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Religious Pron: The End Times, 5B of ?

Apr 22, 2024, 4:03 PM

It never hurts to look in the mirror,

…for some contemplative reflection.

Back in part 5A, Ezekiel was an exile in Babylon, reflecting on Israel’s past. It was understandable regret and outrage over what might have been, given how things turned out.

Ezekiel 23:26 “You engaged in prostitution with the Egyptians, your neighbors with large gen itals, and aroused my anger with your increasing promiscuity.”

Oh, Daughter Jerusalem…

And then the whole world changed overnight.

The new world power of Persia defeated the Jew’s overlord, Babylon, and everyone, including Ezekiel, was going back home. Back to a home they thought they had lost forever.

A nation suddenly needed to be rebuilt, and Ezekiel dropped his rage and put on his City Planner-Architect-High Priest hat.

In some of the dryest scripture since the days of Numbers, Ezekiel meticulously lays out every detail of the reconstruction of his old world.

He drones on about how to arrange plots of land, how reconstruct the destroyed city of Jerusalem, how to rebuild the Holy Sanctum, and how to conduct Temple sacrifices for the first time in 50 years, all to the nth level of boring.

Ezekiel chapters 40-48 are as exciting as reading the Municipal Code of any city in America.

In those eight chapters though, there is one thing that is very interesting. It’s how Ezekiel’s distinguishes between city priests and country priests.

Ever since Solomon built the first Temple, the sons of Zadok were the ones selected to run the Temple. Even over all the other Levites from Aaron’s line. Ezekiel, being a city dweller himself, tells all those “lesser” country priests that they will no longer be needed once the Temple is rebuilt in Jerusalem. Uh-oh.

Ezekiel 44:16 “These are the sons of Zadok, who are the only Levites who may draw near to the Lord to minister before him.”

Oh boy. Inter-priesthood rivalry with exclusive access to God on the line. We’ll save that drama for a future post.

There’s another little detail that Ezekiel left out of his writings. Persia allowed the priesthood to continue, but didn’t allow Judah to have a king. They only got a governor who answered to Cyrus. So as far as the Jewish people were concerned, they were no longer in a monarchy, they were in a theocracy. That’ll be important later on. Because with no king to balance the scales, the priests now ruled the roost.

But for now, as always, we’re here for insight into the Book of Revelation. So let’s take a closer look at what the Book of Ezekiel has to offer. And it’s quite a bit.

In chapter 3:3, Ezekiel gets these instructions:

“And he said to me [Ezekiel], “Son of man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll…”

Compare that with Revelation 10:9

“So I [John] went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He said to me, “Take it and eat it.”

Jewish commentary says that eating a scroll means accepting it, even if the message is good or bad. Or both, in John’s case.

“It will turn your stomach sour, but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey.” Yum.

A little later on, in Ezekiel 8, we get more detail on what Heaven will look like. It’s gonna have the Jewish court of priests in it.

8:16 “He then brought me into the inner court [where there] were about twenty-five men.”

Jewish commentary takes us back to 1 Chronicles 24:4 for that.

The Divisions of Priests

“…they were divided accordingly: sixteen heads of families from Eleazar’s descendants and eight heads of families from Ithamar’s descendants.”

That’s 24 men plus one High Priest to rule them all, for 25.

Compare that with Revelation 4:4

“Surrounding the [God’s] throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads.”

Let’s take a look at this picture again.

Jesus, the new High Priest, would of course be number 25 in John’s Revelation.

Jesus, taking over Caiaphas’ old job

We learn about marks on the flesh in Ezekiel, too, despite Leviticus 19:28.

Ezekiel 9:2

“And I saw six men [Angels of Death] coming from the direction of the upper gate, which faces north, each with a deadly weapon in his hand. …and [God] said, “Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads.”

“Slaughter the old men, the young men and women, the mothers and children, but do not touch anyone who has the mark.”

Compare that with Revelation 13:16

“It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads…”

So back then, cut marks, whether on the hand, or the forehead, or the foreskin, showed affiliation, or loyalty, or lifestyle. Not unlike today.

There’s other cool stuff in Ezekiel, too. We learn, again for the first time to my knowledge, that hell is like a pit. And that each person is responsible for their own sins, not their father’s sins.

Ezekiel 18:4 “The one who sins is the one who will die. The child will not share the guilt of the parent, nor will the parent share the guilt of the child.”

Which is much, much better than the earlier way:

Exodus 20:5 “…I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me…”

And we even learn that there were End Time skeptics and cynics way back then.

