place before his exile, and the task would have taken herculean effort. To cap it all, when his wife died, he was told not to mourn her death (Ez. 24:15-18). Faced by this most inexplicable behavior, the people asked him, “Will you not tell us what these things mean for us, that you are acting thus?” (Ez. 24:19). Thus, readers are informed that these were prophetic performances that called for their interpretation.
Besides distinguishing himself by his bizarre prophetic performances, Ezekiel also stands out for his penchant for proverbs (Ez. 12:22; 16:44; 18:2), riddles and allegories (Ez. 17:2; 24:3). Due to this aspect of his ministry, the people had an easy time dismissing his oracles, saying “Is he not a maker of allegories?” (Ez. 20:49). The book provides ample evidence that Ezekiel was endowed with amazing language skills, as his poems unmistakably demonstrate. Ezekiel’s performances, proverbs, riddles and allegories required wisdom for their interpretation. Thus his ministry is not just the communication of a word of the Lord. His mission is also to interpret both his allegories and his performances for the people. This represents a significant first step in the transition from the role of a prophet as one speaking for another to the role of interpreter of imaginative language.
As a prophet in the tradition of the Hebrew prophets, Ezekiel is concerned to establish the sovereignty and justice of God. Announcing that the patience of God has been exhausted and the end of Judah’s national life is imminent (Ez. 7:2, 6, 10, 12, 19), Ezekiel advises repentance and the abandonment of their present course of action (Ez. 14:6; 18:30-32; 33:11). He gives long, detailed descriptions of how the people have departed from the statues and the commandments of God (Ez. 8:10-18; 22:6-12). His characterization is of a people in rebellion (3:9, 26; 5:6; 12:2, 9; 20:13, 21). To enable Ezekiel to deal with the rebellious people, God promises to make his “face hard against their faces … like adamant harder than flint have I made your forehead” (Ez. 3:8-9). This hardening would allow him to withstand the predictable animosity of his audience. On account of the prevalent sinfulness of the people, God has been going about trying to find a man but, like Diogenes in Athens, he found none (Ez. 22:30). The commandments, which were intended to give the people life, are not being followed (Ez. 20:11, 13, 21). The people’s rebellion, therefore, justifies the punishment God will inflict, or in fact has inflicted, on them (Ez. 14:23; 18:5). The people must recognize that what is happening to them is due to God’s direct involvement in history. They are the cause of God’s punishments (Ez. 14:23). In this, Ezekiel is in the tradition of the prophets who analyzed the present and announced God’s punishment, hoping that knowledge of the consequences would bring about a change of course, repentance. The difference with his prophesying is that being in exile in Babylon, God’s punishment is already taking place. His message, therefore, does not include the possibility that the expected future may not happen. This is a significant shift toward a deterministic understanding of history. God insists, “I will do it; I will not go back; I will not spare; I will not repent” (Ez. 24:14). What God has determined for the future will take place; he does not change his mind. God’s current punishment of his people was already set in God’s designs. Therefore, rather than to announce possible future punishments, Ezekiel justifies God’s current punishment. A different historical moment calls for a different explanation of what God is doing.
The transition from a corporate, or a tribal identity to an individual one makes it necessary for Ezekiel to give detailed descriptions of how a person is held accountable for his conduct. Contrary to what happened at Ai, where Israel suffered a defeat on account of the greed of Achan, if “a land sins against me,” God tells Ezekiel, “even if Noah, Daniel and Job were in it, they would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness; … they would deliver neither sons nor daughters; they alone would be delivered, but the land would be desolate” (Ez. 14:14-16). No amount of previous covenant-keeping will save from punishment those who abandon the ways of the Lord. On the other hand, a person who has been in rebellion against God but who turns and follows the way of the Lord will be saved from punishments (Ez. 14:12-20). Like Jeremiah, he quotes the proverb declaring that the sins of the fathers will be visited on their children, only to declare that this proverb no longer applies. Unlike Jeremiah, he goes to some lengths elaborating on how this new situation affects real life (Ez. 18:5-29).
