The name of St. 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 Sarira, was a priest, like his father Vuzia, as well as a follower of the laws and the Temple. His family tree comes from the tribe of Levi. When he was 25 years old, Nebuchadnezzar first conquered Jerusalem. And this prophet, like King Jehonia 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 Howar flowed, which passed 60 km from Babylon. He was not shy, and he even had a wife who died nine years later from captivity from an ulcer. For exiled Jews, the house of Ezekiel became a spiritual center, where they flocked in droves to hear God's revelations.
After five years of captivity, the prophet Ezekiel, praying on the riverbank, received a revelation and witnessed 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 turning around, they went where they wanted. As they walked, the noise was like during a severe thunderstorm. And between them was a bright glow, like lightning and fire. Near these heavenly creatures there were four wheels with rims on which there were eyes. They moved together. Above them was a vault of crystal, and above a vault, as if from a sapphire, there was a throne, and on it sat the likeness of a man in a blazing metal fire, around which there was a radiance, like a rainbow.
Ezekiel fell to the ground and then heard the voice of God, which ordered him to stand 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: "Crying, and moaning, and grief." Then it was ordered him to eat a scroll, and then he felt honey on his lips. The Holy Spirit lifted him, and he heard behind him 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 seven days beside himself in amazement; the prophet could not even speak. After a time, Ezekiel again heard the voice of the Lord, who addressed him and said that he had made him the guardian of the house of Israel, and that now he had to listen to Him and through him instruct his people. So God made the prophet responsible for those to whom he was sent.
For 22 years the Prophet Ezekiel was in a constant vigil, looking up from the height of his spiritual condition, constantly turning to God. With words and symbolic gestures, he prophesied and warned that Jerusalem would fall completely, as the Lord would punish his sinful people. But when this happens, Ezekiel will be a consolation for the people and will announce forgiveness and the coming rebirth.
Prophetic states
After another vision of the Glory of the Lord, the prophet Ezekiel, struck by dumbness, secluded himself in his house. Taking a brick, he painted on it the walls of Jerusalem and the siege around them. Then God ordered him to lie first 390 days on his left side, and then 40 days on his right, the number 430 was obtained - the years of Egyptian captivity.
Ezekiel at the same time was eating contemptible and very poor food, baked in cow dung, to show the lawlessness of Israel, which awaited expulsion. He also predicted that only a few people would be saved.
Temple of god
In the sixth year of exile, the prophet Ezekiel saw the same fiery man on a chariot who took him, transferred him to the inner gates of the Temple of Jerusalem and showed how the Jews erected a statue of Astarte during the time of Manasiah and indulged in wicked acts.
And the Glory of God, who was there, sent to this city a man dressed in linen to put a sign on the body of those who cry about the abominations that are happening, and to throw handfuls of coal taken from under the cherubim wheels and throw it on the city. When all this was done, the Glory of God, bearing the wings of cherubs, departed from the Temple and from the city.
Visions
The vision ended, the Spirit returned him to Chaldea. The holy prophet told his exiles everything he saw. He forced them to break a hole in the wall, as this was an omen of the expulsion of the people of Jerusalem, and the king of Judah, Zedekiah, would be captured right next to the severed wall of the city. After a while, everything came true. He also predicted that the country would be ruined, and that everyone would recognize the true God. Then he exposed the false prophets.
When the wrath of God abates, the people cleansed by trials will be reconciled to God with the eternal Testament.
In foreshadowing the New Testament, the prophet predicts that after reconciliation no one will be responsible for the sins of their ancestors, as was the case in the Old Testament, but everyone will be judged by the way that he appears before God. And if the sinner will repent of his sins, deny them and turn to God, he will be alive and will 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 that the Lord sent for instruction, He will separate the Jews from other nations.
New prophecies
After 14 years of prophecy, Ezekiel again had a vision where he was transferred to Palestine, and a certain husband gave different dimensions to the construction of the Temple 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 sizes, so that the sons of Israel would repent and follow faithfully at 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 before the time when a new David appears, the prince-messiah will sit in them to eat bread before God
The vision of the Temple of God showed the liberation of the human race from the hostility of the work and structure of the Church of Christ through the Son of God, sent to atone for human sins and embodied through the Blessed Virgin Mary, called the prophet called the "gate closed" by which only the Lord passed.
It is known that the holy Old Testament prophet expelled the wicked people from the tribe of Gad, sending a serpent to them. He also predicted 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 exposed a Jewish prince in idolatry, and then he had to undergo a terrible execution. It was ordered to bind the prophet's body to wild horses, which tore him into four parts. But there were pious Jews who collected pieces of the torn body of the prophet and buried him on the field of Maura in the tomb of the ancestors of Abraham Sim and Arfaxad, near the city of Bogdadad.
Holy Prophet's Day: Ezekiel and the memory of him
This ancient prophet had the gift of miracles from God, as did the last Old Testament prophet Moses. Praying before the Lord, he once divided the River Khovar, and thus the Jews were able to go to the opposite side to avoid the persecution of the Chaldeans. And when the famine came, he begged God for food for the starving.
Believing Christians celebrate the day of the prophet Ezekiel on August 3.
Hierarch Dimitri of Rostov drew the attention of believers to the words from the book of the prophet Ezekiel, which says that a righteous man who, hoping for his righteousness, dare to sin, and die in sin, will be judged for sin and be punished. And a sinner who repents of his sins will die in forgiveness, and he will not be remembered by the Lord for sins.
The akathist to the prophet Ezekiel begins with a prayer: "Prophesied of God by Ezekiel, foreseen shut by the Spirit of the gate and the Carpenter, at the end of these, He once said to God, pray, let him open the door of His mercy and save souls who reverently sing your memory."