Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 1:28
As the appearance of the bow 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. And when I saw [it], I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spoke.
28. The prophet speaks with great reverence. What he saw was the “appearance” of a throne and of one sitting on it and of a rainbow; he does not venture to say that he saw these things themselves. The rainbow is an element borrowed from the theophany in the storm cloud. It expresses the glory surrounding the throne of God. The traditional idea that the rainbow is the token of covenant grace has little to support it. The rainbow in the cloud was a memorial of God’s covenant with nature that he would not again destroy the world with a flood, it had no relation to any covenant of redemption.
the glory of the Lord ] probably refers to the particular glory of the appearance sitting on the throne and the rainbow colours around him, not to the whole manifestation embracing the cherubim and wheels. The “glory of the Lord” is described as leaving the cherubim and standing elsewhere, e.g. ch. Eze 9:3, Eze 10:4. At the sight of this glory the prophet fell upon his face.
That which ch. 1 presents is a theophany, a manifestation of God to the prophet. It is not a vision of the cherubim nor of anything else, but of God. The cherubim, wheels, firmament and throne are all subordinate, they have no meaning in themselves, they merely help to suggest what God is who thus manifests himself.
The vision is a composite one, made up of a number of elements drawn from several sources. There is first the idea that God moves and descends to the earth upon the cherubim (Psa 18:10; Psa 104:3); he is borne upon them. It is possible that the storm-cloud on which Jehovah rode and in which his presence was enshrouded became personified into a being, which bore him on its wings. Cf. Isa 19:1. But if this was the origin of the idea of the cherub, the conception of the cherubim as “living creatures” had become established long before the time of this prophet, as appears from Gen 3:24. The cherubim being thus the means of Jehovah’s manifesting himself, that on which he was borne and moved, wherever they were seen Jehovah was known to be present. They were the means and the tokens of his manifestation. Hence two great cherubims were placed by Solomon in the Debr, or innermost shrine of the temple. On these Jehovah was enthroned: he dwelt or sat upon the cherubim (Psa 99:1; Psa 80:1).
Again in Isaiah’s vision of “the King, the Lord of hosts” (ch. 6) there is naturally a palace and a throne. The palace, though the heavenly one, is the counterpart of the earthly one or temple, and has a hearth or altar fire. Both the fire and the throne reappear in Ezekiel’s vision in an amplified form. The fire is no more a mere hearth from which a hot coal might be taken, it shoots forth flames and thunderbolts. This is a combination of the phenomena of the theophany in the thunderstorm with the representation of Isaiah. Similarly Isaiah’s idea of Jehovah’s throne being in the heavenly temple has been amplified by Ezekiel with various details. There was seen by him the appearance of a firmament like crystal, and above the firmament the appearance of a throne like a sapphire stone. Jehovah in his manifestation carries heaven, the place of his abode with him. Further his throne is surrounded by the glories of the rainbow, another element borrowed from the theophany in nature. In this way there is in the vision a combination of the theophany in nature with Jehovah’s self-manifestation to men among his people in redemption.
And finally according to his manner the prophet has descended to elaborate details in describing the various elements of the manifestation, the cherubim, the wheels and the like. In all the prophet’s symbols throughout his Book the idea is first and the symbol but the expression of it. In the present case, however, the whole phenomenon is a vision of God, and the ideas which the symbols express are ideas in regard to God. This is evident so far as the wheels, the firmament, the throne and the like are concerned. But the same is true of the cherubim. These are hardly yet independent beings, with a significance belonging to themselves. They are still half in the region of symbol, and what meaning they have has to be transferred to God, whose movements they mediate, just as much as that of the wheels or the flashing fire. At a later time the “wheels” were represented as beings and in the Book of Enoch are a class of angels.
It may be assumed that in the prophet’s mind each detail of the symbolism expressed some idea, though it may not be possible now to interpret the details with certainty. The firmament and throne represent Jehovah as God of heaven, God alone over all, the omnipotent. The fourfold character of the living creatures, their wings, and the wheels which moved in all directions, and presented the same face to every quarter, suggest the power of Jehovah to be everywhere present. The wheels, called whirl or whirling thing (ch. Eze 10:13), may have been suggested by the sweeping whirlwind and tempest in which Jehovah moves. The conception of velocity which they express does not differ greatly from that of ubiquity expressed by their number. The eyes of which they and the living creature were full are symbols of life and intelligence. That the faces of each creature are four is but part of the larger general conception that the creatures are four in number. The four faces, that of a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle or vulture are the highest types of animal life. It is possible that to the prophet’s mind these types represented four different attributes. Probably the cherubim in the temple had the human face, though this is not expressly stated. The prophet represents those carved on the walls of the new temple as having two faces, those of a man and a young lion (ch. Eze 41:18). Jehovah is frequently compared to a lion. He is also called by a name which may be an epithet of the ox. The symbol of the ox was a familiar one, 1Ki 7:25; 1Ki 7:29; 1Ki 7:36; 1Ki 10:19. Ezekiel may have been familiar with the mixed animal forms seen in the Assyrian temples, though it is scarcely necessary to suppose him influenced by these. The multiplication of details in his symbols is so characteristic of him that he may be credited with the creation of the four faces himself, just as of the four hands and four wings of the cherub. Cf. Isa 6:2. The derivation and meaning of the word cherub is uncertain. It has been supposed that the word has been found in Assyrian, but this also is not quite certain. See Schrader KAT on Gen 3:24. Cf. the art. in Encyc. Brit. (Cheyne); Riehm in his Bible Dictionary, and Stud. u. Krit., 1871, also his paper, “De Natura &c. Cheruborum,” 1864. And, Die Lehre des A. Test. ber die Cherubim, von J. Nikel, Bres. 1890.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The rainbow is not simply a token of glory and splendor. The cloud and the day of rain point to its original message of forgiveness and mercy, and this is especially suited to Ezekiels commission, which was first to denounce judgment, and then promise restoration.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Eze 1:28
I fell upon my face.
Mans incapacity for seeing God
If we knew and could feel as much concerning God and Christ and heaven as we sometimes desire, probably it would make us insane. We have seen horticulturists pull down the awnings in their greenhouses. Plants may sometimes have too much sun: and so may we. (N. Adams.)
Humbled by a sight of glory
1. See what mischief sin hath done unto us: it hath disabled us from partaking of our greatest good. The sight of glory is the happiness of the creature.
2. The sight of glory is an humbling thing. The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it (Isa 40:5); and then follows, All flesh is grass. Glory will convince us that we are but grass. It is not hearing will do it–at least, not so effectually; seeing, and seeing of glory, doth humble mightily. Seeing of misery causeth grief, Mine eye affecteth mine heart; but seeing of glory causeth godly sorrow (Job 42:5-6; Isa 6:5). Those that are thoroughly humbled with the sense of their own vileness and weakness are fittest to hear Divine truths and to receive Divine mysteries. Ezekiel falls on his face, and then hears a voice; so was it with Daniel. Flesh and blood is apt to be lifted up, to trust in something of its own; men look at, and like their own parts, their graces; some confidence or other we are apt to catch hold of; but we must let all go, be low in our own eyes, if we will be fit auditors of Christ; we must fall down at the feet of His throne, if we will hear Him speak from His throne. He giveth grace to the humble, they find the choicest favours at His hands (Jam 4:6). (W. Greenhill, M. A.)
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Eze 2:1-2
Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee.
The full stature of a man
Men often speak, and more frequently act, as if the religion of Christ paralysed manhood and cut the sinews of life. This is the reason, I believe, why so many give a reluctant ear to the religion of Christ. Now I concede the premise that determines this attitude to Christ; the premise that a man is entitled to the rounded fulfilment and the highest reach of the nature which God has given him. Our nature is a parchment on which God has written His will concerning us. The difficulty is that the original writing of God is so blotted and interlined with the writing of the devil that men misread their nature, and take it at the devils interpretation instead of Gods interpretation. In the measurement of ourself, any value below the highest is a mistake. It defeats Gods intention regarding us. It flings us at once on an inferior plane of life. It produces a manhood mutilated at the top, impoverished in its deepest centres of power and joy. Now let us glance at the religion of Christ. It is to feed these centres of power and joy in our nature, to enlarge them, to quicken them to their keenest energy, that that religion comes to us with its claim and appeal. So far from paralysing manhood and cutting the sinews of life, it is something which God has put on this earth to nourish the essential traits of manhood and thrust life upward to its highest levels of force and happiness. Christ Himself is the only true measure of His religion. We must take it in its original features and accents, with the large, grand truths which He revealed as its lines of structure, and the institutions which He founded to shelter those truths and bring them into living touch with men. What did He tell us of His religion? Nay, what did He tell us of Himself?–for Christ is Christianity. He said: The Son of Man is not come to destroy mens lives, but to save them. I have come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the Light of the world. He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. These are crucial words. They sweep the whole horizon of Christs truth and work. The purpose of His religion is not to impoverish and mutilate life, but to show us the values of life as they stand in the light of God; and, in the downward pull of our nature and the sharp stress of the world, to help us to realise the highest values. Thus it comes to us. Thus it addresses us. It says, as God said to the prophet: Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee. You must meet it, as a man meets a friend, standing on your feet, looking into his eyes, grasping his hand. And more than this; as its spirit enters into you, it will set you upon your feet. It comes to uplift your nature, enrich your life, to give it reach and vision, to keep you on your feet in your fight with sin. But it makes demands, you say. Yes, but all its demands are needful for the training of our manhood to its highest fruition; and it helps us to meet its demands. For instance, it demands faith. But do you expect to go through life without faith? Then you will miss the best and richest things of life. It is like a man drawing the curtains of his windows when the sunshine is making holiday on the earth. Again, it demands worship. But surely no thoughtful man would give much for a life that had not the element of worship in it. It is when faith in unseen things is faint, and worship dies out of life, that men ask, Is life worth living? An empty heaven overarches an empty heart. Lastly, it demands the curbing of the lower forces of our nature. This, after all, is the demand that excites the most angry and determined revolt. But life itself, outside of Christ, if it be carried to any high issue, makes the same demand. Even to be the shadow of a man, even to be respectable and keep our place in the world, we must chain the brute within us. It is a difficult task, and men who essay it without the aid of God ofttimes find that the wild beast has escaped his cage, and is devouring the beauty and dignify of their life. Christ, it is true, goes beyond the demands of the world. He asks us to sacrifice, if the need come, natural appetite and innocent joy in the behoof of our soul. Life itself finds its meaning only by the soul working out with pain and battle its supremacy. To accomplish this, the world has its methods; but Christs method, after all, is the easiest method, the only effective method. Starve the evil in your nature by feeding the good that is in it. Conquer the strong man that has taken possession of your house by bringing in a stronger than he. The Church of Christ, with its revealed truth, its sacraments and its worships, is the Divine porch which God has built in the world, through which we may come to Him, and draw into our life, for help in our struggle and the healing of our wounds, the forces of His Divine life. (W. W. Battershall, D. D.)
