The Book of Ezekiel, Chapter by Chapter

We want to take you through the book of Ezekiel chapter by chapter. In our Jeremiah and Lamentations studies we saw Jerusalem fall and the people mourn in the ruins. Ezekiel tells the same story from the other side. From Babylon. He was already a captive when Jerusalem fell. We will tell you what each chapter is about and how it fits into the message of the book. And how it points us to the one God that is revealed in Jesus Christ.

Ezekiel is a book about the glory of God. It starts with the heavens opened and Ezekiel seeing the glory of the LORD on a throne (1:28). In the middle the glory leaves the temple because of the people’s sin (10:18). And at the end the glory comes back and fills the house again (43:5). The last words of the book are “The LORD is there” (48:35). That is the story of the Bible. God with us. God leaving because of sin. And God coming back to dwell with his people.

There are three things we want you to take away from this study. Ezekiel is about the glory of God. “This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD” (1:28). Ezekiel is about knowing that he is the one LORD. More than 60 times God says “they shall know that I am the LORD.” And Ezekiel points to Jesus Christ. The likeness of a man on the throne (1:26). The one shepherd (34:23). The one who would sprinkle clean water and put his Spirit within us (36:25–27). We will explain these points as we go through the book. But we want you to keep them in mind as we begin.

“The word of the LORD came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar” (1:3). Ezekiel was a priest. His name means God strengthens. He was taken to Babylon in 597 BC with king Jehoiachin. We saw that in our 2 Kings study. Daniel had been taken about 8 years before. Ezekiel lived with the captives in a place called Telabib by the river Chebar (3:15). That was a canal near Babylon. He was married and had his own house (8:1; 24:18).

God called him in the 5th year of Jehoiachin’s captivity (1:2). That is 593 BC. He says it was “the thirtieth year” (1:1). Many believe that was his age.¹ A priest started his service at 30 (Numbers 4:3). Ezekiel would never serve in the temple. It was 500 miles away and about to be burned. But God gave him something better. He saw the glory of God himself.

Ezekiel is the most carefully dated book of the prophets. He gives us the year and month and day over and over.² And the book is in time order. Ezekiel is also full of strange signs. He lay on his side for over a year. He shaved his head. He dug through a wall. He did not mourn when his wife died. His life was a sermon. God said “Thus Ezekiel is unto you a sign” (24:24). God called him “son of man” about 90 times. Which means human being. A mortal man. Jesus took that same title for himself. And we will see in our Daniel study where it comes from.

The book has three big parts. Chapters 1–24 are judgment on Jerusalem before it fell. Chapters 25–32 are judgment on the nations. And chapters 33–48 are hope after the news came that the city had fallen. We will break it down like this. The glory and the call (1–3). Signs against Jerusalem (4–7). The glory departs (8–11). Why judgment must come (12–19). The end of Jerusalem (20–24). The nations (25–32). The watchman and the good shepherd (33–34). A new heart and dry bones (35–37). Gog and Magog (38–39). And the new temple and the glory returns (40–48). Then we will put together what Ezekiel teaches about the one God. Just like in our other studies we will be using the KJV for our scripture quotations. And we will let you know where you can find the work of the scholars we reference.

Ezekiel 1: The Likeness as the Appearance of a Man

“As I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God” (v.1). The captives thought God was back in Jerusalem. Far away. But the heavens opened in Babylon. God was not stuck in one building. Ezekiel saw a whirlwind out of the north. A great cloud. And fire (v.4). In the fire were 4 living creatures. Each had 4 faces. A man. A lion. An ox. And an eagle (v.10). Beside them were wheels. “A wheel in the middle of a wheel” (v.16). Full of eyes (v.18). They went straight wherever the spirit went (v.20). The throne of God could go anywhere. And see everything.

Then Ezekiel looked up.

Notice how careful Ezekiel is. He keeps saying likeness and appearance. He knew no one can fully see God. But what he saw on the throne looked like a man. One throne. One figure on it. And it was “the glory of the LORD.” And he heard “a voice of one that spake.” One.

Trinitarians will say the man on the throne is the Son as a second person.³ But notice. Ezekiel does not see two on the throne. He sees one. And that one is the glory of the LORD. Now read Revelation. John saw a throne “and one sat on the throne” with “a rainbow round about the throne” (Revelation 4:2–3). And he saw “one like unto the Son of man” whose “voice as the sound of many waters” (Revelation 1:13, 15). Ezekiel saw the glory of the LORD in the appearance of a man. And that is exactly what God did. He came as a man. Paul says we see “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). The glory on the throne had a human face. And that face is Jesus.

