When we read the words of the Old Historical Covenant's Prophets we must study them in their correct context as it relates to the timeline of the people, as well as seeing how the Prophet's words from Alahim transition into Yahusha’s New Covenant. So it's very important with Ezekiel that we understand what Yahuah was doing with the people of Israel in the Scriptures, because in Genesis 12 we have His ultimate plan for blessing the whole world through an unconditional `Old' Covenant made with Abraham. Very simply, Alahim said that He will choose one man, create a Nation and through them, bless the world. This is extremely important for the book of Ezekiel because we must understand that the purpose of Israel was not 'themselves' but to be a blessing to the world (which they failed miserable at every turn).
Just prior to raising up the Old Covenant again on Sinai we have a significant statement regarding the Covenant (when given to Abraham). Yahuah says He's going to create a Nation, and there's at least three basic essentials for a Nation to exist:
1) People …
2) A Homeland …
3) A form of Government that
holds the people together.
So we can see after the exodus from Egypt that this plan was coming together quite nicely. In Exodus.19 Alahim tells Israel that if you obey Me fully and keep My Covenant, then out of all the Nations you will be My most treasured possession. Israel was very significant to Yahuah because of the purpose to which He called them (to bless the world). Then He says that although the whole earth is Mine, you will be to Me a Kingdom of Priests and a holy/set-apart Nation.
So in Israel every individual was to be a Priest - He's not talking about the Levitical Priesthood at this point - NO… the people are to be Priests (especially all the firstborns) and as Priests the very basic, simple function was to represent Yahuah to people and connect people to Yahuah! That's always been the role of a Priest - it's a two-way street - they are to be a witness, they are to be the channel through which Alahim is reaching the world and the channel through which the people can come close to Alahim and each person was to be a Priest. But in order to represent Alahim correctly they must be a clean/holy/set-apart Nation because otherwise they will represent Yahuah falsely, because Alahim is righteous and anyone representing Him must also be cleansed and righteous in order to carry out the mandate of the Priesthood.
That's going to be significant when we come to Ezekiel because of the issue of the righteousness (or the lack of it) of the Nation at the time of Ezekiel. Are they being Priests to bless the world for Yahuah or are they not? Of course we know in 1 Peter 2:9 (speaking to Yahusha’s Assembly) … “You are a chosen people, a Royal Priesthood, a set-apart Nation, a people belonging to Alahim that you may declare His praises, the Praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light".
So we see that even today, the Bride has exactly the same purpose that Israel was given … it hasn't changed … we are to be Priests to represent Alahim to the world and bring the world to Alahim and the only way we can do it is by being righteous and set-apart … through a process required to transform with new, cleansed behaviour!
Ezekiel is going to tell us over and over and over again (more than 65 times) in the book when he announces judgment, it is so that "YOU WILL KNOW THAT I AM ALAHIM". So we cannot just jump in without understanding that the Old Covenant given to Moses instructed the people of Israel how to live a righteous life. It was not a burden for them and there was nothing wrong with the Word or the One Who gave it … the problem was the Nation. We're going to see in Ezekiel, Israel rebel against the authority of Alahim, His Word and even Alahim Himself and that's what Israel will do with respect to any Covenant that shows them how to live righteous and set-apart before the Nations. But (as Moses says in the book of Deut) these things are written for your own wellbeing, as well as for the glory of Alahim. It's for their own blessing and lifestyle.
Israel's history is marked by disobedience to the `Old' Covenant given to Moses. After the death of Solomon, Israel spit in two (Israel up north and Judah down south) and these two Nations continually became more corrupt in a sense of forgetting their constitution, for the writings warned them (at that point) that if they strayed from the Covenant that there would be discipline through dispersion out of the land, because you see the land is the place of blessing. Alahim brought them there and this is one of the blessings that comes through the Old Covenant given to Abraham and being fulfilled through the Covenant given to Moses. But when Israel is disobedient, He kicks them out of the land and judgment strikes … a discipline so the people will finally realise they need to return to Alahim.
