The words introduce a further message, with the word of the Lord coming to Ezekiel as God's mouthpiece. It came to him among Israel's captives in Babylonia by the river Chebar, while Jeremiah was prophesying in Jerusalem. The prophecies of Ezekiel were given from about 595 to 574 BC.
The passage to which it belongs, Ezekiel 12:2-21, concerns literal Israel when carried to literal Babylon and held there for 70 years while the land enjoyed its sabbath. It stands within the first twenty chapters of Ezekiel, in which God showed His overruling providence over the nations. This was done through wonderful visions of living creatures, understood as angels arranged to typify might, patience, wisdom and glory, with wheels within wheels all in order to Him to show that God was ruling. The four symbols are the same as the four standards under which the camp of Israel was pitched.
The words introduce a further message, with the word of the Lord coming to Ezekiel as God's mouthpiece. It came to him among Israel's captives in Babylonia by the river Chebar, while Jeremiah was prophesying in Jerusalem. The prophecies of Ezekiel were given from about 595 to 574 BC.
The passage to which it belongs, Ezekiel 12:2-21, concerns literal Israel when carried to literal Babylon and held there for 70 years while the land enjoyed its sabbath. It stands within the first twenty chapters of Ezekiel, in which God showed His overruling providence over the nations. This was done through wonderful visions of living creatures, understood as angels arranged to typify might, patience, wisdom and glory, with wheels within wheels all in order to Him to show that God was ruling. The four symbols are the same as the four standards under which the camp of Israel was pitched.