Self-possession
The man who is great by gift, office, or opportunity, and at the same time of unfeigned goodness, will shrink back from the idea of incapacitating by oblique terrorism those who come within the field of his influence. He will wish them to employ their powers for the common weal to the best possible advantage, and will therefore seek to put them at their case, to encourage them to intellectual self-command, to build them up and not to cast them down. Gods dealings with His servants of all ages correspond to our conception of His gentle and gracious character. The vision of His presence and power is not meant to permanently depress, overawe, and incapacitate. His glory is overwhelming, but it is not His will to annihilate reason and all that constitutes personality by the manifestations of His majesty.
I. Self-possession is necessary for the highest forms of intercourse with God. A man cannot be a recipient of the Divine revelations till he has made some little progress in the art of collecting and commanding his own faculties. Now and again God makes Himself known in vivid and stupendous ways which smite mortals with fear and trembling. For the time being, He strips them of their manliness. The characteristic attributes of the human personality are numbed, stifled, half-destroyed, and the man who is the subject of these manifestations might well think himself in the throes of a process intended to dissolve the elements which make up the unity of his being, and merge him irrecoverably into the terrible Infinite. Now this paralysing sense of the supernatural, which appears to threaten the obliteration of the individual, is only temporary. God does not wish to subtract anything from the personality, or to make us less than that which He created us to be. But, after all, the only thing God wants to drive out of the personality is the taint of selfishness, affinity for wrong, soft complaisance towards transgression. Indeed, it is the sin latent in us which produces collapse before His presence, and when that is gone serene self-possession is recovered. He does not wish to blight, or repress and destroy a single element in the constituent sum of a mans identity.
1. This lack of quiet self-possession is sometimes the reason why stricken, conquered, storm-tossed souls cannot enter into the quiet of saving faith. A temptation to keep back the obedient response to Gods solicitation of human confidence may come in two opposite ways. Many a man persuades himself that his heart is not so profoundly stirred that he can exercise the faith that will save him. The psychological atmosphere, he is tempted to think, is far too normal and commonplace. And, on the other hand, those most profoundly wrought upon by a sense of their guilt, and the vision of the Divine holiness, exercised to the point of distraction by some force which has seized upon their emotions, find it difficult to collect their minds into an intelligent and purposeful act of faith. Their natures are almost stupefied by the mighty supernatural arrest that has come to them. The power of thought and emotion is for the moment frozen up or has almost passed away. They cannot collect themselves for the transaction which is required at their hands. Saul, the blinded persecutor, must have been in some such condition, as he lay prone at the gate of Damascus, for he could not there and then put forth the faith by which he was healed, built up, sanctified. The nature prostrate and helpless through a cataclysm of overwhelming conviction must be brought out of its paralysing amazement. Faith is an act which demands collectedness of mind, a rational and reflective attitude, modest self-possession. True it is that faith is Gods gift, but the hand that receives is not the hand clutched with terror or folded in sleep, but the hand which is heedfully and unfalteringly held out.
2. Whilst reverence in Gods presence is a duty from which there can be no release, that sacred emotion of the soul is not meant to dumfound and transfix us, however mighty the revelations to which it is a tribute. Indeed, the reverence that is allied to helplessness and maimed perception is manifestly a sentiment of inferior quality. The man who wishes to dazzle the supporters he is rallying to his side brings some kind of reproach upon himself. He who seeks to lull his admirers into dreaminess or to fascinate them into stupor, and so disarm their judgments, confesses thereby the meagreness of his own power to captivate by reason and by love. If, as God comes forth to conquer us, His revelations put the larger part of our mental life to sleep or obscure a single faculty or perception, that would be practically a confession of weakness on His part. It would imply He had not adequate moral and spiritual reserve forces wherewith to subdue our souls into adoration of His attributes and homage to His great behests. When God sees fit to disclose His majesty and abase our pride, He does not intend to permanently weaken, discourage, paralyse. That would be to surround Himself with worshippers of meaner capacity and servants of inferior fitness for His tasks. He desires to call forth, train, and perfect the undivided powers of those whom He seals and sends.
3. The largest and the loftiest service of God is that which is rational in the best sense of the word. Those disclosures of His being, character, and operation which God will make both in this life and in that which is to come, are intended to stimulate and not to depress that group of faculties of which the brain is the symbol. He has created us all that which we find ourselves, so that we may be better able to comprehend Him than beings less richly endowed, and we cannot think that this special capacity will be overborne and destroyed as soon as the goal comes into view. Every mental power must be healthy, well-mastered, on the alert, so that we lose nothing from His many-sided revelations. We cannot apprehend God and assimilate His truth and life in states of feeling which are not far removed from trance conditions. The highest intercourse with God attainable by a human soul is that in which the soul is perfectly at ease, competent to command its own powers and apply its own discernments.
4. Men may pass into mental states in which we describe them as possessed–possessed either by the Spirit of God for good, or by an unclean spirit for evil. But possession represents only a half-way stage towards a final goat of holiness or sin. In possession, both for evil and good, the personality becomes more or less veiled, overborne, suppressed. Manifestations of the Divine glory that confound and disable through their momentary intenseness, unfit for the truest and most comprehensive communion with God. In our own, as well as in earlier times, Christianity has fallen under the spell of Oriental philosophies which assume that the basis of human personality is evil, and its duration therefore fleeting; and that reabsorption into the infinite and universal life is the goal of all aspiration and progress. The unexpressed idea seems to be that the infinite cannot tolerate the finite, that it is always thirsting to draw every attribute of manhood out of us, and that it will leave at last the mere husk and shell of an effete personality behind, bleaching into final invisibility, or perhaps not even so much as that. Such a view credits God with predatory instincts rather than pays Him the glory due to His absolute and eternal love. God wishes to take out of our personalities nothing but what is hateful–selfishness, folly, moral blemish and defect. In Christs high-priestly prayer we find the charter which pledges the permanence of all those elements which constitute personality. His own relation to the Father, which presupposed the essentials of personality, was to be the standard looked to in the perfecting of the disciples. As Thou, Father, art in Me and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us. The branch which is grafted into the stock of a tree still produces its own specific flowers, in spite of its union with the tree, and produces them more nobly because of the reinforcement of life it receives from the tree. Our Lords union with the Father accentuated rather than obscured the properties of His personality. The Father was ever dwelling in the Son, but the personality of the Father was not lost in the mystery of intercommunion; and the Son was ever dwelling in the Father, but He remained a perfectly conscious and clearly defined Son, and His personality was neither volatilised nor swallowed up by the mystic relation. The union which entirely abstracts and absorbs makes communion a fixed impossibility. And His own age-long fellowship with the Father, Jesus Christ presents as the type and consummation of all human excellence and blessedness. Ages await, us in which the revelations of God will transcend the grandest disclosures of the past; but even then these, revelations will be attempered to our capacity to receive and assimilate, Mans intellectual grasp, far from being overtaxed and palsied by the strange secrets of the future, will only be stimulated and enlarged. We are not children of the mist, freaks of cloudscape, broken shadows, iridescent vat, ours, whose destiny it is to confront the sunlight and be irretrievably dissolved. In the maturity of an all-round, unshrinking, indefectible personality, we shall be summoned into the presence of His glory to receive, without error or distraction, the nobler teaching of the hereafter. He will ask us then to be self-possessed, and He is teaching us the alphabet of that duty now. Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee.
II. A serene and undisturbed temper is necessary not only for the man who is an elect recipient of Divine revelations, but for the man also who is to be a messenger of these revelations to others. Courage before men is a characteristic of the genuine prophet; a timid, blushing, disconcerted herald from Gods throne is an incongruous compound. The first apostles did much to prove their place in the holy succession by the firmness with which they spake under circumstances which would have abashed men with a less convincing religious history behind them. In the chapters to which the vision of Ezekiel is a prelude, the prophetic office is illustrated by the duty laid upon the sentinel or watchman. For such work the power of calm, unerring discernment is indispensable. He must be master of himself, able to see with his own eyes, to trust the correctness of his own judgments, to hold his own in the world. Unless a man has self-command, or can at least acquire it by discipline, he is unfit to be Gods watchman. The nervous prophet, the self-deprecating herald, the apostle who allows himself to be overborne by the clamour of the world, stultifies his own mission and does not a little to discredit his message.
1. Self-possession is often a secret of success in common things. In not a few pursuits the cool head and uniform self-command are essential to life itself. A man must have confidence in the art he has assumed, and in his own aptitude for applying the principles of his art, and above all in the truths to the promulgation of which his art is contributory. He who has a modest faith in his own resources, be they natural or spiritual, will inspire some degree of that same faith into others. The man who cannot command his own faculties at the moment, never inspires confidence, however vast the stores of knowledge and power with which popular rumour may credit him. It is the working capital in actual view which assures the onlookers rather than the unrealisable assets. We cannot persuade others till we are so absorbed by the subject matter of that persuasion that all the powers of the mind rise up to emphasise it. The duty of self-command implies very much more than subjecting our bad passions to the control of the will; and if we do not learn self-command in the widest possible sense of the term, we inevitably weaken our effectiveness for good. By fluttered moods and weak, indeterminate accents, the wisest man is just as much disqualified from swaying others as the ignorant or the imbecile. Nervous embarrassment, inability to bring our best gifts into use at the call of a providential opportunity, palpitations, strikings of spirit, hesitancies, seem to turn our message into farce and dumb show. One faculty which we can quietly use at will for practical ends is better than a brilliant host of faculties which are not under perfect control.
