God speaks loudest when His people aren't listening. The prophet Ezekiel knew this challenge intimately, serving a "hard-headed" community of Jewish exiles who had lost their homeland, their temple, and seemingly their connection to God. Rather than just delivering another sermon, God directed Ezekiel to become a living demonstration—building miniature siege works, tunneling through walls, lying motionless for months, and employing bizarre visual aids that couldn't be ignored.
What makes Ezekiel such a fascinating prophet is how thoroughly God documented His messages. Eleven times throughout this prophetic book, we find precisely dated revelations that create a 22-year ministry timeline beginning July 31, 593 BC. This meticulous dating wasn't just for historical accuracy; it established divine authority for messages that often contradicted what people wanted to hear. While false prophets promised a quick return from exile, Ezekiel delivered the uncomfortable truth that restoration would follow a lengthy period of judgment.
The book's clear three-part structure illuminates God's larger purposes: chapters 1-24 pronounce judgment against rebellious Israel, chapters 25-39 address the surrounding nations, and chapters 40-48 provide hope through promises of future restoration. This organizational framework offers crucial context for interpreting Ezekiel's challenging visions, especially his detailed temple prophecies that have perplexed readers for centuries.
Perhaps most encouraging is the realization that Ezekiel himself was an ordinary person transformed by extraordinary divine encounter. When "the hand of the Lord" came upon him, this displaced priest became a powerful messenger. The same principle applies to us—our effectiveness in ministry doesn't depend on innate abilities but on God's empowering presence working through willing vessels.
Whether you're familiar with prophecy or approaching these ancient texts for the first time, join us in this verse-by-verse exploration of Ezekiel's remarkable visions, dramatic object lessons, and timeless message of judgment and restoration. Subscribe to our podcast and visit reasoningthroughthebible.com for free study materials to help you navigate this prophetic masterpiece.
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May God Bless you!! - Glenn and Steve
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
The Old Testament prophets are so important to the
overall theme of the Bible, butyet they are also so often
neglected or unread.
We are going to start studyingEzekiel and it's going to be a
very rich study.
We will see in this book somequite amazing things and, as our
usual method, steve, we'regoing to go verse by verse, but
(00:43):
we're going to see some greatthings in the book of Ezekiel.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
I'm looking forward to go through this.
I say that with every book thatwe go through, but really,
looking at this book, you don'thear it preached that much in
the full context of the bookFrom the pulpit or even in Bible
studies.
There are certain sections ofEzekiel that Bible teachers or
pastors want to focus in.
But we're going to take thewhole book and there's a lot of
(01:11):
things, when you look at thewhole book of Ezekiel that are
just really fascinating and, asyou noted before, it's one of
the prophets that really speakto many things.
So I'm looking forward to goingthrough it in this first
portion, talking about thisintroduction to the book of
Ezekiel, before we get to thereal meat of the book, a little
(01:33):
bit about our ministry.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
We have a ministry we call Reasoning Through the
Bible.
We do verse-by-verse Biblestudy through the Word of God.
I would direct you to ourwebsite,
reasoningthThroughTheBiblecom.
If you're new to our ministry.
You'll find on our website freematerials.
Our goals and one of ourmotivations is to help churches
(01:58):
and small groups in Biblestudies to be able to better
teach the Word of God.
We offer a lot of things forfree.
We offer all of our Biblestudies and we have lesson plans
that you can download forteachers and student guides.
We have all kinds of thingsthat are either free or very low
cost.
We are in the ministry oftrying to spread the Word of God
(02:23):
and help other people to spreadthe Word of God.
Look at our website,ReasoningThroughTheBiblecom.
What we generally do is juststart at chapter 1, verse 1, and
go through the entire book andalong the way we try to answer
some questions, do a little bitof response to some of the
critics of the Scriptures andthen answer some theological
(02:46):
issues that may pop up.
I think you'll find us a littlebit unique.
We do our best to explain theWord of God with Ezekiel.
Let's go ahead and talk alittle bit about him before we
just jump into the chapters.
Ezekiel lived at the time ofthe Babylonian captivity.
Babylon came down and tookIsrael as captive.
(03:10):
We have here a prophet inEzekiel that had a very
difficult task before him.
I guess many of the prophetshad a difficult task, but what
he had was a, as God says, anobstinate people.
His audience was very hard ofhearing.
They were very hard-headed, soGod was trying to get through to
(03:33):
him.
So we find, as we read throughthe book of Ezekiel, some very
amazing things.
Instead of just telling thepeople, the Jewish people, he's
going to act out a great amountof his teachings.
Instead of just saying words,he acts out Like, for example,
at one point he lays on his sideon the ground for over a year.
(03:58):
Ezekiel, at one point, builds aclay model of Jerusalem and in
the little clay model, like toysoldiers, he lays siege to
Jerusalem and invades it.
God tells him at one point tolock himself in his house and
then tunnel out into the street.
He tells Ezekiel to cut hishair and then do different
(04:21):
things with the hair.
So we have a very strangeprophet.
He does some strange things,but it's all around
communicating God's messageagainst a very interesting book,
don't you think?
Speaker 2 (04:34):
It is different than some of the other prophetic
books.
In what you were just talkingabout, there is a lot of acting
out what God wants tocommunicate to the nation of
Israel, and the other thing isis that God is communicating to
the nation of Israel even thoughthey're in captivity in Babylon
(04:55):
.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Talk to us a little bit about the history of this
captivity and there was Assyriawas involved at one point.
Give us a timeline, Steve, ofwhat happens here with this.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Yeah, we have some maps and some charts here that
we're going to go through, glennjust about two or three of them
and this will be included inour resource material for our
website and it will also beincluded in our study guides and
leader guides in the appendixpart.
But a little bit of history asfar as what's going on is that
the nation of Israel split intotwo and you had the northern
(05:30):
portion that retained the nameIsrael made up of 10 tribes and
then the southern part took thename of Judah and it was
comprised of two tribes,comprised of two tribes.
