Ezekiel | Overview

Ezekiel: Jesus our Glorious Shepherd 

  1. Chapters 1-3 Ezekiel’s call and close encounter
  2. Chapters 4-24 Judah’s judgment
  3. Chapters 25-32 What comes around goes around
  4. Chapters 33-48 A hope and a future  

Ezekiel like Jeremiah was a priest and a prophet during Judah’s darkest days, (the 70 year Babylonian captivity). His name means “Strengthened by God” and fits him as he wrote these words while in captivity to his fellow countrymen as God shared through him three specific things:

  • That what they needed now was a fresh glimpse of God’s glory and goodness.
  • That the reason for their captivity was rebellion and a move away from their relationship with their God
  • That God will judge the nations that have destroyed them and will restore their relationship with Him. 

A French philosopher once wrote that, “Every man carries within himself the history of the world”. In other words that which is recorded in mankind’s history in the world is also written in our own personal life. Paul said in 1 Cor. 10:11 that, “all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” Then he further said in 1 Cor. 10:13 that “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” Ezekiel was the first of two prophets that God used during the captivity as he wrote during the first 25 years and the 2nd was Daniel who wrote primarily over the final 50 years. The time frame of Ezekiel’s prophecy was after the 2nd dispersion but prior to the third. In 605 BC Nebuchadnezzar destroyed part of Jerusalem and took off the first captives among this group would have been Daniel and his friends. Eight years latter in 597 BC because of the rebellion of the two kings Jehoiakim and Jehoiachin Nebuchadnezzar further ransacked Jerusalem and took 10,000 more captives including the king along with Ezekiel. Eleven years after this (during this time Ezekiel writes a good portion of his prophecies) in 586 BC Nebuchadnezzar completely destroyed the city. Ezekiel was around the same age as Daniel but wrote to the captives that they weren’t going to be going back home any time soon and most likely finished the book when he was around 57 and died at the age of 62.  

So to this priest without a temple to serve in God speaks to him about what the people need is not to be brought back to where they once were but a fresh glimpse of God’s glory as it is Him that we worship not where we worship that matters. Oh how much this is like us? Far too often we cry out to God to change our surroundings, to bring us back those things that we lost and instead we should be crying out not for God to restore what we lost but rather to deliver us from us and to bring us a fresh encounter with His character and nature. Such is what God spoke through Ezekiel to those who were captive.      


Chapters 1-3 Ezekiel’s call and close encounter

Here in these first 3 chapters God reveals Himself to Ezekiel in a vision of His glory and power and then calls him to be His prophet. In Ezekiel 1:4-14 Ezekiel tries to use human terms to describe the mystery and majesty of the nature of God. He says, “I looked, and behold, a whirlwind was coming out of the north, a great cloud with raging fire engulfing itself; and brightness was all around it and radiating out of its midst like the color of amber, out of the midst of the fire. Also from within it came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: they had the likeness of a man. Each one had four faces, and each one had four wings. Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the soles of calves’ feet. They sparkled like the color of burnished bronze. The hands of a man were under their wings on their four sides; and each of the four had faces and wings. Their wings touched one another. The creatures did not turn when they went, but each one went straight forward. As for the likeness of their faces, each had the face of a man; each of the four had the face of a lion on the right side, each of the four had the face of an ox on the left side, and each of the four had the face of an eagle. Thus were their faces. Their wings stretched upward; two wings of each one touched one another, and two covered their bodies. And each one went straight forward; they went wherever the spirit wanted to go, and they did not turn when they went. As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches going back and forth among the living creatures. The fire was bright, and out of the fire went lightning. And the living creatures ran back and forth, in appearance like a flash of lightning.” 

