Introduction to Ezekiel

Introductory sermon to the Ezekiel sermon series

Introduction: A Strange and Bizarre Book
The Book of Ezekiel is a very strange book indeed. It is believed that the Jews would only recommend people above 50 years old to read this book for it contains too many strange and bizarre acts demanded by God on his prophet Ezekiel. Anyone younger might fail to understand or appreciate its true meaning. [But because we are all strange in some ways or another, we thought our folks here would be up for a challenge to understand this book even though we are neither Jewish nor 50.] At Jubilee Church, we believe that there is an important message from every book in the Bible. Even though Ezekiel is a difficult book in comparison, it is also a very interesting book for us to explore.

It is very different from other biblical books, both in style and in the message of the book. It is also strange because the supposed author, prophet Ezekiel is also a very strange man. In his 23 years as a professional prophet and priest for the Israelites in exile, he acted out many of his strange and unusual visions. For example, in Ezek. 4:4-8 Ezekiel was described to lie on the left side for 390 days and on the right for 40 days. Not to forget about God telling him in Ezek. 4:12-13 to bake a cake [edit: over] human dung and eat it in the sight of humans. Of course, Ezekiel pleaded with God saying that he has never eaten anything so defiled. So, God told him to [edit: use] cow’s dung instead of human dung (Ezek. 4:15) [edit: as fuel]. What comforting words! Surely [edit: bread bake over] cow’s dung taste better than [edit: bread bake over] human dung! If not for taste, it is definitely healthier as it has more fiber in it. In Ezek. 5:1-12, Ezekiel shaves his head with a sword, because Gillette razors have not yet been invented. He then weighs and divides the cut hair, burning a third of it, and striking another third of it around the city, and scattering the last third of it to the winds.

The book of Ezekiel is also the only prophetic book largely written in the first person narrative. But the prophet is not like a preacher sharing God’s Word with his people but as someone who is addressed by the Word of God. He is the recipient of what God is going to do. And from his bizarre actions, the people will then recognize God’s message for them. Ezekiel’s actions are neither example for us or for the people during his time to mimic. So, rest assured that the application for us today is definitely not for us to bake cake [edit: over human dung] and eat it. It gives a whole new meaning to the phrase, “you cannot have your cake and eat it!”

Ezekiel: The Prophet-Priest
Let’s start with understand who this prophet is. Let’s read again…

Ezekiel 1:1-3
1In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the Chebar canal, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.a 2On the fifth day of the month (it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin), 3the word of the LORD came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the Chebar canal, and the hand of the LORD was upon him there.

Ezekiel came from a priestly family and was the son of Buzi. He grew up in Palestine, probably in Jerusalem, and was taken into exile in 597 B.C. This makes the story of Ezekiel about 2600 years from the present. How could a book that is written so long ago be of relevance to us today? What are we studying and preaching from this ancient book? What does it have to offer to modern Christians? Today, my task is to offer only an introduction to this fascinating book. I hope that throughout this series on Ezekiel, we will discover the answers to these questions. Brother Hock Seng will engage with the entire chapter one next week. Let’s continue.

Ezekiel was probably only 25 years old when he was forced to move away from his homeland and into the land of the Chaldeans, which is the old Babylon, our present day Iraq. Unlike the cruel Assyrians, the Babylonians did not ill-treat those exiles those who were living in their land. They were more concern with these exiles starting revolutions about the empire. These exiles live together in a settlement of Judean prisoners of war. HDB prices in Babylon were not that expensive and so Ezekiel had his own house (Ezek. 8:1) where the elders of Judah would come to him seeking spiritual consul. In the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin, Ezekiel would only be 30 years old when he started his prophetic ministry in Babylon. A young priest and prophet called to minister to his people in exile. His last recorded prophetic date was in year 27 of the exile, so that indicates a ministry of at least 23 years. He was a man of God who lived among his people in their hard times. Sometimes, he has been called “psychotic, and schizophrenic.” He is crazy in a godly kind of way.

In the opening paragraph of Ezekiel chapter one, it tells us that “the hand of the Lord was upon him there” (Ezek. 1:3). Like a prisoner marking the days of his imprisonment, Ezekiel carefully tracked the years of his exile with precise dating. “He spent his entire prophetic career as an exile in Babylon, speaking to exiles.” Ezekiel was the first prophet in the OT whose entire prophetic career was spent outside of Judah and Israel. He was like a new immigrant anointed by God to serve in a foreign land.

Ezekiel’s love and loss: God’s desecration of his sanctuary
Now a little about his personal life. Ezekiel was a priest who was married and loves his wife very much. Hey, wait a minute, a priest who is married? Our Catholic friends may not find this concept familiar but this practice is not uncommon in the Jewish faith. Even Jewish rabbis today can marry. Ezekiel was happily married (Ezek. 24:16) but God tells him that He is going to take his wife away.

Ezek. 24:15-16, 18
15 The word of the LORD came to me: 16 “Son of man, with one blow I am about to take away from you the delight of your eyes. Yet do not lament or weep or shed any tears… 18 So I spoke to the people in the morning, and in the evening my wife died. The next morning I did as I had been commanded.

What was that about? Taking away the loved ones of his faithful servant to make a point? This is not the first time God has done something like that. Job is another example. But for that case, Job’s nagging wife did not die, but his children and many of his farm animals did. Is God sadistic? Not entirely, but this was done as a warning to Israel that God is going act against his own people – his sanctuary – the place where God dwells. God tells Ezekiel what exactly to say.

