Introduction
Today we’re starting a new series of sermons on the book of Ezekiel, who served the Lord as a prophet during the time of the exile. And so, Ezekiel’s book, which contains the revelation he received from the Lord, is part of Old Testament prophecy. So, it belongs with the other prophetic books in the Old Testament: books like Isaiah and Jeremiah and Daniel and Hosea and so on. Perhaps I should explain that the Old Testament is like a library which contains different kinds of literature. So, there are the books of the law: Genesis to Deuteronomy. And there are also history books such as 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles. We also have books of poetry: think of the Psalms and the Song of Solomon. And then there’s wisdom literature: Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, for example. And then there are the prophets: from Isaiah all the way to Malachi. And that’s what Ezekiel is.
And Ezekiel’s book contains all these visions and messages which Ezekiel received from the Lord concerning Jerusalem and its destruction during the time of the exile. It also contains visions and messages concerning the nations and God’s judgment on them. But then it also contains visions and messages concerning the restoration of God’s people. Though the Lord was angry with his people because of their persistent rebellion and unbelief, he wasn’t going to abandon them for ever. In fact, God has great things in mind for his people and he also gave Ezekiel a vision of a new temple, where all of God’s people from around the world will dwell with him for ever and for ever. And, God willing, we’ll get to that eventually.
The first chapter can be divided into two parts: there’s the introduction in verses 1 to 3 and then there’s Ezekiel’s first vision in verses 4 to 28. And in the vision, he saw first of all four living beings; then he saw the wheels of a kind of chariot-throne; then he saw an expanse above the wheels; and then he saw the throne itself; and above the throne, he saw a figure like that of a man. And it turns out that what Ezekiel was seeing in this vision was none other than a revelation of the glory of the Lord, who sits enthroned as king over all.
And as we go through the vision, you get the impression that Ezekiel was struggling to describe or to express in words what he was seeing. He says about the things he saw that they ‘looked like’ this or they were ‘like’ that or they had ‘the appearance of’ this and something else ‘appeared to be’ this. He can’t describe what he saw precisely. All he can say is that it was like this or it appeared to be like that. He’d never seen anything like it. But since it turns out in the end that what he was looking at was a revelation of the glory of the Lord, he ended up falling face down before the Lord in fear. And God appeared to him like this, because God was appointing him to be his prophet.
Verses 1 to 3
Let’s turn now to verses 1 to 3, which form the introduction to the book.
The NIV begins, ‘In the thirtieth year….’ More literally it begins, ‘It came about in the thirtieth year….’ And the little words, ‘It came about’ are significant, because they suggest that the beginning of this book is not an absolute beginning. This is not the start of something completely new, which has no connection to anything else. Instead it’s the continuation of the ongoing story about God’s dealings with his people.
A long time before, the Lord rescued his people from Egypt. He then brought them through the wilderness and into the Promised Land. He helped them to settle there and he gave them kings to rule over them. He continued to do them good, even though they rebelled against him. Eventually, he did what he warned them he would do and he sent them into exile. And so, after everything that had already happened in the story of God’s dealings with his people, it came about that this new thing happened.
And we’re told in verse 1 that this new thing happened in the thirtieth year. The thirtieth year of what? Most likely it’s the thirtieth year of Ezekiel’s life. And that too is significant, because we’re about to learn in verse 3 that Ezekiel was a priest. And while new priests probably began their training when they were in their 20s, they did not begin to serve in the temple until they were 30 years old. And so, throughout his early life, Ezekiel was no doubt waiting for his 30th birthday to come, because that’s when he would begin his life’s work and he would begin to serve the Lord in his temple in Jerusalem. That’s what he had been waiting for no doubt throughout his early life. But instead of doing that, he was now living far away from the temple in Jerusalem and he was living among the exiles by the Kebar River in the land of Babylon.
