Verses 6 – 8: In front of the
throne was a sea of glass like a crystal. Can you picture it? Here are some
other references to the terrible beauty of God’s throne.
Ezekiel 1:22 And the likeness of
the firmament upon the heads of the living creature was as the colour of the
terrible crystal, stretched forth over their heads above.
Exodus 24:10 And they saw the
God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a
sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness.
These four beasts with eyes in
front and in back, saying, Holy, holy,
holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come, are like the
four beasts referred to in Ezekiel’s two visions.
Ezekiel 1:4 ¶ And I looked, and,
behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding
itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the
colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire. 5 Also out of the midst thereof came the
likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the
likeness of a man. 6 And every one had
four faces, and every one had four wings. 7
And their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the
sole of a calf’s foot: and they sparkled like the colour of burnished brass.
8 And they had the hands of a man under
their wings on their four sides; and they four had their faces and their wings.
9 Their wings were joined one to
another; they turned not when they went; they went every one straight forward.
10 As for the likeness of their faces,
they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and
they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face
of an eagle. 11 Thus were their faces:
and their wings were stretched upward; two wings of every one were joined one
to another, and two covered their bodies. 12
And they went every one straight forward: whither the spirit was to go,
they went; and they turned not when they went. 13 As for the likeness of the living creatures,
their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of
lamps: it went up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright,
and out of the fire went forth lightning. 14
And the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash
of lightning.
15 ¶ Now as I beheld the living creatures, behold
one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four faces. 16 The appearance of the wheels and their work
was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their
appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.
17 When they went, they went upon their
four sides: and they turned not when they went. 18 As for their rings, they were so high that
they were dreadful; and their rings were full of eyes round about them four.
19 And when the living creatures went,
the wheels went by them: and when the living creatures were lifted up from the
earth, the wheels were lifted up. 20
Whithersoever the spirit was to go, they went, thither was their spirit
to go; and the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the
living creature was in the wheels. 21
When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when
those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up over against
them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels. 22 And the likeness of the firmament upon the
heads of the living creature was as the colour of the terrible crystal,
stretched forth over their heads above. 23
And under the firmament were their wings straight, the one toward the
other: every one had two, which covered on this side, and every one had two,
which covered on that side, their bodies. 24
And when they went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of
great waters, as the voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech, as the noise
of an host: when they stood, they let down their wings. 25 And there was a voice from the firmament that
was over their heads, when they stood, and had let down their wings.
26 ¶ And above the firmament that was over their
heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and
upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man
above upon it. 27 And I saw as the
colour of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the
appearance of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even
downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round
about. 28 As the appearance of the bow
that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the
brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of
the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one
that spake.
Ezekiel 10: 1 ¶ 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.
Lion, calf or ox or cherub, eagle,
and man’s are the faces of these creatures. There are two curious things
here. The first is that Satan was a
cherub. The reference in the following verses begins talking about the King of
Tyre likening him to Satan, which gives us more important information about
Satan than it does Tyre’s king. This is a way the Bible uses one description to
describe two individuals. You describe how one is like the other and you have a
prophecy of both.
Ezekiel 28:11 ¶ Moreover the
word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 12
Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto
him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and
perfect in beauty. 13 Thou hast been in
Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius,
topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the
emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy
pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. 14 Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth;
and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast
walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. 15 Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day
that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. 16 By the multitude of thy merchandise they have
filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will
cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O
covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. 17 Thine heart was lifted up because of thy
beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast
thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.
18 Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by
the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore
will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I
will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold
thee. 19 All they that know thee among
the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt
thou be any more.
As you can see, Satan is a cherub,
a living creature, in the form of a beast. He is, in Job, chapter 41, in
another multi-layered description of a dinosaur, or dragon in pre-1800’s
terminology, and a king over all the
children of pride.
Satan is called a dragon as you can see by
cross-referencing;
Isaiah 27:1 In that day the LORD
with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing
serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that
is in the sea.
Revelation 12:9 And the great
dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which
deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were
cast out with him.
Satan is a dragon, what we today
call a dinosaur, in appearance, but can appear as an angel of light to deceive us.
2Corinthians 11:13 For such are
false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of
Christ. 14 And no marvel; for Satan
himself is transformed into an angel of light. 15 Therefore it is no great thing if his
ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end
shall be according to their works.
The second curious thing is that
one of these creatures has the face of a man. So, God could have made a beast
with a man’s face but instead He made man to be very different although made of
similar materials. We live longer than most creatures. We take longer to
mature. Most creatures have lived their life cycle long before we are adults.
We are helpless physically and need to manipulate our environment to protect
ourselves and make weapons to fight against other predators. Our brains consume
60% of our available energy, I’ve read, although I have not confirmed this and
that’s why I’m not citing the source. Just putting it out there for
conversation purposes. Anyway, one of
the prototypes for beasts has the face of a man. It is not the face of an ape
as God could have said that easily. We
were originally made in God’s image, in His likeness, as Genesis 1:26.
Adam, being the first man, was a son of God. He was created
to look like God.
Luke 3:38 Which was the son of Enos, which was the son
of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.
Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image,
after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and
over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over
every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
After Adam’s sin mankind began to degenerate and Adam’s
descendants were made in his image, lacking the perfection that God intended.
Genesis 5:3 And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years,
and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:
From this scientific fact we can make a prediction. All
humanity has and will experience genetic decay as long as we exist in this
physical existence. I refer you to Alexey Kondrashov’s 1995 article in the Journal of Theoretical Biology entitled,
“Contamination of the Genome by very Slightly Deleterious Mutations: Why Have
We Not Died 100 Times Over?”[1]
Another example is James F. Crow’s “The High Spontaneous Mutation Rate: Is it a
Health Risk?” for the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Science. [2]
There has been nothing since these papers to indicate the opposite idea, that
mankind is genetically improving.
Image and likeness have to do with
how you look, not your mental character or spiritual state. Adam walked upright
like God.
[1] Alexey Kondrashov, “Contamination of
the Genome by very Slightly Deleterious Mutations: Why Have We Not Died 100
Times Over?” Journal of Theoretical
Biology 175 (1995): 583-594.
[2] James F. Crow, “The High Spontaneous
Mutation Rate: Is it a Health Risk?” Proceedings
of the National Academy of Science Vol. 94 (August 1997): 8380–8386.
No comments:
Post a Comment