As for their rings, they were so high that they were dreadful; and their rings were full of eyes round about them four. -Ezekiel 1:18

Even the man that knows that every wave that dashes against the ship is washing him nearer home-that every breath of wind that rises comes to his sail and fills it, and sends it to the white cliffs of his native Albion-even the man that feels that all is for him-even he must say that Providence is amazing. O! that thought, it staggers thought! O! it is an idea that overwhelms me-that God is working all! The sins of man, the wickedness of our race, the crimes of nations, the iniquities of kings, the cruelties of wars, the terrific scourge of pestilence-all these things in some mysterious way are working the will of God! We must not look at it; we cannot look at it. I cannot explain it. I cannot tell you where human will and free agency unite with God’s sovereignty and with His unfailing decrees. This has been the place where intellectual gladiators have fought with each other ever since the time of Adam. Some have said, Man does as he likes; and others have said, God does as He pleases. In one sense, they are both true; but there is no man that has brains or understanding enough to show where they meet. We cannot tell how it is that I do just as I please as to which street I shall go home by; and yet I cannot go home but through a certain road… Last Sabbath-day I came down a certain street I do not know why-and there was a young man who wished to speak to me; he wished to see me many times before. I say that was God’s Providence-that I might meet that young man. Here was Providence, and yet there was my choice; how, I cannot tell. I cannot comprehend it… There is no half way between a mighty God that worketh all things by the sovereign counsel of His will and no God at all. A God that cannot do as He pleases-a God whose will is frustrated, is not a God, and cannot be a God. I could not believe in such a God as that.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3114.cfm

When they went, they went upon their four sides: and they turned not when they went. -Ezekiel 1:17

The prophet saw the wheels, and he well says, they turned not when they went, they always went straight forward; they never turned to the right or to the left. Such is God’s Providence. Man marks out plans: he says, I shall build this tower; he gets it halfway up, and he finds he has not enough to finish it with; he has to pull it down, lay a smaller foundation, and build again. God never does so; He has a plan when He begins, and He carries that plan out: He lays the foundation, and always finishes the topstone. There are some who talk about God’s changing His purpose; such people do not know what God is at all. How could God change? God must either change from a better to a worse, or from a worse to a better. If He change from a worse to a better, He is not perfect now; and if He change from what He is to something worse, He will not be perfect then, and He will not be God. He cannot change. It is not possible that God should ever change or shift in any of His purposes. Can He change because He has not power? Why, sirs, He could girdle this globe with mountains, or move the hills into the sea. Can He change because He has not patience enough? What, He who from His purpose never swerves? Shall He change because He has made a mistake? Shall the Most High, Jehovah, ever have an error in His mighty mind? To err is human. With the divine Being the whole goes on, and what He has ordained shall be. On the iron rock of destiny it is written, and it cannot be altered. God moves the wheel, and the wheel goes on; and though a thousand armies stand to stop it, it goes on still. “They turned not to the right hand nor to the left when they went.”~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3114.cfm

“I know that You can do all things, And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.” -Job 42:2

When Joseph brought his two sons up to Jacob’s deathbed side, Jacob ordered the two boys to be brought; and when he was about to bless them, he guided his hands wittingly; and he put his right hand on the head of the youngest, and his left hand on the head of the eldest. “O!” said Joseph, “not so, my father.” But he said, “it is even so;” and he gave the blessing. He would not give the blessing in any other way; but he crossed his hands. And so God usually blesses his children by crossing His hands. We say, “Do not deal so with me.” “It is even so, child; there is a blessing on thy head.”… Providence is wonderfully intricate. Ah! you want always to see through Providence, do you not? You never will, I assure you. You have not eyes good enough. You want to see what good that affliction was to you; you must believe it. You want to see how it can bring good to the soul; you may be enabled in a little time; but you cannot see it now; you must believe it. Honor God by trusting Him. God has many gordian knots which wicked men may cut, and which righteous men may try to unravel, but which God alone can untie. We see the wicked prosper; they flourish, and great is their power, while the righteous are cast down. We say why?.. Do not fret yourselves because evil-doers are more prosperous. There may be a nation that seems to have right on its side; that nation may be crushed, and another people who are tyrannical may get the victory. Do not say, why? Do not ask! You shall know the reason when you get up yonder:

“God plants His footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.”

