This evening if you have your Bibles and will turn with me to Ezekiel chapter 10. Ezekiel is having still having these visions sent by God dealing with the nation of Israel. Specifically with the city of Jerusalem. In chapter 10 we’re going to be seeing the glory of God coming before Ezekiel. He sees the very thing that he saw in chapter 1 and that is the God coming down before him and the glory of God in his presence as the throne as the cherubs come with the wheels. Let’s just take a look at and read chapter 10. We’ll look at it.
Then I looked, and, behold, in the firmament that was above the head of the cherubims there appeared over them as it were a sapphire stone, as the appearance of the likeness of a throne. 2 And he spake unto the man clothed with linen, and said, Go in between the wheels, even under the cherub, and fill thine hand with coals of fire from between the cherubims, and scatter them over the city. And he went in in my sight. 3 Now the cherubims stood on the right side of the house, when the man went in; and the cloud filled the inner court. 4 Then the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub, and stood over the threshold of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the Lord’s glory. 5 And the sound of the cherubims’ wings was heard even to the outer court, as the voice of the Almighty God when he speaketh. 6 And it came to pass, that when he had commanded the man clothed with linen, saying, Take fire from between the wheels, from between the cherubims; then he went in, and stood beside the wheels. 7 And one cherub stretched forth his hand from between the cherubims unto the fire that was between the cherubims, and took thereof, and put it into the hands of him that was clothed with linen: who took it, and went out.
8 And there appeared in the cherubims the form of a man’s hand under their wings.
9 And when I looked, behold the four wheels by the cherubims, one wheel by one cherub, and another wheel by another cherub: and the appearance of the wheels was as the colour of a beryl stone. 10 And as for their appearances, they four had one likeness, as if a wheel had been in the midst of a wheel. 11 When they went, they went upon their four sides; they turned not as they went, but to the place whither the head looked they followed it; they turned not as they went. 12 And their whole body, and their backs, and their hands, and their wings, and the wheels, were full of eyes round about, even the wheels that they four had. 13 As for the wheels, it was cried unto them in my hearing, O wheel. 14 And every one had four faces: the first face was the face of a cherub, and the second face was the face of a man, and the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle. 15 And the cherubims were lifted up. This is the living creature that I saw by the river of Chebar. 16 And when the cherubims went, the wheels went by them: and when the cherubims lifted up their wings to mount up from the earth, the same wheels also turned not from beside them. 17 When they stood, these stood; and when they were lifted up, these lifted up themselves also: for the spirit of the living creature was in them.
18 Then the glory of the Lord departed from off the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubims. 19 And the cherubims lifted up their wings, and mounted up from the earth in my sight: when they went out, the wheels also were beside them, and every one stood at the door of the east gate of the Lord’s house; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above.
20 This is the living creature that I saw under the God of Israel by the river of Chebar; and I knew that they were the cherubims. 21 Every one had four faces apiece, and every one four wings; and the likeness of the hands of a man was under their wings. 22 And the likeness of their faces was the same faces which I saw by the river of Chebar, their appearances and themselves: they went every one straight forward.
Prayer: Let’s just bow in prayer Lord, I pray that you just speak to us through your word. Lord help us to understand what’s going on and what Ezekiel was seeing. Lord I pray that you would help us to look and see the glory that you expressed to him. As you come on your throne carried by the cherubim’s into his presence. Father, I pray that you’d help us also to see that you came with judgment upon Jerusalem. Lord speak to us now through your word this we ask in Jesus name. Amen
This is the same throne and picture of the throne and platform and wheels and cherubim that Ezekiel saw in chapter 1. Try and picture what it. It is if the the wheels were on the in each corner of the platform. The platform held the throne. The throne held the Lord and the cherubim stood by the wheels and moved the wheels,
As you’re looking at this this man in linen appears again. Last in chapter 9 we saw this man of linen he came as one of six men that was called by the Lord to go to Israel. Specifically to the city of Jerusalem five of them came with swords and the man in linen came with a quill pen. As he came he wrote upon the foreheads of those that had cried over the abominations that were being expressed by the those that were rebelling against God in the temple and in the city of Jerusalem. That writing on their foreheads preserved their lives and showed that they were worthy of protection by the Lord and that’s what this man of linen did in chapter 9.
In chapter 10 the same man of women comes and he has an another purpose and another thing that God calls him to do. The cherubim when they come you see that they come with fire. It says it fires between them is between their legs and it’s By the wheels and he comes and he takes fire from them. What’s this fire for? This fire represents judgment and the same man that came to offer protection to those who had been faithful to the Lord and followed him and desired to uphold his righteousness and truth.
The same one who had protected them by writing the names and This letter on their foreheads. We said last week that some Bible scholars believe it’s the last letter of the Hebrew Alphabet which has the appearance of a cross. As he wrote that on their foreheads their salvation was made sure. Now he comes to make sure judgment is coming. This is very much like Jesus who came the first time to redeem mankind. Offer salvation to those that would seek him and honor and glorify his name and come to him. Seeking salvation and desiring to receive the gift that he offered. But the second time that he comes he’s coming with judgment. Much like the man in linen the second time he appears he appears to bring judgment upon Jerusalem and upon those who have sought to defile the character of God. Sin openly against him and desire to worship other gods instead of the true and the living God it’s interesting to look at the characteristics of the cherubim again as they are used by the Lord to uplift his platform in his throne.
