I looked, and behold, a stormy wind came out of the north: a great cloud, with flashing lightning, and a brightness around it, and out of the middle of it as it were glowing metal, out of the middle of the fire. Out of its center came the likeness of four living creatures. This was their appearance: They had the likeness of a man. Everyone had four faces, and each one of them had four wings. Their feet were straight feet. The sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf’s foot; and they sparkled like burnished bronze. They had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides. The four of them had their faces and their wings like this: Their wings were joined to one another. They didn’t turn when they went. Each one went straight forward.
As for the likeness of their faces, they had the face of a man. The four of them had the face of a lion on the right side. The four of them had the face of an ox on the left side. The four of them also had the face of an eagle. Such were their faces. Their wings were spread out above. Two wings of each one touched another, and two covered their bodies. Each one went straight forward: where the spirit was to go, they went. They didn’t turn when they went. As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches. The fire went up and down among the living creatures. The fire was bright, and lightning went out of the fire. The living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning.
Now as I saw the living creatures, behold, there was one wheel on the earth beside the living creatures, for each of the four faces of it. The appearance of the wheels and their work was like a beryl. The four of them had one likeness. Their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel within a wheel. When they went, they went in their four directions. They didn’t turn when they went. As for their rims, they were high and dreadful; and the four of them had their rims full of eyes all around.
When the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them. When the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up. Wherever the spirit was to go, they went. The spirit was to go there. The wheels were lifted up beside them; for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels. When those went, these went. When those stood, these stood. When those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up beside them; for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.
Over the head of the living creature there was the likeness of an expanse, like an awesome crystal to look at, stretched out over their heads above. Under the expanse, their wings were straight, one toward the other. Each one had two which covered on this side, and each one had two which covered their bodies on that side. When they went, I heard the noise of their wings like the noise of great waters, like the voice of the Almighty, a noise of tumult like the noise of an army. When they stood, they let down their wings.
There was a voice above the expanse that was over their heads. When they stood, they let down their wings.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv4–25 We must first consider the intention of this Vision.…
We must first consider the intention of this Vision. I have no doubt but that God wished first to invest his servant with authority, and then to inspire the people with terror. When therefore a formidable form of God is here described, it. ought first to be referred to reverence for the teaching conveyed; for, as we have remarked before, and shall further observe as we proceed, the Prophet’s duty lay among a hard-hearted and rebellious people; their arrogance required to be subdued, for otherwise the Prophet had spoken to the deaf. But God had another end in view. An analogy or resemblance is to be held between this vision and the Prophet’s doctrine. This is one object. Then as to the vision itself, some understand by the four animals the four seasons of the year, and think that the power of God in the government of the whole world is here celebrated. But that sense is far-fetched. Some think that the four virtues are represented — because, as they say, the image of justice is conspicuous in man, that of prudence in the eagle, of fortitude in the lion, of endurance in the ox. Yet although this is a shrewd conjecture it has no solidity. Some take the contrary view, and think that four passions are here intended, viz. fear and hope, sorrow and joy. Some think that three faculties of the mind are denoted. For in the soul, τὸ λόγικον, is the seat of reason; θύμικον, that of the passions; ἐπιθυμήτικον, that of the lusts; and συντέρεσις that of the conscience. But these guesses are also puerile. It was formerly the received opinion, that under this figure were depicted the four Evangelists: they think Matthew was compared to a man, because he begins with the generation of Christ; Mark to a lion, because he begins at the preaching of John; Luke to an ox, because he begins his narrative by mentioning the priesthood; and John to an eagle, because he penetrates, as it were, to the secrets of heaven. But in this fiction there is no stability, for it would all vanish if it were to be properly examined. Some think it a description of the glow of God in the Church, and that the animals are here to be taken for the perfect who have already made greater progress in faith, and the wheels for the weak and undisciplined. But they afterwards heap together many trifles, which it is better to bury at once, and not take up our time ill refuting them. All these, then, I reject; and now we must see what the Prophet really does mean. I have already said, that it was the Almighty’s plan, when he gave commands to his Prophet so to honor him, that his doctrine should not be open to contempt. But the special reason which I touched upon must be considered — viz.: that God shortly points out by this symbol, for what purpose he sends his Prophet. For the visions have as great a likeness to the doctrine as possible. For this reason, in my opinion, Ezekiel says, behold! a whirlwind came out of the north The people had already experienced the vengeance of God, Mien he had used first the Assyrians and then the Babylonians to chastise them. Jeconiah, as we have seen, had gone into voluntary exile. The Jews thought that they would still have a quiet home in their city and country, and laughed at the simplicity of those who had so quickly gone into exile. The Prophet therefore says, that he saw a stormy wind from the north This rush of the wind or tempest ought to be referred to the judgment of God: for he wished to strike terror into the Jews, that they should not grow torpid in their security. After he has spoken concerning the storm or tempest, he adds — I saw four living creatures and four wheels connected together, to signify that their motion had not originated from chance but from God. These two things ought to be joined together, viz.: that the storm sprang up out of the north, and that God, the author of the storm, was beheld upon his throne. But in the meanwhile, that God’s majesty might the Jews, he says — I saw four living creatures and four wheels connected together By the four living’ creatures he understands cherubim: and we have no need of any other explanation, for he explains it so in chapter 10., when he saw God in the temple, the four living creatures were under his feet, and he says they are cherubim. Now we must see why four animals are here enumerated, when two cherubim only embraced the Ark of the Covenant; and next, why he describes four heads to each: for if he wished to accommodate his language to the rites of the Sanctuary, why did he not place two cherubim, with which God was content? (Exodus 20:18;) for he seems here to depart from the command of God himself: (Numbers 7:89) now, four heads and round feet, do not suit the two cherubim by whom the Ark of the Covenant was surrounded. But the solution is at hand: the Prophet so alludes to the Sanctuary, or, at the same time, to bend his discourse to the rudeness of the people. For their religion had become so obsolete, and their contempt of the law so great., that the Jews were ignorant of the use of tie Sanctuary; then they so worshipped God as if he were at a distance from them, and entirely rejected his providential care over human affairs. Here, then, we see how gross was their stupor, so that though often stricken, they never were aroused. Because the Jews were thus completely torpid, it became needful to propose to them a new form, and so the Prophet chooses half of it from the Sanctuary itself, and assumes the other half, as it was required for so rude a people; although he did not manufacture anything out of his own mind, for I am now speaking of the counsel of the Holy Spirit. God was, therefore, unwilling to drive the Jews away from the sanctuary, for that was the foundation of all right understanding of truth, but because he saw that the legal form was not sufficient, he therefore added a new supply, and as he gave each cherub four heads, so he wished their number to be four.
With regard to their number, I doubt not that God wished to teach us that his influence is diffused through all regions of the world, for we know the world to be divided into four parts; and that the people might know that God’s providence rules everywhere throughout the world, four cherubim were set up. Here also it is convenient to repeat, that angels were represented by cherubim and seraphim: for those who are called cherubim here and in Ezekiel 10, are called seraphim in Isaiah 6:2; and we know that angels are called principalities and powers, (Ephesians 3:10,) and are rendered conspicuous by these titles, while Scripture calls them the very hands of God himself. (Colossians 1:16.) Since, therefore, God works by angels, and uses them as ministers of his power, then when angels are brought forward, there the providence of God is conspicuous, and his power in the government of the world. This, then, is the reason why not two cherubim only were placed before the Prophet’s eyes, but four: because God’s providence ought to be evident in earthly things, for the people then imagined that God was confined to heaven; hence the Prophet teaches not only that he reigns in heaven, but that he rules over earthly affairs. And for this reason, and with this end, he extends his power over the four quarters of the globe. Why, then, has each animal four heads? I answer, that by this, angelic virtue is proved to reside in all the animals. Yet a part is put for the whole, because God by his angels works not only in man and other animals, but throughout creation; and because inanimate things have no motion in themselves, as God wished to instruct a rude and dull people, he sets before them the image of all things under that of animals. With reference, then, to living creatures, man holds the first place, because he was formed after the image of God, and the lion reigns over the wild-beasts, but the ox, because he is most useful, represents all domestic animals, or, as they are usually called, tame animals. Since the eagle is a royal bird, all birds are comprehended under this word; and here I am not fabricating allegories, but only explaining the literal sense; for it seems to me sufficiently plain, that God signifies angelic inspiration by the four cherubim, and extends it to the four regions of the earth. Now:, as it is equally clear that no creature moves by itself, but that all motions are by the secret, instinct of God, therefore each cherub has four heads, as if it were said that angels administer God’s empire not in one part of the world only, but everywhere; and next, that all creatures are so impelled as if they were joined together with angels themselves. The Prophet then ascribes four heads to each, because if we can trust our eyes when observing the manner in which God governs the world, that angelic virtue will appear in every motion: it is then, in fact, just as if angels had the heads of all animals: that is, comprehended within themselves openly and conspicuously all elements and all parts of the world; — thus much concerning the four heads.
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As to the four wheels, I do not doubt their signifying those changes which we commonly call revolutions: for we see the world continually changing and putting on, as it were, new faces, each being represented by a fresh revolution of the wheel, effected by either its own or by some external impulse. Since, then, there exists no fixed condition of the world, but continual changes are discerned, the Prophet joins the wheels to the angels, as if he would assert that no changes occur by chance, but depend upon some agency, viz., that of angels; not that they move things by their inherent power, but because they are, as we have said, God’s hands. And because these changes are really contortions, the Prophet says, I saw wheel within wheel; for the course of things is not continuous, but when God begins to do anything, he seems, as we shall again perceive, to recede: then many things mutually concur, whence the Stoics fancied that fate arose from what they called a connection of causes. But God here teaches his people far otherwise, viz., that the changes of the world are so connected together, that all motion depends upon the angels, whom he guides according to his will. Hence the wheels are said to be full of eyes. I think that God opposed this form of the wheels to the foolish opinion of men, because men fancy Fortune blind, and that all things roll on in a kind of turbulent confusion. God, then, when he compares the changes which happen in the world to wheels, calls them “full of eyes,” to show that nothing is done with rashness or through the blind impulse of fortune. This imagination surely arises from our blindness: we are blind in the midst of light, and therefore when God works, we think that he turns all things upside down; and because we dare not utter such gross blasphemy against him, we say that Fortune acts without consideration, but in the meantime we transfer the empire of God to Fortune itself. Seneca tells a story of a jester belonging to his wife’s father, who, when he lost the use of his eyes through old age, exclaimed that he had done nothing to deserve being cast into darkness — for he thought that the sun no longer gave light to the world; but the blindness was in himself. This is our condition: we are blind, as I have already said, and yet we wish to throw the cause of our blindness upon God himself; and because we do not dare openly to bring a charge against him, we impose upon him the name of fortune; and for this reason the Prophet says the wheels have eyes.
We now understand the scope of the vision, and we must next approach its several parts. After he has said, a wind sprung up from the north, and a great cloud, he adds, there was also a fire folding round itself Moses, in the ninth chapter of Exodus, (Exodus 9:24,) uses the same word when he speaks of the storm which he caused in Egypt. There was fire en-folded or entwined, and the splendor of fire. Some shrewdly expound this splendor of the fire, as if God’s judgments were not obscure, but exposed to the eyes of all. I cannot agree in this meaning, nor do I think it correct. Here the majesty of God is described to us according to the usual scriptural method. He says, the fire was splendid in its circuit, and then there was as it were the appearance of “Hasmal” in the midst of the fire Many think Hasreal to be an angel or an unknown phantom, but, in my opinion, without reason, for Hasmal seems to me a color. Jerome, following the Greek, uses the word electrum, but surprises me by saying that it is more precious than gold or silver; for electrum is composed of gold, with a fifth part of it silver, hence, as it does not; exceed them both in value, Jerome was mistaken. But whether it was electrum or any remarkable color, it so clearly portrayed to the Prophet the majesty of God, that he ought to be wrapt in admiration, although the vision was not offered for his sake personally, but, as I have said before, for the Church at large. The color differed from that of fire, that the Prophet might understand that the fire was heavenly, and, as a symbol of God’s glory, had a form unlike that of common fire. Now follows:
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv4, 5, 9, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 24 By this diversity of words he signifieth the fearful…
By this diversity of words he signifieth the fearful judgment of God and the great afflictions that should come upon Jerusalem.
Or, pale fellow.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv4–25 Eze 1:4 And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind…
Eze 1:4 And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness [was] about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire.
Ver. 4. And I looked, and, behold.] In this ensuing mysterious vision of a whirlwind, four cherubims, four wheels, a throne upon the firmament, formidabilis Dei forma proponitur, is set forth "the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord," as it is expounded, Eze 1:28, that hereby the people’s arrogance might be the better subdued, the prophet’s doctrine more reverently received, and the prophet confirmed in his calling. 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 at all adventures, or by haphazard, but are effected by God, though all things may seem to run upon wheels, and to happen as it fortuneth. At the day of judgment, at utmost, men shall see a harmony in this discord of things, and providence shall then be unriddled. Meanwhile, God often wrappeth himself in a cloud, and will not be 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.
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A whirlwind came out of the north,] i.e., Nebuchadnezzar with his forces. See Jer 1:13-15, Fitly compared to a whirlwind for suddenness, swiftness, irresistibleness. A Lapide telleth of whirlwinds in Italy which have taken away stabula cum equis, stables with horses; carried them up into the air, and dashed them against the mountains, {see Hab 1:6-7; Hab 1:9-10} and consider that those Chaldeans were of God’s sending.
A great cloud.] Nebuchadnezzar’s army, {Jer 4:13} that peditum equitumque nubes {a} {2Ki 25:1 Eze 39:9} that stormed Jerusalem.
And a fire infolding itself.] Heb., That receiveth itself within itself, as in a house on fire. Understand it of Nebuchadnezzar’s wrath against Jerusalem, much hotter than that furnace of his seven times more than ordinarily heated, {Dan 3:19} or rather of God’s wrath in using Nebuchadnezzar to set all on a light fire.
And a brightness was about it.] The glory of divine presence, shining in the punishment of evildoers.
Out of the midst thereof as of the colonr of amber.] Not of an angel called Hasmal, as Lyra, after some Rabbis, will have it. Jarchi confesseth he knoweth not what the word Hasmal meaneth. This prophet only hath it here, and Eze 1:27; Eze 8:2, as Daniel also hath some words proper to himself.
{a} Liv.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv4–25 I looked; I did very diligently survey the things…
I looked; I did very diligently survey the things that were represented to me in the vision. Behold: this calls us to consider what he had seen and represented to us.
A whirlwind; a mighty, stormy, and turbulent wind, a wind that bears away or bears down all before it; this denotes the indignation and judgments of God, a quick, impetuous, and irresistible vengeance. Most grievous judgments, represented as here, so 1Ki 19:11; Job 38:1; Psa 104:4.
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Came; came as if it knew its way, and, notwithstanding its impetuousness and irregularities, yet held its direct course.
Out of the north; from Babylon, which in Scripture geography is laid northward from Judea, and the prophet, though now in Babylon, does speak of the Jews as if they were in Jerusalem; against which this cloud, on which an angry God did ride, hastening vengeance on them, which they should be as little able to divert or withstand as to stop the course of the clouds, or their breaking upon us: it was the army of the Chaldeans, made up of multitudes of people, (as the cloud is made by the concourse of multitudes of exhalations and vapours,) Jer 4:13.
A fire infolding itself; burning in a dreadful manner, very fierce, fed by fuel within itself, breaking out and flashing with terror, though it had seemed to rebate, and encircling all things near it, and threatening to devour all. Such was the anger of God against this sinful nation.
And a brightness was about it; though thus terrible, yet round about it was not smoke and darkness, but a clear light or splendour. The majesty, holiness, justice of God appeared to the prophet, and might be seen by the suffering Jews, to humble them, that they might seek him.
