Steve Webb: Words are unable to describe adequately.
This is the Lifespring! One Year Bible coming to you from
Riverside, California. And podcasting since 2004. I am Euro
je Godcaster Steve Webb. It's the daily podcast where we're
reading through the entire Bible in a year. Today is prophecy
Friday and we're going to read Ezekiel one through six. I'm
calling the episode, wheels within wheels. Let's get started
with a word of prayer. Our heavenly Father, Lord, we thank
you so much for your love. And we thank you for giving us the
Bible so that we can know you. I pray God that as we read today,
you would teach us and I pray this in Jesus name, amen. Okay,
are you ready? Let's begin.
Ezekiel chapter one. Now it came about in the 30th year, on the
fifth day of the fourth month, while I was by the river, key
bar among the exiles, the heavens were opened and I saw
visions of God. On the fifth of the month, in the fifth year of
King Jehovah kings exile, the word of the Lord came expressly
to Ezekiel the priest son abuse I, in the land of the Chaldeans
by the river key bar, and there the hand of the Lord came upon
him. As I looked, behold, a storm wind was coming from the
north, a great cloud with fire flashing forth continually, and
a bright light around it, and in its midst, something like
glowing metal in the midst of the fire. Within it were figures
resembling for living beings, and this was their appearance,
they had human form. Each of them had four faces in four
wings. Their legs were straight, and their feet were like a
calves hoof, and they gleaned like burnished bronze. under
their wings on their four sides were human hands. As for the
faces and wings of the four of them, their wings touched one
another. Their faces did not turn when they moved, each went
straight forward. As for the form of their faces, each had
the face of a man, all forehead, the face of a lion on the right,
and the face of a bull on the left, and all four had the face
of an eagle, such were their faces. Their wings were spread
out above each head to touching another being and to covering
their bodies. And each one straightforward. Wherever the
spirit was about to go, they would go without turning as they
went. In the midst of the living beings, there was something that
looked like burning coals of fire, like torches darting back
and forth among the living beings. The fire was bright, and
lightning was flashing from the fire, and the living beings ran
to and fro like bolts of lightning. Now, as I looked at
the living beings, behold, there was one wheel on the earth
beside the living beings, for each of the four of them. The
appearance of the wheels, and their workmanship was like
sparkling barrel, and all four of them had the same form, their
appearance and workmanship, being as if one wheel were
within another. Whenever they moved, they moved in any of
their four directions without turning as they moved. As for
their rims, they were lofty and awesome. And the rims of all
four of them were full of eyes roundabout. Whenever the living
beings moved, the wheels moved with them. And whenever the
living beings rose from the earth, the wheels rose also,
wherever the spirit was about to go, they would go in that
direction, and the wheels rose close beside them, for the
spirit of the living beings was in the wheels. Whenever those
went, these went. And whenever those stood still, these stood
still. And whenever those rose from the earth, the wheels rose
close beside them, for the spirit of the living beings was
in the wheels. Now over the heads of the living beings,
there was something like an expanse, like the awesome gleam
of crystals spread out over their heads. Under the expanse,
their wings were stretched out straight, one toward the other.
Each one also had two wings covering its body on one side
and on the other. I also heard the sound of their wings like
the sound of abundant waters as they went, like the voice of the
Almighty, a sound of tumult like the sound of an army camp.
Whenever they stood still, they dropped their wings, and there
came a voice from above the expanse that was over their
heads. Whenever they stood still, they dropped their wings.
Now above the expanse that was over their heads, there was
something resembling a throne like lapis lazuli in appearance,
and on that which resembled a throne high up was a figure with
the appearance of a man. Then I noticed from the appearance of
his loins and upward, something like glowing metal that looked
like fire all around within it. And from the appearance of his
loins and downward I saw something like fire, and there
was a radiance around him as the appearance of the rainbow in the
clouds on a rainy day. So was the appearance of the
surrounding radiance. As such was the appearance of the
likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell
on my face and heard a voice speaking.
