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Ezekiel Chapter
One
Ezekiel 1
Chapter Contents
Ezekiel's vision of God, and of the angelic host. (1-14)
The conduct of Divine Providence. (15-25) A revelation of the Son of man upon
his heavenly throne. (26-28)
Commentary on Ezekiel 1:1-14
(Read Ezekiel 1:1-14)
It is a mercy to have the word of God brought to us, and
a duty to attend to it diligently, when we are in affliction. The voice of God
came in the fulness of light and power, by the Holy Spirit. These visions seem
to have been sent to possess the prophet's mind with great and high thoughts of
God. To strike terror upon sinners. To speak comfort to those that feared God,
and humbled themselves. In verses 4-14, is the first part of the vision,
which represents God as attended and served by a vast company of angels, who
are all his messengers, his ministers, doing his commandments. This vision
would impress the mind with solemn awe and fear of the Divine displeasure, yet
raise expectations of blessings. The fire is surrounded with a glory. Though we
cannot by searching find out God to perfection, yet we see the brightness round
about it. The likeness of the living creatures came out of the midst of the
fire; angels derive their being and power from God. They have the understanding
of a man, and far more. A lion excels in strength and boldness. An ox excels in
diligence and patience, and unwearied discharge of the work he has to do. An
eagle excels in quickness and piercing sight, and in soaring high; and the
angels, who excel man in all these respects, put on these appearances. The
angels have wings; and whatever business God sends them upon, they lose no
time. They stood straight, and firm, and steady. They had not only wings for
motion, but hands for action. Many persons are quick, who are not active; they
hurry about, but do nothing to purpose; they have wings, but no hands. But
wherever the angels' wings carried them, they carried hands with them, to be
doing what duty required. Whatever service they went about, they went every one
straight forward. When we go straight, we go forward; when we serve God with
one heart, we perform work. They turned not when they went. They made no
mistakes; and their work needed not to be gone over again. They turned not from
their business to trifle with any thing. They went whithersoever the Spirit of
God would have them go. The prophet saw these living creatures by their own
light, for their appearance was like burning coals of fire; they are seraphim,
or "burners;" denoting the ardour of their love to God, and fervent
zeal in his service. We may learn profitable lessons from subjects we cannot
fully enter into or understand. But let us attend to the things which relate to
our peace and duty, and leave secret things to the Lord, to whom alone they
belong.
Commentary on Ezekiel 1:15-25
(Read Ezekiel 1:15-25)
Providence, represented by the wheels, produces changes.
Sometimes one spoke of the wheel is uppermost, sometimes another; but the
motion of the wheel on its own axletree is regular and steady. We need not
despond in adversity; the wheels are turning round and will raise us in due
time, while those who presume in prosperity know not how soon they may be cast
down. The wheel is near the living creatures; the angels are employed as
ministers of God's providence. The spirit of the living creatures was in the
wheels; the same wisdom, power, and holiness of God, that guide and govern the
angels, by them order all events in this lower world. The wheel had four faces,
denoting that the providence of God exerts itself in all parts. Look every way
upon the wheel of providence, it has a face toward you. Their appearance and
work were as a wheel in the middle of a wheel. The disposals of Providence seem
to us dark, perplexed, and unaccountable, yet are all wisely ordered for the
best. The motion of these wheels was steady, regular, and constant. They went
as the Spirit directed, therefore returned not. We should not have to undo that
by repentance which we have done amiss, if we followed the guidance of the
Spirit. The rings, or rims of the wheels were so vast, that when put in motion
the prophet was afraid to look upon them. The consideration of the height and
depth of God's counsel should awe us. They were full of eyes round about. The
motions of Providence are all directed by infinite Wisdom. All events are
determined by the eyes of the Lord, which are in every place beholding the evil
and the good; for there is no such thing as chance or fortune. The firmament
above was a crystal, glorious, but terribly so. That which we take to be a dark
cloud, is to God clear as crystal, through which he looks upon all the
inhabitants of the earth. When the angels had roused a careless world, they let
down their wings, that God's voice might be plainly heard. The voice of
Providence is to open men's ears to the voice of the word. Sounds on earth
should awaken our attention to the voice from heaven; for how shall we escape,
if we turn away from Him that speaks from thence.
Commentary on Ezekiel 1:26-28
(Read Ezekiel 1:26-28)
The eternal Son, the second Person in the Trinity, who
afterwards took the human nature, is here denoted. The first thing observed was
a throne. It is a throne of glory, a throne of grace, a throne of triumph, a
throne of government, a throne of judgment. It is good news to men, that the
throne above the firmament is filled with One who appears, even there, in the
likeness of a man. The throne is surrounded with a rainbow, the well-known
emblem of the covenant, representing God's mercy and covenanted love to his
people. The fire of God's wrath was breaking out against Jerusalem, but bounds
should be set to it; he would look upon the bow, and remember the covenant. All
the prophet saw was only to prepare him for what he was to hear. When he fell
on his face, he heard the voice of One that spake. God delights to teach the
humble. Let sinners, then, humble themselves before him. And let believers
think upon his glory, that they may be gradually changed into his image by the
Spirit of the Lord.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Ezekiel》
Ezekiel 1
Verse 1
[1] Now
it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of
the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens
were opened, and I saw visions of God.
Thirtieth year —
From the finding the book of the law in the eighteenth year of Josiah, from
which date to the fifth year of the captivity are thirty years.
Fifth day —
Probably it was the sabbath-day, when the Jews were at leisure to hear the
prophet.
River —
Perhaps retiring thither to lament their own sins, and Jerusalem's desolation.
Chebar — A
river now called Giulap, arising out of the mountain Masius, and falling into
Euphrates, somewhat below a city called by the same name.
Verse 2
[2] In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of king
Jehoiachin's captivity,
The month —
Thamus, as verse 1, answering to our June and July.
Fifth year —
This account observed will guide us in computing the times referred to verse 1. These five of Jehoiachin, and the eleven of
his predecessor, added to fourteen of Josiah's reign, after he found the law, make
up thirty years, verse 1.
Jehoiachin —
Who is also called Jechoniah, and Coniah. It may be of use to keep an account,
when and where God has manifested himself to us in a peculiar manner. Remember,
O my soul, what thou didst receive at such a time, at such a place: tell others
what God did for thee.
Verse 3
[3] The
word of the LORD came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in
the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of the LORD was
there upon him.
The word —
What was visions, verse 1, is here the word, both as signifying and
declaring the mind of God, what he would do, and as continuing his commands to
Ezekiel and to the people.
Ezekiel — He
speaks of himself in a third person.
Priest — He
was of the priests originally; he was a prophet by an extraordinary call.
The hand — He
felt the power of God opening his eyes to see the visions, opening his ear to
hear the voice, and his heart to receive both. When the hand of the Lord goes
along with his word, then it becomes effectual.
Verse 4
[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.
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.
Verse 5
[5] Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures.
And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man.
The likeness —
Such a representation of the holy angels as God saw fit to make use of, came
out of the midst of the fire: for angels derive their being and power from God:
their glory is a ray of his.
Verse 6
[6] And every
one had four faces, and every one had four wings.
Wings —
With two they flew, denoting the speed of their obedience; and with two they
covered their body, denoting their reverence.
Verse 7
[7] And
their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of
a calf's foot: and they sparkled like the colour of burnished brass.
Feet —
Their thighs, legs and feet, were of a human shape.
Straight —
Not bowed to this or that part, which argues weakness.
The sole —
That which is properly the foot.
A calf's — A
divided hoof spake the cleanness of the creature.
They —
Their feet.
Verse 8
[8] And
they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and they
four had their faces and their wings.
Under —
Their power and manner of exerting it is secret and invisible.
Sides — On
each side of the chariot one of these living creatures flood, and so on each
side hands were ready to act as they were moved.
They four — It
is doubled to confirm the truth and certainty of the thing.
Verse 9
[9]
Their wings were joined one to another; they turned not when they went; they
went every one straight forward.
Their wings —
The wings of the two cherubim which went foremost, and the wings of the two
hindermost, were joined together when they moved.
Went —
This explains the former words, assuring us, that every one of those living
creatures are ready, and unwearied in doing the pleasure of their Creator.
Verse 10
[10] As
for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face
of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left
side; they four also had the face of an eagle.
A man —
Each face is compared to what is most excellent in its kind, man excels in
wisdom, lions in strength, the ox in patience and constancy of labour, the
eagle in speed and high flight.
Verse 11
[11] Thus
were their faces: and their wings were stretched upward; two wings of every one
were joined one to another, and two covered their bodies.
