Bible Commentaries
Ezekiel 1

Verses 1-27

XIV

THE BOOK OF EZEKIEL INTRODUCTION AND

THE PROPHET’S VISION AND CALL

Ezekiel 1-3

Ezekiel belonged to one of the best and noblest families in Jerusalem, and was apparently a descendant of the family of Zadok, which could trace its descent directly to Aaron. Born in a priestly family he was a priest in his early years. With that privilege, there was familiarity with the law, and with the ritual. He was well educated, a man of the highest culture which Jerusalem afforded at that age.

It was in the year 597 B.C. when Nebuchadnezzar came and besieged Jerusalem, and Jehoiachin surrendered the city to him, that 7,000 of the very best people of Jerusalem, including members of the priestly families, the nobility, the artisans, the smiths, and others of the leading citizens of Jerusalem, were taken away captive to Babylon. Ezekiel was taken with them, and during all the period of his prophecy he is among the exiles in that foreign land.

He was evidently a man of some wealth, as well as culture, and doubtless took a considerable portion of his wealth with him. He had a home, a wife, and possibly a family. He lived in comparative ease and comfort on the banks of the river Chebar, near a place called Tel-abib, not many miles from the city of Babylon.

There was a community of Jewish exiles in that place, and they seemed to be let alone, and were allowed to carry on a little government of their own, for we find that repeatedly the elders of this Jewish community came to Ezekiel to consult him regarding the fate of Jerusalem. It is difficult for us to understand their exact condition. They were apparently in comfortable circumstances.

They heard from home frequently no doubt, for there was a great deal of traffic, traveling, and letter writing in those days. They were, doubtless, envious of the people who had been left in Jerusalem, and were exceedingly anxious as to the fate of Jerusalem itself, as their property to a large extent was still there. They naturally supposed that their property would be confiscated by those who remained in Jerusalem and Judah, and it comes out incidentally in the prophecy of Ezekiel that there was a deep and bitter grudge in their minds because the people who remained in Jerusalem had taken over the property of those who had been carried into exile. There was this reason also, as we find in Jeremiah 24, that the people who remained in Jerusalem considered themselves to be very good; they thought that they were the favorites of Jehovah since they had been left at home. Those that were taken away captive were therefore the greater sinners. Jeremiah tried to meet that in his parable of the two baskets of figs. The basket of good figs were those Jews in Babylon; and the basket of bad figs, those left in Jerusalem.

It has been said that Jeremiah was the spiritual father of Ezekiel. No doubt there is a large element of truth in that statement. A great man like Jeremiah doubtless had sons in the ranks of prophecy, as Paul had sons in the Christian ministry. Jeremiah must have had a vast influence over Ezekiel, for he had been a prophet thirty years in Jerusalem when Ezekiel was carried away into captivity. That thirty years of ministry stamped upon Ezekiel’s mind and heart, his theology, his religious life, and his view of the great religious questions of his age. He had, no doubt, read Jeremiah’s writings, for they were published in 603 B.C., six or seven years before Ezekiel was taken away. He must have been familiar with a great part of the writings of Jeremiah, for his own book gives in many places almost the exact thoughts and words of his great predecessor and contemporary. They were contemporaries for about fifteen years.

There are many similarities between Ezekiel’s writings and those of Jeremiah. Their themes are nearly the same. Their ideas are often identical. Their problems are very similar. The strange thing is that, although they lived as contemporaries for fifteen years, neither one makes the slightest reference to or mention of the other. Jeremiah knows Ezekiel is prophesying in Babylon, yet he sends a letter all the way from Jerusalem to Babylon with admonition to the exiles, and though Ezekiel must be aware of Jeremiah’s prophesying in Jerusalem, he makes no reference whatever to the fact.

In contrast to Jeremiah, Ezekiel presents some striking peculiarities. His private life was very different, for he had his home and his wife, but Jeremiah was forbidden these. Like Jeremiah he absents himself from all the social enjoyments and pleasures of the people among whom he dwells, refraining from entering into their mournings or their feastings. In contrast with Jeremiah he records no inner struggle such as that prophet passed through, no such complaints, no such murmurings, no such agony, no such mournings and tears, no such doubts of God, no such attempts to give up the work of prophesying. Ezekiel gives no hint that he passed through those temptations which tortured the soul of Jeremiah in the early half of the latter’s ministry. Ezekiel is more calm and judicial; he lays emphasis upon the divine sovereignty more than upon human freedom. He emphasizes the necessity and value of the human institutions, such as the Temple, the ceremonial, the ritual, the priesthood, and sacrifices, which Jeremiah does not. Jeremiah was willing to do without all these, if he could only have the heart religion which kept the people in fellowship with God and in obedience to him.

