Ezekiel ch. 1, v. 26:—”And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it.”
The Apostle in writing to Timothy tells him that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and that it is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. I dare say that the most of us think that we accept these words and that in our own thoughts, at any rate, we never act contrary to them. But I think if we examine what goes on in our minds and in our heart we do not really believe that all Scripture is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction or instruction in righteousness, for we are ready to pass over certain chapters in the Bible. For instance, when we read in the Book of Chronicles the long list of Hebrew names which are so strange to us, we are so ready to skip over these chapters as if they had no meaning. But I will tell you one thing we would miss by doing so—we would miss the wonderful prayer of Jabez. It is there enshrined, as it were, among these unfamiliar names.
And then again we have the same feeling about the Book of Revelation—so difficult to understand. It is because it is difficult to understand that we are so ready to say, “Well, there may be a meaning in it but it is too difficult to understand.” And we will not read this Book as we read other books. The result is that we lose a great deal by acting in that way, because there is a special promise to him that readeth this Book. The Holy Ghost has foreseen what was to take place in the ages to come, and has given a special promise to those who would read the Book.
Sent in by Mr. Malcolm MacLeod, Arnish, Raasay.—Editor.
I daresay, when you heard me reading this chapter some of you would be saying, “I wonder what he can say on that chapter, and why it is he is reading that chapter on the Monday of a Communion.” Well, perhaps, friends, although we may not be able to see very much in it, it is one of the most wonderful chapters in the Word of God and I hope to be able to touch upon a few things contained in this chapter that will be useful to us and give us a view of the divine purpose that will be for our edification and for our comfort.
You notice in connection with this mysterious vision given to the Prophet Ezekiel when he was by the River Chebar that it is expressly said that it was when the heavens opened that he saw the visions of God. It is a very remarkable thing that almost the same expression is used in the Book of Revelation that when the heavens were opened it was then that John saw the wonderful throne in heaven. And it is when the heavens are opened that any of the children of man will ever see the throne that is in heaven. Now, we are too ready to forget that in the midst of the things that may be happening, the affairs of this world and the affairs of the Church of Christ are under the control of a throne that is in heaven and if the windows of heaven were opened to us we would get a view of the greatness of that throne, and a sight of Him that is sitting upon it. Then the things that are happening would appear very different to us, and we would be saying whatever difficulties there may be in understanding the administration of Heaven that yet there is no doubt there is infinite power on that throne and infinite wisdom, too. Over that particular throne you notice that the rainbow was seen. These things that were happening were happening that God might accomplish His purpose of mercy and bring to pass all that He has ordained in connection with all that He intended to show to His people who were at that time in captivity.
The vision, you will notice, opens in a very strange and mysterious way. The prophet says: “And I looked and behold a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud and a fire infolding itself.” Now there are three points to which I would seek to direct your attention. The prophet here has to do a great work to make known the purpose of God to the people to whom he was sent. There are things to happen to that people that are fitted in every way to discourage them, mysterious happenings they cannot understand, which they are ready to disconnect altogether with the throne that is in Heaven and with the rainbow over it.
They are very ready to come to wrong conclusions in connection with the whirlwind, the cloud, and the fire that is infolding itself. Out of that place where the whirlwind, the cloud, and the fire are, there came living creatures, very mysterious creatures, too, and then he sees alongside these living creatures mysterious wheels. One wheel is so high that it is stretching right up to heaven and there is another wheel transversely in this great wheel. And you will notice that the living creatures and the wheels are never going backwards, always forward, and that there is a very intimate connection between the very beginning, the whirlwind, the cloud and fire out of which the living creatures came, they are all bound up together with the view that the prophet gets of the throne and the Person sitting on the throne who has the appearance of a man.
