Exekiel_1-3

Ezekiel – a discussion of Chapters:  1, 2, 3

 Ezekiel 1:1-3(ESV)
¹In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the Chebar canal, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.^£ 
2On the fifth day of the month (it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin), 
³the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the Chebar canal, and the hand of the Lord was upon him there.

 The year:  587BC  –  The 5^th year of exile of King Jehoiachin….

Jeremiah and Ezekiel warns unheeding ears that the exile would last much longer and Jerusalem would be destroyed, not restored.

The Vision of the Glory of God:  Ezekiel 1:4-28(ESV)
^V.4As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, and a great cloud, with brightness around it, and fire flashing forth continually, and in the midst of the fire, as it were gleaming metal.^£

Ezekiel and the exiles had been removed by force from the land.  When Nebuchadnezzar captured and controlled Jerusalem many could not believe that God would use another nation as an instrument of judgment. 

The vision of God’s glory would be comforting as it confirmed God’s continued concern for his people.  It was the foundation for the call of Ezekiel as the prophet of judgment.

V.4 – the Windstorm

It was a theophany, a visible manifestation of God.    Fire not only represented the presence of God, but it was a symbol of the refining and purifying elements of judgment. 

V.5-14 – the Four Living Creatures…

⁵And from the midst of it came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: they had a human likeness, 
⁶but each had four faces, and each of them had four wings. 
⁷Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the sole of a calf’s foot. And they sparkled like burnished bronze. 
⁸Under their wings on their four sides they had human hands. And the four had their faces and their wings thus: 
⁹their wings touched one another. Each one of them went straight forward, without turning as they went. 
¹⁰As for the likeness of their faces, each had a human face. The four had the face of a lion on the right side, the four had the face of an ox on the left side, and the four had the face of an eagle. 
¹¹Such were their faces. And their wings were spread out above. Each creature had two wings, each of which touched the wing of another, while two covered their bodies. 
¹²And each went straight forward. Wherever the spirit would go, they went, without turning as they went. 
¹³As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches moving to and fro among the living creatures. And the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning. 
¹⁴And the living creatures darted to and fro, like the appearance of a flash of lightning.
Cherubim – was also introduce again in 10:5 and 10:20…

1^st – form or appearance of a ‘man’ – a human being.  A subtle reminder that mortals are the crown of God’s creative work and the central focus of his creation.

2^nd – have four faces, 1 on each side. 
Each face represent the highest form of animal life in a general category.
– a lion – the wild
– an Ox – – the domestic kind
– an eagle – most powerful and magnificent of God’s winged creatures

3^rd – there were straight legs   –  foot like a hoof of a calf

4^th – under their winds they had hands like a human being

5^th – they moved ‘straight’ forward

6^th – Cherubim were winged with four wings…  2 extended to touch the neighboring creature and w to cover the body of each as a sign of humility and modesty.

7^th – the “Spirit” in their movement.  – the divine Spirit

8^th – appearance of burnished bronze & coals of fire   –  a brightness

9^th – movement was as quick as a flash of lightning… – Implementing God’s will at once activated by the power of the ‘spirit’.

10^th – wings made an awesome sound – as rushing waters – like the voice of God   –  confirming it was a theophany.

The Wheels 1:15-21

¹⁵Now as I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the earth beside the living creatures, one for each of the four of them.^£ 
16As for the appearance of the wheels and their construction: their appearance was like the gleaming of beryl. And the four had the same likeness, their appearance and construction being as it were a wheel within a wheel. 
¹⁷When they went, they went in any of their four directions^£ without turning as they went. 
¹⁸And their rims were tall and awesome, and the rims of all four were full of eyes all around. 
¹⁹And when the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them; and when the living creatures rose from the earth, the wheels rose. 
²⁰Wherever the spirit wanted to go, they went, and the wheels rose along with them, for the spirit of the living creatures^£ was in the wheels. 
²¹When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those rose from the earth, the wheels rose along with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.

Associated with each cherubim were wheels whose appearance was explained in terms of their function.  God appeared to Ezekiel in imagery of movement and action that presented him as both transcendent and immanent.  It was an affirmation of the presence of God.

