and within it was the form of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: They had a human form, Sermons
Man is only a part, though an integral part, of the active universe of God. Even inert matter is pervaded by dynamic throes, such as attraction, heat, and electricity; and every part of God's creation is executing, either intelligently or ignorantly, his supreme will. To a heathen monarch he made a startling revelation, "1 girded thee, though thou hast not known me." These cherubic forms (seen first at the gate of Eden, and again in symbol over the mercy seat) are representatives of all creature life, both terrestrial and super terrestrial. Human science not the measure of God's kingdom. I. OBSERVE THEIR NUMBER AND VARIETY. As all matter is cubical, having length, breadth, and thickness, so the number four is the prophetic sign for our terrestrial globe. Hence we have in the vision a four-laced form of life, with one aspect towards each quarter of the globe. There is completeness and sufficiency in all God's arrangements. The manifold varieties of creature life are ordained to do their Master's will, in whatever quarter of the world exigency may arise. This is an intimation of help to the righteous, but of vengeance to the wicked. II. NOTE THEIR INTELLIGENT QUALITIES. The human form is prominent in the prophetic picture, indicative of the fact that intelligence and reason are the ruling attributes. The universe is not a promiscuous assemblage of dead atoms, nor is the life of men the march of inexorable fate. Combined with the intelligence of man, is the courage of the lion, the patient endurance of the ox, and the stilt speed of the eagle. The noblest service which God's creatures can render, falls immeasurably short of the requirements of God. Yet are our powers never so ennobled or enlarged as when engaged in his work. To him must our very best be consecrated. Far from exhausting our strength, God's service renews and refreshes the spirit. There is always a latent reserve of power. The more we do, the more we can do. Two wings are at rest, while two are in motion. III. MARK THEIR INTENSE DEVOTION. "Their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps... the fire was bright." The nature of true servants was given to these living creatures. They glowed with sympathetic ardour to fulfil their Monarch's will. The flame within was kindled and kept alive by an invisible hand, so that by virtue of its intense energy, it touched and beautified every part of their nature. As the ministers of Jehovah, they shared in his resplendent purity. IV. SEE THEIR PROMPT AND GLAD OBEDIENCE. "They went every one straight forward... whither the spirit was to go, they went." Service was a delight. It would have been a restraint upon the impulses and energies of their nature - a very pain - if no service had been allotted them. Hastening to execute the high behests of God, they go and return like a lightning flash. Personality was retained in its full integrity, but self was repressed; they moved spontaneously under the Divine impetus. Self-will sweetly coalesced and identified itself with the will of God. The perfection of a child spirit is reached when we can say, "I do always the things that please him." No by-ends, nor sinister advantages, are sought by these dutiful servants. Each one moves in a straightforward line. The shortest course is pursued to reach the Divine end. V. THERE WAS UNITY OF ACTION, COMBINED WITH DIVERSITY. Each form of creature life had its special mission to fulfil; yet each worked in harmony with the other for a common end. In appearance they were conjoined, and yet were separate. The particular service to be performed by the eagle's wing could not be executed by the foot of the ox, nor by the hand of the man. There is scope in God's service forevery quality and attribute of soul. VI. NOTE THEIR SPECIAL COMMISSION. These ideal forms of creature life were commissioned to chastise the rebellious nations. They appear on this occasion as the executors of Divine vengeance. "Fire went up and down among the living creatures, and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning." When God comes forth to judge the earth, he is accustomed to employ a variety of agents. Sometimes he employs the material elements, as at Pompeii and Moscow. Sometimes he employs men - even "men of the world, which are his hand." Sometimes he employs the principalities and powers of heaven. "The angels are the reapers;" "They shall bind the tares in bundles to burn them." John heard a voice out of the temple, saying to the seven angels, "Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth." The Jews in their exile, when Ezekiel appeared upon the scene, were flattering themselves with the prospect of a speedy restoration to liberty and to home; but the mission of Ezekiel was designed to dissipate this false hope. A long night of chastisement was to precede the dawn of mercy. The glowing fire and the lightning flame were impressive portents of impending judgment. "Our God is a consuming fire." - D. The likeness of four living creatures. 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. (1)To inform us of God's will, and God of our ways.(2)In opposing the great enemies of Christ and His Church, whereupon they intermeddle with kings and kingdoms, and the great affairs thereof.(3)To execute the judgments of God upon wicked men.(4)To defend the godly, to save and deliver them from harms.(5)To guide and lead the godly in good and safe ways.(6)To comfort.(7)To look unto the souls of men, that they fall not into the hands of devils at their death.(8)They are God's reapers at the end of the world.(9)To declare kingdoms, cities, people cursed.(10)The angels have work and power in the Church of God.() 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 — (1)God's sympathy with man.(2)Man's living, earthly experience of God.(3)Man's duty to his fellow men.() People Babylonians, Buzi, Ezekiel, JehoiachinPlaces ChebarTopics Appearance, Beings, Creatures, Figures, Form, Forms, Heart, Human, Likeness, Midst, Resembling, Thereof, WithinOutline 1. The time of Ezekiel's prophecy at Chebar.
