1 In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the Chebar canal, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. 2 On the fifth day of the month (it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin), 3 the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the Chebar canal, and the hand of the Lord was upon him there.
These verses constitute the superscription of the book, introducing the circumstances in which Ezekiel saw the remarkable vision described in the following verses. The 'thirtieth year' in 1 refers, most probably to Ezekiel's age in the fifth year of King Jeoiachin's captivity, i.e. 592 BC. Ezekiel would then have been twenty-five when the captivity took place, which means he was born about 622 BC. Even allowing for the approximateness of these dates this has great significance. King Josiah, who came to the throne about 638 BC (some say 640) began the extensive work of reformation and renewal in the eighth year of his reign (c 632-630), and discovered the book of the law in the Temple ten years later. It was this that led to the widespread spiritual awakening in the land, about the time when Ezekiel was born. To have been born in the midst of a revival, in some of the greatest days of the nation's history, and to have been brought up in Jerusalem at a time when Jeremiah was exercising his mighty ministry there, must surely have meant that Ezekiel's earliest memories were of times when the Spirit of God was abroad in the land and when a great man of God was exercising a tremendous ministry. That is a great time to be born, and it must certainly have shaped his early life in a decisive way. Here, then, was one whose future life and work was fashioned and directed in a time of awakening and renewal - the commentators are quick to point out that Ezekiel's prophecy shows all manner of influences from Jeremiah's writings. It is not difficult, surely, to apply this, and to make us realise that the lives of the children born into our fellowship may well be shaped decisively by the Spirit that is abroad among us at any given time. What a responsibility for any people, and what a challenge to prayer!