In this message we will consider Ezekiel 1:4. This verse covers four main things: the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum. First, a stormy wind came from the north. Second, a great cloud came along with the wind. Third, there was a fire enfolding itself. Fourth, out of the fire there appeared the glowing electrum.
Genesis 1 begins with a word concerning God, and Ezekiel 1 opens with a glorious vision of God. Those who know God can testify that our spiritual experiences are according to our knowledge of God. Likewise, our service and the church affairs also depend on our knowledge of God. The degree of our knowing God will determine both the degree of our spiritual experience and the situation of the church. Spiritually speaking, everything we have depends on God’s being, vision, and manifestation and on our knowing God.
The visions in the book of Ezekiel begin not with man but with God. The visions, which begin from the north, where God is, show us God in His will, plan, intention, work, action, and relationship with man. These visions reveal what God expects man to be in relation to Him. In addition to the four items mentioned above, the visions in chapter one include the four living creatures, the high and dreadful wheels, a sky as clear as crystal, God’s glorious throne, and the man upon the throne. As we consider God’s glorious visions in this chapter, we need to pay careful attention to all these matters.
The Bible is a book of pictures revealing to us God and the spiritual things. God is Spirit, and as such He is abstract, mysterious, invisible, intangible, and unfathomable. Not only is God abstract, but all spiritual things are also abstract. Without the pictures in the Bible, it would be rather difficult for us to understand God and the spiritual things. In His wisdom God uses visible, material things to describe invisible, spiritual things. Furthermore, He uses signs and symbols to express abstract, mysterious matters. For this reason the Bible uses many types, figures, and pictures to describe and portray spiritual things.
A great many items in the universe are symbols of spiritual things. For example, the sun symbolizes Christ as our light (Mal. 4:2; Luke 1:78), and food symbolizes Christ as our sustenance (John 6:35). Actually, all the positive things in the universe may be used to portray what Christ is to us. God’s intention in His creation is to use the things of creation to illustrate what Christ is. This means that the entire universe came into existence for the purpose of describing Christ. For example, if vines had not been created, the Lord Jesus could not have used a vine to describe Himself (John 15:1). If there were no foxes or birds, Christ could not have compared His situation in His ministry to that of foxes with their holes and birds with their roosts (Matt. 8:20). Even the pasture was created so that the Lord Jesus could use it as an illustration of Himself (John 10:9). Because the universe with the billions of things and persons in it was created for the purpose of describing Christ, He, in revealing Himself, can find in any environment something to serve as an illustration of Himself. The whole universe is a picture of Christ. If we see this, we will realize how rich, profound, unlimited, and unsearchable Christ is.
Just as the Bible as a whole is a picture book, so Ezekiel as a miniature of the Bible is also a picture book, a book full of pictures. These pictures are presented in the form of visions. The visions Ezekiel saw were absolutely related to God and to spiritual things and therefore should not be understood in a literal, physical way. If we try to interpret the visions in Ezekiel literally, we will not be able to understand them.
When I was young, I could not understand the book of Ezekiel. The more I read this book, the more confused I became. In particular, I could not understand the matter of the four living creatures. Each of the living creatures had four faces: at the front, the face of a man; on the right, the face of a lion; on the left, the face of an ox; and at the back, the face of an eagle (Ezek. 1:5-6, 10). Furthermore, “the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf’s foot,” and “they had the hands of a man under their wings” (vv. 7a, 8a). I thought that the picture of the living creatures was very strange, and I could not understand it at all. I thank the Lord that as I gradually advanced in my spiritual experience, I began to understand the visions in Ezekiel, comparing the record in Ezekiel with other portions of the Word. Eventually, like someone putting together the pieces of a puzzle in order to have a complete picture, I put various parts of the Word together and began to see the pictures of the spiritual matters portrayed in the book of Ezekiel, realizing that Ezekiel uses visible, physical things to signify spiritual things. Now in our study of Ezekiel we need to see the intrinsic spiritual significance of the pictures in this book, considering them in light of the entire Bible and comparing them with our spiritual experience.
Let us now begin to consider the four matters in Ezekiel 1:4 point by point.