Ezekiel 1 Commentary
You wonder if at all Ezekiel wants to communicate anything in the opening chapter. Even modern digital capabilities would fail to construct the image described in this chapter. I guess that is the point. You cannot describe the Creator God!
The key comes at the very end of the chapter: “This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD.” Verse 28b.
The wings give us an impression of angelic beings. But we also have the wheels! And that base above the angelic beings made of lapis lazuli, think of the description given in the Book of Exodus – the pavement of lapis lazuli. Exodus 24 verse 10. Then someone like a man on the throne. Could this be one of the images of the LORD Jesus Christ that we hardly think of?
Back to the angelic beings: the faces and the movements! Then the eyes!
Ezekiel has put up all these concepts together by using an image but what an impossible task! No wonder his image is impossible! The fact is that the LORD sits above this machinery of angelic perfection in all their diversity. And what a complex way to say it, but that is Ezekiel’s way of saying that the LORD is all-knowing, the eyes.
The four living creatures or at times simply the creature are described as having legs – like those of a calf. Then the wheels and the wings! Could that be describing the Omni-present God?
Regardless, Ezekiel has presented what he calls ‘the appearance of the likeness of the Glory of God’. And whatever it is, the Glory of the LORD is present and we must wait to see what it all means as we journey through the volume.
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