Now, first of all, let us notice with regard to the Divine purposes of God concerning His people and His cause in the world, that many a time they appear to them just as the whirlwind, many a time they appear to them just as a great cloud that is hiding from their view all that is going on, and many a time they appear to them as a burning fire that is kindled and they have no power to put it out, however much they would desire to do so. You would think of God’s purposes that all was confusion, that there was no intelligence behind it all, no guiding hand, and that the greatest confusion exists there. It is wonderful that even the works of men seem to have the greatest confusion in them.
I remember when they were extending the harbour at Wick, and as the work was going on the people of the town used to look at the men working there. You would see one man with a pick digging in one part, another man wheeling away some earth or stones, one doing something here and another doing something there, and everything seemed to be in the greatest confusion. If you had not the knowledge that the mind of the engineer was behind all that work that was going on, you would come to the conclusion that there was no intelligence there at all. Every man was working as he pleased, there was no connection between the man with the pick and the man wheeling the barrow, no connection between the man digging the earth and the man completing excavations in another corner, but by and by you will notice that there is some order now beginning to appear. Although you may have no knowledge of engineering at all you come to the conclusion that there has been an intelligence, a plan in all this.
Now you will sometimes hear people say, “Why can this thing not be stopped?” Well, I wouldn’t like to be the person who would try to stop a whirlwind. I know what would happen. I remember passing through the city of Regina a few weeks after it was smitten by a tornado which had made a track right through the city and left not one house standing. He would be a very foolish man when there were signs of the tornado coming who would go out and try to stop it. No, it had its work to do. There was no man in Regina who could stop it. It came sweeping over the prairies and struck the city making a pathway for itself right through the city.
Remember God has his purposes in the whirlwind as well as in the calm. Did you ever notice that there are times in nature when everything is going so quietly and smoothly that if a person would tell you there would soon be a great storm you would say there was not much appearance of it. But when the storm comes, who is able to stop it? It sweeps over; it has a work to do and it will do it. It is a very remarkable thing that when there are some kind of pestilences the whirlwind is needed to clear them away and God in nature has many a time used the storms in order that these pestilences might be cleared. It is necessary that the air should be cleared, and in Grace, too, God is acting in this way. Now there is not one of us who likes to be out in the storm and if we had the power we would naturally say, “It’s peace I’m after, I don’t like these storms.” Yet they are necessary in nature and God will see to it that they will do the work He intended them to do, whether we can understand the purpose of it or not. Sometimes when there has been a long time of peace it is very necessary that the whirlwind should sweep along and there is no use people saying, “Oh, they should stop it.” It has its own work to do.
The next thing to notice is that the prophet saw there was a great cloud. He was not seeing what was going on behind. It was difficult to see behind the cloud and many a time the cloud has this effect that it produces a kind of feeling of fear just as it did with the disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration. When they entered into the cloud they did not know what was to happen; and it is often the case with the unfolding of the Divine purposes, but they are well known and very plain to Him from all Eternity, they are very dark to us and we are only seeing them at a certain part and are misreading them, just as Jacob misread God’s purpose for him when he said: “All these things are against me”—yet there was never a time in his life when they were working so much for him. Oh, how blind we are! The cloud is there as well as the whirlwind and there is also the fire infolding itself. That is a very remarkable expression, but what it means is this:—You may notice how, when a fire has been kindled, the little flames are like hands stretching out to draw material into them. The fire is getting wider and drawing in other material; it has a certain work to do and it has a connection with the throne. Remember all those things are connected and so in this way the fire is burning, but who can put that fire out? One man may light a fire that will set a whole mountain side in a blaze, but a hundred men cannot put it out. It is easy enough to kindle a fire—it is another thing to put it out. And sometimes these fires have a useful purpose. They are burning up that which is decayed and as it were are making way for a new growth. They are very useful just as it is with the whirlwind. You will notice this after a storm. I was travelling recently from Oban to Glasgow and I observed that the wind had been sweeping through some of the forests, and some of the trees which had a very slight grip of the earth were lying flat on the ground. Then there was a great number of decayed trees and branches. They did not stand the storm very long—down they came, but there were some healthy trees there with only branches broken in the fury of the storm. What impressed me most of all was that the rotten, decaying trees had no chance before the storm, and the trees that had only a shallow grip of earth also went down before its fury.