Divided — So
each face appeared distinct above the shoulders, and there the wings divided
from each other were united to the body of the living creature.
Verse 12
[12] And
they went every one straight forward: whither the spirit was to go, they went;
and they turned not when they went.
Straight —
Which way soever they went, each living creature had one face looking straight
forward.
The spirit —
The will, command, and breathing of the Spirit of God, both gave and guided
their motions.
Was to go —
Going is attributed here to the Spirit of God, by allusion, for he who is in
every place cannot properly be said to go from or to any place.
Turned not —
They looked not back, they turned not out of the way, they gave not over, 'till
they had compleated their course.
Verse 13
[13] As
for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning
coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps: it went up and down among the
living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth
lightning.
The fire —
This fire stood not still, but as the Hebrew is, Made itself walk up and down.
It moved itself, which is too much to ascribe to creatures: God only moved all
these living creatures.
Verse 14
[14] And
the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of
lightning.
Ran — They
ran into the lower world, to do what was to be done there: and when they had
done, returned as a flash of lightning, to the upper world, to the vision of
God. Thus we should be in the affairs of this world: though we run into them we
must not repose in them, but our souls must presently return like lightning, to
God, their rest and center.
Verse 15
[15] Now
as I beheld the living creatures, behold one wheel upon the earth by the living
creatures, with his four faces.
Living creatures — By
each of the living creatures stood one wheel, so that they were four in number,
according to the number of living creatures.
Four faces — By
this it appears, each wheel had its four faces. While he was contemplating the
glory of the former vision, this other was presented to him: wherein the
dispensations of providence are compared to the wheels of a machine, which all
contribute to the regular motion of it. Providence orders, changes: sometimes
one spoke of the wheel is uppermost, sometimes another. But the motion of the
wheel on its own axle-tree, is still regular and steady. And the wheel is said
to be by the living creatures, who attend to direct its motion. For all
inferior creatures are, and move, and act, as the Creator, by the ministration
of angels directs and influences them: visible effects are managed and governed
by invisible causes.
Verse 16
[16] 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.
Work —
All that was wrought, whether engraved or otherwise was of one colour.
Beryl — A
sea green.
One likeness —
The same for dimensions, colour, frame, and motion.
In the middle — It
is probable, the wheels were framed so as to be an exact sphere, which is
easily rolled to any side.
Verse 17
[17] When
they went, they went upon their four sides: and they turned not when they went.
They —
The wheels.
Four sides —
The wheels being supposed round every way as a globe, by an exact framing of
two wheels one in the other; the four semi-circles which are in two whole
wheels, may be well taken for these four sides on which these wheels move, and
such a wheel will readily be turned to all points of the compass.
Returned not —
They returned not 'till they came to their journey's end; nothing could divert
them, or put them out of their course. So firm and sure are the methods, so
unalterable and constant the purposes of God, and so invariable the obedience
and observance of holy angels. So subject to the sovereign will of God are all
second causes.
Verse 18
[18] As
for their rings, they were so high that they were dreadful; and their rings
were full of eyes round about them four.
The rings —
The circumference of the wheels.
Dreadful — Their
very height imprest a fear on the beholder.
Them four —
Every one of the four wheels. How fitly do the wheels, their motion, their
height, and eyes, signify the height, unsearchableness, wisdom, and vigilance
of the Divine Providence.
Verse 20
[20] Whithersoever
the spirit was to go, they went, thither was their spirit to go; and the wheels
were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creature was in
the wheels.
The spirit —
The Spirit of God. These angels in their ministry punctually observed both his
impulse and conduct.
They —
The wheels, inferior agents and second causes.
Their spirit —
The wheels concurred with the spirit of the living creatures, so that there was
an hearty accord between those superior and inferior causes.
For — An
undiscerned, yet divine, mighty, wise, and ever-living power, spirit, and
being, actuated all, and governed all.
Verse 21
[21] When
those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those were
lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the
spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.
For —
The same wisdom, power, and holiness of God, the same will and counsel of his,
that guides and governs the angels, does by them order and dispose all the
motions of the creatures in this lower world.
Verse 22
[22] And
the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creature was as the
colour of the terrible crystal, stretched forth over their heads above.
Likeness —
The appearance or resemblance.
As crystal —
For splendor, purity, and solidity, all that was above these creatures and
wheels was beautiful and very majestic, and 'tis therefore called terrible,
because it impressed a veneration upon the mind of the beholders.
Verse 23
[23] And
under the firmament were their wings straight, the one toward the other: every
one had two, which covered on this side, and every one had two, which covered
on that side, their bodies.
Under —
Below at a great distance, stood these living creatures.
Straight —
Stretched forth, ready for motion.
One —
Each of the four had two other wings with which they covered their bodies.
Verse 24
[24] And
when they went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great
waters, as the voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech, as the noise of an
host: when they stood, they let down their wings.
The voice —
Thunder.
Speech —
The prophet heard the voice in an articulate manner.
An host — A
tumultuous voice of men.
Stood —
Having done their office they present themselves before God, waiting for the
commands of their Lord.
Verse 26
[26] And
above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as
the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the
likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it.
A man —
Christ, God-man, who here appears as king and judge.
Verse 27
[27] And
I saw as the colour of amber, 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.
Amber — In
this colour does Christ appear against the rebellious Jews; he that would have
visited them clothed with the garments of salvation, now puts on the garments
of vengeance, expressed by such metaphors.
Brightness —
Majesty, justice, and unstained holiness, shine round about him.
Verse 28
[28] As
the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the
appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the
likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and
I heard a voice of one that spake.
The bow — A
like appearance of Christ in a surrounding brightness, as of the rainbow you
have, Revelation 4:3. Mercy, and truth, and both
according to covenant are about the throne of Christ.
Glory — It
was not the full glory of God, but such as the prophet might bear.
I fell —
With deep humility and reverence.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Ezekiel》
01 Chapter 1
Verses 1-28
The heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.
God’s care of His Church
1. God is not tied to places. He can in a dungeon, in a prison, in a
Babylon, let down His Spirit into the heart of any servant of His, and raise
him to a prophetical height.
2. No place is so wicked but God can raise up instruments to do Him
and the Church service there.
3. See here a door open for the enlargement of the Church, a type of
God’s goodness toward the Gentiles.
4. The godly are wrapped up in the same calamity with the wicked.
Ezekiel is among the captives.
5. The godly are mingled in this world with the wicked and profane.
6. God hath a special care of His Church and people, when they are in
the lowest and worst condition. They shall have a prophet, though in Babylon.
7. Take heed of judging the condition of men by their outward
afflictions. Those that are in great affliction may be greatly beloved, when
those who are in great prosperity may be greatly hated.
8. The wicked fare the better for the godly. (W. Green Hill, M. A.)
Visions of God
Observe the nature of the prophet’s preparation for his work. It
was not an outward call; it was not a visible stamp of authority or office
given to him that men might see--he had that as priest before he was called to
be a prophet; but it was that secret vision of God, it was that unseen speech
of his soul with the Spirit of his God and of the Spirit of God with his soul
that he could never demonstrate or prove to other men. That for them might be a
dream of dreams, a visionary record of what never happened; but for Him from
that hour it was the most real of all realities--a living voice through all his
life, that shaped and coloured it long after, and that drove him forth amongst
his fellow men, now to speak to them, as he tells us, in the bitterness of his
spirit, and now under the burden of the Lord to sit down astonished and silent
with them in their sorrow; but that made him a new, a different man for the
rest of his life--from the moment that he saw and heard those visions of God
and the voice of God within them. This was the secret preparation of the
prophet for the prophet’s work, and this is just that hidden preparation for
God’s work amongst men which our Church distinctly recognises the necessity of
in all those who seek her ministry, while she as distinctly recognises the need
for the outward and visible call. The outward call does not do away with the
need of the inward voice and calling, nor does the inward voice and preparation
supersede the need of the outward call and mission. It was not so in Ezekiel’s
case. The one joined itself on to and grew out of the other. When Ezekiel the
priest was called by this hidden and overmastering voice of God, when he was
called to do a special prophet’s work, it was not an unknown God whose glory he
was bid to see; it was the God of his fathers, the God who had formed and
organised the Jewish Church and the Jewish priesthood of which Ezekiel was a
member. And the voice which bid him go was not to him an unknown voice; it was
a voice that had led his ancestors through the wilderness, that had spoken to
them God’s law from Sinai, and the very visions of glory that he beheld weaved
themselves out of and grew, as it were, out of the priest’s memory of the
worship of the temple. The inward call sprang out of, joined itself to, rose
naturally, and all the more forcibly out of the outward position and the
outward calling of the man. And so is it in all settled and orderly churches.
