The Terrible Crystal: God on the Move Text: Ezekiel 10:9-14
Introduction: A God Who Cannot Be Contained
We modern Christians have a bad habit of trying to domesticate God. We want a manageable deity, one who fits neatly into our theological systems, our building programs, and our personal devotional lives. We want a God who stays put. But the God of the Bible, the God revealed to the prophet Ezekiel, is anything but manageable. He is glorious, terrifying, holy, and, as Ezekiel sees here, highly mobile. He is not tied to a particular building, not even His own Temple in Jerusalem. When His people descend into rank idolatry, defiling the very place His glory dwells, He does not simply wink at it. He moves out.
The vision Ezekiel sees is not for the faint of heart. It is a picture of the throne-chariot of God, the very command center of the universe. And in this chapter, that command center is preparing for departure. The glory of the Lord is leaving the Temple. This would have been a shattering thought for an Israelite. Their entire identity was wrapped up in the presence of God in their midst. But they had come to treat God's presence as a talisman, a good luck charm. They thought they could have God's presence without God's holiness. They were tragically mistaken.
What Ezekiel sees is a direct confrontation to our tame and sentimental notions of God. This is not a God who can be put in a box. This is the sovereign Lord of all creation, whose throne moves with intelligent, purposeful, and omnidirectional power. The world is not spinning out of control; it is being driven, and the one at the controls is the God of Israel. This vision was given to an exile in Babylon to teach him, and to teach us, that God is sovereign everywhere. He is not the local deity of Jerusalem. He is the king of Babylon, He is the king of Moscow, Idaho, and He is the king of Washington D.C. His purposes cannot be thwarted, and His movements cannot be predicted by us, but they are never without purpose. This is a vision of the awesome, untamable, and holy sovereignty of God.
The Text
Then I looked, and behold, four wheels beside the cherubim, one wheel beside each cherub; and the appearance of the wheels was like the gleam of a Tarshish stone. As for their appearance, all four of them had the same likeness, as if one wheel were within another wheel. As they went, they went in any of their four directions without turning as they went; but they went in the direction which they faced, without turning as they went. And their whole body, their backs, their hands, their wings, and the wheels were full of eyes all around, the wheels belonging to all four of them. The wheels were called in my hearing, the whirling wheels. And each one had four faces. The first face was the face of a cherub, the second face was the face of a man, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.
(Ezekiel 10:9-14 LSB)
The Machinery of Providence (v. 9-11)
Ezekiel's attention is drawn to the instruments of God's mobility, the wheels of this divine chariot.
"Then I looked, and behold, four wheels beside the cherubim, one wheel beside each cherub; and the appearance of the wheels was like the gleam of a Tarshish stone. As for their appearance, all four of them had the same likeness, as if one wheel were within another wheel. As they went, they went in any of their four directions without turning as they went; but they went in the direction which they faced, without turning as they went." (Ezekiel 10:9-11)
First, notice the wheels are beside the cherubim. The living creatures and the machinery of movement are a unified whole. This is not a machine with separate operators; the power, the life, and the movement are all one integrated reality, directed by the Spirit. The appearance is like a Tarshish stone, likely a beryl or chrysolite, a gem with a yellowish-green or sea-green gleam. This is the color of glory, of immense value and beauty. God's providence, even in judgment, is not a clunky, ugly affair. It is glorious and intricate.
The structure of these wheels is famously disorienting: "as if one wheel were within another wheel." This describes a gyroscopic construction. A wheel set inside another wheel at a right angle allows for instantaneous movement in any direction, forward, backward, left, or right, without the need to pivot or turn. This is a picture of God's omnidirectional sovereignty. God never has to back up and try again. He never has to make a three-point turn. His purposes move forward in any direction He pleases, and that direction is always forward from His perspective. When they move, they do not swerve or deviate. They go straight in the direction they face. There is no hesitation, no wasted motion, no course correction in the divine plan. God's providence is direct, efficient, and utterly effective. He sets His face toward a goal, and His entire apparatus of rule moves toward it with unerring precision.
Omniscient Sovereignty (v. 12)
Next, Ezekiel describes a feature that is both bizarre and profoundly theological.