Ezekiel combines both the institutional and the spiritual. He combines the ritual and ceremonial with the new heart, the heart of flesh, the cleansed and pure spirit. He is in substantial agreement with Jeremiah on several points. His conception of the prophetic office is almost identical with that of his spiritual father. He conceives of himself as the one who is to warn, who is to pronounce judgment and threaten doom. His conception of the character of the people is exactly like Jeremiah’s. His pictures are even more lurid and terrible. His conception of the history of Israel is almost the same as Jeremiah’s. Jeremiah pictures her, from the time of her entrance into Canaan, as going astray after false gods, and her history as one long story of defection and idolatry. Ezekiel pictures her, as from the very beginning prone to idolatry and her history, as a long story of spiritual harlotry.

Ezekiel’s conception of the sin of idolatry is exactly the same as that of Jeremiah’s. He characterizes it in scores of passages by that one striking name which stigmatizes all defection from the worship of Jehovah. His picture of society is much the same as that of Jeremiah’s. He pictures it as having gone to the lowest depths, and as we go on in the study of his prophecy, we shall get some glimpses into those awful scenes which Ezekiel portrays. Like Jeremiah he prophesies the downfall of the state, the devastation of the country, the desolation of the city, the destruction of the Temple and the obliteration of the ritual.

Unlike that of Jeremiah, this book doubtless came from Ezekiel’s own hand, written and completed by himself. It is in many respects the most orderly, the most logical, the most chronological, of all the books of the Bible. Almost every distinct prophecy is dated, so that we can give the exact date, the month and the year, in which these prophecies were given to Ezekiel, or were uttered by him.

The following is an analysis of Ezekiel:

I. The vision of the glory of God and the call to the prophetic office (Ezekiel 1-3).

II. Symbolic prophecies of the overthrow of the city and the state (Ezekiel 4-24).

By means of symbols, symbolic actions, allegories, and metaphors, Ezekiel brings before the minds of the exiles the inevitable fate of their beloved city and state in Palestine.

III. Prophecies concerning foreign nations (Ezekiel 25-32).

IV. Prophecies of the restoration of the people of Israel and the reconstruction of God’s people (Ezekiel 33-39), which are in perfect order.

Having done with the prophecies concerning the foreign nations, he calls the attention of the people to their own glorious future.

V. A vision of the restored Temple and theocracy with the final glory and peace of the redeemed people of God (Ezekiel 40-48).

Under this we have three sections:

1. An account of the restored Temple (Ezekiel 40-43).

2. An account of the ordinances of the Temple as restored (Ezekiel 44-48).

3. The boundaries of the Holy Land and the new distribution of the tribes within it (Ezekiel 47-48), closing with the significant statement that in all this land, this territory, this Temple, the one great fact is that Jehovah is there.

The date of the prophet’s vision and call is the year 592 B.C., the fourth month and the fifth day of the month (about August 5). It was in the fifth year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity. That captivity occurred in 597 B.C. The place was by the river Chebar. The river Chebar was not a river proper, but one of the large irrigating canals which coursed through the plains of Babylon from the Tigris to the Euphrates, irrigating that rich and fertile country in which, some say, the garden of Eden itself originally was located. The irrigated plain of Babylon was probably the richest portion of land in all the world. It produced from two to three hundredfold.

In verse I, we have the expression, "the thirtieth year." Thirty years from what? Most probably thirty years of his own life, for he was certainly a mature man at this time. If he means the thirtieth year of his own age, then he is the only prophet that gives us any hint as to how old he was when he began to prophesy. The most plausible explanation is that it is the thirtieth year of his age, but this question has never been settled positively.

In Ezekiel I, we have the vision of the glory of God. He says that as he was by the river Chebar, the heavens were opened and he saw visions of God. Isaiah had his vision in the Temple, Jeremiah had his visions, and Ezekiel has a most wonderful vision. He describes it thus: "I looked, and behold, a stormy wind came out of the north."

