Ezekiel (Session 1) Intro & Chapter 1

okay we're gonna address one of the most overlooked and yet complex and yet satisfying books in the Bible The Book of Ezekiel and many of you may be startled to discover there are chapters in Ezekiel besides 38 and 39 okay we're gonna discover lots of interest in these it's a wonderful wonderful book and we're going to take a look at it but we'll want to start off right away because we're gonna encounter all kinds of conjectures and perspectives let's remind ourselves what Peter reminds us of in the second letter knowing this first that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation for prophecy came not in the old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost we need to remember that we will be fairly free with some in communicating some of the perceptions that scholars have had about various passages but let's also remind ourselves of our trademark verse which is acts 17:11 where Luke tells you don't believe anything chuck Missler tells you but search the Scriptures daily to prove whether those things be so so we're gonna hit where you're going to end up probably having some questions answered in the study but you're also going to have more questions raised for you to study as we move along so now the agenda is going to be in four pieces we're going to talk a little bit about the historical context that we find ourselves in it's important that you understand where Ezekiel fits in in history here then we'll talk a little bit in anticipation of the man himself who was he and what was his burden we'll talk a little bit then how the book is organized that's worth understanding and then of course we'll jump in and take the first chapter so that's our agenda for tonight let's start with an historical background those of you that have been through our learned the Bible in 24 hours will recognize this timeline it's sort of something that ties it together and I'm going to sort of assume that most of you have been through learn the biown 24 hours to have a broad perspective you haven't done that it won't this doesn't depend on your doing that but I'm going to encourage you if you haven't done that to go ahead and undertake that either as just a private study or to do it in in support of your pursuit to a bronze medallion of the Institute but in any case starting with the creation fall of man we get through Abraham and we get to David the book of Genesis covers most of that period the rest of the Old Testament takes you from that through to the Exile the captivity --zz there's a gap between the old and new Testament that's roughly 400 years that some people call the silent years that's a misnomer because those years are in your Bible if you know where to look they they are put there predictively in Daniel chapter 5 and 11 Daniel 11 verses 5 through 35 interested in that is so specifically precise that skeptics have said it had to be written later but that covers those 400 years interestingly enough and of course the New Testament occurs with just within just one lifetime and so but from the exodus through the Diaspora we have the nation Israel and front then where we have been in this period called the - for up until May 14th of 48 because Israel is in the process of being restored in unbelief to begin with and ultimately in full belief yet to come now we're going to focus our study in this section between the within the at what's called the Exile the captivity of the southern kingdom it's it's it's it's there's a period right after the monarchy after David passes it on to Solomon when Solomon dies there's a civil war they split in the two houses and the babel that we'll get into that in the next slide here major prophets cover this period the Minor Prophets cover even a larger period major and minor is strictly a librarians term in terms of how heavy they are how many pages many little minor prophets are Nuggets so understand that they're that major minors source of a lot of misunderstanding if we look at the two kingdoms and their line of Kings the southern kingdom they call themselves the house of Judah and the northern kingdom counted label themselves of the house of israel when you see the term israel it can mean the whole nation more often than not it does and yet sometimes when it says king of israel they mean in contrast the king of judah in other words it's the house don't let that confusion your studies the first and second Kings are the primary chronicles if you will of those two kingdoms the northern kingdom goes from bad to worse the kings get more and more idolatrous as they go and they finally they're so bad that they go from 975 to about 721 they last for 250 years but in 721 they cease to exist because the Assyrians not only take them captive they distribute them throughout their empire and they bring other people non-jews into that region and that's sets the stage for what we call Samaritans but in any case they're so the northern kingdom ceases they're eliminated from history so far at least this the southern kingdom lasts for 370 years and but it - it has it goes in general from bad doors except they do have about five kings that are pretty sharp so they're interspersed with some good guys and we're not going to go through all that here our commentaries and first Saint Kings will deal with that but there are two kingdoms here the northern kingdom had 19 kings that reigned 250 years they had seven different dynasties in the North that led to ultimately the Assyrian captivity I could say annihilation really they don't return from that as a nation the southern kingdom Judah has 20 kings but one dynasty what dynasties is that David's right they reigned for 370 years one dynasty but they because of a number because of the Dollar Tree and their failure to be faithful yet thrown in the Babylonian captivity there's only one reason they weren't wiped out that's because of God's commitment to David and that's what Ezekiel is going to be all about that's what the Epistle to the Hebrews is all about that's what the book of Revelation is all about it's the fulfillment of the Davidic dynasty it's called the Millennium and so we'll be looking at that heavily in the Book of Ezekiel now 612 that's when Nineveh falls to the Alliance of Babylonian media in the 609 Pharaon Ecco leads his army against this area but Josiah fights Necco and gets killed why is Josiah fire fighting the Pharaoh Necho nobody knows for sure it's my belief is because he was trying to get the Ark of the Covenant back from Pharaoh Necho who under who under whose protection it had fled ferony coincidentally was not Egyptian he was Ethiopian but in any case Josiah gets killed and it's three years later that net metabolizers son is an outstanding general guy by the name of Nebuchadnezzar and he says he takes arms against Pharaoh