Okay, first a brief synopsis. Ezekiel is somewhat of a contemporary of Jeremiah. Their timelines overlap just a little bit and they are speaking to basically the same crowd about the same stuff. They are very very different though. Ezekiel is apart of the first group brought into exile in Babylon (1:1). The book begins about five years before the destruction of Jerusalem (contrast 1:2 and 24:1). So for the first twenty-four books, he is prophesying to Jerusalem about what is to come. Then as the siege on the city is happening, he prophesies against the nations surrounding Judah who are gloating over their destruction (chapters 25-32). Next come the prophecies of hope and Yahweh's return to His people, Israel (33-39). Then the final nine chapters (40-48) are Ezekiel's visions of the new temple. Okay, so that is the timeline of what is happening. It's hard to follow but those dates really help.
There is too much to explain in detail about this book, but I will try to compact it as much as I can. Chapters 1-3 are the calling of Ezekiel and they are pretty amazing. He sees a vision of the throne of God (1:4-28). Then the Spirit enters into him and God calls him to be a watchman for Israel. A couple quick notes: #1. Every time Ezekiel sees the glory of Yahweh, he falls flat on his face and the Spirit has to lift him up and set him back on his feet. #2. God continually refers to Ezekiel as "son of man" throughout the book.
In chapter 4, Ezekiel is told to symbolize the punishment God will bring to Judah and Israel. First, he has him draw the siege of Jerusalem on a brick. Then, he has him lie on his left side for 390 days (to symbolize the number of years of Israel's punishment) and then his right side for 40 days (to symbolize the number of years of Judah's punishment). Next, God tells him to only eat bread during this time. And He tells him to prepare the bread on human dung (4:12)! Ezekiel gets God to change it to cow's dung but still. And He also has him shave his head and face and divide the hair onto scales. I didn't quite get that part.
Real quick: go back and read what I just wrote in the last paragraph. Those things are ridiculous! And Ezekiel does them! Crazy stuff.
The next nineteen chapters are prophecies to the people of Judah of their coming destruction. I am just going to try to hit some important points. The first and most important thing in the entire book is said over and over and over again. Actually this phrase occurs in some form 71 times in the book, "Then they will know that I am the LORD." Everything is about showing His glory to Israel and to the nations. That is so clear in this book that I don't know how it could ever be missed. If you don't get anything else, get this: Yahweh's clear goal throughout scripture (especially obvious in Ezekiel) is to show the world how great and glorious He is. That comes up everywhere and I cannot wait to see it shown in the New Testament.
Okay back to the notes from chapters 5-23. Chapter 5 verse 13 gave me chills when I read it. Yahweh just told Ezekiel the horrible things that he will do to Jerusalem and then said this, "Thus shall my anger spend itself, and I will vent my fury upon them and satisfy myself. And they shall know that I am the LORD- that I have spoken in my jealousy- when I spend my fury upon them." Satisfy myself? God's wrath is satisfying to Him. He also says this in 16:42, 21:17 and 24:13. But I want to contrast that with a couple things that I think are very important. They come in chapter 18 verses 23 and 32. Verse 32 says, "For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the LORD GOD; so turn, and live." Verse 23 is very similar. So there is this contrast here. God is satisfied in the destruction of Jerusalem and the surrounding nations, but He says that He has no pleasure in the death of anyone. I am not saying I have this figured out at all. I don't and probably never will. God is far too big for me to ever understand. But I do have a theory. It is obvious that God does not like killing people, but He is also just and righteous in His nature. So in order to satisfy His justice and righteousness, He must do something that He does not necessarily like. That is confusing and brings up all kinds of questions but I think that is what I am seeing here. (Help from people who know and have studied this stuff is appreciated.)
The next thing is the abominations that Yahweh reminds His people of. The reason for all of this destruction is their iniquity. It is their fault. That is very important to keep in mind.
Chapters 8 and 9 are amazingly scary. I have never heard that before. Not something they tell you in Sunday school class. But it's important. Read it if you have time.
There is hope in chapter 11. Verses 14-25 are kind of pointing toward the hope of chapters 33-39. Verses 19-20 are just awesome. I'll talk more about those in that section though.