Assyria came in and took thenorthern part into captivity
around 722 BC and the southernpart remained on its own for
(05:58):
centuries after that.
But when Babylon took overAssyria, babylon finally came
down and started attacking Judahto overtake it, and there were
actually three ways where thosepeople of Judah were taken into
captivity 605 BC, 597 BC and 586BC, and the 586 BC portion was
(06:18):
whenever Jerusalem and thetemple was completely torn down
by Nebuchadnezzar at that time.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
One of the things I would direct our listeners to,
because it took me quite a whilejust reading the Old Testament
to come to terms with thistimeline.
But I would direct ourlisteners.
If you want to get an idea ofthe timeline and the fall of
both the northern kingdom ofIsrael and the southern kingdom
of Judah, read the ends of twobooks 2 Kings and the end of
(06:49):
Jeremiah.
Both of those, as far as thechronology, is the time of the
fall of Israel and Judah and theend of 2 Kings.
The last couple of three, fourchapters and the last few
chapters of Jeremiah talk abouthow horrible it was when God
allowed these invading nationsto come in and destroy the
(07:12):
nation.
From a big picture, thetimeline is, of course.
God set up Israel back inGenesis with Abraham, isaac and
Jacob, and Jacob had 12 sons.
They go into Egypt, they comeout of Egypt, then we go into
the time of the judges and thenthe time of the kings and at the
end of the time of the kingscomes this judgment Israel had
(07:38):
disobeyed so much that Godallowed Assyria and Babylon to
come in as a punishment forIsrael's disobedience.
Many of the prophets Jeremiahand Daniel and Ezekiel all lived
approximately the same time.
These prophets were speakingagainst a disobedient Jewish
(08:00):
people.
They were disobeying God byviolating his laws and his moral
principles.
So God sends Babylon in as awrathful judgment against a
disobedient people.
And that's why a lot of timesand we're going to see in the
book of Ezekiel the prophetsreally had a message that people
didn't want to hear.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
And remember when we went through Zechariah Glenn, it
was told there that God said Iuse Babylon as part of a
judgment on you, but yet theywent a little bit too far.
They went further than what Iwanted them to, and so now I'm
going to judge them.
So he does that.
The next slide that we havehere just simply shows the area
(08:43):
of captivity that they weretaken into.
You see the Babylonian Empirethere, and they're taken from
Jerusalem, the Judah area, there, all the way over into Babylon,
and you'll see the circle there.
That's the area where theysettled.
All of the captives from Judahwere settled in that area.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
All of the captives from Judah were settled in that
area, and we're going to seethat Ezekiel is there by one of
those rivers there that aredepicted.
The map shows that Babylon, asBabylon proper in any case, was
north and northeast of Israel.
So they came in as invadersfrom the north, correct, correct
.
So they came in as invadersfrom the north.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Correct, correct, because you have that vast
desert area there, that'sdifficult terrain to go across.
So, yes, any invaders arealways coming in from the north
or the south whenever they'recoming against Israel.
The next chart here that wehave is simply one that shows
the various prophets and alsothe upper part.
(09:46):
There you'll see the differentempires.
The key thing to show on thisparticular one, glenn, is that
Ezekiel and Daniel arecontemporaries of each other.
Along with Jeremiah, daniel wastaken in that first wave from
605.
He was taken in that wave toBabylon.
(10:07):
He ends up serving in the courtof the king Nebuchadnezzar.
We have that whole story inDaniel that when we go through
that we'll break that down.
And Ezekiel then is taken inthe second wave over into
Babylon, but he's not serving inthe king's court.
(10:27):
He is out there just in thearea where the captives are.
And then you have Jeremiah.
Jeremiah is also a prophetduring this time, but Jeremiah
is never taken out of the land.
His prophecies are before theBabylonian invasion and the
captivity and he remains in theland with his prophecies of the
(10:51):
Judah people, the Israelites,the southern kingdom of Judah,
to repent and to turn back, tochange their mind about God, and
of course, they don't do that,and so they're finally taken
over into captivity.
Then the last one that we havehere that we want to show is
this chart.
That relates to what I havehere is eschatology.
(11:15):
People want to know what'shappening in the latter days,
the end of this age, what therestored kingdom?
When is that going to happen?
That was a question that wasoften talked about by the
disciples.
Is now the time that you'regoing to restore the kingdom,
because that was one of thethings the Messiah was going to
do.
Glenn, as we talk through this,many times, people and Bible
(11:39):
teachers, they want to go tosome of the key areas of
Revelation.
Obviously, that talks about endtime, and then we have the
Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24and Mark 13.
We've gone through both ofthose, as we've gone through
those two books already.
We have those verses that Paultalks about in 1 and 2
(12:01):
Thessalonians, and then we haveDaniel.
People say rightfully so, inorder to really understand
Revelation, you need to look atDaniel.
But what I think is left out ofit, glenn, many times, are that
the prophets, the prophetsthemselves Jeremiah, isaiah,
ezekiel, daniel, zechariah,malachi, all these other
(12:25):
prophets are actually thefoundation, I think, in really
understanding end-time events,because in those particular
prophets they over and overrepeat there's going to be a
restored kingdom of Israel.
You're going to be restored andthat's going to be one of the
(12:45):
messages that Ezekiel is goingto have for the people while
they're in captivity is that thekingdom is going to be restored
, even though you're underjudgment now, sometime in the
future there's going to be arestored kingdom and we'll talk
about that when we get to it inEzekiel.
We went through it when we wentthrough in Ezekiel.
We went through it when we wentthrough Zechariah.
(13:06):
We went through it when we wentthrough Nehemiah.
When we get to some of the otherprophets, we'll see that same
pattern.
But God is giving His peoplehope, even though they're under
a judgment.
To understand the prophetsreally to me is and I think you
as well, to me is and I thinkyou as well is a foundation that
(13:29):
people don't really go to.
