And the cherubim mounted up. This was the living creature that I saw by the river Chebar.
The throne that once stood in the temple is now in the air, carried by the beings Ezekiel had already seen in exile. Does God's departure from His house mean He is gone for good?
The wings and the wheels lift together. What leaves the temple is not a symbol but God Himself — and the sight grows brighter as He goes.
But, sadly for Israel, the mercy-seat is left, and the cherubim now go out from it. "And the cherubim lifted up their wings, and mounted up from the earth in my sight when they went out, and the wheels beside them. And they stood at the entrance of the east gate of the Lord's house;" and now also "the glory of the God of Israel is over them above." It is God who is leaving His earthly home; and yet even as He leaves, everything takes on a greater clearness and a fuller glory.
Ezekiel names what he is looking at by pointing back to Chebar. Two things he had known apart now come together: the golden figures over the mercy-seat, God's seat in the temple, and the living creatures of his first vision.
But now the cherubim mount up, and at last we have the full identification of the living creature with the figures upon the mercy-seat. "And the cherubim mounted up. These were the living creatures that I saw by the Chebar canal." "I knew," says the prophet just after this, "I knew that they were cherubim." There is the complete identification. It is, as it were, those figures upon the mercy-seat that are now showing life and activity.
The name itself has been traced two ways, and here the two meanings meet.
It is very striking about this word "cherub" that only two derivations seem satisfactory at all. One comes from the word charab, "to engrave." On that reading "cherub" is its past participle, so it means "the forms engraved." This fits — and only this fits — the cherubim of the mercy-seat. On the other hand, Hengstenberg argues for a different origin, which fits the meaning of the living creatures exactly. On his view it is a compound word, che-rov, "as it were a multitude." But here it is not the mercy-seat before us; it is the Chebar vision. It is surely significant that the one meaning now passes over into the other. More than that, the reality is now taking the place of the mere symbol. The cherubim are indeed the living ones, full of life in every way, standing for that great host of God which in all His creation always obeys His will.
Chebar was a canal in the land of exile, where Ezekiel lived among the captives. God showed him the throne there, outside the land.
Ezekiel is among the captives at the river Chebar. While he is there he sees the glory of the Lord, the glory that was on the cherubim, those mighty agents of divine power — the real cherubim, not the typical golden ones. Outside the land, far away at distant Chebar, a prophet sees visions of God outside of Israel.
When the living cherubim carry the glory off, the gold ones inside are left covering an empty seat.
The temple is empty; the glory has departed from it! In vain the cherubim of gold stretched out their wings over a forsaken mercy-seat and over a broken law. He who filled that throne of glory until a little while ago had left it. Nebuchadnezzar might take possession of the temple as of a corpse.
The reason for the leaving is moral, and the leaving has a limit.
The glory was departing, not coming to dwell there. The Lord is leaving the seat which He was pleased to choose — not leaving it for ever, for He has chosen it for ever. But meanwhile He is morally driven away by the sins and apostasy of His own people. The prophecy of Ezekiel is explicit. He will return and dwell there, and never again leave His home as long as the earth lasts.
- Throne. The creatures at Chebar and the golden figures over the mercy-seat are the same. What was engraved in the sanctuary is now alive and moving.
- Departure. The wings lift and the wheels leave the ground — God Himself is going out of the house He chose to fill.
- Cause. Babylon did not drive Him out; the sins of His own people did. The empty house could then be taken like a corpse.
- Reach. The throne appeared to a captive beside a foreign canal. God's presence and rule were not shut inside Jerusalem.
- Return. Even in judgment the glory grows clearer. Ezekiel is explicit: the same glory will come back and stay.
And when the cherubim went, the wheels went beside them; and when the cherubim lifted up their wings to mount up from the earth, the same wheels also turned not from beside them.
Ezekiel watches the glory of God leave the temple. Verse 16 shows the wheels moving as one with the cherubim, which raises two questions: what are these wheels, and why does it matter that they never part?
This is not God arriving to settle in. It is God pulling away from the house He had chosen — though writers are careful to say the leaving is not final.