That's the whole purpose of judgment … to have people return to Him, and if they still don’t (which they didn’t) they have to experience all the consequence of Alahim's Wrath. That purpose is continually stated over and over again, more so in the Book of Ezekiel than any other book … for it is predominantly a book of Israel’s judgment.
Now let’s look at the political climate surrounding the words that Ezekiel pens. After the fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 BC (they were taken off to Assyrian captivity, never to return but scattered into all the world)…at that point in the Southern Kingdom of Judah is where we see the rise of Hezekiah the King of Judah and Isaiah the Prophet and Mikah the Prophet who encouraged him and who helped to bring about the restoration that took place at the time of Isaiah. This was a wonderful time and Isaiah learned from the collapse of Northern Israel and as a result fought for righteousness again and made changes in the Nation of Judah under King Hezekiah.
Unfortunately Hezekiah's son Manasseh didn't follow his father's ways nor did Manasseh's son Amon, and for 55+ years we have the most degradation in the Nation of Judah that they've ever known. He led the people in all sorts of idolatry, pagan rituals, worship of the sun, moon and stars, child-sacrifice and these Kings led the people in great abominations and corruption until a young King Josiah
brought hope and a great restoration … but it was too late for his revival of obedience to the Covenant was simply superficial, and as Jeremiah says in chapter 3, the people did not change inwardly but merely 'outward-conforming' and the stain of the sin that the wicked Kings had instituted had penetrated the people.
Now there was an international power struggle going on at this time. Assyria had been the dominant power for more than 250 years (as we come down to the time of Josiah) and as Babylon was on the rise, Assyria was on the decline. So there was a political struggle going on and in 612 BC the Babylonians defeated the Assyrians at Asher and the Ninevah and the Assyrians retreated to Haran and were pursued by the Babylonians.
In 609 BC Pharaoh Necho comes from Egypt to join the Assyrians against the Babylonians and King Josiah tried to stop Necho at Megiddo and he (Josiah) was killed. Necho joined the Assyrians and at Haran in 609 BC they (Assyria & Egypt) were defeated by the Babylonians, fleeing across the Euphrates River to Carchemish, while Nebuchadnezzar (whose father had just died) returns to Babylon to assume the Throne in 605 BC and in that same year at the Battle of Carchemish, Assyria and Egypt were soundly defeated by one of the most strategic battles in ancient history, because from that point on neither Assyria nor Egypt have ever again been a significant global power, even to this day!
So at that point in 605 BC Nebuchadnezzar (having won that battle) preceded down the coast and came to Jerusalem, where he seized and took many of the leaders captive in what we now know as the FIRST DEPORTATION of the captivity to Babylon (the Judgment that Alahim was going to bring upon them). And in that deportation in 605 BC a very well-known man of Scripture (Daniel) was taken into captivity. And what Yahuah does with His His three major Prophets (at this point) is very interesting:
1) Daniel (in the first deportation) will be taken (with the leadership) to Babylon …
2) Ezekiel (in the second deportation) is taken with the people in to Abib (Iraq) … and
3) Jeremiah stayed home, remaining in Palestine.
So Alahim (at the same time) had three different key people in three different locations, one with the leadership, one with the people and one back in the homeland, and each of their jobs is very different, and they all cried when they heard their commissions in having to confront and deal with Israel’s disobedience.
