Tag: Ezekiel 1:26-28
The likeness of the Glory of God
Scripture reading for August 17: Ezekiel 1-6
Ezekiel had just turned 30 years of age and he was a priest who now entered full-time ministry. He had been taken into captivity and was in Babylon with a group of exiles which included Daniel and his friends. They met by the Chebar River to have their Sabbath observances and feast days. While they were meeting, God opened the heavens and gave Ezekiel a vision of God that changed his life and gave him direction and focus. God called him to go to His people and give them God’s Word. God warned him the people were rebellious, obstinate and stubborn. (Ezekiel 2:1-4)
The vision that Ezekiel saw of the throne of God was spectacular. It began with a windstorm coming from the north with a towering thundercloud and flashing lightning and fire in the center. As it got closer, Ezekiel could see four living creatures. (Ezekiel 1:4-9) These creatures had the form of a man but they had four faces and feet like a calf and four wings with hands underneath. They glowed like bronze and the faces were that of an eagle, ox, lion and man. Below on the ground, there was a wheel that sparkled and had another intersecting wheel. These wheels were full of eyes on the rim and enabled the creatures to move in all directions as the Spirit moved them. When these creatures with the wheels moved, there was a sound like that of roaring waters, like the voice of God.
As Ezekiel looked he noticed a glowing throne of sapphire above the creatures and on the throne was a figure like that of a man. He was glowing with fire and brilliant light surrounded Him. This light looked like a rainbow and glowed with radiance! (Ezekiel 1:26-28) This figure had the “likeness of the Glory of God”! When Ezekiel saw it he fell to the ground in awe. He was overcome by the likeness of God’s glory!
The Scripture states that sinful man would die if he could see the full radiance of His Glory. But God grants some grace to see a glimpse of His glory. Moses was hidden by God in the cleft of the rock and was allowed to see His backside. (Exodus 33:18-20) Now God has sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to show mankind the Glory of God. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, Who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14) The gift of the Holy Spirit enables us to have the Glory of God revealed to us by the Spirit. We are being transformed by that grace gift with ever increasing glory! (2nd Corinthians 3:18) When Jesus Christ appears and the trumpet blows, we will be instantly transformed into a glorious body, like His glorious body! (1st Thessalonians 4:16-18) We now carry the “likeness of the Glory of God”!
Christ shines in the darkness!
Scripture reading for October 24th: Ezekiel 1-3, John 1
John 1:1-5 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.”
The apostle John was in his eighties when he wrote this Gospel of Jesus Christ. John was a young man when he was called by Jesus to follow Him. He was now old and an overseer of churches in Asia. He wrote to counter false teachers in the church who were denying the deity of Jesus Christ. As an eye-witness of Christ’s glory, John wrote to clarify that Jesus was the Son of God and Creator of all things. Jesus was and is the source of all life and light and came from heaven to earth as the Son of Man to bring a revelation of God the Father and His love to a dark world of lost people. John uses the word “believe” ninety-eight times. Faith by ‘believing’ brings adoption into God’s forever family.
John 1:9-13 “The true Light, which gives Light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, but the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His Name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”
Prayer: Father God, thank You for Old Testament descriptions of the likeness of Your throne and the human form on it. But thank You for the clear and final revelation of the Word made flesh in Jesus Christ, Son of God! He is the true Light of the world bringing light and eternal life to all who will repent of sins and self-centeredness and believe on Him.
Ezekiel 1:26-28 “And above the expanse over their heads there was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like sapphire; and seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness of a human appearance. And upward from what had the appearance of His waist I saw as it were gleaming metal, like the appearance of fire enclosed all around. And downward from what had the appearance of his waist I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and there was brightness around Him. Like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.”