God's Providence and Ezekiel's Wheel

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9.

The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the color of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel. Ezekiel 1:16.

Few people have not heard the expression, “God’s ways are not our ways.” We hear it frequently as we struggle and grapple with understanding our circumstance in the context of our faith. Sorrow, strife, disaster prompt us to ask what life is all about. We are a suffering humanity. There is an inseparable connection between God’s providence, and His people.

Providence is God in every act by which, in His wisdom, He orders all events within the universe so that the purpose for which it was created may be realized. The doctrine of divine providence asserts that God is in complete control of all things. This includes the;

Universe as a whole,

The LORD has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all. (Psalm 103:19),

The physical world, He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. (Matthew 5:45).

The affairs of nations, He rules forever by his power, his eyes watch the nations—let not the rebellious rise up against him. (Psalm 66:7).

Human birth and destiny, God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace. (Galatians 1:15).

Human successes and failures, He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. (Luke 1:52).

And the protection of His people, I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety. (Psalm 4:8).

This doctrine stands in direct opposition to the idea that the universe is governed by chance or fate.

The wheel that Ezekiel speaks of is a symbol of Providence. By a wheel within a wheel, God governs and makes all things work together for good to those who love Him. This includes all pleasant and all painful things, all things. This is what Paul was saying when he declared: “All things work together for the good to them that love the Lord and are called according to his purpose”? You will note that he included that significant word, ALL. It is not the good or the bad; it is the good AND the bad. When combined the result is joy, joy, joy. So we may rejoice knowing that God rules and overrules each event of life, and while we work He is working in us according to His good pleasure.

Scriptures everywhere affirms this truth. The Bible is full of the records of God’s activities in human affairs, as the daily news is full of the records of man’s activities in individual, national and international life. This is why Paul could glory in his infirmities. He understood that in all the pains and penalties, the joys and grief, the thoughts and imaginations of life, God is busy educing good out of evil still. God has not abandoned His beloved creation. Our God is not an absentee God and He does not cast absentee ballots. He is in charge of all elections; He is managing all things according to the immutable counsel of His own will.

History proves this truth. Never did men meet behind closed doors without God seeing them. He knows every plot and conspiracy man can contrive. There is no blind spot, He is not limited by peripheral vision, and there is no blind chance in the government of God or in the affairs of men. All His Providences have a fixed purpose and are arranged accordingly. The history of the universe, from beginning to end, is planned, ruled, guided, and directed by the omniscient, omnipotent Creator God. Nothing occurs which has not been intended, either permissively or purposefully, by Jehovah God. He has providential control over all of history, despite the free will choices of man.

The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD. Proverbs 16:33.

For he "has put everything under his feet.” Now when it says that "everything" has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. 1 Corinthians. 15:27.

In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will. Ephesians 1:11.

The laws of nature illustrate God’s activity in human life. The thunderstorm drives off noxious vapors. The earthquake is a safety valve by which imprisoned gases are set free. Hurricanes suck up the heat from the tropics thereby preventing it from becoming too hot.

Of course, we cannot ignore that there are times when God’s providence appears adverse, when myriad shapes seem to haunt our paths, when the very blackness appalls and our hearts cry out in utter agony. Sometimes in life, the most potent defense we have against the unrelenting winds of Providence is the faith to believe that even our “present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” When life begin to choke us, when circumstances push us into a corner, when our spiritual wiring short-circuits, we wait on Him because “we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

I have learned that even though I may have to cry sometimes, my eyes see clearer after being washed with tears. My faith is my consolation, faith in the Providence of God. I know that God brings everything to the good. Isaiah puts it this way: On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples. Our God is a God of love and mercy, the God of the invisible who see justice, goodness, and love grow slowly within our hearts and He is patient and loving enough to look beyond our faults.

We cannot get along without God. Nothing happens in our lives which does not help those who love God. Whether losses or crosses, whether abuse or misuse, leads to strength and the courage to silently bear our sorrow for His glory. Our ways are ordered by Him, our breath depends on Him. I believe all of our joys and sorrows are but parts of one great plan preparing us for heaven life with Him.

Sometimes, when I contemplate humanity as being young on a young planet in a seemingly ageless universe, I grasp a little taste of eternity. We live in time but God sees us outside time. To God a thousand years are as but one and one as a thousand years. God sees beyond trouble and strife. He sees the seeds of everlasting life, sown by His Son Jesus Christ, fermenting and growing in His newly adopted children. I believe God smiles benevolently on His created world.

The government of the world is upon God’s shoulders and He holds all things by the power His Word. God rules the whole universe. The “whirlwind” which the prophet saw was under the throne. The wheels symbolized the government of the world in its entirety. There was an appearance “as of a wheel within a wheel,” suggesting the multiform complexities inherent in Providence. The wheel of Providence never halts and is never diverted from its purpose.

God’s ways are not our ways. Nothing is more strengthening to faith, stabilizing to the mind, or tranquilizing to the heart of a Christian, than for us to discern our Father's hand guiding, shaping, and controlling everything that enters our life. We know that He is also governing this world, and all people and events in it. We take comfort, hope and joy in the fact that God knows what He is doing and is able to do it perfectly. This is our consolation. We recognize the providence and control of God and we trust His will. Amen.