Necho and defeats him at the Battle of Carchemish which is a major milestone in the history of the world even though secular terms and that's on the west bank of the Afraid ease that means at that point Babylon is the most powerful player in the region so that means then as you get to the end of the house of judah the southern kingdom you've got a line of kings Joe as Jehoiakim Joey akin and Zedekiah and then the then the final captivity we're going to get into the details there a little bit more but you need to understand that the prophets that are contemporaneous with those events are Jeremiah Habakkuk Obadiah Daniel Ezekiel Jeremiah Daniel Ezekiel being the major prophets that are covering the period we're talking about Ezekiel is contemporaneous with Daniel and also Jeremiah Jeremiah has an older person at this point both Daniel and Ezekiel probably as young teens probably heard Jeremiah preached there's no record of that but we wouldn't be a bit surprised and so so in 606 is with with Nebuchadnezzar having succeeded at the Battle of carchemish on his way home he lays siege to Jerusalem lay siege subdues it and takes hostages and first of three deputations the first deportation he takes regis basically hostages sets up a vassal king in place then goes back home to assume the the kingship because his dad has died and he's now king not only is he a general army he's king of babylon daniel is among those in the first deportation and as you know the story of daniel he rises to be virtually the prime minister of babylon interestingly enough what's even more profound is when the persians ultimately conquer Babylon he rises to power in the Persian Empire number three in the empire anyway that brings us to 597 BC remember these are BC so they descend as you gets later right in 597 there's a second group what's going on is that there are false prophets advising the king of Israel Judah he's supposed to be a vassal under Nebuchadnezzar but the false prophets are telling him were that we're God's people rise up and God will give us the victory Jeremiah is telling him don't do that Nebuchadnezzar is God's instrument here they don't listen they rebel against Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar lays a second siege and takes another a bunch of hostages in it that second Bunch there's a young guy by name of Ezekiel who was about 25 years old at that time now he has taken to a town called tel-aviv no relation to the Tel Aviv of today don't get those confused that's it happened to be a town near a ship canal that we're gonna be talking about here a little bit so even though he's a captive in Babylon he's old he lives in his own house with his beloved wife we're gonna encounter that as we get further into the study five years after he came to Tel Aviv he was called to be a prophet of God when he was thirty years old there can be a little bit of discussion about that thirty years but in any case that's the that was the minimum age for a priest anyway he is a priest but he never served as a priest you'll see why in a minute and thirty is when he became of age to be a priest this also 30 years since Josiah had his big revival when some scholars put put that as a key point there all of this though at this point is six years prior to the ultimate destruction of Jerusalem because between the second depredation and the third deputation the false prophet in the second deposition they even puts an uncle in charge by the name of Zedekiah and the same scenario takes place both Jeremiah and Ezekiel are saying don't rebel against Nebuchadnezzar he's the innocent of God but the false prophets are saying no no no we're God's people if you rebelled God will give us the victory and the ego-trip finally takes hold so Zedekiah just like his predecessor rebels and by this time Nebuchadnezzar has had a belly full of the whole operation so he sets a third siege takes a whole bunch captive and leveled Jerusalem that should take care of that right that's the destruction of Jerusalem and we'll talk a little about the distinctions here in a minute but this event here six years before that destruction Jeremiah was ministering to the people back home Ezekiel was preaching to the Jews in captivity in Babylon so understand Ezekiel's in Babylon 200 miles - or so to the east Jeremiah is among the remnants that have been left in Jerusalem and so and both Jeremiah Ezekiel were priests but called to be a prophet okay so let's get this clear the first siege of Nebuchadnezzar then there's a second and a third siege the first siege triggers a period of time called the servitude of the nation the nation is no longer sovereign it's now a subservient King to Nebuchadnezzar the servitude of the nation that's when captivity z' begin even the people that are living in Jerusalem are captive in a sense to Babylon okay what ends the serve to the nation is the decree of Cyrus because the Persians conquer Babylon he reads a letter that was written to him by God in Isaiah 150 years before his morning him by name and outlining his career he's impressed so he issues the decree for them to be feast and go home in fact he gives them money to help rebuild their temple that's that that that that starts that that's where we mark the dominance of the Persian Empire from second Chronicles deals with all of this the book of Ezra deals with the attempt to return and rebuild their temple Cyrus has even given money to do that they don't get very far for a better part of 20 years because they can't defend themselves they can they're allowed to build a temple they can't build a wall and defend and make a remake a city-state out of it the third siege is what level Jerusalem that triggers a 70 year period called the desolations of Jerusalem and both these periods are 70 years exactly to the day but they're not coterminous that is they have different starts and ending points the server to the nation is 70 years to the day interestingly enough the desolations of Jerusalem is also seven years it ends by a different thing Ezra can't get anywhere Nehemiah is a cup bearer to the venn King and he gets permission to rebuild Jerusalem from artaxerxes launch amana's that decree triggers the prophecy that Gabriel gave Daniel in Daniel chapter 9 called the seventy weeks but that ends the desolations of Jerusalem two different periods 70 years each kind of interesting we're going to talk about that a little further later on when we get to Daniel 4 because there's some astonishing possibilities hidden behind the text that we'll take a look at the book of Esther by the way actually predates Nia by about 30 years and is probably more important than most people realize because without Esther nehemiah would have been impossible and without without the Jews there would have been that they would have been wiped out 500 years before