Ezekiel 1 Deep patterns run in the Scripture

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We follow patterns of behaviour from the past. 4 beasts around God’s throne is a repeating pattern that believers follow. The Old Testament describes the 12 Tribes of Israel as well as telling us about the New Testament church, especially the last church age.

Captivity and hardship make us rethink our choices.

The death of Christ confirmed the covenant that God made with Abram (Abraham).

GALATIANS 3:17  “And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.”

God rejects what we establish and establishes what we ignore as obscure. Nazareth is not even mentioned in the Old Testament.

Jesus is our only perfect role model. He alone must be worshipped as He lives in our hearts.

Fire and cloud are symbols of God moving His people. The Jews to Israel and the Bride back to the apostolic beliefs of the first church age. When the seventh church age ends, God will return back to the Israelites with the 7 Trumpets that force them back to Israel. At the end of great Tribulation, the 2 prophets and the 144000 are killed but then resurrect back to life and ascend up to Heaven.

Events on earth must reflect Christ’s Heavenly Pattern

EZEKIEL 1:1  “Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.”

At thirty, a priest starts his ministry. Ezekiel begins his ministry. Christ was baptized at about 30 years old.

The Jews are in captivity in Babylon.

The fifth day and the fourth month represent how God organizes the fine details of our lives. Never feel that you are subjected to the random fortunes and misfortunes of fate. God has our lives firmly under His control, even when we go through difficulty and defeat which are the hammer and anvil that mould our character. An easy and prosperous life will not mould a worthwhile character. God does not just give us character. Character is earned by suffering, disillusionment, and failure, and yet never giving up our faith in God or our love for God.

Four represents earthly deliverance. Five speaks of grace.

This vision will give us a deeper insight into Grace and deliverance from the captivity of sin.

Chebar was a short river or tributary of the Euphrates River near Babylon. God was reminding the Jews that their 70-year captivity was a short interlude in the Old Testament history of the Jews. In Genesis Chapter 15, God made a covenant with Abraham and his seed. 2300 Bible years, of 360 days, separated the birth of Abraham’s natural son Isaac from the death of Abraham’s spiritual Son, Jesus.

Abraham’s faith, united with the faith of Mary, to produce the virgin birth.

A day can represent a Bible year in prophecy.

GENESIS 29:27  “Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.”

A week can represent seven years.

Genesis 15:18  “In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:”

God gave Abraham the Promised Land.

DANIEL 9:27  “And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation [completion or finalization], and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.”

The covenant with Abram (who later became Abraham) was confirmed (not broken), when the Jewish animal sacrifices ceased when Jesus died.

Jesus was supposed to have a ministry of one week or seven years. The Jews cut Him off after 3½ years.

The covenant then became much deeper as it entered the spiritual realm. The Promise became the Holy Ghost baptism. The Land became the understanding of the Word of God. That is where our thoughts dwell. Our thoughts control our lives. We can now understand God’s Plan of salvation for humanity.

ACTS 2:38 “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”

:39 “For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.”

And the purpose of the Holy Ghost is to guide us into all truth, a full revelation of the written Word of God.

JOHN 16:13  “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth:

“And for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation”.

The Muslim Dome of the Rock and the Muslim Al Aqsa Mosque will stand near the area where the sanctuary or Temple once stood, making the area desolate until the end. Their abominations will be their endless Muslim hatred of the Jews as they desire to eliminate the Jews and drive them into the sea. The Jews will be endlessly persecuted during the  2000 years of church history. The Temple will never be rebuilt. The sacrifice of Jesus moved salvation away from an earthly sanctuary to the throne of mercy in Heaven.

The Muslim desolation will spread. Israel is almost invisible (the little bit of red) amongst the many Muslim countries that surround it in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

But such is the greed of the Arabs that they still want the tiny land of Israel as well.

DANIEL 8:14  “And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.”

The sanctuary was cleansed at Calvary.

Abraham’s natural seed, the Israelites, needed a sanctuary whereby they could sacrifice for forgiveness of sin. But animal sacrifices could only cover sin, they could not change the sinner.

