May 28, 2014 (Wednesday)
Ezekiel was a priest who was called by God to deliver His messages. Before the fall of Jerusalem, during his early exile with 10,000 others in Babylon he announced judgment upon Judah, giving them an opportunity to repent. He foretold that God would deliver his people and return them to their home country.
As literature, the book of Ezekiel is quite unusual, including history, predictions of future events, apocalyptic sections, spectacular visions, dramatic object lessons and parables. When God calls Ezekiel in chapters 1-3, he tells him, “I am sending you to a people who have rebelled against me; they and their fathers..”(2:3). In Babylon, Ezekiel told the people they were suffering because of their sins (Chapters 4-24). Other nations would also be punished (Chapters 25-32). Chapters 33-48 are a message of deliverance, reaching far into the future to include the coming Messiah, the Temple and the end of the age. God will resuscitate the dead, dried bones of their nation, causing them to live again (Chapter 37).
Ezekiel – Devotional thoughts
A national symbol on our currency shows an eagle with arrows in one talon and an olive branch in the other, promising war or peace–your choice. In a way, this sort of illustrates God’s message through Ezekiel of judgment upon Judah for its sin, yet a message of comfort and consolation after the punishment ends.
This message of judgment and consolation is reflected in the New Testament: “..the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son” (Hebrews 12:6 NIV).
Ezekiel includes some messages difficult to understand. When Billy Graham was beginning his ministry, he prayed and told the Lord that he accepted as the word of God those portions of the Bible he did not understand. His sermons always included the phrase, repeated often, “The Bible says..” We may not understand some of what the book of Ezekiel says, but we can accept it by faith and thereby discover spiritual strength.
