Prophetic Actions: Speak louder than words?

Ezekiel 1-10 Uppercrust exilee Merkavah Mysticism: wheels, Gospellers faces?, burnished bronze, crystal, lightning Eat honey scroll Flint face: speak or die Actions: – Seven days stunned – Bound and speechless: 390/40, Ezekiel bread – Play war – Sword haircut: fire, scatter, hack – Clap and stamp – Dig through wall – Tremble while eating/drinking Arrows of famine/divine revenge Defile altars Bald faces, sackcloth Abomination: Tammuz, idols, Kidron Valley Mark of protection (vs. beast), Cain Cherubim/SeraphimExiles abandoned? Control future! Woe to false prophets Idols set up in hearts No hope- useless vines Eagle & 2 vines => cedar for all God faithful for God’s sake “Just parables?” Reversals: meat in a pot – Grapes & teeth on edge – Heart of stone – Delay of vision – Paying prostitute

Ezekiel Polished sword pierces thigh: vengeance or refinement? Forked road with signs Graphic abomination and conquering: two tents No mourning Punishing the rods: Moab and Ammon Destroying idols: Tyre, Sidon, Egypt, Ethiopia – Danel – “the Nile is mine” – Assyria, Elam as analogues: fallen cedar, place in Pit Prophet/priest as religious entertainment? Shepherds eating the sheep and their forage… Mt. Seir (Edom & Esau)- punishment for rejoicing Sanctify my Name- prophesy to the Land Kidron: dry bones & breath Joining sticks Gog Magog Prophesy to birds: dinner time New Temple, Recreate worship – Dimensions; palace missing – Zadok > Abiathar, Levites butchers – Nazirite priests – Princes alongside people – Water of life and expansion of land

An Exegetical Method What drew you to this passage? After reading it several times (in context), what does it seem to mean and be calling us towards? What would you like to learn more about within it? After consulting several translations (min. 3), are there any seemingly significant variances and what difference might they make? Are there any translation issues and what difference might they make?

An Exegetical Method Are there any images that can identify for further exploration? Consult a few varied commentaries, carefully weighing context and evaluating your own thoughts along the way. Include what is meaningful, but do not include information for its own sake. Conclude: What difference did your research make in what the passage might mean for you or your community? What is left unresolved an what further guesses do you have now about these items?

For next week… Conceive, in 500 or fewer words, of a prophetic deed that could be done in a church service and describe how it might embody a call to repentance. Read Daniel and Isaiah 40-65, paying careful attention to passages describing God’s servant and idols, and excerpt from A Grief Observed.