(Through the Bible) Ezekiel 1-5 — Chuck Smith

Ezekiel’s Historical Setting and Prophetic Ministry

Shall we turn at this time to the prophecy of Ezekiel? Ezekiel said it came to pass in the 30th year in the fourth month in the fifth day of the month, so that would be July the 5th it would be probably the 30th year of Ezekiel's life when he was 30 years old as He was among the captives by the river of Chibar.

Chibar that the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. Ezekiel was taken to Babylon in the second captivity at the time when Jehoiachin Was also taken captive. There were three times that Nebuchadnezzar's armies came against Jerusalem taking captives back to Babylon.

Daniel went back in the first captivity. Ezekiel went in the second captivity. Now basically Ezekiel was prophesying to the captives. And when he began his prophecy Jerusalem was still standing. Now there were false prophets in Babylon that were telling the people look don't settle down.

Don't get a house. God's gonna soon defeat Babylon and we're gonna go back right away. So hang loose. Because we're only gonna be here a little while the Lord is going to deliver His people and we're gonna return from Babylon very shortly.

So just don't settle down now. Jeremiah had been writing to them Saying don't listen to the prophets or so-called prophets. Who are telling you not to settle down but instead? Settle down. Get adjusted because you're gonna be there for 70 years.

Most of you are gonna die in Babylon so you might as well get used to that fact and just settle down make the best of the situation and So there were two schools of prophets the true prophets the false prophets.

But Ezekiel the true prophet of God was Declaring to them the same thing that Jeremiah was saying That Jerusalem is not going to be restored immediately. But that Jerusalem is going to be completely destroyed by Babylon.

The people are going to be destroyed and scattered and he is telling the people in Babylon now Jeremiah is writing from Jerusalem. But Ezekiel is there among them saying now look listen to the Word of the Lord.

Just go ahead and settle down here and just settle in because it's going to be a long time that you'll be in captivity. So at the beginning of Ezekiel's prophecies He began his prophecy before Jerusalem was destroyed in 596.

So in the beginning of his prophecies he is predicting the destruction of Jerusalem as He moves further into his prophecy. As time goes on and the prophecy is fulfilled and Jerusalem is destroyed then there is a change and Now he is encouraging the people That God in his time is going to restore again the glory to Israel.

Now he saw the glory of God did depart from Jerusalem through the East Gate but as the prophecies continue and As the people are discouraged when they hear the news that Jerusalem has been devastated destroyed.

He then begins to encourage them. God is going to work yet again among his people. The glory of God shall return. The glory of God is going to fill the house and the latter glory is going to be greater than the former glory.

Israel has not yet seen its heyday in a sense. It's not yet seen the peak. God is going to yet restore his glory and all upon Jerusalem and upon Israel. Hard times Will intervene or be in the intermittent periods yet God's work will yet be accomplished among his people.

So Jeremiah, I mean Ezekiel's prophecies actually then go out beyond even our present day. Now Ezekiel saw the restoration of the land. He saw the nation being reborn he predicted the the modern Zionist movement and The rebirth of the nation Israel and he predicted that when Israel was born again as a nation That Russia would come and invade Israel.

And As we move on into the prophecy of Ezekiel we get into all of these interesting marvelous things because we move Actually from the present on into the future and we see not only what is happening now.

But Ezekiel continues to move on and we see things that will be happening within a year or so or five ten years at the most and then he moves on even beyond that and we see things that will be happening in Israel during the kingdom age and the glorious reign of Jesus Christ as he comes again and enters in through the east gate of the city and Establishes his kingdom here upon the earth.

And so the the prophecy of Ezekiel really begins from this point when he was about 30 years old when the Word of the Lord first came to him when he saw these visions of God this is before the fall of Jerusalem the complete destruction and He Describes here his vision of God now Isaiah had a vision of God.

Ezekiel had a vision of the throne of God and John in the New Testament had a vision of the throne of God and so from these Insights of these three men we gather our information concerning the throne of God concerning the heavenly scene now.

Describing Heavenly Visions in Human Language

Immediately there arises a difficulty. Because we are talking now of heavenly things. But we are seeking to describe them in earthly language. Now there is no doubt Words that we do not yet know that aptly describe the things in heaven.

