Bible

Understanding

Made Easy

Ezekiel

I. OVERVIEW

The book of Ezekiel is very similar to the books of Isaiah and Jeremiah.
Ezekiel was also a prophet to the Southern Kingdom of Judah.
He foretold the destruction of Jerusalem as well because of their sins (Smith, 1884).
Just like nowadays, God speaks through many ministers (Acts 8:4).
He also spoke through more than one prophet in order to try and bring the Jews of the Old Testament to repentance.
Roughly, Ezekiel chapters 1-24 speak of God’s Word before the Babylonian invasion of Judah.
Chapters 25-48 deal with events after the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians.
Ezekiel was actually one of the Jews held in captivity in Babylon during the time of King Jehoiachin of Judah (Ezekiel 1).
Remember, the destruction of Israel and final taking into captivity of the Jews did not happen until Zedekiah was the king of Judah.
Thus, Ezekiel chapter 1 is before that final overthrow of Jerusalem by Babylon.

II. Chapters 1-3

Chapters 1-3 show us that Ezekiel was called by God to be a prophet (i.e. spokesman for God) to the captive Jews in Babylon (Dehoff, 1989).
Ezekiel chapter two is very important for ministers and Bible school teachers especially.
Ezekiel is sent to a people that he was told up front were rebellious.
He was told not to fear the people!
Unfortunately, modern-day Christian churches can be the same way and even if the congregation rejects the truth, God’s leaders have to tell it anyway.
God will help the sincere teach the church despite opposition.
But one thing the church leader has to understand is that before Ezekiel was sent to speak to the people, first he had to eat the Word of God.
That is symbolic for church leaders, because we have to take in the Word of God wholeheartedly in belief and obedience, ourselves, before we can teach any one else.
No one is going to follow a hypocrite or one that has weak faith in the Lord!
Moving forward, it is no coincidence that Ezekiel’s people that he was sent to preach to were compared to briers, thorns, and scorpions as well.
That means that the people were not only stubborn in not listening to God’s Word, but they were also deadly toward harming the man of God for teaching the truth!
Unfortunately, churches of today can be the same way if they do not have a healthy appreciation of God, Himself, and those that He has put in charge.
In chapter 3, humanly speaking, God told Ezekiel upfront that the people would not obey his Words, which were really the Words of God.
They had no healthy appreciation of God, Himself, let alone God’s representative as a result!
But Ezekiel was told to go any way.
Minister and Bible school teachers do not always choose who they are to teach, but we are to go anyway!
The good part about this hard mission is that God promised Ezekiel that He would strengthen him to be able to complete His mission.
Thus, He will do the same for the modern-day minister and Bible school teacher if we have enough faith (Hebrews 13:6).
Ezekiel 3:13 gives the audience to Ezekiel’s message which were the Jews of the captivity and we already know from studying the book of Jeremiah that these people were the Jews of Judah taken to Babylon.
One interesting thing that Ezekiel 3 teaches us about modern-day church leadership is that we are responsible to teach
God’s people the truth so that they repent of their sins.
Thus, the church’s leaders, which are the minister, elders, deacons, and Bible school teachers, must not be afraid to speak on hard topics to get the people to change.
If not, then we are guilty of not watching out for the souls of the congregation as we are required to do (Galatians 6:1; 2 Timothy 4:2; Hebrews 13:17; Acts 20:16-31).

III. CHAPTERS 4-5

In Ezekiel 4, God declares unto Ezekiel that the Babylonians will siege Jerusalem due to their sins, which we know happened later on in Bible history in the time of King Zedekiah of Judah.
In Ezekiel 5, God says that the siege will be so bad that due to hunger, sons would literally eat their earthly fathers and the fathers would eat their sons!
This is obviously cannibalism to survive!
God was really upset at the idolatry of the people.
The idolatry of the people was so bad that they even put idols in the Temple of God!
Due to their sins, the Jews would suffer famine, pestilence (i.e. disease among the people), death by the sword, and Babylonian captivity (See The New Living Translation’s version of Ezekiel 5:12 or Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Bible Words (1996) for the word “pestilence”).

