The Prophet's Vision of the Divine Glory

1¹ When I was thirty years of age, I was living with the exiles on the Kebar River. On the fifth day of the fourth month, the sky opened up and I saw visions of God. ² (It was the fifth day of the month in the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin ³ that God's Word came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, on the banks of the Kebar River in the country of Babylon. God's hand came upon him that day.)

⁴ I looked: I saw an immense dust storm come from the north, an immense cloud with lightning flashing from it, a huge ball of fire glowing like bronze. ⁵ Within the fire were what looked like four creatures vibrant with life. Each had the form of a human being, ⁶ but each also had four faces and four wings. ⁷ Their legs were as sturdy and straight as columns, but their feet were hoofed like those of a calf and sparkled from the fire like burnished bronze. ⁸ On all four sides under their wings they had human hands. All four had both faces and wings, ⁹ with the wings touching one another. They turned neither one way nor the other; they went straight forward. ¹⁰ Their faces looked like this: In front a human face, on the right side the face of a lion, on the left the face of an ox, and in back the face of an eagle. ¹¹ So much for the faces. The wings were spread out with the tips of one pair touching the creature on either side; the other pair of wings covered its body. ¹² Each creature went straight ahead. Wherever the spirit went, they went. They didn't turn as they went. ¹³ The four creatures looked like a blazing fire, or like fiery torches. Tongues of fire shot back and forth between the creatures, and out of the fire, bolts of lightning. ¹⁴ The creatures flashed back and forth like strikes of lightning.

¹⁵ As I watched the four creatures, I saw something that looked like a wheel on the ground beside each of the four-faced creatures. ¹⁶ This is what the wheels looked like: They were identical wheels, sparkling like diamonds in the sun. It looked like they were wheels within wheels, like a gyroscope. ¹⁷ They went in any one of the four directions they faced, but straight, not veering off. ¹⁸ The rims were immense, circled with eyes. ¹⁹ When the living creatures went, the wheels went; when the living creatures lifted off, the wheels lifted off. ²⁰ Wherever the spirit went, they went, the wheels sticking right with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. ²¹ When the creatures went, the wheels went; when the creatures stopped, the wheels stopped; when the creatures lifted off, the wheels lifted off, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. ²² Over the heads of the living creatures was something like a dome, shimmering like a sky full of cut glass, vaulted over their heads. ²³ Under the dome one set of wings was extended toward the others, with another set of wings covering their bodies. ²⁴ When they moved I heard their wings - it was like the roar of a great waterfall, like the voice of The Strong God, like the noise of a battlefield. When they stopped, they folded their wings. ²⁵ And then, as they stood with folded wings, there was a voice from above the dome over their heads.

²⁶ Above the dome there was something that looked like a throne, sky-blue like a sapphire, with a humanlike figure towering above the throne. ²⁷ From what I could see, from the waist up he looked like burnished bronze and from the waist down like a blazing fire. Brightness everywhere! ²⁸ The way a rainbow springs out of the sky on a rainy day - that's what it was like. It turned out to be the Glory of God! When I saw all this, I fell to my knees, my face to the ground. Then I heard a voice.

The Call of Ezekiel

2¹ It said, "Son of man, stand up. I have something to say to you." ² The moment I heard the voice, the Spirit entered me and put me on my feet. As he spoke to me, I listened. ³ He said, "Son of man, I'm sending you to the family of Israel, a rebellious nation if there ever was one. They and their ancestors have fomented rebellion right up to the present. ⁴ They're a hard case, these people to whom I'm sending you - hardened in their sin. Tell them, 'This is the Message of God, the Master.' ⁵ They are a defiant bunch. Whether or not they listen, at least they'll know that a prophet's been here.

⁶ But don't be afraid of them, son of man, and don't be afraid of anything they say. Don't be afraid when living among them is like stepping on thorns or finding scorpions in your bed. Don't be afraid of their mean words or their hard looks. They're a bunch of rebels. ⁷ Your job is to speak to them. Whether they listen is not your concern. They're hardened rebels. ⁸ "Only take care, son of man, that you don't rebel like these rebels. Open your mouth and eat what I give you." ⁹ When I looked he had his hand stretched out to me, and in the hand a book, a scroll. ¹⁰ He unrolled the scroll. On both sides, front and back, were written lamentations and mourning and doom.

Faith

11¹ The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It's our handle on what we can't see. ² The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd. ³ By faith, we see the world called into existence by God's word, what we see created by what we don't see.

⁴ By an act of faith, Abel brought a better sacrifice to God than Cain. It was what he believed, not what he brought, that made the difference. That's what God noticed and approved as righteous. After all these centuries, that belief continues to catch our notice. ⁵ By an act of faith, Enoch skipped death completely. "They looked all over and couldn't find him because God had taken him." We know on the basis of reliable testimony that before he was taken "he pleased God." ⁶ It's impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him. ⁷ By faith, Noah built a ship in the middle of dry land. He was warned about something he couldn't see, and acted on what he was told. The result? His family was saved. His act of faith drew a sharp line between the evil of the unbelieving world and the rightness of the believing world. As a result, Noah became intimate with God. ⁸ By an act of faith, Abraham said yes to God's call to travel to an unknown place that would become his home. When he left he had no idea where he was going. ⁹ By an act of faith he lived in the country promised him, lived as a stranger camping in tents. Isaac and Jacob did the same, living under the same promise. ¹⁰ Abraham did it by keeping his eye on an unseen city with real, eternal foundations - the City designed and built by God. ¹¹ By faith, barren Sarah was able to become pregnant, old woman as she was at the time, because she believed the One who made a promise would do what he said. ¹² That's how it happened that from one man's dead and shriveled loins there are now people numbering into the millions. ¹³ Each one of these people of faith died not yet having in hand what was promised, but still believing. How did they do it? They saw it way off in the distance, waved their greeting, and accepted the fact that they were transients in this world. ¹⁴ People who live this way make it plain that they are looking for their true home. ¹⁵ If they were homesick for the old country, they could have gone back any time they wanted. ¹⁶ But they were after a far better country than that - heaven country. You can see why God is so proud of them, and has a City waiting for them. ¹⁷ By faith, Abraham, at the time of testing, offered Isaac back to God. Acting in faith, he was as ready to return the promised son, his only son, as he had been to receive him - ¹⁸ and this after he had already been told, "Your descendants shall come from Isaac." ¹⁹ Abraham figured that if God wanted to, he could raise the dead. In a sense, that's what happened when he received Isaac back, alive from off the altar.