In the year 597 AD. the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar appeared before the gates of Jerusalem, captured the city and led King Joahin and his royal entourage along with 7,000 able-bodied men and all the smithies and locksmiths – 1,000 in all – into captivity (Babylonian captivity). Among the deported was the son of a priest, Buzi, who was himself a priest.  His name - Ezekiel, meaning “strong as God” – was already indicative of his mission – to be a source of heavenly trust for the prisoners.  At the time of his calling, he was about 30 years old and came from a distinguished family.  During the fifth year of his captivity, in July 592 AD, he had an unusual, impressive, mysterious face, which becomes all the clearer to us as he attempts to describe it. 
So he looked upon the glory of God in storm and light and fire, in the midst of a heathen country, whose Gods seemed so triumphant and powerful; gazed upon the Lord on his throne, ruler of the four corners of the world. 
He began his series of prophecies more with symbolic actions than with words.  They concerned themselves entirely with the fate of Israel, which the exiled were unable to forget and in whose fall they were unable to believe.  But often those in exile failed to believe his words … there followed further revelations about the unfortunate city (destruction of Jerusalem in 586 AD).  And so the great man viewed the future of his people and God’s kingdom in pictures that were bound to appeal to him, both priest and son of a priest, particularly.  As an exemplary minister he worked among the prisoners, warned of vain expectations and kept up their hopes of returning to their homeland alive.  Only rarely were content and form of his language poetically brilliant.
Ezekiel showed those in exile the new spiritual temple in oversized dimensions.  Where earlier prophets had campaigned against an alienated cult, Ezekiel was able to put things right with his Church services in the “new house of God” characterized by pure and moral earnest.  So, like the seer, Ezekiel saw on Patmos the New Jerusalem coming down from the heavens. Ezekiel was a prophet of the future right up until the Messianic time, until the end of all time.  Alas, he did not live to experience the end of captivity …