“Each of the cherubim had four faces: One face was that of a cherub, the second the face of a man, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.”
~ Ezekiel 10:14
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you like to write stories? Do you like to read stories? Do you like to have stories read to you? If you like stories, what kinds of stories do you like to write, read and/or have read to you? Do you like to write, read and/or have stories read to you that are about the lives of real guys, gals and kids? Do you like to write, read and/or have stories read to you that are about the lives of made up guys, gals and kids who live in made up places? Do you like to write, read and/or have stories read to you that are about make belief beings and make belief worlds? Do you like to write, read and/or have stories read to you that are full of real life adventures? Do you like to write, read and/or have stories read to you that tell you about the history of the sphere called planet Earth which God is allowing you the blessing to live on at this time? The Bible is filled with real life characters who have real life personalities – with each guy and gal having his or her own personal life story to tell to whoever guy, gal and/or kid who is interested or wanting to learn from the lives of these guys and gals. The Bible is filled with real life experiences and adventures of guys and gals. The Bible has parables – or allegories or fables, in it that Jesus taught His disciples and followers as life illustrations for them to understand better how to live their lives as His servant helpers. God uses the Bible to articulate to the guys, gals and kids who believe that the Bible is inerrant why He chose Abraham and Abraham’s extended family to be His specially chosen guys, gals and kids. God uses the Bible to elucidate why a guy, gal and kid when he or she makes a decision of faith to believe in what He has done for him or her through Himself – as God the Son, while He was nailed to and dying on a cross joins His family of specially elected children who He has adopted. God uses the Bible to tell guys, gals and kids who are living on planet Earth about an invisible world that has beings and things in it that no mortal guy, gal and kid – like you, your dad or ma or your grandmaa or grandpaa can see. Your grandpaa believes that there are good and bad creatures, beings and angels who are living in and moving about in the very same life space that your grandpaa lives and moves about as he is living on planet Earth.
How would you like to be able to see one of those good or bad creatures, beings or angels? In the second of two very similar visions that God gave to Ezekiel, God had Ezekiel see a good heavenly being doing what He had asked the good heavenly being do. Ezekiel was ordained by God to be a prophet or spokesman to His specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the land of Judah and in the city of Jerusalem shortly before and then after Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army overran the land of Judah and the city of Jerusalem and took away a lot of God’s specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the land of Judah and in the city of Jerusalem to be exiled in Babylonia. When a guy has a vision such as what Ezekiel had, the guy is probably in a very deep sleep. A vision is like a really intense dream that allows a guy like Ezekiel to see another world – such as the spiritual world, in action. A vision was one of the ways that God used to allow guys like Ezekiel to be able to see ahead to what the future was going to be like for His specially chosen guys and gals. Your grandpaa thinks that God had not yet allowed Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army to destroy His temple that was located in the city of Jerusalem when Ezekiel had his second vision in which he saw a cherubim with four whirling wheels under it hovering over God’s temple that was located in the city of Jerusalem. Ezekiel saw in this vision – which he recounted in what is now Ezekiel 10 in his Ezekiel Book, an angelic looking guy dressed in white linen – who your grandpaa thinks could have been the judgment angel, go between the whirling wheels that were spinning beneath the cherubim where he took hot, burning coals and scattered these hot, burning coals over the city of Jerusalem. The hot, burning coals that Ezekiel saw the angelic looking guy scatter over the city of Jerusalem were symbolic of God pouring out His anger on His specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the city of Jerusalem who had rejected the ways that He was expecting them to live their lives. How would you like to someday see a cherubim? Verse 14 describes a cherubim, “Each of the cherubim had four faces: One face was that of a cherub, the second the face of a man, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.” Would you like to have the kind of vision that Ezekiel had but this time seeing God’s radiance and a cloud of glory over every Christ-follower fellowship everywhere?
Your grandpaa likes to write. Your grandpaa has a feeling that what your grandpaa just told you, you already knew – that your grandpaa likes to write. One of the classes that your grandpaa had to take while he was a student at Moody Bible Institute was an English class. Richard Van Dyke was your grandpaa’s teacher in the English class that he needed to take. Mr. Van Dyke was younger than your grandpaa. Mr. Van Dyke really encouraged your grandpaa to write. After your grandpaa wrote a short story for an assignment in the English class, Mr. Van Dyke selected your grandpaa’s short story along with two or three other short stories that other students in your grandpaa’s English class had written to take to the editor of Moody Monthly to read. The editor of Moody Monthly wrote on your grandpaa’s short story that your grandpaa needed to be more factual in what he wrote as . . . the Moody Monthly’s editor at that time was Jerry Jenkins. Jerry Jenkins is one of the guys who is behind writing the Left Behind series of books. Your grandpaa knows that what he wrote in his short story was factual and could happen. Your grandpaa always includes now the word plausible in each short story that he writes. What God showed Ezekiel in a vision actually did happen.
Ezekiel 10 (381)