Necho the Pharaoh of Egypt (having killed Josiah) had placed Jehoiahaz on the Throne (for he was pro-Babylon) ... but later (when Babylon entered in) they invaded the Jews and Jehoiakim was placed on the Throne ... however when Nebuchadnezzar comes back, King Jehoiakim is (at this point) a greedy (despising of Moses` Covenant) King who quickly revolts against Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar had left him there initially but he’s wooed by the Egyptians, and this is significant for Ezekiel because what's going to happen here is we now have ONE DEPORTATION where people have been taken to Babylon but we still have people in Jerusalem, so all the deportations have not yet taken place. Jerusalem is still standing and there's this thinking: "Is this really going to happen? Are we really going to be taken captive as a Nation? Some of us are gone?! But who cares, that’s not us!" In fact Ezekiel is going to tell us that the Jews who stayed back home (after the first wave) got arrogant, thinking the first wave of deports were being punished and that’s why they got taken away, and that they were the good guys getting to stay back here in Jerusalem.
So we have a situation here where there’s some people in Babylon, some still in Jerusalem and there's a tension between Egypt and Babylon and the people think that Egypt is their hope. After all Babylon is creating so many problems, so let's go back to Egypt and form alliances (something Yahuah commanded Israel never to do). So with Egypt we're going to think that the Pharaohs will rise up and they will put off Babylon. So King Jehoiakim says they’re gonna join up with Egypt, so with that, King Nebuchadnezzar comes and fights against Egypt in 601 BC right down in the Egyptian border and that battle was a stalemate.
So Nebuchadnezzar went back and reorganised his Army. Nebuchadnezzar (as we see in Daniel) is a very determined, high-powered, intensive type of man, and he came back and he did not like what had happened in that situation, so he re-organised and in 598 BC he once again made an attack and in that attack we had Judah (who had revolted against him) and he did not like revolts and so Jehoiakim dies, and his son Jehoiachin succeeds him, only to surrender Jerusalem 3 months later, where A SECOND DEPORTATION took place in 597 BC.
This is a very important date for Ezekiel (don't forget 597) because the whole chronology of Ezekiel is based off the date of Jehoiachin’s Exile in 597 BC because this was the deportation where EZEKIEL HIMSELF WAS TAKEN TO BABYLON. Daniel had gone in 605 (the first deportation), Ezekiel goes 8 years later in 597 (the second deportation) and this is the place where the work of Ezekiel takes place right in this context of Israel degrading and violating the Old Covenant, judgment that's coming and the discipline of the Babylonian captivity which has now begun in its second phase.
REMEMBER at this stage of our historic timeline - JERUSALEM AND THE TEMPLE STILL EXIST ... Yes they still exist, for they're not going to collapse until 11 years later in 586 BC ... so for more than half of Ezekiel's visions and prophesies, the Temple is still standing and Jerusalem is still doing business as usual !!
In Jerusalem (right after the 2nd Deportation), Zedekiah (who is not officially in the in the legal Royal Line) is placed as a regent (not official king) because King Jehoiachin is still alive in Babylon, so Zedekiah (one of Josiah’s sons) is placed upon the Throne as a regent by Babylon and he also gets encouraged by false prophets, which is another issue that's very strategic as we're looking at Ezekiel.
False prophets are all around and what we're going to see in the tension here is all the false prophets say that ultimately those in captivity are going to come home, Egypt is going to rise up and defeat Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar, and we will all be able to come home and live happily ever after. But as Alahim will say through Ezekiel to the people, they have visions and they hear and they speak but He has not yet spoken, so they're speaking out of their arse (so to speak) from their own imaginations, their own ideas and (as we see) there's a whole lot of that that going on today ... big time!!
THE ARROGANCE OF THE JEWS (BOTH STILL IN THE LAND AS WELL AS THOSE ALREADY DISPERSED) NEVER BELIEVED THAT THEIR SHINING PINNACLE OF LIGHT (SOLOMON'S TEMPLE - WHO THE NATIONS, INCLUDING KINGS & QUEENS CAME FROM FAR AND WIDE TO EXPERIENCE) ... THEY NEVER BELIEVED IT WOULD EVER FALL OR NEVER BE THERE FOR THEM TO PRAY AND LOOK TO AND KNOW THAT THEY WERE THE CHOSEN PEOPLE OF ALAHIM ... IT WAS HOUSE OF THEIR COVENANT ARK AND THE DIVINE FIRE (A HUGE PART OF THEIR NATIONAL STATUS AND CHOSEN PRIDE EVER SINCE SINAI) ... !!
