The Book of Ezekiel is one of the major prophetic texts in the Bible. This particular book is filled with visions or prophecies narrated in apocalyptic language and rich in symbolism. This makes it somewhat complex to understand, but its content is invaluable and essential for God's people. Come and learn about it.
book of ezekiel
The book of the prophet Ezekiel is a book that is certainly challenging to understand. This book has its difficulties for Bible readers especially in these times. Just a cursory reading of Ezekiel's text immediately reveals that we are not dealing with a common literature such as any narration from one of the biblical historical books or the one of psalms so frequently read, and with which the readers may be more familiar.
When reading the book of Ezekiel, one can immediately see that one is dealing with a type of biblical language known as apocalyptic language, which is a literature loaded with narratives of images and symbols.
In addition to its complex language, Ezekiel is a fairly long text, with 48 chapters in total. This means it's not like a book by a minor prophet, which, although it may also contain apocalyptic language, has a much shorter and more concise content that makes it easier to understand and interpret. Are you interested in learning about the major and minor prophets? Discover them all at this link: The Prophets : Who were they? Minor, Major, and More
The complexity of the book of Ezekiel
Ezequiel, then, is a text with a very long or extensive literature to interpret. Many of the biblical critics describe that when reading this text, they find several visions with a narrative that is not literally true, although they symbolize true events. They say that it is very rare to find a chapter in which the reader does not see himself in a world of reality through symbols. Because the text contains a lot of symbolic narrative.
This is what makes the book of Ezekiel quite complex to read, not a simple read. This is because upon reading a passage, the reader is already wondering, "What does this mean?" This can lead the reader to delve deeper into other parts of the Bible. Do you know what these parts are? If you'd like to learn more, we recommend the following article, " Parts of the Bible : Structure, Books, and Much More," to gain a glimpse into the writings and visions of the prophet Ezekiel.
Many Bible scholars speak of Ezekiel as the strangest of the Old Testament prophets. However, it is important to point out that the book of Ezekiel, although it has its complexity of reading, has a composition, a vital and necessary content for all the people of God.
Composition, the prophet Ezekiel and his message
This text is among the main of the books of the Old Testament, as a useful book to inspire, teach and correct a Christian and child of God. Regarding its composition, it is first important to see the prophet and his message.
The first three chapters of the book of Ezekiel even though it is not directly the biographical narrative of the prophet. If it frames and contextualizes the character or author in the narrative in which he gives his message. Also offering information about himself, where he identifies himself as a priest and from whom he is a descendant:
Ezekiel 1:3 (LBLA) 3 The word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the priest , the son of Buzi , in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and there the hand of the Lord came upon him.
Although in the Bible it is common to read about the different offices of Jesus, such as: teacher, prophet and king. There are also other biblical characters who carried out more than one trade, Ezekiel was one of these characters. Because in addition to being a prophet he was also a priest, this observation is very important to take into account, since having the knowledge that he was a priest manages to explain the narration in detail of all the information that the book describes about the temple.
And not only when describing the vision of the future temple in the last chapters of the book, but also in the description that he makes in the rest of the chapters, about the things that happen in different places or spaces of the temple. Only someone who knows what happens inside the temple can make these descriptions in detail. Ezequiel was aware of this, being a priest of the temple.
Historic context from the Book of Ezekiel
Ezekiel was born at the time that the prophet Jeremiah began his ministry. Furthermore, Ezekiel was in the land of the Chaldeans by the Chebar River. On the banks of this river, a large concentration of deported and exiled Jews had settled in Babylon, during the sixth century before Christ, at the time of King Nebuchadnezzar II.
Ezekiel and Daniel were two of those deported to Babylon. Both were prophets and contemporaries or of similar age. However, Daniel was taken in the first wave of Israelite deportees from the southern kingdom to exile in Babylon. Ezekiel, on the other hand, was taken in the second wave in 597 BC. You can read more about this prophet and companion of Ezekiel in the Book of Daniel : Prophecies and Babylonian Captivity.
