I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ezekiel 1-4.

    Every time I read Ezekiel’s description of the four living beings I wish I had the artistic talent to draw what he describes. I wish I could draw it because none of the images I have found depicting it match what I picture in my mind as I read this. I picture these beings as having a face in every direction, human like bodies, except that their legs end in hooves rather than feet, and two sets of wings which are perpendicular to each other. And every time I read through my image changes slightly. Associated with each of these beings is a gyroscope (a wheel within a wheel). A further reason I wish I had the artistic talent to draw it is that there is a part of this description which sounds like a high technology machine and I would like to see if I could envision a machine which matched the description. Having said all of that, there is an element of this vision which reminds me of some dreams I have had. I have had dreams, which while I was dreaming made perfect sense but when I woke up had elements which were inconsistent with each other. I believe that Ezekiel’s description here felt that way to him.

    As part of this vision Ezekiel received his call. God told Ezekiel that his mission would be harder because he was being sent to people he understood and who understood him. In many ways this is contrary to what we tend to think. We tend to think that foreign missionaries have a more difficult time than those whose mission field is in their home town. I want to focus on the fact that Ezekiel was instructed to give God’s message whether or not people listened to him. In fact, God told him that they would not listen to him, that rather than listen to and heed his message, they would get angry with him and threaten him. If we are called to ministry among the people we grew up with we can expect to be treated similarly.

    I mentioned the other day that Ezekiel had a good passage on our responsibility to warn others of the consequences of their sins. God told Ezekiel that he was the watchman for the people of Israel. Just as a watchman was responsible to warn the city of invaders, so Ezekiel was responsible to warn people of God’s judgment. The same is true for us, when God makes us aware that people will suffer as a consequence of their sin, we are responsible to warn them. If we fail to give people God’s warning, God will hold us responsible for the suffering they experience. However, if we do warn people and they do not heed our warning, they will still suffer but God will not hold us accountable for their suffering. We are not responsible to convince people to change their behavior, merely to warn them of its consequences.