Ezekiel 2–3: Son of Man, Eat This Roll

“Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee. And the spirit entered into me when he spake unto me, and set me upon my feet” (2:1–2). God sent him to a rebellious house. “And they, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear … yet shall know that there hath been a prophet among them” (2:5). His job was not to be successful. His job was to be faithful.

Then God gave him a scroll written inside and out with lamentations and mourning and woe (2:10). “Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness” (3:3). Jeremiah said the same thing. “Thy words were found, and I did eat them” (Jeremiah 15:16). And John was told to eat a little book that was sweet as honey in his mouth and bitter in his belly (Revelation 10:9–10). The word is sweet to the one who receives it. Even when the message is hard.

God said the people had hard foreheads. So “As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead” (3:9). Then he sat with the captives for 7 days astonished (3:15). After that God made him a watchman.

A watchman stood on the wall and blew the trumpet when he saw the enemy coming. If he did not warn them their blood was on him. Every preacher is a watchman. We cannot make people listen. But we must warn them. Then God told Ezekiel he would be dumb. He could only speak when God gave him a word (3:26–27). And that lasted until the news came that Jerusalem fell (33:22).

Ezekiel 4–5: The Siege Acted Out

God told Ezekiel to draw Jerusalem on a clay tile and build a little siege around it. Like a child playing war (4:1–3). Then he had to lie on his left side 390 days for the sin of Israel. And on his right side 40 days for the sin of Judah. “I have appointed thee each day for a year” (4:6). He ate small rations of bread baked over dung (4:12). Ezekiel said he had never eaten anything unclean. So God let him use cow dung instead (4:14–15). The people of Jerusalem would eat unclean bread among the nations.

Then God told him to shave his head and beard with a sword. He divided the hair into 3 parts. One third he burned in the city. One third he struck with the sword. One third he scattered to the wind (5:1–2). That was what would happen to the people. A few hairs he tied in his skirt (5:3). A small remnant. “This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations” (5:5). Jerusalem was supposed to be a light to the nations. Instead she was worse than the nations (5:6).

Ezekiel 6–7: An End Is Come

Chapter 6 is against the mountains of Israel. That is where they built their high places for idols. God would scatter their bones around their altars (6:5). “And ye shall know that I am the LORD” (6:7). That is the phrase that runs through the book.⁴ Not just Israel. The nations too. Everything God does is so that people will know he is the LORD. There is no other.

Chapter 7 is short and sharp. “An end, the end is come upon the four corners of the land” (7:2). “They shall cast their silver in the streets … their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD” (7:19). Money will not save anyone in that day.

Ezekiel 8: Abominations in the Temple

A year later the elders of Judah were sitting in Ezekiel’s house (8:1). The hand of the Lord GOD fell on him. The spirit lifted him up by a lock of his hair and brought him in visions to Jerusalem (8:3). God gave him a tour of the temple. And it got worse with every room.

First an idol at the north gate. “The image of jealousy” (8:3). Then Ezekiel dug through a wall and found a hidden room. The walls were covered with pictures of creeping things and beasts and idols. And 70 elders of Israel were standing there with incense (8:10–11). “For they say, The LORD seeth us not; the LORD hath forsaken the earth” (8:12). They thought God could not see. Then women at the gate weeping for Tammuz (8:14). That was a Babylonian god. Then in the inner court about 25 men “with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun” (8:16). Their backs to God. In his own house.

Ezekiel 9: Set a Mark Upon the Foreheads

Then 6 men came with weapons. And one man was clothed in linen with a writer’s inkhorn. God told him “Go through the midst of the city … and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof” (v.4). The ones who grieved over sin were marked. And the others were killed. “And begin at my sanctuary” (v.6). Peter says “judgment must begin at the house of God” (1 Peter 4:17). And in Revelation God’s servants are sealed in their foreheads before the judgment (Revelation 7:3). The Hebrew word for mark is the name of the last letter of the alphabet. Taw. In the old Hebrew script it was written like an X.⁵ Many Christians have seen the sign of the cross in it.