So too a priest without a temple, a people because of their sin God reveals to them the way back is a fresh glimpse of His presence. Ezekiel describes as best he could with human words the immensity, authority, power and illumination of the nature of God as He reveals Himself to Ezekiel. One must not think that we could possible unlock the mystery of Ezekiel’s revelation as to do so would only reveal a greater wonder. The more we see of the glimpse of God’s nature the more we come to realize that as Habakkuk would say in 3:6 that “His ways are everlasting”. It has well been noted that the likeness of four living creatures bare a resemblance to John’s vision in Revelation chapter 4 which many commentators remark speak to us of the four gospels. And to my way of thinking this makes sense as one considers the words of Jesus as the Gospels unveil Jesus and Jesus said in John 14:9 “He who has seen Me has seen the Father”. The best way to see God is to read the gospels and discover by way of the Holy Spirit Who Jesus said in John 14:26 “will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” Incase there is any doubt with regards to Ezekiel’s vision he writes in Ezekiel 1:26-28 that “above the firmament over their heads was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like a sapphire stone; on the likeness of the throne was a likeness with the appearance of a man high above it. Also from the appearance of His waist and upward I saw, as it were, the color of amber with the appearance of fire all around within it; and from the appearance of His waist and downward I saw, as it were, the appearance of fire with brightness all around. Like the appearance of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the brightness all around it. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.” And Ezekiel’s response was “So when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard a voice of One speaking.” Dear ones, what we need today is not to reclaim what we have lost, to rebuild what we have destroyed, NO, we need to seek Him afresh, we need a NEW encounter with our God Who will if we so seek Him obliges us with His presence. Oh it won’t be what it once was it will be more glorious then we could describe. Never forget my friends, before there is a call there must always first be an encounter with the living God. 

And in the second chapter we are told in Ezekiel 2:1-3 that the Lord said to Ezekiel, “Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak to you.” Then the Spirit entered me when He spoke to me, and set me on my feet; and I heard Him who spoke to me. And He said to me: “Son of man, I am sending you to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against Me; they and their fathers have transgressed against Me to this very day.” I see two things that are a necessity for us before we are sent:

  1. An encounter that cause us to fall on our face to the One who has been speaking. How long has He been speaking and revealing Himself to us and we have not been listening? Am I to assume that He was not willing to reveal Himself to me? No, it has been me who was not willing to seek for more of Him!
  2. Next I must have the Holy Spirit to fall afresh upon me and set me on my feet. The Holy Spirit is not an option He is a necessity if I am to be of use and set on my feet again. Have God’s people become to cleaver, to sophisticated, to technological to depend upon the Holy Spirit alone for the work that He has called us too? 

Oh and look at what the Lord says to Ezekiel in 2:5,-7 “As for them, whether they hear or whether they refuse–for they are a rebellious house–yet they will know that a prophet has been among them.” Saint’s, do you understand what the Lord is saying? The only way that we will be able to affect those around us is if we first are affected, and if we have not had what I spoke of above then nothing that we do will have any transformation upon others. 

“You shall speak My words to them, whether they hear or whether they refuse, for they are rebellious.” As I see this are responsibility it first be impacted by His words, then to speak His words that have impacted us to others. No where in that equation is it our responsibility to be towards others response. Oh how the church of God has missed this and instead gauged God’s Word upon mans response to it. 

Notice what God has Ezekiel to do in 3:1-3 “Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.” So I opened my mouth, and He caused me to eat that scroll. And He said to me, “Son of man, feed your belly, and fill your stomach with this scroll that I give you.” So I ate, and it was in my mouth like honey in sweetness.” Friends, I have never left feeding on God’s Word with any thing but a full heart and a sweeter disposition. And to me that is why I’m personally committed to teaching the Word because as the Lord tells Ezekiel in 3:7 “the house of Israel will not listen to you, because they will not listen to Me; for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted.” Then in 3:17-20 God tells Ezekiel “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore hear a word from My mouth, and give them warning from Me: When I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. Yet, if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul. Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die; because you did not give him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand.” It is no wonder that James warned in chapter 3:1 “let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.” 