2. Self-possession is a sign of the quietness of faith. When attained by spiritual processes it becomes a Voucher for that trust in God which, once learned in His immediate presence, extends to the daily fulfilment of the tasks He has fixed. Without this tranquillity which grows from faith we can have no power. There can be no confusion or embarrassment where this fixed persuasion exists. The man who is bold at Gods command is bold because authority is behind him, and authority means the mighty grace which will not suffer its obedient instruments to be confounded or brought to shame. A true faith should enable us to wield our finest powers for God and His service. Respect for the opinions of others should never lead us to cancel ourselves and the contents of our own consciences. The strength and boldness we need in speaking for God must, in many cases, be built up from their very foundations on religious principles and experiences. The man whom nature does not help, and who through superhuman influence alone grows bold and at ease, will far surpass the other in effectual service for God. It may sometimes happen that in the physical life there is a barrier to their self-possession which is a prime condition of usefulness, and in one case out of a hundred the barrier may be insurmountable. Excellent and high-principled men and women assume too readily that they are the victims of nervous disorder, weak circulation, faintness. Let Gods imperative Stand upon thy feet help us. It is a Divine voice which calls us to mental collectedness, to the quiet use and control of all our hidden gifts. He would fain rescue us from our frailties, from proneness to mental confusion, from undue awe of the face of our fellows, from that nervous paralysis which so often has its roots in a morbid or a defective religious life. It is not His will to have servants who lack the note of courage, competence, effectuality. By contact with God we shall gain steadiness, confidence of touch, impressive self-mastery for our work. Now when they beheld the boldness of Peter and John . . . they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus. If we learn presence of mind before God we shall find little difficulty in maintaining it before men. Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart; wait, I say, on the Lord. (T. G. Selby.)
The prophets commission
I. The attitude of the prophet in the presence of God. Jonathan Edwards, who has been called the Isaiah of the Christian Dispensation; was often carried in the chariot of his imagination into the very highest heaven of ecstasy to behold the greatness and the glory of the Lord. And during those seasons of seraphic communion he realised his utter weakness, and his very body seemed to faint and fail. Pascal, too, had no less exalted experience when he was visited with the presence and power of God, and saw visions so unutterable that he could only fall on his face and weep tears of joy. But God does not mean that His servants should be overmastered with the majesty of its glory. God is not like an Eastern sovereign who wishes his subjects to be impressed with his distant greatness, and would extinguish the sense of noble manhood within their breast. The relation which God sustains to His people is that of a father to his children, who would impress them with the conviction of his absolute authority, and yet, at the same time, would endeavour to awaken within them the sense of their nobility and dignity as his children.
II. The attitude of the prophet in the presence of man. We may bend our knees in the presence of God, but we must stand upon our feet in the presence of man. It is in this attitude that we receive strength. Bunyans picture of the prophet is the ideal for all time. He had eyes lifted up to heaven, the best of books was in his hand, the law of truth was written upon his lips, the world was behind his back. He stood as if he pleaded with men; and a crown of glory did hang over his head.
1. The first quality or attribute of the true prophet is that of conviction. The prophets of science have emerged out of their caves of prejudice, of tradition, of authority, and have gazed at nature with the clear eye of truth, and under the open canopy of heaven. And so it must be with the prophets of Scripture; they must be prepared to dismiss all the idols of prejudice and passion, and study the Bible in the light of open day, and thus arrive at a firm, immovable conviction of its truth. We have no business to preach our doubts; it is the grand realities that we are to proclaim in the presence of an unbelieving world. A lady once, examining Turners pictures, said, But, Mr. Turner, I dont see these things in nature. Madam, replied the artist, with pardonable pride, dont you wish you could? Thus the true prophet must be a seer, and being a seer, the whole breadth of nature and Scripture will be open to him, and he will see things that others wot not of.
2. The second quality which distinguishes the true prophet is that of courage. The apostles after the day of Pentecost were full of courage. The fear of man was completely taken away, so that they testified with boldness the truths of the Gospel concerning the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. So it was with Luther, with Knox, with Savonarola, and all the great prophets of old; they were bold and uncompromising in their utterance of the truth.
3. The third quality of the faithful prophet is character. The staff of the prophet must be in the hands of a pure and upright man. Gehazi was a bad man; and hence, although he had the wand of Elisha in his hand, it failed to work enchantment. He passed the staff over the face of the dead child, the son of the Shunamite woman, but there was no voice, nor any that answered. But when Elisha took the staff in his hand, then the boy was raised to life again. Thus will it always be. (J. C. Shanks.)
Human progress a preparation for the fuller knowledge of God
I. The will of God is the uplifting of man. Ezekiel thought that he honoured God by falling prostrate on the ground. Be learnt that God was rather honoured by his standing on his feet. Salvation is the uplifting of man. It must be so because God is love. His aim is to lift the objects of His love into free fellowship with Himself. His glory and their exaltation are one. And the liker to Himself they are, the greater His joy. And this is true with reference to all mans powers. To stand upright is the outward sign of self-possession and of power in full development and exercise–first of all, the highest powers of faith and aspiration and conscience, but then all the powers which go together to make the man. Every human faculty has its place in the kingdom of God, and is sought out by the redemption of Christ Jesus.
II. The text makes this uplifting not only compatible with, but necessary to, the reception of Divine truth. Stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee. Character can only be understood by corresponding character. If the lesser is to have fellowship with the greater, it must always be because the lesser grows until an answering faculty apprehends the greater. Take away the faculty in the receiver, and you destroy the power of the revealer to reveal himself. If the musician is to utter his soul, his instrument must sufficiently combine melodiousness, harmony, and delicacy to express his conception and to call forth all his skill. Had Mendelssohn known only the tom-tom of an African savage, we could never have had the Elijah and the Songs without Words. So we could never have had the dialogues of Plato had the philosopher had in view no audience more intellectual than a Sunday school class. And this is no mere human limitation. God can only reveal Himself to man and in man as human nature becomes lofty and deep and broad enough to apprehend and to express His mind. Further, each new power developed in man is a new point of contact with God. The world is so full of God that it is impossible to establish any new connection with it without its becoming a way of approach to some part of the mind of God, which is waiting to be revealed, when the means of receiving it are found.
III. We have in the text a special message from God to the men of our times. From every side the call is being heard–Stand upon thy feet. Orders have been called to political and economical influence, which never exerted it before. Men are pressing forward to claim their share in the higher life of science, literature, and art, who but a generation ago were not sufficiently awakened even mournfully to say, Such joys are not for us. What is the true prophet to say to this many-sided movement? Is he to ban it as secular and worldly? Nay, rather, he must proclaim that so long as moral earnestness is behind it, it is the inspiration of God bidding men stand upon their feet, that He may speak to them. (J. S. Lidgett, M. A.)
Optimism and pessimism; or, the true dignity of man
(with Psa 8:4-5):–It is most important that man should recognise his high origin, the nobility of his powers, and the glorious destiny that is possible to him, and that invites his noblest efforts and ambition. The first attitude of the soul toward God must always be that of profound reverence and deep humility. Still God will not allow His chosen ones to crouch at His feet. First, the lowly penitent pleading for mercy; after that, the servant, obeying the commandments of God because he must obey or lose his place; but then, the son and friend, standing up beside his God, listening with rapturous delight to the voice of the loving Father. God is ever ready to draw near to those who love Him, and to speak with them as friend speaketh with friend. Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak to thee. I think we may learn from these words that it is possible for us to miss the voice of God, and to lose much of the comfort of His presence, by failing to claim the privilege of coming to God at all times, in the fullest confidence of love and friendship. Man must recognise his true dignity, and maintain his self-respect, before he can receive the highest revelation of God. It is worthy of note that God put dignity and honour upon man by creating him in His own image. He also showed His great regard for man by giving His Son to redeem him, and lift him up from the low condition into which he had been brought by sin and transgression. And especially does He assert the dignity and worth of man, regenerated and purified, by making his body the temple of His Holy Spirit, and by providing for him a glorious, happy home, where no sin, nor sorrow, nor suffering can ever enter. There are pessimists in our day who boldly proclaim that human life is a failure–that the world is going from bad to Worse–that there is nothing in human life to be thankful for, but much to be deplored. The explanation of pessimism is found in the fact that men are living Without God and without hope in the world. There are, I think, three different views of human life. First, the superficial view of life, indulged in by the young and inexperienced. Life is not looked at in all its sober reality. Its responsibilities and trials are not duly weighed. The brightness on the surface is all that is seen. This is the optimist view. Then comes the second view of life, held, perhaps, by disappointed, unsuccessful men. Life is a burden and a toil; and yet the desire to live is strong in them; and they are puzzled and perplexed beyond measure. This is the view of the pessimist. Then there is the third view of life, deeper, truer, and more hopeful–bright with a more sober and abiding light than that of the optimist–and happy with a calm confidence in God, that cannot be shaken. This is the Christian view of life. The pessimist and the optimist are both in error. The pessimist opens the windows of the soul outward, and lets out upon the world the darkness of his own morbid, melancholy, and darkens the brightness of the world with his own darkness. That is bad–an evil that ought to be carefully avoided. The optimist opens the windows of the soul inward, letting in the worlds bright sunlight, so that he sees only the brightness, and thinks nothing of the misery and wretchedness that are around; and hence he puts forth no effort to make the world brighter and better. But the true Christian philosopher opens the windows of the soul upward, and lets the light of heaven stream in. He sees everything in the light of Gods providence and Gods purposes, and has his mind enlightened by Gods Spirit. (S. Macnaughton, M. A.)
The assertion of manhood
Ezekiel was overwhelmed by the vastness of the universe and the great range of Gods sovereignty. He could no longer–like the earlier prophets–limit his thoughts of Divine providence to the fatherly care and protection of a handful of Jews. It was something much vaster. In the government of the world there was wheel within wheel, there were forces at work that seemed to take little heed of individual or even national interests; there was the terrible impartiality of a universal Power dispensing equal laws to all peoples of the earth. To himself he suddenly appeared of no account in this universe of law and force, and in utter abasement he grovelled on the ground. But he was not permitted long to abase himself. God had a work for him to do, a message to deliver. And before the work could be done or the message revealed, the prophet must rise from his grovelling attitude, and reassert his manhood and recover his self-respect. He must recover his belief in the true position of man; he must assert his liberty of action; he must believe in the possibility of leading a holy, a Divine life, and when he had thus shown his sense of the true dignity of man and his respect of self, he could be made a prophet and servant of the Most High.
