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Hello, my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
When you think of transportation, I wonder what favorite vehicles come to your mind? My first car was a 1965 VW Beetle. Over the years I’ve owned four or five VW Beetles, and I really enjoy them. How about you, what was your favorite car and why?
2600 years ago in Babylon, chariots were the envious transportation of the day. Yesterday we joined Ezekiel in his multi-sensory experience of the Vision God gave him which he describes in Ezekiel 1. Yesterday we discussed the four faced, four winged angelic beings.
Today Ezekiel continues with these words: “As I looked at the four living creatures, I saw a wheel on the ground beside each creature…the wheels sparkled like topaz and all four looked alike. Each appeared to be made like a wheel intersecting a wheel. As they moved, they would go in any one of the four directions the creatures faced… The rims of the wheels were high and awesome, and all four rims were full of eyes all around. When the living creatures moved, the wheels beside them moved, and when the living creatures rose, the wheels also rose…” (Ez. 1:15-19) So once again if you pick up your sketch tablet and your pencils or your canvas and paint, I wonder what you would sketch or paint that portrays what your mind has imagined as we listened to Ezekiel’s words? Of course, artists have attempted to portray Ezekiel’s wheels for centuries.
As with all visions, far more significant than the actual appearance of an object is God’s significance of the object and the message God is sending to humanity through the vision. So, what do these wheels mean? The most impressive wheels in Ezekiel’s day would have been large chariot wheels, some on military chariots, both those for battle and those for parades; and also, ornate chariots for transporting royalty. Remember the movie, Ben Hur? So, wheels symbolized movement from one place to another. Two wheels intersecting at right angles would essentially be a 2-d wheel able to move in any direction, but Ezekiel’s wheels also moved up and down with the Cherubim angels thus a 3-d movement potential in any direction, unrestricted by anything that exists physical or spiritual. Now what do you think was God’s meaning with such wheels in this vision?
Also, these wheels had something very unusual. Ezekiel 1:18 says “The rims of the wheels were high and awesome, and all four rims were full of eyes all around.” Eyes, of course, are for seeing and Biblical eyes also include the concepts of understanding, learning, knowledge and wisdom. And since we know all vehicles need a driver, what Ezekiel says next is important: “Wherever the spirit would go the four living creatures would go…because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.” (Ez. 1:20) So both these living creatures and the wheels were guided, directed by the spirit. Most Bible scholars agree this ‘spirit’ is none other than the Holy Spirit of God.
Now let’s pause to consider where Ezekiel was when he had this vision and why that’s important. Ezekiel 1:1,2 tells us Ezekiel and about 10,000 other Jews had been marched as captives from Jerusalem to Babylon, a journey of about 700 miles, 5 years before. Babylon would be today in modern Iraq about 60 miles south of Baghdad.
Babylon was one of the greatest cities of that era of history, an architect’s dream with palaces and various forms of remarkable structures. Cobblestone boulevards with trees and flowers wound through this great city. The false gods of Babylon would have been manmade statues of various types moved about on specially made carts with large wheels. When moving these Babylonian idol gods those carts would have been beautifully adorned very ornately and perhaps carefully drawn by slaves harnessed together or specially groomed horses. The large wheels especially would have been eye-catching with beauty. A procession moving a Babylonian idol god through the city would have included musicians and perhaps choirs and crowds of people paying homage along the parade route.
Can we begin to understand perhaps WHY God gave Ezekiel such an overwhelming vision of the majesty, the omniscience, the omnipresence and even omnipotence of the Almighty God of Israel, when Ezekiel and his fellow Jews were hundreds of miles away from the great Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, now living in captivity, surrounded by the idol worship, military superiority and royal grandeur of Babylon?
Oh friends, let’s return to the vision, because Ezekiel has more to tell us: “Spread out above the heads of the four living creatures was what looked something like a vault, sparkling like crystal and awesome. Under the vault their wings were stretched out toward one another. When the creatures moved, I heard the sound of their wings, like the roar of rushing waters, like the voice of the Almighty, like the tumult of an army.” (Ez. 1:22-24)
I wonder if this image of a vault made Ezekiel think of the Ark of Covenant which contained the 10 Commandments Moses had received from God on Mount Sinai. You’ll recall God’s instructions for transporting that golden Ark was two long poles through rings on the four corners of the Ark and then hoisted up to be carried on the shoulders of specially selected Levites! (Ex. 24:12-15; 1 Chronicles 15:2) I’ve imagined there were few more spectacular processions anywhere in the world than moving the Sacred Ark of the Covenant from one place to another with the brilliance of the sun reflecting off the gold blinding everyone watching. People watching must have been mesmerized!
But do we also notice Ezekiel’s vision includes sounds that are significant. Here, the sound of wings, which was awe inspiring, as the angels moved, and sounded like rushing waters or the tumult of an army!
Finally, one more stunning experience shook Ezekiel. “Then there came a voice from above the vault over the heads of the living creatures as they stood with lowered wings. Above the vault over their heads was what looked like a throne… and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a man. I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and brilliant light surrounded him… This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. When I saw it, I fell facedown, and I heard the voice of one speaking…” (Ez. 1:25-28)
No wonder Ezekiel fell prostrate on the ground overwhelmed by this vision of the glory of the LORD. As compared to anything in Babylon… their manmade idol statues, their ornate palaces, the thrones of King Nebuchadnezzar and other royal officials, their mighty military, the world-famous hanging gardens, NOTHING, absolutely nothing in Babylon could compare to the overwhelming majesty and incomprehensible wonder of the Almighty, Holy God of Israel as portrayed in this vision experience God was giving to Ezekiel!!
Can you imagine what it was like for Ezekiel when he began to write his record of this experience, or he told his story to his discouraged, fellow Jewish captives in Babylon? So, I wonder about you and me today my friends? Are we in need, maybe desperate need, of a fresh encounter with Almighty God the Father or maybe the resurrected, reigning King of kings Jesus Christ, or maybe the all-knowing Holy Spirit of God? I urge us to pause right now, maybe listen to the audio, dramatic reading of Ezekiel one through the link at the bottom of this page and pour out your heart of adoration and praise to Almighty God. Then worship with this familiar, majestic anthem which will call you to your feet. 600 voices, the Sydney Philharmonic Orchestra… tomorrow join me back here for more!
Today’s Scripture: Ezekiel 1:15-28.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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