Through the Bible (Ezekiel 1-2)

ezekiel chapter one we're beginning a new book tonight exciting stuff one of the things about ezekiel is you'll notice that maybe perhaps a lot of churches avoid the book of ezekiel and the reason is it's kind of mysterious it's mystical it some might even say it's a little strange and some might even say hard to understand but one of the things that helps you unlock books like ezekiel is to look at other books of the bible the best commentary on the bible is the bible right i love that and when you read the rest of the bible one of the things you learn is there's little puzzle pieces and you can't just take it from a verse here and there you gotta have the context of all the other pictures and pieces and you know ezekiel you need to kind of know the book of daniel a little bit in the book of revelation and isaiah and these prophets uh often go together and a lot of things they say hand in hand and there's some similarities but there's differences and and so you do have to kind of compare and contrast to make some uh gain ground i should say with the book of ezekiel but i love this book and it's a powerful book it's it's got some mysterious things but it's also got some powerful prophecies and later on when we get into this book we're going to talk about you know the gog magog war that the bible talks about it's going to happen in the future it's yet to even happen so ezekiel is one of those prophecies um that it's not just future events to bible people but it's even future events still yet in our times and so we'll see that um there's some powerful prophecies about the dry bones and there's interesting prophecies like the east gate and how it would be shut until the messiah like we're gonna there's some exciting stuff in this book uh and it's again ezekiel is one of those books that if you're an atheist i dare you to read the book of ezekiel with an honest look at it and say god doesn't exist like like when i read the book of ezekiel it's one of those books that you just think man no man could have ever penned these words and made it all work out historically or prophetically the way it has and i love that it's the fingerprints of god on a book that's quite mysterious now if you're jotting down notes there's a few things you might want to note before we dive headfirst into this book best way to approach it is to do that but ezekiel his name means god will strengthen god will strengthen and ezekiel is one such dude that the lord is going to try to use to show that there's a prophet in among the jews in babylon the jews needed to be strengthened because they're in captivity now let's let's get a little bit of a time frame here of the book of ezekiel ezekiel and daniel were closer to the same age they were younger than jeremiah ezekiel we're going to see here he started his ministry at the age of 30 but he was already in captivity in babylon ezekiel gave his prophecy and wrote these words down under the inspiration of the spirit by the rivers of babylon and uh and it happened you know after uh after the jews were already in big trouble with babylonians now um if you're trying to get your time frame right remember jeremiah never was in babylon never went to babylon he almost did remember when nebuza adam had them all chained up and ready to roll to go off to babylon but then nebuchadnezzar said hey let this dude go and so they let jeremiah go and gave him the option to go to babylon or to stay in crushed jerusalem and he chose jerusalem if you remember the story so jeremiah never went to babylon so then the question is kind of interesting do you think jeremiah knew ezekiel the prophet or do you think jeremiah knew daniel we don't know for sure we don't know if ezekiel knew daniel um i think it's possible that ezekiel knew daniel because those both of those prophets were in babylon now we're going gonna find that ezekiel lived outside of the walls of babylon in a river that we're gonna discover here in a minute um and uh and so i don't know if daniel and ezekiel were bros or buddies i don't know but they were speaking similar things and they were on the same page spiritually because they were both prophets of the lord jeremiah having never been to babylon hundreds and hundreds of miles away may not have ever known um you know ezekiel or daniel which is kind of interesting thing but as it turns out if you remember there were the three waves of um persecution and besieging of jerusalem by the babylonians the first one happened if you recall in 605 bc and that was one where nebuchadnezzar and the babylonians came in and they didn't crush everybody they didn't kill everybody but they said you're pretty much a vassal state of the babylonians remember that and it was in that particular first wave 605 that's when um daniel was taken into captivity with his bros shadrach meshach and abednego it was the first wave in 605 that daniel was taken it would be in 597 the second wave the second besieging of babylon where the lord would give the jews another solemn reminder that the babylonians are going to come and crush them but they didn't completely crush them it was more brutal the second time but it was during that second besieging in in 597 that ezekiel and if you recall remember jehoiachin uh it was when those two guys were taken into captivity ezekiel was taken in the 597 the middle one of the three but then the last one was 586 and remember the number gets shorter because we're going backwards and bc days remember that so so the last one was 586 bc and of course that's when jeremiah was chained up and almost taken to babylon but but by this time by the end of the three sieges in 586 you know jeremiah's an old man and he's been he's probably in his 60s and he's been ministering for 42 years a prophet with nobody listening ezekiel at this time is still a young man he's probably in his 30s still or maybe young 40s as he writes the book of ezekiel but he's sitting there in babylon under the second besieging so it raises interesting questions if you ask me about did daniel know ezekiel or jeremiah now here's the thing we know that daniel did read the books of jeremiah remember that in the book of daniel it says i daniel understood by the reading of books which books the book of jeremiah there in daniel chapter 9 he says i read the books of jeremiah and told me there would be 70 years of captivity here in babylon so we know that daniel did read jeremiah did he know him i don't know it's possible if you if you think about it do you remember where jeremiah was when he was you know a young minister standing there in the in the city where was jeremiah standing anybody remember he started on the temple steps remember that and his first prophecies were there then he moved into the temple mount and started preaching his sermons and you do wonder if daniel was a little boy at some point and maybe he heard the prophet jeremiah speak the words before you know he was taken into captivity we don't know for sure but it's possible but the thing that i love about it whether they know each other or not they're all on the same page i love the bible for this for this reason if i took three of you tonight and said i'm going to divide you up into three rooms and i want you to come up with a religion and i want you to write a one-page summary of what your religion is about so you go off into your room with your pencil and paper and you write your thing and then the three of you come back together you made up your religion and your whole you know uh creed and all the things you believe in your one page thing what are the odds of the three of you on the same night in different rooms coming up with the same weird religion well brett we shouldn't do that exactly um but do you realize what the bible is the bible is thousands of pages 40 different authors over a 1500 year period riding on three different continents some were shepherds some were kings some were prisoners but be that as it may all the books of the bible perfectly fit together that's a miraculous thing i couldn't get three of you to come up with the same same thing without you know you guys exchanging notes beforehand these guys these authors of the bible the reason that comes together perfectly is they were given inspiration by the holy spirit god breathed and you see that here with you know