Today’s passage: Ezekiel 8

Helpful thoughts:

• Prior to Babylon’s defeat of Jerusalem, the elders of Judah come to the prophet Ezekiel for wisdom.  Instead, God shows Ezekiel the grave sins of the Jewish people.
• Tammuz was a false god from Mesopotamian culture.  All of these visions have to do with idolatry in various forms.
  • There seems to be an increasing of shock and severity with each vision as names of families and locations within the temple are mentioned.
• God’s jealousy is right and without sin (Exodus 20:4-5).

Questions to consider:

1. What is ironic about the fact that these elders of Judah would seek out Ezekiel for guidance if they had previously been busy with all this idolatry?  What would have made them decide to seek out the Lord?
2. If they were worshipping many false gods simultaneously, would their trip to Ezekiel have been evidence of repentance or were they simply imploring God to fix their present situation?  How would we have been able to know the difference?
3. How does the world use false gods?  Why are they worshipped?  What do people want or expect from them?  How and why is worshiping the one true God different than all other forms of worship?

Today’s passage: Ezekiel 7

Helpful thoughts:

• In the ESV Study Bible, this chapter is considered to be a “sermon” based on Amos chapter 8.
• Verse 26 depicts a people who want to continue in sin, and when hardship and consequences come, they want God to swoop in and take the hardship away.
• God would do no such thing any longer.  Jerusalem was going to fall.  Judgment was coming.

Questions to consider:

1. What is sinful man prone to do with the mercy of God?  Do people immediately appreciate it and turn from their sin, or do they begin to count on it and continue in their sin?  How would we know if this despair was truly repentant versus being in anguish over consequences?
2. What does the last sentence in verse 27 remind us about this judgment from God?  How far would the judgment go (Why so severe)? And, why was the judgment necessary?  Why is judgment and knowledge of the Lord better than carrying on in sin without consequences?
3. Where does Christ stand for us as sinners in need of rescue?  How might a Christian be prone to take the mercy and grace of God for granted?  How was our sin justly punished?

Today’s passage: Ezekiel 6

Helpful thoughts:

• The Israelites had worshipped false idols and committed terrible sin on their mountains (“High places”). (e.g. 1 Kings 14:23)
• This prophecy of judgment is against those who have been committing this idolatry.
• God promises a remnant who will survive this judgment.  Through their observation of the judgment of God against Israel, those who remain will know that God is the true Lord.

Questions to consider:

1. Besides the judgment, righteous anger and jealousy of God against this idolatry, what more do we learn about His heart in this prophecy?  What does verse 9 tell us about His heart’s response to His people’s sin against Him?
2. It can be tempting to see God as harsh and violent in reading these judgments, but how might it help to remember that this idolatry being done by the Jews would include things like human sacrifice, cutting/bleeding, adultery and other sexual sins, etc.?  Was God being unjust?
3. God had been patient and longsuffering with His people since the beginning of the nation’s existence, what might His patience have to do with the warning at the end of verse 10?  If God shows patience and mercy to a people for a time, does that mean He can never bring judgment?  When people start to question God’s justice, what are they really doing?  Who is truly the Lord?

Today’s passage: Ezekiel 5

Helpful thoughts:

• In the next prophetic picture portrayed, Ezekiel’s hair represents the people of Israel/Jerusalem.
• God’s people were placed in the “center” of the world, where nations travelled through on a regular basis.  They were placed there to tell the world about their God, but instead they rejected Him in favor of the world’s ways.
• Through these judgments, God would use Israel to proclaim Himself to the world after all (Verse 13).

Questions to consider:

1. How does verse 12 describe the meaning of what God told Ezekiel to do with his hair?
2. Why are chapters and prophesies like this so hard to read?  What has God promised to do here?  What was going to happen to Israel?  Why was it going to happen?  What would the world know about God?
3. How do we balance this information with our knowledge of the love of God given to us through Christ?  How might it help us to understand more what happened to Christ at the cross and why His suffering was necessary?  How can all of this help us to better understand the terrible nature of our sin, the holiness and justice of God, and then motivate us toward repentance and righteous living?

Today’s passage: Ezekiel 4

Helpful thoughts:

• In Chapter 4, Ezekiel’s prophetic ministry begins…and in quite a peculiar way.
  • Instead of being given words to say, Ezekiel is given responsibility to act out what is going to happen to Jerusalem.
• This prophecy would have been given approximately six years before the Babylonians laid siege against Jerusalem.
• In the visuals, God tells the Jewish people of the coming destruction of Jerusalem, the accounting of how long they had been in sin as a nation, the issues they would have with food and water, and (With Ezekiel’s bared arms) God is letting His people know that it is His outstretched arms that are bring this punishment.
  • Handling human dung rendered a person “Unclean” and Ezekiel, having been raised in the priestly line, would have been particularly sensitive to this.
• Ezekiel probably went out and laid by the replica of the siege and ate and drank as God prescribed each day for an allotted amount of time.  780 days was quite the commitment to share this prophecy, even if he only had to lay down for a third of the day (Or however long it was).

