Ezekiel 1:15














New phenomena now appear to the prophet's ecstatic vision. Wheels of vast and appalling magnitude are seen, and seen in combination with the cherubim. Now, wheels are essential parts of man's mechanical contrivances; therefore we are compelled to regard the material earth and the encircling atmosphere as the scene of this activity. In a striking and instructive manner we perceive God working in and through material nature. We learn in this passage -

I. THAT THIS TERRESTRIAL GLOBE IS THE STAGE ON WHICH GOD IS WORKING OUT HIS REDEMPTIVE ENTERPRISE. Other ends, which are plainly sought in nature, are evidently not final; they are steps to a loftier end. It is possible that, in other planets, other aspects of God's glorious nature are in course of being unveiled; other purposes are unfolding; other principles (perhaps not comprehensible by men) are being developed. Our earth is consecrated and set apart for this high end, viz. that it may be the theatre for the display of moral redemption.

II. THAT ALL THE WHEELS OF NATURE MOVE TOWARDS THE EXECUTION OF THIS PLAN. By the wheels of nature are symbolized all mechanical and chemical forces. These are ever moving in their appropriate activities; are, in their sphere, resistless. For the most part these activities are a blessing to men; but if withstood, they injure and destroy. These great dynamic forces do not act in a capricious and haphazard manner. They follow implicitly the mandates of law; they are represented as "lull of eyes;" they are the docile, ready servants of the cherubim: "the spirit of the living creatures is in the wheals also." The same Divine Spirit which dwells in angels and in men, possesses and potentiates (though in inferior measure) the forces of nature. Mechanical forces yield to chemical; chemical forces yield to vital; vital forces yield to intelligent; intelligent forces yield to spiritual. A graduated scale of subordination appears, and in all there is the manifestation of one controlling Spirit. This complete subordination of nature to the central purpose of redemption, is seen in the miracles wrought by Jesus Christ. The intervening agents are not within the range of human vision; yet, to a spiritual eye, they might have been (in part at least) discerned. For to Nathanael Jesus Christ affirmed, with special emphasis, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man."

III. THAT, BY THE FORCES OF MATERIAL NATURE, GOD'S WILL IS SWIFTLY AND NOISELESSLY DONE. The idea conveyed to the mind by the vision of these mysterious wheels is easy and rapid motion. Celerity is made prominent by the fact that they went straight to their destination: "They turned not when they went." It was enough that the volition of the Divine mind was expressed. "He spake: and lo! it was done;" "Whither the spirit was to go, they went;" "The spirit of the living creature was in the wheels." If the cherubim were lifted up from the earth, these wheels were lifted up; or when the cherubim stood, the wheels stood. Service in any direction - rest or motion - the wheels instantly and spontaneously followed the Divine behest. Here saints may find strong consolation: "God's will is our sanctification." His will shall be done. For who can finally resist it?

IV. THE VAST SCALE OF GOD'S PLANS AND AGENCIES APPALLS OUR FINITE MINDS. "The felloes of these wheels were so high," says the prophet, "that they were dreadful." It is the ambition of the human mind to measure and grasp the universe; and when, at length, we begin to discover the magnitude and the minuteness of God's works, we fall prostrate under a sense of our impotence. "It is higher than heaven; what can we know? It is deeper than Hades; what can" our feeble intellect do? It should temper our self-confidence, and induce in us profound modesty, to remember that we do not, while in the flesh, see objects as they absolutely exist; we see only the likeness and appearance of realities. A subjective element mingles with the objective, in our consciousness. "Now we know in part. We anticipate the time when imperfect knowledge shall give place to perfect certainty.

V. THAT ALL THE ACTIVITIES OF NATURE AND OF PROVIDENCE ARE TINGED WITH A MORAL PURPOSE. There is surely something to be gathered from the fact that the prophet makes mention of these several colours. The fire which enfolded upon itself was of the colour of amber. The throne on which the Eternal sat was in appearance like a sapphire stone. The living creatures were like burning coals of fire. The wheels were like the colour of the beryl - i.e. a bluish green. These colours are constituent elements of the perfect white, and imply that God's righteousness (as well as his wisdom and goodness) is manifest in all his works. The universe is imbued with a moral purpose. Truth shall spring out of the earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven;" "The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills by righteousness." - D.

