And it came to pass when he had commanded the man clothed with linen, saying, Take fire from between the wheels, from between the cherubim, then he went in, and stood beside the wheel.
The command of verse 2 is now carried out. The man who had marked the righteous in Jerusalem steps in among the wheels to take fire. Two questions drive the scene: where does this fire come from, and who is the man carrying it?
The order to take fire does not come from the destroyers. It comes from higher up — from the One who fills the throne above the cherubim.
So from Him who is not even named, but who fills the throne above, came the command announcing consuming judgment for the city. The cloud of Jehovah's presence was there. But it gave no shelter and no direction now to a people who had given up all care for His will. They had preferred a calf or a dung-god to the Eternal of Israel. How changed from the day when Jehovah went before them, or filled the sanctuary!
Notice who obeys. The man in linen had carried mercy to those who grieved over the city's sins. This writer also looks ahead from here to a later day of wrath.
The judgment still goes on. The man clothed in linen has been the messenger of God's mercy until now. He is the one told to go in between the turning wheels, fill his hand with coals of fire from between the cherubim, and scatter them over the city. Here we have a telling picture of divine wrath. It is at least an approach to what we find later, when the day of wrath still to come has arrived. Then this will be plainly "the wrath of the Lamb." How terrible and how hopeless when it is His wrath! And yet how good to see and know this: He who is eternal Love itself will carry out the judgment. So the one cannot contradict the other.
Commentators differ on this figure. Some read the linen as a picture of God's own righteousness, set against ours:
The man clothed in linen is a symbol of divine righteousness, as opposed to our righteousnesses, which are pictured as filthy rags. He completes his assignment. He is the ready and obedient servant of God. He and his companions show no personal sympathy or feeling that would soften the task. As servants of righteousness, they obey.
Others name a person, described again elsewhere in Scripture:
The linen-clothed man who had done the marking in the previous chapter is now carrying out judgment. Who is He? He is more than an angel. That He is a supernatural being is clear. This angel is the Angel of the Lord, the same who appeared to the patriarchs, to Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Manoah, and to others. It is the Son of God in the dress of an angel. In the same form He also appeared to Daniel by the river Hiddekel.
Two details carry the weight here: the wheels pause, and the hands are human.
The wheels of the earlier vision are here too, ready to turn. They are held still for the moment, as the linen-clothed man goes in to take the fire. We have already seen that fire at the river Chebar, going up and down between the cherubim. Now the cherubim put it into his hands. This reminds us of what we saw before: there was the form of a man's hand under the wings of the cherubim. Human hands, we need not doubt, are to carry out that judgment which is still the wrath of God.
Ezekiel hears the same order twice: once given, once obeyed. The repetition strikes at a false confidence in Jerusalem.
Next we have the carrying out of the command in the vision. This made everything more impressive and more certain to those who flattered themselves. They thought that whatever sharp lessons and chastenings Jehovah sent, He could never disown Israel. They thought that whatever temporary successes the enemy had, the land, the city and the temple must prove an unfailing defence. No enemy, they assumed, could ever gain a lasting advantage over the chosen people.
- Source. The destroyers do not kindle this fire. It comes from between the cherubim, at the word of the unnamed One on the throne above them.
- Servant. The one who obeys is the same man in linen who had marked the righteous for mercy. One hand carries mercy and wrath, not two rival ones.
- Person. Commentators differ on him. Some read the linen as a symbol of divine righteousness in an obedient servant. Others name him the Son of God in the form of an angel.
- Means. The wheels pause while the man takes the fire. Human hands will scatter it, and it is still the wrath of God.
- Certainty. Ezekiel sees the command given, then sees it obeyed. That breaks the settled assumption that temple, city and land made Israel untouchable.
And the cherub stretched forth his hand from between the cherubim unto the fire that was between the cherubim, and took and put it into the hands of him [that was] clothed with linen; who took [it], and went out.
Ezekiel is watching a vision of judgment unfold inside the temple itself. Why does the holy fire of God's own throne become the tool of the city's ruin, and why does a cherub pass it into a man's hands?
The command behind this action comes from the One seated above the cherubim. The cloud of His presence in the house shelters no one now.
