Bible 101: Lesson 24

Ezekiel

Ezekiel is the most colorful of the Old Testament prophets. He used all kinds of visual aids to help underline his messages: slapping his thighs, eating a scroll, baking bread over a fire made of human dung, and many other things. His ministry was mostly carried out in exile, after the second deportation from Jerusalem in 597 B.C.

This book has the closest relationship of any in the Old Testament with the New Testament book of Revelations, and is alluded to or quoted in all but one chapter. In chapters 40-48 of Ezekiel there is a prophetic picture of a future temple which will exist during the reign of the “Prince”. The book also stresses more than any in other part of the Old Testament the extent to which we are all individually accountable before God for our own sins.

Messianic prophecies in Ezekiel

A tree planted by God
OT References: Ezek 17:22-24
NT Fulfillment: Matt 13:31-32

The humble exalted
OT References: Ezek 21:26-27
NT Fulfillment: Luke 1:52

The good Shepherd
OT References: Ezek 34:23-24
NT Fulfillment: John 10:11