What is God’s purpose in the 48 chapters of the Book of Ezekiel?
Ezekiel 1:28; Ezekiel 10:18; Ezekiel 37:26-27; Ezekiel 43:4-5; Ezekiel 48:35
The Benefits of Memorizing an Entire Book
I believe it is helpful to analyze an entire book of the Bible and seek to discern its central message, its purpose for being in the canon of sixty-six books that God chose to include in holy Scripture. It is not easy to do, and it cannot be done with any absolute certainty, especially for longer books that have many major and minor themes. But the effort is well worth investing for the sake of the reward.
The Glory of God Displayed
I think the focus on the glory of God in the first chapter gives a clue—the overpowering display of the glory of the Lord.
So, after memorizing the Book of Ezekiel, what do I think its main message is, its purpose in the Bible? I think the focus on the glory of God in the first chapter gives a clue—the overpowering display of the glory of the Lord. That vision leveled the prophet Ezekiel and left him on the ground. Ezekiel 1:3 tells us that Ezekiel was a priest, and that chapter reveals he is in exile with his people. Many of Ezekiel’s visions focus on the temple of the Lord, especially the great wickedness of Israel’s elders in the temple and their overt idolatry (see chapter 8).
Because of that wickedness and idolatry, God’s dwelling glory departed from the temple in Ezekiel 10 and from the city in Ezekiel 11. The wickedness of the people of Israel was the reason for the destruction of the temple and the exile of the people. This wickedness is displayed in graphic terms in chapters 16 and 23, depicted there as spiritual adultery against their husband, the Lord. It is shockingly revealed as having always been at the heart of the Jewish people in chapter 20: from their days in Egypt, God warned them to give up their idols, but they refused. God wanted to kill them while they were still in Egypt, but for the sake of his name, he refrained and led them out of Egypt. But their idolatry and wickedness continued.
The Love of God for Idolatrous Israel
God pleaded with individual Jews to repent of their sins in chapter 33:11, saying, “Why will you die? I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but instead yearn for them to repent!” But the souls that sinned died. The stunning picture of a dead nation in the valley of dry bones (Ezekiel 37) is a graphic picture of the fact that the wages of sin is death.
But God, who is rich in mercy, made a stunning promise of salvation in Ezekiel 36: he promised to remove their hearts of stone, by which they had lived spiritually dead lives in wickedness and idolatry, to put in living hearts of flesh, to wash them of all their impurities, and to move them by his Holy Spirit to be careful to keep his laws and his decrees. He would raise the nation up from spiritual and even physical death and knit their bones together and put flesh on their bones and breathe life in them by his word and by his Spirit!
The Promise of God Fulfilled
Resurrected into new life, they would live in a new Promised Land with a perfected temple and a perfect Son of David (Ezekiel 37:24-25) as their prince, who has exalted privileges in the temple and the land (chapters 44-46, 48). This Son of David, this exalted prince is Jesus, of course. This is Ezekiel’s vision of the New Heaven, New Earth, and New Jerusalem. The glory of the Lord will enter that temple and land, and he will dwell with his people, and they will be his people. God will be with them and be their God. And the name of that place will be, “The Lord is there.”
The Lord who departed will return to live in the hearts of his glorified people in their perfected world forever.