What is true in connection with the storm is also true in connection with the fire. The fire can burn up a great deal of rubbish that is gathering and causing corruption. The fire is kindling and burning and it is Heaven that has kindled it and is controlling it. I remember when we were boys we used to delight in going out with the shepherds when they were burning the heather. It was not very difficult to set the whole countryside ablaze and the gamekeepers, owing to the interest they had in birds nesting, would only allow the fires to go a certain length and would beat it out with birch brooms. We mischievous boys would not care if all the forests in the place went on fire. It would have been great fun and you will find there are a great many mischievous people in the world who just delight in seeing a great fire. It seems to please them. But it is good for us to know that the burning is not left to the control of man. God will allow the fire to go on to a certain point and when it has done its work He will stay it then. Everything must have been very dark and mysterious to Ezekiel as he went forward, the commissioned Servant of Heaven, to make known the will of God to the captives by the River Chebar that God had a divine purpose in all that he was permitting to happen to them with the fierce Chaldean armies coming from the north to sweep over them. But He had a purpose in doing it whether the prophet could see it there through the cloud or not. The mysterious thing of the vision was that out of all this confusion he saw the living creatures come forth.
How could living creatures come out of a place where the whirlwind was and the fire was burning fiercely. You would think there would be no life there at all, yet out of this we are told that the living creatures came forth, and they were very mysterious creatures. Each of them had four faces. There was the face of a man, the face of a lion, the face of an ox, and the face of an eagle. Very mysterious creatures, indeed, but living creatures, and they were all going forward, never going back. Now these faces symbolise certain aspects of the Divine purpose of Heaven.
The man’s face was looking forward and the eagle’s behind. The faces of the ox and lion were on the right and left. All these had a significance. The face of man is symbolic of reason. He has been endowed with reason, and there is reason behind the purposes of God. Yet, although we may never understand the reason, be assured of this, that the divine intelligence of Heaven is behind all the purposes in His Grace and Providence. Do not let us run away with the idea that these are mere incidental happenings. No! He is controlling them all.
Then there is the living creature with the face of a lion. The lion is considered to be one of the most courageous beasts of the forest, strong, powerful and courageous, symbolic of strength and courage. Did you ever think that God’s purposes are of such a nature that there is so much power that everything else has to stand out of the way in order that His purposes may be accomplished. Remember this, dear friend, of the One Who is sitting on the throne, it is no weak hand that is holding the sceptre. There is never a time when He is taken unawares. It is unnecessary for Him to revise His plans and His purposes because of any new situation arising. He has seen them from Eternity and He knows the full force of the opposition, knows the method that will be adopted by those who oppose Him, and His plans will go forward.
And there is the face of the ox. What does it symbolise? In our part of the country it is not often we see oxen in the plough, but in some places you will see them. They are not like the horses. Quite a number of horses in the plough are full of fire and zest to get on with the work, but there is no hurry with the oxen, slow plodding to the end of the day and it is wonderful the amount of work done by them. Now God’s purposes may be very slow-moving in our estimation. They may not be moving as fast as we would like them to move or as we think they should move. There is no such thing as standing still. You may think that the oxen are going very slowly but they are moving steadily forward. They are there symbolising the patience with which God is carrying out His divine purposes. To Him a thousand years are as one day and a day as a thousand years. We cannot understand that because we measure time in a different way altogether. But God’s purposes are going on to accomplish all He intends to be accomplished.
