Ezekiel 3:22-24 (ESV Strong's)
And the hand of the Lord was upon me there. And he said to me, “Arise, go out into the valley, and there I will speak with you.” So I arose and went out into the valley, and behold, the glory of the Lord stood there, like the glory that I had seen by the Chebar canal, and I fell on my face. But the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and he spoke with me and said to me, “Go, shut yourself within your house.
Tag: To See God is to Experience Change
Ezekiel, like many of the prophets and Old Testament characters, had a special privilege of seeing some type of manifestation of God. In EVERY case this happened there was a profound impact on the prophet or Biblical character. No one who saw a shadow of God went away the same. Notice how this book of Ezekiel opens as it leads to the above verses:
Ezekiel 1:1-3 (ESV Strong's)
Ezekiel in Babylon
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. On the fifth day of the month (it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin), 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.
Ezekiel 1:28 (ESV Strong's)
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.
When Jesus was on the earth the disciples had a physical human being shape of God the Son, incarnate. They did not recognize Him as such until He ascended back to heaven after his resurrection. But, in His teaching, Jesus shared what it would look like if we understood the concept of “seeing God:”
Matthew 5:8 (ESV Strong's)
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Those that see God want to purify themselves because seeing God is to realize how filthy we are. It would be expected that John was at The Sermon on the Mount when Jesus said these words. Here is his response:
1 John 3:2-3 (ESV Strong's)
Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
Seeing God should cause us to want to be suddenly pure.
No comments:
Post a Comment