Please read Ezekiel 1-24 for our first session (concentrating on 1-10), and Ezekiel 25-48 for the second session (concentrating on 33-48).

1. The Rabbis said not to study Ezekiel until at least age 30.  Why do you suppose this is so?  What reason would they have for telling young people not to read Ezekiel?

2. Ezekiel is a slightly younger contemporary of Jeremiah, living through the same events that turned Jeremiah into “the weeping prophet.”  However, Ezekiel seems less mournful than Jeremiah.  Why do you think this is so?

3. Ezekiel came from a priestly family.  How would the events of his time been particularly difficult for a priest?  In what ways are priestly interests reflected in Ezekiel.

4. If you didn’t have your study Bible to help you, what would you make of Ezekiel’s vision in Chapter One?  Why is this vision important in the life of Ezekiel?

5. Ezekiel’s message is a mournful one, yet he finds it sweet.  How can this be?

6. Ezekiel is commanded to do odd (and difficult) things. Why all these strange commands?

7. What is the importance of the temple to Ezekiel?  What bothers him about temple worship and the behavior of the priests?  Why do the priests do the kinds of things they do in the temple?  How does Ezekiel’s discovery of secret priestly practice affect his life, attitude, and message.

8. In what ways are Ezekiel’s visions burdens?  In what ways to they make his prophetic burden easier to bear?

9. Which of Ezekiel’s images seem to you the most striking or most effective in getting people to listen to and respond to his message?

10.  Why do you suppose that the vision of the dry bones and the prophecies of Gog and Magog have captured imaginations in later times?

11. Why all the stuff about the temple in the end?  How is this a fitting conclusion to the book of Ezekiel?

12.  What did you find most difficult in the book of Ezekiel?  What did you find most encouraging?