But at the present time they have to remain to us only as word pictures. So you take the language that is common to man words that are common to man and you Use them to the best of your ability to express things that you've never seen before weird-looking creatures like you've never dreamed of Intelligent beings and you try to describe with human language What you are seeing and immediately?

You're limited by language even as If we tried to describe if we should suddenly have an insight to say the year 2000 and we could see all of the Technical advances and all that man will have achieved by the year 2000 and we try to describe now with our present language the modes of transportation and all that man will have developed by that time as We're looking at weird gadgets that we have no concept what they are all about.

And yet we see them operating and moving and all and we say well You know that thing just you know has these stacks or whatever and you know the smoke comes out and then people you know and you try to describe the things, but You're you're limited because of language so it makes the defining of them or the the Relating of them difficult because of limitation of language so we'll have to sort of try to envision Those things which Ezekiel is on about you remember when Jesus was talking with Nicodemus and talking about the fact that a man has to be born again and He was trying to explain to Nicodemus these concepts that were unfamiliar to Nicodemus and Nicodemus was asking these questions.

Well, how can a man be born again when he's old? You know Can't return again to your mother's womb and be born. How can you do it? And Jesus said look if I have talked to you about earthly things and you can't understand them.

How would you understand if I tried to talk to you about heavenly things? Now the Bible says no man understands the things of God save the Spirit reveal them unto him. So in Getting into these areas we're talking now about things of God.

We definitely need the help of the Holy Spirit in our understanding and comprehension of these things. That we might get somewhat of a Glimpse or a grasp of them now. I am convinced that what they saw we will be seen When we enter into the heavenly scene.

So it is Well for you to acquaint yourself as best as possible with these things. Though for right now they may seem to Be difficult to really comprehend in your mind yet. One day when we actually see them and we put you know, this side by side was it well He didn't do too bad a job.

Yeah. Looks pretty much like that, you know. So this was the fifth year in which joy a chin have been brought as a captive unto Babylon. Zedekiah was presently the king in Judah in Jerusalem. Joy a chin had reigned only three months when Nebuchadnezzar came and took him captive along with his mother and his family and Others of Judah and the Word of the Lord came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest The son of buzzy in the land of the Chaldeans by the river of Kibar and The hand of the Lord was there upon him.

Ezekiel uses this expression seven times the hand of the Lord was upon me and This is the first of the seven times that he uses it. We'll find it again in our study tonight in chapter 3 verses 14 and 22 and then we won't find it again until chapter 8.

And I looked and behold the whirlwind came out of the north. Now the north here would be actually the dwelling place of God in Isaiah in speaking of Satan's Exalting of himself. He said I will ascend into the sides of the north it is thought that In relationship of course to the earth.

That that heavenly kingdom of God dwells somewhere in the area of the north. Recently this past week in fact there was a interesting article in the paper of a vast empty space that has been found in the universe that is baffling to the scientists and It is sort of upsetting certain theories that they have had in the past.

It could really be very disturbing to the Big Bang Theory because supposedly the debris of the Big Bang Was sort of distributed equally throughout the entire universe and doesn't really give place for vast areas of empty space.

But yet there has been discovered recently this extremely vast area of empty space and The area happens to be actually Towards the North Star and There is this vast area of Emptiness in space which at the present time is a real enigma to the astronomers that are studying it as they try to align this discovery with The current theories that exist of the origin of the universe.

This whirlwind came out of the north. This would not be out of Babylon. He was in Babylon when he saw it a great cloud and a fire that is Enfolding itself now. Have you ever seen fire that enfolds itself it sort of rolls When there is an explosion of highly volatile materials.

And as the fireball goes up it enfolds itself it rolls around and catches into itself as it goes up it's quite an Phenomena to observe. I was coming home from Los Angeles years ago when I was going to school up there and living in Santa Ana and There was this There used to be a lot of olive orchards over here in the area of La Mirada and There was an olive oil factory there and The thing had caught fire as we were coming home.

We came by and of course, you know You're always fascinated by fire. We got out to watch the fire. We were getting up sort of close and suddenly the thing exploded and We watched this ball of fire going up and and the fire Enfolding itself as as it went up it this ball of fire is going up and but it keeps coming around and enfolding itself on into this ball, and it's a fascinating phenomena to behold and as Ezekiel is is seeing now coming out of this area of the north this great cloud and It is interesting that the Bible speaks so often of God being covered with a cloud the clouds of glory that surround God There on the Mount when God came down and spoke with Moses.

