YEAR 3, WEEK 36, Day 5, Friday, 4 September 2026

https://literalword.com/esv?q=ezekiel+1

Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Friday, 4 September 2026:

Here is a short video overview of Ezekiel, chapters 1-3 — https://bibleproject.com/videos/ezekiel-1-33/

Ezekiel ministered during one of the darkest periods in Israel’s history. A priest as well as a prophet, he was among the Jews taken into Babylonian exile with King Jehoiachin in 597 B.C. When his ministry began about five years later, Jerusalem and the temple were still standing, and many exiles apparently hoped their captivity would soon end. Instead, Ezekiel was called to confront the same stubborn rebellion Jeremiah had condemned in Jerusalem and warn that greater judgment was coming. Jerusalem would fall, the temple would be destroyed, and the people would learn that religious privilege could never substitute for faithful relationship with God.

Yet judgment is not the final word of Ezekiel. The book moves from rebellion and judgment toward restoration and renewed relationship with God. Again and again God acts so that His people and the nations “shall know that I am the LORD.” His glory dominates the book: Ezekiel sees the glory of God in Babylon, watches it depart from the defiled temple, and eventually sees it return to the restored dwelling of God among His people. Along the way, God promises to gather His scattered people, give them a new heart and a new spirit, cleanse them from their sin, put His Spirit within them, raise what is dead to life, give them one Shepherd from the line of David, and dwell among them forever.

These promises ultimately lead us to Christ and the Gospel. Jesus is the true Shepherd who gathers God’s scattered sheep, the Son of David who reigns forever, and the One through whom God gives His Spirit and makes spiritually dead people alive. What Ezekiel anticipates in visions and promises becomes reality through Christ’s death and resurrection and will reach its fullness when God dwells forever with His redeemed people. Ezekiel therefore confronts us with both the terrible seriousness of sin and the astonishing grace of the God who does not merely repair His people’s circumstances but gives them new hearts so they can know Him, belong to Him, and increasingly reflect His character.

Ezekiel 1:1-3 — In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the Chebar canal, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God…. the word of the LORD came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the Chebar canal, and the hand of the LORD was upon him there.

The book begins with a profound surprise: God reveals Himself in Babylon.

Ezekiel was a priest far from the temple where a priest would ordinarily expect to serve God. He was among the exiles, surrounded by visible evidence of national defeat and divine judgment. Everything about his circumstances could have suggested that God was far away. Yet “the heavens were opened,” the word of the LORD came to him, and “the hand of the LORD was upon him there.”

There is enormous significance in that final word: there. God was not confined to Jerusalem. Babylon’s gods had not defeated Him, and Nebuchadnezzar had not carried Israel beyond His reach. The exile itself was under His sovereign hand, and God could meet His servant in Babylon as certainly as He could meet him in the temple. The vision that follows makes this unmistakable: the throne of God is mobile because the reign of God is universal.

This is important whenever our circumstances make God seem distant. We easily associate God’s presence with familiar places, routines, relationships, ministries, health, prosperity, or seasons in which life appears ordered. When those things disappear, we can begin to wonder whether God has disappeared with them. But the God Ezekiel encounters is already present in the place Ezekiel never wanted to be.

The Gospel gives believers an even greater assurance. Through Christ we have been reconciled to God, and through His Spirit God now dwells within His people. Jesus promises, “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). The question is therefore not whether God can meet us in the place where we are, but whether we are looking for Him there. What circumstance have you interpreted primarily as evidence of God’s absence when He may instead be calling you to know Him more deeply within it?

Ezekiel 1:4-10 — As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, and a great cloud, with brightness around it, and fire flashing forth continually…. And from the midst of it came the likeness of four living creatures…. As for the likeness of their faces, each had a human face. The four had the face of a lion on the right side, the four had the face of an ox on the left side, and the four had the face of an eagle.

Ezekiel struggles to describe what he sees because he is seeing realities beyond ordinary human experience. His repeated language of “likeness” and “appearance” reminds us that he is not giving us a photograph of heaven. He is using earthly language to describe a divine revelation.

The storm, cloud, fire, and brightness recall earlier manifestations of God’s presence, particularly Sinai, where God descended in fire and cloud (Exodus 19:16-18). God is glorious, holy, powerful, and dangerous to sinful humanity. He is not the manageable deity people so easily construct in their imaginations.

From the storm emerge four extraordinary living creatures, later identified as cherubim (Ezekiel 10:20). Their appearance is strange to us because heavenly reality does not conform to our ordinary categories. Yet Ezekiel’s attention is not ultimately meant to remain on the creatures themselves. They serve the One above them. However magnificent these heavenly beings appear, they are creatures under the authority of the Creator.

