Ezekiel’ Called to Announce Divine Judgment and Eteranl Hope – a study of Ezekiel 1:1-7:27

Along the banks of the Chebar river in the Kingdom of Babylon, the land of exile, Ezekiel, the prophet priest, received the message from God. The year, around 597 B.C. The prophet was one of those taken captive by King Nebuchadnezzar on his first invasion of Jerusalem. It was not the location a priest of Israel would choose on his own! Yet in that distant land God called His watchman to deliver His message to those in exile and those still in Israel. It was a message of judgment upon God’s people and on the Gentile nations. It was a massage of hope, of restoration, and of the Messianic kingdom to come. God told the prophet to deliver His message in words, in symbols, and in the visions He would give him.

This first lesson is the call and commissioning of the prophet and the warning of the coming judgment. May we grow in our knowledge of the sovereign majesty and power of God, and the awfulness of rebellion against God.

I. Ezekiel’s call and commission 1:1-3:27

Ezekiel’s vision of the Glory of God. 1:1-28
The setting: The thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the forth month. [v.1a] (1) The thirtieth year – the 30th year of Ezekiel’s life, the age at which a priest (see verse 3 and Numbers 4:3-4) would enter into the Lord’s service. (2) The fifth day of the forth month – July 31, 593 B.C.(3) The place – by the river Chebar – may have been “naru kabari” Ir. “great river,” an irrigation canal which brought water the water from the Euphrates to the southeastern Babylon. [v.1b]

“The heavens here opened.” [v.1c] This is an event like the opening of a stage curtain.  The verb, “opened” indicates it was not Ezekiel who opened the heavens. When the heavens were opened Ezekiel saw, “visions of God.” [v.1d] Ezekiel is a book of visions of and from God – see 8:3; 40:2; 43:3. Moses wrote, “He said,“Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, shall make Myself known to him in a vision.” [Numbers 12:6] Only Daniel, a contemporary of Ezekiel, has this many direct references to visions of God.

Date clarification (a parenthetical). It was the fifth month of the fifth year of King Jehoiachin’s exile. [v.2] King Jehoiachin was the eighteenth and next to last king of Judah. He was enthroned by Pharaoh Necho of Egypt, reigned only three months and was deported to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar in 597 B.C., along with Daniel and others from the upper classes. [2 Kings 24:8-16] This was the fifth year of his captivity, forth month, or June-July 592 B.C. Fourteen times in this prophecy Ezekiel give precise dates (1:2; 3:16; 8:1; 20:1; 24:1; 26:1; 29:1, 17; 30:20; 31:1; 32:1; 33:21; 40:1).  

Ezekiel the soon to be prophet. [v.3] On that very day, in that far away place, “the word of the Lord came expressly to Ezekiel the priest…there the hand of the Lord was upon him.” [v.3](1) The word of the Lord in this verse refers to the message in the next chapter. (2)The expression, “The word of the Lord,” is the most frequent term used to denote an Old Testament prophet. [see 1 Samuel 15:10; 1 Kings 12:22; Isaiah 38:4; Jeremiah 1:2; Hosea 1:1; Joel 1:1] (3) Notice the word came “expressly” or to him alone.(4) “The hand of the Lord was came upon him.” [v.3b] This was a supernatural event, a Divine revelation. Ezekiel would experience six more occasions of such revelation (3:14, 22; 8:1; 33:22; 37:1; 40:1). (5) The word for “Lord”  is the covenant name for God, Jehovah.

Ezekiel’s vision of God. [vv.4-28]
Ezekiel described the vision of the living beings and their transport: (1) He first saw a storm wind with a great cloud with fire flashing continually. Storm speaks of the wrath of God coming from the north, yet because it is God there is also majesty in this vision. (2) In the fire was something like glowing metal, and figures resembling four living beings. Later these beings are described as cherubim. [vv.4-5; 10:1 ff.] (3) Each of the beings had four faces, and four wings, straight legs with feet like calves hoofs, and they shined like brass. These creatures are not God, but are the creatures of His for His purpose. [vv.6-8] Under each wing were human hands, their wingtips touched each other. Their faces did not turn when they moved. [vv.8-9] (4) Their faces were four sided, (a) the face of a man the dominant face, (b) the face of a lion on the right, (c) the face of a bull on the left, (d) and the face of an eagle opposite the face of a man. These four faces. [v.10] (5) The beings each had four wings, two touching another, and two covering the body. [v.11]

Notice the prevalence of the number four: four living beings with four faces, that is four human faces, four lion faces, four eagle faces, and four ox faces. They each had four wings, and there were four sets of wheels with four inner wheels. The number four is related to the earth. In this vision Ezekiel is on the earth looking up at the living beings. The vision is most likely representative of earthly government, the four facies representing the powers of the surrounding forces. There is a similar vision in the Revelation. [see Revelation 4:6-9]

