Ezekiel 1

Ezekiel 1:1

I. CALL AND COMMISSION OF EZEKIEL (1:13:21) A. Ezekiel’s Circumstances (1:1-3)As the book opens, Ezekiel was already in captivity, having been carried off in one of the earlier deportations. But he prophesied about the destruction of Jerusalem six or seven years before it happened. Ezekiel was probably thirty years of age at this time (“in the thirtieth year”). The first twenty-four chapters were written before the fall of Jerusalem, but after the first deportations.

Ezekiel 1:4

B. Ezekiel’s Vision of God’s Glory Riding on a Throne-Chariot (1:4-28a)The first chapter is taken up with a vision of the glory of God among the captives. Ezekiel first saw a fierce whirlwind coming from the north. Then he saw four living creatures, each of which had four faces (lion, ox, eagle, man), four wings, straight feet, and hands under its wings. The creatures symbolize those attributes of God which are seen in creation: His majesty, power, swiftness, and wisdom. Many nations forget about the God above the cloud, who sits on the throne. They worship the creative attributes rather than the Creator Himself. Above the firmament was a throne, with the LORD of glory seated upon it. Beside each of the living creatures there was a wheel, or rather a wheel within a wheel (perhaps one wheel at right angle to the other like a gyroscope). Thus the vision seems to represent a throne-chariot, with wheels . . . on the earth, four living creatures supporting a platform, and the throne of God above it. It was this vision of the glory of God that preceded Ezekiel’s call to the prophetic ministry. The passage evokes the response in Faber’s fine hymn: My, God, how wonderful Thou art, Thy majesty how bright, How beautiful Thy mercy seat, In depths of burning light! How dread are Thine eternal years, O everlasting Lord: By prostrate spirits day and night Incessantly adored! Father of Jesus, love’s reward, What rapture will it be Prostrate before Thy throne to lie, And gaze, and gaze on Thee. Frederick William FaberEzekiel explains what he viewed in Eze_43:3 as “the vision which I saw when He [NKJV marg.] came to destroy the city.” In other words, the vision depicted God in His glory coming out of the north in judgment on Jerusalem, the Babylonians being the agents of His judgment. C. Ezekiel’s Appointment to Prophesy to the People of Israel (1:28b3:21)

1. The Character of the PeopleRebellious (1:28b2:7)The Spirit entered Ezekiel, set him on his feet, and told him to prophesy to a rebellious nation, Judah, regardless of results. He was to be fearless and obedient. The Lord commissioned Ezekiel, whom He calls “son of man.” This important expression occurs ninety times in Ezekiel. Taylor explains the usage: The first words that God addresses to Ezekiel appropriately put the prophet in his rightful place before the majesty which he has been seeing in his vision. The phrase son of man is a Hebraism which emphasizes Ezekiel’s insignificance or mere humanity. “Son of” indicates “partaking of the nature of” and so when combined with ‘ade3m, “man,” it means nothing more than “human being.” In the plural it is a common phrase for “mankind”. By the time of Daniel (Dan_7:13-14) this title had taken on near messianic implications, and in the first century it had become a term for the Messiah: Our Lord’s use of the title seems to have taken advantage of the ambiguity between the simple and the technical meanings, so that in one sense He could not be accused of making any overt claim to Messiahship, while in the other sense He did not debar those with the requisite spiritual insight from accepting the fuller significance of His person.