Ezekiel 1

While Ezekiel was in Babylonian captivity, he saw visions of God. 

He saw "a whirlwind...a great cloud with raging fire engulfing itself," with "brightness all around it...and with it came "the likeness of four living creatures." 

They appeared like a man, each having four faces, four wings, straight legs, with calves' feet. The right side of their faces looked as a lion, and the left side an ox. And each had the face of an eagle. And the spirit was with them and directed their way.

Also, they appeared like "burning coals of fire," and out of the fire went lightning. There were wheels on the earth beside each creature, and the wheels had rims full of eyes. Wherever the spirit wanted them to go, they went. 

The firmament above the living creatures was a color like "awesome crystal." The wings of the creatures spread out wide, and when they went, the wings made a noise "like the noise of many waters, like the voice of the Almighty, a tumult like the noise of an army."

When they stopped moving, a voice came from the firmament above, which "was the likeness of a throne..." and on the throne "was a likeness with the appearance of a man high above it." 

This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. So when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard a voice of One speaking...

COMMENTARY

Ezekiel's vision is of THE GLORY OF THE LORD! In other words, according to McGee, "it is a vision of the presence of God."

Ezekiel saw the chariot of God, riding through time. The chariot was empty. He saw four living creatures, the cherubim with the chariot; and he witnessed a throne, and on the throne, a Man. This was the highest vision of God ever given. 

The whirlwind was the movement, or judgment, of God. 

The four creatures with the four faces "remind us of the four Gospels, which reveal the four aspects of Christ: His Kingship (Matthew) symbolized by the lion; His servanthood (Mark) symbolized by the ox; His perfect humanity (Luke) symbolized by the face of a man; and His deity (John) symbolized by the eagle."

The lightning reminds us that God is Light. Scripture is pretty clear on that. (See 1 John 1:5; John 8:12; 1 John 1:7) We would be burned by "God's holiness if we had not been redeemed by the blood of Christ and covered with His righteousness."

God is not seen in Ezekiel's vision, but "portrayed," which is why he uses the word "likeness." No man has seen God and lived. Recall Moses who asked to see God, and "God hid him in the cleft of the rock so that Moses saw only the glory of God, not the person of God." 

The rims full of eyes was representative of an all-knowing, all-seeing God. He is omnipotent. He has a purpose, as He moves in judgment. "He is moving forward, and He will accomplish His purposes."

In Revelation 4, we read about these four living creatures of Ezekiel's vision. They guard the throne of God by protecting the throne from sinful man, and they direct the way to God, which is by way of the cross, through Jesus Christ. 

I like McGee's idea that Ezekiel's vision shows God's mercy hovering over this section of the earth, though in truth, the whole world is under His mercy because of what Jesus did on the cross. McGee said:

God is hovering over this world today, ready to receive any sinner who will come through Christ to Him. 

Finally, after it is evident to Ezekiel that He was in the presence of the Glory of the Lord, he fell on his face, as if to say: "Oh, God, I am undone."  

McGee added: What a picture of our holy God we have here! I must say that I stand merely on the fringe, thankful that I'm hidden in the cleft of the rock."