Ezekiel 1:28

28. The bow that is in the cloud This, of course, refers to the well-known symbol of God’s covenant made with Noah (Genesis 9:13). The bow was also among the Babylonians considered as the sign of covenant. Ezekiel did not see in this a sign of the “covenant of redemption” any more than he saw a hidden meaning in the man on the throne. No doubt this was one of the instances when a prophet sought to look into the glorious mysteries of the future and was not able (1 Peter 1:10-12). Yet it would be stupidity if we who have been enlightened by Him who “opened the Scriptures,” and of whom holy men spake as they were moved of the Holy Ghost did not see a heavenly beauty and significance in the rainbow which surrounded “the appearance of a man” upon the throne of the Almighty. “This brightness was round about Jehovah’s head: a halo of glory, a diadem of transcendent beauty, redemption’s matchless crown. In it are blended all the attributes of divine perfection, from the scarlet hue of righteousness to the soft blue of perfect peace. On the raindrops this heavenly bow of beauty is sketched as if to suggest that in the daily gifts which flow from the divine hand we may discern the everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure.” Pulpit Commentary.

This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord Once more comes the affirmation from astonished lips that, whatever the reality may be, he has truly described the “vision of God” as it was given to him. No wonder that Ezekiel felt himself compelled to repeat again and again that he only claimed that he had seen “the appearance of a likeness” of God; for no man in all the earth for six centuries to come could understand the vision. It almost seemed a blasphemous thing to see, even in vision, a man or even the likeness of a man upon Jehovah’s throne. All that Ezekiel continues to affirm, realizing how distasteful the fact will still appear to his people, is that he did see “the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.”