Ezekiel
Ezekiel’s name means “God strengthens.”Ezekiel was exiled to Babylon along with 10,000 other high-ranking people in the second of three deportations that took place by the Babylonians against Judah.
He lived in the land of Babylon near the Kebar River.
He probably served in the Jerusalem Temple before being deported and may have been in line to be a priest.
His vision of God’s portable throne in the land of Babylon is significant because it showed that God was not limited to His Temple in Jerusalem – God would continue to be with His people in captivity and would never leave them.
Ezekiel’s Call and Commission (1:1–3:27)
Ezekiel’s first vision at age 30.
He was by the Kebar River in Babylon.
He saw four dazzling beings, resembling a lion, an eagle, a man, and an ox.
They moved as the Spirit of God directed them.
He also saw four dazzling wheels far up in the air that moved about like the beings.
He heard a voice and saw a radiant being on a throne.
Falls on his face in God’s presence.
Ezekiel commissioned as prophet.
Sent to “a stubborn and rebellious house.”
Ezekiel eats a scroll
Contained list of all the people’s sins
Writing on both sides
Tastes sweet as honey to Ezekiel
Ezekiel then visited and “walked among” the exiles at Tel Abib.
“Tel Abib” means “heap of ruins.”
God warns him he will face many troubles
Oracles of Judgment Against Judah (4:1–24:27)
Symbolic Actions (4:1–5:17)
Ezekiel stares at a brick…
Ezekiel gets a haircut…
After Ezekiel’s 430 day object lesson with a brick, God told him to shave off his hair and to divide it into thirds.
Burns one-third inside model city.
Stabs at one-third outside model city.
Throws one-third to the wind.
God told him to save a tiny bit of hair that was left over.
The different hairs represent the different people yet to be affected by the total destruction of Jerusalem.
End to All Abominations (6:1–7:27)
“I will slay your people in front of your idols.”
“The end has come!”
“The end has come!
The end has come!
It has roused itself against you.
See, it comes!
Doom has come upon you,
upon you who dwell in the land.
The time has come! The day is near!
There is panic, not joy, on the mountains.
I am about to pour out my wrath on you
and spend my anger against you.
I will judge you according to your conduct
and repay you for all your detestable practices.”
The Departure of God’s Glory from Jerusalem (8:1–11:25)
Idolatry in the Temple
Ezekiel’s vision:
Fiery man appears, grabs him by the hair, transports him to Jerusalem
At the Temple
At the north entrance:“Idol of jealousy” stands
Women mourning over god Tammuz
The inner court:
70 elders offer incense to “crawling things,” unclean animals, and idols.
25 men worship sun with their backs to God’s House
“Therefore I will deal with them in anger; I will not look on them with pity or spare them. Although they shout in my ears, I will not listen to them.”
Judgment on the Idolaters
God’s seven servants:
Six with weapons in hand
The seventh with pen in hand
“The Glory of the LORD” enters the threshold of the Temple
Seventh servant marks foreheads of the faithful
Six servants destroy all without the mark
God’s Glory Departs From the Temple
God orders cherubim to scatter burning coals all over the city.
Smoke fills the outer court as God moves
“The Glory of The LORD” ascends from the Temple with the cherubim and the wheels beneath it as though they were transporting the throne of God.
God’s sure judgment on Jerusalem
The Spirit transports Ezekiel to a gathering of corrupt officials
Ezekiel prophecies to them, one man drops dead
Ezekiel cries out, asks God if he plans to kill every last person in Israel
The promise of Israel’s return
“Although I sent them far away among the nations and scattered them among the countries, yet for a little while I have been a sanctuary for them in the countries where they have gone.”
“I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you back the land of Israel again.”
“I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God. But as for those whose hearts are devoted to their vile images and detestable idols, I will bring down on their own heads what they have done.”
The Spirit transports Ezekiel back to the exiles in Babylon.
Hole in the Wall (12:1-28)
God makes Ezekiel a sign of ExilePeople watch him pack his bags during the day
In the evening, he digs a hole in the wall of his house and walks through with his bags
The people were like… “huh?”
Ezekiel predicts the king will try to sneak away through a hole in the wall only to be captured by the Babylonians outside.
Whitewashed Wall (13:1–14:23)
Ezekiel compares false prophets to people who cover up a flimsy wall with whitewash and say everything’s going to be okay.
Woe to the false prophets who make things up from their own imaginations!
The people will confront them when the walls collapse!
God refuses to answer Judah’s elders because they’ve “set up idols in their hearts.”
God said that He would send four judgments upon the land:
Sword
Famine
Wild beasts
Plague
“Even if Noah, Daniel, and Job” were living in the land, “they could only save themselves,” and not the rest of the people from God’s coming judgment.
Three Parables (15:1–17:24)
Jerusalem, useless vine (ch. 15)
Wood is used to make furniture.
What are vines used for other than kindling?
Jerusalem has been burned before and she will be burned again just like the useless vine that she is.
