Today in our journey through the 66 books of the Bible we come to the prophetic book of Ezekiel.
Author
This book presents the words of Ezekiel, son of Buzi. Ezekiel was a prophet and priest and one of the citizens of Jerusalem exiled to Babylon with King Jehoiachin in 597 BCE by King Nebuchadnezzar. (See 2 Kings 24:8-17.) Like Jeremiah, Ezekiel lived through the time of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 586, as well as enduring the Babylonian Exile. What is known of Ezekiel comes solely from the book that bears his name. He received his call to be a prophet when he was 30 years old, living in exile on the Chebar River in Babylonia (1:1-2). Ezekiel was married (24:15-18) and he lived in a house of his own (3:24; 8:1). Along with his fellow exiles he had a relatively free existence, albeit separated from his home country. More than any other prophet, Ezekiel acts out some of his prophecies in a symbolic fashion.
As the work of a priest and a prophet Ezekiel’s writings are best understood as a combined product of both these aspects of his identity. As a priest of the house of Zadok, he calls upon his own background to make his case. Ezekiel often speaks in terms of purity and impurity, alluding to the Priestly Source contained in Leviticus. Thus, it is no accident that this book concludes with an extended description of the future Temple.
Ezekiel also functions as a visionary prophet and deliverer of oracles much like Moses. Ezekiel is keenly aware of his role as a watchman for Israel whose task is to warn of impending danger. His vision of the divine throne chariot or presence of God comes to him in exile. But there are many aspects of this book that reveal Ezekiel was very familiar with his home country and Jerusalem in particular. Ezekiel’s vision of the future Temple has similarities to the tabernacle in the wilderness, Solomon’s Temple, and the future Second Temple, but the vision also differs from all these realities.
Rabbinic tradition holds that the book of Ezekiel was put together by the men of the great synagogue, a group of scholars that the later rabbis believed lived in the early postexilic period. The rabbis had trouble reconciling parts of Ezekiel with the Torah and so were cautious about having their fellow Jews read this book. They thought no one should read it until they were at least 30 years old. Nonetheless, Ezekiel’s visions of God later became the basis for the early development of Jewish mysticism.
Many modern scholars argue that the book of Ezekiel is the product of a group of writers or school of the prophet Ezekiel. Others think that the book was written by the prophet himself, and that others later edited the book.
Date
The book begins with Ezekiel’s inaugural vision of the divine throne chariot in which he is commissioned by God to speak as a prophet to Israel (1:1-3:15). This vision is dated to the fifth day of the fourth month in the thirtieth year, later specified as the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin, 5 Tamuz, 593 BCE. Apart from some minor disruption in chapter 29, the book proceeds chronologically from the fifth year of Jehoiachin’s exile to the twenty-fifth year, 573 BCE, as noted in Ezekiel 40:1. This chronological ordering differs from other prophetic books that do not move along chronologically. In fact, the book of Ezekiel contains more dates than any other Old Testament prophetic book.
Themes
This book also presents some of the most theologically challenging material out of all the prophetic books. The reader could be forgiven for thinking that Ezekiel’s prophecies sometimes border on the bizarre. In fact, the writings of Ezekiel provide some early examples of a form of literature known as apocalyptic. We will talk more about apocalyptic literature next week when we look at the book of Daniel. The author of Ezekiel wrestles, like the author of Job, with the problem of pain. But the questions Ezekiel tries to answer are even more specific. They are questions like: Why did God allow the Temple and Jerusalem to be destroyed? Why did God allow Judah to be carried into exile? What future is there for Yahweh’s people?
The answer of the author to such questions is basically that these tragedies were a response on God’s part to the disobedience of his people. However, this punishment from God will not last forever. There will be a future restoration for Judah. Ezekiel prophesies the restoration of Jerusalem and the Temple in keeping with God’s covenant promises to his people. In fact, the new Temple is envisioned in detail at the end of this book. Ezekiel’s most famous vision, regarding the valley of dry bones, is all about the restoration of Judah.