Chapters 4-24 Judah’s judgment

Now God speaks through Ezekiel about what has caused the nation to be away from the land and the city He gave them to fellowship with Him amongst them. Ezekiel’s prophecies were more than just words they were physical demonstrations. In chapter 4 God asks Ezekiel to lay on his left side 390 days and then on his right side 40 days which was to symbolize the 390 years that God tried to get the nation to come to its senses and 40 years that God spoke through Jeremiah that judgment was imminent. Dear ones, think of how many times and ways the Lord has tried to get our attention withholding His hand of discipline only to find that we still rebel. Paul wrote in Romans 2:4 “do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?” Through out this chapter God reveals through Ezekiel the countless times He was speaking to them about turning to Him only to be rejected. God says of them in 7:26 that “Disaster will come upon disaster, and rumor will be upon rumor. Then they will seek a vision from a prophet; but the law will perish from the priest, and counsel from the elders.” There problem is described for us in 8:12 “Then He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the room of his idols? For they say, ‘The Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken the land.” The 10th chapter describes that the Glory of the Lord had depart form the temple and the people didn’t miss Him all they missed was the building. We are told in 10:18 that Ezekiel saw that “The glory of the Lord departed from the threshold of the temple and stood over the cherubim.” In 11:12 Ezekiel writes, “you shall know that I am the Lord; for you have not walked in My statutes nor executed My judgments, but have done according to the customs of the Gentiles which are all around you.” 

Yet in the midst of the nations failure is the promise of God’s future restoration as we read in 11:16-20 “Although I have cast them far off among the Gentiles, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet I shall be a little sanctuary for them in the countries where they have gone.” Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “I will gather you from the peoples, assemble you from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.” And they will go there, and they will take away all its detestable things and all its abominations from there. Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God.” God in the 12th chapter had Ezekiel his bread with trembling because sense they had left their God they lost their security and now were left with anxiety (12:19). The 13th chapter God speaks of the judgment that came upon the false prophets who according to 13:2 “who prophesy out of their own hearts.” The in the 14th chapter God speaks to the idolatry of the leadership of the nation saying in 14:3 “these men have set up their idols in their hearts, and put before them that which causes them to stumble into iniquity. Should I let Myself be inquired of at all by them?” The Ezekiel writes in 14:13-14 “when a land sins against Me by persistent unfaithfulness, I will stretch out My hand against it; I will cut off its supply of bread, send famine on it, and cut off man and beast from it. Even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness,” says the Lord God.” In 16:15 God says, “But you trusted in your own beauty, played the harlot because of your fame, and poured out your harlotry on everyone passing by who would have it.” Oh how many times we have trued to bask in our beauty instead of resting in God’s. In 16:49-50 we are told a most remarkable truth as it relates to our beauty and the sin of Sodom whom the Lord calls Judah’s sister saying, “Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty and committed abomination before Me; therefore I took them away as I saw fit.” In the 18th chapter the Lord says in verse 4, 20 “the soul that sins shall die”. But then promises in 18:21 that “if a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die.” And in 18:23 God asks “Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?” says the Lord God, “and not that he should turn from his ways and live?” The nation’s response was in 18:29 to say, “The way of the Lord is not fair.” To which the Lord said, “O house of Israel, is it not My ways which are fair, and your ways which are not fair?” 

Saying in 18:30-32 “Repent, and turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,” says the Lord God. “Therefore turn and live!” In chapters 19-24 God continues to speak to the nation through sermons and illustrations of their need to get their heart right. The final sign was through the death of Ezekiel’s wife in chapter 24:16 saying to him, “Son of man, behold, I take away from you the desire of your eyes with one stroke; yet you shall neither mourn nor weep, nor shall your tears run down.” Oh how Ezekiel would know of a little of what the Lord felt. 


