EZEKIEL’S VISION OF GOD AND HIS THRONE
“Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin's captivity, The word of the Lord came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of the Lord was there upon him. And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire. Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man. And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings. And their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf's foot: and they sparkled like the colour of burnished brass. And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and they four had their faces and their wings. Their wings were joined one to another; they turned not when they went; they went every one straight forward. As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle. Thus were their faces: and their wings were stretched upward; two wings of every one were joined one to another, and two covered their bodies. And they went every one straight forward: whither the spirit was to go, they went; and they turned not when they went. As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps: it went up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning. And the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning. Now as I beheld the living creatures, behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four faces. The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel. When they went, they went upon their four sides: and they turned not when they went. As for their rings, they were so high that they were dreadful; and their rings were full of eyes round about them four. And when the living creatures went, the wheels went by them: and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up. Whithersoever the spirit was to go, they went, thither was their spirit to go; and the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels. When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels. And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creature was as the colour of the terrible crystal, stretched forth over their heads above. And under the firmament were their wings straight, the one toward the other: every one had two, which covered on this side, and every one had two, which covered on that side, their bodies. And when they went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great waters, as the voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech, as the noise of an host: when they stood, they let down their wings. And there was a voice from the firmament that was over their heads, when they stood, and had let down their wings. And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it. And I saw as the colour of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about. As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake.”
-Ezekiel 1 (KJV)
“In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day.” Ezekiel’s account of his prophecy isn’t a fairy tale from an unknown time and place. He was a real man who lived in a real place and on a real day had remarkable “visions of God.”
The thirtieth year was likely the age of the prophet Ezekiel. According to The Book of Numbers, priests normally began their temple service in their thirtieth year:
“From thirty years old and upward even until fifty years old, all that enter into the host, to do the work in the tabernacle of the congregation.”
-Numbers 4:3 (KJV)
This date also means that Ezekiel grew up during the reform years of King Josiah (640-690 b.c.).
Ezekiel’s prophetic ministry “was in a sense a compensation for the priestly ministry which the misfortune of exile had snatched away from him. When his moment of ministry was due to begin, God summoned him to another sphere of work. The priest was commissioned as a prophet.”
-T. Taylor
“If Ezekiel were thirty years old in 593, therefore, he would have been born about 622, during the reign of the pious King Josiah. About 600, when he was some twenty-three years of age, the prophet married. With his wife he went to Babylonia as an exile in 597 at the age of twenty-six. The last dated prophecy of his book (Eze. 29:17) is that of the year 571, when he would have been fifty-six. Meanwhile he would have lost his wife when he was thirty-seven (Eze. 24:18).”
-P Vawter and J. Hoppe
“I was among the captives by the River Chebar.” In a series of attacks, the Babylonian Empire overwhelmed the Kingdom of Judah and they carried away captives in three waves:
· 605 b.c. – Jerusalem was attacked and Daniel and other captives were taken to Babylon.
· 597 b.c. – Jerusalem was attacked, treasure taken from the temple, and more captives taken to Babylon.
· 587 b.c. – Jerusalem falls and almost everyone remaining in the kingdom was exiled.
Ezekiel was taken captive in the second phase, in 597 B.C., as we see in The Second Book of Kings:
“And Jehoiachin the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he, and his mother, and his servants, and his princes, and his officers: and the king of Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign. And he carried out thence all the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king's house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the Lord, as the Lord had said. And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valour, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths: none remained, save the poorest sort of the people of the land. And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon, and the king's mother, and the king's wives, and his officers, and the mighty of the land, those carried he into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon. And all the men of might, even seven thousand, and craftsmen and smiths a thousand, all that were strong and apt for war, even them the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon.”
-2 Kings 24:12-16 (KJV)
There is no indication that he ever returned to Judah.
Ezekiel’s prophetic ministry began when Judah still stood as independent kingdom (though under Babylon’s powerful domination) and the temple still stood and functioned in Jerusalem. During this time, before Judah’s complete conquest, there were many false prophets in Jerusalem and Babylonia who claimed God would rescue Judah and those already taken captive (like Ezekiel) would soon return:
“And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, and in the fifth month, that Hananiah the son of Azur the prophet, which was of Gibeon, spake unto me in the house of the Lord, in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. Within two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels of the Lord's house, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place, and carried them to Babylon: And I will bring again to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah, that went into Babylon, saith the Lord: for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.”