Small fragments from six manuscripts of Ezekiel were found at Qumran and another atop Masada. All the Dead Sea Scrolls and the traditional Masoretic Text attest to the same textual tradition for this book. Only seven minor variants are clearly preserved. In two places (5:13 and 23:16) the scrolls may have had a shorter text than the Masoretic Text. The inherited text of Ezekiel was obviously copied very carefully from ancient times into the medieval period. Ezekiel was a very important book for the Qumran community. Ezekiel’s emphasis on the High Priest Zadok dovetails with the Qumran community’s self-designation as “Sons of Zadok”. Ezekiel’s description of the end-time temple is embellished in several copies of a Qumran text entitled the New Jerusalem. This description of the temple also serves as a vital component of the largest of the nonbiblical Dead Sea manuscripts known as the Temple Scroll.
Structure
The book of Ezekiel begins with judgment but ends with consolation. The book falls largely into three major parts:
- Oracles of Judgment against Jerusalem and Israel (Chapters 1-24)
- Oracles of Judgment against the Nations (Chapters 25-32)
- Oracles of Restoration for Jerusalem and Israel at the Center of the World (Chapters 33-48)
A more detailed outline of the book sees the structure as involving thirteen major blocks of material…
- Introduction: Ezekiel’s oracles concerning his inaugural vision (1:1-7:27)
- Ezekiel’s oracles concerning his vision of God’s departure from the Temple (8:1-9:14)
- Ezekiel’s oracles concerning the punishment of Israel (20:1-23:49)
- Symbolic actions concerning the destruction of Jerusalem and condemnation of neighboring nations (24:1-25:17)
- Oracles concerning Tyre and its rulers (26:1-28:26)
- The first oracle concerning Egypt (29:1-16)
- The second block of oracles concerning Egypt (29:17-30:19)
- The first oracle concerning Pharaoh (30:20-26)
- The second oracle concerning Pharaoh (31:1-18)
- Oracle concerning Pharaoh and Egypt (32:1-16)
- Final oracle concerning the nations and Ezekiel’s role as watchman (32:17-33:20)
- Oracles concerning the restoration of Israel (33:21-39:29)
- The vision of the restored Temple (40:1-48:35)[1]
Key Concept—Mind the Gap
There are many fascinating parts of the book of Ezekiel I could focus on this morning. But as much as the big stories of Scripture fascinate me, I am also drawn to single verses that often jump out at me. One of those verses is this one from Ezekiel 22:30 where God says…
I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one.
To intercede with God on behalf of God’s people was part of the task of a prophet in ancient Israel and Judah. (See Genesis 20:7; 1 Samuel 12:23; Jeremiah 37:3; 42:2.) Some commentators interpret the task of Ezekiel 22:30 as being that of teaching, particularly calling God’s people to repentance. Ezekiel 3:17-21 and Ezekiel 33:1-6 also speak of the task of the prophetic “watchman”.
There are also other places in the prophetic books that speak of this gap in ministry that needs to be filled. In Ezekiel 13, Ezekiel is commissioned by the Lord to prophesy against the prophets who are not doing their job properly. In Ezekiel 13:5 we read…
You have not gone up to the breaches in the wall to repair it for the people of Israel so that it will stand firm in the battle on the day of the Lord.
Psalm 106:23 speaks of a time when there was a person who interceded in prayer for God’s people and thus destruction was averted. In that verse we read…
So he [God] said he would destroy them—
had not Moses, his chosen one,
stood in the breach before him
to keep his wrath from destroying them.
We saw in our reading of the book of Numbers how Moses interceded in prayer for the Israelites so that God did not destroy them during their wilderness wanderings.
Let’s think for a moment about the metaphor in Ezekiel 22:30… In ancient times, if there was a breach, a gap, in the city wall, then that breach gave the enemy a means of attacking and entering the city. This is why it was so important, when the exiles returned to Jerusalem, that they should rebuild the wall around the city. We saw how they did this in 52 days under the capable leadership of Nehemiah.