IV. CHAPTERS 6-24

Ezekiel 6 through 24 tells us further of God’s displeasure with the Jews of Judah for their sins.
He further tells them that they will be judged by famine, pestilence (i.e. disease), the sword, and captivity.
In Ezekiel 6, God makes it known that He will wipe out idolatry in the land.
Obviously, the Babylonians would destroy the idols of Judah!
In Ezekiel 8-9, God gives Ezekiel a vision of the Temple and the idolatry there.
He sees men and women, including their religious leaders, practicing idolatry and believing that God is not seeing them in their sin.
This is obviously not true, because God sees all things as demonstrated by this chapter!
The church of today can be same.
Any sin can take over the modern-day church of Christ if leadership becomes corrupt or turns their heads in neglect of trying to keep the church holy (Acts 20:28; 2 Timothy 4:2).
God shows, in the vision of the Temple, men going to slaughter the Jews, but to put a mark on the foreheads of the righteous.
The slaughter would continue in the city, but began at the Temple.
Such is the end of days as well in our Christian times.
Those that have the mark today are the Christian children of God that will escape God’s coming wrath upon mankind (Romans 5:9-10).

V. CHAPTERS 11-12

In Ezekiel 10-11, God reveals to Ezekiel that the righteous Jews will also go into captivity, but He would be with them there.
In chapter 10, the city of Jerusalem is foretold to be burned by the Babylonians symbolized by the coals in the hands of the cherub (Dehoff, 1989).
In chapter 11, He gives the Jews of the captivity hope that they will return to their homeland of Judah again one day.
In Ezekiel 12, God symbolically shows the Jews of Jerusalem that Babylon would penetrate the defensive walls of the city and even take the king, which we know was Zedekiah later on in history, to captivity with the people.
In Ezekiel 12:25, unfortunately for the rebellious Jews, God says that He will not delay in judging them, but in the days of the generation that Ezekiel was speaking to, the Babylonians would take Jerusalem even though the people erroneously believed that Ezekiel’s Words would not be fulfilled for a long time.

VI. CHAPTERS 13-15

In Ezekiel 13, God is going to show the false prophets that falsely spoke of peace for Jerusalem from their enemies that they were completely wrong.
God’s Word is always true even if religious men call His Words false through their lies.
God was indeed going to show that these Words regarding His judgment of the slaying of the people and captivity was really going to happen.
In Ezekiel 14, God actually comforts Ezekiel.
God was showing Ezekiel that there will be a remnant of Jews that will survive the conquering of Jerusalem in King Zedekiah’s time that will come to Babylon and join Ezekiel that was already in Babylonian captivity.
This is a comfort to Ezekiel, because Ezekiel had prayed that the remnant of Jews would not be eliminated.
Thus, He was praying that the Jews left in Judah would not be totally wiped off the planet (Ezekiel 11:13; 14:12-13).
People keep in mind that in the judgment day of the Lord, the judgment will start with the church (1 Peter 4:17).
The Lord will separate the saved from the unsaved of the church at that point (Matthew 13:47-50).
Remember, we must also obey to be saved (Matthew 7:21).

VII. Chapters 16-17

Ezekiel 16 is a very interesting chapter, because God symbolically describes the love, care, and blessings that He has given to Judah historically.
He shows us that Judah was His wife and that she committed adultery with other Gentile nations around her by worshipping their false Gods!
He even compares her to Samaria, which was the capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel that went into Assyrian captivity, long before this chapter, as being more righteous than Judah even though from their first day, the Northern Kingdom of Israel was idolatrous.
Remember, the first king of the Northern Kingdom, Jeroboam I, set up idol worship in the land (1 Kings 12:25-33) (Nave, 1995).
What a comparison!
Should that not have caused Judah to repent?
Furthermore, the Lord continues to tell them that their dependence upon Egypt will not save them from Babylonian conquest (Ezekiel 17).

