In keeping with the study of timing revelation, end times and prophecies, as explained in the “about TimingRevelation.com” web site, I continue here with Part 3 of the article series on the Ezekiel Vision of the Throne of God.
As explained before, this is an expounding of the vision of the throne of God that John encountered according to his writing in the book of Revelation. It follows the three-part article dealing with the judgments of the end times in the timing of the book of Revelation that I wrote back in December 2022.
In
this article today I expound further on the vision of Ezekiel Part 2 and continue to focus
on the magnificence and awesomeness of the throne of God going on in heaven.
This is a real revelation of the awesome view, understanding and reality of the majestic throne of God, which, as I said earlier refutes the misinterpretation of some skeptics that say the vision was about UFO's and Aliens. No, I don't think so...
(Please
note that scriptures throughout these articles are from the King
James Version. I have inserted, here and there, some words in
brackets to facilitate the understanding of some of the old English
language.)
So, who else is guiding the living creatures?
In Part 2 of this four-part article, we finished with the reading of,
Ezekiel chapter 1, vs. 12, 20 and 21:
12, “And they went every one straight forward: whither the spirit was to go, they went; and they turned not when they went.
20, “Whithersoever (wherever) the spirit was to go, they went, thither (there) was their spirit to go; and the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.
21, “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.
And ended with the question: “So, who else is guiding the living creatures?”
So, let's pick up here with the answer to that question:
It is the Spirit.
And we will see that in a moment, and also who is the One on the throne who gives all the command and who is God the Father.
The other person who seated on the throne
But let's continue for now looking at the other person who is seated on the throne which we saw was placed at the top of the firmament. Remember earlier we saw hat the “firmament” referred to in these scriptures are translated as the expanse that was above the living creatures.
Ezekiel chapter 1, v. 22:
22, “And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creature was as the colour of the terrible (awesome) crystal, stretched forth over their heads above.”
Now in the book of Revelation... where it speaks of God's throne... what is it that God's throne is sitting upon?
It is sitting upon a sea of glass or of crystal...
Revelation chapter 1, v. 1:
“And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.”
So we see the man's hand under the wings guides them, they go where the Spirit leads them, and now we will see that they do what the One on the throne tells them to do...
So back to Ezekiel 1...
verse 24, “And when they went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great waters, as the voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech, as the noise of an host: when they stood, they let down their wings.
v. 25, “And there was a voice from the firmament that was over their heads, when they stood, and had let down their wings.”
So a voice from the One seated on the throne is giving them commands...
Notice Ezekiel 10:5 --
v. 5, “And the sound of the cherubims' wings was heard even to the outer court, as the voice of the Almighty God when he speaketh.”
Now we see all three persons of the trinity:
--the One who sits on the throne giving the commands (God the Father),
--the One who's hands are under the wings of the living creatures and who is the man clothed in linen (Jesus Christ),
--the Spirit who moves them in any direction (the Holy Spirit)...
So the living creatures are the emissaries or envoys of the Trinity—they are fulfilling the will of the One who sits on the throne, God the Father.
The appearance of a man
Ezekiel 1:26 - 28
v. 26, “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 the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it.”
Now some people question the statement “the appearance of a man”, saying that the Bible says that no-one has seen the father. Well that's true but when God communicates to mankind in visions, those looking upon Him see a resemblance of a man – not an animal or a thing of some sort... but man as man understands it... God the Father communicates with man on his level of understanding... the word appearance here actually means “sight”--the sight of a man.
Even at times there has been what is called “theophanies” when God visited man on earth... (theophany means a visible manifestation of God to humankind); now Jesus Christ was not a theophany, he was truly born of a woman by the seed of the Holy spirit of God... and I can continue on this in another program... but most of you know what I'm talking about, there were theophanies in the Old Testament.
So the next verse, 27, Ezekiel continues to describe what he saw as the appearance of a man... as you can see it's not just an appearance of what we would see as a man...
v. 27, “And I saw as the colour of amber, 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.”
This is not just an ordinary appearance of an ordinary man.
Corroboration with the book of Daniel
All this corroborates with what we read in the book of Daniel, chapter 7:
v. 9, “I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire.
v. 10, “A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.”