Ezekiel 10: The Glory Departed From the Threshold

Now Ezekiel saw the same living creatures he saw by the river Chebar. “This is the living creature that I saw under the God of Israel by the river of Chebar; and I knew that they were the cherubims” (10:20). The cherubims were the ones carved over the ark of the covenant. Then the saddest thing in the book. “Then the glory of the LORD went up from the cherub, and stood over the threshold of the house” (10:4). And “the glory of the LORD departed from off the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubims” (10:18). The glory that filled the tabernacle in our Exodus study. The glory that filled Solomon’s temple in our 1 Kings study. It was leaving. Slowly. Step by step. Like someone who does not want to go. We saw in our 1 Samuel study that when the ark was taken the baby was named Ichabod. The glory is departed. Now it was really happening.

Ezekiel 11: A New Spirit Within You

The leaders in Jerusalem said “This city is the caldron, and we be the flesh” (11:3). They thought they were the good meat safe in the pot. And the captives were the scraps. God said no. He would judge them. And to the captives he said “yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come” (11:16). God himself would be their temple in Babylon. Then a promise.

A heart of stone cannot respond to God. God would take it out and put in a heart of flesh. We will see this again in chapter 36. Then “the glory of the LORD went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city” (11:23). The mountain on the east side of Jerusalem is the mount of Olives. Hold on to that. Some have noticed that this is the same mountain where Jesus wept over the city. Where he ascended. And where the angels said he would come again (Luke 19:37–41; Acts 1:11–12).⁶ The glory left by way of the mount of Olives. And the glory came back the same way in Jesus.

Ezekiel 12–13: He Shall Not See It

God told Ezekiel to pack his bags in the day where everyone could see. Then at night dig through the wall and carry his bags out with his face covered (12:3–7). It was a picture of the king of Jerusalem trying to escape. God said “I will bring him to Babylon to the land of the Chaldeans; yet shall he not see it, though he shall die there” (12:13). That is exactly what happened to Zedekiah. He was caught. They put out his eyes. And he died in Babylon without ever seeing it (2 Kings 25:7). The people said “The days are prolonged, and every vision faileth” (12:22). God said not anymore. “In your days, O rebellious house, will I say the word, and will perform it” (12:25).

Chapter 13 is against the false prophets. “Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there was no peace; and one built up a wall, and, lo, others daubed it with untempered morter” (13:10). The people built a weak wall. The false prophets painted it white so it looked strong. When the storm came it would fall. A pretty message does not hold up a weak life.

Ezekiel 14–15: Noah, Daniel and Job

Some elders came to ask Ezekiel for a word. God said “these men have set up their idols in their heart” (14:3). They wanted a word from God and an idol at the same time. Then God said the judgment was so sure that “Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness” (14:14). We saw this verse in our Job study. It shows Job was a real man. And Daniel was alive at the time. Already known for his righteousness in Babylon. Chapter 15 is about the vine. A vine is good for fruit. But the wood is good for nothing. You cannot even make a peg out of it (15:3). If it does not bear fruit it is only good for the fire. Jesus said the same thing. “If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch … and they are burned” (John 15:6).

Ezekiel 16: When Thou Wast in Thy Blood, Live

This is the longest chapter in the book. God tells the story of Jerusalem like a baby girl thrown into a field to die on the day she was born. No one washed her. No one cared (16:4–5).

God picked her up. He raised her. When she grew up he married her. “I spread my skirt over thee.” We saw that in our Ruth study. That is how a man took a wife under his protection. He washed her and dressed her in silk and gold. She became a queen (16:9–13). “But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot” (16:15). She gave everything God gave her to other lovers. She was worse than a harlot. A harlot gets paid. She paid them (16:33–34).

Then God said she was worse than her sisters Samaria and Sodom. “Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me” (16:49–50). Pride and plenty and laziness and no care for the poor. That led to the abomination. But then grace. “Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant” (16:60). That is the gospel. God found us in our blood. And said live.

Ezekiel 17: A Tender Twig on a High Mountain

A parable of two eagles and a cedar. The first eagle was Babylon. It took the top of the cedar to Babylon. That was Jehoiachin. Then it planted a vine. That was Zedekiah. But the vine turned toward another eagle. Egypt (17:3–7). Zedekiah broke his oath to Babylon. So he would die in Babylon (17:16). Then God said he would plant a cedar himself.

