Image: "Inside the Sanctuary", 2016, St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, Fort William, Scotland, the UK.
Ezekiel 1:1 Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the River Chebar, that the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.
Ezekiel 1:28 Like the appearance of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the brightness all around it. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. So when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard a voice of One speaking.
Ezekiel 3:17 “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore hear a word from My mouth, and give them warning from Me:
Revelation 4:2 Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne.
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Ezekiel is a book of wonder. It confronts us with astonishing symbols and metaphors and mysteries interspersed with precise sermons directed toward God's people. Ezekiel (3:17) has been chosen as "a watchman for the house of Israel." His voice, when he was allowed to use it (4:27), was to speak the message God gave him to speak. He was to warn the people and say things they didn't want to hear. Like Jeremiah's, it was not to be a happy calling. The life of a prophet is not an easy one.
A few things draw our attention right away. Ezekiel begins with a vision of God on His Throne. Certainly, his first sight is that of the mysterious creatures, full of faces and eyes and wings accompanied by strange sounds. We are told that these "beings" moved wherever the Spirit moved them and that they did not have to turn to do so, they just went straight ahead. Here we have the all-seeing, pervasive Presence of the Holy Spirit indicated. But we must not dwell on the creatures, for they, like the "four living creatures" around the throne in Revelation 4:6 are "mere" servants. The Real Power in the vision is that of God on His throne. (1:26-28) His appearance is so spectacular that only the merest allusions could be used to convey what Ezekiel saw. There was the "sapphire"-like throne, and the flaming brightness of the Lord's Presence, and there was a rainbow there.
We must not restrict our thoughts here only to Ezekiel's vision. We must bring to mind other visions such as Isaiah 6 and especially Revelations 4. We must understand what God, in this vision and the others, is communicating to Ezekiel, Isaiah, John, and us. God is, in these passages, making a statement about the World, the Cosmos, as it actually exists. These are visions of reality not mere dreamlike fantasies.
God, in these visions, is communicating through symbols and metaphors truths which cannot be completely comprehended by finite minds. God is teaching that there is an entirely different dimension to reality which is "beyond the ken" of fallen mortals, even redeemed ones. This is the hidden reality of the spiritual realm. It exists beyond the space & time framework. We mortals are confined to our senses for discerning the world about us but that doesn't mean that there is nothing existing beyond our senses. There is. And there is one constantly reinforced teaching in Scripture about this dimension. It is that it is centered on God as the absolute King, the sovereign ruler over all things, Whose magnificence is infinite and beyond full comprehension by any creature.
Notice how God addresses Ezekiel. He calls him "son of Man." Now we know that this is how our Jesus referred to Himself. There is something to ponder here. Ezekiel stood before God in his time as representing the entire human race... the line of Adam... as well as the chosen people of God. God, speaking to Ezekiel, was speaking for the benefit of all mankind even as He was often addressing the captive Jews. With our Lord Jesus, we reach the fulfillment of this "type." Jesus bore the sins of all His people, Jew and Gentile. He was the first-fruits of collective humanity nurtured through time so as to produce a harvest of sons and daughters for God's family.
Thus we see the layers-on-layers, "wheels within wheels", of God's purposes in the outworking of history. Ezekiel's first vision is directed toward this goal. To remind us, instruct us, command us, to understand our world and our times by this framework. Our God is sitting on His throne, unperturbed by the noise and strife that always attends mankind's blundering walk through history. He is serene because present on the earth are His appointed servants both spiritual and physical. There are the "living creatures", as envisioned in Revelation 4 as also here in Ezekiel 1. These are the spiritual "beings" who move throughout all the world as the Holy Spirit directs them, to do, and to perform and to express His will. There are also God's servants, such as Ezekiel, who represent "Man" as created servants whose eternal election, birth, and fruition are to speak and to do as God's Spirit leads and directs.
This is the world, the real world, we inhabit. It was and is and is becoming. All about us, the world is unfolding and manifesting God's sovereign purposes. We exist in the care of angelic servants who "minister for those who will inherit salvation." (Heb. 1:14) This is our world and we are to rejoice in it and embrace it as God's claim on our lives.
It is Satan's primary weapon against us is to use the "physical world" in such a manner as to fix our eyes only upon it. He wants us to fall into some radical dualism where the things of the Spirit are somehow not part of our world but beyond it. This is far from the truth and a cause of great error.
We live, constantly, in the throne room of God. We are His adopted children. All things are coordinated to our good and even the angels are assigned to our benefit. This is the "real" world. Ezekiel saw a vision of it and we must make that same vision ours.
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