Ezekiel 2:1 And he said to me, “Son of Adam, stand up on your feet and I will speak with you.” Ezekiel 2:2 As he spoke to me, the Breath entered me and set me on my feet, and I listened to the one who was speaking to me. Ezekiel 2:3 He said to me, “Son of Adam, I am sending you to the Israelites, to the rebellious pagans who have rebelled against me. The Israelites and their ancestors have transgressed against me to this day. Ezekiel 2:4 The descendants are obstinate and hardhearted. I am sending you to them, and you must say to them, ‘This is what the Lord Yahveh says.’ Ezekiel 2:5 Whether they listen or refuse to listen – because they are a rebellious house – they will know that a prophet has been among them. Ezekiel 2:6 “But you, son of Adam, do not be afraid of them and do not be afraid of their words, even though briers and thorns are beside you and you live among scorpions. Don’t be afraid of their words or discouraged by the look on their faces, because they are a rebellious house. Ezekiel 2:7 Speak my words to them whether they listen or refuse to listen, because they are rebellious.
a rebellious house
Ezekiel’s call to preach was clear. He was to speak God’s words to his rebellious, pagan nation. He was not to be afraid of them, no matter what they said, no matter what look was on their faces.
The call to preach today is the same. We need a generation of stubborn prophets who dare to speak the word of God because we might just face a rebellious house or two.
LORD, give us your Sacred Breath, and enable us to preach your pure, unadulterated word to our generation.
Ezekiel 1:26 Something like a throne with the appearance of lapis lazuli was above the expanse over their heads. On the throne, high above was someone who looked like a human. Ezekiel 1:27 From what seemed to be his waist up, I saw a gleam like amber, with what looked like fire enclosing it all around. From what seemed to be his waist down, I also saw what looked like fire. There was a brilliant light all around him. Ezekiel 1:28 The appearance of the brilliant light all around was like that of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day. This was what Yahveh’s impressive appearance looked like. When I saw it, I fell face-down and heard a voice speaking.
he matters most
Ezekiel had looked up and noticed the sky over the heads of the impressive beings. Then he looked above that and saw something even more impressive. He saw God as a reigning king, emitting brilliant light and fire.
Now, he falls down. Those amazing beings with wings and wheels were not the main show. This is the main show. This is what it is all about. We should fear God above all else. He will decide our ultimate destiny. He matters most.
Ezekiel 1:22 Over the heads of the living beings the likeness of an expanse was spread out. It gleamed like awe-inspiring crystal, Ezekiel 1:23 and under the expanse their wings extended one toward another. They each also had two wings covering their bodies. Ezekiel 1:24 When they moved, I heard the sound of their wings like the roar of a huge torrent, like the voice of the Almighty, and a sound of tumult like the noise of an army. When they stopped, they lowered their wings. Ezekiel 1:25 A voice came from above the expanse over their heads; when they stopped, they lowered their wings.
over their heads
If the vision of these four amazing living beings is starting to frighten you, you need to look up. Something is happening over their heads.
As amazing and terrifying as these four beings are, the vision draws our gaze to someone even more amazing and terrifying. Their wings are making a roaring sound — a sound of a tumult like the noise of an army. But we need to look up. The sovereign God who made them is in control of their power.
There are all kinds of amazing people who want to capture our attention today. There are also terrible monsters who want to frighten us, cause us to lose sleep, and even endanger our lives.
That is all the more reason for us to take our gaze off these beings and look over their heads. There is a supreme being, and only he deserves our worship, and we should fear him more that these.
LORD, we adore your perfection, and fear your power — more than any other.
Ezekiel 1:15 When I looked at the living beings, I noticed one wheel on the ground beside each of the four-faced creatures.Ezekiel 1:16 The appearance of the wheels and their craftsmanship was like the gleam of beryl, and all four had the same likeness. Their appearance and craftsmanship was like a wheel within a wheel. Ezekiel 1:17 When they moved, they went in any of the four directions, without turning as they moved.Ezekiel 1:18 Their rims were tall and awe-inspiring. Each of their four rims were full of eyes all around. Ezekiel 1:19 When the living beings moved, the wheels moved beside them, and when the creatures rose from the land, the wheels also rose. Ezekiel 1:20 Wherever the wind would go, the creatures went in the direction the wind was moving. The wheels rose alongside them, because the wind of the living beings was in the wheels.Ezekiel 1:21 When the creatures moved, the wheels moved; when the creatures stopped, the wheels stopped; and when the creatures rose from the land, the wheels rose alongside them, because the wind of the living beings was in the wheels.
everybody’s wheels
A wheel is a wonderful thing. It is a human invention that made so many great things possible. Even today, when someone comes up with a great idea, it is compared to the invention of the wheel. The wheel is a symbol of mobility and ingenuity.
