This week in Come Follow Me we are reading a few chapters in the book of Ezekiel. Most of the podcasters I listened to kind of skimmed over Ezekiel's first vision in Chapters 1-2. I did get helpful tidbits from different podcasts, the most helpful being Come Follow Me Insights with guest Gaye Strathearn. Here is what I gathered that was interesting to me.
The Main Message
Ezekiel's first vision is very bizarre. He sees four mythical beasts carrying the thrown of God. One key point that is easy to miss, is that the vision takes place in Babylon, where Ezekiel has been in captivity for 4 years already. About the time of the vision, Ezekiel learns that the Jerusalem temple has fallen. Ezekiel was a priest, so the fall of the Temple would have filled him with despair; after all, how can a Jew worship God without the temple? The reader also has to remember that the people of this period, including the Jews, believed that Gods had set territories. The Lord was, in their minds, the God of Israel the "place" as much as Israel the "people." That is why, in Exodus, the obvious presence of the Lord followed them in their wanderings in the wilderness, to signify that their God was leaving Egypt and claiming a new physical location. The vision of the four mythical beasts represents a empowered version of the ark of the covenant, i.e. the thrown of God. The vision signified that the God of Israel was following his people from Jerusalem and would continue to watch over them in Babylon.
What about the 4 Beasts?
The beasts represented the power of God. Each had 4 different heads: a human head, an eagle, a bull, and a lion. Ms Strathearn suggested these represent the different ways that people can have power.
The human head represents intelligence since humans are the most intelligent of creatures.
An Eagle represents the power to move, not only side to side, but up and down, and dominance over both land and water.
The bull was the most powerful of all domesticated animals so it was often used as a sign of physical power.(Deu 33:17; Ps 22:12)
The Lion was, and still is, a symbol of political dominance. It was also a symbol of the tribe of Judah, as the name Judah or "Yehuda" means Lion.
If you put all the symbols together you get the message, "Judah is powerful, no matter where they are, and has the right to rule.
The Other Elements
Whole books have been written about the others symbols in the vision, but here are a few that stood out to me.
The animal's feet were like calf's feet, suggesting that the animals were kosher, or clean, even though lions and eagles weren't normally considered clean animals. Their wings holding up the thrown of God suggest the wings of the cherubim that reach over the ark of the covenant.
The wheels are interesting. Each beast had a wheel associated that seemed to be connected to the action or movement of the beast. In vs 18 when it talks about the "rings," the actual word in Hebrew means "back". Think of a wagon wheel that has a metal ring going around the circumference of the wheel. When the Israelites came to their new home they were at a disadvantage because they were still in the bronze age, but some of their neighbors had discovered iron. The Philistines had chariots with iron rims around the wheels that made them much more durable in a battle. The wheels in the vision, though, are not ringed in iron, but are spotted with eyes. One can only presume that represented the idea that God is all seeing, but still, it is a very odd image.
What about the image of a man on the firmament the beasts are holding? The first time we see the word "firmament" is in Genesis 1. In ancient cosmology there were the waters of the earth, e.g. the oceans, lakes, and rivers, and the waters of the sky i.e. the source of rain and clouds. Between those two water sources was a solid barrier called the firmament. The firmament would periodically open and allow the waters above the earth to fall down to the earth. The "firmament" in the vision that is blue seems to represent the sky, and the man who has the appearance of fire represents God. The fact that this man had a rainbow around him reminds the reader of God's covenant with Noah that he would not destroy the people with a flood, or presumably, at all. In other words, a covenant that they would survive captivity.
This post has gotten long so I will stop there. My main point is, although this vision is really out there and weird, it is full of images that would have had symbolic significance to the people of that culture and time period.
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