Questions to consider:

1. Why, does God state, is the reason for this coming siege against Jerusalem?  What had Israel/Judah done?  What were some of the consequences?  How did the physical consequences compare to the spiritual consequences?  Which ones are worse…and yet which ones are often perceived to be worse?
2. Given the nature and details of what God commanded Ezekiel to do, our focus might be on the difficulty of his task ahead (The 780 days of laying on the ground, etc.).  But what did this prophecy symbolize?  What might have been on the forefront of Ezekiel’s mind as he prophesied against his own people?
3. Ezekiel’s calendar had just radically changed for the next 26 months.  God isn’t going to command you to lay on your side and eat bread cooked on cow dung next to a model of a major city (Phew!), but He has given us much to do in His Word.  How do our days get scheduled?  Where does God “fit in?”  How are we doing at being flexible when opportunities to serve arise?

Today’s passage: Ezekiel 3:16-27

Helpful thoughts:

• Ezekiel is declared a watchman, commissioned to warn the people of coming judgment.
  • He would bear responsibility if he ever chose to refrain from communicating God’s Word.
• Both the wicked and the righteous need warning against sin.
• To give Ezekiel’s prophecies even more perceived gravity, God prevents Ezekiel from being able to speak at all until it is time for him to speak God’s Word.
  • I say “perceived” gravity because God’s Word is never less important, we only ever perceive it to be more or less important.

Questions to consider:

1. How did the impact of Ezekiel’s experience in seeing the glory of God and being commissioned to speak His word differ from what so many have tried to describe in books and movies in our time?  Does this passage appear to preach any kind of prosperity Gospel?
2. What would have been the hardships of Ezekiel’s experience thus far in this book?  How would you like to carry the responsibility of having people’s “blood required at your hand” or to become mute in order to be a spokesman for the Lord?
3. At the same time, what an honor for Ezekiel to be given this responsibility!  What would have been the joys of Ezekiel’s experience thus far in this book?  How would Ezekiel’s knowledge of God’s glory have changed the way he saw the “hardships?”

Today’s passage: Ezekiel 2:1-3:15

Helpful thoughts:

• Today, we read the calling and commissioning of Ezekiel as a prophet.  He was to be a prophet to a rebellious people.  Ezekiel was responsible to rightly communicate the Word of God, but he was not responsible for the way the people responded.
  • Ezekiel would need to be hardened in a different way to minister to those who were hard of heart (3:8-9).
• Ezekiel had no ability to stand before God without the ministry of the Spirit.  The Spirit is still present when Ezekiel obeys and eats the scroll, which contrasts with the rebellion of Israel.
• Eating the scroll pictures the words of God being in Ezekiel’s mouth.  His prophecy was not his own opinion, but the very words of God (2 Peter 1:20-21).
  • The true words of God, even though they spoke of rebuke and rebellion, were sweet as honey.

Questions to consider:

1. How does God calling Ezekiel, “Son of man” clarify their differences?  Who is Ezekiel before his holy Creator and God?  How does this name, “Son of man” better help us understand what Jesus was willing to do when He took on flesh to die in our place? (Daniel 7:13-14)
2. How would you describe (Or contrast) the hardness of Israel with the hardness God had to give Ezekiel for his ministry?  How would that translate to the ministry God has called us to proclaim to the world today?
3. When Ezekiel was forced to leave the presence of the glory of God, and with the knowledge of the life and sinfulness to which he was returning, what was his countenance (Verses 14-15)?  How did seeing and hearing from the Lord make him feel about sin in this life?  How can this encourage us to “walk in a manner worthy?” (Ephesians 4:1)

Today’s passage: Ezekiel 1

Helpful thoughts:

• Ezekiel came from the priestly line and prophesied during the exile between 593-571 B.C.
  • Many believe the reference to the “thirtieth year” in verse 1 relates to his age when the first prophetic vision occurred.  Therefore, Ezekiel would have been just over 50 years old by the end of this book.  These visions we will read didn’t happen every day, but over a 22 year period of time.
• Ezekiel does his best (With the inspiration of the Holy Spirit) to describe what he saw in words.  All that Ezekiel sees resounds to the glory of God!
  • The Ark of the Covenant was a shadow or a symbol of the real thing! (Exodus 25:10-22)
• When the thunderous, glorious presences of God is realized, Ezekiel doesn’t need to think twice, he is ready to listen.

Questions to consider:

1. What was Ezekiel’s response to all that he saw and heard (Verse 28)?  What does this teach us about the glory of God, His nature, and what happens when He decides He will be heard?  Do you think Ezekiel even felt his listening at that moment was optional?
2. How does Ezekiel’s immediate response to this vision compare to the Apostle John’s (Revelation 1:17)? Isaiah’s (Isaiah 6:5)?  What are the similarities?  How does this help us to learn more about who and all that God is?
3. How does a right understanding of who God is change our perspective on our lives and actions?  How does it impact our thinking about who Christ is and why He came to die for our sins?