FEED 210/214 Mentoring Through The Old Testament/Major Prophets SESSION 8B: EZEKIEL LEARNING OBJECTIVES: By the end of this session, participants should be able to 1. Explain where Ezekiel fits into the history of the OT and the OT canon. 2. Describe the man Ezekiel, and how he relates to his God, his people and his world. 3. Identify key themes in the Book of Ezekiel and what these tell us about God and His purposes. 4. Develop applications from Ezekiel on how to live as an exile in a world that is not our final home. 1. INTRODUCTION a. We covered much of the background to Ezekiel in Jeremiah and Lamentations. In Lamentations we looked briefly at the post-exilic audience (Eze 3:1,11). We see that after the initial trauma of destruction and exile, life became bearable for God s people and many prospered. You will encounter this tension in Daniel and Esther. b. As with Isaiah, Jeremiah and other prophets, the personality of the prophet is stamped across the book. We need to learn about Ezekiel the man to understand his words. Likewise his experience as a young man uprooted and taken far from his homeland and, presumably, his family. Far from the place where he learned to worship God, and without the benefits of all the rituals and the worshipping community, he displays an incredible passion for God and experiences God s presence. c. Hence understanding the historical, social, political and religious background is vitally important in benefitting from Ezekiel, and especially in teaching Ezekiel. 2. THE HISTORICAL, SOCIAL, POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND a. As we noted previously, the Judeans under Babylonian rule were able to maintain their identity as they lived in Judean communities in the Babylonian Empire. So they were able to return to Jerusalem under Cyrus the Persian (Jer 25:11-12; 29:10). This was possible because of their strict cultural and religious identity, eg. prohibitions against intermarriage (see Ezra 9 & 10; Mal 2:10-16. b. As in Egypt prior to Moses, God s people in Exile experienced peace and grew in numbers. They were able to devote themselves to i. Reflecting on how they came to be in exile. Ezekiel provided some of the answers to the theological crisis of 586BC. Ezekiel vigorously denounced false hope and declared that the events were a manifestation of God s power and justice, not a denial of it. This helped prevent the destruction of faith. 1. Popular theology believed in the security of Temple, city and state and that God guaranteed life in the Promised Land. False prophets, active in the time of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, bolstered this false hope with cries of Peace. When the end came they could provide no answer to the tragedy because it contradicted all they had been preaching. Only Jeremiah and Ezekiel could give the answer of faith, the destruction was God s act. Session 8B: Ezekiel (September 13, 2015) Page 1 of 5
ii. Redaction of the pre-exilic scriptures. Much of the OT may have been written down into a definitive text during this time; perhaps the beginnings of the 3-fold Hebrew understanding of their Bible: Law/Torah + Prophets + Writings. iii. Writing: Chronicles; end of Kings; exilic Prophets, some psalms & proverbs, etc. iv. Judaism: The people of god went into exile as Israelites and came out Jews. v. Global monotheism. Little is said of the sin of worshipping idols from Ezekiel on. The God of Abraham becomes the God of Palestine and the Babylonian Empire and all the earth. The synagogue is developed, and Judaism becomes portable. 3. AUTHOR, DATE, OUTLINE & STYLE a. In 597 BC a major group of exiles was taken to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings 24:8-17). King Jehoiachin was among them (v 12) and some 10,000 exiles (v 14). Ezekiel 1:2 tells us that Ezekiel was one of these exiles. Verse 2 also records that Ezekiel received his call and began to preach in the 5th year of the exile ie. 593BC. He preached at least until the 27th year of the exile, 571 BC (29:17). In the 6 years between 593 BC and the destruction of Jerusalem, Ezekiel s message was primarily, but not exclusively, one of judgment. These prophecies are collected in chapters 1-24. b. As news reached Ezekiel of the destruction his mouth was opened (24:27; 33:22), reversing a dumbness traced to the beginning of his ministry (3:26-27). It may also be that the silence imposed on him meant he could express no mourning and proclaim no hope until his mouth was opened. Until the city fell and God opened his mouth, he spoke mainly of God s judgement, not of his own grief or of hope for the