They want to go to those areasthat I talked about of Daniel,
thessalonians, the OlivetDiscourse and Revelation, but
really to get a good feel of howGod is working and how he is
working with the nation ofIsrael, it's really in the
prophets and understanding them.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
I would agree, the places that are typically viewed
as looking at end times, likeyou said, book of Revelation,
olivet Discourse, places likethat and I would even include,
like the Gospels, the peoplethat would be listening to
Christ's teaching and listeningto these New Testament things
(14:08):
would be intimately familiarwith these Old Testament
prophets.
When the New Testament speaksof these themes, the listeners
oh yeah, that's what they meantback in the prophets, just as an
example, olivet Discourse.
They meant back in the prophets, just as an example, olivet
Discourse.
At one point in there Jesustalks about in those days the
(14:33):
sun's going to be darkened andthe moon's going to turn to
blood.
Those are direct quotes out ofIsaiah.
Well, the context in Isaiah istalking about God pouring out
wrath on the nations.
So these Old Testament prophetsare really keys to unlocking a
lot of these New Testamentlanguage that gets used Because
(14:54):
we've so neglected the OldTestament prophets.
Then we oftentimes get offtrack when we're trying to
interpret books like Revelationand the Olivet Discourse and so
on.
I just feel that there's suchrich ground back here in these
prophets that we really need tospend a little more time
studying them.
(15:14):
We do it before we really getinto the real sexy, sizzly stuff
in 2 Thessalonians and placeslike that Before we kind of dive
more into the Ezekiel itself.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
I want to concur with you that I agree with that.
That's why it's a ministry likewhat we have, where we go verse
by verse, through each book ofthe Bible.
I think that's where we have aministry that people should want
to listen to and want to sharewith their friends, because we
are going to go through each oneof those books.
(15:47):
For ones that want to know anddelve deeper into these prophets
, this is the perfect ministryfor you to be able to do that,
as we go through each of thesebooks.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Now a little bit about this man, ezekiel.
In the first part of the book,god appears to Ezekiel and calls
him into ministry.
That act of calling his prophetinto ministry is something that
happens to multiple peopleacross the Bible.
It happened to Isaiah, happenedto the Apostle Paul.
(16:17):
God will make a very dramaticappearance at the beginning and
make an impression on these menand use that to get their
attention and call them intoministry.
So we have here, especially inchapter 1 of Ezekiel, we have
God calling Ezekiel intoministry.
So we have here, especially inchapter 1 of Ezekiel, we have
God calling Ezekiel intoministry.
(16:37):
Really, most all of chapter 1is this arrival of God making
this wonderful impression uponthe prophet.
We see a similar thing when wejust read and we'll get into the
text momentarily these veryfantastic things that he's
seeing in this vision of God.
(16:58):
Well, we see similar thingswhen God first appeared to
people like Isaiah.
Towards the beginning of Isaiah,chapter 6, isaiah also
describes a very amazing thingsthat he sees that God had
revealed to him to call him intoministry.
Isaiah 6 talks about quote inthe year King Uzziah died, I saw
(17:21):
the Lord sitting on a thronehigh and lifted up and the train
of his robe filled the templeand then he goes on to talk
about flying seraphim around thethrone and God's voice speaking
, and when God spoke it shookthe foundations of the temple
and the temple is filled withsmoke.
(17:42):
We see these very amazingsights whenever God calls his
prophets into ministry.
Their response is alwayssimilar they tremble in fear and
fall on their face and becomevery aware of their own sin.
I think this is one key togetting them to last through the
(18:05):
criticism that they're going toget from the Jewish people,
because all of these prophetshad a real hard time of it and
if they didn't have God's Spiritand God's direction to keep
them on the right path, I'm surea lot of them would have said,
hey, I want to give up and goback to the easy life.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
But because God makes this dramatic appearance to
them and gives them a specialanointing of the Holy Spirit,
then I think they then have thepower and the resolve to
continue through their ministry,because Ezekiel has kind of a
hard life, does he not, steve hedoes because, as we noted at
(18:44):
the very beginning, god iscalling him to act out a lot of
the messages that he's sendingto the people that are in
captivity there, while part ofit is encouragement, it takes a
toll, I think, on Ezekiel forhim to go through these various
things that God wants to use himin order to kind of like an
(19:08):
object lesson of using Ezekielto communicate with not just his
words but with his actions.
In fact, one of them, wheneverhis wife dies, god equates that
to the fall of Jerusalem.
You know that it's got to takea toll on Ezekiel, on the
different things that God iscalling him to do.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
God appears to Ezekiel to call him into
ministry.
God has a dramatic appearanceto Isaiah at the beginning of
his ministry.
God has a dramatic appearanceto the Apostle Paul when he
calls him into ministry.
I think many of us, we don'thave necessarily a dramatic
appearance of God, but I thinkhe does call us into ministry.
(19:49):
Let's go ahead and for today,get our foot in the door and
read the first few verses ofchapter 1 of Ezekiel.
We can find here the actualsetting of the book.
So I'm reading at chapter 1,verse 1 of the prophet Ezekiel.
Now, it came about in thethirtieth year, on the fifth day
of the fourth month, while Iwas by the river Chebar amongst
(20:13):
the exiles, the heavens wereopened and I saw visions of God.
On the fifth of the month, inthe fifth year of King
Jehoiakim's exile, the word ofthe Lord came expressly to
Ezekiel, the priest son of Buzi,in the land of the Chaldeans by
the river Chebar, and there thehand of the Lord came upon him.
(20:35):
Now this opens up with a yearand a day and a month and we see
, as we look across the entirebook of Ezekiel, 11 times in the
book of Ezekiel he documentsthe day, the month and the year
that the prophecy came to him.
Now I think we can learn acouple of things about this.
(20:58):
One Ezekiel is documenting ahistorical fact.
It would be the same as if wefiled a legal document with the
government.
We would want to know who it isthat is making this document.
What day did they do it on?
Where were they?
Things like that.
This is evidence.
He's documenting the evidenceof where he was, who he was.