The deportations of the Israelites to the Babylonian exile did not take place all at once, but in three waves and in different years before Christ:
- First wave in 605
- Second wave in 597
- Third wave in the year 587
In addition to the fact that both were contemporary prophets and coincided in the same place, Babylon. In the book, the author refers to Daniel three times.
Babylonian and Assyrian deportations
The deportations of the Babylonians were different from those carried out by the Assyrians. The different ethnic groups deported to Babylon could live together in racial or ethnic congregations. However, with those deported to Assyria it was not the same, as is the case with the Israelites of the northern kingdom. The northern kingdom suffered the fall and exile in Assyria years before the southern kingdom in 722 BC.
The way the Assyrians faced the deportations was by dividing the conquered peoples into different groups, and in turn they distributed them in different places of their empire. This Assyrian strategy pursued the objective of weakening the conquered peoples so that they would not unite. Thus avoiding future uprisings or revealing themselves to the empire.
The Assyrians acted like this with the deportees from the northern kingdom. Being one of the reasons why the people of this kingdom were disappearing. This Israelite people was absorbing more and more Assyrian culture and losing its identity as a Jewish nation.
In the case of the Babylonian deportation which is the context of the book of Ezekiel the empire allowed deportees from other nations to live together as an ethnic group. This is why Ezekiel can minister or preach to the Israelites as a nation, even while in captivity. Even some scholars or scholars of the Bible suggest that it was from these times that the practice of worship in synagogues arose. Because Israel being far from her land, the people would begin to have those places to teach the scriptures.
Another characteristic of the Babylonian deportations was that the empire took advantage of the skills that the exiles had and that is how they took young people like Daniel.
Ezekiel's ministry
Ezekiel's ministry lasted for about two decades. The first five years of his ministry basically unfolds, from the first chapter to the 24th, almost half of the text. While the rest of his 15 years of service to God take place between chapters 33 to 48.
The remaining chapters between these two parts of Ezekiel's ministry. In other words, from chapter 25 to 32 of the book, you can find a section containing prophecies related to the nations adjacent or neighboring the concentration of the Jewish people. According to what has been said, the prophetic visions of the book can be divided into three large blocks
-Early years of Ezekiel's ministry: Prophecies against Judah and Jerusalem, chapters 1 to 24
-Prophecies against foreign nations, chapters 25 to 32
-Last years of Ezekiel's ministry: Prophecies of hope and salvation for Israel, chapters 33 to 48
The prophet's message
In the same way that it happens with the rest of the prophets of the Bible, the message of the prophet Ezekiel is based on the judgment of God because of his sinful people and at the same time the divine promise of liberation and salvation. Promise that indicates that the restoration of the people and the redemption of sin will soon come.
This message that can be found in other prophets is part of the history of redemption of the people of God who were living the days under the threat of foreign invasion, as Isaiah had prophesied. As well as the people of God who were already living under these events of captivity, as is the case of the prophet Jeremiah who was between the two scenarios.
Ezekiel after the deportation shows how God made the people of his truth suffer, in order to keep them within hope and that they could understand why they were living that situation of captivity. They had to understand and know what was the reason why they had been deported and exiled.
Precisely these prophetic books of the Bible always explain it. Not only for the people of God of those times, but also for today. So that we too can understand and learn the lesson.
The Themes of the Book of Ezekiel
On the subject, some scholars say that just as the themes of judgment and salvation are central in the book of Jeremiah, the same is true of the prophet Ezekiel. Ezekiel's ministry began after Jeremiah's, and was directed especially to the exiles in Babylon.
This ministry lasted until at least 571 BC and the message that he was going to transmit as a spokesman, which was God's, would represent a very hard challenge and quite difficult to carry out.
