Ezekiel 1:26 - Meaning and Application

All the other parts of this vision were only a preface to this great sight. In them, God had already shown himself as Lord of angels and the supreme ruler of everything in this lower world. From that, it is easy to see that whatever God promises or threatens through his prophets, he can bring to pass. Angels are his servants, and people are his tools. But now that a divine message is to be given to a prophet, and through him to the church, we must look higher than the living creatures or the wheels. We must expect a revelation from the eternal Word, about whom these verses speak.

Ezekiel, hearing a voice from the firmament, looked up, as John did, to see the voice speaking to him, and he saw one like a son of man (Revelation 1:12-13). The second person of the Trinity, the Son, sometimes took on the form of a man for a time before he clothed himself with human nature for good in the incarnation. The Spirit of prophecy is called the Spirit of Christ (1 Peter 1:11), and the testimony of Jesus (Revelation 19:10).

The first thing the prophet noticed was that this glory was above the firmament over the heads of the living creatures (Ezekiel 1:26). Even the heads of angels are under the feet of the Lord Jesus, because the firmament over their heads is under his feet. Angels, powers, and rulers are subject to him (1 Peter 3:22). His rank and rule before his incarnation make his humility in becoming man even more amazing, when he was made a little lower than the angels (Hebrews 2:9).

The first thing he saw was a throne, because divine revelation comes with royal authority behind it. We must see God and Christ by faith as seated on a throne. John saw the first sight in his visions as a throne set in heaven (Revelation 4:2), and that sight demands reverence and submission. It is a throne of glory, grace, triumph, rule, and judgment. The Lord has prepared his throne in the heavens, and he has prepared it for his Son, whom he has made King on his holy hill of Zion.

On the throne he saw the appearance of a man. That is good news for the children of men, that the throne above the firmament is filled by one who is not ashamed to appear there in human likeness. Daniel also saw, in vision, the kingdom and dominion given to one like a son of man, who has authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of man (John 5:27).

He also saw him as a prince and judge on this throne. Though he appeared in human form, he appeared with more than human glory (Ezekiel 1:27). Is God a shining light? So is he. When the prophet saw him, he saw a brightness all around, like amber, because God lives in light and wraps himself in light as with a garment. How deeply the Redeemer stooped for us when, in bringing about our salvation, he allowed his glory to be hidden by the veil of his humanity!

Is God a consuming fire? So is he. From his loins, both upward and downward, there was the look of fire. The fire above the loins was within the amber, inward and enclosed. The fire below the loins was more open and visible, yet it also had brightness all around it. Some take the first to picture Christ’s divine nature, whose glory and power are hidden within the amber color, something no one has seen or can see. They take the second to picture his human nature, whose glory some did see, the glory of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). He had rays coming from his hand, and yet there was still the hiding of his power (Habakkuk 3:4).

The fire in which the Son of man appeared may also point to the judgments ready to fall on Judah and Jerusalem, coming from the fierce anger of the Almighty against his enemies. Nothing is more frightening to bold sinners than the wrath of the one who sits on the throne and of the Lamb (Revelation 6:16). The day is coming when the Lord Jesus will be revealed in flaming fire (2 Thessalonians 1:7-8). So it matters greatly that we honor the Son, lest he become angry.

The throne was also surrounded with a rainbow (Ezekiel 1:28), just as in John’s vision (Revelation 4:3). Its brightness had many colors, like the bow in a rain cloud. The rainbow is a sign of majesty, and it also speaks kindly, because it is a pledge of mercy. It confirms God’s gracious promise that he will not flood the world again, and he says, “I will look upon the bow and remember the covenant” (Genesis 9:16). This shows that the one on the throne is the Mediator of the covenant, the one who stands between God and his people. His rule is for our protection, not our ruin. He comes between us and the judgments our sins deserve, and all God’s promises are yes and amen in him. Now that God’s wrath was breaking out against Jerusalem, limits would be set to it. He would not wipe it out completely, because he would look upon the bow and remember the covenant, as he promised in such a case (Leviticus 26:42).

At last we come to the end of the vision. We should notice, first, how the prophet himself described it: “This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.” He is careful, as he has been throughout, to guard against any crude, bodily idea of God, which would dishonor the pure and spiritual nature of God. He does not say, “This was the Lord,” because God cannot be seen. He says, “the glory of the Lord,” by which God was pleased to show himself as glorious. Even then, it was only the likeness of that glory, a faint copy of it. It was not even a full likeness, but only the appearance of that likeness, a shadow, not the thing itself (Hebrews 10:1).

Second, notice what it did to him. “When I saw it, I fell on my face.” He was overwhelmed by it, because the blazing brightness of it overcame him and threw him down. Who can stand before this holy Lord God? Or, more likely, he humbled himself when he sensed how unworthy he was of such honor and how far he stood from God. He fell on his face to show holy fear and reverence. The more God makes himself known to us, the lower we should be before him. He fell down to worship God’s majesty, ask for mercy, and turn away the wrath he saw ready to rise against the children of his people.

Third, notice what he learned from it. Everything he saw was meant to prepare him for what he was about to hear, because faith comes by hearing. So he heard the voice of one speaking, because we are taught by words, not just by signs. When he fell on his face, ready to receive the word, then he heard the voice speaking, because God delights to teach the humble.