From the Pulpit: God's indescribable glory - part 2
Last week we began looking at God’s glory as it was described in Ezekiel’s vision. He described the incredible power of God that he experienced in the approaching storm. It was a display of power that shook Ezekiel to his core.
As the vision continued Ezekiel was confronted with another aspect of God’s indescribable glory. He sees that the glory of God is life. As this horrifying storm comes closer Ezekiel tells us in verse 5 that he sees living creatures in the midst of it. His surprise is seen in the fact that in the phrase ‘living creatures’ the emphasis is on the word ‘living.’ This was the last thing that he expected to see as the storm approached him.
These creatures are unlike anything he has ever seen before. In Ezekiel 10:15 and 20 when he comes back to this vision he calls them cherubim, or one of the classes of angels. For now, he just describes them as living creatures. It’s interesting that as the vision draws closer he reports in more clarity and detail, but the more detail he sees the less he is able to describe it, so he begins to use more symbolic language.
Their general body structure was that of a man, meaning that they had an upright structure with arms, legs, torso and head. But beginning in verse 6 he tells us that the resemblance ended there. Each of them had four faces and four wings. He can also see their legs and the first thing that he notices is that they don’t have knees. The reason for that becomes more apparent as he describes their motion. A leg with a knee is made for forward and backward motion. A straight leg is ready to turn in any direction in an instant. The rounded feel also presents an equal ability to go in any direction without turning.
Verses 8-9 introduce a new thought into this picture… unity. The thought of their wings touching implies that as they moved, and those wings were flapped, they never parted from each other. There was a complete unity of movement and purpose. They never moved in a way that would cause the slightest division. The fact that each one went straight ahead and never turned, even when they changed directions, contributed to this unity of movement.
He continues in verse 10 to describe how they could always move straight ahead without turning. The four faces on each creature each faced a different direction. On the side facing Ezekiel they each had the face of a man. On the right side they each had the face of a lion. On the left they had the face of an ox or a bull, and on the back they each had the face of an eagle. They were always looking in every direction at once, and they didn’t need to turn to go in a different way. There was always a face on every side.
Verse 12 tells us that their guidance for which direction they would go came from an external source… the Holy Spirit. The fact that the purpose of the vision is to present God’s glory makes it clear that we are looking at the Holy Spirit here. And the Holy Spirit had them constantly on the move. Their appearance was like burning coals of fire or like torches, so bright was the radiance of their presence. They had fire that moved back and forth between each of them, and lightning came from that fire. The creatures sped back and forth just like that lightning. That was another reason for Ezekiel’s amazement. They went in many different directions but nothing about them ever changed.
Beside each creature was a wheel, and each of the wheels had another wheel that intersected it at right angles. That also allowed for movement in any direction without turning. Ezekiel’s sense of dread and fear comes through again as he tells us in verse 18 that the rims of the wheels were high and awesome. Part of the fear came from the fact that the rims had eyes all the way around them. The wheels moved in perfect unison with the living creatures because the wheels were also indwelt by the Spirit of God, verse 20. There is independent guidance of each part of this massive vision, but it is all the same guidance. There is also an essential equality here. All parts are equal. Verse 21 says that the wheels are just as alive as the creatures. That is what allowed for such perfect balance and unity in movement. As long as each part was equally subservient to the Lord the living chariot would continue to move perfectly.
The emphasis here is on life. This storm that was so awesome and terrifying contained life within it. The glory of God is life… life that is completely obedient and subservient to the Lord. To know the glory of God, and to live the glory of God, means that we empty self and become completely obedient and subservient to God every moment of every day. That is our commitment to God’s glory.
