Ezekiel Part One Dive

THE WEIRD AND THE WONDERFUL

I won’t lie to you guys, as I begin my journey into Ezekiel I am both nervous and excited. This book has a whole lot of weird going on. That is why in our TYB Bible we call Ezekiel – The Weird Prophet! We have beasts with four faces, covered in eyes, with wheels as their companions that flash back and forth like lightning, prophetic symbolism that includes cooking with human poop (so glad he protested that one!). Some of the images in this book feel more at home in the movie Pan’s Labyrinth then they do in our Bibles (that weird eye man still freaks me out)!

But don’t be put off by something that stretches your imagination. I mean, I can guarantee when you first watched Star Wars, the characters were overwhelming. If you were reading not watching the bar scene in the New Hope movie, some of those characters would sound exactly like what Ezekiel is describing. God’s world and his visions are far beyond what man can comprehend, so get ready for your imagination to be stretched and your understanding of God’s world expanded.

As we studied in the Snapshot video, Ezekiel is writing in exile in a place called Tel-Abib. And the visions and actions throughout this book are a way for him to feel, pray and understand the situation of God’s people. This book is an incredible mix of the natural encountering the supernatural. YAHWEH gives Ezekiel a glimpse of the ‘beyond natural’ or supernatural elements of heaven and also what is actually happening in Jerusalem 700 miles away. Yes, as you adventure through this text, remember in a world without email, iPhones and internet, God was prophetically speaking to Ezekiel about what was happening in Jerusalem at the same time! How incredible is that! Some people say that Ezekiel must have prophesied these after the fact or he must have been in Jerusalem at the time (especially in Chapters 11, 24 and 33 as the prophecies are incredibly accurate). No, he wasn’t! God was showing him what was happening. The details of Chapter 11 and 24 blow my mind, so stop slow down and take note of the prophetic details to which this man in Babylon, speaking of events in Jerusalem!

The Book of Ezekiel will challenge your imagination. Our human brains, our human normality, our human imagination is going to pale in the light of the visions that God gives Ezekiel–weird and wonderful all at once. To begin, you are introduced and informed of a God that is holy and above beyond what you can imagine, setting the scene for the rest of the book!

For the first Dive, let’s talk about the prophetic symbolism in this book. If you are journeying along with the TYB schedule, you would have recently read Hosea. Hosea was a prophet that was asked by God to marry a ‘promiscuous women’ so he would know what it felt like for his bride to prostitute herself as Israel did. It’s a “let me show you what it feels like” moment, and, in Ezekiel, we go again into a whole new level of prophetic symbolism.

We are just out of the beasts and the burden of Ezekiel’s calls when we encounter our first weird symbolic moment in Chapter 4: The Siege of Jerusalem Symbolized–this gets a little weird! Firstly, Ezekiel gets to re-enact the Siege of Jerusalem and you can feel the weight of the situation rising as you read the instructions. This is Ezekiel at his eccentric, passionate, zealous-for-God best! It does, at first, remind me of the times when I would build cities for my nephew so that his Godzilla dinosaur could destroy them, and it would end in a delightful scream of ‘Build it again!’, but this is not play and I am genuinely glad that what was happening in our lounge room was not happening on earth! But for Ezekiel, this is a prophetic declaration of what is about to happen, and it’s only the beginning. Ezekiel then has to lie on his side for 430 days–yes TYB, 390+40 = 430 DAYS! For over one year, Ezekiel has to lie on his side as God lays the sins of Israel on him. Oh my! And we know that Ezekiel’s wife died in the siege of Jerusalem, but that’s not until Chapter 24 (so sad!).

This is not imagery! This prophet did these things out of prophetic obedience and prayer for his people. I am so grateful for Jesus that bore our sins on the cross, so we don’t have to lie on our sides and take on the sins of Israel! And we are only in Chapter 4!

I love Ezekiel’s commitment to the vision that God gives him–in Chapter 12, we have another prophetic symbolisation of the exile and Ezekiel has to pack his bags and leave as though he is in exile. Which is weird, because he is in exile! God gives him instructions and again and again it says while the people watch, check it out with me in Chapter 12…

E 12:3 in the daytime as they watch, set out and go from where you are to another place.
E 12:4 During the daytime, while they watch
E 12:5 While they watch, dig through the wall

This prophetic moment in Chapter 12 is not like the one in Chapter 4, where perhaps only Ezekiel and his wife knew what was going on. This one is a ‘taking it to the streets’ moment and God wanted Ezekiel to do this in front of all the people. I love the simplicity of Ezekiel’s obedience to God.

E 12:7 So I did as I was commanded.

Would I be that simplistic in my obedience to the weird and wonderful prophetic world of God? I hope so!

What Ezekiel is showing us is that God is beyond our imagination and totally in control. Even in exile, in the worst of circumstances God speaks through His prophet that this is His doing! God is a god of justice, holiness and there are consequences to the actions of Israel, and we are in the pinnacle moment of consequence. God had been warning the people over and over again that this would happen and this book is written at the very heart of the consequences of the rebellion of Israel against God. It is heartbreaking, full-on at times, overwhelming but don’t forget you are in the middle of the moment. And even in the middle, God speaks hope and restoration–Chapter 40 is coming!

So jump in TYB! Experience, write your thoughts, immerse yourself Ezekiel’s prophetic world, where the voice of God speaks clearly and the visions of God come thick and fast!

Ezekiel Part One Dive

THE WEIRD AND THE WONDERFUL

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