1. The first element in the self-abasement and prostration, the sense of insignificance in presence of the great forces of nature, and of the vastness of the universe, is finely described in the 8th Psalm: When I consider Thy heavens, etc. However we explain it, there is a failure to realise the true dignity of man, to value aright the purpose of life, to understand the issues that depend upon our thoughts, and words, and actions. We get into the way of looking on ourselves simply as atoms, inconsiderable parts of a world which contains much that is more worthy of securing God and mans attention than a human soul; and we are content, with the lowest level for our character and conduct. But if we are tempted to feel in this way, the voice of God says to us: Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee. It tells us how the Creator, after He had framed the earth and designed the heavens, made man in His own image, endowed him with reason, that he might know and judge himself; with conscience, that he might discern between right and wrong; and imagination, that he might purify his affections; with a principle of life, that he might live forever. It commands us to measure the superiority thus conferred upon us as children of the living God.
2. The second element in Ezekiels abasement was a sense of helplessness. If his vision were a first glimpse of the reign of law, his fear may have contained the first shadow of a feeling that has shed its deepest gloom, on the paths of so many in these later days. The question, What is man? is answered by a large number of the thoughtful and the unthinking alike in the language of sheer fatalism. In effect, they say: I am what I am, and need not be expected to change; God and man must take me as they find me. Another, with different parentage, and brought up in different circumstances from mine, may be a better, a more amiable man than I am. But he need not plume himself upon that. Had our places been reversed, so would our characters, and I for my part must be content to remain as I am. The same feeling is shown in reference to our mission in the world. The same man who blames fate for what he is, denies, in practice, if not in words, the possibility of his doing any work for good. He reasons for ethers as he reasons for himself–they are, and will be, what the struggle for existence, the advantages or disadvantages of their lot have made them; and as circumstances have neither fitted him to do anything for them, nor brought him into contact with them, he must leave them alone. He and they are fixed alike in this great wheel of fate, and although they all move, it is by no conscious effort on their part. All alike are poor, helpless creatures, whirled round in the great machine. I cannot doubt that this feeling was in the mind of Ezekiel as it was in the mind of his contemporary Jeremiah. Nor can I doubt that it was to rouse him out of his helplessness that God told him to stand upon his feet. And neither can I doubt that God calls upon us all to assert our dignity as men by claiming our liberty.
3. The third element in the abasement of Ezekiel must have been a sense of sinfulness. We need not try to analyse this feeling or show how it acted upon him. The emotions that flooded the soul of the prophet can hardly be dissected and tabulated. The knowledge that he had himself sinned, had been guilty of transgressing, or, at least, of failing to carry out with anything like perfection those laws whose power had just been revealed to him, was the last drop in his cup of humiliation. It would have been strange if it had been otherwise. If we ever obtain a glimpse of the majesty of the law and of the Lawgiver, we can hardly fail to be humiliated by the recollection of our own past lives. We have known the right and the good, and we have not chosen them; we have seen the path of safety for health of body, health of mind, health of soul; and we have wilfully forsaken it. We are not the men we might have been, we have not done the good we ought to have done; our prospects for time and eternity are overclouded, and the splendour which ought to have shone around them has become dim. And when we see the appearance in the likeness of a man on the sapphire throne–should I not say on the cross?–we will not fail to fall prone and abase ourselves if we have retained any of the better feelings God gave us at our birth. But our text reminds us that it is not good to remain too long in this abject state. We are not forever to be confessing that we are miserable sinners. The voice calls to us even when we are abased under a sense of sin: Son of man, stand upon thy feet. Escape at once from the humiliation and the sin that has caused it. Look up to the bright heaven of a new ideal. Set your affection on things that are above. Prepare to move in the service that hitherto has been neglected, and God will teach you by higher training for a nobler life. (J. Millar, B. D.)
The importance of self-respect
Ezekiel was to be the bearer of a Divine message for the correction and moral rousing of his countrymen, and in order that Heaven may impart to him its secret, and inspire and instruct him for the work to which he has been chosen, he is called to rise and stand upon his feet. Here, then, in the very Book in which we are always meeting with injunctions to bend and bow, if we would be Divinely visited, are instances of men summoned to get up from the dust of conscious littleness and unworthiness, that they might be Divinely spoken with–of men, prone upon their faces in the presence of God, who were required to place themselves upon their feet before He could say anything to them, or make any use of them. Yet we may be quite sure, at the same time, that their prior prostration was equally indispensable. When Jehovah would charge Moses with the task of delivering Israel, the word to him was not, Stand upon thy feet, that thou mayest hear and be invested from above, but, Fall upon thy face. When, however, he had been deeply awed and humbled, to begin with, then he was bidden to uplift his head and believe in himself. It was needful, that as Saul and Daniel and Ezekiel were, he should first be deeply awed and humbled; but like them also, he needed to become erect after depression for the Heavens to be intimate with him, and to make him their mouthpiece and organ. And for healthy living, for beautiful action and endurance in our place, whatever it may be, we all require to have these two united in us–awe and assurance–prostration and erectness–the recognition of our insignificance–our dependence–and the recognition of our worth and dignity. We need to be both lying down in felt emptiness and helplessness, and rising up in brave self-sufficiency; and while it may be the fact that Heaven will reveal nothing to those who are not humble and lowly, it is equally the fact that Heaven never has anything to reveal to those who are not duly reverencing, and manfully leaning upon themselves. Coming to the New Testament, we meet continually in its pages with the same recognition of the importance of self-respect. Jesus Christ was always saying something in aid of it–something to encourage and support it. When He would strengthen His apostles for cleaving to their convictions against the opposition of the world, for brave and fearless prosecution of the work to which they were called, He talked to them of their worth in the eyes of the Almighty Father, telling them that the hairs of their head were all numbered, and that they were of more value than many sparrows. When Simon Peter, overwhelmed for a moment with the feeling of his manifold imperfections, fell down at the Masters feet, crying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord, how was he treated? The Master dropped at once a hint of the great capacity which He saw latent in him, and waiting to be developed, of the great use which he was destined to be in the service of the kingdom–Fear not, Simon; from henceforth thou shalt catch men. When, again, Christ mingled with the degraded outcasts of Judea, of what did He speak to them? of their worth, of how Heaven missed them and wanted them. They heard from His blessed lips of the shepherds concern for the lost sheep, of the housewifes eager search for the lost piece of silver. There is nothing more conducive to healthy self-reverence against the influence of felt poor quality and low desert, than the assurance that we are dear to someone who is superior–that someone who is superior cares for us, and clings to us, and considers us capable of much better and greater things. And this was the strength which Christ brought to the weak–the Gospel with which He raised the self-despairing. You are the child of a God who thinks on you, and yearns over you, and to whom, in your worst vileness, you are a prince in bondage, worthy of being sought after and redeemed. Then look at the Epistles–the Pauline epistles especially: in them, how constantly are the readers reminded of their high estate, or of the great things that were imputed to them, of the great things that were assumed with regard to them; of the lofty idea of their condition and character, which His perfect manhood involved, whose members and brethren they were. Ye are bought with a price – Ye are all children of the light, and of the day–Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost?–Reckon ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. But you will say, When are we not self-respecting? Well, he is not, for one, who craves and courts the approbation of others, and sets himself to gain it–who wants it, wants it to comfort and uphold him–who can be strong and happy enough while others are praising or smiling on him, but when they are not, waxes feeble and melancholy. Again, he is wanting in self-reverence who gives himself at all to imitate another, who, in any work which may be laid upon him, tries to repeat the greatness of another, to copy his distinctions rather than to evoke and cultivate his own, to strain after his dimensions, rather than to be as perfect as he can within his own. Then, again, he is not self-respecting who hesitates at all to go with his convictions, who fears to trust and follow the light within him, when the many are moving in the opposite direction; who, when careful and honest inquiry seems to be carrying him to conclusions that will separate him from the multitude, and perchance from those who are deemed great and wise, becomes afraid–afraid to abide with what commends itself to him as good and true. Beware of losing self-respect through living dramatically–with a daily appearance put on, which is not true to the reality–with the frequent assumption before spectators of that which does not belong to you. Beware of losing it through leading an idle, aimless, useless life, a life without any high or worthy purpose. Beware of losing it, especially, through forever failing to obey your higher promptings, and forever regretting and bemoaning the failure, while never seriously endeavouring to improve. (S. A. Tipple.)
Standing before God
For all true and worthy service of God–which simply means all true and worthy living of the lives God hath here given us–this word reminds us that there is a necessity–a falling and a rising before God. For this man whom God bids to rise and stand upon his feet had been down, down low and in the dust. Ah! there is too little of this prostration before God–too little vision of the glory and majesty of Him with whom we have to do. Yet this must precede and be the source of all powerful rising and service. We must get down before we can get up. And the humiliation that is blessed is the humiliation that comes from realising God. Our Lord Himself spent memorable hours of His life bowed in communion before God. He found there the secret of power and strength to fulfil His Fathers will. Much more must we. There is, then, first of all the lowly abasement. But there follows also, as surely, the rising again. And this is the second condition under which God will speak to us and use us–Stand upon thy feet.
I. God calls us to a true dignity when He calls us to His service. It is a very false view of religion which holds that it tends to make a man poor spirited and lachrymose. The true self-respect, the self-respect that springs from humility before God, and not from pride before man, has its roots in religion. And there is no man who will carry himself with truer dignity through the world than the man who believes in God, who has the fear of God before his eyes, and has heard the voice of God in his own soul. And, if we think of it, there are many men who are laid low whom God would rather have to stand up; and many, on the contrary, who stand up whom God would rather see abased. The despairing and the doubting, for example, are often on their faces on the earth. They wander in the grounds of Giant Despair, and he punishes them sorely and without pity. Now, God would rather that they arose, that they made effort to stand upon their feet, and to set them on the rock that is higher than they. On the other hand, there are some who stand whom God would rather see abased. We have many types of them in the Scriptures. The self-reliant is one. Peter points many a moral, but none more surely than this–Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. Again, the Pharisee of Christs parable is another type. The rich fool of the parable, too, was a man who stood up very proudly, planting his foot confidently on his sure income, his fine houses, and stores. Thou fool! What an awful irony is here. Thou fool, this night thy soul, thy soul shall be required of thee. Very far, then, is the dignity and self-respect of a deeply religious man from such foolish pride and vain self-confidence as this. He stands as Christ stood (and never was there dignity more regal than His), rooted in humility, yet conscious of the Divinest relations, that, like golden chains, bind him to his God.