Out of the midst thereof; either of the whirlwind or cloud, or the fire rather, as in the end of the verse.
As the colour; Heb. as the eye, the aspect, or appearance.
Amber; the Hebrew word is variously interpreted, and it is lost labour to search the rabbins here. Amber is either natural, which if in the fire loseth its brightness; or artificial, made of fine gold and fine brass mixed, which will brighten in the fire, and of equal value with gold, (as the DD. Bothart observes,) of which Josephus saith Solomon did make the sea of brass, and the sacred vessels; somewhat like the Corinthian brass, known now only by its name, exceeding splendid, and very hard, the one speaking the glorious majesty to be reverenced, the other speaking the invincible power of God to be feared; both advising this people and us to repent and amend, and return and meet him.
Out of the midst of the fire; which the prophet saw, and in which the Jews were to be melted or consumed.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv4, 15 The visions of God which Ezekiel here saw were…
The visions of God which Ezekiel here saw were very glorious, and had more particulars than those which other prophets saw. It is the scope and intention of these vision, 1. To possess the prophet's mind with very great, and high, and honourable thoughts of that God by whom he was commissioned and for whom he was employed. It is the likeness of the glory of the Lord that he sees (Eze 1:28), and hence he may infer that it is his honour to serve him, for he is one whom angels serve. He may serve him with safety, for he has power sufficient to bear him out in his work. It is at his peril to draw back from his service, for he has power to pursue him, as he did Jonah. So great a God as this must be served with reverence and godly fear; and with assurance may Ezekiel foretel what this God will do, for he is able to make his words good. 2. To strike a terror upon the sinners who remained in Zion, and those who had already come to Babylon, who were secure, and bade defiance to the threatenings of Jerusalem's ruin, as we have found in Jeremiah's prophecy, and shall find in this, many did. "Let those who said, We shall have peace though we go on, know that our God is a consuming fire, whom they cannot stand before." That this vision had a reference to the destruction of Jerusalem seems plain from Jer 43:3, where he says that it was the vision which he saw when he came to destroy the city, that is, to prophesy the destruction of it. 3. To speak comfort to those that feared God, and trembled at his word, and humbled themselves under his mighty hand. "Let them know that, though they are captives in Babylon, yet they have God nigh unto them; though they have not the place of the sanctuary to be their glorious high throne, they have the God of the sanctuary." Dr. Lightfoot observes, "Now that the church is to be planted for a long time in another country, the Lord shows a glory in the midst of them, as he had done at their first constituting into a church in the wilderness; and out of a cloud and fire, as he had done there, he showed himself; and from between living creatures, as from between the cherubim, he gives his oracles." This put an honour upon them, by which they might value themselves when the Chaldeans insulted over them, and this might encourage their hopes of deliverance in due time.
Now, to answer these ends, we have in these verses the first part of the vision, which represents God as attended and served by an innumerable company of angels, who are all his messengers, his ministers, doing his commandments and hearkening to the voice of his word. This denotes his grandeur, as it magnifies an earthly prince to have a splendid retinue and numerous armies at his command, which engages his allies to trust him and his enemies to fear him.
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I. The introduction to this vision of the angels is very magnificent and awakening, Eze 1:4. The prophet, observing the heavens to open, looked, looked up (as it was time), to see what discoveries God would make to him. Note, When the heavens are opened it concerns us to have our eyes open. To clear the way, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, which would drive away the interposing mists of this lower region. Fair weather comes out of the north, and thence the wind comes that drives away rain. God can by a whirlwind clear the sky and air, and produce that serenity of mind which is necessary to our communion with Heaven. Yet this whirlwind was attended with a great cloud. When we think that the clouds which arise from this earth are dispelled and we can see beyond them, yet still there is a cloud which heavenly things are wrapped in, a cloud from above, so that we cannot order our speech concerning them by reason of darkness. Christ here descended, as he ascended, in a cloud. Some by this whirlwind and cloud understand the Chaldean army coming out of the north against the land of Judah, bearing down all before them as a tempest; and so it agrees with that which was signified by one of the first of Jeremiah's visions (Jer 1:14, Out of the north an evil shall break forth); but I take it here as an introduction rather to the vision than to the sermons. This whirlwind came to Ezekiel (as that to Elijah, Kg1 19:11), to prepare the way of the Lord, and to demand attention. He that has eyes, that has ears, let him see, let him hear.
II. The vision itself. A great cloud was the vehicle of this vision, in which it was conveyed to the prophet; for God's pavilion in which he rests, his chariot in which he rides, is darkness and thick clouds, Psa 18:11; Psa 104:3. Thus he holds back the face of his throne, lest its dazzling light and lustre should overpower us, by spreading a cloud upon it. Now,
1. The cloud is accompanied with a fire, as upon Mount Sinai, where God resided in a thick cloud; but the sight of his glory was like a devouring fire (Exo 24:16, Exo 24:17), and his first appearance to Moses was in a flame of fire in the bush; for our God is a consuming fire. This was a fire enfolding itself, a globe, or orb, or wheel of fire. God being his own cause, his own rule, and his own end, if he be as a fire, he is as a fire enfolding itself, or (as some read it) kindled by itself. The fire of God's glory shines forth, but it quickly enfolds itself; for he lets us know but part of his ways; the fire of God's wrath breaks forth, but it also quickly enfolds itself, for the divine patience suffers not all his wrath to be stirred up. If it were not a fire thus enfolding itself, O Lord! who shall stand?
2. The fire is surrounded with a glory: A brightness was about it, in which it enfolded itself, yet it made some discovery of itself. Though we cannot see into the fire, cannot by searching find out God to perfection, yet we see the brightness that is round about it, the reflection of this fire from the thick cloud. Moses might see God's back parts, but not his face. We have some light concerning the nature of God, from the brightness which encompasses it, though we have not an insight into it, by reason of the cloud spread upon it. Nothing is more easy than to determine that God is, nothing more difficult than to describe what he is. When God displays his wrath as fire, yet there is a brightness about it; for his holiness and justice appear very illustrious in the punishment of sin and sinners: even about the devouring fire there is a brightness, which glorified saints will for ever admire.
3. Out of this fire there shines the colour of amber. We are not told who or what it was that had this colour of amber, and therefore I take it to be the whole frame of the following vision, which came into Ezekiel's view out of the midst of the fire and brightness; and the first thing he took notice of before he viewed the particulars was that it was of the colour of amber, or the eye of amber; that is, it looked as amber does to the eye, of a bright flaming fiery colour, the colour of a burning coal; so some think it should be read. The living creatures which he saw coming out of the midst of the fire were seraphim - burners; for he maketh his angels spirits, his ministers a flaming fire.
4. That which comes out of the fire, of a fiery amber colour, when it comes to be distinctly viewed, is the likeness of four living creatures; not the living creatures themselves (angels are spirits, and cannot be seen), but the likeness of them, such a hieroglyphic, or representation, as God saw fit to make use of for the leading of the prophet, and us with him, into some acquaintance with the world of angels (a matter purely of divine revelation), so far as is requisite to possess us with an awful sense of the greatness of that God who has angels for his attendants, and the goodness of that God who has appointed them to be attendants on his people. The likeness of these living creatures came out of the midst of the fire; for angels derive their being and power from God; they are in themselves, and to us, what he is pleased to make them; their glory is a ray of his. The prophet himself explains this vision (Eze 10:20): I knew that the living creatures were the cherubim, which is one of the names by which the angels are known in scripture. To Daniel was made known their number, ten thousand times ten thousand, Dan 7:10. But, though they are many, yet they are one, and that is made known to Ezekiel here; they are one in nature and operation, as an army, consisting of thousands, is yet called a body of men. We have here an account of,
(1.) Their nature. They are living creatures; they are the creatures of God, the work of his hands; their being is derived; they have not life in and of themselves, but receive it from him who is the fountain of life. As much as the living creatures of this lower world excel the vegetables that are the ornaments of earth, so much do the angels, the living creatures of the upper world, excel the sun, moon, and stars, the ornaments of the heavens. The sun (say some) is a flame of fire enfolding itself, but it is not a living creature, as angels, those flames of fire, are. Angels are living creatures, living beings, emphatically so. Men on earth are dying creatures, dying daily (in the midst of life we are in death), but angels in heaven are living creatures; they live indeed, live to good purpose; and, when saints come to be equal unto the angels, they shall not die any more, Luk 20:36.
(2.) Their number. They are four; so they appear here, though they are innumerable; not as if these were four particular angels set up above the rest, as some have fondly imagined, Michael and Gabriel, Raphael and Uriel, but for the sake of the four faces they put on, and to intimate their being sent forth towards the four winds of heaven, Mat 24:31. Zechariah saw them as four chariots going forth east, west, north, and south, Zac 6:1. God has messengers to send every way; for his kingdom is universal, and reaches to all parts of the world.
(3.) Their qualifications, by which they are fitted for the service of their Maker and Master. These are set forth figuratively and by similitude, as is proper in visions, which are parables to the eye. Their description here is such, and so expressed, that I think it is not possible by it to form an exact idea of them in our fancies, or with the pencil, for that would be a temptation to worship them; but the several instances of their fitness for the work they are employed in are intended in the several parts of this description. Note, It is the greatest honour of God's creatures to be in a capacity of answering the end of their creation; and the more ready we are to every good work the nearer we approach to the dignity of angels. These living creatures are described here, [1.] By their general appearance: They had the likeness of a man; they appeared, for the main, in a human shape, First, To signify that these living creatures are reasonable creatures, intelligent beings, who have the spirit of a man which is the candle of the Lord. Secondly, To put an honour upon the nature of man, who is made lower, yet but a little lower, than the angels, in the very next rank of beings below them. When the invisible intelligences of the upper world would make themselves visible, it is in the likeness of man. Thirdly, To intimate that their delights are with the sons of men, as their Master's are (Pro 8:31), that they do service to men, and men may have spiritual communion with them by faith, hope, and holy love. Fourthly, The angels of God appear in the likeness of man because in the fulness of time the Son of God was not only to appear in that likeness, but to assume that nature; they therefore show this love to it. [2.] By their faces: Every one had four faces, looking four several ways. In St. John's vision, which has a near affinity with this, each of the four living creatures has one of these faces here mentioned (Rev 4:7); here each of them has all four, to intimate that they have all the same qualifications for service; though, perhaps, among the angels of heaven, as among the angels of the churches, some excel in one gift and others in another, but all for the common service. Let us contemplate their faces till we be in some measure changed into the same image, that we may do the will of God as the angels do it in heaven. They all four had the face of a man (for in that likeness they appeared, Eze 1:5), but, besides that, they had the face of a lion, an ox, and an eagle, each masterly in its kind, the lion among wild beasts, the ox among tame ones, and the eagle among fowls, Eze 1:10. Does God make use of them for the executing of judgments upon his enemies? They are fierce and strong as the lion and the eagle in tearing their prey. Does he make use of them for the good of his people? They are as oxen strong for labour and inclined to serve. And in both they have the understanding of a man. The scattered perfections of the living creatures on earth meet in the angels of heaven. They have the likeness of man; but, because there are some things in which man is excelled even by the inferior creatures, they are therefore compared to some of them. They have the understanding of a man, and such as far exceeds it; they also resemble man in tenderness and humanity. But, First, A lion excels man in strength and boldness, and is much more formidable; therefore the angels, who in this resemble them, put on the face of a lion. Secondly, An ox excels man in diligence, and patience, and painstaking, and an unwearied discharge of the work he has to do; therefore the angels, who are constantly employed in the service of God and the church, put on the face of an ox. Thirdly, An eagle excels man in quickness and piercingness of sight, and in soaring high; and therefore the angels, who seek things above, and see far into divine mysteries, put on the face of a flying eagle. [3.] By their wings: Every one had four wings, Eze 1:6. In the vision Isaiah had of them they appeared with six, now with four; for they appeared above the throne, and had occasion for two to cover their faces with. The angels are fitted with wings to fly swiftly on God's errands; whatever business God sends them upon they lose no time. Faith and hope are the soul's wings, upon which it soars upward; pious and devout affections are its wings on which it is carried forward with vigour and alacrity. The prophet observes here, concerning their wings, First, That they were joined one to another, Eze 1:9 and again Eze 1:11. They did not make use of their wings for fighting, as some birds do; there is no contest among the angels. God makes peace, perfect peace, in his high places. But their wings were joined, in token of their perfect unity and unanimity and the universal agreement there is among them. Secondly, That they were stretched upward, extended, and ready for use, not folded up, or flagging. Let an angel receive the least intimation of the divine will, and he has nothing to seek, but is upon the wings immediately; while our poor dull souls are like the ostrich, that with much difficulty lifts up herself on high. Thirdly, That two of their wings were made use of in covering their bodies, the spiritual bodies they assumed. The clothes that cover us are our hindrance in work; angels need no other covering than their own wings, which are their furtherance. They cover their bodies from us, so forbidding us needless enquiries concerning them. Ask not after them, for they are wonderful, Jdg 13:18. They cover them before God, so directing us, when we approach to God, to see to it that we be so clothed with Christ's righteousness that the shame of our nakedness may not appear. [4.] By their feet, including their legs and thighs: They were straight feet (Eze 1:7); they stood straight, and firm, and steady; no burden of service could make their legs to bend under them. The spouse makes this part of the description of her beloved, that his legs were as pillars of marble set upon sockets of fine gold (Sol 5:15); such are the angels' legs. The sole of their feet was like that of a calf's foot, which divides the hoof and is therefore clean: as it were the sole of a round foot (as the Chaldee words it); they were ready for motion any way. Their feet were winged (so the Septuagint); they went so swiftly that it was as if they flew. And their very feet sparkled like the colour of burnished brass; not only the faces, but the very feet, of those are beautiful whom God sends on his errands (Isa 52:7); every step the angels take is glorious. In the vision John had of Christ it is said, His feet were like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace, Rev 1:15. [5.] By their hands (Eze 1:8): They had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides, an arm and a hand under every wing. They had not only wings for motion, but hands for action. Many are quick who are not active; they hurry about a great deal, but do nothing to purpose, bring nothing to pass; they have wings, but no hands: whereas God's servants, the angels, not only go when he sends them and come when he calls them, but do what he bids them. They are the hands of a man, which are wonderfully made and fitted for service, which are guided by reason and understanding; for what angles do they do intelligently and with judgment. They have calves' feet; this denotes the swiftness of their motion (the cedars of Lebanon are said to skip like a calf, Psa 29:6); but they have a man's hand, which denotes the niceness and exactness of their performances, as the heavens are said to be the work of God's fingers. Their hands were under their wings, which concealed them, as they did the rest of their bodies. Note, The agency of angels is a secret thing and their work is carried on in an invisible way. In working for God, though we must not, with the sluggard, hide our hand in our bosom, yet we must, with the humble, not let our left hand know what our right hand doeth. We may observe that where these wings were their hands were under their wings; wherever their wings carried them they carried hands along with them, to be still doing something suitable something that the duty of the place requires.
