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A Special Chariot

We are now going to change gears, and discuss something that seems totally unrelated, but will make sense later when we synthesize all the knowledge we have gained. We are going to turn attention to the Bible and have a detailed discussion about how the Bible explains Jehovah's mode of transport: how he travels through the universe! The first thing to know is that he uses a vehicle - a chariot! This chariot has very special features, including its size, its engine, its transmission and its chassis. Though, it may seem that section has nothing to do with our narrative, it is actually critical to our whole exercise. Pay attention to what you will learn herein, as I will repeat: without this knowledge, you will not be able to make heads or tails of the facts, when we come to the synthesizing of all our newly learned knowledge.

The details of this chariot are found in the Bible book of Ezekiel: we will consider chapters 1 and 10. Moreover, whilst most of the Biblical quotes cited in this blog will be taken from the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures - Study Edition (NWT Study Edition), For this exercise, we will be using the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures - With References (NWT - w/References), as it is far superior edition for the purposes of critical study. Ironically, the "Study Edition," was created with the purpose of updating the language of Scripture to current English, so that contemporary readers would find reading the Bible easier and clearer. In contrast the edition with references, is truly for scholarly examination. The reasons we will use it for this discussion, will become clear as we compare certain texts from both versions, to make the point clear! With that background, let us start at the beginning. Ezekiel, one of God's prophets is in exile with the Jews in Babylon - by the river Chebar. He begins to see visions, and he next describes what he saw:

Up to this point Ezekiel is only describing the general scene, and has not really started with the descriptive details of the chariot, itself, with the exception of the four living creature, with wings that he mentions. The wings give it away that these are angels, as we will shortly confirm from another scripture. A detail that might look incidental but is actually critically important is the fact that the whole scene is enveloped in a great cloud mass. The scene has nested elements: the outer layer is a "great cloud mass;" inside of that is a "quivering fire," which had a brightness all around it, but had nested inside it - in its "midst;" something like the "glow of electrum." The electrum was "out of the midst of the fire," i.e. it was nested within the fire; then lastly, "out of the midst of it there was the likeness of four living creatures." These angelic creatures are not our current focus of attention, we want to concentrate on the chariot, and their relationship to the chariot. We thus gloss over the remaining details of verses 7 to 9 and skip to verses 10 to 12:

The appearance of the four living creatures is important to us for reasons that will become apparent further into our discussion, which necessitates that we now focus on the details. There are four living creatures and each of them have four faces: the face of man; a lion; a bull and an eagle. This description of the four faces is merely to orient us to the features of these living creatures, and from Ezekiel's explanation, we come to understand that four faces are arranged: man; lion; eagle; and bull, in that order. However the question arises, which is the principle face, of the each of the living creatures? Upon a casual reading of this description, it might seem that forward looking face on each of these living creatures, is the face of the man, but that is not so. As we have previously stated, the Bible is a book that clarifies itself through cross-references. For that reason we must refer to Ezekiel chapter 10:

While Ezekiel 1:10 gave us the orientation of the faces, chapter 10, verse 14 gives us some important definitions! Firstly, it tells us the four "living creatures" were cherubs. Nowhere, throughout this vision is Ezekiel told, the identity of the living creatures, so how does he come to identify them? Because of his knowledge of the Bible in general. Ezekiel was the son of Buzi, a priest, and proved to have intimate knowledge of the temple and features - the most important of which was the ark of the covenant. The ark of the covenant was the most important feature of the temple, because it was there, that Jehovah's presence manifested itself. The ark was a chest that had a cover. Its cover had sculptures of two cherubs on it, and Jehovah would make his presence known through a cloud that would appear above the ark's cover, and between its two cherubs. Once a year, when the high priest would enter the Most Holy - the sacred chamber where the ark was kept - he would "hear" God's voice from between or above the cherubs (see Nu 7:89). This is an instruction Jehovah, himself, gave to Moses directly at the institution of the tabernacle arrangement: "And I will present myself to your there and speak with you from above the cover, from between the two cherubs that are upon the ark of the testimony...." Ex 25:22 Of course, in time, the tabernacle - a temporary structure while the Israelites where journeying through the desert for 40 years - was eventually replaced with the temple: once they had inherited the land of Canaan. Now, this fact, that Jehovah spoke to the high priest from above the cover with the two cherub sculptures on it, was known to all Israelites, and soon became a proverbial saying among them, as in "Jehovah or armies, who is sitting upon the cherubs." 1Sa 4:4 Jehovah's presence was synonymous with sitting either between or above the cherubs, as the footnote of that verse shows. Among many scriptures in the Bible that quote this or similar expressions in everyday speech and prayers are: 2Sa 6:2; 2Ki 19:15; and Ps 99:1. In his vision Ezekiel saw Jehovah stationed above the four living creatures, and used his Biblical knowledge, to thus identify that the four "living creatures," must then be cherubs! (Ez 10:20) Brilliant.

