Prophet among ruins: how Ezekiel turned the sky and the earth upside downHe was a priest who saw his temple burn. He was an exile living among foreign rivers. But he became a voice that spoke in the name of God in the darkest times of Israel's history. Ezekiel is one of the most strange, terrifying, and greatest prophets of the Old Testament. His book is not just a collection of prophecies. It is a psychedelic drama, a political manifesto, an architectural drawing, and at the same time a poem about hope written in blood and ashes. His prophecies still sound like a challenge, a warning, and a promise. But to understand them, you need to immerse yourself in a world where the sky opens up and dry bones come to life.Who is Ezekiel: a priest without a templeEzekiel lived in the 6th century BC, in a pivotal era when the Jewish kingdom was collapsing under the pressure of Babylon. In 597 BC, before the final destruction of Jerusalem, he was taken into exile with the first wave of exiles. He settled by the river Chebar (the land between the Tigris and Euphrates), far from his homeland. There, among foreign fields and foreign gods, his calling came to him. At the age of thirty, on the day he calls \"the fifth day of the fourth month,\" he had a vision. It was not a quiet inner voice, but a storm, fire, light, and living creatures with four faces.From this moment on, Ezekiel becomes the \"Son of Man\" — he calls himself this ninety-three times in his book. This emphasizes his complete dependence on God, his role as a messenger who does not speak from himself. He is not just a prophet, he is the guardian of Israel. His task is to warn the people about sin and destruction, even if they do not listen. And he performs this task with terrifying literalness: he lies on his side for 390 days, symbolically bearing the sin of the house of Israel, eats unclean bread, cuts his hair and divides it into three parts, symbolizing the fate of the people. His life becomes the very book of pro ... Читать далее