“I will also take of the highest branch of the high cedar … I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one, and will plant it upon an high mountain and eminent … and it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar: and under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing” (17:22–23). A tender twig from David’s line. Isaiah said “he shall grow up before him as a tender plant” (Isaiah 53:2). And Jesus said his kingdom is like a seed that grows into a tree and the birds lodge in its branches (Matthew 13:31–32). The Messiah.

Ezekiel 18–19: The Soul That Sinneth, It Shall Die

The people had a saying. “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge” (18:2). They were saying we are being punished for our fathers’ sins. It is not our fault. God said stop saying that. “Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die” (18:4). Every person answers for himself. A righteous son of a wicked father will live. A wicked son of a righteous father will die (18:5–20). And a wicked man who turns from his sin will live. None of his old sins will be held against him (18:21–22).

God does not want anyone to die. He wants them to turn and live. Peter says the Lord is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). Notice that here God tells them to make a new heart. In chapter 36 God says he will give them a new heart. Both are true. We must turn. And God does the changing. Chapter 19 is a funeral song for the princes of Judah. Lions caught in a net. A vine pulled up and burned.

Ezekiel 20: For My Name’s Sake

The elders came again to ask of the LORD. God said I will not be asked by you (20:3). Then he told them their whole history. In Egypt they rebelled. In the wilderness they rebelled. In the land they rebelled. And every time God held back. The text tells us why. “But I wrought for my name’s sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen” (20:9). He says it 4 times (20:9, 14, 22, 44). God did not save them because they deserved it. He saved them for his name. Then he would bring them out of the nations and “cause you to pass under the rod” (20:37). Like a shepherd counting sheep one by one as they pass under his staff.

Ezekiel 21: Until He Come Whose Right It Is

God drew his sword against Jerusalem. The king of Babylon stood at a fork in the road. He used divination to decide whether to attack Ammon or Jerusalem. The arrow pointed to Jerusalem (21:21–22). God was guiding even the pagan’s magic. Then God spoke to the wicked prince of Israel. That was Zedekiah.

The crown would be taken off David’s line. Overturn 3 times. And there would be no king “until he come whose right it is.” That sounds like Genesis 49:10. “Until Shiloh come.”⁷ We covered that in our Genesis study. Many believe Shiloh means the one to whom it belongs. After Zedekiah no son of David sat on a throne in Jerusalem. Not for 600 years. Until he came whose right it is. The angel told Mary “the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David” (Luke 1:32). I will give it him.

Ezekiel 22–23: I Sought for a Man

Chapter 22 lists the sins of Jerusalem. Blood. Idols. Oppression of the stranger and the widow and the orphan. The princes were like wolves. The prophets were like lions. The priests broke the law (22:25–28). Then this.

No one to stand in the gap. We saw the same thing in Isaiah. “He saw that there was no man … therefore his arm brought salvation unto him” (Isaiah 59:16). God looked for a man to stand in the gap and found none. So he became that man himself. “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5).

Chapter 23 is a story of two sisters. Aholah and Aholibah. Aholah is Samaria. Aholibah is Jerusalem (23:4). Both played the harlot with Egypt and Assyria and Babylon. The older one was destroyed. The younger saw it and was worse.

Ezekiel 24: The Desire of Thine Eyes

“In the ninth year, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month” (24:1). That was the day Babylon began the siege of Jerusalem (2 Kings 25:1). Ezekiel was 500 miles away. But God told him the exact day. Then the hardest sign of all. “Son of man, behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke: yet neither shalt thou mourn nor weep” (24:16). “So I spake unto the people in the morning: and at even my wife died” (24:18). He did not mourn in public. The people asked why. He said God is about to take away the desire of your eyes. The temple. Your sons and daughters. And you will be too stunned to mourn (24:21–23). The prophet paid a price for the message. And God said on the day the city falls a man who escaped will come and tell you. Then your mouth will be opened (24:26–27).

While Ezekiel waited for news of Jerusalem God gave him words for the nations around it. 7 nations. Ammon. Moab. Edom. Philistia. Tyre. Sidon. And Egypt. Just like Isaiah and Jeremiah. The God of Israel is the judge of all the earth.