The wheels that Ezekiel saw represented the choices made by all living beings. They moved wherever they chose to move, and their wheels obeyed them.
The coming fire of judgment upon all the living beings will not be indiscriminate. It will bring justice because God sees all and knows all.
LORD, may all our choices correspond to your desire, so that we can live without fear of your coming judgment.
Ezekiel 1:4 I looked, and noticed a storm wind coming from the north, a huge cloud with fire flashing back and forth and brilliant light all around it. In the center of the fire, there was a gleam like amber. Ezekiel 1:5 The likeness of four living beings came from it, and this was their appearance: They looked something like a human,Ezekiel 1:6 but each of them had four faces and four wings.Ezekiel 1:7 Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the hooves of a calf, sparkling like the gleam of polished bronze. Ezekiel 1:8 They had human hands under their wings on their four sides. All four of them had faces and wings. Ezekiel 1:9 Their wings were touching. The creatures did not turn as they moved; each one went straight ahead. Ezekiel 1:10 Their faces looked something like the face of a human, and each of the four had the face of a lion on the right, the face of an ox on the left, and the face of an eagle. Ezekiel 1:11 That is what their faces were like. Their wings were spread upward; each had two wings touching that of another and two wings covering its body. Ezekiel 1:12 Each creature went straight ahead. Wherever the wind would go, they went without turning as they moved. Ezekiel 1:13 The likeness of the living beings was like the appearance of blazing coals of fire or like torches. Fire was moving back and forth between the living beings; it was bright, with lightning coming out of it. Ezekiel 1:14 The creatures were darting back and forth like flashes of lightning.
a coming storm wind
What could the vision of these four living beings represent? Notice that they came from an approaching storm wind. In Jeremiah, a storm wind was a symbol of judgment (Jeremiah 22:22).
The four faces were faces of those beings who were supreme over the four realms of creation. The lion reigned over the wild land creatures, the ox over the domestic, the eagle over the sky creatures, the human reigned over them all.
Also, the storm wind brought with it fire and lightning. Later in Ezekiel, Yahveh instructs the prophet to burn some of his shaved hairs, telling him that a fire will spread to all the house of Israel and that he will execute judgment among them while the nations watch (Ezekiel 5:1-8).
This inaugural vision demonstrates our God’s sovereignty over all, and his coming judgment upon all.
LORD, give us the wisdom to submit to your sovereignty, and so be prepared for your day of judgment.
Ezekiel 1:1 It happened in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, while I was among the exiles by the Chebar Canal, the sky was opened and I saw visions from God. Ezekiel 1:2 On the fifth day of the month – it was the fifth year of King Jehoiachin’s exile – Ezekiel 1:3 the word of Yahveh came directly to the priest Ezekiel son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the Chebar Canal. Yahveh’s hand was on him there.
testifying to his touch
Ezekiel was there when it happened. He remembered the year, month and day. He remembered who was with him when the sky opened and he began to see visions from God. Someone else described the event as the word of Yahveh coming directly to him, and Yahveh’s hand being upon him there.
We thus have two witnesses to the miraculous life of this prophet. The prophet himself describes his inauguration into this spiritual ministry, and someone else confirms it.
What is your testimony? How has the Lord touched your life? Where were you when it happened? Put together your testimony and share it with others. He will use them to confirm your experience, and both your testimony and theirs will give him glory.
LORD, thank you for touching our lives. Help us to testify to your touch.
2 Timothy 4:19 Greet Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus. 2 Timothy 4:20 Erastus has remained at Corinth; I left Trophimus sick at Miletus. 2 Timothy 4:21 Make every effort to come before winter. Eubulus greets you, as do Pudens, Linus, Claudia, and all the brothers and sisters. 2 Timothy 4:22 The Lord be with your breath. Favor be with you all.
I left Trophimus sick
Paul’s brief comment about Trophimus is one of the most quietly important pastoral moments in the New Testament. It is honest, unembellished, and refreshingly free of the pressure to perform miracles on demand. Paul simply says that Trophimus was sick, and because he was sick, Paul left him behind at Miletus. There is no attempt to hide the situation, no theological gymnastics to explain why healing did not occur, and no hint of embarrassment. The apostle who saw the dead raised, demons expelled, and bodies restored to health also experienced moments when healing did not come. This is part of the biblical record, and it matters.
The statement reveals a mature, grounded theology of healing. Paul believed in healing. He prayed for healing. He had witnessed God heal through his ministry many times. But he did not believe in guaranteed healing, nor did he assume that every sickness must yield immediately to prayer. The presence of illness in a faithful coworker did not cause him to question his calling, his authority, or his faith. It simply meant that God had not chosen to heal Trophimus at that moment. The mission continued, and Trophimus remained in God’s care.