The cherubim have four faces and as we talked before. These four faces as we see in verse 14. It says the first face was the face of a cherub. The second face was the face of a man. The third face was a face of a lion The fourth face was the face of an eagle. It shows as we said before that the fact that the the lion shall rule and symbol of God’s ruling the eagle the symbol of God’s swiftness and all-knowing and yes the symbol of the cherub is a symbol of Angelic hosts in the in the perfect obedience to his will. The symbol of man Is the fact that man was the highest created of God’s being and created? With wisdom in the image of God The cherub possessed these five faces because they represented the character of God and They upheld the character of God in perfect obedience. Throughout the whole chapter 10 one of the things you see is they always move straight forward Wherever God tells them to go they go.
It’s the same thing. We saw in chapter 1. They don’t deviate They don’t go to the left. They don’t go to the right, but as the Lord directs them they move. They move straight ahead to the place that God wants them to go in perfect obedience. It’s an example that should be in the hearts and lives of each one of us as believers That we should reflect the very character that these cherubs show in their obedience to the Lord as they walk in obedience to God. The second thing I want you to observe about them is not only the perfect obedience to the will of the Lord in his direction but the fact that they seek to uplift and reveal the glory of God Even in the midst of the wickedness of the city of Jerusalem. Even though he’s come to bring judgment upon it His glory is revealed in at this time and when he goes into the temple. It’s interesting because as he enters in his glory fills the temple even though it had been done. Filled with abominations by men glory the glory of God is presence wherever he goes. The thing is man may try to stop his glory from being seen and man may reject the fact that his glory represents his character of perfect love and perfect truth. But God is God. He will be revealed in spite of what men has attempted to do. So when God gone comes into Jerusalem with all this wickedness that’s been there.
His glory is revealed in all of its fullness and man cannot stop it.As he comes into the city of Jerusalem. He comes as we mentioned to bring judgment upon the city. The city is going to be judged as we see here by fire as well as the destructive hand of Nebuchadnezzar. Who will be the tool that God uses to bring the judgment upon the city. But we see that the the the judgment is represented by the burning coals. There’s going to be complete and total destruction. If you look at the whenever you see the burning coals like this.
We earlier last in last chapter when the six men were coming five with swords. One with the quill. The pin quill. We see that their legs were a flame with fire. The color was brazen a symbol of God’s judgment. If you go to the book of Revelation when you see Jesus and he’s seen and he has fire about him. His eyes are penetrating. As if they’re on fire. It’s when he is judging and the thing is that you can see that he comes to judge mankind. That’s in the book of Revelation, as well as, in these other incidents Prophets. We see that this is the characteristic that he possesses. One of the other things that I want you to see is that Jesus the Lord comes and he departs from the eastern gate of the city. If you want to just keep your hand here I want us to go and I want us to see something else that is very similar.
In Matthew and if you go to Matthew chapter 21. Matthew chapter 21 we find that the rebellion of the nation against the Lord Jesus, let’s take a look at Matthew chapter 21 beginning at verse 28. But what think he a certain man had two sons. He gives the example. The parable of the man who had two sons. Let’s just read that parable because it’s really going to show the rejection of the nation and what God’s responses to it. Then later on we’re going to see what happens and what Jesus does.
But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to day in my vineyard. 29 He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went. 30 And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not. 31 Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto him, The first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. 32 For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him.
Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country: 34 and when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. 35 And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise. 37 But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. 38 But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. 39 And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. 40 When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? 41 They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons. 42 Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? 43 Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. 44 And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. Matthew 21:28-44
Now he’s speaking this to the Pharisees because they professed to follow God. But they did anything but do that they sought to come against Christ. They sought to discredit him in the eyes of the people and even though they’d have been entrusted with the Scriptures and all the promises of the Lord; yet,
they sought to destroy him. If you come a little bit later in the book in Chapter we come to the point where I’m trying to find the chapter where Jesus he enters into the temple and he drives the money changers out and It’s interesting that the the money changers in the temple were the Sadducees and the Pharisees were in cahoots with the Sadducees. Own even though they normally were at odds of one another they were in agreement with the fact they need to silence Christ and get the people to turn against him. Jesus drove the money changers out of the temple. He made when he drove them out of the temple.
He made the proclamation, “You’ve turned my Father’s house of prayer into a den of thieves.” Shortly thereafter, Jesus left through the Eastern Gate. If you look at what happened, the glory of the Lord appeared unto the people in Jerusalem. Jesus went to the temple, and they should have known who He was. They should have recognized His character and His glory, and yet they didn’t.
