EZEKIEL is one of the three prophets of the captivity period. Jeremiah was left to prophesy to the poor of God’s people in the land of Judea; Daniel was taken to Babylon, where he came into special contact with the Gentile powers, under whose dominion the Jewish people for the time were placed; whereas Ezekiel was “among the captives by the river of Chebar” in the land of the Chaldeans.
“In the thirtieth year” (chap. 1:1). This evidently marks an important era in the history of Israel. The people, led away by the iniquity of their kings, had filled even Jerusalem with idolatry, witchcraft, corruption, and violence (see 2 Kings 21-24.), and that to such an extent that Mount Zion, “beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth” (Ps. 48.), had become in God’s sight a “mount of corruption” (2 Kings 23:1313And the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had builded for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile. (2 Kings 23:13)). But Jehovah, ever faithful, had wrought a marvelous revival during the reign of Josiah. This youthful monarch had early turned his heart to do that which was right in the sight of the Lord, “for in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young” — he was only sixteen years of age — “he began to seek after the God of David his father” (2 Chron. 34:22And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of David his father, and declined neither to the right hand, nor to the left. (2 Chronicles 34:2)). His next step was, in the twelfth year of his reign, to begin “to purge Judah and Jerusalem” from their many idols.
Six years afterward, when this cleansing work was completed, he began “to repair the house of the Lord his God.” It was during this process that the book of the law of the Lord given by Moses was recovered from the rubbish. The reading of this book led the king to humble himself before the Lord; “It came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the law, that he rent his clothes” (2 Chron. 34:1919And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the law, that he rent his clothes. (2 Chronicles 34:19)). This was no vague and unintelligent confession of sin, but a direct and definite acknowledgment that “great is the wrath of the Lord that is poured out upon us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord, to do after all that is written in this book” (ver. 21). The evil is traced to its true source, and the hand of the Lord is owned with genuine sorrow and shame. Oh, for somewhat of this spirit amongst the people of God today who find themselves amidst far greater ruins, because the ruins of a better thing! For is not the Church of God, with its heavenly calling, better than the earthly kingdom? “God having provided some better thing for us” (Heb. 11:4040God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. (Hebrews 11:40)).
Josiah determines to shape his course according to those living oracles, and that in spite of the reiterated threatening’s of divine judgment, “Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the curses that are written in the book which they have read before the king of Judah” (ver. 24). Josiah might have reasoned that there was no use to try and walk acceptably in the sight of the Lord, that the day had gone by for faithfulness of that kind, that obedience to the law was impossible, or at any rate was useless, that the judgment must come, and that he could not prevent it. Even so does unbelief reason today. If the Church is in ruins, if apostasy is at hand, if God has Himself declared that things will wax worse and worse, what is the good of trying to conform our ways to the Word of God? This is the language of unbelief; but the path of individual faith is the path of individual obedience, and that no matter what the general state of things may be.
And see what was the mighty effect of one man’s energy of obedient faith! “Then the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. And the king went up into the house of the Lord, and all the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests, and the Levites, and all the people, great and small: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant that was found in the house of the Lord. And the king stood in his place, and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep His commandments, and His testimonies, and His statutes, with all his heart, and with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant which are written in this book. And he caused all that were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers. And Israel took away all the abominations (i.e. idols) out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel, and made all that were present in Israel to serve, even to serve the Lord their God. And all his days they departed not from following the Lord, the God of their fathers” (2 Chron. 34:29-3329Then the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. 30And the king went up into the house of the Lord, and all the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests, and the Levites, and all the people, great and small: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant that was found in the house of the Lord. 31And the king stood in his place, and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all his heart, and with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant which are written in this book. 32And he caused all that were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers. 33And Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel, and made all that were present in Israel to serve, even to serve the Lord their God. And all his days they departed not from following the Lord, the God of their fathers. (2 Chronicles 34:29‑33)).
Not only this, but “Josiah kept a Passover unto the Lord in Jerusalem.... And there was no Passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a Passover as Josiah kept, and the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel that were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem” (2 Chron. 35:1, 181Moreover Josiah kept a passover unto the Lord in Jerusalem: and they killed the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month. (2 Chronicles 35:1)
18And there was no passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a passover as Josiah kept, and the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel that were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. (2 Chronicles 35:18)).