Melchizedek, God in a temporary body of flesh, gave bread and wine to Abraham. The elements of the Last Supper. This was the real sacrifice. The body of Jesus broken in death, His perfect blood that alone could wash away sin. A “cross-over” effect occurs. When we repent, our sin, shame, and guilt crosses over to Jesus and in return His innocence and sinlessness crosses over to us in the form of the Holy Ghost which is The Life in His blood. His Holy Ghost in us changes us to make us lose the desire to sin.

[A ghost is the spirit of a dead person. Holy Ghost emphasizes that Jesus died for us as we cannot save ourselves].

The word “Chebar” encompasses four basic ideas: abundance, sieve, greatness, and ‘already’.

There is abundant information in Scripture of both good events and evil events that we have to carefully sieve through in order to discover the greatness of God’s great Plan for mankind. How God turns sad defeats into stunning victories, and the weak defeat the strong.  But these great events simply follow types that had already been long established in the Scriptures.

ECCLESIASTES 1:9 “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.”

Joseph was a type of Jesus. Joseph lived out some of the characteristics of the life of Christ.

He was loved by his father and hated by his brothers, the Jews.

Betrayed for money by his brothers and then falsely accused, he was in jail with a baker who worked with bread and a butler who worked with wine. The baker died, the butler lived. Why?

Years later, Melchizedek, God in a temporary body of flesh, gave bread and wine to Abraham.

This continued the theme. Bread breaks but wine flows like the River of Life, the great Holy Spirit.

Jesus then ended the Passover when He gave out bread (His body that died) and wine (His blood that cleanses our sins so that we can have eternal life).

Ezekiel saw the “Heavens opened.”  God was bringing a great revelation at a tough time to the disadvantaged Jewish captives who lived under Babylonian pagan rulers.

Tough times shrink our physical horizons but that enables God to open our spiritual insight.

“And I saw visions of God”. Behind the distraction of our physical difficulties, there is a deeper spiritual Plan that is steadily unfolding.

We need to search the Scriptures to uncover what God’s Plan for today is.

A rejected bad king opens the door for Jesus

EZEKIEL 1:2 “In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin's captivity,”

Jehoiachin (whom the Lord establishes) was also known as Jeconiah or Coniah.

He had only ruled for three months and ten days in Jerusalem.

So, he was the exact opposite of what his name claimed.

Far from being established as king of the Jews, God would cut him and all his descendants off from ever being king.

JEREMIAH 22:28 “Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure? wherefore are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not?”

Coniah, as king, was fake news. But this corrupt king Coniah suited God’s Plan. The natural kingly line of Judah was cut off because he had reigned three months in deep sin. So, even a brief time of sin can have severe consequences. (A brief moment of speeding could kill you if things go wrong. Just as modern laws—like speed limits—exist for our protection, God's laws define the boundaries of a safe and holy life.)

Joseph, the husband of Mary, was a descendant of Coniah and thus not allowed to be king. Joseph adopted Jesus. An adopted son has the full rights of a born son. Thus Jesus, free from the curse on all the natural-born disqualified descendants of Coniah, was able to be King of the Jews.

Jesus was the real King of the Jews whom the Lord establishes.

A warning to us. God works in totally different ways to what we expect. Jehoiachin was established by God as king of the Jews according to his name. Yet he was going to be rejected by God after 3 months and ten days. Instead, an unknown man, Joseph, would enable his adopted Son, Jesus, to be the final King of the Jews. Despite Jesus growing up in the unknown town of Nazareth that is not even mentioned in the Old Testament.

ADOPT has 5 letters. This was supreme grace to us. Allowing Jesus to become King when all other descendants of king Coniah (or Jeconiah, or Jehoiachin) were cursed because Coniah had been so bad.

Joseph could adopt Jesus. Thus, the perfect King, Who can save us, was able to replace the cursed line of kings who could not save anyone. That was supreme grace.

5 represents grace.

The following words are central to God’s grace, and all have 5  letters.

GRACE. BIBLE. CROSS. JESUS.  BLOOD.  NAILS.