Christ came into the world as a whole act of God involved in all of this to make to make happen what we're taking advantage of ourselves so anyway that's enough of that Jeremiah is a prophet that prior to the first C prior and substitute of the first speech Daniel is a young man and Ezekiel are both of those are young guys that are Daniel taken in the first siege Ezekiel actually in the second ceej Haggai and Zechariah are prophets after the exile so they're called post exile prophets we're going to focus our interest on what's called the exile and the Exile prophets our Jeremiah Daniel Ezekiel Haggai Zechariah and finally Malachi our post exile their prophets to the returnees after they released from captivity so okay now let's talk a little bit about Ezekiel the guy himself the word means God strengthens our will strengthening and we were mispronouncing it yes aquel is though is somewhat the way that Hebrews might pronounce the as equal we call Ezekiel he's one of the three captivity prophets the other two are jeremiah and daniel it was during the 11-year reign of Jehoiakim that the first deportation takes place when daniel was taken captive daniel was a young man but he was also writing at that time the book of daniel had already started and he'd been taken to the court of the king when he's captured they take the most promising young men he was up the royal line by the way we're not sure exactly where but he was also taken with three of his buddies into a special post graduate school at the babylonian court and he eventually arrives to become prime minister and that's one of the great sagas in the in daniel chapter 2 and following it's interesting ezekiel never mentions jeremiah even though they're obviously contemporaneous but he does mention the zeeco mentions daniel three times in his writing interestingly enough Bezique was a priest but he never served that because he was taken at captivity before he was thirty years old he was 25 and that was the reign he was the second deportation was in the radio cahaya chin now Joe Hiatt chin is confusing because he's also called jeconiah and Kanaya those are all alternative names for Jahi a chin in this study I'll try to stick with jayate chin so I don't confuse you his father was Jahi akin okay but jiraiya chin was the king that followed Jehovah Kim and he came to the throne and he only reigned three months before he gets dealt with by Nebuchadnezzar and he also by the way is the object of the blood curse that God pronounced the Royal lion that in effect sets up the required and one of the reasons that we have a virgin birth but maybe it's the other way around really but our gateway that's okay Jeremiah was an old man about this time he begun his ministry young man during the reign of Josiah which is a couple of kings back and Josiah was one of the really good Kings young fella but he did well and Jeremiah stay it remains with the remnant in the land and he was later taken down into Egypt ezekiel's where the captives who'd been brought down to the rivers of Babylon he's not at court he's at the river Chebar or key bar the captives had been placed by a great canal that came off the river Euphrates which was several miles from Babylon and Ezekiel ministry was among those people probably down there to till the land that's argue that's just a surmise in our part Jeremiah Ezekiel and Daniel each had a peculiar ministry to a particular group of people they apparently never came in contact with each other interestingly enough and you know from the record the Book of Daniel you don't gather Danny ever visit us people in Babylon even though he's at the court he probably didn't you know deal with that down there he had great concern for them and he obviously defends them so he's we know that Daniel was a coin of the prophecies of Jeremiah because his reading of Jeremiah's prophecy is the central one of the central points of the ninth chapter of Daniel and what follows so we suspect that when he was a young man still in in Jerusalem he probably sat at the feet of Jeremiah for all we know and Ezekiel also was a young man he also may have had the benefit of teachings by Jeremiah so but it's interesting that realize that when Ezekiel is talking he is in Babylon yet he is able to see what's going on in Jerusalem by the Spirit of God don't let that confuse you Ezekiel not only proclaim God's message the people he was instructed by God to do the most bizarre things to act out his message and he will engage in the most weird behavior that you can imagine God commands him to do a number what we would called symbolic acts okay in order to get the attention of the people they didn't have television then he shuts himself up in his home he binds himself he has struck them he was supposed to lie on his right and then his left sides for a total of four hundred and thirty days that's a long time he ate bread that was prepared in an unclean matter I'll spare you the details he shaved his head and beard which was considered a shame in his particular calling but he did he played at war in Chapter four he lies on the side and all that in Chapter four we'll deal with that when we get there of course she shaved his hair in beer in Chapter five he acted like someone fleeing from war in Chapter twelve he's acting out his message if you will he would sit in science up to 21 and most difficult thing edges watch his wife die it was not easy to be a prophet in those days there's a conflict of messages that even the enemies take advantage of or try to Jeremiah had told them to settle down in Babylon for 70 years but the false prophets in Jerusalem told the people that God would destroy Babylon and set the captives free that's all through cherubs writing particularly chapter 28 and 29 it was a zekiel task in Babylon to tell the people that it's the other way around God is going to destroy Jerusalem not Babylon that was not a popular man either Jeremiah's message or Ezekiel's was very popular Jeremiah was called a traitor and thrown in a dungeon his message didn't go over it was not user friendly but Ezekiel's message also points out that even though Jerusalem is going to be destroyed there would be a day coming we're the glorious restoration of the people and a rebuilding of the temple the temple that that Ezekiel will be detailing is not the temple that we're looking toward being built on the near horizon it's the one after that there will be a temple built in Jerusalem that temple will be desecrated by the Antichrist the temple is Eagles talking about is the one that comes after that will try to make that clear when we get so the organization of his book let's talk about this a little bit so you have a feeling for it the book is divided into three sections following the vote for if you count the call the first three chapters are the call