Ezekiel 10:22

And the likeness of their faces was the same faces which I saw by the river of Chebar, their appearances and themselves: they went every one straight forward.

They went every one straight forward - intent upon the object they aimed at, not deviating from the way nor losing sight to the end ().

Remarks:

(1) The throne of Yahweh, elevated in the firmament over the doomed city and temple, intimates to us that, whatever be the intermediate instrumentalities employed, God is the Great First Cause of all the judgments which descend upon the guilty of the earth. All may seem a flood of confusion to the eye of sense, but faith recognizes the truth that "the Lord sitteth upon the flood; yea, the Lord sitteth King forever" ().

(2) The Son of Man, in the anticipated form of His incarnation, is the actual executor of the Father's judgment, scattering the "coals of fire" kindled by His holy wrath (; ; Psalms 18:12) over the guilty. These coals of fire, taken not from the altar whereon a propitiation was offered to God, but from between the cherubim, which represents His providence, teach us that when sinners reject the propitiation of Christ and the purifying fire of His Holy Spirit they bring on themselves the consuming fire of His judgments, directed by His providence. The same Son of Man who could have saved them, had they believed and obeyed the Gospel, will destroy them because they perversely reject it. Well may they tremble when they ask themselves that solemn question, "Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?" (.)

(3) The gradual and successive steps by which God departed from His once-favoured temple, and from Jerusalem, teach us how slow to anger God is. He withdraws His gracious presence reluctantly, as though He were loth to go. He lingers in long-suffering, if haply even yet the sinner will be moved by fear, and touched by the forbearance of God, to repent and pray to Him (; ).

(4) When God is leaving a people in wrath, premonitory intimation is given by many signs, in the way of God's providence, answering to the "sound of the cherubim's wings" () which accompanied the departure of the glory of the Lord from the mercy-seat (). Thus the Lord Jesus saith to His disciples, "When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh;" and, again, "Behold the fig tree and all the trees; when they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now near at hand. So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand" (; Luke 21:29). Let us discern the signs of our days, and be like the children of Issachar, men that have understanding of the times, to know what the spiritual Israel, the Church, ought to do (). "The voice of the almighty God" 'speaks' () to us in His Word and in His providential dealings in the world. Let us compare both together, with prayer for the Spirit's illuminating power, and let us act accordingly.

(5) The wheels within wheels (), however seemingly complicated, moved in harmonious unison. So God's doings, amidst their manifold variety, have a perfect unity of plan and end. The "whirling wheels" () express the winged speed () with which the agencies of God's providence move, where to man's dull perception there might seem to be delay. The "hands" express the aptness and efficacy with which God's ministering powers execute the work intrusted to them. While the "eyes" (), everywhere looking forth from the whole body-the backs, the hands, the wings, and the wheels of the cherubim-express how infinite is God's knowledge-nothing escapes His searching glance; His eyes in providence are everywhere beholding the evil and the good (). Let this thought give us at once warning and comfort-warning, if we are walking in virtual disbelief, as though He had forsaken the earth and seeth us not () - comfort, if we are living to His glory, while we are distressed with trials and temptations in the world.

(6) Woe be to the people or the individual from whom God departs (; ). Whereas the Lord will give grace and glory to His people (), all grace and glory leave those whom God leaves. Let us jealously watch against all that would provoke God to withdraw His Holy Spirit from us. Let us imitate the cherubim, and take care that we go "every one straight forward" (); not like Lot's wife, looking back, and then turning back: but, "forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, pressing toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:13).