Ezekiel Vision of the Throne of God, Part 1

In keeping with the study of timing revelation, end times and prophecies, as explained in the “about TimingRevelation.com” web site, I begin the article series on the Ezekiel Vision of the Throne of God Part 1.

This is is an expounding of the vision of the throne of God that John encountered according to his writing in the book of Revelation.

Back in December 2022, I wrote a three-part article dealing with the judgments of the end times in the timing of the book of revelation.

In this article today I'm going to expound on the vision of Ezekiel that I touched on in part two of the above mentioned articles, and focus on the magnificence of the throne of God going on in heaven.

This is a real revelation of the awesome view, understanding and reality of the majestic throne of God, which refutes, in my humble opinion, the misinterpretation of some skeptics that say the vision was about UFO's and Aliens. Ah...

First, let's begin with some scriptures about who the Lord Jesus Christ is:

(Please note that scriptures throughout these articles are from the King James Version. I have inserted, here and there, some words in brackets to facilitate the understanding of some of the old English language.)

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Jesus Christ the fullness of the Godhead bodily

Colossians, chapter 1, vs 14-17:

14, “In whom (speaking of Jesus Christ) we have redemption through his blood, (that is) the forgiveness of sins:

15, “Who (Jesus Christ) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:

16, “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:

17, “And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

Colossians, chapter 2, verses 9, 10:

9, “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

10, “And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:”

This is very clear that the fullness of the Godhead bodily resides permanently in Jesus Christ –the God who came to earth in the form of a man. In Him is all the attributes and essence of deity – not just divinity but deity; not just Godlike but God; not just a nature like God's but a nature the same as God's. Bodily meaning in his incarnation of deity and humanity as the God-man... and as such He is the head of all principality and power. (From the Liberty Bible Commentary.)

The vision of Ezekiel

For many, the book of Ezekiel is a hard passage of scripture to read. But I hope here to sort out and decipher a lot of the mysteries attached to it. As I said earlier some have misinterpreted this chapter to be a depiction of Aliens and UFO's -- by this of course they only show their lack of knowledge of God and the things of God.

And then you have others who may be believers but have no time nor hunger enough to look deep into these revelations, with prayer and awe of the greatness of who God is... because that's what it takes to understand such revelations: time, prayer and deep interaction with the Holy Spirit of God, to come to an understanding of what God is telling us through this portion of awesome communication from God to man.

I think of the song “Our God is an awesome God, he reigns from heaven above, with wisdom, power and love, our God is an awesome God”, which you can get on YouTube.

Ezekiel was exiled to Babylonia in 597 B.C. The captivity lasted 70 years from about 606 to 536 B.C. and Ezekiel was there from 597 B.C. to about 570 B.C. at least -- according to Halley's Bible Handbook. He was a contemporary of Jeremiah and Daniel around the time of the Babylonian captivity.

At some point in time in that captivity Ezekiel was charged by God to be a spokesman and watchman to the people. He was exiled to Babylonia along with many other Jewish captives whom the Word of God refers to as “good figs” (you can read about this in Jeremiah chapters 24 and 29). All the vessels of the Temple had been brought out of Jerusalem at that time as well. His name Ezekiel means “God strengthens”.

Preacher of repentance and judgment

It helps here to know that Ezekiel was from a priestly family and very familiar with Jerusalem and its Temple. He was primarily a preacher of repentance and judgment, along with Jeremiah and Daniel, bringing constant warnings to the people who had become rebellious and idolaters given to paganism.

By divine revelation Ezekiel was now charged by God to be God's consoler and prophet to the “good figs” (the upper-class) captives in Babylonia. We see him later on in the famous chapters 38 and 39 prophesying against the nations led by Gog and Magog in the end times.

So, let's go to the vision of chapter 1 and decipher what the Great God of the universe is communicating to His people (and to us today) through this great priestly prophet Ezekiel in around 593 B.C.

Verse 3 of chapter 1 reads:

“The word of the Lord came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar (k-bar); and the hand of the Lord was there upon him.”

And v.4 begins the vision taking place:

“And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding (engulfing) itself, and a brightness (brilliancy) was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber (the word here means a shining bronze), out of the midst of the fire.”

The Vision

So the vision begins at v.4 of chapter 1:

“And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding (engulfing) itself, and a brightness (or a brilliancy) was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber (the word here means a shining bronze), out of the midst of the fire.”

Ezekiel sees that majestic phenomenon appearing before him. Notice that amidst all of this vision we repeatedly see these whirlwinds, clouds and fires...

And we will see more on that in a moment in Psalm 104:3. This awesome thing that Ezekiel is beholding comes from the North. As we know from scriptures, in the Bible we are told that God's habitation is in the North. We also read of much activities taking place upon Israel coming from the North throughout the Old Testament as well as in the prophecies of the future end times.

For example

In Isaiah 14, verses 12-14 we read:

12, “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

13, “For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:

14, “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

We find many of the detailed aspects of the vision referred to as whirlwind, great cloud, and fire, in these passages of scripture. We also find these in scriptures in the Word of God from various times throughout history, which all corroborate with what Ezekiel saw at this very time in history.

In Psalm 104, we read in verses 1-4:

1, “Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty.