The glory was departing, not coming to dwell there. The LORD is leaving the seat He chose gladly — but not leaving it for ever, for He has chosen it for ever. In the meantime the sin of His own people, and their turning away from Him, morally drive Him out. Ezekiel's prophecy is clear: He will return and dwell there, and never leave His home again as long as the earth lasts.
The repeated detail — the wheels going beside them, not turning aside — is the point. Nothing in this vision acts on its own.
A few things differ from the earliest appearance. But the wheels are never separate from the cherub figures. They never differ in their common action, or in the outcome of their complex movements. The vision claims this all-reaching intelligence even more for the whole body — backs, hands, wings, wheels.
The wheels touch the ground. They stand for the turning of events in the world.
In Ezekiel the wheels are a symbol, joined to the living creatures of God's rule over events on earth. The Spirit was in the wheels. They looked like beryl and were full of eyes: a picture of the motion of events as controlled, yet intelligent. There were wheels within wheels, which mark that control of events as mysterious and hidden.
Because one Spirit drives both creatures and wheels, history is never left to itself:
It is the exact reverse of circumstances left to blind chance. Instead, whatever the upheavals or changes among men, all of it is guided knowingly, even where you would least expect it.
Verse 16 has the wheels rising with the cherubim. Wheels that leave the ground no longer roll on it — and that is the sentence on Israel.
It is God who is leaving His earthly home. Yet even as He leaves, everything takes on greater clearness and fuller glory. Notice once more, as we are meant to, how closely the wheels depend on the living creatures. As the cherubim mount up, the wheels mount up with them: they leave the earth. So, as far as Israel is concerned, the sentence may be delayed. We read of this lingering a while over the east gate. But the sign tells us that they are soon, as it were, to revolve no more.
These cherubim are the figures of the mercy seat — the gold lid of the ark, the chest in the temple's innermost room, where blood was sprinkled. Ezekiel sees them alive, in motion, and going.
For Israel there is to be no more mercy seat, with the cherubim bending down to see the blood of propitiation placed on it. If the altar is rejected, there is no blood to be sprinkled on it any more. But then He who dwells between the cherubim must go out.
The same living creatures appear later, in the book of Revelation, but in different company. One writer takes that change as the mark of a different day.
In Ezekiel, they are accompanied by wheels, but here by crowned and enthroned elders. In the prophet's book, one spirit moves both them and the wheels... For in those days of Ezekiel, the throne whose purpose they express was about to move out of the sanctuary, so wheels suited it. But in the day this vision looks forward to, the throne is at rest. The Church stands around it in her royal and priestly glories, and crowned and seated elders suit it.
- Cause — the glory does not drift away. The sin of His own people drives Him out, and He leaves the mercy seat because they rejected the altar.
- Concert — wheels and cherubim never part and never act apart. One Spirit moves both.
- Control — the wheels are full of eyes. Events on earth move under control and intelligence, the exact reverse of blind chance.
- Consequence — the wheels lift off the ground with the cherubim. God's government stops turning for Israel, after lingering a while at the east gate.
- Return — He leaves the place He chose for ever, and Ezekiel says plainly that He will come back and never leave it again.
When they stood, these stood; and when they mounted up, these mounted up with them for the spirit of the living creature was in them.
Ezekiel is watching God's throne get ready to leave His own house, carried by the cherubim — the living creatures of the vision. This verse stops on one detail: the wheels never move on their own, because the spirit of the living creatures is in them.
Nothing in the vision moves by itself. One writer spells out what that rules out:
It is the exact opposite of circumstances left to blind chance. Instead, whatever the revolutions or changes among men, everything is guided on purpose — and in the places you would least expect.
The wheels are a picture, and that picture has a settled meaning:
In Ezekiel these are symbols, linked with the living creatures of God's providential rule on earth. The Spirit was in the wheels. The wheels looked like beryl and were full of eyes. This pictures the controlled but intelligent motion of events. Wheels were within wheels, which marks the control of events as mysterious and hidden.
The living creatures belong to the throne above. The wheels are the part of the vision that rests on earth.
Here the prophet is on earth, and the wheels appear on earth too. They touch it more closely than the living creatures do. Yet the wheels move in step with the living creatures — in fact the living creatures move them, for the spirit of the living creatures is in the wheels. So their character shows in the wheels.
