The Setting of Ezekiel’s Call
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The river Chebar
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Exile in Babylon
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Why God revealed Himself in a foreign land
If you’ll turn with me to the book of Ezekiel and I want to begin a study in Ezekiel this afternoon. A lot of times Ezekiel seems to be the prophet that gets left out and part of it is because a lot of the especially when you’re dealing with Ezekiel’s coming into the presence of the throne room of God and the wheel within a wheel and all the things that are going on it can be a little difficult to interpret and teach. But I want us to understand that there’s a lot of very important things in the book of Ezekiel.
The book of Ezekiel was written by Ezekiel and it brings out the glory of God and the fact that God is omnipotent and God is in control and God is all-knowing and Ezekiel brings many prophecies, some of which are being fulfilled even in the day in which we live, which we’re going to be looking at later on, not today but as we get into the study, prophecies of things that are happening in the Middle East and in the world today and Ezekiel lived hundreds and hundreds of years ago and yet God’s word is true. Now just to give you a framework, first of all Ezekiel, his name means the strength of God or God strengthens. Now part of this name would be an encouragement not only to Ezekiel but to those that were with him.
Ezekiel lived at the time that Nebuchadnezzar was in power in Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar, those of you who were with us in the study of the Kings as well as when we’ve been studying the book of Jeremiah, you’ll remember that Nebuchadnezzar invaded Israel, invaded Jerusalem three times. The first time that he invaded, he took away some of the royalty, young men of royalty back to Babylon and one of them was Daniel and three more of them were his friends, Hananiah, Azariah and Nezekiah and he took them back to Babylon. You probably know his friends better by Shadrach, Mishach and Abednego, that’s the Babylonian names and they were taken back a few years before Ezekiel was taken.
Ezekiel was taken on the second invasion and Ezekiel was of the priesthood. He was a young priest. He was in his early twenties when he was taken away into Babylon and when he was taken to Babylon, one of the things which you’ll read about probably in the introduction this morning or this afternoon, is the fact that he was taken and there was an area that the Jews were given by Nebuchadnezzar to live and it explains where that place is in his letter and Ezekiel there became really a minister or pastor or priest to that group of people, those Jewish people, as well as being a prophet of the Lord and God used Ezekiel to minister in that area.
Now Ezekiel and Daniel possibly knew one another. They both were there during the ministry of Jeremiah. Daniel would have been there towards the beginning of the ministry of Jeremiah.
Ezekiel would have been taken away kind of in the middle of the ministry and the last is when the temple, the last invasion by Nebuchadnezzar is when the temple and the city of Jerusalem and its walls were destroyed. So there’s a chance that Ezekiel and Daniel could have even known one another. They would have been close to one another in age, Daniel being a little bit older, but both being men of God.
Daniel, when he went to Babylon, he was trained to be a Babylonian politician, if you would, and that’s what Nebuchadnezzar was training all these young men that he brought from these various countries to turn them into Babylonians or Chaldeans. And Daniel never bought into the Babylonian system, but yet God used him and placed him as an advisor to Nebuchadnezzar and not only to Nebuchadnezzar, but when the Babylonian Empire fell, Daniel became an advisor to the king of the Medo-Persian Empire. Ezekiel didn’t have as much interaction in his book.
It doesn’t tell us as much of the interaction that he had with the Babylonians, but it does tell us what he was doing there and what in the prophecies that God revealed to him and how the Lord showed who’s in control. And that’s really what Ezekiel needed to hear. During his time in Babylon, as I mentioned, Jerusalem would be destroyed, the temple would be destroyed, and this would be very distressing to Ezekiel and to all of the other young Jewish people to realize that everything that they looked to as the power and authority of God was being destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, but yet the Lord revealed to Ezekiel his glory wasn’t just in his temple, his glory was in who he was in his temple in heaven.
Well let’s just take a look at just the beginning of Ezekiel chapter and it says here it’s going to lay down what this condition was of Ezekiel’s life when he was taken away. Now it came to pass in the th year in the fourth month of the fifth day of the month as I was among the captives by the river Shabar that the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. Now it’s important to understand that Ezekiel like Daniel is going to be given visions.
