Ezekiel 1:15

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.

Ezekiel 1:15-16 . Now as I beheld, &c. — The prophet here proceeds to relate what he saw besides the living creatures, which he had described in the foregoing verses. Behold one wheel upon the earth beside the living creatures — By each of the living creatures stood one wheel, so that they were four in number, according to the number of the living creatures. 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. The shape of wheels, and their fitness for continual motion, aptly represent the constant revolution of human affairs under the conduct of providence, which orders, governs, and changes. Sometimes one spoke of the wheel is uppermost, sometimes another. “Those persons or communities which to- day are at the top of the wheel, may to-morrow be at the bottom, beyond all human expectation or prevention; yet in the midst of apparent confusion, and while every thing seems hurried on by blind chance, or fatal necessity, the most perfect regularity is observed, and the changes are directed by as fixed laws as those which regulate the motions of the wheels.” — Scott.

The prophet’s seeing the wheels upon the earth was intruded to denote, that the vision related to the affairs of this world; and the wheels being said to be beside the living creatures, which attended to direct their motions, manifests, that 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. The appearance of the wheels — That is, their colour, for it is plain that is here intended; and their work — Their workmanship, form, or figure, as the word מעשׂה is repeatedly used, 1 Kings 7:17 , &c., all that was wrought, whether engraved or otherwise, was of one colour; was like unto the colour of a beryl — A gem of a bluish green; and called in the text here Tarshish, probably from the place whence it came. The colour intended is azure, or that of the blue sky mixed with a bright green: see Daniel 10:6 . Probably the wisdom, justice, and goodness of God’s providential government may be here signified by this beautiful colour of the wheels. They four had one likeness — They were the same for dimensions, colour, frame, and motion, to indicate that there is a consistency and uniformity in all the dispensations of Divine Providence.

(15) Behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures. —The prophet sees this while still looking intently upon the cherubim—“ as I beheld the living creatures “—showing that it was still a part of one and the same vision. The wheel was one in the same sense in which the living creatures were one, yet actually four, as appears from the following verse and the whole subsequent description. In the corresponding vision ( Ezekiel 10:9 ), they are at once described as four. The cherubim had been seen in the cloud ( Ezekiel 1:4-5 ); now they need to be connected below with the earth, and presently ( Ezekiel 1:26 ) above, with the throne of God. Therefore the wheel is “upon the earth,” but of a great height ( Ezekiel 1:18 ). There was a wheel in front of each of the cherubim, again forming a square, yet so that, as already said, they might in a sense be all considered as one wheel. Reference has been made for the origin of this imagery to the wheels under the ten bases of Solomon’s Temple ( 1Kings 7:32-33 ); but there seems to be nothing either in size or form to correspond, and, so far as we know, the imagery here is purely original.

Verse 15. - Behold one wheel, etc. As the prophet gazed, yet another marvel presented itself - a "wheel" was seen. It is "by" or "beside" (Revised Version) the living creatures, and "for each of the four faces thereof" (Revised Version); i.e. as the next verse states definitely, there were four wheels. We may compare the analogues of the "wheels" of fire in the theophany of Daniel 7:9 , and the chariot of the cherubim in 1 Chronicles 28:18 . Ezekiel 1:15

15 . beheld the living creatures ] lit. and I saw the living creatures and behold . LXX. reads, and I saw and behold —precisely as ch. Ezekiel 8:2 , Ezekiel 10:1 ; Ezekiel 10:9 . by the living creatures ] beside , as R.V. with his four faces ] lit. according to , or, at his four faces . LXX. reads, to these four , as Ezekiel 1:10 , which is simpler. In the present text the “four faces” must be those of each one of the living creatures. The general sense appears to be that for each face of the individual living creature there was a wheel. The appearance would be so if the wheel really seemed two wheels cutting one another transversely. The position of the living creature was above the wheel, though the rim of the wheel might be higher than his feet ( Ezekiel 10:2 ). 15–21 . The Four Wheels The prophet saw four wheels beside the four living creatures, one wheel beside each creature. The wheels touched the ground, and were all alike, having the appearance of tarshish-stone. The construction of each appeared as if a wheel were within a wheel, that is, each of the four wheels looked like two wheels, cutting each other at right angles. In this way each of the four wheels had a rim or circumference facing each of the four directions, just as the living creature had a face looking in each direction, so that toward whatever quarter the chariot moved four wheels seemed to be running in that direction. Their felloes were full of eyes.

The movements of the wheels corresponded entirely with those of the living creatures, they went, rose, or stood still according as the living creatures did. The wheels were not inanimate, but part of the living chariot of God; the “spirit” of the living creature was also in the wheels.

Translate it: "one wheel upon the earth by" each of "the liviing creatures" on his four sides (i. e. on the four sides of each of the living creatures). There was a wheel to "each" of the living creatures: it was set "by," i. e. immediately "beneath" the feet of the living creature, and was constructed for direct motion in any of the four lines in which the creatures themselves moved. Their "work" or make, i. e. their construction, was "a wheel in the middle of a wheel;" the wheel was composed of two circumferences set at right angles to each other, like the equator and meridian upon a globe. A wheel so placed and constructed did its part alike on each side of the living creature beneath which it stood. The "ten bases" of the temple 1 Kings 7:27-36 were constructed with lions, oxen, and cherubim, between the ledges and wheels at the four corners attached beneath so as to move like the wheels of a chariot.

Now; or, and ; it is a transition from the former to the latter part of the vision. I beheld; considered and observed. Behold; it calls for our attention. One wheel; or a certain wheel of spherical form, as some; of a circular form, as the wheels of chariots, say others. It is one wheel, intimating that all the different causes and motions, how many soever in themselves, yet work the same work, and are governed as easily in their various motions, as one single wheel might be, and that God doth so govern them. Upon the earth; not that we tread on, but that which in this vision was represented to the prophet; for it was here as it is in landscapes or pictures drawn, there is that which represents the earth, on which trees, men, or chariots seem to be upon. By the living creatures; by each of these living creatures stood one wheel, so that they were four in number, according to the number of the living creatures. With his four faces: by this it appears each wheel had its four faces, of which more in the 17th verse, where what is here called faces is there called sides.

15. one wheel—The "dreadful height" of the wheel (Eze 1:18) indicates the gigantic, terrible energy of the complicated revolutions of God's providence, bringing about His purposes with unerring certainty. One wheel appeared traversely within another, so that the movement might be without turning, whithersoever the living creatures might advance (Eze 1:17). Thus each wheel was composed of two circles cutting one another at right angles, "one" only of which appeared to touch the ground ("upon the earth"), according to the direction the cherubim desired to move in. with his four faces—rather, "according to its four faces" or sides; as there was a side or direction to each of the four creatures, so there was a wheel for each of the sides [Fairbairn]. The four sides or semicircles of each composite wheel pointed, as the four faces of each of the living creatures, to the four quarters of heaven. Havernick refers "his" or "its" to the wheels. The cherubim and their wings and wheels stood in contrast to the symbolical figures, somewhat similar, then existing in Chaldea, and found in the remains of Assyria. The latter, though derived from the original revelation by tradition, came by corruption to symbolize the astronomical zodiac, or the sun and celestial sphere, by a circle with wings or irradiations. But Ezekiel's cherubim rise above natural objects, the gods of the heathen, to the representation of the one true God, who made and continually upholds them.