Mon.’s Devo - Ezekiel’s Mission

Read: Ezekiel 1:1-3:15; Hebrews 3:1-19; Psalm 104:1-23; Proverbs 26:24-26 Jeremiah prophesied thirty-four years before Ezekiel, and continued to do so for six or seven years after him. The call of Ezekiel followed the very next year after Jeremiah's predictions of all the evil that would come to Babylon. Ezekiel was divinely intended as a sequel to them. Daniel's predictions are mostly later than Ezekiel's but his wisdom had become famous in the early part of Ezekiel's ministry. Ezekiel and Daniel were a lot alike in the visions they saw. Ezekiel didn’t give a message against his enemies but for the people of Israel to turn to God. Ezekiel was a priest like his father Buzi and his name means “God will strengthen; God will prevail.” He opens with “the thirtieth year.” Thirty years from then Josiah had found a copy of the book of the Law in the Temple and restoration began in the land. From that time, the people were held accountable for their sins because they had the law on how they were supposed to live before God as his people. It could also mean that Ezekiel was born that year also. In Ezekiel’s first vision he sees a great storm coming from the north. From inside a huge cloud came four living beings that looked human except they each had four faces and four wings. They had legs but their feet had hooves of a calf. Under each of there wings were human hands. Each being had four faces and a set of wings for each face. The faces were of a man which faced forward, a lion which faced east, an ox which faced west, and an eagle which faced back. They moved in the direction of the spirit. Each face had a wheel assigned to it with another wheel inside that wheel in a criss-cross manner. They moved in the direction they faced as the spirit moved them. Above them was the crystal canopy of heaven. Above this surface sat a blue throne and on the throne sat the Almighty God in all his glory and splendor. He told Ezekiel to stand up because he had fell to the ground when he saw God. God told Ezekiel that he was sending him to the rebellious nation of Israel. It was not Ezekiel’s responsibility to get the to change but just to tell them God’s messages so they would know that there was a prophet among them. He gave Ezekiel a scroll and told him to eat it. It was filled with funeral songs, words of sorrow and pronouncements of doom. As he ate it, God told him it would fill him with the words he was to speak. He would make Ezekiel as hard headed as they were only his stubborn mind would be set on God and his word. He would be steadfast and unmoveable for God. Ezekiel had been sitting at the Kedar River with the exiles when God took him to heaven and now he was brought back. He was so overwhelmed by what he had seen that he was unable to speak for a week. In Hebrews, we see that Jesus was a type of Moses or vice versa. Mose was in charge of bringing God’s people out of bondage and into their promised land. Jesus’ assignment was the same. Moses brought them physically out of bondage into freedom but Jesus came to spiritually do the same thing. Moses was in charge of the house of Israel but Jesus is in charge of all of God’s house, Jewish and Gentile. We are part of God’s house if we keep our courage and remain confident in our hope in Christ. He warned them not to be rebellious like the people before them were. Their hearts were unbelieving and they turned from God to follow evil instead. Their unbelief caused them not to be able to enter into rest. Lord, may we have hearts that are soft and turn toward You. May we hear your voice and eat your Word and live it.