Ezekiel by the River

In context

Ezekiel, a priest, is among the captives taken to Babylon with King Jehoiachin. In the fifth year of that captivity, about 593 BC, by the river Chebar, “the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God” (Ezekiel 1:1–3). The captives live at a place called Tel Aviv (3:15), the name the modern city in Israel later took.

Out of a storm come four living creatures, each with the faces of a man, a lion, an ox and an eagle, and beside them wheels like “a wheel within a wheel,” their rims full of eyes. Above them is a throne, and on it “a likeness as the appearance of a man,” with brightness all around like a rainbow: “the appearance of the likeness of Yahweh’s glory” (1:4–28). John later sees four living creatures around God’s throne, like a lion, a calf, a man and an eagle (Revelation 4:6–7).

Ezekiel is sent to “a rebellious house,” to speak “whether they will hear, or whether they will refuse” (Ezekiel 2:3–7). He eats a scroll of “lamentations, mourning, and woe,” and it is “as sweet as honey in my mouth,” as John’s little book will be (3:1–3; Revelation 10:9–10). The Lord makes him a watchman, to warn the wicked and the righteous alike (Ezekiel 3:17–21).