Ezekiel 1:16 The appearance of the wheels and their work was like to the color of a beryl: and they four had one likeness… 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 (Judges 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.) Parallel Verses KJV: The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel. |
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