Journey Through the Old Testament
Lesson #80 – Ezekiel
Prophecies to the Captives
Ezekiel
For Wednesday, March 8, 2017 -Ezekiel
We are studying in this lesson about the great prophet Ezekiel. It is
believed that he was only a child when Jeremiah first began
prophesying about Jerusalem’s need to repent and how it would fall
in a few short years. By the time Ezekiel was a teenager, the
Babylonians had taken away Daniel and his friends to live in
Babylon.
Around 597 B.C. another round of captives was taken to Babylon – about 10,000 people according to (II
Kings 24:14). One of those captives was a priest named Ezekiel. It is believed by some that he was about 25
years old when taken. Much of Ezekiel’s story took place before Jerusalem was destroyed.
The Call of Ezekiel. About five years after Ezekiel went to Babylon, God started revealing Himself to him in
visions. Ezekiel saw a whirlwind and a cloud and within the cloud it looked like a raging fire. The glory of God
appeared as a bright light. Out of all this came four living creatures – part of them look like a man, but they
had four faces and four wings on them. [We also see living creatures in God’s presence in the New Testament
book of Revelation.] A moving wheel followed these creatures everywhere they went. Above these
creatures was a sapphire throne with rainbows shining above it. A being with the appearance of a man
stood high above all this. As a voice started to speak, Ezekiel fell down with his face to the ground to show
his reverence for God.
God told Ezekiel to stand on his feet. The he was told, “Son of man, I am sending you to the children of
Israel, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against Me; they and their fathers have transgressed against
Me to this very day. 4 For they are impudent and stubborn children. I am sending you to them…” God
emphasized that Ezekiel should say these things whether Israel listened or not (Ezk. 2). The Lord then gave
Ezekiel a scroll with sad words on it about what would happen to God’s people. He told Ezekiel to eat the
scroll which tasted like honey.
The Spirit of the Lord took Ezekiel to another spot on the Chebar River to some more of the Jews in captivity.
God told Ezekiel that He was making him a watchman for Israel, a watchman to warn them. A watchman
over a city warned the people if he spotted danger. Ezekiel would become a spiritual watchman to warn
people about the danger that their sins were putting them in.
Jerusalem to Be Destroyed. Those who had been taken off to Babylon as captives early on may have hoped
that Jerusalem would survive. They may have thought that soon, they would be released. But God warned
the captives through Ezekiel that Jerusalem would soon be destroyed. The Lord told Ezekiel to take a clay
tablet and draw a likeness of Jerusalem on it (Ezk. 4). Then Ezekiel was to make it look like an army was
coming up against it to invade the city.
God also told Ezekiel to shave off his hair. He was to take the hair and burn a third of it. Another third of the
hair was to be cut with a sword, and the other third was to be scattered in the win. By this God was telling
the people that a third would die of pestilence and famine in Jerusalem; another third would die by the
sword; and the final third would be scattered.
Ezekiel Sees the Secret Sins of Jerusalem. One day while Ezekiel sat with some of Jerusalem’s elders that
were among the captives, he was transported in a vision to the Temple in Jerusalem. There he saw an
idolatrous image set up in the inner court of the Temple. After being told to go in and look around, Ezekiel
saw idols engraved all over the Temple walls. Then he saw the rulers offering incense to these idols. These
rulers were saying, “Nobody will see us, even the Lord won’t see us” (Ezk. 8:12). But God did see them and
now Ezekiel was seeing them, too. Ezekiel was taken to another part of the Temple where women were
weeping as they worshipped the Babylonian false god, Tammuz. Over near the altar, Ezekiel was shown 25
men facing the sun to worship it as a god.
God said that He would show no pity on the people of Judah. He would not pity them or spare them, even if
they cried out to Him for mercy. Soon God would give the orders for Jerusalem to be destroyed and many of
its people killed (Ezk. 9). The glory of the Lord left the Temple (Ezk. 10).
The Lord made it clear to Ezekiel that the condition of Jerusalem and Judah had become so corrupt that
nothing could be done to save it. Even if there were some very righteous men there, it would not be enough
to save it. This is stressed by mentioning three great Bible characters: Noah, Job and Daniel. [It is interesting
that he includes Daniel since he was still alive in Ezekiel’s time. Many among the Jews in captivity must have
known about Daniel and how righteous he was.] Ezk. 14:12-14 “The word of the LORD came again to me,
saying: ‘Son of man, when a land sins against Me by persistent unfaithfulness, I will stretch out My hand
against it; I will cut off its supply of bread, send famine on it, and cut off man and beast from it. Even if
these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver only themselves by their
righteousness,’ says the Lord GOD.”
The False Prophets Said Jerusalem Would Be Spared. False prophets were claiming that soon there would
be peace and Jerusalem’s troubles would be over (Ezk. 13:10). This is a message that all the Jews wanted to
believe, but it was a lie. There would be no peace. God said that these false prophets went around telling
everyone, “Hear the word of the LORD!” but that they were really saying this from their own spirit,
prophesying out of their own heart (Ezk. 13:1,3). God said that He didn’t send them to speak those
messages.
