Ezekiel Front Matter
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“A superb treatment of a tough prophetic book. I am enthusiastic in commending this excellent exposition!”
“Landon Dowden’s Ezekiel is the best available pastoral commentary on this significant book of the Bible. Dowden provides a responsible exegesis of Ezekiel, grounds it in the hope of the gospel, applies it to the lives of ordinary people, and communicates it in a lucid and lively manner. Highly recommended.”
“Landon Dowden has provided an insightful commentary on the book of Ezekiel as seen through the eyes of a pastor wanting to inform the Christian community concerning the key theological principles found in this pivotal Old Testament book. He faithfully adheres to the purposes of the Christ-Centered Commentary series by focusing on the practical theological issues that the Israelite community of faith faced five to six centuries before Christ’s ministry, and then relating them to those faced by the Christian community in the present. Such principles as the character and attributes of God, the nature and content of God’s Word, the call to repentance, His discipline of His people, and His demand for holiness from His people are given careful and practical considerations.
“The structure of providing guides for interpretation through questions for furthering the reader’s understanding of the meaning of the text is well developed. Each subsection begins by asking an essential question that demands a faith response of the Christian. Major sections conclude with a series of practical questions that can facilitate personal devotional reading and group interaction. Above all the commentary is designed to glorify Christ, who was God’s goal of history for all ages.”
“Landon is a master craftsman in creating expository messages. He has taken a book of the Bible many have shied away from preaching and has made it accessible and applicable to everyday disciples. Add this resource to your preaching repertoire and be well equipped to develop and deliver expository, Christ-exalting sermons.”
“Landon Dowden is a friend and former student, so I had to fight a ‘hometown hero’ instinct to objectively evaluate and/or endorse his work when the opportunity arose. I probably cast a more critical eye as I read than I would have done had I not been so familiar with Dr. Dowden and his ministry. Still, I was impressed. Some commentators either write for an academic audience or for preachers who are just trying to get a word for Sunday morning. The expositor’s commentary is exactly what it promises. It is technical enough to appreciate the excellent scholarship, but also comprehensible for a layperson who is preparing a Bible study class. As I would have expected, Dr. Dowden gives radical attention to what the text actually says, not what we would like for it to say. I will look forward to collecting the whole set.”
“Landon Dowden is known for his faithful exposition and dynamic sermon delivery. I rejoice to see his work now in print. If you desire to study Ezekiel in your own devotional life or to expound it to others (and you should consider both!), then pick up this fresh, readable, insightful, God-centered, Christ-exalting commentary. It’s outstanding! I plan on using it for years to come.”
“For years I have taught a doctoral seminar in expository preaching with Dr. Dowden. I have marveled at how he helps pastors become better preachers, and I have often thought how wonderful it would be if every preacher had the opportunity to learn from him. Now that his commentary on Ezekiel is available, they do! This book is a gold mine of gospel preaching from Ezekiel and a superb model of Bible exposition. Dr. Dowden is an exemplary expository preacher, Bible teacher, and teacher of preachers. Buy everything he writes and study it.”
Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary: Exalting Jesus in Ezekiel
© Copyright 2015 by Landon Dowden
B&H Publishing Group
Nashville, Tennessee
All rights reserved.
ISBN 978-0-8054-9697-0
Dewey Decimal Classification: 220.7
Subject Heading: BIBLE. O.T. EZEKIEL—COMMENTARIES\
JESUS CHRIST
Unless otherwise stated all Scripture quotations are from the Holman Christian Standard Bible® Copyright 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission.
Scripture marked MSG is taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.
Printed in the United States of America
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VP
SERIES DEDICATION
Dedicated to Adrian Rogers and John Piper. They have taught us to love the gospel of Jesus Christ, to preach the Bible as the inerrant Word of God, to pastor the church for which our Savior died, and to have a passion to see all nations gladly worship the Lamb.
—David Platt, Tony Merida, and Danny Akin
March 2013
AUTHOR’S DEDICATION
To Tara, Arabella, Adalaide, Adoniram, and Alastair,
my five precious gifts from God.
May God strengthen you to know and proclaim
He is Yahweh!
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Without any triteness I am grateful for a God whose steadfast love overcomes all of my rebellion. I pray that His atonement and adoption always steal my breath. I am grateful He aided me not just to get through the book of Ezekiel but also to see that it is lodged in me. Any fruit that comes from this commentary will be a work of His grace alone.
