A well-known businessman recently said that in spite of all his wealth and fame he is a troubled man. He worries about the future of our planet. He fears a nuclear holocaust, a disaster caused by pollution, or a plague that is resistant to all known medicine.
I do not share his fear that all life will end through a natural catastrophe. I believe the Bible when it says that an unseen God is in control and that the future will play out according to the predictions of the prophets of the nation of Israel. Ezekiel is one of those prophets who speaks strangely but eloquently to the fears and hopes that mark our day. His words are both timely and insightful for our generation.
Herb Vander Lugt
CONTENTS
Was Ezekiel Mentally Unbalanced?
Knowing God Through Ezekiel
The Vision Some Have Called A UFO
The Prophet Who Couldn't Speak
The God Who Couldn't Stay
The Land Noah, Daniel, & Job Couldn't Have Saved
The Excuse That Wouldn't Work
The Day Ezekiel's Wife Died
The Self-Centered Shepherds Of Israel
The Restoration Of Israel
The War God Will Fight For Israel
The Day Of God's Return
God With Us
WAS EZEKIEL MENTALLY UNBALANCED?
A few years ago, an articulate and successful salesman told me that on several occasions he had seen a flying saucer in a field near his house. I found myself wondering about his mental stability. I understand, therefore, the questions of those who wonder about the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel who said he repeatedly witnessed flashing, many-eyed wheels within wheels, and strange four-faced living creatures.
We naturally question those whose beliefs don't seem normal. Sometimes, however, our doubts also say something about ourselves. Charles Colson writes about a Federal Judge who ruled that a death-row inmate named Johnny Cockrum is mentally unbalanced. After Johnny experienced a spiritual conversion, he wouldn't let his attorneys lie in an effort to get his death penalty commuted. Even though court psychologists argue that Johnny is sane, it's difficult for the judge to believe that the new Johnny would rather die than lie.
A stronger case can be made for Ezekiel. His book is arranged in an orderly way and is marked by deep insights into the nature of God, human experience, and the relationship between individual and group responsibility. What Ezekiel says is intimately tied to the history and future of the nation of Israel and is remarkably relevant to us in our day. As a study of his prophecy shows, Ezekiel was more than sane. He saw God and life far more clearly than those who thought he was mad.
KNOWING GOD THROUGH EZEKIEL
Ezekiel's visions happened in a region now occupied by the modern nation of Iraq. The time, by our calendar, would have been late June 593 BC. Five years had passed since invaders from Babylon had entered Jerusalem and taken Ezekiel and a group of his fellow Israelites captive. The final Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC was still 7 years away.
In Babylon, the Jewish prisoners of war had been treated surprisingly well. They were given decent housing and a good deal of freedom. They were allowed to practice their trades and to work the fertile fields allocated to them.
All was not well, however. Many of the captives were not satisfied with a comfortable existence in a pagan land. They longed for the temple in Jerusalem and wondered why their God remained silent and unresponsive to their needs.
THE VISION SOME HAVE CALLED A UFO
Ezekiel was about to see that the God of Israel was still in control. On the banks of an irrigation canal called the river Chebar, the prophet saw a bright object approaching from the north. He would later describe it as a cloud of fire with glowing metal at the center, huge intersecting wheels with rims full of eyes, and with four living creatures who flashed back and forth without turning.
Some have suggested that Ezekiel was actually describing an ancient UFO similar to those reported in our day. They note that Ezekiel described wheels within wheels that enabled them to move back and forth or sideways without having to turn.
Although similar to a UFO, what Ezekiel saw was far more than an extraterrestrial craft. Above the four living creatures was an expanse resembling chrysolite or sparkling ice. Above the "sparkling ice" was a huge sapphire-like throne. Seated above the throne was One with the appearance of a man (1:22-28).
Ezekiel did not have to wonder about the source of the vision. According to the prophet, "This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. So when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard a voice of One speaking" (v. 28).
What Ezekiel heard the voice say, he would write. But because there were no direct words for what he saw, he adopted the language of poetic symbolism. That's why he used the words like, likeness, and appearance a total of 29 times.
The Living Creatures. The four living creatures Ezekiel saw in the fire (vv. 5-14) are identified as "cherubim" in Ezekiel 10. Each had four faces: the face of a lion, a man, an ox, and an eagle. Each had four wings. Under the wings each creature had hands like those of a man.
