Page 17 - NOTES ON EZEKIEL

CHAPTER I. 11
tion was about to burst on Judea out of the north,
that is, from Babylon.
But there is much more. “ Also out of the midst
thereof came the likeness of four living creatures.
And this was their appearance; they had the likeness
of a man.” (Yer. 5.) If there could be any doubt
left on the mind of him who reads this account,
chapter x. distinctly shews that the living creatures
are the cherubim. They are here, not two like the
figures made out of the ends of the pure and beaten
gold which formed the mercy-seat where God sat as on
a throne, but four in relation (I presume) to the
creature. The God of Israel, who dwelt between the
cherubim on the ark, was in the midst of His people
and approached by blood according to divine righteous­
ness, which was guarded by the witness of His judicial
authority. Ezekiel was given to behold His judgments
in providence from without. He would judge His guilty
people by Babylon as His instrument. Here there­
fore it is fire (ver. 5) which characterizes the display
of His destructive judgment as the God of heaven.
It would be almost an endless genealogy, and
certainly to little edification, if one set out in de­
tail the strange misconception of these symbols which
have prevailed among men, both Jews and Christians.
In the former this is not surprising; for the unbelief
which wrought the evils which the prophet denounced
still works the same stiff-necked opposition to the
truth. “ This generation” is not passed away, nor will
it till all that is predicted be fulfilled. But Chris­
tians are far less excusable. Hiving the true light
they ought to see; but they only see aright, as the