VIII. Chapter 18

In Ezekiel 18, God shows us that He has no pleasure in seeing the wicked die. Instead, He wants to see mankind repent and live.
Remember, if the Jews would have repented of their sins, then they would not have been invaded by Babylon.
The Babylonian invasion was brought on because they would not repent. God is the same way today.
He does not want to see anyone go on to eternal punishment; instead, He calls for repentance (2 Peter 3:9).

IX. Chapter 19 and 20

Chapter 19 is addressed to the government of Judah.
One of the parables mentioned in Ezekiel 19, uses the Jews’ nation as a vine.
Symbolically, God tells them that they would be plucked up.
Thus, this is again foretelling the Babylonian captivity in the time of Zedekiah.
The dried up fruit is symbolic of her kings being no more.
She would no longer have self rule.
She would be under the rule of the Babylonian state instead.
Chapter 20 tells us that the elders, which were the rulers of Judah, came to inquire of God through the Prophet Ezekiel.
God tells the elders and the masses of the Jewish people that they started off being disobedient to the Lord even in the days of Moses, which was hundreds or thousands of years before Ezekiel.
He shows them that He delivered them from Egyptian bondage and gave them the Law of Moses, but they repeatedly fell into idolatry anyway.
Historically speaking, God exposes to the Jews that He had more than one occasion where He felt like destroying them for their disobedience but did not do so.
Despite God’s many centuries of mercy, He decided to punish the Jews with Babylonian captivity, but promises to being them back to the land of Judah again one day.

X. Chapter 21

In chapter 21, God reveals His extreme anger. He tells us that He is going to judge both the nation of Ammon and the Jews of Judah.
He reveals that He is going to do it with the sword of the Babylonians.
Furthermore, He is telling King Zedekiah of Judah to take off his crown, because God is taking Him out of power until the true King shall come.
Obviously, this is a reference to King Jesus (Ezekiel 21:25-27; 1 Timothy 6:14-15).

XI. Chapter 22

In chapter 22, God continues to tell Judah that they will become the laughing stock of their neighboring nations. Because they have mistreated the fatherless, widows, mothers, fathers, foreigners, committed murder, sexual immorality, adultery, charged interest to other Jewish people, taken bribes, preached false prophesies in the name of the Lord, and fell to idolatry!
God would judge them!

XII. Chapter 23

Chapter 23 is a sad chapter for the Jews.
In this chapter God compares the Northern Kingdom of Israel (also known as Samaria, which was its
capital) and the Southern Kingdom of Judah as “whorish” women.
Sorry for the derogatory expression but this is how God felt about them due to their worshipping false gods.
This is spiritual adultery to God.
God is showing Judah that their sister kingdom of Israel had already been destroyed due to their idol worship and that the same fate is waiting for Judah.
Unfortunately, God says that Judah was worse with its adultery than Israel.
This would be surprising, because Judah would have no excuse considering the fact that the Temple, priests, and teachers of the people (Levites) were in Jerusalem of Judah!
As Jesus taught us about leadership, which applies to even Bible school teachers, when the blind lead the blind, both fall in the ditch (Matthew 15:12-14).

XIII. Chapter 24

Chapter 24 is the last prophecy in Ezekiel foretelling God’s judgment on Judah before the final Babylonian invasion in King Zedekiah’s time.
God had to show the people that He is God (Ezekiel 24:27).
Christians, let’s surrender to God before He has to show us His authority!
It’s easier to experience a change of heart before calamity strikes than to have to repent due to the chastisement of God (Hebrews 12).
Remember, God has shown tremendous mercy to the Jews of Judah in Ezekiel’s time alone.
Also, remember, as we studied earlier, Ezekiel preached to the Jews of Judah over 20 years in trying to get them to repent of their sins, but they did not listen and brought God’s wrath upon them.
This is encouragement to the minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ today in dealing with a rebellious congregation.
God tells him to be very patient with them, because change will not happen overnight (2 Timothy 4:1-2).

