Day 239 – Reading Ezekiel 1 – 4

Read today’s Scriptures … ANYWHERE you find yourself this summer. Stay in the WORD!

Ezekiel 1.

Twenty-five-year-old Ezekiel, from a priestly family, was exiled to Babylon during Nebuchadnezzar’s massive second deportation of Jews.  (Daniel and his three friends had been taken 8 years earlier.)  Because of his priestly background and familiarity with the Temple, God used him to write a lot about it.  

Ezekiel and his wife lived in Tel-abib on the bank of the Chebar River/Canal, SE of Babylon.

One day, five years after arriving, while sitting by the river (perhaps thinking about how, at age 30 now, he would have begun his priestly ministry in the Temple), Ezekiel had a glorious vision of God.  He SAW the LORD, much like Isaiah did in Isaiah 6:1-2, but Ezekiel’s was the “mobile version.” (And St. John did in Revelation.)

Like Isaiah, the vision was hard to describe/understand.

• As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came from the north, and a great cloud with brightness around and fire flashing forth continually, and in the midst of the fire, as it were, gleaming metal.
• From the middle of it came the likeness of four living creatures. In appearance, they were like humans …. kind of.  Each had four faces (human, lion, ox, and eagle), each had four wings. Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like calves’ feet. AND THEY SPARKLED like burnished bronze. 
• Under their wings on their four sides were human hands.   Each had two wings, each touched the wing of another, while two covered their bodies. 
• Each one of them went straight forward without turning as they went. 
• As for likeness….. the creatures were like burning coals of fire moving to and fro, like torches flitting among themselves. They darted to and fro, LIKE flashes of lightning.

WHEW.  That is hard to imagine!  I don’t think these creatures could be better described today.  They were Cherubim. 

• There were wheels next to the feet of these creatures – a wheel within a wheel – so they could go in any direction without turning. The wheels flashed like beryl.  And … they had eyes all around the rims. 
• Over these Cherubim creatures was an “expanse” (nothing could contain the Living God!). On it was a sapphire throne, and seated above it a human-like figure, gleaming like metal with fire all around. 
• And around that, a bright rainbow of color.  The SHEKINAH GLORY OF THE LORD!

And, like Isaiah, when Ezekiel saw this vision of the Living God, HE FELL ON HIS FACE.

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Ezekiel 2.

The LORD told Ezekiel to “Stand on your feet, and I will speak with you.”  And as God spoke, the Spirit entered into Ezekiel and set him on his feet. 

God told Ezekiel that He was sending him to the stubborn and rebellious people of Israel. He was to say, “Thus says the LORD,” no matter if they listened or not.

And Ezekiel was NOT to be afraid of their WORDS or their LOOKS.  He was to speak God’s Words whether they heard or refused to hear. 

“But you, son of man, hear what I say to you.  Be not rebellious like them, open your mouth and eat what I give you.”   And when Ezekiel looked, a hand was stretched out to him with a scroll in it.  The hand spread the parchment out in front of Ezekiel, and he saw that there were words written on its front and back.  They were words of lamentation, mourning, and woe.

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Ezekiel 3.

God said, “Son of man, eat whatever you find here. Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.”

So Ezekiel opened his mouth.

God said, “Son of man, feed your belly with this scroll that I gave you and fill your stomach with it.”

So Ezekiel ate the scroll, and in his mouth it tasted like honey.

God said, “Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with my words to them. You are not sent to a people of foreign speech and a hard language, but to the house of Israel.  But the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you.  They have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart.”

“But I have made YOUR face as hard as theirs, YOUR forehead as hard as theirs.  Like emery harder than flint, have I made YOUR forehead.  Fear them not, nor be dismayed at their looks.

“Then the Spirit lifted me up and I heard a voice behind me …. “Blessed be the glory of the LORD from its place! Then the sound of wings as they touched each other, the sound of wheels beside them, and … the sound of a great earthquake.

The Spirit took me away, and I went in bitterness in the heat of my spirit, the hand of the LORD being strong upon me.  I came back to Tel-abib by the Chebar canal and sat where the Exiles were dwelling.  I sat there, overwhelmed among them for forty days.”

Then, Ezekiel heard the Word of God again, saying that He had made him a Watchman for the house of Israel.  Whatever God spoke to him, he was to exactly speak it to the people. 

“As a watchman, if I say to the wicked, “You shall surely die,” and you give him NO WARNING, he will die in his iniquity, BUT his blood will be on YOUR hands.

“But if you warn the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness, he shall die for his iniquity, BUT you have delivered your soul.

Then God gave Ezekiel a very unusual task.  After gloriously appearing to the prophet as before, God told Ezekiel to go into his house. Cords would be placed on him, binding him so he could not go out among the people. His tongue would also not be able to speak.

WHAT??

Then God would speak to Ezekiel there, bound in his house, and Ezekiel would SPEAK THE WORDS OF GOD.  “He who will hear, will hear.  He who will refuse to hear, will refuse.”

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Ezekiel 4.

Next, Ezekiel (like sitting in a child’s sandbox) was to go, take a brick, and write on it “Jerusalem.”  Then he was to build tiny siegeworks against it and its walls. He was to set camps around it and build battering rams around it.  

Then he was to take an iron griddle and put it between himself and the toy city. Then, with the griddle and the other things, “press the siege against the city.”  This would illustrate to the house of Israel what was happening in Judah at that moment.

That might have been a little fun … but also sad.

Next, Ezekiel was to lie on his left side (like he was facing the northern kingdom of Israel), showing God’s punishment on them for 390 days.  Then he was to turn on his right side (as in facing the southern kingdom of Judah) and show the punishment of God on them for 40 days.  And God would put cords on him so he couldn’t turn from one side to another, illustrating, no release from the punishment for each kingdom.

WHEW!

But what was he to eat for over a year?  God told him to collect seeds and make bread beforehand.  He was to bake it on a low stove, using poop as fuel.  He could eat a bare 8 ounces a day, with less than a quart of water to drink.  (I am assuming his wife would help him with all this!!)

This illustrated the decline of food supplies and finally the complete famine in Jerusalem during the siege.

“I will do this that they may lack bread and water, and look at one another in dismay, and rot away because of their punishment,”  says the LORD.

Yikes!  It’s tough to be a prophet!!

Okay, Ezekiel has his marching orders, strange as they may be. He obeys. And God gives him many more of these “acting out” tasks to do.  Maybe he doesn’t understand them, but as a called and chosen prophet of God, he does them exactly, often at a personal cost.

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(O LORD, how faithful were your chosen men to obey, not matter the cost.  And I think of Jesus, also doing perfectly YOUR will at a great cost to Himself.  Help me to put off this selfish, pampering self, and desire to serve and obey You, no matter what!)

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