Yes; this is the true preparation and the true mission of him who would be a
prophet, a speaker for God amongst the sons of men. He must be, if he is to be
a successful prophet for God, a man who has seen God for himself; he must be a
man who has had that vision of God that none can see but each man for himself.
There are visions of God that all men may have, and may have in common
together. There are visions, for instance, which we may speak of as the
reflective visions of God--visions of God in the glories of Nature; visions of
God in the marvels of history and of Providence; visions of God in the
revelation of His Word; visions of God in the worship and sacraments of the
sanctuary; but there is one vision more, one hour of vision which should come
to each man, if it were but once in his life, and woe to him who claims to be a
prophet for God who has not seen that vision and passed through that hour when,
the man lifting himself or lifted up above the low, and mean, and poor
surroundings of the daily world in which he lives, with its strife, with its
sorrows, with its cares, with its business, with its seductions, and rising
high above these to the very heavens where the Lord dwells, sees God for
himself, hears God’s voice speaking to him as His, and claiming him for His,
and gives himself in answering offer, and gives himself to God and says, “O
Lord, here am I send me to do Thy work amongst men: make of me Thine instrument
and Thy servant, and give me the great glory of serving Thee, and telling Thy
words in the ears of Thy people.” The mission of the national Church is not
first and before all things to be popular. It is first and before all things to
be faithful to speak the living Word of the living God, as she learned it in
her visions of God. Men seem to forget this great truth nowadays, and men seem
with a faithless and an anxious timidity only eager to make the Church popular,
and to make her popular with the masses, and many are the counsellors and
various the advice that the Church is enjoying at this moment as to how she
shall make herself popular and successful. Again, there are those who would
have us trust to the attractiveness of our sanctuaries and the beauty of our
worship, and who tell us we shall win the masses and the people back to our
deserted churches, if only we will have bright and hearty services and
beautiful aesthetic churches, and all that is charming and attractive to win
the senses of the multitude. You are beginning at the wrong end when you strive
to win the masses to God with attractive services. Make men feel their need of
the services; make men understand that when they come to the house of God they
come there that they may see visions of God, see the glory of the Lord, hear
His voice, learn His will, offer Him their homage and their respect; make men
thus feel their need of the worship of the sanctuary, and they will come
whether the sanctuary be beautiful or not, and if they come for the beauty of
the sanctuary, they are degrading it by an unreal worship, unless they come for
the glory of Him whom they should seek to meet there. What the Church needs for
her work now is what she has always needed--men whose hearts are filled with
visions of the living God, and with a firm faith in this--that He has given
them a work to do, a message to speak amongst their fellow men, and the thought
of that burns as a very fire in their bones, and they cannot keep back from
speaking God’s message and God’s word of life amongst their suffering fellow
citizens and fellow countrymen. Their hearts are moved by the thought that they
have to go out amongst “them of their captivity,” though they feel it to be a
rebellious house. They have to go out to people tied and bound in the chains of
their sins, as they lie without the limits of the kingdom of Christ. (Archbishop
Magee.)
Visions of God
1. Thoughts of heaven must receive their character from views of God.
If we could see into heaven and did not see signs of God there, we should
remain in spiritual darkness. We must pass into the house to perceive the
householder. All beliefs of our interest in the heavens will be blighted unless
they are steps on our way to know we have a living, almighty, perfect Friend.
2. All true views of God are given by God. He alone opens the inward
eyes and presents the aspects He wants to reveal. He may open them through some
outward impulse, or by action on the heart, but in either case the ripple of
sensational life is hushed by the flow of a grander life, and the reasoning
faculty stands still, waiting to know what it shall receive. Then, as the light
air comes to a hanging leaf and stirs it, as a father’s love and wisdom come to
an erring child and prompt to confession, so the subject of visions of God
knows that God has affected him--that God alone could accomplish that which has
happened to him.
3. Visions of God require a conscious apprehension by men. Men can
look upwards or downwards, outward or inward; but they may shut their eyes, So
they decide whether they will see the things of God or not--whether they will
accept the fuller manifestations of God or not.
4. Various aspects of God are presented. Wonderful in number and
variety are the views which God has provided for willing hearts. “They are new
every morning.” (D. G. Watt, M. A.)
Visions of God
Seasons of illumination are granted to men; moments of
intellectual or spiritual insight in which they obtain deeper knowledge of the
mysteries of life, than in years of laboured activities. Life is conditioned by
depth more than by length of days. The current of history may be changed in a
day, the geography of a continent is determined by the achievements of one day.
“God works in moments,” and when the heavens are opened and visions of God are
granted to men, the day becomes a creative epoch, from which they date their
redemption. The momentum of that day will not be exhausted for generations.
That one day of spiritual illumination has lighted up the dark passages of centuries,
and the glory of the vision has dispersed forever the gloom of the captivity.
The vision by Chebar is not the solitary experience of Ezekiel. God makes
Midian the training ground of Israel’s emancipator, and the hills of Bethlehem
for Israel’s greatest king, and Jesus lived in Nazareth. The minimum of
opportunity yields the maximum of results. Men have visions of God in coal
mines as well as in cathedrals. The prophet in exile makes the disadvantages of
his position tributary to his highest successes. “The heavens were opened, and
I saw visions of God.” Visions of God are only possible when the heavens are
opened. Heaven is the source of all illumination, more revelations are given to
this world than discoveries made in it. Stars and suns are set aside, that the
prophet may see God. It is a moment never to be forgotten when God appears in
unveiled splendour. It becomes imperative at times that our faith be
established by visions of God. Crises in our personal history have called for
special revelations. Such was the captivity to Israel. We need the vision in
captivity more than in our native land, with its temples and its priests.
Israel thought that God had forsaken them; the vision proved that they had
forsaken God. The way of communication between heaven and earth was still open.
The hope of the race lies in the unbroken connection between heaven and earth,
and the opening heavens in times of great peril proclaim that God lives and
loves. Chebar has become a river of life, and the exile the gate of heaven. (G.
T. Newton.)
Visions of God
To impart to man some degree of religious sensibility, it seems
only necessary to lead him to a consideration of himself. Teach him to examine
his own nature, to look a little into the wonderful mechanism which is going on
in his own breast, and there will be found one of the most effectual means of
awakening him to a real sense of the true character of his existence, and of
the high and exalted relations which that existence sustains. Next, from the
consideration of himself, let him turn to the consideration of the wonderful
works existing out of himself. Let him look around on the green earth, with all
its diversities of hill and dale, and wood and water, and sunshine and shade;
and then from the plains below, let him look up to the canopy above, bright
with stars and burning with suns,--and there will be seen visions of God,
visions of power, wisdom, and goodness transcending his utmost powers to
measure and fathom. By consciousness and observation we know how different a
being a man generally is from what, considering his nature and destiny, we
might reasonably expect him to be. Look at him, pursuing with passionate
interest today what tomorrow will have passed into utter oblivion; now entering
into contests where victory will bring no honour, and then striving after
possessions whose acquirement will confer no happiness. View man in this
situation and under these circumstances, and then remember that this is a being
whose days upon earth are rapidly coming to an end; that he is born for
eternity, for which he is here to prepare himself; and that that preparation,
though embracing the interests of futurity, is also most conducive to the best
enjoyment of the present,--and nothing can account for the course of conduct which
he so often pursues, but that moral insensibility and stupor into which his
connection with the world imperceptibly betrays him. In the first and early
period of our existence, it is our nature to be governed chiefly by sensible
impressions. Our thoughts, our wishes, our enjoyments, all lie within a narrow
boundary. As we advance in years, our views extend, our hopes are expanded, our
expectations are enlarged. We think more of what shall be and of what may be.
