Ezekiel 8:2: “Then beheld, and lo a likeness as the appearance of fire: from the appearance of his loins and even downward, fire; and from his loins even upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the color of amber.”

There are those who look at this chapter in Ezekiel and call it an alien abduction. I think something much more profound than that happened, I believe Ezekiel was given a glimpse into the world of the spirit and saw things that you just cannot explain in natural terms.   Our modern translations make it very difficult to understand because this passage is filled with Hebraic and Aramaic/Chaldean idioms and metaphors.  As I study this passage in light of ancient Hebrew and Chaldean culture and language I am finding the concept of alien abduction truly an invention of someone just trying to build a platform and sell books and speaking gigs.  Either that or they are just another turnip just falling off the truck.

Be that as it may, anyone seeking to make out alien space crafts and alien appearances from the Book of Ezekiel is just showing their ignorance of Semitic storytelling, idioms and use of metaphors.  We live in a Western scientific, mathematical, precise culture where we have a tendency to take things literally. The Semitic culture lived in a world of metaphors, word plays, and illustrations.  More important, we live in a world of pictures and illustrations. Television and movies have dominated our imaginations such that we have lost the art of creating emotions and feeling with pictures. In Semitic culture, it was not uncommon to tell stories using pictures to create the emotions.   For instance, in the New Testament, we have the story. In no way am I trying to say hell is not a place of fire and brimstone, I just want to give an example of Semitic storytelling.  We have the story of the rich man in hell saying he is tormented by the flames. We picture the guy surrounded by fire.  In Semitic storytelling, the listener might not picture someone suffering from third-degree burns but someone who is tormented by unfulfilled fiery passions such as the desire for a drink of water which he cannot taste as he is now a spirit and has no body with nerve endings and taste buds.  As I said don’t get me wrong, I am not saying hell is not a place of fire, I am just trying to take you out of a Western literal culture and put you in a Semitic culture where storytelling often creates pictures to express emotions.

Anyways,  let’s first look at some facts. Ezekiel was taken into captivity by the Babylonians at the age of twenty-five.  He was one of 3,000 captives from the wealthy, noble class of Judah.  He settled along the Chabar River in the Babylonian territory where he was greatly influenced by the Babylonian and Chaldean culture and language.   Although the Book of Ezekiel was written in Classical Hebrew, it is filled with allusions to Chaldean culture, Chaldean expressions, and idioms.  Ezekiel began to have his visions at the age of 50 and people from all around would travel to listen to Ezekiel explain his visions.  After twenty-five years in Babylon his language and expressions would have taken on a truly Chaldean flavor and hence we must examine this passage in the light of not only the Hebrew culture and language but the Chaldean as well.

There is general agreement that what Ezekiel saw was indeed heavenly and supernatural.  Having spoken with people who have experienced various things in worship, I wonder if we could be seeing things similar to what Ezekiel saw in his vision. Just what did Ezekiel see in verse 8:2?   We cannot be sure because all Ezekiel could do was explain in natural terms something that is supernatural which no natural words can explain so you must resort to metaphors and other poetic devices.   When the writer says that Issachar is a strong donkey in Genesis 49:14 he is not saying that Issachar is a literal horse-like creature with bulging muscles, he is merely trying to set a natural picture to an abstract concept.  The question is, did he see something in the supernatural that objective and actually existed or was he trying to express something in the abstract like his feelings and emotions over what he saw. Let me take you down a road less traveled and examine Ezekiel’s vision as an expression of something subjective an emotion and feeling rather than an expression of something objective that really existed.

Note how Ezekiel talks of the likeness and an appearance of fire and loins.  The word likeness in Hebrew is demuth from the root word damah which means to be similar but in a quiet way.  Using the word damah Ezekiel is expressing a richly poetic word, both in Hebrew and Chaldean which incorporates not only a natural picture but a feeling of warmth and comfort from this picture. Putting this in an emotional context Ezekiel is creating a picture to express what he feels at that moment in his vision. How would you express in natural terms radiated warmth and comfort?  By using the word fire or ‘ash in Hebrew he does not want his listener to picture a fire in his mind, but to feel warmth, comfort, and passion.  Like I said this is very common in Semitic storytelling, to draw pictures of subjective emotions and feelings.

The word appearance is kemareh which is from the root word ra’ah which is to see but is also rooted in the word kemar which means to kindle a fire for warmth and is also used for love and compassion.   This is again a beautifully poetic word used to describe something that causes you to feel love, compassion and warmth. Literally, kemar means to see love. Can you actually see love?  The ancients could which is why they had a word for it and we don’t.  I can picture Ezekiel sitting around a campfire with a group of 21^st Century Western cultured Christians who have somehow traveled back in time to the day of Ezekiel listening to him tell of his experience.  If Ezekiel could speak modern English he would say: “What I saw were warmth, compassion, and love. Have you ever seen warmth, compassion, and love?”

Ezekiel then says something rather strange, the appearance of brightness.  I love that word for brightness, it is the word zohar.  It is a common Jewish name which means to glow and radiate.   It is used for one who has access to deep hidden knowledge and secrets, secrets which bear a warning but not a threat.  The combination of the word kemereh (appearance) with Zohar (glowing) would form a Chaldean idiom used to express a warm gentle warning.

Then the writer says: “As the color of amber.”  The Hebrew word for the color of amber is chasmal which means the color of amber, color of copper, gleaming metal, glowing metal, glitter, to glow.  But here is the kicker.  The word chasmal is also Chaldean idiom common along the Chebar river region which means: As the look of God.

You have your choice, you can believe that Ezekiel actually saw something objective resembling a spaceship and aliens or what he saw, particularly in Ezekiel 8:2, was a feeling.   He saw warmth, love, and compassion.  It was so awesome it looked like God or what he could imagine God would look like.  Have you ever met another Christian who was just chasmal, glowing such that you felt you could measure it with a light meter?  That person was filled with the presence of God.  Maybe they were not physically beautiful, but the look of God,  the chasmal was so great that you did not see their physical appearance because you were just blinded by the love of God.

Someone once wrote the words: “We are the only Jesus that some people will ever see.”  I think there have been times I have seen what Ezekiel saw in 8:2.