EZEKIEL PROFILE: “My personal awe and agony as a prophet called by God.”

My name is Ezekiel. I am the son of a priest but was called to be a prophet when I was thirty years old. This was five years after the exile of the king of Judah (southern kingdom of Israel), Jehoiachin. I was unable to fulfill my calling as a priest, as it was the custom of sons in a family of priests, as I was now in exile in Babylon, far from Jerusalem (capital of Judah);but God called me to serve as a prophet because He anointed me as such.

The first vision the Lord gave me to speak to those who were in exile with me, and who were from the upper classes of Judean society: they were a privileged group that in the past had not often heeded prophetic warnings. The Lord called them a ‘rebellious house’ and He told me not to be afraid of them. In this vision I saw God riding in His war chariots: it was very picturesque and full of the glory of God. I fell on my face and after that, the Lord told me to stand up and His Spirit entered me. This was an ominous vision for God would soon abandon Jerusalem. The ‘rebellious house’ who heard this message were hostile towards me and dismissed my words as ‘entertaining prattle.’(Read Ezekiel 1-2).

Throughout my ministry as a prophet I was committed to God and to His people. I had to put up with the disdain of the people who saw me as ‘strange’ amongst them. There were times when the Lord gave me visions where I lay motionless for long periods, as for example when the Lord commanded me to lay first on my left side for 390 days to represent the 390 years that He would lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it. Then He commanded me to lay on my right side for 40 days to represent the 40 years that the iniquity of the house of Judah would bear upon it. ( Read Ezekiel 4:4-7).

There were other times when I went mute and only spoke as the Lord wanted me to proclaim His words. For example, when the Lord made my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth so I was mute and couldn’t rebuke this people; when I was able to speak again the words that came out were started out as “This says the Lord God” ( Read Ezekiel 3: 26-27). There were other times when I had visionary transports, as in the case while I was sitting with the elders of Judah and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem. It was full of the glory of God.( Read Ezekiel 3: 12-17). And then there were the times when I had to engage in almost bizarre conduct according to the people I was ministering to. For example, when the Lord told me to bake barley cakes using fuel of human waste in their sight representing what the house of Judah would be eating, which was defiled bread among Gentiles . ( Read Ezekiel 4: 12-17).

All these things made this ‘rebellious house’ think of me as ‘psycho Ezekiel’. But God started to vindicate Himself and me through bringing about to pass His words spoken by me. They had hoped for a short time of exile and speedy return to their positions of wealth and privilege. But God showed them as He had spoken through me, that the exile would not be brief and Jerusalem would not be spared. In speaking the words of judgment, I experienced much awe and fear as I saw many glorious visions in the presence of God; I also experienced much agony and distress as when I had to lay down on my sides for 430 days; also when I went mute I was very scared.

Even the death of my wife represented the news reaching these rebellious house, that Jerusalem had been destroyed. It was a time of personal agony for me even though people thought I was so strange I did not even mourn her death. But I was sighing in silence.( Ezekiel 24:15-27). Towards the end of my ministry, I understood more clearly the heart of the Lord: there would come a return from exile, there would be a new covenant, a new heart and spirit for the restored community. The revival of the nation of Israel would be like the resurrection from the dead. ( Ezekiel 36-37).

In an application note, as with Ezekiel, we are called to minister the word of God’s kingdom to a society that rejects moral absolutes, thereby supposing to escape moral and spiritual responsibility. Ezekiel makes two assertion against this disposition: 1)we are responsible for our attitudes, 2) we are responsible for our sin. So whether the prophetic revelation is presented symbolically in visions, signs, parabolic actions, or in human speech Ezekiel claims for them the power and authority of the Holy Spirit.

NOTES
Jon Huntzinger, OLD Testament II, (TKU.edu : Van Nuys,CA, 2004)