Our happiness is more bound up with internal feelings, apprehensions, hopes,
and anticipations. Hence arises one of the great advantages attending the good,
that in their minds the thoughts and feelings connected with the future must
necessarily be of a far brighter and happier description than those which are
experienced by persons of an opposite character. It is, however, scarcely
possible at the present moment for the best of our race to regard the course of
human affairs without observing much to trouble and perplex them. Often will
the spirit of the thoughtful and humane faint within him at the recollection of
the magnitude and extent of the distresses and afflictions that have their
residence on earth. For a moment he may feel as if his faith and piety were
giving way; but deeper reflection comes to his aid, and restores him to
confidence and hope. Visions of God rise up before his mind, and in those
visions he sees the hand of Omnipotence stretched out over the angry and
tempestuous waves of mortality, and bidding them into stillness and peace. In
spite, then, of the difficulties by which we are surrounded, and
notwithstanding the distressing occurrences that present themselves from day to
day, the Christian believer will not let go his conviction that all is under
the benignant care of a wise and merciful Providence, and will eventually be
made to terminate in the establishment of truth and righteousness. He pretends
not to dive into the depths of the Divine counsels. Knowing how absurd it would
be to expect that he, who is but of yesterday, should be able to interpret the
plans and proceedings of Him whose goings forth have been from of old, even
from everlasting to everlasting, he submits in reverential silence to what
appears most inscrutable and mysterious, believing and trusting that, as the
government of human affairs is in the hands of the same Being who first made
man a living soul and breathed into him the breath of life, it cannot but tend
to a blessed and happy consummation. The more he reflects on all this, the more
satisfied does he feel that the Author of his existence cannot be indifferent
to the workmanship of His own hands, to the offspring of His own benevolence,
and that whatever appearances there are which seem to imply the contrary, are
only appearances, and melt away at the touchstone of examination, like midnight
vapours at the approach of day. In the midst of our labours and duties,
harassed perhaps by care, wearied with trouble, trembling with apprehension,
our safety, our strength, our consolation will be best sought and obtained in
those retirements of the soul when the veil is removed, and our eyes are opened
to see visions of God. (T. Madge.)
Visions of God
I. Thy seer of the
visions.
1. A priest. Of all men, they who minister to others in spiritual
things need first to have their own visions of God. A spiritually-blind priest
can only give dead, formal, perfunctory service.
2. A prophet. The prophet must first be a seer. No one can speak for
God who has not first heard the voice of God or seen the glory of His truth.
II. The time of the
visions. Early maturity--thirty years old.
1. After years of preparation.
2. Before a life of work.
III. The
circumstances of the visions.
1. Ezekiel was among the captives.
2. Ezekiel was by the river Chebar. In a quiet scene of nature. God
is in the broad earth as surely as in any temple.
IV. The source of
the visions.
1. From heaven. Then the prophet must look up. There is a spiritual
astronomy which claims our study as much as the facts of man and earth.
2. Through the opening of heaven. God must reveal Himself. Revelation
is the rolling back of the curtain, opening the gates of the unseen.
V. The nature of
the visions. Seeing some rays of the Divine glory, some fringe of the robe of
the Almighty. This is the highest of all visions. We can see it in the human
countenance of Jesus. (W. F. Adeney, M. A.)
Vision and duty
(with Isaiah 6:1 and Acts 26:19):--These three incidents to
which our texts refer have some significant characteristics. In the case of
each man, this vision of God was his call to the prophetic or apostolic office,
not to a short season of special service. Moreover, each is related with the
purpose of justifying the speaker’s conduct. The position of this vision in
Isaiah’s book is very significant. He has begun to prophesy and had spoken many
things in the hearing of the people. They would not heed him but bade him be
silent. He tells the story of his call, and says to them and to himself, “I
must speak. I am not my own master. I have seen the Lord of hosts, and He said,
‘Go.’ I cannot get behind or away from that vision.” Very similar are the
circumstances under which the prophet Ezekiel tells his story. It is quite
obvious, from the opening chapters of his book, that he shrank from the task of
preaching to the exiles. But he could not help himself. Whether they hear or
whether they forbear, speak he must, for he too has been told by God to go. So
he relates what he saw when God appeared to him, and that must silence every
qualm and query. Paul, too, is on his defence. Worldly people who recognise his
genius, but pity his apparent sacrifice, and enemies who are
conscience-stricken by his words are trying to silence that eloquent tongue.
But he meets all their threats and entreaties with the unanswerable argument,
“The risen Lord appeared to me. I had a vision, and I dare not be disobedient
to that.”
I. The imperative
constraint of a vision of God. We are all familiar with the fact that every
life of successful achievement must be the result of concentration. The natural
tendency is for the elements of our life to fly off at a tangent, and there
must be some centripetal force which will keep them circling round the centre
if any work is going to be done. We need to come under the unifying influence
of a dominant purpose which shall weld the elements into a homogeneous whole;
otherwise there will be discord and dissension. No man can build up a colossal
business, or become a successful artist, or secure lasting fame in literature,
who does not feel the spell of this purpose and walk under its constraint. Now,
the most powerful constraint which can fall upon any man is that due to a vision
of God. By that I do not mean just a belief in the existence of a Divine Being.
A man may believe so far and be practically unaffected by his belief. It was
something very far removed from a mere intellectual assent which transformed
the lives of Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Paul. The attempts to describe what each saw
vary immensely, and show wide differences of literary ability. No one would put
Isaiah’s majestic chapter and Ezekiel’s rather involved and labouring effort
upon the same plane of literary merit. But Isaiah and Ezekiel and Paul are all
attempting to describe a very real vision. Each knew that God had come into his
life. For note the similarity of the immediate effects. Isaiah felt the whole
building to tremble and the air seemed filled with the hissing steam which is
emitted when fire and water mingle. He could only cry out in terror, “Woe is
me.” Ezekiel fell upon his face before the appearance of the glory of the Lord,
and then went away and sat amongst the captives for seven days dazed and
astonished. Paul was stunned, blinded, smitten to the ground, and was led
helpless into Damascus. And the ultimate consequences were similar also. And
each man explains his conduct by declaring that he is under the imperative
constraint of the vision of God. He dare not be disobedient to that. Nothing
but death can break its spell. The vision of God will constrain us very
powerfully! It will brook no disobedience. It will be more imperious than the
dictates of prudence and of propriety. It will explain all our enthusiasm which
the man who has never seen God cannot understand. There is no other influence
which is powerful enough to oppose the disintegrating force of self-love and
self-will within us, and to unite our hearts in the service of a true religion.
Mere intellectual assent to dogmas about a divinity will not constrain us to
forsake sin. Ceremonials and forms of worship cannot redeem us from callousness
in worship and in conduct. The forces within us smite such barriers aside or
leap over them at once. How noteworthy it is that in these three cases the
ritual of the Jewish religion in which they had been trained is forgotten!
There is no priest in the temple in which Isaiah stands, and no sacrifice is
offered. Ezekiel the priest sees the glory of God as he sits in the plains by
Babylon’s river. Saul, the punctilious and phylacteried Pharisee, meets Jesus
face to face on the lonely road near Damascus. For years each man had been
familiar with the most suggestive ritual which the world ever possessed, and it
had only touched the surface: it had only succeeded in making them moral. It
was the vision of God which revolutionised their life, making their nature reel
to its foundations and turning the river of their energy into another channel.
All devoted lives have been inspired by a vision of God, and not by the sight
of a temple; by appropriation of the sacrificial offering, and not by kneeling
before an altar. We shall only be blacklegs or hangers on, men called in to
fill an emergency, if we depend for our inspiration upon anything less than a
vivid personal experience of God. But is it possible for us to have a vision of
God? According to the teaching of Jesus Christ, it is. “Blessed are the pure in
heart, for they shall see God.” “He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father.”
It is possible for us to have an encounter with the Divine Person; to feel the
contact between His Spirit and ours; to stand amidst a busy world and to be
oblivious to all, whilst we gaze with entranced souls upon the flashing glory
of God. But this is not to be a solitary experience casting a spell over
succeeding years. Verily the time when the Lord of Glory first came to our side
will be the epoch from which we reckon time. But if we see God in the face of
Jesus Christ, He is with us always, even unto the end. Am I wrong in
interpreting the emotions which sometimes surge in our hearts as a kind of envy
of those men who received such a call to the ministry as came to these three
servants of God? We urge ourselves on with a whip into which the cords of duty,
of necessity, of reward, are lashed; but it is painful progress. We wish that
our rapt eyes might see the Lord upon a throne high and lifted up, or a flaming
glory borne by wheels full of eyes, or that some blinding light from heaven
might enfold us in its passionate embrace. Is it not blessedly possible for us
to have such a vision of God as never gladdened the eyes of Isaiah or Ezekiel?
There is one significant difference between the apology of Paul and that of the
earlier prophets. They are seeking partly to satisfy their own hearts and quiet
the storm within; they fell back upon their vision as the justification to
themselves. Paul has no misgivings within to hush! Why not? Because the vision
of God is for him constant. It cannot fade as did that given to Isaiah! The
Christian man lives in the Divine presence. There is no necessity for us to
travel back along the road to some sacred spot marked by its altar. The place
where we are standing now may be the place of vision. And we have to practise
the presence of God!