One wheel upon the earth by the living creatures.
The four living creatures denoted the four parts of the world, and their agencies in them and by them: now are presented the wheels; every living creature had a wheel by it: and this strongly implies that there are wheelings, turnings, and changes in all parts; yea, the very same that are in one part are at one time or other in another part. The wheels are alike. Are wars, plagues, famine in one country? they are, or will be, in another. Do men die here? so in all parts. Are men unfaithful now? so they were of old. Are there unseasonable times here? such are abroad. Are things carried by violence, oppression, injustice here? so they are elsewhere. Are there designs, plots upon our kingdom and Church? so there are upon others. Whatever befalls one state, befalls another, internally and externally. The wheels are the same, and move alike, though sometimes backward in one part of the world and forward in another; there is no stability anywhere, but all things are changing. In vain, then, do men travel the world to find certainty and content in it; in vain do we go up and down, here and there, thinking to find settledness, and something satisfactory. The world is like itself everywhere; go east or west, and there is nothing but a wheel, and a wheel running. We must not look for stability, content, certainty, among the wheels, but above them: now it is not time to look about and abroad, but to look above the world and the wheels of it. If we have tribulation in the world, we may have peace in Christ.

(W. Greenhill, M. A.)

The sum of this celestial vision is that the Divine Providence doth rule in the world, and is exercised in all parts thereof, and not only in heaven, or in the temple, or in Jewry, as the Jews then thought. As for the changes in the world, which are here compared to wheels, they befall not by haphazard, but are effected by God, though all things may seem to run upon wheels, and to fall out as it fortuneth. At the day of judgment, at utmost, men shall see a harmony in this discord of things, and Providence shall then he unriddled. Meanwhile, God oft wrappeth Himself in a cloud, and will not he seen till afterwards. All God's dealings be sure will appear beautiful in their season, though for the present we see not the contiguity and linking together of one thing with another.

(J. Trapp.)

People
Babylonians, Buzi, Ezekiel, Jehoiachin
Places
Chebar
Topics
Beheld, Behold, Beings, Beside, Bottom, Creature, Creatures, Faces, Ground, Thereof, Wheel
Outline
1. The time of Ezekiel's prophecy at Chebar.
4. His vision of four cherubim;
15. of the four wheels;
26. and of the glory of God.

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Ezekiel 1:1-28

     8474   seeing God

Ezekiel 1:3-28

     7775   prophets, lives

Ezekiel 1:4-18

     1454   theophany

Ezekiel 1:4-28

     1090   God, majesty of
     1469   visions

Ezekiel 1:5-25

     4627   creatures

Ezekiel 1:15-21

     5252   chariots
     5621   wheel

Library
God's Providence
"Now as I beheld the living creatures, behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four faces. The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel. When they went, they went upon their four sides: and they turned not when they went. As for their rings, they were so high that they were dreadful; and their rings were full of eyes round
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 54: 1908

The Noble Results of this Species of Prayer
The Noble Results of this Species of Prayer Some persons, when they hear of the prayer of silence, falsely imagine, that the soul remains stupid, dead, and inactive. But, unquestionably, it acteth therein, more nobly and more extensively than it had ever done before; for God Himself is the mover, and the soul now acteth by the agency of His Spirit. When S. Paul speaks of our being led by the Spirit of God, it is not meant that we should cease from action; but that we should act through the internal
Madame Guyon—A Short and Easy Method of Prayer

'Deliver us from Evil'
'But deliver us from evil.'--MATT. vi. 13. The two halves of this prayer are like a calm sky with stars shining silently in its steadfast blue, and a troubled earth beneath, where storms sweep, and changes come, and tears are ever being shed. The one is so tranquil, the other so full of woe and want. What a dark picture of human conditions lies beneath the petitions of this second half! Hunger and sin and temptation, and wider still, that tragic word which includes them all--evil. Forgiveness and
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

This State of Prayer not one of Idleness, but of Noble Action, Wrought by the Spirit of God, and in Dependence Upon Him --The Communication Of
Some people, hearing of the prayer of silence, have wrongly imagined that the soul remains inactive, lifeless, and without movement. But the truth is, that its action is more noble and more extensive than it ever was before it entered this degree, since it is moved by God Himself, and acted upon by His Spirit. St Paul desires that we should be led by the Spirit of God (Rom. viii. 14). I do not say that there must be no action, but that we must act in dependence upon the divine movement. This
Jeanne Marie Bouvières—A Short Method Of Prayer And Spiritual Torrents