isaiah jeremiah daniel even the apostle john in the book of revelation you know these these apocalyptic type scriptures they all perfectly fit together again it's the fingerprint of god on the books of the bible i love that well interesting ezekiel's a strange guy different than jeremiah you know where do you picture jeremiah living you know he was always in dungeons or prisons or you know you don't really picture him jeremiah just normal guy but ezekiel was kind of a normal guy he had a house and he had a wife um we're gonna see uh some interesting things that happened to his wife and what god required of ezekiel during that part of the story but he was married um and um and lived in a house in babylon uh and it seems like he was you know um kind of a normal dude jeremiah we saw him as the weeping prophet what's ezekiel well we don't really have anything about ezekiel other than he kind of is a solid just kind of a no-nonsense person we don't see him weeping as much or you know doubting whether he was called remember jeremiah i refuse to speak the word of the lord anymore but then i had a burning in my bones and he said i had to just keep preaching the word jeremiah wrestled with this stuff ezekiel is kind of like one of those dudes that's got his face set like flint to speak the word of the lord and you don't see a lot of questioning or any of that he's just kind of a a rock this guy ezekiel now if there's one thing you might say about ezekiel though is the people are so hardened to the message of ezekiel he's going to resort to some of these old prophets that we talked about in isaiah and some others he's going to do a lot of object lessons instead of using words he's going to give word pictures and do some really strange stuff and this is where i'm really glad i'm not a prophet from the old testament that i don't have to throw my cut my hair and throw it up in the air and slash it with a sword or go into a house and lock myself in and dig a hole under it and get out get out through the hole that i dug i'm really glad that i don't we're going to see some strange behavior from ezekiel but it's not strange in that um you know he's a weirdo it's this lord says i want you to do this weird stuff so that you'll get the people's attention and they'll say ezekiel what are you doing and they'll say thus saith the lord even as i dug this whole from the like he's going to explain these object lessons as we read this book and so i find it really interesting um that uh ezekiel is is kind of a solid dude but he's got to do some weird stuff i wonder if the lord has called you to step out of your comfort zone and do things that might be considered weird uh where you work uh to speak the truth or to share the gospel men just remember ezekiel he's got a tough job now also the book of ezekiel if you if you sort of gave it a theme it's a little hard to pin down but many scholars and commentaries would say this it's about the sovereignty and the glory of god that's that's really summarizing in a nutshell the book of ezekiel the sovereignty and the glory of god um so all that to say uh he mentions daniel in this book he does mention him by name three times but ezekiel doesn't mention jeremiah so maybe they didn't know each other maybe ezekiel never heard jeremiah's books or words but he does mention daniel so there's at least a knowledge of that and um and then chapter one here we dive right into craziness are you guys ready here we go verse one chapter one now it came to pass in the third uh the thirtieth year in the fourth month in the fifth day of the month as i was among the captives by the river of kebar that the heavens were opened and i saw visions of god in the fifth day of the fifth month which was the fifth year of the king jehoiachin's captivity the word of the lord came expressly to ezekiel the priest the son of buzai in the land of the chaldeans by the river kibar and the hand of the lord was there upon him interesting beginning he doesn't you know start with any long you know beginnings or anything he says i ezekiel by the river of kebar um saw heaven opened and i saw a vision of god and the word of the lord killed me there's three main things here if you if you're kind of noting what he says here the the first thing he says the heavens were opened how often in the bible does it say the heavens were opened not that often but i have to say if you're a bible student and you count the ways every time the heavens were opened something massive happens lives are changed the earth shakes it's a huge deal there's there's a few examples you might want to jot down for example you know isaiah chapter six verse one the heavens were opened you know in the year king uzziah died i isaiah saw the lord high and lifted up you know isaiah sees this and and it's a it's a radical vision uh you know of heaven um and another one that where the heavens open up you remember in matthew 3 16 where uh jesus was being baptized and the heavens opened up and remember the holy spirit descended on in the form of a dove and the lord spoke from heaven as heaven opened up um this is my beloved son and who i am well pleased was that a life-changing event when jesus got baptized of course that was a big deal um so you've got isaiah chapter six you've got matthew 3 16. but you also have acts 7 56 do you remember what happened in acts 7 right stephen we saw the heaven opened up as they were stoning him to death he was the first christian martyr in the christian church as they were there remember paul the apostle who was saul at the time was holding the clothes of the guy guys that were stoning stephen but stephen's face began to glow and shine like the sun as they were stoning him to death and he didn't you know seem to show pain but but he had joy instead and the heavens opened up and he saw you know the lord there seated upon the throne um you know so you got that opening of the heaven in acts 7 with stephen acts uh also chapter 10. uh do you remember in verse 11 when paul the apostle um was riding on the road to damascus and the heavens opened up and paul got saul got knocked off his high horse remember that whole story and the lord says you know why do you persecute me and he says who art thou lord he knew he knew he had been persecuting uh but it was at that point paul's life would be transformed there in acts uh chapter 10. and then also peter's vision of the sheet coming down from heaven remember that story that also was a big one peter sheet but all that to say revelation 19 19 verse 11. do you know what happens in revelation 19 the second coming of christ we see heavens open up there that's going to be a big deal when that happens who's going to be coming with jesus from the opening of heaven us right ten thousands of his saints are going to be returning with christ to rule and reign with christ that's going to be a radical deal and the bible says that that's going to happen that's why i believe the rapture had to happen long before that those that say the rapture is going to happen at the end of the tribulation i call that yo-yo theology because you get raptured up but then you come back down there's no reason to be raptured but if you're raptured at the beginning of the tribulation period you're in the marriage feast of the lamb there with the lord and our honeymoon in heaven if you would for uh the church the bride of christ with the bridegroom jesus for seven years while the earth is going through tribulation then we come back with the lord in revelation 19. but that's another scene where the heavens are opened up so the heavens were opened before ezekiel and the second operative key here is i saw visions of god now this is a big deal not too many people saw visions of god and there's an interesting thing about this no man can see god and what live so these are kind of interesting glimpses uh when when a guy sees a vision of god um no man can see god and live this is sort of us looking through a lens that protects us from certain death when we hear you know ezekiel give us descriptions of heaven and the throne and god himself and he's going to give this but a somber part of this is also verse 3 and the word of the lord came expressly to ezekiel now a prophet of the old testament you didn't take these words lightly i remember in the 60s when i was a little kid the church i was