So the command came from Him who is not even named, but who fills the throne above. It pointed to consuming judgment for the city. The one He commissioned to mark the righteous so they would be spared is now told to fill his hand with coals of fire from between the cherubim and to scatter them over Jerusalem. The cloud of the Lord's presence was there. But it gave no shelter, no direction now to the people. They had abandoned all care for His will. They preferred a calf or a dung-god to the Eternal of Israel. How changed from the day when the Lord went before them, or filled the sanctuary!
Under the wings of these living creatures Ezekiel had already seen the form of a human hand. Here the fire goes into human hands.
The wheels of the former vision are here also, and ready to turn. They are halted for the moment, as the man clothed in linen goes in to take the fire. We have already seen that fire at the river Chebar, going up and down between the cherubim. Now they put it into his hands. We have seen before that there was the form of a man's hand under the wings of the cherubim. Human hands, we need not doubt, are to carry out that judgment. Yet that judgment is itself the wrath of God.
One writer names the human power God used: "Nebuchadnezzar a little later was the providential power used to this end" (W. T. P. Wolston).
One writer identifies the cherubim, then contrasts two uses of the fire they hold.
The four living creatures of this vision are the cherubim. And notice the action of the cherubim. It was not to take a handful of fire now for purification, but for judgment; so that he, now clothed in linen, might scatter it over the city. The cross is the measure of both purification and judgment.
The man receiving the fire is the same figure who had gone through the city marking those who grieved over its sins.
The judgment still goes on. The man clothed in linen has until now been the messenger of God's mercy. Now he is told to go in between the turning wheels, fill his hand with coals of fire from between the cherubim, and scatter them over the city. Here, of course, we have the telling picture of divine wrath... How terrible and how hopeless when it is His wrath! And yet how good to see and know that the One who will carry out the judgment is eternal Love itself. So the one cannot contradict the other.
Commentators differ over who this figure is. Some call him an angel. His linen clothing, one writer says, "may be compared to the robe worn by the priest on the great day of atonement" (Edwin N. Cross). Others identify him as the Lord Himself:
Who is He? Clearly more than an angel... This angel is the Angel of the Lord, the same who appeared to the patriarchs, to Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Manoah, and to others. It is the Son of God in the clothing of an angel.
God's glory once filled this house for blessing. The cherubim and wheels could have destroyed the city on their own.
That house had been filled with the Lord's glory at first, for deepest blessing. Now it was filled in the same way for judgment. The city which held it was to be burned up with coals of fire. The cherubim and the crushing wheels of that throne, described again here, could have done this easily. Instead the dishonoured Lord of that sadly defiled house stands on its very threshold. He directs in person the judgment that would wipe out its existence. There is something intensely solemn in this.
- Source. The fire is not struck by human hands. It comes from between the cherubim, at the command of the One on the throne above them.
- Transfer. A cherub's hand passes the coals into a man's hands, so human hands carry out what is still the wrath of God.
- Meaning. Elsewhere this fire purifies; here it goes out for judgment. The cross is the measure of both.
- Mercy first. The hand that now takes the fire had first marked those who grieved over the city's sins. The wrath comes from the One who is eternal Love, so the two never contradict.
- Personal. God does not delegate this and withdraw. The dishonoured Lord stands on the threshold of His own defiled house. He directs the judgment Himself.
And there appeared in the cherubim the form of a man's hand under their wings.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And I looked, and behold, four wheels beside the cherubim, one wheel beside one cherub, and another wheel beside another cherub; and the appearance of the wheels was as the look of a chrysolite stone.
Ezekiel is a captive by the river Chebar, and he sees the cherubim, the wheels and the glory of God a second time — now inside the temple at Jerusalem, just before that glory leaves it. Why does a vision of judgment stop to describe four wheels, one beside each cherub, shining like a precious stone?
Commentators read the wheels as God's rule over events. One writer ties that rule to Ezekiel's own situation:
The wheels here represent God's government, His overruling providence. It goes on without turning aside from its course, even when everything God has set up in the earth looks as if it is being overthrown. Ezekiel is a captive. God calls him to prophesy that His chosen people will be completely overthrown, and that pagan Babylon will destroy Jerusalem and the temple. But first God gives him this vision to encourage him: the wheels of His providential government in the earth, "like sparkling beryl," rolling straight on in their course.