Let me remind you of Old Testament history. God had settled his people in the Promised Land in the days of Joshua. When they asked for a king, he gave them first Saul and then David. David was a great king and he defeated their enemies and gave them peace in the land. Then Solomon succeeded his father and he too was a great king who was famous throughout the world for the wisdom and wealth which God had given to him. And the people lived in peace and prosperity. After his death, the one kingdom of Israel was divided into two: there was the larger kingdom in the north which kept the name Israel; and there was the smaller kingdom in the south which was known as Judah. The city of Jerusalem, where the temple was, was in the southern kingdom of Judah.
Lots of different kings ruled in the north, but the south was always ruled over by the descendants of David. Some of the kings in the north and south were good and godly kings, but many, if not most, were wicked. And the people too rebelled against the Lord and they turned to false gods instead of worshipping the Lord alone. God sent prophets to warn the people and to summon them to repent. But they did not listen to the prophets. And so, after many years of patience, God did what he said he would do, and he sent the people in the north into exile to Assyria; and he sent the people in the south into exile to Babylon. And that’s how Ezekiel ended up among the exiles by the Kebar River.
As you can see from verse 2, this was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin. When he was king of Judah, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked and took the city of Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar removed all the treasures from the temple and from the royal palace and he took away all the gold articles which Solomon had made for the temple. And he took away the best of the people: the officers and fighting men and the craftsmen and artisans as well as the king and his family. He took away the best people who could use their skills and talents for the good of Babylon. And Ezekiel was including among their number.
Nebuchadnezzar then made Zedekiah king in place of Jehoiachin. And in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, he rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar responded by not only attacking Jerusalem, but by destroying it. He destroyed the city and the temple and the walls around the city. At the beginning of Ezekiel’s book, that hasn’t happened yet, but it’s going to happen soon enough.
For now though, Ezekiel is among the exiles by the Kebar River. And that’s when he received this first vision from the Lord. So, although he couldn’t serve the Lord as a priest in the temple, because he’d been taken away from the temple to Babylon, nevertheless he was going to serve the Lord as a prophet. And as a prophet, he received this vision from the Lord. It was as if the heavens were opened to him and he was enabled to see things which no one else could see.
In verse 2 he says that the word of the Lord came to him. So, the word of the Lord came to him through these visions. And in verse 3 he says that the hand of the Lord was upon him. God, of course, is a spirit. He does not have hands like us. But Ezekiel means he could feel God’s presence and power in his life and God enabled him to see this wonderful vision of the glory of the Lord.
Verses 4 to 14
And he tells us in verse 4 that he saw a windstorm coming out of the north and an immense cloud with flashing lightning and it was surrounded by brilliant light. This recalls the scene at Mount Sinai in Exodus 19 when the Lord came down from heaven to the top of the mountain and there was a thick cloud and there was thunder and lightning and fire. The similarity between what happened at Mount Sinai and what Ezekiel saw suggests to us that what Ezekiel was seeing was the coming of the Lord. The cloud he saw was the Lord’s glory-cloud which signified the presence of the Lord. So, even though Ezekiel and the others exiles are far away from the Promised Land, God is coming to them now.
He says that the centre of the fire looked like glowing metal. I said earlier that he uses this kind of language because he can’t express what he saw with precision. What he saw was not glowing metal, but it looked like glowing metal. It looked like molten metal burning in a furnace or it was like fiery lava from a volcano. And, according to verse 5, he saw in the fire what looked like four living creatures. For now, that’s the best way he has to describe them: there were four of them and they were alive. But what were they? In appearance their form was that of a man. So, they were human-like in appearance. But it’s clear that they weren’t really human, because each one of the four had four faces and they also had four wings. In verse 10 we learn what the four faces were: the face of a human; the face of a lion; the face of an ox and the face of an eagle.
So, they each had four faces and four wings. If they’re not human, what are they? Well, we’ll discover in chapter 10 that these four living creatures are in fact cherubim. They are angels.
According to verse 7, their legs were straight. So, they stood upright like us. But their feet were like the hooves of a calf. And their feet gleamed like burnished bronze. And under their wings they had hands like our hands.