So human history is not a separate system running beside God's. It carries the stamp of the throne that moves it.
The vision is not machinery for its own sake. Every quality in it traces back to one source:
Intelligence, strength, stability and swiftness in judgment all depended on the throne. So did the movement of the whole course of events on earth. This living energy gave life to the whole. The cherubim who support the throne are full of eyes, and that energy moved them. The wheels of God's government moved by the same spirit, and went straight forward. All was subject to the will and purpose of Him who sat on the throne judging rightly.
Ezekiel's throne has wheels; a later vision of the same living creatures does not. One writer sees the difference as deliberate:
In Ezekiel, wheels go with them; but here crowned elders on thrones go with them. In Ezekiel, one spirit gives life to them and to the wheels… In those days, the throne whose purpose they express was about to move away from the sanctuary, and wheels suited it. But in the day this vision looks ahead to, the throne is at rest.
This verse is the last still moment before that move. What stands with the cherubim here will rise with them two verses later:
Notice once more, as we are called to it, the close dependence of the wheels upon the living creatures. As the cherubim mount up, the wheels mount up with them: they leave the earth.
One writer weighs where the verse puts the spirit: in the wheels, not in the fire.
Ezekiel says twice that the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels — not in the amber fire. The spirit of judgment is not in its direct work of destruction. It is in the revolutions that come from its indirect work — the beryl, the rainbow, the beneficial results. Our spirits may well rest here too. Not in the horror of its yellow consuming flames, but where the heavenly blue mixes with the yellow. There is a green hope there, like springing grass, of a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
So our hope rests where the spirit rests: on the wheels, not on the flames.
- Spirit — the wheels have no life of their own. They stand and rise only as the living creatures do, because one spirit moves both.
- Throne — that spirit comes from above. The whole course of events on earth depends on the One who sits and judges rightly.
- Earth — the wheels are the part of the vision that touches the ground. So world history carries the character of the throne that drives it.
- Departure — wheels suit a throne on the move, and this throne is leaving its house. When the cherubim rise, the wheels leave the earth with them.
- Hope — the spirit is in the wheels, not in the fire. Judgment's turning wheels run past destruction toward a new heaven and a new earth.
And the glory of Jehovah departed from over the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubim.
Fire has been scattered over Jerusalem, and now the glory of God lifts off the threshold of the temple and settles on the cherubim, ready to move. Why did God leave His own house, how did He go, and will He ever come back?
Verse 18 is the turn. The glory is on the move, and it is moving out.
In verse 18 we see a move of the gravest significance… There might be a lingering over the east gate, but the glory was departing.
The glory stood in the doorway before it left the house. The cherubim are His throne, and that throne can move. The glory that once filled the house with blessing was now there for the opposite reason.
The Lord's glory had filled that house at first, for deepest blessing (see 2 Chron. 5:13-14). Now it filled the house for judgment… He leaves His throne, stands upon the threshold, and, so to say, superintends the judgment He has commanded. There is something intensely solemn in this. The cherubim and the crushing wheels of that throne could have carried it out easily. But no — the dishonoured Lord of that sadly defiled house stands on its very threshold. He Himself directs the judgment that would wipe out the house.
The glory does not vanish. It moves in slow stages: from the throne to the threshold, then back over the cherubim, then out to the mountain east of the city. The way He left matters as much as the fact that He left.
With slow and measured pace, the glory of the God of Israel took its departure from the house at Jerusalem. The Lord lingered near the spot, reluctant to depart. He had come with loving eagerness, with His whole heart and with His whole soul. He came to dwell among His people, to find a home in the very heart of His assembly. But their sins and wrongdoing forced Him away. He would gladly have stayed; but it was impossible; and yet He proved, by the very way He left, how unwilling He was to go.
Each pause left room for something that never came.
It shows how reluctantly the holy and gracious God was leaving the place where He lived. It is as though He were pleading with the people, asking if they would not yet give His holiness a place among them. Sadly, there is no response; and reluctantly He leaves the threshold and takes His place outside the temple. Still He lingers, and still there is no response, so He leaves the temple hill and goes over to the Mount of Olives. At last He departs, leaving them alone.