Ezekiel chapter two. Then he said to me, Son of man, stand on
your feet that I may speak with you. As he spoke to me, the
spirit entered me and set me on my feet, and I heard him
speaking to me. Then he said to me, Son of man, I am sending you
to the sons of Israel to a rebellious people who have
rebelled against me, they and their fathers have transgressed
against me to this very day, I am sending you to them who are
stubborn and obstinate children, and you shall say to them, Thus
says the Lord God, as for them, whether they listen or not, for
they are a rebellious house, they will know that a prophet
has been among them, and US Son of man, neither fear them, nor
fear their words, though thistles and thorns are with
you, and you sit on scorpions, neither of fear their words, nor
be dismayed their presence, for they are a rebellious house, but
you shall speak my words to them, whether they listen or
not, for they are rebellious. Now you son of man, listen to
what I am speaking to you. Do not be rebellious like that
rebellious house, open your mouth and eat what I'm giving
you. Then I looked, and behold, a hand was extended to me, and
lo, a scroll was on it. When he spread it out before me, it was
written on the front and back, and written on it were
lamentations, mourning and woe.
Ezekiel, chapter three. Then he said to me, Son of man, eat what
you find, eat this scroll and go speak to the house of Israel. So
I opened my mouth and he fed me this scroll. He said to me, Son
of man, feed your stomach and fill your body with this grow,
which I'm giving you, then I ate it, and it was sweet as honey in
my mouth. Then he said to me, Son of man, go to the house of
Israel and speak with my words to them, for you are not being
sent to a people of unintelligible speech or
difficult language, but to the house of Israel, nor to many
peoples of unintelligible speech or difficult language whose
words you cannot understand. But I have sent you to them who
should listen to you. Yet the house of Israel will not be
willing to listen to you, since they are not willing to listen
to me. Surely the whole house of Israel is stubborn and
obstinate, Behold, I have made your face as hard as their
faces, and your forehead is hard as their foreheads like Emory
harder than Flint, I have made your forehead. Do not be afraid
of them or be dismayed before them, though they are a
rebellious house. Moreover, he said to me, Son of man, take
into your heart, all my words which I speak to you and listen
closely, go to the exiles to the sons of your people, and speak
to them and tell them whether they listen or not, Thus says
the Lord God, then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard a
great rumbling sound behind me, bless it be the glory of the
Lord in his place. And I heard the sound of the wings of the
living beings touching one another, and the sound of the
wheels beside them, even a great rumbling sound. So the spirit
lifted me up and took me away. And I went embittered in the
rage of My Spirit, and the hand of the Lord was strong upon me.
Then I came to the exiles who lived beside the river, key bar
at Tel Aviv. And I sat there seven days where they were
living, causing consternation among them. At the end of seven
days, the word of the Lord came to me saying, Son of man, I have
appointed you a watchman to the house of Israel. Whenever you
hear a word from my mouth, warn them from me. When I say to the
wicked, you will surely die, and you do not warn him or speak out
to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live.
That wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will
require at your hand. Yet if you have warned the wicked, and he
does not turn from his wickedness, or from his wicked
way, he shall die in his iniquity, but you have delivered
yourself. Again, when a righteous man turns away from
his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I place an
obstacle before him, he will die, since you have not warned
him, he shall die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he
has done shall not be remembered, but his blood I will
require at your hand. However, if you have warned the righteous
man, that the righteous should not sin, and He does not sin, he
shall surely live because he took warning, and you have
delivered yourself. The hand of the Lord was on me there and he
said to me, get up, go out to the plane, and there I will
speak to you. So I got up and went out to the plane. And
behold, the glory of the Lord was standing there, like the
glory which I saw by the river key bar, and I fell on my face.
The Spirit then entered me and made me stand on my feet. And he
spoke with me and said to me, go shut yourself up in your house.
As for us, Son of Man, they will put ropes on you and bind you
with them so that you cannot go out among them. Moreover, I will
make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so that you
will be mute and cannot be a man who rebukes them for they are a
rebellious house. But when I speak to you, I will open your
mouth and you will say to them, Thus says the Lord God, he who
hears let him hear, and he who refuses, let him refuse, for
they are a rebellious house.