of Ezekiel to the office of a prophet but then chapter chapters 4 to 24 is God's judgment on Jerusalem very unpopular topic chapters 25 through 32 are God's judgment on the surrounding nations and I think you'll be shocked when you do when you get into that thanks to the efforts of Walid Shoebat a PLO terrorist who revealed to us the possibilities that those passages may include and then chapters 30 the rest of the book 33 to 48 is God's restoration of the Jews in the kingdom in the kingdom that's going to include some famous passage the valley of the dry bones the Gog and Magog invasion and the Millennium itself are embraced from 33 to 48 so chapters 1 to 24 were pinned before the seeds of Jerusalem Ezekiel's departed but before up and up until the siege chapters 25 through 30 to all these judgments that are happening on the Gentile nations let me add the Muslim nations are being detailed by Ezekiel while the de seeds in Jerusalem is going on the rest of the book is written after the siege of Jerusalem okay Ezekiel's called a prophecy first few chapters then we have four chapters worth of symbolical predictions of the destruction of Jerusalem then 14 months later Ezekiel record a vision of the temple polluted by false worship by Thomas and Edna Adonis God's subsequent scattering of fire over the city and the forsaking of the temple to reveal himself to an inquiring people in exile so God is going to on the one hand reveal all this to them in in that vemos visions but Ezekiel hammers away for three chapters that are happier and better times will follow now there's a strange passage from 12 to 19 where the passage expected where Ezekiel it is exposed to Ezekiel the astonishing sins prevalent within the priesthood in Jerusalem and among the priests the prophets and the princes and it's those sins that are going to bring it all home to roost a year later there's a warning of judgment for a national you'll repeat it with greater distinctiveness as the time gets closer and closer so its chapters 20 through 23 two years and five months later the very day on which Ezekiel speaks that's when the siege of Jerusalem begins where Jerusalem will be overthrown in chapter 24 nails then but then we have these strange passages about prediction against the Muslim nations during the interval of silence toward his own people if judgment begins at the house of God much more will it visit the ungodly world and that's what it'll deal with for those chapters and so some of these were uttered later but they all began to be given after the fall of Jerusalem in the 12th year of the captivity when the fugitives of Jerusalem had appeared in khaldiya Ezekiel 4 tells better times the re-establishment of Israel the triumph of God's kingdom on earth over its enemies Islam and Gog and all of that that'll be all covered by the time you get to the end of chapter 39 then after an interval of 13 years the closing vision of the restored kingdom is laid out from chapters 40 through 48 even a floor plan of the temple will be there so here's the outline first three chapters call of God judgment 424 God's judgment and Jerusalem that's all given before the siege then we have the God's judgment on the Muslim nations that's during the siege and then we have the restoration of the Jews given after the siege and finally they return to their land that they experience a whole new unity and life and they're protected from Gog and Magog and then we have the Millennium everybody thinks the Millennium well that's just one chapter in the book of Revelation no it's not most of what we know about the Millennium is from chapters in is in Isaiah and the 66 and others and chapters have eight chapters in her nine chapters in Ezekiel okay so we finally got through their warm-up let's get into the book itself chapter one we're gonna see a vision of the chariot of God and there's been more nonsense speculations conjectures about this by people who are making wild guesses I want you to stop and say I'm I in the interest of time did not get into a little tutorial on hyper spaces hyper dimensionality you and I are familiar with three dimensions we actually live in for length width and height and time for dimensions the universe we now know from our scientists has ten dimensions at least and four of them are directly perceivable the six are hidden from us in effect I believe that many of the things we see in the Bible are glimpses outside our own dimensionality so it's silly and futile in fact foolhardy to try to visualize fourth and fifth and six dimensional things within our three dimensions that just betrays a lack of understanding but let's on that kind of Prelude let's presume that God's chariot has more than three or four dimensions and so we're going to just see representations of different kinds at best this is not an aircraft it's not a UFO and enough said what I do believe the Holy Spirit put it here to communicate to you and me and what we need to do is let the text speak to you personally let it say to you what it's trying to say to you you don't have to have a degree in advanced math to deal with that okay there are only two kinds of people it can deal in spaces of more dimensions more than three that's mathematicians with special training and small children okay now we live in four we went through all this in some of our other materials a hypercube a four dimensional cube unraveled into three and all that sort of stuff forget all that stuff let the text speak to you ezekiel chapter 1 verse 1 now it came to pass in the thirtieth year in the fourth month in the fifth day of the month as i was among the captives brother of our key bar but the heavens were open and i saw visions of god the thirtieth year from what lots of conjectures to cut through it I believe the 30th year alludes to his maturity when he's 30 years old he's now allowed to be a priest he's already been called by God at year when he was 25 but now he's officially allowed to perform as a priest okay he also turns out was born on the day of Josiah's revival so many scholars suspect that Israel had a fresh start with Josiah and that's why we're cutting we're marking time from that point that's an interesting possibility because he apparently was more enduring that revival there are all kinds of other conjectures I'll spare you detailing because most of them don't make sense most many of them are refutable none of them are as relevant as the one i've suggested the one i've suggested what most of the commentators tend to cling to so i won't go through all of those they're in your notes if you want to chase some of those down but he said it was in the 4th month on the fifth day of the month that's not quite yet the time of destruction of Jerusalem that took place in the reign of Zedekiah a subsequent thing this is still a little early yet now if