The Prophet Jonah.
It has been asserted without any sufficient reason, that Jonah is older than Hosea, Joel, Amos, and Obadiah,--that he is the oldest among the prophets whose written monuments have been preserved to us. The passage in 2 Kings xiv. 25, where it is said, that Jonah, the son of Amittai the prophet, prophesied to Jeroboam the happy success of his arms, and the restoration of the ancient boundaries of Israel, and that this prophecy was confirmed by the event, cannot decide in favour of this assertion,
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

How Subjects and Prelates are to be Admonished.
(Admonition 5.) Differently to be admonished are subjects and prelates: the former that subjection crush them not, the latter that superior place elate them not: the former that they fail not to fulfil what is commanded them, the latter that they command not more to be fulfilled than is just: the former that they submit humbly, the latter that they preside temperately. For this, which may be understood also figuratively, is said to the former, Children, obey your parents in the Lord: but to
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

A Sight of the Crowned Christ
(Revelation, Chapter i.) "Since mine eyes were fixed on Jesus, I've lost sight of all beside, So enchained my spirit's vision, Looking at the Crucified." "The Lord Christ passed my humble cot: I knew him, yet I knew him not; But as I oft had done before, I hurried through my narrow door To touch His garment's hem. "He drew me to a place apart From curious crowd and noisy mart; And as I sat there at His feet I caught the thrill of His heart-beat Beyond His garment's hem. "Rare was the bread He broke
by S. D. Gordon—Quiet Talks on the Crowned Christ of Revelation

Appendix v. Rabbinic Theology and Literature
1. The Traditional Law. - The brief account given in vol. i. p. 100, of the character and authority claimed for the traditional law may here be supplemented by a chronological arrangement of the Halakhoth in the order of their supposed introduction or promulgation. In the first class, or Halakhoth of Moses from Sinai,' tradition enumerates fifty-five, [6370] which may be thus designated: religio-agrarian, four; [6371] ritual, including questions about clean and unclean,' twenty-three; [6372] concerning
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

Of Love to God
I proceed to the second general branch of the text. The persons interested in this privilege. They are lovers of God. "All things work together for good, to them that love God." Despisers and haters of God have no lot or part in this privilege. It is children's bread, it belongs only to them that love God. Because love is the very heart and spirit of religion, I shall the more fully treat upon this; and for the further discussion of it, let us notice these five things concerning love to God. 1. The
Thomas Watson—A Divine Cordial

Covenanting Enforced by the Grant of Covenant Signs and Seals.
To declare emphatically that the people of God are a covenant people, various signs were in sovereignty vouchsafed. The lights in the firmament of heaven were appointed to be for signs, affording direction to the mariner, the husbandman, and others. Miracles wrought on memorable occasions, were constituted signs or tokens of God's universal government. The gracious grant of covenant signs was made in order to proclaim the truth of the existence of God's covenant with his people, to urge the performance
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

An Advance Step in the Royal Programme
(Revelation, Chapters iv. and v.) "We are watching, we are waiting, For the bright prophetic day; When the shadows, weary shadows, From the world shall roll away. "We are watching, we are waiting, For the star that brings the day; When the night of sin shall vanish, And the shadows melt away. "We are watching, we are waiting, For the beauteous King of day; For the chiefest of ten thousand, For the Light, the Truth, the Way. "We are waiting for the morning, When the beauteous day is dawning, We are
by S. D. Gordon—Quiet Talks on the Crowned Christ of Revelation

Brief Outline of Ancient Jewish Theological Literature
The arrangements of the synagogue, as hitherto described, combined in a remarkable manner fixedness of order with liberty of the individual. Alike the seasons and the time of public services, their order, the prayers to be offered, and the portions of the law to be read were fixed. On the other hand, between the eighteen "benedictions" said on ordinary days, and the seven repeated on the Sabbaths, free prayer might be inserted; the selection from the prophets, with which the public reading concluded--the
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life

Ezekiel
To a modern taste, Ezekiel does not appeal anything like so powerfully as Isaiah or Jeremiah. He has neither the majesty of the one nor the tenderness and passion of the other. There is much in him that is fantastic, and much that is ritualistic. His imaginations border sometimes on the grotesque and sometimes on the mechanical. Yet he is a historical figure of the first importance; it was very largely from him that Judaism received the ecclesiastical impulse by which for centuries it was powerfully
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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