XIV. Chapters 25-32

Ezekiel 25 begins the second half of the book that no longer foretells the Babylonian invasion and destruction of Jerusalem and Judah, generally speaking, but documents the destruction as it happened and its aftermath.
Chapters 25 to the end of the book document this destruction due to the people’s sins.
Chapters 25-32 and 35 speak of the enemy nations to Judah being judged for their sins.
These enemies would be judged for their evil deeds committed against the Jews and for rejoicing when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, destroyed Jerusalem and took the Jews into captivity in King Zedekiah’s time.
It is interesting to note that these enemy nations would be destroyed by the Babylonians as well.
This is why Christians never rejoice over the calamities that strike our enemies, because the same thing can happen to us.
Although we are Christians, we are not perfect (1 John 1:8).
Thus, if God forgives us of our sins and loves us despite our own disobedience to Him, then we ought to do the same for our enemies (Matthew 5:44).
We should pray that disaster does not strike our enemies, but instead that they repent and become Christians so that God would forgive them (Luke 23:34; Romans 10:1).
We cannot pray someone into becoming a Christian, because there is no Scripture in the Bible to support that position, but we can pray that God would give them time and opportunity to do so!
To become a Christian is an individual’s choice alone to make, because humans have free-will (Mark 16:15-16).

XV. Chapter 28 (Part 1)

Ezekiel 28 should be a chapter that is highlighted in this study, because it tells Judah that they will be released one day to go back to their homeland out of Babylonian captivity (Ezekiel 28:25-26).
Furthermore, this chapter is important, because it reveals the nature of every Christian’s enemy.
That enemy is the devil.
The king of Tyre is presented as embodying the very nature of Satan.
Thus, God is showing us that the king of Tyre and his nation will be judged, but at the same time, it is showing us the evil that lurks inside the devil at the same time.
The king of Tyre is mentioned in Ezekiel 28:11-19.
Obviously, the immediate context of this passage of Scripture was the coming destruction of the nation of Tyre and their king for their sins (Scott, n.d.).
But normally with Bible prophecy, God gives us a little extra spiritual information that we can use for our lives today.
Obviously, the king of Tyre was just like Satan, because Satan in heaven wanted to be God and back in verse 2 of Ezekiel 28, the king of Tyre was saying that he was a god which was exalting himself just like Satan his father (John 8:44).
So, as you can see, Satanic pride was in the king of Tyre and God judged him for it!
The king’s pride was caused by his great riches that his nation was able to accumulate because they were great merchants (Ezekiel 28:5).
God was saying that because of the king’s pride, He was going to allow other nations to conquer Tyre as a punishment for his pride (Ezekiel 28:6-10).
Obviously, the King’s pride and sinful ways were the same ways that were in the people of Tyre causing God to judge that nation (Ezekiel 28:18-19; Matthew 11:21).

XVI. Chapter 29 (Part 2)

God continues describing the nature of Satan with verses 12-19 in Ezekiel 28.
We find out that Satan was created by God and he had perfect wisdom and beauty.
In other words Satan was never created evil, but became evil by his own will.
He was and is a very intelligent being who is very pretty to the eyes and not the red, horned beast that we see in popular literature.
Instead, Satan would be attractive to mankind today and this is how he approaches us to entice us, as Christians, to sin, because the Scriptures say the following Words from James 1:14-15 according to the New International Version, which reads, “14 but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.”
Satan offers us the wretched opportunity to become his servants by giving us attractive things, because as he is attractive, he knows that attractive things have potential, sinful influence over Christian people!
Thus, if you and I have a problem with the lust of the flesh, then Satan will throw the opposite sex in our path to entice us to sin.
If you and I have a problem with the lust of the eyes, then anything financially or materialistically sinful will appeal to us and be our spiritual fight until our dying day.
And even if you and I have problems with the pride of life, then Satan will also throw things at us that will cause us to have an inflated pride within us such as self-righteousness and gossip that causes us to tear someone down to make ourselves look good!
So a part of beating Satan is to know our own weaknesses and avoid them and if we cannot avoid them, we must have enough of the Word of God within us and a strong enough prayer life to resist the devil when these things are offered to us (Philippians 4:13; Ephesians 3:16; Matthew 6:9-13; Hebrews 4:12; Matthew 4:1-11)!
Please, Christians do not become arrogant in anything, because that is the nature of Satan and it is Satan that is separating us from God when we become that way (Isaiah 59:2; 1 Peter 3:12).XV