(21:21):
It says he was a priest and whowas his genealogy and what day,
month and year it was.
If this was our day, it wouldbe filed down at the courthouse
with the government.
It was.
If this was our day, it wouldbe filed down at the courthouse
with the government.
And the date here that hementions the 30th year, the
fifth day of the month no secretto this it was July 31st, 593
BC.
So of course he's not using ourmodern calendar, but he's
(21:54):
saying there exactly when ithappened.
So 11 times in the book ofEzekiel and we'll see this as we
go through the book hedocuments the day, the month and
the year that the word of theLord came to him.
We can use it first of all, asevidence of the fact that it
happened.
Secondly, we can also use it asan organizing tool for the book
, because those were the timeswhen God gave him a new message.
(22:14):
Now the book is really from awithout getting into tedium here
about the organization of itbut it's very structured.
It follows a very clear outlineand it's very clear.
Once you understand the largeprogression in the book, then
all the pieces kind of fall intoplace.
The first major section of thebook talks about the destruction
(22:38):
of Israel.
The middle section of the booktalks about the destruction of
the Gentile nations and the lastsection of the book talks about
the restoration of Israel.
The first section talks aboutthe destruction of Israel, the
last section talks about therestoration of Israel and the
middle he deals with theGentiles and that helps us to
(23:00):
understand and give aninterpretation tool to the
prophecy.
Why do we think?
What we think about the visionsof the temple?
Is that future, is it current,is it symbolic?
Is there going to be a futuretemple?
Well, the outline of the bookhelps us with that and we'll
(23:22):
deal with that when we get to it.
But again, ezekiel is veryorganized and if you just don't
get lost in the amazing actionsthat Ezekiel's doing.
The message he's giving ispretty clear, don't you think,
steve?
Speaker 2 (23:38):
It is clear and because we go verse by verse
through each one of them andwe're not diving into the latter
parts of Ezekiel, as Imentioned before, there's
teachers and pastors that wantto go and talk about those
Gentile nations coming againstIsrael in the latter part of
Ezekiel.
Starting out from verse 1 inchapter 1 and going through it
(24:02):
helps give that structure that'sgoing to be needed to where,
when we get to those sections,we're going to be able to
determine is it something that'sgoing to be yet in the future
or something that's alreadyhappened?
Speaker 1 (24:12):
Now time-wise again, he gives in these first three
verses what we just read.
He says in the 30th year.
Many of the Bible scholarsthink that that was Ezekiel's
30th year.
That would have been the yearthat he, by Jewish custom, would
have become a mature priest.
It says here he was a priest,would have become a mature
(24:33):
priest.
It says here he was a priest,but fifth day of the fourth
month and in the second versefifth of the month in the fifth
year of King Jehoiakim's exile.
With that we have a startingpoint for the book of Ezekiel.
If we follow these dates as wego through the book, it covers
about a 22-year period and getinto the years.
But it starts again in July31st 593, and follows for about
(24:59):
22 years.
That was his ministry.
The first few verses tell ushere what we just read about.
Ezekiel is in captivity.
Steve, what do we know aboutthis captivity?
He mentions this Kibar River,so we can place that, can we not
?
Within.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Babylon we can place it.
We had that showing on the mapthat we looked at a while ago.
It's a river that feeds intothe Euphrates River and it's
right there, in that area ofwhere the exiles from Israel,
from Judah, were taken.
It also shows us that theyweren't under slavery.
(25:36):
They were captives and takenout of their homeland, but they
weren't put into slavery.
Ezekiel has a house, as I notedbefore.
Daniel is in the king's courtand he is there with a couple of
his friends, and he is therewith a couple of his friends.
So we see that while they'reexiled, they're at least not
(25:59):
under being slaves like theywere in Egypt before.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
He says again in verse one, while I was by the
river Kibar among the exiles.
That tells us he's in Babylonwith the exiles from Jerusalem
that had come up as captivityinto Babylon.
Exiles were Jewish people thathad been taken captive by the
Babylonians.
(26:22):
That tells us a lot about hismessage.
As we go through the book.
The people had just been thisis the early part of the exile
and the Jewish people werelistening to false prophets
saying this is not going to lastvery long.
We're going to be able to goback home pretty soon With that
Ezekiel's getting a word fromthe Lord and as we go through
(26:45):
we're going to find out that Godhas an actually different
message, does he not?
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Oh, he absolutely does, and remember before when
we looked at that chart.
Ezekiel is a contemporary ofDaniel, daniel, towards the
latter part of it, it notesthere it says, as Daniel was
reading from Jeremiah, jeremiahis again as a prophet.
That is still back in the land,and he hasn't been taken into
(27:11):
exile.
In Jeremiah it's noted thatthey are going to be in exile
for 70 years.
Daniel sees that written aboutin Jeremiah, and then he has
this great prayer that he goesthrough on behalf of the nation
of Israel as to acknowledgingtheir sin and what they have
(27:31):
done wrong, but this exile thatthey're in is going to last for
70 years.
We see that in Daniel and fromJeremiah.
Another curious thing is, though, is that decades later, when we
pick up with Nehemiah, nehemiahhas this burden to go back and
rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
Well, that's over 100 yearslater.
(27:53):
Nehemiah is a cupbearer to theking Artaxerxes.
At that particular time, we seethat, even though they get to
go back and rebuild the templeand rebuild the walls of
Jerusalem, there are still someof them that remain there in
Babylon as these years progress.
(28:14):
Once again, looking at all ofScripture in context helps us to
be able to put this storycompletely together.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
The first part of verse 3 says the word of the
Lord came expressly to Ezekiel.
In the last part of the sameverse, the hand of the Lord came
upon him.
In the last part of the sameverse, the hand of the Lord came
upon him.
So if we were to ask ourselveswhat made Ezekiel effective in
his ministry, the answer is thatthe hand of the Lord was upon
him Before the word of the Lordcame to him.
(28:44):
And before the hand of the Lordwas upon him, ezekiel was
nothing special, just a man,just an average person just like
you and me.
