Ezekiel 10:1-22

CHAPTER 10.

THE VISION OF THE COALS OF FIRE.

As soon as the prophet's attention was withdrawn from what had for the time completely absorbed it, the proceedings connected with the preservation of the good and the destruction of the wicked, he was favoured with another vision of the glory of Jehovah, such as he had already beheld on the plains of Chebar. The scene only of the Divine manifestation was different, the manifestation itself was substantially the same. Here also there were, as had formerly been seen, the cloud of glory and the dazzling splendour filling the field of vision the cherubim with the likeness of a throne above, surmounted by the sapphire firmament gigantic wheels by the side of the cherubim, full of eyes round about, instinct with life and motion, and themselves moving in the midst of the glowing fire the voice, from time to time, of these cherubim, pealing in the ears of the prophet as the voice of the Almighty, all serving by the nature of their appearance and the character of their movements to shadow forth the mind and will of Him who, amid such accompaniments of Divine majesty, occupied the throne. The presentation of this glorious vision to the eye of the prophet took place in the midst of the appointed executions of judgment one part being already past, while another was still to come. And the leading object of it seems to have been to bring distinctly into view the immediate agency of God in the matter, and to show how all proceeded, as by a law of imperious necessity, from the essential holiness of his nature. But let us first give the prophet's description of the scene itself:

Ezekiel 10:1. And I looked, and, behold, in the firmament that was over the head of the cherubim like a sapphire-stone, as the appearance of the likeness of a throne was seen upon them.

Ezekiel 10:2. And he spoke to the man clothed in linen, and said, Go in between the wheels, to below the cherub, and fill thy hand with coals of fire from between the cherubim, and scatter them over the city. And he went in my sight.

Ezekiel 10:3. And the cherubim stood on the right side of the house when the man went in; and the cloud filled the inner court.

Ezekiel 10:4. And the glory of Jehovah went up from above the cherub, over the threshold of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the glory of Jehovah.

Ezekiel 10:5. And the sound of the cherubim's wings was heard to the outer court, as the voice of the Almighty God when he speaks.

Ezekiel 10:6. And it came to pass, when he commanded the man clothed in linen, saying, Take fire from between the wheels, from between the cherubim, that he went in, and stood beside the wheel.

Ezekiel 10:7. And the cherub (viz. the one at that wheel) stretched forth his hand from between the cherubim to the fire, which was between the cherubim, and lifted and gave to the hand of him who was clothed in linen, and he took it and went forth.

Ezekiel 10:8. And there appeared in the cherubim the likeness of the hand of a man under their wings.

Ezekiel 10:9. And I looked, and behold there were four wheels beside the cherubim, one wheel beside one cherub, and one wheel beside another cherub: and the appearance of the wheels was as the glitter of the tartessus-stone.

Ezekiel 10:10. And for appearance, there was one likeness to the four, as it were a wheel in the midst of a wheel.

Ezekiel 10:11. When they went, they went toward their four sides (i.e. in one or other of the four directions to which the wheels severally pointed); they turned not when they went; for to what direction the face looked, thither they went; they turned not when they went.

Ezekiel 10:12. And their whole flesh, and their backs, and their hands, and their wings, and their wheels were full of eyes round about, the wheels of the four of them (i.e. were full of eyes).

Ezekiel 10:13. As for the wheels, to them it was cried in my hearing, The whirling. (This has been unhappily rendered in the authorized version, O wheel. In the original there are two words used in this chapter, which we can scarcely avoid translating by the same word, wheel, אוֹפָן, which strictly means a wheel; and נַּלְנַּל, which comprehends the entire machinery of wheel-work, wheel within wheel, so called from its quick, whirlwind-like movements. This is what the word properly means, anything having a swift rotatory motion; whence it denotes a whirlwind, Psalms 77:

18. It was this last word which was here proclaimed in the prophet's ears, for the purpose partly of indicating their nature, and partly of calling them to put themselves in motion. For by their rapid energetic motion they symbolized the resistless speed and certainty with which the Divine agency accomplishes its purposes. Bottcher, quoted by Maurer, renders: “To the wheels, to these was it always cried in my ears, the Roll Roll;” meaning that they were called to be continually revolving. The Septuagint is still more literal, for it simply gives the original word, Γελγέλ.)

