About this sermon
A Morning Instruction class on Ezekiel 1:15-28. Beside the four living creatures Ezekiel sees wheels within wheels, full of eyes, moving wherever the Spirit goes, and above them a crystal expanse and a throne. On the throne is one with the appearance of a man, surrounded by fire and by brightness like a rainbow. The vision is a miniature of creation under God’s rule. The rainbow recalls the covenant with Noah, the bow hung up as a sign of peace, so the glory Ezekiel sees comes to proclaim grace.
Sermon transcript
Coming to the end of the chapter, I’m confident that we might finish the chapter today, Ezekiel chapter 1. I might have volunteers, or actually let’s not do volunteers, let’s just go, just weave back and forth. We might start with Peter, if we may. If you would do 15, and then work our way there.
Now, as I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the earth beside the living creatures, one for each of the four of them. This was the appearance and structure of the wheels. They sparkled like crystalline, and all four looked alike. Each appeared to be made like a wheel intersecting a wheel. Whenever they moved, they moved in any of their four directions without turning as they moved. As for their limbs, they were locked in also. And the limbs of all four of them were full of thighs, round the back.
Whenever the living beings moved, the wheels moved with them. And whenever the living beings rose from there, the wheels rose also. Now over the heads of the living beings there was something like an expanse, like the awesome beams of crystals spread out over their heads. We’ll come to the front here.
And under the expanse, their wings were stretched out straight, one toward the other. Each one also had two wings covering their bodies on one side and on the other. I also heard the sound of their wings like the sound of abundant waters. And there came a voice from above the expanse that was over their heads. Whenever they stood still, they dropped their wings.
And above the firmament, over their heads, was the likeness of a throne, an appearance like a sapphire stone, and the likeness of a throne was the likeness of the appearance of a man high above them. Also from the appearance of the place of upward, I saw other words of the color of amber with the appearance As the appearance of the rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the surrounding radiance. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell on my face and heard a voice speaking. That ends the reading of God’s word.
Well, can you see? Okay. Let’s get into this. Good stuff here. But before we do that, we ought to really briefly look at what we talked about last week, because we’re reading the continuation of this. Now, let’s see. First of all, we’re thinking of a type of being that has four wings and four animal faces on the head, or three animal faces and a human face. It seems to have a human face, a lion, an ox, and we’re not sure where the eagle is. Maybe the eagle is in the back. Right?
Now these things have these cherubim, which we’re not told until chapter 10 that these are cherubim. These cherubim have a split hoof to let us know that they are ceremonially clean animals, or they’re clean, at least according to the Mosaic law. Now, what did we talk about in the discussion about the four Faces. Everybody remember?
What do we think the lion must be? King of a certain realm? Which realm would that be? The wild? The ox? Seems to be the most useful animal within another realm. The domesticated realm. And then the eagle? Eagle’s head? Seems to be what realm? In the air. In the air. The heavenly. Yes.
We put our apologetics hats on and we talked about what the vast majority of people who know anything about Ezekiel, you talk to your average person on the street, they’ll say, well, the Bible’s contradictory, right? They’ll say, and Ezekiel saw aliens, right? How are we gonna answer those people who say that? Anyone have a thought?
Anyone? Answer? Go ahead. Exactly, there you go. Let me just paraphrase what you’re saying. Read in between the lines of what I think you’re saying. Let the text speak for itself, right? You know what you need to be to be a liberal Christian? You know what you have to think?
You have to think that the Bible writers were dumb. I mean, and I’m not saying that to throw stones at liberal Christians, but they really think that they know better than the writers of the Bible did. The gospel writers, they thought Jesus was walking on water, but I know better. He was walking on stones that were just an inch or so from the surface of the water. The same thing here. Ezekiel, he was dumb. He thought that it was God, but it wasn’t. But the answer is, let the text speak for itself.
We made note of the way that the wings come together and we talked about how the wings coming together and touching one another is a sign that they don’t use the wings to fly. These wings are not for their aeronautical reasons at all. one another, and they’re standing on something. That’s what we’re gonna go to today. Are they standing on something, or is there something that’s all around them?
We’re gonna get into that, but we ought to look at this, with their touching one another, and we ought to think of the Ark of the Covenant Now, the Ark of the Covenant is that piece of furniture that was a sign that God is with his people. And God being with his people in the Old Testament, especially in the long time, is represented by the Ark of the Covenant, which was basically a box with two, not bars, but two poles going through it, and there were these two cherubim here, and their wings are touching one another.
