E443 Navigating the Bible: Ezekiel

“So now, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will end the captivity of my people; I will have mercy on all Israel, for I jealously guard my hold reputation! They will accept responsibility for their past shame and unfaithfulness after they come home to live in peace in their own land, with no one to bother them. When I bring them home from the lands of their enemies, I will display my holiness among them for all the nations to see. Then my people will know that I am the Lord their God, because I sent them away to exile and brought them home again.” - Ezekiel 39:25-28 My guest today has previously started his teaching on Ezekiel this way: “Why in the world would anybody want to read Ezekiel let alone study this unbelievable and incomprehensible book?” When I heard this - I immediately knew he was the guy I wanted to help us navigate this book. Ezekiel is a diamond in the rough in the canon of the prophets. It’s message is similar to the prophets we’ve read already, Isaiah and Jeremiah, but with an element we hadn’t quite seen before. Right away in chapter 1 Ezekiel says, “From the center of the cloud came four living beings that looked human, except that each had four faces and four wings.” Again - this is chapter 1. We’re clearly off to something a little different with Ezekiel. And there’s nobody better to help us navigate this different book than Dr. Daniel Block. Dan is the Gunther H. Knoedler Professor Emeritus of Old Testament at Wheaton College and wrote a commentary on Ezekiel in 1998 that is still considered the gold standard commentary on Ezekiel. And you know what, Dan is still working on Ezekiel to this day. Doable Discipleship is a Saddleback Church podcast produced and hosted by Jason Wieland. It premiered in 2017 and now offers more than 400 episodes. Episodes release every Tuesday on your favorite podcast app and on the Saddleback Church YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/saddleback). Resources Related to This Episode: https://www.amazon