Genesis to Revelation: Ezekiel, Daniel Leader Guide: A Comprehensive Verse-by-Verse Exploration of the Bible

1

GOD COMES TO EZEKIEL

Ezekiel 1–5

DIMENSION ONE:

WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?

Answer these questions by reading Ezekiel 1

1. When and where does Ezekiel have his vision of God? (1:1)

The vision comes on the fifth day of the fourth month of the thirtieth year, while Ezekiel is by the Kebar River.

2. What three natural elements appear in Ezekiel’s vision? (1:4)

Ezekiel sees a windstorm, an immense cloud, and fire.

3. What likeness appears from the midst of the vision? (1:5a)

A likeness of four living creatures appears.

4. What is the appearance of these creatures? (1:5b-6)

They have the appearance of humans, but each has four faces and four wings.

5. What are the four faces of each creature (1:10)

Each has the face of a human being, a lion, an ox, and an eagle.

6. What does Ezekiel see next to each creature? (1:15-16)

He sees a wheel intersecting a wheel.

7. What does Ezekiel do when he sees the glory of the Lord? (1:28c)

Ezekiel falls on his face.

Answer these questions by reading Ezekiel 2

8. What does the Lord call Ezekiel? (2:1)

The Lord calls Ezekiel Son of man.

9. Where does the Lord send Ezekiel? (2:3)

Ezekiel is sent to the Israelites.

10. Why is Ezekiel sent? (2:3-4)

The Israelites had rebelled against God and must be called back to God.

Answer these questions by reading Ezekiel 3

11. How is Ezekiel prepared to face the rebellious house of Israel? (3:8)

God makes Ezekiel as unyielding and as hardened as the Israelites are.

12. What four things is Ezekiel to do with God’s words? (3:10-11)

Ezekiel is to listen carefully, take the words to heart, go to his people in exile, and speak to them.

13. How does the vision affect Ezekiel? (3:15)

He sits overwhelmed for seven days.

14. Why does the Lord send Ezekiel to Israel? (3:21)

Ezekiel is to warn the righteous person not to sin so that they may live.

15. By whose power does Ezekiel speak? (3:27)

When Ezekiel speaks, he speaks by the power of the Sovereign LORD.

Answer these questions by reading Ezekiel 4

16. Why is Ezekiel told to portray, in miniature, Jerusalem under siege? (4:1-3)

This portrayal will serve as a sign of Israel’s destruction.

17. How is Ezekiel to bear the punishment for Israel? For Judah? (4:4-6)

For Israel he is to lie on his left side for 390 days. For Judah he is to lie on his right side for 40 days.

18. What is symbolized for Israel by Ezekiel baking his food on human excrement? (4:12-13)

Israel will be forced to eat defiled food among the nations where I [God] will drive them.

19. What will the people of Jerusalem be forced to ration under their punishment? (4:16-17)

They will have to ration food and water.

Answer these questions by reading Ezekiel 5

20. With what is Ezekiel to shave his head? (5:1)

He is to use a sharp sword.

21. What is Ezekiel to do with his shorn hair? (5:1-4)

He is to divide the hair. A third he is to burn inside Jerusalem, a third he is to strike with a sword all around the city, and a third he is to scatter to the wind, saving a few strands to tuck into his garment.

22. What will the people of Israel learn from their punishment? (5:13)

They will learn that the Lord has spoken in zeal.

DIMENSION TWO:

WHAT DOES THE BIBLE MEAN?

Background: Around 600 BC, the empire of Babylonia abruptly came to power. Its armies swept through Syria, Phoenicia, and Philistia. The prophet Jeremiah saw Babylonia as a threat to Judah. He saw its king, Nebuchadnezzar, as an instrument of the Lord (see Jeremiah 21:3-7). He believed that Nebuchadnezzar would be used by God to punish Judah. Jeremiah’s prophecy was rejected by the people, and his life was threatened.

King Jehoiakim of Judah probably agreed to be a vassal of Babylonia about this time, to avoid being conquered. He amassed a military force and attempted to rid himself of Babylonian influence after the Babylonians were defeated by the Egyptians in 601 BC.

In December of 598 BC, the Babylonian army besieged Jerusalem. Jehoiakim was killed. His eighteen-year-old son, Jehoiachin, ascended to the throne and surrendered to the Babylonians. The king, his court, and about ten thousand scribes, soldiers, artisans, prophets, and priests were taken to Babylon. Ezekiel was in this group. Zedekiah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, was made puppet governor and given charge of Judah.

Once in Babylon, these exiles were settled in groups. The northern tribes of Israel had already been scattered over the Assyrian Empire. Some of the Judeans lived on the Kebar, a canal flowing southwest of Babylon, taking water from the Euphrates River to Nippur. Other exiles lived in Babylon.

Babylon was a huge city for its time. It covered five hundred acres and contained more than one thousand temples. It had a population of over one hundred thousand people. It was protected by two walls, the outer one being ten miles long. The comparison of Babylon’s wealth and power to Jerusalem’s devastation must have been bitter to the exiled Judeans.

Some exiles no doubt gave in to the pull of Babylon’s splendor: Why not? they thought. Babylon and its gods had defeated Judah and its God. Jerusalem was lost.

Others clung to their belief in the Lord God. They saw their exile as punishment for not heeding their prophets’ warnings to repent and return to the covenant.

