Hey … what do a Huey Helicopter, an AWACS Plane, an ancient grist mill and an alien spacecraft all have in common? The question sounds like the intro to a rotten joke. Well the answer is rotten, but it’s not funny. These are all suggestions for what the prophet Ezekiel saw when he was by the Kebar River in Babylon. Ezekiel 1:1-28As a child, I heard a radio preacher explain that Ezekiel’s vision was of a Bell UH-1 (a Huey) which was in active service at the time in the Vietnam War. The blades and rotors explained the intersecting wheels. The fact that it could fly in any direction without turning was further proof. The four-faced living creature was obviously the helmeted pilot. And then there was the sound … he made a lot out of this verse,
“I heard the sound of their wings, like the roar of rushing waters, like the voice of the Almighty, like the tumult of an army.” Ezekiel 1:24
People who take such an approach all assume that Ezekiel saw something that he could not comprehend and strained at words to convey his vision. They’re right. Where they go wrong is not listening to the man who had the vision. Ezekiel did see something humanly incomprehensible. That’s why words “like” and “appearance” occur so often in his descriptions. What he saw had no direct point of reference to anything he had seen or experienced. He could only describe it in similes. BUT … he knew exactly what he was describing and he told us plainly, “This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. When I saw it, I fell facedown …” Ezekiel 1:28
A Huey Helicopter would elicit wild descriptions from someone born 600 years before Christ … but that’s not what Ezekiel saw. He saw a vision of the Glory of God and it was unfathomable. The “appearance of the likeness” was utterly inexplicable! You wouldn’t have words either.
When you listen to someone teach Bible prophecy (or any part of the Bible) make sure what they’re reporting is internally consistent to the text. What does God’s Word say? Are they teaching that or their own ideas?