The task assigned by God to Ezekiel is not the kind of design or assignment that any servant of God would want to hear. Ezekiel was receiving the call from God to convey a harsh message to his people as can be seen in chapter 2:
Ezekiel 2:3-8 , And he said to me, “Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation who have rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have rebelled against me to this very day. 4 I am sending you to a stubborn and hard-hearted people, and you shall say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says.’ 5 Whether they listen or not, because they are a rebellious people, they will always know that a prophet has been among them.”
6 And you, son of man, do not fear them, nor be afraid of their words, even though you find yourself among briars and thorns, and dwellers with scorpions; do not be afraid of their words, nor fear before them, because they are a rebellious house. 7 You will then speak my words to them, whether they listen or stop listening; because they are very rebellious. 8 But you, son of man, hear what I speak to you; don't be rebellious like the rebellious house; he opens your mouth, and eats what I give you.
Then at the end of chapter 2 and beginning of 3, God tells Ezekiel that the scroll he is giving him must be eaten.
Ezekiel 3:1-2 He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go and speak to the house of Israel.” 2 So I opened my mouth, and he made me eat the scroll
The glory of God
One theme that stands out in a very interesting way when we start reading the book of Ezekiel is the theme of the glory of God. In Hebrew the Kavod YHWH, and normally translated as the glory of God.
Ezekiel outlines the glory of God who dwelt with the people of Israel. The same that descended in the temple or tabernacle in Jerusalem, that glory that was with them. That glory of God, the vision reflects how it goes, that is, the people of Israel were losing it.
This first vision that appears in the text, according to the scholars, is a frankly impressive vision and that also has a primary purpose, to impact the prophet Ezekiel. Because what Ezekiel sees through the vision is a kind of the throne of God in motion. The throne of God had wheels:
Ezekiel 1:12 And each one went straight forward, wherever the spirit moved them…
1:16 The appearance of the wheels and their workmanship was like the color of chrysolite…
1:20 Wherever the Spirit led them, they went…
1:26 Above the expanse over their heads was what looked like a throne made of sapphire stone, and above the throne was a likeness of a man sitting on it.
1:28 … This was the vision 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.
The Kingdom of God is everywhere
This shows very clearly that God reigns from anywhere in the world. The Lord is not circumscribed to a particular place or place. And anywhere you can have an encounter with the Lord. In this part Ezekiel realizes that he is in the presence of the Lord and prostrates himself before him.
At present, perhaps the people of God do not need to have these types of visions, but they do need to have encounters with the Lord. We need to have that kind of appreciation of God's glory and be able to react to his presence like the prophet Ezekiel did.
To have that manifestation of the Glory of God in Babylon, so far from the place where the people used to be before his presence, in the temple. It must have meant for Ezekiel one of the most glorious manifestations of the Lord, that any other character in the scriptures could have had.
God with this manifestation told Ezequiel, -I am the sovereign, do not fear Nebuchadnezzar-. God is the sovereign of a kingdom that moves, the Lord is the absolute king of the entire universe.
God's jealousy
In chapter 8:3 you can read in the book:
Ezekiel 8:3-4 (TLA): That figure stretched out what appeared to be a hand, and grabbed me by the hair. Then a force within me lifted me up and carried me to Jerusalem; once there, it set me down at the entrance of the inner gate, which faces north. There they had set up an idol, but there also was the God of Israel in all his splendor, just as I had seen him before in the valley. When God saw that idol, he became jealous and angry.
The glory of God that came with the people of Israel from Exodus 24 shared the place with an image that provokes the jealousy of God. His people already had idols and Ezekiel sees in this passage the same glory of God as in the vision he had had in the valley. Then in Ezekiel 9:3 the glory of God goes to the entrance of the temple. Later in the text in Ezekiel 11:23 he rises from the midst of the city and stands on the hill that is to the east of the city.
In this regard, if someone looks east from the temple in Jerusalem, what he sees is the Mount of Olives. He means that in Ezekiel's vision the glory of God was being placed on the Mount of Olives. Where the same Lord Jesus Christ many years later observes the temple from there and says that it will be destroyed.