This perspective protects the church from two opposite errors. On one side is the assumption that healing is automatic if faith is strong enough. That belief crushes the sick with guilt and burdens the healthy with fear that their prayers might be inadequate. On the other side is the cynical belief that healing is rare or unlikely, which drains prayer of expectancy and strips God of the freedom to act powerfully. Paul avoids both extremes. He prays boldly, but he accepts humbly. He trusts God’s power, but he also trusts God’s timing.
The example of Trophimus reminds believers that sickness is not a sign of spiritual failure. It is part of life in a mortal world. When encountering a suffering brother or sister, prayer is offered with confidence in God’s ability to heal. But if healing does not come, faith does not collapse. The believer rests in the assurance that God remains sovereign, compassionate, and wise. Healing may come later, or it may come in the resurrection, when all sickness is finally undone.
The mission does not pause while waiting for miracles. It moves forward with compassion, honesty, and trust in the God who heals in his own way and in his own time.
LORD, help us to heal everyone we can, and trust you with the Trophimuses.
2 Timothy 4:9 Make every effort to come to me soon, 2 Timothy 4:10 because Demas has deserted me, since he cared about this age now, and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. 2 Timothy 4:11 Only Luke is with me. Bring Mark with you, for he is useful to me as an assistant. 2 Timothy 4:12 I have sent Tychicus to Ephesus. 2 Timothy 4:13 When you come, bring the cloak I left in Troas with Carpus, as well as the scrolls, especially the parchments. 2 Timothy 4:14 Alexander the coppersmith did great harm to me. The Lord will repay him according to his achievements. 2 Timothy 4:15 Watch out for him yourself because he strongly opposed our words. 2 Timothy 4:16 At my first defense, no one stood by me, but everyone deserted me. May it not be counted against them. 2 Timothy 4:17 But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me so that I might fully preach the word and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. 2 Timothy 4:18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil achievement and will bring me safely into his sky kingdom. To him be the glory for ages and ages! Amen.
safely into his sky kingdom
Paul’s confidence in this passage is often misunderstood because many readers import later theological assumptions into his words. What he expresses is not an expectation of being taken to heaven at the moment of death. His hope is anchored in the same future event that shapes the rest of his letters: the appearing of Christ from the sky and the arrival of the kingdom that descends with him. The “heavenly kingdom” he anticipates is not a realm he ascends to, but the kingdom that comes down, the one Daniel saw in his night visions..
Paul’s reference to being rescued from the lion’s mouth provides an interpretive key. Daniel was the prophet whom God literally rescued from lions, and Daniel is also the prophet who saw the sky‑kingdom descending. In Daniel’s vision, the beasts—representing successive empires—rise from the sea, but the true kingdom comes from above. The Son of Man approaches the Ancient of Days, receives dominion, and that dominion is then exercised over the earth. The kingdom is not an escape from the world but God’s takeover of it. Its king receives sovereignty over all peoples, nations, and language groups, and unlike the kingdoms symbolized by the beasts, this kingdom is permanent. It does not crumble, mutate, or pass away. It replaces the others.
Paul’s language echoes this prophetic pattern. When he speaks of being brought safely into the heavenly kingdom, he is aligning himself with Daniel’s vision. The kingdom is “heavenly” because its origin is heaven, not because its location is heaven. It is the kingdom that descends with Christ at his appearing, the kingdom in which the risen Lord reigns openly and universally. Paul expects to enter that kingdom when Christ returns, not at the moment of death. Death, for Paul, is a period of unconscious rest, a sleep from which the Lord awakens his people. The rescue he anticipates is the rescue Daniel foresaw: deliverance from the destructive powers of the present age and entrance into the reign of God’s appointed king.
This is the sky‑kingdom Paul has in mind—the same kingdom Daniel saw descending, the same kingdom Jesus proclaimed, the same kingdom Paul expects to inherit when the Lord appears.t kingdom coming down from the sky in a vision. He prophesied that God’s kingdom would come down from the sky and take over the earth. Its king would be given sovereignty over all the peoples, nations, and language groups on the earth and his kingdom would not be destroyed like all the other kingdoms would.
This is the sky kingdom that Paul was referring to.
May our Lord bring us all safely into his coming sky kingdom.
2 Timothy 4:6 You see, I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the season for my return is close. 2 Timothy 4:7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 2 Timothy 4:8 The crown of righteousness is reserved for me, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me, but to all those who have cared about his appearing.