But in Ezekiel 13 and Ezekiel 22, God is talking about a spiritual breach in a spiritual wall of defense against a spiritual enemy. And God notes that there is no one stepping into the breach, there is no Moses, or anyone else for that matter, filling the gap.
In Isaiah 59:16 a similar message is delivered, but with a different twist. In that verse we read…
He [Yahweh] saw that there was no one,
he was appalled that there was no one to intervene;
so his own arm achieved salvation for him,
and his own righteousness sustained him.
This same idea is reiterated in Isaiah 63:5 where we have this statement…
I [Yahweh] looked, but there was no one to help,
I was appalled that no one gave support;
so my own arm achieved salvation for me…
Ezekiel 22:30 obviously addresses the situation of Judah prior to the exile. Judah was disobedient to God. No one stepped in to intercede for Judah, and so God sent his people to “the time out chair” of exile. It’s kind of like when our boys were young. From time to time, one of them would disobey me, and as fathers are wont to do, I was sometimes quick to punish. But if Becky was in the room, she might intercede on behalf of our boys and get me to lessen or even eliminate the punishment. In Judah’s case, Ezekiel 22:30 tells us they had no one to intercede for them. However, to my mind there is an application of Ezekiel 22:30 that goes far beyond what was happening in the sixth century BC. I believe that Ezekiel 22:30 gives us a picture of Yahweh scouring the world with his eyes, looking for someone to stand in the gap between himself and humanity, the gap that is created by our sin. The situation of humanity has been depicted in the following illustration you may have seen before…
There is a gap, not just between Judah and her God, Yahweh, but between all people and God. It is a gap created by sin. Paul says in Romans 3:23, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” We have all fallen short of the purpose for which God created us and that has led to a separation between humans and God.
Human beings have tried throughout history to bridge this gap between themselves and God. They have gone about that effort in many different ways. Human beings have tried good works, religion, philosophy, morality, all to no avail. Proverbs 14:16 says, “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.” None of these human attempts truly bridge the gap.
God looks at us. He sees our feeble attempts to bridge the gap and try to reach him. He knows how we fail. And (here is the grace of God in action) he reaches across the gap to us and says, “Here, let me help you!” As we read in Isaiah, God has chosen to work salvation for us with his own arm, God has chosen to bridge the gap himself…
Every religion tries to reach out to God in one way or another. In Jesus we find something completely different. In Jesus we find God reaching out to us. And not only did God reach out to us in Jesus and show us what he is like, God took all of our burdens upon himself in Christ. Isaiah tells us he took our infirmities, Jesus took our sins, he even took upon himself our death and died on a cross for us. But because unconquerable life was present in Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus could not stay dead for long. He rose again from the dead on the third day. The New Testament says that Jesus lives now to intercede for us. Jesus does the very thing that God was looking for someone to do in Ezekiel 22:30. And Jesus wants to impart his love, his forgiveness, his everlasting life to us. That leaves me with some important questions to ask before we close out our time today… Have you taken that step of faith on to the cross of Jesus Christ? Have you put the weight of your life in his hands? Have you passed from death to life?
Jesus says in John 5:24, “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.”
If you have ever travelled to England, and particularly if you have gone on the Tube in London, then you have heard and seen the phrase, “Mind the gap.” The gap they are talking about is the one between the train platform and the train. They don’t want anyone falling into the gap accidentally. They want to make sure everyone steps over it safely. So, that famous phrase, “Mind the gap,” has proliferated throughout England. It’s on T-shirts, it’s in videos.
Well, I believe that God also wants us to “mind the gap”. It is the gap between us and God that is created by our sin, by our failure to be the people God created us to be. But unlike the gap between the platform and the train in London, the gap between us and God is not one we can cross on our own. We need someone else, someone bigger and more perfect, more powerful than us to do it. Thankfully we have such a person in God’s Son Jesus Christ. Jesus has bridged the gap between human beings and God by his perfect life, his death on the cross, and his intercession for us at God’s right hand. I hope that if you have never accepted the gift of what Jesus has done for you, then you will do so today. Let’s pray…
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