Ezekiel 10:14. And every one bad four faces: the first face the face of a cherub, and the second face the face of a man, and the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle. (The peculiarity in this description of the personal aspect of the cherubim is, that while they are said to have had each four faces, that is, to have combined in their visage the fourfold aspect of ox, man, lion, and eagle, the first is represented as having simply the appearance of a cherub, and the others that of a man, a lion, and an eagle respectively. Some commentators, as Maurer, confess that they see no proper way of explaining this; many more pass on without offering any explanation; and others, comparing the passage with Ezekiel 1:10, where the ox is mentioned as the fourth component element in the composition of the cherub, take cherub here for ox, and suppose that the cherubic structure had some peculiar affinity with the form of the ox, on account of which the name of cherub might be substituted for that of ox. But this is without any foundation, and, indeed, contrary to the description in chap. 1, according to which, as formerly stated, the form of man was undoubtedly predominant in the appearance. The explanation I take to be this: the prophet simply describing what he saw, and standing at the time right in front of one of the cherubim, the one who gave the live coals to the angel, could not say in regard to this cherub which particular form was prominent, the whole cherubic figures appeared in the face; while, having only a side view of the others, they each presented to his eye the different forms he specifies.)

Ezekiel 10:15. And the cherubim rose upwards: it is the living creature which I saw by the river Chebar.

Ezekiel 10:16. And when the cherubim went, the wheels went with them; and when the cherubim lifted up their wings to mount up from off the earth, the wheels also did not turn from beside them.

Ezekiel 10:17. When the one stood the other stood, when the one rose the other rose; for the spirit of the living creature was in them.

Ezekiel 10:18. And the glory of Jehovah went forth from above the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubim.

Ezekiel 10:19. And the cherubim lifted up their wings, and ascended from the earth in my sight, when they went forth and the wheels at their side; and it (i.e. the whole appearance) stood at the door of the east gate of the house of Jehovah, and the glory of the God of Israel was over them aloft.

Ezekiel 10:20. This is the living creature which I saw under the God of Israel by the river Chebar, and I knew that they were the cherubim.

Ezekiel 10:21. Each one had four faces apiece, and four wings apiece; and the likeness of the hand of a man was under their wings.

Ezekiel 10:22. And the likeness of their faces they are the same faces which I saw by the river Chebar, their appearance and themselves: they each go right forward.

The Divine manifestation here described as having been presented in vision to Ezekiel is distinctly connected with the one previously given on the banks of the Chebar. It is substantially a renewal of the former vision, though differing as to the locality where the manifestation was given, and the symbolical actions with which it was accompanied. Looking to the two manifestations in their common features, and with respect to their general design, we can have no difficulty in perceiving both the propriety and importance of such displays of the Divine presence and glory having been vouchsafed to the prophet, especially near the commencement of his career. They were needed to qualify him for the discharge of his high function, and for maintaining the arduous conflict he had to wage against unbelief and corruption. “The Divine presence,” to use the words of Hävernick, “was discovered to him in such glorious manifestations, first, for the purpose of calling him to do the part of a witness of that glory in the midst of his God-forgetting people; then for the purpose of taking leave of the visible locality with which the old manifestations of Deity were connected, and with which they were never to be associated in the ancient manner again. These two occasions of a Divine manifestation so peculiarly glorious were periods never to be forgotten in the life of Ezekiel; to exhibit them in their harmonious agreement was what he could on no account omit. Twice had his spiritual eye beheld the very God of Israel upon the cherubim; this was the seal of truth which he stamped on his announcements; this for himself was the dearest pledge of the Divine condescension an inexpressible grace, which he felt constrained by a lively sense of the Lord's presence to record with candour and delight.”

