Page 49 - NOTES ON EZEKIEL

CHAPTER X. 43
and the fourth the face of an eagle. And the cherubim
were lifted uA\ This is the living creature that I saw
by the river of Chebar. And when the cherubim
went, the wheels went by them: and when the cherubim
lifted up their wings to mount up from the earth, the
same wheels also turned not from beside them. When
they stood, these stood; and when they were lifted upy
these lifted up themselves also: for the spirit of the
living creature was in them.” (Ver. 6—17.) It is
plain that, if the glory seen by the river Chebar re­
turned, so emphatically identified in verses 15, 20, 22y
it was but passingly and for the sad task both of
sealing the judgment and of marking the abandonment
of Israel as under the law and now apostate from God.
The symbol of divine government in providence was
there, but it took not its seat in the holiest. It stood
at the threshold, and the court was full of the brightness
of Jehovah’s glory, but there was no entrance within.
It was a judicial visitation, in obedience to His behests
who from above controlled every movement. Wrath
was gone out against Jerusalem. He it was who directed
all, not the dumb idols which carried away the-
Gentiles, having mouths but they speak not, having
eyes and hands and ears but they hear not nor see nor
handle, as vain as those who trust in them against God
in the heavens who hath done whatsoever He hath
pleased.
There are some features of difference from the earliest
manifestation. Not that there is any severance of the
wheels from the cherubic figures, or the least divergence
from common action, or in the end of their complicated
movements. All pervading intelligence is yet more