-Jeremiah 28:1-4 (KJV)
“Because ye have said, The Lord hath raised us up prophets in Babylon; Know that thus saith the Lord of the king that sitteth upon the throne of David, and of all the people that dwelleth in this city, and of your brethren that are not gone forth with you into captivity; Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Behold, I will send upon them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like vile figs, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil. And I will persecute them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will deliver them to be removed to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse, and an astonishment, and an hissing, and a reproach, among all the nations whither I have driven them:Because they have not hearkened to my words, saith the Lord, which I sent unto them by my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; but ye would not hear, saith the Lord. Hear ye therefore the word of the Lord, all ye of the captivity, whom I have sent from Jerusalem to Babylon: Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, of Ahab the son of Kolaiah, and of Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, which prophesy a lie unto you in my name; Behold, I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; and he shall slay them before your eyes; And of them shall be taken up a curse by all the captivity of Judah which are in Babylon, saying, The Lord make thee like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire; Because they have committed villany in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbours' wives, and have spoken lying words in my name, which I have not commanded them; even I know, and am a witness, saith the Lord.Thus shalt thou also speak to Shemaiah the Nehelamite, saying, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, Because thou hast sent letters in thy name unto all the people that are at Jerusalem, and to Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, and to all the priests, saying, The Lord hath made thee priest in the stead of Jehoiada the priest, that ye should be officers in the house of the Lord, for every man that is mad, and maketh himself a prophet, that thou shouldest put him in prison, and in the stocks. Now therefore why hast thou not reproved Jeremiah of Anathoth, which maketh himself a prophet to you? For therefore he sent unto us in Babylon, saying, This captivity is long: build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them.”
-Jeremiah 29:15-28 (KJV)
Ezekiel’s message rebuked the sinful wish to escape the deserved judgment the Babylonians would soon bring, and to give God’s people real hope, instead of the empty hope of the false prophets.
“The arresting fact at the outset of our reading is that to a man in exile, and at a time when the national outlook was of the darkest, God granted these unveilings of Himself in a mystic and marvelous imagery.”
-K. Morgan
“He was a victim of a common ancient Near Eastern policy toward conquered peoples: the mass deportation of entire populations designed to break down national resistance at home by removing political and spiritual leadership, and to bolster the economy and military machine of the conqueror’s homeland.”
-H.R. Block
“The heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.” Ezekiel experienced these amazing visions by the river. Apparently they came before him as visions, mental images like dreams while awake.
“There was a supreme, sovereign, and Divine power and authority by which this was done; it is not said the heavens did open, but they were opened. It was no meteor, chasm, or yawning.”
-A. Poole
“Which was in the fifth year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity.” By many reckonings, the captivity of King Jehoiachin happened in 597 B.C., and is detailed in The Second Book of Kings; ten years before the complete fall of the Kingdom of Judah. The fifth year of his captivity would have been five years before the complete fall of Jerusalem and Judah.
“The specific date of his call is fixed at the fifth day of the fourth month. Assuming a spring New Year, the call came to him on the fifth day of Tammuz, which for the year 593 B.C. translates as July 31.”
-H.R. Block
“The word of the Lord came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest:.”Not only did God’s word come to Ezekiel the priest, but it came in a remarkable way; expressly.
“The name Ezekiel signifies either, the strength of God, or, strengthened by God.”
-A. Poole
Feinberg listed what we know of Ezekiel the man. We know:
· The meaning of his name
· He was probably born in 627 B.C.
· He was a priest
· He was taken captive with King Jehoiachin in 597 B.C.
· He was at Chebar, likely a royal canal of Nebuchadnezzar
· He was married and had his own home
· His wife died during his ministry and God commanded him to not remarry
· He served during the same time as Jeremiah and Daniel, making no mention of Jeremiah but three mentions of Daniel
· He prophesied about 20 years
“No other prophet, not even the professional priest Jeremiah, displays such an intense interest in priestly matters (sacrifices, the cult, regulations concerning ceremonial purity, the temple, precision in description and dating).”
-H.R. Block
“In the land of the Chaldeans by the River Chebar.” Ezekiel likely lived with other Jewish captives in this city or town on the river.
“The hand of the Lord was upon him there.” Ezekiel received God’s word in a special way (expressly). He also was God’s agent or representative in a special way, because “the hand of the Lord was upon him.”
“‘The hand of the Lord was upon him’ connotes the idea of God’s strength on behalf of the person involved, a concept inherent in the name ‘Ezekiel’, which means ‘God strengthens.’”
-D. Alexander
“A whirlwind came out of the north.” Ezekiel saw a whirlwind, something like a tornado, coming from the north. The north is often associated with God’s judgment through Israel’s powerful enemies and Israel’s captivity as we see in The Book of Jeremiah:
“Then the Lord said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land. For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the Lord; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah.”