you read Psalm 137 you'll discover that the captives are really depressed their captives they hang their harps on trees some hundred and thirty seven I believe is the one that details that for you and one thirty-seven opens up with a whole that describing the depression of the captives while the captives are under pity party or death non feeling down what happens for for Ezekiel the heavens were open what a contrast then I saw visions of God I won't ask for a show of hands of how many you've had visions of God okay but there are visions like this that were given to Isaiah in Chapter six there's an equivalent kind of scene that unfolds in Revelation chapters four and five and they all tie together I'll leave it to you to go look them over compare and draw what inferences you like but he continues the next verse in the fifth day of the month which is in the fifth year of Joe Hiatt Chin's captivity he's the son of Jahi akin and he's only gonna reign for about three months okay but of his captivity I Chen has been a captive not yet the time of the destruction of Jerusalem which took place in Zedekiah which follows him the Qin was the eighteenth and next to the last king of Judah he was the son of a petty tyrant called ji kim the grandson of the godly joe josiah his name means the lord establishes he was actually enthroned by pharaoh Necho of egypt he reigned only three months when he was deported to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar in the year 597 along with the upper classes so he's a he's a they actually the king is the prisoner here and he's later released by a son of Nebuchadnezzar in 562 737 theof his ex the 5th year of King Jaya Chen's captivity is the first of the 14 day trevor ences in the book of ezekiel the book of ezekiel has many of these date references for your for your perusal verse 3 the word of the lord came expressly onto the Ezekiel the pray the priest the son of Busey in the land of the Chaldeans by the river key bar and a hand of the Lord was there upon him that's a phrase that's going to repeat itself many times in this thing the river key bar that's a main canal that came off the afraid E's River that watered an area and we assume that the captives were there because they were probably tasked with tilling that ground this area is quite a few miles away from Babylon to the southeast and evidently that Jewish captives were put there as I say for agricultural servitude and the great river of the Grand Canal it's an artificial water coursing you afraid he's heard a lot of those around there and began above Babel and flows southeast pass through Nippur the site of ancient Jewish settlements and archaeologists have confirmed a lot of this and it joins the afraid is again backed below or and they say swing a lot bass and the Z comes home was on the river key bar at Tel Aviv it was the principle colony of the exiled near the city of Nepal a feast about as eco continues and I looked and behold a whirlwind came out of the north the great cloud and the fire infolding itself and a brightness was about it and out of the midst thereof was the color of amber out of the midst of the fire out of the north this is a very strange phrase because yes their enemies always did come from the north in that geography but also that term seems to be used in the Bible frequently in reference to God's throne in Isaiah 14 and some 75 we the the the sides of the North seemed to suggest God's throne in some kind of mystical way this fire infolding itself a brightness was about it out of the midst thereof it was the color of amber out of the midst the fire you know it's interesting out all through the Bible God is pictured as a consuming fire Hebrews 12 we ran into it their God is light first John 1 Paul the time his conversion saw a light from heaven above the brightness of the Sun that's bright that's really bright in fact that may have given Paul his eye problem that we see alluded to in the book of Galatians continuing verse 5 also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures and these are living creatures these aren't just visions these are living creatures of some kind this was their appearance they had the likeness of a man four living creatures now they're called cherubim or carribean in later on in Ezekiel chapter 10 these had the likeness of a man the word likeness means similar but not identical with and we're going to see this referred to in verse 26 of this chapter 4 through here and this is not a tautology likeness expresses a general form appearance is a particular aspect if the two words these were synonymous that you'd call that a tautology they're not likeness is the broader term appearances the more is a particular aspect if we can deal with that the Hebrew words are slightly different DeMuth is likeness which curves ten times moire is appearance which deals fourteen times it's clear that even in the phrasing here the transform the translation the Prophet senses that the the inadequacy of human language to express that which is not expressible now these super angels we encounter all through the Bible some places sometimes are called cherubim cherub in the Renaissance art it's got nothing to do with the biblical term a Caribbean are super angels very powerful you first encounter a couple of them guarding the tree of the weight of the Tree of Life in Genesis 3 you also find them embellished on the mercy seat we also find embroidered on the curtains in the tabernacle and so forth they're very prominent in priestly symbols here there's another kind of creature that's called a Seraphim in Isaiah it only shows up in Isaiah he's they may be the same thing many scholars think they're just two different expressions of the same kind of creature except the cherub member picture with four wings and the Seraphim with six wings so at least hints that they may not be the same there's some form of super angels of some kind but no and the other thing about cherry haven't forgot to mention by the way ha Satan Satan in in Isaiah 14 or actually we're going to encounter that in Ezekiel 28 he is apparently was the cherub that covereth so we know Satan was originally a cherubim before he fell he apparently was in charge of the whole and oh the whole gang because he's that share bit covereth that means that's the way he Braves of he was in charge but he fell through pride and became the our accuser word Satan means so at least one of the cherubim went wrong and took a third of the angels with him apparently according to revelation 12 now in Revelation we find living creatures again mentioned they're translated beats beasts in the King James that's unfortunate because there's another term for beasts where they're beasts in chapters 4 and 5 where he says it's a different word zone it's better better translate living creatures because beasts