In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the Chebar canal, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.
A priest deported to Babylon sits among captives beside a foreign river, records a date and a place, and then says heaven opened over him. The verse raises two questions: which "thirtieth year" he counts from, and why God chose that ruined setting to show Himself.
The disputed date
Writers do not agree on what the thirty years count from. One reading takes the figure personally, as the age of the prophet himself, and finds meaning in it:
F. W. GrantThe thirtieth year is, as most take it, the prophet's own age. That was the age when a priest entered his office. It was also the age at which Christ, the true Priest Himself, chose to begin His public ministry.
Others tie it to the reigning empire rather than to the man, dating it from the founding of Babylon's kingdom:
Morrish Bible DictionaryThe thirtieth year of Ezekiel 1:1 is surely the thirtieth year of the Babylonian kingdom. Nabopolassar founded that kingdom in 625 B.C., so the thirtieth year would be 595 B.C. That agrees with the fifth year of King Jehoiachin's captivity.
The verse fixes a moment without telling us where the count began.
Glory seen outside the land
Chebar was a river in a foreign land, where Israel's captives were held. That location is itself part of the message, because the glory that once rested in the temple is now seen far away from it:
Samuel RidoutEzekiel is among the captives at the river Chebar. There he sees the glory of the Lord, the glory that rested on the cherubim, those mighty agents of divine power. These are the real cherubim, not the golden models made for the temple. Far from the land, out by the distant Chebar, a prophet whose own name does not carry God's covenant name sees visions of God outside Israel.
The one prophet with an opened heaven
The phrase "the heavens were opened" is not common Old Testament language. It belongs to Ezekiel alone, and here its tone is severe, not tender:
William KellyThe circumstances in which Ezekiel was called to prophesy were new and strange. It was not in Judah, nor in Israel, but among the captives by the river Chebar. So the Lord chose to send His word to him with marks of unusual power. Of no one else in the Old Testament does Scripture say that the heavens opened and he saw visions of God. But here the heavens opened in judgment on Israel's wickedness. They did not yet open to show the Father's delight in the Son of God on earth, and still less for the Christian to see the Son of Man in heaven.
An open heaven over a shut-in man
Nothing in Ezekiel's situation suggested favour. He was a captive with no way out, and that is where heaven opened:
George DavisonMan had hemmed the prophet in on earth, with no way out. But heaven had not hemmed him in, and he knew it. Man may place any restriction on him. Still, he must learn this: heaven always stays open to the man who is ready to move on earth under heaven's direction.
Another writer draws the same lesson from the darkness itself. God did not lift the judgment, yet He gave sight to the man who bowed under it:
F. W. GrantThe judgment is not removed. Yet this is what we find here: a man bows under it and accepts God's judgment, and over his head the heavens open and he sees "visions of God." How blessed to know, by the voice of nature itself, that it is night and not day that opens the heavens.
Four things, in order
One writer counts four gifts in these opening verses and takes their order as a pattern for anyone God sends:
Arno Clemens GaebeleinEzekiel mentions four things: the heavens were opened — he saw visions of God — the word of the Lord came to him — the hand of the Lord was upon him. Notice the order: an opened heaven, a vision, the call, and power from God for the work. That is still the order for the servants of the Lord.
Each piece met a different need in the man:
George DavisonThe "opened heavens" would secure his attention to the movements of God. The "visions of God" would strengthen his faith despite the conditions around him. "The word of the LORD" would teach his mind, so he could pass what he learned on to others. "The hand of the LORD" being consciously upon him would encourage his heart in view of much conscious weakness within and strong opposition without.
Summary
- Dated — Commentators differ on "the thirtieth year". Some read it as the prophet's own age, the age when a priest entered office. Others read it as the thirtieth year of Babylon's kingdom.
- Displaced — The vision came outside the land, by a foreign river, where a captive saw the glory that had rested on the cherubim.
- Opened — Scripture says the heavens opened for Ezekiel alone. Here they open in judgment on Israel's wickedness.
- Unhemmed — Man could fence the prophet in on earth; heaven stayed open to him, and night rather than day is what opens it.
- Ordered — Opened heaven, vision, word, then the hand upon him. Each met a need: attention, faith, mind, heart. God made the man ready before He sent him.