Now, what is Ezekiel’s situation? His situation is that he is among the exiles in Babylon, and they do not have the Ark of the Covenant, so that means that they don’t have God’s presence with them. Right? Well, they don’t have the Ark of the Covenant itself, but they have God’s presence here in this vision that Ezekiel is having, and how much better if you don’t have the Ark of the Covenant, but you have the reality. God is coming. even though they don’t have this sacramental piece of furniture, which is the Ark of the Covenant. So, everybody with us? All right. Remember this from last week. They have that.
Now, I did make a quick allusion to the grave of the Lord Jesus Christ, where is the angel? at least in one of the Gospels, where’s the angel or the angel? They’re sitting atop the grave to show that Christ is with his people, that God is with his people in Christ, which he very much is. And there are these subtle ways that God teaches us that he is with us and that he is with Ezekiel in the word. Now, we move today to what they are standing on or that which they are inhabiting, they are in what is called, what is said, wheels within wheels, which does not make a whole lot of sense to us. Wheels within wheels.
Anyone know what a gyroscope is? We got Doris Liz. Let me try and draw a gyroscope. Imagine this is a stand, and this is a ring. So we have a ring here, and then we have another ring going Imagine this is flat, but then we’ve got this going this way, right? And you can have even more in kind of in the center. What would you use a gyroscope for? Anyone? You can just, you kind of flip it and it can, You know, all these circles within circles can flip. I should have printed out a copy of it rather than trying to do it myself. Did I see another hand? There’s another hand. That’s right. Yes. Everybody with us there? Yes. Yes.
Leonardo, he’s got pictures of them, drawings in his notebook. You can just bump this. It moves in all sorts of ways, these rings going in and out. It’s really something to see. Well, more importantly and more something to see is it seems to be what these angels are in. They have wheels within wheels. All right. Remember, we’ve got four of them, four cherubim, or cherubs. And their wings are touching. wheels within wheels, or circles within circles.
These creatures do not obey the laws of physics of our realm. That’s what I think this is trying to portray for us clearly, and I think that it does they have a different sort of propulsion. Something else is moving them. What is that thing that is moving them?
Who has it open? Who has? The spirit. The spirit. Look at her. You’re on the ball. It is the spirit. I’m trying to figure out how you got the inside, the wheel. Because my mother said, as I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the earth. I mean, that just might be the translation. Well, that could be. I think that takes more time. Well, I’ll admit to you this. All my years of reading this, I read it, I thought it was actually under for years. And so this week, when I started reading it a little bit deeper, I thought, Well, at least that makes sense out of the people who are trying to make them into flying saucers. Right? But it could be this.
I’m not actually sure. And I don’t think that Ezekiel wants us to get too deep into the details. Now, I’m not dodging it. I’m really not. I think that, I mean, he is an observer and he sees this, and you might have noticed in chapter one, looks like, seems like, appears to be these kinds of words. He’s not giving specifics. It’s not giving the specifics that you get with the temple or with the tabernacle. And why is that? Because he’s just having a vision. And he’s not able to look and examine all the details of it. It’s just happening before him. And he’s trying to describe it.
Now, it may be this. It may be this. It might be, let’s imagine what it could be if it’s wheels within wheels, not circles within circles. Let’s imagine we have the bird’s eye view, and we’re looking at the aft one. I’m wondering how we would have wheels within wheels. We have a wheel. I wonder if we would have, not that he had a bird’s eye view, but if the cherub is standing right here, I wonder if we would have then, you know, the spinning, going all different ways. the inner workings of a clock, wheels within wheels.
I’m not sure, unless we have five, I’m not sure how we would be able to, you know, it doesn’t seem to work with four unless, you know, where’s the chair of stamping? I’m not exactly sure, but this could be it. And this is how I imagined it as I read it.
Hebrew is, some difficult Hebrew, it’s not David will testify, it’s not a simple narrative where, and he said this, and he did that, it’s just, it’s strange. Remember, the mature thought of Ezekiel, or the mature thought of John Calvin, was I’m still not sure of some of the things that we’re reading about here. John Calvin did not finish Ezekiel. He got up to chapter 20, and then he died. So we were, I think, we have all things, we are sufficient with scripture, but we were robbed of what would it mean, you know, Calvin said, But we know what he said in some places.
I’m not sure. I’m kind of still mystified by some of the things that we see here. But whatever the case, whether it’s circle within a circle, or whether it’s wheels within wheels, Whatever it is, your first answer was spot on. That is, that it is the spirit that is moving them. Chapter 112 and 120. Does anyone have it? 112 and 120. Go ahead, Carl.
