John Calvin Commentary Ezekiel 10:17

"When they stood, these stood; and when they mounted up, these mounted up with them: for the spirit of the living creature was in them." — Ezekiel 10:17 (ASV)

Just as he said that the wheels were obedient to the movement of the living creatures, so he now says that they ceased with them. But here it seems as if some incongruity might arise, for it is not correct to say that angels ever rest. We know that their quickness and promptness in executing God’s commands is celebrated (Psalms 103:20, 21).

Therefore, since angels are the powers of God, it follows that they never cease from their work. For God can never rest; he sustains the world by his energy and governs everything, however minute, so that not even a sparrow falls to the ground without his decree (Matthew 10:29).

And there is that known and celebrated sentence of Christ, My Father and I work hitherto (John 5:17). Since, therefore, God never rests from his works, how then can that resting be explained which the Prophet speaks of when he says, when the angels stood, the wheels also stood? I reply: it must be taken in a human sense; for although God works continually by means of angels, yet he seems sometimes to rest between.

For he does not govern his works in a uniform manner; for instance, the heavens are sometimes calm, and at other times agitated, so that a great variety appears in God’s works, from which we may imagine that he is sometimes in vehement motion, and at other times at perfect repose.

This, therefore, is the cessation that the Prophet now speaks of when he says, the living creatures stood, and at the same time the wheels with them. Experience also confirms this; for God sometimes seems to mingle heaven and earth, and rouses us by unaccustomed work, while at other times the course of his works seems to flow like a placid river.

So it is not absurd to say that the wheels stood with the living creatures and proceeded and were elevated with them. He adds, the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels. I explained this point in the first chapter, but here it may be briefly explained that the spirit is here taken for secret vigor or instinct.

The wheels are not properly animated because, as we said, the events of things and whatever seems to happen in the world are represented to us by this word; but their incomprehensible vigor and agitation proceeds from God’s command, so that all creatures are animated by angelic motion. This is not to say that there is a conversion of the angel into an ox or a man, but rather that God exerts and diffuses his energy in a secret manner, so that no creature is content with its own peculiar vigor, but is animated by angels themselves.