Translations differ over which gem the Hebrew word means. One reference work sets out the problem, and where else this stone appears:
No one is certain which stone the word tarshish means. The old Greek translation of the Old Testament uses different words for it. Ezekiel 1:16 and Ezekiel 10:9 compare the "wheels" to its colour, but never say what that colour was. Some think it was the golden topaz; others think it was the chrysolite. It was the first stone in the fourth row of the high priest's breastplate, and it appears in the foundation of the heavenly Jerusalem.
One writer reads the colour and the eyes as marks of the knowledge at work in ordinary human history:
Attention is drawn once more to the wheels. We have them just as they appeared at Chebar: one wheel beside each cherub, with the look of the topaz in them, still displaying divine characteristics, though in human history, and the likeness of a wheel within a wheel. Here it is added that the whole body — backs, hands, wings and wheels — is full of eyes all round. These are the marks of a knowledge that is truly all-knowing, although of course no creature is all-knowing. They move by a wisdom higher than their own.
The phrase has passed into everyday speech for a tangle no one can follow. One writer applies it to the endless variety of means God uses, from a dungeon to a throne:
There are "wheels within wheels" in the government of God. He uses an endless variety of agents to carry out His unsearchable purposes. Potiphar's wife, Pharaoh's cupbearer, Pharaoh's dreams, Pharaoh himself, the dungeon, the throne, the chains, the royal seal, the famine — all are His to command.
The alternative is to say that nothing is steering at all. Kelly rules that out: the wheels are
the exact opposite of circumstances left to blind chance. Whatever the upheavals or changes among people, God knowingly guides it all, even where you would least expect it.
The wheels never act on their own, and that matters here: the glory is about to leave the temple.
There are some differences from the earliest vision. Not that the wheels are ever cut off from the cherubim, or that they ever depart in the least from acting together, or from the goal of their complicated movements. An intelligence that reaches everywhere is claimed even more strongly for the whole body: backs, hands, wings, wheels… There might be a lingering over the east gate, but the glory was departing.
One writer turns the vision on the reader whose wheels seem to be turning the wrong way:
Do the times seem out of order, and the wheels always turning against them? Do they start to think, as people who do not know God think, that they are at the mercy of uncontrolled, unpredictable chance? Let them consider that the Saviour is on the throne, above all the wings and wheels that confuse them… He is above all circumstances, and He controls all the wings and wheels that have their part in your life.
- Wheels. They picture God's government of events — the exact opposite of blind chance.
- Beryl. Which gem the word means is disputed — topaz or chrysolite — but the same stone sits in the high priest's breastplate and in the foundation of the heavenly Jerusalem.
- Paired. One wheel to each cherub, full of eyes: history keeps moving, but by a wisdom higher than its own.
- Tangled. "Wheel within a wheel" is the tangle we call life; God uses an endless variety of agencies inside it.
- Anchored. The wheels are never cut off from the cherubim, and the Saviour on the throne is above every wheel that turns in your life.
And as for their appearance, they four had one likeness, as if a wheel were in the midst of a wheel.
The wheels appear again beside the cherubim — the living creatures of Ezekiel's vision — as the glory of the Lord prepares to leave the temple. Ezekiel tells us they are the same wheels he saw by the river Chebar. One wheel set inside another raises the question this chapter puts to every reader. Is history a tangle of turning circumstances, or is something intelligent moving inside it?
The wheels stand for God's government of events on earth. One writer sets that against a world run by luck:
It is the exact reverse of circumstances left to blind chance. Whatever the upheavals or changes among men, God knowingly guides everything, even where you would least expect it. The instruments of that providential government, below the expanse, agreed completely with what was above. And over this was the likeness of a throne.
The shape is not decoration. It explains how the wheels could move in any direction:
The four wheels are alike, and have one basic meaning. In look and in structure each is like a wheel inside a wheel. So they travel on four sides, one wheel set into the other, crossing it at right angles. Like the living creatures, they never need to turn, whichever direction they go.
The crossed wheels also say something about how God's dealings land. Besides their direct aim, they produce results off to the side:
Their work was like a wheel inside a wheel — indirect and side results, as well as the leading feature of going straight forward. They are full of eyes: they see everything in front and behind, and judge not only results but causes.
One short summary puts both halves together — movement that is controlled and intelligent, yet hidden from view:
The Spirit was in the wheels. The wheels looked like beryl, and they were full of eyes: a picture of the controlled but intelligent motion of events. There were wheels within wheels, and these mark the control of events as mysterious and hidden.
