The name of Saint Ezekiel, who lived at the turn of the 7th-6th centuries, means "God is strong" or "The Lord will strengthen." This is one of the greatest prophets of the Old Testament and a contemporary of Jeremiah and Daniel. The prophet Ezekiel, whose photo will be presented below, was born in the city of Sarir, was a priest, like his father Vuzia, and also an adherent of the institutions of the Law and the Temple. His lineage comes from the tribe of Levi. When he was 25 years old, Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem for the first time. And this prophet, like King Jeconiah with all his court, noble nobles and subordinates in the amount of 10 thousand people, was sent to Babylonian captivity. At the same time, all the precious church utensils were taken out of the Jerusalem Temple.
The life of the prophet Ezekiel
The Prophet settled in Tel Aviv, where the large navigable river Khovar flowed, which passed 60 km from Babylon. He was not constrained, and he even had a wife who died after nine years of captivity from an ulcer. For the Jewish exiles, the house of Ezekiel became a spiritual center, where they flocked in crowds to hear God'srevelations.
After five years of captivity, the prophet Ezekiel, praying on the river bank, received a revelation and became a witness of the greatness of the Glory of the Lord.
Revelation
A chariot of four winged cherubs carried God. Cherubim had four faces: a lion, an eagle, a bull and a man. Each had four wings, two of which were directed to the top, and two covered their bodies. Without looking back, they went wherever they wanted. As they walked, the noise was like during a violent thunderstorm. And between them was a bright glow, like lightning and fire. Near these heavenly beings there were four wheels with rims on which there were eyes. They moved together. Above them was a vault of crystal, and above the vault, as if made of sapphire, a throne, and on it sat the likeness of a man in a blazing metallic fire, around which there was a radiance like a rainbow.
Ezekiel fell on his face to the ground and then he heard the voice of God, which commanded him to get up and go to the Israelites who rebelled against Him. Then a hand with a scroll stretched out to the prophet, and he saw the words: “Weeping, and groaning, and grief.” Then he was ordered to eat the scroll, and then he felt honey on his lips. The Holy Spirit lifted him up, and behind him he heard the sound of the wings of cherubs and a voice praising the name of the Lord.
Holy Prophet Ezekiel
After that, he returned home and was beside himself with amazement for seven days, the prophet could not even speak. After a period of time, Ezekiel again heard the voice of the Lord, who turned to him and said that he had appointed him the guardian of the house of Israel,and that now he must listen to him, and through him admonish his people. So God made the prophet responsible for those to whom he was sent.
22 the Prophet Ezekiel was in constant vigil, looking from the height of his spiritual state, constantly turning to God. With words and symbolic gestures, he prophesied and warned that Jerusalem would fall completely, as the Lord would punish her sinful people. But when that happens, Ezekiel will be a comfort to the people and will announce forgiveness and a coming revival.
Prophetic states
After another vision of the Glory of the Lord, the prophet Ezekiel, struck by dumbness, retired to his house. Taking a brick, he drew on it the walls of Jerusalem and the siege around them. Then God ordered him to lie first for 390 days on his left side, and then for 40 days on his right side, the number 430 came out - the years of Egyptian captivity.
Ezekiel at the same time was eating contemptible and very meager food, baked on cow dung, in order to show the iniquity of Israel, which was expected to be exiled. He also predicted that only a few people would be saved.
Temple of God
In the sixth year of the exile, the prophet Ezekiel saw that same fiery man on a chariot, who took him, transferred him to the inner gate of the Temple of Jerusalem and showed how the Jews erected a statue of Astarte in the time of Manasseh and indulged in wicked action.
And the Glory of God that was there sent a man dressed inflax, so that he would put a mark on the body of those who weep for the abominations that are being committed, and to throw handfuls of coals taken from under the cherubic wheels and throw them on the city. When all this was done, the Glory of God, carried by the wings of cherubs, departed from the Temple and from the city.
Visions
The vision ended, the Spirit brought him back to Chaldea. The holy prophet told his exiles all that he had seen. He forced them to break a hole in the wall, as this was an omen of the exile of the people of Jerusalem, and the king of the Jews, Zedekiah, would be captured right next to the cut through wall of the city. After a while it all came true. He also predicted that the country would be ravaged and that all would recognize the true God. Then he rebuked the false prophets.
When the wrath of God subsides, a people cleansed by trials will be reconciled to God by an everlasting covenant.
In the foreshadowing of the New Testament, the prophet predicts that after reconciliation, no one will be held accountable for the sins of their ancestors, as was the case in the Old Testament, but everyone will be judged the way they appear before God. And if a sinner repents of his sins, renounces them and turns to God, he will live and not die. Because the Lord does not want the death of the sinner.
The holy prophet promises the Jewish people that after the period of exile, sent by the Lord for instruction, He will separate the Jews in relation to other nations and nationalities.
New Prophecies
After 14 years of prophecy, Ezekiel again had a vision, where he was transferred to Palestine, and a certain husband gave different measurements to the buildingTemple of the Lord. And then he saw this Temple and heard the voice of the Lord: “This is the place of My throne…”. The Lord told him to write down all its dimensions so that the sons of Israel would repent and follow faithfully according to the command of the new Law and build the Temple of God.
He added that the gates of the Temple on the east side, through which the Glory of God entered, should be closed for many centuries until the time when the new David appears, the prince-messiah sits in them to eat bread before God
The vision of the Temple of God showed the liberation of the human race from the enemy's work and organization of the Church of Christ through the Son of God, sent to atone for human sins and incarnated through the Blessed Virgin Mary, called by the prophet "the closed gates", through which only the Lord passed.
It is known that the holy Old Testament prophet expelled the wicked people from the tribe of Gadov by sending snakes against them. He also predicted to them that they would not repent and therefore would not return to the land of their fathers. Not wanting to listen to Ezekiel's accusatory prophecies anymore, they stoned him.
Once Ezekiel convicted a Jewish prince of idolatry, and then he had to endure a terrible execution. It was ordered to tie the body of the prophet to wild horses, which tore it into four pieces. But there were pious Jews who collected pieces of the torn body of the prophet and buried him in the Maur field in the tomb of the forefathers of Abraham Shem and Arfaxad, near the city of Bogdadad.
Day of the Holy Prophet: Ezekiel and his memory
This ancientthe prophet had from God the gift of miracles, like the last Old Testament prophet Moses. Praying before the Lord, one day he divided the river Chebar, and in this way the Jews were able to cross over to the opposite side in order to avoid the persecution of the Chaldeans. And when the famine came, he begged God for food for the hungry.
The Day of the Prophet Ezekiel, believing Christians celebrate August 3.
St. Demetrius of Rostov drew the attention of believers to the words from the book of the prophet Ezekiel, in which it is written that the righteous who, hoping for his righteousness, dare to sin and die in sin, will be judged for sin and subject to punishment. And the sinner who repents of his sins will die in forgiveness, and the Lord will not remember his sins.
Akathist to the prophet Ezekiel begins with a prayer: “Prophet of God Ezekiel, foreseeing the gates shut by the Spirit and the Flesh-bearer, in the outcome of these, Who alone said God, pray to Him, we pray, that He will open the door of His mercy and save the souls of those who piously sing your memory”.
