Weekly Overview

Picture yourself in Ezekiel's position. You were raised to serve in the temple at Jerusalem, and now you live in a farming settlement on a canal in Babylon, hundreds of miles from that temple. Ezekiel dates his first vision to “the fifth year of king Jehoiachin's captivity” (Ezekiel 1:2), about 593 BC. Jerusalem is still standing, but most people in the city have stopped listening to the Lord.

Beside the river Chebar, “the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God” (Ezekiel 1:1). Ezekiel sees a storm of fire, four living creatures, and wheels “full of eyes” that move in any direction. Above them is a throne, and on it “the likeness as the appearance of a man” (Ezekiel 1:26). Ezekiel calls this “the likeness of the glory of the Lord” and falls on his face (Ezekiel 1:28). The Lord who filled the temple has come to His people in exile. His presence is not confined to one building or one land.

The Lord sends Ezekiel to “a rebellious nation” (Ezekiel 2:3) and gives him a scroll to eat. It is full of “lamentations, and mourning, and woe,” and yet it tastes “as honey for sweetness” (Ezekiel 2:10; 3:3). Because Ezekiel takes in the Lord's word himself before he speaks it, the message becomes his own. Then he sits “where they sat” among the captives for seven days (Ezekiel 3:15) before he says anything.

The Lord then names his calling: “I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel” (Ezekiel 3:17). A watchman who sees the enemy coming and blows the trumpet has “delivered [his] soul,” even if the people ignore him (Ezekiel 33:9). If he stays silent, the people's blood is on his hands. Jacob in the Book of Mormon felt the same weight as a teacher. He worked “that their blood might not come upon our garments” (Jacob 1:19).

As you read, watch for the reason behind the warnings. The Lord says, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live” (Ezekiel 33:11). This week, notice the warnings that come to you through living prophets, and ask what the Lord wants to save you from.

In the twelfth year of the captivity, a survivor reaches Ezekiel with the news: “The city is smitten” (Ezekiel 33:21). Jerusalem and its temple are gone. The question Ezekiel's people asked earlier now hangs over all of them: “If our transgressions and our sins be upon us… how should we then live?” (Ezekiel 33:10).

Ezekiel 34 explains who failed them. In the ancient Near East, “shepherd” was a title for kings. Ezekiel's audience would have understood “the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves” (Ezekiel 34:2) to mean Judah's kings and leaders. They ate the fat and wore the wool, but “the diseased have ye not strengthened… neither have ye sought that which was lost” (Ezekiel 34:4). So the sheep were scattered.

Then the Lord promises, “I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out” (Ezekiel 34:11). He will seek the lost, bring back those “driven away,” bind up the broken, and strengthen the sick (Ezekiel 34:16). He will set up “one shepherd… even my servant David” (Ezekiel 34:23). David had been dead for four hundred years, so this points to a future King from David's line. Jesus Christ fulfilled it when He said, “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). After His Resurrection He told Peter three times to feed His sheep (John 21:15–17).

Elder Gerrit W. Gong taught about this kind of shepherding in “Ministering” (April 2023 general conference). As you read verse 16, think about the people in your ward, your family, and your ministering assignment. Some are lost, some were driven away, some are injured, and some are worn out. This week, choose one person and do one thing a good shepherd would do for them.

After Jerusalem falls, the exiles say, “Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost” (Ezekiel 37:11). The Lord answers them with promises and with two signs.

In Ezekiel 36 He promises to gather Israel from every country, sprinkle clean water on them, and do more: “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26). Then He will “put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes” (Ezekiel 36:27). King Benjamin's people described this same change. Because of the Spirit, they had “no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually” (Mosiah 5:2).

In Ezekiel 37 the Spirit sets Ezekiel in a valley of dry bones. The Lord asks, “Can these bones live?” and Ezekiel answers, “O Lord God, thou knowest” (Ezekiel 37:3). When Ezekiel prophesies, the bones come together and flesh covers them, “but there was no breath in them” (Ezekiel 37:8). Only when breath comes from the four winds do they stand up, “an exceeding great army” (Ezekiel 37:10). In Hebrew one word, ruach, means breath, wind, and spirit, so Ezekiel's readers would see that Israel lives again only when the Lord puts His Spirit in them (Ezekiel 37:14). The vision also promises a literal resurrection: “I will open your graves” (Ezekiel 37:12).

Next, Ezekiel writes “For Judah” on one stick and “For Joseph” on another and joins them “into one stick” (Ezekiel 37:17). The word for stick means wood, and scribes in Babylon wrote on hinged wooden boards. Latter-day Saints read the stick of Judah as the Bible and the stick of Joseph as the Book of Mormon, written by Lehi's descendants through Joseph. Lehi's prophecy says these records “shall grow together” (2 Nephi 3:12). President Russell M. Nelson called the gathering of Israel the most important work on earth (“Hope of Israel,” June 2018). As you read, look for where the Bible and the Book of Mormon each brought you closer to Christ.

Near the end of his book, Ezekiel sees a restored temple. Water comes out “from under the threshold of the house eastward” (Ezekiel 47:1). A man with a measuring line leads him through it. After a thousand cubits it is ankle-deep, then knee-deep, then waist-deep, and finally “a river that could not be passed over” (Ezekiel 47:5). A stream that grows deeper the farther it flows from its source is not how rivers behave in nature, so the Lord is showing that the source is Him.

The river runs east through the desert into the Dead Sea, which is so salty that nothing can live in it. When the river reaches it, “the waters shall be healed… and every thing shall live whither the river cometh” (Ezekiel 47:8–9). Fishermen spread their nets from En-gedi, and trees along the banks bear fruit every month, “and the leaf thereof for medicine” (Ezekiel 47:12). John saw the same river and tree in Revelation 22:1–2.

Elder Dale G. Renlund applied this vision to temple and family history work in “Family History and Temple Work: Sealing and Healing” (April 2018). He taught that blessings flowing from the temple heal families and individuals. This week, think about what in your life feels like the Dead Sea, and take it to the Lord in His house or in your temple preparation.