Day 239 (Ezekiel 1-4) - Year4
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Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. Today we jumped into the book of the major prophet Ezekiel. It's 48 chapters long. Ezekiel was exiled to Babylon in the first round of deportation, which happened in 597 B.C.

He begins by prophesying a few years later in 593 BC. And Jerusalem doesn't fall until 586 BC, which is still seven years away when he starts prophesying. Ezekiel was from the line of priests, and priests begin their service when they turn 30. But when Ezekiel turns 30, he's in exile, far away from the temple in Jerusalem. So instead of serving as a priest, God calls him to serve as a prophet.

Knowing he would task Ezekiel with writing this book, I'm grateful for the unique personality traits God gave him. We probably all have a friend who's like Ezekiel in some ways. He's like the friend who corrects you when you say, it took us half an hour to get here, by saying, actually, it was only 25 minutes and that includes stopping for gas.

Compared to the other prophets, he goes the extra mile to give us very specific details. And even when he has a hard time coming up with concrete descriptions for things he's seeing, he does his best to give helpful comparisons. Despite all his details and metaphors, he doesn't get lost in the weeds. He continually reminds the reader of the main point. In fact, one of the most common phrases in the book is, "...then they will know that I am the Lord."

Ezekiel reminds us that God's plans revolve around getting his people to know him. Chapter 1 opens with Ezekiel's first vision as a prophet. Before we talk about the vision, we need to know that anytime he says things like, they had the appearance of, or the likeness of, he's basically letting us know that this is his closest approximation to what he saw.

His vision begins with a storm cloud appearing. Then he sees some living creatures that look kind of human, but with four wings and four faces. So it seems like they have a face on the back of their head as well as on each side of their head, which allows them to see in every direction at once. Ezekiel doesn't really know what he's seeing at the time, but later in chapter 10 of this book, he refers to similar beings as cherubim. And he says, hey, that's what I saw back in chapter one.

His descriptions also match with a lot of what we see about cherubim in Psalm 18 and Revelation 4. But it's possible that the Revelation creatures are seraphim, a different kind of created being which has six wings. Here's a trick I like to use to help me keep cherubim straight from seraphim. Seraphim have six wings, and the words seraphim and six both start with S. And the word cherubim sounds like a chair which has four legs, like the four wings and the four faces of the cherubim.

As far as the cherubim here are concerned, each cherub seems to be attached to a sort of gyroscope covered in eyes, so he can not only see in all directions simultaneously, but also move in any direction easily.

These types of creatures are usually associated with the presence of God or places God has specifically set apart as sacred. In this instance, it's the former because God shows up on the scene. He's seated on a throne and the image of God on his throne includes descriptions of rainbows, fire, light, metals, and jewels. In verse 1 of chapter 2, God speaks to Ezekiel from his throne and tells him to stand up.

In verse 2, the Spirit enters into him and lifts him up to his feet in obedience to the Father's commands. There are a few interesting things about all of this. First, the Spirit lifts him three more times in today's reading, in 3.12, 3.14, and 3.24. The Spirit also does some implied teleportation, not a vision of a different place, but a moving to a different place. So there's that.

And finally, it's interesting that the Spirit entered him. We've talked about this before, but this is rare for the Old Testament, where the Spirit is mostly described as being on or with people. For the most part, it's not until Jesus is born, dies, resurrects, and then ascends to heaven that the Spirit comes to dwell in people. But it happens here. A lot of commentators draw a correlation between those things, the Spirit's indwelling and the teleportation, and also the fact that Ezekiel physically eats the scroll.

It sounds like God is doing something really unique here. Speaking of the scroll, let's talk about that part. God appoints Ezekiel to speak to Israel because they're rebellious, and as we've seen, God patiently and lovingly pursues the rebel. Israel may not obey, but at least they won't doubt. They'll know for sure that Ezekiel is a true prophet. But unfortunately, you can know the truth and still not be impacted by it.