There was the cloud of God's glory that Covered Mount Sinai and the fire again the fireballs that were emitting forth from it. The brightness was about it. There was a brightness about it and out of the midst or the middle thereof was the color of amber That was coming out of the midst of the fire.

Also out of the middle thereof there came the likeness of four living creatures so here in the middle of this of this Glorious brightness that sort of a ball of fire and enfolding itself in the cloud there in the midst of it was this beautiful amber color and also these four living creatures and This was their appearance they looked somewhat like a man, but every one of them had four faces and every one of them had four wings 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 color of burnished brass so again, he's using human language to describe creatures like he had never seen before and So we have to use our imaginations in in trying to in our minds Picture or visualize these four living creatures Looking somewhat like a man each one having four faces each of them having four wings their feet are sort of like a calf's sort of clothing like a calf's foot, but they look like bright burnished brass and They had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides.

And they four had their faces and their wings and their wings were joined one to another and they turn not when they went. But they went everyone straightforward so their movement was in straight line type of movement rather than rounding sort of straight type of movement of these creatures.

The Four Living Creatures and the Throne of God

Now as we Go on with the description of these four living creatures We realize that these are parallel to the four living creatures that John saw when in the book of Revelation chapter 4 he also had a vision of the throne of God and He saw these four living creatures with their four faces and John also describes them in the book of Revelation.

Ezekiel describes them again in chapter 10 when he sees them in chapter 10 and there he identifies to us what these living creatures are and there we discover that these are cherubim a Created being of God intelligent beings of God beings that surround God.

In Revelation we are told that they cease not day or night saying holy holy holy Lord God Almighty Which is which was and which is to come? Now this Ties in then with God's directions to Moses in the building of the tabernacle Which the book of Hebrews tells us is a model of heaven.

Now most of you fellas have built it sometime or other in your life a model of either a car or a plane and you're not building a P51 but you're building a model of the p51. You can't get in and fly it but when you build the model it looks like it resembles the real thing.

A Model is just a resemblance of the real thing so the Tabernacle was just a model of the real thing. The real thing is in heaven the tabernacle was a model of heaven and in the tabernacle in the Holy of Holies Which is a model of the throne of God in heaven Moses was told to Have these cherubim made out of gold above the mercy seat.

Their wings touching each other and the edges of their wings touching the edge of this little cubicle which was 15 feet cubicle golden room and This is again the model of the heavenly thing. So there are these cherubim these living creatures No doubt highly intelligent creatures though they look like they are perhaps some kind of a Genetic Freak you know as far as combining with four faces and and feet like a calf and all but yet They are these creatures that are there about the throne of God.

He goes on to describe them as for the likeness of their faces the four had the face of a man and the face of a lion on the right side and they had the face of an ox on the left side and They also had the face of an eagle.

So there were four faces on each of them. The front face was like a man. The right side of it was like a lion the left side like an ox and Behind like an eagle now as I say, they look like some kind of a genetic monstrosity.

Is as you look at them? There are some who see in these four faces the four Gospels as They describe Jesus Christ. For in the Gospels Christ is described as the Son of Man in Luke's Gospel in Matthew's Gospel he is described as The lion of the tribe of Judah.

Or rather Mark's Gospel Matthew's Gospel. He is the servant the ox the beast of service and In John's Gospel the deity the eagle. But thus were their faces their wings were stretched upward two wings of every one were joined one to another and two covered their bodies and They went everywhere straightforward.

Whether the spirit was to go they went and they turned not when they went. Now because they have faces going in every direction you just you know, you move straight. You don't have to Turn your head to go you just move in straight movements and As for the likeness of these living creatures their appearance was like burning coals the fire now picture your barbecue and the burning coals the fire on it and like the appearance of lamps and It went up and down among the living creatures and the fire was bright and out of the fire there came forth lightning and the living creatures ran and Returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning so they can move with the speed of light almost their movement was extremely Fast and like a lightning bolt just the appearance of a flash of lightning.

Now as I beheld the living creatures Behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures with his four faces and the appearance of the wheels and their work was like under the color of a burl and they for which would be green they for had one likeness and Their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.

