Lehi and Ezekiel: Visionary Readers

We usually think of watching movies as an alternative to reading, but apparently heavenly visions don’t work the same way. About the time of the Babylonian Captivity, two prophets experienced visions in which they were given a book.

Lehi’s vision occurred at his home in Jerusalem during the first year of Zedekiah. As he lay in bed, “he saw the heavens open, and he thought he saw God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with numberless concourses of angels in the attitude of singing and praising their God.” One being descended, whose “luster was above that of the sun at noon-day.” He stood before Lehi, and “gave unto him a book, and bade him that he should read” (1 Nephi 1:8-11).

Four years later, in the “fifth year of king Jehoiachin’s captivity,” the prophet Ezekiel saw a vision in the land of Babylon, where he was living in captivity (Ezekiel 1:1-2). During this vision, he saw the Lord sitting on His throne, “as the colour of amber, as the appearance of fire round about” (Ezekiel 1:26-28). The Lord instructed Ezekiel to speak His words to the people, and a book was spread out in front of him, “and it was written within and without” (Ezekiel 2:7, 9-10).

What did the books say? Ezekiel’s contained “lamentations, and mourning, and woe” (Ezekiel 2:10). Lehi’s book opened with the words, “Wo, wo, unto Jerusalem, for I have seen thine abominations!” It went on to foretell Jerusalem’s destruction and the captivity of its inhabitants (1 Nephi 1:13).

As Lehi read those words, he was “filled with the Spirit of the Lord” (1 Nephi 1:12). Ezekiel’s experience was more visceral: he ate his book, and it was “as honey for sweetness” (Ezekiel 3:3; compare Revelation 10:9-10), a rather literal enactment of Nephi’s later admonition to “feast upon the words of Christ” (2 Nephi 32:3).

Both prophets declared to their people the words which they had read in the heavenly books, and both were rejected by their people (Ezekiel 3:4-7; 1 Nephi 1:18-19). The rejection is not surprising; no one wants to hear about their own destruction and captivity. But as Lehi teaches the words of his book, Nephi adds a detail that should have made Lehi’s message easier to hear: “He testified that the things which he saw and heard, and also the things which he read in the book, manifested plainly of the coming of a Messiah, and also the redemption of the world” (1 Nephi 1:19).

I wrote a few days ago about the importance of the written word of God to help us maintain faith over time. Yesterday, I wrote that the gathering of Israel includes not only the gathering of people but also of ancient records. Ezekiel and Lehi were contemporaries and were likely both aware of the religious resurgence during the reign of Josiah because of the discovery of ancient scripture in the temple at Jerusalem. So it’s both fitting and remarkable that within their respective visions, they heard the voice of God and also read His words. The implicit message is that the written word of God is not inferior to His voice and that we can learn by both reading and hearing.

For Lehi, this emphasis on the written word had a practical application. Soon after he and his family left Jerusalem, he sent his sons back to obtain a written record of God’s dealings with their people. When they returned with the record, “he did search them from the beginning,” and just like his experience in the vision, “he was filled with the Spirit” (1 Nephi 5:10, 17).

So the written word of God outside of a vision had the same effect as the book within the vision. Lehi had learned from his vision that God would give him knowledge as he studied scripture, and he was willing to make the effort to do so.

Today I will remember Lehi’s and Ezekiel’s experiences as I study the scriptures. I will trust that my engagement with God’s written word can fill me with His Spirit and help me draw closer to Him.