And it says in verse 9 that their wings touched one another. In verse 11 we’ll see that only two of their four wings were spread out; and that they each used its other two wings to cover its body. So, the four of them were arranged in a kind of square, one at each corner. And each one spread out two wings to touch the two nearest angels.
And Ezekiel says at the end of verse 9 that each one went straight ahead. So, they were moving and nothing caused them to deviate from their path. According to verse 12, they would go wherever the spirit would go. Although the NIV puts the word ‘spirit’ in small letters, it’s likely that Ezekiel is referring here to the Holy Spirit. After all, as the book of Hebrews tell us, angels are ministering spirits, sent here, there and everywhere by God. In other words, they are not free-spirits who can go wherever they want, but they are under the authority of God who directs them by his Spirit. And so, Ezekiel is telling us that their movement was determined by God the Holy Spirit.
And in verse 13 he says that their appearance was like burning coals of fire or like torches. And fire moved back and forth among them. The fire was bright and it flashed like lightning. In fact, the angels themselves sped back and forth like lightning.
Verses 15 to 21
So, Ezekiel’s gaze was drawn first to these living creatures, these angels. Next he noticed a wheel beside each angel. So, there were four wheels in total. And he says that the wheels sparkled like chrysolite. In other words, they sparkled like a jewel. And each wheel was like a wheel within a wheel. Some of the commentators suggest they wheels are like castors which a chair might have today which enables you to move the chair in any direction. And according to verse 17, the wheels moved in the same direction as the angels. And like the angels, they did not turn about. That is to say, they did not deviate from their path. And the rims of the wheels were high and awesome and full of eyes. When Ezekiel says they were full of eyes, he perhaps means they were studded with jewels which looked like eyes.
And then he saw in verse 19 that when the angels moved, the wheels moved. And when the angels went up, the wheels went up also. They moved in sync and in harmony with one another. And according to verse 20, the movement of the angels and wheels was determined by the Holy Spirit. And in verse 21 he once again mentions how they moved in harmony with one another.
What’s the significance of these wheels? When we get to verse 26, Ezekiel tells us that he saw a throne. And the commentators tell us that thrones in the ancient world were often set on wheels so that they could be moved around. In fact, in Daniel 7:9, Daniel describes the throne of the Ancient of Days. That is, he’s describing God’s throne. And in his description of it, he mentioned its wheels. And so, it seems that Ezekiel is also describing the throne of God. And under God’s throne there are these wheels and there are also these angels who are accompanying the Lord as his attendants.
Verses 22 to 25
But before we get to the throne itself, Ezekiel tells us in verse 22 that he saw spread out above the heads of the angels what looked like an expanse. So, it wasn’t an expanse, but that’s how it looked to the prophet who is doing his best to express with words what he saw. Perhaps he’s describing a kind of platform which was as expansive as the sky. And he tells us that this expanse sparkled like ice and was awesome. This matches what we read in Exodus 24 where Moses says that he saw the Lord and under his feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself. And in Revelation 4, John says he saw what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal, before the throne of God. Each of the descriptions of God’s heavenly throne are similar to one another. They were all seeing the same thing, but describing it in slightly different ways.
And in verse 23 Ezekiel mentions the angels, stretching out their wings again. But then in verse 24 he tells us not what he saw, but what he heard. When the angels moved, he heard the sound of their wings which was like the roar of rushing waters. He means it was like the sound of a waterfall, with the water thundering and crashing om the water below. I remember years ago going with Yvonne through a forest on the side of a mountain in Austria. And long before we could see it, we could hear the thunder of a waterfall which was further on up the mountainside. And the sound of the wings of the angels was like a mighty waterfall. Indeed, it was like the voice of the Almighty. And it was like the tumult of an army. But when they stood still, they lowered their wings and presumably, now that they were no longer beating their wings, there was silence all around.