Secondly, Ezekiel 10:14 gives us the definition of the cherubs principle of home face - it's "residual self-image," as Morpheus told Neo in The Matrix. It tells us that: "The first face was the face of the cherub...." It then goes on to list the other - what we will call secondary - faces, and they are: "face of earthling man;" "face of a lion;" and lastly "face of an eagle." This means the face not listed, is the face of the cherub. And that would be the face of the bull. Go ahead and read Eze 10:14 for yourself, again. Hence, the principle face of cherubs is a bull's face, not a man's.

We learn a third point about the operation of the chariot from verse 12 of Ezekiel chapter 1: "... they [the living creatures] would go each one straight forward. To wherever the spirit would incline to go, they would go...." Which spirit? Whose spirit? In the Bible, whenever reference is made in a general sense to the word spirit, with the definitive article "the" in front, as in, "the spirit," it is always referring to God's spirit! For instance, when Christ warns in Mt 12:31, "...Every sort of sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the spirit will not be forgiven," he is referring to God's spirit, as is brought out in the very next verse. Mt 12:32 says, "For example, whoever speaks a word against the Son of man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the holy spirit, it will not be forgiven him, no, not in this system of things nor in that to come." The point is clear, "the spirit," in a general context, is always with reference to "the holy spirit." In turn, the holy spirit, of course belongs to God. All living entities have a spirit, so when the term "the spirit," is not applied generally, the specific context of the creature it belongs to will make it plain that we are not talking about God's holy spirit. (1Co 2:10,11) Hence, in Matthew, after Jesus is baptized, it says he was led by "the spirit" to be tempted by the Devil. This means he was led by God's spirit. The same one that had just descended upon him, in his anointing as the Christ. (Mt 3:17 - 4:1) Thus Ezekiel is telling us, in Eze 1:12 that each of the four cherubs is directed by God's holy spirit, in its movements. That is important to note. Ezekiel 1:16,17,19,20

This last passage of scripture gives us a lot of interesting details to unpack. Just like all four living creatures looked alike, we learn the wheels have the same structure, like a wheel within a wheel. So each wheel was formed of two intersecting wheels, that is two wheels at right angles to each other. We know that because verse 17 tells us that, they had, "four respective sides." The fact that the wheels do not turn when they change direction, means these four respective sides correspond to the four directions, for the cherubs and the wheels move at right angles - as a careful reading of these passages, makes clear. The rims are said to be so large, that they inspire fear, so this is not a man sized vehicle, though angels themselves are the same approximate size as humans. (Re 21:17) Next, we learn that the movements of the individual cherubs is synchronized with the movements of their respective wheels, of the wheel beside them. So each cherub was in control of one wheel. But just how did they control them? Verse 20 explains. In this verse the are two different things being spoken of: 1) there are the cherubs and their movements, which we have already explained: the cherubs go "Wherever the spirit inclined to go, they would go, the spirit [inclining] to go there;" and 2) after a semicolon, to show that the second half of the verse is talking about something else, we are told of this dynamic: "and the wheels themselves would be lifted up close alongside them, for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels." So we have another nested reality! The holy spirit of God is in each cherub, in turn each cherub's spirit is in the wheel that is beside it, so that the movements of the wheels is in sync with its respective cherub. And the cherubs for their part, have coordinated movements because they are all under the same influence - God's holy spirit. Now you know how the angel that rescued Peter from jail and certain death. (Ac 12:1-4,6) In the verses that explain the escape, an angel is leading Peter out of the prison when they approach a closed gate, that then "opened to them of its own accord." Spirit beings, that is, God and all his angelic sons can move things without touching them, not by magic, but by transferring their spirit into those items, whether living or inanimate. This is how Jehovah communicated to each angel where he wanted his chariot to go, and how each cherub inturn manoeuvered the wheel under its control - synchronizing it with its own movements.