Some of the early Church Fathers connected the four faces with the four Gospels. If these early interpreters were correct, the cherubim of Ezekiel's vision reflect four sides of God's character, all of which were expressed in Israel's Messiah. He would express the servant heart of God (Mark, ox); the Person whose likeness we bear (Luke, man); the kingly authority of our God (Matthew, lion); and the loftiness of His deity (John, eagle).
Many contemporary scholars see the four-faced cherubim as angelic servant representatives of all creation. If all creation is in view, then the cherubim are a reminder that the world is not out of control. The lion is not too strong, the eagle is not too lofty, the man is not too clever, and the ox is not too lowly to be under the control of the One on the throne.
Wheels Within Wheels. Under the cloud of fire, Ezekiel saw four huge wheels, each with another wheel inside it set at a right angle. Even though the supernatural workings of these wheels are beyond our ability to understand, their responsiveness to the spirit of the cherubim is clear (1:20). The wheels enabled the chariot-throne to go straight in any direction without turning, "wherever the spirit wanted to go" (v. 20). At the will of God the cherubim moved, and at the will of the cherubim the chariot-throne moved swiftly and unerringly for the accomplishment of God's purposes.
The God of the vision had not been defeated by the gods of the Babylonians. He was the Lord of lords who made the power and glory of Babylon look insignificant by comparison.
From our perspective, it may sometimes appear that evil people keep God's will from being done. But from His perspective, nothing happens that He has not foreseen and permitted and worked into His plan. All of history is His story. In the face of the terrible events that would soon befall Jerusalem, Ezekiel needed this assurance. So do we!
The Seeing Rims. The rims of the wheels were "full of eyes, all around the four of them" (v. 18). These eyes undoubtedly symbolize an all-seeing God, reminding us that nothing is hidden from His sight or transpires without His knowledge (Prov. 15:3; Zech. 3:9; 4:10; Rev. 4:6). This truth comforts the obedient but troubles the rebellious.
The Human Likeness On The Throne. Above the "chariot of fire," and above the crystal-like expanse overhead, Ezekiel saw "the likeness of a throne" and on the throne the "likeness of a man." This human-like occupant of the throne undoubtedly symbolizes the One who made us in His own image.
Ezekiel's vision reminds us that while we are made in God's likeness, we are also very unlike Him. The transcendence of the One on the throne comes through in the guarded language, "the likeness with the appearance of a man." "The likeness" was permeated with and surrounded by a glowing fire that produced the colors of the rainbow. The portrait blended dazzling splendor with a stark lack of detail. The effect on Ezekiel was profound. Like Moses before him, he fell on his face in worship (v. 28).
SEEING GOD
* The four faces of the cherubim show that all of creation is under God's control.
* The wheels of Ezekiel's vision show that God's power causes His will to be done on earth.
* The eyes on the wheels show that God's sovereignty and power are carried out with perfect understanding and wisdom.
* The human appearance on the throne reminds us that God has made us in His own likeness, and therefore can personally relate to us.
SEEING OURSELVES
* In Ezekiel's need for this vision, we see our tendency to think that God has forgotten us and that He is not in control.
THE PROPHET WHO COULDN'T SPEAK
Ezekiel's vision began with an encouraging display of a God who is in control. What followed was difficult for the prophet to accept. The voice from the throne told Ezekiel that God was making him a watchman for a people who would not listen (3:17). The voice told the prophet not to expect these people to listen to his warnings, for they had not been willing to listen to God Himself (2:3).
To emphasize the bitter nature of what God was asking Ezekiel to do, the Lord gave him a scroll and told him to eat it (3:1). Many years later God would ask another prophet to do the same thing (Rev. 10:9-10). In both visions the outcome was the same. Although the taste was sweet, when the prophets realized that the words they had "eaten" were words of severe judgment, the scrolls turned bitter in their stomachs.
Ezekiel was stunned. Returning to the banks of the river Chebar outside Babylon, he was in a state of shock and sat silently among his fellow-exiles for 7 days. On the eighth day, God spoke to the prophet again. He told Ezekiel He was going to cause his tongue to cleave to the roof of his mouth (3:26), except on occasions when He gave him words to say. Ezekiel was to become a prophet who couldn't speak, except when the Lord opened his mouth.
