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(chapters 26–28); Egypt (chapters 29–32).

      3. Renewal of Israel and Restoration to a Glorious Kingdom (Ezek 33–48)

      Through a new covenant, Yahweh will restore his people to new life, under new leadership, in a new kingdom in which his glory will again dwell forever. Ezekiel’s messages turn to salvation (chapter 33); new leadership (chapter 34); restoration to the promised homeland (chapters 35:1—36:15); restoration spiritually (chapters 36:16—37:28); final deliverance from chaos (chapters 38—39); and restoration of worship in the blessing of God’s presence (chapters 40—48).

Because Ezekiel’s prophetic oracles are organized chronologically through the book, they present a story in a general way.7 There is no elaborate plotline, but the chronological notices trace a progression of interactions between the prophet and his community, which has been traumatized by forced deportation. The narrative arc begins with the prophet’s call and his confrontation with the exiled compatriots. He labors to convince them that their exile is justified because of sin, and furthermore, that the doom announced against Jerusalem is sure to come. This puts their trauma in theological perspective. This trauma is amplified when news arrives of the destruction of their homeland, recorded half-way through the book. From that point on, Ezekiel’s task changes from confrontation to comfort.

      Dividing the Book into Teachable Units

      The immensity of the book of Ezekiel presents a challenge for a Sunday morning preaching series as well as for the length usually allowed for many seasonal Bible studies. While all Scripture is God’s word, not all of it is equally important for constructing our faith nor as immediately relevant for Christian living. So it is necessary to be selective about what passages in Ezekiel to cover.

      In addition to the difficulty of choosing which passages to preach, there is the challenge of assigning the boundaries of each selection. Breaking up the book into the best literary segments does not necessarily optimize the book for realistic teaching units. So, sometimes I have combined segments of the book that could easily be separated but are difficult to justify as stand-alone teaching or preaching units. In my comments on the context for each section, I explain my decision, and the reader can make his or her own judgment accordingly.

      After a statement of Ezekiel’s message, each passage is introduced by a contextual overview, placing the unit in the flow of the book. The bulk of the commentary focuses on the most important and difficult expressions used by the prophet. Then, a paragraph treats a central theological truth from the passage that bridges into discussion about teaching and applying the text to contemporary life.

      If I were preaching through the book in an expository series, I would especially want to include the following units, which I judge to be particularly important for Ezekiel’s message:

      Ezek 1:1–28 / The God of Glory Calls

      Ezek 4:1—5:17 / Failing to Live as Light

      Ezek 7:1–27 / The Impotence of Materialism (or Ezek 26:1—27:36)

      Ezek 8:1–18 / Rebellion in God’s Face

      Ezek 10:1–22 / God’s Parting Judgment

      Ezek 18:1–32 / The Individual Responsibility to Repent (or Ezek 33:1–33)

      Ezek 20:1–44 / Divine Pursuit of a Purified People

      Ezek 28:1–26 / The Corruption of Tyre’s Pride

      Ezek 34:1–31 / Two Kinds of Shepherds

      Ezek 36:16–38 / Spiritual Transformation for God’s Honor

      Ezek 37:1–28 / A Whole Covenant Package

      Ezek 40:1—43:12 / The Return of God’s Glory

The reader is encouraged to read through Ezekiel and consider the main ideas stated at the beginning of each passage in the commentary as a guide to what other selections might be particularly relevant to a ministry context. Daniel Block has written an essay on “Preaching Ezekiel” that also offers very helpful guidance for understanding and delivering the message of the prophet.8

      The Bridge to Application

      We live in a world that has become broken due to human failure. Nevertheless, God has repeatedly intervened to redeem and restore his creation, decisively in the life and ministry of Jesus. But God was at work in Old Testament days as well, calling people into relationship with him, directing them in his ways, and establishing them as mission outposts in a world that naturally drifts into chaos. The Bible, both Old and New Testaments, is the story of the reestablishment of God’s kingdom on a planet in rebellion against him.

One can think of the Bible as the narrative of God’s redemptive intervention, but a narrative that has not yet reached final conclusion in the outworking of history. It reveals to us the ways of God with humanity, it projects before us the world that God envisions to restore, and it invites us to participate cooperatively in this mission.9 If I may use the metaphor of a motion picture, the Bible projects what God is doing in the world, and each passage is a frame in the whole moving story. We must step into roles within this story to advance God’s program, not hinder it. As the instrument of God’s Spirit, the Bible does something to us and accomplishes things by us.

      When teaching or preaching the Old Testament, one must ask, What sort of world would God have us inhabit? What should that look like practically in our communities today? What is my responsibility to achieve this? Sometimes it means that we advocate for change in the relationships and social structures around us. Usually it also means that we come face to face with our own rebellion. But because many difficulties in life or society are intractable, sometimes all we can do is to rest in hope for God’s personal intervention to redeem his world.

Answering the question, What is the prophet Ezekiel “doing” with this passage?, is a crucial step in aligning our interpretation and application with the scope of relevance the prophet had in view. Ezekiel chose his words carefully and efficiently to “hook” specific ideas in the mind of his audience. We want to attend to Ezekiel’s message that best connects the prophet’s words and the thought world of his audience. We could call that “contextual relevance,” and it helps us guard against grasping for meanings of the text beyond what Ezekiel would have imagined.10

      One of the most common mistakes in teaching the Old Testament is to use the passage only as a springboard or illustration for what ends up being an exposition from the New Testament. So the challenge of teaching Ezekiel is the same for all of the Old Testament—care must be taken to expound the meaning of the Old Testament text itself rather than jump quickly into corresponding New Testament passages. New Testament texts can validate the message drawn from Ezekiel, but the message must be rooted in the meaning derived from Ezekiel itself. My use of the New Testament in this commentary is to validate the message of Ezekiel when necessary. This is done most often in passages where the message of Ezekiel strains Christian instincts about the life of believers who are in Christ. The use of the New Testament is also necessary to bring forward the message of Ezekiel to its consummation in our expectations of God’s Old Testament promises in Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

      Ancient Texts for Illustration

      Illustrations are tools that clarify or drive home the point of a passage. They are not an end in themselves nor the framework upon which we hang the biblical message. In this commentary, I frequently quote ancient Near Eastern texts from the world of the Bible. Actually reading these texts to your audience can be effective in exposition; it helps clarify the cultural setting of the text in a way that informs meaning. The modern audience experiences more closely the impact that a particular passage would have had on the original audience. In my experience, people actually perk up when they hear these ancient voices from the past, voices they have never heard before that bring to concrete appreciation the life of the biblical world.

      The

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