No wonder, then, that this epoch of revival and blessing should have been marked in the history of Israel. Ezekiel’s prophecy takes its start in the thirtieth year from that very period.
But sorrowful is it to have to add that “the thirtieth year” was also “the fifth year of king Jehoiachin’s captivity.” The judgments threatened in the law of Moses, and repeated through the lips of Huldah, the prophetess, in the days of Josiah, had now begun to fall, and yet the Lord did not leave Himself without witness even in the land of Chaldea. “The heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God,” says the captive, by the river Chebar.
Prophecy always marks a time of declension amongst the people of God. It speaks both of judgment and of mercy — judgment because of sin and failure on the part of man, mercy because of God’s faithfulness to His word and promise. If there were no departure from God on the part of His people, there would be no need for the warnings of impending judgment on the one hand, nor on the other for promises of final blessing and restoration at a future if far-distant day.
Ezekiel appears to have been carried captive from Judaea to Chaldea in one of the earlier deportations of the people, probably at the time of Jehoiachin’s captivity. The recovery during the reign of Josiah proved but temporary, and of each king that followed it is recorded that he did “that which was evil in the sight of the Lord.” Judgment, God’s strange work, then begins to fall, not all at once in its completeness, but slowly and by degrees. Jehoiachin is carried captive, but the king of Babylon places Zedekiah on the throne of Jerusalem. “The mighty of the land” (2 Kings 24:1515And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon, and the king's mother, and the king's wives, and his officers, and the mighty of the land, those carried he into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon. (2 Kings 24:15)), amongst whom must be placed the prophet of Chebar, were carried away, and only “the poorest sort of the people of the land” had been left behind in Judea; and did they repent of their sin? Time had been given for this, but without avail. The judgment fallen upon Jehoiachin had no deterring influence with Zedekiah; the tears and entreaties with which Jeremiah bore testimony to him and the people left in the land were unheeded, for “neither he, nor his servants, nor the people of the land, did hearken unto the words of the Lord, which He spake by the prophet Jeremiah” (Jer. 37:22But neither he, nor his servants, nor the people of the land, did hearken unto the words of the Lord, which he spake by the prophet Jeremiah. (Jeremiah 37:2)). Yes, they were God’s words in the prophet’s mouth; it was God speaking through human lips.
But the iniquity of the people had increased until there was no remedy, for not only the king, but now even “all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the Lord which He had hallowed in Jerusalem. And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by His messengers, rising up be-times, and sending; because He had compassion on His people, and on His dwelling-place: but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words, and misused His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy. Therefore He brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man or him that stooped for age: He gave them all into his hand. And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes; all these he brought to Babylon. And they burnt the house of God, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof. And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia: to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah,” &c. (2 Chron. 36:14-2114Moreover all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the Lord which he had hallowed in Jerusalem. 15And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place: 16But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy. 17Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into his hand. 18And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes; all these he brought to Babylon. 19And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof. 20And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia: 21To fulfil the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years. (2 Chronicles 36:14‑21)).
The judgment here depicted had not been executed in its entirety when the “visions of God” began to unroll themselves before the eyes of Ezekiel; but these were the immediate circumstances which gave rise to the remarkable predictions that follow, which stretched far away beyond the prophet’s time, to a period yet future, though possibly now very near at hand, when judgment shall have done its work not only upon the Jewish people, but upon the Gentile nations as well. Then will God work in restoring grace for Israel’s restoration and blessing in their own land; then will the glory of the God of Israel once more return to His land and temple, and the earth shall shine with His glory (Ezek. 43:22And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east: and his voice was like a noise of many waters: and the earth shined with his glory. (Ezekiel 43:2)). The Lo-ammi (not My people) of Israel’s present desolation, will then be exchanged for the Jehovah-Shammah (the Lord is there) of millennial beauty (48:35).
Then will be fulfilled the Psalmist’s joyous and glorious words: “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of His holiness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the Great King” (Ps. 48:1, 2).