II. The contents of
our vision of God determine the limitation of our work. Isaiah sees God exalted
upon a throne, with sweeping robes filling the temple, before whom the cherubim
veil their faces and the choirs of heaven chant “Holy,” and the smitten prophet
cries, “I am unclean.” This is a vision of God as exalted in righteousness. It
is the moral supremacy of Jehovah over against the sin of Israel which fills
the vision of Isaiah. It is different with the vision granted to Ezekiel. He
gazes upon a blazing glory, which is supported by the cherubim, and which moves
throughout the world with the swiftness of lightning upon the wheels full of
eyes. Obviously this is God as sovereign in nature and history; this is God as
omnipresent and omnipotent, governing the councils of the nations and ruling
over all. I do not mean that Isaiah and Ezekiel saw only this. Isaiah knew of
God’s omnipotence, for “the whole earth is full of His glory.” Ezekiel
understood God’s moral supremacy; but the over, powering conception of God of
the two visions is different. Now see what a connection there is between the
dominant idea of God in the vision, and the work which each man has to do.
Isaiah is sent to a people living securely in Jerusalem, but sunk into great
sin. He has to exalt the Holy One of Israel over against the impurity of the
nation’s life. Ezekiel is a prophet sent to a later generation, a mere handful
of exiles who have been led away from despoiled Jerusalem by the armies of the
mighty king of Babylon. Sitting by the river Chebar, the harps hung on the
willows in a strange land, it seems as if Jehovah is not able to help them.
Then Ezekiel comes to exalt the Omnipotent King in place of the boasting,
hustling strength of Nebuchadnezzar. Now turn to the vision given to Paul, and
consider its meaning and contents in the light of his writings and work. He saw
God revealed in Jesus Christ. That meant the God whom Isaiah saw, a God exalted
in righteousness, whose holiness convicted the self-righteous Pharisee as the
chief of sinners, and made him preach, “All have sinned and come short of the
glory of God.” That meant also the God whom Ezekiel saw, a God who is supreme
above all the machinations of men and the swift vicissitudes of human
experience, so that it is a part of his work to tell men that “all things work
together for good to them that love God,” and therefore to “rejoice in the Lord
alway.” But it meant also another aspect of God of which Isaiah and Ezekiel had
only faint knowledge, namely, as the Father of men, who so loved the world as
to send His Son to be the propitiation for all sin, and was calling all men
everywhere to enjoy His salvation and to be reconciled to Him in Jesus Christ.
And therefore Paul can be sent not to the few people of one nation to meet
their special needs, but to all nations, to preach a Gospel which satisfied the
universal and unchanging needs of the whole human race. So do the contents of
our vision of God set the limits to our work. Our service in the world is determined
by our knowledge of God. That is abundantly illustrated on the wide field of
history. Any monk in mediaeval England could repeat a paternoster, but it
needed a man whose heart was illumined by personal intercourse with the Father
to translate the Bible for the people. The last century was satisfied with a
most rigid and mechanical conception of God; and it was marked by a national
life as meagre in its religious attainments as it was poverty-stricken in its
religious ideals. It was only when men like Wesley and Carey, who had brooded
over the Word of God and had become filled with His Spirit, delivered their
message, that the Church was roused from its lethargy and began to save men at
home and abroad. Herbert Spencer can write learnedly about the first principles
of philosophical study; but he has no message to the sinful, because God is to
him the unknowable, and that vision of God makes him powerless to serve.
Matthew Arnold may compose clever essays which render a service within certain
narrow limits, but he cannot preach to the mass of men, because his vision of
God as only a power not ourselves which makes for righteousness is too dim to
touch the heart of man. Huxley and Mill can tell people a great deal about the
life history of a lobster or the laws of logic, but ask them to come to the
bedside of a dying man or to comfort a sorrowing heart, and they are dumb, and
must give place to the humble saint who has looked into the eyes of the Risen
Christ. And so in all our work, its limitations are determined by the contents
of our vision of God. A man who has never seen a holy God will not care much
about holiness. Why is a man content to amass a fortune by a policy of greed
and grab, though he leave the world worse than he found it? Because he has never
been into a holy place and seen God giving up in love! And the other part of
the truth is that the Christian’s vision of God is the only satisfying one. It
is no disparagement of the work of Isaiah and Ezekiel to point out that it was
limited. This was the necessary result of the imperfection of all pre-Christian
knowledge of God. The jewel has many facets; and one man gazed upon one
flashing surface, and another in different circumstances upon a second. But
Paul saw God in Christ, who is the express image of His person; and we all may
see the glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father. This does not
lift the veil from the secret nature of God. Nothing is more magnificent in
these visions than their reverent reticence. No one can see God; only the
appearance of His glory. But we see all that glory in Jesus Christ. Failure to
interpret God through Jesus Christ only has always spelled disaster. The vision
of God in Jesus Christ crucified and risen again is the only vision which can
satisfy all the needs of our own heart and fit us to render permanent service
to men in all circumstances. And this is the vision of God upon which we may
gaze today. We shall not stand in any smoke-filled temple and gaze upon a
throne high and lifted up. We shall not watch the whirling wheels full of eyes
which carry the burning glory. But we may see Jesus. He is no dim, fading
figure upon time’s canvas. He stands before us a living Person, clear cut
against the horizon of eternity. We know the life He lived, the death He died,
and that He rose from the dead. The supreme business of every man in this life
is to see God in Jesus Christ himself, and then to help others to have the
vision. Deep down in the heart of every man is the longing which cries with the
badgered patriarch, “Oh that I knew where I might find Him, that I might come
even to His seat!” “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by Me!” “It is the voice of Jesus that I hear.” Jesus brings us
to our Father, and puts our hand in His strong grasp. (J. E. Roberts, M. A.)
The added sense
“I had visions of God.” So said Ezekiel. He was selected from a
crowd that he might have them, and he had them. There is something that is
arbitrary in God’s selection of a prophet; so that the man is, as Paul said,
apprehended, and cannot choose but hear. There are also qualities in the man
that cause him to be chosen. He will be a man of sense. He will be a man of
intellectual power, for a prophet must not be a fool; and of moral power, one
in whose heart are certain abiding convictions. But chiefly he will have the
spiritual sense, the seeing eye. The soul has senses as the body has, and the
pure in heart shall see God. It is quite conceivable that when our Lord chose
His disciples He may have done so at first sight, for He knew what was in men.
Perhaps it is more easily conceived that He had known, watched, studied them
for months, and had said within Himself that when the time came for beginning
these were the men who should be His chosen ones. Either way, they were chosen
because they were fit to be, a preliminary fitness being implied. When we are
told that a certain man had visions of God, it implies that beside the God who
gives it there is the man who can receive it; and when He speaks there is a man
who, being aware of it, stands in a listening attitude. The added sense which
certain prophets have had is not a mere human faculty invested for the time
with keener powers, but is a distinct and particular thing. The poet’s eye sees
visions not shown to others; and what were the world if it were robbed of the
poet’s dreams? The practical man has his uses--he who knows that two and two
are four, utilitarian to his core; who never had a waking dream in his life.
But where should we be without the man who sees the heavenly glories and calls
things by their truest names? He has visions, this man, and so perhaps the
astronomer may have, and the historian and the biographer, but they are not the
visions given to him of the added sense, the pure in heart, and the prophet by
the river, nor are they worth as much. Take away the seers, the mystics, the
dreamers, and we are bankrupt. These men find the gold, mint it, and scatter it
abroad for commoner men to find. Someone has expressed his pity for the blind man
for this reason among others, that he has “knowledge at one entrance quite shut
out.” For it is perfectly true that he who adds a sense to us adds in effect a
world. If you can unstop the ears of a deaf man, and so give him the sense of
hearing, you give him immediate entrance to the world of sound, the sweet world
of the breeze, the bird, and the speaking friend. This explains why it is that
the great realities of the spiritual world are myths, names, and dreams to so
many people, and why there are so many people to whom one cannot speak of his
deepest experiences. Words are only symbols to convey impressions and when
there is no appreciation or reception of the impression, what is the use of
words? When you talk to these people about the markets and the price of corn
and coal, or when you go to a higher level and speak of pictures, poetry, and
music, you speak intelligible words; but when you speak of grace in any of its
thousand terms, you treat of things they do not know. The expressed mission of
Christ was to open the eyes of the blind. It was His condemnation of the
wilfully blind around Him that they had eyes but could not perceive. It was
then, and still is, the emphatic cry of the Christian, “I see,” the meaning,
the shore, the eternal Face. It is an interesting conception that one has when
he thinks it might have pleased God to have made our mortal nature differently,
and to have endowed it with four senses instead of five. Suppose it had been
thought sufficient that we should be able to see and to hear, to feel and
taste, but were denied the sense of smell; and yet God, denying us this, had
filled the world with odorous buds and fragrant trees as now. Then the
meadow-sweet were vain, the perfume of the violet unreal, and all sweet scents
non-existent, But God had presently, let it be imagined, repented, and had
given to one solitary and selected man the sense of smell; and this man,
forgetting the deprivation of the rest of us, came to us with his question, Can
you tell me why there should be so great a difference between the fragrance of
the violet and the rose?” “My dear sir,” we should reply, “we do not understand
you; the shape of the flowers and their size and colour we can speak of, but
what this fragrance is we are unable to understand.” And should he go on to
speak such words as smell, odour, and scent, we could only insist on our
denial. The lack of sense makes it so. And it is precisely in the same way that
visions of God are impossible to some men, and so frequent with others. A man
is not necessarily beside himself because he sees what the rest say is not
there, or hears a voice when all the world declares there was no sound. For
then suppose the cure were worked on us, and we should walk through the gardens
with a new sense added. With what wonder we should become aware of their
odours, and go from flower to flower to try them all The more the world grows
sordid, and, as it terms it, practical, the more it needs the added sense. When
a man is wholly given to trade, and a woman to frivolity, the day of seeing
visions of God is gone. What is needed is the added sense; for then the Church
sees something more than organisations, and the nation more than colonies; and
even the common man sees the encircling hills run back and life grow wide with
astonishing speed. There is a prayer which, if answered, would meet the
necessities of the case: “Open the young man’s eyes, that he may see.” “Lord,
that I may receive my sight.” (A. J. Southouse.)