So again, he's using human language trying to describe their appearance and so forth and and these wheels. And it was like a wheel within a middle of the wheel and these flashes of light and so forth as they move in this green glow like a burl in color and They went when they went they went upon their four sides and they turned not when they went.

This is third time you mentioned this so it's probably quite remarkable to him. He hasn't seen anything like this as far as you know, the earth and on the earth so as for their rings. They were so high that they were dreadful awesome, their rings were full of eyes round about them for 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 and Whether so ever the spirit was to go they went and 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.

Now when those went these went when those stood still these stood still and When they were lifted up from the earth the wheels were lifted up over against them for the spirit of the living creature again He repeats was in the wheels and the lightness of the firmament above their heads Upon the heads of living creatures Was the color of an awesome crystal?

Stretched forth over their heads above in other words now he's describing the area around the throne of God these creatures were under the throne of God and This was like an awesome crystal. John saw this Sea of glass likened a crystal that was there before the throne of God and as you read Revelation 4 you'll find that it parallels very much.

This vision of Ezekiel as both of these men bound by human limitations tried to describe the heavenly scene the throne of God and the glory of God that they behold in these visions and Under the firmament were their wings straight and one toward the other everyone had to which they covered their side.

Everyone had to which covered the sides of their bodies. They with two they touched each other with two they covered the sides of their bodies and when they went I heard the noise of their Wings like the noise of great waters.

Have you ever been to Niagara Falls ever been up in Yosemite to Vernal Falls or Nevada Falls? And you hear this noise of of great waters sort of a roar and so as they move there was this roar the flashes like lightning and the straight direction type movements as the voice of the Almighty the voice of speech as The noise of a host when they stood they let down their wings.

So there when when they were standing their wings would come down to their side and there was a voice from this heaven this firmament this expanse above them that was over their heads when they stood and they had let down their wings and above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne as The appearance of a sapphire stone which is blue and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as of the appearance of a man above upon it and I saw the color of amber as The appearance of fire round about within it and 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 as it had been brightness.

Round about 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 on my face and I heard a voice of one that spake so.

You might find it interesting when you have your own study to read Daniel 7 9 and 10 as Daniel describes his vision of God. Isaiah chapter 6 as he describes his vision of the throne of God and then Revelation chapter 4 as John describes his and you put them all together and you get a pretty good Composite of what the heavenly scene must look like this bowl John describes it in Revelation chapter 4 a bowl Like emerald it's sort of a greenish in color that is around about the throne of God.

Ezekiel describes it here. John had much the same reaction of Just falling on his face. Daniel was weak as a result of his vision. He just was totally weakened by it. Ezekiel fell on his face and he heard the voice of one that spake now.

UFO Claims and the Occult

Flying saucer bus declared that Ezekiel actually cited a flying saucer. That there are extra terrestrial beings that have visited the earth and have been visiting the earth during the historic period of man and That they actually account for many of the otherwise unaccountable phenomenas of history some of the mammoth building projects of ancient man, which still baffle us today and they of course Go out to the desert or into various areas and and they have these sightings of these Flying saucers.

And there's just an awful lot that has been written has been discussed has been talked About flying saucers and there have been many reports and and much interesting phenomena surrounding these flying saucers many of them can be accounted for as perhaps swamp gases and And other things but yet there are others that Reasonably intelligent men have Expressed and described and it's hard to discount them all.

Lambert Dolphin who is a scientist up at the University of Stanford one of the Scientists, I believe is areas that have astrophysics quite outstanding very intelligent man Was asked to speak at one of these flying saucer Conventions and so he prepared a paper on flying saucers in which he Thought that he would before the convention thoroughly debunk this whole flying saucer kind of a What he thought mythology and he was approaching it from just a purely scientific standpoint and Was going to take so many of the concepts that they had about moving on the magnetic forces and all of this and and seek to thoroughly From a scientific standpoint debunk the thing as he was sitting there on the platform and there were about 3 ,000 people at this convention.

The speaker and of course he was he was interested that these weren't freaky people. You know you think that people who see flying saucers and all are sort of fringe Freaky, you know kind of people, but he realized that among them there were Professors other scientists peace officers a wide cross-section of our society.

The leader of the convention asked the people how many of you have ever seen a flying saucer. And he was shocked that about two-thirds of the hands in the auditorium went up people Said that they had sighted flying saucers.

