“Son of man” is frequently found phrase in Scripture for any man, any human being.
“God
is not a man, that he should lie,
Neither the son of man, that
he should repent: …”
Num 23:19 WEB
However the one and only son of God did become a man. He did have “the form (morph?) of God,” Phil 2:6 WEB, and also took on “the form of a servant,” Phil 2:7 WEB (also morph?). He was fully God, and fully man. So he was indeed a “son of man.” So it came to be that one of Jesus favorite descriptions of Himself was as “the Son of Man,” and such is recorded in all four gospels, a total of 84 times.
Ezekiel was, it seems, a
forerunner
of “the Son of Man.”
When Ezekiel is called he first sees a glorious vision of God and His covering angels in Ezekiel chapter one. Then the Lord spoke to him.
“He
said to me, Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak
with you.”
Ezel 2:1 WEB
In fact, Ezekiel is addressed as a “Son of man” 93 times in the book of Ezekiel, a phrase that does not seem to be applied to any other prophet. Ezekiel sometimes seems to miss the list of types of the Christ.
Nonetheless, there are many
parallels between
Ezekiel and Jesus.
Ezekiel was a prophet, and of course Jesus was a prophet. In fact Jesus was the great prophet like Moses of Deuteronomy 18.
Ezekiel was a priest, and Jesus, though he was no priest on earth, became the ultimate high priest of all heaven and earth, Heb 3:1.
Ezekiel was serving as priest and prophet “away from his home,” we might say. He was in exile in Babylon. So Jesus came to serve as a prophet away from His home in heaven.
Both men came to serve as watchmen and as shepherds to the lost sheep of Israel. Both men served in times when Israel defiantly did not want to listen, to heed, to change. Ezekiel was warned that they were a rebellious house, and to not fear them.
“You,
son of man, don’t be afraid of them, neither be afraid of their
words, though briers and thorns are with you, and you do dwell among
scorpions: don’t be afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their
looks, though they are a rebellious house.”
Ezek 2:6 WEB
It took stern measures both in Ezekiel’s time and in Jesus’ to get even a few of the Jews to listen.
Both men warned of the fall of Jerusalem.
Ezekiel of Jerusalem’s fall in 586 BC. Jesus of the second scattering the Jews prophesied by Zechariah in Zech 10:9, in 70 AD.
Both pointed to gruesome trials to come, Gog and Magog for Ezekiel, and the abomination of desolation and the end of the world for Jesus.
And both gave us majestic pictures
of a new heavens
and a new earth to come.
Yes! All in all, a very profound type of the Christ.
WEB
is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the
original ASV American Standard Version 1901