Where Daniel’s visions dealt with prophetic in the future, many of Ezekiel’s visions will deal with seeing the Lord in all of his glory. The word glory, sometimes I you know I had kind of misconstrued the really the depth of the meaning of the word. The word glory means it’s extremely heavy in the sense that we can’t grasp the full content, it’s too hard or big to grasp.
That’s what glory means, the glory of God. We can’t even, we try to capture it by the examples that are given like in Ezekiel of the throne room of God and God in his glory, but it’s almost impossible for us in our human minds to capture it. It’s like it’s too heavy for us to even grasp the concept, but this is what God is going to reveal to Ezekiel is him and his throne in glory and he says in the fifth day of the month which was the fifth year of the King Jehoiakim’s captivity.
Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. 2 In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin’s captivity, 3 the word of the Lord came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of the Lord was there upon him. Ezekiel 1:1-3
Now Jehoiakim was Jehoiakim’s father. Jehoiakim was taken into captivity or conquered first and Jehoiakim was put up as the new ruler of the nation of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar and Jehoiakim was then subsequently taken into captivity as well and he was taken to Babylon. Jehoiakim ended up dying, but it says the word of the Lord came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest the son of Buzzi in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chabar and the hand of the Lord was there upon him.
I want you to understand that in the Old Testament, when God’s Spirit came upon people—when it says here that the hand of the Lord was upon him—it means the Spirit of God came upon him and enabled him to have this vision, to understand it, and to see the things he was about to see.
We are so blessed in the day in which we live, because God’s Spirit now resides within us. But in the Old Testament, the Spirit of God would come upon people when God wanted to reveal something special or to use them in a unique way. For example, you may remember the judges in the Old Testament. When God had a special task for them—such as defending Israel or delivering the nation—it says that the Spirit of the Lord would come upon them.
Take Samson, for instance. The Spirit of God came upon him, enabling him to perform supernatural feats as he defeated the Philistines on behalf of the Lord and for the nation of Israel. In the same way, the Spirit of God—the hand of the Lord—comes upon Ezekiel here, giving him the ability to experience and see the things described.
“And I looked, and behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire enfolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the color of amber, out of the midst of the fire.” Ezekiel 1:4
It is difficult for us even to imagine what he was seeing—the power and magnitude of it. It is much like what took place when Moses was at Mount Sinai. The Lord descended, and the nation of Israel at the base of the mountain witnessed extraordinary sights. They became fearful and asked Moses to go up on their behalf. Moses and Joshua ascended, and Moses went all the way up to meet the Lord. The same fire, brilliance, and overwhelming greatness seen on Mount Sinai are echoed in this vision Ezekiel describes.
5 Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man. 6 And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings. 7 And their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf’s foot: and they sparkled like the colour of burnished brass. 8 And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and they four had their faces and their wings. 9 Their wings were joined one to another; they turned not when they went; they went every one straight forward.
In the New Testament, God’s command—revealed through the Apostle Paul—makes clear what our calling is. Paul says we are not to turn to the left or to the right, but to keep our eyes fixed on the goal set before us. We are to pursue that goal, continue in it, and press toward the mark.
That is exactly what these beings did. They did not turn to the left or the right; they moved straight forward. They carried out the Lord’s command with no variation. They walked in perfect obedience to the will of God, and they sought to protect the glory and greatness of God in the way He created them.
You and I are to do the same. We are to live our lives in a way that reflects God’s glory and protects the honor of His name as we walk in obedience to His will. That was the character of these angels—these cherubim.
10 As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle. 11 Thus were their faces: and their wings were stretched upward; two wings of every one were joined one to another, and two covered their bodies. 12 And they went every one straight forward: whither the spirit was to go, they went; and they turned not when they went. 13 As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps: it went up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning. 14 And the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning.
15 Now as I beheld the living creatures, behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four faces. 16 The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel. 17 When they went, they went upon their four sides: and they turned not when they went. 18 As for their rings, they were so high that they were dreadful; and their rings were full of eyes round about them four.