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THE WHEELS OF GOD’S GOVERNMENT

E. C. Burr

I refer briefly to this section in Ezekiel as to the wheels, believing that it imparts a certain assurance to us, even at the present time. The message which the prophet was given in the next chapter was to a rebellious house, not in any way palliating their actual condition. Much that he had to say, especially in the early part of the book, and what he had to go through in his own experience, is related to, and typical of, the actual sufferings of the remnant and in certain circumstances rises to a foreshadowing of certain of the sufferings of Christ. All that was severe to him. The latter part of the book has a different note; it goes on to the prophetic vision of the temple and of the city and the book closes with the expression that “Jehovah is there”. So that the message that Ezekiel was given was not wholly of a negative kind; it was prospective in relation to the glory of God coming in again to fill the house from which in chapter 10 he would see it withdrawn. All that relates to Israel and is prophetic in its relation.

But before Ezekiel is given that message and those visions, he has this vision in chapter 1 of what seems to me to be a great interlocking system of things which, I believe, while having its dreadful and terrible aspects, would nevertheless be for his assurance and therefore for his comfort. I believe it would be so for us, beloved, that nothing is out of hand, nothing just runs on as if it was out of control. A system of things can be traced in the chapter. There is the stormy wind out of the north, then there is the vision of the four living creatures, and associated with the living creatures are the wheels, but above them is an expanse which is “as the look of the terrible crystal”; but above that again is a throne and on the throne is a man and round the man is the likeness of a rainbow. That is all calculated, I think, to bring in assurance and steadiness, to bring in a conviction to us that things are going through, not according to what we may see on the earth, but according to the reality of the fact that there is a Man in heaven and that the divine disposition towards us is that which was foreshadowed in the rainbow.

It is remarkable that Ezekiel should refer to that. It says in Ezekiel 1: 28, “As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about”. That, in itself, is assurance that God is going to see things through according to Himself, that He has, if one may speak carefully, limited what He might do in judgment; that is, the sign of the rainbow means that He will not again smite the earth with a flood as He had. We know that when He takes up judgment with the earth He will do it by other means and that judgment in the earth is not going to be set aside, but the rainbow is an assurance that God is going to do things according to Himself and no man is going to force Him to do things any other way.

But the next thing, if one may speak of it as it were descendingly, is that there is a Man—there is a Man in heaven. If we may apply this in relation to our own day, how blessed and wonderful a thing it is that there is a Man in heaven. The fact that there is a Man there is an assurance that things here will never get out of control. Publicly they will not get out of control. A day will come when He will take up things Himself, and everything will be seen to be under control, but publicly at the present time there is restraint, because there is a Man in heaven and because the Spirit of God is here. If I apply this scripture in relation to our own day, the Man that is in heaven is the Head of the assembly. Let us not forget that. Nothing can get out of control if there is subjection to His headship. Maybe sometimes we may get out of control, because the flesh is in us and we are all too easily prone to indulge the flesh and act according to it, whether in its more objectionable characteristics or in its more respectable characteristics. But as long as we are subject to the Spirit the headship of that Man in heaven is going to hold everything in control. What assurance that is!

But then He is on a throne, that is, He is in the place of administration. Actually He could do things directly if He would; if it were the time for doing things directly publicly, then He would do them. But there is a sphere here of His direct government; that is in the assembly, and the power of the throne is to be known there. This gives us great assurance that if there is a throne nothing can slip from its control—nothing can slip from the Man and nothing can slip from the throne—everything is going to go through according to the established system of things typified in this prophetic scripture.

Then as we come down there is the expanse which has the look of the terrible crystal and I suppose that that may convey to us something of the inscrutability of what God is in Himself.

He dwells in light unapproachable, “whom no man has seen, nor is able to see”, 1 Timothy 6: 16. But He is there and if on the one hand the vision would give the prophet assurance, on the other hand it would instil in him the fear of God. And that is still here, it is to characterise us in everything, the fear of God. It is part of this divine system of security that we should be held in the fear of God. One need not illustrate the ways in which this could work out; the Spirit in every believer would maintain him in the fear of God.