XVII. CHAPTER 33

Starting with Ezekiel 33, God refocuses our attention on Judah and away from the Gentile nations.
God appointed Ezekiel as a watchman for the people.
That is, he was a guard to warn the people to repent of their sins.
Thus, all of the church’s leadership of today, which is the minister and elders, are watchmen for the souls of the people (2 Timothy 4:1-2; Hebrews 13:17; Acts 20:17, 28).
Bible teachers are no different, because they are working to build up the people in order to make them stronger Christians by turning them from their sinful ways (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
All church leaders, including ministers, elders, and teachers, must realize that God requires us to live as examples of the teachings of the Bible as well (Matthew 5:20).
Sad enough, God again reminds Ezekiel in chapter 33 that the people are hearing him preach the Words given to him from God, but are disobeying them.
Nonetheless, God still required that he preach as we are to continue to preach and teach the Word of God in truth whether it is received or not (2 Timothy 4:2).

XVIII. CHAPTER 34

Ezekiel 34 is a special chapter, because it speaks of the Jews being returned from Babylonian captivity to the land of Judah in its immediate fulfillment, but the ultimate fulfillment is the gathering of the Jews into the church of Christ that began on Pentecost Day (Acts 2; Romans 16:16).
Remember, the ultimate fulfillment of the coming Messiah (i.e. Christ) is spoken of in Ezekiel 34:23-24.
This is because by the time the Jews returned out of Babylon, David had been dead for centuries and could not reign over them as king.
Thus, the ultimate and final King referred to in Ezekiel 34:23-24 has to be Jesus Christ.
As a result, this is a prophecy of the coming of Jesus hundreds of years before He walked on this earth in the flesh.
Also, in Ezekiel 34, God blames the religious leaders of the Jews’ times for not feeding the flock which caused them to be devoured!
In other words, Ezekiel 34 shows that the religious leaders did not properly teach the people God’s Will and this allowed Satan to teach them his own wicked way of living!

XIX. CHAPTER 35

In Ezekiel 35, God says that He will judge and totally destroy the land of Mount Seir which was in Idumea as revenge for their evils committed against the children of Israel.
Today, Idumea does not exist, which is a testimony that God’s Word is true.
Idumea and Mount Seir are alternative names for the nation of Edom (Dobson, Feinberg, Hindson, Kroll, & Wilmington, 1999).

XX. CHAPTER 36

In chapter 36, God is giving the Jews hope once again, as a demonstration of His loving and forgiving nature for Christians of today, by telling them that they will return one day from Babylonian captivity to their own homeland.
In fact, they will not only return, but God would permit them to rebuild the land, repopulate it, and have food instead of famine.
What a beautiful, loving God we serve!
Ezekiel 36:26 is significant to the modern-day Christian, because God promises to put a new heart in the Jews when they returned from Babylon.
This is important, because the Babylonian hardship that they experienced for 70 years would change them and bring them back to God in obedience.
Thus, it is the same when the Lord punishes Christians; He is trying to turn us back to Him (Hebrews 12).