Ezekiel 25–27: Tyre Like the Top of a Rock

Chapter 25 is short words against Ammon and Moab and Edom and the Philistines. They laughed when Jerusalem fell. “And they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall lay my vengeance upon them” (25:17). Then 3 chapters on Tyre. Tyre was the great trading city on the coast. Part of it was on an island. It said of Jerusalem “Aha, she is broken that was the gates of the people” (26:2). God said “I will cause many nations to come up against thee … I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock. It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea” (26:3–5). They would throw her stones and timber and dust into the water (26:12).

Nebuchadnezzar besieged Tyre for 13 years. Then about 250 years later Alexander the Great came. He could not reach the island. So he scraped up the rubble of the old city on the shore. And he threw it into the sea to build a road out to the island.⁸ The stones and timber and dust in the midst of the water. Just like Ezekiel said. Chapter 27 is a funeral song for Tyre pictured as a great ship that sinks with all its cargo.

Ezekiel 28: Thou Hast Been in Eden

“Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God” (28:2). The prince of Tyre thought he was a god. God said you are a man (28:2, 9). Then a lament for the king of Tyre.

This goes beyond a human king. In Eden. The anointed cherub. Perfect from the day he was created. Until iniquity was found in him. “Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty” (28:17). Just like Isaiah 14 many believe this also describes Satan who stood behind the king.⁹ We dealt with this in our Isaiah study. Pride brought him down. Then Sidon is judged and Israel is promised safety (28:20–26).

Ezekiel 29–32: Egypt the Basest of Kingdoms

4 chapters against Egypt. Pharaoh is “the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself” (29:3). He thought he made the Nile. God would put hooks in his jaws (29:4). Egypt had been a broken reed to Israel. Anyone who leaned on it got hurt (29:6–7). After judgment Egypt would come back. But only as “the basest of the kingdoms; neither shall it exalt itself any more above the nations” (29:15). Egypt was never a world power again. Chapter 31 compares Pharaoh to a great cedar in Assyria that was cut down. Chapter 32 is a lament. Pharaoh goes down to the pit. And there he finds Assyria and Elam and Edom and the rest. All the proud nations that went down before him (32:18–32).

Ezekiel 33: The City Is Smitten

Chapter 33 starts the third part of the book. God tells Ezekiel again that he is a watchman (33:2–9). Then this. “Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?” (33:11).

Then the news came. “In the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth month, in the fifth day of the month, that one that had escaped out of Jerusalem came unto me, saying, The city is smitten” (33:21). And Ezekiel’s mouth was opened (33:22). Now the people came to hear him. But God said “thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not” (33:32). They enjoyed the preaching. But they did not obey it. James says “be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only” (James 1:22).

Ezekiel 34: I Will Seek That Which Was Lost

“Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks?” (34:2). The kings and leaders used the people. They ate the fat and wore the wool. “The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick … neither have ye sought that which was lost” (34:4). So the sheep were scattered. Then God says he will do it himself.

I, even I. God himself would be the shepherd. He would seek the lost. Now listen to Jesus. “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:11). Jesus did exactly what the Lord GOD said he himself would do. Then God says this.

David had been dead almost 400 years. This is the son of David. The Messiah. Trinitarians will say we have two here. The Lord GOD and his servant David. Two persons. But notice. In verse 11 God says I myself will shepherd them. In verse 23 there will be one shepherd. Not two shepherds. One. So God is the shepherd. And David is the one shepherd. That is because the one God would come as the son of David. As God he says I, even I, will seek them. As the son of David he is the servant set up over them. Jesus said “there shall be one fold, and one shepherd” (John 10:16). And he said “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:14). One shepherd. The Lord GOD himself in the flesh of David’s son. God says “ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am your God” (34:31).

Ezekiel 35–36: I Will Sprinkle Clean Water Upon You

Chapter 35 is against mount Seir. That is Edom. They wanted to take the land of Israel when it was empty. God said no. Then chapter 36 speaks to the mountains of Israel. They would be planted again. The people would come home. But not because they deserved it. “I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name’s sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen” (36:22). Then the most important promise in the book.

There are three things we want to point out. First notice the water. “I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean.” Second notice the Spirit. “I will put my spirit within you.” Water and Spirit. Now listen to Jesus talking to Nicodemus. “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). Nicodemus did not understand. And Jesus said “Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?” (John 3:10). A teacher of Israel should have known. Because it was right here in Ezekiel 36.¹⁰ Water and Spirit. Cleansing and a new heart.