Ezek 12:22

“Son of man, what is this proverb you have in the land of Israel: ‘The days go by and every vision comes to nothing’?”

“Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am going to put an end to this proverb, and they will no longer quote it in Israel.’

So those are plenty more End Time items to add to our list; scrolls, and marks, and elders, and hellish pits, among others. But I saved the best for last, of course. God’s War Chariot!

When Ezekiel receives his calling, he has a miraculous vision of God’s War Chariot. The Hebrews call it the Merkabah, and it’s kind of a big deal. Sort of the combat version of this:

God’s War Chariot, a pretty wild ride

The Merkabah’s got 4 on-the-floor…beasts that is, and each of those beasts has four faces.

Ezekiel 1:10
“Each of the four had the face of a human being, and on the right side each had the face of a lion, and on the left the face of an ox; each also had the face of an eagle.”

Which is kind of, but not exactly, like the four beasts in Revelation 4:6

“In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle.”

God’s chariot sits on these four fantastic creatures and rolls about on giant casters, moving at his will.

Sadly, we don’t know much else about God’s Chariot, because ‘ordinary’ Jews, without specific training or wisdom, are not even allowed to contemplate it. It’s a mystical secret, and meant to stay that way.

Sort of like not being allowed to say God’s name, and so shortening it to YHWH.

That’s probably just as well, because according to tradition, those who have pondered God’s War Chariot have either died on the spot, or been consumed by fire, or been driven crazy. In 1902 a guy in Mississippi was inspired to build an early airplane from Ezekiel’s vision, and it does appear he went kinda crazy.

The Ezekiel Airship, on display in Pittsburg, Texas. Population 4,335.

It’s also probably no coincidence that current Israel’s main battle tank is also named after God’s War Chariot, the Merkava.

Hey guys! Get your feet off God’s Ride!

That’s all pretty dangerous stuff, so we’ll leave it alone for now, update our End Times list, and skedaddle out of here before someone gets hurt!

Cumulative list of Revelation End Time Criteria:

850 BCE Obadiah: 1) Everybody loves Jerusalem and Yahweh
740 BCE Amos: 2) Israel has a permanent home
700 BCE Micah: 3) The Temple is center of world worship and the 10 Tribes return,
630 BCE Zephaniah: 4) The entire world is destroyed with fire by God, but a remnant remains
600 BCE Isaiah-I: 5) 6-Winged Seraphim, God’s throne and train, and a protective canopy over Jerusalem

570 BCE Ezekiel: 6) Multi-faced creatures, eating scrolls, marks on the flesh, 25 Elders, and hellish pits

So till next time, keep reflecting…

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Yes, that is the classic Christian interpretation. But there are others.

In one Jewish interpretation, the 4 beasts represent the 4 highest Archangels; Gabriel, Metatron, Michael, and Gabriel.

In Hassidic Judaism, the 4 beasts represent the 4 spiritual "worlds", or elements; the lion represents fire, the ox is earth, man is water, and the eagle is air.

In Jewish mysticism, the creatures are the archetypes (the idealized version) for all life...the souls of the domesticated animals descend from the face of the ox of the Chariot; wild animals descend from the face of the lion in the Chariot; fowl descend from the face of the eagle of the Chariot, and man from Adam. Their task is to call all living beings to worship Yahweh.

So it's all over the place. The original idea was that by prohibiting investigation of the symbology of the Merkabah, incorrect interpretations would be curtailed. In fact, the opposite has happened. By Ezekiel (or the priesthood) not giving a definitive answer as to what they mean, the interpretations have run rampant.

Plus, even Ezekiel himself compounds the problem by switching up the description in two separate verses:

1:10 "Their faces looked like this: Each of the four had the face of a human being, and on the right side each had the face of a lion, and on the left the face of an ox; each also had the face of an eagle."

10:14 "Each of the cherubim had four faces: One face was that of a cherub, the second the face of a human being, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle."

I think in 10:14 'cherubim' is generic for angel, and 'cherub'(servant angel) is a specific type of angel, like a 'seraphim'(burning angel) or a malakhim (messenger angel).

The difference between those two verses is that in one the face is described as a cherub, and in the other as an ox. In Judaism, cherubs are a specific type of angel. They are rank 9 of 10 on the Angel Hierarchy list. Seraphim, the guys who stand by God's throne, rank 5 of 10 by comparison, so they are different angels, with different jobs.

But they are divine, while oxen are not. So Ezekiel doesn't do us any favors with interpretation there.

It can get very confusing very quickly, and since the text isn't definitive on what they mean, it's just up in the air.

Religious Pron: The End Times, 5B of ?

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