The Life of Ezekiel
Originally preached on 5/5/2024
Ezekiel is kind of the outlier of the major prophets for us. We aren’t very familiar with it, and the New Testament rarely quotes it. When I read the Bible cover to cover for the first time as a kid, Ezekiel was my least favorite book. When I got to the end of the book and had to endure nine chapters of Ezekiel measuring the city from end to end, I just couldn’t keep interest. Any way you cut it, Ezekiel is a difficult book.
But Ezekiel has a lot that’s important in it. It’s one of the best places to understand how God views the moral accountability of man as individuals. Like Jeremiah and Daniel, Ezekiel is also one of the best places for seeing God’s redemptive scheme of history expressed. And if you’re interested in Revelation, you can’t understand Revelation without first understanding Ezekiel. Nearly every chapter of Revelation draws on the themes and imagery of Ezekiel in some way.
When I was researching this week I asked Google how many times the New Testament quoted Ezekiel. Have you all seen now that Google has a section above the search results that gives an AI-generated summary? Well, Google AI didn’t answer my question directly, but I thought what it gave me what pretty hilarious. Here’s what Google’s AI told me:
“The New Testament quotes Ezekiel in a few instances, including Romans 14:11, which quotes Ezekiel 5:11, and Revelation 21:7, which quotes Ezekiel 11:20. However, the New Testament generally alludes to the prophet Ezekiel less than it quotes him. For example, Ezekiel is a major source in Revelation, but the New Testament makes very little other allusions to him. The reasons for this are unclear, but Ezekiel is sometimes considered obscure, pornographic, and to encourage dangerous mystical speculation.”
As for how many times the New Testament actually quotes Ezekiel, I could only find 3 direct quotes in the New Testament. By comparison, Isaiah is quoted around 65 times.
But my focus today is going to be on the life of Ezekiel specifically. Ezekiel was a Levite, a priest of Israel. He was faithful to the Law of Moses and never transgressed its dietary restrictions, a level of dedication that would have been rare at that time. He was married. And depending on how you read the text, he was probably 30 years old at the time his prophetic ministry began.
Now, Ezekiel prophesizes out of the Babylonian exile, when God punished the idolatry of the nation through King Nebuchadnezzar. And Ezekiel comes out of first wave of exiles. So in his early days in Babylon, Jerusalem has not yet been destroyed. They are technically under Babylonian rule now, but Zedekiah is ruling Jerusalem as a puppet king, and people are still living in Jerusalem more or less as normal.
The book of Ezekiel opens five years into Ezekiel’s exile as he sits beside the river in a Jewish refugee camp. Ezekiel is 30. According to the law of Moses, this is the year that he would have begun service as a priest were he not in exile. But instead, Ezekiel is here sitting in the dirt.
The situation must have seemed extremely unfair to Ezekiel. Why is he, as one of the faithful, stuck here in Babylon while others get to remain in Jerusalem carefree? Why does he bear the punishment of Israel at all when he has lived his life correctly? Why has he had his career and purpose as a priest taken away from him? Why is he forced to live far away from the land of his God? These are themes which must have been extremely pertinent to Ezekiel, and they are themes that are dealt with at length in this book.
But here, sitting on the edge of the river in Babylon, Ezekiel sees something. Ezekiel 1 records:
“As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, and a great cloud, with brightness around it, and fire flashing forth continually…
Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of one speaking.”
This meeting is significant because Ezekiel isn’t in the Holy Land. Ezekiel is in the land of exile. But it is here, not in Israel, that God reveals Himself to Ezekiel. If Ezekiel has thought of himself as forsaken, or unfairly punished, this suggests something different. Perhaps, for Ezekiel, Babylon is not meant as exile, but instead forms the conditions that make him uniquely suitable for serving God in a special way that he never could have accomplished as a mere priest.
And so, Ezekiel receives his commission from the Lord. God has warned Israel with this first exile to Babylon. But those who remained at home have not listened. They continue to commit injustice and spurn the Lord. So God tells Ezekiel in 2:1-3:
‘“Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you.” And as he spoke to me, the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard him speaking to me. And he said to me, “Son of man, I send you to the people of Israel, to nations of rebels, who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day.’
What follows is, in my opinion, one of the most frightening statements made to God’s faithful in Scripture. Here, God outlines in no uncertain terms Ezekiel’s burden of responsibility. In 3:17-19 God tells Ezekiel,
“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, or from his wicked way, he shall die for his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.”
