Ezekiel’s Prophetic Vision
How do you feel about turning 30? If you already have, how was it for you?
Turning 30 seems to be a one of life’s key milestones. It’s that moment when it suddenly dawns on us, #Adulting, it’s time to live the grown-up life.
I asked social media friends to complete my sentence: “You know you’re no longer thirty when...” Here’s how some of them replied:
•	You know you’re thirty when.. you try to get the cashier to age-verify you.
•	You know you’re thirty when.. someone roars past you on the motorway and you smugly grin because you know you're getting more miles per gallon.
•	You know you’re thirty when.. you’ve looked up what a gallon is.
•	You know you’re thirty when.. you get excited you negotiated a cheaper utility bill
•	You know you’re thirty when.. uou stop dressing for the catwalk, and start dressing like you walk cats
•	You know you’re thirty when.. you look in the mirror and see your Mum or Dad.
So much for #Adulting.
Ezekiel had hit 30 too. Ezekiel had been on-track to become a priest.  His Dad was a priest, his Dad’s Dad was a priest. Even his Dad’s Dad’s Dad was a priest. There was no doubt, Ezekiel was going to become a priest.
Maybe you’ve felt the weight of that expectation too? The expectation that you’ll follow in your father’s footsteps and go into the family business. Or, like everyone before you, have an active Christian faith.
But things hadn’t gone to plan for Ezekiel. In his mid-twenties, whilst he was still apprenticing, the dreaded Babylonian Empire, led by King Nebuchadnezzar, had invaded. Over ten thousand people were taken captive, trafficked back to Babylon. One of them was Ezekiel.
Five years into captivity, and it was Ezekiel’s thirtieth birthday. This should have been the day, according to Numbers 4, when – if it hadn’t been for the Babylonian invasion – he’d have had his first day as a priest in the Temple at Jerusalem. 
Instead, all that he had expected, had been taken captive. What was that all about? All the hopes, dreams, expectations he’d had in his youth and then in his twenties, didn’t seem to be happening. #Adulting didn’t seem that great.
But Ezekiel was about to discover that God had a better plan for his life than ever his family or even Ezekiel had planned. Ezekiel would make a difference, not as a priest, but as a prophet. There were thousands of priests – so many, there’s no list of them – but today we’re reading the Book of Ezekiel, the Prophet. He got his own book in the Bible!
So, down by the river, with all these thoughts of regret, disappointment Ezekiel had a vision. Verse1 says: “the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.” It was as if the sky was torn in two, revealing a whole different reality. Like, when you’re at the theatre, waiting for the performance to start. And then the curtains are pulled back, and now you see the magical reality that was always there but had been hidden from your eyes.
For Ezekiel, “the heavens were opened and he saw visions of God.” This would have messed with his head – big time.
First, back then, BC – Before Christ, people thought God too holy to be contaminated by sinful world.
Second, wasn’t God meant to be in Jerusalem, in the Temple, in a box? The wooden box that was the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies. Wherever that box was, that was where God was. That’s why being held a captive in Babylon 500 miles from Jerusalem and the Temple was so awful. It wasn’t just the loss of freedom, it was the loss of God, hope, identity... God definitely wasn’t meant to be in Babylon. Ezekiel had God in a box. Literally, a God Box.  Maybe that’s been your approach too? You “did” God back in the day. But not now. 
In any case, why would God be here with you in your Babylon? Ezekiel was stunned. God was here in Babylon, not just there in Jerusalem. God is always here. God had been with Ezekiel in Babylon all along. The existence of God is not dependent on your belief. God is not an idea or even a religious belief. He is the Ultimate Reality.
Ezekiel saw a storm coming; full-on thunder and lightning, hurricane-like winds,. And it was coming from the north because that was where both judgment and God were often associated.
At the centre of the storm, Ezekiel saw 4 living creatures – a strange mix of human, animal, and bird. This is the stuff of Lord of the Rings.
•	Like men, they stood together in a square, each looking outwards.
•	Like birds, they each had wings – not two, but four of them.
•	But like animals, they each had the legs and feet of a young bull. Some have legs with such toned calf muscles and sun-bronzed skin. These had the legs of a calf, a young bull, and hooves – painted bronze.  
You’ve got a face. You know some people that are two-faced. These guys had FOUR faces. The four faces:
1.	Man – humility, vulnerability, wisdom
2.	Lion – authority, assertiveness, courage
3.	Ox – toil, persistence
4.	Eagle – vision, release
All ‘best in category’. The Eagle was the king of the birds; the Ox the king of the domesticated animals; the Lion, king of the wild animals; humans, the pinnacle of God’s creation. Whichever creature faced you, because they were all standing in a square looking outward, you would always see the face of a man, lion, ox and an eagle. 
Later in Chapter 10, Ezekiel says they were cherubim - Angels. When we think of angels, we often think of dainty, feathery, sweet things in tutus – like fairies. But Old Testament angels were fearsome, hardcore, tough nuts.  Think more SAS – Special Angel Service.
At the centre of the four creatures was intense fire - burning coals.
And, to move, as well bronze calf hooves, they each had a wheel. This was the ultimate Super Car Super Fam modified or custom car. Each wheel had another wheel within it - wheel with in a wheel. More like a ball, so it could go in any direction, not just forwards and back. And it had pimped rims and a sparkling, diamond-studded paint job. This was the ultimate “go anywhere” vehicle:
•	With wings, it could fly.
•	With hooves, it could climb.
•	With wheels-within-wheels, it could go in any direction.
There’s NO WHERE God cannot go. Nowhere that He cannot reach. ‘But you don’t know how rough my work place is.’ Go-anywhere God comes to you. ‘But you don’t know the banter in my gym.’ Go-anywhere God comes to you too. Four living creatures, four faces, four wings.. God is all over the four corners of the world.
Verse 12 (and repeated in verse 20) says, “Wherever the spirit would go, they would go.” This was an early hint that God is Spirit. God the Holy Spirit. People were used to religious statues, artefacts, pictures… Static. But Ezekiel was now seeing God as dynamic; constantly moving, interacting, adapting, evolving. Is that your experience of God too?
Above the four creatures, held up by their wings, was a crystal platform. And above this was a throne. And on the throne was a figure like that of a man, who looked like fire, and yet also looked like a rainbow.
Are you picturing all this? Have you ever woken from a dream and struggled to put it into words? Ezekiel was trying to describe what he was experiencing. He talked of what looked like four living creatures, what looked like a throne, what sounded like a river in full flood. No description, no image could ever truly capture the qualities of God. God who is without beginning or end, cannot be boxed.
Verse 28 says, this was “the appearance of the likeness of the GLORY of the LORD.” Glory in Hebrew is Kavod. It often means heavy or significant. The GLORY of God is the overwhelming presence of God - right here, right now.  We sometimes talk of there being a heavy atmosphere, the air is thick. It’s as if the oxygen is fuelled with something else - and it feels tangible, spine-tingling.  We experience God in the present. 
We might remember God in the past and contemplate God in the future, but it’s in the present – there here and now – that we experience God. Imagine coming face-to-face with God.

No wonder it says, “When I saw “IT”, I fell face down.” Ezekiel was realising:
•	God is all-terrain, go anywhere.
•	Nowhere is out of His reach
•	God is present right here, right now
•	Turning 30 can be the start of a new direction/ purpose in life
“the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.”

DannyBrierley@ChesterRoadBaptist.org.uk