On the basis of the tensions between the former understanding of corporate identity and the new understanding of personal identity, the people are complaining that “the way of the Lord is not just” (Ez. 18:25, 29; 33:17-20). Ezekiel is very much concerned to disprove this accusation. Besides, the Exile of the people of Israel to Babylon is being interpreted by all the neighboring nations as a demonstration of the weakness of their God. Ezekiel, therefore, considers his main responsibility to both prove to the people in exile that their punishment is amply deserved, and to the surrounding nations that the God of Israel is not weak. In his defense of God’s power and justice, Ezekiel gives extreme demonstrations of God’s anger, fury and wrath. God’s sovereignty rules not only over Israel but also over all neighboring nations. Connected to this apologetic interest is a pervasive historical determinism. Everything that happens is the direct result of God’s personal control of events according to his eternal will.
One of the most objectionable demonstrations of the idolatry prevalent among the Jerusalemites was the offerings of their sons and daughters in sacrifices to foreign gods (Ez. 16:20; 20:31; 23:37). This, of course, was one of the obvious reasons why they are being punished by God. Ezekiel knows well, since he is also a priest and very much in favor of cultic rituals, that among the commandments there is one asking for the sacrifice of the first-born to Yahveh (Ex. 22:29; Num. 3:13). Apparently, Ezekiel thinks that the reason why the people were sacrificing sons to Moloch (Lev. 18:21), and women were wailing to Tammuz (Ez. 8:14), was that they were performing these sacrifices in the same way in which they had been doing them to Yahveh. There is no lack of evidence that in Babylon the Jews had adopted syncretistic practices. From this, Ezekiel comes to the conclusion that the law requiring the sacrifice of babies to Yahveh was one of his “bad laws” (Ez. 20:25-26). He then explains the reason for these bad laws. God had given these laws to bring about their misapplications once the people rebelled against him. Thus their sacrifices of the firstborn to foreign gods were also foreordained by God’s total control over history. This shift to a radical determinism running the course of history, which even prevents God from repenting of a previous decision, is certainly a step toward the apocalyptic world view. As an aside, it may be noted that Jeremiah also witnessed the sacrifices of firstborns. His reaction was to deny that God had ever given a law asking for them; such a law had not even ever entered his mind (Jer. 7:31). The evidence, however, supports Ezekiel’s acknowledgment of its existence.
Another move toward the apocalyptic perspective is the way in which in Ezekiel the prophet introduces himself as one under “the hand of the Lord” in the “land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar” (Ez. 1:3). Rather than to receive a “word of the Lord,” the priest Ezekiel sees a stormy wind with great brightness and fire. In its midst he sees “the likeness” of four living creatures with human forms that sparkled like burnished bronze. They had four faces, four wings, straight legs and feet like the sole of a calf’s foot. Under their wings on all four sides they had human hands. They were able to fly in all directions without turning, always straight forward in relation to one of their faces. One face was that of a man, another that of a lion, yet another that of an ox and the last one that of an eagle. From the center of the four creatures, fire and lightning flashed out. Looking further, Ezekiel sees a large wheel in which there were four wheels, each being within a wheel. The spirit of the four living creatures was in the wheels, which allowed them to move in every direction, sideways, backwards and forward, upward and downward (Ez. 1:4-21). Above the living creatures there was “the likeness” of a firmament, and over it “the likeness” of a throne like sapphire, and seated upon the throne “the likeness” of a human being. This being was engulfed upwards and downwards in the brightness of gleaming bronze and fire, much like the rainbow that shines on a rainy day. Such was “the likeness” of the glory of the Lord (Ez. 1:22-28).
This is a fantastic vision of the glory (throne) of God. From the throne, Ezekiel receives his commission to become “a watchman for the house of Israel” (3:17; 33:7), and to produce a scroll containing “lamentation and mourning
