What Does God Look Like? (Part 3 of 3)

What Does God Look Like? - Read the Bible and See
When Ezechiel saw God and part of his Court

If you've read parts one and two of this series, you will see that God has appeared to the biblical fathers in both human form and in a bearable form of his natural form. By bearable I mean that God in his full and complete natural state is too overpowering to appear among humans and other living things. The form that God chooses is determined by God's intention and will in the interaction with humans. When God wishes to be conversational, he has appeared in a human form. And notice that Moses, in recording the events I discussed in the first two sections, does not record that God had to have some overpoweringly vain and beautiful human form. Abraham only sees three travelers, and he does not even realize that one is the Lord God until they speak and he recognizes the speech of the Lord (since he had conversed with God in visions previously.) God does not need to have the tallest form, or the blondest hair, or the best muscles, or the most alluring figure. God's natural state is perfection. When God decides to use a human form it is to fulfill his will, and his will is not to be superior to humankind in human traits and attributes. His will is to perform the interaction with humans at the proper comfort level, or the proper level of awe and respect, depending on the circumstances. For example, his interaction with Moses was more "sophisticated" than with Adam and Eve, or with Abraham, in the sense that God appears to Moses in closer to his natural form, even allowing Moses to see as much of him (and hear his name) as Moses could physically handle. Now we are going to look at probably the most discussed (and misunderstood) interaction between God and a human, Ezechiel.

First, it is important to understand a few things about Ezechiel. Ezechiel was a priest. In popular literature today too many people focus on Ezechiel being a prophet, rather than starting with understanding that he was first of all a priest. As a true priest of Israel, he was what we could say "consecrated," in that the Holy Spirit guided his actions and prevented him from error. That is why his book is in the Bible and why humans can in all confidence totally believe in his words. Not only was Ezechiel a priest, but he was a priest during the exile in Babylon. So this gives him a further gravitas and authenticity, because he is charged with keeping the word of the Lord, even in that time of exile and oppression among pagan conquerors. One day, Ezechiel priest, became Ezechiel priest and prophet. A prophet is not someone who "predicts the future." A prophet is someone who hears the literal words and will of the Lord. The words of God may include visions of the future, but a prophet is not and should not be a "fortuneteller." It is precisely because Ezechiel was a faithful priest that God made him a prophet by speaking to him and instructing him. Thus Ezechiel is also reknown as the first prophet to receive the call to prophecy outside of the Holy Land. Understanding this context makes it easier to understand and analyze God's appearance to Ezechiel, because this was in anticipation of another liberation from slavery: both the physical slavery, and later, through the grace of Jesus Christ, the liberation from inevitable death in sin. Thus Ezechiel laid the foundation for Jesus Christ, first by heeding God's instructions in great detail about how and who to judge, and second by heeding God's instructions in terms of construction and worship. Over all of this, however, was the most important purpose of the interaction between Ezechiel and God, which is to emphasize the absolute power and majesty of God, and zeal for God's Holy Name. Remember that the name of God is the mechanism of performing his will, because the face of God, and the name of God, are the physical manifestations of God's intentions.

Unlike the appearances of God described in parts one and two, where God, in some form, comes to humankind and stands on earth, God brings Ezechiel to him. How do we know this. Ezechiel 1:1 ...the heavens opened, and I saw divine visions... and 1:3: the word of the Lord came to the priest Ezechiel, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chobar.-There the hand of the Lord came upon me. Ezechiel, as you will see throughout his book, is a very careful detailer of events, sometimes repeating entire sections as he sought for precise words to describe the experience. As a priest he was not your average Joe, so when he said "the heavens opened" he was not waxing poetic. He describes three "settings" of the stage for the interaction with God: the heavens opened (so he had access to seeing God in God's natural state), the word of the Lord came to him (which means he understood God's speech and intention), and the hand of the Lord came upon him (which means God was able to direct Ezechiel's thoughts and actions.) So this section we are about to discuss, where Ezechiel sees God, is not "future telling", no matter how fanciful the images of God and the angels may be. Ezechiel is seeing God and his court as they are at that time, and not having some science fiction fantasy of aliens or whatever. Ezechiel was a consecrated priest and he was in total communication with God on a very literal level.