The Model Of War. Then God commanded Ezekiel to make a drawing on a clay brick. The Lord wanted His prophet to draw the outline of the city of Jerusalem. As children use toy soldiers to simulate battle, the prophet was to arrange weapons depicting the city in a state of siege. Ezekiel was to lie next to this model on his left side for 390 days and on his right side for 40 days.
Word of the prophet's strange behavior began to spread. Curious people came to Ezekiel's courtyard to see him lying on his side speechless as Jerusalem was depicted under siege.
Scholars agree that the 430 days of Ezekiel's silent drama represent 430 years. They probably represent the time the Israelites would be under the control of Gentile powers - from the deportation of Jehoiakin in 597 BC until the beginning of the Maccabean rebellion in 167 BC. Other time periods have been suggested, but none of them allow a literal interpretation of the passage.
The Shaved Head. The second act in Ezekiel's drama was also humiliating for the prophet. Using a sword, he shaved his hair and beard, and then divided his shaved hair into three piles. He burned the first pile, chopped up the second with a sword, and scattered the third pile of hair to the wind. Then he retrieved a few strands, some of which he tucked into the folds of his clothing, and some he burned.
This time, however, God gave Ezekiel words to explain what he was doing. He expressed the meaning of his actions by declaring that in the siege of Jerusalem a third of her citizens would die from pestilence and famine, a third would be killed by the sword, and a third would flee in terror (5:12). A remnant of the surviving third would be preserved for return from exile. But even among them, some would be judged because of unbelief.
The prophecy warned of the invasion of Jerusalem in 586 BC. Israel was about to suffer a level of destruction that seems impossible for a people loved and chosen by God.
Ezekiel's inability to speak whenever he wanted to lasted 8 years, from 593 BC until the day he received word that Jerusalem had been captured (33:21-22) in 585 BC. Even in his supernaturally imposed silence, the prophet gave evidence of God's tender mercy toward the Israelites. His inability to speak was a sign that the hand of God was on him - a strong reason for his people to wonder why this well-known prophet wasn't talking.
Ezekiel's prophecy, however, shows more than God's mercy. The prophet's visions also reveal God's anger. He was angry with Jerusalem. The cup of her stubborn immorality was full. Nothing would withhold the outpouring of His wrath. While individuals who repented could be forgiven and assured of God's mercy, the capture and destruction of Jerusalem was now inevitable. The Israelites as a nation had crossed the line. They had passed a point of no return.
SEEING GOD
* In God's use of silent drama, we see the creativity He may use to get our attention.
* In His warning of judgment, we see a God who has been "crushed" (6:9) by His people's adulteries.
* In the many times Ezekiel quoted God as saying, "Then you shall know that I am the Lord," we see God's deep desire for His people to know Him.
SEEING OURSELVES
* In Israel's unfaithfulness, we see our own stubborn determination to take control of our lives and to make gods that we can use for our own ends.
* In the need for Ezekiel's silent drama, we see our own resistance to spoken words.
* In the predicted judgment of Jerusalem, we see the seriousness of our sin.
THE GOD WHO COULDN'T STAY
One of the wonders of the God of the Bible is that He loves to be near His people. We only need to read about Adam, Enoch, Noah, and David to see a God who wants to walk and talk with His people. He is the God who led Israel out of Egypt, across the Red Sea, and then through the wilderness for 40 years. He is the One who revealed His presence among His people through a brightness in the tabernacle (Lev. 16:2) and temple (1 Ki. 8:10-13).
How then could God leave? What did they do that caused Him to turn out the "lights" in His temple and hand His "chosen" over to Babylonian invaders? The answers to these questions are part of Ezekiel's prophecy. Fourteen months after the prophet's initial call, while being consulted by a group of elders, he received a series of visions that told him why and how the glory would depart from Israel.
Why God Left. By way of a vision, the Lord took Ezekiel to the temple in Jerusalem. There the prophet saw the same glory he had seen in the vision of the wheels (8:3-4). But God showed Ezekiel more than the bright cloud of His presence. The Lord also showed him the extent of Israel's hidden idolatry and how far His people had gone in bringing their idols into the house of the One who had said, "You shall have no other gods before Me" (Ex. 20:3).
