Ezekiel
1:1-3:5; Hebrews 3:1-19; Psalm 104:1-23; Proverbs 26:24-26
Hooray!
I so rarely get to be the one to begin a new book. And Esther has
given us such lovely introductions to others, I'm inspired to give some
background information on the book of Ezekiel. (We may need some extra
encouragement, too, as we begin another long book of prophecy.)
Ezekiel
is a priest (see Ez. 1:3), which puts him in a small sub-group of prophets. (Of the sixteen books of prophecy, only three [Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and
Zechariah] are written by priests from the line of Aaron.) He writes
during the exile (vs. 1), when Judah is in captivity in Babylon. His book
is organized chronologically, so the vision he receives by the Kebar River is
the beginning of his prophetic ministry. It's interesting that the exiles
are by the river. As we saw in Paul's missionary journeys, he frequently
found groups of God-followers by the rivers outside the city. When there
was no synagogue, no temple, no formal place of worship, Jews would meet
outside the city walls near a river or other body of water that could be used
for ceremonial washing. Perhaps this tradition was already in place by
the time of the exile, explaining the location of their homes (see 3:15).
(In fact, one of the captivity psalms, Psalm 137, mentions meeting by the
rivers of Babylon.) The community of exiles meets here to worship, to
lament, and - now - to hear the visions of Ezekiel.
And
Exekiel's visions are striking. Living creatures with four wings and four
faces; a man's figure, glowing as with fire or molten metal; a scroll, full of
lament but sweet as honey. That's just the first three chapters!
We'll
see that the first half of Ezekiel will prophesy about the eventual destruction
of the city of Jerusalem. We'll see that, after this complete and
terrible judgment comes to pass, Ezekiel's prophecies will change, speaking
first about God's accounting of the nations surrounding Israel and then about
the future restoration and hope for the exiled nation. Throughout,
Ezekiel will consider the glory of God (as in Ez. 3:12).
Notice,
too, that God calls Ezekiel, over and over again, by the name "son of
man" (see Ez. 2:1, 3, 6, 8 and 3:1, 3, 4, 10, and many, many other places
throughout the book). This appellation emphasizes Ezekiel's humanity, and
will be an epithet used for Jesus himself (see Mt. 16:13), thus stressing
Christ's identification with mankind.
So
while this book was written at a specific time and for a certain group of
people, it has been preserved for our benefit today. We are reminded of
God's holiness, his other-ness, his perfection and awesomeness. We see
again how seriously God takes sin. We remember God's interest in man, his
creation, and we hope anew with the exiles, as exiles ourselves, for the
restoration to come.
- Sarah Marsh
How did God speak to you in Scripture today? Click here to share your reflections on God's word or read past posts. We'd love to hear from you.
No comments:
Post a Comment