Week 32 Ezekiel 8-11
Ezekiel’s long vision starts geographically in Babylon. From there the Spirit lifted me (Ezekiel) into the sky and transported me in a vision to Jerusalem. Four chapters later the Spirit of God carried me back again to Babylon to the Judeans in exile.
Ezekiel’s vision left me with a few questions and one of them was: What / Who is the Man Dressed in the Linen Suit?
Ezekiel says that this man came into Jerusalem from the north. He was dressed in linen and carried a writer’s case strapped to his side. The man was given a specific task: walk through the streets of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of all those who weep because of the sins they see around them. So somehow he had an innate understanding of who loved the Lord and who despised him.
In the next chapter the Linen Man took live coals in his hand – which you wouldn’t normally expect someone to do.
So at first the Linen Man seems like a regular man. And he’s even called a man. But he has capacities a normal man doesn’t.
I checked a cross-reference in the margin. Daniel also saw a man dressed in linen. But that man had a body ‘that looked like a dazzling gem’.
Ezekiel’s man didn’t glow. But I think it’s safe to say he was some kind of agent of the Lord. Not just a regular guy.
Note: quotes from Ezekiel 8:3 11:24 9:2 4 Daniel 10:5-6 (NLT)