Freaky creatures as ambassadors
This week's wonderful message is on Ezekiel 1:4-10:
These verses are part of one of Ezekiel's amazing visions from God. Apart from the natural coolness of freaky creatures, there's another lesson in them. The four-faces are symbolic of some character traits of God.
The human face is kind of like how God can relate to us. He came as Jesus to relate to us directly. Most normal people can't have a meaningful relationship with an eagle, a lion, or a cow, but they can relate to another human being.
The lion face represents God's nature as conqueror, king of kings, and top of the food chain. Nothing messes with the lion. There's nothing in the jungle that causes the lion to run away in fear. He's big.
The eagle face is God's all-seeing nature. The eagle can fly way above what people on the ground can see, and he has very sharp vision for spotting the tasty morsels that scurry along the ground. It has a unique perspective. And most people never look up to discover it's there.
But what's up with the cow-face? Were they just short on face-ideas when they designed this creature? I believe the cow-face is God's provider nature. The ox, or cow, was what served as tractor and dairy to the Israelites. The cow would help plow the fields, thresh the grain, turn the millstone, carry huge burdens, etc. The cow would also give milk, and when it dies, you get to feast on tasty yummy steaks.
The exciting thing here is how God's nature gets infused into his creation. He could have just made some kind of helicopter with a loudspeaker, or a talking velociraptor to do what he wanted to do. Instead, he made these glowy creatures with four symbolic faces. And those aren't even the creatures he said he made in his image!
Most of us have seen other people. Then again, you're reading this on the Internet, so maybe it's been awhile. But pretend you haven't ever seen a person before. No men, no women. What would you think when you saw one for the first time, knowing we're created in God's image? It would be pretty amazing, I'd think. I don't know if we look much like Him, but some of our spiritual nature is similar. We have emotions. We are creative. We love each other. We change our surroundings to suit our desires, even making things that would seem impractical or stupid to others.
Take some time this week and ask God to use his creation to show you some of who he is. (See his nature in nature.) There are a ton of ways God can speak to us, but sometimes looking at an artist's work will tell you some things about them that words are too clumsy to do.
I looked, and I saw a windstorm coming out of the north—an immense cloud with flashing lightning and surrounded by brilliant light. The center of the fire looked like glowing metal, and in the fire was what looked like four living creatures. In appearance their form was human, but each of them had four faces and four wings. Their legs were straight; their feet were like those of a calf and gleamed like burnished bronze. Under their wings on their four sides they had human hands. All four of them had faces and wings, and the wings of one touched the wings of another. Each one went straight ahead; they did not turn as they moved.
Their faces looked like this: Each of the four had the face of a human being, and on the right side each had the face of a lion, and on the left the face of an ox; each also had the face of an eagle.
These verses are part of one of Ezekiel's amazing visions from God. Apart from the natural coolness of freaky creatures, there's another lesson in them. The four-faces are symbolic of some character traits of God.
The human face is kind of like how God can relate to us. He came as Jesus to relate to us directly. Most normal people can't have a meaningful relationship with an eagle, a lion, or a cow, but they can relate to another human being.
The lion face represents God's nature as conqueror, king of kings, and top of the food chain. Nothing messes with the lion. There's nothing in the jungle that causes the lion to run away in fear. He's big.
The eagle face is God's all-seeing nature. The eagle can fly way above what people on the ground can see, and he has very sharp vision for spotting the tasty morsels that scurry along the ground. It has a unique perspective. And most people never look up to discover it's there.
But what's up with the cow-face? Were they just short on face-ideas when they designed this creature? I believe the cow-face is God's provider nature. The ox, or cow, was what served as tractor and dairy to the Israelites. The cow would help plow the fields, thresh the grain, turn the millstone, carry huge burdens, etc. The cow would also give milk, and when it dies, you get to feast on tasty yummy steaks.
The exciting thing here is how God's nature gets infused into his creation. He could have just made some kind of helicopter with a loudspeaker, or a talking velociraptor to do what he wanted to do. Instead, he made these glowy creatures with four symbolic faces. And those aren't even the creatures he said he made in his image!
Most of us have seen other people. Then again, you're reading this on the Internet, so maybe it's been awhile. But pretend you haven't ever seen a person before. No men, no women. What would you think when you saw one for the first time, knowing we're created in God's image? It would be pretty amazing, I'd think. I don't know if we look much like Him, but some of our spiritual nature is similar. We have emotions. We are creative. We love each other. We change our surroundings to suit our desires, even making things that would seem impractical or stupid to others.
Take some time this week and ask God to use his creation to show you some of who he is. (See his nature in nature.) There are a ton of ways God can speak to us, but sometimes looking at an artist's work will tell you some things about them that words are too clumsy to do.
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