And each went straight forward. Wherever the spirit was about to go, they would go without turning as they went. And 120, wherever the spirit was about to go, they would go in that direction. And the wheels rose close beside them, for the spirit of the living being was in the wheels.
Again, see? We have the spirit. Like a pneumatic propulsion, if we could say that. The spirit or the wind is what is moving them. These are creatures that are not from around here. And they demonstrate God’s creative handiwork. Yes? Isn’t it saying that Wheels are going this way, and wheels are going this way. And wherever they’re moving, this wheel doesn’t have to move this way for this chair to move this way. Yes. I think so. That’s what I’m pretty convinced. I’m pretty sure of that. Yes. And I think that, imagine this, whether they’re standing on it or they’re in it, either way, Their wings are touching, and they move as a unit, at least for a part of it.
They just move them out like this. And it’s understandable that he’s going to just fall on his face later, but fall on your face just from seeing these. We have 22. Now over the heads of the living beings, there was something like an expanse, like the awesome gleam of crystal spread out over their heads. What do we think of when we think of expanse? that might bring in some other Bible language that we might be used to and expand. Yes. There seems to be, how about this?
We’re too big here. Let’s condense this. We’ll try and keep the idea. OK, whether it’s this way, whether they’re standing on them, it kind of just says in the midst of, or whether these things are inhabiting these circles. Whichever it is, just shrink this down. So imagine an either or here.
But there’s an expanse. that is around them. There’s a firmament that is above their heads. Alright? Now, Carl had it exactly right, I think, because the same word used in Hebrew here is the same word that we read in Genesis chapter 1. Your King James firmament other versions, your expanse.
There’s like a blue canopy that is hovering over them. It’s hovering over them. And we want to think of God’s hovering presence in Genesis, Genesis chapter one. Think of Genesis one, two. What do we see? God hovering. This is not a place where that same word is used, but it’s the same idea. Genesis 1-2, the earth was formless and void and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. The Holy Spirit, the creating spirit is hovering over the globe, right?
Now, we move to 26, rather, no, to 1.6, I’m sorry, Genesis 1.6.
Then God said, let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters and let it separate the waters from the waters. There’s this idea when you read Genesis, that there’s this separating, it’s waters from waters. The word, it’s not really defined what this expanse is, this canopy. I mean, some people believe that when Moses, excuse me, when Noah was on the ark, this canopy, and that’s where the water comes from. Obviously, if you read Genesis, the water comes from the deep as well, but there are waters here. Some people think that the globe before the flood, in fancy language, the Antediluvian world, the pre-flood world, was a world that had a water canopy up here, so just water up here, and that there was really a greenhouse effect.
Some people would say that maybe that’s how dinosaurs lived, but man, could be, because they were made for that environment, and maybe they went on the ark, at least in small versions of them, and they came out, and this canopy, this expanse is gone, so the dinosaurs are not able to adapt to that. these are things that people would throw out, lots of things, but whatever the case, there’s this blue canopy, firmament, expanse, whichever you want to call it, it’s there.
Now, you’re starting to see the significance of the four faces. The four faces are like, these angels are, higher than man, higher than the lords of the air, the lords of the domestic realm, the lords of the wild realm. These are grand creatures that are in a miniature creation, it seems.
God is coming to show his creative handiwork to Ezekiel and say, this is who I am. I am the God of Moses, the God of your fathers. Similar language, especially, it’s retained in your King James. Psalm 19, verse 1, the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handiwork.
Remember that? I memorized it. the firmament. Of course, that would mean that it still is there in a sense. We’re not sure. Some of these things are difficult for us. Psalm 150, praise ye the Lord, praise him in his sanctuary, praise him in the firmament of his power. Whatever the case, a miniature creation seems to be coming to Ezekiel. Now, we have then the throne of God. One, this is, I think I have a mistake here. Yes, oh, no, no. 126 and 27, God is coming now.
It’s like, if you thought all these other things were glory, more glorious. Wait till you see what God is like. And it doesn’t give an exhaustive demonstration or description of what He’s like. 26 rather. Now above the expanse that was over their heads, there was something resembling a throne like That’s all. That’s as close as I’m going to get. I’m going to write, I’m going to make a throne. Nothing on the throne. So it is above that. It’s above this expanse. And there seems to be one sitting on it.
It was a figure with the appearance of a man. Then I noticed from the appearance of his loins and upward, something like glowing metal that looked like fire all around with it, within it. And from the appearance of his loins and downward, I saw something like fire, and there was a radiance around him.