at there's a lot of hippies getting saved and the jesus movement of the 60s and 70s but i remember there was kind of a thing where you know these guys were walking around i think they had smoked a little too much weed but praise the lord they were saved you know they got saved but they'd walk and say i have a word from the lord for you and it was real spacey and a little weird and the problem is sometimes i think it was and sometimes it wasn't it was a little hard to tell if the guy just been smoking too much weed a word from the lord but i i always marvel at guys that i i've got a word from the lord for you be careful if you say that did you know if you said that in the old testament as a prophet and you didn't have a word throne what would they do to you they would stone you to death if your prophecy didn't come to pass so here's ezekiel he's he's laying another line saying the word of the lord came expressly to ezekiel the prophet um actually ezekiel the priest was he a priest or was he a prophet well the answer to that is interesting by the way and i'll give you this because we're going to bump into this a few times in the book of ezekiel ezekiel would have been a priest had he been in jerusalem he was you know uh a son of the priest he was part of the you know priestly family so you know had he been in and you know in jerusalem he would have been starting his priestly ministry by the way did you see what it said here the 30th year in the very first part of our verse um scholars debate the 30th year of what because it's not the 30th year of captivity so what is the 30th year well most scholars agree we're talking about ezekiel's age that he was now 30 years old and that's when he started his ministry that's kind of interesting because if you read the book of leviticus when i was talking about the levitical priesthood there was a pattern of age of where you'd minister if you were from 20 to 30 you were a priest in training but from the age of 30 to 50 you were one of the priests you were doing the heavy lifting you were the dude but then from 50 and upward those former priests would be become the old guys that would train the young 20s to 30s um interesting pattern i think the church could use some of that you know where you know people that are engaged in ministry they're busy doing the ministry but some of the people have lived some life and done some ministry they need to be training our younger people you know the the you know 20s to 30s and what have you um but um but ezekiel would have been a priest now that he's 30 years old he would have been really beginning his priestly ministry but in captivity he actually shifts the lord shifts him over to become more of a prophet kind of ministry and that's interesting but you'll see there's some interesting priestly behaviors that we see in ezekiel as we get into this a little further but he was a priest theoretically even it says in verse three he was ezekiel the priest the son of buzi in the land of the chaldeans so he wasn't you know working the the ministry of the priesthood because they didn't have the temple they didn't have the altar they didn't have sacrificial system uh so he actually is going to be a prophet here so the heavens were opened visions of god the word of the lord all of these things are powerful and important life-changing events for for us well verse 4 and i looked and behold a whirlwind came out of the north a great cloud and a fire enfolding 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 so already we have some imagery that's hard to figure and picture but a fire that's folding in on itself what is that you know i've seen artists try to do renderings of the book of ezekiel and they usually aren't very aren't very attractive uh sometimes i'm not sure these were meant to be painted uh as much as meant to be imagined um and we also have to remember that ezekiel's seeing stuff that we've never seen before so how do you explain something um that that you've never seen before a fire that's folding in on itself like maybe a scroll rolls in together maybe the fire was rolling in like a scroll um but the point is uh this is an impressive fire and there's an interesting word you can mark here in your bible or in your notes the word is amber uh i'm not sure all the newer translations put amber there but many of them do when it says you know it's the color of amber you say oh how lovely a warm glow that's what i think of amber is a nice warm glow you know chestnuts roasting on an open fire uh you know that sounds great to me but as it turns out if you look up the hebrew word for this word amber we don't have an equivalent english word it's actually clumsy actually to call it amber if you look it up in a hebrew dictionary there's a there's a notion that has to do with a bright and shining light not just a warm glow like amber color but it's speaking more of its brightness uh and and its power uh and and the word that's used here uh is is one that we just don't have an equivalent english word for so they just said amber but it but if look if you look it up it's an intensity that we kind of miss uh with this and so what does he see he sees a whirlwind come out of the north a great cloud and fire and folding itself upon itself with a bright bright shining light this this shouldn't shock us should it that god has fire and brightness right we know that god is light and we know you know from hebrews chapter 12 verse 20 uh 29 that our god is a consuming fire the bible tells us that first john chapter 1 verse verse 5 you know tells us that god is light and uh not only that but paul the apostle at the time of his conversion remember the road to damascus that we were talking about there did i say acts 10 i'm in acts 26 but paul um you know spoke about that brightness and he said the brightness of the sun when he when he was knocked off his horse remember he went blind temporarily he said the brightness of god was brighter than the sun the sun's pretty bright but as it turns out i think god makes the sun look like a little candle so this brightness is a theme that we see throughout the bible consuming fire brightness and the it also kind of speaks of the unapproachable presence of god the unapproachable presence but that makes me nervous um how then can we approach god well that's what the whole bible's about the whole bible is about how do we approach god and we can't because we're sinners um and so god comes up with the way the truth and the life the way no man comes to the father which is bright and shining and burning and consuming fire none of us could live through that except for the grace of god and the work of jesus christ um you know uh the mercy seat on the ark of the covenant the glory of god shine there and and there the lord says at the mercy seat that's where i will let you approach me and come into my presence so while as humans we can't approach god no man could be in god's presence really and live but the good news is someday when we're when we see him the bible says we will be what like him first john 3 tells us that so we'll be able to be in his presence in our new uh resurrected bodies uh but until then uh it'd be a deadly deal to try to stand in the presence of god so this is a vision of god and his brightness and his consuming fire and in his awesome glory you know this is this is kind of a theme here now in the next sections of chapter one we have four things described here that are that are pretty intense uh the first thing is um we have these four living creatures uh that's uh verses five through fourteen then number two we have the four wheels that we're gonna talk about and then number three we have the expanse that's over their heads and then number four we have the throne itself as we see this sort of vision of what's going on in heaven from ezekiel so let's see these four creatures and and um when i when i when i was a kid and i'd read these i'd always hear that star wars music from the uh the tavern scene remember that because because these creatures remember all the creatures of that star wars and there's guys with a you know head coming out of an eyeball and like weird stuff well that's what we're about to see so for you star trek or star wars people this is right up your alley uh do you do i believe in extraterrestrials yes um do i believe in martians no