Ezekiel  1:22-27 – the Platform
²²Over the heads of the living creatures there was the likeness of an expanse, shining like awe-inspiring crystal, spread out above their heads. 
²³And under the expanse their wings were stretched out straight, one toward another. And each creature had two wings covering its body. 
²⁴And when they went, I heard the sound of their wings like the sound of many waters, like the sound of the Almighty, a sound of tumult like the sound of an army. When they stood still, they let down their wings. 
²⁵And there came a voice from above the expanse over their heads. When they stood still, they let down their wings.
²⁶And above the expanse over their heads there was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like sapphire;^£ and seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness with a human appearance. 
²⁷And upward from what had the appearance of his waist I saw as it were gleaming metal, like the appearance of fire enclosed all around. And downward from what had the appearance of his waist I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and there was brightness around him.^£ 

V.22 – expanse

V.23-25 – Under the firmament the movement of the living creatures produced an awesome noise like rushing waters that were like the voice of the Almighty.

V.26-27 – Throne of ‘sapphire’ – precious stones – On the throne was seated a figure like that of a man.  Radiance of appearance that was like fire described in other theophany.  (Exod. 3:2-15; 24:17; Rev. 4:1-4)

Conveys the ides:

1 – that God of splendor and great power

2 – the God of Israel is not bound to the land of Israel

Ezekiel saw the majesty of God with his holiness and power as Lord of his creation.

V.28 – The response of the Prophet

²⁸Like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of one speaking.

When people are consumed by insurmountable problems and buffeted by the storms of life, they usually do not need another perspective on their problems.  They need a new perspective on God as Lord of life and larger than all its difficulties.  Humanity needs the sense of the awesome majesty of God. 

The Cherubim as protectors of God’s holiness…

Ezekiel prostrated himself before God in Worship and reverence. 

The vision was a reaffirmation of the nature of God as holy, powerful, and majestic.

The rainbow was a reminder of God’s promise-making and promise-keeping character.

It was to rekindle hope that God could and would help.

It was an assurance that nothing, including geographic location can spate one from God.  –  God was still at work with His people.

Ezekiel 3:1-3

¹ And he said to me, “Son of man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll; then go and speak to the house of Israel.” ² So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat.

³ Then he said to me, “Son of man, eat this scroll I am giving you and fill your stomach with it.” So I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth.

His Motivation:  –  Must come from a deep sense of commitment based on divine call.

Ezekiel was commanded four (4) times to eat the scroll  –  then go preach his message to the Israelites.   When he tasted the scroll it was sweet, but the message was stern.

The message they preached as a prophet was Gods’ words.  They did not discover the truths they preached through logic or deduction but through divine revelation. 

Ezekiel 3:4-11

The Prophet’s Divine Preparation (3:4–11)

⁴ He then said to me: “Son of man, go now to the house of Israel and speak my words to them. ⁵ You are not being sent to a people of obscure speech and difficult language, but to the house of Israel—⁶ not to many peoples of obscure speech and difficult language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely if I had sent you to them, they would have listened to you. ⁷ But the house of Israel is not willing to listen to you because they are not willing to listen to me, for the whole house of Israel is hardened and obstinate. ⁸ But I will make you as unyielding and hardened as they are. ⁹ I will make your forehead like the hardest stone, harder than flint. Do not be afraid of them or terrified by them, though they are a rebellious house.”

¹⁰ And he said to me, “Son of man, listen carefully and take to heart all the words I speak to you. ¹¹ Go now to your countrymen in exile and speak to them. Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says,’ whether they listen or fail to listen.”

3:4 – literally the people were described as “hard of face” – Firm of Heart – Firm of Forehead – Hard of heart – 

Meaning:  a hardened will set against the word and will of God. 

V.9 – Make his forehead like the hardest stone so none of their negativity could enter him by divine protection.

V.10 – He was instructed to listen with his ears and receive with his heart all the God said.  Implying a ‘continuous relationship’.  There was an ongoing revelation given to Ezekiel throughout his ministry. 

