The OT calls to divine
service
· Two forms: The
protested call and the overwhelming call. Ezekiel is the latter, which has the
following typical features:
o
The
person being called receives a vision of Yahweh in all his splendour and majesty.
o
The
person demonstrates an overwhelmed response to the vision.
o
The
person is reassured, prepared and equipped by Yahweh to fulfil his/her
prophetic responsibilities.
o
The
person receives a special commission from Yahweh.
· However, we don’t need
to draw these distinctions too sharply. Numerous features of the narrative
suggest that Ezekiel was not a willing prophet, at least in the beginning.[1]
· Other general
observations:
o
The
divine confrontation occurred when the person was engaged in normal activities
of life.
o
Dialogue
between Yahweh and his prophet.
o
Private
affair: the decision to call a person was made by Yahweh alone.
o
The
function of the prophet was mediatorial: the call did not come for the prophet’s
own sake, but that a divine message might be communicated to a third party. Those
who use their prophetic office for personal advantage were characterised as
false prophets.
o
When
the prophets went forth, they went with a divine message and with divine
authority.[2]
1:1-3 (superscription)
Exegesis:
· It is important to open
the series with chapter 1 because 1:1-3 orientates us the prophet’s time and space
as well as who the prophet is.[3]
· We see that Ezekiel’s
name means “God strengthens”, which expresses the faith of his parents at the
time of his birth.
· We can see that he was
a priest as he was the son of a priest.[4]
· Wide debate on what the
“thirtieth year” means. On the basis of other dates in Ezekiel, some have seen
as “thirtieth year” as the “thirtieth year of King Jehoiachin’s exile.” Others
see it as the year in the reign of a specific king. Or even the thirtieth year
of the prophet’s life as this is the age where people are expected to enter
priestly service.[5]
· He was among the exiles[6] and addressing
the people of Judah facing the collapse of their nation in 598-586 BC.[7]
· The use of first person
in 33:21 and 40:1 suggests that he was among the eight thousand soldiers,
crafts people and nobility who had been sent into exile along with the king
(2Kings 24:14-16). They were the victims of a common ANE policy toward conquered
peoples: the mass deportation of entire populations designed to break down
national resistance at home by removing political and spiritual leadership, and
to bolster the economy and military machine of the conqueror’s homeland.[8]
· The use of the first
person in v1 gives this prophecy an autobiographical quality[9], and
v2-3, which is in third person, could be an insertion by a later editor of
Ezekiel’s prophecies.[10]
· “The River Chebar”
probably refers to a canal, located in the region of Nippur. Absolute
identification of the location is not possible.[11],[12]
· The superscription ends
with the divine coercion formula, an announcement of the hand of Yahweh coming
upon the prophet. The idiom highlights the physical aspect of Ezekiel’s call.
In this prophet’s ministry Yahweh’s “hand” exercises complete control over his
movements, even transporting him back and forth to distant places. Ezekiel is a
man possessed.[13]
Bridging:
· In exile, life cannot
be “business as usual.” How can there be joy when the memory is still filled
with the demolition of all that is precious?[14]
· Judah’s calamity is a consequence
of her own sin (Lam. 3:42; 4:13). Paradoxically, in the midst of that recognition
is also the beginning of hope. Only after the cup of wrath had been drained would
a new future be possible for Israel.
· Along weeping, there
was also room for dreaming. Psalm 126:1, “When the Lord brought back the
captives to Zion, we were like men who dreamed.”[15]
· Weeping and dreaming is
Ezekiel’s task. He speaks of judgment and destruction.
· The fall of Jerusalem
and its temple were no mere accidents of fate but were the result of the people’s
sin. The opening portion of the book emphasises on tearing down.
· Ezekiel was also called
to portray a message of hope for the future. In the midst of death comes God’s
creative word of life. God speaks to these people where they are, in exile!
Modern day:
· We don’t tend to think
of ourselves as exiles, but the biblical image of life in exile has actually
never been more timely than it is today.
· We are living in a time
in which people are experiencing a growing sense of alienation from the world
around them. Fewer and fewer people find themselves “at home” where they live.
· In our generation,
millions across the globe have been forced to flee their homes due to
persecution and war. There is also economic migration in search of job
opportunities.
· Even in relatively safe
and affluent communities, people still experience the pressing question of “where
do I belong?” What address can we give that describes where our hearts are?
· For many, home is not
where we live.
· The comfortable veneer
of life is easily scraped away, when there is the loss of a job, loss of a loved
one, etc.[16]
· The universality of the
sense of exile: almost all of us in the modern world know what it is to live
with battered souls and shattered dreams.
· In those times of
personal tragedy and uprootedness, our first response is to mourn and weep, and
rightly so. We turn to the psalms of lament for that. But we are not to weep
forever. There comes a time when we need to move on and hear the challenge of
God’s Word as well as its comfort.[17]
· Living in exile is not
simply a matter of gritting our teeth and accepting that life stinks. As
exiles, we are not homeless and hopeless. We do have a home, it is just not
here.
· Though we cannot go
home yet and feel the pain of not being home, we can still dream of home. As citizens
of heaven, our lives should be filled with tokens of our own true home.
· Why read the
Scriptures? Because they speak to us of home. Why do we live differently from
those around us? Because we remember that we are soon going home (1Peter
4:1-7).
· Being with God, even
through pain, is by far better than to be comfortable but without him (Hebrews
11:1-2, 13-16).[18]
· We do not simply just
dream though.
· We belong to a community
of faith.
· Whereas God spoke to
the exiles through the prophet in the past, now God speaks and reveals himself
to us by his Son, Jesus (Hebrews 1:1-2). By faith, we see Jesus, crowned with
glory and honour, and believe that our present suffering is part of God’s
perfect plan to mold us into the image of the one who suffered first for us
(Hebrews 2:9-10).[19]
[1]
Daniel I.Block, The Book of Ezekiel
Chapters 1-24(Grand Rapids: William B Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1997), 78.
[2]
Block, The Book of Ezekiel Chapters 1-24,
79.
[3]
Iain M. Duguid, Ezekiel: The NIV Application Commentary (Grand
Rapids: Zondervan, 1999), 45.
[4]
Daniel I.Block, The Book of Ezekiel
Chapters 1-24(Grand Rapids: William B Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1997), 9.
[6]
Block, The Book of Ezekiel Chapters 1-24,
83.
[7]
Block, The Book of Ezekiel Chapters 1-24,
77.
[8]
Block, The Book of Ezekiel Chapters 1-24,
87.
[9]
Block, The Book of Ezekiel Chapters 1-24,
80.
[10]
Block, The Book of Ezekiel Chapters 1-24,
82.
[11]
Joyce, Ezekiel: A Commentary, 66. Cf. Ps 137:1 “By the rivers of Babylon,
there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion.”
[12]
Block, The Book of Ezekiel Chapters 1-24,
84. It is unclear whether “by the Chebar Canal” means that Ezekiel was
personally beside the waterway at the time of the vision, or if the expression
serves simply as a general designation for the region where the Judean exiles
were settled.
[13]
Block, The Book of Ezekiel Chapters 1-24,
89.
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