Ezekiel 1 - 3

Chapter 1 - Ezekiel's Vision of God
Wow, I've read this before, but I'm always blown away by the imagery here. Obviously Ezekiel is seeing something that he cannot understand or fully describe (I mean, who could in his position?), so much so that at the end he fell face down in awe of the spectacle before him. Some people claim that this is proof that the bible shows evidence of alien visitation, and honestly, I can give them a little credit here. I can't decide who would be more closed minded and who would be more open minded in this situation: the person who believes it's an actual vision of God, or an alien visitation.
Conventional wisdom says that one can't approach this scripture as if it is a literal description of what Ezekiel actually saw, but is rather more metaphorical and symbolic. Some of the imagery I can understand but most I can't. I'll write about the imagery I can comprehend, but if you know anything about the imagery I don't, please comment and teach me!!
Some of the imagery I can understand such as the description of the serephim such as the multiple wings, faces and eyes all over. In fact this imagery is used elsewhere in the Bible. The wings represent their holiness and other-ness, different and more divine than that of the human form; and the fact that they hinder their eyes shows that they stand in the presence of the Lord and it's even hard for them to lay eyes on Him that is all holy. The faces are interesting. An old youth minister, Donny, once described to me that the faces represent the different aspects of god Himself. The human face: showing the Lord's connection to humanity and image bearingness. The ox's face: showing the Lord's service and self sacrifice fully exemplified through Christ. The lion's face: showing the Lord's kingliness and strength, but also his ferociousness, meant to be feared and respected. The eagle's face: representing the Lord's divinity, being above humanity. Being covered all in eyes, although creepy, just shows us that God sees all. Some cultures believe in the Evil Eye, a force that saw all things and needed to be warded away or to hide yourself from its judgement (Kabala comes to mind). However, with all these eyes on the serephim and the wheels, nothing's going to escape His sight! Not when even the underarms of the angels are covered as well!
The imagery I don't understand: (1) The wheels and the significance that there's wheels inside of wheels and the directions they take when the angles move. (2) The clear blue surface above the angel's heads (3) The significance of a sapphire throne, what does the sapphire represent to an exiled Jew? (4) Why it mattered about the direction of movement so much to be mentioned time after time.

Chapter 2 & 3 - Ezekiel's Call and A Watchman for Israel
2:2 - Mention of the Spirit (Rauch Hako'desh). Time after time in these chapter the Holy Spirit is mentioned as the one who lifts Ezekiel to his feet, empowering and strengthening him to see God face to face (2:2, 3:12, 3:14, 3:24, etc.) It's also interesting that in 3:14 and later, the Spirit whips Ezekiel away, similar to what He did to Phillip in Acts 4:39. I've never heard of the Spirit acting so in the Old Testament, but it's great to learn that He didn't just magically appear in the New Testament, but was actively working as an empowerer and revealer of God's glory.
God keeps telling Ezekiel in this charge not to fear the people of Israel. I heard once that 'do not fear' is the most often repeated commandment in the Bible (confirm?). Seems pretty important I guess :)
3:5-7. God says he's sending Ezekiel to his own people, not to foreigners otherwise the foreigners would listen and repent. How many times are we attracted to share the Good News with those who are the foreigners in our lives, but not with those who are out own people? This could be our families, our best friends, our coworkers, our neighbors. Heck, this could also just include Americans as a whole. Christians in America have an unhealthy attraction to go spread the gospel to foreign nations rather than those right here at home. I've heard that more missionaries are sent to America more than any other nation, and yet we send so many of our boldest brothers and sisters out! God give me the charge and the strength through your Spirit to spread the words of life to my own people!
3:18-21. This is interesting stuff. God says basically if you don't say what I want you to say and they die, their blood is on your hands, and God will demand Ezekiel's blood for theirs. "But if you warn righteous people not to sin and they listen to you and do not sin, they will live, and you will have saved yourself, too.” I don't know if I'm going too far in saying that this applies to we Christians as well in terms of the Gospel's good news. The Gospel is the good news because it gives life to those who are dead in their sins, so shouldn't it stand to reason that all these warnings apply to us as well? So if you don't share the Gospel and those we know die in the sins, is their blood on our hands? Will we be called into account for what we have said and not said? I don't want to guilt trip myself or others, but as Ben has said on a number of occasions, sometimes the whole 'Social Gospel' movement and 'living the Gospel' rather than sharing it sometimes misses the mark. There should be an urgency here! People are dying in their sins and we've been given the gift of life and the words of the Lord on our tongues, why are we ok to sit back and watch them die?! God give me the strength and the courage to seize the opportunity you put in front of me, to interpret the best way to handle the situation, and to give life to those who are dying!