The building still stood. But one word now hung over it: "Ichabod," which means "the glory has departed."
When the glory of the Lord left the threshold of the house, "Ichabod" was written on that house where the God of Israel had recorded His name. How sad that the heart of man should forsake the fountain of living waters!
The loss was bigger than one building. God's throne on earth had stood in Jerusalem.
This present period is the period of the Gentiles. At its start, the throne of the Lord was taken away from Jerusalem… it departs from the house, and from the city. It is a remarkable fact that the glory of the Lord has left its earthly throne. But more: at the same time this earthly power passed from Jerusalem to the Gentiles, and government was entrusted to men. So we read in Daniel 2:36-38.
The glory leaves, but not forever.
The Lord of the temple was rejected; the house of Israel was given up; the glory was returning to heaven. When the judgments on Israel have turned them back to the Lord, the glory returns the same way it had departed. Compare Ezek. 43:1-4 and Zech. 14:1-9.
- Glory grieved. The sins of His people pushed God out of the house He had come to live in. He would gladly have stayed.
- Glory lingering. He left in stages, pausing at each one. He waited for a repentance that never came.
- Glory directing. He stood in the doorway and oversaw the judgment on the city Himself. He did not leave it to the cherubim and wheels.
- Glory gone. "Ichabod" now stood over the house. God's throne left the earth, and world government passed to the Gentiles.
- Glory returning. The road out becomes the road home. When judgment turns Israel back to the Lord, the glory returns the same way it left.
And the cherubim lifted up their wings, and mounted up from the earth in my sight, when they went out; and the wheels were beside them; and they stood at the door of the east gate of Jehovah's house; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above.
God's presence had been seen inside the temple, above the ark, between the cherubim; here it stands outside the house, at the east gate. Why would God leave the one place on earth He had chosen, and does He mean to come back?
The cherubim here are not fixed in place. They carry a throne, and that throne is on the move.
Here we have in divine detail "the chariot of the cherubim," the chariot on which almighty Jehovah rides out in His government and judgment. Here the throne is in motion, passing with unstoppable majesty from place to place across His wide creation. Tied closely to this is the transfer of the throne from His temple to the chariot, and its removal from Jerusalem and the chosen people. The men trusted with the honour of that temple had defiled it.
This move is not God losing interest in the place. It answers what His people had done inside it. One writer adds that His choice of that place still stands, and that He will come back.
The glory was departing, not coming to dwell there. Jehovah is leaving the seat which He was pleased to choose — not leaving it for ever, for He has chosen it for ever. But meanwhile He is morally driven away by the sins and the falling away of His own people. Ezekiel's prophecy says plainly that He will return and dwell there, never to leave His home again as long as the earth lasts.
God moves out in slow stages: from between the cherubim, to the threshold, and now out to the gate. One writer hears an appeal in that slowness.
It shows how unwillingly the holy and gracious God was leaving the place where He had made His home. It is as though He were pleading with the people, asking whether they would even now give His holiness a place among them. Sadly, there is no answer. He leaves the threshold and takes His place outside the temple. Still He lingers, and still there is no response, so that He leaves the temple hill and goes over to the Mount of Olives.
The pause at the gate is real, but it settles nothing. Kelly marks verse 18 as the turning point of the whole chapter and reads the halt for exactly what it is:
There might be a lingering over the east gate, but the glory was departing.
The wheels never move on their own. Here they rise with the cherubim, and one writer reads that detail as a message about Israel.
It is God who is leaving His earthly home. Yet even as He leaves, everything takes on a greater clearness and a fuller glory. Notice once more how closely the wheels depend on the living creatures. As the cherubim rise, the wheels rise with them: they leave the earth. So as far as Israel is concerned, the sentence may be put off for a while, and we read that delay in this lingering over the east gate. Even so, we are shown that they are soon, as it were, to turn no more.
What follows this vision is not only Jerusalem's ruin but a rearrangement of world power. With the throne gone from the city, rule over the nations passes to Babylon.