Ezekiel chapter four. Now you son of man, get yourself a
brick, place it before you and inscribe a city on it,
Jerusalem, then lay siege against it, build a siege wall,
raise up a ramp, pitch camps, and place battering rams against
it all around. Then get yourself an iron plate and set it up as
an iron wall between you in the city and set your face toward it
so that it is under siege and beseech it, this is assigned to
the house of Israel. As for you, lie down on your left side, and
lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it, you shall bear
their iniquity for the number of days that you lie on it. For I
have assigned you a number of days corresponding to the years
of their iniquity 390 days, thus you shall bear the iniquity of
the house of Israel. When you have completed these, you shall
lie down a second time, but on your right side and bear the
iniquity of the house of Judah. I have assigned it to you for 40
days a day for each year. Then you shall set your face toward
the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared and prophesy against
it. Now behold, I will put ropes on you so that you cannot turn
from one side to the other until you have completed the days of
your siege. But as for you take wheat, barley, beans, lentils,
millet and spelt, put them in one vessel and make them into
bread for yourself. You shall eat it according to the number
of the days that you lie on your side. 390 days, your food which
you eat shall be 20 shekels a day by weight, and you shall eat
it from time to time. The water you drink shall be the sixth
part of a hen by measure, you shall drink it from time to
time. You shall eat it as a barley cake, having baked it in
their sight over human done. Then the Lord said, Thus will
the sons of Israel eat their bread unclean among the nations
where I will banish them. But I said, Ah, Lord God, Behold, I
have never been defiled. For from my youth, until now I have
never eaten what died of itself, or was torn by beasts, nor has
any unclean meat ever entered my mouth. Then he said to me, see,
I will give you cow's dung in place of human dung over which
you will prepare your bread. Moreover, he said to me, Son of
man, behold, I'm going to break the staff of bread in Jerusalem,
and they will eat bread by weight, and with anxiety and
drink water by measure and in horror, because bread and water
will be scarce, and they will be appalled with one another, and
waste away in their iniquity.
Ezekiel chapter five. As for you, Son of man, take a sharp
sword. Take it, use it as a barber's razor on your head and
beard, then take scales for weighing in divide the hair 1/3,
you shall burn in the fire at the center of the city, when the
days of the siege are completed, then you shall take 1/3 and
strike it with the sword all around the city, and 1/3 You
shall scatter to the wind, and I will Unchi the sword behind
them. Take also a few in number from them, and bind them in the
edges of your robes, take again some of them and throw them into
the fire and burn them in the fire. From it, a fire will
spread to all the house of Israel. Thus says the Lord God,
this is Jerusalem, I have set her at the center of the nations
with lands around her, but she has rebelled against My
ordinances more wickedly than the nation's and against my
statutes more than the lands which surround her, for they
have rejected My ordinances, and if not walked in My statutes.
Therefore, Thus says the Lord God, because you have more
turmoil than the nations which surround you, and have not
walked in My statutes, nor observed My ordinances, nor
observed the ordinances of the nations which surround you.
Therefore, Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I, even I am
against you, and I will execute judgments among you in the sight
of the nations. And because of all your abominations I will do
among you what I have not done, and the like of which I will
never do again. Therefore, fathers will eat their sons
among you, and sons will eat their fathers, for I will
execute judgments on you and scatter all your remnant to
every wind. So as I live, declares the Lord GOD, surely
because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your
detestable idols, and with all your abominations, therefore, I
will also withdraw and my I will have no pity and I will not bear
1/3 of you will die by plague or be consumed by famine among you
1/3 will fall by the sword around you, and 1/3 I will
scatter to every wind and I will unsheathed the sword behind
them. Thus my anger will be spent, and I will satisfy my
wrath on them, and I will be appeased, then they will know
that I the LORD have spoken in my zeal when I have spent my
wrath upon them. Moreover, I will make you a desolation and a
reproach among the nations which surround you in the sight of all
who passed by. So it will be a reproach, a reviling a warning
and an object of horror to the nation's which surround you when
I execute judgments against you and anger, wrath and raging
rebukes. I the LORD have spoken, when I sinned against them, that
deadly arrows of famine which were for the destruction of
those whom I will send to destroy you, then I also will
intensify the famine upon you, and break the staff have bred.
Moreover, I will send on you famine and wild beasts and they
will be review of children, plague and bloodshed also will
pass through you and I will bring the sword on you, I, the
LORD have spoken.