(4.) Their motions. The living creatures are moving. Angels are active beings; it is not their happiness to sit still and do nothing, but to be always well employed; and we must reckon ourselves then best when we are doing good, doing it as the angels do it, or whom it is here observed, [1.] That whatever service they went about they went every one straight forward (Eze 1:9, Eze 1:12), which intimates, First, That they sincerely aimed at the glory of God, and had a single eye to that, in all they did. Their going straight forward supposes that they looked straight forward, and never had any sinister intentions in what they did. And, if thus our eye be single, our whole body will be full of light. The singleness of the eye is the sincerity of the heart. Secondly, That they were intent upon the service they were employed in, and did it with a close application of mind. They went forward with their work; for what their hand found to do they did with all their might and did not loiter in it. Thirdly, That they were unanimous in it: They went straight forward, every one about his own work; they did not thwart or jostle one another, did not stand in one another's light, in one another's way. Fourthly, That they perfectly understood their business, and were thoroughly apprised of it, so that they needed not to stand still, to pause of hesitate, but pursue their work with readiness, as those that knew what they had to do and how to do it. Fifthly, They were steady and constant in their work. They did not fluctuate, did not tire, did not vary, but were of a piece with themselves. They moved in a direct line, and so went the nearest way to work in all they did and lost no time. When we go straight we go forward; when we serve God with one heart we rid ground, we rid work. [2.] They turned not when they went, Eze 1:9, Eze 1:12. First, They made no blunders or mistakes, which would give them occasion to turn back to rectify them; their work needed no correction, and therefore needed not to be gone over again. Secondly, They minded no diversions; as they turned not back, so they turned not aside, to trifle with any thing that was foreign to their business. [3.] They went whither the Spirit was to go (Eze 1:12), either, First, Whither their own spirit was disposed to go; thither they went, having no bodies, as we have, to clog or hinder them. It is our infelicity and daily burden that, when the spirit if willing, yet the flesh is weak and cannot keep pace with it, so that the good which we would do we do it not; but angels and glorified saints labour under no such impotency; whatever they incline or intend to do they do it, and never come short of it. Or, rather, Secondly, Whithersoever the Spirit of God would have them go, thither they went. Though they had so much wisdom of their own, yet in all their motions and actions they subjected themselves to the guidance and government of the divine will. Whithersoever the divine Providence was to go they went, to serve its purposes and to execute its orders. The Spirit of God (says Mr. Greenhill) is the great agent that sets angels to work, and it is their honour that they are led, they are easily led, by the Spirit. See how tractable and obsequious these noble creatures are. Whithersoever the Spirit is to go they go immediately, with all possible alacrity. Note, Those that walk after the Spirit do the will of God as the angels do it. [4.] They ran and returned like a flash of lightning, Eze 1:14. This intimates, First, That they made haste; they were quick in their motions, as quick as lightning. Whatever business they went about they despatched it immediately, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Happy they that have no bodies to retard their motion in holy exercises. And happy shall we be when we come to have spiritual bodies for spiritual work. Satan falls like lightning into his own ruin, Luk 10:18. Angels fly like lightning in their Master's work. The angel Gabriel flew swiftly. Secondly, That they made haste back: They ran and returned; ran to do their work and execute their orders, and then returned to give an account of what they had done and receive new instructions, that they might be always doing. They ran into the lower world, to do what was to be done there; but, when they had done it, they returned like flash of lightning to the upper world again, to the beatific vision of their God, which they could not with any patience be longer from than their service did require. Thus we should be in the affairs of this world as out of our element. Though we run into them, we must not repose in them, but our souls must quickly return like lightning to God their rest and centre.
5. We have an account of the light by which the prophet saw these living creatures, or the looking-glass in which he saw them, Eze 1:13. (1.) He saw them by their own light, for their appearance was like burning coals of fire; they are seraphim-burners, denoting the ardour of their love to God, their fervent zeal in his service, their splendour and brightness, and their terror against God's enemies. When God employs them to fight his battles they are as coals of fire (Psa 18:12) to devour the adversaries, as lightnings shot out to discomfit them. (2.) He saw them by the light of some lamps, which went up and down among them, the shining whereof was very bright. Satan's works are works of darkness; he is the ruler of the darkness of this world. But the angels of light are in the light, and, though they conceal their working, they show their work, for it will bear the light. But we see them and their works only by candle-light, but the dim light of lamps that go up and down among them; when the day breaks, and the shadows flee away, we shall see them clearly. Some make the appearance of these burning coals, and of the lightning that issues out of the fire, to signify the wrath of God, and his judgments, that were now to be executed upon Judah and Jerusalem for their sins, in which angels were to be employed; and accordingly we find afterwards coals of fire scattered upon the city to consume it, which were fetched from between the cherubim, Eze 10:2. But by the appearance of the lamps then we may understand the light of comfort which shone forth to the people of God in the darkness of this present trouble. If the ministry of the angels is as a consuming fire to God's enemies, it is as a rejoicing light to his own children. To the one this fire is bright, it is very reviving and refreshing; to the other, out of the fire comes fresh lightning to destroy them. Note, Good angels are our friends, or enemies, according as God is.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv4–25 And I looked,.... Being under the influence of the…
And I looked,.... Being under the influence of the Spirit and power of God:
and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north; which some understand of Nebuchadnezzar and his army coming from Babylon, which lay north of Judea: see Jer 1:14; but it seems to me to be, with what follows, only an apparatus to the following vision: and is designed to awaken the mind of the prophet, and to fix his attention to what should proceed from hence, and be seen by him; just as the Lord speared in and answered Job out of, the whirlwind, Job 38:1;
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a great cloud; as is usual when there is much thunder and lightning; though some understand this also of Nebuchadnezzar's army, which came in great human, swiftly and powerfully, as a cloud:
and a fire infolding itself: in the cloud; rolling within it, when it burst out in thunder and lightning. The Targum renders it, "fire inflamed", the same phrase is used of the storm of thunder, lightning, and hail, in Exo 9:24. Some understand this of the wrath of the Babylonian monarch; or of the wrath of God by him; or of the sins of men, the cause thereof:
and a brightness was about it; that is, the cloud. This brightness was an emblem of the glory of the divine Being; who was now present, an enlightened the mind of the prophet to see the following things, and which all proceeded from him:
and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber out of the midst of the fire; that is, out of the midst of the fire, and out of the midst of the brightness about it, there was something which was as "the colour of amber"; or, "like the chasmal" (f); which, the Jews (g) say, is the name of an angel. It is asked (h), what is "chasmal?" R. Judah says, , "fiery animals speaking": who, when God speaks, are silent; and when he does not speak, they speak; but Christ is meant; for the appearance of the man upon the throne is said to be as the colour of "chasmal", Eze 1:27. The word, read the contrary way, is the Messiah, or the anointed, or to be anointed. Jarchi thinks it is the name of a colour, nearest to the colour of fire, Junius and Tremellius render it, "a most lively colour"; and perhaps may mean the colour of a burning coal; and Buxtorf translates it, "a coal exceedingly fired"; a clear, burning, red-hot coal; which may denote the pure light of Christ, who is the brightness of his Father's glory; his flaming love for his people; his burning zeal for the glory of God, and the good of his church; and his fiery indignation against his enemies. We render the word amber, as do others; by which must be meant, not that which is the juice of certain trees, which is hardened by the air, and is of a yellowish colour; nor that liquid substance which comes from sea shores and rocks, and, being hardened in the same way, is of the colour of wax; but a sort of mixed metal, compounded of gold and silver; the fifth part of it is silver, as Pliny (i) says, and four parts gold; though Bochart is of opinion that the "qurichalcum", a metal made of gold and brass, is meant; which is the most fine brass; to which the feet of Christ are compared in Rev 1:15; and so this "chasmal" may denote the two natures in Christ; the preciousness of his person; his brightness and glory; and his great strength and power. R. Abendana (k) conjectures, that the colour of "chasmal" means the colour of some precious stone, as the colour of "tarshish", or "beryl", Eze 1:16; and so he that sat upon the throne, in Rev 4:3; was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone.
(f) "tanquam species hasmal, vel chasmal", Calvin, Tigerius version, Starckius; "angeli", Munster; "flammae crepitantis", Montanus; "prunarum ardentissimarum", Polanus; "purissimi aeris", Piscator; Sept. "electri", V. L. Pagninus. (g) Baal Aruch, Philip. Aquinas. Vid. Jarchi & Kimchi ib loc. (h) T. Bab. Chagiga, fol. 13. 1. 2. (i) Nat. Hist. l. 33. c. 4. (k) Not. in Miclol Yophi in loc.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 Looked - I very diligently surveyed the things that…
Looked - I very diligently surveyed the things that were represented to me in the vision. Whirlwind - This denotes the indignation and judgments of God; a quick, impetuous and irresistible vengeance. North - From Babylon, which lay northward from Judea; and the prophet, tho' now in Babylon, speaks of the Jews, as if they were in Jerusalem. A fire - An orb or wheel of fire: God being his own cause, his own rule, and his own end. Brightness - Yet round about it was not smoak and darkness, but a clear light. The midst - Of the fire.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24 Verse 4. A whirlwind came out of the north]…
Verse 4. A whirlwind came out of the north] Nebuchadnezzar, whose land, Babylonia, lay north of Judea. Chaldea is thus frequently denominated by Jeremiah.
A great cloud, and a fire infolding itself] A mass of fire concentrated in a vast cloud, that the flames might be more distinctly observable, the fire never escaping from the cloud, but issuing, and then returning in upon itself. It was in a state of powerful agitation; but always involving itself, or returning back to the centre whence it appeared to issue.
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A brightness was about it] A fine tinge of light surrounded the cloud, in order to make its limits the more discernible; beyond which verge the turmoiling fire did not proceed.
The colour of amber] This was in the centre of the cloud; and this amber-coloured substance was the centre of the labouring flame. The word ηλεκτρον, which we translate amber, was used to signify a compound metal, very bright, made of gold and brass.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv4, 5, 7, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 22 Eze 1:4. I looked — I very diligently surveyed…
Eze 1:4. I looked — I very diligently surveyed the things which were represented to me in the vision, and behold a whirlwind — Denoting the indignation and judgments of God; a quick, impetuous, and irresistible vengeance: see the margin. It is described here as coming out of the north, because, as has been before observed, the Chaldean army, by which the judgment was to be executed, would, for convenience of forage and water, march first northward, and then turn about toward Judea, so that they did, strictly speaking, come into it from the north. A great cloud — It is usual to express any great trouble by a great, dark cloud hanging over people’s heads. And here, in particular, it seems to signify the calamity coming on Judea by the Chaldean invasion. And a fire infolding itself — A fire appearing in folds, like one wreath within another. This was indicative of God’s avenging justice, for God is described in Scripture as a consuming fire, when he comes to execute his judgments upon sinners: see Deu 4:24. And a brightness was about it — Clear discoveries of God’s holiness and justice, which, it is thus signified, would be made manifest in what was about to be done. Out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber — Rather, as the appearance of amber. “There was a bright pellucid appearance.” — Newcome. But Bochart shows that ηλεκτρον, the word used in the LXX., signifies not only amber and crystal, but a metal compounded of gold and silver, or of gold and brass; and thinks that the last, called χαλκολιβανον, Rev 1:15, best suits this place. This seems to have been a symbolical representation of the Jewish people; for as this compound metal was not consumed in the fire, so the Jews were not to be wholly destroyed by the grievous calamities they were to be involved in, but to come out purer from the furnace of affliction, as gold and brass out of the fire.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 17, 18, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25 Out of the north - From this quarter the…
Out of the north - From this quarter the Assyrian conquerors came upon the holy land. The vision, though seen in Chaldaea, had reference to Jerusalem, and the seer is to contemplate judgment as it is coming upon the holy land. Others consider the words expressive of the special seat of the power of Yahweh. The high mountain range of Lebanon that closed in the holy land on the north naturally connected to the inhabitants of that country the northern region with the idea of height reaching to heaven, from which such a vision as this might be supposed to come.
Infolding itself - Forming a circle of light - flames moving round and round and following each other in rapid succession, to be as it were the framework of the glorious scene.
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Amber - The original word occurs only in Ezekiel. The Septuagint and the Vulgate have “electrum,” a substance composed by a mixture of silver and gold, which corresponds very well to the Hebrew word. The brightness, therefore, is that of shining metal, not of a transparent gum. Render it: “out of the midst thereof,” like Eze 1:7 burnished gold out of the midst of fire.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 22, 24 North, denoting the invasion of Judea by the Chaldeans,…
North, denoting the invasion of Judea by the Chaldeans, Isaias xiv. 31. (Sanctius) --- The Jews thought the following vision inexplicable, and deliberated about rejecting the book, when Ananias offered to answer every difficulty. They assigned him three hundred barrels of oil to light his lamp, while he performed the task. (Rabbins) --- This hyperbole shews their idea of its obscurity. (Calmet) --- Amber, (electri) a compound of four parts of gold and one of silver, (Pliny, [Natural History?] xxxiii. 4.) more precious than either. (St. Jerome) --- It may also mean orichalchum, or a mixture of gold and brass, (Bochart, anim. 2 b. vi. 16.) which was also preferred before gold alone, as it had the hardness of brass. (Lucret. Serv. in xii. Æneid.) -----alboque orichalcho
Circumdat loricam humeris.
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--- Two vessels are mentioned, probably of this composition, 1 Esdras viii. 27. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv4–25 whirlwind--emblematic of God's judgments (Jer 23:19; Jer 25:32).
whirlwind--emblematic of God's judgments (Jer 23:19; Jer 25:32).
out of the north--that is, from Chaldea, whose hostile forces would invade Judea from a northerly direction. The prophet conceives himself in the temple.
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fire infolding itself--laying hold on whatever surrounds it, drawing it to itself, and devouring it. Literally, "catching itself," that is, kindling itself [FAIRBAIRN]. The same Hebrew occurs in Exo 9:24, as to the "fire mingled with the hail."
brightness . . . about it--that is, about the "cloud."
out of the midst thereof--that is, out of the midst of the "fire."
colour of amber--rather, "the glancing brightness (literally, 'the eye', and so the glancing appearance) of polished brass. The Hebrew, chasmal, is from two roots, "smooth" and "brass" (compare Eze 1:7; Rev 1:15) [GESENIUS]. The Septuagint and Vulgate translate it, "electrum"; a brilliant metal compounded of gold and silver.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25 THE VISION, Eze_1:4-28.
THE VISION, Eze_1:4-28.
Here begins what Franz Delitzsch calls “the grandest of all biblical visions.” It came not on a festal day, but on the anniversary of the never-to-be-forgotten humiliation of the royal head of the nation. It came not to one of the priests in Jerusalem, but to a captive in the land of the Chaldeans. It was to the neediest and saddest that Jehovah revealed himself — as glorious on the Chebar as on the Jordan. No painter has ever succeeded in representing these visions of God; even Raphael failed in this. The details were so numerous and the changes so rapid that no human brush nor human pen — not even Ezekiel’s — could fully picture and define the glorious ever-changing image. As Cornill says, a little, shortsighted man might criticise the details of a great cathedral — this window might seem to him too narrow and the support of yonder beam too massive — but when looked at from a distance all the irregularities melt into a wonderful harmony of unity whose grandeur overcomes us, while within the sanctuary may be felt the stillness and power of the breath of God. It is the same with the visions of Ezekiel. The immense and minute details, worked out with such care and patience, may bewilder the beholder, but they are parts of a majestic and perfect whole (Der Prophet Ezechiel, pp. 281-283). Ezekiel struggled to tell that which was “unspeakable and full of glory.” His ears were filled continually with a noise of wings and wheels and spiritual thunders. His eyes were partially blinded by glories which even Moses was not able to bear. He was overpowered with shadows from a throne “formless with infinity.” He could not describe twice alike those ever-changing glories.
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The tremor of an inexpressive thought,
Too self-amazed to shape itself aloud,
O’erruns the awful curving of his lips.
One thing, however, stands out clear among these mysteries: the majesty of God and his supremacy over all things. There is a curious correspondence between the latest philosophic poetry and Ezekiel’s thought. The real nearness, the vital immanency, of God to all life was never more vividly expressed even by Emerson, than by this ancient poet and prophet-philosopher. Ezekiel does not, like Emerson, sink the world-soul into the world-all — he never falls into the bottomless pit of pantheism — but the sense of the Infinite fills every verse with its majestic presence.
Being above all beings! Mighty One!
Whom none can comprehend and none explore;
Who fill’st existence with thyself alone;
Embracing all; supporting, ruling o’er,
Being whom we call God, and know no more.