Third notice whose Spirit it is. “My spirit.” Not the spirit of another person. God’s own Spirit put within us. That is what happened on the day of Pentecost. Peter preached and the people asked what shall we do. He said “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:38). Clean water. And God’s own Spirit within. The new birth. And notice what the Spirit does. “Cause you to walk in my statutes.” The Spirit does not just make us feel good. He makes us able to obey. We believe this is the heart of the gospel. The law could not change the heart. God would come and live inside us.

“And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God” (36:28). The land that was desolate would become “like the garden of Eden” (36:35).

Ezekiel 37: Can These Bones Live

“The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones” (37:1). Very many. Very dry (37:2). “Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou knowest” (37:3). God told him to preach to the bones. “O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD” (37:4). There was a noise and a shaking. The bones came together. Sinews and flesh and skin covered them. “But there was no breath in them” (37:8).

Then God said “Prophesy unto the wind … Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live” (37:9). “And the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army” (37:10). The Hebrew word ruach is used for breath and wind and spirit in this chapter.¹¹ One word. The bones were the whole house of Israel. They said “Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost” (37:11). God said “I will open your graves … And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live” (37:12, 14).

The bones had a body but no life until the Spirit came. Just like Adam in Genesis 2:7. God formed him. Then he breathed into him. And he became a living soul. It is the same today. A church can have the form. The building. The music. The order. And have no breath. It takes the Spirit of God to make the dead live. After Jesus rose “he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost” (John 20:22). The one who breathed into Adam. The one who breathed on the dry bones. Breathed on his disciples. Jesus is the one God who gives the Spirit. Because it is his Spirit.

Then God told Ezekiel to take two sticks. One for Judah. One for Joseph. And join them into one stick in his hand (37:16–17). The divided kingdom would be one again. “And one king shall be king to them all” (37:22). “And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd” (37:24). One nation. One king. One shepherd. “My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (37:27). John says “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). The word dwelt means tabernacled.

Ezekiel 38–39: I Will Be Known in the Eyes of Many Nations

“Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal” (38:2). After Israel is back in the land and living safely a great army comes from the north parts with many nations (38:8, 15). “It shall be in the latter days” (38:16). And God himself fights them. Earthquake. Hail. Fire. Brimstone (38:19–22). “Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the LORD” (38:23).

It takes Israel 7 months to bury the dead (39:12). And 7 years to burn the weapons (39:9). There are many views on who Gog is and when this happens.¹² We will not go into all of them here. Revelation uses the names Gog and Magog for the nations Satan gathers at the end of the thousand years (Revelation 20:8). What we want you to see is the point of it. God wins. And the whole world knows that he is the LORD. And the chapter ends with this. “Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD” (39:29). The story ends where chapter 36 promised. God’s Spirit poured out.

Ezekiel 40–42: The Measuring Man

“In the five and twentieth year of our captivity … in the fourteenth year after that the city was smitten” (40:1). God took Ezekiel in visions to a very high mountain in Israel. A man whose appearance was like brass stood in the gate with a measuring reed (40:3). He measured everything. The walls. The gates. The courts. The rooms. Chapters 40 to 42 are full of measurements. The point is that everything is in order. Everything is holy. Everything fits.

There are different views on this temple.¹³ Some believe it will be a real temple built in the future. Some believe it is a picture of the church. Some believe it is a picture of God dwelling with his people forever in the new creation. We will not go into all of that here. Hebrews tells us Jesus offered one sacrifice for sins forever (Hebrews 10:12). And John saw no temple in the new Jerusalem “for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it” (Revelation 21:22). We believe the main thing Ezekiel wants us to see is in chapter 43.

Ezekiel 43–46: The Glory of the God of Israel Came From the East

The glory came back. From the east. The same way it left in chapter 11. Over the mount of Olives. And his voice was “like a noise of many waters.” John saw Jesus and said “his voice as the sound of many waters” (Revelation 1:15). Same voice. Same glory. Jesus came into Jerusalem from the mount of Olives riding on a colt. And the people cried “Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Luke 19:38). The glory that left had come back. In a man. “And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

Then God said “Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever” (43:7). The soles of his feet. God would walk among them. Then the east gate. “This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it; because the LORD, the God of Israel, hath entered in by it” (44:2). The LORD had come in. No one else could use his gate. Chapters 44 to 46 give laws for the priests and the prince and the offerings and the feasts.

