As I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the ground beside each creature with its four faces. This was the appearance and structure of the wheels: They sparkled like chrysolite, and all four looked alike. Each appeared to be made like a wheel within a wheel (Ezekiel 1:15,16).
Are you confused? You're in good company! The ancient Rabbis forbade anyone to read the Book of Ezekiel until they were at least 40 years of age, because it was, like this passage, so filled with mystery, strange imagery, all very other worldly. The Rabbis were afraid people might be led astray by it all.
We'll give it a try the rest of this week, as Ezekiel was one of the great prophets during the Exile of Israel into Babylon (587 - 520), one who, like Isaiah and Jeremiah, brought both words of judgment and words of great hope.
The point of the imagery today with the "wheel within the wheel" that moved is to show the exiles that God's Spirit was "on the move," and wasn't restricted to Jerusalem or any one location, but was present with them in far away Babylon.
That imagery is important for us as well: the Holy Spirit is available to us wherever we are, or as Psalm 139 says: there is no place we can go that is beyond the presence of God's Spirit. Not today, not ever. Amen. And, Happy Birthday to my Jan!
Pray about taking Disciple 1, 2, 3, 4 or Christian Believer this Fall. 34 weeks. Excellent. Sign ups late August.
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Welcome to the new Trinity United Methodist Church's Daily Scripture Email system.
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