God Is Great Series

Ezekiel 1 - 2/11/18

Play “Ezekiel Saw the Wheel”

So what is the story with that song? It’s a song I can remember learning in elementary school - but what in the world is it talking about? We’re going to talk about that today. If you have your bibles, join me in turning to the book of Ezekiel, chapter 1. It’s about 2/3 of the way through your bibles - Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel. Ezekiel is one of the Major Prophets - one of the longer books of prophecy in the OT - so in other words, it’s one of those books where the gold is still bright and shiny on the edges of the pages.

We don’t read the prophets - we say It’s all too confusing for me - I can’t understand what is going on! But sadly we miss a great blessing - for all of God’s word is inspired and IS profitable for us. What most people know about Ezekiel - if anything - comes to us from two songs: Ezekiel saw the Wheel - and - Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones. But over the next several weeks we are going to look together at this book and gain some insight to help us in our lives today.

If you have found Ezekiel, look with me in chapter 1, verse 1. I’ll be reading today from the NIV.

In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month on the fifth day, while I was among the exiles by the Kebar River, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. On the fifth of the month--it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin— the word of the LORD came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, by the Kebar River in the land of the Babylonians. There the hand of the LORD was upon him.

We’ll stop there, and let’s pray for the hand to God to be on us today as well. Let’s pray. PRAY

Here in these first few verses of Ezekiel 1, we find a lot of information - but because we are often in a rush to get to the “good stuff” - we often jump right over these verses. But let’s consider what they tell us. Really, they give us the setting of the whole book, if we will take the time to consider what we see. First, they tell us of

COVENANTS - We see that Ezekiel is a Jew. He is part of the nation of Israel. He is part of the nation that God had called out separate from all the nations on earth because they were the apple of God’s eye. And lest we ever forget - that has not changed. Yes, Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world - red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight - and yes, we see that we are part of the church, the body of Christ - but never forget that God is not finished with the nation of Israel. We are called to pray for the peace of Israel. And when Christ comes back, riding his white horse in Revelation 19, He’s coming back to Jerusalem, to set up His throne as the King of Israel.

So Ezekiel is a Jew. His whole life was shaped by the covenants of God to His people. We also see a

COMMISSION - Ezekiel is a Priest. What did priests do? They led the Jews in ceremony. They would offer sacrifices at the temple and serve there. So Ezekiel had a special commission to serve God on behalf of his people. But the third thing we see here is that there has been a

CATASTROPHE - we see that in the word exiles. One of the keys to understanding the OT is to understand the 70 years of captivity in Babylon. A quick overview of the nation of Israel - back in Genesis God calls Abraham out of his homeland to come to the land of Israel. We see in Genesis four generations - Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. In the days of Joseph the Jews leave their homeland and go to Egypt for 215 years. Moses leads them out - the book of Exodus - but they fail to have faith to claim the land, so they wander around the wilderness for 40 years while that generation dies off. Joshua leads the next generation into the land and they settle there. David becomes a great king who brings the nation together in great unity - fighting enemies on every side and bring peace to the nation. His son Solomon has one of the greatest kingdoms ever - this is the golden age of Israel, the glory days. But following Solomon the nation is split into a northern half called Israel and a southern half called Judah. The kings of the north are ALL evil, and in 722 BC the nation of Assyria sweeps down from the north and wipes out the nation of Israel. The kings of the south are a mixed lot - some good and some bad - but when the Assyrians sweep south, there is a godly king Hezekiah and a godly prophet, Isaiah, who together call the nation to cry out to God. God sends his angel and in one night kills 186,000 of the soldiers in the Assyrian army. They turn tail and run back home.