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| EZEKIEL |
| Explanatory Footnotes - page 3 |
| rescue, but its mighty armies never appeared. 32:21 The Afterlife Though eternal life shines through a few Old Testament passages (see "Life after Death"), life after death was extremely vague in most of the Old Testament. The grave was represented by a place called "Sheol." The fate of the nations described here as "within the grave" gives a vivid, eerie sense of death. 34:11 The Good Shepherd Ezekiel, who used strong imagery throughout his writing, developed the image of God as a shepherd with more detail than any other author in the Bible. To people who herded sheep for a living, the simile had tremendous impact. The same comparison is used repeatedly throughout the Bible. One much-loved passage is Psalm 23, which begins, "The Lord is my shepherd." Jesus called himself "the good shepherd" (John 10:11-16) and had compassion on crowds because they were like "sheep without a shepherd" (Mark 6:34). The image of God as a shepherd begins with Jacob (Genesis 48:15) and ends with Revelation 7:17. 36:27 A New Spirit Like Jeremiah, Ezekiel realized that Israel needed more than a fresh start. To avoid making the same mistakes all over again, they needed new motivation and orientation. God must work radical surgery on them, to implant a new heart and a new spirit. Jesus' followers believed that this began when the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost (Acts 2:17-21). 37:22 North and South Reunited Israel longed to be reunited. They had been split into two nations (sometimes at war) since the days of Solomon, over 300 years before. Yet, like East and West Germany and North and South Korea today, they had not forgotten their |