Christian Age Ezekiel 1:16 The appearance of the wheels and their work was like to the color of a beryl: and they four had one likeness… 1. He rules in the world of physical nature. The "whirlwind" which the prophet saw was under the throne. All forces of nature, however strange and irresistible they may appear, are subject to God. What science reveals as laws, are no more than means and methods of Divine operation. God was seen in Jacob's dream above the ladder; so above all secondary causes is the great First Cause who originated them, and who still inspires them with energy and guides their courses. 2. He rules in the world of spirit. The cherubim which the prophet saw, with their mysterious forms and motions, were also under the throne. Freedom appears inseparable from spirit, but all creaturely freedom moves and acts within the will of God. "He doth according to His will in the army of heaven" (Daniel 4:35). Holy beings ever obey lovingly. His will is not only their law, but the ground and means of their blessedness. Devils are compelled to obey. This is the cause of their constant rage and misery. Inspired by hatred to God and goodness, they are obliged to see that not only are their plots defeated, but they are eventually made to promote the very ends they sought to destroy. It is so also with men in this way: the renewed are "workers together with God"; the unrenewed, though unwilling and rebellious, must subserve Divine purposes (Romans 9:17). 3. He rules in the order of history. The wheels the prophet saw symbolised the government of the world in its entirety. There was an appearance "as of a wheel within a wheel" — the multiform agencies and complications employed by Providence. The wheels "went straight on" — the direct course of Providence, which never halts, and is never turned aside from its purposes. The "rings were high and dreadful" — the vastness of the Divine purposes, awful in their sweep and grandeur. The "rings were full of eyes" — the omniscience of God, so appalling to the wicked, so comforting to saints. The "noise" of the moving wheels and of the accompanying cherubim was as "the voice of the Almighty" — all nature, and life, and the course of history, a revelation of the living, omnipotent Deity. (Christian Age.) Parallel Verses KJV: The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel. |
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