"And their whole body, their backs, their hands, their wings, and the wheels were full of eyes all around, the wheels belonging to all four of them." (Ezekiel 10:12 LSB)
Everything is covered in eyes. The living creatures and the wheels, the agents of God's will and the instruments of His providence, are full of perception. This is a stunning image of divine omniscience. Nothing escapes God's notice. His providence is not blind. The wheels of history are not grinding away impersonally. They are full of eyes. God is intimately aware of every detail of His creation. He sees every sparrow that falls, He knows the number of hairs on your head, and He sees every secret sin committed in the chambers of the Jerusalem Temple.
This should be a profound comfort to the righteous and a sheer terror to the wicked. For the believer, it means that God sees your plight. He sees your faithfulness in exile. He sees your tears. His intricate plan for you is not running on autopilot; it is managed with moment-by-moment, all-seeing wisdom. But for the idolater, it means there is no escape. There are no dark corners where God cannot see. The wheels of His judgment are rolling, and they are covered in eyes. They see everything. This is what the author of Hebrews means when he says, "And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account" (Hebrews 4:13).
The Whirling Wheels of Judgment (v. 13)
The wheels are given a name, which underscores their function in this context.
"The wheels were called in my hearing, the whirling wheels." (Ezekiel 10:13 LSB)
The Hebrew word is ha-galgal, which can simply mean "the wheel," but with the definite article and the context, it carries the sense of a great, rolling, whirling thing. It evokes the image of a whirlwind or a cyclone, a powerful, unstoppable, and often destructive force. When God's throne is on the move, it is a momentous event. In this case, as God's glory departs the Temple, these wheels are the whirling instruments of coming judgment. The whirlwind of the Babylonian invasion is coming, and it is not a random geopolitical event. It is the galgal of God's throne-chariot, rolling over a faithless nation. God's judgment is not static; it is active, dynamic, and it whirls with irresistible power.
The Government of God (v. 14)
Finally, Ezekiel describes the faces of the living creatures who are the very heart of this divine apparatus.
"And each one had four faces. The first face was the face of a cherub, the second face was the face of a man, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle." (Ezekiel 10:14 LSB)
These four faces are symbolic of the fullness of creation, marshaled in service to the Creator. In chapter 1, the first face was that of an ox, but here it is a cherub. The ox represents patient, domestic strength, the servant. The cherub represents the highest order of angelic guardianship and holiness. The change likely emphasizes the holy, priestly, and guardian-like nature of the judgment that is unfolding. The other faces remain the same, and together they represent the pinnacle of God's created order. The lion is the king of the wild beasts, representing majesty and power. The eagle is the king of the birds, representing swiftness and transcendence. And man represents intelligence and dominion over the created order.
What does this mean? It means that all authority, all strength, all intelligence, and all speed in creation are summed up and subservient to the throne of God. God's rule is not just over one aspect of life. He rules over everything: the wild and the tame, the heavens and the earth, the intelligent and the powerful. All the glories of creation find their source and their purpose in serving Him. This is the government of God. It is comprehensive and absolute. And when this government is on the move, all of creation is mobilized to accomplish His will.
The Throne in Motion for Us
This vision of God's mobile, all-seeing, all-powerful throne is not just a terrifying vision of Old Testament judgment. Like all of Ezekiel, it is rewritten and fulfilled in the New Testament. The book of Revelation is, in many ways, a Christian re-write of Ezekiel. There we see the same throne, the same four living creatures, covered in eyes, surrounding the throne and crying "Holy, holy, holy" (Revelation 4:6-8).
But there is a crucial difference. In the center of that throne, John does not just see a fiery glory. He sees "a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain" (Revelation 5:6). The command center of the universe, the driver's seat of that terrifying, whirling, omnidirectional chariot of providence, is occupied by our crucified and risen Savior, Jesus Christ.
The God who moved out of the Temple in judgment has, in Christ, moved to take up residence in us. The glory of God has not departed forever. It has returned in the person of the Son. And all the machinery of providence, all that terrifying power, all those eyes, are now deployed for the good of His church. "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28). The wheels are still whirling. History is still moving with unerring, omnidirectional purpose. But the one guiding it all is the one with nail-scarred hands.
Therefore, we do not need to fear the chaos of the world. The wheels are not spinning randomly. They are full of eyes, and they are moving with gyroscopic precision under the authority of Christ the King. He is moving all of history toward its appointed end: the final judgment of His enemies and the complete salvation of His people. The throne is still in motion, and it is moving to bring about a new heavens and a new earth, where the glory of God will not be confined to a Temple, but will be the light that fills all things, and we will dwell with Him forever.