The enigma of God’s throne (Ezekiel 1)

By the rivers of Babylon, Ezekiel sat like a fish out of water. Despite all the glitz and glamour of Babylon, he didn’t fit here. He was living in a world that didn’t match his identity. It’s a feeling many of us can relate to.

But what could Ezekiel do? He didn’t really want to be there. Everything he valued was falling apart. A huge storm was brewing, about to blow everything away. It had already swept westward, and now it was turning south towards Egypt, with Ezekiel’s city (Jerusalem) in the firing line. It felt like a hurricane no one could survive.

That’s when Ezekiel looked up and saw another storm in the heavens, north of Babylon:

Ezekiel 1:1-6 (NIV)
¹ In my 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. …
⁴ I looked, and I saw a windstorm coming out of the north — an immense cloud with flashing lightning and surrounded by brilliant light. The centre of the fire looked like glowing metal, ⁵ and in the fire was what looked like four living creatures. In appearance their form was human, ⁶ but each of them had four faces and four wings.

You might freak out if you saw creatures like that, but hybrid creatures were part of Ezekiel’s world. The Assyrians had a power they called Lamassu, depicted as the head of a human, the body of a bull or lion, and the wings of a bird (image above). Babylon inherited such claims to power when they conquered Assyria.

To a priest like Ezekiel, such images were blasphemous propaganda, representations of gods whose power the nations claimed. But what Ezekiel saw in the storm were not lifeless images but living creatures from another world.

The living creatures had the power of the most intelligent, regal, strong, soaring creatures we know. The living creatures in the storm moved as fast as the lightning flashing around them, covered with eyes that see everything.

The throne

And that’s not all. As fearsome as they seemed, the living creatures were not the main feature. There was something else among them, something far more powerful, something engineered in another dimension that turns out to be a throne (verse 26).

Ezekiel 1:15-18 (NIV)
¹⁵ As I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the ground beside each creature with its four faces. ¹⁶ This was the appearance and structure of the wheels: They sparkled like topaz, and all four looked alike. Each appeared to be made like a wheel intersecting a wheel. ¹⁷ As they moved, they would go in any one of the four directions the creatures faced; the wheels did not change direction as the creatures went. ¹⁸ Their rims were high and awesome, and all four rims were full of eyes all around.

The heavenly throne is unlike anything engineered on earth. Where an earthly ruler’s throne is set in one location, the throne in the midst of the living creatures is mobile, covering all territory at once. Where an earthly king takes time to react to changing situations, the heavenly throne responds instantly, without any pause to turn or change direction.

Ezekiel’s first vision revealed that Babylon is not the ultimate throne. Despite all her propaganda, all her armies, all her might, she’s no match for the one who reigns in the heavens, surrounded by creatures more than able to implement his decrees.

It’s as Ezekiel described it: visions of God (verse 1). Earth’s true sovereign is:

• omnipresent (present everywhere), for his chariot has wheels that move anywhere without stopping to turn and change direction (1:15-21)
• omniscient (all-knowing), for there are eyes all around (1:18)
• omnipotent (all-powerful), for he holds the throne of radiant glory, far above any earthly authority or threat (1:25-28).

Babylon has made a tragic mistake by threatening the existence of the nation that represents God’s kingdom. Babylon has miscalculated, overstepping its boundaries with its blasphemous claims of ruling the world. Babylon has failed to recognize the heavenly throne and the living creatures that support his instantaneous, global, all-powerful throne.

God is here. Even in Babylon. God knows their plans. God’s is reigning over the earth and the heavens. Omnipresent. Omniscient. Omnipotent.

The ruler

So what is God like? C’mon, Ezekiel, you’ve described the living creatures. Please tell us about the one who sits on the throne! What did you see?

Ezekiel 1:26 (NIV)
Above the vault over their heads was what looked like a throne of lapis lazuli, and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a man.

Huh? God looks human? Really? That’s strange!

How could God look anything like a human ruler? God can’t be like the Babylonian kings who fight wars to extend their power. God can’t even be like the Jerusalem kings whom God sacked because they were feeding on the flock instead of protecting them (Ezekiel 34). Surely God isn’t anything like us!

