The Book of Ezekiel represents human attempt to describe the indescribable. It reveals God’s perfect righteousness balanced with His perfect mercy seen through the eyes of imperfect man. We see a warning and a promise of hope wrapped together in prophesy. Many of the images pictured speak of both now and later simultaneously. Ezekiel 1 reminds me of trying to describe a dream after we wake up. Some things that made sense are unclear in the light of morning. We remember the terror or delight, but some understanding is missing. The chapter sets the time when his alarm went off and then attempts to describe what he saw of heaven. The chapter begins, “In my thirtieth year… while I was among the exiles… the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God… in the land of the Babylonians“. Hebrew priests needed to be 30 years old to serve; perhaps God used him the very first day he was of age. Were there so few willing? He also notes it was “the fifth year of the exile“. The Jewish nation was in captivity in Babylon and the memory of the life before exile faded along with the hope of His people. God’s memory cannot fade, nor are time and distance ever an obstacle.
The prophet describes a glimpse into God’s heavenly throne room in ways radically different from the silly notions some have today. No puffy white clouds, no chubby cheeked cherubs; this was a vision of supreme power and authority with God the Commander-in-Chief at the center. “I looked, and I saw a windstorm coming out of the north an immense cloud with flashing lightning and surrounded by brilliant light. The center of the fire looked like glowing metal“. He also describes “what looked like four living creatures“. Ezekiel describes these beings surrounding the throne of God. They are not secret service protection, God needs no protection. I believe they are symbols of the nature of man according to God’s original design. “In appearance their form was human,but each of them had four faces and four wings… Each of the four had the face of a human being… the face of a lion… the face of an ox…the face of an eagle… Wherever the spirit would go, they would go“. Each face is the greatest of its kind. The lion is the courageous king; the ox is powerful and useful in service; and the eagle has vision and ability to soar to highest ideals. All are perfectly submitting to the will of God. Notice we are at our best when we are closest to Him.
These symbols also had a purpose, they formed the base upon which the glory of God dwelt. He describes the sight from bottom to top, “The creatures sped back and forth like flashes of lightning… They sparkled like topaz… like a wheel intersecting a wheel… Wherever the spirit would go, they would go… above the heads of the living creatures was… something like a vault, sparkling like crystal, and awesome“. The vision is beyond compare, nothing on earth has prepared him for this. He looks further up, “Then there came a voice from above the vault… Above the vault over their heads was what looked like a throne of lapis lazuli, and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a Man“. I believe that God has made His appearance to man many times. I believe He took on human form for the single purpose of redemption. Here he describes the Christ in His heavenly form, “Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around Him… This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord“. Ezekiel understood and certainly was full of holy terror, “When I saw it, I fell facedown, and I heard the voice of One speaking“. This is God the Son that humbled Himself to become the babe in Bethlehem and Lamb of God on the cross. This is the same Jesus that shed His blood for the forgiveness of all that call on His name. The One that was resurrected on Easter and now sits at the right hand of God interceding for you and me. Is your alarm going off? Perhaps He is calling to you in your exile?