"A vision from God in exile" by Rod Bayley, 11 May 2008 (7:30 pm) , Ezekiel 1

[dann...@gmail.com]

Nearly 6 million Jews died in the holocaust, the attempted
extermination or genocide of the Jewish people by Adolf Hitler and his
Nazi party in World War II. It caused great despair for many Jews
both during and after the war. Near the end of World War II, members
of the Allied forces were often found searching farms and houses for
snipers. At one abandoned house, which had been reduced to rubble,
searchers found their way into the basement. There, on a crumbling
wall, a victim of the Holocaust had scratched a Star of David.
Beneath it was written the words, “I believe in the sun, even when it
does not shine. I believe in love, even when it is not shown. I
believe in God, even when he does not speak.”

In the bible’s ancient history of the Jews, the greatest disaster to
overtake the nation of Israel was undeniably the exile to Babylon. In
605 BC the newly ascendant Babylonian empire was mopping up the
remains of the Assyrian empire when it defeated Egypt as well, and it
took control of the kingdom of Judah, the remaining southern half of
the people of God. Some of the nobility were taken back to Babylon,
including Daniel and his friends. They allowed the king of Judah,
Jehoiakim, to continue reigning as a puppet leader, as long as he paid
heavy taxes to them. This he did for about 8 years until 597 BC, when
he decided to rebel. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon was not impressed
and he sent his army. The following battle saw King Jehoiakim dead,
and 10,000 men (not to mention women and children) taken back to
Babylon. The exiles included the army, the leaders including priests
from the temple and nobility, and the king’s son Jehoiachin. He had
gutted the nation of its leadership, but he hadn’t destroyed
Jerusalem.

Zedekiah was made the puppet king, but after about 9 years he too
rebelled, and this time Nebuchadnezzar was not so restrained. He
besieged Jerusalem for 18 months until famine had completely taken
over, at which point the city fell and was totally destroyed by the
Babylonians. The unthinkable happened - the temple was destroyed, the
palace was destroyed - Jerusalem had fallen. Those who had not died
from the famine or by the sword in the city’s collapse, were taken as
captives back to Babylon. The year was 587 BC - this was the lowest
point in the history of God’s people. Had God abandoned his people -
would God be left without a voice - would he not speak? What did the
future hold for the nation of Israel - was there no future?

This is the background, the setting for Ezekiel’s ministry as a
prophet, which is given to us in the book of 2 Kings, which records
the demise of the monarchy. The book of Ezekiel is a large book with
48 chapters - it is one of the three major prophetic books, along with
Isaiah and Jeremiah. And as I’ve just outlined it concerns the events
surrounding the tragedy that was the fall of Jerusalem and the exile
to Babylon. But how do we know to locate his prophecy at this time -
well let’s go to the text, because Ezekiel gives us the setting in
verses 1 to 3 of chapter 1. Notice what he states:
“In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month on the fifth day, while I
was among the exiles by the Kebar River, the heavens were opened and I
saw visions of God. 2On the fifth of the month - it was the fifth
year of the exile of King Jehoiachin - 3the word of the LORD came to
Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, by the Kebar River in the land of
the Babylonians. There the hand of the LORD was upon him.”

The “thirtieth year” in verse 1 refers to the age of Ezekiel. His
location in verse 3 is in Babylon by the Kebar River, which means he
was taken there in the first major deportation in 597 BC. This was
the year King Jehoiachin was also transported to Babylon after his
father’s uprising, and so in verse 2 he refers to the fifth year of
exile for King Jehoiachin. Therefore the year is 593 BC - in fact,
according to their calendars, the fifth day of the fourth month was
the 31 July - Ezekiel is very precise. Ezekiel, along with his King,
and 10,000 other men had already been in exile in Babylon for 5 long
years.

But as we will see next week, he is about to be commissioned by God as
a prophet to his people, and his prophetic ministry would start now
after 5 years in exile and continue till after the fall of Jerusalem
in 587 - in fact it would continue for another 17 years after the fall
of Jerusalem until 571. His role as a prophet would stretch for about
22 years, but in our current series for the next 9 weeks, we are going
to be looking at just the first five years, which take up the first
part of the book. This first five years of Ezekiel’s ministry, was
the hardest as we’ll see. It was hard because this first group of
exiles could not believe that God was judging them, and that even
greater judgment would come with the unthinkable destruction of God’s
city Jerusalem, and his temple.

Notice in verse 3 that Ezekiel was a priest - it is likely his father,
his whole family were in the priestly Zadokite line and would have
served in the temple in Jerusalem. As a result, he would have been
trained all his life in preparation for him serving in the temple once
he turned 30. Therefore he was very knowledgeable, of the temple
worship and concerned for the spiritual state of the people. But he
was a priest without a temple - here he was exiled in a foreign
country with a despondent group of his nation’s people. They were
naturally crushed in spirit because they were the people of God, and
yet they were not in the promised land. God’s big plan for his people
throughout the Old Testament can be summarised as: God’s people in
God’s land, under God’s rule - God’s people in God’s land, under God’s
rule. And yet here they are no longer in the promised land - and so
was God still ruling - or had he been defeated by the gods of the
Babylonians? If he was still ruling, then why didn’t he speak and
explain why this was happening? For five hundred years they had lived
in the promised land unchallenged, but now this had been overturned,
at least for this group taken from Jerusalem.

