Ezekiel 1

Today’s Passage: Ezekiel 1

We open the book far from home, among a company of captives resettled beside a canal in the flat plains of Babylon, and there, of all places, the sky splits open. Ezekiel, a priest carried off with the exiles of King Jehoiachin, is sitting by the River Kebar when the heavens part and he is given a vision that will mark him for the rest of his life. He sees a great storm sweeping in from the north, fire flashing within a vast cloud, and out of the blaze four living creatures full of faces and wings, and beside them gleaming wheels that move as if alive, and above them all an expanse like crystal, and above that a throne, and on the throne a figure radiant as fire and rainbow. This is the glory of the LORD, and when Ezekiel sees it he falls on his face. Everything that follows in the whole book flows out from this moment, when a homesick exile discovered that God had not stayed behind in Jerusalem after all.

As you read, hold this: The God whose glory seemed left behind at the temple appears enthroned even in exile, for His sovereign, holy glory is not confined to one place but fills the whole earth.

Ezekiel 1:1–3 (BSB)

¹ In the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month, while I was among the exiles by the River Kebar, the heavens opened and I saw visions of God. ² On the fifth day of the month—it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin— ³ the word of the LORD came directly to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the River Kebar. And there the LORD’s hand was upon him.

See how carefully the day is dated and the place is named, for this is no dream floating loose from the real world. It happened on a particular afternoon, in the fifth year of the exile, to a real priest named Ezekiel, sitting by a real canal in the land of his captors. And it is precisely there, in the land of the Chaldeans, that the heavens open and the hand of the LORD comes upon him. Do not hurry past the wonder of it. The most stirring vision of God’s throne in all the Old Testament was granted not in the temple, not in the holy city, but in the mud of Babylon among a broken and displaced people. When the exiles thought themselves cut off from God, God came looking for them, and He opened the very heavens over the place of their sorrow.

Ezekiel 1:4–9 (BSB)

⁴ I looked and saw a whirlwind coming from the north, a great cloud with fire flashing back and forth and brilliant light all around it. In the center of the fire was a gleam like amber, ⁵ and within it was the form of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: They had a human form, ⁶ but each had four faces and four wings. ⁷ Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the hooves of a calf, gleaming like polished bronze. ⁸ Under their wings on their four sides they had human hands. All four living creatures had faces and wings, ⁹ and their wings were touching one another. They did not turn as they moved; each one went straight ahead.

The vision begins the way glory so often begins in Scripture, with storm and cloud and fire, the great trembling signs that God Himself is drawing near. Out of the blaze come four living creatures, and everything about them speaks of a majesty our words can barely hold: gleaming bronze, flashing amber, wings and hands and faces all at once. These are the servants that stand nearest the throne, and even they are wrapped in fire and lightning. Consider what that tells us of the One they serve. If the attendants at His court are this glorious, this dazzling, how much greater is the King Himself? We were made to marvel here, not to master the details. The right response to a scene like this is the lifting of the heart in awe: holy, holy, holy is the LORD, whose very footmen burn like polished bronze.

Ezekiel 1:10–14 (BSB)

¹⁰ The form of their faces was that of a man, and each of the four had the face of a lion on the right side, the face of an ox on the left side, and also the face of an eagle. ¹¹ Such were their faces. Their wings were spread upward; each had two wings touching the wings of the creature on either side, and two wings covering its body. ¹² Each creature went straight ahead. Wherever the spirit would go, they would go, without turning as they moved. ¹³ In the midst of the living creatures was the appearance of glowing coals of fire, or of torches. Fire moved back and forth between the living creatures; it was bright, and lightning flashed out of it. ¹⁴ The creatures were darting back and forth as quickly as flashes of lightning.

Each creature bore four faces, and the old teachers of the church loved to linger over them: the man, noblest of creatures; the lion, king of the wild beasts; the ox, chief of the beasts that serve; and the eagle, highest of the birds of the air. It is as if all the living glory of God’s creation were gathered up around His throne to worship Him, every realm of life bowing before its Maker. And see how they move, wherever the spirit would go, they would go, without ever needing to turn, darting swift as lightning. Here is worship that is instant and whole and without hesitation, a service so wedded to God’s will that His purpose and their motion are one. This is what it looks like when a creature lives entirely for the pleasure of God, and it is a beautiful thing to behold. Even the flashing fire between them seems to burn with the same restless readiness to do His bidding.