XXI. CHAPTER 37 (Part 1)

Ezekiel 37 is an awfully significant passage of Scripture for the modern-day Christian and needs special consideration in our studies.
First, Ezekiel envisions scattered, dry bones in the valley (Ezekiel 37:1-14).
God told Ezekiel to prophesy to these bones, which means to deliver the Word of God to them.
Ezekiel was told to tell the bones that God would put breath in them and flesh upon them to signify that He was going to bring them to life again.
Ezekiel heard a noise and the bones started to re-assemble together and the flesh was put back on them.
Then Ezekiel was told to prophesy to the wind so that it would put breath into this body.
The wind put the breath of life back into the body and the body stood up on its feet.
Actually, there were several bodies assembled from these bones that did the same thing.
God tells Ezekiel that these bones represent the Jews in captivity and that He would release them from Babylonian captivity.
This Babylonian captivity symbolizes the grave, which means death. God would use His power to release them from captivity to show them that He is the Lord!
This release from captivity symbolizes a return to life. Not only will God return the Jews to Judah out of captivity, but He would put His Spirit within them as well.
This is showing us that the Holy Spirit would work in their lives to bring about a spiritual transformation that would build righteous, godly character within them.
Now, this applies to our own day and time.
Unfortunately, Christians, today, can also be a valley of dry bones, because we often stray away from God, which is death, and need someone to preach the Word of God to us to bring us back to life (through repentance, confession, and prayer for forgiveness) like Ezekiel did in the vision (Acts 8:22; 1 John 1:8-9; Hebrews 4:12; 2 Timothy 3:16).
Remember, spiritually speaking, sin is a separation from God and separation from God is death (Isaiah 59:2; Romans 8:5-14) (Nave, 1995).
Taking in the Word of God and obeying the same brings about spiritual transformation (Ephesians 6:17).
Thus, we, as Christians, must submit to daily study of God’s Word to build a greater faith and obedience to Him on a daily basis (Romans 10:17; 2 Peter 1:5-7).
Bible school teacher, this means that your and my job is to teach the hard lessons sometimes that challenge our students to live in a holy manner to bring about spiritual change in the audience.
It’s easy to teach things that everyone wants to hear, but it takes prayer and faith to teach the hard lessons that we are all supposed to teach (2 Timothy 3:16).
Do not be intimidated! Let God use you to bring the dry bones of wayward Christians back to life!

XXII. CHAPTER 37 (Part 2)

Second, God foretells the re-gathering of the ten tribes of Israel (represented by one of their ancestors, which was Joseph) and Judah into one nation under David.
God is also saying that He will make an everlasting covenant with the Jewish people.
This is saying that the Northern Kingdom of Israel and Southern Kingdom of Judah will be reunited under the Messiah, which is represented as David.
Remember, David had been dead hundreds of years by the time God gave us the book of Ezekiel.
This means that David represents Jesus Christ (Luke 1:31-32).
Thus, the one nation is the church that would come hundreds of years after the death of Ezekiel (Matthew 16:13-19; Acts 2:38-47; 1 Peter 2:9).
Remember, on that Pentecost day in Acts 2, God began the re-gathering of the scattered Jews from all nations that heard the Gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ that day.
These Jews from many nations who believed the Gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ and were baptized were added to the spiritual, holy nation of Israel called the church (Acts 2:1-11, 38, 41, 47).
Lastly, the everlasting covenant is foretelling the coming of the New Testament of the Bible to rule over the Christian church as the rules that one must abide by to be saved (John 12:47-48; Jeremiah 31:31; Hebrews 8:8).

XXIII. CHAPTERS 38 AND 39

Ezekiel 38-39 gives the captive Jews in Babylon much hope, because God tells them when they return to Judah that their enemies will attack them, but God, Himself, will fight for them.
Their enemies will be decisively defeated.
God will defeat the Jews’ enemies to show to the surrounding nations that He is God!
Again, it is better to learn who God is through faith in His Word instead of experiencing His wrath for all disbelieving and/or disobedient people of all times (Romans 10:17; Hebrews 11:6)!
As a Christian and Bible school teacher, this is also hope, because if God put His mind to protecting us and His works, then no one can defeat a good Christian and church leader anyway.
Remember, God is all-powerful (Revelation 19:6) (Nave, 1995).

XXIV. CHAPTERS 40 TO 48

Lastly, in Ezekiel 40-48, God foretells the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple that was destroyed by the Babylonians (Halley, 2000).
Also within these chapters, God speaks of the reinstitution of the services of the Temple and how they are to be performed.
In addition, God puts in order the proper conduct that He expects out of the religious leaders and the redistribution of the land to the Jews according to their respective tribes.
Obviously, we have already studied the rebuilding of the Temple and Jerusalem after the release from Babylonian slavery in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.