FAQ

The 10th chapter of the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel contains part of the description of the visions of the prophet Ezekiel by the river Chebar. Several such visions were given to the prophet; the first of them dates back to 592 BC. Briefly, the essence of the revelation can be expressed as follows. God reveals to the prophet that His presence among people is a great gift, and the sins of the chosen people (primarily—idolatry in everything) deeply offend this gift. God speaks of the fact that He does not tolerate sin; every sin makes the presence of God and people before one another impossible. If God continues to patiently endure the sin of the people, then Israel will become entrenched either in godlessness or in the conviction that God is lenient towards sins. At the same time, God speaks directly of this same thing to the prophet Jeremiah.

The Israelites of the Old Testament era thought of the presence of God as His Glory filling the Jerusalem Temple (cf. the 6th chapter of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah). This Glory, the Shekinah, was not simply a radiance emanating from God, but His own presence. The Israelites were confident that as long as the Glory of God abides in the Temple, nothing bad would or could happen to them. On this is based the saying, “The temple of the Lord,” which was reproved by the prophet Jeremiah. And the very presence of the Glory of God in the Temple was considered unshakable and unconditional, in accordance with the promise to David and Solomon.

It is precisely these religious stereotypes that God refutes in the vision given to the prophet Ezekiel. The prophet sees that because of the sins of Israel—venerating idols, multiplying iniquities, and treating the Almighty Himself as an idol—the Glory of God will be taken away. God sends Ezekiel to proclaim this to Israel, emphasizing that Israel will not listen. But the duty of the prophet is to go and speak the word from God: “whether they hear or refuse to hear... they shall know that there has been a prophet among them” (Ezekiel 2:5).

The central and main part of the vision by the Chebar is the vision described in the 10th chapter of how the Glory of the Lord leaves the Temple on a fiery chariot. This vision plunged the prophet into terror, because it promised destruction for the forsaken Jerusalem.

The prophet explains that what he saw defies description in human language, and he creates a kind of verbal icon. Hence the strange images of wheels full of eyes, incredible creatures moving in four directions at once, and so on. Perhaps this description, written down while already in Babylon, was influenced by the images the prophet saw there. The essence of the 10th chapter is, of course, not found in these details, but in the content of the Revelation.

For the prophet, it is important that what he saw emphasizes the universal character of God’s authority and presence (hence the mentions of the four points of the compass). The entire immeasurable difference in scale between the Almighty and humanity is revealed to him. Over the centuries that passed after the Exodus, the Israelites began to treat God as their national-folkloric deity—and here Ezekiel saw a reflection of the true majesty of the Creator. It is precisely in this perspective that he also sees the moral wretchedness of his people.

However, the content of the Revelation is not limited to predicting the forsakenness and destruction of Israel. In the following 11th chapter, God speaks to the prophet about the future exiles of Israel: “yet I shall be a little sanctuary for them in the countries where they have gone” (Ezekiel 11:16). Thus, leaving the Temple and rejecting the national religion of sinful Israel, God promises to be present and to act in the lives of specific individuals. This Revelation becomes the foundation for the prophecy of the New Covenant, which will be given to Ezekiel already in Babylon and is contained in the second part of his book.