_21. When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels._

This carries the idea of control one step farther. Not only are the men controlling the wheels, but they are self-controlled: They are flying in formation.

_22. And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creatures was as the colour of terrible crystal, stretched forth over their heads above._

Perhaps this verse was moved out of it's original position, for it returns to the description of the creatures. You may have noticed that many of the verses are written so that it is in part, an enlargement of the thought put forward in the preceding verse, and part new thought, to be enlarged upon in the following verse. Verses twenty-two and twenty-three _seem_ to go together. Both would fit the rest of the chapter better if they were between verses twelve and thirteen.

What is meant by "firmament"? These people had no term for a hollow-sphere. Most spherical objects were not hollow. They had no soap, so they had no soap bubbles. The most common thing to compare a hollow sphere to was the sky, the bowl of the heavens--the firmament.

This crystal-clear bubble was over the heads of the creatures, one on each creature.

We will come to the word firmament again, but notice that this is, "... the _likeness_ of the firmament ...", not the firmament itself.

Later verses speak only of the "firmament".

_23. And under the firmaments were their wings straight, the one toward the other: every one had two, which covered on this side, and every one had two which covered on that side, their bodies._

If you changed "... under the firmament ..." to, "... below the sky"

you would get a clearer picture. If you look at the picture of a house, the roof is, "below the sky," if you start at the top and work down. If you start at the ground and work up, the roof is, "at the top" of the house. Ezekiel's description of the wings, which is continued in this verse, concerns the wings "at the top." They are (connected), "... one toward the other, about like in figure one."

_24. And when they went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great waters, like the voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech, as the noise of the host: when they stood they let down their wings._

If you have ever stood near a running tip-jet, or any jet engine, I think you will know what Ezekiel means. The last statement is most interesting. It seems that when the creatures landed again they detached the helicopter mechanisms and set them down, as anyone will with a heavy back-pack who is resting or waiting.

_25. And there was a voice from the firmament that was over their heads, when they stood, and had let down their wings._

This voice, or sound, was not from the _likeness_ of the firmament, but from the sky, as they stood there with their wings off.

This is the end of Ezekiel's attention to the four creatures.

_26. And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone; and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it._

Out of the sky comes a man on a green seat. But a throne is more than a chair. It is usually a.s.sociated with a platform. This may be some kind of flying platform similar to those being tested for the transporting of infantry.

_27. And I saw as the colour of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, 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, and it had brightness round about._

Since this thing was high over their heads, and he saw fire round about it, the fire may have been on the under side. What he says about the man is very like what he said about the other four, except that he describes the man from the waist, up and down, as if he could not see the area near the man's waist.

_28. 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 upon my face, and I heard a voice of one who spake._

What prismatic effect, brighter than the outdoor desert sunshine is hard to imagine, but a large shining object close at hand would be pretty terrifying. It seems strange that Ezekiel would not throw himself upon the ground, after withstanding all he had seen up till now, but we must remember that a man seated on a throne, a flying throne at that might have a lot more meaning for him than it would for you and me. If this object happened to come down closer to him than the other creatures had, he might well have broken.

We have now covered every verse of the first chapter quite thoroughly.

Since the Book of Ezekiel contains forty-eight chapters, we might fear that this is just the beginning of a long and tiring study.

Fortunately or unfortunately this is not the case. The second chapter begins:

_804._

_And he said unto me, Son of man, stand upon they feet, and I will speak to thee._

_2. 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._

_3. And he said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed against me, even unto this very day._

This typically prophetic writing goes on for many pages, telling the woes and sins of the Israelites. Reference is made in a few places to the material in the first chapter, but even this dies out before the end of the book.

No mention is made again of the living creatures till chapter three where the following verse is found:

_13. I heard also the noise of the wings of the living creatures that touched one another, and the noise of the wheels over against them, and a noise of great rushing._

This combines some of the ideas of earlier verses without adding any new information. Notice that writer has the notion that the wings of one creature touched those of another, or that the creatures touched one another.

