Who is this man, we ask our imaginary guide, and why is he bald, beardless and silent?

He is Ezekiel, a priest deported from Jerusalem. He is also the son of a priest but calls himself "son of man," or "mortal man." He used to describe his visions to the exiles, including the one that cost him his beard and hair (Ezekiel 5:1-4), but now he is silent, watching to see what will happen next. That is why he calls himself a "watchman" for the house of Israel.

He sees visions?

One day Ezekiel saw creatures with wings flying over Babylon:

"As I looked, a stormy wind came out of the north: a great cloud with brightness around it and fire flashing forth continually .... In the middle of it was something like four living creatures .... Each had four faces ... the face of a human being, the face of a lion ... the face of an ox ... and the face of an eagle" (1:4-11).

We've seen that vision, too — the man, the lion, the ox, the eagle — they're familiar symbols artists have drawn through the years to represent the gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John!

The vision convinced Ezekiel that God had not stayed behind in the Temple hundreds of miles away in Jerusalem, but was with the captives in exile. "I am sending you to the people of Israel, to a nation of rebels," God said then. "You shall speak my words to them" (2:3, 7); and the Lord gave Ezekiel a scroll of words to eat and to proclaim.

Don't tell us Ezekiel ate a scroll!

He said it was as sweet as honey (3:1-3). But the words that came out of his mouth were bitter to the exiles. They did not want to hear how their disobedience had led to captivity, or that their defilement of the Temple would lead to its destruction. So when Ezekiel's own wife died at the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem, the Lord God said, "I will make your tongue cling to the roof of your mouth, so that you shall be speechless and unable to reprove them, for they are a rebellious house" (3:26). It has been two years since he has uttered a word.

With that, a refugee from battle arrives shouting news that the siege is ended, Jerusalem has fallen, the Temple is no more. As if he, too, suddenly had wings, the prophet rises up and is transported to a valley filled with dry bones. We follow and hear a rattling as the bones come together and stand on their feet, a vast multitude (37:7, 10). Finally Ezekiel speaks again: "Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live .... I will bring you back to the land of Israel" (37:5, 12).

So this is what Ezekiel was watching for — a vision that the exile would end?

Yes; that is the message of this son of man. Even in the silence of exile, Ezekiel has heard the Word of God: "I myself will search for my sheep, ... I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed.... You are my sheep, the sheep of my pasture and I am your God, says the Lord" (34:11, 16, 31).

Those words, sweet as honey (see the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John!) tell us the time to profit from prophets will come to an end. The Good Shepherd will rise up to lead us home.