Ezekiel Saw De Wheel

Re: Verse reading–Ezekiel 1:28-3:4 (day two)
Now as I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the earth beside the living creatures, one for each of the four of them. As for the appearance of the wheels and their construction: their appearance was like the gleaming of beryl. And the four had the same likeness, their appearance and construction being as it were a wheel within a wheel. (Ezekiel 1:15, 16 ESV)

Ezekiel saw de wheel, way up in the middle of the air

In the next few weeks will encounter the ministry of the Prophet Ezekiel and you will quickly recognize some of the texts as being the inspiration for African American Spirituals. As we conclude our journey through Jeremiah you might think this a curious choice for inspiration. Exile, suffering, dark chapters, but then again what better place to find hope. Slaves who had been removed from all they knew and loved, treated with contempt and lower than animals found solace in the words of these prophets. They saw how God, though having a hard word for the Israelites, always watched over them.

If a people with such a bleak and tragic worldview could find hope in these stories, can’t we?