If there is one man to whom both Jews and Christians owe an immense debt of gratitude it is surely Ezekiel, the prophet of the exile in 6th-Century-BC Babylon. He was not a natural leader. There is a verse in Ezekiel 33:32 which gives a little glimpse into his personal life, saying: “You are nothing more than one who sings love songs with a beautiful voice and plays an instrument well.”
Ezekiel was born into a priestly family in Jerusalem who were part of the local aristocracy. He is thought to have been married and aged about 23 when Jerusalem surrendered to the Babylonians without a fight in 597 BC. The Babylonians took about 10,000 people from Jerusalem and the surrounding area as captives to Babylon, including Ezekiel.
He would probably have never served in the Temple, as priests were usually 30 before they undertook those duties, but he would have been fully educated as a priest and would have had a good knowledge of the Torah as well as the history of Israel. As a man of music he would undoubtedly have loved the Psalms.
Heeding Jeremiah
He would certainly have heard Jeremiah and may even have been in the crowd outside the Temple when Jeremiah delivered his famous Temple Sermon (Jer 7). It is more than likely that he hated Jeremiah, whom he saw as undermining the authority of the priesthood in his declarations that God would not defend either Jerusalem or the Temple, until there was repentance and rejection of idolatry.
No doubt Ezekiel had plenty of time to think about Jeremiah’s prophecies during the 1000-mile trek to Babylon. But it was five years into the exile before Ezekiel had his ‘conversion’ experience near the Chebar river (that was actually a canal), recorded in Ezekiel 1:2: “The word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi by the Kebar River in the land of Babylon. There the hand of the Lord was upon him.”
Ezekiel would certainly have heard Jeremiah speak – and would likely have hated him.
This experience changed Ezekiel’s life; his special calling was: “Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me; they and their fathers have been in revolt against me to this very day” (Ezek 2:3). His prophetic calling was not just to the exiles in Babylon, but to the whole nation of Israel, which included those still living in Jerusalem and the land of Judah.
Many of Ezekiel’s prophecies in the early days of his ministry were directed to the people of Jerusalem and were in words very similar to those of Jeremiah – the man whom his family and all the Temple priests hated. He sent words to Jerusalem such as “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: ‘I myself am against you, Jerusalem, and I will inflict punishment on you in the sight of the nations’” (Ezek 5:8). He obviously was familiar with Jeremiah’s teaching as he sent a word that was a direct quote from Jeremiah 6:14, “Because they lead my people astray, saying, ‘Peace’: when there is no peace, and because, when a flimsy wall is built they cover it with whitewash, therefore tell those who cover it with whitewash that it is going to fall” (Ezek 13:10).
Living Prophecy
Ezekiel was a man whose main source of revelation was visions. In one picture he saw the glory of the Lord departing from the Temple in Jerusalem, recorded in Ezekiel 10, which must have been a devastating experience for him. When they had been nine years in Babylon, he received word that the Babylonian army had begun to lay siege to the city of Jerusalem and he himself was told not to speak in public again until the city had fallen, some two years later.
The day that Jerusalem fell coincided with the death of Ezekiel’s wife – a devastating experience – but he would not mourn for her, because at this point he was released from his silence and spoke to the people (Ezek 24:18). He received the word “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: ‘I am about to desecrate my sanctuary – the stronghold in which you take pride, the delight of your eyes, the object of your affection’” (Ezek 24:22).
Everything changed from that point – all the institutional props upon which the people depended were now stripped away. The Temple, the monarchy, the priesthood, the walls of Jerusalem and the city itself – all were destroyed. The only thing left for the people to put their trust in was God!
Ezekiel’s prophetic calling was not just to the exiles in Babylon, but to the whole nation of Israel.
Teaching the Exiles
It was at this point that Ezekiel took his eyes off Jerusalem and gave his sole attention to the exiles in Babylon, teaching them the word of God and protecting them from pagan influences. He built up their faith in the God of Israel, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of Creation who had watched over his covenant people for centuries, who was with them now, and who would never leave them.
Ezekiel began receiving regular visits to his home from the elders of the scattered Jewish communities around Babylon. A key record in the ministry of Ezekiel is chapter 14, which begins: “Some of the elders of Israel came to me and sat down in front of me. Then the word of the Lord came to me: ‘Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces. Should I let them enquire of me at all?’”
This is followed by strong rebukes against idolatry “Repent! Turn from your idols and renounce all your detestable practices!” (Ezek 14:6). Many times, the elders came and sat at Ezekiel’s feet. On one occasion, he lambasted them: “Will you defile yourselves the way your fathers did and lust after their vile images? When you offer your gifts – the sacrifice of your sons in the fire – you continue to defile yourselves with all your idols to this day” (Ezek 20:30-31).
This shows that the people were falling into the temptations of Babylon and getting into the vilest forms of idolatry. Ezekiel went to the heart of the matter: “You say, ‘We want to be like the nations, like the peoples of the world, who serve wood and stone.’ But what you have in mind will never happen” (Ezek 20:32).
After Jerusalem was destroyed, Ezekiel gave his sole attention to the exiles, teaching them the word of God, building up their faith and protecting them from pagan influences.
Preserving the Faith
Ezekiel tirelessly set about the task of teaching the elders the Torah, singing Psalms to them, and teaching them the history of Israel and all that God had done for them in the past. It was he who preserved the faith of Israel and began what became known as the ‘Great Synagogue of Babylon’, where the scrolls were gathered and studied and copied that eventually were taken back to Jerusalem, forming the basis of the Tanakh and what we now know as the Old Testament.
Without the ministry of Ezekiel, the exiles of Judah could have simply disappeared into the multi-faith population of Babylon and it would have been the end of the people of Israel.
This article is part of a series. Click here to read previous instalments.
