Ezekiel 10:8

Ezekiel 10:8

I. See what a Divine work creation is. Here, in this human hand beneath the angel's wing, do we see the procedure of the Divine work. All God's most beautiful things are related to use. Beauty and use are God's two anointed ministers to the world. In the gospel of utilitarianism, there is the hand without the wing; in the gospel of mysticism there is no man's hand under the wings.

II. See what Divine providence is. Man is the one manifold. (1) In the multiplicity of Divine operations we see the human hand beneath the angel's wing. From His exalted concealment God is constantly energizing by the human hand. This in all ages has been. (2) And is not our redemption a hand, the human hand beneath the Divine wing a hand stretched out, the "likeness of a man's hand beneath the cherubim"? What is the humanity of Jesus, but the human hand beneath the Divine wing? (3) This thought rebukes the many false modern notions of God. See in this God's own picture of His providence, and never be it ours to divorce that human from the Divine in God's being.

III. See in the human hand beneath the wing of the angel, the relation of a life of action to a life of contemplation. In our most exalted flights we need the human hand. And by the hand understand deeds, they administer even by bodily administration; but the hands under the wings show how they surpass the deeds of their action by the excellence of their contemplation.

IV. In a word, see what religion is. It is the human hand beneath the angel's wing. Has your religion a hand in it? It is practical, human, sympathetic. Has it a wing? It is lofty, unselfish, inclusive, Divine. Has it a hand? How does it prove itself? By embracing this hand, laying hold upon, by works. Has it a wing? How does it prove itself? By prayer, by faith, by heaven.

E. Paxton Hood, Preacher's Lantern,vol. i., p. 321.

Reference: Ezekiel 10:8. Homiletic Magazine;vol. x., p. 203.