He then asked how many of you have been taken aboard a flying saucer and About a third of the people Raised their hands, and he began to get a little concerned. When he stood up to speak he heard this Screaming noise that was extremely distracting to him and he wondered where is that coming from and he looked around the audience to see what direction the people might be looking because he figured that those that were closest to the screaming noise would be Looking at it, and he and and he could localize where it was and then asked you know the Usher's or someone to take care of that and get rid of it.

But he said suddenly he realized that nobody was looking around anywhere. And that he was the only one that was hearing this screaming noise and to this man of science there came suddenly the awareness hey This whole thing is demonic.

And he got so shook that he was unable to deliver his paper in which he was going to debunk the whole flying saucer theory. Or ideas concepts. He was just totally shaken now. The interesting thing to me is that these people do try to bring? Ezekiel into their fold into their number.

Look he describes that he perfectly describes it in his book. Wait a minute. What does Ezekiel describe as I said in chapter 10. Ezekiel again Describes it, but he tells us what it is these are the cherubim that are there before the throne of God.

These wheels within the wheels with the flashes of lightning and and the movements and so forth. And if you heard them describe how the flying saucers move in in the straight type of lines. They don't make a wide arc when they turn they just Straight line type of movement.

Being able to change directions and and so forth. But tremendous speed able to hover and then suddenly move off the tremendous speeds. Is it possible that these people who are citing these UFOs are Also dabbling into the occult and are seeing fallen Cherubim.

We know that when Satan Fell that one-third of the angelic host went with him. It is interesting that the Bible says that Satan was indeed a cherubim. He was the anointed not a cherubim because cherubim is plural.

Cherub is the singular he was a anointed cherub that covered but there are cherubim plural. It is very possible that we are dealing in an interesting area of the occult and That there are these cherubim that are making themselves Visible to those who are dabbling into that realm of occultism.

Now what Ezekiel saw were the cherubim there at the throne of God? But it would also stand that the cherubim who fell would have a similar likeness or appearance and movements. So it is possible that we cannot thoroughly discount this whole flying saucer phenomena as a bunch of junk.

But it could indeed be that in these last days as satanic forces are Growing As far as the the demonstrations of their power. That as it was in the days of Noah. So shall it be the days of the coming of the Son of Man and there was strong Demonic activity in the days of Noah and we're coming into the area again of strong demonic activity.

Now I offer that as only a suggestion. I'm not declaring to you. Oh, I've got some great mysterious truth I'm revealing now, you know, this is you know, this is the way it happened or this is way. This is just a suggestion something to think about and I'll let it go at that and he said unto me son of man.

Ezekiel Commissioned as God’s Watchman

Now, this is a title that Ezekiel uses quite often. It is a title that Jesus uses in the New Testament concerning himself. It is the title that was used Here for Ezekiel and quite often the Lord refers to Ezekiel as son of man.

He said unto me son of man stand upon thy feet. Now, you remember he fell on his face. When he saw this whole thing saw the throne of God and the brightness and the flashes and all he fell on his face and he heard a voice of one speaking in the voice said stand up and I will speak Unto thee and The spirit entered into me when he spake unto me and set me upon my feet.

That I heard him that spake unto me. So first he saw now he is hearing This word of the Lord and he said unto me son of man. I Am sending you to the children of Israel to a rebellious nation That have rebelled against me and their fathers have transgressed against me even unto this very day.

For they are impotent children. They're stiff-hearted and I send you unto them and you shall say unto them thus saith Jehovah God. So he is now commissioned by God to go not to the house of Judah only But to the whole Children of Israel and they whether they hear or whether they will forbear for they are a rebellious house.

Yet shall they know that there has been a prophet among them I'm going to send you to speak in my name and whether they listen or not Doesn't matter. They are a rebellious people when you're through they're gonna know that there was a prophet among them and Thou son of man be not afraid of them.

Neither be afraid of their words. Though briars and thorns be with thee and you do dwell amongst scorpions. Don't be afraid of their words nor be Dismayed at their looks though they be a rebellious house now he's telling him.

Hey, they're not apt to receive you. They're rebellious they're impudent children and they may Take the thorns and and Pull the thorns across you. The method by which they Would punish people is take these thorns and pull them across a person's body.

