Ezekiel goes on to speak of the fifth year. Whereas the thirtieth year was counted from the year of his birth, the fifth year was counted from the year of captivity. Why did the visions come in the fifth year of captivity and not in an earlier year? The visions did not come earlier because the people were not ready and Ezekiel himself, being under the age of thirty, also was not ready. This indicates that seeing the visions recorded in Ezekiel requires that we make ourselves ready.
Since Ezekiel was thirty when he saw the visions, in the year of captivity he was only twenty-five. Numbers 4:2-3 tells us that the priests began their ministry at the age of thirty, but Numbers 8:24 says that the Levites began to serve at the age of twenty-five. The reason for the difference here is that the priests needed five years of apprenticeship. They could not come into the priestly service immediately. Rather, they needed to be trained and disciplined for five years. At the beginning of the captivity, Ezekiel was an apprentice priest, a learner. He did not yet have the maturity required for seeing the visions. This indicates that in spiritual things there is the need of maturity. Due to the lack of maturity, some among us cannot see the visions which the Lord intends to show us from this book. We cannot see certain spiritual matters when we are young. Thus, we need to look to the Lord that He would grant us the maturity in life that we may see, accept, receive, and take in all the spiritual things.
The fact that the visions came in the fifth year indicates that not only Ezekiel but also the people had been made ready. The number five signifies that man is graced by God to bear responsibility toward God. Even though God’s people were in captivity, they still had some grace from God, so when the time came, they could bear responsibility before God. The “fifth year of king Jehoiachin’s captivity” indicates that the time had come for the people of Israel to bear responsibility toward God. When this captivity began, Ezekiel began learning to be a priest. Even in captivity God gave him grace that he might learn to be a priest. At the time of the fifth year, both Ezekiel and the people were ready. On the one hand, Ezekiel, having reached the age of thirty, could officially minister as a priest before God. On the other hand, the people could now bear their responsibility, and God came in to speak to them concerning it.
Before a child’s parents can speak to him about a particular responsibility, the child must be the proper age to receive such a speaking. A child must reach a certain age before his parents can ask him to bear a certain responsibility. The situation is similar with God’s speaking in the book of Ezekiel. God did not speak until the fifth year of their captivity. Before Ezekiel reached the age of thirty, God did not give him the responsibility of speaking for Him. Likewise, before the fifth year of the captivity, the people had not received the sufficient grace to bear the responsibility of what God would speak to them. But by the time of the fifth year, the people had sufficient grace, and Ezekiel had enough learning and could now bear the responsibility of speaking for God. Thus, in the fifth year God wanted Ezekiel to bear the responsibility to speak to the people of Israel and He wanted Israel to bear the responsibility of listening to His words.
We cannot speak concerning the things in the book of Ezekiel to those who have just been saved, for they cannot understand them. However, when someone reaches “the fifth year” of his salvation, God may want to speak to that one in a particular way. Likewise, as one who speaks for God, I could not speak of these things until I had reached “the thirtieth year.” Now that I have come to my “thirtieth year” and others have come to their “fifth year,” I am able to speak to them regarding the visions in Ezekiel, and they are able to receive this speaking. Both the one speaking and the ones listening must bear their responsibility toward God.