以西结书

Meditative Reflection
The Awesome Glory and Power of God

“In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month on the fifth day, while I was among the exiles by the Kebar River, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.” (Ezek. 1:1)

While the first vision revealed to Ezekiel contains many hard-to-understand contents, especially that of the four living creatures, it does reveal the majestic glory and power of the Lord. If even His servants, the cherubim, have such awesome appearance and power, who can thwart the plan of the Lord? However, the special setting of the vision gives further meaning to such an awesome vision in that

- It is given at the time Judah, for all intents and purposes, is under the control of Babylon and Jeremiah has already predicted the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple. Therefore, this vision serves to dispel the notion that the Lord has lost its control and is inferior to the gods of Babylon;

- On the contrary, the appearance of the Lord’s glory in Babylon powerfully demonstrates that the Lord is not just the God of Israel, but the Lord of all the nations; and

- For Ezekiel to be His prophet to speak judgment to His people and the nations and to prophesy the drastic renewal of the heart of the people in the future to worship Him in the heavenly temple, the prophet himself cannot just speak as His mouth-piece, he himself needs to experience His glory and power first-hand.

Indeed, the Book of Ezekiel is important not only to the people of Ezekiel’s time, but to us today in that

- Irrespective how the weak the church may be, God is still in absolute control of human history; no one and no power on earth or in heaven can thwart His plan; and

- To all servants of the Lord who are used as His mouthpiece in these last hours, we need to focus on His power and His glory in order to be used effectively by Him.

Meditative Reflection
Vain Curiosity

“This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. When I saw it, I fell facedown and I heard the voice of one speaking.” (Ezek. 1:28b)

The awesome appearances of both the four living creatures and God Himself in particular have caused the prophet to fall facedown and worship the Lord. This is exactly what the Apostle John did at the appearance of our Lord Jesus to him on the island of Patmos (Rev. 1:17). However, our finite human minds fail to fully grasp the meaning of such heavenly visions and our limited human vocabulary is at a loss to describe adequately the reality of the glory of heavenly beings, let alone the Lord Himself. It is very unfortunate that many well-meaning bible teachers have resorted to all kinds of fanciful interpretation of such heavenly appearance, and in the case of this first vision, of the four living creatures. Allow me to quote from John Calvin’s comment in this respect as a caution to us today:

“Now if anyone asks whether the vision is lucid, I confess its obscurity, and that I can scarcely understand it…

- Some understand by the four animals the four seasons of the year, and think that the power of God in the government of the whole world is here celebrated. But that sense is far-fetched.

- Some think the four virtues are represented—because, as they say, the image of justice is conspicuous in man, that of prudence in the eagle, fortitude in the lion, of endurance in the ox. Yet although this is shrewd conjecture it has no solidity.

- Some take the contrary view, and think that four passions are here intended, viz. fear and hope, sorrow and joy.

- Some think that three faculties of mind are denoted…But these guesses are also puerile.

- It was formerly the received opinion, that under this figure were depicted the four Evangelists…But in this fiction here is no stability, for it would all vanish, if it were to be properly examined.” (Calvin’s Commentaries, XI, 62-63)

Although Calvin did venture to give his own interpretation, he ended with this fitting prayer at the end of his commentary on the entire visions:

“Great, O Almighty God, since of Thine unbounded goodness, Thou hast counted us worthy of such honor as to descend to earth in the person of Thine only begotten Son, and to appear familiarly to us daily in Thy gospel, in which we contemplate Thy living image:- grant, I pray Thee, that we may not abuse so great a benefit to vain curiosity, but may truly transformed into Thy glory, and so proceed more and more, in the renewal of our mind and conduct, that we may at length be gathered to that eternal glory which has been obtained for us by Thine only-begotten Son, our Lord. Amen.” (Ditto, 107)

Meditative Reflection
Sweeter than Honey

“On both sides of it were written words of lament and mourning and woe…So I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth.” (Ezek. 2:10; 3:3)