Chapters 25-32 What comes around go’s around

In this section Ezekiel addresses those who are rejoicing over Israel’s fall as he predicts that Judah’s fate will soon be theirs. In a clockwise depiction Ezekiel speaks of the nations that surround the nation such as Ammon, Moab, Edom, Philistia and Tyre. The wickedness of these nations was equal or superior to that of Judah and just because God hadn’t yet judged them didn’t mean that he wouldn’t. Peter said as much in 1 Peter 4:17 when he wrote, “For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?” From chapter 26-28 Ezekiel speaks of the fall of Tyre and specifically of the “Prince of Tyre” in chapter 28 and though he wrote of a physical prince of Tyre it is as though he picked behind the curtain to the invisible spiritual realm and who it is that is behind the evil in the world. Ezekiel says of this Prince of Tyre in 28:2-4 “Because your heart is lifted up, and you say, ‘I am a god, I sit in the seat of gods, in the midst of the seas,’ Yet you are a man, and not a god, though you set your heart as the heart of a god (Behold, you are wiser than Daniel! There is no secret that can be hidden from you! With your wisdom and your understanding you have gained riches for yourself, and gathered gold and silver into your treasuries”. It is no wonder that it is hard to determine Ezekiel’s prophecy as to whether it speaks of a man or satan as pride and arrogance is seen in both. In Ephes. 2:2 Paul described the evil influence of satan upon the unsuspecting people of this world saying that all “once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience”. Ezekiel again takes up a view of the Prince of Tyre in 28:12-17 saying of him, “You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering: The sardius, topaz, and diamond, Beryl, onyx, and jasper, Sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created. You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; you were on the holy mountain of God; you walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you. By the abundance of your trading you became filled with violence within, and you sinned; therefore I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God; and I destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the fiery stones. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor; I cast you to the ground, I laid you before kings, that they might gaze at you.” Saints, out of every turn we see the same evil portrait be that of satan and his cohorts are the pride of our fallen fresh. How I long for Christ esteem and true godly humility that will be in heaven. 

Then in chapters 29-32 Ezekiel speaks of Egypt’s humiliation as it will continue to exist but as the lowliest of earthly kingdoms. Egypt is always a symbol of the world and fallen humanity and we too exist but only as a faint dim spectacle of what our Creator had designed. Dear ones it is only by dying to our faint flicker of light that He will place the flame of His glory inside our clay pot and we will shine as He has designed!     


Chapters 33-48 A hope and a future

The prophecies in this section were given after the overthrow of Jerusalem to offer hope to the captives. Prior to this those in captivity held out hope that they would soon return to their home land and after the destruction they felt that all was lost. So God speaks to the nation in captivity that just as judgment was certain because of their rebellion so was restoration certain because of God’s goodness. Through out these 15 chapters Ezekiel writes of the blessings to come as God will restore and regather the people from the four corners of the world to repatriate the land that He had called them too. Ezekiel writes of a time when the Glory of the Lord will come back into a rebuilt temple. 

Folks, there will inevitably be seasons in our life when our expectations won’t be realized, times when what we longed for doesn’t materialize. During such times it is easy for us to think that “all hope” is lost, that our present captivity is a permanent prison where we shall never again see the light of day. Saint’s, God does not take away nor does He not meet our expectations that He hasn’t something far more glorious that He desires to give us.      

In Ezekiel 33:11 God speaks to the nation, “As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?” Then in 33:13, 15, 17 God says, “If I tell the righteous man that he will surely live, but then he trusts in his righteousness and does evil, none of the righteous things he has done will be remembered; he will die for the evil he has done.” “If he gives back what he took in pledge for a loan, returns what he has stolen, follows the decrees that give life, and does no evil, he will surely live; he will not die…Yet your countrymen say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ But it is their way that is not just.” Finally God rightly evaluates the nation in their captivity saying of them in 33:31 “My people come to you, as they usually do, and sit before you to listen to your words, but they do not put them into practice. With their mouths they express devotion, but their hearts are greedy for unjust gain.” In the 34th chapter God address the false shepherds of Israel saying of them in 34:2-5 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals.” And in the midst of this statement God springs forth with a yet future Shepherd who will according to 34:11-12 “Will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness.” God continues saying in 34:13-16 “I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land. I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord. I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.” And just how will God establish all this? Well in 34:23-25 God says He will do this by placing, “over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them. I the Lord have spoken. I will make a covenant of peace with them and rid the land of wild beasts so that they may live in the desert and sleep in the forests in safety.” God gives Ezekiel a vision of the dead coming back to life in the 37th chapter in the Valley of dry bones all of which come back together becoming alive again as “sinews and flesh and breath comes back into them”. In 37:13-14 God says that, “Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.” This was a vision of what God intends to do for the His people Israel which began in 1948 but has yet to be completed fully. Ezekiel looks out into the future in the 38th and 39th chapter at the signs that will usher the culmination of these things. It will be a time when Israel’s enemies will be met by heavenly forces upon the hills of  Israel and be defeated once and for all. In chapters 40-43 Ezekiel sees the rebuilding of the temple during the millennial kingdom and in this vision he is given the specific details of the building. In the 43rd chapter Ezekiel sees something far greater than a rebuilt temple he sees the glory of the Lord returning to the rebuilt temple as we read in 43:2-5 “I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east. His voice was like the roar of rushing waters, and the land was radiant with his glory. The vision I saw was like the vision I had seen when he came to destroy the city and like the visions I had seen by the Kebar River, and I fell facedown. The glory of the Lord entered the temple through the gate facing east. Then the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple.” The chapters 44-46 we are given the specifics of the priests of the temple. Then in the 48th chapter we are given the division of the land for the 12 tribes during the millennial kingdom with the last verse telling us that “The distance all around will be 18,000 cubits. And the name of the city from that time on will be: the Lord is there.”