Ezekiel saw it as a cloud coming, and he describes it as "a fire infolding itself," but perhaps a better translation would be "flashing continually," and as he looked at that great stormcloud moving up before him and the lightning illuminating it, there gradually appeared before him, as it were, the color of amber, a brightness round about it like amber, which was like an amalgam of gold and silver, a very brilliant metal.

He continued to look and he saw emerging from that cloud of flashing fire four living creatures who took on form. These were the four cherubim. Isaiah saw the seraphim, but Ezekiel calls them the cherubim. What are they like? The figure of a man. An angel in the form of a man, with a face fronting east, the face of a man. To the right is another face, the face of a lion; to the left is another face, that of an ox; behind is another face, the face of an eagle. There were four faces to this one figure. A great wing in front, a wing behind, a wing at each side, and a hand in connection with each wing – four wings and four hands, straight limbs, the foot round like that of a calk. One of these faces looking east, another facing west, a third one facing south, and a fourth one facing north.

So, looking at it from another direction, we see the face of a man; from another direction, the face of an ox; from another direction the face of an eagle; and another, the face of a lion. The wings in front and behind cover the body excepting the limbs and the feet. The wings at the side were lifted up when they flew and touched one another overhead so that one cherub touched another. When they were still, the wings were lowered to the side.

In the center of this four-square of cherubim was a fire, representing the glory of almighty God, flashing forth. How did they move? They were all one, all made to move by one spirit. When one moved, all moved. They were not independent beings, but had to move together and all actuated and impelled and driven by the Spirit, that one Spirit that was in them.

This represented the four great cherubim which formed the chariot of almighty God, that we find in Revelation 4-5, where John makes use of these four living creatures, but in a little different sense. They are the highest of all the principalities and authorities in the heavenly places. They constitute a chariot upon which almighty God rides forth to do service in the uni-verse. They constitute his executive force. The man represents the highest form of created intelligence. The lion represents the highest form of courage, the ox steadfastness and strength, the eagle the highest form of vision and flight, the most majestic of all birds.

Thus, there are sixteen faces, sixteen wings, sixteen hands, altogether. Their limbs are straight; they are not jointed; they don’t have to bend them when they walk, as they are not subject to the laws of locomotion as we are. How do they move? They have wheels, each one has a wheel, a wheel within a wheel. So that when the cherubim went forward each one was on a wheel. The same wheel which goes forward goes backward. The same wheel which goes to the left, goes to the right. He says these wheels were high and dreadful; that the rims and the felloes of the wheels were full of eyes. Two eyes fixed upon us is enough, but these great wheels full of eyes and all of them apparently looking straight forward form a terrible picture. When the four cherubim go in any direction, they have wheels upon which they glide like lightning; they need not turn, they never go corner-wise. They always go straight.

These cherubim with their great wheels full of eyes flash across the horizon like lightning. What a picture of the movements of almighty God! The eyes in the wheels represent the perfect omniscience of God; the cherubim represent his omnipotence; the wheels, with the lightning like rapidity with which they move, represent his omnipresence. The spirit that animates the four cherubim also animates the wheels, moves all at the same time. As all the cherubim move the wheels move, with one instinct, with one life, with one power, with one motion, in one direction.

Above the chariot of four cherubim was a firmament representing the platform upon which rested the feet of the Almighty himself. When Moses and the elders of Israel saw God they saw him upon a pavement of sapphire; they saw the God of Israel, and did eat and drink. When John saw God it was on a sea of glass. When Ezekiel saw him it was upon a firmament above the cherubim. He says it was crystal, very much the same as John’s vision of the sea of glass. This firmament was supported by these wings stretched out, the four corners joining together.

The noise of the movement of all these wheels (Ezekiel 1:24) was the noise of great waters like the noise of the Almighty, the noise of a tumult, like the noise of a host.