Ezekiel 47: Waters to Swim In

Ezekiel saw water coming out from under the threshold of the house. Flowing east (47:1). The man measured 1000 cubits. The water was to his ankles. Another 1000. To his knees. Another 1000. To his loins. Another 1000. “A river that I could not pass over: for the waters were risen, waters to swim in” (47:3–5). It flowed down to the Dead Sea. And the dead sea came to life. “Every thing shall live whither the river cometh” (47:9). On both banks were trees with fruit every month. “And the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine” (47:12).

Jesus stood up at the feast and cried “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit …)” (John 7:38–39). And John saw “a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb” with the tree of life on both sides “and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations” (Revelation 22:1–2). We believe the river is a picture of the Spirit of God. It starts small. Ankle deep. And it keeps rising until you cannot touch the bottom. And everywhere it goes dead things live. Then the rest of chapter 47 and chapter 48 divide the land among the 12 tribes.

Ezekiel 48: The LORD Is There

The city has 12 gates. One for each tribe (48:31–34). Revelation says the new Jerusalem has 12 gates with the names of the 12 tribes (Revelation 21:12). Then the last verse of the book.

YHWH Shammah. The LORD is there. We saw this in our Jeremiah study. The book that started with the glory in Babylon and saw the glory leave Jerusalem ends with the glory living in the city forever. The LORD is there. That is the same promise as Immanuel. God with us. And in Revelation “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God” (Revelation 21:3).

Ezekiel does not argue for the oneness of God like Isaiah. He shows it. Before we finish we want to put it all together. There are three things we want to point out.

First everything God does is so that people will know he is the LORD. Judgment on Israel. Judgment on the nations. Bringing them home. Defeating Gog. More than 60 times. “And ye shall know that I am the LORD.” Not a group of divine persons. The LORD. He acts for his name’s sake (20:9; 36:22). And at the end the name of the city is The LORD is there (48:35).

Second the one on the throne looked like a man. Ezekiel saw one throne and the likeness as the appearance of a man upon it. And that was the glory of the LORD (1:26–28). He heard a voice of one that spake. That glory left the temple by the mount of Olives (11:23). And it came back from the east with a voice like many waters (43:2). John saw Jesus with a voice like many waters (Revelation 1:15). And on one throne in the new Jerusalem is “the throne of God and of the Lamb; and his servants shall serve him: And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads” (Revelation 22:3–4). One throne. Him. His face. His name. Not two. The glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Third the one God would come himself. He said I, even I, will search my sheep (34:11). And one shepherd would be set over them. David his servant (34:23). Not two shepherds. The one God as the son of David. He looked for a man to stand in the gap and found none (22:30). So he became the man. He said I will sprinkle clean water upon you and I will put my spirit within you (36:25–27). And Jesus said except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God (John 3:5). He breathed on the dry bones. And Jesus breathed on his disciples and said receive the Holy Ghost (John 20:22). The Father who owns us. The Son who shepherds us. The Holy Ghost who lives in us. One God. Revealed in Jesus Christ. “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9).

We have gone through Ezekiel chapter by chapter. Here is what we can conclude. First Ezekiel is about the glory of God. The heavens opened in Babylon. The glory was on a throne that could go anywhere. But the people filled God’s house with idols and turned their backs to him. And the glory left. Step by step. Until the city was destroyed. Sin drives away the presence of God.

Second Ezekiel is about knowing that he is the LORD. He did not save Israel because they were good. They were a baby thrown in a field. A wife who paid her lovers. A vine good for nothing. He saved them for his holy name’s sake. And every judgment and every rescue was so that Israel and the nations would know that he is the LORD. The soul that sins will die. But God has no pleasure in that death. Turn and live.

Third Ezekiel points to Jesus Christ. The likeness of a man on the throne. The tender twig planted on a high mountain. The one whose right it is to wear the crown. The man who stood in the gap. The one shepherd who seeks the lost. The one who sprinkles clean water and puts his own Spirit within us. Who breathes life into dry bones. And from whose house flows a river of living water. The glory left by the mount of Olives. And the glory came back in Jesus. The LORD is there.

While Ezekiel was preaching by the river Chebar another young man from Jerusalem was serving in the palace of the king of Babylon. He would see the Son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. That is where Daniel begins.