Nothing special.
What made Ezekiel special wasthe message he gave and the fact
that the hand of the Lord wasupon him and gave him the energy
and the ability to give themessage.
(29:06):
It's the same thing with us, isit not?
In the sense that we're nothingspecial.
But what makes us special iswhen the Word of the Lord comes
to us and the Holy Spirit comesin us and the hand of the Lord
is upon us.
Then we can go out and doministry, then we can learn the
Word of God.
Just like Ezekiel needed theWord of God and he needed the
(29:30):
hand of the Lord upon him, allof us do as well, do we not?
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Oh yes, and Ezekiel is very explicit in these coming
verses that it's the Spirit ofthe Lord that comes on him and
makes him stand up.
We'll see that depicted overand over again in Ezekiel as
well.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
We'll get into this fantastic vision in chapter one
next time, as we will reasonthrough the book of Ezekiel.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Thank you so much for watching and listening.
May God bless you.
The Old Testament prophets are so important to the
overall theme of the Bible, butyet they are also so often
neglected or unread.
We are going to start studyingEzekiel and it's going to be a
very rich study.
We will see in this book somequite amazing things and, as our
usual method, steve, we'regoing to go verse by verse, but
(00:43):
we're going to see some greatthings in the book of Ezekiel.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
I'm looking forward to go through this.
I say that with every book thatwe go through, but really,
looking at this book, you don'thear it preached that much in
the full context of the bookFrom the pulpit or even in Bible
studies.
There are certain sections ofEzekiel that Bible teachers or
pastors want to focus in.
But we're going to take thewhole book and there's a lot of
(01:11):
things, when you look at thewhole book of Ezekiel that are
just really fascinating and, asyou noted before, it's one of
the prophets that really speakto many things.
So I'm looking forward to goingthrough it in this first
portion, talking about thisintroduction to the book of
Ezekiel, before we get to thereal meat of the book, a little
(01:33):
bit about our ministry.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
We have a ministry we call Reasoning Through the
Bible.
We do verse-by-verse Biblestudy through the Word of God.
I would direct you to ourwebsite,
reasoningthThroughTheBiblecom.
If you're new to our ministry.
You'll find on our website freematerials.
Our goals and one of ourmotivations is to help churches
(01:58):
and small groups in Biblestudies to be able to better
teach the Word of God.
We offer a lot of things forfree.
We offer all of our Biblestudies and we have lesson plans
that you can download forteachers and student guides.
We have all kinds of thingsthat are either free or very low
cost.
We are in the ministry oftrying to spread the Word of God
(02:23):
and help other people to spreadthe Word of God.
Look at our website,ReasoningThroughTheBiblecom.
What we generally do is juststart at chapter 1, verse 1, and
go through the entire book andalong the way we try to answer
some questions, do a little bitof response to some of the
critics of the Scriptures andthen answer some theological
(02:46):
issues that may pop up.
I think you'll find us a littlebit unique.
We do our best to explain theWord of God with Ezekiel.
Let's go ahead and talk alittle bit about him before we
just jump into the chapters.
Ezekiel lived at the time ofthe Babylonian captivity.
Babylon came down and tookIsrael as captive.
(03:10):
We have here a prophet inEzekiel that had a very
difficult task before him.
I guess many of the prophetshad a difficult task, but what
he had was a, as God says, anobstinate people.
His audience was very hard ofhearing.
They were very hard-headed, soGod was trying to get through to
(03:33):
him.
So we find, as we read throughthe book of Ezekiel, some very
amazing things.
Instead of just telling thepeople, the Jewish people, he's
going to act out a great amountof his teachings.
Instead of just saying words,he acts out Like, for example,
at one point he lays on his sideon the ground for over a year.
(03:58):
Ezekiel, at one point, builds aclay model of Jerusalem and in
the little clay model, like toysoldiers, he lays siege to
Jerusalem and invades it.
God tells him at one point tolock himself in his house and
then tunnel out into the street.
He tells Ezekiel to cut hishair and then do different
(04:21):
things with the hair.
So we have a very strangeprophet.
He does some strange things,but it's all around
communicating God's messageagainst a very interesting book,
don't you think?
Speaker 2 (04:34):
It is different than some of the other prophetic
books.
In what you were just talkingabout, there is a lot of acting
out what God wants tocommunicate to the nation of
Israel, and the other thing isis that God is communicating to
the nation of Israel even thoughthey're in captivity in Babylon
(04:55):
.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Talk to us a little bit about the history of this
captivity and there was Assyriawas involved at one point.
Give us a timeline, Steve, ofwhat happens here with this.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Yeah, we have some maps and some charts here that
we're going to go through, glennjust about two or three of them
and this will be included inour resource material for our
website and it will also beincluded in our study guides and
leader guides in the appendixpart.
But a little bit of history asfar as what's going on is that
the nation of Israel split intotwo and you had the northern
(05:30):
portion that retained the nameIsrael made up of 10 tribes and
then the southern part took thename of Judah and it was
comprised of two tribes,comprised of two tribes.
Assyria came in and took thenorthern part into captivity
around 722 BC and the southernpart remained on its own for
(05:58):
centuries after that.
But when Babylon took overAssyria, babylon finally came
down and started attacking Judahto overtake it, and there were
actually three ways where thosepeople of Judah were taken into
captivity 605 BC, 597 BC and 586BC, and the 586 BC portion was
(06:18):
whenever Jerusalem and thetemple was completely torn down
by Nebuchadnezzar at that time.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
One of the things I would direct our listeners to,
because it took me quite a whilejust reading the Old Testament
to come to terms with thistimeline.
But I would direct ourlisteners.
If you want to get an idea ofthe timeline and the fall of
both the northern kingdom ofIsrael and the southern kingdom
of Judah, read the ends of twobooks 2 Kings and the end of
(06:49):
Jeremiah.
Both of those, as far as thechronology, is the time of the
fall of Israel and Judah and theend of 2 Kings.