II. When God says, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, it also means that He requires courage in the souls that would serve Him. Ezekiel needed it. Be not afraid of them, etc. And it is needed as much by us as by others who have borne witness before us. The temptations that try our courage, though neither briers nor scorpions, are very real and powerful, and many a quaking there is before them. We need courage to do the right thing in spite of looks of enmity and glances of scorn, in spite of the alienation and misunderstanding of men. God knows we may find that our enemies are they of our own house, and much courage and standing on the feet is needed then. I read lately the story of the lives of two brothers. The one was a soldier who had won great distinction abroad. In a moment of crisis, in the heat of battle, at the peril of his own life, he dashed forward and saved a fallen comrade from the death that surrounded him. It was bravely and well done. He was decorated and gazetted, feted and lionised. But at home was a father, a drunkard, an old man whose life was a disgrace to himself and a burden to his friends. It did not suit the gallant soldier to know this father much, or to live in his neighbourhood. He preferred to enjoy his honours at a distance, away where the breath of this loathsome scandal would not reach him or mar his pleasures. But by this father stood the other son. He was a highly educated, sensitive man, whose life was dedicated to noble work, and who was already gaining for himself the first sweet distinctions of his profession. His fathers life was a keen and bitter shame to him. He could easier have borne the knife plunged into his flesh. Yet, at the call of duty–the highest and most sacred duty, in his eyes–he bowed his neck to this shame and sorrow, gave up his bright prospects, lived alone, apart, with this wretched maniac of drink, did the work of a menial, and bore more than a meniars share of cruel blows and insulting words. The one gained the laurels of men, because, under the impulse of the moment, in the heat and excitement of battle, he did a courageous thing; yet in the moral trial, brave soldier as he was, he proved cowardly and ignoble, and left to the shoulders of one, whom he counted a fool for his pains, the cross that should at least have been shared by both. The other got no laurels–was nowhere noticed or spoken of with any distinction; but who can read the story of his self-sacrifice, of his humility, of his patience, without feeling that here, in the sight of God, was the true hero–here the true courage that faced worse than the bullet or the steel, and that endured longer than the swift, exciting hour?
III. The call to stand upon the feet indicates also the uprightness that God would have in all His servants. It is vain to think we can serve God, or be witnesses to Him in the world, if we are still harbouring the sins that tend to keep us low. Never was there greater need than today for the people of God to stand in uprightness and integrity. Christ has suffered too much and too long in the open unworthiness of many lives. There are things–habits of life, practices of trade, indulgences of temper and passion and lust, both open and secret–that, if we are to serve Him truly, must be over and ended, past and gone forever. Let us examine ourselves, and let each see what are the things he must cast from him, and must struggle to leave behind–those dead, crucified selves, on which alone we can rise to higher things.
IV. When God calls us to stand, He means He would have in us a readiness to act. Ah! God would oftener speak to us, brethren, but He sees we are not very ready to do anything. Why should He speak? We are indolent. We are too comfortable in our chairs of ease, or too much engrossed with other things. Oh, the hesitancy and reluctance of our obedience! How we need to be persuaded and pled with! Oh, shake yourself from this fatal spirit of indifference and indolence, for many are suffering from it, and losing their lives in it. Stand upon your feet. Offer yourself to God, as if you meant it. And I will speak to you, saith the Lord. I will direct your path, and open for you the way of a blessed life. (R. D. Shaw, B. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 28. As the appearance of the bow] Over the canopy on which this glorious personage sat there was a fine rainbow, which, from the description here, had all its colours vivid, distinct, and in perfection-red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. In all this description we must understand every metal, every colour, and every natural appearance, to be in their utmost perfection of shape, colour, and splendour. “And this,” as above described, “was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.” Splendid and glorious as it was, it was only the “appearance of the likeness,” a faint representation of the real thing.
I have endeavoured to explain these appearances as correctly as possible; to show their forms, positions, colours, c. But who can explain their meaning? We have conjectures in abundance and can it be of any use to mankind to increase the number of those conjectures? I think not. I doubt whether the whole does not point out the state of the Jews, who were about to be subdued by Nebuchadnezzar, and carried into captivity. And I am inclined to think that the “living creatures, wheels, fires, whirlwinds,” c., which are introduced here, point out, emblematically, the various means, sword, fire, pestilence, famine, &c., which were employed in tneir destruction and that God appears in all this to show that Nebuchadnezzar is only his instrument to inflict all these calamities. What is in the following chapter appears to me to confirm this supposition. But we have the rainbow, the token of God’s covenant, to show that though there should be a destruction of the city, temple, c., and sore tribulation among the people, yet there should not be a total ruin after a long captivity they should be restored. The rainbow is an illustrious token of mercy and love.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Here more particularly is described the brightness before mentioned. A rainbow, the fire being resplendent and clear, cast its rays on the thick cloud below. And this is mentioned, no doubt, to assure the prophet, and those among the Jews that did tremble and wait for God, that God would not forget his covenant, though he came to execute severest judgments, Gen 9:13. A like appearance of Christ in a surrounding brightness, as of the rainbow, you have Rev 4:3. Mercy and truth, and both according to covenant and promise, are about the throne of Christ; this a brightness of mercy and grace that enlightens, that comforts.
This, the conclusion of the vision,
was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord; it was not the full glory of God, it was not the splendour of unveiled majesty, it was the likeness of his glory, such as the prophet might bear and tell to us: the fulness of his glory is inaccessible light, the prophet could not see it; and unspeakable majesty, and the prophet could not tell it to us.
When I saw it, I fell upon my face:
1. Astonished at such a sight, as Gen 17:3; Dan 7:15,28.
2. With deep humility and reverence he east himself down,
3. It is a posture of prayer, and possibly the prophet might sue to know the meaning of all this. And I heard a voice of one that spake; such was the voice and such the things spoken, that the prophet seems to confess he could not say whose voice it was; but it was Divine, powerful, astonishing, as being such as is described Eze 1:25, such the voice he hears.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
28. the bow . . . in . . . rainthesymbol of the sure covenant of mercy to God’s children rememberedamidst judgments on the wicked; as in the flood in Noah’s days (Re4:3). “Like hanging out from the throne of the Eternal afing of peace, assuring all that the purpose of Heaven was topreserve rather than to destroy. Even if the divine work shouldrequire a deluge of wrath, still the faithfulness of God would onlyshine forth the more brightly at last to the children of promise, inconsequence of the tribulations needed to prepare for theultimate good” [FAIRBAIRN].(Isa 54:8-10).
I fell upon . . . facetheright attitude, spiritually, before we enter on any active work forGod (Eze 2:2; Eze 3:23;Eze 3:24; Rev 1:17).In this first chapter God gathered into one vision the substance ofall that was to occupy the prophetic agency of Ezekiel; as was doneafterwards in the opening vision of the Revelation of Saint John.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain,…. The rainbow, which is no other than the reflection of the rays of the sun in a thin watery cloud on a rainy day:
so [was] the appearance of the brightness round about it; so Christ is represented as clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow about his head,
Re 10:1; which is a token of the covenant of grace, in which Christ is concerned; it is round about him; he is the head mediator, surety, and messenger of it; all the blessings and promises of it are in him; and he is that itself, which is only a reverberation him, the sun of righteousness; and it is also about the throne on which he sits, which is upheld by mercy and truth; and it is ever in his view and he is always mindful of it: this part of the vision agrees with Re 4:3;
this [was] the appearance of the likeness of the glory of God: of the divine Shechinah; the Word of God that was made flesh and dwelt among us; whose glory is as the only begotten of the Father; and who is the brightness of his Father’s glory, and the express image of his person:
and when I saw [it], I fell upon my face; through fear and reverence of the glorious Person that appeared to him; see Re 1:17;
and I heard a voice of one that spake: what is delivered in the following chapter; which contains Ezekiel’s commission from Christ, who is the person that spake unto him.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The Prophet now adds, that the likeness of a celestial bow was presented to him, which profane men call his, and imagine that she performs the commands of the gods, and especially of Juno. But Scripture calls it the bow of God, not because it was created after the Deluge, as many falsely suppose, but because God wished to stir up our hope with that symbol, as often as thick vapors cloud the heavens. For we seem as if drowned under those waters of the heavens. God therefore wished to meet our distrust, when he wished the bow in the heavens to be a testimony and pledge of his favor, because it is said by Moses, I will put my bow in the heavens. (Gen 9:13.) Now some distort this as if the bow was not in existence before: but there is no doubt that God wished to inscribe a testimony of his favor on a thing by no means in accordance with it, as he freely uses all creatures according to his will. The bow in the heavens is often a sign of continued rain, and seems as if it attracted the shower. Since then its very aspect may cause terror, God says in opposition to this feeling, as often as the bow appears, it is clearly determined that. the earth is now safe from a deluge. But the opinion of those who consider it in this place a testimony of favor does not seem to me proved, for the whole vision is opposed to it. This is indeed plausible that a bow appeared because God now wished to show himself propitious to his servant, just as they interpret that verse in the fourth chapter of Revelations, (Rev 4:3,) when John saw the throne of God surrounded by a bow, because God was reconciled to the world by Christ. As far as this passage is concerned, I do not dispute it, but to interpret it so here would be altogether out of place, because the whole of this vision was formidable, as I said at the beginning. Thus to mingle contrary things would pervert the whole order of the vision.
What, then, is the object of this bow in the heavens? We have said that heaven appeared to the Prophet as he ascended by degrees to comprehend the glory of God, because the marks of deity are more conspicuous in heaven than on earth. For if we look back upon what we have formerly explained, God is never without witness, as Paul says, (Act 14:17,) but yet his majesty shines clearer in the heavens. But when the bow appears, a new reason occurs for magnifying the glory of God. For in the bow we have the image of deity more clearly expressed, whilst we reflect on the magnificent workmanship of heaven, and whilst we turn our eyes round to all the stars and planets. In this way, I allow, God compels us to admire his glory, but the bow presents an addition not to be despised, as if God would add something to the; bare aspect of heaven. Now therefore we see why the Prophet saw a celestial bow, — that he might be more and more affected when God presented such signal appearances to his view, and that he might be more induced to contemplate his glory. Hence what interpreters bring forward about a symbol of reconciliation is altogether out of place.
