WE may note from the opening chapter of this prophecy, a marked difference from the style of Jeremiah. The latter suffered with his beloved people in the land of Israel, and in Jerusalem, as we have seen, but Ezekiel writes from Babylonia where he was a captive among others of his race by the river Chebar. Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel: all three were living at this time but they were widely separated from each other.
Ezekiel, whose name means “Strength of God”, began his prophecies about thirty-five years later than Jeremiah’s binning. The thirtieth year (verse 1) is a Babylonian reckoning, referring to the time when the later empire was found by the father of Nebuchadnezzar, Nabo-Polassar.
The “fifth year of Jehoiachin’s captivity” is a reminder of Israel’s sins, for had they kept the Word of God before them they would have remained a free people; now all were subjects of the king of Babylon, and most of them were in his land. Upon the others, judgment was soon to fall, for Ezekiel’s early testimony begins several years before Jerusalem was overthrown and destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar.
God was about to make known to his servant Ezekiel the true state of the people of Israel, and the judgment to be executed on them because of their ways; He began by giving the prophet a vision of His throne of judgment, not now, as formerly in, or in relation with, Jerusalem, but wholly apart from it, and set for the punishment of that guilty city and its people. It is seen as coming out of the north, the direction from which the Babylonians would enter the land of Israel. They were to be the instruments of God’s next dealings with His people; such we have seen they had been already.
A description of the throne of God, and Him who sits upon it must necessarily be clothed in symbolic language, for it is bond the human mind to grasp what God is, or to comprehend the scope of all His ways; what we have here, as elsewhere in the Scriptures, is God in grace stooping down to the measure of man’s understanding, to make Himself known, even in a limited way, by His creatures. Figures are therefore adopted by which, with the Holy Spirit’s aid, we may here learn what God had to communicate concerning His governmental dealings with His people Israel. In the Revelation largely the same symbols are found.
The first of the symbols to attract our attention is the “whirlwind”, better translated (as it is in some other passages) “stormy wind.” Both terms are found in the Scriptures, but the particular Hebrew term used in verse 4 occurs in Job 38:11Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, (Job 38:1) and 40:6, where God is answering Job “out of the whirlwind,” and again in stating the manner of the removal of Elijah from earth to heaven (2 Kings 2:11And it came to pass, when the Lord would take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal. (2 Kings 2:1) and 11). The symbol before us, then, is not wind in the ordinary sense, but indicative of divine power invisible to man, at work in the world, accomplishing God’s own purposes though man sees the result of its action. John 3:88The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. (John 3:8) is an illuminative passage in this connection; so also Acts 2:2 Concerning the Holy Spirit’s descent on the (lay of Pentecost, where a rushing, mighty wind was an outward sign granted.
The “great cloud”, in verse 4, was a symbol of the presence of the God of Israel well known to the Jews. See Exodus 13;21, and 81:5, 1 Kings 8:1010And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord, (1 Kings 8:10), Daniel 7:1818But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever. (Daniel 7:18) and Matthew 17:55While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him. (Matthew 17:5), among many passages.
The four “living creatures” are evidently the cherubim of chapter 10, and in large measure correspond to the living creatures (called “beasts” in our English Bible) in the Revelation (chapter 4:6-8, etc.). First seen in Genesis 3:2424So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. (Genesis 3:24) when sin had entered the world, they are the symbol of God’s judicial power in putting down evil. The faces evidently betoken intelligence (man); strength (the lion); stability or patience (the ox), and swiftness (the eagle); these are the attributes, or qualities, we would reverently say, of God in judgment.
The wheels and rings (rims) refer, no doubt, to the earthly side of God’s judgments; Ezekiel sees the throne of God on earth. John, in the Revelation, sees it in heaven, and there “wings” as in Ezekiel’s vision but not “wheels”, are observed. The rims are full of “eyes” in Ezekiel’s vision; in Revelation 4:66And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. (Revelation 4:6) this characteristic is applied to the living creatures. Evidently they picture for us the fullest insight concerning everything; nothing is hid from God.
All the action proceeds according to the purpose of Him who sits upon the throne (verses 12, 14, 17, 20, etc.); that throne is above (verse 26); consuming holiness marks Him (verse 27) yet there is mercy too, as verse 28 makes plain (in the symbol of the rainbow, as to which see Genesis 9:12-1712And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: 13I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. 14And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: 15And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. 17And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth. (Genesis 9:12‑17) and Revelation 4:33And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. (Revelation 4:3)). Well might Ezekiel prostrate himself bore the eternal, omniscient, omnipotent God, who thus revealed Himself!
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