So Daniel saw parts of the vision that oscillates between the end times events of the beasts and the anti-christ that we also read about in the book of Revelation, and the judgment of God upon the nations represented in-between these events as they take place in the future.
Verse 11, “I beheld (to gaze upon, to witness mentally) then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake: I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame. (In other words the beast spoke reproachfully at God and was cast into the fire). This we also read about in the book of Revelation.
v. 12, “As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time.
v. 13, “I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.
v. 14, “And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.”
Again, Daniel sees visions of the end times, which corroborates with the visions of Ezekiel.
And in the next verses an angel gives the interpretation to Daniel's troubled spirit about the vision.
Daniel and Ezekiel as contemporaries
Now, it is interesting to note here that Ezekiel and Daniel were approximate contemporaries, along with Jeremiah. Although Daniel does not refer to Ezekiel in his records, he does mention Jeremiah's writings about the 70 years of captivity to come upon them.
Jeremiah' ministry expanded from around 626 to 586 B.C.;
Ezekiel from about 593 to 570;
and Daniel around 605 to 538 B.C..
Let's pick up again at Ezekiel 1 and verse 28 about the vision:
v. 28, “As the appearance of the bow (the word in Hebrew is -qešeṯ - keh'-sheth = the arch) that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord...”
About the rainbow, it is said that this sign in the heavens represents God's justice and mercy – being that this sign followed the judgment of God upon the earth at the time of the flood which God now promised never to destroy the earth again by water or rain.
And the final portion of verse 28 of chapter 1:
“...And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake (spoke):”
And the next verse continues in chapter 2 verse 1,
“And he said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee...”
and it goes on to tell of the call of Ezekiel to fulfill God's mission to take the message to the people of God, Israel... and to us today.
Let's move forward to Ezekiel 11, verses 24-25:
v. 24, “Afterwards the spirit took me up, and brought me in a vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea, to them of the captivity. So the vision that I had seen went up from me.
v. 25, “Then I spake unto them of the captivity all the things that the Lord had shewed me.”
And in this passage of scripture we read about the mission God gave to Ezekiel to rebuke the people of God who had rebelled against the holy things and commands of God Almighty. You can read this in the ensuing scriptures and chapters.
Let's move forward to Ezekiel 11, verses 24-25:
v. 24, “Afterwards the spirit took me up, and brought me in a vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea, to them of the captivity. So the vision that I had seen went up from me.
v. 25, “Then I spake unto them of the captivity all the things that the Lord had shewed me.”
And in this passage of scripture we read about the mission God gave to Ezekiel to rebuke the people of God who had rebelled against the holy things and commands of God Almighty. You can read this in the ensuing scriptures and chapters.
The chain of command from the Throne
So what we saw in the early chapters of the book of Ezekiel, is the chain of command that takes place in heaven... for instance it started with the 4 living creatures, to the firmament, to God's throne, One seated on the throne, and the arch (or the rainbow) of God above the throne... which represents the justice and mercy of God as we have seen just a moment ago.
Now, let's look at Revelation 1, verses 1, 4, 5, and 10:
Here we clearly see the process of divine command taking place:
v.1, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ (1), which God gave unto him (2), to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel (3) unto his servant John (4):
v.4, “John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from Him (1) which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits (2) which are before his throne;
v.5, “And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness (3), and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
(and the next verse, v. 6, says: “And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Several times in the message to the 7 churches, it says “He who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” -- this is good advice and an encouragement for us to indeed listen and hear the Word of God.
Here's the point we get from all these passages of scripture that we've looked at:
We have God the Father in these passage of scriptures,
who gives the message (or the command) to Jesus Christ the Son,
who gives the command to the Spirit,
who gives it to the angels,
who gives the message to John,
and John to the churches.
From God's throne to the people
So we have the same thing taking place in Ezekiel's vision... we have God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, the angels – all involved in giving the message to Ezekiel who then takes it to the people.
That shows us that there is an awesome chain of command taking place in the heavens... the Father works through the Son, the Son works through the Spirit, the Spirit works through the angels, the angels through the prophets and the prophets work through the people.
Now there's another piece of revelation about the awesomeness of God... and that is, everything that goes on in the earth is actually an outcome or consequence of decisions that take place in heaven?
We'll look at an example of that in Part 4 of this article.
\DMH
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