At the north gate of the inner court of the temple, God showed Ezekiel what He called "the image of jealousy." This was probably an image of the female goddess of fertility named Asherah.
In addition, the Lord showed Ezekiel 70 elders worshiping obscene cultic carvings (8:6-13), women weeping for the fertility god Tammuz in a pagan ritual (8:14-15), and 25 men, probably priests, worshiping the sun (8:16).
From the beginning, God had told His people He was a jealous God who would not share His glory with another. Through Moses He said, "You shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God" (Ex. 34:12-14). Isaiah would later quote the Lord as saying, "I am the Lord, that is My name; and My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to carved images" (Isa. 42:8).
Why, with warnings like these, would God's chosen people fall back into idolatry? The Lord gave part of the answer to Ezekiel when He said, "Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the room of his idols? For they say, 'The Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken the land'" (8:12).
From Israel's point of view, God had forsaken them. From where they stood, it seemed He no longer cared enough to answer their prayers. They felt they could no longer depend on Him for protection. They thought they needed to find someone they could count on.
What they did not see was that by turning to other gods they were failing important tests of faith and love. By turning for help to the idols of their pagan neighbors, they were making it impossible for God to stay.
How God Left. God left reluctantly. Ezekiel saw the cloud slowly lift up from the holy of holies to the threshold of the temple. It stayed there until seven men had been sent out - one scribe to mark those who were true to God and six executioners to kill the rest. The cloud then slowly moved on out of the city, hovered briefly over the Mount of Olives, and then disappeared.
The Lord yearned to remain with His people, but their sin made it impossible. Through the prophet Hosea, He had issued the warning, "I will return again to My place till they acknowledge their offense. Then they will seek My face" (Hos. 5:15).
God is not finished with Israel. He will one day drive her to repentance and restore her. But except for the brief time Jesus lived on earth, God has withheld a visible sign of His presence among His people. Even Josephus, the first-century Jewish historian, admitted the absence of this glory cloud in the two temples built after the exile (The Jewish War, Book 5, Ch. 5).
The Israelites continue to be God's covenant people (Lev. 26:44). But the signs of His presence will not be restored until the nation admits the many ways she has been unfaithful. Only when His people are broken by the awareness of their sins will the Lord delight to show His presence again.
This message of departure was not just to punish Jerusalem. When God removed His visible presence from His people, He was providing a national object lesson for the whole world. He wants people of all nations to know that He is a God who will not share His glory or His presence with another.
SEEING GOD
* In God's concern for the hearts of His people, we see the One who near the end of the New Testament still urged, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols" (1 Jn. 5:21). An idol is anything that replaces the throne and glory of God in our hearts.
* In God's jealousy, we see a God who has made us for Himself and who loves us enough to want us to enjoy Him forever.
SEEING OURSELVES
* In Israel's reversion to idolatry, we see our own inclination to want a God who indulges our desires rather than One who requires our trust.
* In Israel's supposition that God had forsaken them, we see our own tendency to ignore the way we have forsaken Him.
* In Israel's turn to idolatry, we see our own tendency to turn to anything that will give us immediate relief and control in our troubled circumstances.
THE LAND NOAH, DANIEL, AND JOB COULD NOT HAVE SAVED
Ezekiel wrote about false prophets who spoke lies in the name of God (13) instead of faithfully warning the people about their idolatry and uselessness (14-15). He described a land that had become so corrupt that "even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it," they could not have stopped God's hand of judgment. Four times God repeated this amazing statement: Even if these three men of God had been living in the land, they could not have rescued this rebel nation. They could have delivered only themselves from God's hand of judgment (14:14,16,18,20).
Ezekiel reminded Jerusalem that in her youth she had been like a helpless, abandoned baby that God had found and raised for Himself (16:1-14). Under His care she had become well-known and sought-after because of her beauty and wealth.
Yet even though God had given Jerusalem everything she had, Ezekiel had to say, "But you trusted in your own beauty, played the harlot because of your fame, and poured out your harlotry on everyone passing by who would have it" (16:15).
