Commentary on Ezekiel 1

Ezekiel 1:1-2
1On July 31 of my thirtieth year, while I was with the Judean exiles beside the Kebar River in Babylon, the heavens were opened to me, and I saw visions of God.
2This happened during the fifth year of King Jehoiachin's captivity.

It is interesting that this specific call of God comes at age 30. This is a time when many regret that passage of youth and spend more time looking back than ahead. An interesting bit of trivia is that many Jewish scholars forbade anyone reading this book before the age of 30 and 30 was the minimum age for priests to fully serve in God’s temple.
More importantly though, Ezekiel had been in captivity for 5 years before God spoke to him. How many times had he wondered about the reason for these events? Did he ever have days of wavering? In our fast paced world of microwave moments, could we ever endure 5 years of waiting?
“I saw visions of God” – is this first person pronoun an indicator that this was just in his mind? He might not even be alone. Of course this is pure speculation, but I see this could be an internal experience, but regardless, it is still reality. It makes me wonder if, when the Lord returns, will it be in the space of the physical realm or will we pick up internal monitors to finally see in the spiritual realm?
God certainly could do it in any way. But never be amazed that it happens outside the realm of our assured expectations.
I admit, even as a believer in Christ, that I do not look forward to seeing the Lord in this way. It will be a wonderful, painful undoing. I see God’s prophets falling to the ground in His presence all the time. In our plastic world of softness, it will be a terrible unraveling of all we think we know. I look forward to it like going to get a root canal. It will be for my good but I cringe at the immediate shock.