The city was not destroyed even at the time of the second deportation. It was not until about B. Therefore for a period of about ten years, these false prophets were saying that the people would return and the city would not be destroyed.
Jeremiah had sent a message to Babylon saying the city would be destroyed, and Ezekiel confirmed his message. He warned the people that they must turn to God before they could return to Jerusalem.
When the time came, a very small remnant did turn to God, and they returned to Jerusalem very discouraged. Ezekiel began his ministry five years after he was taken captive at about the age of thirty.
In many ways, he spoke in the darkest days of the nation. He stood at the bottom of a valley in the darkest corner. He had to meet the false hope given by the false prophets and the indifference and despondency begotten in the days of sin and disaster. The people would not listen to his message. Therefore, he resorted to a new method.
Instead of speaking in parables, as the Lord Jesus did, he acted out the parables. He actually did some very interesting stunts. We have folk who use this very same method today. We have placard carriers, flagpole sitters, and walkathons. People do these things to attract attention and gain publicity.
One time he walked into a house, locked himself in, and then started digging himself out. When he came out, he came out in the middle of the street! Here in Pasadena, California, it is nothing new to be digging in the middle of the street, for the city workers keep digging up the streets all the time. Ezekiel is the prophet of the glory of the Lord. There were three prophets of Israel who spoke when they were out of the land. They are Ezekiel, Daniel, and John who wrote from the island of Patmos.
All three of these men wrote what is called an apocalypse. They all used highly symbolic language; yet they saw the brightest light and held the highest hope of all the prophets. The meaning of Ezekiel is seen in this coming of the glory during the Kingdom Age. Ezekiel looked beyond the sufferings of Christ to the glory that should follow. As Peter said of the prophets, they saw the sufferings and they saw the glory that would follow 1 Pet.
I think Ezekiel saw it better than any of the other prophets. McGee, J. Thru the Bible Commentary, Vol. Alright--take a look at Jesus. When we'd sing that song, 'Take time to be holy; speak oft with thy Lord' in chapel, Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer used to always stop us and say, 'Change that first line. Let us sing it, Take time to behold Him. Behold Him, then. Vernon McGee. It's a day when many are hearing the Word of God, and we rejoice in that.
The book of Ezekiel contains the visions and prophecies of Ezekiel, whom the Lord called to minister to the Jewish captives in Babylon. This book shows that the Lord is mindful of His people wherever they are. As students study this book, they can learn that God calls prophets as watchmen to warn His children of danger. Despite being set at a time when Jerusalem was being destroyed, the book of Ezekiel is full of hope.
The prophet Ezekiel is the author of the book of Ezekiel. Writing from a first-person perspective, Ezekiel recorded the visions and revelations he received from the Lord. Ezekiel was a priest who was among the Jewish captives carried away to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar in approximately B. According to the account in 2 Kings —16 , the Babylonians took captive mostly the chief men of the land at that time.
Despite Arab attempts to claim the Temple Mount as their own, the Temple vessels for worship in the Third Temple have already been created. A letter favoring establishing a national home for the Jewish People began the process of fulfilling Bible prophecy concerning Israel in these last days. The Hebrew prophets all proclaimed that in the last days the exiles of Israel would return to the Promised Land and the Temple would be rebuilt—but for whom?
You can bookmark articles to Read Later. Boston Public Library. God called this priest to be a prophet at the age of 30, five years into this first Babylonian exile. The prophet Jeremiah, who remained in Jerusalem during that time, tried to warn the Jewish People to repent of their idol worship and wickedness or face destruction and captivity.
He later prophesied they would spend 70 years in exile beginning in the year BC Jeremiah Ezekiel also prophesied the coming destruction, but he focused his efforts on telling the Israelites why God was exiling them and how they could get right with the Lord again. Ezekiel encountered God through extraordinary visions full of metaphor and symbology that have produced much speculation over the millennia, yet God also conveyed His message to the People of Israel through Ezekiel very clearly:.
Turn from your idols and renounce all your detestable practices! They are actual practices by a Chosen People whom God had set apart and given a role in sharing holiness with the neighboring nations, so they could come to know and worship the one true God as well. Another recurring theme is her redemption back into His protection and bountifu l provision in the land of Israel. This is not for her sake alone, but to make sure the nations do finally see that He is the one, true, holy and sovereign God of the universe.
Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Sovereign Lord, when I am proved holy through you before their eyes. Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be My people, and I will be your God. Through supernatural signs and fulfilled prophecies, such as the r egathering and restoration of the Jewish People back into their own land, supernatural protection, and victories against outnumbered armies, it seems the nations should realize that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is real.
Amazingly, Ezekiel describes all of these future scenarios that we have seen unfold in our generation. A Jewish bride and groom marry under the chuppah. Photo by Greg Hirson. God is so serious about making people aware of this that He held Ezekiel personally responsible for making sure the People understood the consequences of iniquity in their own lives. But if you warn the righteous person not to sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning, and you will have delivered your soul.
The Good News and Hope for all mankind that Ezekiel and every prophet of God shared regarding sin, no matter how detestable, is the same:. Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall. Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, people of Israel? Repent and live! Though it was probably not his prophetic intention at the time, Ezekiel made a significant contribution to Jewish mysticism with his detailed vision of a heavenly chariot under the throne of God — This supernatural encounter with the heavenly realm began a new school of thought called merkabah chariot mysticism.
My Jewish Learning. The idea of a heavenly chariot is not unique to Ezekiel. The main works of Merkabah mysticism was composed in Israel from AD to , and is a precursor to Kabbalah mysticism. It also suggests that it should not be done alone.
Neither do we require such mystical works written outside the Biblical texts to teach us how to approach the throne of God; and it most certainly can be done alone, even in our prayer closets Matthew And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.
He is now our gate to Divine Revelation and personal communication with our Father in heaven, Adonai Himself. John A Tour of Hopelessness and Resurrection. As one writer wrote, taking such steps allows God to unearth the dry bones in our lives, to revive our hearts and to breathe new life into our souls. But the Lord does tell us that these disconnected and utterly dried out bones that Ezekiel tours are the Jewish people , who had been living with seemingly no hope of redemption or a Promised Land of their own since the time of the Babylonian exile.
Can an utterly rebellious nation against God be redeemed? Here in the valley, God answers that question by clearly displaying His chesed covenantal love to His People.
He promises:. This resurrection of life is to happen in stages: Bone align themselves together; tendons attach the bones to each other; flesh covers the bones; and finally, the breath of God literally, His Ruach or Spirit brings the bones to life as they stand on their feet and form a mighty army.
A Jewish man purchases groceries in the Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem.
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