I will forever be grateful for both the sacrifices and the support of my family. My beautiful gift from God, Tara, has given up time together so that I could study, prepare sermons, study some more, and write this commentary. You will never have to hear again the phrase, “I need to work on the Ezekiel commentary!” Thank you for all the care you have given the children and me during this season. My additional blessings from God—Arabella, Adalaide, Adoniram, and Alastair—have given up lots of playtime with Daddy. I love each of you so much and pray God will use you for His glory and the good of others. Thank you also to my mother, Barbara, to my sister, Larilyn, to my in-laws, TK and Rita, and to Aunt Frances for your prayers, your encouragement, and all of your help with the children. I love you and thank God for you.
I am blessed to shepherd the Church at Trace Crossing. What is found on these pages you bore as a trial run. Thank you for desiring God’s Word and being willing to journey through a sermon series in Ezekiel. I’m certain some of you thought Christ would return before we finished the series or I finished this work! Thank you for every prayer and note of encouragement. I especially want to thank my fellow elders and our staff, whose sacrifices made it possible for me to have time to study and write. Thank you to Barton Ramsey, in particular, for always being trustworthy in the pulpit.
With regard to exposition, I owe a deep gratitude to my mentor, Jim Shaddix. No one has taught me more about seeking to rightly divide God’s Word. I am grateful for the Lord’s good providences in bringing me to New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and for Dr. Shaddix’s bringing me into his home. Every faithful sermon I (and many others) deliver is a fruit of his investment into my life and preaching.
Lastly, thank you to Danny Akin, Tony Merida, and David Platt for the opportunity to contribute to this great commentary series. Thank you for your trust and for enduring my whining. I count it among my highest privileges to call each of you friend.
Landon Dowden
Augustine said, “Where Scripture speaks, God speaks.” The editors of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series believe that where God speaks, the pastor must speak. God speaks through His written Word. We must speak from that Word. We believe the Bible is God breathed, authoritative, inerrant, sufficient, understandable, necessary, and timeless. We also affirm that the Bible is a Christ-centered book; that is, it contains a unified story of redemptive history of which Jesus is the hero. Because of this Christ-centered trajectory that runs from Genesis 1 through Revelation 22, we believe the Bible has a corresponding global-missions thrust. From beginning to end, we see God’s mission as one of making worshipers of Christ from every tribe and tongue worked out through this redemptive drama in Scripture. To that end we must preach the Word.
In addition to these distinct convictions, the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series has some distinguishing characteristics. First, this series seeks to display exegetical accuracy. What the Bible says is what we want to say. While not every volume in the series will be a verse-by-verse commentary, we nevertheless desire to handle the text carefully and explain it rightly. Those who teach and preach bear the heavy responsibility of saying what God has said in His Word and declaring what God has done in Christ. We desire to handle God’s Word faithfully, knowing that we must give an account for how we have fulfilled this holy calling (Jas 3:1).
Second, the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series has pastors in view. While we hope others will read this series, such as parents, teachers, small-group leaders, and student ministers, we desire to provide a commentary busy pastors will use for weekly preparation of biblically faithful and gospel-saturated sermons. This series is not academic in nature. Our aim is to present a readable and pastoral style of commentaries. We believe this aim will serve the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Third, we want the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series to be known for the inclusion of helpful illustrations and theologically driven applications. Many commentaries offer no help in illustrations, and few offer any kind of help in application. Often those that do offer illustrative material and application unfortunately give little serious attention to the text. While giving ourselves primarily to explanation, we also hope to serve readers by providing inspiring and illuminating illustrations coupled with timely and timeless application.
Finally, as the name suggests, the editors seek to exalt Jesus from every book of the Bible. In saying this, we are not commending wild allegory or fanciful typology. We certainly believe we must be constrained to the meaning intended by the divine Author Himself, the Holy Spirit of God. However, we also believe the Bible has a messianic focus, and our hope is that the individual authors will exalt Christ from particular texts. Luke 24:25-27,44-47 and John 5:39,46 inform both our hermeneutics and our homiletics. Not every author will do this the same way or have the same degree of Christ-centered emphasis. That is fine with us. We believe faithful exposition that is Christ centered is not monolithic. We do believe, however, that we must read the whole Bible as Christian Scripture. Therefore, our aim is both to honor the historical particularity of each biblical passage and to highlight its intrinsic connection to the Redeemer.
The editors are indebted to the contributors of each volume. The reader will detect a unique style from each writer, and we celebrate these unique gifts and traits. While distinctive in their approaches, the authors share a common characteristic in that they are pastoral theologians. They love the church, and they regularly preach and teach God’s Word to God’s people. Further, many of these contributors are younger voices. We think these new, fresh voices can serve the church well, especially among a rising generation that has the task of proclaiming the Word of Christ and the Christ of the Word to the lost world.
We hope and pray this series will serve the body of Christ well in these ways until our Savior returns in glory. If it does, we will have succeeded in our assignment.
David Platt
Daniel L. Akin
Tony Merida
Series Editors
February 2013