So remember, Ezechiel is standing on earth and now, under God's guidance, peering into the heavens, that is, the court of God. Later St John would do the same thing, except that God then directed St John to see the future, especially the return of Jesus Christ to judge finally all of humankind. Ezechiel, in contrast, in the opening of this book, is describing looking into the heavens under God's hand and seeing God and his court "at work." Later comes elements of viewing the future as shown by God. So the first thing that Ezechiel sees as he peers into heaven are "figures resembling four living creatures" whose "form was human but each had four faces and four wings, and their legs went straight down; the soles of their feet were round. They sparkled with a gleam like burnished bronze." Ezechiel goes on to describe how they move, their faces of man, lion, ox, eagle, the human hands under the wings, and the wheels that moved within them 16: The wheels had the sparkling appearance of chrysolite and 20: Wherever the spirit wished to go, there the wheels went and they were raised together within the living creatures; for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. As Ezechiel is gazing at the creatures and their wheels, he hears the sound that heralds God, 24: Then I heard the sound of their wings, like the roaring of mighty waters, like the voice of the Almighty. When they moved, the sound of the tumult was like the din of an army. And then he sees the throne of God.
Before we describe the appearance of God, let us demystify what it is that Ezechiel was seeing. Do you remember how when Moses spent time in the presence of God, his face became whiter and more glorious? Anyone in the physical proximity of the natural appearance of God is going to take upon his or her self the impression of God's will. So what Ezechiel was seeing were the angels who are constantly in close proximity to God, in their natural form. Their natural form is a spiritual mapping on their celestial bodies of God's will. Ezechiel was seeing therefore the creative purpose of God, both man and animal, mapped onto the surface of the angels who constantly face and attend God. And the wheels? Galaxies. Galaxies are the nursery of the physical universe. Because the warmth of stars provides for the potential of physical life, "wherever the spirit wished to go, there the wheels went." Physical human and animal life exists at God's will, and his method of providing for life is through warming stars organized into galaxies. Angels are purely reflective of the will of God, and their physical attributes in this peek that Ezechiel had into the heavens, are like seeing an extreme mural summary of how life exists through the will of God. Ezechiel was seeing a condensed soup summary of the nature of life in the forms of the angels who constantly attend God. He sees the face of mankind, the power of life (lion), the nutrition and labor of life (ox), and the aspiration of life (eagle), with straight legs down to gleaming round soles of their feet (these are the spheres of planets and the elements they are comprised of.) God's intention for human and animal life, moves through the wheels of galaxies, using gleaming elements bound into spheres where life can reside. And there is another way we can be certain of this, because in summary of viewing the angels who attend God in his attentions, Ezechiel hears the sound of their wings (which is movement) and the voice of the Almighty (which is God's will, through his Word.) So there is nothing science fiction or futuristic about these angels and what they represent; it is actually very straightforward when one remembers that anything in close proximity to God is total spirit and reflection of his word and his will.

Here is the passage where Ezechiel (1:26-28) sees God: Above the firmament over their heads something like a throne could be seen, looking like sapphire. Upon it was seated, up above, one who had the appearance of a man. Upward from what resembled his waist I saw what gleamed like electrum; downward from what resembled his waist I saw what looked like fire; he was surrounded by splendor. Like the bow which appears in the clouds on a rainy day was the splendor that surrounded him. Such was the vision of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. (2:1-2) When I had seen it, I fell upon my face and heard a voice that said to me: Son of man, stand up! I wish to speak with you. As he spoke to me, spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard the one who was speaking....

Notice how Ezechiel, the priest, did not throw himself down for the angels, but did so for the Lord. That is because as the wise priest, even as he was peering into heaven, seeing marvelous and barely understandable things, he only proned himself in recognition of the legitimate awe and identity of God himself. Even as he saw strange and awesome things he did not understand (like the wheels) he knew they were not God. A true priest and a true prophet always recognizes the true presence of God, and does not worship the attendants of God.

Ezechiel could tell that God had the general outline of a human, and especially noticed the waist because God is seated. The waist is also a boundary between two different visual qualities of God. Upward from the waist gleamed like electrum (which is like a glowing metal.) Downward from the waist is what looked like fire. Remember that God's appearance is a reflection of his intention. Just like with human beings, below the waist represents movement (legs) and reproduction. Fire is a transformational quality. So Ezechiel is seeing God's potentiality for the creation and movement of life in the quality of fire below the waist. Upward from the waist represents feeling, thinking, and breathing. Ezechiel sees God's upward body half as a metal glowing like warm gold. This is reflective of the thriving of life's functions when they are pure like warm, malleable gold. God's intention is to communicate with Ezechiel and guide him, so Ezechiel is seeing part of God's glory in it's "at rest" state, where God is not doing anything with Ezechiel other than communicating and guiding him, but Ezechiel can see the potentiality at rest in God. This does not mean that God was not otherwise "at work"; I'm only referring to his interaction with Ezechiel.

I hope you've enjoyed these three posts about how God takes physical appearance in the Bible. There are, of course, other marvelous examples. But I thought I'd start with the basics and place them in context, because today, there is such poor formation and understanding of many Bible events. There is so much that is accessible and understandable about God and how he has interacted with the Bible fathers that it is sad it is not more widely understood, with more trust and love.