Both Ezekiel and the Apostle John were asked to eat a scroll in their mission to preach the word of the Lord, and both ate it and said it tasted as sweet as honey (Ezek. 3:3; Rev. 10:10), although John mentioned that it turned sour in his stomach. However, in both instances, important truths about the word of God are being conveyed in that

- Irrespective of the message from God, and in both cases, the messages are certainly full of prophesies of judgment, when one tastes the word of God, it is invariably sweet, as the Psalmist also testifies, “They are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb” (Ps. 19:10). Job also testifies to this very fact in that in spite of his immense sufferings and prolonged struggle over the apparent silence of God, once God opened His mouth, even though those were harsh words addressed to Job (Job 38-41), that was enough for him. He did not only feel vindicated, but must have felt like eating honey in his mouth. Indeed, while we certainly did not have the same experience as Ezekiel and John, every time we hear God speak to our souls, it is the most wonderful experience; and

- It reminds all servants of the Lord that we are not free to speak what we want as His servant, but only what He puts in our mouth—in our case, what God has revealed to us in His Holy Scriptures. This also reminds me of what Rev. Stephen Chan says of the importance of having a clear sense of “calling” for all God’s servant: “If God has not called and sent you, what message can you bring to the people?”

Meditative Reflection
Identifying with God’s Passion

“I went into bitterness and in the anger of my spirit with the strong hand of the Lord upon me.” (Ezek. 3:14)

We have just considered how sweet it is to eat God’s word; it is the experience of both Ezekiel and the Apostle John, and yet they both also experienced the “after-taste” of word of God. In John’s case, it quickly turns sour in his stomach (Rev. 10:10); in Ezekiel’s case, it seemed to take a bit longer, but just the same, he eventually feels “bitterness” and “anger” in his spirit (Ezek. 3:14).

Both give us a vivid picture of how the messengers of God have learned to identify with the passion of the Sender. The mission of John is to “prophesy again about many peoples, nations and languages and kings” (Rev. 10:11) and the messages are primarily one of judgment, severe judgment of a world that has rebelled against the Lord. The sourness is not only what John feels in his stomach, but the feeling of God Himself—as He judges, His heart aches and He feels no delight. That is the passion of God that His messenger, John, must identify with.

The same with Ezekiel. The message is one of “lament and mourning and woe” (Ezek. 2:10), because the judgment is primarily pronounced on the house of Israel who is “hardened and obstinate” (Ezek. 3:7). Therefore, the eating of the word of God is certainly sweet—what a blessed experience, the servant needs to identify with the feelings of the Master, and thus at the feeling of the “strong hand of the Lord” (3:14), Ezekiel feels the bitterness and anger of the Lord as well.

It is an important reminder for us all, servants of the Lord Jesus, that as we are sent to bear witness for Him, we need to identify with our Lord’s feeling as well. As much as we are also pronouncing words of judgment on the unbelieving world (as prophesied even by Ezekiel and John), we need to share God’s passion of love in that “He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9).

Meditative Reflection
The Turning of the Righteous to Do Evil

“Again, when a righteous man turns from this righteousness and does evil...” (Ezek. 3:20)

“Some have looked at this passage for support against the eternal security of the believer. The ‘righteous’ man, they say, can turn from his righteousness and die an eternal death. It is necessary, however, that the reader understand the context of Ezekiel’s writing and the usage of the term ‘righteous’ in the Old Testament. Israel was supposed to do the righteousness contained in the principles of the Mosaic covenant (cf. Deut. 16:20; 1 Sam. 24:17; 1 Ki. 8:32; Hos. 14:9; Ps. 119:7, 106, 121, 144, 160, 172; Isa. 58:2). To do all the stipulations of the Law was to be righteous and thereby to live in the land of promise (cf. Deut. 6:25; 16:20). The Mosaic covenant pointed one to the Messiah and set forth a way of life for the believer in the Messiah through its commandments, but just the following of these commandments alone never gave anyone eternal life. Eternal righteousness and salvation are only by faith — a message proclaimed throughout the entire Scriptures. The ‘righteous’ in this section was the believer in the Messiah who had been righteous in his following of the stipulations of the Mosaic covenant, but then turned from them. Ezekiel announced the judgment of God upon the nation of Israel because she had failed to keep the Mosaic covenant thereby act (un)righteously.” (Ralph Alexander. Ezekiel, 17)