4. His vision of four cherubim;
15. of the four wheels;
26. and of the glory of God.
Dictionary of Bible Themes Ezekiel 1:1-28 8474 seeing God Ezekiel 1:3-28 7775 prophets, lives Ezekiel 1:4-14 4150 cherubim Ezekiel 1:4-18 1454 theophany Ezekiel 1:4-28 1090 God, majesty of
1469 visions Ezekiel 1:5-10 1652 numbers, 3-5 Ezekiel 1:5-25 4627 creatures
4690 wings Library God's Providence
"Now as I beheld the living creatures, behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four faces. 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. When they went, they went upon their four sides: and they turned not when they went. As for their rings, they were so high that they were dreadful; and their rings were full of eyes round …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 54: 1908The Noble Results of this Species of Prayer
The Noble Results of this Species of Prayer Some persons, when they hear of the prayer of silence, falsely imagine, that the soul remains stupid, dead, and inactive. But, unquestionably, it acteth therein, more nobly and more extensively than it had ever done before; for God Himself is the mover, and the soul now acteth by the agency of His Spirit. When S. Paul speaks of our being led by the Spirit of God, it is not meant that we should cease from action; but that we should act through the internal …
Madame Guyon—A Short and Easy Method of Prayer 'Deliver us from Evil'
'But deliver us from evil.'--MATT. vi. 13. The two halves of this prayer are like a calm sky with stars shining silently in its steadfast blue, and a troubled earth beneath, where storms sweep, and changes come, and tears are ever being shed. The one is so tranquil, the other so full of woe and want. What a dark picture of human conditions lies beneath the petitions of this second half! Hunger and sin and temptation, and wider still, that tragic word which includes them all--evil. Forgiveness and …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture This State of Prayer not one of Idleness, but of Noble Action, Wrought by the Spirit of God, and in Dependence Upon Him --The Communication Of
Some people, hearing of the prayer of silence, have wrongly imagined that the soul remains inactive, lifeless, and without movement. But the truth is, that its action is more noble and more extensive than it ever was before it entered this degree, since it is moved by God Himself, and acted upon by His Spirit. St Paul desires that we should be led by the Spirit of God (Rom. viii. 14). I do not say that there must be no action, but that we must act in dependence upon the divine movement. This …
Jeanne Marie Bouvières—A Short Method Of Prayer And Spiritual Torrents The Prophet Jonah.
It has been asserted without any sufficient reason, that Jonah is older than Hosea, Joel, Amos, and Obadiah,--that he is the oldest among the prophets whose written monuments have been preserved to us. The passage in 2 Kings xiv. 25, where it is said, that Jonah, the son of Amittai the prophet, prophesied to Jeroboam the happy success of his arms, and the restoration of the ancient boundaries of Israel, and that this prophecy was confirmed by the event, cannot decide in favour of this assertion, …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament How Subjects and Prelates are to be Admonished.
