Ezekiel, the Prophet-in-Exile
Ezekiel was a contemporary of Daniel, living in Babylon, but under totally different circumstances. Whilst Daniel was trained as a Civil Servant and lived a well-provided for life at the centre of Babylonian society, Ezekiel was sent by God to live among the Jewish workforce and experience their hardship. His role was to be God’s messenger, calling people to repentance and explaining their predicament in terms of God’s purposes.
So we have Jeremiah speaking out God’s word back in Jerusalem, Ezekiel doing the same in Babylon, and Daniel also living in Babylon, entrusted with bringing God’s messages to the rulers of the Empire.
Each of them comes to understand God’s purposes in the light of exile and the eventual destruction of Jerusalem. It is a key time in the history of God’s people as they learn to wait for a Saviour-Messiah.
The call to be God’s prophet.
3 v 4. Then he said, “Son of man, go to the people of Israel and give them my messages.
The first two verses of chapter 1 set the scene; Ezekiel was a priest who had been carried off with many others to slavery in Babylon. The King had embarked on a huge building programme (Perhaps even the first stages of the fabled Hanging Gardens of Babylon) and Jewish slave labour was part of the workforce. At this point in their history many of the Jews would have regarded Jehovah as the God of Israel and connected with the actual land of Israel. They only slowly came to realise that He was the Universal ruler and would be as much with them in their exile as He was with them back in Jerusalem. The main issue seemed to be that the local ’prophets’ kept telling the people that they would get back to Jerusalem very soon whereas Jeremiah (and Daniel!) had a message that said they were in exile for the long haul – 70 years. That was an unpopular and apparently unpatriotic message and God warned Ezekiel ‘But they won’t listen, for they are completely rebellious! ‘ (v 7) Right from the outset Ezekiel was told he would be largely ignored, and the people would prove very hostile – not an easy assignment for any servant of God! But if all this sounds discouraging for Ezekiel just wait for tomorrow’s reading – life was going to get even harder for him.
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