This may well have been Ezekiel’s first public utterance since the messenger came with the news that Jerusalem had fallen (ch 33:21). The prophet makes clear that behind the waywardness of God’s people lay a failure of leadership, here expressed by the shepherd metaphor.
Read More leadership, discipleship, shepherdNews of the fall of Jerusalem has just arrived. The people blurt out, “Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone” (v 11 NIV). The Lord responds by giving Ezekiel a graphic vision – the third recorded in his book (see also chs 1-3; 8-11).
Up to chapter 33, Ezekiel’s oracles were heavy with warnings of judgment.
Read More prophecy, life, judgment, prayer, hopeOnce again Ezekiel performs a piece of street theatre (vv 15-17; compare 4:1-5; 5:1-4; 12:1-7). In chapter 4 Ezekiel played toy soldiers; here he becomes a signwriter. Each stick may have been a wooden board coated with beeswax – a common medium for writing formal messages in the ancient Near East.
Read More Unity, street theatreThe return of the glory of God to the Temple is, perhaps, the most dramatic scene in the book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel’s vision mirrors in reverse his earlier revelation of God abandoning the temple (chs 8-11). Although the Jerusalem Temple continued to function for six years after Ezekiel’s earlier vision, the glory of God’s presence was absent.
Read More glory, God’s presence, climax, fellowship with GodThe image of a river is one of those archetypal metaphors in the world’s literature, ancient and modern. It appears in one of Jesus’ best known sayings, “Whoever believes in me … rivers of living water will flow from within them” (John 7:38). In the Psalms, the people of God worshiping together are likened to a flowing river.
Read More worship, feast, abundance, river