Spiritual ministries
Some men never had any religious experience even of the lowest
type; some men never prayed: are we to go and ask such men what they think of
prophets, inspired souls, minds that burn with enthusiasm? We shall go to them
for religious judgment when we go to the blind for an opinion of colour, and to
the deaf for an opinion of sound. There are some men whose opinion we do not
take upon any subject. On the other hand, when a man says he has seen heaven
opened, and has seen a Divine vision, and has felt in his heart the calm of
infinite peace, we are entitled to question him, to study his spirit, to
estimate his quality of strength and tenderness, and to subject his testimony
to practical trial. If the man himself is true, he will be better than his
certificate; and if the man himself is false, no certificate can save him from
exposure and destruction. Let us attend to this man awhile. He comes amongst us
with unique pretensions. He says he was “among the captives by the river of
Chebar.” Then was Ezekiel a captive? The historical answer is, Yes; the
religious answer is, No. He was a prisoner, and yet he was enjoying the liberty
granted to him by enlarging heavens and descending visions. Have we not had
experience of this kind? May we not so far claim the companionship of the
prophet? You do not live in the prison. Plato said that when Socrates was taken
to prison the prison ceased; it was the prison that gave way. A right mind can
never be in prison. What did Ezekiel see?--“visions of God.” By this term we
are not to understand simply great visions. Ezekiel saw God, hints of God,
gleams of the Divine presence, indications and proofs of God’s nearness;
verily, they were sights of God. “The word of the Lord,” he continues, “came
expressly” unto him. By “expressly” understand directly, certainly, without
mistake. The voice of God cannot be mistaken: it startles men; then it soothes
men; then it creates in them an attentive disposition; then it inspires men;
and then it says, Evermore, till the work is done, shall this music resound in
your souls. Then there is a “word of the Lord,” actually a “word.” There is
some word the Lord has chosen, taken up, selected, held up, stamped with His
image? Yes. Where is it? Every man knows where it is. The word of God is nigh
thee, in thee, is in a sense thyself. To want God is to have Him; to demand the
word of the living God is to know it. What may come of expansion, enlargement,
higher and higher illumination, only eternity can disclose; but the beginning
is in the very cry that expresses necessity or desire. Then comes the vision
itself. Who may enter upon it? Personally, I simply accept it. We are not all
poets, prophets. Some of us have but one set of eyes; the best thing for us to
do is to listen, and wonder, and believe. We are rebuked by these revelations.
We think we see everything when we see nothing. What have we seen? Trees? No:
only the wood in which trees grow. Flowers? Not one; but things that want to be
flowers, aspirations, struggles towards beauteous expression and fragrance. We
have not yet seen one another. We have seen nothing as it really is. When a
man, therefore, has seen aught of God or spirituality, we should listen to him
with entranced attention. The talk is to us lunacy, the words are madness,
until we are touched with a kindred spirit, sublimed by a kindred faith; then
all things are known to be possible with God. The need of every age is a
spiritual ministry. Spirituality and superstition are not the same thing. We
want men who will give us ideal visions of life, high conceptions of morality,
sublime forecasts of destiny, and a deepening sense of the sinfulness of sin.
We need men who can create, not moral commandments and stipulations, but a
moral atmosphere, which a bad man cannot breathe. It is better to pray than to
doubt; it is mentally stronger to believe than to deny. “The fool hath said in
his heart, There is no God”; the prophet hath said in his faith, “The heavens
were opened, and I saw visions of God.” I would rather listen to the second man
than to the first. The probabilities, at least, are on his side. Already there
are intimations that the universe is larger than any fool has discovered it to
be. Let us hear the prophet. (J. Parker, D. D.)
A whirlwind came out of the north.
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
prophet’s 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
prophet’s 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 God’s
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 precinct’s, 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 prophet’s eyes. So it
has always been. God’s chief revelations have ever flashed out in seasons of
trial and perplexity. As in Ezekiel’s 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 event’s. 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 Christ’s 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 Christ’s 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 likeness of four living creatures.
Angelic ministries
1. God employs not ignorant, silly ones in His service, but those
that are intelligent, angels that are wise and very knowing.
2. The angels are in all quarters of the world, taking notice of
men’s words, works, and ways.
3. Men should be ashamed to be ignorant, seeing angels are likened
unto them for knowledge and understanding.
4. God doth interest angels and use their service in the government
of the world.
The likeness of a man.
The likeness of a man
I. There are human
features in heaven.
1. There is a resemblance between spirits in heavenly regions and
men.
2. There is a human likeness in God. Christ is its manifestation.
3. The human Christ is in heaven.
4. There are men in heaven.
II. There are human
features in revelation.
1. Revelation comes to us through human channels. The thought of
heaven is translated into the language of earth.
2. Revelation makes known to us the true glory of humanity.
3. In all religion it is important not to lose sight of human nature.
We have to see--
The hands of a man under their wings.
Suppression of self
We are to do God’s works without noise or notice of ourselves.
Angels, that are agents for God, have their hands under their wings; their
actions are seen, but not their hands. When Manoah catechised the angel, and
asked him, “What is thy name?” the angel would not tell him, but said, “Why
askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret?” And you shall not find
the names of above two angels in Scripture, Gabriel and Michael. Angels are
jealous of God’s glory, and had rather conceal their hands and names than God
should lose the least degree of His glory; for Manoah would therefore have
known his name, that he might have honoured the angel afterward: and we are
very apt to look at the instrument, and neglect the principal. It is wisdom to
muffle up ourselves and to hold forth God as much as may be: Matthew 5:16, “Let your light so shine
before men, that they may see your good works,” etc.; He doth not say, that
they may see you, but see your good works, and glorify your Father, not you. (W.
Greenhill, M. A.)
The hand under the wing
I. As a symbol of
the ideal life of man. Perfect blending of serving and soaring. Man is a child
of the skies as well as of the soft.
II. As a symbol of
superhuman energy and force in connection with the human instrumentality. Human
skill, tact, and eloquence are powerless unless winged by superhuman might.
III. The right place
for the hand of service is under the wing of faith. “Whether ye eat or drink,”
etc.
IV. In the noblest
service there is need for swiftness and grace. If there were more delight in
service there would be no need to repeat appeals and resort to contrivances and
schemes to get work done.
V. The hand of
service partly hidden by that which gives it speed. Often those whose days are
filled with business find time for Christian labour of most varied kinds. (H.
Starmer.)
And they went everyone
straight forward.--
The straightforward direction
If you look at a map of Russia, you will find that the railroad
between the cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg is a straight line. It happened
in this way. When the engineers were about to survey for making the railway,
they asked the Czar which way he wished the line to take. He asked for a map,
and, without a moment’s hesitation, he took a ruler and drew a straight line
between the two cities, and said, “That is the way I wish the line to be made.”
And has not God in the same manner drawn a straight line from the soul to
Himself, its true goal, and is not Conscience the bright and shining light that
signals the way clear between earth and heaven? (Sunday Circle.)