VISION OF GOD’S CHARIOT.
4. Out of the north — The region of storm, and also of divine mystery. The Hebrews looked to the north as the sacred quarter (Psa_48:2; Jer_1:13), as did also all other ancient peoples. (See Warren, Paradise Found; Oneil, Night of the Gods.) The oldest dated tomb on the earth, the Pyramid of Medum, opens to the north. Yet it may be that, as the highway from Palestine entered Tel-abib from the north, Ezekiel was praying toward the holy city when the vision came as the answer to his prayer.
Whirlwind… cloud — So God often reveals himself (Exo_19:16; Psa_77:18). The first sight of the coming of Jehovah, far in the distance, is like the coming of a tempest. God’s best revelations often follow after the storm. It is peculiarly appropriate that to this discouraged captive the vision of glory with the rainbow around it should come out of the clouds of wrath. This is the cloud of glory which had left the holy of holies and passed out to the Mount of Olives, abandoning Jerusalem and the temple to the hands of their enemies in order to protect the little band of true worshipers in a foreign land (chaps. 10, 11).
The sun and every vassal star,
All space beyond the soar of angel wings,
Wait on His word; and yet He stays His car
For every sigh a contrite suppliant brings. — Keble.
A fire infolding itself — Literally, taking hold of itself. As he looked at the coming storm he saw a bright light in the cloud — not a mild radiance, but like incessant lightning flashes. The whole cloud was illumined by these lightnings from its center until it looked like amber (flashing metal, LXX.).
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25 4. God appears in cloud and storm: clouds and…
4. God appears in cloud and storm: clouds and darkness are round about him, Exo_9:24; 1Ki_19:11; Job_38:1; Psa_50:3.
out of the north] In Psalms 29 the theophany also comes from the north, and passes southward to the desert. The idea of the prophet can hardly be that the “place” or abode of God, from which he now comes, is situated in the northern part of the earth, for he saw “the heavens opened” (Eze_1:1). In other places he refers to Eden, the garden of God (Eze_28:13, Eze_31:8-9) for which he appears also to use the name “mount of God” (ch. Eze_28:14; Eze_28:16), though without indicating any locality for it, but it would be very precarious to bring these passages into any connexion with the present one. When Jehovah leaves the city (ch. Eze_11:23) his glory passes out by the East gate and stands over the “mountain which is on the East side of the city,” the mount of Olives; and when he returns to the new temple he enters by the same east gate, which therefore is to remain for ever shut (Eze_43:2, Eze_44:2). In Isa_14:3 the king of Babylon resolves to seat himself in the mount of assembly, in the recesses of the north, above the stars of God; but whatever this passage means it has no reference to the God of Israel. On the other hand the idea that the theophany appears to come from the north because the north was the region from which the enemies of Israel, the instruments of God’s vengeance, were to advance, is altogether to be rejected. The theophany here is not a manifestation of God specially in the character of an avenger or judge; he does not appear to the prophet as inflamed with anger. The theophany no doubt expresses the prophet’s conception of God, but it is his conception of God as he is in himself and in his nature, not as he is in preparation for any signal act of judgment. This is conclusively shewn by the fact that the theophany here, and that when Jehovah appears for the destruction of Jerusalem (ch. 8–11), and when he again appears to enter the new Jerusalem and make his abode in the new temple (ch. 43) are all identical, according to the statement of the prophet: “and the appearance was like the vision which I saw when I (? he) came to destroy the city, and like the vision that I saw by the river Chebar” (Eze_43:3).
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a fire infolding itself] lit. taking hold of itself. The meaning appears to be that the fire incessantly gave out flames or flashes. The expression is suggested by the zigzag, chainlike flash of the thunderbolt.
brightness was about it], i.e. about the whole phenomenon of storm and cloud; though a great cloud it was illuminated all round by the continuous flashing of fire within it.
colour of amber] Perhaps look, glance (Heb. eye) of amber. The word rendered “amber” is of uncertain meaning. LXX. renders elektron, which probably was some very brilliant metal, usually supposed to be an amalgam of gold and silver.
out of the midst of the fire] The words seem an explanation of the preceding phrase “out of the midst thereof.” But this phrase more naturally refers to the whole phenomenon, as in Eze_1:5. The words are wanting in LXX. and may be a gloss. If genuine they might go along with amber: like amber out of the midst of fire, as Rev_1:15, “like fine brass burning in a furnace.” This is not quite natural, neither is it natural to take “fire” here in a general sense of the great light caused by the fire (Eze_1:13, ch. Eze_10:2; Eze_10:6). Probably the words are a marginal gloss referring the expression “out of the midst thereof” to the fire, while in fact it refers to the whole whirlwind and cloud. The prophet immediately proceeds to describe in detail the four living creatures, the wheels the firmament and throne. No one of these can be the thing compared to electrum, because each of them is compared to something else. It seems that the combined effect produced by these, the look of the whole manifestation within the tempestuous cloud, the chariot, living creatures and the like, was a splendour like that of electrum. When the prophet looked more narrowly the general splendour resolved itself into these individual things, living creatures, wheels and so on.
4–28. The theophany, or, vision of God
This is described first generally, as a whirlwind and great cloud coming from the North, with a luminous splendour around it, due to a fire sending out continuous flashes within it (Eze_1:4).
Secondly, more particularly that is described which appeared within the storm-cloud (Eze_1:5-28). This was the chariot of God, in which he rode, descending to the earth and moving from one place to another (cf. ch. 10). This chariot is represented as foursided. On each of the four sides was a living creature of human shape, with outstretched wings. Also on each of the four sides, beside each of the living creatures there was a wheel. The living creatures are not represented as having any platform or basement under them on which they stand; the wheels are usually said to be “beside” them, in ch. Eze_10:2 “under” them. The wheels are to be conceived as at right angles to each of the four sides of the chariot, presenting their rims to the four points of the compass.
Above the heads of the four living creatures, or over their wings when horizontally expanded, was a firmament of crystal. Above the firmament was the appearance of a throne. And upon the throne the appearance of one like fire, encircled with a glory which was like the rainbow in the day of rain.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25 (4) A whirlwind came out of the north.—The north…
(4) A whirlwind came out of the north.—The north is seen as the quarter from which the vision proceeded, not because the Babylonians conceived that there was the seat of Divine power (Isa_14:13-14), but because it was common with the prophets to represent the Divine judgments upon Judæa as coming from the north (see Jer_1:14-15; Jer_4:6; Jer_6:1), and it was from that direction that the Assyrian and the Chaldæan conquerors were accustomed to descend upon the Holy Land. The vision is actually seen in Chaldæa, but it has reference to Jerusalem, and is described as if viewed from that standpoint.
A great cloud.—As in the Divine manifestation on Sinai (Exo_19:9-16). The cloud serves at once as the groundwork for all the other details of the manifestation—a place in, and by means of which, all are located, and also as a hiding-place of the Divine majesty, so that all may be seen which human eye can bear, and that which it cannot bear may yet be known to be there, shrouded in the cloud. The transposition of a single letter from the end of one word in the Hebrew to the beginning of the next will change the reading to “a whirlwind out of the north brought on a great cloud.”
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A fire infolding itself.—More literally translated in the margin, catching itself. The idea intended to be conveyed is that of flames round and round the cloud, the flashes succeeding one another so rapidly that each seemed to lay hold on the one that had gone before; there were tongues of flame, where each one reached to another. The same word occurs in Exo_9:24, in connection with “fire,” and is there translated mingled. The vision thus far seems moulded on the natural appearance of a terrific thunderstorm seen at a distance, in which the great black cloud appears illuminated by the unceasing and coalescing flashes of lightning. So, with all its impressive darkness, “there was a brightness about it.”
As the colour of amber.—Colour is, literally, eye. The word rendered “amber” (chasmal) occurs only in this book (here, and Eze_1:27 and Eze_8:2), and is now generally recognised as meaning some form of bright metal, either glowing in its molten state, or as the “fine brass” of Eze_1:7 and Rev_1:15, burnished and glowing in the light of the “infolding flame.” There is therefore now superadded to the first appearance of the natural phenomenon, a glowing eye or centre to the cloud, shining out even from the midst of the fire.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv4–25 A whirlwind came out of the north. What, we…
A whirlwind came out of the north. What, we ask, was the meaning of this symbolism? in Jer_1:13, 14 a like symbol is explained as meaning that the judgments which Judah was to suffer were to come from the north, that is, from Chaldea, upon the prophet"s countrymen. Here the prophet is himself in Chaldea, and what he sees is the symbol, not or calamities, but of the Divine glory, and that explanation is, accordingly, inapplicable. Probably the leading thought here is that the Divine presence is no longer in the temple at Jerusalem, It may return for a time to execute judgment, (Eze_8:4 Eze_10:1, Eze_10:19, Eze_10:20) and may again depart, (Eze_11:23) but the abiding glory is elsewhere, and the temple is as Shitoh had been of old. (Psa_78:60) Ezekiel was looking on the visible symbol of what had been declared in unfigurative language by Jeremiah. (Jer_7:12, 14 26:6, 9) That the north should havebeen chosen rather than any other quarter of the heavens is perhaps connected
(1) with Job_37:22, where it appears as the region of "fair weather," the unclouded brightness of the "terrible majesty" of God;
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(2) with Isa_14:13, where "the sides of the north" are the symbols of the dwelling place of God. For the Jews this was probably associated with the thought of the mountain heights of Lebanon as rising up to heaven (Currey, on, Eze_1:4, in "Speaker"s Commentary or with the fact that the "north side" of Zion, (Psa_48:2) as the site of the temple, was the "dwelling place of the great King." Parallels present themselves in the Assyrian hymns that speak of the "feasts of the silver mountains, the heavenly courts" (as the Greeks spoke of Olympus), "where the gods dwell eternally" ("Records of the Past," 3:133), and this ideal mountain was for them, like the Meru of Indian legend, in the farthest north. So, in the legendary geography of Greece, the Hyperborei, or "people beyond the north," were a holy and blessed race, the chosen servants of Apollo (Herod., 4:32-36: Pindar, "Pyth.," 10:4; Aesch., "Choeph.," 373). Possibly the brilliant coruscations of an Aurora Borealis may have led men to think of it as they thought of the glory of the dawn or the brightness of the lightning, as a momentary revelation of the higher glory of the throne of God. (For the "whirlwind" as the accompaniment of a Divine revelation, 1Ki_19:11; Job_38:1; Act_2:2) A great cloud, etc. So far the signs of the approaching theophany were like those on Sinai (Exo_19:16, Exo_19:18) and Horeb. (1Ki_19:11) With a fire infolding itself; the Revised Version margin gives flashing continually. The Authorized Version suggests the thought of a globe of fire darting its rays through the surrounding darkness. The colour of amber; literally, the eye. The Hebrew word for "amber" (chashmal) occurs only here and in ver. 27 and ch. 8:2. It is almost absolutely certain that it does not mean what we know as "amber." The LXX and Vulgate give electrum, and this, in later Greek and Latin authors, has "amber" for one of its meanings. Primarily, however, it was used for a metallic substance of some kind, specifically for a compound four parts of gold and one of silver (Pithy, "Hist. Nat.," 23:4, s. 23). Some such compound is probably what we have to think of here, and so the description finds a parallel in Dan_10:6; Rev_1:15. This, in its ineffable brightness, is seen in the centre of the globe of fire. One may compare Dante"s vision of the Divine glory ("Paradise," 33:55).
Vers. 4-25. The glory of the Eternal.
This marvellous vision, which has correspondences with others to be found in Scripture, must be interpreted in the light of the prophet"s peculiar genius and imagination, and in the light of the canons and customs of ancient and Oriental art. To find significance in every detail would be to indulge an idle curiosity; to dismiss the figures as the product of an imagination dissociated from truth would be irrational and irreverent. It is plain that Ezekiel was possessed, and all but overwhelmed, by a conviction of the glorious attributes and universal sway of God. The imagery under which he conceived and represented the Divine presence and government is altogether different from either classical or modern art; but it would be a narrow pedantry which on this account would repudiate it as valueless or ineffective. In fact, it is opulent, varied, and impressive. Everything earthly must come short of setting forth Divine glory; yet much is communicated or suggested by this vision of the majesty of the Eternal which may aid us to apprehend God"s character, and reverently to study God"s kingly operations carried on throughout the universe.
I THE GLORY OF THE ETERNAL IS SEEN IN NATURAL FORCES. It was in these, as in a setting, that the more specific forms discerned by the prophet were enshrined. The stormy wind from the north, the great cloud with its flashing fire, the amber brightness gleaming about it, all these are manifestations of an unseen but mighty power, recognized by the spirit as Divine. This is certainly a stroke of the true artist, first to portray the material, the vehicle, and then to proceed to paint in the more defined symbolic figures. The modern doctrine of the correlation and convertibility of forces points us to the unity which is at the heart of all things, and convinces us that we are in a universe, a cosmos, which, if it is to be explained by any rational and spiritual power behind it, must be explained by a power which is undivided and single. Poets and prophets alike find scope for their imagination in connecting all the phenomena and the forces of nature with the creative Spirit conceived as revealed by their means.
II THE GLORY OF THE ETERNAL IS SEEN IN LIVING CREATURES. There is, of course, no intention to picture any actually existing animals under the imagery of the vers. 5-14. But we have a symbolic representation of life. Every observer is conscious that, in passing from mechanical and chemical forces to consider the manifold forms of life, he is climbing, so to speak, to a higher platform. Living beings, in all their wonderful and admirable variety of structure and of formation, are witnesses to the wisdom and the power of the Creator. Let Science tell us of the order and of the process of their appearing; the fact of their appearing, in whatever manner, is a welcome taken of the Divine interest in this earth and its population. If the poet delights to trace God"s splendour in "the light of setting suns," the physicist may with equal justice investigate in organic nature the handiwork of the All-wise. Late is the work of the living God, in whom all creatures "live, and move, and have their being." A lifeless planet would lack, not only the interest with which our earth must be regarded, but something of the evidence which tells us God is here, and is ever carrying out his glorious plans.
III THE GLORY OF THE ETERNAL IS SEEN IN HUMAN ATTRIBUTES. Each living one in the prophet"s vision possessed a fourfold aspect or countenance; the combination being intended to enrich our conceptions of the handiwork of God, and the witness of that handiwork to him. Interpretations differ; but it is not uncommon to recognize in the ox the sacrificial, in the lion the powerful and regal, in the eagle the aspiring, elements, added to the true humanity, and combining with it to complete the representation. The four Gospels have been generally regarded as exhibiting severally these four characteristics; and accordingly the symbol of Matthew is the man, of Mark the lion, of Luke the ox, of John the eagle.
IV THE GLORY OF THE ETERNAL IS SEEN ESPECIALLY IN INTELLIGENCE. The wheels had their rings or felloes "full of eyes round about." This is symbolical of understanding, because sight is the most intellectual of the senses, the eye being the medium of the greater part of our most valuable knowledge of the world without. Conscious intelligence can only arise through participation in the Divine nature; it is the subject, not the object, of knowledge. In an especial manner the intellect witnesses to the glory of God, for by it we have insight into the Divine reason. In the exercise of the prerogative of knowledge and judgment, in insight and intuition, we are putting forth powers which are in themselves among the most splendid and convincing testimonies to "the Father of lights.
V THE GLORY OF THE ETERNAL IS SEEN ESPECIALLY IN UTTERANCE. The prophet in his vision heard the noise of the wings of the living ones, and the voice above the firmament appealing to the sense, not of sight, but of hearing. It is perhaps not fanciful to discern here a conscious, voluntary witness to God borne by his creation, and especially by those endowed with the human prerogative of speech, as the utterance and expression of thought and reason. The music of the spheres, the voice of the stars, "the melody of woods and winds and waters," all testify to God. The poet represents the heavenly bodies as
Forever singing as they shine, "The hand that made us is Divine.