The glorious God sits enthroned above his creation, just like he does in the book of Genesis. that he is Lord over all creation, even this miniature revelatory creation that is demonstrated to Ezekiel. And he is, God is, at least this anthropomorphic vision or appearance of God is, is in the appearance of a man.
That should be interesting to us as well. How is man made? In the image of God. That’s in the Genesis narrative. Here, God comes in the appearance of man. There’s kind of a, back and forth interplay between these. And God is glorious with glowing metal that looked like fire all around, within, and from the appearance of his loins and downward I saw something like fire and there was a radiance.
You get the idea, our God is a consuming fire. Remember that, Hebrews? Remember last week we talked about what is aseity, God’s aseity, his independence, that he is a burning fire without the fuel, without wood or kindling or oil, our God, You can imagine the people thinking, where’s God? You know, people ask that, where’s God in all this? You can imagine there, the people around him saying the same thing, where’s God in all this? He’s still with us. He’s still with those who are trusting in Him.
It gets even more interesting, it seems to me, because we have a rainbow. Isn’t that interesting? As, 28, as the appearance of the rainbow or bow, it’s addressed NAS, did interpret it for us, a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day. So was the appearance of the surrounding radiance. So he’s telling us what this radiance that surrounds God, I would have put that a little bit higher, but I would have had it right in the air. So we have this radiance that surrounds the Lord. I would have you imagine it being above his head maybe, a little bit above it, because of other portions of God’s word, I think it’s justified to do that.
So what is this radiance like? It’s like a bow. in the Hebrew, or the N-A-S-V, like a rainbow. Now what do we think of when we think of a rainbow? What do we think of? Different colors. Different colors? Pots of gold, yes. Little green men, monkey charms? No, no. No, pots of gold, no. What do we think of? Put your Bible hat on. What’s that? The flood. God promising that he’s never going to. What’s that? Noah’s covenant. Yes, the covenant of Noah to put on last year’s ranks. The covenant of Noah. A universal covenant that God puts.
He puts the sacrament there to remind himself Not as if God’s going to forget. He doesn’t put the rainbow there for our benefit, he puts it there for his own benefit. To remind himself that he will not flood the earth with water. Not to say that he won’t flood it with fire, as later portions of God’s word let us know about.
But, It’s interesting as, well, we ought to read, real briefly, we ought to read the Genesis account of it. Genesis 9, 13 to 17, and I’ll read it for purpose of expediency. 13, there was evening and there was morning. Oops, that’s not right. Turn to the first chapter. We’ve been there today. Okay, 913.
And I set my bow in the cloud and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between me and the earth. It shall come about when I bring a cloud over the earth that the bow will be seen in the cloud and I will remember my covenant. Notice it’s for him, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh.
And never again shall the water become But it’s interesting if you read a what the word bow, this same word, how else it’s used. What kinds of bows can you think of? Don’t think of Christmas bows and ribbons and things like that. Anyone can think of the word bow? Bow and arrow. Very good. Second Kings 13, 16. Second Kings 13, 16. And Amos 2, 15. Talking about humans using a bow. Second Kings 13, 16.
Then he said to the king of Israel, draw the bow. And he drew it. And Elisha laid his hands on the king’s hands. So he says, draw the bow. And he draws the bow. Amos 2, 15. He who handles the bow shall not stand, and he who is swift of foot shall not save himself, nor shall he who rides the horse save his life. These are two passages that use the word bow, same word, but to talk about a bow and arrow. That’s Caffey. But I wonder if God has a bow. or a bow and arrow that he might use.
Psalm 114, excuse me, 144, for purposes of, we have about five minutes, I think I’m just gonna read these, write these down, if you’re writing things down, but I won’t wait for you to get there. Psalm 144, six. What does the psalmist say? Flash forth the lightning and scatter them. Send out your arrows and route them.
Now what we know about Hebrew poetry is usually they come in little couplets where it’s A and B, where the first verse says something and the second half, the first half of the verse says something and then the second part expounds upon it, right? Whenever you read the Psalms and a lot of Proverbs, you can say A, what’s more B? A, what’s more, B. One expounds on the other, the second expounds on the first. Flash, we could say, A, flash forth the lightning and scatter them, the psalmist says.