Some, even in their despair, viewed the Exile as temporary. Jehoiachin was still referred to by the Babylonians as king of the land of Judah. The exiles were allowed to build houses, grow food, and ply their various trades. Babylonian records from this time tell of payments in oil, barley, and other necessities to foreign captives in exchange for skilled labor. Some captives were used as forced labor. Some Judeans worked on construction projects for Nebuchadnezzar. The people were allowed to assemble and to practice their religion.

Nationalism was still alive among the exiles. No doubt Ezekiel knew of this. He probably also had news from Jerusalem and heard rumors of Zedekiah’s plans to revolt against the Babylonians. Jehoiachin’s eventual imprisonment by Nebuchadnezzar may have resulted from underground revolutionary activity in Judah and Babylon, centering on the exiled king.

In this situation, five years after the deportation, Ezekiel was thrust into his prophetic ministry by a dramatic vision. He was soon to deliver a message to the people of Judah that would shatter their hopes of a quick return to power in their homeland.

Ezekiel 1. Ezekiel gives the time and place for his call to prophecy. He describes the vision that is his call.

Ezekiel 1:1-3. These verses are an introduction to the book as a whole. In the thirtieth year does not cohere smoothly with the rest of verse 1. The phrase may refer to Ezekiel’s age at the time of his call. It may refer to the time of the composition of Ezekiel’s book, thirty years after his call. The exact meaning is uncertain.

The opening of the heavens is also mentioned in Acts 7:56 and in Revelation 4:1.

In the fourth month on the fifth day is clarified in verse 2. The time being referred to is the fourth month of the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin. Thus, based on a lunar calendar with the beginning of the year in the spring, Ezekiel’s vision came in July 3,593 BC.

Verse 1 is in the first person. Verses 2 and 3 are in the second person. Verses 2 and 3 were probably added by an editor to clarify the dates of verse 1, to establish Ezekiel’s lineage, and to elaborate on where he lived (see also Haggai 1:1; Zechariah 1:1). The hand of the LORD was upon him (v. 3) affirms Ezekiel’s authority as a prophet. The hand of the LORD also touched Isaiah (Isaiah 8:11) and Jeremiah (Jeremiah 15:17).

Ezekiel 1:4. Verse 4 shifts back to first-person narrative. Ezekiel describes the sights and sounds of his vision. The windstorm, an immense cloud, and fire are associated with a theophany, God’s manifestation on earth (see 1 Kings 19:11-12; Exodus 19:16, 18). Out of the north may reflect Canaanite mythology. The Canaanites believed the home of the gods was in the north.

Ezekiel 1:5-14. The living creatures are probably cherubim, guardians of sacred areas (see Genesis 3:24; Exodus 25:18-19; 1 Kings 6:23-28). Their presence at God’s throne and the appearance of their faces is also described in Revelation 4:7. Other such creatures—half-human, half-beast—were commonly depicted in the ancient Near East as throne-bearers or Temple guardians. Ezekiel’s description is similar to other visions, such as that of John in Revelation, but it is unique in its details.

Ezekiel 1:15-25. The wheel intersecting a wheel may have been two wheels set at right angles to each other. This position would represent their ability to move in any direction. The four faces and the four wheels, controlled by the spirit, convey God’s freedom to move wherever God chooses. The four faces may symbolize God’s dominion over human beings, who rule the earth; over the lion, which is king of the forest; over the ox, which is the most powerful domestic animal; and over the eagle, which rules the air. The four faces and the four wheels also suggest the four corners of the earth. They support a vault (see Genesis 1:6-8), which has also been translated as dome (NRSV), and firmament (RSV). In Hebrew thought, the word refers to that which is stretched across the sky (a strip of beaten metal) to hold the upper waters back from the lower waters. Thus, the faces and the wheels affirm God’s power over heaven and earth.

Ezekiel 1:26-28. Isaiah (ch. 6) also speaks of God as a ruler upon a throne. On the ark of the covenant, the Lord was enthroned on the cherubim (Exodus 37:9; 1 Samuel 4:4).

The Hebrew word for glory in verse 28 is kabod, a widely used term describing the form of the divine presence (Psalm 19:1; Isaiah 66:18). By encountering God’s kabod, Ezekiel experiences God’s complete power and holiness. Before this time, the priestly view had been that the divine presence resided on earth only in the Most Holy Place in the Temple at Zion. Ezekiel encountering the likeness of God’s glory in a foreign land was a major revelation.

Ezekiel 2:1–3:15. Ezekiel tells of the Lord’s words for him and his reactions to these words.

Ezekiel 2:1-7. God calls Ezekiel Ben-adam, or Son of man. This term is found nearly one hundred times in Ezekiel and also in Daniel 8:17. Its use in Daniel was probably derived from Ezekiel, as were many of its usages in the New Testament. Its frequent use in Ezekiel reminds the prophet of his lowliness in comparison to God. Yet God speaks to Ezekiel and gives him the strength to stand (Ezekiel 2:1-2).

God gives Ezekiel his commission: Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says’ (v. 5). The reason for his commission is that the Israelites are a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me (v. 3). The dabar (word) of the Lord is concrete and living. It has creative power (Genesis 1). Prophetic speech rests on the conviction that this creative power extends to the prophet’s words as the prophet proclaims the words of the Lord. The prophetic word concerning the future was not spoken to speculate about or predict the future, but to make known the word of God for the future. In its function as a message from God through the prophet to the people, the prophetic word acts to make things happen. The prophets believed that language possesses a power that goes beyond the realm of the mind and can be effective in the physical world