Ezekiel - Introduction

Introduction

Ezekiel the man

Ezekiel was the son of Buzi. He was a priest and probably the son of a priest, as priesthood tended to be something that ran in the family.

He was taken captive in 597 BC when Babylon besieged Jerusalem, taken from the temple (2 Kings 24:14) and resettled in Babylon, on the dusty plains. It seems that the Jews were allowed to form settlements there and had a reasonable amount of freedom. God called him to be a prophet in 593BC. “the thirtieth year”  may well refer to Ezekiel’s thirtieth year. The last date of his oracles was the 27th year of exile, so he would be 52 years old at that time.

Nothing is known of Ezekiel outside the book bearing his name, nor are there any traditions about him. His wife died during the fall of Jerusalem. The elders consulted him (Ezek 8:1; 20:1) so he must have had some influence.

Ezekiel is only connected with the Babylonian plains, but there is a visionary visit to Jerusalem. Because of this visionary visit to Jerusalem some suggest that he actually spent all his ministry in Judah (so, on this basis, the whole book is a lie!), or part of the time in Judah and part in Babylon (no evidence for this at all). While we are absolutely right to be very wary of those who seek to make everything supernatural (in a “magical” sense), if God wants to give someone a vision of what is happening in Jerusalem from a few hundred miles away He is perfectly capable of doing so. Moreover, God wanted Ezekiel, and hence the people he was prophesying to, to be aware of what was going on. It was all part of understanding the truth.

Ezekiel is more of “left field” prophet than Isaiah or Jeremiah. There are the various visions he had, and the unusual behaviour at times, such as lying on his side., being dumb etc. Again, we must not idolise this, nor think “if I want to be a prophet I need to do odd things”. Most of his prophecies concerned Jerusalem and Israel, but there is nothing unusual about this. Though he was in exile, his heart was still in Jerusalem, and this was a common emotion, as Psalm 137 shows.

Date

Ezekiel contains more dates than any other of the prophets, and his prophecies were given between 593 BC and 571 BC.

Content

The book falls roughly into two parts. The first part is one of almost unremitting judgement, the second part has wonderful prophecies of spiritual renewal and transformation. A clear message is that it is only because of the goodness of God that this renewal comes about, it is in no way dependent upon us. A frequent refrain in Ezekiel is “that they may know that I am the Lord”. 

Most prophets are written in poetic style, but most of Ezekiel is in prose.

Bibliography

John B Taylor, “Ezekiel”, TOTC, IVP, 1969