Ezekiel says the four wheels had the same likeness. There was no difference between them, and none from what he had seen before. That sameness matters to a city about to fall:
The wheels come into view once more. We have them just as they appeared at Chebar: one wheel beside each cherub, with the look of topaz in them, and the likeness of a wheel within a wheel. They still display divine characteristics, though now in human history. Here it is added that the whole body, backs, hands, wings and wheels are full of eyes all round. These are the marks of a knowledge that is truly all-knowing — though of course no creature has such knowledge. They move by a wisdom higher than their own.
Commentators differ on the stone: some call it beryl, others topaz. Either way, the gem-like look displays divine characteristics inside human history.
The wheels never act on their own. They move with the cherubim, under the glory that is leaving the house:
The wheels are never cut off from the cherubim. There is not the least difference in their common action, or in the end of all their complicated movements. All-pervading intelligence is claimed still more strongly here for the whole body, backs, hands, wings and wheels… There might be a lingering over the east gate, but the glory was departing.
The phrase has passed into ordinary speech, and one writer turns it straight onto the reader's circumstances:
Do the times seem out of joint, with the wheels always turning against you? Are you tempted to think, as those who do not know God think, that you are at the mercy of uncontrolled and fickle chance? Then consider that the Saviour is on the throne, above all the wings and wheels that puzzle you… He is above all circumstances, and He controls all the wings and wheels that have their part in your life.
- Turning, not tumbling. The wheels rule out blind chance. Whatever changes come among men, God guides it all.
- Turning without swerving. One wheel crosses the other at right angles. So the wheels move any direction without ever turning aside.
- Turning unseen. A wheel inside a wheel brings side results as well as direct ones. The control is real, but hidden.
- Turning under eyes. Eyes all round mean the wheels judge causes as well as results. They move by a wisdom higher than their own.
- Turning under a throne. The wheels never break step with the cherubim, and above them stands the throne. The Saviour there is above every wheel in your life.
When they went, they went upon their four sides; they turned not as they went, but to the place whither the head looked they followed it they turned not as they went.
Chapter 10 shows the cherub-chariot moving over Jerusalem as judgment falls on the city. Verse 11 pauses on how that chariot travels, and that answers one question: is the city's fall a breakdown, or the advance of a throne?
These wheels belong to God's government. One writer finds the same order there that marks all God's dealings, with Israel and with the world:
We find the same unchanging divine principle of order in God's government, whether toward Israel or the world at large. There is no catch and no jolt in the divine machinery, if we may say so with all reverence. The governmental chariot never turns from its straight course. The first chapter of the prophet Ezekiel describes that course in splendid detail: every part moving in step; wheel within wheel; everything directed by "the Spirit of Life" in the wheels.
Another writer compares this with the way human generals plan:
Generals fighting a war would have what is called "a major plan". If that failed, they would fall back on "a secondary plan". But nothing here suggests a secondary plan — they all went straight forward. God needs no secondary plan. These wheels are invincible. Nothing can deflect them or turn them aside. Nebuchadnezzar with all his power could not turn them aside. He himself had to learn that God does according to His will among the armies of heaven and among the people of the earth, and that no one can stop His hand or ask Him what He is doing.
The other wheels follow the front one. Nothing here moves on its own, as one commentator notes:
Nothing separates the wheels from the cherubim. They never depart in the least from acting together, and never differ in the outcome of all their complicated movements. The text presses this even further: intelligence fills the whole body — backs, hands, wings, wheels.
If the wheels follow, something directs them. One writer traces every movement back to the throne above:
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 animated the whole. The cherubim who supported the throne were full of eyes themselves, and that energy moved them. The wheels of God's government moved by the same spirit, and went straight forward. Everything served the will and purpose of Him who sat on the throne judging right.
This throne acts in real history. Another writer sets out the sequence the book of Ezekiel records:
In Ezekiel we see His judgment on Jerusalem. God comes, and Nebuchadnezzar is the instrument. God comes on the cherubim in the way of providence — those wheels which were so high that they were dreadful. He spares His own, the ones He has marked, and gives up the rest to destruction. He executes judgment, leaves them, and goes into heaven. God leaves the Gentiles to rule, subject to His providence and final judgment; Israel, with God's throne in their midst, is set aside.