Then follows his description of God himself: "A voice above the firmament that was over their heads, was the likeness of a throne as the appearance of sapphire stone, and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness of the appearance of a man." He was of the color of amber. John said he was like jasper and sardius with a rainbow about his head. Ezekiel says, he is like amber and has a rainbow about his head; the whole appearance from his loins downward was the appearance of fire and there was brightness round about him. Ezekiel said, "It is an appearance of the likeness of the glory of God, and I fell upon my face." (Ezekiel 1:26)

The call and commission of the prophet is stated (Ezekiel 2:1-7). In verse I Jehovah calls him: "And he said unto me, son of man." That does not have the messianic meaning which "Son of man" has in the Gospels. It means child of man, mortal man, you mortal being, in contrast with God: "Stand upon thy feet and I will speak with thee." It is a good thing for a man to know how to stand upon his feet. Sermons have been preached from this text, entitled "Self-respect." "The Spirit entered into me when he spake with me, and set me upon my feet." Then he receives his commission. He was to speak to the children of Israel who were rebellious, who had transgressed against him, who were impudent, who were stiffhearted, who were to be unto the prophet like briers and thorns and scorpions. He was to speak to them whether they would hear or whether they would forbear. He had a terrible congregation to preach to: briers, thorns and thistles.

In Ezekiel 2:8-3:3 we have an account of that strange symbolic action, which we find in Revelation 10, where John performs almost the same action. Here is a roll, a scroll, it was written with mourning, lamentation, and woe. It was the message which Ezekiel was to give to those, his fellow kinsmen and exiles. And God says to Ezekiel, You are to eat this roll and go and speak unto the house of Israel. When you have taken it into your soul and are filled with it you can go and speak as a prophet. So he did and he found it very sweet. When John ate the roll he found it sweet in his mouth but exceedingly bitter afterward. Ezekiel found it sweet in his mouth but it did not become bitter afterward. What is the meaning of it? It is this: When God gives us a message, and we take that into our souls, it is one of the sweetest and highest pleasures possible to come to a human soul. Ezekiel found it sweet. It was God’s message, though it was lamentation and woe.

The prophet is sent to Israel, a hardened people (Ezekiel 3:4-11): "Thou art not sent to a people of a strange speech and of a hard language, but to the house of Israel." In Ezekiel 3:9 he says, "As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead." He needed a hard head to contend with those people.

Then the prophet was ordered to proceed to Tel-abib, not far from the river Chebar, where was a colony of Jews. He says, "The Spirit lifted me up and I heard behind me the voice of a great rushing, saying, Blessed be the glory of the Lord from this place." And the Spirit lifted him up and carried him away and he was set down by them of the captivity of Tel-abib that were by the river Chebar, and he sat among them astounded seven days.

The charge to Ezekiel is set forth in Ezekiel 3:16-21. Ezekiel was a watchman to warn the wicked and the righteous. This paragraph shows the tremendous responsibility of the prophet and minister of God.

In Ezekiel 3:22-27 we have an account of the prophet as he was led away to the plain where he saw another vision and had revealed to him the persecutions that were coming to him. Ezekiel 3:25 says, "They shall lay hands upon thee, and shall bind thee with them, and thou shalt not go out among them; and I will make thy tongue cleave to the roof of thy mouth, that thou shalt be dumb." The prophet was shut up to his message which he received from Jehovah. He was not allowed to speak except as the Lord spoke to him.

QUESTIONS

1. Who was Ezekiel, what of his family, what advantages did he have, what of the colony of Jews in Babylonia, and what of their feeling toward the Jews left at Jerusalem?

2. What was the relation of Ezekiel to Jeremiah?

3. What are the similarities in the writings of Ezekiel and Jeremiah, what strange thing about their ministries and what the contrasts in their work?

4. What can you say of the order, logic, and chronology of this book?

5. Give an analysis of Ezekiel.

6. What was the date and place of the prophet’s vision and call?

7. Describe the chariot of God as seen by Ezekiel and give the meaning of its several parts (Ezekiel 1:1-28).

8. How was God represented in this vision?

9. Describe the call and commission of the prophet as stated in Ezekiel 2:1-7.

10. Explain the symbolic action: of Ezekiel 2:8-3:3.

11. What was the condition of the people to whom Ezekiel was sent and what his preparation to meet their condition? (Ezekiel 3:4-11.)

12. Where did the Spirit lead him and what message did the Spirit bring to him in this connection? (Ezekiel 3:12-15.)

13. How is the charge to Ezekiel set forth in Ezekiel 3:16-21 and what th& warning here for God’s ministers in all ages?

14. Where did the Lord lead the prophet next and how was his solemn charge impressed upon him there?