Going straight toward the goal
The man who says, “I am going straight for glory, and if anybody
is in my way, so much the worse for him,” for I am bound to take the right
road; such a man will find a pretty clear track. Mr. Moody would say, “Make a
bee line for heaven.” A bee knows the nearest way, and keeps to it with all its
force. Let me hear each one of you say, “I am not going to take any corners, or
twists, or windabouts; but straight away, what God bids me to do I am going to
do; what He bids me believe I am going to believe, and if there is anything to
be suffered for it, all right.” (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Whither the Spirit was to go, they went.
Led by the Spirit
By spirit, we are to understand, neither the will of angels, nor
winds, nor the soul of man (for spirit in Scripture doth signify all these),
but the essential and eternal Spirit of God. This is evident by Ezekiel 1:20.
1. Angels, although exceeding wise, full of knowledge, active, and
able to do great service, yet are not at their own disposal, they move not at
their own pleasure, they went not where they listed. Let the abilities of the
creature be never so excellent, they must be under the power of a superior,
they must be ordered and directed by a higher cause.
2. It is the Spirit of God who is the great agent that sets angels to
work; they perform nothing by their own virtue and strength, but at the command
and impulse of the Spirit they act, they set out, proceed, finish, and return.
As in a ship at sea, there are the winds without to drive it, and the pilot
within to guide it to what place he pleaseth; so here is the command of the
Spirit ab extra, externally, and the impetus intra, the inward
influence, to carry out and order these. The great things angels have done,
have been done by the Spirit of God: if they suggest good thoughts; if an angel
strengthen Christ in His agony; if they reveal mysteries and things to come to
Daniel and others; if they contend against princes, and agitate the great
affairs of the kingdom, it is by virtue of the Spirit of God, that works
efficaciously in them, and in good men, that are employed for the glory of God
and the public good of Church or State.
3. Angels are led and easily led by the Spirit. “They went”--without
dispute or delay--“whither the Spirit would have them go.” Offer up yourselves,
freely and fully, to the conduct of the Spirit, and that will lead you into all
truth and into the land of uprightness. (W. Greenhill, M. A.)
Spiritual activity
The poets tell us of a firefly in southern climates, said to be
the most brilliant of all fireflies, which has this peculiarity, that it never
shines at all except when going rapidly upon the wing, and then its brilliancy,
can be seen afar. So it is with our immortal souls. When we are upon the wing,
active and advancing, going forward in the Christian race toward God and toward
heaven, our light shines out and all men see it; but when we stand still, it
dies. (Christian Age.)
One wheel upon the earth
by the living creatures.
No stability in the world
The four living creatures
denoted the four parts of the world, and their agencies in them and by them:
now are presented the wheels; every living creature had a wheel by it: and this
strongly implies that there are wheelings, turnings, and changes in all parts;
yea, the very same that are in one part are at one time or other in another
part. The wheels are alike. Are wars, plagues, famine in one country? they are,
or will be, in another. Do men die here? so in all parts. Are men unfaithful
now? so they were of old. Are there unseasonable times here? such are abroad.
Are things carried by violence, oppression, injustice here? so they are
elsewhere. Are there designs, plots upon our kingdom and Church? so there are
upon others. Whatever befalls one state, befalls another, internally and externally.
The wheels are the same, and move alike, though sometimes backward in one part
of the world and forward in another; there is no stability anywhere, but all
things are changing. In vain, then, do men travel the world to find certainty
and content in it; in vain do we go up and down, here and there, thinking to
find settledness, and something satisfactory. The world is like itself
everywhere; go east or west, and there is nothing but a wheel, and a wheel
running. We must not look for stability, content, certainty, among the wheels,
but above them: now it is not time to look about and abroad, but to look above
the world and the wheels of it. If we have tribulation in the world, we may
have peace in Christ. (W. Greenhill, M. A.)
Symbols of Divine Providence
The sum of this celestial
vision is that the Divine Providence doth rule in the world, and is exercised
in all parts thereof, and not only in heaven, or in the temple, or in Jewry, as
the Jews then thought. As for the changes in the world, which are here compared
to wheels, they befall not by haphazard, but are effected by God, though all
things may seem to run upon wheels, and to fall out as it fortuneth. At the day
of judgment, at utmost, men shall see a harmony in this discord of things, and
Providence shall then he unriddled. Meanwhile, God oft wrappeth Himself in a
cloud, and will not he seen till afterwards. All God’s dealings be sure will
appear beautiful in their season, though for the present we see not the
contiguity and linking together of one thing with another. (J. Trapp.)
Verse 16
A wheel in the middle of a wheel.
God in human activity
By a wheel within a wheel God governs and makes all things work
together for good to those who love Him: all pleasant and all painful things;
all that is mean, contemptible, slanderous, all that vexes and annoys. So we
may put on gladness, knowing that He overrules each event of life, and while we
work, He worketh in us according to His pleasure.
1. The Scriptures affirm this truth. They are as full of evidences of
it as the daily press is full of the records of man’s workings in individual
and national life. Eyes see clearer, washed with tears. Paul could glory in his
infirmities, for he saw even in them that the power of Christ was made
glorious. In all the pains and penalties, the joys and griefs, the thoughts and
imaginations of life, God is busy, out of evil still educing good.
2. History proves this. Never did men meet behind closed doors
without God seeing them. Every plot and conspiracy is known to Him. The Jews
were persecuted and peeled, they were ever an easy prey to the spoiler, now
they are the bankers and traders of the world; many hold seats of power among
the nations. The thing you intend to accomplish carries with it a score of
things you did not intend to do. Luther and Columbus accomplished more than
they ever dreamed of doing, because God was in their movements.
3. The laws of nature illustrate this. The thunderstorm is His
scavenger, driving off malaria and noxious vapour. The earthquake is a safety
valve by which imprisoned gases are set free. Weeds, thistles, insects, are
made to work out some good.
Conclusion--
1. We cannot get along without God. If we choose to rebel against His
working, He will curb and overthrow us. If we lead selfish, prayerless, cruel
lives, He will thwart and destroy.
2. Nothing happens which does not help him who loves God. Losses,
crosses, abuse, and injury lead to the growth of patience, watchfulness, and
the silent bearing of sorrow. Burn your own smoke and go on. Trials help to
build up character.
3. The love of God is emphasised by the truth before us. He
reigns--not sin. (H. M. Gallaher, D. D.)
The symbol of Providence
I. Your troubles,
difficulties, losses, whatever they may be and whatever may be the instruments
of them, are all from God. Your times are in His hands. Your ways are ordered
by Him. Your breath depends upon His will. All your sorrows and all your joys
are parts of His one great plan of education for you to make you meet to be His
own forever.
II. Succeeding
events explain the providence and purposes of God. We learn what He intended to
do, by what He has done. If we study the Lord’s providence, remembering that all
its events come from God, and that God alone can teach us what is their meaning
and design; if we wait upon God with patient faith in His Divine teaching, to
see what He means to do with us, all the flames will unfold themselves in due
time. The whirlwind will pass by. The clouds will scatter, and light alone, the
purest light, will remain to shine around us, “clear as amber.”
III. All the
providences of God have a fixed purpose, and are wisely arranged in their
operation. There is no blind chance in the government of God or in the affairs
of men. When one asked Dr. Payson if he could discern any reason for his great
personal sufferings, he answered, “No; but I am as well satisfied as if I saw
ten thousand reasons. The will of God is the perfection of all reason.” The
ways and thoughts of God are not like ours. He does not give to us a previous
account of His plans and purposes. But He knows the thoughts which He thinks
concerning us. And He makes us to see and acknowledge at last how wire and how
perfect they all were. Thus every providence appears to us with the face of a
man, open, intelligent, and clear, having a manifest design, and perfectly
adapted to accomplish it. It has also the eye of an eagle, which seeth afar
off. It is watchful over the least of the affairs which it includes. The very
hairs of our head, the stones in our path, the moments of our unconscious
sleep, are all the subjects of its provision and control. These providences are
also perfectly steady and uniform in their operation. The Lord is of one mind,
and changeth not; the same yesterday, today, and forever.
IV. The same
providences are often designed to produce separate and sometimes apparently
opposite results. These various results of Providence, and the instruments by
which they are completed, are not generally wonderful or strange things. They
are perfectly natural and common things, but brought about by ways which we had
not anticipated. They are things which occur just as naturally as a wheel
revolves, or as wings support in flight. But they come and go in their
particular occurrence as God directs, and they bring to pass the designs which
God has formed.
V. In this
gracious and wonderful scheme all providences have a secret purpose of blessing
for those who love God. This is a very precious lesson. The plans of Divine
providence are always subservient to the plans of Divine grace. They are
designed as blessings for the chosen people of God. Whom He loves, He protects
and prospers. There can be no one to harm those who are followers after that
which is good. However God may try His people on the way, and however dark,
unintelligible, and hard to bear these trials may appear, the triumphant and
happy result is always the same, perfectly sure, and entirely compensating. He
refines His chosen ones like gold and silver, and they glorify Him in the
fires.
