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Ring of Truth provides 366 daily ‘proofs’ that the Bible is consistent throughout from Genesis to Revelation, and relevant for our lives today!
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Ezekiel 1:1
In the 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.
Welcome to Ezekiel.
For the rest of this month we are going to have an ‘interesting’ time. We are going to look at two of what have proved to be the most controversial of books of the Bible. Not because they sit against each other – but because a lot of what is written in them is difficult to understand and has been interpreted by people in totally different ways.
Today, we have an increasing interest in eschatology – ‘end time events’ – especially since the changing of the millennium in the Western calendar. Isn’t it interesting, that without Jesus, there would have been no year 2000, or a change of millennium? And yet, so many who had a fixation with it would try to deny His existence, not to mention His Deity.
With this rise in interest, there inevitably comes a rise in interpreters. My role in this book is not to become one more, but rather to look for and trace the ‘Ring of Truth’, which runs through the whole of Scripture, as well as being seen in Ezekiel and Daniel. So if you are comfortable with that – let’s walk on together and see what we discover.
The glory of Israel has departed; the security of Jerusalem has been violated. The Temple has been destroyed and the people carried off into Exile. Indeed, we are now into the 5th year of the Exile and Ezekiel, the priest, was down by the river and had visions of God. (For the vision, read verses 4-28.)
One of the first things we realise from the vision is that finite man with a finite brain and finite vocabulary has great difficulty explaining the Infinite and Divine. I don’t know about you, but I find the description in this chapter almost impossible to visualise (even or especially after I’ve tried to draw it).
But does that matter? I don’t think so, because it has given us a picture, which if I meditate upon reveals something of the nature of the spiritual. Western minds struggle with the spiritual. Not so the rest of the world. But in meditating on the vision, we begin to realise that there is a whole lot more to life and experience than that which is right in front of our faces.
“God is Spirit” (John 4:24). Ezekiel’s vision is not unlike Isaiah’s in Chapter 6 – which he also saw in a time of adversity. If we go to Revelation, and remember John was imprisoned on Patmos, and see his vision in Revelation 1:12-18, we find they are all very similar. Especially the vision of Jesus – God – and the sound of God’s voice.
After seeing their visions, Ezekiel, Isaiah and John were never the same again, and they all received messages to give to the people. We also need to see a vision of God before we have something really important to say.
Take time out today, and ask God to give you a vision of who He really is... AND you will never be the same again.
Then seek a vision for your life and then go and live in the dynamic and Awesome Power of God that He provides, so you can fulfil it.
Download the above Ring of Truth devotion as a PDF.
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