Get Ready
Ezekiel is the third prophet in the Old Testament (and his book is the third longest). He prophesied to the Jewish captives in Babylon after the Babylonians had defeated the kingdom of Judah. His message explains their situation to the people and also gives them hope for the future of Israel.
Author
Scholars agree that Ezekiel, the prophet, wrote this book. He uses the pronoun, “I,” throughout the book and says the Lord told him to “go to the house of Israel and speak my very words to them,” [3:4]. He was a priest (and the son of a priest, Buzi) during the first part of Israel’s captivity in Babylon. Since he was born in Jerusalem and lived there during the first part of his life, it is likely he knew about Jeremiah (which would explain his use of symbolism and actions to convey his messages).
Context
Babylon defeated the kingdom of Judah and took the King and most of the leaders captive in 597 BCE. God called Ezekiel in “the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin,” [1:2]. He prophesied for twenty years (he refers to the twenty-fifth year of captivity at 40:1).
Ezekiel went to Babylon as part of the second group of captives. The first group (which included the prophet Daniel) was exiled in 605 BCE; and the remaining Israelites joined them in 586 BCE, after Jerusalem was destroyed.
The book reflects Ezekiel’s perspective as an exile waiting for the inevitable destruction of his homeland. He prophesied during the period when the Babylonians defeated the kingdom, then laid siege to and destroyed the capital and the temple.
Structure
Ezekiel, like Isaiah and Jeremiah before it (in the Old Testament), is a long book; but its organization makes it fairly easy to read and understand (although some of the prophetic images are quite complex). The first section [chapters 1-3] introduces the prophet and de- scribes his call from God and the purpose of this work.
There are three groups of prophesies:
- The first group is God’s judgment on Judah’s persistent idolatry, [chapters 4-24].
- The second group contains judgments against the nations around Judah: Ammon, Moab, Edom, Philistia, Tyre and Sidon, and Egypt, [chapters 25-32].
- The last group includes the visions God gave Ezekiel about the future of Israel, including the people’s return to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the temple, [chapters 33-48].
Major Themes
God’s character is Ezekiel’s subject and he focuses on three major aspects:
- Righteousness: Ezekiel contrasts God’s righteousness with Israel’s idolatry. While God has been faithful to his covenant with Israel, the people have consistently and persistently ignored God’s commandments, especially the first. The people have followed (most of) their leaders into worshipping the pagan gods. In some cases idols have actually been placed in the temple. Because of Israel’s unrighteousness, Ezekiel tells the people that God is completely justified in allowing Babylon to hold them in captivity.
- Patience: Ezekiel points to the captivity as evidence of God’s patience with his people. God has destroyed other nations for their sin – he told Moses and Joshua to kill all the people in the Canaanite nations because their sin would infect the Israelites if they were allowed to live with them, [Joshua 6-7]. The Israelites did not “cleanse” the land as God commanded, which eventually led to the idolatry that Ezekiel was confronting in Judah. But God chose to try – once again – to teach his people to follow his law and avoid future captivity.
- Love and restoration: Ezekiel provides some of the most beautiful visions of the future God wants for his people in the last third of the book. Ezekiel stresses God’s promise to Abraham and Israel: he will bring them “home” and he will dwell with them. The captivity is actually another demonstration of God’s concern for his people. Ezekiel quotes God as saying “You [or they] will know that I am the Lord,” more than thirty times.
Ezekiel’s other major theme is personal responsibility. We are each responsible to God for our sin. The people of Israel had lived as “God’s chosen people” for so long they had lost sight of the fact that they had a personal and individual responsibility to follow the law. Ezekiel made it very clear: The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself, [18:20].
After the fall of Jerusalem Ezekiel presents God’s condemnation of the people’s sins along with the promise that in the short term the land will become a “desolation and a waste and its proud might will come to an end,” [33:28].
Get into the Word
1. Who wrote this book? What was his “day job?” How did he start his prophesying? What was his mission as a prophet? What preparation did he have?
2. When was the book probably written? Where was it written? What was the historical, military and political situation at the time? Who were the major participants?
3. Who was Ezekiel’s audience? What was their situation? How did they respond to Ezekiel’s prophesies? How do you think you might have responded if you had been there at the time?
4. How is this book similar to the two prophets preceding it? How is it different? What are the major sections of the book? What does each section deal with?
Bible Trivia:
Ezekiel is one of the most-quoted prophets by New Testament writers. Check Ezek 36:2 and Rom 2:24; Eek 20:11 and Rom 10:5 along with Gal 3:12; or Eek 12:22 and 2 Peter 3:4.
5. What is the primary subject of the book? How does Ezekiel approach his subject? What aspects does he emphasize in the book? What does he say about each aspect? Why do you suppose he chose (or God directed) to focus on these aspects? Why would they be important to Ezekiel? To the Jewish people? To future readers?
6. What is Ezekiel’s other major topic? Why would this be important to his audience? How do you think they responded to this message? How do you respond to it?
(More) Bible Trivia:
Ezekiel often echoes Moses’ writings in the Torah. Some examples: Ezek 28:13, 31:8, 36:11, and 47:13.
Note . . .
This book includes many striking images and symbols, but one of the most is the “Valley of Dry Bones,” [37]: God takes Ezekiel to a valley full of dry bones and tells him to prophesy to the bones: So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. I looked and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come one them. . . and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet.