I saw, says he, the form of a bow which is placed, or which is in the cloud on a rainy day. If any one should ask if those colors are without substance, it is certain that colors arise from the rays of the sun on a hollow cloud, as philosophers teach. Therefore when the Prophet says, a bow appears on a rainy day, he simply means, exists or appears in the midst; not that the colors have any substance, as I have just said, but the rays of the sun, whilst they are mutually reflected on the hollow cloud, occasion the manifold variety. Afterwards he adds again, like the appearance of brightness round about Again the Prophet confesses that his eyes were blinded, because he could not bear such great splendor. And God manifests himself familiarly to all his servants, yet so as not to foster our curiosity, to which mankind are ‘far too inclined. God then wished to manifest himself as far as it was useful, but not so far as the desire of mankind — which is always immoderate — would carry them. Since mankind so eagerly strain themselves that they easily become weakened, we must remark what the Prophet inculcates a second time, namely, that the appearance of brightness was seen round about Of what sort, then, was that brightness? Why, such as to blind the Prophet’s eyes, and to render him conscious of his weakness, so that he should not desire to know more than was lawful, but submit himself humbly to God.
At length he says, this was a vision of the likeness of the glory of Jehovah, and by these words confirms what I have said before, that the glory, of God was so beheld by the Prophet, that God did not appear as he really is, but as far as he can be beheld by mortal man. For if the angels tremble at God’s glory, if they vail themselves with their wings, what should we do who creep upon this earth? We must hold, then, that as often as the Prophets and holy fathers saw God, they saw as it were the likeness or aspect of the glory of God, but not the glory itself, for they were not fit for it; for this would be to measure with the palm of our hands a hundred thousand heavens, and earths, and worlds. For God is infinite; and when the heaven of heavens cannot contain him, how can our minds comprehend him? But although God has never appeared in his immeasurable glory, and has never manifested himself as he really exists, yet we must nevertheless hold that he has so appeared as to leave no doubt in the minds of his servants as to their knowing that they have seen God. And this is the purport of those phrases which sometimes appear difficult. I have seen God face to face, says Jacob. (Gen 32:30.) But was he so foolish as to think that he saw God like a mortal? by no means; but that appearance convinced him of its certainty, as if he had said that no specter by which he could be deceived was presented to his view; for the devil deludes us unless we are attentive and cautious. Therefore Jacob here distinguishes the vision which he enjoyed from all prodigies in which profane nations delighted. Familiar knowledge, then, is the meaning of seeing face to face. At the same time, as I have said, God never gave the Fathers a sight of himself except according to their capacity. He always had respect to their faculties, and this is the meaning of the phrase, this was a vision of the splendor of Jehovah’s glory. Since, then, it is certain that Christ was beheld by him, he is Jehovah, that is, Eternal God; and although he is distinct from the person of the Father, yet he is entirely God, for the Father is in him: for the essence cannot be divided without impiety, although the persons must be distinguished. The rest I shall put off till tomorrow.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(28) As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud.Comp. Rev. 4:3; Rev. 10:1. The addition, in the day of rain, is not merely a reference to the ordinary natural phenomenon, but distinctly connects this vision with the gracious promise in Genesis, and shows that God, who has in this vision presented His attributes of terrible majesty, will add to them also those of mercy and loving-kindness. It was in both alike that He was to be made known to His people through the prophet who is now receiving his commission. This was the merciful appearance of the brightness round about.
I fell upon my face.The immediate manifestation of the Divine has always proved overpowering to man. (Comp. Eze. 3:23; lea. 6:5; Dan. 8:17; Act. 9:4; Rev. 1:17. Comp. also Luk. 5:8; Luk. 8:37.)
In considering the general significance of this vision, it is to be remembered that it was seen four times by Ezekiel in various connections in his life-work. First, at this time, when he is called to the exercise of the prophetic office; a second time when, shortly afterwards, he is sent to denounce judgments upon the sinful people, and to foretell the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple (Eze. 3:23, &c.); again, a year and a half later (Eze. 8:4; Eze. 10:15), he sees the same vision, while he is made to understand the evils and abominations wrought in the Temple (which is still standing), until the glory of the Lord forsakes His house and departs from the city (Eze. 11:23), in token that God had given them over to punishment; finally, in the prophecy of future restoration and blessing, he again sees the presence of the Lord, by means of the same vision, re-enter and fill the house (Eze. 43:3-5). Its meaning, therefore, clearly relates to the whole prophecies of Ezekiel, whether of judgment or mercy; and, without attempting an explanation of the symbolism in detail, we cannot be wrong in assuming that it represents the resistless Divine activity, controlling alike the agencies of judgment and of mercy, directed to every corner of the earth, and requiring of all profoundest homage and veneration. The perfect unity of purpose in all Gods doings is made especially prominent, and the consistency of His wrath with His love, of His judgments with His mercy; while over all seems to be written, as on the plate of the mitre which He had of old commanded the high priest to wear in His temple, Holiness unto the Lord.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
28. The bow that is in the cloud This, of course, refers to the well-known symbol of God’s covenant made with Noah (Gen 9:13). The bow was also among the Babylonians considered as the sign of covenant. Ezekiel did not see in this a sign of the “covenant of redemption” any more than he saw a hidden meaning in the man on the throne. No doubt this was one of the instances when a prophet sought to look into the glorious mysteries of the future and was not able (1Pe 1:10-12). Yet it would be stupidity if we who have been enlightened by Him who “opened the Scriptures,” and of whom holy men spake as they were moved of the Holy Ghost did not see a heavenly beauty and significance in the rainbow which surrounded “the appearance of a man” upon the throne of the Almighty. “This brightness was round about Jehovah’s head: a halo of glory, a diadem of transcendent beauty, redemption’s matchless crown. In it are blended all the attributes of divine perfection, from the scarlet hue of righteousness to the soft blue of perfect peace. On the raindrops this heavenly bow of beauty is sketched as if to suggest that in the daily gifts which flow from the divine hand we may discern the everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure.” Pulpit Commentary.
This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord Once more comes the affirmation from astonished lips that, whatever the reality may be, he has truly described the “vision of God” as it was given to him. No wonder that Ezekiel felt himself compelled to repeat again and again that he only claimed that he had seen “the appearance of a likeness” of God; for no man in all the earth for six centuries to come could understand the vision. It almost seemed a blasphemous thing to see, even in vision, a man or even the likeness of a man upon Jehovah’s throne. All that Ezekiel continues to affirm, realizing how distasteful the fact will still appear to his people, is that he did see “the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard a voice of one who spoke.’
Having seen God, even though veiled, was something that stirred Ezekiel to the depths of his being, and was something he would never forget. It put the past and the future in a new light. He had seen God as the omnipotent One on His throne, as the omniscient One whose eyes saw everywhere, and as the omnipresent One in constant movement about the world. He was there with them in Babylon, and He was there on His throne. The effect of the experience appears constantly throughout the book (Eze 3:12; Eze 3:23; Eze 8:4; Eze 9:3; Eze 10:4; Eze 10:18; Eze 11:22; Eze 43:2-5; Eze 44:4).
‘I fell on my face.’ An indication of total submission and worship.
‘And I heard a voice of one who spoke.’ Compare Eze 1:25. In the end this was the purpose of the revelation he had received, that he might receive God’s word to pass on to God’s people.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Eze 1:28. This was the appearance Houbigant observes upon this vision in general; First, That it seems most probably to adumbrate the state of the Jews, who were soon to be subdued by Nebuchadrezzar and carried into captivity; and that book mentioned in the next chapter, Eze 1:9 wherein Lamentations were written, discovers this to have been the subject of the vision. Secondly, That the vision was such as to be easily intelligible by the Jews of those times who read it with attention. Thirdly, That nearly the same things are shadowed forth, as in the vision of Isaiah, chap. 6 for this vision of Ezekiel is called The glory of the Lord, as the evangelist denominates Isaiah’s vision; saying, These things, said Isaiah, when he saw his glory. Each prophet saw as the appearance of a man, or the Son of Man, sitting on a throne, which throne the angels support, who, moved by his Spirit, sometimes stand still, sometimes walk, and are borne wherever the Spirit carrieth them; whereby is signified that nothing is done without the appointment or permission of that Mediator whom the Jews expected: that though their state should be subverted by the Chaldeans, yet all the kingdoms of the earth were under the dominion of the fame Mediator, whom Ezekiel adores; that all the promises of God should and could be performed by him, since he, though appearing to forsake his people, and in reality forsaking the impenitent, yet commands both angels and men, and performs his purposes by them as his ministers. Thus far Houbigant; and we may in conclusion observe, that it would be the greater absurdity, in this view of the vision, which appears just, and perfectly consistent with the scheme of the prophet, to suppose that the cherubic figures can represent the Deity; because the prophet, proceeding regularly in his description of this chariot and throne of the divine glory, speaks with the utmost propriety having described the throne with all its appendages of the Divinity seated upon it in the 26th verse: whereas, understanding the cherubic figures of the Divinity, we should have two representations of him, and the whole would certainly be irregular and out of order.
REFLECTIONS.1st, We have here,
1. The date of this prophesy. In the thirtieth year, as some suppose, of the prophet’s life, when, according to custom, he entered on his priestly office; but others refer it to the aera commencing from Nabopolasser’s reign, which was the twelfth of the captivity, reckoning from the third year of Jehoiakim; and the fifth of Jehoiachin’s, or Coniah’s, captivity, in the fourth month, the fifth day of the month, probably a sabbath-day, when the prophet was employed in the blessed work of contemplation and prayer; for seven days after we find another vision of the same nature given him, chap. Eze 3:16. Note; They who seek to improve the sacred hours that God hath separated for his own service, in waiting upon him, will find him often manifesting himself to them as he doth not unto the world.