future. c. After the news of the destruction arrived, Ezekiel s message to the exiles was one of encouragement. These prophecies are collected in chapters 33-48. Chapters 25-32 are prophecies from various dates concerning the foreign nations. d. Date: Ezekiel contains more dates than any other prophetic book. Its prophecies can be accurately dated. Modern archaeology and astronomy give us precise measurements. Twelve of the thirteen dates in Ezekiel specify times when the prophet received a message from God. The 13 th is the date of the arrival of the messenger with news of the fall of Jerusalem. So Ezekiel s ministry included the 7 years leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem, then the 15 years following. e. Outline: Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel all have the same basic sequence: (1) oracles against God s people; (2) oracles against the nations; (3) consolation for God s people. i. So for our purposes we can look at the book of Ezekiel as five sections: 1. Chapters 1-3: the story of Ezekiel s call in 593 BC 2. Chapters 4-24: prophecies about Judah and Jerusalem delivered between 593 and the destruction of Jerusalem, in 587. They are mainly a condemnation of Judah s sins and a justification of the exile. 3. Chapters 25-32: prophecies against seven foreign nations 4. Chapters 33-39: prophecies of restoration delivered after the fall of Jerusalem 5. Chapters 40-48: an ideal portrayal of the restored community with the restoration of Jerusalem, the temple and worship. ii. Ezekiel shows symmetry (harmony, balance), often around the fall of Jerusalem: Session 8B: Ezekiel (September 13, 2015) Page 2 of 5
1. The vision of the desecrated temple fit for destruction (chs.8-11) the vision of the restored and purified temple (chs.40-48) 2. The God of wrath (ch.1) the God of comfort ( The LORD is there 48:35) 3. Ezekiel s call to be a watchman of God s judgment (ch.3) to be a watchman of God s new people (ch.33) 4. The mountains of Israel are rebuked (ch.6) are consoled (ch.36) f. Style: Prose rather than the poetry common in the prophets i. Priestly proclamation (legal, conditional) style: If you do/do not... then... eg. 3:19 ii. visions (4), eg. chs.1-3 iii. symbolic acts (12), eg. chs.5-7 iv. parables (5), eg. chs.15-17,19 4. EZEKIEL THE PROPHET a. What we know about Ezekiel is derived solely from this book: i. he came from a priestly family (1:3) and was eligible to serve his people as a priest ii. he was among the people exiled to Babylon in 597BC a priest without a temple iii. in exile he receives his call to become a prophet (1:1-3) probably in his 30 th year iv. he was married v. he lived in a house of his own (3:24; 8:1) vi. he had a relatively free existence vii. he was a gifted man with great knowledge viii. Ezekiel was courageous, speaking the painful truth year after year to an less than perfect nation b. So Ezekiel was prophet and priest or, to be more accurate, he was a priest who was called to be a prophet. His priestly training and interest is evident in various ways: i. He had a keen interest in the temple, seen throughout the book (eg. chapters 8-11). ii. iii. Priestly ideas of ritual purity recur. His prophetic calling often transformed his priestly traditions. This is seen especially in the fact that Ezekiel s holy God appears even in an unclean heathen land. c. Ezekiel the man reflects: i. the holiness and majesty of God ii. a controlled personality in the grip of a passionate zeal for God. Eg. death of his wife without permission to mourn: 24:15-27 iii. a sensitive human being caught in the cross currents of history, driven by his burning zeal for God, yet aware of the tragedy in which he was involved iv. a life totally dedicated to his overwhelming sense of obligation and responsibility as a watchman (3:16-21 and 33:1-9) d. Ezekiel combines the priest s sense of the holiness of God, the prophet s sense of being a messenger, and the shepherd s sense of responsibility for people. e. Ezekiel was a prophet to the exiles as Jeremiah was a prophet to Judah. However, just as Jeremiah could send a letter to the exiles (Jeremiah 29), we can believe that the people of Judah were aware of what Ezekiel was preaching in the years leading up to the fall of Jerusalem. And just as they did not accept Jeremiah s message, they surely did not accept Ezekiel s message. Session 8B: Ezekiel (September 13, 2015) Page 3 of 5