His return and ours
Paul’s language in this passage is far more precise—and far more hopeful—than many English translations allow. The key term, ἀνάλυσις, is often rendered “departure,” which easily feeds the popular assumption that Paul expected to go somewhere at death, as though death itself were the gateway to conscious fellowship with Christ. But that translation is not required by the Greek, and in this context it obscures Paul’s actual hope.
ἀνάλυσις literally means loosing, untying, releasing, and in several contexts it carries the sense of returning, especially returning home. Its verb form, ἀναλύω, is used unmistakably this way in Luke 12:36, where servants wait for their master “to come back from the wedding celebration.” The imagery is not of leaving but of returning.
This matters because Paul’s theology of hope is consistent across his letters. He never locates the believer’s reward at the moment of death. He locates it at Christ’s return, the moment when the dead are raised and the living are transformed. That is when the crown of righteousness is awarded. That is when the righteous Judge appears. That is when life begins again.
Thus, when Paul says the time of his ἀνάλυσις has come, he is not expressing a desire to depart life but acknowledging that his death is near—and that his return to life is also near, because Christ’s appearing is the next conscious moment for the believer who dies.
The same logic governs Philippians 1:23. The verb ἀναλῦσαι is commonly translated “depart,” but Paul is not longing for death. He is longing for resurrection—longing for the moment when Christ returns and he is restored to life and fellowship with Him. Paul’s dilemma in Philippians is not between living and dying; it is between continuing fruitful ministry now and receiving resurrection life later. Death itself is not gain; resurrection is.
This fits perfectly with the broader biblical witness. When believers die, they enter the intermediate state, a state Scripture consistently describes as sleep—unconscious, inactive, awaiting the call of God. The next conscious moment is the voice of Christ and the rising of the dead. His return is our return. His appearing is our awakening. His coming—not our dying—is the blessed hope (Titus 2:13).
Paul’s language, rightly understood, reinforces the same truth he teaches everywhere: the Christian hope is resurrection, not disembodied survival.
LORD, thank you for the blessed hope of your return, and ours.
2 Timothy 4:1 I seriously warn you before God and Christ Jesus, who is going to judge the living and the dead, and because of his appearing and his kingdom: 2 Timothy 4:2 Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; rebuke, correct, and encourage with great patience and teaching 2 Timothy 4:3 because the season will come when people will not tolerate healthy teaching, but according to their own desires, will accumulate teachers for themselves because they are itching to hear what they want to hear. 2 Timothy 4:4 They will turn away from hearing the truth but will veer off to myths. 2 Timothy 4:5 But you, exercise self-control in everything, endure hardship, doing an evangelist’s achievement, accomplish your assistance {διακονία}.
they will veer off to myths
Paul’s warnings to Timothy form a steady drumbeat: difficult seasons are not an anomaly but a certainty. Earlier he described these as hard seasons—moments in history when the moral climate shifts, when the spiritual atmosphere thickens, and when the church finds itself swimming against a cultural current that grows stronger by the year. Now he sharpens the warning. A season is coming when people will no longer tolerate healthy, life‑giving teaching. Instead, driven by their own desires, they will gather teachers who tell them exactly what they want to hear. The problem is not a lack of information but a rejection of truth.
Paul calls these preferred teachings “myths.” A myth is not simply a false story; it is an explanation built on appearances rather than reality. It offers a narrative that feels satisfying, comforting, or empowering, but it does not correspond to what is actually true. Science, by contrast, deals with what can be observed, measured, and verified. Myths deal with what people wish were true.
The danger intensifies when myths are elevated to the status of unquestionable truth. When an unobservable explanation is labeled “science,” when every book and classroom must repeat it, and when dissenting voices must be silenced, the myth becomes a cultural orthodoxy. It no longer functions as an idea to be examined but as a dogma to be enforced. Paul foresaw this dynamic: people will prefer explanations that align with their desires, and they will surround themselves with teachers who reinforce those desires. The result is a society allergic to truth and hostile to correction.
This is not theoretical. It is recognizable. The present age bears the marks of the very season Paul described—an age in which truth is often replaced by narratives shaped by desire, and in which those narratives are defended with remarkable zeal. The pressure to conform is real. The cost of dissent can be high.
Paul’s instruction, however, is not despair but endurance. Timothy is not told to retreat, panic, or compromise. He is told to remain steady: keep a clear mind, endure hardship, and continue the work he was called to do. The presence of myths does not cancel the mission. The hostility toward truth does not negate the truth. The hard season does not change the calling.
The task remains the same: proclaim what is true, live what is true, and trust that God’s Word will outlast every myth.
Lord, give us the courage to continue in spite of the superstition that surrounds us.
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