• Read Ezekiel 1-3:11

🌅MORNING– A Vision of Glory

• Focal Passage: Ezekiel 1:28

“Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell on my face and heard a voice speaking.”

Ezekiel is thirty years old (1:1), the age when a priest would normally begin temple service. Instead of stepping into ministry in Jerusalem, he stands in exile by a foreign river in Babylon. The temple is far away. The nation is fractured. The future is uncertain.

And there—far from home—the heavens open.

The vision overwhelms his senses. Storm wind. Fire flashing. Living creatures moving with precision and power. Wheels intersecting wheels, full of eyes. Above it all, a throne. And on the throne, One with the appearance of a man, radiant with blazing light and covenant mercy.

Ezekiel piles up words like likeness and appearance because the glory of the Lord stretches human vocabulary.

Israel could have concluded that exile meant defeat—that Babylon’s gods had prevailed. But Ezekiel sees something else. The throne is not in ruins. The Lord is not displaced. His rule extends beyond Jerusalem, beyond borders, beyond political collapse.

When Apollo 8 orbited the moon in 1968 and Bill Anders captured the “Earthrise” photograph, humanity saw its home from an entirely new vantage point. Earth rose small and blue against the vast darkness of space. The image softened divisions and reminded people how fragile and unified the planet truly is. Perspective altered emotion.

Ezekiel’s vision does that for faith. When you see the throne, Babylon shrinks.

Ezekiel falls on his face. Worship is the only fitting response to glory.

You may not stand by the river Chebar, but you may feel far from where you expected to be. The vision reminds us: God’s reign is not fragile. His authority is not seasonal. His throne is not vacant.

• Reflection: Where have circumstances shrunk your view of God? What would change if you remembered that the throne is still occupied?

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🌆EVENING– Eat the Scroll

Focal Passage: Ezekiel 3:1, 3b

“Moreover, He said to me, ‘Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.’ … So I ate it, and it was sweet as honey in my mouth.”

After glory comes commission.

God places a scroll in Ezekiel’s hands. It is filled with “lamentations, mourning and woe” (2:10). The message will confront sin. It will expose rebellion. It will not win popularity.

But before Ezekiel speaks, he must eat.

The Word must be internal before it is proclaimed. It must nourish the messenger before it challenges the hearer.

Remarkably, the scroll tastes “as sweet as honey” (3:3). Not because judgment is pleasant, but because God’s Word—however searching—reveals His character and purposes. Truth satisfies even when it confronts.

During World War II, as German bombs fell over London in the Blitz, the British Broadcasting Corporation invited C.S. Lewis to deliver a series of radio talks on the Christian faith. Sirens wailed. Buildings collapsed. Families huddled in shelters. The nation was exhausted.

Lewis did not offer sentimental comfort. He spoke plainly about right and wrong, about pride, forgiveness, courage, and Christ. His voice was calm, measured, thoughtful. He acknowledged fear but refused despair. Those broadcasts, later compiled into Mere Christianity, became a spiritual anchor for countless listeners.

One woman wrote that his talks “made sense of things when nothing else did.” Another said they gave her “something solid to stand on.”

The bombs did not stop. The danger did not disappear. But truth strengthened hearts for endurance.

Ezekiel’s experience would echo centuries later on the island of Patmos. The apostle John, exiled for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus (Revelation 1:9), also received a vision of glory—“one like a son of man” standing among the lampstands (Revelation 1:13). Later, he too was commanded to eat a scroll (Revelation 10:9–10). It was sweet in his mouth and bitter in his stomach. Revelation, like Ezekiel, carried both comfort and confrontation.

God did not promise Ezekiel that Israel would listen. In fact, He warns that they likely will not (3:7). But He does promise fortification: “I have made your forehead harder than flint” (3:9). The same Lord who assigns the task supplies the resilience.

Spurgeon once observed, “When God calls His servants to a task, He always gives them strength proportioned to it.” Calling and enabling arrive together.

See the glory.
Receive the Word.
Go strengthened by the One who sends you.

• Reflection:  Are you depending on your own resolve, or on the strength God provides for the calling He has given you?
• Closing Prayer:  Lord of glory, lift our eyes above every exile and uncertainty. Feed us deeply with Your Word so that obedience flows from a nourished heart. When resistance rises, fortify us. When fear presses in, steady us. Make us faithful to speak what You give and strong enough to endure what follows. Through Christ, our reigning King, Amen. 🌿