Ezekiel saw this before Jerusalem fell. One writer explains why God gave him the sight first:
The wheels here represent God's government, His overruling providence. It goes on without turning aside from its course, even when everything God has established in the earth looks overthrown. Ezekiel is in captivity. God calls him to prophesy the complete overthrow of God's chosen people and the destruction of Jerusalem and of the temple by pagan Babylon. But first, to encourage him, God gives him this vision of the wheels of His providential government in the earth, with the look of beryl, rolling straight on in their course.
Why does this vision matter now? Another writer answers:
What we have in view today is to see the light we have: light about the glory of God, the government of God, the purpose of God and the will of God. We have that light so that we may be strengthened to go on. We not only have the light of these things. We are also quite sure of the power God has at His disposal, so we can go steadily on in our service for God.
- Straight — the wheels never swerve. God's government has no second plan, and not even Nebuchadnezzar could turn it aside.
- Together — wheels and cherubim never come apart. Every part moves in one action, and intelligence fills the whole.
- Above — the motion starts at the throne; the wheels move by the same spirit and serve the will of the One seated there.
- Through — that motion reaches the ground as history. God used a Babylonian king, spared the people He had marked, and gave up the rest.
- Steady — Ezekiel saw the wheels rolling on before the city fell. When all God established looks overthrown, His course has not changed.
And their whole body, and their backs, and their hands, and their wings, and the wheels were full of eyes round about, in them four [and] their wheels.
Ezekiel is watching the glory of God prepare to leave the temple, and as it lifts he looks again at the living creatures and their wheels. The verse fixes attention on one feature: eyes cover every part, so that the whole moving throne sees.
The eyes are not decoration. They stand for a knowledge that misses nothing. Yet the creatures carrying them are still creatures.
Here something is added: the whole body, the backs, the hands, the wings and the wheels are full of eyes all around. The eyes are the marks of a knowledge that is truly all-knowing, although of course no creature is all-knowing. They move by a wisdom higher than their own. In fact they are starting their turning again, in obedience to the call of the Voice, at whose bidding they turn.
Does this vision differ from the one seen earlier? One writer says the differences never break the unity of the movement. (The writers quote an older translation, which has "backs" and "hands" where the ESV has "rims" and "spokes".)
Some features differ from the earliest appearance. But the wheels are never separated from the cherubim. They never move apart, and the end of all their complex movements is the same. Intelligence that reaches through everything is stated even more strongly here — of the whole body, the backs, the hands, the wings and the wheels. "As for the wheels, it was called in my hearing, Galgal" [wheel, or roll, roll].
The book of Revelation shows a similar throne. One writer compares the two visions and asks why this one has wheels.
In Ezekiel they had wheels; in Revelation they have none. There they were full of eyes — the "whole body, and their backs, and their hands, and their wings, and the wheels were full of eyes round about"; here they are "full of eyes before and behind" and also "within." Much of this difference is explained by Ezekiel's subject: he deals mainly with the judgment of Judah and Jerusalem. That judgment was to come from the north, from Babylon, so the wheels run on earth to show the course of judgment on earth. The living ones in Revelation are not yet seen in action; they are the servants of the throne. When they act in judgment, they act from Heaven; so they have wings and not wheels.
So is history left to chance? Commenting on the wheels in the earlier vision, one writer answers.
This is the exact opposite of circumstances left to blind chance. Whatever the upheavals or changes among people, all of it is guided with full knowledge, even where you would least expect it.
Yet the wheel inside a wheel keeps something back from the watcher.
In Ezekiel these wheels are symbols. They belong with the living creatures through which God rules and orders events on earth. The Spirit was in the wheels. The wheels looked like beryl and were full of eyes: a picture of the controlled but intelligent motion of events. Wheels were within wheels, which mark the control of the events as mysterious and hidden.
The phrase "the eyes of the Lord" appears in other books too. One writer sets those places beside Ezekiel's throne.
We find the expression, "The eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him" (2 Chronicles 16:9). Turn to God's dealings that confirmed the work He set up by His Spirit. When Zerubbabel laid the foundation of the temple, for example (Zechariah 3, 4), these "eyes of the Lord" are mentioned again. So too in Ezekiel's throne (chapter 1:18; chapter 10:12): they are the workings of God in His governing power in the world.
