Peter, Are You Serious? Ezekiel?

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In this series of posts, we’re verifying Peter’s words—all the prophets foretold his generation, its events, and the consequences of those events (Acts 3:24). In roughly chronological order, we have confirmed that Moses, Samuel, Obadiah, Joel, Amos, Jonah, Hosea, Micah, Isaiah, Zephaniah, Nahum, Jeremiah,  Habakkuk, and Daniel did so. Now, let’s look at Ezekiel. Did he too speak about the days in which Peter lived?¹

We might regard Ezekiel as the “audio-visual aids prophet” because of his graphic imagery. He was born in the eighteenth year of King Josiah’s reign, the year the king began his reforms (ca. 621 BC). The prophet’s name means “God strengthens” or “God is strong.” His ministry comprises two phases: in Judah from age 30 to the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC, and afterwards in Babylon ministering to the Jews in captivity.

In interpreting this book, we should consider observations like the following: 

While Ezekiel has been neglected by the church at large, it has come to be the happy hunting ground of cultists, critics and curiosity mongers. The modern negative critics regard Ezekiel as pivotal in their topsy-turvy reconstruction of Old Testament history which views the tripartite priesthood as a scribal concoction from Babylon rather than a divine revelation from Sinai. Ezekiel is cited by self-styled “students of prophecy” as proof that God’s plan for the future includes the modern Zionist movement (Jews returning to Palestine in unbelief), an imminent Russian invasion of Israel, and the reinstitution of the Old Testament animal sacrificial system in a Temple shortly to be constructed in Jerusalem. Science fiction buffs have scoured this book in search of spaceships and extra-terrestrial beings who pawned themselves off as God. Mormons regard Ezekiel 37:15–23 as the prophetic allusion to the Book of Mormon (stick of Ephraim) being joined to the Bible (stick of Judah).²

Still, these sensational misuses of this prophecy should not rob us of seeing the clear lessons God has for us here. 

Perhaps the Apostle Peter was thinking of passages like the following when he spoke the words in Acts 3:24.

The New Heart

Ezekiel said that in his future, God would do a marvelous work. The Lord said,

Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God. (Ezek 11:19–20; cf. Ezek 36:26–27)

Much of Ezekiel’s message deals with God’s promise to regather Israel from Babylon, and this section (Ezek 11:14–24) is no exception. However, through the use of protensive language, the prophet moves from “I will gather you from the peoples” (i.e., Babylon; Ezek 11:17) to “I will give them one heart” (Ezek 11:19). 

The New Testament shows that this promise of heart-work belongs to the messianic age that God was establishing in Peter’s generation. The Apostle Paul describes it:

The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness. (Rom 10:8–10)

Peter and the other apostles witnessed God giving His people a new heart as they preached the gospel of the kingdom (cf. Acts 16:15).

The Land

There is another hint in this passage that Ezekiel was speaking of the Apostles’ day. Through Ezekiel, God said he would regather Israel from Babylon to the land he had promised to Abraham. He said, “Thus says the Lord GOD … ‘I will give you the land of Israel’” (Ezek 11:17). 

The New Testament shows that this physical land was a picture (or type) of the true inheritance of God’s people. The Old Testament saints in the Hall of Faith “[desired] a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them” (Heb 11:16).

God revealed the “inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven” to Peter and the men of his generation (1 Pet 1:4). 

The Good Shepherd

Ezekiel said that God would one day do the work of a shepherd. He would have one fold:

Thus says the Lord GOD: “Indeed I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out.… I will establish one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them—My servant David. He shall feed them and be their shepherd. (Ezek 34:11, 23)

Jesus declared Himself to be that Shepherd:

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.… And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd. (John 10:11, 16)

In this way, Ezekiel spoke of Peter’s days. 

The First Resurrection

At the risk of getting into controversial territory, I’ll mention Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones (Ezek 37:1–28). Ezekiel wrote the following: “Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: ‘Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live’” (Ezek 37:5). This statement pertains to the “whole house of Israel” (Ezek 37:11).

Using the inmillennial prophetic model,³ I understand this passage to be about Israel as defined in the New Testament. Under the New Covenant, Paul says, 

He is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God. (Rom 2:28–29)

Paul says God has resurrected Israel, thus defined: 

God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.… (Eph 2:4–6)

The Apostle John speaks of two resurrections: the first is the saints’ resurrection with Christ, and the second is the resurrection of our mortal bodies at the end of history (cf. John 5:21–29; Rev 20:5–6). 

The first resurrection occurred in Peter’s day. 

The New House of God

In the vision of dry bones, God told Ezekiel about the temple in which resurrected Israel would worship: 

Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them, and it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; I will establish them and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary in their midst forevermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them; indeed I will be their God, and they shall be My people. (Ezek 37:26–27)

The apostles said God had established that temple in their generation. Paul said to the Corinthians, “And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people’” (2 Cor 6:16). 

Peter agreed, saying to Christians, “You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 2:5). 

Conclusion

Once again, Peter was right; Ezekiel joined the other Old Testament writers in speaking of essential events in the apostles’ generation.

1. The image in this post is Ezekiel’s Vision by Raphael (1483–1520). This file (here) is in the public domain (PD-US).
2. James E. Smith, The Major Prophets, Old Testament Survey Series (Joplin, MO: College Press, 1992), 353–54.
3. Please consider becoming familiar with the inmillennial view of prophecy. You can read a summary version here or tackle the full book-length version here. The title of the book—Inmillennialism: Redefining the Last Days—hints at the reason for my suggestion. This model says the “last days” are identical to Peter’s “these days”; both terms refer to the “last days” of the Mosaic age. This perspective will shed light on the prophets as we work through them.