Q. I have heard that Ezekiel 1 describes a UFO. Is that true?

A. Ezekiel chapter one is a very interesting chapter and it uses what is called “apocalyptic” ( to reveal) language. That’s why the Book of Revelation is also called “The Apocalypse” because it uses a style of language known in Hebrew thought as “apocalyptic.” To understand this chapter there are few things that have to be understood. This chapter has nothing to do with flying saucers and here is why.  This vision is known as the “merkavah” (chariot) or in other words the “Ma’aseh Merkavah” or “the work or account of the Chariot.”  The term “chariots of fire “ (merkavah mophtim) comes from this. A “chariot” is the means (vehicle) by which God’s glory is displayed in creation.  Angels, Israel or something else that could be considered Gods “chariot.”  What Ezekiel saw in this vision was the angelic realm that “supported” the throne of God. There are two classes of angels here called “ophanim and cherubim” and they work as messengers, carrying out his will. This brings us to something that needs to be understood. There are five elements in the physical world and they are time, light, mass, space and energy.  The spiritual world has the same thing. There is spiritual time, light, mass, space and energy. This vision is saying that God’s presence ,or Shekinah, would no longer find its place among so degraded a people and it would be confined in the heaven (See Ezekiel 10.1-22; 11.22-25). We see later that Ezekiel saw the presence leave (spiritual movement)the Holy of Holies, then the Temple, then the city and finally into the heavenly realm at the Mt of Olives because judgment was coming and the Temple and city were going to be destroyed.  Interestingly enough, after the resurrection, the Lord left the Temple, the city and ascended into heaven at the same place before the city was again destroyed by the Romans. Here is an important concept. Spiritual movement does not relate to a measurable distance as in physical movement. “Near” means “similar to” and “far” means “opposite”  or “different.”  Spiritual time can be the holy days or prayer time, things like that. Spiritual light is the cause or will of God. Spiritual mass are the agents that carry out God’s will. Spiritual space can be heaven, the Temple, Israel, a home or any place set apart for the Lord. Spiritual energy, therefore,  is the result or effect of the spiritual mass on mankind or creation. So, the vision of the Merkavah in Ezekiel 1 shows a heavenly (spiritual space) “chariot” which is really four angelic beasts called Cherubim. These angels (spiritual mass) are carrying out God’s will. This purpose of God is also called being “in the spirit” or ”under the control” of the spirit, but no mention is made of what exactly the purpose was at that point. But what we have is an example of the relationship between spiritual light (will of God) with spiritual mass (the angels carrying out that will) and the resulting spiritual energy (effect of the actions) upon man and creation. Ezekiel 43.1-5  has the account of the presence of God returning into the Temple.  Now, why is Ezekiel 1, Ezekiel 10 and Ezekiel 43 important to understand in the right way? Because these portions of scripture were read in the Temple and synagogues on the feast of Pentecost and it prepared  the people for what was about to happen 50 days after the resurrection of the Lord and it was the setting for what happened in Acts 2.1-13 with the coming of the Lord’s presence (Spirit) into another Temple, the believer. All the five spiritual elements were in action. There is so much more to get into concerning this but I hope this at least gives you an idea about what the Lord is trying to communicate in these chapters and also will dispel any notions you may have that these chapters have anything to do with UFO’s or flying saucers.

Q. If people believe that Yeshua is God, why don’t they leave out a letter like they do when they write “Lord” and God?”

A. I can’t answer that question for them, but I can give some reasons why this possibly could happen. There came a time, especially by the first century, that people were discouraged from saying the name of God found in the Hebrew letters “yod, hey, vav, hey”(or signified in English by YHVH). A man-made tradition developed that said people were to avoid saying the name. So, they would say “heaven” instead of “God” and use other things to avoid saying the name. Scrolls that had the name of God in them could not be thrown away because they felt that this violated the 3rd commandment also. These scrolls would then be stored in a place called a “genizah” and left there. The Dead Sea Scrolls are a perfect example of this. Used or otherwise unusable scrolls were stored in these caves and when the Romans were coming, those living in Qumran hid their manuscripts there because they could not take all them with them, and they thought that they may be coming back again.  Whatever they were thinking, they stored the scrolls in those caves which were considered “genizahs” because those particular scrolls contained God’s name in them. When the scrolls were discovered in 1947 and after, they found fragments of every Old Testament book except Esther because the book of Esther did not contain the name of God (YHVH), so they did not need to store Esther scrolls away. But, how to pronounce the name was known and that name (YHVH) was pronounced in the Temple, especially on Yom Kippur and there is debate as to whether everyone submitted to the ban on saying it in the first century or not, but the true pronunciation was known to the people. After the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple the true pronunciation of the name was lost to most because the services were stopped and the people killed, enslaved or scattered. The rabbis discouraged its usage and that is what has been passed down today, but it wasn’t always that way.  As far as today,here are some sages and rabbi’s that know the true pronunciation and it will be said again when Temple services begin, but that is another story. So another tradition arose, and you will see it in many Orthodox Jewish publications in English  that said that whenever the word “Lord” and “God” came up you left a letter out  in remembrance of the commandment not to desecrate the name of God. So Lord would look like L-rd and so on. Technically, Lord and God are not his names but are titles, but I think you get the picture. Now, I want say this before I answer the question. Many reading this will say that the Jewish and in particular the Qumran traditions and others like them were silly, but had they not taken this as serious as they did, we would not have the manuscripts and scrolls we have today. Many genizahs have been found all over the world in Jewish communities and there have been many valuable scrolls found there and translated. God has his way of preserving his word. And in the same way, say what you want about the Catholic Church, but it was the monks who were cloistered away during the times of the barbarian hordes and tremendous political  and social upheaval, copying the scriptures, that have allowed us to have the Bibles that we have today. I wish that believers had a tenth of the love of the word of God that those people had.

With that as a back-round, let me try and answer the question. When one honors the name of God and does not use it in vain or in a profane way, he does honor  Yeshua because he is God. On the other hand, Yeshua is the name that was given him at birth, it is his human name. He did not have that name from all eternity, it shows that he is human and had to be human otherwise he could not be our Goel, or “kinsman” redeemer. To be a “kinsman” he  had to be human. If he wasn’t human, there is no redemption. So, just because you leave out a letter in Lord or God and not in Yeshua doesn’t mean that you don’t believe that Yeshua was God, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. But it is his human name, he was the same flesh as we are, the second Adam and it is by his blood that man and creation was redeemed. But, keep in mind that to leave a letter out of Lord and God is just a man-made tradition and if that is what you want to do to honor the Lord, that’s fine but there are others who don’t and that’s fine, too. When the Scriptures are not specific about a particular action, we need to let others have room and not get judgmental either way. But we should be consistent in what we do and not do things just because we see others do it. We should be able to explain why we do what we do, and all of that should be to bring glory to the Lord.