Ezekiel, unlike Jeremiah, repressed his feelings.  Yet there are some indications of his pain over their refusal to obey/listen.

This account provides lessons about God and the relationship between God and those whom he calls into his service. 

1 – The messenger must recognize that the calling comes from God alone.

2 – He is to have a clear vision of the one who sends him or her. 

3 – They must be empowered by the Spirit of God.  Ezekiel was “the prophet of the Spirit”.

4 – Must be inspired by the message of God.  Merely hearing or knowing God’s word is not enough – they must be digested, internalized, incorporated, embodied and living it.

5 – God will divinely equip them and He is aware of the challenges his agent will face.  God’s call to service is NOT made on the basis of gifts, but vice versa; gifts are given on the basis of the assignment.

6 – That the calling is NOT to success but to faithfulness. 

The Conclusion of the Call (3:12–15)

¹² Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me a loud rumbling sound—May the glory of the Lord be praised in his dwelling place!—¹³ the sound of the wings of the living creatures brushing against each other and the sound of the wheels beside them, a loud rumbling sound. ¹⁴ The Spirit then lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness and in the anger of my spirit, with the strong hand of the Lord upon me. ¹⁵ I came to the exiles who lived at Tel Abib near the Kebar River. And there, where they were living, I sat among them for seven days—overwhelmed.

Ezekiel was lifted by the Spirit.  When the Spirit took him, he departed to the mountain area by the strong hand of the Lord.  He left in ‘great distress’ – perhaps he was overwhelmed perhaps by the weight and unpleasantness of his assignment…

Appointment as a Watchman (3:16–21)

¹⁶ At the end of seven days the word of the Lord came to me: ¹⁷ “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. ¹⁸ When I say to a wicked man, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. ¹⁹ But if you do warn the wicked man and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his evil ways, he will die for his sin; but you will have saved yourself.

²⁰ “Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and does evil, and I put a stumbling block before him, he will die. Since you did not warn him, he will die for his sin. The righteous things he did will not be remembered, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. ²¹ But if you do warn the righteous man not to sin and he does not sin, he will surely live because he took warning, and you will have saved yourself.”

7 day period – this was common in Israel.  I.E. – mourning for the dead, 7 days needed for a consecration for a priest – When 7 days elapsed, God appeared and began giving Ezekiel the words he was to deliver to the people. 

He is assigned a ‘watchman’ – one whose duties and responsibilities were to warn of coming calamity, not perform an action to prevent. 

V.18-21 – given the responsibilities of a watchman…

* Those who repudiate the covenant stand under the judgment of God.

* The wages of sin is death

* The voice of a sentry (watchman) symbolizes the grace of God reaching out to those under the sentence of death.

* The one who takes on the privilege of wearing the prophet’s mantle comes an awesome responsibility for the life and death of the people in one’s charge.

* The messenger of God is called not to success but to faithfulness.

Ezekiel 3:22-27(ESV)
²²And the hand of the Lord was upon me there. And he said to me, “Arise, go out into the valley,^£ and there I will speak with you.” 
²³So I arose and went out into the valley, and behold, the glory of the Lord stood there, like the glory that I had seen by the Chebar canal, and I fell on my face. 
²⁴But the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and he spoke with me and said to me, “Go, shut yourself within your house. 
²⁵And you, O son of man, behold, cords will be placed upon you, and you shall be bound with them, so that you cannot go out among the people. 
²⁶And I will make your tongue cling to the roof of your mouth, so that you shall be mute and unable to reprove them, for they are a rebellious house. 
²⁷But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’ He who will hear, let him hear; and he who will refuse to hear, let him refuse, for they are a rebellious house.

Ezekiel goes for an audience with Yahweh.     He has received the commission and is now being outfitted with the resources necessary for dealing with rejection.  He has been introduced to his audience and has heard his responsibility to act as a faithful sentry. 

Next is the ritual initiation into the prophetic office hat really stifles his freedom of expression rather than liberating it.  This freedom of speech lasted for seven years. 

Ezekiel 1:3(ESV)
³the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the Chebar canal, and the hand of the Lord was upon him there.

