The Lord # 52
52. 6. Jehovah himself - that is, the Lord - spoke the Word through prophets.
We read of the prophets that they had visions and that Jehovah talked with them. When they had visions, they were not focused on their bodies but on the spirit, in which state they saw things of a heavenly nature. When Jehovah talked with them, though, they were conscious of their bodies and heard Jehovah speaking.
We need to draw a clear distinction between these two states. In a visionary state, the eyes of their spirit were open and the eyes of their body were closed; and at such times they seemed to themselves to be taken from place to place while their bodies stayed where they were. Ezekiel, Zechariah, and Daniel were in this state at times, and so was John when he wrote the Book of Revelation. They were then said to be in a vision or in the spirit. In fact, Ezekiel says,
The spirit lifted me up and brought me back into Chaldea, to the captivity, in a vision from God, in the spirit of God. In this way the vision that I saw came over me. (Ezekiel 11:1, 24)
He says that the spirit lifted him up and that he heard an earthquake and other things behind him (Ezekiel 3:12, 14). He also said that the spirit lifted him up between earth and heaven and took him off into Jerusalem in visions from God, and he saw abominations (Ezekiel 8:3 and following).
That is why (again in a vision of God or in the spirit) Ezekiel saw the four beasts that were angel guardians (chapters 1; 10), and he saw a new earth and a new temple with the angel measuring them, as we are told in chapters 40-48. He says in chapter 40:2, that he was then in visions from God; and in chapter 43:5, he says that the spirit lifted him up at that time.
The same thing happened with Zechariah. There was an angel inwardly present with him when he saw a man riding among myrtle trees (Zechariah 1:8 and following); when he saw four horns and then a man with a measuring line in his hand (Zechariah 1:18; 2:1); when he saw Joshua the high priest (Zechariah 3:1 and following); when he saw a lampstand and two olive trees (Zechariah 4:1 and following); when he saw a flying scroll and a measuring basket (Zechariah 5:1, 6); and when he saw four chariots coming from between two mountains, along with horses (Zechariah 6:1 and following).
Daniel was in the same kind of state when he saw four beasts come up from the sea (Daniel 7:3) and when he saw battles between a ram and a goat (Daniel 8:1 and following).
We read in Daniel 7:1-2, 7, 13; 8:2; 10:1, 7-8 that he saw these things in visions. We read in Daniel 9:21 that he saw the angel Gabriel in a vision and talked with him.
Much the same happened with John when he wrote the Book of Revelation. He says that he was in the spirit on the Lord’s day (Revelation 1:10), that he was carried away in the spirit into the wilderness (17:3), to a high mountain in the spirit (21:10), that he saw horses in a vision (9:17), and elsewhere that he saw what he described, being therefore in the spirit or in a vision (1:2; 4:1; 5:1; 6:1; and in the particular chapters that follow).
Psalms 50
1
{A Psalm. Of Asaph.} ùGod, Elohim-Jehovah, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof.
2
Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined forth.
3
Our God will come, and will not keep silence: fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him.
4
He will call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people:
5
Gather unto me my godly ones, those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice!
6
And the heavens shall declare his righteousness; for God executeth judgment himself. Selah.
7
Hear, my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify unto thee: I am God, thy God.
8
I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices, or thy burnt-offerings, continually before me;
9
I will take no bullock out of thy house, [nor] he-goats out of thy folds:
10
For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle upon a thousand hills;
11
I know all the fowl of the mountains, and the roaming creatures of the field are mine:
12
If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.
13
Should I eat the flesh of bulls, and drink the blood of goats?
14
Offer unto God thanksgiving, and perform thy vows unto the Most High;
15
And call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.
16
But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant into thy mouth,
17
Seeing thou hast hated correction and hast cast my words behind thee?
18
When thou sawest a thief, thou didst take pleasure in him, and thy portion was with adulterers;
19
Thou lettest thy mouth loose to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit;
20
Thou sittest [and] speakest against thy brother, thou revilest thine own mother's son:
21
These [things] hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether as thyself: [but] I will reprove thee, and set [them] in order before thine eyes.
22
Now consider this, ye that forget +God, lest I tear in pieces, and there be no deliverer.
23
Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me; and to him that ordereth [his] way will I shew the salvation of God.