Yet the articulate, definite, and intelligible utterances of beings endowed with intellect and with speech are necessary to enrich and to complete the chorus of adoration and praise offered by earth to heaven. The tongue, "the glory of the frame," has its place to fill, its witness to bear, in the service of the vast, illimitable temple.
VI THE GLORY OF THE ETERNAL IS SEEN IN THE COMMUNITY AND HARMONY APPOINTED BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH. The living creatures had wings by which they soared into the sky; they reposed and ran, however, upon wheels, by which they maintained their connection with the solid ground. This remarkable combination of wings and wheels seems to point to the twofold aspect of all creation. All things have an earthly and a heavenly side. If wheels alone were provided, earth would seem cut off from heaven; if wings alone, the terrestrial element would be lacking, which would be a contradiction to obvious fact. Man has a body, and bodily needs and occupations, which link him to the earth; but he has also a spiritual nature and life which witness his relation to the ever-living God the Spirit who seeketh such to worship him as worship in spirit and in truth. Yet his whole nature is created by God, and redeemed by Christ; and his service and sacrifice, in order to being acceptable, must be undivided and complete. Whether we regard the nature of the individual man, or regard the Church which is the body of Christ, we are constrained to acknowledge that all parts of the living nature body, soul, and spirit are summoned to unite in revealing to the universe the incomparable majesty and glory of God. T.
Early symbols of Jehovah"s presence.
The materials of the vision are supplied from the storehouse of nature. We climb along the altar-steps of material nature up to nature"s God. Earthly phenomena serve
(1) as veils, which scarcely hide the Divine Artificer;
(2) as symbols, indicating his perfections;
(3) as instruments, with which he accomplishes his will.
For the vision before us, God chose to employ, not the grosser forms of inert matter, but the dynamic forces which are at work on every side wind, light, heat.
I The idea is brought before us of INSCRUTABLE MYSTERY. This is betokened by the whirlwind. In all revelation of his doings which God vouchsafes to man, there must be more or less of mystery. The finite cannot measure the infinite. How the wind originates, what its full mission, or whither its destination, we cannot tell. This was a stormy wind partly baneful, partly beneficent. It betokened a severe visitation of Jehovah a temporary calamity destined to issue in permanent good. "He rideth upon the wings of the wind." As in the hotter climate of the East, a storm rapidly rises and sweeps the face of the earth; so, after repeated monitions, Jehovah suddenly visits men in judgment. "His footsteps are not known;" "He maketh his messengers winds.
II There is the idea of PARTIAL REVELATION. This is indicated by the cloud. The cloud both tempers the heat of the sun and conceals the wonders of the starry heavens. Whenever God has revealed his glorious majesty to men, there has been the attendant circumstance of the cloud. At the Red Sea, on Mount Sinai, over the mercy scat, on the Mount of Transfiguration, the glory of God was veiled within the drapery of a cloud. The eye of sinful man cannot sustain the overpowering brightness of the Deity. For what is at present concealed from us, no less than for what is disclosed to us, it becomes us to be sincerely thankful. "What we know not now we snail know hereafter.
III There is the idea of PURIFYING ENERGY. This is symbolized by the fire. One of the most potent and widespread agents at work in the material universe, is fire an impressive emblem of the purity ann justice of the Most High. Nothing in nature is more destructive than fire. For the precious metals, it is the only agent that purifies. The flame was self-kindled, as was the flame that consumed the sacrifice on the temple altar. This vision was intended to extinguish the false hopes of the Hebrews. The design was threefold, viz. to produce
(1) suitable terror and alarm;
(2) genuine sorrow; and
(3) internal purification.
fire is kindled in mine anger." Wood and hay and stubble will be consumed; gold and silver will be beautified.
IV There is the PROSPECT OF EVENTUAL PROSPERITY. "A brightness was about it." We have here a prefigurement of that "abounding grace" which is yet in reserve fur the chosen remnant of Israel a picture of the "times of refreshing" which shall in due time come "from the presence of the Lord." A prophet who announces only judgment is no less false than he who peals forth only the clarion note of mercy. The brightness is set forth here as suffusing the whole vision storm, cloud, fire. Every part of Jehovah"s administration shall be covered with renown. He will graciously vindicate his ways to the satisfaction and joy of his saints. Immortal splendour will encircle the final result. D.
Vers. 4-28. The providential government of God.
This is acknowledged even by some of the ablest expositors to be a most difficult portion of sacred Scripture. Isaac Casaubon says that "in the whole of the Old Testament there is nothing more obscure than the beginning and the end of the Book of Ezekiel." And Calvin "acknowledges that he does not understand this vision." Yet we would humbly and reverently endeavour to set forth what appear to us to be the principal teachings of this marvellous vision. Its chief meaning the prophet himself tells us when he says that he saw "the appearance of the likeness of the glory of Jehovah" (ver. 28). But in this case that glory is his glory in the providential government of our world. In dealing with this subject we may perhaps bring out the main teachings of our text by considering
I THE VARIETY OF AGENCIES EMPLOYED IN THE PROVIDENTIAL GOVERNMENT OF GOD.
1. The entire animate creation is thus employed. Great is the diversity of opinion as to the meaning of the four living creatures, the likeness of which Ezekiel saw (vers. 4-10). We will state what we believe to be their true significance. As delineated by the prophet "it is an ideal combination," as Fairbairn says; "no such composite creature exists in the actual world." And the name by which they are called, living ones, "presents them to our view as exhibiting the property of life in its highest state of power and activity; as forms of creaturely existence altogether instinct with life." Hengstenberg says that the living creatures are "the ideal combination of all that lives on earth." We regard them as intended to symbolize the whole living creation of God. And their composition, relations, and movements teach us that every variety and order of life is employed in his providential government of our world. The endeavour has been made to assign a specific meaning to each different portion of the living creatures. The symbolism unfolds itself to us thus: "The likeness of a man" indicates mental and moral powers; e.g. reason, conscience, affections, etc. "The hands of a man" indicate dexterity, power of skilful and active service. "The face of a lion" suggests strength, (cf. Pro_30:30) courage, (Pro_28:1) and sovereignty. "The face of an ox" leads us to think of patient, diligent, productive labour. (cf. Pro_14:4) And "the face of an eagle" suggests the power of soaring high above the earth (Job_39:27; Isa_40:31) the keen, searching gaze, and the far extended vision. In the evolution of his providential government God employs powers of every kind and degree. The convincing reasoner and the eloquent speaker, the man of brilliant imagination and the man of patient investigation, the skilful inventor and the diligent handicraftsman, and men and women and little children even, having only feeble and commonplace abilities, God uses in the working out of his great designs. All creatures, from the lowest insect to the highest intelligence, are subject to his control and subservient to his purposes. It is doubtful whether the symbolism of the living creatures includes the angelic creation. But apart from this vision, we know that angels are employed by God in his providential government of our world. Illustrations of such employment abound in the sacred Scriptures. Endless in variety and countless in number are the agents which he employs.
2. The great forces of nature are thus employed by God. (Vers. 15-21.) The wheels symbolize the powers of nature. Their relation to the living creatures, and the relation of both to the great God, is thus pictorially set forth by Hengstenberg: "The whole was designed to represent a kind of vehicle, in which the Lord occupied the place of the charioteer, the living creature the place of the chariot, under which are the powers of nature represented by the wheels." This interpretation of the meaning of the wheels is confirmed by Psa_18:10: "He rode upon a cherub, and did fly; yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind;" Psa_104:3, 4: "Who maketh the clouds his chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind," Psa_148:8: "Fire, and hail; snow, and vapours; stormy wind fulfilling his word." All the forces of nature serve God, and are used by him in the execution of his purposes. In the case before us these powers are represented as about to be employed for judgment upon the unfaithful Jews. But they are also employed for purposes of mercy and grace. He can use them for the protection of his faithful people, as well as for the punishment of the rebellious.
II THE CHIEF CHARACTERISTICS OF THE OPERATION OF THE PROVIDENTIAL GOVERNMENT OF GOD.
1. The immensity of its extent. It is said of the rings, or circumference, of the wheels that "they were so high that they were dreadful;" or, "they were both high and terrible." How vast are the designs and doings of the providence of God! That providence goes back into the immeasurable and awful past; it reaches onward into the endless future. It embraces an infinity of events, some of which are of stupendous importance.
2. The complexity of its movements. We read of the wheels that "their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel" (ver. 16). "The wheels are not ordinary wheels," says Hengstenberg, "but double wheels, one set into the other." Looking upon the working of an elaborate and intricate machine or engine, the uninitiated are bewildered by the movements, the relations and bearings of which they know not. Somewhat thus do we contemplate the operations of the providential government of God. "Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known;" "Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" Unfathomably deep to us are the mysteries of the Divine providence.
3. The wisdom of its direction. The rings of the wheels were "full of eyes round about them" (ver. 15). Eyes are the symbols of intelligence. The forces of nature are not blind or aimless in their movements, but are directed by the All-wise. And however inexplicable to us the workings of the providential government of God may be, they are guided and controlled by infinite intelligence and goodness.
4. The harmoniousness of its operation. "When the living creatures went, the wheels went by them," etc. (vers. 19-21). One Spirit animated the whole. The one Power which employs and controls the whole living creation also governs the inanimate forces of nature, so that all cooperate towards one great and blessed end. Though the great powers at work in our world often seem to us to be in conflict, yet in his providence God is prompting some, and restraining others, for the accomplishment of his own gracious and glorious purposes. "All things work together for good to them that love God.
5. The progressiveness of its movements. "They turned not when they went; they went every one straight forward" (ver. 9); "They went every one straight forward: whither the spirit was to go, they went; they turned not when they went" (ver. 12). Real and great progress is being made in our world. The former days were not better than these. The social condition of the people improves; education advances along the whole line; science makes great and rapid strides; in the apprehension of revealed truth there is marked progress; and Christian principles and practice are ever extending their empire. Under the providential government of God, the world is moving, not to the darkness of midnight, but to the splendours of noontide.
III THE SUPREME CONTROLLER OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE PROVIDENTIAL GOVERNMENT OF GOD. (Vers. 22-28.) Notice:
1. The manifestation of the God-Man. We have spoken of the manifestation of the God-Man; but Ezekiel does not say that he saw either man or God. Very guarded are his words: "Upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it" (ver. 26). He tells us that he also saw "the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord" (ver. 28). It was a vision, perhaps as clear as the prophet was capable of receiving, of the Divine-Human. We can have no doubt of the Person thus indicated. It was a foreshadowing of the incarnation of the Son of God; an anticipation of God manifest in the flesh.
2. The supremacy of the God-Man. "Upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it." The Lord is upon the throne. He is the great Head of the providential government of God. All created life, and all nature"s forces, are subject to his control. "All power is given unto him in heaven and in earth." This fact is rich in consolation and in inspiration to all who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
3. The gracious fidelity of the God-Man. "As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness that was round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord." The meaning of "the bow that is in the cloud" is determined by Gen_9:12-17. It indicates that in the severe judgments which were coming upon the chosen people, God would not forget the gracious covenant which he had made with their fathers. Even the judgments would be inflicted for their well being, and after the judgments there would be a return of prosperity and of the manifest favour of God (cf. Isa_54:7-10) In wrath he remembers mercy. The God-Man presides over the providential government of our world in infinite fidelity and grace. He reigns to bless and to save.
CONCLUSION.
1. Let us believe in this glorious government. "The Lord reigneth.
2. Let us render loyal obedience to the gracious King. W.J.
Ver. 28 (part of) ch. 2:2.
The overwhelming and the reviving in Divine revelations.
when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of One that spake. And he said unto me, Son of man," etc. Two main lines of meditation are suggested by these verses.
I THE MANIFESTATION OF THE DIVINE GLORY OVERWHELMS EVEN THE BEST OF MEN IN THEIR PRESENT STATE. When he saw "the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord," Ezekiel fell upon his face. We find the same thing in Eze_3:23 Eze_43:3 Eze_44:4. Isaiah felt himself "undone" when he "saw the Lord sitting upon a throne". (Isa_6:5) Daniel, after a vision of heavenly glory, was emptied of allstrength. (Dan_10:8) And even St. John, the beloved disciple, who had reclined upon the bosom of the Lord, when he saw the revelation of his majesty, "fell at his feet as dead". (Rev_1:17)
1. The sight of such glory humbles man with the sense of his own immeasurable inferiority. How vast is the disparity between the Creator and the creature! He, "the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy, and who dwelleth in the high and holy place;" we, frail men "that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, and are crushed before the moth." It is humiliating to reflect upon the infinite distance between the glory of God and our insignificance and meanness and shame. Such considerations rebuke those persons who, in hymn or prayer, address the Most High in terms of unbecoming familiarity, or even of positive irreverence. Most inadequate must be their realization of the truth that he is "glorious in holiness," and of their own unworthiness. "God is in heaven, and thou upon earth; therefore let thy words be few.
The more thy glories strike mine eyes, The humbler I shall lie.
2. The sight of such glory overwhelms man by quickening his consciousness of sin into greater activity. Thus it was with Isaiah; (Isa_6:5) and with St. Peter, when he was impressed with thesuperhuman powers of his Master, and perhaps realized that he was the Son of God. (Luk_5:8) Such splendours as Ezekiel saw reveal the darkness and defilement of the hearts and lives of those who see them. The conscious presence of perfect holiness awakens or intensifies man"s sense of his own sinfulness. "I have heard of thee," saith Job, "by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.
3. Such humiliation is a condition of hearing the voice of God. "I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of One that spake." Pride and self-sufficiency cannot hear the Divine voice. "The meek will he guide in judgment; and the meek will he teach his way. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will show them his covenant." The highest revelations are for the simple, spiritual, and teachable the child. like spirits (cf. Mat_11:25, Mat_11:26) Moses, eminent for his meekness, was admitted into communion and communication with God of special intimacy. (Num_12:6-8) The humbling effect of Divine visions sometimes qualifies the soul to hear Divine voices.
II GOD IN HIS GRACE RAISES AND REVIVES HIS SERVANTS OVERWHELMED WITH THE MANIFESTATIONS OF HIS GLORY. "And he said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet," etc. Three remarks are suggested.
1. The design of such manifestations is not to overwhelm, but to prepare for service. The Divine intention in the vision which Ezekiel saw was to prepare him for the discharge of the arduous duties of his prophetic mission. So also was it with Isaiah 6 and with St. John. (Re 1) And if spiritual visions of the true and the holy are granted unto God"s servants now, it is in order that they may more efficiently serve him amongst their fellow men.
2. The Divine summons to duty or service is accompanied by Divine strength to obey the same. "And he said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee. And the Spirit entered into me when he spake unto me, and set me upon my feet, that I heard him that spake unto me." Here are three points.
(1) The title by which Ezekiel is addressed. "Son of man." Expositors have discovered various meanings in this appellation; but it seems to us that the interpretation of Lightfoot is the true one. "This expression is of frequent use in Scripture, in the Hebrew rabbins, but more especially in the Chaldean and Syrian tongues Why Ezekiel, and no other prophet, should have been so often styled thus, has been ascribed to different reasons by different commentators. To me the principal reason appears to be this that, as his prophecy was written during the Babylonish captivity, he naturally made use of the Chaldean phrase, "Son of man," that is, "O man.
(2) The summons which was addressed to him. "Stand upon thy feet." That is the attitude of respectful attention. It also indicates readiness for service.
