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NE of the most perplexing
paradoxes in the Bible is that our invisible God is ever and always in the
business of revealing Himself to us. How do you see the One who is invisible?
Hebrews 11:27 indicates that it is possible, through faith. Well, if this is
true, then Ezekiel must have been a man of tremendous faith, because like
Isaiah (Isaiah 6:1), he saw God... well, he "saw
visions of God" (Ezekiel 1:1). Not that Ezekiel's visions give us much
of a grasp about what God "looks" like. As you read Ezekiel 1, you
will find spectacular descriptions of what Ezekiel really experienced when he
met God. The question is, how does this scene fit with John 1:18? What Ezekiel
saw was the pre-incarnate Christ (Ezekiel 1:26); a Theophany; a Christophany.
So, what did the glory of the Son
of God look like to Ezekiel? Ezekiel was a captive living near Babylon. He had
been a priest; he had become an agricultural slave. He describes something for
us that he had never seen before; something that, in his attempt to express it
sufficiently, surely his vocabulary and experience were inadequate tools to
use. He saw a whirlwind, a cloud, billowing flames, a bright light and a golden
brownish yellow glow (Ezekiel 1:4)... but what am I saying? He saw what he
called "living creatures" who
were humanlike. Their multiple faces, wings, unusual feet, shiny skin, unique
locomotion and lightning speed make these angelic beings beyond my
comprehension. But it gets more complicated and mystifying. Ezekiel's
"wheels" are a mystery that far outpace the capacity of my limited
imagination. Their size and their eyes... what that means to me is only that
the glory of our God is incomprehensible. Ezekiel admitted that the sight was "dreadful" (Ezekiel
1:18). There was clearly an incomparable
unity, an unfathomable complexity and an obvious spirituality in the vision.
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