This verse is typical of several more scattered throughout the first third of the book. All the verses mentioning the living creatures after the first chapter are more dramatic and all fail to continue the style of a careful reporter. No new ideas are advanced, but some rather unusual contradictions are introduced, by using several parts of several verses of Chapter One. Chapter Ten reads like an attempt at rephrasing Chapter One and Chapter Eleven is the last mention of the living creatures in the entire book.

Although it contains no further information on the living creatures, Chapter Three has a verse that should be mentioned. Verse fifteen sounds like a fitting conclusion to the first chapter:

[Ill.u.s.tration]

_15. Then I came to them of the captivity at Tel-Abib, that dwelt by the river Chebar, and I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished among them for seven days._

Just what do we have? We have a description of four s.p.a.cesuited and helicopter-equipped men, getting off of, or out of something that landed in a cloud of dust or smoke. The four men start their helicopters, take off and fly to some height. On returning to the ground they remove their flying gear and wait. They are met by a fifth man, riding on a flying platform. Such an event would cause some interest in any community today, but in those times it could only be interpreted as supernatural--a miracle. The miracle may well be that the story has been preserved for us, twenty-six centuries later.

A word for word interpretation is only part of the oddity of this chapter. Several other aspects are worth pondering. The whole chapter has a well-worn feeling, as though the author had told and re-told it many times. It reads like a deposition, taken down by a police officer, after the witness, who prides himself on truthfulness, has told the story over and over to his incredulous friends. It has a certain poetic beauty. It has the style of one who is telling you the truth, no matter whether you are going to believe it or not. It is the presentation of a tableau that makes no sense to the man who witnessed it, or to those to whom he is describing it.

The product of a man's imagination is tied to his own experience, his own time. A wonderful tale of the supernatural may sound very imaginative to the contemporary of the teller, but it will date itself to a later generation. The lives of the Greek G.o.ds are related to the lives of the early Greeks. An imaginative science-fiction writer such as Jules Verne is limited in the same way. As good as he was, experience has set an outer limit to his imagination. Ezekiel's tale is not in this cla.s.s. To his contemporaries, it was out of step with reality. To us it is real enough, but out of step with time. The most credible explanation is that it really happened.

Perhaps there are some points of my interpretation that you do not agree with, but as a whole the story does hang together rather well.

If you have the feeling that it would be easy to fit the words around an entirely different set of circ.u.mstances, I suggest that you try.

It is interesting to know that some years ago a verbal battle raged in theological circles as to whether Ezekiel wrote the Book of Ezekiel.

One school of thought held that he did, while the other school held that the first chapter was a "forgery," written in the third century before Christ, and tacked on as a sort of "leader" to Ezekiel's book.

For our purposes it cannot be a forgery. It makes little difference how long ago it was written, so long as it was not since World War II!

Suppose Ezekiel or some ancient man actually saw what I have proposed.

What are the possible explanations? Is it possible that some ancient race, unknown to us, could have developed such equipment? It is not likely. During the last one hundred years we have been prodding about in the earth and finding so many ancient records that someone else besides Ezekiel would certainly have left us a report on them.

The things that were science fiction twenty years ago are solid fact now. We know that a landing on the Moon is only a question of time, a few years at the most. The planets of our Solar System will follow, at least some before the turn of the century, probably. As for the planets of neighboring stars we cannot say. We have no way of exploring them at present, but that is not the same as saying that we never will. If the past performance of the human race is any measure, they will likely fall to exploration within two hundred years.

If you concede that it is possible that we can visit other star systems in a future not too distant, why then could we not have been visited some time in the past? It may tend to deflate our ego to think that there may be intelligent beings not too different from us who are advanced beyond us. It need not. One of the most striking features of Ezekiel's story, if it has been decoded correctly, is that these beings are very much like we are, right at the present time. That puts them three or four thousand years ahead of us, a very small amount indeed when we consider the long sweep of human life and development before the dawn of written history.