A Journey Through The Old Testament - Elmer Towns

a speaker of parables (20:49) and complained about his preaching. Ezekiel predicted the fall and
destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. The false prophets said it would never fall. The Jews in
Babylon, even though taken captive, believed their city could not be destroyed. They repudiated
his ministry. Even when Ezekiel’s prophecy proved true, they continued to reject his ministry.
God summed up the people’s impression of Ezekiel, “Indeed you are to them as a very lovely
song of one who has a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument; for they hear your
words, but they do not do them” (33:32). Tradition suggests Ezekiel was a martyr, that his fellow
exiles stoned him.
Ezekiel had a better understanding of what was taking place in Jerusalem than did most
of the residents. He saw the growth of idolatry and chronicled its spread as the primary reason
God had departed from His people. First, he saw “the image of jealousy” at the entrance of the
temple (8:5). This was a Babylonian god that made God jealous. Then Ezekiel saw Canaanite
idols on the walls of the temple (v. 10). This was followed by his vision of women weeping for
the Assyrian god Tammuz (v. 14). Finally, Ezekiel saw twenty-five men turning their backs on
the temple to worship the sun, the chief god of the Egyptians (v. 16). Ezekiel announced that
God did not leave His people until they first left Him for the gods of the nations around them.
As life continued in Jerusalem oblivious to the spiritual crisis in the land, Ezekiel
witnessed the departure of the glory of God. This was the Shekinah glory cloud that led Israel for
forty years in the wilderness and came into the temple when Solomon dedicated it. First, the
Shekinah glory cloud rose above the cherubim (9:3). Then it passed over the threshold of the
holy of holies (10:4). Then, seemingly reluctant to leave, it hovered high above the cherubim (v.
18). The glory of God was waiting for the people to miss Jehovah or to call Him back. But the
people did not call or repent. As Ezekiel finally watched it drift from above the temple over to
the Mount of Olives, he was aware that most residents of the city were totally unaware of, and
perhaps unconcerned with, the departure of the glory of God (11:23). “Ichabod” was written over
Jerusalem.
On the tenth day of the tenth month of the ninth year (586 B. C.), Ezekiel was instructed
to boil pieces of meat in a pot of water. This symbolic action predicted the destruction of
Jerusalem. The people of Jerusalem were being “cooked” in judgment. God told Ezekiel, “Heap
on the wood, kindle the fire; cook the meat well, mix in the spices, and let the cuts be burned up”
(24:10).
News of the collapse of Jerusalem, which he had predicted, initiated Ezekiel’s message of
the watchman on the wall (33:1ff). Ezekiel had been commissioned by God as a watchman over
the house of Israel. Just as a city watchman would warn the inhabitants of the city of approaching
danger, so Ezekiel tried to warn the residents of his city of an even more serious danger. He
understood God would hold him responsible to see that the people heard and understood the
message, though ultimately their response was their own responsibility (3:18-19).
By the time Ezekiel began his prophetic ministry, the end had already come, He himself
was a captive in a foreign land. But he knew his people would not always remain in that land as
captive. A day was coming when God would gather His people in their own land (37:1-10) and
give them new life (vv. 11-28). His vision of the valley of dry bones predicts that Israel will
return to the land in unbelief. They will be bones that are “very dry.” When Ezekiel sees flesh
come on the bones, that is a prediction of Israel’s spiritual rebirth. Many Christians today believe
the modern state of Israel is a partial fulfillment of the first part of Ezekiel’s hope. Other
Scriptures seem to suggest the second part of that hope will occur during an outpouring of the
Holy Spirit immediately prior to the return of Christ.