When we look to the differences between this vision and the earlier one, the appearances themselves, and the actions connected with them, for the most part admit of a ready explanation. The particular feature mentioned here respecting the cherubim, that they were in every part full of eyes, and not mentioned in the former description, can scarcely be regarded as a difference; for it seems to be merely a more specific detail, which the prophet's second and closer inspection of the appearance enabled him to observe and note. He expressly states that the living creature was the same that he had seen at first; which implies that it had each time the same composite and peculiar structure. Here, however, the throne which appeared above the cherubim is without the accompaniment of the rainbow, for, on this particular occasion, it is the work of judgment alone that is symbolized. The sign of returning grace after floods of wrath might still, indeed, be said to be there, in the background, for the judgment was not to be utterly annihilating; a remnant was still to be spared, and a door left open for fresh manifestations of covenant-love and faithfulness. But this had already been indicated in the preceding part of the vision (Ezekiel 9.), by the action of the sealing of those who had kept aloof from the reigning abominations, and reserving them for a purpose of mercy in the future. What is unfolded in the present chapter is simply the following out to its proper conclusion of the work of judgment. The sinners in Zion were already slain; their carcasses are seen lying throughout the streets of the city, and some of them were defiling the house which their rampant iniquity had so fearfully profaned. And now it only remained that the work of severity should be consummated, by destroying the city itself where all the abominations had been practised. The Lord therefore appears on his throne of judgment; and, to make it more manifest that the judgment is in vindication of his injured holiness, and on account of the sins which had been committed against his covenant, the scene of the judicial action is laid in the temple itself. The cherubic machinery, moved close to the threshold of the house, and the glory of the Lord not only stood above it, but also pressed inwards, so that the whole house was filled with the cloud the emblem of God's awful majesty and hot displeasure. There, in immediate contact with the sanctuary, a cherub, at the Divine command, gives a portion of the fire which glowed between the wheelworks of the cherubim to the man clothed in linen the angel of the covenant that he might scatter it over the city and reduce the whole to ashes. This fire may certainly, with Hengstenberg (on Revelation 8:5), be called elemental fire, since the purpose for which it was given was to consume the devoted city. But this surely does not render it less (as he conceives) a symbol of the holy wrath and judgment of God, for that consumption of the city was no merely natural operation, but a solemn act of judgment, in vindication of the honour and majesty of God. Nothing here, either in the vision itself or in the actions represented as proceeding, belongs simply to the natural sphere; even the natural powers and agencies, of which the cherubic appearances and the wheel-work were partly symbolical, have their place in the vision, from their subservience to the moral ends and purposes in progress. But it deserves to be noted, with Calvin (though he errs, we think, in other parts of his explanation), that the fire is represented as being taken not from the altar of God, which had so much to do with the work of reconciliation for iniquity, hut from the ideal source specially provided for purposes of judgment suited to the occasion. And that a man's hand supplied this material element of fire for the work of destruction may naturally be regarded as indicating that human agents should not be wanting, at the proper time, to carry into effect the judgment written; the Lord would not need, as in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah, to rain down fire and brimstone from heaven, but would find among men instruments properly fitted for executing his purpose. The whole prophetic burden contained in this and the preceding chapter is to be found in plain language, and with much detail, in many parts of Jeremiah's writings, and indeed was comprised long before in the following brief but awful passage of Isaiah (Isaiah 23:12 sq.): “The people shall be as the burnings of lime, as thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire. The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?”

Another scene of destruction, however, was yet to be presented to the eye of the prophet, before the revelation could properly be made of the purpose of mercy that was in reserve; a special work of judgment must prepare the way for its accomplishment. This we have in the earlier part of the next chapter, after which, in the latter part, comes the exhibition of the purpose of mercy.