One writer applies the vision to anyone whose life feels like a tangle.
Are any tempted to think that their circumstances are a hopeless tangle? Do they carry a question in their souls that never goes away? Let them remember that the Saviour is on the throne, above all the wings and wheels that puzzle them. ... He has not forgotten you, or the tangles that seem to be in your life. He cannot forget you, for you are engraved on the palms of His hands. He is above all circumstances, and controls all the wings and wheels that have their part in your life.
- Eyes — eyes cover every part of the throne: body, wings and wheels alike. They stand for knowledge that misses nothing. It is borrowed knowledge, though: the creatures move by a wisdom higher than their own.
- Voice — the wheels do not start themselves. They turn again at the call of the One above them, and Ezekiel hears them named Galgal, "roll, roll."
- Wheels — wheels run on the ground, so this vision shows judgment taking its course on earth, aimed at Judah and Jerusalem. In Revelation the living creatures act from Heaven, so they have wings and no wheels.
- Hidden — a wheel inside a wheel says the control is real but the workings are not open to view.
- Comfort — the same wheels that carried judgment to Jerusalem still turn today. The Saviour is on the throne above them, and above every tangle in your life.
As for the wheels, they were called in my hearing, Galgal.
Ezekiel stands at the temple as judgment falls on Jerusalem. In the middle of that scene, a voice names the wheels under God's throne — the same wheels he saw in his first vision. Why do wheels get a name, and what does that name tell a prophet watching his city fall?
First, the wheels themselves. Commentators read them as a picture of how God runs events on earth. Even the strange detail of a wheel inside a wheel carries meaning.
In Ezekiel these wheels are a symbol, used together with the living creatures through whom God administers events on earth. The Spirit was in the wheels. The wheels looked like beryl, a precious stone, and they were full of eyes. They picture the movement of events: controlled, yet intelligent. There were wheels within wheels, and these mark God's control of events as mysterious and hidden.
The name is a plain Hebrew word. Kelly keeps it untranslated, quoting an older version of the verse, and reads this chapter as pressing one thing home: every part of the machinery is awake.
This chapter insists even more strongly that intelligence reaches through the whole body — backs, hands, wings, wheels. "As for the wheels it was called in my hearing, Galgal" [wheel, or roll, roll].
Where does that intelligence come from? Not from the creatures themselves:
The whole body, and backs, and hands, and wings, and wheels are full of eyes all round. They are signs of a knowledge that misses nothing — though of course no creature is all-knowing. They move by a wisdom higher than their own.
Why does the voice speak at this moment? The same writer reads the naming as a command given to the wheels:
In fact they are starting to turn again, obeying the call of the Voice, at whose command they turn. This is surely the real meaning of verse 13. The pause for contemplation is over. The trial is over. The wheels have halted for a moment, as if held in suspense, and now they are to turn again.
The wheels never act on their own. Ezekiel's vision has layers. The wheels are lowest, the living creatures are above them, and a throne stands above the firmament. Everything below moves because of what is above.
A living energy gave life to the whole. The cherubs who support the throne are full of eyes themselves, and that energy moved them. The wheels of God's government moved by the same spirit, and went straight forward. Everything served the will and purpose of Him who sat on the throne judging rightly. Majesty, government and providence came together to form the throne of His glory. But all the instruments of His glory were below the firmament. He whom they glorified was above.
We still use Ezekiel's imagery. When people say "wheels within wheels," they mean a tangle nobody controls. Ezekiel saw the opposite.
We talk about the flight of time and the wheels of fortune. Sometimes life seems so complicated that we talk of wheels within wheels — just what Ezekiel saw in his vision. To some, time and events may seem so out of order that they decide they are the victims of blind chance. But the wings and wheels Ezekiel saw were not blind, and they were not out of control. They were attached to living creatures with great intelligence, and they were under very definite control.
Ezekiel himself was an exile under a foreign ruler. Stop at this chapter and the turning wheels look like pure destruction. Read to the end of his book and they are going somewhere.
The wings and the wheels seemed all against him… If we did not have Ezekiel's secret, we might well ask: what use can all this destruction be? Surely civilization will collapse entirely, and mankind will perish from the earth. But when we come to the end of his book, we do not find chaos. We find the most wonderful order: a perfect system of government, and a great and beautiful city whose name is "The Lord is there."
