Home now, with my favorite Bible study tool, a word study dictionary. It also has a brief introduction for each book, which lays a foundation for reading.
“The name Ezekiel means ‘God strengthens’…”1 
- Knowing God strengthens us in our walk with Him through this life.
- Ezekiel was a prophet and a priest.1
- As a prophet, he proclaimed truth about God.
- A priest helps people draw near to God.
- Ezekiel’s words, as Scripture, will help us walk more closely with God.
- Ezekiel left Jerusalem during the second deportation to Babylon.
- He spent the rest of his life in Babylon as an exile.
*How might the meaning of Ezekiel’s name be relevant for us as we read?
Ezekiel had three purposes in writing:1
- to describe God’s judgment of Judah and Jerusalem for their sin.
- to encourage the exiles with the promise of future blessings for Israel.
- to emphasize God’s glory and His character.
The third purpose is evident in two phrases used more than 75 times in the book:1
“for mine holy name’s sake”
“they shall know that I am the Lord”
The dictionary introduction points out a key idea in the book of Ezekiel:
that “one possesses the qualities and characteristics of his father.”1
*How does the key idea in Ezekiel relate to our life with God today?
While we do not want to make the mistake of thinking we are God, we do want to develop Christ-like character.
“For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters” (Romans 8:29).
“We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. … But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did” (1 John 2:3, 5-6).
We spent time reading what Jesus said in Luke’s record so that we might better know God.
“Jesus answered… ‘Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father’…” (John 14:9).
*What does it mean to become like Jesus?
*How can we learn to live as Jesus did?
We seek God’s face in all of Scripture—to know God and become more like Jesus.
We want to learn more about His character, truth, and presence.
Seek God < — > Worship Him
*What does it mean to seek God?
*How does seeking God lead us to worship Him?
*How does worshiping God lead us to seek Him?
After King David defeated the Philistines, he settled in Jerusalem and prepared a place for the ark of God. As part of a service of sacrifice to the Lord, he appointed Levites to
“minister before the ark of the Lord, to extol, thank, and praise the Lord, the God of Israel” (1 Chronicles 16:4).
David gave the Levites a psalm to praise God, which also serves as a model for worship.
Psalm 105
1 Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name;
make known among the nations what he has done.
2 Sing to him, sing praise to him;
tell of all his wonderful acts.
3 Glory in his holy name;
let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.
4 Look to the Lord and his strength;
seek his face always.
1 Chronicles 16
8 Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name;
make known among the nations what he has done.
9 Sing to him, sing praise to him;
tell of all his wonderful acts.
10 Glory in his holy name;
let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.
11 Look to the Lord and his strength;
seek his face always.
*What can we learn from David’s psalm about how to worship God?
Jeremiah, whose ministry may have overlapped Ezekiel’s by about 10 years, wrote a letter to
“the surviving elders among the exiles and to the priests, the prophets and all the other people Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon” (Jeremiah 29:1).
The letter included these words, a good daily reminder, both in context (Israelites in Babylon) and for us today.
“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).
*How can we live out this reminder specifically, today?
The search for Bible verses that mention seeking God included words from Malachi that connect well as we prepare to read Ezekiel.
“’I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,’ says the Lord Almighty” (Malachi 3:1).
Paul proclaimed the God we worship to Gentiles in Greece.
“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us” (Acts 17:24-27).
If we earnestly seek and desire to know God and His character, we will find Him as we read His Word.
*What connections do you make between the verses about seeking God and our quest to know God better through this study?
1 Warren Baker, D.R.E., General Editor. The Complete Word Study Old Testament (King James Version). (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 1994) 1963.