We carry on with the vision. Much of the rest of the details are not our focus in this blog about the synthesizing of Science and the Bible, with the exception of the rest of the design of the this unique vehicle. So far we know there are four cherubs, standing apart from one another, each with a very large wheel beside them. Above them sits Jehovah. Unlike in a physical car, the wheels do not have axles connecting them, instead their movements are coordinated by their respective cherubs. The cherubs are all on the same page, for they are following the inclinations of the same force, Jehovah's holy spirit. Now you know how the many different writers of the Bible could have written thoughts that were not theirs, for they too were moved to pen those thoughts by God's spirit, or as the Bible puts it, "For prophecy was at no time brought by man’s will, but men spoke from God as they were borne along by holy spirit." (2Pe 1:21) This dynamic was not limited to prophecy, but applies to the whole Bible: "All Scripture is inspired of God...." (2Ti 3:16)

The rest of the salient design details that are important to us are,

Here, we learn that the living creatures have a vast expanse above their heads, which resembles "awesome ice." Further, there is a voice above this expanse. Where does it come from? Well verse 26 tells us that above the vast ice-like expanse, there is "... the likeness of a throne. And upon the likeness of the throne there was a likeness of someone in appearance like an earthling man upon it, up above." Thus, we are now getting a clearer picture: Jehovah's chariot, has a platform that resembles a vast expanse of ice. Below it are the cherubs and each cherub has a large diameter wheel-set beside him, that he and he alone controls. The operation of the wheels is not mechanical, as is the case with vehicles on earth. Rather this vehicle depends on spirit directed coordination, thus no axle is necessary! Now we must back up the claim that this chariot belongs to Jehovah, which verses 25 to 28 do for us, as they describe a voice emanating from the man-like figure on the throne. Verse 28 identifies what Ezekiel next sees and hears as: "... the appearance of the likeness of the glory of Jehovah. When I got to see [it], then I fell upon my face, and I began to hear the voice of one speaking." Thus the person above the ice-like expanse, the one sitting on the throne is none other than Jehovah, himself. Those are the only details of this vision that are pertinent to our discussions on science and the Bible, so we will restrict ourselves to only the verses we have already quoted.

Let us summarize what we have learnt from this vision. According to the Bible, when it comes to spirit beings, they do not interact with, and control differing items through the laws of physics, as we do on earth. For instance, if I want to move a chair from one place to another, I have to physically touch it and then use mechanical means to change its location. Whereas, spirit beings can move and control items by apportioning their own spirit, to those entities, which gives them control over those items. This applies to inanimate objects, like the wheels of the chariot. But more than that, it also applies to living creatures! For example, Jehovah's spirit inclined the cherubs into moving in certain directions. That term inclined, means it was an instruction, a way for Jehovah to communicate his wishes, which the cherubs then promptly carried out! However, in other situations the same technique can be used, not to incline, but to override the decision making abilities of sentient beings. We have an instance of that, at the time that King Saul was hunting down David to kill him. This action was against Jehovah's wishes, so Jehovah sent his spirit not to incline humans to act in one way or another, but to override their aims, by forcing them to act in another way, thus abandoning their harmful plans. This account is found at 1Sa 19:17-24. You can read it for yourself to familiarize yourself with all the details of this incredible account. For us, the important lesson is that Spirit beings, unlike humans, have a dynamicspirit, that they can apportion and use to control independent items, whether inanimate - like the gate and the wheels - or animate beings, as in the case of Saul and his messengers. The last point on this, is that controlling or influencing humans with your spirit, is not restricted to Jehovah. Jesus Christ's spirit is apportioned to his anointed followers, hence they feel and behave like him, when they allow his spirit to guide them. (Ga 4:6) This reality is a nested one, that is a higher grade topic. You will learn more its nested nature in a future episode. For now I have included cited Galatians 4:6, to make the point clear. So Christ's spirit can be apportioned and sent. This is a deep subject and again, a separate episode will deal with all its intricacies. For now, this basic knowledge will suffice for our needs regarding science and the Bible.