Ezekiel 1:15–21 (BSB)

¹⁵ When I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the ground beside each creature with its four faces. ¹⁶ The workmanship of the wheels looked like the gleam of beryl, and all four had the same likeness. Their workmanship looked like a wheel within a wheel. ¹⁷ As they moved, they went in any of the four directions, without pivoting as they moved. ¹⁸ Their rims were high and awesome, and all four rims were full of eyes all around. ¹⁹ So as the living creatures moved, the wheels moved beside them, and when the creatures rose from the ground, the wheels also rose. ²⁰ Wherever the spirit would go, they would go, and the wheels would rise alongside them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. ²¹ When the creatures moved, the wheels moved; when the creatures stood still, the wheels stood still; and when the creatures rose from the ground, the wheels rose alongside them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.

Then Ezekiel’s eye falls to the ground and he sees the wheels, and this may be the most comforting detail in the whole vision for a people in exile. A wheel within a wheel, gleaming like precious stone, so made that it could roll instantly in any direction without ever turning about. This is a throne that goes wherever it wills, north or south, east or west, held back by nothing. The rims were high and awesome and full of eyes all around, for nothing escapes the sight of the God who sits above them; He sees His scattered people in every corner of the earth. And the great secret of it all is stated twice, that we might be sure to hear it: the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. This is no dead machine but a living chariot, moved by the very Spirit of God. The throne of heaven is not fixed to one temple floor. It rides out to Babylon, to the Kebar, to the ends of the earth, carrying the presence of God to wherever His people are found.

Ezekiel 1:22–25 (BSB)

²² Spread out above the heads of the living creatures was the likeness of an awesome expanse, gleaming like crystal. ²³ And under the expanse, their wings stretched out toward one another. Each one also had two wings covering its body. ²⁴ When the creatures moved, I heard the sound of their wings like the roar of many waters, like the voice of the Almighty, like the tumult of an army. When they stood still, they lowered their wings. ²⁵ And there came a voice from above the expanse over their heads as they stood still with their wings lowered.

Now the vision lifts higher. Over the heads of the creatures spreads a shining expanse, gleaming like crystal, a great platform of light, and Ezekiel’s ears are filled with the sound of the moving wings, like the roar of many waters, like the voice of the Almighty, like the thunder of an army on the march. Read those words slowly and let them roll like the sound itself. This is glory that overwhelms the senses, that presses upon a man until he can hardly stand it. And then, at the height of the tumult, the creatures grow still and lower their wings, and a voice comes down from above the crystal expanse. All that fire and thunder and rushing motion falls silent to make room for one thing: the voice of the One enthroned above it all. Every glorious creature in the vision exists finally to serve that voice, to fall quiet when the King is about to speak.

Ezekiel 1:26–28 (BSB)

²⁶ Above the expanse over their heads was the likeness of a throne with the appearance of sapphire, and on the throne high above was a figure like that of a man. ²⁷ From what seemed to be His waist up, I saw a gleam like amber, with what looked like fire within it all around. And from what seemed to be His waist down, I saw what looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded Him. ²⁸ The appearance of the brilliant light all around Him was like that of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell facedown and heard a voice speaking.

And now, at the very top of the vision, above the creatures, above the wheels, above the shining crystal, there is a throne of sapphire blue, and seated upon it a figure like a man, blazing from the waist up and the waist down with amber fire, wrapped about in brilliant light. And around Him, softening all that terrible splendor, is a rainbow, the sign God set in the sky as a pledge of mercy after the flood. Ezekiel does not dare to say more than he can. He piles up careful, trembling words, the appearance of the likeness of the glory (כָּבוֹד) kavod, pronounced kah-VODE. Strong's H3519, glory, weight, splendor, honor. This word grows from a root that means to be heavy or weighty, and there is a lovely truth hidden in that root. The word for glory comes from the idea of weight, so that when the Scriptures speak of the glory of God they mean the sheer heaviness of who He is, the full weight of His majesty, His holiness, His splendor pressing down upon a person until, like Ezekiel, he can only fall on his face. This same kavod was the shining cloud that once filled the tabernacle and later the temple so thickly that the priests could not stand to minister. And here is the wonder the exiles most needed to see: that weighty glory, which they feared they had left behind in Jerusalem, appears to them in Babylon. God’s kavod is not chained to a building or a city or a land. It is as free and as vast as He is, filling heaven and earth, and it comes to rest wherever the LORD wills to reveal Himself, even by a canal in a foreign country, even to a people far from home. of the LORD, as a man reaching for the sun and knowing his words will fall short. He cannot look at God directly; he can only tell us what the surrounding brightness was like. And there is only one thing to do when the glory of the LORD comes into view: he falls on his face. So would we. But hear the mercy in the last line, for the God of overwhelming glory does not leave His servant facedown in silence. He speaks. The One high and lifted up above the sapphire throne bends down to talk with a captive in the dust of Babylon, and that is the tenderest wonder of the whole chapter.