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Major prophets · Old Testament · 48 chapters

The book of Ezekiel

The glory of God that departs and returns

Author
Ezekiel, son of Buzi, a priest deported to Babylonia (1:3)
Written
Between 593 and 571 BC (oracles dated from 1:2 to 29:17)
Time covered
The exile in Babylon: from the fifth year of Jehoiachin’s captivity (593 BC) to the twenty-seventh (571 BC), before and after the fall of Jerusalem (586 BC)
Key word
Glory

By the river Chebar, Ezekiel sees the glory of God upon a chariot of cherubim and wheels (1). Appointed a watchman (3:17), he acts out the siege of Jerusalem (4–5). In vision, he sees the abominations of the temple and the glory of the LORD leaving the house, then the city (8–11). Parables and oracles justify the judgment; his wife dies on the day the siege begins (24). After the oracles against the nations (25–32), the fall of Jerusalem opens the time of hope: a good Shepherd, a new heart, bones that live again, the defeat of Gog (33–39). The book culminates in a new temple where the glory returns, in a city named “The LORD is there” (40–48).

Main theme

The holy God withdraws his glory from a defiled temple and judges Jerusalem; then he gives his people a new heart, his Spirit and a good Shepherd, and returns to dwell among them: “The LORD is there.”

Outline

  1. Ezekiel 1-3 — The call of the prophet

    Vision of the glory, the scroll eaten, the mission of a watchman.

  2. Ezekiel 4-24 — The judgment of Jerusalem

    Symbolic acts, the departure of the glory, parables and personal responsibility, up to the beginning of the siege.

  3. Ezekiel 25-32 — Oracles against the nations

    Ammon, Moab, Edom, the Philistines, Tyre, Sidon and Egypt.

  4. Ezekiel 33-39 — The restoration of Israel

    The announced fall, the good Shepherd, the new heart, the bones that live again and the defeat of Gog.

  5. Ezekiel 40-48 — The new temple and the new land

    The temple measured, the return of the glory, the river of life and the division of the land.

Key points

  • The opening vision of the moving throne — living creatures with four faces, wheels full of eyes — shows that God’s glory is not shut up in Jerusalem: it reaches the exiles in Babylon (1:4-28).
  • Ezekiel is made a “watchman”: responsible for warning, he is not responsible for the response (3:17-19; 33:7-9).
  • His symbolic acts make him a living sign: a siege on a brick, 390 + 40 days lying down, hair divided in three, an exile’s baggage (4–5; 12).
  • The glory of the LORD leaves the defiled temple in stages (10:18-19; 11:23) and returns by the same east gate in the final vision (43:1-5).
  • Personal responsibility: “the soul that sinneth, it shall die”; God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (18:4, 23, 32).
  • The promise of new birth: clean water, a heart of flesh in place of a heart of stone, the Spirit of God within (36:25-27).
  • The valley of dry bones: the prophesied Word and the breath of the Spirit give life to a people without hope (37:1-14).
  • The river flowing from the temple, ever deeper, brings life and healing wherever it goes (47:1-12).
Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.
Ezekiel 3:17 — The call of the watchman: to listen to God and warn on his behalf.
For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.
Ezekiel 18:32 — The heart of God: he takes no pleasure in the death of the sinner but desires his repentance.
And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.
Ezekiel 22:30 — God looks for someone to stand in the gap and intercede.

Jesus in Ezekiel

Ezekiel announces “my servant David,” the one shepherd of the reunited people (34:23; 37:24): Jesus is the good shepherd who lays down his life and gathers one flock (John 10:11, 16). The new heart and the promised Spirit (36:25-27) are fulfilled in the new birth “of water and of the Spirit” (John 3:5). The glory that returns to dwell among the people finds its fulfillment in Christ, the Word made flesh, and the river flowing from the temple becomes, in Revelation, the river of the water of life proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb (47:1-12; Rev 22:1-2). Jesus loved to call himself “the Son of man.”

Did you know?

  • Ezekiel is the most precisely dated prophet in the Bible: about thirteen oracles give the year, month and day, from the fifth year (1:2) to the twenty-seventh year of the captivity (29:17).
  • “The thirtieth year” in 1:1 probably refers to Ezekiel’s age: 30, the age at which priests began their service (Num 4:3); in exile, he receives a prophetic ministry instead.
  • The expression “they shall know (ye shall know) that I am the LORD” recurs more than fifty times in the book: it is the purpose of all God’s judgments and all his deliverances.

Quiz on Ezekiel

Near which river did Ezekiel receive his divine visions?

What title does God give Ezekiel to describe his mission toward the house of Israel?

What does Ezekiel see in the valley where the Spirit sets him down in chapter 37?

There are many more questions like these in Bible Academy, each with its explanation and verse. Start your free trial.