At the beginning, or rather before the beginning of these four monarchies, the throne of God was on the earth at Jerusalem. In His temple, above the ark where the law was deposited, Jehovah showed His presence in a way that could be seen. But at the start of this present period, which is that of the Gentiles, the throne of Jehovah was taken away from Jerusalem. In chapter 1 the prophet had seen the glory of Jehovah near the river Chebar. In chapter 11 he sees it leave Jerusalem: it departs from the house, and from the city. It is a remarkable fact that the glory of Jehovah has left its earthly throne.
The east gate is not the last word. The same glory comes back, and by the same road.
When the visible glory of the Lord withdrew, His gracious presence left His people, and judgment followed. The return of the visible glory means His gracious presence comes back to them. It also means the judgment, which has lasted so long, is gone for ever. The glory left by the east gate, and it was last seen on the mountain on the east side of the city. The return is from the way of the east, and the glory of the Lord enters through the east gate.
- Cause. God did not lose interest in the place. He was "morally driven away" by what His people did inside His house.
- Reluctance. Innermost room, threshold, east gate, mountain — God leaves in slow stages, pleading for an answer that never comes.
- Consequence. The wheels rise with the cherubim and leave the ground. For Israel, the turning is about to stop.
- Handover. With God's throne gone from Jerusalem, the age of the Gentile nations begins, and His glory has left its earthly throne.
- Return. He leaves the seat He chose, but He has chosen it for ever. The glory that went out by the east gate comes back in by the east gate.
This is the living creature that I saw under the God of Israel by the river Chebar; and I knew that they were cherubim.
Ezekiel is far from Jerusalem, living in exile beside the Chebar canal. There he watches the glory of God lift off the temple on winged creatures, and he knows them from his first vision — now he can name them.
The prophet's first vision described four "living creatures" without saying what they were. This later chapter settles the question.
If any doubt remains in the reader's mind, Ezekiel 10 makes it plain: the living creatures are the cherubim. Here they are not two, like the figures beaten out of the ends of the pure gold that formed the mercy-seat, where God sat as on a throne. They are four — which, I take it, relates to the creature.
The cherubim were not new to Israel. Two gold ones stood over the mercy-seat on the ark, and Ezekiel knew them.
Now the cherubim mount up. At last we can fully identify the living creature with the figures on the mercy-seat. … It is, as it were, those figures on the mercy-seat that are now showing life and activity.
The name itself points in two directions.
Only two origins for the word "cherub" seem at all satisfactory. One is the word charab, "to engrave." Then "cherub" is its past participle: "the forms engraved." This fits — and alone fits — the cherubim of the mercy-seat. But Hengstenberg argues for another origin, which fits the meaning of the living creatures exactly: a compound word, che-rov, "as it were a multitude." … The reality is now taking the place of the mere symbol.
Each face carries its own meaning.
Each living creature had four faces. The first was the face of a man, which speaks of intelligence. The second was the face of a lion, which symbolises strength. The third was the face of an ox, standing for patient endurance. The fourth was the face of an eagle, which implies swift action. Together they show perfect organisation for carrying out the government of God, according to His righteous judgement.
The verse puts the creatures underneath "the God of Israel." That title reaches back to the ark, and forward to judgment.
The God of Israel dwelt between the cherubim on the ark, in the middle of His people. People came near to Him by blood, according to divine righteousness. The witness of His judicial authority guarded that righteousness. … He would judge His guilty people by Babylon as His instrument.
Ezekiel saw this throne in exile, by the river Chebar. It is the same throne now leaving the temple.
In Ezekiel the prophet's place is quite outside Jerusalem, by the river Chebar. He is carried there to see the judgment carried out, but the glory of the Lord goes there to judge. This shows that, come what may, His throne on the cherubim is always there. It reaches far beyond its special place in the middle of the people. … He had put Himself among the people in grace and wisdom that stooped low. But that was only a special showing, in great favour, to display His glory. His people had been unfaithful to it. Their unfaithfulness took away the seat of the throne — the throne, and not Jehovah off His throne.
In this chapter the cherubim are not fixed furniture. They carry the throne away from God's house.
Here we have in divine detail "the chariot of the cherubim." It is the chariot on which the almighty Jehovah goes out in His government and judgment. The throne is in motion. It passes with unstoppable majesty from place to place across His wide creation. Bound up with this is the move of the throne out of His temple and onto the chariot, away from Jerusalem and the chosen people. Sinful men held the honour of that temple in trust, and they defiled it.
