Year 9, Day 127: Ezekiel 1

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Ezekiel is always a tough read.  It is easy to get lost in his words.  It is easy to misplace meaning in his visions.  Ezekiel is not a book that I would recommend reading without a commentary or some sort of explanatory book beside you.  Even expert theologians have difficulty with Ezekiel.

In that light, this blog is going to try and keep things as simple as possible.  I will try to find the obvious meaning in the texts, leaving the more subtle nuances to those best suited to write about them.  I am on a search for truth, not nuance.

The first thing that we can see as we look at this chapter is that Ezekiel struggles to record what he sees.  This is what makes the book so hard to read.  Ezekiel has trouble taking a vision of something so clearly divine and using human words to relay his vision.  He puts words to paper, but they aren’t exact and specific.  Ezekiel uses many metaphors and similes to try and bridge the gap between the vision he sees and the words he knows.

There is a cool lesson in this.  It’s hard to describe God to people.  It’s likewise hard to describe faith, hope, love, and other eternal concepts to people as well.  God-stuff takes effort, and it is an imperfect effort on the best day.  One day we will dwell in the presence of God and I hope in that day it will be easier.  As long as we are here, however, we’re stuck with the same struggle as Ezekiel.

Turning to the cherubim, the angels in the presence of God, I am always fascinated by how Ezekiel describes them as using some of their wings as clothing.  I think this is a message to us about humbleness.  Even those who are granted eternal permission to be in the presence of God – the cherubim themselves – cover themselves in His presence.  They are covered because they are flawed.  They certainly are covered because of some human sexual temptation.  They are covered because the right thing to do in the presence of a holy God is to be humble and assume the position of the lesser being.  I love the message of humbleness that Ezekiel always puts forth in his descriptions of God’s holy angels.

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