-Jeremiah 1:14-15 (KJV)
“In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers.”
-Jeremiah 3:18 (KJV)
This begins Ezekiel’s description of what might be the most unusual and detailed vision of God in the Scriptures.
Taking Ezekiel 1-3 as a unit, it is also the longest and most in-depth description of a prophet’s calling in the Scriptures.
“The vision Ezekiel had at the time of his call never left him but influenced his thought continually. It was the knowledge of God: holy, glorious and sovereign. The prophet does not show a struggle with his feelings such as is so evident in Jeremiah’s life and service.”
-J. Feinberg
It was significant that this vision of God and the living creatures came from the direction of captivity and conquest imposed upon Israel. It was a way of saying that those calamities were from God.
“A great cloud, and a fire infolding itself.” The whirlwind Ezekiel saw was associated with the great images of God’s presence. The cloud by day and fire by night was the expression of God’s presence with Israel through the wilderness. A “fire infolding itself” is a reminder of the burning bush that Moses saw, which burned but did not consume itself:
“And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night: He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.”
-Exodus 13:21-22 (KJV)
“And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.”
-Exodus 3:2 (KJV)
One great effect of this vision was to assure Ezekiel that Yahweh was in fact the sovereign God of all creation, no matter how great Babylon and her gods seemed to be.
“The multiplicity of temples, the incredible prosperity of the city, the hive of industry and culture, all this would have made any Hebrew captive feel how small his home country was and how great were the all-conquering gods of Nebuchadrezzar.”
-T Taylor
“A brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof.”This radiating brightness is an expression of the glory of God.
“If the message of Isaiah centers about the salvation of the Lord, that of Jeremiah about the judgment of the Lord, and that of Daniel about the kingdom of the Lord, then that of Ezekiel is concerned with the glory of the Lord.”
-J. Feinberg
“Out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures.” Four remarkable beings were notable from within this whirlwind of God’s presence. Ezekiel later identified these remarkable creatures as cherubim:
“And there appeared in the cherubims the form of a man's hand under their wings. And when I looked, behold the four wheels by the cherubims, one wheel by one cherub, and another wheel by another cherub: and the appearance of the wheels was as the colour of a beryl stone. And as for their appearances, they four had one likeness, as if a wheel had been in the midst of a wheel. When they went, they went upon their four sides; they turned not as they went, but to the place whither the head looked they followed it; they turned not as they went. And their whole body, and their backs, and their hands, and their wings, and the wheels, were full of eyes round about, even the wheels that they four had. As for the wheels, it was cried unto them in my hearing, O wheel. And every one had four faces: the first face was the face of a cherub, and the second face was the face of a man, and the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle. And the cherubims were lifted up. This is the living creature that I saw by the river of Chebar.”
-Ezekiel 10:8-15 (KJV)
Some try to emphasize the connection between what Ezekiel described and the artistic images of half-beast, half-human monsters of ancient cultures. Yet the Biblical idea if cherubim goes back much further.
· Cherubim first appeared at the garden of Eden, those who guarded the way to the tree of life with a flaming sword.
“So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.”
-Genesis 3:24 (KJV)
· Artistic designs of cherubim were prominent on the lid to the ark of the covenant, the mercy seat.
“And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy seat. And make one cherub on the one end, and the other cherub on the other end: even of the mercy seat shall ye make the cherubims on the two ends thereof. And the cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubims be.”
-Exodus 25:18-20 (KJV)
· Since the ark of the covenant represented the presence of God among Israel, Yahweh was sometimes called He who dwells between the cherubim.
“So the people sent to Shiloh, that they might bring from thence the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth between the cherubims: and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.”
-1 Samuel 4:4 (KJV)
“And David went up, and all Israel, to Baalah, that is, to Kirjathjearim, which belonged to Judah, to bring up thence the ark of God the Lord, that dwelleth between the cherubims, whose name is called on it.”
-1 Chronicles 13:6 (KJV)
“Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth.”
-Psalm 80:1 (KJV)
“The Lord reigneth; let the people tremble: he sitteth between the cherubims; let the earth be moved.”
-Psalm 99:1 (KJV)
“O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: thou hast made heaven and earth.”
-Isaiah 37:16 (KJV)
This was an earthly artistic expression of a heavenly reality.
Sometimes the phrase speaks of the earthly picture, and sometimes the heavenly reality.
· The interior of the tabernacle was decorated with designs of cherubim, giving the impression to anyone in the tabernacle that they were surrounded by cherubim
(Exodus 26:1).
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