(3) The strength which was communicated to him. "And the Spirit entered into me," etc. It is the same Spirit which was in the living creatures and in the wheels. The Spirit was given to the prophet to set him upon his feet and to empower him to hear the word of the Lord. The entrance of the Spirit into him "is a quickening of mind and body conjointly, which brings about the transition from the revelation in vision to the revelation by word" (Schroder). When God commands, he also invigorates for the fulfilment of the command. When he summons man from spiritual death, he bestows the life-giving Spirit to every one who will receive him. (cf. Eph_2:4-6 Eph_5:14) When he calls upon us to work out our own salvation, he encourages us to do so by the assurance that he worketh in us. (Php_2:12, 13) When he sends us forth to arduous service, he says, "Certainly I will be with thee". (Exo_3:12) And when he calls us to painful endurance, he gives us the assurance, "My grace is sufficient for thee". (2Co_12:9)
3. After the Divine summons and strength comes the Divine voice. "I heard him that spake unto me." Humbled by the vision of glory, and revived and strengthened by the Spirit, the prophet was now in a condition to hear the voice of the Lord (cf. 1Co_2:12, 1Co_2:13) "Signs without the Word are in vain. What fruit would there have been if the prophet had merely seen the vision, but no word of God had followed it?" (Calvin).
CONCLUSION. Here are two cheering considerations.
1. When God casts down it is in order that he may the more effectually revive us. (Hos_6:1, Hos_6:2)
2. Whom God commissions he also qualifies. W.J.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv4, 5, 8, 12, 15, 16, 17, 20 A whirlwind came out of the north.
Eze_1:4
A whirlwind came out of the north.
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Divine revelations in seasons of trial and perplexity
The history of the Jews was a succession of startling paradoxes. Their worst disasters ushered in their proudest successes. At three several crises in their career--in youth, in middle life, in old age--they came into collision with three giant empires of the ancient world--Egypt, Babylon, Rome. Each time they were crushed, almost annihilated, by the conflict. Yet each time they started up into a fresh and more vigorous life. Their unmaking was in each case a making anew. As a paradox, the Babylonian captivity was the most striking of the three. Blow follows upon blow, until the tale of their misery is full. The last company of exiles is deported; the last scion of royalty is a prisoner; the last breach in the fortress is stormed. The city is laid waste; the temple is a heap of stones. All is over. The sweet minstrelsies of the sanctuary jar cruelly on their ears now. The very name of Sion is a bitterness to them. And meanwhile, in this their helpless, hopeless misery, they are confronted with the most gigantic, awe-inspiring power which the world had hitherto seen. If at that crisis any calm and impartial bystander had been asked whether of the two--Babylon or Israel, the master or the slave--held in his grasp the future destinies of mankind, would he for a moment have hesitated what answer he should give? And yet out of the very abyss of despair the prophets hope takes wing and soars aloft. It is not that he sees only the bright features of the prospect. No words can be fiercer or less compromising than the invective in which he denounces the sins of the nation. It would seem as if in his imagery he could not find colours dark enough to blacken the Israel of God. The Israel of God? Why, thy father was an Amorite and thy mother a Hittite--vile, polluted, God-forsaken heathens both; and after the foul deeds of thy parentage thou thyself hast done. The Israel of God? Why, thine elder sister is Samaria--Samaria, the profane and the profligate; and thy younger sister is Sodom--Sodom, whose very name is a byword for all that is most loathsome, most abominable in human wickedness, and whose vengeance--the sulphurous fire from heaven--flare out as a beacon of warning against sin and impurity to all time. And thou art far worse than thy sisters. Restore thee from thy captivity? Ay, then when Samaria is restored, then when Sodom is restored--then, and not till then--unless thou repent. And yet, as the prophets eye ranges beyond the immediate present, what does he see? The Spirit carries him into the wilderness and sets him down there. It is the scene apparently of some murderous conflict between the wild tribes of the desert or of some catastrophe which has befallen a caravan of travellers. The ground is strewn with the bones of the dead--fleshless, sinewless, picked clean by the vultures and bleached by long exposure, tossed here and there by the rage of the elements or the reckless hand of man. Is it possible that these bones, so bare and so dry, shall unite, shall be clothed, shall live and move again? God only can say. A moment more, and the answer is given. There is a rustling, a clatter, a uniting of joint and socket, a meeting of vertebra and vertebra. Sinews stretch from bone to bone flesh and skin spread over them. At Gods bidding breath is breathed into them. They start up on their feet an exceeding great army. But the range of vision is not bounded here. Beyond the wilderness lies the pleasant land. Beyond the valley of dry bones is the hill of Sion, the city of the living God. After the revival of Israel comes the spread of the truth, the expansion of the Church. The exceeding great army is there; but the battle is still unfought, the victory has still to be won. So the prophet is carried again by the Spirit, and set down in the holy city. He is there once again within the sacred precincts, where of old he had ministered as a priest. The scene is the same, and yet not the same. The hill of the temple has grown into a very high mountain. Everything is on a grander scale--a larger sanctuary, a more faithful priesthood, richer and more abundant offerings. His eye is arrested by the little spring of pure water which issued from the temple rock and found its way in a trickling stream to the valley beneath--fit symbol of the Church of God. As he watches, it rises and swells, ankle-deep, knee-deep, overhead. Silently, steadily, it expands and gathers volume, pouring down the main valley and filling all the lateral gorges, advancing onward and onward, till it washes the bases of the far-off hills of Moab and sweetens the salt, waters of the very Sea of Death--teeming with life, watering towns and fertilising deserts, throughout its beneficent course--a stream so puny and obscure at its sources, so broad and full and bountiful in its issues--this mighty river of God. Indeed it was no earthly pile of masonry, no building made by hands--this magnified temple, which rose before the prophets eyes. So it has always been. Gods chief revelations have ever flashed out in seasons of trial and perplexity. As in Ezekiels vision, there has been first the whirlwind--then the cloud--then the flame, the light, the glory, glowing with ever-increasing brightness from the very heart and blackness of the cloud. There is first the wild, impetuous force, unseen yet irresistible, rooting up old institutions, scattering old ideas, perplexing, deafening, blinding; sweeping all things human and Divine into its eddies. Then the dark cloud of despair--the despair of materialism or the despair of agnosticism--settles down, with its numbing chill. Then at length emerges the vision of the Throne, the Chariot of God, blinding the eyes with its dazzling splendour; and after this the vision of the dry and bleaching hones starting up into new life; and after this the vision of a larger sanctuary and a purer worship. It was so at the epoch of the Babylonian captivity; it was so at the downfall of the Roman empire; it was so at, the outbreak of the Reformation. And shall it not be so once again? We are warned by the experience of the past not to overrate either the perplexities or the hopes of the present. Nearness of view unduly magnifies the proportions of events. Yet it is surely no exaggeration to say that the Church of our day is passing through one of those momentous crises which only occur at intervals of two or three centuries. It is the concurrence of so many and various disturbing elements which forms the characteristic feature of our age. Here is the vast accumulation of scientific facts, the rapid progress of scientific ideas; there is the enlarged knowledge of ancient and widespread religions arising from the increased facilities of travel. Here is the sharpening of the critical faculty to a keenness of edge unstrained in any previous age; there is the accumulation of new materials for its exercise from divers sources, the recovery of many a lost chapter in the history of the human race, whether from ancient manuscripts, or from the deciphered hieroglyphs of Egypt and the disentombed palaces of Assyria, or even from the reliques of a more remote past, the flint implements and the bone caverns of prehistoric man. These are some of the intellectual factors with which the Church in our age has to reckon. And the social and political forces are not less disturbing. What, then, must be our attitude as members of Christs Church at such a season? The experience of the past will inspire hope for the future. In quietness and confidence, shall be your strength. We shall not rush hastily to cut the political knot, because it will take us some time and much patience to untie it. We shall keep our eyes and our minds open to each fresh accession of knowledge, stubbornly rejecting no truth when it is attested, rashly accepting no inference because it is novel and attractive. As disciples of the Word incarnate, the same eternal Word who is, and has been from the beginning, in science as in history, in nature as in revelation, we shall rest assured that He has much yet to teach us; that a larger display of His manifold operations, however confusing now, must in the end carry with it a clearer knowledge of Himself; that for the Church of the future a far more glorious destiny is in store than ever attended the Church of the past. There is the whirlwind now, sweeping down from the rude tempestuous north; there is the gathering cloud now, dark and boding; but even now the keen eye of the faithful watcher detects the first rift in the gloom, the earliest darting ray which shall broaden and intensify, till it reveals the chariot throne of the Eternal Word framed in transcendent light.
1. The idea of mobility is the foremost which the image involves. The vision of Ezekiel provokes a comparison with the vision of Isaiah. Isaiah saw the Lord enthroned on high, there above the mercy seat, there between the cherubim, there in the same local sanctuary, where for centuries He had received the adoration of an elect and special people. The awe of the vision is enhanced by its localisation. But with Ezekiel this is changed. The vision is in a heathen land. The throne is a chariot now. It is placed on wheels arranged transversely, so that it can move easily to all the four quarters of the heavens. Its motion is direct, immediate, rapid, darting like the lightning flash, whithersoever it is sped. Not, indeed, that the element of fixity is lost. Though a chariot, it remains still a throne. It is supported by the four living creatures whose wings as they beat fill the air with their whirring, but whose feet are planted straight and firm. They have four faces looking four ways, but these are immovable. They turned not when they went. However we may interpret them, they are the firm supports of the chariot, moving rapidly, yet never turning, unchangeable in themselves, yet capable of infinite adaptation in their processes.
2. The counterpart to the mobility in the larger dispensation of the future thus implied in the vision is its spirituality. It is mobile just because it is spiritual. The letter is fixed; the form is rigid and motionless as death. The spirit only is instinct with life. Whither the spirit was to go they went. Everywhere the presence of the Spirit is emphasised; and this emphatic reiteration is the more remarkable because it is found in the midst of accurate dates, precise measurements, topographical descriptions, minute external details of all kinds.
3. But lastly, if spirituality characterises the motive power, if mobility is the leading feature in the intermediate energies and processes, universality is the final result. The chariot of God moves freely to all the four quarters of the heavens. The prophet sees it first in the plains of Babylonia. He is then carried in his vision to the Temple at Jerusalem. There he beholds the glory filling the holy place, the throne of God supported on the cherubim: and there, too--an unwonted surprise--are the four faces, the wings, the hands, the wheels full of eyes, just the same forms and the same motions which he had seen in the land of his exile. Ay, he understands it now. The living creatures of Babylonia are none other than the sacred cherubim of the sanctuary. Three times, as if he would assure himself or convince others by reiteration, he repeats the words, The same which I saw by the river Chebar. So, then, God works with power, God is enthroned in glory, not less in that far-off heathen land than in His own cherished sanctuary among His own elect people. The vision of Ezekiel is not a dead or dying story, which has served its turn and now may pass out of mind. It lives still as the very charter of the Church of the future. If in this nineteenth century we Englishmen would do any work for Christs Church, which shall be real, shall be solid, shall be lasting, we must follow in the lines here marked out for us. Mobility, spirituality, universality, these three ideas must inspire our efforts. Other methods may seem more efficacious for the moment, but this only will resist the stress of time. Not to cling obstinately to the decayed anachronisms of the past, not to linger wistfully over the death-stricken forms of the past, not to narrow our intellectual horizon, not to stunt our moral sympathies; but to adapt and to enlarge, to absorb new truths, to gather new ideas, to develop new institutions, to follow always the teaching of the Spirit--the Spirit, which will not be bound and imprisoned--the Spirit, which is like the breath of wind, and whose very name speaks of elasticity and expansion, passing through every crevice, filling every interstice, conforming itself to every modification of size and shape; this is our duty as Christians, as Churchmen, as Anglicans, remembering meanwhile that there is one fixed centre from which all our thoughts must radiate, and to which all our hopes must converge--Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever. (Bishop Lightfoot.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v4 2. THE VIEW GIVEN TO EZEKIEL OF “THE LIKENESS…
2. THE VIEW GIVEN TO EZEKIEL OF “THE LIKENESS OF THE GLORY OF THE LORD” (Chap. Eze_1:4-28)
EXEGETICAL NOTES.—Eze_1:4. The storm-cloud. “A whirlwind,” a tempest such as Job perceived (Eze_38:1), or like that which Jonah encountered (Eze_2:10), “came out of the north,” the region from which the Chaldean forces proceeded, and, in general, to the Jews, “the region pregnant with destiny” (Hengst.). “A great cloud, and a fire infolding itself.” Fire in volumes was mixed up with the cloud, and (Exo_9:24) flashed hither and thither, circling round. “A brightness was about it,” the cloud, “and out of the midst thereof,” of the fire, “as the colour of amber,” or as the eye of chasmal. The appearance was such as gave tints, shone, burned like chasmal. The mild colour of amber does not seem to express the meaning of this uncertain word. There was a look like that of are glowing from “the midst of the fire.”
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Eze_1:5-14. The living creatures. Eze_1:5. Out of this same fire came “the likeness of four living creatures,” representing all beings with life (Rev_4:6); and, as the best representative of vital energies, each of the four had “the likeness of a man.” But not entirely so. Eze_1:7. “Their feet,” including knee and thigh, were of the nature of “a straight foot;” they were upright, not bent, and that part which was next the ground was “like the sole of a calf’s foot, and they sparkled like the colour,” the eye, the gleam “of burnished,” or shining, “brass” (Rev_1:15). Their wings proceeded from their shoulders, for (Eze_1:8) “they had the hands of a man under their wings,” one hand under each of “their four sides.” Eze_1:9. Two “wings” of each “were joined” to a wing of each of its nearest neighbours, and as each had four faces, one of which looked towards a distinct quarter of the sky, “they turned not when they went.” So “they went every one straight forward” in the direction in which any one of their faces looked, and as a conjunct whole. Eze_1:10. Of the four faces, one was like that of “a man,” another like that of “a lion,” another of “an ox.” and the fourth of “an eagle.” Eze_1:11. “Thus were their faces, and their wings were stretched upward;” rather, and their faces and their wings were separated from above, i.e., it could be seen that their heads were distinct and their wings were distinct, though two wings of one were in contact with two wings of others. Eze_1:12. They were moved by an irresistible impulse, and, separated as they were from one another, yet they were animated by one life-breath. “Whither the spirit was to go, they went.” Eze_1:13. “Their appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of lamps,” torches; “it,” the fire, was separate from, and “went up and down among the living creatures.” Eze_1:14. The creatures had a motion which made the impression as of a “flash” of a meteor, or “the zigzag course” of “lightning.”*
Eze_1:15-21. The wheels. Eze_1:15. “Behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four faces.” Ezekiel saw wheels upon the ground, one in close proximity to each of the four creatures, and lower than they. Eze_1:16. “They four” wheels “had one likeness;” each consisted of two wheels really, “as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel,” set in the other at right angles. Eze_1:17. “They went upon their four sides;” they could go in any direction without turning round. Eze_1:18. “As for their rings,” circumference or felloes, “they were so high that they were dreadful,” they had both height and terribleness, and “full of eyes round about.” Eze_1:20. “The spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.” The same energy which actuated the former actuated the latter also, and they were one in standing, going, or rising upwards.
Eze_1:22-28. The throned one. Eze_1:22. Above “the heads of the living creatures” Ezekiel saw an expanse extended, having a colour like that “of the terrible crystal,” exciting fear by its purity and splendour. Eze_1:23. “Under the firmament,” or expanse, which therefore came between the throne and the living creatures, “were their wings straight, the one toward the other,” joined to one another, as Eze_1:11, “and every one had two which covered;” there was a wing for each side of “their bodies.” Eze_1:24. When the living creatures were in movement “the noise of their wings was like … the voice of speech,” rather, “the noise of tumult, as the noise of an host.” The sounds were heard only when they were in motion, for “when they stood they let down their wings.” Eze_1:25. Their movement or rest was not self-directed, but was instigated or checked by “a voice from the firmament that was over their heads,” from Him who was on the throne, since, Eze_1:26, “above the firmament was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of” the pale-blue “sapphire stone, and upon the likeness of the throne,” not the distinguishable form of a man, but “the likeness as the appearance of a man.” “No man hath seen God at anytime.” This manifestation had three aspects—Eze_1:27.
