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So it is also with what Ezekiel heard:
"And when they went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great waters,
as the voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech, as the noise of an host" (1: 24).
Both the words `noise' and `voice' could be translated `sound', for no articulate
speech is referred to until verse 28.
Why should Ezekiel alone be given such a stupendous, awesome, terrifying
experience of "the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord"? Was it not
because "the glory of the Lord departed from off the threshold of the house" (10: 18)? The
glory had departed from the Temple, from the city and from the nation. It is surely
significant that the departure of the glory of the Lord from the Temple concludes a
second vision similar to the first. The glory may have departed from the earthly People;
but the glory had not departed from the Almighty God. His glory was far, far greater
than anything this rebel nation had ever experienced. Though the glory had so gone, the
former vision ends with a message of hope, for there was "the appearance of the bow that
is in the cloud in the day of rain" (1: 28). The rainbow was to be a perpetual reminder that
God would never again totally destroy mankind, for He had a covenant with them, so
here in this vision is the reminder of the covenant Jehovah had made with His People.
The glory would return! Much of Ezekiel's prophecies concern the time when that glory
shall return in far greater measure than ever previously known by the Covenant People,
and to a far greater and more magnificent Temple than the one from which the glory had
departed.
The result of "the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord" upon Ezekiel
was "when I saw it, I fell upon my face" (1: 28). The Jehovah said to him:
"Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee. And the spirit entered
into me when He spake unto me, and set me upon my feet, that I heard Him that spake
unto me" (2: 1, 2).
"God's calling, is God's enabling." This inexperienced `youth' needed to be "set
upon his feet" before he could hear. It is seldom indeed that God calls the inexperienced
to His service; but when He does, He establishes that person that he may hear. In
Ezekiel's case it involved the Spirit entering into him: today all believers have the Holy
Spirit, but those God calls particularly need `the spirit of wisdom and revelation' which
normally comes with growth in grace and with experience of the ways of God. Before
they speak, like Ezekiel, they must hear God speak to them.
It is to be noted that Jehovah spoke to the prophet as "the son of man", or son of
Adam. Apart from Daniel, of whom the expression is used once (Dan. 8: 17), it is used
only of Ezekiel apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. But there is a significant difference.
When used of a man it lacks the definite article ("the"), but when used of Christ is has
the article. Ezekiel was a son of Adam; Christ was the Son of Adam, the "second Man"
and the "last Adam". But in the books of Daniel and Ezekiel the expression signifies a
human being, or natural descendant of Adam in contrast with a heavenly being. The