God has given us one book that can change the entire direction of our lives, the Bible.

And in this study, journeying through scriptures, we will take a brief big-picture look at every book of the Bible, tracing God's unfolding story

from Genesis to Revelation. Our prayer is that this journey will stir your heart to open God's

word daily. Let's join Scott Pauli for today's study. Before we make today's journey, I'd like for you to tell me everything you know about

Ezekiel. Yes, that's in the Bible. It's probably in the part of your Old Testament where the

pages still stick together. It's interesting, but when you even mention the name Ezekiel, people

get a little scared because they think, well, I'm not that familiar. And if they are familiar, they think, well, that's that really hard book that has the wheel turning inside of the wheel, and I don't understand all of that. And so because of it, we miss one of the truly great books of the Old Testament. We're journeying through Ezekiel today. We're journing with

Ezekiel today. We hope into the presence of God. Who is this man, this prophet Ezekiel? Well,

Ezekiel chapter 1 verse 1 says, now it came to pass in the 30th year, in the fourth month,

in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Kibar,

that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. Oh, there's a lot wrapped up in that one

verse. You see, Ezekiel is the prophet of the captivity. You remember, Jeremiah, the prophet of the

broken heart, Saul, Jerusalem destroyed, and the people carried

away captive. Well, Ezekiel was a young man who had actually grown up in Judah. He was

carried away captive when he was 25 years of age. That means that he spent the first 25 years of his

life listening to Jeremiah, the weeping prophet. How'd you like to have that kind of

heritage? No wonder has been called the prolongation of the voice of Jeremiah. After a while, you start

sounding like the people you've listened to. And so I hope you're listening to people who are

giving you the word of God. Ezekiel did, and it helped him. So when he was carried away captive,

and he lives down by the river with the captives who are

weeping under the burden of their captivity, this is a man who still finds hope. This is a man

that refuses to live in the mulligrubs that refuses to say, well, everything's bad and the future

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