Five. Four beasts surround the Lamb. The Lamb Who sits on the throne in Revelation Chapter 4. The four beasts are manifestations of the Holy Ghost that guide sinners to the Lamb. Grace is when a person is undeservedly guided to Christ for salvation.

REVELATION 4:7  “And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.”

Jewish worship required 5 offerings: the burnt offering, the sin offering, the trespass offering, the grain offering, and the peace offering (Leviticus 1-7).

5 loaves of bread fed 5000 people, defying all human logic. Grace far exceeds our expectations.

David, a small teenager, destroyed the massive giant Goliath after he chose 5 smooth stones.

5 wounds on the cross. Two hands, two feet, and His side were pierced. (Grace is not cheap).

“5^th day, 5^th year”. This speaks of grace with precision. Not vague statements that tell us nothing of value. These revelations are important as they mark significant events.

The bad king had been captive for 5 years. His exalted position did not spare him from this judgement. This was thus a time of trial and reflection for the Jews. Being exiled forces us to re-think our basic beliefs. Then God moves in His own good time.  His interventions are very specific. Bad though he was, God still showed grace to Jehoiachin at the end of his life.

After 37 years of exile, he was suddenly released. Jehoiachin unexpectedly received honourable treatment and a seat of favour in the Babylonian court.

God wanted to reveal the basis for His grace by having four beings who surrounded the throne of God.

In Eden, Jesus was the Tree of Life.

GENESIS 3:24 “So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.”

“Turned every way”. There are only 4 ways on earth. North. South. East. West.

Thus, there were four Cherubims who stood guard around the Tree of Life. The pattern was being set.

The Tree of Life (Spirit of Christ) was not a literal tree as it had a way. A natural tree is static.

EZEKIEL 1:3 “The word of the LORD came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of the LORD was there upon him.”

Buzi means despised.

But God can use what man despises.

1 CORINTHIANS 1:28  “And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:”

During the exile, God chose a despised family line to produce his prophet and priest.

God works with rejects, not with the rich and famous. God’s ways are not our ways. God chooses the despised. Just the opposite of what we would do.

Ezekiel means God strengthens. That was the secret to his success. A person is only as strong as the strength that God gives him or her.

The Chaldeans gave their name to the territory occupied by the Babylonians. These were the two names of a powerful Empire.

God chose what man despised. The hand of the Lord helped Ezekiel who could then see the supernatural. This signifies divine guidance and power, not human speculation.

He needed divine empowerment to deliver hard messages.

Ezekiel was called a “priest”. He was thus a Levite, the priestly tribe that formed the Levitical priesthood.

NUMBERS 4:2  “Take the sum of the sons of Kohath from among the sons of Levi, after their families, by the house of their fathers,”

:3 “From thirty years old and upward even until fifty years old, all that enter into the host, to do the work in the tabernacle of the congregation.”

Priests worked in the tabernacle from 30 to 50.

Jesus also began His ministry at about 30. He was washed as High Priest and washed as the Sacrifice by John the Baptist. But He was from the tribe of Judah so He actually began an alternative Priesthood, the Priesthood of Melchizedek Who gave Abraham bread and wine, the elements of the Last Supper. They represent the body and the blood of the Lord, Who made the only sacrifice that can save us. When High Priest Caiaphas ended the Levitical priesthood by tearing His clothes, God tore up the Temple Veil. Jesus was waiting to take over as High Priest of the Melchizedek Priesthood. Jesus was the High Priest Who conducted the sacrifice as well as being the Sacrifice Who was killed. The Levitical priesthood could not compare with that amazing process.

Every born-again believer is a priest in the Melchizedek priesthood. No priest is above another priest. Christianity is a brotherhood of equals. No ministry is above any other believers. Thus no ministry can claim to be the head of a church.

EPHESIANS 5:23  “For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.”

After all, a minister is a servant, not a boss. Jesus alone can be servant and King. Ox and Lion.

Fire and cloud means we have to move

EZEKIEL 1:4  “And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire.”

The cloud and fire infold themselves as they merge together or work together for the same cause.

The army of Babylon had descended onto the Jews from the North like a wind of destruction in a cloud of dust from their horses’ hooves. The brightness of their swords glittered in the sunlight. This was Satan trying to imitate God as Satan sowed destruction.

