Don’t ever think that God has deserted you

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Before we can appreciate this truth, we must get our bearings. Ezekiel was a prophet to the people of Judah during their years of captivity in Babylon. This captivity came about in three stages.

  • In 605 B.C. when Daniel and his friends were taken.
  • In 597 B.C. when ten thousand more of Judah’s citizens, including Ezekiel, were taken.
  • In 586 B.C. when Nebuchadnezzar and his forces dealt the final blow to Judah by destroying the city of Jerusalem and carrying away even more captives.

Ezekiel seems to have begun his prophetic ministry around 592 B.C. and continued it until the year 570. It was there in Babylon that Ezekiel received this vision of the cherubim. What did this mean?

 Many of the Jews had a tendency to believe that God was present only in the temple. On the basis of this vision, Ezekiel could assure his fellow captives that God was present there in Babylon just as he was in the temple of Jerusalem.
Our circumstances can be such that we can also be tempted to believe that God has abandoned us. It is not true! God never abandons his people. He is present with them even in their trials.

 Ellsworth, R. (2005). What the Bible Teaches about Angels (pp. 34–35). Darlington, England: Evangelical Press.

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