Ezek. 24:21, 24 (NIV)
21 Say to the people of Israel, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am about to desecrate my sanctuary—the stronghold in which you take pride, the delight of your eyes, the object of your affection. The sons and daughters you left behind will fall by the sword…24 Ezekiel will be a sign to you; you will do just as he has done. When this happens, you will know that I am the Sovereign LORD.’

God is going to desecrate his own sanctuary just like how the sanctuary of Ezekiel’s blissful marriage is desecrated with the sudden death of his wife. Just as Ezekiel’s wife is the object of affection for Ezekiel, the object of Israel’s affection (sin) will be taken away from them. This is to showcase that God is sovereign. Whenever we hear of this, we immediately think of God as a tyrant. God takes away your wife as a warning to your fellow countrymen, and you are told not to lament or cry for her. Why would God do something like that? Can you imagine the agony? The pain? God explains to Ezekiel why and how He is going to cleanse Israel but God does not explain his choice of actions. Truly bizarre and strange! Sometimes God uses extreme ways to carry out his divine purpose. We will engage further with this issue when we come to the relevant chapters. For now, I can only offer you the comfort that whatever pain and suffering which Ezekiel was asked to go through, the intensity of Jesus’ pain and suffering to the cross is comparable. However bizarre and strange the acts of Ezekiel are, it is equally matched by the bizarreness and strangeness of putting an innocent man to death for the sake of humanity.

The times before Ezekiel: Divided Monarchy under the Assyrians and the Egyptians
Let’s now look at the historical context of this book. As mentioned earlier, the period of this writing is during the exile of King Jehoiachin in 597 B.C. During this time, Israel is already divided into two kingdoms: Israel in the north, and Judah in the south. After the fall of the northern kingdom in 722 B.C., northern Israel (Ephraim) was under control by the cruel Assyrians. For a while the southern state of Judah had seen a strong resistance against the Assyrians led by King Hezekiah between 716-687 B.C. But whatever Hezekiah did for Judah, his resistance policy was reversed by Judah’s most apostate king, Manasseh, who compromised with Assyria instead. Manasseh shed much innocent blood and introduced Canaanite idolatry and cultic practices and all kinds of magic and fortune telling in Judah. After Manasseh’s reign, and also of his ill-fated son Amon, King Josiah rose to the throne and introduced a revival, a good reform plan in 622 B.C. Josiah personally led a dramatic ceremony renewing Israel’s covenant with Yahweh. But even the great Reformer Josiah could not undo the evil done by Manasseh. Josiah died a hero in battle against the Egyptian Pharaoh Neco. After Josiah’s death, his successors (Jehoahaz and Eliakim, both of whom were Josiah’s sons) only became puppet kings of the Egyptian and Babylonian overlords. Eliakim was renamed Jehoiakim by Neco (2 Kings 23:34f.).

The context of Ezekiel: Conquest under the Babylonians
In 605 B.C. Pharoah Neco finally met his match and was defeated by King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon. By this time, the Babylonians was the unrivalled world supreme power. Jehoiakim rebelled against their new master, King Nebuchadnezzar II, and died in the midst of a siege of Jerusalem by Babylonian forces. Then, only 18-years of age, Jehoiachin took over the kingship from his father but as they were too weak against the mighty Babylonian army, he had no choice but to pledge allegiance to Babylon. Jehoiachin saved the city from destruction by surrendering to Babylon. To prevent revolt of the people, Nebuchadnezzar II deported the young king Jehoiachin and his family and Judah’s other finest leaders, and craftsmen to Babylon. Note that not all Israelites were deported. With Jehoiachin in Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar II appointed Zedekiah as king in Jerusalem. This period was known as the Exile (597-538 B.C). It is during this period that our prophet Ezekiel came into history. He was one among the exiles. Zedekiah in Jerusalem soon rebelled against the Babylonian master and for the second time, the Babylonians attacked Jerusalem. This time, there was no saving the city, and the First Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in 587 B.C. After the Fall of Jerusalem, Ezekiel’s message changed from judgment and cleansing to one of hope and promises of restoration (Ezek. 33-48).

Concluding Remarks
It is said that, “the Exile was a period of testing ideas about God.” Was God still with them in Exile? Was Yahweh powerless against the gods of Babylon? Could Yahweh be worshipped in a strange land? What is God going to do with His people? Ezekiel called by God, rose to the occasion and spoke as God’s mouth-piece to the Jewish exiles in Babylon. I have no doubt that the book of Ezekiel will also test our understanding about God. I am positive that you will have many questions when you read these strange accounts in Ezekiel. Our task as preachers is to bring clarity to some of these questions but there is no way we can provide answers for all the questions raised. I hope that we will continue to ask questions about our Bible even though we may not be satisfied the answers given by pastors and biblical teachers. Karl Barth calls it “the strange new world within the Bible.” This strange new world is going to get stranger for most of us as we engage further in this strange and bizarre book, Ezekiel.

Let us pray.

Notes:
i. William Lasor, Old Testament Survey, p. 357.
ii. The exile only ended in 538 B.C. which indicates that the Israelites were in exile for a total of 59 years.
iii. Nebuchadnezzar II is credited with the construction of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem in 587 B.C.
iv. William Lasor, Old Testament Survey, p. 358.

Special thanks to Michelle Quak for highlighting the errors I have made in my sermon. Editing can only be reflected in the document text and not in the audio file. My apologies.