The last couple of three, fourchapters and the last few
chapters of Jeremiah talk abouthow horrible it was when God
allowed these invading nationsto come in and destroy the
(07:12):
nation.
From a big picture, thetimeline is, of course.
God set up Israel back inGenesis with Abraham, isaac and
Jacob, and Jacob had 12 sons.
They go into Egypt, they comeout of Egypt, then we go into
the time of the judges and thenthe time of the kings and at the
end of the time of the kingscomes this judgment Israel had
(07:38):
disobeyed so much that Godallowed Assyria and Babylon to
come in as a punishment forIsrael's disobedience.
Many of the prophets Jeremiahand Daniel and Ezekiel all lived
approximately the same time.
These prophets were speakingagainst a disobedient Jewish
(08:00):
people.
They were disobeying God byviolating his laws and his moral
principles.
So God sends Babylon in as awrathful judgment against a
disobedient people.
And that's why a lot of timesand we're going to see in the
book of Ezekiel the prophetsreally had a message that people
didn't want to hear.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
And remember when we went through Zechariah Glenn, it
was told there that God said Iuse Babylon as part of a
judgment on you, but yet theywent a little bit too far.
They went further than what Iwanted them to, and so now I'm
going to judge them.
So he does that.
The next slide that we havehere just simply shows the area
(08:43):
of captivity that they weretaken into.
You see the Babylonian Empirethere, and they're taken from
Jerusalem, the Judah area, there, all the way over into Babylon,
and you'll see the circle there.
That's the area where theysettled.
All of the captives from Judahwere settled in that area.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
All of the captives from Judah were settled in that
area, and we're going to seethat Ezekiel is there by one of
those rivers there that aredepicted.
The map shows that Babylon, asBabylon proper in any case, was
north and northeast of Israel.
So they came in as invadersfrom the north, correct, correct
.
So they came in as invadersfrom the north.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Correct, correct, because you have that vast
desert area there, that'sdifficult terrain to go across.
So, yes, any invaders arealways coming in from the north
or the south whenever they'recoming against Israel.
The next chart here that wehave is simply one that shows
the various prophets and alsothe upper part.
(09:46):
There you'll see the differentempires.
The key thing to show on thisparticular one, glenn, is that
Ezekiel and Daniel arecontemporaries of each other.
Along with Jeremiah, daniel wastaken in that first wave from
605.
He was taken in that wave toBabylon.
(10:07):
He ends up serving in the courtof the king Nebuchadnezzar.
We have that whole story inDaniel that when we go through
that we'll break that down.
And Ezekiel then is taken inthe second wave over into
Babylon, but he's not serving inthe king's court.
(10:27):
He is out there just in thearea where the captives are.
And then you have Jeremiah.
Jeremiah is also a prophetduring this time, but Jeremiah
is never taken out of the land.
His prophecies are before theBabylonian invasion and the
captivity and he remains in theland with his prophecies of the
(10:51):
Judah people, the Israelites,the southern kingdom of Judah,
to repent and to turn back, tochange their mind about God, and
of course, they don't do that,and so they're finally taken
over into captivity.
Then the last one that we havehere that we want to show is
this chart.
That relates to what I havehere is eschatology.
(11:15):
People want to know what'shappening in the latter days,
the end of this age, what therestored kingdom?
When is that going to happen?
That was a question that wasoften talked about by the
disciples.
Is now the time that you'regoing to restore the kingdom,
because that was one of thethings the Messiah was going to
do.
Glenn, as we talk through this,many times, people and Bible
(11:39):
teachers, they want to go tosome of the key areas of
Revelation.
Obviously, that talks about endtime, and then we have the
Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24and Mark 13.
We've gone through both ofthose, as we've gone through
those two books already.
We have those verses that Paultalks about in 1 and 2
(12:01):
Thessalonians, and then we haveDaniel.
People say rightfully so, inorder to really understand
Revelation, you need to look atDaniel.
But what I think is left out ofit, glenn, many times, are that
the prophets, the prophetsthemselves Jeremiah, isaiah,
ezekiel, daniel, zechariah,malachi, all these other
(12:25):
prophets are actually thefoundation, I think, in really
understanding end-time events,because in those particular
prophets they over and overrepeat there's going to be a
restored kingdom of Israel.
You're going to be restored andthat's going to be one of the
(12:45):
messages that Ezekiel is goingto have for the people while
they're in captivity is that thekingdom is going to be restored
, even though you're underjudgment now, sometime in the
future there's going to be arestored kingdom and we'll talk
about that when we get to it inEzekiel.
We went through it when we wentthrough in Ezekiel.
We went through it when we wentthrough Zechariah.
(13:06):
We went through it when we wentthrough Nehemiah.
When we get to some of the otherprophets, we'll see that same
pattern.
But God is giving His peoplehope, even though they're under
a judgment.
To understand the prophetsreally to me is and I think you
as well, to me is and I thinkyou as well is a foundation that
(13:29):
people don't really go to.
They want to go to those areasthat I talked about of Daniel,
thessalonians, the OlivetDiscourse and Revelation, but
really to get a good feel of howGod is working and how he is
working with the nation ofIsrael, it's really in the
prophets and understanding them.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
I would agree, the places that are typically viewed
as looking at end times, likeyou said, book of Revelation,
olivet Discourse, places likethat and I would even include,
like the Gospels, the peoplethat would be listening to
Christ's teaching and listeningto these New Testament things
(14:08):
would be intimately familiarwith these Old Testament
prophets.
When the New Testament speaksof these themes, the listeners
oh yeah, that's what they meantback in the prophets, just as an
example, olivet Discourse.
They meant back in the prophets, just as an example, olivet
Discourse.
At one point in there Jesustalks about in those days the
(14:33):
sun's going to be darkened andthe moon's going to turn to
blood.
Those are direct quotes out ofIsaiah.
Well, the context in Isaiah istalking about God pouring out
wrath on the nations.