God has given Ezekiel a message for the people, and now Ezekiel has a responsibility to bear it in an effort to save the lost. But to be silent incurs judgement upon Ezekiel as well. And this episode should impact all of us because it has implication for the gospel which we have received. If we have received salvation from God, and we are silent to our peers, do we transgress our burden of responsibility? Jesus certainly makes this connection for us, for in Matthew 10:32 he teaches,
“So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.”
In the church today, God has appointed each of us with our own gifts and roles. But evangelism is not a role unique to any of us. The Great Commission is a universal commission for all Christians: and just as we have received the gift of salvation from God freely, so also must we give freely to those around us.
And so, Ezekiel accepts the role of watchman over Israel. Despite the seriousness of his commission, I have to consider what it would have meant for him. Ezekiel had been deprived of his purpose and his heritage to serve in the temple as priest. But now, he has a renewed purpose. Ezekiel cannot escape the fact that the judgement on Israel now forced him to live in this foreign land. But Ezekiel has been faithful to God, and God has been faithful to him: to spare him from the worst of the calamities and to give him direction, purpose, and understanding even amidst difficult times.
But of all the prophetic tasks in the Old Testament, Ezekiel’s are some of the most difficult and the most bizarre. And whereas most of the prophets like Isaiah merely had to speak their messages from God, Ezekiel must often act them.
Ezekiel’s first task is to make a toy model of Jerusalem under siege to represent Babylon’s future assault on Jerusalem. And Ezekiel sets an iron plate between himself and the city to represent God turning his face away from Israel. But Ezekiel isn’t to do this as a one-time presentation. He is required to lay here before Jerusalem for 430 days: 390 on his left side and 40 on his right side. In doing so, God invokes the example of Israel’s exile in Egypt. Just as Israel lay in bondage and waiting for 430 years in Egypt, so must they also endure a time of bondage and waiting in Babylon.
While doing this, Ezekiel is to bake himself a special diet of bread, containing wheat, barely, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt. If you’ve ever seen bread in the grocery store called Ezekiel Bread, this is where it comes from. Ezekiel must bake his bread over feces: a representation of the desperate poverty which the exiled Israelites will endure.
Ezekiel’s second task is to shave his beard with a sword. A third of his hair is to be burnt with the city of Jerusalem; a third is to be struck with the sword about the exterior of the city; and a third is scattered to the wind. In doing so, Ezekiel declares the fate of those living in Jerusalem. Increasingly, Ezekiel’s participation in the first exile is looking more like a blessing than a curse. Ezekiel must prophesy the siege of Jerusalem, but at least he doesn’t have to experience it.
In chapter 10, Ezekiel receives a vision of God’s glory leaving the temple. In preparation for the coming judgement, God no longer dwells with his people. The cherubim of God are depicted with great wheels within wheels, and they transport God’s throne out the temple and into the heavens. For the first time in about nine hundred years, God will no longer receive worship at Jerusalem. The temple lays desolate, and the future of the Mosaic covenant becomes uncertain.
Chapter 18 is an explanation of moral culpability. When we are introduced to Ezekiel in chapter 1 already in exile, we may think that he is being punished unfairly with the rest of Israel. But the book of Ezekiel itself tells us not to read it that way. This entire chapter is dedicated to the idea that God punishes no one who does not deserve it. Ezekiel 18:20 reads,
“The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.”
While this message was for the rebellious people, I have to imagine that God intended it for Ezekiel as well. I think that God wanted to know Ezekiel that even if he was in exile, God wasn’t punishing him. And we have to remember that too. Just because we have to be involved with suffering in life doesn’t mean that God is punishing us.
Chapter 23 is the pornographic chapter that Google AI alludes to, and it marks the end of Ezekiel’s judgements against Israel, depicting Samaria and Judah as lewd women. In Chapter 24, all the Ezekiel has spoken of comes to pass. Nebuchadnezzar has come to Jerusalem again, and the city’s fate is sealed. That very year, Ezekiel’s wife dies. As a sign, God tells him not to publicly mourn her. Once again Ezekiel is to act out the prophecy of God, instructing the exiles that in the same way, they are not to mourn the loss of Jerusalem.