So is God finished with the place He chose?
The glory was departing, not coming to dwell there. Jehovah is leaving the seat He was pleased to choose — not leaving it for ever, for He has chosen it for ever. But meanwhile the sins and the turning away of His own people have morally driven Him out. Ezekiel's prophecy says plainly that He will return and dwell there. He will never leave His home again, as long as the earth lasts.
- Same creatures. Ezekiel's first vision left the living creatures unnamed. Here he names them: cherubim. One vision, not two.
- Same figures. The gold shapes over the mercy-seat now live and move. Symbol gives way to reality.
- Same faces. Man, lion, ox and eagle stand for intelligence, strength, patient endurance and swift action. Together they picture God's righteous rule.
- Same throne. The throne appeared by a canal in exile. God's rule was never locked inside one city. The seat moved; He did not.
- Same God returning. His people's sin drove the glory out. But the prophecy promises it will return and stay.
Each one had four faces, and every one four wings; and the likeness of the hands of a man was under their wings.
Ezekiel 10 ends with one last careful look at the figures that carry God's glory out of the temple. Why count them again — four faces each, four wings each, human hands under the wings — at the very moment God is leaving?
Earlier in the vision Ezekiel could only call these figures "living creatures." Now he can name them. The name ties them to the figures on the mercy-seat — the cover of the ark inside the temple.
But now the cherubim mount up, and at last we have the full identification of the living creature with the figures upon the mercy-seat. "I knew," says the prophet just after this, "I knew that they were cherubim." It is, as it were, those figures upon the mercy-seat that are now showing life and activity.
The number four keeps returning in this verse. One writer reads it as a picture of reach — in knowledge, in movement, and in service.
There were four living creatures. That suggests these powers are universal, for there is not one spot in the whole universe beyond the control of God. Their four faces suggest that they know every movement in the universe. Their four wings speak of their universal activity, for they reach every point in the created world. The hands under the wings assure us that they can serve God both in heaven and on earth.
Each face carries its own meaning. Together they form one picture of how God rules.
Each living creature had four faces. The first was the face of a man, which speaks of "intelligence." The second was the face of a lion, which symbolises "strength." The third was the face of an ox, standing for "patient endurance." The fourth was the face of an eagle, which implies "swiftness of execution." All of them show perfect organisation for carrying out the government of God according to His righteous judgement.
Hands are the one human detail the verse names. Where they sit — under the wings — matters too.
They had human hands under their wings. This surely means they had a delicacy of touch and a power of handling things that their feet lacked. So they were not four-footed, but human. And their hands sat under wings that marked them out as fitted for a higher sphere than earth.
Set beside the wings, the hands complete a pair — one for doing, one for speed.
Activity, or skill in doing, seems to be represented by the hands of a man. The wings represent swiftness of execution from above, without a moment's turning aside from the task in hand, and with four sides, so as to move in all directions.
So who are these cherubim? One writer ties them to God's authority to judge, and says they are not a fixed order of beings at all.
The cherubim have been well described as "God's judicial executive, to whomsoever entrusted, and in whatever circumstances displayed." They do not appear to be a distinct order in the creation of God; they are rather symbolical figures. In His ways of government and judgement God sometimes uses angels and sometimes men. Whichever it may be, the instruments employed would be God's cherubim for the moment.
Ezekiel counts faces, wings and hands while the glory is on its way out of the house. Which way it is moving is the heart of the matter — and it is not the end of the story.
The glory was departing, not coming to dwell there. Jehovah is leaving the seat He gladly chose — not leaving it for ever, for He has chosen it for ever. But meanwhile the sins of His own people, and their turning away from Him, have driven Him out. Ezekiel's prophecy is clear that He will return and dwell there, never to leave His home again as long as the earth lasts. His people will then enjoy the rest of God under Messiah and the new covenant.
- Named. The living creatures of the vision are now named: cherubim. They are the figures from the mercy-seat, alive and moving.
- Faced. Four faces — man, lion, ox, eagle. They stand for intelligence, strength, patient endurance and swift action in God's government.