37: The vision of the scroll — Ezekiel 2:1-3:14
Get Ready
How do you feel when someone asks you to deliver a message to another person? What is your major concern about doing so? Do you write down the message so you are confident you will accurately convey the message? Do you let the other person know how the recipient responded to the message?
The Word
2He said to me: O mortal, stand up on your feet, and I will speak with you.
2 And when he spoke to me, a spirit entered into me and set me on my feet; and I heard him speaking to me. 3 He said to me, Mortal, I am sending you to the people of Israel, to a nation of rebels who have rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have transgressed against me to this very day. 4 The descendants are impudent and stubborn. I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, “Thus says the Lord GOD.” 5 Whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house), they shall know that there has been a prophet among them. 6 And you, O mortal, do not be afraid of them, and do not be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns surround you and you live among scorpions; do not be afraid of their words, and do not be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house. 7 You shall speak my words to them, whether they hear or refuse to hear; for they are a rebellious house.
8 But you, mortal, hear what I say to you; do not be rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you. 9 I looked, and a hand was stretched out to me, and a written scroll was in it. 10 He spread it before me; it had writing on the front and on the back, and written on it were words of lamentation and mourning and woe.
3He said to me, O mortal, eat what is offered to you; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel. 2 So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat. 3 He said to me, Mortal, eat this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it. Then I ate it; and in my mouth it was as sweet as honey.
4 He said to me: Mortal, go to the house of Israel and speak my very words to them. 5 For you are not sent to a people of obscure speech and difficult language, but to the house of Israel—
6 not to many peoples of obscure speech and difficult language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, if I sent you to them, they would listen to you. 7 But the house of Israel will not listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to me; because all the house of Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart. 8 See, I have made your face hard against their faces, and your forehead hard against their foreheads. 9 Like the hardest stone, harder than flint, I have made your forehead; do not fear them or be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house. 10 He said to me: Mortal, all my words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart and hear with your ears; 11 then go to the exiles, to your people, and speak to them. Say to them, “Thus says the Lord GOD”; whether they hear or refuse to hear.
12 Then the spirit lifted me up, and as the glory of the LORD rose from its place, I heard behind me the sound of loud rumbling; 13 it was the sound of the wings of the living creatures brushing against one another, and the sound of the wheels beside them, that sounded like a loud rumbling. 14 The spirit lifted me up and bore me away; I went in bitterness in the heat of my spirit, the hand of the LORD being strong upon me. NRSV
Get into the Word
1. Who is speaking in this passage? To whom is he speaking? Why does the speaker begin with “Stand up” [see Notes]? How does the listener respond?
2. What is God telling Ezekiel? Where is God sending him? Who will be his audience? How does God describe the people? What have they done? How will they treat Ezekiel? How should Ezekiel respond?
3. What command does God give Ezekiel? How is he to act? What image does God use to emphasize his expectations of Ezekiel? What does he say about the experience?
4. How much autonomy does Ezekiel have regarding God’s message? What does God say about Israel’s likely response to the message? How has God prepared Ezekiel to deal with this?
Get Personal
How have you responded to the chance to share your experiences with Christ? How has God prepared you to do so? What message did he give you to share?
Notes . . .
2:1. Mortal — literally “son of man.” God uses the phrase 93 times in his book to address Ezekiel, which seems to stress his status as a human.
Stand up — Ezekiel had fallen on his face in response to his vision of “the likeness of the glory of the Lord,” [1:28].
2:2. Spirit entered into me — in the Old Testament God’s Spirit “entered” certain individuals when needed to empower them for God’s work; it was not the permanent relationship that believers have with the Holy Spirit.
2:3. Sending — the Hebrew word means “designating as an official representative” – Ezekiel was to be God’s ambassador to the captive Jews (“apostle” comes from the Greek equivalence).
A nation of . . . — God does not sugar-coat the difficulty of this assignment: his fellow Jews are rebels, transgressors, impudent and stubborn – in fact, God uses “rebellious house” four times in describing Israel.
2:5. Whether they . . . — God knows most of the people will “refuse to hear,” but that will be their choice – each person is responsible for their decisions about following or ignoring God.
2:8. Do not be rebellious — God wants Ezekiel to follow him and represent him to Israel.
Eat what I give you — Ezekiel was to receive and repeat what God would say to him; he was
not to pick and choose what to say (God says speak my very words to them in 3:4).
2:9. Written scroll — God underscores the importance of conveying his message to the people by putting it in writing – and then ordering Ezekiel to actually eat it, to make it part of himself.
2:10. Lamentation and mourning and woe — actually the title of the scroll (and the content of Ezekiel’s initial prophecies).
3:3. Sweet as honey — even though the message was about judgment, God’s words were still sweet; David and Jeremiah use similar expressions: More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb, [Psalm 19:10]; and Your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, Jer15:16].
3:6. Obscure speech and difficult language — God reminds Ezekiel that he will be speaking to his own people – they understand the language if not the importance of the message.
3:7. Hard forehead — the literal meaning of the word translated “impudent” in v. 3. God equips Ezekiel to withstand the opposition and rejection he is about to face.
3:14. Bitterness — Ezekiel has internalized God’s reaction to sin, as God commanded him in v. 10: Receive [my words] in your heart.
Memory Verse
I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, says the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, [Ezekiel 34:15].
Next Lesson
Daniel 7: Visions of the four beasts.