I have waited to the last to share the words Ezekiel was given in the 47th chapter as he sees a vision of a river flowing from the temple. It is a “River of Living Water” there is no river adding to it thus it is the source and it has made it’s way past the altar of sacrifice and on out the south side of the temple and has surrounded the temple. Ezekiel is led through the waters until they come up to his ankles. Then a measurement is taken and he is again led through the waters until they are up to his knees, where another measurement is taken and he is brought through the waters until they are up to his waste. Finally at the last measurement Ezekiel is given a measurement and this time in verse 5 he realizes that this river has grown to a place where it can not be navigated on foot as the water was too deep now the only way is to let lose control and swim but curiously Ezekiel declares that though you could swim with it you could not cross it. 

Dears ones listen to this as I believe Ezekiel is speaking of the explorations of our relationship with God. There are several points that I wish to make:

  1. Such a relationship starts at the presence of God, as we are told that the water flowed from the door of the temple.
  2. That such an exploration must always involve the altar of sacrifice where we examine two deaths. The death of our Lord on our behalf as He was the Lamb of God slain for the sin of the world. Then our death to self, as no exploration of our relationship with God could go deeper apart from those two things.   
  3. Notice that time and again we are told the “he brought” and “he led” I believe that such a quest must be led by and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
  4. I also notice that such a journey involved a process by which it was a series of choices of how deep a person wanted to go:
    1. Ezekiel was first shown a river that took him ankle deep. A safe, shallow experience of God that is cool but not out of control. Just enough of God to “get your feet week” but not to much to be swept a way so that we can know him and yet still be very much in control.
    2. Next Ezekiel is brought to his knees in the living water. Oh how this speaks to me of prayer as Ezekiel is brought to his knees in his relationship with God. There are many who have been some what forced to go “knee deep with God” as life took us beyond what merely getting our feet wet would suffice. 
    3. This led Ezekiel to be waste deep with God. Oh at waste deep one realizes the force and power of God as they experience the flow that is way beyond their control. In this you will experience weightlessness as the flow and power of God is far greater than the burden of life in this body. Yet a person who is waste deep is still planted on terra firma, still in control. And with that control still able to remove themselves from the waters edge back to so called safety.  
    4. Finally, Ezekiel is brought to a place where the water is too deep for physical navigation, to deep to cross. All one can do here is let lose and go with the flow ride effortlessly under the Spirits control as He navigates you through where He wishes to take you. This describes a relationship where a person is in over their head with God, as we are swept along in His grace, love and power.    
  5. Dear ones I make one last observation and that is Ezekiel describes that it is only in this last encounter with God that the “River of God” will take you to a place as he is told in verse 8 to the Sea where the waters are healed. He further describes this in verse 9 and 12 where “Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live.” Where “Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing”

How deep do you want to go with the Lord? Oh that all of us would want to be in over our head and totally in His control so that “everything will live” and the “leaves will not wither nor the fruit fail and every month they bear”.