diff --git a/content/bible_journal/ezekiel_1:15-28.md b/content/bible_journal/ezekiel_1:15-28.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..da81d02 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/bible_journal/ezekiel_1:15-28.md @@ -0,0 +1,44 @@ ++++ +title = "Ezekiel 1:15–28" +date = "2023-03-03" ++++ + +### [Read the passage.](https://biblia.com/bible/esv/Ezekiel1.15-28) + +I must have been really tired when I wrote the last entry because I didn't +discuss the wheels from the latter part of the passage at all. So we're +overlappingo on the passage a bit today. Ezekiel goes into some detail about +these wheels that accompany the four living creatures, but it seems like he +doesn't answer any of the questions we could have about them. Are they alive? +How does "a wheel within a wheel" actually work? It sounds to me like Ezekiel +is trying the best he can to describe what he sees, but he doesn't have the +vocabulary or even the categories for it. In all likelihood, we wouldn't +either. + +We start to get clues as to what purpose the living creatures and their wheels +serve in the following verses. Above the heads of the creatures is an expanse +of crystal, or something very like it. The living creatures appear to be +holding up this expanse with their wings, and a very loud and awesome voice +from above the expanse commands the creatures to start and stop. "Like the +sound of the Almighty" (_v. 24_) is a very big hint. + +Finally in verse 26 Ezekiel tells us there is a throne on the expanse, made +entirely out of precious jewels. So then, the living creatures are holding up +the platform of the divine throne and the wheels are the literal wheels of +God's carriage. Which is a strange thing for God to have when He is present +everywhere at all times; He doesn't need to travel anywhere. Yet it is a way +for Him to show His majesty to us and to make statements, as we shall see in +chapter 10. + +Seated on the throne is Someone who looks like a human, but glowing and +polished like metal and blazing with glory. Ezekiel calls this the "appearance +of the likeness of the glory of Yahweh". Within a vision, that's three steps of +indirection from saying what God looks like, which is entirely appropriate for +sinners such as us. Moses asked to see God but was allowed only to see the +afterglow of His passing, because anything more would destroy him. In response +to catching a glimpse of the Lord, Ezekiel falls on his face, which is the only +thing any of us can do when confronted with God's infinite holiness. + +* * * + +You are majestic and have total supremacy over everything.