Each Person is Accountable to God. Ezekiel stresses a truth that we all need to understand about a
relationship with God. Every soul must answer to God for what they have done. If you sin, you cannot blame
someone else. If they sin, they cannot blame you. If you were wicked, the fact that there were some
righteous people among the Jews would not make you alright with God. Ezk. 18:4 says, “Behold, all souls
are Mine; The soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine; The soul who sins shall die.”
• A Righteous Man. Vs. 5,9 “But if a man is just and does what is lawful and right…He shall surely
live, says the Lord GOD.”
• The Wicked Son of a Righteous Man. Vs. 10,13 “If he begets a son who is a robber Or a shedder
of blood, Who does any of these things…Shall he [the son] then live? He shall not live! If he has
done any of these abominations, He shall surely die; His blood shall be upon him.”
• The Righteous Son of a Wicked Man. Vs. 14,17 “If, however, he begets a son
who sees all the sins which his father has done, and considers but does not do likewise…He shall
not die for the iniquity of his father; He shall surely live!”
Vs. 20 says, “The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The
righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon
himself.”
• A Wicked Man Who Turns From His Wickedness. Vs. 21-23 “But if a wicked man turns from all
his sins which he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is lawful and right, he shall
surely live; he shall not die. None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be
remembered against him; because of the righteousness which he has done, he shall live. Do I
have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?” says the Lord GOD, “and not that he should
turn from his ways and live?”
• A Righteous Man Who Turns From His Righteousness. Vs. 24 “But when a righteous man turns
away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations
that the wicked man does, shall he live? All the righteousness which he has done shall not be
remembered; because of the unfaithfulness of which he is guilty and the sin which he has
committed, because of them he shall die.”
Vs. 30 says, “Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways,” says the Lord
GOD. “Repent, and turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not be your ruin.”
Jerusalem Falls. By the 33rd chapter of Ezekiel, the city of Jerusalem had been destroyed by the Babylonians.
Ezk. 33:21 says, “And it came to pass in the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth month, on the fifth day
of the month, that one who had escaped from Jerusalem came to me and said, “The city has been
captured!” All the people who had believed the false prophets and thought that Jerusalem would survive,
now knew that Ezekiel’s prophecies had been right.
The Lord Promises to Restore Some Back to Israel. Ezekiel cried to God afraid that Israel would come to a
complete end (Ezk. 11:13). But God told him that in time He would bring a small portion of the Jews back to
their land. But those who came back would no longer worship idols. They would have a new spirit and a
new heart in them and God would once again be their God (Ezk. 11:20).
One of the most famous images from the visions God gave to Ezekiel was what he
saw when taken into a valley filled with bones dried out in the sun. If you see
where an animal has died and all that is left is the bones, you know that it has
been dead for a while and won’t live again. As Ezekiel looked on of the valley
filled with dry bones, God asked him, “Son of man, can these bones live?” (Ezk.
37:3). Ezekiel said, “Lord, you are the only one that knows.”
Then God told Ezekiel, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, ‘O dry bones,
hear the word of the LORD! Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: “Surely I will
cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. I will put sinews on you and
bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you shall
live. Then you shall know that I am the LORD.” (Ezk. 37:4-6). As the vision keeps
going, Ezekiel did as God said and the bones came together and then muscles and
flesh came back on them. As he prophesied more, the breath came into them and they lived. They stood up
and looked like a large army.
What did God mean by this vision? Ezk. 37:11-12 says, “Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are
the whole house of Israel. They indeed say, ‘Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut
off!’ Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, O My people, I will open your
graves and cause you to come up from your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.” The day was
coming when God’s people would return “alive” to their land. These promises came true about 70 years
later.
The New Testament Teaches Us…
God Promises a Greater Future for His People. Ezekiel 34:23-24 I will establish one shepherd over them,
and he shall feed them—My servant David. He shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the LORD, will
be their God, and My servant David a prince among them; I, the LORD, have spoken.” A similar promise is
made in Ezk. 37 where God promises, “My servant David shall be their prince forever” (Vs. 25). God would
place His sanctuary, His tabernacle, among them forever (Vs. 26-28).
There can be only one proper fulfillment of these prophesies:
• Jesus was the One Shepherd who would come. I Peter 2:25 says, “For you were like sheep going
astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” Hebrews 13:20 calls
“our Lord Jesus…that great Shepherd of the sheep.”
• Jesus was the new king (a new David), sitting on the throne of David (Lk. 1:32-33).
• The church would be the new sanctuary that would last for all eternity. Eph. 2:21-22 tells us that the
church “grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling
place of God in the Spirit.”
Bible Quiz
1. Where was Ezekiel when he wrote this book? (Ezk. 1:1-3)
2. What did God tell Ezekiel that the nation of Israel was like? (Ezk. 2:3-4)
3. What was Ezekiel told to do with the scroll he was given? (Ezk. 3:1-3)
4. What did God tell Ezekiel to do with his hair? (Ezk. 5:1-2)
5. What were the 25 men in the Temple worshipping? (Ezk. 8:16)
6. What did the false prophets tell the people? (Ezk. 13:10,16)
7. What three Bible characters are mentioned in Ezekiel 14:14?
8. From the later part of Ezk. 18:4, “the s________ who s_______ shall d_____.”