John Calvin Commentary Ezekiel 10:9

"And I looked, and behold, four wheels beside the cherubim, one wheel beside one cherub, and another wheel beside another cherub; and the appearance of the wheels was like unto a beryl stone." — Ezekiel 10:9 (ASV)

Here the Prophet, as in the first chapter, says that wheels were added to each living creature. I have previously explained what the wheels mean. I will now only allude to them; concerning the living creatures I will treat more fully later. But the wheels are images of all the changes which are perceived in the world.

No more suitable figure can be chosen, for nothing is stationary in the world; instead, revolutions, as we commonly call them, are continually happening. Since, therefore, events are so changeable, even tumultuous at times, ungodly people cannot understand how the world is governed by the fixed counsel of God, but they invent for themselves a blind fortune.

For this reason, God, as a concession to our weakness, has represented to us all changes of things, all so-called accidents, and all events under the form of wheels. It is as if He were saying that all things in the world are revolving and changing—not only that all elements are agitated upwards and downwards, but human events especially.

Meanwhile, He has corrected the error, while He has conceded something to the limited understanding of people. For we see numerous changes which appear to us under the form of a wheel; but meanwhile, we take too many liberties when we imagine a blind fortune. Therefore, the Prophet saw wheels near the cherubim; that is, he saw those changes by which people's minds are disturbed, as if all things happened haphazardly in the world.

But he saw that the wheels did not revolve by their own force but are connected to the angels, since all events depend on a first cause—namely, on that secret ordinance and inspiration of God, by which the angels are moved, and from which they also derive their strength. In this explanation, nothing is forced, because there is no doubt that the living creatures, as we will soon see, signify angels. Let us then continue to the context—