The Exiled Nation  (Ca. 585-535 B.C.)

Ezekiel’s Restoration Prophecies

“It is evidently some six months before one of the survivors of the Jerusalem slaughter finally makes his way to the prophet Ezekiel in Babylonia.  Ezekiel gets a few hours’ advance warning of Jerusalem’s fall when, on the evening before the messenger’s arrival, Ezekiel is suddenly unable to speak.  Undoubtedly he recalls the day the siege against Jerusalem began — the day of his wife’s death — when God told him that his mouth would be opened when the messenger from Jerusalem arrived with the news of the fall.  Just as promised, Ezekiel’s temporary muteness disappears the following morning before the messenger arrives.  With this dramatic confirmation of his earlier predictions regarding Jerusalem, Ezekiel sets about once again to take God’s word to the people.”

Read:  Ezekiel 33:21-33

“Now, in a prophecy about the lost sheep of Israel, Ezekiel summarizes the basic message of his entire ministry: that Israel’s spiritual leaders have led the people to slaughter, but the God is going to gather his scattered people back in Palestine (as Canaan will come to be known), and that he will one day raise up a Savior for his people — the Messiah — who will be the Good Shepherd.”

Read:  Ezekiel 34

“During the siege Ezekiel brought judgment against Judah’s oppressors, particularly for the glee with which they would welcome the fall of Jerusalem.  Using Edom to represent all those nations, Ezekiel again promises that destruction awaits them.  He then consoles Israel with more assurances of the national restoration to come.”

Read:  Ezekiel 35 & 36

All quotations taken from The Daily Bible.