VI. All the
providences of God are under the control of the great Redeemer and Saviour of
the people of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. The government of the world is on His
shoulder, and He upholdeth all things by the word of His power. (S. H. Tyng,
D. D.)
The whole universe is ruled by God
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.)
The mysteries of Providence
I. God carries on
all things by a secret and an invisible virtue, that though you see the hand
without, yet you see not the spring within.
II. Men’s spirits
are many times raised unto an extraordinary pitch beyond the spirits of men.
Drawn out to higher resolutions, they pitch upon higher thoughts and purposes
than ever the times require: why now, mark, here is a mystery in this, that at
one time a man should rise higher than at another time, and their resolutions
and courages rise higher, and they should dare to encounter with those
difficulties that even formerly they did tremble to think of. What is the
reason of it? Oh, here is the mystery of Providence (Zechariah 12:8).
III. God puts
impressions and apprehensions upon men many times, that they run to their own
ruins.
1. Sometimes impressions of discouragement ( 7:13-14).
2. Sometimes impressions of encouragements (2 Kings 3:22-23).
IV. God many times
raiseth up instruments, and He qualifies them for His work. Girding up their
loins and strengthening their hands, that they shall go through that at one
time that you would have thought ten thousand instruments could not have done
it at another (Isaiah 45:1-2). God lays the same
instrument aside again at another time. Many times the Lord will make a
combination, and there shall be a conjunction of instruments, and afterwards
the Lord will make use of these, even to destroy one another. Abimelech and the
men of Shechem.
V. God many times
destroys men by those means by which in all human judgment they think they
shall be preserved. The people of Israel, when they were in any necessity, then
by and by unto King Jareb, which some expound to be a helping king: sometimes
in the way of Assyria, sometimes in the way of Egypt; yet, notwithstanding,
they were destroyed by those that they brought in to their help. They bound
Paul that he should not preach: “My bonds tend to the furtherance of the
Gospel.” They banished the Church out of Jerusalem, on purpose that so they
might have destroyed it: but that is the Church’s preservation, when Jerusalem
is destroyed. These are the strange actings of Providence.
VI. When things are
brought to the lowest ebb, the means weakest, and the confidence of the enemy
and their expectations highest, then many times God is pleased to destroy the
power of the mighty. When Gideon hath but three hundred men, he is fit to fight
God’s battles; yea, Sisera must fall by the hand of a woman. Uses--
1. In all actings of Providence subscribe to His wisdom.
2. In all actings of Providence submit to His will. (W. Strong.)
And they turned not when they went.
Concentrated lives
It is a grand thing to see a man thoroughly possessed with one
master passion. Such a man is sure to be strong, and if the master principle be
excellent, he is sure to be excellent too. The man of one object is a man
indeed. Lives with many aims are like water trickling through innumerable
streams, none of which is wide enough or deep enough to float the merest
cockleshell of a boat; but a life with one object is like a mighty river flowing
between its banks, bearing to the ocean a multitude of ships, and spreading
fertility on either side. Give me a man not only with a great object in his
soul, but thoroughly possessed by it, his powers all concentrated, and himself
on fire with vehement zeal for his supreme object, and you have put before me
one of the greatest sources of power which the world can produce. Give me a man
engrossed with holy love as to his heart, and filled with some masterly
celestial thought as to his brain, and such a man will be known wherever his
lot may be cast, and I will venture to prophesy that his name will be
remembered long after the place of his sepulchre shall be forgotten. (C. H.
Spurgeon.)
Whithersoever the Spirit was to go, they went.
The nobility of a devout soul under the Spirit’s influence
Oh for conquering grace to crush down self. I would be as a grain
of dust blown in the summer gale without power to change my course, carried by
the irresistible breath of God; forever made willingly unwilling to will
anything but the will of my Lord. I would be as a tiny straw borne along by the
Gulf Stream, carried wherever the warm love of God shall bear me, self delighting
to lie low and see the Lord alone exalted. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
For the spirit of the
living creatures was in the wheels.
The unity of Providence
The bosom of Providence is the great moral crucible in which
things work, in which they work together. They assimilate, repel,
interpenetrate, change each other; and then leave as resultant one grand
influence in the main for each character, for each man. “All things work
together,” not in an aimless and capricious manner, for this end and for that,
now in one way and now in another, as though a stream should one day flow
seaward, and the next back toward its fountain among the hills, but in one
volume, along one channel, in one direction, toward one end. (A. Raleigh, D.
D.)
As the appearance of a
man.
Conceptions of God
Ezekiel’s conception of
Jehovah appears in the” visions of God” which he describes (chaps. 1; 8; 10;
43.). These visions were all alike, and they reveal his general impression of
that which Jehovah is: the fourfold nature of the cherubim, of their faces and
wings and of the wheels, all forming a chariot moving in every direction alike,
and with the velocity suggested by the wings and wheels, symbolises the
omnipresence of Jehovah, while the eyes of which the whole are full are a token
of His omniscience. The throne above the firmament on which He sat indicates
that He is King in heaven, God over all, omnipotence. The Divine Being Himself
appeared as of human form, while His nature was light, of such brightness that
fire fitly represented Him only from the loins downwards; from the loins
upwards the effulgence was something purer and more dazzling, and He was
surrounded by a brightness like that of the rainbow in the day of ram. This
glory, which contains Himself within it (Ezekiel 10:4; Ezekiel 01:18; Ezekiel 43:5; Ezekiel 34:6), is that which is manifested to men. (A. B. Davidson, D. D.)
Man a type of the supernatural
All the analogies of human
thought are in themselves analogies of nature; and in proportion as they are
built up or are perceived by mind in its higher attributes and work, they are
part and parcel of natural truth. Man--he whom the Greeks call Anthropos, because,
as it has been supposed, he is the only being whose look is upward--man is a
part of nature, and no artificial definitions can separate him from it. And yet
in another sense it is true that man is above nature--outside of it; and in
this aspect he is the very type and image of the “supernatural.” (Duke of
Argyll.)
As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of
rain.
The significance of the
rainbow
Ezekiel was reminded that
he had to present God before the people as clothed with fire--a symbol,
probably, of His coming indignation on the last of Jerusalem’s inhabitants.
But, not to disturb the righteous, or to give them the least idea for supposing
that, in the final desolation of Jerusalem, God’s covenant should cease, the vision
went on (verse 28) to reveal a rainbow overarching this fiery throne, the mild
lustre of which outshone its blazing glare. Could anything be more gracious?
From that time, both the prophet and His faithful people might well rest
assured that they were safe. God would not, and could not, forsake them. The
bow of the covenant was above them, far beyond the reach of those changing
providences which were represented as going forward so rapidly and incessantly
below them. And even thus, amidst the changes and troubles of this mortal life,
the true Israel, the believers in Christ, are safe under God’s covenant mercy
and grace. (J. H. Titcomb.)
Verse 28
I fell upon my face.
Man’s incapacity for seeing God
If we knew and could feel as much concerning God and Christ and
heaven as we sometimes desire, probably it would make us insane. We have seen
horticulturists pull down the awnings in their greenhouses. Plants may
sometimes have too much sun: and so may we. (N. Adams.)
Humbled by a sight of glory
1. See what mischief sin hath done unto us: it hath disabled us from
partaking of our greatest good. The sight of glory is the happiness of the
creature.
2. The sight of
glory is an humbling thing. “The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all
flesh shall see it” (Isaiah 40:5); and then follows, “All
flesh is grass.” Glory will convince us that we are but grass. It is not
hearing will do it--at least, not so effectually; seeing, and seeing of glory,
doth humble mightily. Seeing of misery causeth grief, “Mine eye affecteth mine
heart”; but seeing of glory causeth godly sorrow (Job 42:5-6; Isaiah 6:5). Those that are thoroughly
humbled with the sense of their own vileness and weakness are fittest to hear
Divine truths and to receive Divine mysteries. Ezekiel falls on his face, and
then hears a voice; so was it with Daniel. Flesh and blood is apt to be lifted
up, to trust in something of its own; men look at, and like their own parts,
their graces; some confidence or other we are apt to catch hold of; but we must
let all go, be low in our own eyes, if we will be fit auditors of Christ; we
must fall down at the feet of His throne, if we will hear Him speak from His
throne. He giveth grace to the humble, they find the choicest favours at His
hands (James 4:6). (W. Greenhill, M. A.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》