Chapter 20 is the one that just blew me away. God reminds Israel of their rebellious history with Him. He goes all the way back to Egypt. But the amazing part is the reason that He gives for the way He dealt with them. He says in every case that He "acted for His name's sake, that it may not be profaned in the sight of the nations." All of this He did for His glory. In 20:44 He even says that it was not according to their evil ways and corrupt deeds, but for His name. So He did not show them mercy for their sake but for His own. This is all over the place. Look in the Psalms. David knows this. He says that God leads him in the path of righteousness "for His name's sake" (Psalm 23:3). God is all about His glory and proving it to us. Remember that. I am seeing it everywhere.
Chapter 23 is also a passage that you won't hear in Sunday school class. It portrays Samaria and Jerusalem as two sisters who are both whores. It is a disgusting picture of the sin that God sees in them. It is something that is not pretty, but is necessary to understand how repulsive our sin is to God.
Now in 25-32 Ezekiel prophesies against the surrounding nations. There is a lot of wrath and anger, always because of the iniquities of the nation, usually pride. A line that comes up a lot in this section is "I am the LORD; I have spoken." Which seems to be like Him saying, "I said I'll do it; so I'll do it." Also good to note is that God is using other nations to exact His vengeance (26:3 He will bring up many nations against Tyre, 26:7 He will bring Nebuchadnezzar against Tyre, 30:10 He will use the hand of Nebuchadnezzar to put an end to Egypt's wealth, 30:24 He will strengthen the arm of the kind of Babylon and put His sword in the king's hand). He is using the nations like chess pieces. I know it is not a very popular thing to say, but the image here is that God causing nations to war against other nations and win or lose, simply for His purposes.
Chapter 33 brings hope. First Ezekiel is restored as Israel's watchman. Next in chapter 34, Israel's shepherds (kings) will be judged for their awful job of caring for their people. But Yahweh promises that He will be the new shepherd and will care for His people. Chapter 35 is a prophecy against Edom for there arrogance against Israel and the fact that they stood by and did nothing while Israel's blood was being shed (35:5-6). Chapter 36:1-15 then gives a prophecy about the mountains of Israel and the joy and abundance that will be brought back to them.
Chapter 36 verses 16 through 38 and then all of chapter 37 is the passage that made me rejoice yet gave me the most trouble. I know that it says that it is for Israel. But it seems so predictive of what Christ did for His bride. I don't know what indicators would be to tell which it is. Hopefully I learn that in my Principles of Biblical Interpretation class in the Fall. But it is just so awesome to read this. I urge you to read it. Note especially two things: #1. All of this goes back to God's glory. It is everywhere in this but especially in 36:22-23. #2. Yahweh does for us what we cannot do for ourselves (36:26-27). We cannot take away our heart of stone so He does it for us and then gives us His Spirit. And in chapter 37, the dry bones cannot bring themselves to life. They can't do it so God does it for them. Now whether these are meant to be Christians or the Israelites after the return from exile, God is still doing for them what they cannot do.
Chapter 38 and 39 also seem very eschatological (referring to the "last days"). Yahweh brings His judgment against the nations. He speaks of mighty earthquakes that bring the mountains down and raining hailstones of sulfur and fire. I don't think that has happened yet so I can only assume that He is not talking about the nations that Israel is dealing with at that time.
Finally, chapters 40-48 are Ezekiel's vision of the new temple. It is filled with a bunch of measurements of things that I have never heard of (jambs?). But it is important to read. If nothing else, there is one amazingly important thing in here. It comes in chapter 43, the presence of Yahweh returns to the people! And then the last line makes it known: "And the name of the city from that time on shall be, The LORD Is There."
Well, Ezekiel was amazing. So much packed in and so much to sort through. I know that I am not a Bible scholar. Even if I was I could not hope to understand all of this. I very well could have gotten some of this wrong. But I am excited to learn more about the Lord of the nations and unpack all the splendor of His glory. I pray along the way that He gives me His grace and His Spirit that I need to understand His Word. I am enjoying His Word. Please pray that that joy continues. I want to find pleasure in knowing my God better. I hope that this in some way challenged you or put some questions in your mind. As always, discussion is welcome.
All for His glory,
Mitchell
P.S. I have started to put links on a lot of my references. It goes to Biblegateway.com which a website that Mr. Webster showed me at Blackhawk. I just wanted to say that it is not at all meant to take things out of context. I always wish that you would read the whole book, even the whole Bible with me so we can discuss issues with the same context in mind. But I realize that is rarely going to happen. So I've just put those up for an easy way for you to look at the text. I hope it helps.
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