but i believe that these are beings that really exist in heaven and someday we will see these beings and you know do i believe in angels yes the bible talks all about angels so in a sense uh yeah don't go telling people prep police and space aliens i don't believe in that i believe in biblical extraterrestrials like life that's outside of this earth uh the bible speaks of that and these creatures are some strange creatures but again don't try to draw a picture of them i wonder if if ezekiel like you know these others isaiah and john and these others who tried to explain similar things i wonder if they just kind of we're a loss for words and you know we're using our english language here to try to describe something that's way beyond this world um this is let me let me remind you before i read about these uh let me remind you what the bible says here in first corinthians 2 9 jot this down in your notes but it says here in first corinthians 2 9 but as it is written i hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entered into the heart of man the things which god has prepared for them that love him now by the way this is a quote of isaiah 64 4 but in the context here in first corinthians it's talking about what god has prepared in heaven eye has not seen ear has not heard neither does it have ever even entered into the heart or the soul the psyche of man we've never even it's not even entered into our our minds uh what we're about to see in heaven so it shouldn't shock us if this description that ezekiel gives us is kind of out of this world so it says in verse 5 also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of now that right there that that that that gives him a huge out he's not saying i saw this exactly he's he's basically saying i saw something that's kind of like this and then good luck explaining it i'm not sure that we should try to you know pin this down too hard because i think it's beyond something that maybe your brain and my brain can even comprehend but he says i saw the likeness of four living creatures and this was their appearance they had the likeness of a man everyone had four faces and every one had four wings and their feet were straight feet and the sole of their feet was like the soul of a calf's foot and they sparkled like the color of burnished brass and they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides and they four had their faces and their wings their wings were joined one to another they turned not when they went they went everyone straight forward as for the likeness of their faces they forehead the face of a man the face of a lion on the right side and they four had the face of an ox on the left side and they forehead the face of an eagle thus were their faces and their wings were stretched upward two wings everyone were joined one to another and two covered their bodies and they went everyone straight forward whether the spirit was to go they went and they turned not when they went as for the likeness of the living creatures their appearance was like burning coals of fire and like the appearance of lamps when it went up and down among the living creatures the fire was bright and out of the fire went forth lightning and the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning there you go good luck with that one now as it turns out this this sounds kind of strange to us but did you know to a priest like ezekiel this may not have been as strange as you might think because to the levites there was some language and stuff here that would have been familiar to a priest of the old testament maybe you already have if you're a student of the old testament there's already some familiar stuff here that you're thinking wait a minute this rings a bell these faces of a man a lie on an ox and eagle this rings a bell and lamps burning and light and brass and fire and all this stuff if you're a bible student some of this stuff is familiar and when you when you sense that familiarity the key is to start connecting the dots let me give you one example of this there's a guy by the name of edersheim who wrote about this and edersheim writes uh that this would have been familiar language to a levite or a priest and it has to do with some of the imagery of ministry and serving in the temple the priestly ministry so this is why ezekiel may have been familiar with some of this stuff it wouldn't have totally been foreign to him but as it turns out these are symbols of things that the old testament speaks of i want to give you 11 of those sort of symbols out of these descriptions if you're taking notes you can jot them down the first one is verse 5 it says their appearance have the likeness of a man so right there you're thinking boy that doesn't sound like a man to me it sounds like a man an ox an eagle and a a lion but as it turns out there was a humanity involved with this and and that's number one humanity uh god uses people in ministry and uh there's some ideas here that the priesthood was god's extension through humanity to minister and these beasts by the way they're ministering before the throne of god and so that's why this is sort of a type to the jews and the rabbis to this day the jewish rabbis teach the book of ezekiel that these beasts mean ministry serving the lord so the first part is humanity that the lord uses people the second part is it says um and everyone had four faces and everyone had four wings and their feet were straight feet uh you say brad i know two-faced people but four faces are really or really are you kidding me um you know it's interesting uh you have four faces but also four wings it's almost like there's four beasts within a beast um and that's kind of an interesting imagery but um but even though there's all these wings and faces it says in verse six and everyone had four faces verse seven it says their feet were straight feet that's language that's hard for us but it means uh it speaks of stability straight feet speaks of stability so even though there's four faces and four you know wings and all this other stuff there's stability in these beasts which that's what the lord wants for us to be stable uh people of stability not ups and downs and you know times where we're walking with the lord in times where we're not walking with lord straight faith speaks of a consistency and a walk with the lord and then um it says their feet the soul of their feet was like the soul of a calf's foot [Music] and they sparkled like the color of burnished brass the burnished brass anybody remember what brass in the bible speaks of anybody somebody said it judgment brass but this is purified brass is the idea of burnished brass or bronze which is a symbol of judgment and and it's in and it speaks of the calf's foot now you say what does this all have to do well the ox by the way speaks of service um and um you know the the ox that treadeth out the corn like jesus talked about but these ox or calf's foot speaking of service it's it's purity there's purity of service so the ox feet are shining burnished brass which is has been purified by judgment if you would is the idea there that's what the rabbis teach as far as that goes so you got number one humanity but you have stability you have purity there in verse seven but you also have practicality in verse eight they had hands of a man under their wings on their four sides um the hands of the man speaks of you know just uh practical ministry doing you know using our hands to serve the lord their wings were joined one to another these four wings joined together uh working together speaks of unity unity so you've got number one humanity number two stability number three purity number four practicality number five unity and then number uh number six you've got verse 11 thus where their faces and their wings were stretched upward two wings were joined one to another and two covered their body you have first of all priority here in the first part of verse 11 that their faces and wings were lifted upward why do you think that was well we're going to find out that the throne is upward they're they're looking up to the throne of god they know where the main thing is keeping their eyes directed their faces directed their wings even directed up toward um the throne of god that's pretty important there's a priority there but there's also a humility that's