Ezekiel 1:26

The likeness of a throne. Here is the grand climax of the vision. The greatest glory has been kept till the last. Above the crystalline firmament appears what first seemed to the prophet a concentration of the richest, deepest blue. The KJV has inverted the word order of this text. The Heb. reads, “like the appearance of a sapphire stone, even the likeness of a throne.” The likeness to stone no doubt impressed itself first. Then as the detail became more distinct the prophet noticed the form of a throne.

The appearance of a man. In vision the prophet saw only a representation of the original (see on v. 10). Ezekiel did not see the Divine Being Himself, but rather a representation of the Deity. In describing the Being as a man, the prophet employed extreme caution, using the combination of terms, “a likeness like the appearance of a human.” “No man hath seen God at any time” (John 1:18), and so human beings are unable to give an accurate description of His actual essence. God reveals Himself to men in vision or actuality in various forms: to Abraham, Christ came as a wayfarer (Gen. 18:1); to Jacob, as an assailant (Gen. 32:24); to Joshua, as a warrior (Joshua 5:13). To John the revelator in vision He revealed Himself in various forms, including that of a lamb (Rev. 6:1; cf. Rev. 1:1-16; 14:1). His “visions of God” (see on Ezekiel 1:1) gave Ezekiel the needed assurance of the genuineness of his call and added the requisite authority to his message.

The God who rules in the heavens is not an absentee Lord. Ezekiel saw the firmament and the throne directly above the heads of the living creatures. These, in turn, were in position beside each of the wheels that, when at rest, touched the ground. What a comfort to know that He who sitteth above the cherubim is in control, that He guards His people still, and that every earthly power that seeks to exalt itself against the God of heaven will be subdued, and God will be all in all!