God has a deeper meaning.

His Holy Spirit chose to come from the North to indicate that even the Devil and the wicked Babylonian kings were still under God’s control.

AMOS 3:6  “Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?”

God uses both the good and the bad to mould His people in their trials and sufferings.

“A great cloud and a fire”.

This followed the pattern of Moses who followed the Pillar of Fire by night that kept the Jews warm. Then he followed the Pillar of Cloud by day which kept the Jews cool. This was the first exodus as Israel came out of Egypt. God was obviously the first to invent air conditioning.

The second exodus was Jesus bringing the church out of the Jews. The Pillar of Fire came down at His baptism like a Dove. A Cloud overshadowed Him on the Mount of Transfiguration.

In our day we have to be part of the third exodus. The Scriptural Bride coming out of the increasingly Bible-illiterate church organizations. We have seen the photograph of the Pillar of Fire over brother Branham’s head taken on 24 January 1950 in Houston, Texas.

Then, on 28 February 1963 a photograph was taken of a supernaturally high cloud, about 42 kilometres high, just North of the city of Flagstaff in Arizona.

This was the sign of the son of man in the Heaven. The sign that brother Branham would reveal six of the seven Seals in Revelation Chapter 6 during the month of March 1963.

MATTHEW 24:29  “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:”

 63-0323 — The Sixth Seal 

Just perfectly, turn right back over, see what Jesus said here now in Matthew 24:29. Listen. “After,” this Eichmann case, and so forth.

Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened,…the moon shall not—shall not give her light,…stars shall fall from heaven,…the powers of…heaven shall be shaken:

Now watch.

And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven:

Adolph Eichmann, a German, was the main organizer of Hitler's death camps.

"The tribulation of those days" was the Jewish Holocaust during World War 2. Six million of the nine million Jews in Europe were killed by Hitler. After the war, churches moved away from the Light of the 1769 King James Bible which is the only true Sunlight. They now have many new corrupted English translations that have replaced Light with Darkness.

The moon represents the true church reflecting the sunlight of the King James Bible. That is no longer the case as the churches give out their own corrupted Bible versions, which are man-made darkness.

Stars began to fall from heaven. Famous preachers began to get corrupted by scandals and money fraud due to their greed. Women, money, and fame saw many great preachers fall.

“and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:”

Two 42-km-high-altitude clouds appeared just north of the city of Flagstaff in Arizona on 28 February 1963.

MATTHEW 24:30  “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven:”

They were 20 miles apart, as seen from the city of Winslow which is East of Flagstaff.

Two rockets exploded at Vandenberg Airforce Base, but they were  12 hours apart. The last explosion just before two o’clock in the afternoon, created a 42-km-high smoke cloud that travelled 500 miles in the Jetstream to Flagstaff in about four hours.

The first explosion smoke-cloud was twelve hours earlier and would thus have travelled about 1500 miles. It could not have been only 20 miles away from the second smoke cloud. Thus, there was no natural smoke explanation for both clouds. One cloud had to be supernatural, formed by angels’ wings.

MATTHEW 24:29  “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:”

“The powers of the heavens shall be shaken”.

The laws of atmospheric physics could only explain one smoke cloud. These laws were shaken as they could not be applied to a cloud made from angels’ wings.

But there had to be a scriptural high-altitude smoke cloud.

ACTS 2:19  “And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke:”

Water vapour makes a rain cloud. So, smoke vapour makes a smoke cloud.

“Blood.” In 1963 President Kennedy was killed and his blood stained his wife’s pink dress. This shocking sight dominated the TV news.

“Fire.” Kennedy had foolishly escalated the Vietnam war by sending 16000 American military advisers to Vietnam by 1963.

By 1965, Race riots were burning American cities and President Johnson declared a full-blown Vietnam war that tragically killed 58000 Americans.

1963 saw six of the Seven Seals revealed by brother Branham. The 7^th Seal was revealed to be a total mystery as it refers to the Coming of the Lord.

The revelation of these Seals in Revelation Chapter 6 enable us to understand the mysteries of the written Bible.