what is that number seven humility when it says that two of their wings were joined together and they covered their bodies so they covered themselves in humility priority number six humility number seven uh then verse 12 they went forward everyone straight forward the straightforwards mentioned also earlier you know how they were always walking straight they had straight feet but this moving straight forward speaks of integrity not veering off to the right or to the left the next one availability it says whether the spirit was to go they went they went wherever the spirit was to go that's an interesting thing about these insightful impressive creatures they did whatever the spirit told them to do that speaks of availability but um then verse 13 what number are we on yeah uh intensity uh it says in verse 13 for the likeness of the living creatures their appearance was like burning coals of fire and their appearance of lamps and they went up and down uh there there's an intensity to their action but then it even gets more uh intense and we'll call this last one what is that number 11 um activity what are they doing they're not just sitting around twiddling their wings they're actually buzzing around check this out and verse 14 the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning and so the rabbis teach when it comes to ministry these are all characteristics that we should you know the jews taught that i think we can transfer that easily to what the lord wants for us whatsoever you do do heartily unto the lord and not unto men you know let your light so shine before men you know like all of these things about being bright and shining and active and serving um you know using our humanity as weak and foolish as it is to serve before the throne of god like these are the things that we should endeavor to do that we see in these creatures so that's one layer if you would of these creatures that you see kind of an illustration of ministering before the throne of god and we can see some good application on these creatures another application is we see some familiar imagery and i want to remind you of some stuff that we studied way back when we were in the book of exodus and other places do you guys remember the camp of israel i'm gonna i'm gonna bust out some uh reminders uh because we went through this only like four or five years ago whenever we were in the book of exodus i think um but i want to remind you if you if you looked at the camp of israel um there's some things that that will start to connect some dots here for you as well with these insightful amazing creatures of ezekiel um do you remember at the center of the camp of israel was the levites and the tabernacle do you remember that they were at the very center and this was the rule they were supposed to pack it up and when they when the pillar of cloud would leave by day or the fire by night they would pack up their stuff and when it would stop the first thing they would do is say okay levites where are you because the whole camp was then built upon wherever the levites put their camp and the tabernacle so then you have the various tribes and there were four main tribes and then several you know other sub tribes but the tribe of dan and their subsidiaries naphtali and asher they were supposed to go directly north of the levites does this ring a bell uh when we went through this um and so that they were very carefully placed themselves north of where the levites were and then they were even numbered there uh and so we know how big these tribes were and what have you now do you remember the ensign or the flag that the danites the camp of dan was supposed to fly it was that of an eagle okay so the eagle goes to the camp of dan then now directly to um the west you had the camp of ephraim which also included manasseh and benjamin and as it turns out their flag do you remember it was the ox and it was there to uh the the left or the i should say the you know the east side the next main tribe was the camp of ruben which also included simeon and gad and they were supposed to settle um down there uh you know uh just to the the south of of the levites okay but the biggest tribe of all by far was the camp of judah including izakar and zebulun and remember jesus is called the lion of the tribe of judah remember all this but this ensign or the flag that the camp of judah was supposed to fly was that of the camp thereof judah and they would fly their flag anybody seeing the pattern so far we got the uh ox the man the eagle and the lion just like these insightful creatures of heaven and that's pretty cool but if we turn the sideways i think it's great that the whole camp if you looked at it from you know the goodyear blimp uh you actually see it shapes across and especially when you see the numbers that judah had 186 400 people men of war i should say um the the camp if you would have looked at an aerial photo would have looked like a big cross um i think that's kind of cool uh i wouldn't make too much of that other than i wonder if god just did that for our our benefit um but the main thing here that we remember from that study that we did uh there in exodus is these uh images of the man the lion the ox the eagle are the same figures we see on these insightful beasts and the lord told them to have those images on those camps and so you almost wonder if you know the camp was more than just a camp well we know that for sure we know that the tabernacle do you guys remember a beautiful picture or paradigm of jesus christ himself the tabernacle itself i think that everything in the bible has meaning and value and i believe that there's a hint of heaven when you look at the camp of israel and i'm sure we're missing a lot of things there's much we could go into on this but i just wanted you to remember the camp of israel and how that that really shakes out in in this image of the throne um we could even spend some time talking about the throne of heaven and how that is pictured also in the camp of israel uh which we may do later on uh here in this in this book so you have these uh amazing creatures uh here that are that are listed and and you say brett what does that do for us well that we learn about ministry we learn about god giving us a hint of heaven even in the camp of israel did you know that even in the new testament gospels the four gospels that scholars have linked the four gospels to these same four faces if you ever have looked at this it's pretty profound but the gospel of matthew for example is is sort of speaking of jesus as the messiah and is speaking to the jews specifically but it's the men of judah and the lion is the symbol for the gospel of matthew and scholars have made correlations between the four gospels and the four four faces mark uh presents jesus not as messiah but mark presents jesus as a servant uh messiah of course is the king you've got the lion you've got mark the servant which is the ox the servant that treads out the corn jesus as a servant luke speaks of jesus as the son of man jesus in his humanity and so that speaks of the south ruben you know the reuben tribe and it speaks of man and then the last gospel john is the son of god speaks of jesus as the son of god why luke speaks of the son of man jesus 100 man john speaks of jesus as the son of god and that's interesting as the eagle ends and goes as it's mystical uh and and uh um eternal pre-existent uh there's there's all kinds of imagery there so i'm just kind of scratching the surface on on the the connections that people make with these beasts around the throne one thing that's very practical it might not sound very practical right now but it might be have you ever found yourself to be a real nerdy tourist have you ever been in that situation i've been a nerdy tourist probably one of the nerdiest tourist things i ever did was on my honeymoon with my beautiful wife debbie debbie loves flowers and so you know i i was a broke youth pastor and so you know i packed my volkswagen rabbit diesel top speed 50. it got 50 miles to the gallon but i was slower than the semis on the hills like but i took debbie on this romantic honeymoon up to victoria drove up to you know british columbia and uh we camped out with the tent it was really great um but uh um but i i knew that debbie loved you know flowers so i've heard about this