- Winged. Four faces and four wings each. Nothing escapes their sight, and no place lies beyond their reach.
- Handed. Human hands under the wings mean careful, skilled work — by beings fitted for a higher sphere than earth.
- Moving. These hands serve God's authority to judge. Here they carry His glory out of a house His people's sin drove Him from — a house He has chosen for ever, and will return to.
And as for the likeness of their faces, they were the faces which I had seen by the river Chebar -- their appearance and themselves they went every one straight before them.
Ezekiel has been watching the glory of God leave the temple step by step, and here he records what carried it: the same faces he had seen years before by a canal in Babylon. That repeat matters — the God who is leaving His house has not changed in power or purpose.
Ezekiel had described these beings in chapter 1 without naming them. Now he names them, and that ties the vision to the mercy-seat — the gold lid of the ark, which carried figures of cherubim.
But now the cherubim rise up, and at last we can fully identify the living creature with the figures on the mercy-seat. "The cherubim mounted up … this was the living creature that I saw by the Chebar canal." "I knew," says the prophet just after this, "I knew that they were cherubim." The identification is complete. It is as if those figures on the mercy-seat are now showing life and activity.
Each creature carried four faces. Together they picture how God governs.
The faces of these living creatures match the faces of the four living creatures in Revelation 4. Each living creature had four faces. The first was the face of a man, which speaks of "intelligence". The second was the face of a lion, which stands for "strength". The third was the face of an ox, representing "patient endurance". The fourth was the face of an eagle, which implies "swiftness of execution." All show perfect organisation for carrying out the government of God according to His righteous judgement.
What happens when power resists them? One writer follows the four faces to their outcome.
They will out-think, out-last, out-wear and out-distance every opposing power, and will never fail to carry out every detail of the will of God in the universe. Going straight forward in their might, they will sweep aside all opposition until everything is subdued. Then the glory of God comes into full view in the glorified Man, Christ Jesus.
The verse ends with each creature going straight forward. One writer explains the phrase by comparing it with the way human commanders plan.
Generals fighting a war would have what people call "a major plan". If that failed, they would fall back on "a secondary plan". But nothing here suggests a secondary plan: "Each one of them went straight forward." God needs no secondary plan. They are invincible. Nothing can deflect them or turn them aside. Nebuchadnezzar with all his power could not turn them aside.
These same creatures are now moving away from Jerusalem. One commentator notes that the vision still holds together, and that the pause at the gate changes nothing.
There is no separation of the wheels from the cherubim. There is not the least difference in how they act together, or in the result of their complex movements… There might be a lingering over the east gate, but the glory was departing.
Why would God leave at all? One writer points to the state of the people, and to how two prophets reacted.
God gave Ezekiel, whose name means "strengthened of God," the power to see this! Jeremiah, too, had said, "You, O Lord, are in the midst of us, and we are called by Your Name; leave us not" (14:9); but the people were corrupt beyond cure, and He would stay no longer. This distressed Jeremiah deeply, but God did not allow Ezekiel to mourn. Slowly the glory of the Lord withdrew, first to "the threshold of the house."
The story does not end at the east gate. Later in the book the same glory travels the other way.
It is the same glory which departed, which returns; it is the same Lord, who resumes relationship with His earthly people. When the visible glory of the Lord withdrew, His gracious presence left His people, and judgment followed. When the visible glory returns, His gracious presence returns among them, and the judgment that has lasted so long is gone forever. The glory left through the east gate, and was finally seen on the mountain at the east side of the city. The return is from the way of the east, and the glory of the Lord enters through the east gate.
- Same faces. What Ezekiel saw in exile by the Chebar canal is what he now sees over Jerusalem. He names the creatures at last: the cherubim of the mercy-seat, alive and moving.
- Same God. The four faces — man, lion, ox, eagle — stand for intelligence, strength, patient endurance and swift action. Together they form a complete arrangement for God's righteous government.
- Same course. "Straight forward" means no swerve and no backup plan. Not even Nebuchadnezzar could turn them aside.
- Same slowness. The glory left in stages and lingered at the east gate, but lingering was not staying — the departure was real.
- Same return. The glory that went out by the east gate comes back by the east gate. His gracious presence returns with it, and the long judgment is over.