AMOS 3:7  “Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.”

God has to reveal the Seals before He can open them in Heaven when the Bride is around the throne (Revelation Chapter 4 to Chapter 6). God regarded the revelation of the Seals as a crucial event, because at the end, God wants His Bride to be able to understand Scripture.

MATTHEW 24:30  “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven:”

This was the supernatural cloud made from angels’ wings.

ACTS 2:19  “And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke:”

A high-altitude smoke cloud in 1963.

Two incredibly high clouds just 20 miles apart. They fulfilled two Scriptures.

The Revelation of the Seals in Revelation 6 is far more important to God than what we realize.

It enables us to reveal Christ walking through His Word as the revealed Word of God.

EZEKIEL 1:4  “And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, “a great cloud, and a fire” infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire.”

The whirlwind infolded itself. God’s Word reveals deeper and deeper mysteries within itself as we begin to understand it by linking verses together in a theme.

As we search for deeper truth patterns within the Bible, more and more Light shines out from the Bible. The brightness that is shed about the Scriptures acts as a firm, illuminated path for us to walk on.

Out of the middle of the fire came an amber colour which is yellow-brown.

Yellow is the colour of the sun, that symbolizes God above us, as the Father.

Brown is the colour of earth. Humans are made from a handful of earth.

God coming down to earth in the form of a Man. Messiah. Emmanuel. God with us.

All the visions point to one Man, Jesus

EZEKIEL 1:5  “Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man.”

Humanity as the crown of creation, made in God’s image.

“A man”. The perfect man, Jesus. Being like Him is our ultimate goal.

"Four" speaks of the earth. North, South, East, and West.

"Four" thus indicates earthly deliverance by the supernatural intervention of the Fire of God.

Lion, Ox, Man, and Eagle represent:

Lion - Majesty;

Ox - Strength and service and suffering;

Man - Humanity and empathy;

Eagle - A View from Above

(Love your enemies, it is better to give than receive, forgive 490 times). This logic does not come from the earth.

These four living creatures are involved with "the 4 rivers of Eden" (they can deliver us from the bondage of the Law and take us back to the beginning)

and "the 4 winds of heaven" (wind speaks of war and strife that they must deliver us from. The Bride must be delivered from great Tribulation strife by escaping in the rapture).

A vision of God's supreme authority and majestic presence are revealed to us humans by four manifestations of His Holy Spirit. They have to bring God down to our level as the perfect Man so that we can understand Him better. Their ministry is to educate us into spiritual matters so that we can begin to grasp what God’s great plan is. We can only begin to understand God as a Man. We cannot understand God as a Spirit.

You can begin to understand God as a Man if you believe that Jesus is Almighty God. Then God has a name, Jesus Christ.

But if you see God as a Spirit then you are fooled into seeing three Persons and you cannot find one name for 3 Persons. So, the Trinity God has no name. That contradicts the third Commandment: do not take the Lord’s name in vain. God must have a name, not just 3 titles.

The symbols of this vision speak of a deep spirituality that goes beyond the physical realm. Like the supernatural fire that Moses saw, a fire that burned in a bush but never consumed the bush. A sense of awe motivates us to explore the depths of God's revelation, encouraging a deeper study and understanding of His Word.

So, Ezekiel’s vision emphasizes movement and power (God’s throne on the move), while Revelation Chapters 4 and 5 emphasize worship and holiness (God’s throne at the centre of eternal praise) when the Bride has been caught up to Heaven. God’s throne is not fixed, but active and present everywhere.

If God is not in full control of revealing His Word in our hearts and moving us by taking us back to the first church age, then we will sit and sleep in a church.

MATTHEW 25:5  “While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.”

Virgins are clean women representing saved people in the churches.

All the saved Christians are FAST asleep because of the double emphasis, “slumbered and slept”. The wise virgins had oil, they were Spirit-filled. But they are still fast asleep. Fooled by their church leaders who rejected or corrupted brother Branham's teachings.

Jesus does two impossible double-ministries

EZEKIEL 1:6  “And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings.”

The emphasis is on Four. This gets to the heart of God’s Plan with the Israelites, as a heart has four chambers.