place called bouchard gardens and i thought i'm gonna i'm gonna give a lot of time i'm gonna set aside an hour uh for us to this is me you know a 21 year old kid um thinking i'm gonna show my wife the buchart gardens uh all we need is an hour well we got there and most people spend two or three days walking through this garden and you know debbie and i were like literally running through there just so we could make it to the end oh there's a flower wow most people are like oh look at the kingdom phylum class order family genus species they're writing down all the you know foreign fauna and all this stuff and debian are just bolting through um i i think people were disgusted at us as we were running through the guard i did that also with the louvre i had an eight hour uh layover once when i was on my way to africa and uh i thought i'm gonna go see the louvre but you know the train to get there and all that it took so much time i had like about an hour to go through the louvre in paris and i kind of ran through there mona lisa wow awesome you know uh but all the french were home but anyway i digress um do you want to be a nerdy tourist when you get to heaven i don't want to be a nerdy tourist when i get to heaven one of the reasons i think it's valuable for you and me to go through this stuff is you know i don't want to be just stumped like who are those four creatures and what's going on with their wings and why is it that but i want to when i get that one i want to be able to to be a tour guide not a not a two wrist uh when i get to have it i don't be you know totally blown away i think the lord gives us these little sneak previews of the throne of heaven so that we're not tourists when we get there now uh for some of you i don't care what i am as long as i'm there uh you might smell smoke when you get there but as long as i'm there uh that's all that matters and i get that and i hear you um but i i want to know what heaven's about and and you and i tonight by putting this time and when we get to heaven i think we're going to be blown away by god and and i think one of the things we're going to see is when people are in the throne room of god they fall flat on their face we're going to see that tonight and that's what we're going to do too but maybe after we get up from our falling on our face we might say oh there's the creatures that ezekiel talked about and we'll know what they sort of symbolize and what they stand for and we'll be reminded of the tribes of israel and the way they encamped and the gospels and what have you and all spoke of these things are you with me there on that i think it's important to study this stuff so you've got here the um the four beasts or creatures as they're called um now before we i leave those though um what's interesting is isaiah gives some similar descriptions does anybody know for sure what these beasts or creatures are called anybody cherubim right we're going to find out in ezekiel 10 we read this on sunday they're called cherubim or cheryubim or cherubim whatever you want to call them now the question is are they seraphim well aren't they the same tomato tomato cherubim seraphim come on like what's the difference not really sure but one thing that's interesting and again i'm just planting the seed if you want to do deeper study there are seraphim in the bible that are also described and they're very similar to these the question is are they the same are they the same and people debate this um like for example listen to isaiah chapter six i'll just read it for sake of time you can jot it down isaiah 6 verse 1 says i in the year pardon me in the ear king uzziah died i saw the lord sitting upon a throne so what's isaiah seeing the throne room in heaven same scene high and lifted up and his train filled the temple now listen to this and above it stood the seraphims each one had six wings how many did the other ones have four and with two of the wings he covered his face and with two he covered his feet and with two he did fly and one cried to another saying holy holy holy is the lord of hosts and the whole earth is filled with his glory and the post of the door moved at the voice of him that cried and the house was filled with smoke so we have an interesting description from isaiah that's talking about seraphim are they different creatures possibly probably but are we sure check out this in revelation chapter 4. john the apostle as he's exiled on patmos and he has the revelation of jesus christ but he also has a heavenly scene that he sees in a vision i'll read it to you revelation 4 verses 1 through 8 says this after this i looked and behold a door was opened into heaven and the first voice was of a trumpet talking with me which said come up hither and i will show you the things which must be here after and immediately i was in the spirit and behold a throne was set in heaven one that sat upon the throne so now we're looking at heaven again and he that sat was to look upon like jasper and a sardine of stone and there's a rainbow round about the throne mark that that's coming up here and ezekiel the rainbow and then he explains the four and twenty elders and lightnings out of the throne like like ezekiel saw but let me go on it says um in verse six behold the throne of them before them was a sea of glass like in the crystal and in the midst of the throne round about the throne were four beasts full of eyes before and behind now this is interesting this is john's description of four beasts now the word beast is an unfortunate translation here um and i'll tell you why because the word here is if you take the greek word of the new testament translation here um it's creature it should be the four creatures just like isaiah called it the reason i think beast is unnecessary is because beast has a negative connotation especially in the book of revelation right because there's the beast right and the beast is the antichrist but look it up look up the word for beast in the greek you know dictionary that's used here in the original text and it's the same kind of word that the hebrew translates isaiah and also ezekiel of these creatures and a creature is a creation of god so these are really just the same creatures four of them full of eyes now the other creatures we saw in ezekiel had lamps going around them and we're gonna see those lamps seem to be insightful we're gonna see that so could these be the same thing as the eyes that ezekiel saw don't know for sure and it says the first beast was like a lion the second beast was like a calf the third beast was like a face of a man and the fourth piece was like an eagle similar and the four beasts had each of them six wings about him and they were full of eyes within and without and they rest not day and night saying holy holy holy is the lord god almighty which was and is it is to come so like isaiah's creatures they're saying holy holy these guys are saying the same thing isaiah's beasts or creatures are saying but there's similarities in all three descriptions now some people they take the attitude well i don't think john's description somebody's inaccurate because they're not all exactly the same i have no problem with this and i'll tell you why either one they're different beasts maybe one group is a seraphim and the other group is a cherubim and they're similar they their names are similar why wouldn't their wings be similar four wings six wings tomato tomato i'm not troubled by this whatever they might be different beasts but there's also a possibility that there's a different perspective and and this is something that is not hard for me to imagine these guys are seeing stuff in heaven that our brains can't even comprehend eye is not seen ears not heard it's never even entered into the heart of man the things that god's got for us in heaven so should we be surprised if there's a little different view maybe wings pop out extra wings who knows but don't be one of those people say well because there's a discrepancy between john's description and ezekiel's description then the bibles might as well throw it away uh full of errors these are the kind of things you're you know cardigan wearing pipe puffing college professors even in christian universities today sadly are saying see the bible's full of contradictions these are the kind of contradictions they're talking about