It’s true: we’d be foolish to make God in our image. But God looks like us because we’re made in his image. We’re the living creatures on earth who surround his throne.

In his wisdom, God didn’t make us as strong as an ox to crush anyone in our path. God didn’t make us as rapacious as a lion to eat each other for dinner. God didn’t make us to soar in the heavens like an eagle. But God did crown us with glory and honour, entrusting all the creatures of the earth to our care, as we represent his majestic authority in all the earth (Psalm 8:6-9).

Tragically, we turned from serving God to serving ourselves, acting like animals that crush everything in their path, eating each other for dinner as Babylon was doing to the nations. In turning from him, we lost the glory of the Lord.

And this is the moment when Ezekiel discovered his identity in a world where he didn’t fit. His identity came not from within himself or from the society around him, but from beyond, from the sovereign who formed him in his image, giving him his identity.

Ezekiel 1:28–2:1 (NIV)
²⁸ Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him. 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. 2 ¹ He said to me, “Son of man, stand up on your feet and I will speak to you.”

The partnership

This moment was the foundation of an astounding relationship between two beings: the Sovereign Lord and the one he calls Human.

God doesn’t address Ezekiel as son of Levi, for the temple was about to fall. God doesn’t address him as son of Israel, for the nation was falling. God addresses him as son of man, descendant of humanity, human. More than 90 times throughout this book, God addresses Ezekiel simply as Human.

And the one who speaks to Human is not named just YHWH, the covenant God of Israel. He is Adony YHWH, the ruler YHWH, the Sovereign Lord (NIV). That’s God’s name more than 200 times in Ezekiel. The Sovereign Lord reigns over all the earth — even Babylon.

What an odd couple Sovereign Lord and Human make! Together, they’re a collaboration between heaven and earth. In the occupied world, faced with devastating opposition against God’s authority, Ezekiel fulfils his role as Human, hearing the voice of Sovereign Lord for all who will follow.

Ezekiel discovered his identity when he looked beyond his sorry self and saw someone beyond his imagination, someone all-powerful, all-knowing, always present, someone who doesn’t dominate us but calls us into partnership with himself. Ezekiel discovered what it means to be Human in relationship with Sovereign Lord.

It’s the most glorious identity we could ever know, living in the divine image, an honoured partner with the sovereign of the universe, caring for his world where so much isn’t running right.

And as Ezekiel discovered, Sovereign Lord doesn’t just tell us what to do. Did you notice that the one who gives us our identity breathes his own life into us, so we come to life in him?

That’s what Ezekiel discovered by the waters of Babylon: He said to me, “Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you.” And as he spoke to me, the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard him speaking to me (Ezekiel 2:1-2 ESV).

What others are saying

Christopher J. H. Wright, The Message of Ezekiel: A New Heart and a New Spirit, The Bible Speaks Today (Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 2001), 49–52:

Ezekiel has bequeathed to the English language the phrase ‘wheels within wheels’ as a term for something convoluted and difficult to comprehend. … Total and unrestricted freedom of movement seems to be the primary function of these wheels. …

On the throne …  was a figure like that of a man. The climactic vision of the deity himself is in human form … God appears in the likeness of a human being, albeit in glowing, fiery splendour that anticipates the transfiguration of the incarnate Son of God himself. …

By the very location of the vision itself, Yahweh is here. … For many Israelites Yahweh was defeated, disabled, disgraced, and certainly very, very distant. … The conclusion that Yahweh had abandoned them must have been close to irresistible — until today, his thirtieth birthday. Yahweh, in all his kingdom, power and glory, has arrived in Babylon.

Daniel Isaac Block, The Book of Ezekiel, Chapters 1–24, NICOT (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1997), 115:

Ezekiel’s call to divine service is described in ancient royal court language. Having been brought into the presence of a monarch, a person would signify subjection with the gesture of prostration. And one would not dare to rise until one had received authorization to do so from the king. Ezekiel may be a ben-ʾādām, “a mere human,” but infused with the rûaḥ he may—indeed, he must—stand in God’s presence.

Related posts

• God’s call and the human response (Isaiah 6:1-13)
• Where is God’s reign when the kingdom falls? (Jeremiah 41–52)
• Son of Man in Ezekiel
• Humans as the king’s agents