Feast of Saint Ezekiel – April 10

Prophet Ezekiel was from a family of priests in Jerusalem. He was among the first wave of deportees that arrived in Babylon in 597, when the Babylonians occupied Jerusalem. Five years later, in 592, he began to serve as a prophet, receiving the Word of the Lord in Babylon, alongside the city of the deportees, Tel Aviv. This was a revolution in the history of Israel’s religion – that God would speak to the people through a prophet who was not in the Land of Israel. Up until that point, the relationship of the people with God was intimately linked to being in the Land. With Ezekiel, the people realized that God could speak to them anywhere: even in the tomb that Exile constituted for them.

The first half of the book Ezekiel has left us is a poignant expression of God’s disappointment with His people because of their sins. His anger is the anger of a Redeemer betrayed by those He has redeemed and the consequence is His migration from His house, the Temple that will soon be destroyed. However, Ezekiel’s prophecies continue even after the destruction and the second part of the book is full of prophecies of consolation, including important texts that are read in the Easter season: the giving of a new heart of flesh and the resurrection of the dry bones. God ultimately does not permit sin and death to win the day but rather vanquishes them by remaining eternally faithful and restoring His people to new life. Of this Ezekiel is a powerful witness.