So these Old Testament prophetsare really keys to unlocking a
lot of these New Testamentlanguage that gets used Because
(14:54):
we've so neglected the OldTestament prophets.
Then we oftentimes get offtrack when we're trying to
interpret books like Revelationand the Olivet Discourse and so
on.
I just feel that there's suchrich ground back here in these
prophets that we really need tospend a little more time
studying them.
(15:14):
We do it before we really getinto the real sexy, sizzly stuff
in 2 Thessalonians and placeslike that Before we kind of dive
more into the Ezekiel itself.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
I want to concur with you that I agree with that.
That's why it's a ministry likewhat we have, where we go verse
by verse, through each book ofthe Bible.
I think that's where we have aministry that people should want
to listen to and want to sharewith their friends, because we
are going to go through each oneof those books.
(15:47):
For ones that want to know anddelve deeper into these prophets
, this is the perfect ministryfor you to be able to do that,
as we go through each of thesebooks.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Now a little bit about this man, ezekiel.
In the first part of the book,god appears to Ezekiel and calls
him into ministry.
That act of calling his prophetinto ministry is something that
happens to multiple peopleacross the Bible.
It happened to Isaiah, happenedto the Apostle Paul.
(16:17):
God will make a very dramaticappearance at the beginning and
make an impression on these menand use that to get their
attention and call them intoministry.
So we have here, especially inchapter 1 of Ezekiel, we have
God calling Ezekiel intoministry.
So we have here, especially inchapter 1 of Ezekiel, we have
God calling Ezekiel intoministry.
(16:37):
Really, most all of chapter 1is this arrival of God making
this wonderful impression uponthe prophet.
We see a similar thing when wejust read and we'll get into the
text momentarily these veryfantastic things that he's
seeing in this vision of God.
(16:58):
Well, we see similar thingswhen God first appeared to
people like Isaiah.
Towards the beginning of Isaiah,chapter 6, isaiah also
describes a very amazing thingsthat he sees that God had
revealed to him to call him intoministry.
Isaiah 6 talks about quote inthe year King Uzziah died, I saw
(17:21):
the Lord sitting on a thronehigh and lifted up and the train
of his robe filled the templeand then he goes on to talk
about flying seraphim around thethrone and God's voice speaking
, and when God spoke it shookthe foundations of the temple
and the temple is filled withsmoke.
(17:42):
We see these very amazingsights whenever God calls his
prophets into ministry.
Their response is alwayssimilar they tremble in fear and
fall on their face and becomevery aware of their own sin.
I think this is one key togetting them to last through the
(18:05):
criticism that they're going toget from the Jewish people,
because all of these prophetshad a real hard time of it and
if they didn't have God's Spiritand God's direction to keep
them on the right path, I'm surea lot of them would have said,
hey, I want to give up and goback to the easy life.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
But because God makes this dramatic appearance to
them and gives them a specialanointing of the Holy Spirit,
then I think they then have thepower and the resolve to
continue through their ministry,because Ezekiel has kind of a
hard life, does he not, steve hedoes because, as we noted at
(18:44):
the very beginning, god iscalling him to act out a lot of
the messages that he's sendingto the people that are in
captivity there, while part ofit is encouragement, it takes a
toll, I think, on Ezekiel forhim to go through these various
things that God wants to use himin order to kind of like an
(19:08):
object lesson of using Ezekielto communicate with not just his
words but with his actions.
In fact, one of them, wheneverhis wife dies, god equates that
to the fall of Jerusalem.
You know that it's got to takea toll on Ezekiel, on the
different things that God iscalling him to do.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
God appears to Ezekiel to call him into
ministry.
God has a dramatic appearanceto Isaiah at the beginning of
his ministry.
God has a dramatic appearanceto the Apostle Paul when he
calls him into ministry.
I think many of us, we don'thave necessarily a dramatic
appearance of God, but I thinkhe does call us into ministry.
(19:49):
Let's go ahead and for today,get our foot in the door and
read the first few verses ofchapter 1 of Ezekiel.
We can find here the actualsetting of the book.
So I'm reading at chapter 1,verse 1 of the prophet Ezekiel.
Now, it came about in thethirtieth year, on the fifth day
of the fourth month, while Iwas by the river Chebar amongst
(20:13):
the exiles, the heavens wereopened and I saw visions of God.
On the fifth of the month, inthe fifth year of King
Jehoiakim's exile, the word ofthe Lord came expressly to
Ezekiel, the priest son of Buzi,in the land of the Chaldeans by
the river Chebar, and there thehand of the Lord came upon him.
(20:35):
Now this opens up with a yearand a day and a month and we see
, as we look across the entirebook of Ezekiel, 11 times in the
book of Ezekiel he documentsthe day, the month and the year
that the prophecy came to him.
Now I think we can learn acouple of things about this.
(20:58):
One Ezekiel is documenting ahistorical fact.
It would be the same as if wefiled a legal document with the
government.
We would want to know who it isthat is making this document.
What day did they do it on?
Where were they?
Things like that.
This is evidence.
He's documenting the evidenceof where he was, who he was.
(21:21):
It says he was a priest and whowas his genealogy and what day,
month and year it was.
If this was our day, it wouldbe filed down at the courthouse
with the government.
It was.
If this was our day, it wouldbe filed down at the courthouse
with the government.
And the date here that hementions the 30th year, the
fifth day of the month no secretto this it was July 31st, 593
BC.
So of course he's not using ourmodern calendar, but he's
(21:54):
saying there exactly when ithappened.
So 11 times in the book ofEzekiel and we'll see this as we
go through the book hedocuments the day, the month and
the year that the word of theLord came to him.
We can use it first of all, asevidence of the fact that it
happened.
Secondly, we can also use it asan organizing tool for the book
, because those were the timeswhen God gave him a new message.
(22:14):
Now the book is really from awithout getting into tedium here
about the organization of itbut it's very structured.
It follows a very clear outlineand it's very clear.
Once you understand the largeprogression in the book, then
all the pieces kind of fall intoplace.
