Immerse: Prophets - Flipbook - Page 329
IMMERSED IN EZEKIEL
T H E P R O P H E C I E S O F E Z E K I E L , like
those of Jeremiah, revolve around the
Babylonian threat to Judah, which culminated in the destruction of Jerusalem. But unlike Jeremiah, Ezekiel was not in Jerusalem. Instead, as
he tells us, he was in the land of Babylonia, living in a “colony of Judean
exiles in Tel-abib, beside the Kebar River.”
In 597 bc , the Babylonians forced Judah to become a vassal state.
They took King Jehoiachin and many of the nation’s elites into exile as
hostages. Ezekiel was from a priestly family, so he was among these
earlier exiles. Because he saw the world through the eyes of a priest
associated with the Temple, he was concerned with issues of purity and
holiness and especially with God’s presence or absence.
The people of Judah wrongly assumed that the exiles wouldn’t stay in
Babylon for very long. So God sent messages to the residents of Judah
and Jerusalem through Jeremiah and to the exiles in Babylonia through
Ezekiel. The messages of both prophets make it clear that this time of
judgment is the one God had long promised was coming.
Ezekiel confirms that God was going to continue to judge Judah
for its idolatry and oppression of the powerless. These practices were
corrupting the kingdom from top to bottom: Everyone—from the political and religious leaders to the common people—was ignoring God’s
instructions. Ezekiel is particularly emphatic about the failure of Israel’s
leaders to guide the people in keeping God’s covenant. As a result, Israel is unclean, and God is going to remove his presence from the land.
God used some extraordinary means to demonstrate that he was
speaking through Ezekiel. For example, just before the destruction of
Jerusalem, he took away Ezekiel’s ability to speak except on occasions
when he received a message from God. But then, just before news
of the city’s destruction reached the exiles, Ezekiel was able to speak
freely once again.
Ezekiel sometimes engaged in symbolic actions to illustrate what his
prophecies meant. For example, God told him to dig a hole through a
wall and go through it with a pack, showing how King Zedekiah would
soon try to flee from Jerusalem. God also gave Ezekiel remarkable powers of literary expression. His prophecies contain parables—stories with
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