Then God tells Ezekiel to eat what he's about to hand him, and it's a scroll. It's probably a papyrus scroll, one made of paper, as opposed to a parchment scroll, one made of animal skin, because you can't write on both sides of animal skin. It's too hairy. And the text specifically says it had writing on both sides. So Ezekiel is probably eating dried up reed paper, not beef jerky. So it's a vegan scroll.

And yes, if you ask me, I think he actually ate an actual scroll. He's an Old Testament prophet. They do weird stuff like this all the time. Then God gives him a pep talk about his first assignment as a prophet. He's calling Ezekiel to speak to the exiles from Judah, not to the Babylonians who are holding them captive, which is kind of a bummer because God says the Babylonians would have listened, but the exiles of Judah won't. Their hearts are hard, and that's more challenging to overcome than a language barrier any day.

Ezekiel sits among the exiles for a week before God tells him to call the people to repentance. The way God lays out the specifics of his instructions is called case law. He gives different outcomes for different scenarios. Like, here's what happens if you warn a wicked person and they don't repent. Here's what happens if you warn a righteous person who stumbles and they don't repent. And here's what happens if you don't warn someone at all.

What's interesting about this is that the consequences for sin are the same. He shall die for his guilt, regardless of whether the person has lived a wicked life or a righteous life and stumbled. All sin gets the death penalty. This makes me really grateful for Jesus.

And since Ezekiel's failure to warn people is equated with murder, God says if he fails to warn the people, he'll get the death penalty too. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Being a prophet is a serious calling. Right after God gives him the command to speak, God tells him he's going to shut him up in his house and bind him and make him mute so that he can't go give the message to the people. Well, this is perplexing, isn't it? But again, there's purpose in all of this. We'll come back to that in a minute.

God has him set up a model of Jerusalem's siege and lie down on his left side facing it for 390 days. Then he's supposed to move the siege model to the other side and lie on his right side for 40 days. That's nearly 14 months total. That's longer than it's taking us to read through the Bible. Some people think this means he's lying there constantly because of the cords that bind him, and others think it's only for a portion of time each day.

He's also supposed to ration his food and water. He's only allowed to have 8 ounces of food and 21 ounces of water each day. God tells him to cook his food over human dung. Then they have a conversation where he reminds God, as if God has forgotten, that he's a priest and that's not allowed. So God says he can use animal dung instead. Mmm, thanks.

This is a humbling, desperate situation where Ezekiel is given the opportunity to physically experience what the exiles are spiritually experiencing. They're bound, they're starving, they're parched, as well as what the others back in Jerusalem experienced physically during the siege. This is a picture of Christ. Just like Ezekiel has to bear this burden for the sins of the people, Christ bore our burdens.

My God shot was in 3.8-9, where God says he made Ezekiel stubborn and insensitive to fulfill his purposes. Ezekiel's God-given personality was God-given to him so that he wouldn't fear or falter in delivering God's message to an equally stubborn and insensitive people. For most of my life, I didn't like much about the way God made me. I wanted to be 5'2 and introverted. I hated that my God-given personality was more outspoken and matter-of-fact.

So these verses in Ezekiel were a great comfort to me because they reminded me that God is intentional about how he makes each of us. His design for me was consistent with his purpose for me. If I were the wallflower I once longed to be, I never would have stepped into the type of ministry he had planned for me. I came to realize that my personality isn't for me. It's for his glory. And I want him to continue to refine it and sanctify it and use it to accomplish his plans.

And for those of you who are 5'2 and introverted, you're not off the hook. He has plans for you too. However he made each of us, it was on purpose. And it wasn't just intentional, it was kind. His plans are good. His heart is kind. And he's where the joy is. You know how I love talking about the Bible? Well, I love it even more when I can talk about the Bible in the places where it happened.

That's why I launched Israel Lux Tours, where I take a small group of people to the Holy Land to study the Bible on site. I lead these trips a few times each year, and I'd love for you to join me. You'll see some of the places we've been reading about, you'll float in the Dead Sea, and you'll eat some of the best food in the world. If you want to find out more about our trips, visit thebiblerecap.com and click on the Israel link. You can also check for a link in today's show notes.