f. Although Jeremiah described the exiles as the good figs (Jeremiah 24), this does not describe their spiritual state at the beginning of the exile. Ezekiel was told at the time of his call that he would be preaching to an unresponsive audience. The exile was to be a time of discipline, leading to the exiles returning to the Lord. A first step had to be the end of the worship of other gods. The book of Ezra describes the returning exiles and though they were not without fault, they had put aside other gods and exhibited faithfulness to the Torah far beyond that of the pre-exilic community 5. MAJOR THEMES IN EZEKIEL a. The Sovereignty of God i. Ezekiel begins (ch.1) by graphically describing the overwhelming invasion of God s presence into Ezekiel s world in exile. It ends (48:35) with a vision of God on the throne in his renewed temple: The LORD is there. 1. Then they will know that I am the Lord is used 65 times. 2. Chs.1-24 show that God is sovereign in the fall of Jerusalem and destruction of His temple. This occurs after He departs the temple (ch.10) 3. Chs.25-32 show God sovereign over the nations 4. Chs.33-39 promise that God will be known through the restoration and spiritual renewal of His people. 5. Chs.40-48 unveil a new temple with God present b. The Scope of God s Reign i. God is not limited to Palestine with its temple in Jerusalem. He can respond to his people s sin by visiting his exiled children in Babylon. c. The Judgment of God i. God s judgments on his people ultimately reflect His grace. The end of life as they know it, due to their rebellion, will become in exile an opportunity for renewal to take the nation forward and ultimately set the scene for the Messiah to come and the gospel to go out. d. The Glory of God i. The glory of God leaves the Temple (ch.9-11; 2 Kings 24:20 & Isaiah 54:7-8). 1. God is on his chariot throne which was supported by the cherubim. God s ultimate home in the Temple was in the Holy of Holies 2. The glory of God moves from the door of the Temple to the east gate of the courtyard surrounding the Temple. Finally, God leaves Jerusalem and stops on a mountain to the east, the Mt of Olives (11:22-23). At this dramatic point Ezekiel is brought back in vision and he tells the elders the shocking news, God has abandoned his chosen city! 3. Jerusalem is now helpless before the might of the Babylonian army, they are free to do as they will. e. Son of Man i. Ezekiel s status testifies to the sovereign God commissioning him to serve ii. The term son of man is used 93 times in Ezekiel, emphasizing the prophet s humanity as he is addressed by the transcendent God. iii. Jesus frequently uses this to refer to Himself. This shows that He understood His links to Daniel & Ezekiel. f. A New People: A New Heart & a New Spirit (36:22-29) i. If the return was not to result in a corrupt community like that in the pre-exilic period the people returning needed to be fundamentally changed. C Wright (p 293) comments that pre-exilic Israel had suffered from congenital disobedience. Session 8B: Ezekiel (September 13, 2015) Page 4 of 5
ii. In Hebrew thinking the heart (Hebrew leb) was the mind and the will, not the centre of emotions; the leb is the essential person. Taylor defines the spirit as the impulses which drive the person, regulating desires, thoughts and conduct. God will give them his spirit so that they will be able to obey his commandments. iii. The history of Israel proved the need for something more than the re-establishment of the old covenant. C. Wright says: Though the word grace is not used here, the whole passage is a portrait of sovereign grace at work, for it is all founded in the wholly unmerited initiative of God. The catalogue of divine activity encompasses every aspect of Israel s loss and need. 6. CLOSING REFLECTIONS FROM EZEKIEL a. 47:1-12: With God present in his temple, blessing will flow out to Israel. A miraculous evergrowing river (God s transforming presence) will flow out of the Temple to the Dead Sea, transforming it into a sea teeming with life. b. This life giving river is reminiscent of the life-giving river in the Garden of Eden (Gen 2:6, 10-14). c. The concept of life giving water is found in the teaching of Jesus in John 4:10-15 (a spring bringing eternal life) and 7:37-39 (the Spirit of God). d. The book of Revelation (22:1-2) describes a river whose life-giving function parallels the river in Ezekiel 47. e. Take time to read and think about these verses. f. The book begins with a vision of the Lord to Ezekiel in Babylon. It concludes with a vision of God s presence in the Temple in Jerusalem. The final overarching promise of the book of Ezekiel and the heart of Biblical faith is expressed in the new name of the city The LORD is there (48:35). Session 8B: Ezekiel (September 13, 2015) Page 5 of 5