NOTICE
When you are reading the whole Bible and you get to the section of prophets (where we are), you are at the center and heart of the entire Bible. Whatever you read from the Old Testament Prophets (OTP) has implications for all that you read from the rest of the books in the Bible. This so because the Biblea as a library of books and not just a book, has two ways of reading. You can choose to read each book independently and interpreting it exclusive of others since the Bible is a library or the other alternative is to read all Bible books as contributive bricks of the same building. I belong to the latter approach to the Bible and theologians call this approach the Metanarrative approach.
Metanarrative
In the earlier introductions, I made mention of this concept and approach of Biblical hermeneutics (Bible interpretation), but since we are in the Prophets and actually dealing with one of the three major prophets (BIG 3= Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel), it matters that we review this approach to Bible interpretation. The term ‘Metanarrative’ is the English word ‘Narrative’ (to mean a story at hand) prefixed with a Greek preposition ‘Meta’ which means ‘Beyond’. So the combination of the two ‘Metanarrative’ would stand to mean; the overarching story reechoed, reviewed, reemphasized, and sometimes challenged (varying points of view in scripture) through the smaller stories found at every page of the Bible.
A Biblical metanarrative is not just the big story of the Bible but the major story of the same. Bible sections (history, law, prophecy, wisdom literature, poetry, gospels, letters, and an apocalypse) are threads of the same web (metanarrative). The Bible is a one-story about one God, with one opponent who caused one problem to which the one God has one plan. That Plan unfolds in four major sub-plots;
- The Creation of All Things,
- The Fall of Mankind,
- The Redemption of Man, and
- The Restoration of All Things back to God’s Original Intended Purpose
It matters as we are reading the prophets to ensure that we don’t lose sight of the Metanarrative. The story Israel, since the call of their ancestor Abraham from Ur in Genesis, to their slavery and exodus in Exodus to Numbers, formation as a nation and Monarchy, their exile that Ezekiel talks about and finally, their restoration , are smaller stories of a particular nation (sometimes individuals) of the major story. The bible is not a restaurant menu where you are at liberty to exercise your preferences of what you will eat and what you won’t.
I have begun from this angle because whatever we are going to meet in this book are smaller stories of the same big story of all other books in the Bible, both in the Old & New Testaments. The book of Ezekiel has these smaller stories which are part or which actually constitute the big story. The Biblical metanarrative is not that God came to rescue man from danger but that he came to save man completely and restore his environment. This metanarrative will be presented by all the Bible sections in the form of man being recreated, and transiting from a hostile environment to a better one.
The Man
The book we are dealing with is named after Ezekiel, though I am not sure he is the author of the book in the state we have it. Biblical authorship must be understood from the point of view that the original recipients of God’s revelation noted things down and in some incidences, the compilers had to develop the existing content. So, Ezekiel is the author of most of the content and where he is addressed in the second person, it is the work of the Massoretes ( Jewish scholars compilers).
The man Ezekiel was of a priestly family (Ezekiel 1:3) and therefore was eligible to serve as a priest. The man was a priest before he was called to be a prophet. He was among the Jews exiled to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar in 597 BC and the book begins 5 years after the exile. Ezekiel was not called to be a priest (Priesthood is not a calling), in the Jewish setting, he was born in the priestly lineage. However, it was in Babylon that he was called to be a prophet. At the age of thirty, he was married (Ezekiel 24:15-18) so biblical priests were never celibates as modern religions teach. The man Ezekiel was an informed man.
He knew the history of his nation, the theology of his religion, and the international affairs and what that meant to his faith life. He was gifted with his powerful intellect. He had the capacity to grasp and deal with large issues. His manner of communication is apocalyptic and therefore is poetic and uses unlikely images to communicate complex concepts.
OUTLINE
Here is the simplest way the book can be simplified that I was taught by God through my professors.
Chapters 1-11: Ezekiel is commissioned by Yahweh in Babylon. It is unlikely that the business of a Holy Yahweh would continue in an unclean land with unclean people but here we are (1-3). So Ezekiel is first commissioned to accuse Israel of covenant violation. Because they have violated the covenant, even the shekinah (Ichabod/God’s Glory) has been driven away from the Temple (8-11). Chapters 4-7 are apocalyptic symbols designed to describe the quality of the relationship between Israel and Yahweh as covenant partners.
Chapters 12-33: The following section of the book is one about Judgment Announcements. The chronology of the book indicates that Israel’s covenant violation is not taken for granted on the heavenly side. There are consequences and they cannot go beyond JUDGMENT. The prophet addresses three kinds of Judgments.
- 1-the Judgment on Israel (12-24),
- 2- the Judgment on the nations-international (25-32), and
- 3- the Judgment on Jerusalem as the significant capital (33).
Chapters 34-48: The final section of the book is about what one would call; Hope Provision. It is interesting to note that prophet Ezekiel is not just a prophet of doom who declares a harsh judgment on the guilty but one also who proclaims a possibility of hope. There are three provisions of future hope in the book of Ezekiel.
- Future Hope for Israel (34-37),
- Future Hope for Nations (38-39), and
- Future Hope for all Creation (40-48).
This outline is communicative in a sense that, it reminds all of us sinners that while we might take some sinning for granted; heaven doesn’t. We will be held accountable through the Judgment. No sinner will escape this judgment – both covenantal sinners and those sinners outside the covenant. So it doesn’t matter whether you believe in God or not, your sinning is God’s business to handle, and I will address this issue in the next instalment of the Introduction to the book.
Secondly, this outline reminds us that Judgment is not our inevitable fate but rather there is hope for those interested in switching destinies. I will address this next.
God bless you I invoke TRUTH, WISDOM, and FAITH (2Tim 2:7)
Priest Isaiah White (+256-775-822833 for further inquiries)
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