The name of Saint Ezekiel, who lived at the turn of VII-VIcenturies, means "God is strong" or "the Lord will strengthen." He is one of the greatest prophets of the Old Testament and a contemporary of Jeremiah and Daniel. The prophet Ezekiel, the photo of which will be presented below, was born in the city of Sarira, was a priest, as was his father Vusia, and also a supporter of the establishment 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, as well as King Jehoiachin with his whole court, was sent to the Babylonian captivity by a number of noble grandees and subordinates of 10 thousand people. At the same time, all the precious church vessels were taken out of the Jerusalem Temple.
The Prophet settled in Tel Aviv, where he flowedthe largest navigable river Khovar, 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 exiled Jews, Ezekiel's home became the spiritual center, where they flocked to crowds to hear God's revelations.
After five years of captivity, the prophet Ezekiel, praying on the bank of the river, received revelation and witnessed the greatness of the Glory of the Lord.
The chariot of the four winged cherubs carriedGod Cherubs 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. When they walked, the noise was like during a severe thunderstorm. And between them was a bright glow, like lightning and fire. Near these celestial beings there were four wheels with rims on which were eyes. They moved together. Above them was a vault of crystal, and above the vault supposedly of a sapphire throne, and on it sat a semblance of a man in a glowing metal fire, around which a radiance resembled a rainbow.
Ezekiel fell on his face and heard a voiceGod, who told 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 moan, and grief." Then he was told to eat the scroll, and then he felt the honey on his lips. The Holy Spirit lifted him up, and he heard behind the noise of the wings of the cherubs and a voice praising the name of the Lord.
After that, he returned home and was seven days outin amazement, the prophet could not even speak. After a period of time, Ezekiel again heard the voice of the Lord, who addressed him and said that he had appointed him a guardian of the house of Israel, and that now he must listen to him and through him instruct his people. So God laid the responsibility on the prophet for those to whom he was sent.
22 years old was in constant vigil of the ProphetEzekiel, looking from the height of his spiritual condition, constantly turned to God. He prophesied with words and symbolic gestures 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 announce forgiveness and the coming rebirth.
After another vision of the glory of the Lord, the prophetEzekiel, dumbfounded, retired to his home. Taking a brick, he painted on it the walls of Jerusalem and the siege around them. Then God told him to lie to him first for 390 days on his left side, and then 40 days on his right, he got the number 430 - the years of the Egyptian captivity.
Ezekiel at the same time took despicable foodand very meager baked on cow dung to show the iniquity of Israel, which was expected to be expelled. He predicted that few of the people would be saved.
In the sixth year of exile, the prophet Ezekiel sawthat fiery man in the chariot who took him, carried him to the inner gates of the Temple of Jerusalem and showed how the Jews set up the statue of Astarte during the time of Manasseh and indulged in unholy action.
And the Glory of God, who was there, sent tothis city is a man dressed in linen, so that he put a sign on the body of those who cry about the abominations being committed, and in order to throw a handful of embers taken from under the cherubim wheels and throw it 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.
The vision ended, the Spirit brought him back to Chaldea.The Holy Prophet told his exiles everything he saw. He forced them to break a hole in the wall, as it was an omen of the expulsion of the people of Jerusalem, and the king of Judah, Zedekiah, would be captured right by the cut wall of the city. After a while everything came true. He also predicted that the country would be devastated, and that everyone would recognize the true God. Then he denounced the false prophets.
When the wrath of God subsides, the people who have been cleared by trials will be reconciled with God by the eternal Covenant.
In the foreshadowing of the New Testament, the prophetpredicts that after reconciliation, no one will be responsible for the sins of the ancestors, as was the case in the Old Testament, but everyone will be judged the way they appear before God. And if the sinner repents of his sins, denies them and turns to God, he will live and not die. Because the Lord does not want the death of a sinner.
The Holy Prophet promises the Judean people that after the period of exile sent by the Lord to the instruction, He will isolate the Jews in relation to other nations and peoples.
After 14 years of prophecy, Ezekiel was againa vision where he was transferred to Palestine, and a certain husband gave different measurements for 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 dimensions, so that the sons of Israel would repent and follow faithfully at the command of the new Law and build the Temple of God.
Он добавил, что врата Храма с восточной стороны, through which the Glory of God entered, must be closed for many centuries until the time when the new David appears, the Prince-Messiah will sit in them to eat bread before God
Видение о Храме Божием показало освобождение рода human from the enemy of work and the device of the Church of Christ through the Son of God, sent in atonement for human sins and incarnated through the Most Holy Virgin Mary, a prophet called “closed gate”, which passed only the Lord.
It is known that the holy Old Testament Prophet expelledthe wicked people of the tribe of Gad, sending snakes upon them. He also predicted to them that they would not repent and therefore would not return to the land of their fathers. No longer wanting to listen to Ezekiel’s accusatory prophecies, they stoned him.
Ezekiel once denounced a Jewish princein idolatry, and then he had to undergo a terrible penalty. It was ordered to tie the body of the prophet to wild horses, which tore it 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 Mawr in the tomb of the progenitors of Abraham Shem and Arfaksad, near the city of Bogdadad.
This ancient prophet had a gift from Godmiracles, like the last Old Testament prophet Moses. Praying before the Lord, he once divided the Khovar River, and so the Jews were able to go to the opposite side to avoid persecuting the Chaldeans. And when famine came, he begged food from God for the hungry.
The day of the prophet Ezekiel believing Christians celebrate August 3.
St. Dimitri of Rostov paid attentionbelievers in the words of the book of the prophet Ezekiel, in which it is written that a righteous person who, hoping for his righteousness, dares to sin and dies in sin, will be judged for sin and must be punished. And a sinner who repents of his sins will die in forgiveness, and he will not be remembered by the Lord for his sins.
The akathist to the prophet Ezekiel begins with a prayer:"In the prophecy of God to Ezekiel, the pre-ripe Spirit-gate and the Plot bearer, at the end of these, Saying one God, pray for Him, pray, let him open the door of His grace and save the souls of piously singing your memory."