Then there is the face that was like that of an eagle. It was behind, we are told. Now, wouldn’t men give a lot to see behind them, especially in these days of motor cars. It is all very fine to have mirrors, but if you could actually see behind you as you see before you, it would be a great help to you many a time, but man does not possess that power: God has not given it to him. The eagle with its keenness of vision is symbolising that before and behind everything is known to God. That which has already passed, that which is coming—all this is well known to God, and His purposes embrace it all.
In connection with these mysterious living creatures we are told there were the mysterious wheels, that there was a wheel within a wheel, that it was transversely in the outer wheel. The wheels were moving forward and there were eyes in them seeing all that was going on. There are eyes there and intelligence and everything is going on straight forward. What a mysterious thing it is; and you would think men have such great power in our day, are intoxicated with the sense of power they now possess. They point to the Forth Bridge and great triumphs of engineering and science. They look at the Queen Mary and say, “What a wonderful piece of work she is,” and so she is a wonderful piece of work indeed, one of the greatest wonders of naval architecture that has ever been seen on the Clyde. But, after all, when the Queen Mary goes out on the great Atlantic she is very, very small. You may think when you see the vessel, “Oh, what a wonderful ship it is!” but what is she in comparison with the mighty Atlantic Ocean, the waters of which God has measured in the hollow of His hand. And the Atlantic is only one of the oceans in the world. Some of us have been across to get some sense of the immensity of God’s creation, but what a small part of the oceans of the world after all the Atlantic is, and so, too, is man’s work, however great it may be, when compared with the work of Heaven.
What is the significance of the wheels? Just that there is no break in the purposes of Heaven. We speak about His decrees in Christ and in Providence. But in one sense there is only one decree which embraces everything. There is no break in the purposes of God—you could go round the wheels and not find a break anywhere and the mysterious thing was that one of them reached right up to Heaven. If you and I through Grace given to us could just get a sight of the purposes of God being connected with the throne in Heaven it would give us a very different view of God’s administration of His Kingdom. We would see things in a very different light. But we are blind. We see just very little of it. We are seeing only the lower part of the wheel and not thinking at all that it is connected with the throne in Heaven. God’s purposes never stand, they are going on from age to age eternally accomplishing all He intended to bring to pass. You see men making laws and people doing this and that. They don’t know at all what purpose God had in view and they find this going wrong, and the other thing going wrong. Mussolini might not be able to conquer Abyssinia for all we know, and the Soviet Government may not be getting on so well with its Five Year Plan. What if there be a divine purpose that Abyssinia will not be conquered—will Mussolini conquer Abyssinia then? Never! We know not God’s purpose although I am speaking in this way. We do not know His purpose in regard to Hitler. But one thing we are certain of, that if God’s purpose is that these mighty powers will be brought down, down they shall come and there is no wisdom in any of their heads that will avert the disaster God has intended to be theirs.
And then there was the wonderful throne the prophet saw. Oh, if our eyes were opened! Then, like Ezekiel, we could look up and see Him sitting on the throne. Don’t you think it would give us a very different view of all that is happening in the world? We would say: “There is no fear of this.” I think it was the Prime Minister who said that when King George was very weak he called his private secretary and asked how it was going with the Empire. “It is well with the Empire,” said the private secretary, and the king once more relapsed into unconsciousness.
Now, dear friends, one thing which is certain of His Kingdom is, that there is no unconsciousness and surely He will see to it that it will stand there in spite of all that wicked men can do, in spite of all that devils can do—and they can do a great deal far more than at one time in our life we believed they were able to do. Indeed, the Devil can do almost anything unless he is restrained by God Himself. With our eyes fixed upon the throne and upon Him Who is set upon it, we would go forth and our song would be that His name shall endure for ever, that it shall last as long as the sun. We would rejoice in thinking that He is to sit on that throne until all the divine purposes are accomplished in their own experience, if not in this world, in the world that is to come. And it will be a great day when they lift their eyes to Him Who is sitting upon the throne and say: “The One Who is sitting there is my friend and He is my Saviour and my Lord and Master.”
May we know something about these things.