God's Judgment
The book begins by letting it be known that it is made up of visions. From the very first verse of chapter 1 it says: -the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God-.
When reading the entire part of the trial, several visions will be found and in turn the reader wondering what this means and what this other means. But they are visions that God uses to explain in most cases his judgment.
In Ezekiel 3:7 God warns him telling him that the house of Israel will not really listen to him, that they do not want to listen to their God. In the following verses, God makes Ezekiel see that he has done it in a special way to be able to face that rebellious people that is the house of Israel.
So according to this, Ezekiel represented the difference before such a foolish and rebellious people. God was telling Ezekiel, but you are going to be different and you are going to respond differently to what I, your God, tell you.
Ezekiel -son of man-
On the other hand, it is important to note in this book that God frequently repeats the expression to name Ezekiel, who is -son of man-. As if to say to him, yes you make a difference, but you are just a simple weak man, you need my strength and my grace to be able to carry out the call to which I send you.
The second section of the book from chapter 4 to 32, are the words of judgment. So almost two-thirds of the book of Ezekiel concentrates on the subject of judgment.
God in the call he has for Ezekiel emphasizes what is happening with the house of Israel. This emphasis of God on judgment is the consequence for the sins of the people. Israel needed to understand it and today the people of God must also do it as a reflection of life.
God speaks to them about judgment, calls the people to repentance, to turn away from idols. The presence of the God of Israel was gone, because evil had reached the height of disaster.
Therefore the people did not know which was worse, the exile they were experiencing or the fact that the glory of God had departed from them. In those times the role of the prophets was crucial so that the people of God could understand why what they were experiencing was happening to them.
The judgment of foreign nations
Within this part of the book on the subject of judgment can be found between chapters 25 and 32 regarding God's judgment against neighboring nations. Where God tells them: how you made fun of my people, when I punished them. Now I am going to punish you. That is the theme of this part of the text and mention is made of various nations that were being punished for having mocked the people of God.
The prophecies of hope and salvation
In the last section of the book of Ezekiel, chapters 33 to 48, God is sovereign and Lord, and He had purposed to raise a people from the ashes. This is why in chapter 37 you can read the vision of the valley of dry bones. That same passage of the text of Ezequiel is the one that was in the mind of Jesus in the New Testament when he conversed with Nicodemus, about the new birth in the Spirit of God and his work. Then God said to Ezekiel - son of man these bones are the whole house of Israel -, he had the power to raise up his people and restore him once more.
At present, when one observes the world in which one is living, where there is so much evil, corruption, the inner call to reflection is made: Is it that perhaps something good can come out of all this?
Given this, hope should not be lost, because now we have the message of salvation. In these times for the glory of God Jesus is preached and the dead will live, his spirit only has to say live and will live, Amen!
Just as the Lord raises us up in these times, God was feeding, encouraging his people through Ezekiel's visions. God tells them that he was going to gather his people and promises a good shepherd descendant of David, Jesus Christ.
Some of the highlights:
- Prediction against the shepherds of God's people, Ezekiel 34:1-31
- Declaration of Judgment against Edom, Ezekiel 35:1-15
- Prophecy about the blessing of the land, Ezekiel 36:1-15
- Promise of return to Jerusalem, Ezekiel 36:16-38, 37:1-14
- Illustration of two sticks in symbology of the unity of the Nation
– The conflict with Gog and Magog , chapters 38 and 39. These chapters basically confirm that God's people will never be defeated again, no superpower will arise in the future to totally dominate God's restored people, just as Jesus said.
– Visions concerning the restoration of the temple in chapters 40 and 48. These contain descriptions of a new temple. Some scholars apply this passage to the New Covenant church, saying that God is referring to us as the temple of the Lord. The church of Jesus Christ is the temple of God, amen.