God dwells on a throne in Heaven surrounded by 4 beasts. This served God when He dealt with Israel as a nation. But this is symbolic of God’s deeper New Testament plan, where He wants to rule by dwelling in each repentant, individual human’s heart. The human heart is his ultimate throne. The four chambers represent the four beasts.

Four faces. Jesus does two impossible double-ministries.

Lion - Ox. The King Who is our Servant. The King, Who alone can forgive us on the cross, and then carry our filthy sins down to hell to dump them on the Devil.

Man – Eagle. The perfect Man Who understands us as failed human beings but embraces us in the love of God and sees things from a higher height. Only Jesus can mediate between man and God.

“The four wings”. This represents God’s supernatural power which we totally depend on for our earthly deliverance at every step in our walk.

The Jews had four leadership groups which operated independently of each other.

The Judges. The kings. The priests. The prophets.

The truth must straighten us out

EZEKIEL 1:7  “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 colour of burnished brass.”

Our lives and beliefs must be straightened out.

Burnished brass is highly polished brass that acts as a mirror.

A reflection of the Tree of Life (Scripture) from the polished brass of a living creature.

Reflecting the Light of Scripture into the church by our words and deeds.

The sole of a calf’s foot has a cloven hoof that leaves two imprints in the dust.

That means we have to walk through both the Old Testament and the New Testament to discover the truth. The Old Testament is the shadow or outline. The New Testament is the spiritual fulfilment.

“Straight feet”. No deviation from Scripture.

EZEKIEL 1:8  And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and they four had their faces and their wings.

The four sides of the Israelite history. They were ruled by judges, kings, priests, and prophets.

Yet, somehow, God made them fulfil His heavenly Plan.

Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.

Their hands performed their work. But their works were under the control of the wings. The wings lifted them up to heaven to hear from God. Thus, their works were under the guidance of God.

The Old Testament was establishing a shadow or blue print for the New Testament.

“And they four had their faces and their wings”.

A face has four obvious senses.

To see or understand God’s Plan with the eye. To hear the written Bible with the ear. To speak Bible truth with the mouth. The nose is very sensitive to a bad smell. That represents our conscience, that quickly tells us that we are going wrong and becoming unscriptural.

All these senses must be lifted up by wings of the Holy Spirit to heaven so that God can guide us in His ways.

But what is essential is invisible to the eye. It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. So, it is essential that God controls our hearts otherwise we will never understand the truth.

We must not lean on our own understanding.

We must not tell God what we want to do, we must learn from Him what He wants us to do.

EZEKIEL 1:9  Their wings were joined one to another; they turned not when they went; they went every one straight forward.

The four faces look different but the wings are joined, so it is the same supernatural power that controls the four faces in their different circumstances.

There is no turning with God. He sets a goal and then He directly proceeds to achieve it.

God expects us to forsake sin and directly pursue righteousness.

Jews were broken off and Gentiles grafted in

EZEKIEL 1:10  As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle.

This is the basic plan that God intends to use when He guides the Israelites in the Old Testament. Their focus was meant to be Messiah, the Lion of Judah.

The Ox represented them as an agricultural nation. God wanted the Israelites to be His faithful servants. An ox does the hard work on a farm. God gave the Israelites a special homeland.

The Man indicates that God had chosen the Israelites to be His chosen people in their Promised Land.

The human side of God’s Plan as He worked with His chosen and elected nation.

ISAIAH 45:4  “For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.”

Jacob was the father of the twelve tribes. God chose him by name as His servant.

Jacob means “supplanter”.  He was born second to his twin brother Esau but desperately wanted the birthright, even if he had to deceive to get it. His approach was wrong but his goal was good. He wanted to be closest to God.

Then he wrestled with God. He lost, and God crippled him so that he walked with a limp and Jacob gained the surname of Israel, “One who struggles with God”. This symbolized that he lost his self-reliance and began to walk differently.

This illustrates that God’s ways are not our ways and that we humans endlessly struggle to change our thinking to understand God’s thoughts that are higher than our own ideas. Obedience is a struggle.

Jacob had to lose in the material world to win in the spiritual realm as Israel.

