Introduction to the Book of Ezekiel
“Ezekiel was a priest (Ezek. 1:3), but he never served in that office because he was taken captive to Babylon during the reign of Jehoiachin (Jeconiah, 2 Kings 24:10-16), who was the king of Judah who followed Jehoiakim. It was during the eleven-year reign of Jehoiakim that the first deportation took place [605BC] when Daniel was taken captive. Jehoiachin [Jeconiah] then came to the throne and reigned only three months. In 597BC the second deportation took place, and Ezekiel was taken captive. Ezekiel was a contemporary of Jeremiah and Daniel. Jeremiah was an old man at this time. He had begun his ministry as a young man during the reign of King Josiah. [see http://www.unityinchrist.com/jeremiah/jer1.html, as a matter of fact, Josiah, born around 647BC, was the same age as Jeremiah, so Jeremiah was 42 when Daniel was taken captive in 605BC, and was about 50 years old when Ezekiel was taken captive in 597BC.] He [Jeremiah] had remained with the remnant in the land and then was taken by them down into Egypt [he didn’t have any choice in the matter] Therefore his [Jeremiah’s] ministry at that time was confined to the remnant in Egypt [and that ministry to those in Egypt probably didn’t last long, see http://www.unityinchrist.com/jeremiah/jer12.html to see what really happened to Jeremiah in Egypt.] Daniel had been taken into the court of the king of Babylon and had become his prime minister. Ezekiel, then, was with the captives who had been brought down to the rivers of Babylon. The captives had been placed by the great canal that came off the River Euphrates, which was several miles from Babylon itself. Ezekiel’s ministry was among those people. Psalm 137 is the psalm of the remnant in Babylon: “By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hung our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof” (Ps. 137:1-2). But at the same time Ezekiel writes: “The heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God” (Ezek. 1:1). What a contrast! While these people had already put their harps on a willow trees and sat down to weep, this man Ezekiel was seeing visions of God!…During the first years of the captivity the false prophets were still saying that the people were going to return to Jerusalem and that the city would not be destroyed. The city was not destroyed even at the time of this second deportation [597BC]. It was not until about 586BC, when Nebuchadnezzar came against the city the third time, that he burned and destroyed Jerusalem. 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.”…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. [But you remember, God through Jeremiah called these Jews who had been in the first two deportations “the good basket of figs”, the ones he wanted to work with. Two major prophets had been placed by God in their midst for their own good and spiritual edification, one was Daniel, and the other was Ezekiel. See the Jeremiah commentary for the chapter about the two baskets of figs.] 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 [God, Yahweh had him resort to this, he didn’t think this up all on his own, Yahweh told him to do these things]. Instead of speaking in parables, as the Lord Jesus did, he acted out the parables. He actually did some very interesting stunts. We read in Ezekiel 24:24, “Thus Ezekiel is unto you a sign: according to all that he hath done shall ye do: and when this cometh, ye shall know that I am the Lord GOD.” The people would not listen to his words, so he would act them out, and he attracted a great deal of attention that way. We have folks who use this very same method today. We have placard carriers, flag-pole sitters, and walkathons [like the guy who carried a large wooden cross on wheels across the United States a while ago]. People do these things to attract and gain publicity. This, too, was Ezekiel’s method [given to him by Yahweh]. 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!…But in Ezekiel’s time, when a man came up out of the middle of the street one day, people naturally gathered around and said, ‘What’s the big idea?’ Ezekiel had a message for them, and he gave it to them (see Ezek. 12:8-16). Ezekiel is the prophet of the glory of the LORD.
Ezekiel, one of the three major apocalyptic prophets
There were three prophets of Israel who spoke when they were out of the land. They were 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. Ezekiel saw the Shekinah glory of the LORD leave Solomon’s Temple, but he also saw the return of the glory of the LORD which was projected into the future and will come to pass during the Kingdom Age, or the Millennium. 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. 1:11). I think Ezekiel saw it better than any of the other prophets.” [THRU THE BIBLE, Vol. III, selected portions taken from pp. 436-437.] From Halley we get, “Ezekiel and Daniel, Daniel had been in Babylon 9 years when Ezekiel arrived; and had already attained to great fame (14:14, 20). Daniel was in the palace; Ezekiel in the country. They may have met often. Ezekiel and Jeremiah, Jeremiah was the older. Ezekiel may have been his pupil. Ezekiel preached among the exiles the same things Jeremiah was preaching in Jerusalem: certainty of Judah’s punishment for her sins. Ezekiel and John, Some of Ezekiel’s visions seem to be extended into the book of Revelation: Cherubim (Ezekiel 1, Revelation 4); Gog and Magog (Ezekiel 38, Revelation 20); Eating the book (Ezekiel 3, Revelation 10); New Jerusalem (Ezekiel 40-48, Revelation 21); River of Water of Life (Ezekiel 47, Revelation 22). [p.323 Halley’s Bible Handbook] There is a dominant theme running through Ezekiel which Halley mentions, “They Shall Know that I am God”, mentioned in 62 places through the book of Ezekiel. Halley says, “Ezekiel’s mission seems to have been to explain the action of God in causing or permitting Israel’s [Judah’s] captivity. It was because of the unspeakable abominations of which they were guilty [which had caused the driving out and deportation of the ten northern tribes of Israel, the House of Israel 130 years prior to their deportation]; abominations for which other nations had been blotted out [i.e. eventually, the complete blotting out of the Phoenicians both as a maritime empire and then as a distinct people]. But for Judah is was punitive. By their punishment they would come to KNOW THAT GOD IS GOD. They did. The Babylonian Captivity CURED the Jews of Idolatry [whereas the driving out and deportation of some of the ten tribes of Israel did no such thing. The eastern Scythians had remained sun-worshippers, as did the Israelites that escaped Assyrian captivity by sailing west to Carthage and Iberia [Spain], and into the Phoenician-Israelite trading colonies along the coast of northwest Europe, including the British Isles and Ireland. They continued to remain as pagan as the Phoenicians they were allied to, as Celtic history and archeological records plainly show.] Up to that time [the time of the Babylonian Captivity] they just would be idolaters. From that day to this, whatever other sins the Jews have been guilty of, they have not been Idolaters. [ibid. p. 324] “Ezekiel’s Abode and Date, “He was carried captive with king Jehoiachin [Jeconiah] (597BC), “our” captivity (33:21; 40:1). He had a wife (24:15-18); a home (8:1). He lived by the river Chebar, the great ship canal branching off from the Euphrates above Babylon and running through Nippur to the Tigris. Nippur, about 50 miles Southeast of Babylon, was Calneh, one of the cities Nimrod had built (Genesis 10:10). Telabib seems to have been Ezekiel’s home town (3:15, 24). It is thought to have been near Nippur. There is in the region a village called “Kilfil,” the Arabian for “Ezekiel,” which, tradition says, was his residence…” [ibid. p. 325].
Again I am going to use the three bolded color-code system, along with bolded black. Historic, already fulfilled prophecy will be in bold dark red, second coming of Christ, Tribulation prophecies will be in bold red, and Millennial Kingdom of God and beyond prophecies will be in bold green. Timeless descriptions of God, or of Satan from antiquity through time will be in bold black.