i think that's just stupid you shouldn't call them that the bible calls them that they're professing themselves to be wise they become as fools that's what the bible says so watch out for this criticism of differences and stuff big deal if they're different creatures no no problem don't don't limit what what heaven's gonna be like maybe it's a perspective maybe john saw it one way from one angle and you know uh ezekiel saw it from another angle i'm just impressed that they're as similar as they are that that's the thing that is most impressive to me but i get bogged down once again back to ezekiel so you got the four beasts uh quite a story here so far creatures i should call them uh the second thing now is these interesting four wheels let's check this out it says in verse 15. now as i beheld the living creatures behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures with his four faces the appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the color of a barrel a barrel like a wine barrel with wood and straps no the barrel is a as another color we're not exactly sure what it was but it was um in the bible always in the context of being really impressive uh and the four had one likeness and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel this is pretty mysterious um some you know people have tried to draw this i think we even scribbled it micah and i were thinking about this uh you know these are some of the old drawings from ancient dudes except for the one up there that's my drawing in my bible the little steps there uh that's actually a quarter inch in my bible that i scribbled and micah got a shot of that and stuck it there i'll tell you what that is uh when we get later on that's the priest quarters but a whole other thing um but the wheel one the wheel within the wheel is kind of this gyroscopic sort of thing um who knows what a mysterious thing wheels within wheels what's even more mysterious is what is the wheel touching um because we're having this heavenly scene but it says here um now beyond verse 15 the living group should build one wheel upon the earth how did that happen well that's interesting because we know that you know um there's spiritual things happening on earth we know angelic beings and creatures uh do interact with earth but that's an interesting thing these these wheels at least one of them is up on the earth verse 15. but then it says these wheels were beautiful color like barrel which was beautiful and they had the appearance of the work as it were a wheel within the middle of a wheel now we'll talk about what these wheels are in a second when they went verse 17 they went upon their four sides and they turned not when they went as for their rings they were so high that they were dreadful and their rings were full of eyes round about them for 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 whither so ever the spirit was to go they went thither was the spirit to go and the wheels were lifted up over against them for the spirit of the living creatures or creature was in the wheels boy there's an interesting thing when those went 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 for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels now you say pastor what does that mean i don't have the foggiest idea i really don't um and that's not for lack of reading or trying to figure out what people have to say but i've yet to really hear great uh there's some interesting theories and what have you but these wheels that gyroscopically move and and they move in tandem with these creatures and and uh and you just think man what's the deal with these things well most scholarships sort of lands because there's these eyes on these wheels and the gyroscopic offense effect seems to be sort of anti-gravity and these these creatures sort of floating around but the spirit of the creatures are in the wheels with these eyes what is that all about well well most scholarship believes it speaks of god uh in his omniscience his omnipresence um yeah in his omnipotence all of the all-seeing all-knowing all-powerful god um the spirit of god moving in these creatures that's kind of what's being said by some scholars the spirit of god being like like in the same way that the holy spirit comes upon you you see have you ever heard somebody or christ say i really was feeling led by the spirit to do this well that's how these creatures operate they don't make a move unless the spirit that is in these creatures which is on the wheels with the eyeballs and the gyroscopes unless the spirit moves these creatures don't move and it speaks of the all-powerful all-knowing all um present god moving in and through these uh creatures and that's what most believe these wheels that sort of lift these creatures up and move them around um speaks of but this is mysterious this is the kind of stuff ezekiel is famous for and why people go i think i'm done with the book of ezekiel now uh let's let's go home no it's going to get better and it gets we'll talk more about these wheels later we'll see them also again in chapter 10. but that brings us to the thing that's over their heads what's over the heads of these creatures it's called the firmament or the expanse um so that's number three number one we've seen the four living creatures number two we see the the um the four wheels uh within wheels and eyeballs but number three we see the expanse that's over them uh now now try to picture this because there's debate on what is this an umbrella over their head is it a a spacious glory of god over their head is it the sky over that is it a roof over the heavenly throne people debate what this expanse is verse 22 and the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creatures was the color of the terrible crystal stretched forth over their heads above and under the firmament were their wings straight the one toward the other every one had two which covered on his on this side and every excuse me one had two which covered on that side their bodies when they went i heard the noise of their wings like a great like the noise of great waters as the voice of almighty the voice of speech excuse me as the noise of a host when they stood they let down their wings and there was the voice of the firmament which the voice of the firmament that was over their heads when they stood and it let and had let down their wings now we haven't talked about how big these beasts are these creatures we don't know um but have you ever heard up close like a giant bird fly away it's amazing the whoosh of their wings the bigger the bird the louder the bush which makes me wonder if these are huge creatures like are these giant creatures before the throne of god because the the language here is it says their their wings are like the noise of great waters picture niagara falls like when these things start to fly is it like a harrier taking off like you know a jet or something like what what what what is this you know description when they start to fly the wings like i sense power uh in the description here and maybe size and mass and it's just impressive you know but it says that their wings are like the voice of of great waters the voice of the almighty what do the wings have to do with the voice well the voice of the lord is interesting if you do a study on the in the bible of the voice of the lord there's a lot of things the bible says about the voice of god um one of those things is the idea of of waters uh often in the bible in fact in revelation chapter one verse 15 it says the lord has the voice of many waters and it doesn't mean like many waters niagara but many different kinds of waters is the idea sometimes the lord speaks like niagara falls sometimes the lord speaks like a little trickle of a creek that's almost dry in the woods but he speaks in a still small voice or sometimes it's huge but in this case from the throne of heaven these creatures and the sound of their wings has something to do with the voice of the almighty god and it's i think it's impressive and i think it's powerful um the one thing that we know for certain is every time we see a vision of heaven and people before the throne people are blown away we'll show you that here in a second so we've got the firmament above which is this crystal word terrible there in the king james means kind of awesome