- Wheel — the wheels picture God running events on earth. The motion is controlled and intelligent. Wheel inside wheel marks a control we cannot trace.
- Name — Ezekiel hears the plain Hebrew word for wheel, Galgal, "roll, roll." The chapter insists that intelligence fills every part of the machinery, yet the wisdom is not the creatures' own.
- Voice — the naming is a call. The wheels had halted for a moment; the call sets them turning again. The pause is over.
- Throne — the wheels move because Someone above the firmament wills it. Every instrument of His glory is below. He who is glorified is above.
- Destination — they are not the wheels of blind fortune. They roll on through destruction toward the city whose name is "The Lord is there."
And every one had four faces the first face was the face of a cherub, and the second face the face of a man, and the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.
In an earlier vision Ezekiel saw four living creatures, each with four faces. Here the same beings appear again, but one detail has changed: chapter 1 named the first face the face of an ox, and this verse calls it the face of a cherub.
The faces are symbols. They show how God governs, and the wheels beside them carry that rule out onto the earth.
In Ezekiel these are symbols of the attributes of God connected with His throne, and of His acting on earth in His judicial government and providence. There were wheels on earth, and there was a wheel within a wheel. The wheels moved together with the living creatures, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels... Everything shows perfect order for carrying out the government of God according to His righteous judgement.
One writer treats the ox face and the cherub face as the same, then explains what each of the four heads stands for.
They looked like a man, though each had four faces and four wings... The face of an ox answers to the face of a cherub (compare also Ezekiel 10:14)... These four make up the symbolic supports of the throne. They are the heads of the creatures kept alive in the ark through the flood: the man stands for intelligence, the lion for strength, the ox for patience or stability, and the eagle for speed of execution — the attributes of God, or the qualities of His judgments.
Commentators differ over this change of name. One says outright that he cannot explain it.
Sometimes the ox was called a cherub, though I do not know why. The ox holds the permanence and stability of judgment; the lion its power; the eagle its speed; and the man its intelligence.
Another writer sees a reason for the name in what the ox is.
There may be a hint here. In this tenth chapter, the description of the cherubim does not say "the face of an ox," as chapter 1 does; it says "the face of a cherub" (v. 14). The ox is the chief of the creatures that serve man, so the name would stress that these cherubim are creatures, not divine.
Judgment is under way in the city when the ox takes first place.
The judgment still goes on. The man clothed in linen, who until now has been the messenger of God's mercy, is told to go in between the turning wheels, fill his hand with coals of fire from between the cherubim, and scatter them over the city... The wheels have halted, as if held in suspense for a moment. Now they are to turn again. We are told to look once more at the faces of the cherubim as we have seen them. Only now the cherub itself is identified with the face of the ox, which is therefore foremost. Through all this, while judgment is before us, God still has His harvest-field in view.
These faces are far from the cherub most people picture.
It is hard to understand why people so misunderstand the meaning of the cherub. The popular idea shows it as a baby's face, which is the exact reverse of what Scripture says... In Ezekiel 1 — 10 it is very clear that the cherubim are majestic and awesome pictures of the power of judgment and how it advances, just as Isaiah 6 shows that the seraph expresses the power of Mercy and how it advances. The cherub has four wings; the seraph six: so Mercy is swifter than Judgment.
One writer applies the leading face to how believers treat each other when something goes wrong.
Where there is little spiritual power, patience is lacking, and people turn to exclusion as a quick way of getting past a difficulty. How soon, sadly, we forget that the cherubim of Ezekiel are called to act. The one that comes first (compare Ezekiel 10:14 with 1:10), and the only one called "a cherub", is the patient labouring "ox". Yet it was "the same living creature" the prophet had seen before (Ezekiel 10:20).
- Throne — The four faces hold up God's throne. They picture how He governs and judges the earth.
- Faces — Man means intelligence, lion strength, ox patience, eagle speed — four sides of one judgment.
- Cherub — Calling the ox a cherub marks these beings as creatures, not divine. Commentators admit the change is not fully explained.
- Foremost — The patient ox leads the list while fire falls on the city. Judgment is real, and God still has a harvest in view.
- Patience — Where spiritual power is low, patience goes first. The face that leads the cherubim is the one that keeps working.
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.