Jerusalem, adulterous wife (ch. 16)
Jerusalem, you were born in the land of the Canaanites.
Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.
Nobody took care of you when you were born, but you were thrown out into a field and left to die.
I passed by and saw you kicking in your blood and I gave life to you and made you grow.
You grew up and became a woman, but you were stark naked.
When I saw that you were old enough for love I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness and we entered into a marriage covenant together.
I bathed you and clothed you and covered you with jewelry.
You were very beautiful and became a famous queen.
But you trusted in your beauty and used your fame to become a prostitute.
You made idols and had sex with them.
You used the gifts I gave you as offerings to your idols.
You slaughtered the children we had together and offered them to your idols.
You forgot that I rescued you as a child wallowing in your own blood.
You “degraded your beauty” and “spread your legs to anyone who passed by.”
You enjoyed the “large genitals” of the Egyptians and “even the Philistines were shocked by your lewd conduct!”
You weren’t even satisfied when you made love to the Assyrians and Babylonians.
You were unlike any other prostitute because you refused to accept payment and instead paid others to sleep with you.
You have made me furious!
Because you have betrayed me and killed my children I am going to gather all your lovers together to watch as I strip you naked.
Your lovers will then knock down all your idols and destroy everything you have built.
Your lovers will steal all your jewelry and then stone you and hack you to pieces.
Then will my rage subside.
You were just like your father and mother, the Amorites and Hittites, who despised you and threw you out to die.
You were just like your older sister Samaria and your younger sister Sodom – but worse!
“Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen. Samaria did not commit half the sins you did.”
However, I will restore the fortunes of Sodom and Samaria and their daughters, and I will restore you and your daughters as well.
Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.
And when I provide for you your salvation, you will cover your mouth in silence.
Two eagles and a vine (ch. 17)
There once was a great and powerful eagle that came to Lebanon.
He broke the topmost shoot off of a great Cedar and carried it to a land of merchants where he planted it.
A tree grew up and spread its branches towards the eagle of the sky.
Another great and powerful eagle came along.
The tree spread itself out towards that other eagle.
Will the tree live?
No! It will be scorched by the east wind.
What does this parable mean?
First eagle = Babylon
The cedar = Jerusalem
The top shoot = royal family of Jerusalem
Transplanted shoot = exiled royal family
Second eagle = Egypt
The scorching east wind = Babylon’s revenge
“All the trees of the forest will know that I the LORD bring down the tall tree and make the low tree grow tall. I dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish.”
-- Ezekiel 17:24a
The Soul That Sins Shall Die (18:1-32)
The people who had been exiled began to complain that the situation they were in was not their fault.They claimed that they were suffering for the sins of their ancestors.
God told Ezekiel to tell the people that they would no longer quote the proverb, “The parents ate sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.”
Ezekiel told them that God does not punish children for the sins of their parents or punish parents for the sins of their children.
He also told them that God would forgive someone who started out bad but later repented, and that God would not forgive someone who started out good but later turned to evil.
A Lament over Judah’s Kings (19:1-14)
Ezekiel compared Judah to a lioness with two cubs.
First cub = Josiah’s son Jehoahaz; reigned 3 months before being killed by Pharaoh
Second cub = Josiah’s grandson Jehoiachin; exiled by Babylonians
And now we’re stuck with lousy Zedekiah…
God’s Response to Israel’s Sins (20:1–24:27)
Rebellious Israel purged
They rebelled against God in Egypt
They rebelled against God in the wilderness
They rebelled against God in the promised land
“So I gave them other statutes that were not good and laws through which they could not live; I defiled them through their gifts—the sacrifice of every firstborn—that I might fill them with horror so they would know that I am the Lord.’”
Rebellious Israel renewed
“I will accept you as fragrant incense when I bring you out from the nations… and I will be proved holy through you in the sight of the nations.”
The peoples’ response: “Isn’t he just telling parables?”
Babylon as God’s sword of judgment
Ezekiel prophesied that the king of Babylon would come to a fork in the road and would cast lots to see in which direction he should conquer, and all of his idols and magic would tell him to go towards Jerusalem.
Judgment on Jerusalem’s sins
Ezekiel described Israel as a nation of dross, or the refuse material that rises to the top of molten metal.
God would “set fire” to Israel and remove the “dross,” or “impurities,” from the “precious metals,” and throw the dross away.
Two adulterous sisters
Ezekiel described two sisters – Oholah and Oholiba.
Oholah represented Samaria, the northern capital.
Oholibah represented Jerusalem, the southern capital.
Both sisters were wicked, but God took them as His own and married them anyway.
Oholah was so evil that God gave her over to be judged by the Assyrians.
Her sister Oholibah learned nothing from this and became worse than her sister, and would be judged more severely.
Jerusalem as a cooking pot
In January of 589 B.C., the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem began.
In July of 587 B.C., the city finally fell to Nebuchadnezzar’s forces.
On the day the siege began, Ezekiel prophesied and compared Jerusalem to a rusty cooking pot.