are a negative kind of term these are living creatures in chapters except 4 and 5 in Revelation but it's interesting that in each of the visions of a throne of God we encounter these super creatures sometimes with six wings sometimes four and probably with some other differences too if you really studying carefully but they do have a common characteristic that we're gonna take some interest in here a little later there's also the possibility that the Angels themselves are polymorphs that is they can take different forms sometimes they may appear as a Seraphim sometimes as a cherub that deaths that's wouldn't be surprising because again we're dealing in a hyperspace here every one had four faces that means they're sixteen faces here because we got four of these creatures right but each one had four faces and every one had four wings we're gonna see the inverse ten we're going to deal with those four faces their feet were straight feet no knuckles no knees no bending for some reason the sole of the feet was like the sova cast hood round in other words and they sparkled like the color of burnished brass and they had on and they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides and they had and they four had their faces and their wings and the wings were joined one to another they turned not when they went they went everyone straight forward now these creatures among other things symbolize the glory and power of God they're guarding his throne apparently they always go straight forward I do think there's a deliberate pun involved here James tells us they God has no variables nor turning it's that very word parallax that we get the word parallax from it focused on infinity in effect apparently these could see in all directions and they move in all directions without turning very strange again this speaks to me that these are very definitely hyper dimensional as for the lightness of their faces the four had the face of a man the face of a lion on the right side the four had the face of an ox on the left side they four also had the face of an eagle Wow four faces do those sound familiar to you absolutely got a lot of nods there the chariot Bhim have four faces a lion an ox a man and an eagle the camp of Israel is formed around four primary engines ensign of Judah Ephraim Reuben and Dan whose respective ensign symbols were the lie on the Ox the man and an eagle Dan was originally a serpent so they had an eagle with a Serpent's mouth and either the head of that tribe of Daniel didn't like that so they changed it to a to an eagle so that's how that all happened the Gospels we have Matthew Mark Luke and John what does that got to do with the lion ox man an eagle that for those of you that may not have studied the book Gospels or they learn the Bible 24 hours let's say refresh remember here a little bit every detail the Bible is there deliberately what do you suppose could be hidden behind the camps of the camp of Israel jesus said the volume of the book is written of me so we can tell you right now that not only are they deliberately there they somehow appoint to Christ when you get the numbers - there's the detailing of the size of each of the twelve tribes and so you can go through the numbers and doesn't seem to reveal much but we also know that they were to camp in four camps of three tribes each the first Judah Issachar and Zebulun together would camp and call themselves the camp of Judah Reuben Simeon GAD were the camp of Reuben Ephraim Manasseh and Benjamin the camp of Ephraim and Dan Asher and Naphtali the camp of Dan if we tally the sums of each of the camps that may be more fruitful for us well we don't need to know something else in the Senate we have the layout of the tabernacle I've got east of the bottom here we have the Levites Moses and priests on the open side where the door is and we have a pure night's Khoa fights and merits the other three families of the Levites are respectively okay you need to understand you got to think like a rabbi they were told to camp in Judah was to be east of the Levites camp of Reuben are supposed to be south of the Levites that gives us an interesting problem if you have it be strict to the law to the Torah there's no way there's nobody that can camp south east either south or east of the instructions only the cardinal directions are thus ordained and how wide can they well the width of the Levites camp is what's allowed how is how big is that what the Levites camp I don't know but whatever it is that's the unit we're gonna use and then they'll take whatever length they need proportional to their populations let's dramatize that here they are is about 22,000 of in the numbering of the Levites so the width there will take for the tribe of juda whose symbol is the lion they can camp that wide and take it whatever space they need eastward Grubin his symbol is the man and he does the same thing he takes whatever he needs going southward who can camp in the southeast none of them is not allowed according to the Torah the same thing with Southwest Northwest northeast so he from is to the to the west symbol as the ox and Dan is to the north with a symbol of the eagle now how much do they need well it depends what the populations are let's take a look at those populations and if we do it to scale guess what we see across of Christ and if you're approaching it from the east it is rather impressive because the longest of the populations is the tribe of Judah which is 108 the camp of Judah Camp of Judah one hundred and eight thousand four hundred the the shortest is the one to the West Ephraim one hundred and eight thousand and the other two arms are essentially the same length one hundred and fifty and so on and it's interesting that they portray the throne of God one laid out we have four faces implied from the four primary standards all 12 tribes that pick up a sign of the mats are off what we would call the zodiac but and the zodiac spells out the plan of God from the virgin birth of Virgo to the the triumph of light of the leo the lion or the Lion of the tribe of Judah okay so much for that one designer Gospels Matthew Mark and Luke and John Matthew's theme is that he speaks of the Messiah the king mark the servant Luke is being a doctor as humanity and John the son of God and some of the genealogies reflect that very clearly Matthew takes him from Abraham on man mark does not have a genealogy we don't you know you're not concerned with the pedigree of a servant Luke takes it from Adam focusing on the bloodline through Mary and John has a genealogy of the pre-existent one not usually recognized those genealogy but the first three verses really are and they focus it separately on what Jesus said what he did what he felt and who he was and one was written to the Jew the other to the Roman of the Greek and the