God’s Glory and Discipline

His Prophet

We do not have a lot of details about the one God would choose to be His mouthpiece, but we do know a few facts. Ezekiel was a priest. Some believe he was most likely 30 years old. We also know Ezekiel did not go searching for God but God came to him. Mark Dever points out,

God takes the initiative. He is the one who comes to us. . . . Ezekiel didn’t open the heavens and go to God. . . . Like Moses and the burning bush. Like Isaiah in the temple. Like Paul on the road to Damascus. So with Ezekiel. None of these men were out looking for God or trying to initiate contact with Him. This God takes the initiative. He comes to us. (Dever, Message, 641)

The same initiative is seen in the incarnation. God seeks His lost sheep.

Though Ezekiel was a priest, God had a new occupation for him: prophet. Most likely Ezekiel had been looking forward to serving in the temple and having a long and fruitful ministry as a priest. God, however, had different plans for him. No temple. No priestly service. No problem. God wanted Ezekiel to serve as His mouthpiece to those in exile. What about us? Are our lives wide open to His call? Are we those who say, “Whatever You want, Lord!” If we are not, then our lack of trust and obedience is to our own detriment. Ezekiel the prophet in Babylon is shown a vision of God that Ezekiel the priest may have never seen in Jerusalem.

His Word

God didn’t just have something to show Ezekiel, but He had something to say. The word of the Lord came to Ezekiel. As a matter of fact, the word of the Lord would come to Ezekiel a lot—the phrase is recorded over 49 times in the book. In the initial vision Ezekiel hears the voice of the Lord twice (vv. 25,28). Stuart contends,

The purpose was not simply to dazzle Ezekiel, but to point to a message. God is on the move, He is allowing Himself to be seen, He is appearing even in what people thought was a godforsaken place. What an enduring message of hope! How important it is for us to remember that God is never confined, never limited, never distracted, never disinterested in His people. (Stuart, Ezekiel, 28–29)

Ezekiel would never lack God’s message for God’s people. Yahweh knew exactly what His people needed to hear.

His Hand

As Ezekiel receives the vision, the Lord’s hand was on His prophet. This is not a sign of oppression but of empowerment. In the remainder of the book, Ezekiel will refer to the Lord’s hand as many as four more times. As a matter of fact, his name bears testimony to this thought of empowerment, for Ezekiel means, “God strengthens” (Taylor, Ezekiel, 68). Ezekiel would have God’s sayings and His strength. All of the resources Ezekiel needed for his new ministry, God provided.

God Is Always Present Through the Disciplining of His Children

Ezekiel 1:4-28

What Does Ezekiel See and Hear?

Though it does not appear that God spoke to His people during the first five years of their exile, His silence did not mean His absence. The vision given to Ezekiel will confirm not only that God is not limited to the temple in Jerusalem but also that He will in fact be with and sustain His people in exile. So what exactly does Ezekiel see and hear? He sees “an impressive picture of God’s giant, fiery, air chariot driven by the King of kings himself, which had touched down right there at the obscure town of Tel-Abib” (Stuart, Ezekiel, 31).

Why Does Ezekiel See This Vision?

Ezekiel receives the vision so God’s people will know He is Yahweh. One would think they already knew this, but if they did, they have not been acting like it. In Ezekiel every bit of judgment and every ray of hope have the purpose of reintroducing God to His people (Dever, Message, 649). Seeing God clearly allows us to see everything else rightly, including ourselves. Thomas notes, “God’s aim is not to constrain man’s submission by force, but to ravish our affections with irresistible displays of the treasure of His glory. When God is our treasure, submission is our pleasure” (Thomas, God Strengthens, 30). Obedience driven by delight is far better than obedience driven by duty alone.

What about us? Is our view of God the same as His? Can the people in our worship services see Him rightly in His Word? Are our pulpits declaring His greatness? Tony Evans does not think so. He contends,

The God most of us worship is too small. The God of most Christians seems anemic, weak, and limited. He does not have the capacity to make a difference, to turn things around. The God most of us serve resembles more the flickering of a candle than the burning of the noonday sun. (Evans, Awesome, 93)

In Ezekiel Yahweh will make Himself known so that Israel and the nations will know exactly who He is.

What Can We See?

First, from Ezekiel’s vision we can see that God is holy and rightly judges sin. God will not ignore sin forever. He will see that every sin is punished. Those who do not flee to Christ will be forced to bear the punishment for all of their sin. In this vision we can see His holiness in the great cloud. Ezekiel sees a whirlwind coming from the north, a great cloud with fire flashing back and forth and brilliant light all around it. Based on its direction of origin, Ezekiel knows this is not a cloud of rescue but of reckoning. Trouble generally comes from the north, as evidenced by Gog in the distant future (38:15). In Ezekiel 1, however, Gog is not the approaching one Israel needs to fear; God is! He is not coming to deal with the Chaldeans primarily but with His own people.

God’s holiness is also seen in the fire. The cloud Ezekiel is shown has fire flashing back and forth, and in the center of the fire is a gleam like amber. The prophet describes the one sitting on the throne high above having from his waist upward what looked like fire enclosing it all around and from His waist downward what looked like fire. A brilliant light surrounds Him as well. Scripture repeatedly describes God as a consuming fire (Exod 19; Heb 12; Rev 1), which is never considered good news for sinners. Paul informs the Thessalonians that Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire (2 Thess 1:7-9).