When our earthly horizon shrinks, our spiritual vision widens.

Daniel was confined to a cruel and frightening lion’s den. John was confined to the prison island of Patmos with its brutal prisoner population. But then, magnificent visions unfolded that have fascinated millions.

The Eagle represented the high-flying heavenly visions of the prophets who could guide the Jews until the prophet John the Baptist would introduce Jesus as a Man to them.

But the Jews failed to recognize Jesus as a Man walking amongst other men.

The Jews, guided by their Priests, rejected Jesus and demanded His death.

By rejecting Messiah, the Jews ensured that God would cut them off like a broken branch from the Tree of Life.

In their place, God would graft in the Gentile church, even if this was totally contrary to the Gentile’s nature as they loved the pagan ceremonies, traditions, and celebrations more than God’s Word.

God dealt with the Gentiles as individuals as He struggled to get paganism out of their thinking.

God began the long struggle of teaching the Gentiles the Word of God so that Christ could be revealed to them, as the Word of God, as He walks through the pages of the Scriptures.

In the New Testament, the Lion stood for the true Word of God that was delivered by the apostles to the early church as the New Testament that fulfilled the Old Testament. The split hoof of clean meat or doctrine. But one-man human leaders then emerged as the head of each church. The rot was setting in.

The Ox was the beast of slaughter. Bible truth died at the Council of Nicaea in AD 325 when the church was forced to accept the unscriptural word Trinity. This was based on unscriptural statements like “one God in three Persons”, “God the Son”, “God the Holy Ghost”, “Jesus is in the Godhead”, “Eternal Sonship”, “Co-equal”, “Co-eternal”, and “of the same essence” (whatever that means).

The March – April pagan Spring celebration of the goddess Ishtar who came down on the Euphrates River in an egg and hatched out, degenerated into a sexual orgy. Bunnies are the fastest-breeding mammals. Eggs symbolize male testicles. Today, we still have the unscriptural Easter bunnies, Easter eggs, and the unscriptural “Good Friday”, “Easter Sunday”, and “Easter Monday” (when nothing specific happened). Ishtar became Easter.

Jesus had to spend 3 nights in the tomb before He arose on Sunday. Thus, He had to die on Thursday so that He was buried for Thursday night, Friday night, and Saturday night.

MATTHEW 12:40  “For as Jonas (Greek for Jonah) was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

Nine months after the March "Easter", the children are born in December. December 25 had been chosen as the birthday of the unconquerable Roman sun god “Sol Invictus” by pagan Roman Emperor Aurelian in AD 274. Around AD 350, Pope Julius changed this to the birthday of the Son of God. A Roman Catholic mass is an act of celebration and worship. The birthday of Christ became Christ’s mass or Christmas.

As they moved away from Scripture, the Roman Catholic church dominated Europe politically.

Political power enabled them to kill their opponents. Tens of millions were killed in the Dark Age.

The Man beast put an emphasis on human wisdom.

Martin Luther in Germany read the Scriptures and illuminated the basics of salvation. The just will live by faith and not by good works.

The King James Bible was translated and checked for 160 years before being printed in 1769.

Thus, the King James Bible was the foundation of the great Missionary Age that began in the 1780s.

John Wesley emphasized holy living and outreach which gave birth to the great missionary age.

The flying Eagle represented the Pentecostal revival that started in Wales in 1904 and then moved on to Azusa Street in downtown Los Angeles in 1906. The power of the Holy Spirit was manifest.

In 1947, William Branham began his ministry of revealing the truth about the Bible mysteries.

The climax of his ministry was the Revelation of the Seven Seals in 1963.

These insights taught us how to understand the Bible’s symbols and patterns so that we could grasp the great Mystery of God, that the end-time church should return to the beliefs of the first church age of the apostles. They never built a church building, nor did they have a Pastor or Bishop in charge of a church. Believers met in their houses and were ruled by a group of local elders who treated each other as equals because they called each other "brother".

Their only authority was the written Word of God.

JOHN 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth:

Thus, both the Jews and the church shared the pattern of the Lion, Ox, Man, and flying Eagle.