The Wheels and the Likeness on the Throne
15 Now as I saw the living creatures, behold, there was one wheel on the earth beside the living creatures, for each of the four faces of it. 16 The appearance of the wheels and their work was like a beryl. The four of them had one likeness. Their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel within a wheel. 17 When they went, they went in their four directions. They didn’t turn when they went. 18 As for their rims, they were high and dreadful; and the four of them had their rims full of eyes all around. 19 When the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them. When the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up. 20 Wherever the spirit was to go, they went. The spirit was to go there. The wheels were lifted up beside them; for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels. 21 When those went, these went. When those stood, these stood. When those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up beside them; for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels. 22 Over the head of the living creature there was the likeness of an expanse, like an awesome crystal to look at, stretched out over their heads above. 23 Under the expanse, their wings were straight, one toward the other. Each one had two which covered on this side, and each one had two which covered their bodies on that side. 24 When they went, I heard the noise of their wings like the noise of great waters, like the voice of the Almighty, a noise of tumult like the noise of an army. When they stood, they let down their wings. 25 There was a voice above the expanse that was over their heads. When they stood, they let down their wings. 26 Above the expanse that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone. On the likeness of the throne was a likeness as the appearance of a man on it above. 27 I saw as it were glowing metal, as the appearance of fire within it all around, from the appearance of his waist and upward; and from the appearance of his waist and downward I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and there was brightness around him. 28 As the appearance of the rainbow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around. This was the appearance of the likeness of Yahweh’s glory. When I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard a voice of one that spoke.
The vision builds a throne on wheels and then guards every word of its description, because what is finally seen is a likeness rather than a sight.
The wheels are the strangest engineering in Scripture and the strangest detail is the simplest. Each is a wheel within a wheel, set at right angles, so the whole assembly rolls in any of four directions without being steered. The rims are high and dreadful and full of eyes all around. And the wheels are not driven. The spirit of the living creature was in the wheels, so that when the creatures rose, the wheels rose with them. Sight and motion are joined in one mechanism, and the mechanism goes wherever the spirit goes.
Above the creatures is an expanse like awesome crystal, and above that a throne like sapphire, and on the throne a likeness as the appearance of a man. What the whole assembly amounts to is a throne that travels. That is the vision's argument, delivered in the first chapter, to people who believed God's throne was a room in a building they could no longer reach. A God on wheels is not a diminished God. He is a God who was never confined to the address his people had given him.
The language guarding the top of the vision repays attention. Not a man, but the likeness of a throne, and on it a likeness as the appearance of a man. Not fire but as it were glowing metal. Not glory but the appearance of the likeness of Yahweh's glory. Three or four removes are inserted between the seer and what is seen. The hedging is not vagueness. It is a priest being exact about the limits of what he can report, in a book that is elsewhere precise to the cubit.
The last comparison is the one that changes the color of everything before it. The brightness around the throne is as the appearance of the rainbow that is in the cloud in the day of rain. The rainbow entered Scripture as a sign of a covenant given after a judgment. It was hung in the cloud so that a cloud would never again mean the end of everything Genesis 9:13. It is set here around a throne on its way to judge Jerusalem. And the man's response is the only one available: When I saw it, I fell on my face.
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