God’s holiness is seen by the presence of the four living creatures as well. Ezekiel says the form of the living creatures was like the appearance of burning coals of fire and torches. Fire was moving back and forth between the living creatures; it was bright, with lightning coming out of it. The creatures were darting back and forth like flashes of lightning. The living creatures are cherubim, and every time they are mentioned in Scripture they are guardians of God’s holiness (Gen 3:24; Exod 25:18-20; 26:1; 36:8; Rev 4:6-9) (MacArthur, “Sacrifice”). From the beginning of the vision, Ezekiel is shown God’s holiness, which will be a major emphasis throughout the book.

Second, from Ezekiel’s vision we are informed that God knows everything and is everywhere. The wheels and the wheel within a wheel demonstrate God’s ability to go anywhere. He can even do so without pivoting or turning. With this vision God is invading Babylon and the realm of their god, Marduk. Yahweh needs no one’s permission to do so, particularly not the approval of a man-made god. He is not limited to the temple. God can be anywhere He wants to be but especially wherever His people are. The rims that were full of eyes show He sees and knows everything. God’s people may no longer be in Judah, but He can still see them just as clearly.

Third, from Ezekiel’s vision we are shown that God is sovereign and unique. Above the great fire was an expanse, and above the expanse was the shape of a throne, and there was a form with the appearance of a human on the throne high above. God does not reign over just a little territory in the Middle East but over the entire universe. In this vision

the absolute distinction between Yahweh and all of creation is clearly recognized. . . . Yahweh sits alone on His throne, separated from all inferior creatures. . . . God is alone above the platform, removed from all creatures, and stunning in His radiance. There is none other beside(s) Him. (Block, Ezekiel 1–24, 107–8)

Fourth, from Ezekiel’s vision we see that God is glorious and merciful. Because Ezekiel lacks the vocabulary to describe all he is shown, he uses the terms “like,” “the appearance of,” and “what seemed to be.” He says, “This was the appearance of the form of the Lord’s glory.” Block notes,

Unlike the gods of the nations depicted on ancient seals and carvings, the glory of Yahweh defies human description, verbally or visually. And unlike the images of the heathen, which require constant attention and polishing, Yahweh’s radiance emanates from His very being. (Ezekiel 1–24, 106)

God is indeed glorious, but He is also merciful. The Israelites have not, nor have we, done anything deserving of mercy. But in the final verse of the vision, Ezekiel describes the brilliant light that is around the One on the throne like that of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day. Many years later John would see a similar vision of One seated on a throne with the appearance of a rainbow all around (Rev 4:3). In thinking back to the days of Noah, the rainbow was meant to remind us not just that God would no longer cover the earth with water but that even in wrath God is merciful. Despite all the looming clouds of judgment, the beams of the bow allowed for rays of hope.

Ezekiel’s Reaction and Ours

The least surprising component of the entire vision is Ezekiel’s reaction. Ezekiel says, when I saw it, I fell facedown. No doubt! Isaiah, Peter, James, John, and Paul all had similar reactions when they were allowed to see just a glimmer of the Lord’s glory. The question is not why so many in the Bible fell on the ground in the presence of the Lord but why there seems to be so little of it today. Perhaps people these days are not seeing the Lord’s glory in the sermons they hear or the services they attend. Of all the feelings Ezekiel had in the first chapter, it’s clear one of them is not the “Jesus is my homeboy” mentality. Dever notes Ezekiel’s

new knowledge of God did not make him feel more casual about God at all. He was awed by this vision of God. . . . The casual happiness we often regard as the height of spiritual intimacy with God is never pictured in the Bible. Every vision of God in the Bible is awesome and inspires reverence. (Dever, Message, 640)

David once told God, “So I gaze on You in the sanctuary to see Your strength and Your glory” (Ps 63:2). David’s vision of God would even sustain him in the wilderness. May our people see such a vision as well.

Conclusion

What can we glean from this text? I have a few suggestions. First, if we are scared that God will ultimately abandon us in our sin, Ezekiel 1 should provide a measure of hope. Second, if we are in the middle of God’s discipline, rejoice that He will use it to set us free from our selfishness and to conform us further to the image of Christ. Third, through Ezekiel, God will speak clearly to the exiles, but through Christ, God speaks most clearly to us. Fourth, we may never see God’s fiery chariot roaming the landscape, but in Christ we have seen His glory (John 1:14). Fifth, we are not just to see His glory but to display it (2 Cor 3:7-18). Tim Chester asks two important questions: What impression of God would someone pick up from watching the way we live out our Christian faith? Would that impression be anything like Ezekiel’s vision (Chester, God of Glory, 10)? Sixth, like Israel, we are in exile too (1 Pet 2:11; Heb 13:14), but we are not without a home or hope (Duguid, Ezekiel, 53). Seventh, there is much to be thankful for in Ezekiel 1. We can thank God that He is still the same God that Ezekiel saw in His vision (Chester, God of Glory, 11). We can thank God that despite the rebellion of humanity and the weakness of His people, God has preserved, and always will preserve, His people and His gospel (ibid.). We can thank God that the worst form of discipline for His people was not in Chaldea but at Calvary, and He took it upon Himself.

Reflect and Discuss