Now, there’s two ways to read this. Maybe God is doubling down on their punishment; saying that they shouldn’t mourn because their exile is their own fault. I suppose that would be the cynical reading. But it doesn’t seem to parallel well with Ezekiel’s wife dying. There is a second interpretation. Maybe God is telling them not to mourn Jerusalem because there are better things ahead. God wants them to look to the future and not live in the past. God is inviting them to a new life of obedience and purpose. Not only do I think that this reading is more in line with God’s character, but it also harmonizes well with Jeremiah 29, in which God instructs the Israelites to marry and have families and pursue new lives in Babylon.
All in all, the first half of Ezekiel is not exactly cheery. It’s about consequence and discipline. But God doesn’t leave Ezekiel or his people there. The second half of Ezekiel is a redemption arc. In chapter 37, God brings Ezekiel in vision to a valley of dry bones, and says,
“Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.”
And God then asks Ezekiel,
“Son of man, can these bones live?”
Ezekiel has been working for God for a while now, and he’s no fool. He only responds,
“O Lord God, you know.”
And so God commands Ezekiel to declare life to the bones, and the bones are clothed in flesh and becoming living people again. God tells Ezekiel,
Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.”
The rest of the book carries out this theme. Once the people have learned from their discipline, God will return his favor to them, and will prepare them for things better than ever before. Chapters 40 through 48 detail a final vision: a vision of a new temple to replace the old one. Ezekiel is told to measure all the aspects of the temple to discern what is holy from what is profane. As he does so, the temple and the city around it become larger and larger until it is too big to remain in the borders of Israel, and God’s water of life flows out of it.
Whether we want to make the new temple about a future reconstruction, or the fulfillment of God dwelling with his people through the Holy Spirit, we have to first recognize what this meant for the Jews and for Ezekiel. As they suffer exile, God is preparing them to hope for new things. They have a new opportunity to learn from their sufferings and start again in serving God. They are given opportunity to have families and live new lives. And after a while, they will get to go back home. All the while, God is using their story to prepare the world for the Messiah, who will usher in a new covenant and a new Spirit that will bring people closer to God than ever before.
I’ve had to ask myself why I disliked Ezekiel so much when I was young. And I realized that it wasn’t only because I had to read about Ezekiel’s adventures with a measuring stick for nine chapters. When I was young, I disliked the book of Ezekiel because I thought he was treated unfairly. He was faithful to God, and he endured terrible hardship. I didn’t like that. In my childlike mind, I thought that if you did the right things, you would have a happy life; if you did the wrong things, you would have a hard life. As an adult, I now know it’s not that simple.
When we read Ezekiel, we have a choice to see Ezekiel as a victim. If that’s our take on it, maybe it’s because we see our lives in the same way. Maybe we think, that when we suffer in life, we are being treated unfairly. Maybe we think that we’ve been faithful to God, and therefore we deserve an easy life.
But there is a second choice, and that is to view Ezekiel as a man given great adventure and purpose. Ezekiel had a full life. He had a family and friends, and most importantly, he had an intimate relationship with God that only a few handful of men have ever experienced. He was given great prestige and purpose as the watchman over Israel. His life was far more interesting than the life he would have lead sacrificing animals day after day in the temple. And he did not need to doubt the welfare and future of himself or His people, because God showed him the glorious things that were in their future.
To make that choice is important. Because each one of us will live the life of Ezekiel. We do not get to lead charmed lives just because we are Christians. We will all endure upheaval, uncertainty, suffering, ostracization, and loss of loved ones, because that’s part of life. And we can choose to see ourselves as victims for that, or, we can look forward to the great blessings that God has prepared for us.
Tolstoy once wrote, “When our lives are knocked off course, we imagine everything in them is lost. But it is only the start of new and good. As long as there is life, there is happiness. There is a great deal. A great deal still to come.”
I don’t hate to read about Ezekiel measuring the temple anymore. Because now, I see that Ezekiel believed in those words. Ezekiel fought the good fight, and at the end of his life, he was still just happy to listen to God and hope for promises of the future. As far as I can tell, he wasn’t trapped mourning for days past. He was just happy to be running around the New Jerusalem measuring all the promises that God was showing him.
I’m working all the time to be more like Ezekiel in this. I have learned that if I look for unfairness in life, that’s what I tend to see. But if I look for God’s blessings, He is faithful to show them to be in abundance. The fact that He has taught us through Ezekiel demonstrates that He can do the same for you!