Purpose

What is the book of Ezekiel about?  Why was it written?  What was the purpose?

I spent some time this morning doing a word study having read through the book, trying to find key phrases and one in particular stood out: then you or they "will know that I am the LORD".  That seems to encapsulate the message of Ezekiel - God is acting so that his people know he is the LORD, why?  Because they have forgotten, hence their moral decline and their idolatry which has led them into exile and which will lead to Jerusalem's destruction.

But it is not just that God wants Israel to know that he is the LORD, the judgements on Tyre, Egpyt and the other surrounding nations also have that as their purpose.  And in the prophecy of the future this purpose appears again.  Because only when they recognise and entrust themselves to God his ways and his purposes will they live by faith.

God is God!  It is frightening and sobering to think that his people have fogotten that after all that God has done for them and all the blessings he has given them.  But then how different are we?

Ezekiel - a mission to remind the world that God is God

One of the striking things in reading the first 26 or so chapters of Ezekiel is the judgements that Ezekiel is given by God to pronounce on God's people but also on the nations which surround Israel.  And God's purpose in judging is that both his people and these other nations would know that "I am the LORD".

God wants his people to understand that their judgement is the result of their sin and so that they may know he is God and turn back to him.  But he also does not want the nations around about to assume that he is not God or no better than their gods because Israel is taken into exile, but to realise that he is the only true God over not just his people but the whole world.

Our God is God over all.

Ezekiel - Man on a mission

I have some study time coming up which will give me an opportunity to dive into a book which I have spent little time studying, and no time preaching or teaching short of referencing it when it comes up in the NT.  Ezekiel is quite a daunting book, but as I've started doing some study on it for 20 minutes every morning I've been struck by its relevance and what it reveals about God and his messengers.

It is worth a read of chapter 1 just to experience the mindbending way in which he describes his vision and the glory of God.  It is a real stretch for us to try to picture in our minds the image that Ezekiel is describing!