Those who should have known Him were the very ones who rejected Him the most—the same thing that happened during the time of Ezekiel. What we see in Jesus’ parables is the fact that God sent prophets unto the people. He sent prophets to Israel and Judah, and finally, even when Jerusalem was about to be left, they still had Jeremiah speaking to them. They had Daniel, and they had Ezekiel.
These men proclaimed who God was, what the people were doing, and how wrong it was. Yet we saw that they killed prophets. They took Jeremiah and carried him into Egypt. They attempted to kill him while he was still in Jerusalem. They didn’t want to listen to Daniel, and they didn’t want to listen to Ezekiel.
We see that the very thing Jesus proclaimed in the parable of the vineyard is exactly what they did. We also see in the book of Ezekiel, in his vision, that God brought judgment upon Jerusalem because of the people’s unbelief and the abominations they had committed. Then He left through the Eastern Gate, and in chapter 11 we see that it was His glory that departed.
As Ezekiel was speaking to the people, one of the things they believed was that because Jerusalem was still standing—which it was at that time—God was still with them. The temple was still there, so they assumed God remained among them. But it wasn’t going to be much longer. They had done everything to come against His power, His authority, His will, and His character.
Just as in the parables Jesus gave to the Pharisees, He asked the question: which son honored the Lord—the one who said, “I will go do your will,” but didn’t go, or the one who initially said, “I won’t,” but then went and did it? And they answered, “The latter,” the one who actually did the will of the Father.
That is the one who should be honored. Well, the majority of the people in Jerusalem did not do the will of the Father. We saw that in chapter 9, when the man in linen came and placed a mark on only a few of the people’s heads—marks that preserved their lives from the attack of Nebuchadnezzar.
We see here that the same thing is true in the parables of Jesus: the very people who proclaimed that they were there to honor the Lord were the ones who came against Him. So if you go back to the book of Ezekiel, I want you to see that things do not change. Just as it happened in the time of Nebuchadnezzar, the people who should have known the truth, who should have walked in obedience to God, and who should have called out to Him for deliverance when Nebuchadnezzar was attacking, instead turned to false gods and became abominations in His eyes.
The same thing happened when Jesus came. Just as judgment came upon the city of Jerusalem during the time of Ezekiel, judgment came again in 70 AD when Titus arrived, as we saw in Daniel. Judgment came upon Jerusalem again because of their rejection of Jesus. Ultimately, Jesus will come again and bring judgment upon the world, but He will also come as the Deliverer of those who look upon Him.
When Jesus comes to establish His kingdom at the end of the Tribulation, one of the amazing things we see is that a third of the nation of Israel will be saved, but two-thirds will not. This is very similar to what happened with the man in linen: the marks were not upon the majority but upon the few. The few were those who were faithful and turned to God.
Likewise, when Jesus comes again to judge the nations for coming against Israel, the majority of the Jewish people—two-thirds—will not look to Jesus as their Messiah. But one-third will look upon Him whom they pierced and will acknowledge Him as their Redeemer, Messiah, and Savior.
The thing I want you to specifically take from tonight’s lesson is this: God is both the One who redeems and the One who judges. In both His redemption and His judgment, His glory is revealed. The glory of the Lord was seen when He brought judgment upon the city of Jerusalem. His throne was borne by the cherubim, with the wheels that carried the platform upon which the throne rested. Just as Ezekiel first saw it descend from heaven in chapter 1, it came again as God’s glory returned to Jerusalem.
Yet even then, the majority of the people did not recognize it or accept it. Instead, they received the judgment God brought upon them. Just as Jesus left because the majority of those who should have known Him rejected Him, so too did the glory of the Lord depart.
There was a minority—Nicodemus and others among the Pharisees—who accepted Jesus as Messiah. But the majority of the leaders in Jerusalem rejected Him. He left them, and the glory of the Lord left that place, just as it did in Ezekiel’s time.
It is interesting that the glory left through the Eastern Gate, just as Jesus left through the Eastern Gate. The Lord says that He will return through the Eastern Gate of Jerusalem. Today, that gate is blocked. When the Muslims were in control, they built a large cemetery in front of the Eastern Gate of the Old City wall because they knew the Scriptures said the Jewish Messiah would come through that gate. They also knew that Jewish law regards dead bodies as unclean, so they believed this would prevent the Messiah from entering. They blocked up the Eastern Gate, and if you go to Jerusalem today, you will see that it remains sealed.
But there is coming a day when that gate will be opened. It does not matter how many graves are there, because the Lord has declared that He will pass through that gate when He returns. That is how He will enter, and His glory will return to Jerusalem. He left through the Eastern Gate, and He will return through the Eastern Gate, and His glory will once again fill the city of Jerusalem.
Let us close in prayer.
Father, I pray that You would help us understand that Your glory is revealed both in judgment and in redemption. You are the same God. Your judgment comes because justice must be served and truth upheld, and Your redemption comes because of the depth of Your love, grace, and mercy toward those who cry out to You and seek Your salvation.
Lord, help us to call upon Your name today and to live in a way that upholds Your glory because of what You have done for us through the redemption found in Your Son, Jesus Christ. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.