church and the first miracle supports that basic theme and he ends with an appropriate Matthew ends with the resurrection mark the Ascension Luke ends with the promise of the Spirit setting up his sequel called Luke volume 2 of the book of Acts John ends with a promise of the return setting up his sequel which is the book of Revelation the camp the camp side correlative each east west south and north the instance was Judah Ephraim Reuben and Dan and so the face Matthew focuses on his kingship symbolized by the lion mark the Ox the beasts of servitude Luke the land and John the eagle so that's interesting these four phases show up again and there may be significant that is is that significant that's up to you you can look at it and come to your own conclusions let's go to verse 11 unless were phases their wings were stretched upward the two wings of every one were joined one to another and the two covered their bodies they went every one straight forward whether the spirit was to go they went and they turned not when they went he went straight forward God is moving undeviating Lee we look at the world and get confused God's not confused he knows what he's doing and he is moving God is moving unhesitatingly toward the accomplishment of his purpose in the world today we need to remember that and this speaks to that strangely enough I believe it does nothing will deter God nothing can sidetrack him he's going to do what he's going to do praise God continuing verse 13 as for the likeness of the living creatures their appearance was like burning coals of fire and like the appearance of lamps and went up and down among the living creatures and the fire was bright and out of the fire went forth lightning wow the appearance of lamps God has always said to be light first John 1:5 I am the light of the world John a and John again first John I if we walk in the light as he is the light we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin Prescott continuing and the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning now as I beheld the living creatures behold one wheel upon the earth by living creatures with his four faces the appearance of the wheels and the work was like unto the color of a barrel and they for had one likeness their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel barrel by the way is probably the crystallite or gold stone probably correspond to a gold colored topaz is the estimate the the whole area of semi-precious stones is a very confusing thing to research because the nomenclature throughout all the different cultures different than changing it's very hard to trace these things but the work was that whereas a wheel within the wheel this is not orthogonal I jus mean it's orthogonal not concentric don't picture wheels inside the wheel say we'd see it visualize them orthogonal perpendicular to each other much like it's some gyroscopes are set up that way it's they're orthogonal not concentric because they go in they go in more than three dimensions that's why it's confusing to us they're probably hyper dimensional we know there's more than three dimensions we find wheels though mystically in Daniel 7 the wheels of the throne of God mentioned in Daniel 7 verse 9 we see the in all kinds of bases in Solomon's Temple have wheels on them and of course the chariot in 1st chronicles 28 so on we go when they went they went upon their four sides they turn not when they went now this again speaks of it being a hyperdimensional see God is a God of intelligent purpose you and I are not living in a universe that with that's moving into the future aimlessly and without purpose randomness does not exist in nature you cannot find randomness in nature that's what led to the field of chaos and field of mathematics called chaos theory you cannot find randomness and we're not living in a random universe it's amazing to me to notice those liberals as they call themselves that insist that the that there's no constants in the universe they feel the universe is some kind of cosmic accident it's fascinating to see them struggle so hard to try to find meaning in their lives they jump on the silliest pursuits to somehow give meaning to their lives whether it's some ecological pursuit that doesn't make sense or whether some of the positions they take in politics doesn't a stunningly stupid and yet they are and literally anyone that attributes designed or in this doesn't understand the definition of either one of those two words are opposites so we're not living in the universe that's moving into the future aimlessly we're yet we're in the universe that's pursuing a purpose because there's a guy in control and he has a purpose he doesn't deviate from it God has a purpose for every atom which he's created and he has a purpose for you the very fact that you and I are alive today reveals that we are to accomplish a purpose of some kind for God continuing as for the Rings they were so high that they were dreadful the word awesome might be more precise and their rings were full of eyes round about them for okay they're full of eyes the proverbs 15 talks about that - picturing the omniscience of God as he rules his creation the movements of his wheels and the chair are congruent and his movements and the wheels and they're all congruent with his vision he knows what he's doing and all of the speaks of God constantly working in the world his power his glory the purpose of man and his Providence all these things to all this derives from this perception and when the living creatures went the wheels went by them and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth the wheels were lifted up these reels seemed to speak of the ceaseless activity and energy of God whithersoever the Spirit was to go they went with the thither was the spirit to go and the wheels were lifted up over and against them for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels and so these four living creatures guard the throne of God that's what happens in Revelation 4 and elsewhere they protect the throne in that they do not allow man and his sin to come into the presence of God they also indicate the way that man is to come do they do both if you will that's why when they in Genesis 3 when the cherubs are guarding the Tree of Life they're not there to keep Adam out they're there to make sure he has a way to get back but not as a sinner be dangerous for if he if Adam took the of the tree of life as a sinner he'd be condemned to that permanently that's why they're there to in effect protect him in that by that strangely enough anyway verse 21 when those winds these went and when those stood these stood and when those were lifted up from the earth the wheels were lifted up over against them this where the Spirit of the Living creature was in the wheels and the lightness of the firmament