2, “Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain:

3, “Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind:

4, “Who maketh his angels (mal'āḵ --mal-awk'= messengers) spirits (ruah—roo'-akh = winds, breath); his ministers (šāraṯ -- shaw-rath' = serving agents) a flaming (lāhaṭ -- law-hat' = or a blazing) fire”...

Who maketh the clouds his chariot

Notice verse 3 “who maketh the clouds his chariot”. These clouds are described as “the dust of his feet” in Nahum 1:3 -- “The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.”

The Hebrew word here for clouds is “anan” (pronounced aw-nawn) (H6051) and is the same word seen in Ezekiel 1, verse 4).

We are told in several New Testament scriptures that Jesus will be seen and/or will be coming in the clouds -- Matthew 24:30; Matthew 26:64; Mark 13:26; Mark 14:62; 1 Thessalonians 4:17.

As for the word “whirlwind”, there are various words in the original language that translate into this word. But of these there are two in particular that are akin to the description taking place in these scripture passages of Ezekiel:

Second Kings 2:1 -- “And it came to pass, when the LORD would take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal.”

Second Kings 2:11 -- “And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.”

Here again we see the whirlwind and fire accompanying God's awesome chariot.

Both times in the original Hebrew this word, whirlwind, is translated from “sa'ar”, (pronounced “sa-air”), Strong's #H5591. And this word whirlwind is used over 24 times throughout the Old Testament, translated from various other Hebrew words. In other words, sometimes when we read in the King James Version the word “whirlwind”, it is also translated to, strong winds, tempest, storm, etc..

But in the case of the scriptures quoted above from 2nd Kings chapter 2, these are speaking of the same kind of whirlwind as we find in the book of Ezekiel referring to the chariot of God.

In Daniel 7, we read this in v. 9 & 10:

9, “I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire.

10, “A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.

Here we hear again about fire and fiery elements.

Quite a description from the book of Daniel who had never yet heard of the book of Revelation.

The four living creatures

Now in Ezekiel chapter 1 v. 5-6, we are told of 4 living creatures:

5, “Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man.”

So they looked like a man – in other words not an animal or a thing, but like a man.

v.6, “And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings.”

What are these living creatures? They are “Cherubim”. We read about them in several scriptures. (We saw earlier that cherubim is the plural of cherub).

We also read about them very early in the book of Genesis, for the first time in chapter 3 and verse 24:-- “So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.” Remember this term “which turned every way”.

Then in the book of Exodus, chapter 25, verses 18 to 22, concerning the making of the ark of the covenant where cherubim were placed on the mercy seat.

And they are mentioned some sixty-five times in the Old testament, one time in the book of Hebrews in the New Testament, in chapter 9 and verse 5. And “cherub”, the singular of cherubim, is mentioned some thirty times in the Old Testament.

In Psalm 99:1, we read: “The Lord reigneth; let the people tremble: he sitteth between the cherubim; let the earth be moved.” These cherubim are the creatures closest to the throne of God... they are special beings associated with God's holiness.

Lucifer a created cherub

Interestingly we learn in Ezekiel 28, verse 14-15 that Lucifer was a created cherub: “Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.”

The word for “covereth” (H5526, sakak, pronounced saw-kak) is the same as the word in Exodus 25:20 about the cherubim covering the mercy seat... very fascinating. (I will do a special study on this in the near future).

We read in Ezekiel 1, verse 10 about the 4 faces of the cherubim:

“As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle.”

What about the 4 faces?

Well, this too will be the subject of further study in the near future. But for now, let me share what I found in the Liberty Bible Commentary ... it says:

“All power, glory, and authority belong to God. However, He uses rational intelligences to govern, including the angelic host. The face of man may well represent the realm of intelligence among God's creatures; the face of the lion, the majesty of his creation; the face of the ox, the patient service that creation returns to Him; and the face of the eagle, swiftness to see and bring judgment where needed.”

This is very interesting. However I have no doubt that there is also further meanings behind these allegories. And I will do an article on that as I mentioned just above. This may be where Satan got the idea for this AI frenzy we're hearing so much about in these chaotic end times. Just saying.

For now, let's look at the number “4”. This is an interesting number.... in scripture it represents the number of universality... roughly the meanings of numbers are for example:

1._Unity,
2._Union,
3._Harmony, Trinity,
4._Universality, Creation, World,
5._Grace,
6._Man, weakness
7._God, Perfection, Fullness
8._New beginning,
etc.

Most of the numbers in the Bible will have two or three meaningful representations. I'm just doing a quick outline to give us an idea here... but certainly an interesting study to undertake if you have the time and the interest.

As I already alluded to earlier, “Cherub” and “cherubim” are the same word, cherub is singular of cherubim.

In the Gesenius' Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon, we read this: (Source link)

TimingRevelation_Cherubims80

The four faces

Now as to the four faces, this would give the creatures the ability to see all around them without having to turn from side to side to look or to walk in any direction... in other words they cannot miss anything going on around them.

The number 4

About the number 4 which represents universality, we read in Revelation 7 vs 1-3 --

“And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.

“And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,

“Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.”

And right here, I will pick up again in Part 2 of this article on The Vision of Ezekiel, where I will expand on the creatures surrounding the throne of God and ultimately the chain of divine command taking place in heaven.

In the meantime, check this out on YouTube -- “ Our God is an Awesome God ”

\DMH

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