Meditative Reflection
The Ministry of Incarnation

“Then lie on your left side and put the sin of the house of Israel upon yourself to bear their sin for the number of days you lie on your side.” (Ezek. 4:4)

One of the most remarkable things of the Book of Ezekiel is the 12 dramatic symbolic acts that the Lord requires Ezekiel to perform as part of His message to the people. While these symbolic acts powerfully convey in a visual manner the message to the people and have definitely left an almost inerasable memory in the mind of the people, there is another important aspect to it that we should not overlook.

Take the second symbolic act that the Lord requires Ezekiel to perform as an example, the lying on one side for 390 days and the lying on the other side for 40 days “to bear the sin of the house of” Israel and Judah respectively (4:4-8). We can imagine how uncomfortable it must have been for Ezekiel to be tied with a rope and to lie in bed (likely only during night time) on one side for 390 days—those who have been confined to bed-rest in the hospital can tell you about the immense discomfort and pain, and we are talking about over a period of over a year and a month—no turning to the other side and no massages of your back!

It is because of this painful experience that Ezekiel tastes of the pain and burden of bearing the sins of the people to whom he is calling to repentance. We know that subsequently, it is our Lord Jesus Christ who has come to become one of us, tasting our sufferings and bearing our sins all the way to the cross. Ezekiel is simply “following the footsteps” of our Lord, and it reminds all of us that we never minister to God’s people as a detached third party, simply bombarding them with harsh criticism. We need to feel their pain and understand their plight as we seek to minister to them.

Meditative Reflection
Do not Take the Word of God Lightly

“They will be appalled at the sight of each other and will waste away because of their sin.” (Ezek. 4:17)

The judgment pronounced by the Lord through Ezekiel in 4:16-17 is nothing new; it has been foretold by Moses some 1,000 years ago:

“But if you will not listen to me and carry out all these commands, and if you reject my decrees and abhor my laws, and fail to carry out all my commands, then I will do this to you…I will send a plague among you and you will be given into enemy hands. When I cut off your supply of bread, ten women will be able to bake our bread in one oven, and they will dole out the bread by weight. You will eat, but will not be satisfied” (Lev. 26:14-16, 25-26).

Now with the impending siege of Jerusalem, and their second deportation, they have literally been “given into enemy hands”. However a great plague is being prophesied by the Lord through Ezekiel, and that is a great famine in which they will “eat rationed food in anxiety”. Indeed, as Moses already prophesied, then women will still be able to bake bread, except that because of the limited portion rationed to each of them, they have to watch whether their limited portion would be stolen by other women while it is being baked in the same oven. That is the “anxiety” Ezekiel refers to, but it does not stop there, because eventually the ration would stop and they will “waste away”—a most horrible depiction of a slow and painful death.

It is a tragedy that these days, as we honestly warn the world of the impending judgment of God at the return of our Lord Jesus and the horrible “hurt” of the second death (Rev. 2:11), the world brands us as preachers of “fire and brimstones” and even some Christians see us as teachers of “gloom and doom”. This, unfortunately, is the reception that Ezekiel received, and yet his message has come to pass exactly as God has foretold. While the house of Israel has little excuse for their fate, our world will have absolutely no excuse because, as the Apostle Paul says, what happened to the house of Israel has served as “examples and were written down as warnings for us on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come” (1 Cor. 10:11).