Ezekiel the Psychedelic Prophet

Ezekiel 1:1-3:15

Hebrews 3:1-19

Psalm 104:1-23

Proverbs 26:24-26

It still comes as a bit of a shock to the system every time I read the start of Ezekiel. After going through Isaiah with his visions of all nature in harmony in a renewed Eden, Jeremiah's blood curdling but all too realistic (and eventually realised) threats to Judah, and then the heartbreaking descriptions of loss in Lamentations, Ezekiel can read like some mad Saturday morning cartoon show.

Wheels within wheels all covered in eyes. Lightning blasts moving within and among creatures with multiple heads, a glowing being on a sapphire throne. It really does sound as though someone spiked Ezekiel's water with LSD.

Why does God speak to Ezekiel using this style of vision?

I can think of 2 possible reasons, neither which are mutually exclusive. If you think of any others let me know!

The first is because Ezekiel and his people have been through a massive national and personal trauma that probably had them doubting God's existence, God's power or God's interest in them at all. With all that Ezekiel had seen then angels in the smoke of the temple (Isaiah's call) or pots boiling over out of doors (Jeremiah's call) just won't do it. Ezekiel's consciousness has been battered by the brutality of war. To get through to him God employs his own "Shock and Awe" approach.

In doing so he gives Ezekiel a vision of himself as God of all the earth, not some local deity, wholly other, wholly different, wholly free and all-powerful. Jerusalem is ruined but God is above and beyond human temples and constraints.

The second reason is much more simple and prosaic. Maybe Ezekiel is just that kind of guy. God respects our personalities and more often than not works through them rather than against them. Maybe Ezekiel sees visions like this because he is God's psychedelic prophet rather than God's boring mundane one.

What do you think?