Their movement is described in verses 12 and 14. (1) Each of the beasts went straight forward as the spirit directed. [v.12] (2) In the midst – or better, in the likeness – of the living beings was something that looked like coals of fire, and torches darting back and forth among the beings, and lightening was flashing. It was an awesome sight! [v.13] (3) The living beings ran to and fro like bolts of lightening. Jesus described the coming of the Son of Man as bolts of lightening that flashes from the east to the west.  [v.14; Matthew 24:27]

As Ezekiel watched the living beings he saw four wheels on the earth and described them and their movements. (1) Beside each living being were sparkling wheels within wheels. [vv.15-16] (2) The wheels moved in any of the four directions without turning. [v.17](3) The wheels are described as, “full of eyes” perhaps referring to the all seeing God who will be seen in a few verses. [v.18] They moved only when the four living beings moved. (4) And they lifted up from the earth when the living beings lifted up. [v.19] (5) The spirit of the living beings resided in the wheels and the wheels did as the living beings. Thus the Cherubim’s spirit guided the wheels.  [vv.20-21] The meaning of the wheels most likely represents the movement of time in relationship to the coming judgment.

Over the heads of the living beings was a great expanse. [v.22; see 10:1] Under the expanse were stretched out wings whose movement sounded like the sound of many waters – like Niagara Falls, or more accurately,  the sound of the voice of el Shadday, a tumultuous sound like that of an army camp. [vv.23-25]

Over the expanse was something resembling a throne and high above stood the figure of a man. [v.26] The man is described in verses 27-28: glowing metal from loins upward, fire and a radiance or shinning all around, it looked like the appearance of a rainbow, “such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord…and I fell on my face and heard a voice speaking.”  Ezekiel did not see the Lord but only His symbolic likeness. So it was with Moses (Exodus 19:16).

Ezekiel’s call [2:1-10]
God spoke to him, calling him, “Son of man,” a term used more than 90 times in the book. [vv.1-2] God told Ezekiel He was sending him to the sons of Israel, a stubborn, rebellious people who have rebelled against Him. He warned Ezekiel that whether Israel listened or not, “they will know that a prophet has been among them.” [v.5] The prophet was not to fear Israel in any way and to faithfully speak the words of God. [vv.6-8] God commanded Ezekiel to, “open your mouth and eat what I am giving you.” [v.9] God then gave Ezekiel a scroll with writing on the front and back of lamentation and morning. [v.10]

Ezekiel’s commission [3:1-27]

Ezekiel is commissioned as a prophet in chapter three. Ezekiel received the scroll, and at the Lord’s command he ate it, “it was sweet as honey in my mouth.” [vv.1-3] Ezekiel was commissioned to “Go to the house of Israel and speak with My words to them.” God’s words to Israel through Ezekiel’s mouth. [v.4] God forewarned him that they would not listen to “Me.” Although Ezekiel was the speaker the words were God’s. Thus, Ezekiel was given, “a face as hard as their face.” [vv.8-9] Ezekiel was to take God’s word into his heart, and listen closely to all God said to him: “Go to the exiles tell them…‘Thus says the Lord God.” [vv.10-12] In verses 13-15 Ezekiel is transported to the exiles in Tel-abib and there he sat quiet among them for seven days. After those seven days God announced He was appointing Ezekiel as a watchman to the house of Israel. [vv.16-17] God then told Ezekiel what it meant to be a watchman in verses [vv.18-21] In a moving passage God told Ezekiel he was to be obedient to the Spirit in obeying Him.

God had Ezekiel go to the plain and there he would speak to him and there Ezekiel saw the Lord’s glory. [vv.22-23] Ezekiel fell on his face before God by the River Chebar in Babylon. [v.23] God told him to go and, “shut yourself up in your house.” [v.24] If he did not stay in his house, God warned him that the hearers of His message would put ropes on him and bind him so he could not go out. [v.25] God gave him His word to consume and to be consumed by. God made his tongue stick to the roof of his mouth so he could not speak until God loosened his tongue. Unless Ezekiel could say, “Thus says the Lord,” he could not speak at all. The hearers were also restrained, only those with a heart open to hear God’s word would hear and understand. [vv.26-27]The rest of the book gives the account of Ezekiel fulfilling the commission God gave him.

II. Symbols of the impending judgment. 4:1-5:17

This section describes a series of symbolic actions Ezekiel was to carry out picturing the siege of Jerusalem. God told Isaiah the prophet to loosen the sackcloth from his hips and take off his sandals and go naked for three years to picture the assault Israel would experience form Assyria. [Isaiah 20:1-2] Jeremiah also spoke through at least three symbolic messages. [see Jeremiah 13:2;18:2; 19:1] Ezekiel was to carry out four such messages. The First symbol is in two parts: (1) Using a brick with the city of Jerusalem inscribed on it Ezekiel was to lay siege to the “city.” It was quite a task, inscribe the city of Jerusalem on a brick – the shape of the city was distinct so the people would recognize it immediately, build a siege wall all around the brick, build a siege ramp picturing the ascent of the battering rams and other instruments of war going up against the wall of the city, and mold or use stones to indicate the enemy camp and armaments. It was a small scale model of the city under siege. [4:1-2]

