Ezekiel, visions in exile

Ezekiel is the prophet of extraordinary visions. While Jeremiah prophesied in Jerusalem, Ezekiel did so among the exiles in Babylon. He was a priest who never served in the temple, because he was deported before reaching the age of service. But God showed him his glory beside a river in a foreign land. His book contains some of the most striking images in the Bible: wheels full of eyes, God’s glory leaving the temple, a valley of dry bones coming to life and a river flowing from the temple that heals everything it touches. His central message: even in exile, God is still God, and one day he will give his people a new heart.

A priest in exile

Ezekiel, son of Buzi, came from a priestly family. In 597 BC Nebuchadnezzar carried King Jehoiachin and thousands of Jerusalem’s inhabitants captive to Babylon, Ezekiel among them. The exiles settled by the river Chebar, a canal near the city of Nippur, at a place called Tel-abib. Five years later, when Ezekiel was about thirty, the age at which priests began their service, God called him to be a prophet. His name means “God strengthens”.

The vision of God’s glory

By the river Chebar, Ezekiel saw the heavens opened. A whirlwind came out of the north, with a great cloud and a fire infolding itself. In the midst appeared four living creatures, each with four faces —of a man, a lion, an ox and an eagle— and four wings. Beside them were wheels, a wheel in the middle of a wheel, their rims full of eyes, moving in any direction without turning. Above them was a firmament like crystal, and above it a throne, and upon the throne a figure like a man, surrounded by brightness like a rainbow.

“As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake.”

Ezekiel 1:28

The message was powerful: God’s glory was not confined to the temple in Jerusalem. God was present with his people even in a foreign land, and his throne moved freely in every direction. The exiles were not abandoned.

The watchman

God gave Ezekiel a scroll written within and without with lamentations and told him to eat it. Ezekiel ate it, and it was as sweet as honey. Then God told him he was making him a watchman, a sentinel, over the house of Israel. His responsibility was to warn the people. If he warned and the wicked did not turn, the wicked would die in his sin, but the watchman would have delivered his soul. If he did not warn, God would require their blood at his hand (Ezekiel 3:17-21; 33:1-9).

Prophecies in action

Like Jeremiah, Ezekiel communicated messages through symbolic actions, sometimes very dramatic. He drew Jerusalem under siege on a clay tile. He lay on his left side three hundred and ninety days and on his right side forty days, representing the years of the sin of Israel and Judah. He cooked with scant rations to show the famine of the siege. He shaved his head and beard and divided the hair into three parts. He prepared an exile’s baggage and went out through a hole in the wall. These actions announced that Jerusalem would fall.

One of the most painful moments came when God told him his wife, “the desire of his eyes”, would die, and asked him not to mourn publicly, as a sign that the people would lose the temple, their delight, and be left speechless (Ezekiel 24:15-24).

The glory leaves the temple

In a vision, Ezekiel was carried in the spirit to Jerusalem and saw the abominations being committed in the temple itself: idol images, elders offering incense to animal figures, women weeping for Tammuz, men worshipping the sun with their backs to the sanctuary. Then he saw something terrible: the glory of the Lord rose from the cherub, paused at the threshold, went out by the east gate and stood upon the mountain on the east side of the city, the Mount of Olives (Ezekiel 10 and 11). God was leaving a temple his people had defiled. Soon after, in 586 BC, the news arrived: “The city is smitten.”

Personal responsibility

The exiles repeated a proverb: “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge”, as if to say they were suffering for their ancestors’ guilt. God answered through Ezekiel that each person is responsible for his own actions, and that God does not desire the death of the wicked but that he turn and live: “Cast away from you all your transgressions… and make you a new heart and a new spirit… For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye” (Ezekiel 18:31-32).

The good Shepherd

In chapter 34 God denounces the shepherds of Israel, the leaders who fed themselves, ate the fat and clothed themselves with the wool, but did not strengthen the weak, heal the sick or seek the lost. Then God promises: “I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out… I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick” (Ezekiel 34:11, 16). And he announces that he will set over them one shepherd, his servant David.

A new heart

Ezekiel’s central promise is inner transformation:

“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.”

Ezekiel 36:26-27

Like Jeremiah, Ezekiel announces that God will do what the written law could not: change the human heart and put his Spirit within his people.

The valley of dry bones

Ezekiel’s most famous vision is the valley full of dry bones. God asked him: “Son of man, can these bones live?” Ezekiel answered: “O Lord God, thou knowest.” God told him to prophesy over the bones. As he spoke, there was a noise and a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone; sinews, flesh and skin appeared, but there was no breath in them. Then God told him to prophesy to the wind:

“Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.”

Ezekiel 37:9-10

God explained that the bones represented the house of Israel, which said: “Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost.” But God would open their graves, put his Spirit in them and bring them back to their land. It is a powerful image of restoration and resurrection.

The new temple and the river of life

The book’s last chapters (40–48) describe a detailed vision of a new temple. Ezekiel sees God’s glory return through the east gate and fill the house. From the temple threshold flows a river that grows deeper and deeper; wherever it goes, the waters of the Dead Sea are healed, and along its banks grow trees whose fruit is for food and whose leaves are for medicine. The book ends with the city’s new name: “Jehovah-shammah”, that is, “The Lord is there” (Ezekiel 48:35).

Places in the story

Interesting facts

Lessons for our lives

God is with us even in exile. We are watchmen, responsible for warning with love. God does not want the sinner to die, but to live. God seeks the lost sheep and heals the wounded. Only God can give us a new heart. No situation is so dead that God cannot bring it back to life.

On the road to Jesus

Jesus took the title “Son of man” and presented himself as the Good Shepherd foretold by Ezekiel: “I am the good shepherd… and I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10:11-15). The Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost. The new heart and promised Spirit were poured out at Pentecost on those who believed in Jesus. The vision of the dry bones announces the resurrection, which Jesus inaugurated by rising from the grave. And the river flowing from the temple recalls Jesus’ words: “He that believeth on me… out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38). In Revelation 22 the river of the water of life proceeds from the throne of God and of the Lamb, and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.

In the next episode we will meet Daniel, the faithful young man at the court of Babylon.

Prayer

Lord, thank you that your glory is not confined to one place and that you are with me even in a strange land. Take away my heart of stone and give me a heart of flesh. Put your Spirit within me. Breathe on the areas of my life that seem like dry bones and make them live. Thank you for Jesus, the Good Shepherd who sought me. Amen.