(1.) Over the dim form was shed shining light like to glowing ore, and the same as in Eze_1:4, which radiated “from the appearance of his loins even upward” (chap. Eze_8:2).
(2.) Upon the lower part, “from the appearance of his loins even downward was as it were the appearance of fire.”
(3.) All round was a shining light (Eze_1:28), “as the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain.” Those three aspects were united to frame “the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.” The visions of God overpowered Ezekiel, “I fell upon my face” (Rev_1:17).
The details of this wondrous vision may be summarised. A furious storm from the north is seen driving a vast cloud, pervaded and glowing with restless fires, and surrounded with radiance. From this fiery cloud four living beings appear, whose general aspect was that of man. Each had four different faces and four wings, and two of the wings were stretched out in juxtaposition to the wings of others. One spiritual energy stirred in the living creatures, and under its impulse they moved like meteors shooting across the field of vision and shining with the brightness of fire. By the side of each creature was a gigantic double wheel, not needing to turn when it changed from one direction to another. Eyes were set round the outer rims, and, possessed by the same energy as the living creatures, the wheels made all movements perfectly simultaneous with theirs. Above all was an expanse of awful pureness, and on which was the likeness of an azure throne. Some one in the figure of a man was seated on this throne—the upper half of his body shining like glowing metal, the lower half like fire, while, girdling round the throne, the hues of a bright rainbow were displayed. A voice proceeded from this throne-crowned expanse, at the sound of which the living creatures let down their wings in lowly reverence and silence. Ezekiel also heard himself addressed by an unseen speaker.
The appearances which accompanied the designation of Ezekiel, and also the repetition of their prominent aspects at other turns of his service, indicate the fact of a special meaning adhering to them in view of what was appointed him.*
1. The storm, the cloud, the fire, signify the wrath of God and the sufferings which may proceed therefrom. “The Lord hath His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet” (Nah_1:3). Of Israel it is said, “The Lord thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God” (Deu_4:24). Ezekiel is to prepare himself to carry a message of judgment and woe to his people; he is to be invested with authority and then to inspire them with terror. But not unmitigated. “The brightness round about,” which Eze_1:27-28 signify to be that of the rainbow, warrants the belief that pity and grace will surround all inflictions. The false prophets spoke of deliverance without punishment and without repentance; Ezekiel has to bear down all such fancies, and proclaim that there will be scathing trials, but afterwards a new heart and the outpoured Spirit.
2. The cherubim. In chap. Eze_10:20, Ezekiel intimates that the living creature which he saw by the Chebar he was led to recognise as the cherubims. An important part is assigned to them in the Bible. They were placed at the east of the garden of Eden; they stood over the Ark of the Covenant in Tabernacle and Temple. In each case they signified the divine presence. Hence the familiar expressions, “He dwelleth between the cherubims,” “He sitteth between the cherubims.” Their outstretched wings form “the chariot of the cherubims.” While it is also said, “He rode upon a cherub,” as a token that He rules all movements among the forces of nature. It was an obvious reflection of cherubic forms which John saw, in his Revelation, “in the midst of the throne.” What did they signify? In all cases they signify that God is present, and belong to His manifestation in living, organised creatures, in all quarters of the world. It is to be noted that the faces of a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle on each are emblematical of the fulness and power of life. The fact that they were, in Ezekiel, double in number and more complex in form than those found in Tabernacle or Temple, is a fact which goes to prove that they were not real beings, not even angelic, but symbolical, and they “at one and the same time proclaim and veil His presence. When He is honoured as He who is enthroned above the cherubim, He is acknowledged as the God who rules the world on all sides, in power, wisdom, and omniscience.” They represent not God Himself, except as He is absolute Life, working in living creatures and moving them to the ends which He prescribes. In accordance with those ends, the cherubims had the appearance which bright burning coals of fire have, yet the fire was separate from them. Thus was indicated that all living creatures could be made to carry out the righteous judgment of God with ominous rapidity. So Ezekiel was prepared to testify that all hopes of earthly help which Israel might cherish would be speedily falsified.
3. The wheels. In the Buddhist, and partially in the Hindu religion, a wheel “is the symbol of supreme power in the hands of certain monarchs, who are held to have exercised universal dominion, and who are, for this reason, termed turners of the wheel.” A similar idea is conveyed here. The wheels represent the forces of nature as distinct from, but in working harmony with, living beings. This distinction appears from chap. Eze_10:13, where the right interpretation seems to be that the wheels were called Galgal, “whirlwind;” and from chap. Eze_10:6, where fire was taken from between them. Those natural energies revolve, along with the cherubim, under obedience to one and the same in working impulse. They are used when the Spirit will, and go to any quarter of the heaven that He wills. One wheel is within another; changes are complicated, and not in one direction only. They are full of eyes: “the symbol of intelligent life; the living Spirit’s most peculiar organ and index.” “Space is everywhere equally present to them.” They do not move blindly; they can perceive that which is opposed to the interests of God in any quarter; they can follow up all traces of His enemies, and carry His terrors wherever they should strike. Ezekiel must expect to speak of various trials hanging over all classes in Israel, and certainty in their infliction.
4. The appearance of a throned man.
“Whose faith has centre everywhere,
Nor cares to fix itself to form.”
This portion of the vision is seen upon a firmament which presents “visible poetry, gloriously embossed, and whose psalms are writ in the rhythm of motion.” It intimates that “the heavens do rule,” that all forms of animate and inanimate existence are under the will of the God of glory.* Besides, He is in a human form, which cannot be adequately seen, while the appearance of brightness and fire, and a rainbow, indicates the holiness and righteousness and grace which make a glorious unity in Him, and are possessed in absolute perfection—a type of the glory and grace of Him who was made flesh and dwelt among us. “God is the unrepresentable One. He has no similitude; and yet, without any misgiving or sense of inconsistency, there are ascribed to Him acts and appearances which, without the conceptive or imaging faculty, can have for us neither force nor meaning” (Lewis). The mighty voice and the movements with the cherubims point to the truth that He punishes His enemies and comforts His friends. Thus, sitting above the cherubims, He does the same as in the Temple, yet with differences. He was about to work in new methods, and would make known to exiled Israel, through Ezekiel, that if their covenant was to “vanish away,” He would not go. He would rule the heathen as well as His chosen seed, and one day evoke from all quarters the glorious cry, “Hallelujah! for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth!”
“One God, one law, one element,
And one far-off Divine event,
To which the whole creation moves.”
—Tennyson.
“There was nothing accidental or capricious about this vision; all was wisely adjusted and arranged, so as to convey beforehand suitable impressions of that work of God to which Ezekiel was now called to devote himself. It was substantially an exhibition by means of emblematical appearances and actions, of the same views of the Divine character and government, which were to be unfolded in the successive communications made by Ezekiel to the covenant-people” (Fairbairn).
HOMILETICS
(1.) THE VISION IS SUGGESTIVE REGARDING THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD
I. As to its resources.
1. They are manifold. Wind and fire, thunder and lightning, the wisdom of man, brute force, patient labour, swift movements are significant portions of the materials which He can gather to execute His purposes. Men live in perpetual contact with forces which may affect their organs of sight, hearing, taste, touch, and which can be marshalled in any number, in any strength, and at any moment. We see wrongly if we do not see that the uniform of God’s servants is worn by all animate and inanimate creatures.
2. They are mutable. They are restrained and again in motion, now in the darkness and then in the light, here as a glow and there as a meteoric flash, acting inertly at one time and intensely after that. Changes continually come up. How remarkable are the vicissitudes in nations, churches, families. We are settled in nothing—in nothing but in God.
3. They are inscrutable. “We are but of yesterday and know nothing.” We see little else than an item on the outside of a few of His resources. “His judgments are a great deep.” “His providence walks and works, darkly, deeply, changeably, wheels about so that mortals cannot tell what conclusions to make” as to all the causes which bring about changes, or as to all the consequences which shall follow. “His ways are high above, out of our sight,” with nations, councils, churches, individuals—in panics, wars, demoralisations.
4. They are subordinated to one pervading impulse. Living or non-living, one and the same mighty Spirit works in all. The Spirit which brooded over a chaotic creation “renews the face of the earth” year by year. The Spirit of understanding and of love is the “Spirit of judgment and of burning.” He divides to each thing severally as He will; but there is no division in their camp. They do not fall out by the way. They work together to fulfil His word. There is no crookedness in their goings when He commands to go “straight forward.” They run very swiftly in accordance with the might by which He energises them. No bullet goes so fairly or rapidly to the target as do the manifold resources of God when stirred by the Spirit of life. Why should men resist Him? Why do they yield to a spirit of error, of lying, and of whoredoms, except on the ground that they rebel and vex the Holy Spirit? When will that kingdom which is righteousness, peace, joy in the Holy Ghost, be permanent on earth? But whatever discord may be introduced by men, the Spirit will not be baulked in His aims. “He maketh the wrath of man to praise Him,” and He will avenge the dishonour done to His righteousness and grace by means of the pliant resources at His command. They do not look back, that would have denoted unwillingness; nor turn aside, that would have intimated self-will; nor suspend their movements before their course is completed, that would have spoken of weariness. So should men follow obediently, unswervingly, persistently Him who guides wanderers into the way of life, and sustains them therein.
5. They inflict chastisement. Gales, fire, lightning, are disastrous in various ways to men. The doors of Lebanon open that the fire may devour its cedars. Snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest rain upon the wicked, and Ezekiel saw such agencies in action as ominous of calamities which he was to declare would befall his people. Thus, above Nebuchadnezzar and his desolating army; above losses, pains, bereavements; above wars, depression of trade, lowering of health, we must observe the signs of the Lord condemning untruthfulness, unrighteousness, formality, pride, selfishness. “Who can stand before Him when once He is angry?” Is there not a warning to “cease to do evil, to learn to do well”?
6. They may be brought from any quarter. Out of the north, as the Assyrians; out of the east, as the plague of locusts in Egypt; out of the north-east, as the Euroclydon in Paul’s sea passage to Rome, God’s resources can be drawn. Men may boast of their soldiery or navy, of their preparedness for any war, of their civilization or religiousness, of their worship or their benevolence; but they lay themselves open to the menacing word, “I the Lord do blow upon it.” In front, in flank, or in rear assailants may fall upon them. “Political changes and revolutions are, after all, only the moving of the shadow on the earthly dial-plate, that marks the mightier motions going forward in the heavens.”—Moore.
7. They radiate with mercy. His resources are not only for punishment. They are meant to show to men their evil and their need of repentance; to show that God is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” Judgment is His “strange act.” He wants to purify the world, though the process be slow, just as He is separating the dross from the heart of every believer in His Son. Even if a deluge of wrath is sent forth in order to sweep off evil habits from a people, after the floods have lifted up their voice the rainbow will appear. The covenant of the Lord is sure in faithfulness and mercy. “Once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.”
II. As to the representation of the divine.
1. It is supreme. All things are under His feet. He is a Prince upon His throne. Nothing stirs or rests, nothing develops or degenerates, nothing pains or soothes apart from His control. It is not a mechanical force which operates the changes of all creatures. It is ONE who possesses power, wisdom, righteousness, love—“who does His will among the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of this earth.” What can stand if He will overthrow? Who hinder if He will open the gates to anxiety, sorrow, shame, death?
2. It is closely allied to man. Ezekiel saw “the likeness of the appearance of a man.” We must not say that God is corporeal and has the figure of a man, but we can say that He has some striking affinities with human nature—“For we are also His offspring”—and these foreshadow the mystery to be presented in the end of the world, and in which Paul grandly exults. God “was manifest in the flesh.” Therefore was it possible for the Son of God to pray “That they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in me and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us.”
3. It is beyond our knowledge. “He dwells in the light which no man hath seen or can see.” He does condescend to our faculties, and by means of the hieroglyphics of undefined forms, of clouds, fire, living beings, revolutions, He shows us what His power and resources are. Our thoughts of Him suggest more riddles than they can solve. No research can define Him. There is a glory excelling that which men have beheld. He has never appeared as He really exists; but “He has so appeared as to leave no doubt on the minds of His servants as to their knowing that they have seen God.” If in certain aspects He is “unknowable,” yet all doubts as to His character pass away when Jesus reveals Him. “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.”
III. As to the preparation of a human servant.
1. Reverence. A deep feeling pervades Ezekiel of the holy supremacy of God. He who is glorious produces another state of mind than that which springs from a gratified curiosity or an increased knowledge, and the man who is not “moved with fear” before the manifested will of the Almighty is a man who will never serve Him aright. The sight of Christ Jesus, the only-begotten of the Father, will lay us at His feet, utterly self-emptied by a sense of His spotless glory and our unworthiness, and will be a prelude to His touch and restoration.
2. Weakness. Ezekiel cannot act of himself in co-operation with this all-ruling God. He has no strength to carry out such arduous duties as are justly required. But this weakness is his stepping-stone to light and power. When he is weak then is he strong, for God will bestow sufficient grace. Trust in self is gone that God may work. Wisdom, energy, faithfulness not his own are open to him.
3. Called. Ezekiel is thrilled by the voice which addresses him. He could not serve at all till that call of God was heard. Men cannot act for His kingdom by their own impulses and preparations. It is not colleges or ordination by man which make fit, but, hearing the voice of the Lord within, they can take up any service pointed out, in face of their other occupations, of fears, of reluctance. Before Him all events, however solemn, all duties, however untried, become dwarfed and feasible. “In Christ strengthening me I can do all things.” Between His voice and yours let no other voice come. You will know the mark to aim at, and reach “the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” If we teach or preach about His kingdom without knowing we are warranted by Him, it is rather sin than service. His must be the impulse and sustainment.
4. Susceptible. Ezekiel hears; for it is little matter to have the call of God if we have not ears to hear. We must let that mind be in us which will desire to recognise and apprehend whatever He will say to us. “If men did consult with Christ, and do all upon His warrants, they should never miscarry in their ways, but proceed farther in the paths of godliness in a few weeks than they did before in many years.”—Greenhill. “Though you have no visions of God, unwavering fealty to His law will secure that He will guide you by His counsel, and afterwards receive you to glory.”—Goulty. When the suggestions and motions of God’s Spirit come on a receptive heart, they subdue carnal reasonings, stubbornness of will, all shifts and pretences, and frame “a vessel unto honour, sanctified and meet for the Master’s use,” such as Ezekiel became.
“It is of much concernment for ministers to see that they have a good and clear call to their ministry. If they can clear it up that God hath sent them, they may expect His assistance, His blessing, His protection, and success in their labours. However things prove, this will be their comfort in the midst of opposition, reproach, persecution, hazard of liberty and lives; I was called of God, I am in His work, in His way, He brought me into His vineyard, He will stand by me, I will go on, let Him do with me what He pleaseth.”—Greenhill.
ILLUSTRATIONS
God the life of all things.—Nothing exists, subsists, is acted upon or moved by itself, but by some other being or agent; whence it follows that everything exists, subsists, is acted upon, and is moved by the First Being, who has no origin from another, but is in Himself the force which is life.—Swedenborg. God has a world of real forces in Himself. He bears within Him an inexhaustible spring, by virtue of which He is the Life eternally streaming forth, but also eternally streaming back into Himself. He neither empties nor loses Himself in His vital activity. He is a sea of self-revolving Life; an infinite fulness of forces moves, so to speak, and undulates therein.—Dorner. In this communication of life, God gives Himself so unreservedly that creation feels Him as her own, His joy as her joy, His peace as her peace, His strength as her strength, His personality and independence as her personality and independence.—W. White.