So these false prophets are telling the people that judgment won’t continue and Pharaoh is going to grow strong, so Zedekiah revolts against Nebuchadnezzar and (as we’ve seen) Nebuchadnezzar doesn't like revolts, so he comes quickly in 588 BC and begins the Siege of Jerusalem, that fell in 586. Zedekiah will be captured, he'll be blinded, but before he's blinded his sons will be killed right before his eyes and he is taken to Babylon in the last THIRD DEPORTATION, and all this happens during the time Ezekiel is seeing visions from Yahuah in Babylon. This is the immediate historical context of Ezekiel from the SECOND to the THIRD DEPORTATION.
Ezekiel is going to begin his work for Yahuah in 593 BC and the last message is dated in 571, which is a 22-year period recorded in the Book of Ezekiel. This book is one of the most chronologically dated books that we have in the Scripture. 13 actual dates are listed going right through, so we know exactly where these things are happening at each moment.
So as all these events are taking place, Ezekiel is speaking to them in real time as they come along (as Yahuah works through him), and it's so exciting to watch. So he ministers to the Jews in this context of international turmoil, of unrest, of the immorality and the apostasy of Judah and the execution of the discipline that Alahim announces He will bring upon them.
Ezekiel is a Priest (30) and also a Prophet who (though in Babylon) is supernaturally transported (through visions) to Jerusalem to both see and prophesy several major events. His service is predominantly to the exiled Judeans in Babylon (those that were already there from the first and second deportations) …so those are the intended audience of Ezekiel's message.
A BOY BORN IN THE PRIESTLY LINE WOULD TRAIN IN THE TEMPLE SYSTEM AND BE GROOMED AND TRAINED IN ALL THE PRIESTLY WAYS UNTIL HE TURNED 30 ... THEN HE WOULD BE ANOINTED AND SERVE AS AN OFFICIAL PRIEST OF YAHUAH. AS A GENERAL LAW, PRIESTS HAD TO BE 30 YEARS OLD. REMEMBER, YAHUSHA ALSO FOLLOWED AND FULFILLED THIS SHADOW-PATTERN IN HIS LIFE TOO - IMMERSED AT 30 YEARS OLD!
You can see half of the book has taken place before the collapse of Jerusalem even happens (in 586) … which is the focal point of Ezekiel’s writing - the destruction of Jerusalem, what happens before and what happens after. He is continually reminding the Jews why the judgment is coming and what will happen and he says it over and over again (in as many different ways as you can).
One of the greatest behavioural lessons in Ezekiel will be concerning the nature of Alahim and how he manifests Himself, how He relates to his Old Covenant, how perfect, holy, righteous and powerful He truly is. This is one of the greatest stresses reflected in the Covenant given to Moses on Sinai and it is the basis for His discipline, judgment, divorce and expulsion of Israel and the basis for His restoration of them if they would return to Him (but they never would, instead kept adapting and worshiping as they pleased, pretending they still had Alahim's presence and their marriage status) ... But Ezekiel repeats more than 65 times that the purpose of Yahuah’s discipline is that Israel might know experientially that He is Alahim - not pretend to know or mentally know .... but experience the fire once more!
Jumping back to today ... Yahusha Alahim wants us to know Who He is, where He is, what He did, how He punished and divorced His first wife Israel, removed His presence from the Temple, left His Throne and transformed Himself into flesh for deliverance - to make His people NEW TEMPLES possessing a New Heart and Spirit with Royal Laws of Love written on them ... a real transformation of behaviour ... and He wants us to know Him, not merely intellectually through the text but intimately and experientially in love. All these abstract truths are shadowed forth in this exciting Book of Ezekiel ... waiting for us to dive in ... SO LET'S GO !!
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