And so, Ezekiel has seen the four living creatures or angels with their four faces and their four wings. And then he noticed the four wheels beside each of the angels. And then he noticed that great expanse above the angels. And he also heard the sound of the wings of the angels, the noise like thunder. And when they lowered their wings and there was silence, Ezekiel heard something else. According to verse 25 there came a voice from above the expanse which was over the angels. He doesn’t say who it was who spoke and what the speaker said. But now that the angels have lowered their wings and become silent, Ezekiel is ready to look above the angels and above the expanse to the throne above.
Verses 26 to 28
And so, according to verse 26, he looked above the expanse and there he saw what looked like a throne of sapphire. Again, he’s not exactly sure how to describe what he saw. He’s never seen anything like this before. It appeared to be and it looked like a throne made of sapphire. And then above the throne — so not on the throne, but above the throne — he saw this figure like that of a man. So, not a man, but a figure or person who looked like a man. And Ezekiel says that he saw from what appeared to be his waist up — though it’s hard to describe — he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire. So, his top half was like molten metal, lava from an volcano, hot and burning and gleaming and frightening. And then his bottom half looked like fire. I don’t really know what’s the difference between glowing metal full of fire and fire? But again, Ezekiel is struggling to convey with words what he saw. And he said that brilliant light surrounded him. So, there’s a bright light that you can’t look at. It’s like trying to look at the sun and to describe what you saw. It’s too hard. It’s too painful. It’s dangerous. But it seems to him that this brilliant light around him was like the appearance of a bow in the clouds on a rainy day, which of course gleams in the sun and is mult-coloured and wonderful.
And so, what was Ezekiel looking at? What was Ezekiel seeing in this vision? Angels. Wheels. An expanse. A throne. And what else? He tells us in the middle of verse 28. What he was looking at was — and this is remarkable — what he was looking at was the glory of the Lord. But the glory of the Lord is so hard to describe that he says that this is the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. He’s tried his best to convey to us what the glory of the Lord was like. But all he’s managed to do is to give us an impression of what it appeared to be like. And what it appeared to be like was glowing metal filled with fire and more fire and a brilliant light that radiated like a rainbow in the sky.
And in this way, the Lord God Almighty revealed himself to Ezekiel in a visible form. God is a spirit so that he does not have a body like us. And he’s invisible. But the Lord revealed himself to Ezekiel by taking the form of a man. But the form he took was not of an ordinary man, but a man, glowing like molten metal and fire and light.
Some commentators say that this was a vision of the pre-incarnate Son of God. And so, before the Son of God came to earth as one of us, he appeared to Ezekiel in this form. I’m not sure we can be so specific and I’m perfectly happy to say that this was the glory of our Triune God in visible form.
In any case, whenever Ezekiel saw the glory of the Lord, he fell face down in fear. And the Lord began to speak to him. And we’ll have to wait until next week to hear what the Lord said to him.
Significance
But what can we learn from this chapter? What lessons are there for us to learn?
We could think about God’s kindness to Ezekiel, who had expected to serve God in the temple in Jerusalem. But that privilege was taken from him when he was taken away into exile. And yet, God had something even better in store for Ezekiel, because by means of this vision, Ezekiel was, in a sense, taken up to heaven and into the very presence of God. The temple in Jerusalem was an earthly copy of the real, heavenly temple. And God did not take Ezekiel into the earthly copy, but into the heavenly reality, where he saw the glory of the Lord, who sits as king over all.
And so, we could think about God’s kindness to Ezekiel, because very few other people in Old Testament times were able to see what Ezekiel saw. Moses saw something similar. So did Isaiah. But there weren’t many others. And so, we could think about God’s kindness to Ezekiel, giving him this wonderful vision of God’s glory.
But let’s instead think about God’s kindness to us and to all his people, because God has promised his believing people that the day will come when all of us will come into the presence of God as Ezekiel did and we’ll come before the Lord our God and we’ll dwell with him for ever and for ever. Ezekiel stood before the Lord briefly, but we will stand before him for ever.
