Posts: Ezekiel

Ezekiel

Ezekiel 6:8 – 9, “Yet I will leave a remnant so that you may have some who escape the sword among the nations, when you are scattered through the countries. Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations where they are carried captive…” Even in the midst of devastation and captivity, the faithful remnant of Israel had a task: speak of the nature of the God of Israel. Such is the mission of all the faithful of all time: to speak of the reality and the nature of the Creator.

Ezekiel 12:16, “But I will spare a few of their men from the sword, from famine, and from pestilence, that they may declare all their abominations among the Gentiles wherever they go. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.” God used even His devastation of Judah by the Babylonians as evidence to the surrounding nations that the God of Israel was the only true God. National gods were not known for predicting the downfall of their respective countries. The true God acts justly, predicting both the blessings and the cursings.

Ezekiel 16:60 – 63, “Nevertheless I will remember My covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you…. Then you shall know that I am the Lord, that you may remember and be ashamed … when I provide for you an atonement for all you have done…” Ezekiel predicted the restoration of Israel after their captivity, but not just a renewal of the old ways. Rather, God would make an everlasting covenant and would provide the atonement they desperately needed but could not provide for themselves.

Ezekiel 18, “The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge. ‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘you shall no longer use this proverb in Israel.’” The Israelites had a habit of blaming their ancestors for God’s wrath coming upon them. So, God used all of Ezekiel 18 to refute their claims that they were just innocent victims, asserting through many examples the each one is judged for his own sins. “I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,” says the Lord God. “Therefore, turn and live.”

Ezekiel 20:38, “I will purge the rebels from among you, and those who transgress against Me; I will bring them out of the country where they dwell, but they shall not enter the land of Israel.” For several generations before Ezekiel, the percentage of faithful people in Israel was so low that faith could not longer gain a foothold. So, God sent the nation into exile, first in Assyria for the Northern Kingdom, then to Babylon for Judah. To bring the percentages back to a workable level upon their Restoration, God promised that the “rebels” would not come back.

Ezekiel 26:4 – 5, “And they [the Babylonians] shall destroy the walls of Tyre and break down her towers; I will also scrape her dust from her and make her like the top of a rock. It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea…” The capital of the Phoenician maritime empire was predicted never to be rebuilt (26:14). To this day, that great harbor and trading hub remains a sleepy fishing village.

Ezekiel 29:18 – 19, “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon caused his army to labor strenuously against Tyre…yet neither he nor his army received wages from Tyre…Surely I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar…He shall take away her wealth…and that will be the wages for his army.” Because Nebuchadnezzar had no navy, he could not capture the island in the middle of Tyre’s harbor, where the Phoenicians had stored their treasures. God granted the Babylonians Egypt as compensation. Alexander the Great later captured the island.

Ezekiel 29:12 – 15, “I will make the land of Egypt…desolate 40 years; and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations…At the end of 40 years, I will gather the Egyptians and cause them to return…It shall be the lowliest of kingdoms; it shall never again exalt itself above the nations…” As predicted, the Babylonians destroyed Egypt. With the rise of the Persian empire, Babylon lost control of the region. Egypt eventually gained some independence, but was overrun by several empires, never to rise to their former power, influence, or size.

Ezekiel 33:8 – 9, “When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you shall surely die!’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. Nevertheless, if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.” Ezekiel presents the principle of the watchman. All the faithful are watchmen who warn the others, but the New Testament reminds them to warn gently and humbly so as to be heard.

Ezekiel 33:12, “…The righteousness of the righteous man shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression; as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall because of it in the day that he turns from his wickedness…” God relates to people based on the present, not the past or the future. We cannot build up a positive balance of good over evil to cover future departures from faith. The counterpoint extends great hope; past evil does not disqualify one from turning to that faith which is accounted as righteousness.

Ezekiel 33:17, “Yet the children of your people say, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair.’” Ezekiel prophesied to the people of the Captivity. They wanted to blame their plight on their ancestors or other countries or other people. Ezekiel’s message was about doing the right thing, taking responsibility for their own departures from God, and trusting that God would still bring the Messiah through Israel in the Promised Land. Many today have the same attitudes, declaring responsibility, trust in God, and good character to be similarly unfair.

Ezekiel 34:23 – 24, “I will establish one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them – My servant David. He shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the Lord, will be their God, and My servant David, a prince among them…” Shortly after Jerusalem and the Temple fell to the Babylonians, Ezekiel was predicting the return of the lowly among the people, but not their shepherds who had led them to this ruin. The Messiah would become their shepherd and lead them into spiritual prosperity.

Ezekiel 35:9, “I will make you [Edom] desolate forever, and your cities shall be uninhabited; then you shall know that I am the Lord.” Because Edom participated in the capture of escaping Israelites and cheered the demise of their cousin nation, God predicted that not only would they be overrun by the same Babylonians, but also that Edom, unlike Israel, would never return. Historically, a nomadic people, the Nabateans, re-settled the region after this destruction and built all new cities, declining to rebuild on the ruins of the cities of Edom.

Ezekiel 36:26 – 27, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.” Predicting the return of Israel from captivity, Ezekiel, six centuries before Jesus, looked forward to the Messianic kingdom in which the faithful would receive the indwelling Spirit.

Ezekiel 37:14, “I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken and performed it…” In the Dry Bones prophecy, Ezekiel watched in a vision as a valley of dry bones came back together, were re-covered with flesh, and were brought back to life. God was promising the scattered and captive Israelites that they would be brought back to the Promised Land. His closing thought went a step further; in this new kingdom, the Spirit of God would be placed in them.

Ezekiel 37:21 – 22, “Surely I will take the children of Israel from among the nations…and will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; and I will make them one nation in the land…they shall never be divided into two kingdoms again.” In the Two Sticks prophecy, God, through Ezekiel, promised that, although He had divided them into two nations previously, their captivity would end with them becoming one nation forever, in the promised eternal Messianic kingdom (37:24 – 25).

Ezekiel 39:21, “I will set My glory among the nations; all the nations shall see My judgment which I have executed, and My hand which I have laid on them.” Ezekiel’s fantastic vision about the destruction of several nations who came to plunder the restored Israel depicts the efforts of many nations to destroy the Messianic kingdom. Those who make such an attempt, God promises, will fail miserably and at great cost. History records many such attempts and horrific failures, all proving that the God of Israel reigns.

Ezekiel 47:1, “…there was water flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east…” This temple of impossible dimensions in Ezekiel’s vision was the headwaters of living water, which got deeper along its course, reaching the size of a river and emptying into the Dead Sea, diluting the salty water sufficiently to support a fishing industry. Zechariah, 60 years later, used the same image (14:8). Jesus applied this prediction to Himself (John 7:37 – 44) as the fountain of living waters.