In God's eyes, His people had become a shameless prostitute. They were so corrupt that they made the notorious cities of Sodom and Gomorrah look good by comparison. Speaking to a people familiar with the history of Sodom, Ezekiel wrote:
"Your younger sister, who dwells to the south of you, is Sodom . . . . You did not walk in their ways nor act according to their abominations; but, as if that were too little, you became more corrupt than they in all your ways. As I live," says the Lord God, "neither your sister Sodom nor her daughters have done as you and your daughters have done. Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty and committed abomination before Me; therefore I took them away as I saw fit" (16:46-50).
As the moral condition of the people went from bad to worse, they got little help from those who should have been looking after their spiritual interests. False prophets promised peace when there was no peace. Then Zedekiah, king of Jerusalem, broke a national agreement with Nebuchadnezzar (17) by going down to Egypt looking for help. Instead of admitting that Israel's problems were rooted in her idolatry, and that help could be found only by repenting before the Lord, Zedekiah went to the king of Egypt and aroused not only the anger of Babylon, but the anger of the Lord Himself (vv. 11-21). The people of God were digging their own grave deeper and deeper.
THE EXCUSE THAT WOULDN'T WORK
According to Ezekiel, the people of Israel had been making excuses for their behavior. They had been quoting a proverb that said, "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge" (18:2). This saying implied that they were suffering for the sins of their ancestors. While they were right in seeing that they had been influenced by the sins of their fathers, they were wrong in thinking that God was holding them responsible for their parents' choices.
Ezekiel reminded them that God holds fathers and children responsible for their own sins. Both can find forgiveness through repentance, just as both can bring trouble on themselves by refusing to respond to the corrective hand of God.
This emphasis on individual responsibility does not contradict Exodus 20:4, which says that God punishes the children for the sins of the fathers "to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me." The Exodus statement assumes the statistical norm that as a rule, descendants of godless people continue to be as their fathers were before them. What Ezekiel added was the other side of the coin. We are all accountable for the way we respond to the influence of our fathers. God sees, as no one else can, the responsibility of personal choice that He has given us.
In emphasizing our personal responsibility, Ezekiel made statements some have found disturbing. He seemed to say that "salvation" can be lost. Over and over he emphasized that all of the good a righteous man has done will be forgotten if he starts to sin, just as all of the wicked things a godless man has done will be forgotten if he turns away from his sin and begins to do what is right.
These statements by Ezekiel, however, were describing the physical pains of Israel ("children's teeth on edge") while he was predicting the looming physical destruction of Jerusalem. He was warning about the physical consequences of spiritual choices. The focus was on the land, not on heaven.
Physical death or loss of health as a result of willful disobedience is taught clearly not only in the Old Testament but also in the New Testament. Paul declared that because of taking the Lord's Supper in "an unworthy manner" many were "weak and sick" and many had died (1 Cor. 11:29-30).
While death is "gain" (Phil. 1:21) for the Lord's people, dying under His corrective hand has in it an element of tragedy. A premature death ends our opportunity for service in this needy world. It takes us away from loved ones we could have helped. A person of faith who dies this way will undoubtedly be welcomed into heaven, but likely will not hear the Lord say, "Well done, good and faithful servant" (Mt. 25:21). Moreover, at the judgment seat of Christ this person will have a smaller reward than if he had lived out his allotted time in faithful service.
God reveals His heart in the book of Ezekiel. Even while loving us enough to warn us about the possibilities of loss, He assures us that His judgment will be in love, for He says, "I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies" (18:32).
SEEING GOD
* In God's tenderness to Israel, we see the kind of mercy that He has offered us in Christ.
* In God's description of Israel's prostitution, we see a God who defines sin in terms of faithfulness or unfaithfulness to Himself.
* In God's emphasis on personal responsibility, we see One who defines where external influences end and our own personal choices begin.
* In God's statement that He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, we see a God who cares for us even though we sin.
SEEING OURSELVES
* In God's statement that Israel had become more wicked than Sodom, we are reminded of our own capacity for evil.
* In God's recounting of the sins of Sodom, we see our own tendency to live only for our own pleasure.
* In Israel's use of the sour-grapes proverb, we see our inclination to excuse our own behavior.
* In God's appeal to Israel, we see the fork in our own road that leads to life or to death.