2. The place: among the captives by the river of Chebar, in the land of the Chaldeans. In their afflicted state God thus shewed that he had not forsaken them, but would still encourage their hope of mercy, and engage them to repent and turn to him. The prophet shared in the common calamity; for in national judgments good and bad fall frequently together: but God knows how to comfort the hearts of his people with inward supports which others partake not of; and usually his suffering saints have found in the day of their troubles more abundant consolations, 2Co 1:5.
3. The vision. The heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God: some amazing displays of the divine glory appeared. And the word of the Lord came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi. The words haioh haiah, rendered came expressly are very emphatical in the original, implying the certainty, evidence, and clearness, of the prophetic word which God revealed to him. And the hand of the Lord was there upon him, supporting him, that he might not be overpowered with the dazzling lustre; and strengthening him to go forth to deliver what was communicated to him. Note; (1.) They will be enabled to deliver their message with greater boldness, who speak from the most assured conviction in their own souls. (2.) If God sends us forth in his ministry, we may expect his hand will be with us to strengthen us, and give demonstration and power to the word that he puts into our mouths.
2nd, The introduction to these visions of God is very awful, tending to affect the prophet’s mind with the highest reverence of that Jehovah whose minister he was, and to encourage the poor captives, whose glory seemed now departed from them: but lo! their God is still in the midst of them.
1. Behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, the vehicle of this awful vision, and a fire infolding itself, a cheering fire to God’s believing people, a consuming fire to his foes; and a brightness was about it, the cloud was illuminated by the fire, an emblem of that irradiation which darted into the prophet’s mind; and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire. Chashmal, translated amber, some render a lively colour: others, a coal exceedingly fired: others suppose that Christ is meant, who is represented something similar hereunto, Rev 1:15; Rev 4:3 and hereunto I incline. He it was who appeared to Moses in the bush, to Isaiah on his throne, and here to Ezekiel in the midst of the fire.
2. The likeness of four living creatures came out of the midst of this vision, not real creatures, but emblematical representations, either of the angels who surround the throne of God; or of Gospel ministers,* see Rev 4:6-9 where the same emblematic figures appear. They are living creatures, themselves quickened to spiritual life, lively in their ministrations, and the means of quickening the souls of others; four, as sent forth to the four quarters of the earth, to preach the Gospel to every creature; in the likeness of a man, except in the following particulars.
* When the Critical Notes and the Reflections are duly compared, the reader will have the sentiments of the wisest and of the most spiritual divines on this subject. But I prefer the sense which I have given in the annotations.
[1.] They had four faces. (1.) The face of a man, being taken from among men to minister in the things of God, with understanding to instruct the ignorant, and with the feelings of humanity to have compassion on the afflicted. (2.) Of a lion, to denote their courage and boldness in preaching the Gospel amidst all opposition. (3.) Of an ox, to represent their indefatigable labour and patience. (4.) Of an eagle, signifying their piercing sight, and clear knowledge of the mysteries of God, and their soaring high in divine contemplation and holy affections.
[2.] Every one had also four wings. From Eze 1:11-23 they seem to have had two more, as the seraphim in Isaiah, and the beasts in the Revelations; four covered their bodies, and two were stretched upward, and these wings joined one to another, intimating, (1.) The swiftness and diligence that they use in executing God’s will, and the work of their ministry. (2.) The concord and union which subsist among them, united in love and fellow-labourers in the same Gospel. (3.) The consciousness of their own infirmities, which makes them ashamed of their imperfect services, and count themselves unworthy to appear before God.
[3.] Their feet were straight feet.] They walk uprightly before God; never turn aside to the crooked paths of error and immorality; they perseveringly go forward, undismayed by opposition, persecution, or temptation, and with a single eye to God’s glory; the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf’s foot, one of the clean animals which divide the hoof; and intimates the purity of their conversation, or the firmness of their hearts in their ministry; and they sparkled like the colour of burnished brass, so beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those that bring glad tidings of peace, and so bright the lustre of their holy examples.
[4.] They had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides, implying activity in executing what their wisdom and prudence directed; and many hands, because their work is vast and large, yet under their wings, not making ostentation of their labours, but ascribing the glory to him from whom all their strength is derived.
[5.] They were under the guidance of the Holy Ghost. Whither the Spirit was to go, they went: by him alone they are called to take the ministry upon them, inwardly moved by his powerful grace; by him they are supported in their labour, led into all truth, and readily disposed for every service which he is pleased to appoint them, not staggering at the difficulties; nor can they be turned back, by any fear of man, from delivering the message with which he hath sent them: like coals of fire they burn with divine zeal, and as lamps they shine bright themselves in the exercise of every divine grace; and hold forth the word of light to others, clear, distinct, enlightening, cheering, warming their souls. It went up and down among the living creatures; the divine light and fire of zeal filled them; bright, shining on every side, and darting like lightning to the ends of the earth; so extensive, so powerful, so penetrating was the Gospel word that they preached: and, when they had executed their ministry with this fervour and activity, they returned to give an account to their Master, and to receive fresh orders from him, desiring to approve themselves to him in all things, and take no step but under his guidance and by his direction. Let Gospel ministers, looking on these cherubim, prove their own selves, and learn what they should be.
3rdly, The vision of the wheels follows that of the living creatures, which are variously interpreted. Some suppose them an emblem of the dispensations of Providence, others of the word of God and the ministrations of it, and others of the Gospel churches. But one wheel is mentioned, Eze 1:15 for the church is one body, composed of innumerable believers; though it appears that they were four, Eze 1:16 and chap. Eze 10:9 being collected from the four quarters of the world. The wheel may be considered as an emblem of perfection; or it may represent the moveable state of the churches, or the different circumstances of prosperity and adversity to which they are alternately subject; or as composing a chariot with the cherubim, 1Ch 28:18 in which the Lord Jesus rides in majesty and glory, Son 3:9. The wheels are by the living creatures; intimating, that the several congregations of true believers follow their ministers, who preside in their worship, stir up their souls to run the way of God’s commandments, and direct and lead them aright: With his four faces, each wheel having four faces, one on each of the semicircles which composed it, being a wheel in the middle of a wheel, not a smaller wheel in a larger, but two circles crossing each other at right angles, and forming one wheel or orb, as it is represented, chap. Eze 10:13 and these faces are the same with those of the cherubim, signifying that there is the most exact resemblance between faithful pastors and their people, they having the like constancy in the profession which they make, labouring in their sphere with equal diligence for God, and patiently bearing the same sufferings for the Gospel’s sake; endued, as spiritual men, with an enlightened understanding and knowledge of the mysteries of godliness, and tenderly compassionate to their brethren; bold as lions in the cause of God and truth, and soaring aloft as eagles above these sublunary things, having their affections fixed, not on things on earth, but things in heaven. Their appearance and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl, so excellent and precious to the Lord are his saints, they are his jewels; and they four had one likeness, all true believers bearing the image of the same Lord; and perfectly resembling each other in their spirit and temper, they are all one in Christ Jesus; when they went, they went upon their four sides, and they returned not when they went, being from their construction ready so turn to the four points, without wheeling about. The faithful saints of God thus go still right on, advancing towards their eternal home. Their rings were high; for the church is visible, and lifted up in might and honour above all the powers of earth and hell: dreadful; the enemies of God’s people shall be made to tremble before them; or they had fear, a reverential fear of God, shewn in his worship; and carefulness never to offend him; and they were full of eyes, clear-sighted in the knowledge of Gospel truth, watchful over their own hearts, and jealous over each other. When the living creatures went, the wheels went by them, true believers joining with their ministers in the same worship, and followers of their good conversation in Christ; and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up; for the lively frame of the minister’s own soul, breathing in his discourses, has the most immediate tendency to raise up the souls of his hearers to high and heavenly things. Whithersoever the Spirit was to go they went; under the guidance of God’s Spirit they were led; and as he taught and directed, thither was their spirit to go; and the wheels were lifted up over against them, close to the sides of the living creatures; for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels; the same spirit actuating both ministers and people, giving them life and motion: and inseparably united, as animated by one soul, they went, or rested together. So intimate is the fellowship between a minister and his people; when he is active, they will be lively; if he be indolent, they will be ready to be infected thereby. Upon the heads of the living creature was the likeness of the firmament, as the colour of the terrible crystal, bright, dazzling, and transparent; for though the throne of Christ is above the firmament, he sees all things done on earth; his eyes took down upon his church and people, and they by faith are enabled through the Gospel glass to look up to him, and behold his glory. Under the firmament were their wings straight stretched upward, and touching each other, with two others covering each of their sides, and when they went, preaching the Gospel, I heard the noise of their wings like the noise of great waters; so loud and extensive was the sound of their voice bearing the glad tidings of salvation to the distant Gentile lands, as the voice of the Almighty, awful, majestic, powerful: the voice of speech; for though the word is God’s, the messengers are men, as the noise of an host, multitudes being employed in this ministry, and all uniting in one cry, warning every man, and teaching every man, that they may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: and when they stood, they let down their wings, having finished the work on which they were sent, and waiting for fresh instructions, which they receive from Christ their Lord and Master, who speaks from the firmament over their heads; in his word, and by the secret influences of his Spirit, directing them whither to go, and what to speak; encouraging them to persist in their work on earth, or calling their faithful souls to his rest in heaven.
4thly, The most glorious part of the vision is yet to come. The living creatures were but the servants to prepare the way; here the Lord of life appears seated on his royal throne. Above the firmament was the likeness of a throne; the symbol of that universal dominion and eternal kingdom which, as God over all, the Lord Jesus essentially possesses; or which, as Mediator, he has received: as the appearance of a sapphire-stone, very glorious; and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it; even that divine Lord, who in the fulness of time condescended to appear in fashion as a man, and in this human form, before his incarnation, manifested himself to many of his saints. He appeared as the colour of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it; a fire of love to his people, a fire of wrath to his enemies: and this fire which appeared all over him had a brightness round about like the rainbow, similar to which he is represented, Rev 10:1 an emblem of the covenant of grace, in which Christ is the great author, purchaser, and bestower of every blessing. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord; of him who was the brightness of his Father’s glory, and the express image of his person, and in whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily: and when I saw it, I fell upon my face, in humble adoration of this divine Personage, and filled with reverence and godly fear: and I heard a voice of one that spake, with an articulate human voice, delivering to him the commission contained in the following chapter.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Reader! observe the effect on the Prophet’s mind! So was it with Daniel! So was it with John! So must it be with all the faithful! God is awful, in his very mercies. Dan_8:17-18; Dan_10:8 ; Rev 1:17 .
