“This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.”
Ezekiel 1:18b
The Bible is full of truths of God’s omnipresence, meaning that He is everywhere, always. Psalm 139 tells us this, as God is intimately knitting together an embryo for an expectant mumma (verse 13), He is simultaneously raising the sun to bring in a brand-new day (verse 9). He is inescapable, no matter how hard we try and hide (verse 7). He is in the light, and the darkness (verse 11).
At the same time that He is on the other side of the world (verse 9), He is so intimately in tune with every detail of your life, that He knows you better than you know yourself. He knows the words you’ll choose to say before you say them (verse 4).
In the book of Ezekiel, God’s people had been so unfaithful that the glory of the Lord (i.e., God’s presence) had left the temple. Not only that, God had exiled His people to Babylon, under a foreign king, as a result of their unfaithfulness. Ezekiel was a prophet, sent by God to remind God’s people of God’s faithfulness and of their need to obey Him.
In exile, the Israelites were left to question their identity and no doubt were asking questions like “If we have no temple and no King, who are we? How can we worship God? How can we be His people?” They had lost everything and were questioning God in the midst of their suffering.
Ancient Near Eastern theology says that gods are territorial. Meaning that only Marduk, the Babylonian God should be in Babylon, and no others.
So, why did Ezekiel see a vision of his God right there, by the river in Babylon? It speaks so clearly to God’s omnipresence. That Yahweh is the only God who is able to break through walls that others cannot.
Through all our suffering, we too can have a confident hope like Ezekiel’s. An assurance that God is always working for our good and for His glory.
God is in and through all, and sees, and knows all. In fact, Romans 11:35 tells us that “For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.”