Day 239 (Ezekiel 1-4) - Year 8

**Tara-Leigh Cobble** (0:01)
Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara-Leigh Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap.
Today, we jumped into the book of the major prophet Ezekiel. It's 48 chapters long. Ezekiel was exiled to Babylon in the first round of deportation, which happened in 597 BC. He begins by prophesying a few years later in 593 BC. And Jerusalem doesn't fall until 586 BC, which is still 7 years away when he starts prophesying. Ezekiel was from the line of priests, and priests begin their service when they turn 30 But when Ezekiel turns 30, he's in exile, far away from the temple in Jerusalem. So instead of serving as a priest, God calls him to serve as a prophet.
Knowing he would task Ezekiel with writing this book, I'm grateful for the unique personality traits God gave him. We probably all have a friend who's like Ezekiel in some ways. He's like the friend who corrects you when you say, it took us half an hour to get here by saying, actually it was only 25 minutes and that includes stopping for gas. Compared to the other prophets, he goes the extra mile to give us very specific details. And even when he has a hard time coming up with concrete descriptions for things he's seeing, he does his best to give helpful comparisons. Despite all his details and metaphors, he doesn't get lost in the weeds. He continually reminds the reader of the main point. In fact, one of the most common phrases in the book is, Then they will know that I am the Lord. Ezekiel reminds us that God's plans revolve around getting his people to know him.
Chapter 1 opens with Ezekiel's first vision as a prophet. Before we talk about the vision, we need to know that anytime he says things like, they had the appearance of, or the likeness of, he's basically letting us know that this is his closest approximation to what he saw.
His vision begins with a storm cloud appearing. Then he sees some living creatures that look kind of human, but with four wings and four faces. So it seems like they have a face on the back of their head, as well as on each side of their head, which allows them to see in every direction at once. Ezekiel doesn't really know what he's seeing at the time, but later in chapter 10 of this book, he refers to similar beings as cherubim. And he says, hey, that's what I saw back in chapter 1 His descriptions also match with a lot of what we see about cherubim in Psalm 18 and Revelation 4 But it's possible that the Revelation creatures are seraphim, a different kind of created being which has six wings. Here's a trick I like to use to help me keep cherubim straight from seraphim. Seraphim have six wings, and the word seraphim and six both start with S. And the word cherubim sounds like a chair which has four legs, like the four wings and the four faces of the cherubim. As far as the cherubim here are concerned, each cherub seems to be attached to a sort of gyroscope covered in eyes, so he can not only see in all directions simultaneously, but also move in any direction easily. These types of creatures are usually associated with the presence of God or places God has specifically set apart as sacred. In this instance, it's the former, because God shows up on the scene. He's seated on a throne, and the image of God on his throne includes descriptions of rainbows, fire, light, metals, and jewels.
In verse 1 of chapter 2, God speaks to Ezekiel from his throne and tells him to stand up. In verse 2, the spirit enters into him and lifts him up to his feet, in obedience to the father's commands. There are a few interesting things about all of this. First, the spirit lifts him three more times in today's reading, in 312, 314, and 324 The spirit also does some implied teleportation, not a vision of a different place, but a moving to a different place. So there's that.
Finally, it's interesting that the spirit entered him. We've talked about this before, but this is rare for the Old Testament, where the spirit is mostly described as being on or with people. For the most part, it's not until Jesus is born, dies, resurrects, and then ascends to heaven, that the spirit comes to dwell in people. But it happens here. A lot of commentators draw a correlation between those things, the spirit's indwelling and the teleportation, and also the fact that Ezekiel physically eats the scroll. It sounds like God is doing something really unique here. Speaking of the scroll, let's talk about that part. God appoints Ezekiel to speak to Israel because they're rebellious. And as we've seen, God patiently and lovingly pursues the rebel. Israel may not obey, but at least they won't doubt. They'll know for sure that Ezekiel is a true prophet. But unfortunately, you can know the truth and still not be impacted by it.