(Admonition 5.) Differently to be admonished are subjects and prelates: the former that subjection crush them not, the latter that superior place elate them not: the former that they fail not to fulfil what is commanded them, the latter that they command not more to be fulfilled than is just: the former that they submit humbly, the latter that they preside temperately. For this, which may be understood also figuratively, is said to the former, Children, obey your parents in the Lord: but to …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great A Sight of the Crowned Christ
(Revelation, Chapter i.) "Since mine eyes were fixed on Jesus, I've lost sight of all beside, So enchained my spirit's vision, Looking at the Crucified." "The Lord Christ passed my humble cot: I knew him, yet I knew him not; But as I oft had done before, I hurried through my narrow door To touch His garment's hem. "He drew me to a place apart From curious crowd and noisy mart; And as I sat there at His feet I caught the thrill of His heart-beat Beyond His garment's hem. "Rare was the bread He broke …
by S. D. Gordon—Quiet Talks on the Crowned Christ of Revelation Appendix v. Rabbinic Theology and Literature
1. The Traditional Law. - The brief account given in vol. i. p. 100, of the character and authority claimed for the traditional law may here be supplemented by a chronological arrangement of the Halakhoth in the order of their supposed introduction or promulgation. In the first class, or Halakhoth of Moses from Sinai,' tradition enumerates fifty-five, [6370] which may be thus designated: religio-agrarian, four; [6371] ritual, including questions about clean and unclean,' twenty-three; [6372] concerning …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah Of Love to God
I proceed to the second general branch of the text. The persons interested in this privilege. They are lovers of God. "All things work together for good, to them that love God." Despisers and haters of God have no lot or part in this privilege. It is children's bread, it belongs only to them that love God. Because love is the very heart and spirit of religion, I shall the more fully treat upon this; and for the further discussion of it, let us notice these five things concerning love to God. 1. The …
Thomas Watson—A Divine Cordial Covenanting Enforced by the Grant of Covenant Signs and Seals.
To declare emphatically that the people of God are a covenant people, various signs were in sovereignty vouchsafed. The lights in the firmament of heaven were appointed to be for signs, affording direction to the mariner, the husbandman, and others. Miracles wrought on memorable occasions, were constituted signs or tokens of God's universal government. The gracious grant of covenant signs was made in order to proclaim the truth of the existence of God's covenant with his people, to urge the performance …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting An Advance Step in the Royal Programme
(Revelation, Chapters iv. and v.) "We are watching, we are waiting, For the bright prophetic day; When the shadows, weary shadows, From the world shall roll away. "We are watching, we are waiting, For the star that brings the day; When the night of sin shall vanish, And the shadows melt away. "We are watching, we are waiting, For the beauteous King of day; For the chiefest of ten thousand, For the Light, the Truth, the Way. "We are waiting for the morning, When the beauteous day is dawning, We are …
by S. D. Gordon—Quiet Talks on the Crowned Christ of Revelation Brief Outline of Ancient Jewish Theological Literature
The arrangements of the synagogue, as hitherto described, combined in a remarkable manner fixedness of order with liberty of the individual. Alike the seasons and the time of public services, their order, the prayers to be offered, and the portions of the law to be read were fixed. On the other hand, between the eighteen "benedictions" said on ordinary days, and the seven repeated on the Sabbaths, free prayer might be inserted; the selection from the prophets, with which the public reading concluded--the …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life Ezekiel
To a modern taste, Ezekiel does not appeal anything like so powerfully as Isaiah or Jeremiah. He has neither the majesty of the one nor the tenderness and passion of the other. There is much in him that is fantastic, and much that is ritualistic. His imaginations border sometimes on the grotesque and sometimes on the mechanical. Yet he is a historical figure of the first importance; it was very largely from him that Judaism received the ecclesiastical impulse by which for centuries it was powerfully …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament Links Ezekiel 1:5 NIV
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