Ezekiel 10: The Seed in the Darkness
Tuesday, September 16, 2025
Written on January 26, 2028 and posted today as a Favorite . . .
We return to the Cherubim, those “sublime hosts” to God’s presence. (Noontime, March 4, 2010 http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03646c.htm)
These special beings that guard the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies are described in 1 Kings, chapters 6 through 8. It seems that once a year we visit with them and we might find them fascinating since they share a life of intimacy with God. Today we see them reappear with the divine chariot. “The coals may represent either the city’s destruction following the death of its inhabitants or the beginning of purification . . . The details of this second chariot vision [after the introduction in Ezekiel 1] are confusing, making it impossible to follow precisely where the glory is . . . The overall effect of the vision is clear: the glory leaves its great seat within the holy of holies and mounts the living chariot, departing in stages from the temple. By the chapter’s end the glory of YHWH is mounted over the cherubim, stationed at the door of the temple’s east gate, and poised to depart.” (Barton, and Muddiman 542)
Ezekiel’s imagery is sometimes difficult to decipher and often dark and scary; and so we turn to commentary and to our own inner place where God dwells to hear what wisdom comes from these verses today. In this vision we see the cleansing and refining effect that God’s presence has on his creatures. This distillation takes place as the soil is readied for the good seed to be planted and flourish. We sometimes forget that seeds sprout and take root in the dark, and then they rise to the light.
From today’s MAGNIFICAT Meditation of the Day by Caryll Houselander, a British mystic, poet, and spiritual teacher: Christ is that good seed with which our humanity is sown. Just as he chose to be subject to his own law of nature in his own life on earth, he chooses to be subject to the same law in his life in our souls. That is the condition of the growth of the Christ-life in us, from the seed to the flower, from the flower to the fruit: “Believe in me when I tell you this: a grain of wheat must fall into the ground and die, or else it remains nothing more than a grain of wheat; but if it dies, then it yields rich fruit.” The grain of wheat, which is our Christ-life, is subject to the same law. It must be buried in the earth. It must be in darkness. Its growing must be in rest. We are the soil of the divine seed; there is no other. The flowering of Christ in us does not depend upon pious exercises, on good works outside our daily life, on an amateur practice of religion in our leisure time. It is in the marrow of our bones, in the experience of our daily life. The seed is in darkness; the darkness of sorrow, the darkness of faith.
When we some across troublesome images like the ones today, or when we hear disturbing and unsettling news; rather than flee from the darkness, let us center ourselves and go within where God speaks patiently. Let us remember that we are soil for Christ and that this special life is often born out of sadness and darkness. It is born out of a deep and abiding faith that is witness to God’s glory.
In faith we trust in God, and we praise God.
In faith we await restoration through Christ, and we praise God.
In faith we place our hope in the Spirit, and we praise God.
In faith we seek God’s word, we listen for God’s voice, and we act in God’s ways, and we praise God.
In faith we grow in wisdom and we ready the soil of our lives for the Christ-life to be planted there so that we might know God in the marrow of our bones – and praise God.
A re-post from August 13, 2011.
Images from: http://www.mishkanministries.org/ark_of_the_covenant.htm and https://www.freepik.com/premium-photo/hands-holding-sapling-soil-black_22067883.htm
Barton, John, and John Muddiman. THE OXFORD BIBLE COMMENTARY. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2001. 542. Print.
Cameron, Peter John, Rev., ed. “Meditation of the Day.” MAGNIFICAT. 26 January 2011: 361-362. Print.
The Noontimes 