Ezekiel 3:16(ESV)
¹⁶And at the end of seven days, the word of the Lord came to me: 

Ezekiel 33:21-22(ESV)
²¹In the twelfth year of our exile, in the tenth month, on the fifth day of the month, a fugitive from Jerusalem came to me and said, “The city has been struck down.” 
²²Now the hand of the Lord had been upon me the evening before the fugitive came; and he had opened my mouth by the time the man came to me in the morning, so my mouth was opened, and I was no longer mute.

The seven years of dumbness ended on the day he received the news that Jerusalem had fallen in 587 b.c..    

²⁴But the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and he spoke with me and said to me, “Go, shut yourself within your house. 
²⁵And you, O son of man, behold, cords will be placed upon you, and you shall be bound with them, so that you cannot go out among the people. 
²⁶And I will make your tongue cling to the roof of your mouth, so that you shall be mute and unable to reprove them, for they are a rebellious house. 
 V.24,25,26 – He must now stifle any impulse to side with his people or to mediate on their behalf.   Point:  the fate of the nation was sealed. 

By placing a ‘dumbness’ on his he was restricting him from the freedom to avert the fall of the city either by appealing for a reprieve or by calling the people to repentance.  He longed for the salvation of his fellow people, but personal sentiment may not interfere with his official duty as a sentry. 

Ezekiel always operated representationally in the role of the people, not of God.  He is the spokesman for God.  He was not to have casual conversation with his people or adopt a defensive posture on their behalf.  He was told to speak whenever he receives a message from God.   To speak when God had a message for him to deliver.

The recorded oracles that follow will confirm this alienation.  Ezekiel is never seen out on the street or world.  Others may drift in and out of that world, but they remain merely shadows, with little direct contact. 

The only recorded conversation between prophet and audience comes by the command of Yahweh in Ez. 24:18-24.  Accordingly the book of Ezekiel is a spiritual diary of a man’s encounters with God.  His experiences move the reader to weep for him – though he never weeps for himself.

Ezekiel 24:18-24(ESV)
¹⁸So I spoke to the people in the morning, and at evening my wife died. And on the next morning I did as I was commanded.
¹⁹And the people said to me, “Will you not tell us what these things mean for us, that you are acting thus?” 
²⁰Then I said to them, “The word of the Lord came to me: 
²¹‘Say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the pride of your power, the delight of your eyes, and the yearning of your soul, and your sons and your daughters whom you left behind shall fall by the sword. 
²²And you shall do as I have done; you shall not cover your lips, nor eat the bread of men. 
²³Your turbans shall be on your heads and your shoes on your feet; you shall not mourn or weep, but you shall rot away in your iniquities and groan to one another. 
²⁴Thus shall Ezekiel be to you a sign; according to all that he has done you shall do. When this comes, then you will know that I am the Lord God.’

The Lord is present with his messenger.  Three significant stages in Ezekiel’s call the glory of Yahweh, the visible sing of the divine presence, appears. 

a.       God’s servants may be secure in the knowledge that all is well for them in the hands of the ever-present Lord.

2.       The ways of the Lord are often strange and inscrutable.  The drama that played in Ezekiel’s house and person portray the complete mastery of God over his servants. 

a.       First God calls Ezekiel to preach and then closets him away in his own house and ties his tongue.

          i.      He becomes like a puppet on a string. 

         ii.      He may not challenge the ways of God or even call for an explanation.  (Example:  Like the clay can not question the potter.)

3.       At time the heart of the messenger may not interfere with his mouth. 

a.       The message may not be pleasant or palatable, or even comprehensible, but as the Lord issues the orders, one must respond.

             i.      At times a spokesperson for God must stifle his or her emotions and the inclinations of his or her heart, not letting personal preference interfere with divine obligation.

4.       The prophet bears in his own body the sings of his calling.

a.       He is a “living idol” infused with the spirit of him whom he represents and dedicated to the proclamation of his message.

Ezekiel’s sign value is associated with behavior that will be imitated by the people. 

Ezekiel always operated representationally in the role of the people, not of God.