Just as a cook would throw out stew that had mixed with rust, so would God throw out his people who had mixed with sin.
Ezekiel’s wife dies
God warned Ezekiel beforehand that his wife was going to die and told him how he should respond.
Ezekiel was to mourn inwardly but make no external display of mourning and lamentation.
The people asked why he did not appear to be sad about his wife’s death.
Ezekiel told them that it was because soon all of the inhabitants of Jerusalem would experience so much horror that they would find themselves unable even to cry or mourn.
Oracles Against the Nations (25:1–32:32)
Ammon
Babylon will destroy you!
Moab
Babylon will destroy you, too!
Edom
God will judge you because you cut down my people as they fled from their enemies.
Philistia
God will also judge you!
 |
| Tyre swept away by the sea |
Tyre
You exalted yourself above all the gods, but you will fall!
Some people associate this passage with the fall of Satan.
Sidon
You will be judged!
Egypt
You were an unreliable ally!
God will take you down into Sheol where Assyria, Elam, and Edom are waiting to greet you.
Promise of Restoration (33:1–39:29)
God’s Watchman (33:1–33)
God appointed Ezekiel as a “watchman” over the city.
A watchman kept watch for signs of the enemy and warned the people of any threat or attack.
Ezekiel was responsible to warn the people of their sin before God judged them for it.
The Good Shepherd (34:1-31)
Ezekiel compared Israel’s leaders to shepherds who tended their flock (the people).
These shepherds fed themselves instead of the flock.
They abused and mistreated the flock.
The flock was scattered to all kinds of places on a “day of darkness.”
God promised to be a shepherd for His people and to bring them back from all of the strange places to which they had been scattered.
Later, the goats of the flock began to “muddy the waters” and “trample the pastures” so that the sheep could no longer eat or drink.
God said he would appoint His good shepherd “David” to come and take care of his flock, and that He would separate the sheep from the goats.
“I will make a covenant of peace with them and rid the land of savage beasts so that they may live in the wilderness and sleep in the forests in safety. I will make them and the places surrounding my hill a blessing. I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing. The trees will yield their fruit and the ground will yield its crops; the people will be secure in their land. They will know that I am the Lord, when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hands of those who enslaved them.”An Oracle Against Edom (35:1-15)
The Edomites had sided with the Babylonians against Judah, so Ezekiel gave them an extra oracle of judgment.
The Reversal of Israel’s Disgrace (36:1-38)
“For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.”
Life to the Dead (37:1-28)
The hand of the LORD came upon Ezekiel and took him to a valley full of “dry bones.”
God asked him, “Can these bones live?”
Ezekiel said, “You alone know.”
God commanded Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones.
When he did, the bones began to rattle and came together to form skeletons.
Then “tendons and flesh appeared on them” and “skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.”
God told Ezekiel to “prophesy to the breath” and “the breath” came and entered the bodies and they became living beings.
God said that these bones were the people of Israel who had lost all hope.
“This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land.”God then told Ezekiel to take a stick with Joseph’s name on it and a stick with Judah’s name on it and join them together, representing the reunification of God’s divided people in the north and the south.
God said that they would get their land back, He would make a covenant of peace with them, and “David” would rule over them.
Gog and Magog (38:1–39:29)
Up to this point, Ezekiel’s messages had focused mainly on events surrounding his own historical setting, but here he looks into the future.
No one knows what “Gog and Magog” mean, but they appear to describe the ultimate foe of God’s people.
They are mentioned in the book of Revelation in the New Testament, but are confusing there, too.
Here, Ezekiel and Revelation similarly describe the great destruction of this ultimate foe.
Gog and Magog would gather the nations of the world together to fight against God’s people.God would cause all creatures on earth to tremble and He would overturn the mountains.
God would pour down burning sulfur upon His enemies.
The birds of the air would eat all the corpses.
It will take seven months to bury all the bodies.
God’s people will burn all the weapons and use them for fuel.
God would pour out his Spirit on His people and the whole world would know that he is God.
The New Jerusalem (40:1–48:35)
This vision describes in detail the schematics of this New Temple.
Perhaps the reason this section is so detailed is because Ezekiel had originally planned on being a priest.
We do not know what the vision of the New Temple is exactly about.
Maybe it was looking forward to the Temple built after the exile.
Maybe it was looking forward to the promise of God’s Spirit coming to dwell inside people.
Maybe it was describing heaven.
In chapter 11, The Glory of The LORD departed from the Temple, but here we see God’s Glory returning to dwell in the New Jerusalem.
God is described as entering through the eastern gate of the city upon His return.
In the New Testament, Jesus entered through the eastern gate on Palm Sunday.
The vision also described a great river that closely resembles Revelation 22.The river flows from the temple and provides “healing for the nations.”
Ezekiel also describes the tribal boundaries and the city gates of the New Jerusalem in a similar way to Revelation.
Ezekiel closes his book by affirming that after all is said and done, the name of the city will be “The LORD is there.”
This is the goal of all the history of God and humans – restored fellowship.
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