They they have some really Heavy thorn bushes over there. But don't worry about that. For you are to speak my words unto them. Whether or not they listen, but thou son of man hear what I say unto you.

Don't you be rebellious like that rebellious house open your mouth and Eat that which I give to you and when I looked behold, there was a hand that was sent unto me and lo there was a Scroll of a book within it or there was a roll of a scroll actually therein and He spread it before me and it was written within and without and there was writing therein.

Which were lamentations and mourning and woe. So the Lord says, you know now you're to eat what I set before you and the Lord sets before him this scroll. And he opens it out and all of these woes and lamentations and mournings are written therein.

The eating of it, of course is symbolic even as in the book of John. John was given the scroll and he did eat it and It when it's in his mouth Sweet as honey, but in his belly it was bitter. Here he is told to eat the words now you read of a person devouring a book.

We say oh he really devoured that book. Now you don't mean that he roasted it and put ketchup on it and took his knife and fork and and ate the thing. But he absorbed it and and even as your food becomes a part of your being so Words ideas thoughts can become a part of your being as you absorb them.

They they they affect your life. So he is told to eat to digest in a sense or eat devour the words. That are here we are to Feast on the Word of God. That it might become a part of our lives. We're to have an appetite a hunger for the Word of God and As we partake or eat of God's Word it is as it was to Ezekiel sweet.

It was good the Word of God. Moreover, he said unto me son of man Eat that which you find eat this scroll and then go and speak to the house of Israel in other words devour it. And then go give it forth you see.

That's really what the ministry is all about you devour the Word of God. And then you give it forth to the people where it is now a part of you you read and absorb the word until it becomes a part of your very life and Then you give it out unto others.

So I opened my mouth. He caused me to eat that scroll and he said unto me son of man Cause your belly to eat it and fill your bowels with this scroll that I give to you then I did eat it and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness and He said unto me son of man go and get the end of the house of Israel and speak with them my words.

For thou art not sent to a people of a strange speech notice. He sent to the house of Israel. You're not sent to a bunch of strangers foreigners. People with the language that you have difficulty with you can't understand.

But you're sent to the house of Israel. Not too many people of a strange speech and of a hard language whose words you cannot understand surely I had sent thee unto them. They would have hearkened if I'd sent you to these heathen.

They would have listened to you. But I'm sending you to the house of Israel, but the house of Israel will not hearken Unto thee for they will not hearken unto me. For all of the house of Israel are impotent and hard-hearted.

Behold, I have made thy face strong against their faces and thy forehead strong against their foreheads as an adamant harder than flint. Have I made thy forehead? Fear them not neither be dismayed at their looks though.

They be a rebellious house. They're gonna give you some dirty looks. But don't be afraid speak my word. Moreover, he said unto me son of man all of my words that I shall speak unto thee receive in your heart and Hear with thine eye with thine ears.

So receive in your heart here with your ears all of these words let them become a part of your life and Go get thee to them of the captivity the children of thy people and speak unto them and tell them thus saith the Lord God.

And whether they were healer here or not, then the Spirit took me up now He's caught up by the Spirit. I heard behind me a voice of a great rushing. Remember like the rushing water saying blessed be the glory of the Lord from his place.

And I heard also the noise of the wings of these living creatures That touched one another and the noise of the wheels over against them and the noise of a great rushing. So the Spirit lifted me up and took me away and I went in bitterness in the heat of my spirit.

But the hand of the Lord was strong upon me. So he had this fascinating experience now. As people say they've been you know taken up in these flying saucers and all it would appear that he Had somewhat a similar experience of an astral projection with these Cherubim.

Then I came to them of the captivity at Tel Aviv. Those that dwelt by the river of Kibar and I sat where they sat and I remained there astonished among them for seven days. So he comes to these the captives there at Tel Aviv and he he's just astonished by what he sees and He just sits there for seven days in silence.

Sort of overawed and astonished now. You remember when Job was having all of his difficulties and his friends came to comfort him for seven days. They didn't say a word. They just sat there in silence.

Until Job opened up his mouth and began to complain about his condition. Sitting in silence and so here is is Ezekiel doing much the same thing just sitting in silence as he observes this whole scene of these people and It came to pass at the end of seven days That the word of the Lord came unto me saying son of man.