This is part of the power of this opening chapter of Ezekiel - the
vision shows that God is there, even in Babylon, and He will speak to
and through Ezekiel. In verse 1 he states “the heavens were opened
and I saw visions of God” - and in verse 3 the “word of the LORD
came ... in the land of the Babylonians. There the hand of the LORD
was upon him.” Well what did he see in this vision? We get the
details from verse 4:
“I looked and I saw a windstorm coming out of the north - an immense
cloud with flashing lightning and surrounded by brilliant light. The
centre of the fire looked like glowing metal, 5and in the fire was
what looked like four living creatures.”

In these opening two sentences of the vision we have a huge storm
approaching Ezekiel, and within the storm cloud are four living
creatures. This is an overpowering start to what will be a vison that
stretches to the middle of chapter 3, and which results in Ezekiel
being totally “overwhelmed” and apparently speechless for a week
(3:15). Ezekiel goes on then to describe the four living creatures,
which are angelic spiritual beings which are in the presence of God -
we see similar creatures described in Revelation as well (Rev.4:6-9).
Their form was that of a man, and they had hands - but they had four
wings, feet like a calf, and had four faces - that of a man, a lion,
an ox and an eagle. You get the sense that Ezekiel is struggling for
words here - he is trying to describe the indescribable. The
descriptions of a lion, ox and eagle designate power - these are
creatures of the greatest power. Ezekiel’s description of the four
living creatures continues until verse 14, but if we thought they were
hard to describe, their wheels are even harder to explain.

From verses 15 to 24 he goes on to describe these wheels, and the
movement of the four living creatures. There is a wheel beside each
creature in verse 15, and these wheels are described from verse 16 as
sparkling, as having wheels within wheels so that they’re multi-
directional, with rims full of eyes. From verses 19 to 21 they move
with the creatures in any direction. Then in verse 22 Ezekiel starts
to look up, and takes in what is above the four living creatures and
their wheels. Above them is an awesome expanse which looked like
“sparkling ice.” And in verse 24 Ezekiel turns on the sound in his
vision - we are told of the sound of the creatures movements, the
sound of their wings. And it is no small sound - the volume is on
eleven - the noise is likened to the roar of rushing water, or the
noise of an army, or the voice of God. The idea is that it is
deafening - totally awe inspiring. Ezekiel must have been beside
himself, trying to take in this confronting scene. But what is it all
about? What is the point of these indescribable scenes?

What we have is a cinematic progression, a great build up to an
interaction with God. What we have in the windstorm and clouds, the
four living creatures and their wheels, and the immense sound of their
wings, is the preliminary build up to the entrance of God, to the
climax of the proceedings. In an effort to provide an example which
could only be a mere shadow of this event, imagine the build up in a
powerful movie, where everything had been building to the climactic
event - the appearance of the king in command. Or, think about the
fireworks in Sydney - they always build to the finale, with just the
smaller display first and then increasingly spectacular explosions
until the Harbour Bridge has fireworks exploding all the way along it
at once. The preliminaries build anticipation for the finale, or the
grand climax at the end. This is the affect of the description of the
storm, the four living creatures and their wheels. They are pointing
to something or someone far greater who is coming.

The finale has been reached in verse 25 when Ezekiel hears a voice
from above - from above the expanse over the four living creatures.
And in verse 26 and following, Ezekiel describes where this voice is
coming from - what he sees. Notice what he states:
“Above the expanse over their heads was what looked like a throne of
sapphire, and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a
man. 27I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked
like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he
looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him. 28Like the
appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the
radiance around him.”

The voice was coming from One on a throne - this position obviously
depicts his rule - that he reigns. And what of his appearance - a
figure like a man, but glowing and in brilliant light, depicting his
majesty. Here is the finale to which the other scenes of the vision
had been building. What went before were simply the attendants as it
were, to the One enthroned, who has all power and majesty. Given this
description and what has already occurred, the figure is obviously
representative of God at least, but is Ezekiel describing God
directly, or is this vision somewhat indirect? Well, Ezekiel gives us
the answer to this question in the second half of verse 28:
“This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD.
When I saw it, I fell facedown, and I heard the voice of one
speaking.”