That distinction matters. Human beings continually become fascinated with created things while neglecting the God whose glory they were created to display. Romans 1:25 describes sin precisely this way: humanity “worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.” Ezekiel redirects our eyes upward. Even the most astonishing beings in heaven exist to serve God.

Christ restores that proper orientation of the heart. The Gospel does not merely add Jesus to a life already crowded with competing loyalties. He becomes the center around which everything else is reordered. “All things were created through him and for him” (Colossians 1:16). If everything was created for Christ, then our lives only become properly ordered when they are increasingly lived for Him.

Ezekiel 1:11-14 — Such were their faces. And their wings were spread out above…. And each went straight forward. Wherever the spirit would go, they went, without turning as they went…. And the living creatures darted to and fro, like the appearance of a flash of lightning.

Four distinct creatures move with complete unity. They do not compete for direction, pull against one another, or pursue independent agendas. “Wherever the spirit would go, they went.” Their unity comes from their common submission to one directing Spirit.

That provides a powerful picture of spiritual unity. Biblical unity is not sameness. God delights in diversity within His creation and especially within His Church. The body of Christ contains different people, gifts, personalities, backgrounds, responsibilities, and callings, yet “in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body” (1 Corinthians 12:13). Unity is produced not by everyone becoming alike but by everyone moving under the direction of the same Spirit toward the same Lord.

This is why Christian unity is ultimately relational before it is organizational. Jesus prayed that His people “may all be one,” grounding that unity in their shared relationship with Him and the Father (John 17:21). The closer believers draw to Christ, the closer they should necessarily draw to one another. Persistent disunity therefore calls us to examine more than the disagreement itself. Somewhere pride, self-interest, unforgiveness, fear, ambition, or resistance to the Spirit may be interfering with our shared submission to Christ.

The creatures also “went straight forward.” There is something beautiful about undivided obedience. They do not negotiate with the Spirit, continually reconsider the direction, or turn aside toward competing interests. Wherever the Spirit directs, they go.

Christlike obedience has that same orientation. Jesus lived in perfect submission to the Father, saying, “I always do the things that are pleasing to him” (John 8:29). Through union with Christ, His Spirit increasingly forms that same disposition in us. Where the Spirit leads through the Word of God, we go. The question is not whether His direction fits our preferences but whether we trust the One directing us.

Where are you resisting what God has already made clear? And is there relational disunity in your life that may reveal not merely a problem between you and another person, but an area where one or both of you need to draw nearer and submit more fully to Christ?

Ezekiel 1:15-21 — Now as I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the earth beside the living creatures…. their appearance and construction being as it were a wheel within a wheel…. And their rims were tall and awesome, and the rims of all four were full of eyes all around…. Wherever the spirit wanted to go, they went…. for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.

The vision becomes even more extraordinary as Ezekiel sees wheels intersecting wheels, able to move immediately in any direction. Their rims are “full of eyes,” suggesting complete awareness rather than blind movement. Nothing in the vision wanders randomly. The creatures move, the wheels move, and the Spirit directs the whole.

The message becomes clearer when we remember Ezekiel’s circumstances. From the perspective of an exile, history probably looked chaotic. Babylon was conquering nations. Kings were rising and falling. Jerusalem’s future was uncertain. God’s people had been uprooted from their land. Yet Ezekiel is allowed to see behind earthly events: above the apparent chaos is perfect divine sovereignty. God’s providence is not blind, immobile, or confused.

We need this vision because we usually see only the wheels. We experience events moving around us without understanding how they fit together. We see illness, loss, political upheaval, family difficulties, disappointments, unexpected opportunities, closed doors, and apparent setbacks. Because we cannot see where everything is going, we can assume no one is directing it.

But Scripture repeatedly teaches otherwise. God “works all things according to the counsel of his will” (Ephesians 1:11), and for those who love Him, He works even suffering toward the ultimate good of conforming us to the image of Christ (Romans 8:28-29). That does not mean everything that happens is good. It means nothing is beyond God’s ability to incorporate into His good purposes.

Faith therefore does not require understanding every wheel. It requires trusting the One above them.

What circumstance currently looks chaotic because you can see what is happening but cannot see what God is doing through it? Can you trust that His knowledge extends beyond yours, His presence reaches where yours cannot, and His sovereign purposes remain active even when you cannot trace them?

Ezekiel 1:22-25 — Over the heads of the living creatures there was the likeness of an expanse, shining like awe-inspiring crystal…. And when they went, I heard the sound of their wings like the sound of many waters, like the sound of the Almighty…. And there came a voice from above the expanse over their heads.

