Click above to watch video.
OR
Click below to play audio and read along.
Good Monday to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends.
In your life journey I wonder what experiences you have had which have overwhelmed you with the Majesty, the Power, the Supremacy of God? Maybe the galaxies you can see through a telescope or perhaps a volcano erupting or maybe a storm the size of a continent?
2600 years ago, thousands of Jewish people who had been marched into captivity in Babylon were humiliated, fearful, deeply discouraged and most of them were convinced God, in His judgment of their wickedness, had turned His back on them! They were in desperate need of something new from God.
In the past few days, we’ve looked at God’s miraculous strategy of God communicating to the most powerful leaders in the world, at that time, through Daniel, and simultaneously God communicating to the last remaining Jewish remnant in Jerusalem through Jeremiah, and simultaneously God communicating to the thousands of discouraged Jewish exiles in Babylon, through Ezekiel!
It’s amazing to me that God would go to all that trouble to be sure His people, regardless of their desperate situation, their geographical location or their status, would know that God had not forgotten them, He was still Sovereign over all things, and God was accomplishing His larger purposes which none of them could imagine at the moment!
I wonder if you and I are in exactly that same situation today, no matter where you live in the world?
So today, Monday, let’s begin this first work week of February looking at the amazing, remarkable vision from God which Ezekiel experienced. What did it mean for their day and what should it mean for you and me today? The vision is recorded for us in Ezekiel 1:4-28 and it so overwhelmed Ezekiel he finally simply fell prostrate on the ground! (Ez. 1:28)
As you read it perhaps the work of high-tech graphic artists, or AI, or state of the art Hollywood comes into your mind. Huge storms are among the most frequent displays of God’s majestic power all around the world. Humans cannot produce such massive, powerful, destructive storms as hurricanes, tornadoes, typhoons, blizzards etc. Ezekiel’s vision began with a huge storm, but this one had fire at its center, and as Ezekiel looked more closely, he saw something really strange!
Ezekiel wrote: “In the fire was what looked like four living creatures. In appearance their form was human, but each of them had four faces and four wings…under their wings on their four sides they had human hands.” (Ez. 1:5-8) Now if you took a sketch pad and tried to draw what Ezekiel is describing, I wonder what you see in your mind that you would try to draw?
In Ezekiel 10 these strange beings are explained by Ezekiel to be angels, cherubim angels specifically! For the Jewish captives that would be very significant and encouraging. Cherubim were a very special rank of the angelic species. When Moses had received instructions from God for fabrication of the Tabernacle, two gold cherubim were to be shaped and installed on the atonement cover of the Ark of the Covenant. (Ex. 37:9) Cherubim designs were to be woven into the special veil which separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place where the Ark would be kept. (Ex. 26:31-35)
Of course, this model was duplicated in the construction of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem, but in that great Temple Solomon instructed his craftsmen to fabricate two 10 cubit tall, olive wood carved cherubim, overlaid with pure gold, which would be positioned standing in the Most Holy Place as symbolic angelic guards over the Ark of the Covenant!! (2 Kings 6:23-28)
By the way a Biblical ‘cubit’ was about 18 inches, so 180 inches means these golden cherubim would stand 15′ tall and with two of their wings outstretched, their wingspan would also be 15 feet from wing tip to wing tip! So, when Ezekiel identifies these angels in his vision as Cherubim, both he and anyone who would read this description would be overwhelmed with the Holy Majesty of God’s presence and power!
But these creatures in Ezekiel’s vision don’t look very angelic, do they? Four faces, four wings, human hands, cloven feet. Ezekiel’s vision was symbolic not factually descriptive of God’s angelic presence. So, what did God want Ezekiel and his captive people to understand with these creatures?
Ezekiel describes their faces in this way: “Each of the four had the face of a human being, and on the right side each had the face of a lion, and on the left the face of an ox; each also had the face of an eagle.” (Ez. 1:10) Unlike Daniel explaining every detail of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, Ezekiel does not give us a direct explanation. Over the years Bible scholars have various explanations of these four faced Cherubim.
Some have said that these four faces represent the epitome of God’s created LIFE on planet earth: The human being, the only species created in God’s image. The lion symbolizing the king of all wild beasts; the ox symbolizing the king of the working beasts of burden and the eagle symbolizing the king of all that flies across the skies.
Or another explanation suggests that the human face represents intelligence and wisdom; the lion represents power; the ox represents service and the eagle represents swiftness. The fact that the being with four faces was able to look in all four directions simultaneously has been interpreted as symbolic of God’s omnipresence and omniscience, knowing all things at all times and seeing time past, present and future all at the same time.
For the Jewish captives can we see how they would be greatly encouraged with this first aspect of Ezekiel’s vision and deduce that Almighty, Holy God was fully aware of all that was happening to them, individually and collectively; and that God was always watching over them as many of their Psalmists had declared. (Ps. 14:2 & 33:12-15)
Can our imaginations handle one more important feature Ezekiel saw about these four creatures? They each had four wings. “Two of their wings spread out upward, each wing touching that of the creature on either side, and each had two wings covering its body. Each angel moved straight ahead. Wherever the spirit would go they would go, without turning as they went. The appearance of the living creatures was like burning coals of fire or like torches. Fire moved back and forth among the creatures; and lightning flashed out of it…” (Ez. 1:10-14)
It’s a stunning image isn’t it, my friends? Neither you nor I have ever seen anything quite like it. Angelic being with wings and four faces, moving in unity in any direction, with fire and lightning flashing! It’s no wonder Ezekiel fell prostrate on the ground, overwhelmed by this unexplainable power and majesty of what he saw but could not fully understand. What does it mean to you and me?
There is more Ezekiel will describe to us tomorrow in this vision but for today let’s wrestle with this concept: You and I tend to minimize the unfathomable, majestic, indescribable magnificence of God, don’t we? We try to explain God to ourselves, our children and others… but no matter our language or vocabulary or the pictures we draw or songs we sing or books we write, it all falls so very far short of God’s majestic reality! Have you noticed that in our inability to fully comprehend the vastness and indescribable majesty of God, we tend to limit God to what we imagine Him to be.
The Jewish people 2600 years ago in Ezekiel’s day had been going through the religious motions for so long they had long ago lost their awe of God, their fear of God, their reverence for God. In so doing, they embraced religious rituals and fabricated ornate statues while they lost any sense of the majesty of God who was giving them life and breath every day. They needed to be jolted out of their malaise, their complacency, their anemic religiousness.
So, God did two things… first, God allowed their enemies to overrun Jerusalem and the Temple and drag thousands of these Jews to Babylonian captivity. Second, God overwhelmed Ezekiel with this shocking vision which gave a small glimpse of the majesty of God, and God told Ezekiel to describe the vision to thousands of spiritually anemic Jews in captivity!
So pause with me. Are we spiritually anemic? Are we going through religious rituals without any awe of God? What will it take for you and me to be jolted back to a relationship with God that can be symbolized by fire and lightning? Can we be honest with ourselves about this as we worship with this song and tomorrow Ezekiel will give us even more amazing details about his vision.
Today’s Scripture: Ezekiel 1:1-14.
Choose below to read or listen.
 |  |
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
Archived back issues of “Walking with Jesus” and other resources are available by clicking here to open our ‘home page’ (or go to HOME at upper right of this page).
Share with friends. Subscribe below for daily “Walking with Jesus”.