My
Beloved Youth,
May
the peace and love of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
The
October issue of the Mighty Arrows is dedicated to Old Testament Biblical
Greats. The Old Testament asserts to be a Divine Revelation from God.
Statements
found within the Old Testament strongly support this. "Now
the Lord spoke to Moses, saying…" (Exodus 13:1; Leviticus
4:1; Numbers 4:1; and Deuteronomy 32:48). He was commanded to write
in a book what God told him (Exodus 17:14; 34: 27), and he did this
(Exodus 24:4; 34:28; Numbers 33:2; Deuteronomy 31:9, 22, 24). Likewise
the prophets say: "For the Lord speaks" (Isaiah 43:1);
"The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying"
(Jeremiah 11:1); "The word of the Lord came expressly to Ezekiel"
(Ezekiel 1:3)…etc. It is said that statements such as these occur
more than 3,800 times in the Old Testament.
The
writings of the Old Testament prophets were of those who spoke for
God and communicated His Divine Will. Ezekiel considered a "major
prophet" was representative of the era of "classical prophecy."
It is believed that this era of prophetic thought in the Old Testament
was of the highest development of prophecy.
Chapter
1 of the Holy Book of Ezekiel addresses one of his overpowering experiences
of Divine Revelation, the "Living Creatures and the Glory
of the Lord."
"I
looked and I saw a windstorm coming out of the North-an immense cloud
with flashing lightning and surrounded by brilliant light. The center
of the fire looked like glowing metal, and in the fire was what looked
like 4 living creatures. In appearance their form was that of a man,
but each of them had four faces and four wings. Their legs were straight;
their feet were like those of a calf and gleamed like burnished bronze.
Under their wings on their four sides they had the hands of a man.
All four of them had faces and wings, and their wings touched one
another. Each one went straight ahead; they did not turn as they moved.
Their
faces looked like this: Each of the four had the face of a man, and
on the right side each had the face of a lion, and on the left the
face of an ox; each also had the face of an eagle. Such were their
faces."
(Ezekiel 1: 4-11)
The
Prophet Ezekiel, whose name meant, "May God strengthen,"
powerfully depicts the grandeur and glory of God in his vision. The
number four symbolizes "completeness." The living creatures
are throne attendants representing God's creation: "man"
(God's ordained ruler of creation), "lion" (the strongest
of the wild beasts), "ox" (the most powerful of the domesticated
animals), and "eagle" (the mightiest of the birds). The
"calf" refers to agility.
The
Holy Book of Ezekiel contains four visions and 12 symbolic acts. It
is a Holy Book of prose perhaps due to the Prophet Ezekiel's priestly
background. The message of Ezekiel anticipates God's future works
in history proclaimed by the New Testament.
I
encourage everyone to read this prophets' glorious Holy Book of a
persecuted people who were later to find the seeds of their faith
in the resurrection of the body and in life after death in a city
not made with human hands.
"…There
was a noise and a rattling and the bones came together, bone to bone.
And after sinew, flesh, and skin covered the bones, God called breath
from the four winds so they lived and stood upon their feet, and were
an exceedingly great host." (Ezekiel
37:3,7,10)
"May
God strengthen"
us
all,
His
Grace Bishop Youssef
Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States