REFLECTIONS
READER! pause at your entrance on this sacred book of God, and ponder well over the great things recorded in this Chapter. Observe the grace of the Lord in following his Church into Babylon. Though his people, are led into captivity for their sins and rebellion: yet the Lord will not, because he cannot, forget his Covenant-relation to them. Blessedly was it said ages before this, that though he gave them into the hand of the heathen, and they that hated them ruled over them: yet he remembered for them his Covenant, and made them to be pitied, of all them that carried them away captives. Oh! for grace to remember this, in all and amidst all the unworthiness of our own hearts. The efficacy and worthiness of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world continues the same; though there be new transgressions in the Lord’s people, from day to day.
Observe also, how graciously the Lord raised up for his people, this faithful servant the Prophet, that while the people had no temple, no service, no sanctuary, to repair to; the Lord’s ministry by his servant, might be the Lord’s witness. Oh! how sweet is it, in the absence of ordinances, to have a faithful friend sent from the Lord, to remind us of his grace, and that his mercy endureth forever!
And Reader! do not forget the awfulness of this vision, by which the Prophet was taught. No doubt, Ezekiel contemplated what he saw, with the most profound humility. And in the reading of it, may our souls go forth under similar impressions, crying out with the heavenly host, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty which is, and which was, and which is to come. What can be more becoming than for creatures such as we are, to fall low to the dust of the earth, in the contemplation of His divine majesty, before whom all the nations of the earth are but as the drop of the bucket, and as the small dust of the balance!
One word more by way of reflection, on this most sublime but precious Chapter. May both Writer and Reader never forget, that amidst all the mysteries of this vision, the face of a man was held forth in it, and a voice was heard by the Prophet, which he distinctly observed. Surely, this could be no other than the Lord Jesus: and the design of it to represent the incarnation of the Lord Jesus, as the most blessed of all revelations to the Church. Reader! pause once more over this view, and ask your own heart, whether such visions of the Lord hath been made to your soul’s joy? Have you seen God in Christ, and hath the Lord the Spirit formed God’s Christ in your heart the hope of glory? Oh! the blessedness of thus knowing Christ! Oh! the mercy manifested to any, and to every poor sinner, whom the Lord Jehovah hath given the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. Every place is then a Chebar, and every day then a Sabbath!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Eze 1:28 As the appearance of the bow 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. And when I saw [it], I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake.
Ver. 28. As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud. ] Here, as in the salt sea, or as in a pot of honey, the deeper the sweeter. The rainbow was set for a sign of the covenant of mercy to mankind Gen 9:12 Isa 54:12 Rev 10:1 See Trapp on “ Rev 10:1 “
This was the appearance, &c.
I fell upon my face.
And I heard a voice.
a Quasi facies suos submittens.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the bow. in the cloud. Reference to Pentateuch (Gen 9:16). App-92. The only allusion to it in O.T. after Genesis. In N.T. compare Rev 4:3; Rev 10:1.
the glory, &c. Compare Eze 3:12, Eze 3:23; Eze 8:4; Eze 9:3; Eze 10:4, Eze 10:18, Eze 10:19; Eze 10:22, Eze 10:23; Eze 43:2, Eze 43:4, Eze 43:5; Eze 44:4.
I fell upon my face. Reference to Pentateuch (Num 14:5; Num 16:4, Num 16:25, Num 16:45). App-92.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
at the appearance of the bow: Gen 9:13-16, Isa 54:8-10, Rev 4:3, Rev 10:1
This: Eze 8:4, Eze 10:19, Eze 10:20, Eze 43:3, Exo 16:7, Exo 16:10, Exo 24:16, Exo 33:18-23, Num 12:6-8, 1Ki 8:10, 1Ki 8:11, 1Co 13:12
I fell: Eze 3:23, Gen 17:3, Lev 9:24, Dan 8:17, Dan 10:7-9, Dan 10:16, Dan 10:17, Mat 17:5, Mat 17:6, Act 9:4, Rev 1:17, Rev 1:18
Reciprocal: Gen 17:17 – fell Exo 24:10 – saw Num 24:4 – falling Jdg 13:20 – fell on Eze 2:1 – stand Eze 10:4 – the glory Eze 43:2 – the glory Eze 44:4 – and I fell Amo 9:1 – I saw Mat 26:39 – and fell Rev 4:2 – a throne
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Eze 1:28. Another figure is added to the picture of the Almighty. He is likened to the rainbow that spans the heavens, betokening the calm that follows a storm and shedding over the earth all of the primary colors. This vision so impressed Ezekiel that he was prostrated and fell dispirited to the ground on his face, where he lay until he heard a voice speaking unto him.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Eze 1:28. As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud The Hebrew future, , is here frequentative, and should be rendered, Is wont to be in the cloud, in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness The meaning is, In the brightness, or light, that was about what I saw, was the appearance of the rainbow. The rainbow, as we learn from Gen 9:12, &c., was appointed as a sign or symbol of Gods covenant of mercy with men: therefore an appearance of a rainbow in this vision signified that amidst his severe judgments God would remember mercy, and not forget his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; one part of which was, that their posterity should not become extinct, but should always remain; so that this appearance gave an assurance that the Jewish nation should not be wholly destroyed, though it should suffer very grievous judgments. And inasmuch as this vision was an evident representation of the WORD that was to be made flesh, whose incarnation was to be the foundation of Gods covenant of mercy with mankind, a rainbow, the symbol and token of mercy, was a very fit attendant on such a glorious vision. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord This is a description of that glorious vision wherein Jehovah appeared to me, and whereby he made manifest his attributes and perfections. The prophet terms it, not the appearance of the glory, but of the likeness of the glory. &c., because the full discovery of the glory of God to any human creature is not consistent with the state of mortality. Exo 33:20-23, but as reserved for the life to come, 1Co 13:12; 1Jn 3:2. And when I saw it I fell upon my face Through a reverential sense of Gods majesty, and his own frailty and meanness; or struck down with fear and astonishment before such glory. And I heard a voice of one that spake They that are first humbled are most prepared to hear the voice of God, whether of instruction or consolation, Mat 5:4; Mat 11:28.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1:28 As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so [was] the appearance of the brightness around. This [was] the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw [it], I fell {o} upon my face, and I heard a voice of one speaking.
(o) Considering the majesty of God, and the weakness of flesh.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
This radiance resembled a rainbow; it encircled the person on the throne. This radiance represents the glory that surrounds Yahweh as He sits on this heavenly throne (cf. Exodus 19; 1 Kings 8; Isaiah 6; Daniel 10; Revelation 4).
"Noah saw the rainbow after the storm (Gen 9:13-16), the Apostle John saw it before the storm (Rev 4:3), but Ezekiel saw it over the storm and in control of the storm." [Note: Warren W. Wiersbe, "Ezekiel," in The Bible Exposition Commentary/Prophets, p. 166.]
Ezekiel realized that what he was seeing was a representation of Yahweh, perhaps the preincarnate Christ, and he fell prostrate on the ground (cf. Eze 3:23; Isa 6:5; Dan 8:17; Dan 10:8-9; Rev 1:17). Then he heard a voice speaking.
"It was a deeply-held tenet of Israelite religion from Moses onwards that God could not be visibly expressed, and for that very reason idolatry was out. But given the possibility of a theophany, no form but the human form could conceivably have been used to represent the Deity. It was, however, no mere human that Ezekiel saw: His radiance was surrounded by the glory of a rainbow, and the prophet could show his awe in no other way than by falling on his face in the dust before his God (28)." [Note: Taylor, p. 59.]
Ezekiel realized that he was in the presence of the glorious, holy God who could judge sin and uncleanness instantaneously and finally. His only appropriate response was humble prostration, throwing himself on God’s mercy (cf. Isa 6:5).
"The opening vision of Ezekiel’s ministry affirmed three significant truths about God that are summarized in Eze 1:28. First, the vision was a reaffirmation of the nature of God as holy, powerful, and majestic. Second, the rainbow was a reminder of God’s promise-making and promise-keeping character (Gen 9:16). It was a rekindler of hope that God could and would help. Third, it was an assurance that nothing, including geographic location, separated one from God (cf. Rom 8:38-39)." [Note: Cooper, p. 72. See also Peter C. Craigie, Ezekiel, pp. 12-14.]
The awesome holiness (otherness, difference, purity, perfection) of God overwhelmed Ezekiel. He undoubtedly associated the revelation in this vision with other similar manifestations that God had given of Himself in Israel’s past: at Mount Sinai, in the wilderness wanderings, at the dedications of the tabernacle and temple, and in Isaiah’s commission. As a priest Ezekiel would have been familiar with these former revelations, as the modern reader of the Old Testament is. Consequently he would have understood much that he saw. It provided a backdrop against which he understood Israel’s sinfulness and God’s judgment of sinful nations. [Note: On the problem of textual corruptions in Eze 1:4-28, see Daniel C. Fredericks, "Diglossia, Revelation, and Ezekiel’s Inaugural Rite," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 41:2 (June 1998):189-99.]
"Jacob saw God at Peniel and his life was transformed from that hour. Moses went up to Mount Sinai and communed with God face to face and thereafter was marked for the rest of his life. Isaiah saw the glory of the Lord in the sanctuary and his entire ministry was suffused with the beauty of the holiness of the Lord. Paul saw the risen and glorified Redeemer on the Damascus road and was blinded from that day on to all the allurements of the world. John saw visions of the glorious unfolding of God’s program for Christ, the church and all the redeemed, and as a result was unmoved by the adverse circumstances that surrounded him. Ezekiel saw visions of the glory of the Lord God of Israel and his ministry never lost the impress of it." [Note: Feinberg, p. 17.]
Every servant of the Lord must appreciate the glory of God to serve Him effectively. One may not see a vision of God’s glory or have a strongly emotional experience that devastates him or her, as Ezekiel did. Nevertheless the Holy Spirit will impress the glory of God on the servant’s heart as that person views God in His Word. Appreciating the glory of God humbles a person and affects how one views other people and all of life.
"Let us hope that the majesty of God would always cause us, similarly, to respect and honor Him." [Note: Stuart, p. 36.]