Ezekiel chapter six. And the word of the Lord came to me
saying, Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of
Israel and prophesy against them and say, mountains of Israel,
listen to the word of the Lord God. Thus says the Lord God to
the mountains, the hills, the ravines and the valleys. Behold,
I myself am going to bring a sword on you and I will destroy
your high places, so your altars will become desolate and your
incense altars will be smashed, and I will make your slain fall
in front of your idols, I will also lay the dead bodies of the
sons of Israel in front of their idols, and I will scatter your
bones around your altars. In all your dwellings, cities will
become waste in the high places will become desolate, that your
altars may become waste and desolate, your idols may be
broken and brought to an end, your incense altars may be cut
down, and your works may be blotted out, the slain will fall
among you, and you will know that I am the Lord. However, I
will leave a remnant for you will have those who escaped the
sword among the nations when you are scattered among the
countries, then those of you who escaped will remember me among
the nations to which they will be carried captive, how I have
been hurt by their adulterous hearts, which turned away from
me, and by their eyes, which played the harlot after their
idols, and they will load themselves in their own site for
the evils which they have committed for all their
abominations, then they will know that I am the Lord, I have
not said in vain that I would inflict this disaster on them.
Thus says the Lord God, clap your hand, stamp your foot and
say, alas, because of all the evil abominations of the house
of Israel, which will fall by sword, famine and plague, he who
is far off will die by the plague, and he who is near will
fall by the sword, and he who remains in his besieged will die
by the famine. Thus, I will spend my wrath on them, then you
will know that I am the Lord when they're slain are among
their idols around their altars on every high hill, on all the
tops of the mountains under every green tree, and under
every leafy oak, the places where they offered soothing
aroma to all their idols. So throughout all their
habitations, I will stretch out my hand against them, and make
the land more desolate and waste than the wilderness toward
Dibbler. Thus, they will know that I am the Lord.
Well, beloved, regarding the visions that Ezekiel saw in
chapter one, I've got to say that it's hard to envision what
he describes, don't you think? I can only imagine that he must
have been just absolutely terrified. The storm the four
beings, which some commentators say are angels, with the four
faces and wings, and hands and legs and eyes, and nothing like
these beings had ever been seen before by a human that we know.
Now you and I have seen all sorts of strange creatures,
Thanks to Hollywood special effects. But a zekiel had
absolutely no frame of reference. And then the wheels
within wheels. It's sort of a wonder that Ezekiel was even
able to put any of this into words, but then again, he was
given the words to write by the Holy Spirit, wasn't he? But
still, imagine how dumbfounded he must have been at these
visions? And the sounds he heard? Sounds like tremendous
waterfalls in the tumult of an army camp. Have you ever stood
close to a large waterfall? It's almost deafening, isn't it? And
the sound is unrelenting. That just makes you feel so small and
insignificant, such enormous power. And then over the beings
and the wheels above the mall was something like a throne that
looked like a kind of jewel, with a man sitting on the
throne. But His appearance was like no ordinary man and the
radiance around the throne was unlike anything seen on Earth.
So who was this man? Well, we know him as Jesus, we generally
think of him as he appeared on Earth. But think of it his time
here was just a flash of time. But for all of eternity past,
present, and future, except for those 33 years, he Jesus is in
this place, which our words are unable to describe adequately.
We think of Jesus kind of like a buddy or a Big Brother, don't
we, but seeing him like this, I think we would just have to fall
on our faces. And of course, we know that that's probably what
we'll do. When we see him at some point in the future. I
think for sure, that is precisely what I'm going to do.
And to be honest, I can't wait. Can you imagine being in
Ezekiel's place and having this vision? What do you think you
would do? Call the Lifespring family Hotline at plus
1-951-732-8511 or leave a comment via boostagram You can
also go to comment.lifespringmedia.com. I
try to make it as easy as possible for you to get in touch
with me. Also, you can email me at Steve at Lifespringmedia.com.
Tomorrow, we'll be gospel Saturday, and we'll get back
into the book of Luke will read chapters 11 and 12.
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so much, and God bless you.
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together will be this coming Sunday.
Thanks to Sister Denise, Michael Haner, Scott Snider, today's
artist Jason Paschall. and Sister Brittaney. Until
tomorrow, I'm so glad that you invited me to be a part of your
day. May God bless you richly. My name is Steve Webb. Bye.
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