Ezekiel’s eyes continue moving upward. The creatures are extraordinary, the wheels are awesome, and the sound of their wings is overwhelming, yet none of them occupies the highest place. Above them is an expanse, and above the expanse comes a voice.

Everything in the vision directs our attention upward because everything is subordinate to God.

That is an essential corrective to the human heart. We spend enormous energy looking horizontally—at circumstances, people, threats, opportunities, institutions, politics, money, health, and our own ability to control outcomes. Ezekiel is surrounded by Babylon, but God lifts his eyes above Babylon.

The same movement occurs throughout Scripture. Isaiah saw the Lord “high and lifted up” while earthly King Uzziah had died (Isaiah 6:1). John received his vision of heaven while exiled on Patmos and saw “a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne” (Revelation 4:2). God’s people repeatedly discover that earthly instability does not mean heavenly instability.

Christ now reigns from that place of supreme authority. After His resurrection Jesus declared, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18). The crucified Savior is the reigning King. The One who loved us enough to bear our sins is also the One who governs history. Sovereignty therefore has a face we know—the face of Jesus Christ.

Ezekiel 1:26-28 — And above the expanse over their heads there was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like sapphire; and seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness with a human appearance…. Like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of one speaking.

At last Ezekiel sees what the entire vision has been revealing: a throne.

Babylon had a king, but Babylon did not possess the highest throne. Jerusalem’s king was weak, but Israel’s true King had not been dethroned. God reigns above creatures, nations, circumstances, history, and everything Ezekiel fears.

Upon the throne is “a likeness with a human appearance.” Ezekiel is extraordinarily careful: this is “the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD.” God cannot be reduced to an image or contained by human description. Yet there is something profoundly significant about the human appearance upon the throne. The vision does not give us the full revelation that will come later, but the New Testament does. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory” (John 1:14). Jesus is “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” (Hebrews 1:3). The God whose glory overwhelms Ezekiel would ultimately reveal Himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ.

Around the throne Ezekiel sees brightness “like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud.” The rainbow recalls God’s covenant with Noah following judgment (Genesis 9:13-16). Even as Ezekiel receives a vision that prepares him to announce terrible judgment, mercy surrounds the throne. God’s holiness does not cancel His grace, and His grace does not diminish His holiness.

The cross brings both together perfectly. There we see more clearly than Ezekiel could yet see that the God of glory is both uncompromisingly holy and astonishingly merciful. Sin is so serious that the Son of God bears its judgment; divine love is so great that He willingly bears it for us. At Calvary, God is “just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:26).

And Ezekiel’s response is exactly right: “I fell on my face.”

The first chapter does not end with Ezekiel decoding every symbol. It ends with Ezekiel overwhelmed by God. That is important. Bible study can become another way of accumulating information while remaining spiritually untouched. Ezekiel teaches us that true knowledge of God should produce worship, humility, surrender, and obedience.

Before God tells Ezekiel what he must do, He shows Ezekiel who He is.

That order matters for us as well. Christlike obedience grows from seeing Christ rightly. The more clearly we see His holiness, sovereignty, glory, mercy, and grace, the less reasonable our self-rule becomes. And through union with Christ, the Spirit who directs the living creatures now dwells within believers, progressively aligning our desires, relationships, decisions, and lives with the will of our King.

Is your view of God large enough to sustain your faith when circumstances become frightening? Have you allowed earthly events to appear larger than the throne above them? Are you trying to understand everything God is doing before you will trust Him? Does your knowledge of God increasingly move you toward worship and obedience? And where is the Spirit calling you to stop turning aside and simply go straight forward with Christ?

“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) – 4 September 2026: Identify one area today where God has already made the obedient direction clear but you have been hesitating, negotiating, or turning aside. Before the day ends, take one measurable step straight forward in obedience, asking the Holy Spirit to align your will with Christ rather than waiting for your circumstances to become easier.

Pray: “Father, You are holy, glorious, sovereign, and always on Your throne. Forgive me for allowing circumstances, fears, people, or problems to become larger in my sight than You. Thank You that Your glory has been revealed to me in Jesus Christ, who bore my judgment, reconciled me to You, and gave me Your Spirit. Fix my eyes on Christ. Teach me to trust Your sovereign hand when I cannot understand what You are doing, to follow Your Spirit without turning aside, and to pursue unity with Your people through deeper union with Jesus. Make my life increasingly surrendered to Your will and conformed to the character of Christ. Amen.”