The Day Ezekiel Met God

 

Monday, May 2, 2022

On July 31 of my thirtieth year, while I was with the Judean exiles beside the Kebar River in Babylon, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.  This happened during the fifth year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity.  (The Lord gave this message to Ezekiel son of Buzi, a priest, beside the Kebar River in the land of the Babylonians, and he felt the hand of the Lord take hold of him.)  As I looked, I saw a great storm coming from the north, driving before it a huge cloud that flashed with lightning and shone with brilliant light.  There was fire inside the cloud, and in the middle of the fire glowed something like gleaming amber.  From the center of the cloud came four living beings that looked human, except that each had four faces and four wings.  Their legs were straight, and their feet had hooves like those of a calf and shone like burnished bronze.  Under each of their four wings I could see human hands. So each of the four beings had four faces and four wings.  The wings of each living being touched the wings of the beings beside it.  Each one moved straight forward in any direction without turning around.  Each had a human face in the front, the face of a lion on the right side, the face of an ox on the left side, and the face of an eagle at the back.  Each had two pairs of outstretched wings—one pair stretched out to touch the wings of the living beings on either side of it, and the other pair covered its body.  They went in whatever direction the spirit chose, and they moved straight forward in any direction without turning around.  The living beings looked like bright coals of fire or brilliant torches, and lightning seemed to flash back and forth among them.  And the living beings darted to and fro like flashes of lightning.

As I looked at these beings, I saw four wheels touching the ground beside them, one wheel belonging to each.  The wheels sparkled as if made of beryl. All four wheels looked alike and were made the same; each wheel had a second wheel turning crosswise within it.  The beings could move in any of the four directions they faced, without turning as they moved.  The rims of the four wheels were tall and frightening, and they were covered with eyes all around.  When the living beings moved, the wheels moved with them. When they flew upward, the wheels went up, too.  The spirit of the living beings was in the wheels.  So wherever the spirit went, the wheels and the living beings also went.  When the beings moved, the wheels moved.  When the beings stopped, the wheels stopped.  When the beings flew upward, the wheels rose up, for the spirit of the living beings was in the wheels.  Spread out above them was a surface like the sky, glittering like crystal.  Beneath this surface the wings of each living being stretched out to touch the others’ wings, and each had two wings covering its body.  As they flew, their wings sounded to me like waves crashing against the shore or like the voice of the Almighty or like the shouting of a mighty army.  When they stopped, they let down their wings.  As they stood with wings lowered, a voice spoke from beyond the crystal surface above them.  

Ezekiel 1:1-25

I will resist any kind of attempt to interpret or explain the meaning of Ezekiel’s vision.  It is enough to drink-in the overwhelming image of God entering the sky, like one of Stephen Spielberg’s productions.  Independence Day, a movie about alien ships arriving in thunderclouds of smoke and fire, had alien beings in those ships that were a frightening presence.  But they cannot begin to approach the majesty and vastness of powerful command this vision presents of God’s stormy arrival to speak with Ezekiel.  God certainly knows how to make an entrance!

The meaning of human and otherly creatures, wheels within wheels, wings, eyes, and moving at the speed of thought…are the subject of many debates and cross-referenced Biblical themes.  It is enough to say…what a mighty God we serve!

For You Today

Read, study, and muse on these things.  In time God will make all things clear.  Just don’t forget to get yourself involved in the greater works of mercy and sharing the Gospel.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road with Jesus; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title image: BelieveTrust.com    Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©