Foreknowledge.—The divine foreknowledge has put a stamp of that which was coming upon that which went before. This stamp is the basis of figurative language, of analogy, of typology, of prophecy, yea, of all knowledge. Every lower thing is a figure, a type, or prophecy of a higher thing; every present thing contains a representation of a coming thing, and every visible thing is more or less the image of things invisible. God’s foreknowledge thus becomes the great highway of knowledge to man, by which he can traverse not only the earth, but the universe so far as it is accessible to his inspection.—W. White.
Clouds.—Those war-clouds that gather on the horizon, dragon-crested, tongued with fire;—how is their barbed strength bridled? What bits are these they are champing with their vaporous lips; flinging off flakes of black foam? Leagued leviathans of the sea of heaven, out of their nostrils goeth smoke, and their eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.… Where ride the captains of their armies? Where are set the measures of their march? Fierce murmurers, answering each other from morning until evening—what rebuke is this which has awed them into peace? What hand has reined them back by the way by which they came? “The wondrous works of Him which is perfect in knowledge?” We have too great veneration for cloudlessness.—Ruskin.
Human ignorance.—There has never been a weak deity worshipped, and it is safe to say there never will be one. Man is too strong himself not to admire strength, and looks with pity or contempt upon weakness. And no deity can be pitied or despised and hold his sovereignty over men’s minds. The heavens must be braced beyond the possibility of fall, or they who live beneath the dome could never gaze with awe into the overhanging spaces.… I do not expect that any of mortal kind have a correct idea of God.… How little do we know even yet of the qualities and uses of material and finite Nature! For Nature is yet a mystery. She sits like the veiled prophet in the inner temple of her abode, whose outer walls we in our groping have at last stumbled against, and upon the panels of whose mighty gates a few of our most ambitious scientists are beginning to rap. If, then, so little is known of Nature, how little indeed must we know of the Invisible Spirit, who is so removed from our senses that no man could look upon His face and live. How flippantly men talk of God! As if they could understand the measureless reality whose reflection they only behold! The men who say God must be this or that, must do this or that, are for the most part men who have great intellectual vanity and great spiritual ignorance. The bowed head, the closed eye, the hand on the mouth and the mouth in the dust,—these are the evidences of piety, and, I may say, of spiritual knowledge also.—W. H. Murray.
An infinite unknown.—We are separated from it, not by any anger of storm, not by any vain and fading vapour, but only by the deep infinity of the thing itself.—Ruskin. Capable are we of God, both by understanding and will; by understanding, as He is that sovereign truth which comprehends the rich treasures of all wisdom; by will, as He is that sea of goodness whereof whoso tasteth shall thirst no more.—Hooker.
A Seer.—The more I think of it, the more I find this conclusion impressed upon me—that the greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something, and tell what it saw in a plain way. Hundreds of people can talk for one who can think, but thousands can think for one who can see. To see clearly is poetry, prophecy, and religion—all in one.—Ruskin.
Law in the spiritual.—Laws are operant in the things of the Spirit as truly as in the things of matter. The forces there are not disorderly, nor do the movements which they generate start haphazard. They are not impulsive, freakful, and fickle. They who suppose that the coming of the Spirit to human consciousness is the result of arbitrary sending and of periodical ordering, and not the result of a ceaseless and ceaselessly expressed benevolence, doubtless mistake.… The anarchy must be reduced to order; the chaos taught the use and made to feel the force of law; the imperfect organisations of society be supplanted by the perfect.… The Spirit, through change of custom, law, and habit, and by a gradual transition of the world from old to new, can, at last, after ages of revolution and growth, accomplish another structure.—W. H. Murray.
God manifested.—He the Creator, the Governor, became a presence clear and plain before men’s hearts. He, by the marvellous method of the Incarnation, showed Himself to man. He stood beside man’s work. He towered above, and folded Himself about, man’s life. And what then? God in the world must be the standard of the world. Greatness meant something different when men had seen how great He was. Just suppose that suddenly Omniscience towered up above our knowledge, and Omnipotence above our strength, and the Infinite Wisdom stood piercing out of the sight of our ignorant and baffled skill. Must it not crush the man with an utter insignificance?… He would be brought face to face with facts. He would measure himself against the eternal pillars of the universe. He would learn the blessed lesson of his own littleness in the way in which it is always learnt most blessedly—by learning the largeness of larger things.… If you could only see God for ever present in your life, and Jesus dying for your soul, and your soul worth Jesus dying for, and the souls of your brethren precious in His sight, and the whole universe teeming with work for Him, then must come the humility of the Christian.—Brooks.
In the divinity of His person there is laid an infinite, eternal, and unchangeable ground for the most unbounded confidence. If He were a being possessed of nothing higher than the highest possible endowments of humanity, we might well scruple to place in such an one a confidence stretching through eternity. But being God, in trusting in Him we rely upon a power that cannot be withstood, upon a wisdom which hath no limits, upon a truth that is infallible, upon a love that is unchangeable, upon a fidelity that cannot fail.—W. White.
The enduring Word of God.—We are not more unworldly than the patriarchs, more spiritual than the prophets, more heavenly-minded than the apostles; we are not nearer the great celestial verities than men of the olden time—at least by any philosophy, or science, or culture of our own that is independent of the study and the grace of the Scriptures; we are not beyond the Bible either in its letter or its thought. There are ideas there the world has not yet fathomed; there are words and figures there whose rich significance interpretation has not yet exhausted. The scriptural style and the scriptural language are not meant for one age, but for all ages. Its Orientalisms will grow in the West; its archaisms will be found still young in the nineteenth century. Science is ever changing, as it is ever unfinished; its language is ever becoming obsolete, as it is ever superseded; philosophy is continually presenting some new phase of its ever-revolving cycles; the political world is ever a dissolving view; literature becomes effete, and art decays; “but the word of our God shall stand for ever.” Not so sure are the types of nature as even the form and feature of this written word, if it be indeed the word of God, uttered in humanity, breathed into human souls, informing human emotions, conceived in human thoughts, made outward in human images, and indissolubly bound, as the wondrous narrative of the supernatural, in the long chain of human history.—T. Lewis.
Changes.—We are apt to fret and murmur at the motions of the wheels when they cross our hopes and interests; but if the Spirit of God be in the wheels and acts them according to His own pleasure, then all our impatience is groundless and sinful. We should stay and quiet our minds under all turns and changes in a world for discipline, rebuke, threatening, lamentation, calling.—M. Meade.
Unity.—The prophet, cast into the wide world and feeling himself lost in it, was led by the Divine Teacher into a region of thought to which the Israelite had been hitherto comparatively a stranger—was led to see how each part of the universe, which must have often seemed to him a storehouse of divided material idols, was pointing when seen by the divine light to a spiritual unity, as its explanation and its centre.… It is Spirit only which distinguishes and unites, which brings each thing forth in its clearness and fulness, and brings all into harmony, … a Spirit which had come from some higher region. There is One, human and divine, from whom this Spirit has proceeded, in whom it dwells perfectly.—Maurice.
3. THE COMMISSION TO EZEKIEL (Chaps. 2–3, 1–15)
EXEGETICAL NOTES.—Eze_1:1. “Son of man.” This is the customary form of address to Ezekiel, and is used only of him and Daniel among all the prophets. As both were prophesying in captivity, the title must have been conditioned by that fact, and would signify to the exiled prophets, away from the city which God had chosen to place His name there, that above them He was who was the God of the spirits of all flesh, who would communicate with the souls He owned, and supply all that would make up for absence from the land of promise and covenant. The title hardly could intimate, as is said by commentators, that Ezekiel was in need of a continual reminder of his human origin and frailty and unworthiness, or that he was to watch against being puffed up by his visions, or that he was spoken to familiarly as a special friend of God. We may listen to the phrase as expressing both a contrast and a connection between the speaker and the hearer.
Eze_1:2. “The Spirit.” Not the spirit of Ezekiel, as if he had been altogether unconscious and his spirit came to him again; nor scarcely the Holy Spirit, as operative in prophetic revelation; but the Spirit which was in the living creatures, and which, no doubt, was the Spirit of God.
Eze_1:3. “The children of Israel.” The most common expression used by Ezekiel for his people, perhaps significant of an amalgamation already begun of the Jews with the remnants of the ten tribes formerly gone into captivity. “To a rebellious nation,” or to the nations, the rebels. They who were children of him who wrestled with the angel are deteriorated, not to the level of a heathen nation, as in Isa_1:4, but to that of heathen nations.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v5 living creatures
living creatures
The "living creatures" are identical with the Cherubim. The subject is somewhat obscure, but from the position of the Cherubim at the gate of Eden, upon the cover of the ark of the covenant, and in Revelation 4, it is clearly gathered that they have to do with vindication of the holiness of God as against the presumptuous pride of sinful man who, despite his sin, would "put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life" Gen 3:22-24. Upon the ark of the covenant, of one substance with the mercy-seat, they saw the sprinkled blood which, in type, spake of the perfect maintenance of the divine righteousness by the sacrifice of Christ Exo 25:17-20. (See Scofield "Rom 3:24"). See Scofield "Rom 3:25". See Scofield "Rom 3:26". The living creatures (or Cherubim) appear to be actual beings of the angelic order. Cf. See Scofield "Isa 6:2". The Cherubim or living creatures are not identical with the Seraphim. Isa 6:2-7. They appear to have to do with the holiness of God as outraged by sin; the Seraphim with uncleanness in the people of God. The passage in Ezekiel is highly figurative, but the effect was the revelation to the prophet of the Shekinah glory of the Lord. Such revelations are connected invariably with new blessing and service. Cf.; Exo 3:2-10; Isa 6:1-10; Dan 10:5-14; Rev 1:12-19.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v15 The Four-Faced Wheels and the Four Creatures. —
The Four-Faced Wheels and the Four Creatures. —
v. 15. Now, as I beheld the living creatures, which were associated with the menacing cloud and must therefore be thought of as being elevated above tire earth, behold one wheel upon the earth, that is, a unit of four wheels in one, by the living creatures, with his four faces, toward their four fronts.
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v. 16. The appearance of the wheels and their work, their make-up. their workmanship and shape, was like unto the color of a beryl, of the chrysolite, which had a yellow color, as of clear fire; and they four had one likeness, and their appearance and their work, their shape as seen by the prophet, was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel, the one set crosswise within the other, as in a gyroscope.
v. 17. When they went, they went upon their four sides, they could go in four directions, due to that double construction; and they turned not when they went, just like the four creatures.
v. 18. As for their rings, the felloes of the wheels, they were so high that they were dreadful, on account of the effect of sublimity; and their rings were full of eyes round about them four, this fact introducing the element of life.
v. 19. And when the living creatures went, the wheels went by them, being always in the closest relation to them; and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up, the impulse being transmitted to them in some unexplained manner.
v. 20. Whithersoever the spirit was to go, they went, thither was their spirit to go, following the direction taken by the creatures; and the wheels were lifted up over against them; for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.
v. 21. When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, as the cloud lifted up in its onward course, the wheels were lifted up over against them; for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels. The wheels thus, both when moving and when standing still, were governed by the motion and the rest of the living creatures because the same spirit of life animated them both. This scene is now brought in relation to the description of Jehovah’s throne.
v. 22. And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creature was as the color of the terrible crystal, literally, "a likeness over the head of the living creature, like unto the appearance of crystal, of the fearful," stretched forth over their heads above. The dazzling clearness and purity of the glittering crystal caused the spectator to feel awe, as from the reflection of the Creator’s splendor.
v. 23. And under the firmament were their wings straight, raised aloft as they moved forward in an erect position, the one toward the other; every one had two, which covered on this side, when let down, and every one had two, which covered on that side, their bodies. "The tips of the wings (of the pair of wings serving for flight) reach along to the vault. For support they are adapted, and particularly for this reason that the wings,
v. 24. make a loud noise and are therefore in free motion; and further, because, upon occasion they are let down. The wheels also do not support the chariot. The local proximity seems only to indicate the connection between the several provinces of creation; it is meant to represent the creation as a united whole. " (Hengstenberg)
v. 24. And when they went, I heard the noise of their wings like the noise of great waters, of the surging and roaring of the ocean, as the voice of the Almighty, in the thunder of his power, the voice of speech, a dull, confused noise as of a tumult, as the noise of an host; when they stood, they let down their wings, in reverential rest before the only living God, who now puts a restraint on the fierceness of the creatures in carrying out the divine wrath.
v. 25. And there was a voice from the firmament that was over their heads, a command from Jehovah himself, when they stood and had let down their wings, in full and submissive silence, awaiting the commands of him who has power over all created beings.
v. 26. And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, that being time highest object in the prophet’s vision, as the appearance of a sapphire stone, a sky-blue, or violet-colored stone; and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it, the Godhead thus appearing in the likeness of enthroned humanity. Cf Exo 24:10.
v. 27. And I saw as the color of amber, like metal glowing in the refiner’s furnace, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins even upward and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about, the glow apparently enclosed within a definite space.
v. 28. As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, the rainbow occupying a well-defined area of brilliancy, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. Cf Rev 4:3. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord, in this way Ezekiel received some impression of the exalted majesty of the Lord of the covenant, of the true God. A similar experience was accorded the prophet upon three subsequent occasions. Eze 3:22; Eze 8:4; Eze 43:1. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, a sinful man overcome by the glorious majesty of the holy God, and I heard the voice of one that spake. The purpose of God in granting this vision to Ezekiel was to reveal His almighty and merciful presence as the Lord and King whose power extends over the whole world, who has the strength to judge the heathen and to deliver His people, now held in shameful captivity, and let them once more enjoy the beauty of His grace. Would that the believers of all times, yea, all men, might receive the Word of the Lord with the same humility here shown by the prophet.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv4, 7, 10, 13, 15, 17, 19, 22, 24 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Ezekiel continues to describe his vision.
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a windstorm
This is a storm that has a lot of wind.
coming from the north
North is the direction to your left when you look toward the sun while it is rising.
a great cloud with fire flashing within it
This can be translated as a new sentence: "The storm had a very large cloud with fire flashing in it"
fire flashing
Possible meanings are 1) "flashing lightning" or 2) "constant lightning."
brightness surrounding it and inside of it
"a very bright light was around the cloud and inside of it"
the color of amber
"bright yellow like amber" or "bright yellow" or "glowing yellow"
amber
a hard yellow resin that is used as a beautiful decoration on jewelry
In the middle
"Inside the storm"
the likeness of four living creatures
Here the abstract noun "likeness" means that what Ezekiel saw looked like these things. The word can be translated with a verbal phrase. AT: "what looked like four living creatures" (See: Abstract Nouns)
This was their appearance
The abstract noun "appearance" can be translated as a verbal phrase. AT: "This is what they looked like" (See: Abstract Nouns)
They had the likeness of a man
The abstract noun "appearance" can be translated as a verbal phrase. AT: "The four creatures looked like people" (See: Abstract Nouns)
but they had four faces each, and each of the creatures had four wings
"but each of them had four different faces and four wings." Each creature had a face on the front, a face on the back, and a face on each side of its head.
translationWords
fire
like
life
creature
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv4, 5, 10, 11, 15, 16, 18, 19, 22 1:4-28 The language of this opening vision is that…
1:4-28 The language of this opening vision is that of theophany, a physical manifestation of God (see study note on Deut 1:33). It was difficult for Ezekiel to describe what he saw, as is evident from his frequent use of “looked like,” “something like,” and “seemed.” The overall effect is nonetheless clear and menacing; verbs of motion are combined with symbols of judgment to warn that God’s judgment will inevitably fall upon rebellious Jerusalem.
1:4 I saw a great storm: This language speaks of theophany (see study note on 1:4-28) as God appears in judgment. That this fiery presence is coming from the north, the direction from which Israel’s enemies had traditionally come, compounds the perception of danger. God was coming as a mighty warrior, not to rescue his people but to bring judgment against them.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.