And so, in Revelation 7 we have John’s vision of heaven right now and that great multitude of people from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing before the throne of God and in front of the Lamb of God who is Jesus Christ. And they’re wearing white robes to signify how the guilt of God’s people is washed away by the death of Christ who shed his blood to cleanse us. And so, having been washed and cleansed by the blood of Christ, we’re able to come before God’s presence in heaven without fear. When Ezekiel saw the Lord, he fell face down in fear. But the saints in heaven are not afraid, because their sin and guilt has been washed away by the death of Christ and they have peace with God for ever. And so, they’re able to stand before him without fear.
And in heaven God wipes away the tears of his people and we’ll drink from the springs of living water and live for ever. That’s John’s vision of heaven right now and that’s where the souls of believers who have died have gone. And that’s where you will go when you die so long as you’re trusting in Christ the Saviour who died to bring us to God.
And then in Revelation 21 and 22 we have John’s vision of the new and better Jerusalem, which is the church of Jesus Christ in the new heavens and earth. And there, all of God’s people will live with the Lord for ever and for ever.
And John says that the glory of the Lord will give us light. So, the brillance of his glory will lighten up the new Jerusalem and we’ll live in God’s presence and in his glory for ever and for ever.
And in Revelation 22 it says that the throne of God and the Lamb will be in the heavenly city and we will serve him. And it says that we will see his face. Ezekiel doesn’t say that he saw the face of God. He said he saw a figure that looked like a man and he saw what appeared to be glowing metal and fire and a brilliant light and a rainbow. But he doesn’t say he saw God’s face. But that’s what God has in store for us and for all his people in the new creation. We will see him and we will know him face to face. Personally.
But how can we see God’s face when God is invisible? We will see God’s face, because we’ll see the human face of Jesus Christ our Saviour. And in seeing his face we’ll see the glory of God, because Jesus Christ our Saviour is God. He is Light from Light and true God from true God. He is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity who became one of us and who was exalted to heaven as one of us. And we will see him. And in seeing him, we will see the glory of God.
And this is what we were made for. This is our ultimate destiny. We were made for God. We were made to dwell in the house of the Lord where we will gaze upon the beauty of the Lord. And so, when we come into his presence and see him face to face like this, then we’ll be happy for ever, because this is what we were made to do. This is what the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden signified: eternal life in the presence of God where we will be with him and where we will see him. And just as we experience pleasure in this life when we gaze at a beautiful landscape or painting or someone we love, so we will experience pleasure and joy and happiness for ever when we gaze on the glory on God in the face of Christ our Saviour. And while there is nothing in this life which can satisfy us perfectly, yet we’ll be perfectly satisfied in the presence of God in the life to come.
Conclusion
Ezekiel was allowed to see the glory of God for a little while in a vision. But with all of God’s people, we will see the glory of God for ever and for ever in the new and better world to come, where we will live with God for ever and for ever. And the reason we’ll be there is because of the kindness of God to us in Christ Jesus, because the Lord Jesus Christ paid for our sins with his life to reconcile us to God so that we can come before his presence without fear of his wrath and curse. And just as Christ was raised from the dead, so we will be raised from the dead to live for ever in the presence of our great and glorious God. And we’ll never have to leave.
And yet it’s not all about the future, is it? Yes, in the life to come, we’ll gaze on the beauty of the Lord for ever. But in 2 Corinthians 3 and 4, Paul tells us that God displays his glory to his people in this life whenever the gospel of Christ is proclaimed. Whenever the gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed, God shines his light into our hearts to give us the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
And so, Sunday by Sunday, as the gospel of Christ our Saviour is proclaimed, God reveals his glory to us and we see it, not visibly, but by faith. In the gospel, he reveals the glory of his grace and mercy and love and holiness and justice and power and so on. And as we see his glory by faith, we are transformed by it into God’s likeness. And he fills our hearts with joy and gladness because of his love to us in Jesus Christ and because of the hope he has given us of seeing God for ever in glory.
Sermons and Stuff 