Introduction to Ezekiel

Ezekiel gives us the same information as Isaiah and Jeremiah from a different perspective.  Isaiah warned Judah of the coming judgment during a time of great prosperity generations before it would take place.  Jeremiah and Ezekiel warned Israel of the coming judgment during at time of great idolatry and ministered to the generation that fell under God’s judgment.  The difference between Ezekiel and Jeremiah is that Jeremiah was one of the few remnants that were left in Judah while Ezekiel was one of the captives taken to Babylon.  Ezekiel was also a contemporary of the prophet Daniel.  The deportation to Babylon occurred in three stages.  Daniel was taken in the first deportation which was mostly made up of the brightest and best of Judah.  Ezekiel was taken in the second deportation which was a result of Judah’s rebellion against Babylon and meant to be a warning against future rebellions.  The captives of the first and second deportations were treated well, given positions of authority in the Babylonian kingdom and they were even given homes in which to live and in some cases land on which they could farm.  The final deportation was much more violent as Judah rebelled yet again and despite Jeremiah’s urgings to surrender, they fought against Babylon, lost and were slaughtered in the streets, the city of Jerusalem was burned, the temple was destroyed and the vast majority of the surviving population was deported as slaves to the Babylonian empire.  Ezekiel’s message is to combat the false prophets among the exiles who were claiming that the captivity would be very short and that they would all soon be allowed to return to Judah.  Ezekiel contradicts these wishful thinkers and agrees with Jeremiah’s teaching that God’s wrath will remain on the people for many generations.  He also has a message of judgment for the surrounding nations that oppressed Israel and Judah.  Then Ezekiel concludes his book with a message of great hope that foretells a time of physical restoration of Israel to the land that was promised to Abraham.  He foresees the reign of Jesus as the descendant of David ruling over Israel and the nations.  He promises that Israel will experience a spiritual revival in which their hearts will be transformed by the power of God and for the glory of God.  God’s promises always come true.  He is faithful to His Word and He is faithful to discipline the sins of His children.  We must learn to listen to God’s warnings and trust in His promises.

JUDAH WILL BE DISCIPLINED DUE TO THEIR IDOLATRY: Ezekiel is given numerous visions of the greatness of God as well as His wrath to be poured out over the nation of Judah.  We are given an amazing vision of God’s glory and beauty in the images that Ezekiel paints with his words.  These glorious visions of holiness and purity are contrasted very sharply with the visions of idolatry in the hearts of the nation of Judah.  The nation is compared to a harlot who lusts after multiple partners who do nothing but abuse her.  Most prostitutes are paid for performing their sexual activity but Israel has played the part of a harlot who gets nothing in return for her idolatrous acts except ridicule, slavery and God’s wrath.  A holy, just and glorious God has no choice but to judge a people who are so corrupted by sin and enslaved to worship of false gods of their own invention.  Many of the captives who were taken with Ezekiel demonstrated that they had no intention of repenting by continuing to practice idolatry even while living in exile.  In fact, they were learning new forms of idolatry from their pagan captors.  To top it all off there were false teachers who were claiming that they would soon be sent back home and all would be well again.  Those who are enslaved to sin will are blinded to their plight and refuse to see the terrible consequences of their actions.  They will only dive deeper and deeper into their sinful ways despite the suffering this pattern brings to their lives.  Sin is always blinding and binding.  Ezekiel repeatedly repeats the truth that God longs to forgive those who repent.  God will not remember the sins of the past against those who repent of that sin and turn to worship Him.  In the same way Ezekiel warns us that God will not remember the righteous acts of those who turn from righteousness to rebellion.  God longs to forgive sins but He will not hesitate to judge the sins of all who rebel against Him and worship false gods.  This is a glorious truth that brings hope to all who have sinned against God but is also a sobering truth that warns any who are considering walking away from the path of obedience.

NATIONS WILL BE DESTROYED DUE TO THEIR CRUELTY: Not only will the nation of Israel be judged for their idolatry, but Ezekiel makes it very clear that God is planning to judge the surrounding nations as well.  Many of these nations were used by God as instruments of judgment on Israel, but instead of being warned about the consequences of sin and idolatry; they became proud and used their dominance to delve even deeper into sin.  They were brutal and cruel in their treatment of Israel and had no fear of the Lord.  God will not let these sins go unpunished and has determined to bring them to justice as well.  Israel and Judah were judged first because they had greater revelation and many more warnings from prophets who called them to repentance.  But the nations should have paid closer attention to the plight of those who rebel against God as well as heeding the warnings of the prophets who let them know of God’s wrath to come.  As in Jeremiah we see that instead of Israel being an instrument of salvation in the nations; her unfaithfulness caused her to become a source of condemnation.  We must be very careful to be sure that we are not coming under the influence of the world and end up being useless in bringing them to Christ while incurring God’s wrath on our own lives in the meantime.  God is a loving, merciful, forgiving and patient Person.  However, He is also a holy, just and jealous Judge who will condemn all who fail to turn from their sin in repentance.  God’s greatest joy is to see people turn from their sin.  He takes no joy or pleasure in judging or condemning mankind; but He must when we refuse to repent and make use of His means of reconciliation.  This is why we must faithfully warn all men everywhere of God’s impending wrath and proclaim to them Christ’s gracious offer of redemption through His blood that was shed on our behalf.

ISRAEL WILL BE DELIVERED DUE TO GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY: Ezekiel’s final message to the nation of Israel is one of hope.  Despite Israel’s repeated failures; God has made unconditional promises to the nation that He fully intends to keep.  We must not view God’s judgment of Israel or of anyone for that matter as God’s abandonment of His promises. Rather, they are a means through which He will eventually fulfill His promises.  God’s judgment on multiple generations of Israel is complete and is permanent.  Those of the nation of Israel who have died in their sinful state of rebellion are eternally lost and condemned before God just like every other race of people on the face of the earth.  However, God will sovereignly work in the history of His chosen nation to bring them to a place of repentance and restoration.  They are currently scattered across the face of the planet but God has promised to bring them back to The Promised Land where they will permanently inhabit all of the land that was promised to Abraham.  Ezekiel makes it clear that God’s purpose in doing this is not because of Israel’s worthiness but because God has made promises and in order to defend His holy name He must fulfill those promises.  The dead and dry bones of Ezekiel’s vision will be given new life and once again live for the glory of God.  God will bring Israel into the Land and provide protection for them in a supernatural way so that they will never be dislocated from it again.  Their enemies will be subdued and they will live at peace.  More significantly, God intends to bring about this physical restoration through spiritual revival.  God will work through the circumstances of the history of the world to convince Israel of the fact that Jesus Christ is the promised Messiah and the nation will place their faith in Him.  They will repent of their sin and God will forgive them.  The temple will be rebuilt and genuine worship of the Lord will be restored in the nation.  There will be a true transformation that will take place in the heart of the nation.  Idolatry will be permanently removed from the people and God will be the glory of the nation.  God will be the only object of their worship and they will experience the true joy of following their Lord.  The land will be divided once again with each tribe receiving its rightful allotment.  It is a great comfort to know that our Lord will always keep His promises.  To us the circumstances of life and the course of history may seem to make no sense whatsoever.  But God is sovereignly working to bring about His plan and His purposes and in the end He will be glorified perfectly.  One day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.  Some will do so from a position of condemnation while others will do so from a position of justification through faith in Christ.  In the end God’s glory will be brilliantly displayed for all of eternity.