We see here that Ezekiel is careful to state that this is not a direct
vision of God - rather he is seeing only “the appearance of the
likeness of the glory of the LORD.” Of course the obvious question is
what is the ‘glory of the LORD’? The word ‘glory’ essentially has to
do with ‘weight’ or ‘substance’. It portrays the sense of God’s
majestic reality, the overwhelmingly power of his presence, the
‘weight’ of his eternal Being. Although it was believed that human
beings could not, in any literal sense, see God, nevertheless there
were several remarkable occasions when God appeared or displayed his
glory in some form, to individuals and to the whole nation. For
example there are various appearances to Abraham and Jacob, to Moses
in the burning bush, to the nation of Israel at Mt Sinai, the glory in
the temple, and other appearances to Moses, Gideon, Samson’s parents,
Elijah, Isaiah, etc.

Only here in verse 28 it seems, does Ezekiel realise what he is
looking at - this is a vision of God’s glory. God is present in
Babylon - He is very much alive and well - He is still on the throne -
the LORD rules. The vision began with a storm (v4) and ends with a
throne (v26) - this combines two very powerful traditions in the OT
for describing an appearance of God. The combination of both kinds of
the appearance of God imagery into one massive multi-media experience
must have been virtually beyond description. That’s why it is natural,
that the shock of the realization that God was present in Babylon
drains the last adrenalin from Ezekiel’s body and he collapses face-
down, unable to look any longer.

Pausing for a moment as Ezekiel lies prostrate, face down, what does
it all mean? What is the application for us, of such a unique
encounter with God experienced by Ezekiel?

Well, the appearance of God’s glory indicates four things about God.
Firstly, it points to His transcendence, that God is far beyond and
above us, He is exalted above all else - above the earth, above
spiritual beings, above the very heavens. Secondly, the vision shows
the universal sovereignty of God, that He reigns from His throne and
is in control of all things - He exercises His justice, His rule in
all places. Thirdly, the vision makes it clear that God is coming in
judgment on his people. This is the predominant mood of the vision
with the imagery of fire, a windstorm, flashes of lightning, and the
figure on the throne full of fire. Though this is not explicit,
Ezekiel will interpret his vision later in this way (chap10).

The fourth, and main point that I now want to focus on, is that given
the setting of Ezekiel and the exiles, the appearance of God’s glory
indicates that God is present and will speak to his people - God will
reveal himself, even here in pagan Babylon where God seemed very far
away. For many of the Israelites, there God must have seemed
defeated, disabled, disgraced, and very, very distant. And there is
no reason to expect that the righteous Ezekiel would have been immune
to these doubts and questions - for five years they had already
mourned and wondered and questioned. We learn later that these exiles
also felt despised and rejected by their fellow Israelites still in
Jerusalem (11:15). The conclusion that God had abandoned them must
have been close to irresistible. They were a persecuted minority in a
foreign country. Yet, the place where he seemed to be absent, the
place where his people seemed to be utterly rejected, is transformed
by this incredible vision of His presence. God in all his power and
glory, had arrived in Babylon - no border guards could keep Him out.
No place on earth is barred to the throne-chariot of this God. He was
there.

In January 1999, a Baptist missionary Graham Staines, along with his
two sons Philip, 10, and Timothy, 6, were killed by militant Hindus in
Orissa, India. Mr Staines had worked with lepers in India for more
than 30 years, and was sleeping in his car with his sons, when a mob
armed with axes set the vehicle on fire and prevented the victims from
escaping. Seventeen people eventually faced court accused of murder
in 2003. You would understand, I’m sure, if Graham’s wife Gladys and
her daughter Esther who were not killed in the tragedy, thought God
had abandoned them. Here they were a persecuted minority in a foreign
country, and God had allowed this horrific event to occur. At such
moments, it appears that God is a long way away - that we are
forgotten, that He cannot be present. But Gladys Staines has refused
to leave India, remaining with her daughter in Orissa, where she’s
taken over her husband’s work with lepers, and she’s also building a
hospital there in memory of Graham, Philip and Timothy. Asked why she
stayed in an interview with the ABC, Gladys stated: “the more I
thought about it, I realised Graham and the children’s loss is not
just Esther and my loss, it’s a loss to the whole leprosy community,
the whole church area around here, those involved in the churches in
the villages.” What is she saying - that God is there, that He is
doing things through the Christians serving, and she wants to continue
helping in that knowledge. They’re not abandoned - God is at work
there - He is not barred from India.

There are times when we struggle with a sense of abandonment, isn’t
there, whether through geographical distance, or through more
spiritual or emotional distance, the experience of exile from the
presence of God can be dark and terrible, even if it is not due to
persecution or deportation. If you have felt like that, or feel like
that tonight, you need to be reminded that God is with us always.
Jesus promises his followers in Matthew 28:20: “And surely I am with
you always, to the very end of the age.” This is ultimately fulfilled
in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within each believer. Jesus said
in John 16:7: “Unless I go away, the Counsellor will not come to you,
but if I go I will send him to you.” Don’t ever doubt God’s presence
- He is always there - if you are his child through faith in Jesus,
His Spirit indwells you. You will never be abandoned.