When God Showed Up For Ezekiel in Exile

When God Showed Up For Ezekiel in Exile

Ezekiel 1; 11:16

Exile is the place where faith goes to die or to deepen.

Jerusalem had fallen. The walls were rubble. The temple lay in ruins. Everything Israel associated with the presence of God had been stripped away. For generations, they believed God dwelled there. In that city. In that building. In those rituals.

Babylon felt like proof that God had left. But Scripture opens Ezekiel’s ministry with a stunning reversal:

“The heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.”

Not in Jerusalem. Not near the altar. But in exile. God showed up in Babylon.

This was not merely a vision — it was a revelation. God was teaching His people something new about Himself. He was not bound to geography. He was not weakened by judgment. He had not abdicated His throne.

Ezekiel sees fire, movement, wheels within wheels, and above it all — a throne. God is not static. He is not confined. He reigns wherever He wills.

The people had lost their land. God had not lost His authority. That changes everything. Exile did not mean God was absent.

It meant God was redefining how His people understood His presence. He would no longer be thought of as a God who lived in a building — but as a God who moves with His people. Later, God says something remarkable:

“Though I had scattered them… yet I have been a sanctuary for them.”

God did not wait for them to come back to Him. He went with them.

We often assume God works best in stability — when life is ordered and faith feels familiar. But Scripture teaches that God often reveals Himself most clearly when what we depended on is gone. Exile strips away illusions. It forces the question: Was your faith in Me — or in what I gave you?

When God shows up in exile, He reveals Himself as the God who reigns even when life feels displaced, diminished, and disoriented.