What’s more, send out your arrows and rout them. Zechariah 9 14 then the Lord will appear over them and his arrow Will go forth like lightning Is that interesting And there’s lightning all around this I revelation that Ezekiel is having. There’s lightning flashing, and things are flashing like lightning. 2 Samuel 22, 15, and he sent out arrows and scattered them, lightning and routed them. There is, there seems to be an idea within all of the Bible, if we just trace the ideas of lightning, and arrows, and bows. It’s almost as if God’s weapon, maybe in a metaphorical sense, is a bow and arrow with lightning, or a bow and lightning. That the Lord takes a bow, And he shoots lightning from it.
And how many colors are in a rainbow? How many? Seven. Isn’t that interesting? I’m just saying. The idea is, what I think is being shown to us here is that God is the God of God who is coming to Ezekiel is the God of peace. Why? Because his bow is hung up. And God reminds himself that when the bow is hung up, that he is the Lord of peace. He is the King of peace. It would be different if the bow were not hung up. That would be a sign of war upon Ezekiel, holy war. I’m not coming in peace, I’m coming in war.
But because of the fact that the bow is hung for all the world to see in the time of Noah, because it is for Ezekiel to see that God has in his grace come to proclaim peace, to Ezekiel and peace to those who are trusting in God. That is, I think, what he is trying to proclaim for us. Now, there certainly is a day in which God will, in a sense, take the bow off and bring final wrath and judgment upon all of mankind. Really briefly we have New Testament pictures of this God continuing to do, to reveal himself in these sort of ways with one sitting on a throne and with a rainbow. Revelation chapter 4 almost is a picture of this, it almost mirrors it.
And in that we have the Lord Jesus Christ in Revelation 4.3 And he says, he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. So here we have the full understanding of it in the book of Revelation because there we have the Lord Jesus Christ sitting on the throne and proclaiming peace to those who are at peace with God that he is not. that war with them anymore. Revelation 10, 1.
Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head, and his face was like the sun and his legs like pillars of fire. Again, we have an angel, ultimately, most likely the Lord Jesus Christ, coming down, wrapped in a cloud, wrapped in the glory spirit cloud, and he has a bow over him.
Interesting the way that is given to us. But I think there’s one more, you don’t need to go there with me on this, but I think there’s one more subtle thing that the bow is pointing to. Pun intended. What direction is the bow pointed? It’s pointed up with Noah.
God gives covenants where he binds himself, right? Think of the covenant with Abraham where he shows the sign of that covenant by the animals are cut, the carcasses are split, and he walks through it, and he does this that if he doesn’t obey the stipulations of the covenant, then the wrath will fall upon him. That seems to be what God is saying here. That if he brings water upon the earth in Noah’s time, then he will bear the wrath. Same thing seems to be implied here.
However, we know that God is the one who ultimately doesn’t break his covenants, but undergoes the wrath of the covenant as if he had broken it, which is what he does in Christ. And just our last comment. is his holy posture. He sees this, God comes, God is still with us, and he is proclaiming peace, at least to us who are trusting in him. And what does he do? He gets on his face. Now some people might say, well, this is not God himself. This is a representation, just an appearance. He’s on his face, and he’s not rebuked for it.
Remember what John was told? He gets on his face and starts worshiping an angel, and he is told, you must not do that. I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God. And he’s on his face, amazed by it. Certainly it would be wrong to worship these, but this God. The God who is with you, Ezekiel, the God who still cares for you, his people. He is the God of peace, and he is with you. Beautiful picture, the way that God lays these things out. He could have just said, God is with you. But instead, he gives this grand picture, this revelation. We should be amazed by this. What a joy this first chapter of Ezekiel is. I hope it’s a joy to you, to your mind, and to your heart.
Let’s pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for your great grace that you save sinners and that you proclaim peace. We ask, O Father, that you would proclaim peace this day, in this pulpit, and wherever your word is faithfully proclaimed, we ask that peace would come from you, that perfect peace that goes beyond our understanding. In Jesus’ name, amen.
So this would be beneath where this is. picture that I was trying to decide when I’m reading it. The second trip through, I already did the first and all the way through. So I’m going through the second time. I’ve got to get a little different picture. It’s starting to come to me a bit.
Is this the spirit of God? Or is this at this throne here? Or is this God himself? Maybe a pre-incarnate picture of a son of his spirit? I’m not sure. I’m just trying to get a… It’s like, you know, you think of Abraham when the two visitors come, and Abraham just cuts on his face. He worships God, right? Okay, there are two angels, but is there one member of the Trinity that is incarnate, at least for that portion? I don’t know. Well, the one thing that I’ve learned in reading this Ezekiel is that as you study
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