all boy here's that funny word again upon the heads of a living creature it was as a color of a terrible crystal stretched forth over their heads above the firmament is a awesome not better word terrible awesome crystal stretched over their heads what do you mean firmament the word is rocky out it actually means a solid expense it's not emptying this we think of space as being empty no that's that's lack of background space has impedance space can be stretched rolled so it can be torn scripture tells us the rock is solid expensive that term occurs 17 times the scriptures and it's prominent in Genesis after 1:00 you can check out her Justus commentary on that if you so choose there was some kind of beautiful platform above the wheels and the cherubim containing the throne of God and under the firmament where their winged straight and one toward the other everyone had to which covered this side and everyone had to which covered on that side their bodies see God is still on the throne and as well as being accomplished in this world even if we don't see what he's doing obviously and the complex movements the cherubim and the wheels reveal how intricate is God's providence the universe perfect harmony and order may not look that way to us but clearly that's what it's portraying here and when they went I heard the noise of their wings the noise of Great Waters as the voice of the Almighty the voice of speech as the noise of a host when they stood they let down their wings the voice of the omen by the way this echoes the seven thunders in Psalm 29 and it possibly may be an allusion to the seven thunders that are redacted out of the book of Revelation in chapter 10 verse 3 and 4 John says I heard the seven thunders out of the voice I was about to write so see thou do it not he wouldn't allow him to write that down and so that's one of the mysteries that we deal with in the revelation commentaries sounds like the noise of Great Waters we see that all through the scripture and the Psalms and Isaiah and elsewhere like the thunder of the Almighty the voice of God and that's seven times in Psalm 29 and seven thunders earned the revelation 10 as the sound of a tumult like the sound of a host and that that also echoes throughout the scripture the word almighty by the way is Shetty I a pre mosaic term for God used chiefly in poetry and prose it's usually a prefixed with the word El El Shaddai God the Almighty as in Genesis 17 now there was a voice from the firmament that was over their heads and when they stood they let down their wings and above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne as the appearance of a sapphire stone and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above it sapphire stone is probably an azure stone like lapis lazuli and the death speculation and the appearance of a man the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the only one it as a ax and has a wonderful thing in here Isaiah 52 how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings that publishes peace that bringeth good tidings of God that publishes salvation let's say a son designed by God reigneth and those feet will be nailed to a cross when it does because when he doesn't become incarnate and I saw as the color of amber has the appearance of fire roundabout within it the appearance of the loins even of upward and from the appearance of his loins even downward I saw as it were the appearance of fire had brightness round about it so we see this portrayal of both above and below his loins the appearance of the bowl there's a that is in the cloud and the day by rain so was the appearance of the brightness round about this was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of God and when I saw it I fell upon my face and was heard and I heard a voice of one that spake wow in the presence of the Lord Ezekiel as what he finds himself horizontal on the ground throughout the Old Testament when men came to the presence of God they always fell on their faces that happens to Isaiah in Isaiah 6 that famous vision is there 6 what was me haven't been done because I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for mine eyes have seen the king the Lord of hosts that was Isaiah's plays he fell prostrate before God that was the same thing that happened to Daniel in Daniel chapter 10 at the same position John took in the book of Revelation and Patmos when I saw him I fell at his feet as what as dead to the result of Ezekiel's vision that we've just read was that he was a total collapse on the part of zekiel but God then set him up on his feet that happens in each case God will set them up on feet called him to be a watchman he fed him with the word and filled him with a spirit boy that should be our prayer to the bee feet on the word and be filled with the spirit that's a prelude to anything it's going to survive and then we find that strange phrase they shall know that I am the lord that reads repetitive all through the Book of Ezekiel over seventy times that phrase is found in this book and it summarized the ministry and the message of Ezekiel so this is a great warm-up chapter the glory what what is the impact of all of this that we've read well it gave Ezekiel a message for those that lived in tel-aviv it also transported him from his home in exile to the entrance of the Gateway of the inner Court of the temple Jerusalem we're gonna see it chapter 8 the xik will be transported in jerusalem and also departed from the he departed from the cherubim in the temple to the threshold of the temple he saw the glory depart from the temple it mounted up from the threshold to the eastern gate of the temple this is a the Shekinah glory moving went up from the midst of the city to the Mount of Olives on the east side of the city and then returned it will return to fill the new temple and cleanse the people notice this the Shekinah glory left the temple that was in Jerusalem that Nebuchadnezzar eventually destroys there's no record of the Shekinah glory coming upon the Second Temple why well Matthew 12 6 tells us one greater the temple is here but that will it will return to fill the new temple the one that Ezekiel is going to detail for us in chapters 40 through 48 when that when even the Shekinah comes and cleanses that temple the final temple of the big one so for your next session I want you to reread chapter 1 on your own and reflect yourself on what it means to you what does this strange vision mean to you it's they're not presuming that you're trained in advanced man if they're hyper spaces what does it say to you decide for yourself then I want you to read chapters 2 and 3 we'll take both of those chapters the next time we get together let's stand for a closing word of Prayer

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Published: Fri May 01 2020