John Calvin Commentary Ezekiel 10:15

"And the cherubim mounted up: this is the living creature that I saw by the river Chebar." — Ezekiel 10:15 (ASV)

We will later explain in the appropriate place why he says the cherubim ascended. The primary purpose of this vision was to show that God would no longer dwell in the temple. He had determined to depart from there because of the impious and wicked desecrations by which the temple had been contaminated.

Now for this reason he says, the cherubim ascended; but he adds, that was the living creature, which he had seen near the river Chebar. He adds this to clarify the vision, because if it had been presented only once, the Jews might doubt its meaning, and its obscurity would diminish their appreciation for it and make the prophetic teaching quite dull.

But since the vision is repeated, God confirms and validates what otherwise had not been sufficiently impressed upon the hearts of the people; for experience also teaches us that we increase in faith and make further progress as God speaks with us repeatedly. For even if we seem to ourselves to grasp what we have learned from the Scriptures, yet if the same sentence is repeated, we become still more familiar with it.

Then again, if we read the same message in two or three Prophets, God brings forward more witnesses, so that the truth may be better established; since we know our great tendency to doubt, we are always wavering, and although the word of God has sufficient power in it to confirm us, we are still unsettled unless our minds are propped up by various supports.

God therefore wished to place the same thing twice before the eyes of his prophet, so that the first vision might make a greater impression not only on the prophet himself but also upon all the Jews. For we said that although there was some difference, there is no contradiction in the prophet’s statement that the living creature was one and the same.