But then we come down to the wheels, and the wheels represent divine government on the earth. They are not exactly a heavenly system of things; by the connection of the vision they are connected with what is above, but they represent divine government on the earth, not necessarily government in the way in which we speak of the government of God, although that, no doubt, enters into it. “Whatever a man shall sow, that also shall he reap” (Galatians 6: 7)—a scripture which is plain in its bearing, easily understood, but often resisted. But the wheels are here, they are full of eyes, they see everything, nothing escapes this system of divine government in control and in administration on the earth. The wheels are full of eyes.

Maybe we think we could hide somewhere. The scripture in Ecclesiastes speaks of “every secret thing”, and they see that. There is no secret thing that the eyes do not see, and the wheels go on in relation to things that are open, and in relation to things that are secret, and they go on under divine control to the divine end.

Therefore, beloved, if we can be in that sense without care, we can be at peace. We do not need to be in anxiety; the wheels will go on and they will bring everything to the divine conclusion in the divine time. In the earlier part of the vision the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of lightning. Sometimes God will act like that, sometimes He will act very suddenly, and we see His work, but at other times He takes time to work things out.

He uses time. The wheels go round, and they miss nothing, beloved; they miss nothing. Everything is seen by them because they are full of eyes; there is no part of the wheels which is unseeing, and everything goes on to its appointed divine conclusion. We may sometimes wonder what is going to happen and whether things must always be like this, and whether there are things that are wrong, or this or that, but the wheels go on, and in the end what is right will prevail. How restful that makes us, beloved! I find comfort in these wheels. On the one hand there is that element in them which would make one fear, and we should be kept in the fear of God all the day. But I find comfort in these wheels, that in the end the divine conclusion will be reached.

You or I may have different impressions as to what the divine conclusion ought to be. We may say, Well, it ought to be this, or he ought to do that, or she ought to do that, and so on.

But the divine conclusion will come and when it comes it will not be a question then of who is right and who is wrong, it will be a question of adhering to what God has brought out as His own end of every issue. Let us therefore, beloved, find comfort in the wheels, let us find that as they go on they are moving towards the divine conclusion. It is not a question of the wheels going round and the same matters coming up again and again and again. That is not what is in these wheels. They are the

unfolding of divine government in detail and we can rest in them. As I say, I find comfort in them. One would be prepared to submit to the judgment of wheels like this, because they are connected with a system of security and assurance; they are connected with God’s own view of things, and they are connected with the throne; they are connected with the Man, and they are connected with the rainbow. I find comfort in these wheels. Sometimes we may not know where to look for comfort. The Lord Himself says prophetically, “I looked for ... comforters, but I found none”, Psalm 69: 20. I suppose none of us has ever been in that position, but sometimes we do not know where to look for comfort. But, beloved; there is always comfort in the wheels, they go on to the divine end. They do not go on to make me right or you right, or to establish anything of that kind, they go on to the divine end.

I read the verse in Ecclesiastes because I think Solomon must have had some impression of what the wheels were like. He says, “God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil”. God will do that. It is inexorable, there is no escape. He will in the end bring things into judgment; the judgment-seat of Christ will have to, say to many things. The great white throne is not a place for believers, but we are kept in the sense of the One who will be there. But “God shall bring every work into judgment”. Let us submit to that, that God will bring every work into judgment, whether it is good or whether it is evil. And He will bring every secret thing out into the light.

I think it has been felt in the past—I say nothing about the present—that things working secretly in the company or in the assembly are among the most damaging things that can take place. These were things that we experienced more than a

decade ago, but things on which the Lord blew, and which the Lord rejected; but if there is a secret system of things working among the saints God will bring every aspect of it into the light, and more than that. He will bring it into judgment. And the wheels go on. We cannot escape them, but I find comfort in them that God is in control and that what He will bring through is what is right. We referred to that decade that is past; in the end God brought through what was right. Now, beloved, God has never failed to do that, and He never will.

We may, therefore, rest in this and in the sense of that, and the more readily enjoy the peace of which we have just heard, because we have a God in whom we ourselves can rest.

Word in meeting for ministry, London
27 July 1982

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