out the captivity of Israel and Judah by lying on his side facing and besieging a map of Jerusalem
        • • For 390 days (Septuagint reads 190 days) he lay on his left side symbolizing the captivity of Israel - then for 40 days he lay on his right side symbolizing the captivity of Judah - these figures roughly approximate the years these nations were in exile
          • The iron plate Ezekiel placed between himself and the map symbolized the fact that God would no longer listen to the prayers of His people
          • Ezekiel did not identify the city his map represented - he forced his audience to understand for themselves - some of them may have believed the map represented Babylon which God would soon destroy
        • Ate siege rations cooked on cow's dung
        • • God originally demanded human dung as the cooking fuel but as a priest Ezekiel protested the use of such unclean fuel - cow's dung was little better since it was also unclean
          • Ezekiel's limited diet showed what and how the people under siege in Jerusalem would eat
        • Cut his hair and beard and used his hair to describe the fate of those in Jerusalem
        • • How he treated his shorn hair
          • • A third he burned indicating those in Jerusalem who would die by disease caused by famine
            • A third he chopped up with a sword indicating those in Jerusalem who would die in battle
            • A third he threw into the wind indicating those in Jerusalem who would be scattered to other places in the world
          • Having saved some of his hair, he divided even that remnant into thirds (burning a third, chopping a third, scattering a third) indicating that no one would escape God's judgment
      • Concerning the fall of Jerusalem (12:1-20)
      • • Prepared an exile's baggage (perhaps a blanket, some bread and water), dug a hole through the wall of his house, and snuck out of his house through the hole at dusk - this was to show how King Zedekiah would try to flee Jerusalem
        • His fellow exiles saw what Ezekiel was doing - even as they caught him with their eyes, so the Babylonian army would catch Zedekiah - they would kill his sons while he watched, gouge out his eyes, and take him to Babylon
        • Shook with fear as he ate to show the fear of those in Jerusalem who were about to lose everything
    • His symbolic actions caused him pain and suffering - his prophecy involved all of his being
  • Visions
  • • An important means of revelation for Ezekiel
    • Examples
    • • Vision of abominations in the Temple (8:1-18)
      • • People worshiped the gods of every nation (e.g., Canaan, Egypt, Babylon) as well as their own God through the state religion
        • People believed God had left so they could worship whom they pleased - God said He would deal harshly with them
      • Vision of new Israel (40:1-48:35)
      • • Temple is central
        • • Large and beautifully adorned
          • Not connected to the king's palace (43:7-9) - the king will have no jurisdiction over the Temple as if it were a royal chapel - he will be under God
        • Israel will be restored to a paradise state with much land
  • Individual responsibility (14:12-23, 18:1-32)

• • • The proverb "the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge" (18:2) would no longer apply (18:3) - each person would live by his righteousness or die by his/her sin - no one would be blessed or cursed because of others - one would have only himself/herself to blame for their choices and outcomes
    • Even if Noah, Dan'el, and Job (all non-Jewish) were present in Jerusalem, their righteousness could not save the city but only themselves
    • 18:5-9 lists the requirements of a righteous man
  • Sin history (16:1-63, 20:1-49, 23:1-49)
  • • Individual passages
    • • 16:1-63 - from an ugly newborn, God created a beautiful Israel but then Israel began to love its own beauty and forgot about God
      • 20:1-49 - Israel was rebellious in Egypt and in the wilderness - God's grace was always met with more rejection by Israel
      • 23:1-49 - Israel and Judah were both political and religious prostitutes
    • Israel preferred to look at its history as the history of a chosen and righteous nation - Ezekiel's words were unwelcome and harsh even though truthful
    • Israel's chief sin had been idolatry
  • Future hope
  • • God will cleanse the people and give them a new heart and spirit so they will obey Him (36:1-38) - Israel would not repent so God would remake them
    • Valley of dry bones (37:1-28)
    • • Bones are laid out in the valley in no order - they are not skeletons with each bone in correct position - they are simply bones scattered throughout the valley
      • God's wind or breath brings the bones together and covers them with sinew and flesh - now they are corpses
      • God's breath enters the corpses and animates them - they stand as a great host of people
      • God would restore Israel as well by reuniting Israel and Judah, giving them a new Davidic king, and making an eternal covenant with them
      • Not really a text of resurrection (more like resuscitation) but it represents another movement toward the idea of a resurrection of the dead

       

• Some Theological Points
• • A "missed" prophecy?
  • • 26:1-21 prophesies the destruction of Tyre by Nebuchanezzar of Babylon
    • 29:17-20 states that Nebuchadnezzar was unable to conquer Tyre so Egypt would be given to him instead
    • What happened?
    • • Ezekiel did not correctly understand God
      • Ezekiel at first stated only what he wished would occur
      • God changed His mind
  • The shepherds of Israel and Judah (34:1-31)
  • • God accused the shepherds (rulers) of Israel and Judah of being bad and worthless - they lived off of their sheep (subjects) and consumed their lives
    • The bad shepherds would be judged and punished
    • God would then establish a good, Davidic shepherd and create peace and security for His people
    • Ezekiel returned to the theme of a good shepherd to come (37:24) as did the early Christians (John 10:1-18)

Masthead artwork by Guy Rowe from Bible Picture Library of Photo Art (c) Christian Computer Art, 1994-97

Top artwork by Michelangelo from the Sistine Chapel

Bottom artwork from an illuminated Bible of the 14th century from Bible Picture Library of Photo Art (c) Christian Computer Art, 1994-97