The first major section of thebook talks about the destruction
(22:38):
of Israel.
The middle section of the booktalks about the destruction of
the Gentile nations and the lastsection of the book talks about
the restoration of Israel.
The first section talks aboutthe destruction of Israel, the
last section talks about therestoration of Israel and the
middle he deals with theGentiles and that helps us to
(23:00):
understand and give aninterpretation tool to the
prophecy.
Why do we think?
What we think about the visionsof the temple?
Is that future, is it current,is it symbolic?
Is there going to be a futuretemple?
Well, the outline of the bookhelps us with that and we'll
(23:22):
deal with that when we get to it.
But again, ezekiel is veryorganized and if you just don't
get lost in the amazing actionsthat Ezekiel's doing.
The message he's giving ispretty clear, don't you think,
steve?
Speaker 2 (23:38):
It is clear and because we go verse by verse
through each one of them andwe're not diving into the latter
parts of Ezekiel, as Imentioned before, there's
teachers and pastors that wantto go and talk about those
Gentile nations coming againstIsrael in the latter part of
Ezekiel.
Starting out from verse 1 inchapter 1 and going through it
(24:02):
helps give that structure that'sgoing to be needed to where,
when we get to those sections,we're going to be able to
determine is it something that'sgoing to be yet in the future
or something that's alreadyhappened?
Speaker 1 (24:12):
Now time-wise again, he gives in these first three
verses what we just read.
He says in the 30th year.
Many of the Bible scholarsthink that that was Ezekiel's
30th year.
That would have been the yearthat he, by Jewish custom, would
have become a mature priest.
It says here he was a priest,would have become a mature
(24:33):
priest.
It says here he was a priest,but fifth day of the fourth
month and in the second versefifth of the month in the fifth
year of King Jehoiakim's exile.
With that we have a startingpoint for the book of Ezekiel.
If we follow these dates as wego through the book, it covers
about a 22-year period and getinto the years.
But it starts again in July31st 593, and follows for about
(24:59):
22 years.
That was his ministry.
The first few verses tell ushere what we just read about.
Ezekiel is in captivity.
Steve, what do we know aboutthis captivity?
He mentions this Kibar River,so we can place that, can we not
?
Within.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Babylon we can place it.
We had that showing on the mapthat we looked at a while ago.
It's a river that feeds intothe Euphrates River and it's
right there, in that area ofwhere the exiles from Israel,
from Judah, were taken.
It also shows us that theyweren't under slavery.
(25:36):
They were captives and takenout of their homeland, but they
weren't put into slavery.
Ezekiel has a house, as I notedbefore.
Daniel is in the king's courtand he is there with a couple of
his friends, and he is therewith a couple of his friends.
So we see that while they'reexiled, they're at least not
(25:59):
under being slaves like theywere in Egypt before.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
He says again in verse one, while I was by the
river Kibar among the exiles.
That tells us he's in Babylonwith the exiles from Jerusalem
that had come up as captivityinto Babylon.
Exiles were Jewish people thathad been taken captive by the
Babylonians.
(26:22):
That tells us a lot about hismessage.
As we go through the book.
The people had just been thisis the early part of the exile
and the Jewish people werelistening to false prophets
saying this is not going to lastvery long.
We're going to be able to goback home pretty soon With that
Ezekiel's getting a word fromthe Lord and as we go through
(26:45):
we're going to find out that Godhas an actually different
message, does he not?
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Oh, he absolutely does, and remember before when
we looked at that chart.
Ezekiel is a contemporary ofDaniel, daniel, towards the
latter part of it, it notesthere it says, as Daniel was
reading from Jeremiah, jeremiahis again as a prophet.
That is still back in the land,and he hasn't been taken into
(27:11):
exile.
In Jeremiah it's noted thatthey are going to be in exile
for 70 years.
Daniel sees that written aboutin Jeremiah, and then he has
this great prayer that he goesthrough on behalf of the nation
of Israel as to acknowledgingtheir sin and what they have
(27:31):
done wrong, but this exile thatthey're in is going to last for
70 years.
We see that in Daniel and fromJeremiah.
Another curious thing is, though, is that decades later, when we
pick up with Nehemiah, nehemiahhas this burden to go back and
rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
Well, that's over 100 yearslater.
(27:53):
Nehemiah is a cupbearer to theking Artaxerxes.
At that particular time, we seethat, even though they get to
go back and rebuild the templeand rebuild the walls of
Jerusalem, there are still someof them that remain there in
Babylon as these years progress.
(28:14):
Once again, looking at all ofScripture in context helps us to
be able to put this storycompletely together.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
The first part of verse 3 says the word of the
Lord came expressly to Ezekiel.
In the last part of the sameverse, the hand of the Lord came
upon him.
In the last part of the sameverse, the hand of the Lord came
upon him.
So if we were to ask ourselveswhat made Ezekiel effective in
his ministry, the answer is thatthe hand of the Lord was upon
him Before the word of the Lordcame to him.
(28:44):
And before the hand of the Lordwas upon him, ezekiel was
nothing special, just a man,just an average person just like
you and me.
Nothing special.
What made Ezekiel special wasthe message he gave and the fact
that the hand of the Lord wasupon him and gave him the energy
and the ability to give themessage.
(29:06):
It's the same thing with us, isit not?
In the sense that we're nothingspecial.
But what makes us special iswhen the Word of the Lord comes
to us and the Holy Spirit comesin us and the hand of the Lord
is upon us.
Then we can go out and doministry, then we can learn the
Word of God.
Just like Ezekiel needed theWord of God and he needed the
(29:30):
hand of the Lord upon him, allof us do as well, do we not?
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Oh yes, and Ezekiel is very explicit in these coming
verses that it's the Spirit ofthe Lord that comes on him and
makes him stand up.
We'll see that depicted overand over again in Ezekiel as
well.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
We'll get into this fantastic vision in chapter one
next time, as we will reasonthrough the book of Ezekiel.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Thank you so much for watching and listening.
May God bless you.
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