(2) Part two, the symbol of an iron plate as a wall between Ezekiel and the city. Ezekiel was to “set your face toward it,” so that it is under siege, as a sign to the house of Israel. The iron plate was like an iron wall picturing, most likely, the solid barrier between God and Israel because of her sin. As the siege progressed Israel would cry to God, but He woulds not hear. Some believe the iron plate was simply to protect against the arrows of the enemy.  [v.3]

Second, Ezekiel himself is the symbol, first he was to lie on his left side behind iron plate and lay the sins of Israel on his body for 390 days, a day for each year of their iniquity. Lying on his left side he was probably facing north towards the kingdom of Israel. [vv.4-5] After the 390 days he was to turn over and lie down a second time only on his right side, facing south, and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah for forty days, again a  day for each year. [v.6] While lying on his right side he was to, “set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared and prophecy against it.” So, he would be lying down on his right side, speaking God’s words against the city, and all the time he would be bound with ropes so he could not move.  [vv.7-8]  

Third, the symbol of the defiled bread. [vv.9-17] Ezekiel was take basic meal and make bread – food for the 390 days. He was to ration the food to a minute amount each day and drink only a small amount of water daily. [vv.9-11] He was to bake his bread over “human dung,” making it unclean. Signifying the way the Israelites would eat their food in captivity. [vv.12-13] Ezekiel pleaded with the Lord to allow him to cook his food over animal dung instead and thus not defile himself, and God granted his request. [14-15] The closing verses portray the scarcity of food in Jerusalem during the long siege by Babylon. [vv. 16-17]

Forth, the symbol of the shaved head and beard and the divided hair. This sign visualized Jerusalem’s fate. The sign – Ezekiel was to shave his head and beard with a sword. The shaving of the head and beard would be a sign of mourning (Job 1:20; Ezekiel 7:20 et.al) humiliation (2 Samuel 10:4-5) and possibly repentance (Jeremiah 41:5) Ezekiel was to divide the hair into three parts, he was to burn one third in the fire in the heart of the city after the siege, one third he was strike with the sword all around the city, and one third he was to scatter with the wind. He we also to take a few hairs and hide them in the hem of his garment, and then take some and throw them into the fire, thus they would ignite as the were hurled towards the flame [5:1-4]

The explanation of this symbol is given in verses. [5-17] God had set Jerusalem at the center of the nations, but she rebelled against Him doing more wickedly than the nations, rejecting Him in every way. [vv. 5-6] Therefore God Himself will execute His judgment against her without pity. [vv.8-11] One third of Jerusalem will die by plague or famine. One third will fall by the sword, and one third will be scattered to the wind. [v.12] This will satisfy His wrath and appease Him, and they will know that He has spoken in His wrath. [v.13] As a result Jerusalem and Judah will become a desolation and reproach to the nations, and object of horror. They will experience unimaginable suffering. [vv.14-17]

III. The cause and description of God’s Judgment. 6:1-7:27

Ezekiel was to, “Set your faced towards the mountains of Israel and prophecy.” [6:2] He was to “set” his face toward the mountains. To set meant to firmly fix his gaze toward. Ezekiel, who was captive in Babylon, was to look towards the mountains of Israel and prophecy. His message, “Mountains of Israel, listen to the word of the Lord God!” [v.3] Why the mountains? Actually it included all of the land – “the mountains, the hills, the ravines, and the valleys,” but the mountains was where Israel had built their disgusting idols. Israel was to worship the Lord God only in Jerusalem, but they had forsaken the covenant and committed spiritual adultery throughout the land. Take note, the message was from “the Lord God!” The Hebrew is “Adonay” for Lord, it was the term the Jews used in verbally speaking of God to avoid using His name. The Hebrew word for “God” used here is “YHWH” or Jehovah. The word of God in a nutshell, “Behold, I Myself am going to bring a sword on you, and I will destroy your high places.” [v.3b] God promised He Himself would destroy (1) the altars would become desolate. [v.4a] (2) the incense altars would be smashed, (3) and the dead bodies of those who worship idols will be thrown in front of the idols making them unclean. [v.5] (4) and the altars will be made unclean by the bones scattered around them. [v.6]

It was a prophecy of nearly complete devastation of the nation. Why? “and you will know that I am the Lord.” [v.7] Why was God judging Israel so hard? They had forgotten their God. The familiar phrase in this chapter,”Then they will know that I am the Lord.” [see vv. 7,10,13.17]

“However, I will leave a remnant…” [v.8] A Remnant! There will be a few who survive, a small number of the scattered will escape the sword. Only a remnant would escape. Remember the few strands of hair Ezekiel placed in his hem? Even from those few strands there was death, but a small number would escape. [v.8; 5:4]

Chapter seven announces, “An end! The end is coming…” three times (not all worded the same.) [vv.2,6,10] Judgment will come in the form of the sword, plague, and famine. [v.15] The temple will be desecrated and destroyed. [vv. 20-22] The people will be carried away in chains by the worst of the nations, and even the highest in the land will go into captivity. The closing words of this prophecy, “I will judge them, then they will know that I am the Lord.” [v.27]

We’ll pick up in chapter 8 next week.