and then these wings of these creatures with the firmament over their heads it's all part of this imagery of heaven verse 26 we moved to the throne itself 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 a throne of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it who do you think the man is on the throne anybody jesus right because jesus is you know god became a man and has the image of man now we do know we were created in god's image so it does make you wonder is this you know jesus the you know pre-incarnate appearance of christ in the old testament or is it god in his it is uh you know we were created in his image maybe that's it it's god but we know that god if you jesus said if you've seen me you've seen the father i and my father are one so i believe this is very likely ezekiel looking up and seeing jesus seated upon the throne of what seemed like a throne he says he didn't call it a throne he says it's like a throne kind of interesting verse 27 and i saw as the color of amber same word by the way the word amber there in verse 4 that is not a great translation because the word amber is not really it it's more of a bright shiny thing um that's the idea here so i i saw the color of amber a bright shiny thing as the appearance of fire round about within it from the appearance of his loins even upward and from the appearance of his loins even downward i saw as it were the appearance of fire and it had brightness round about as the appearance of the the bow that's that's the rainbow the covenant god made it's not lgbtq they they robbed that uh imagery the rainbow was god's covenant that he would not flood the earth again uh and it's gonna also be in heaven and i'm glad some of you might think well i wish they didn't steal our biblical imagery for the lesbian and gay and uh queer uh you know group they stole the rainbow uh guess what when we get to heaven uh god's got the bow he he still owns the bow okay so don't worry about that the bow is gonna be there um so in verse 28 the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud and the day of rain so was the appearance of the brightness round about that this was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the lord and when i saw it i fell upon my face and i heard a voice of one that spake this is the response we see every single time somebody falling on their face and the throne of god whenever people see the throne of god uh remember exodus chapter 20 um 24. let me read it to you it says then went moses aaron nadab and abaya and the seventy elders of israel and they saw the god of israel and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone the body of heaven has a clearness upon the nobles of children he did not lay on his hand what happened god sort of revealed himself to these people now you say brother i thought god no man could see god and live somehow nadab abayu moses and aaron the and the elders of israel they saw some part of the god or a vision of god but what did they describe did they say he was like this nope all they describe is the floor that's what you always see these heavenly scenes you know i saw the throne of god but the floor was lemony fresh and i saw it and it was diamonds and you know i was like they don't they never described the throne they're just they're just flat on their face every single time that's what happened to these guys and the floor was as a paved work of sapphire stone that's all they could describe is the floor because that's what you and i are going to be people say when i get to heaven i'm going to give god a piece of my mind no after you wet your pants and you get yourself up off the floor then you might be able to look again at the throne but i don't think we're gonna have something to say give god a piece of our mind that's not gonna happen you're gonna be flat on your face before the throne of god i'm convinced um i know it's late this will just take a minute uh let's let's we gotta cover one more chapter real fast just a few verses uh it says here uh so here's you know ezekiel flat on his face verse two verse one of chapter two and he said to me son of man stand upon your feet and i will tell and to i will speak unto thee and the spirit entered into me and when he spake unto me and set me up on my feet that i heard him that spake unto me how did he lie a part of me ezekiel get back up the lord had to stand up he was so smitten by heaven he couldn't even stand up by the way this this term son of man used here uh 90 times in the book of ezekiel he's going to employ this this name son of man which speaks of humanity verse 3 and he said unto me son of man i send thee to the children of israel to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me they and their fathers have guests against me even unto this very day for they are impudent children and stiff-hearted i do send the unto them that thou shalt say unto them thus saith the lord god and they whether they will hear or whether they will forebear for they are a rebellious house yet shall know uh they shall know that there has been a prophet among them in other words you know ezekiel's you're a prophet and i want the people to know you're here they might not listen to you but that doesn't matter they just need to know there's a prophet in babylon speaking the truth to them verse 6 and thou son of man be not afraid of them neither be afraid of their words though briers and thorns be with thee and thou dost well dwell among scorpions be not afraid of their words nor display that their dismayed at their looks though they be a rebellious house and thou shalt speak my words unto them whether they will hear or whether they will forebear for they are most rebellious verses six and seven there are something i'd love for you eighty creekers to meditate on this week are you afraid of people's faces and their looks and their anger are you afraid to speak the truth of the good word of god because of what people might do to you or say to you um i wonder if this might be a word for some of us not to abstain from speaking truth i think we have to do it carefully and lovingly but i also think that we lack bold christians the bible says the wicked flees when no one's chasing them but the righteous are as bold as a lion and this is what you know ezekiel the prophet is told by the lord man don't be afraid speak the truth speak by word and he had to be reminded of that verse 8 but thou son of man hear what i say unto thee be not thou rebellious like that rebellious house open thy mouth and eat that that i give thee and when i looked behold a hand was sent to me and lo a roll of a book was therein and he spread it before me and it was written within and without and there was written therein lamentations and mourning and woe we're going to see ezekiel have to eat this role it's called the tootsie roll no just kidding no this roll what is this book and why is he gonna have to eat it up we'll find that out next week as we continue our study through ezekiel let's pray together lord we thank you so much that there's um just this little snapshot of heaven we don't even pretend to understand all the nuances but it does stir our souls lord to realize that there's something so much bigger and some so much more out of this world lord when you lived on this earth you told us to set our affections not on things of this earth but things above the and to be all about that heavenly scene in the throne room of heaven and that that's where we'll spend eternity with you this glorious place that i has not seen nor ear has heard or not even entered into the heart of man the things you've prepared lord we look forward to that time in that day to be in heaven with you but until then like ezekiel give us a boldness to speak the truth to your people and to the unsaved that they might hear and know the truth lord so i pray your blessing on this group as we've studied here with this group in the building but also those at home watching online with us how thankful we are lord for your word to be able to plow through difficult passages like this but but let your spirit just work these things out in our understanding in our hearts so pray your blessing now in jesus name amen

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Length: 73min 46sec (4426 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 07 2021