~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3114.cfm

O LORD, how manifold are Thy works! in wisdom hast Thou made them all: the earth is full of Thy riches. -Psalm 104:24

It is a great truth, though hard for us to grasp, that Providence is one. Just look at the case of Joseph. God has it in His mind that Joseph shall be governor over all the land of Egypt: how is that to be done? The first thing to be done is that Joseph’s brethren must hate him. O, say you, that is a step backward. Next, Joseph’s brethren must put him in the pit. That is another step backward, say you. No, it is not: wait a little. Joseph’s brethren must sell him; that is another step backward, is it not? Providence is one, and you must not look at its separate parts. He is sold; he becomes a favorite: so far, so good. That is a step onward. Anon, he is put in a dungeon. Wait and see the end; all the different parts of the machinery are one. They appear to clash; but they never do. Put them all together. If Joseph had not been put in the pit, he never would have been the servant of Potiphar: if he never had been put in the round-house, he never would have interpreted the jailor’s dream; and if the king had never dreamed, he would not have been sent for. There were a thousand chances, as the world has it, working together to produce the exaltation of Joseph.

Mrs. Hannah More, I think it is, says, she went into a place where they were manufacturing a carpet. She said: “There is no beauty there.” The man said: “It is one of the most beautiful carpets you ever saw.” “Why, here is a piece hanging out, and it is all in disorder.” “Do you know why, ma’am? You look at the wrong side.” So it is very often with us. You and I think Providence is very bad, because we are looking at the wrong side. We do look at the wrong side while we are here, but when we get to heaven, we shall see the right side of God’s dealings; and when we do, we shall say., “Lord, how wonderful are Thy works: in wisdom Thou hast made them all: glorious are Thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well.”~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3114.cfm

Now as I beheld the living creatures, behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four faces…and their rings were full of eyes round about them four. – Ezekiel 1:15,18

Providence is universal, looking to every quarter of the globe. Have you ever been in a house where there was an old picture hanging? I have sometimes stood in a picture-gallery, and there has been some old warrior: he has looked at me. If I have gone to the other end of the room, he has still looked at me; wherever you are in the room, a well-painted portrait will be looking at you. Such is the Providence of God; wherever you are, the eye of God will be upon you-as much upon you as if there were not another person in the whole world. If there were only one, you might think how much God would look upon that one, but he looks on each one of us as if there were no other created being, and nothing else in the whole world. His eye is fixed upon us at every hour, and at every moment.

You cannot banish me from my Lord. Send me to the snows of Siberia or Lapland, I shall have the eyes of God there; send me to Australia, and let me toil at the gold diggings, there will He visit me. If you send me to the utmost verge of the round globe, I shall still have the eye of God upon me. Put me in the desert where there is not one single blade of grass growing, and His presence shall cheer me. Or let me go to sea, amid the howlings of the tempest and the shrieking wind, where the mad waves lift up their hands to the skies as if they would pluck the stars from their cloudy thrones, and I shall have the eye of God there. Let me sink, and let my gurgling voice be heard among the waves-let my body lie down in the caverns of the sea, and the eye of God shall be on every bone, and in the day of the resurrection shall my every atom be tracked in its wanderings. Yes, the eye of God is everywhere; Providence is universal.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3114.cfm

Let them now that fear the LORD say, that His mercy endureth for ever. -Psalm 118:4

You know that, in a wheel there is one portion that never turns round, that stands steadfast; and that is the axle. So in God’s Providence, there is an axle which never moves. Christian, here is a sweet thought for thee! Thy state is ever changing; sometimes thou art exalted, and sometimes depressed; yet there is an unmoving point in thy state. What is that axle? What is the pivot upon which all the machinery revolves? It is the axle of God’s everlasting love toward His covenant people. The exterior of the wheel is changing, but the center stands forever fixed…You observe, when the wheel moves very rapidly you can discern nothing but the circumference-nothing but the exterior circle. So, if you look back to history, and read the story of a thousand years, you just set the wheel of Providence revolving rapidly; you lose sight of all the little things that are within the circle; you see only one great thing, and that is, that God is working through the world His everlasting purposes… Take the whole together, instead of the things one by one; look at a thousand years, and you will see nothing but one round ring of symmetry, teaching you that God is wise, and God is just. So let it be with you in your lives. Here you are fretting about troubles today. Think also of the past; put all your troubles together, and they are no troubles at all. You will see that one counteracts the other. If you take your life-not today, but look back on forty years of it-you will be obliged, instead of lamenting and mourning, to bless God for His mercies toward you. Let the wheel go round, and you will see nothing but a ring of everlasting wisdom revolving. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3114.cfm

“Now as I beheld the living creatures, behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four faces. The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour 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. When they went, they went upon their four sides: and they turned not when they went. As for their rings, they were so high that they were dreadful; and their rings were full of eyes round about them four. And when the living creatures went, the wheels went by them: and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up.”-Ezekiel 1:15-19

When the prophet had seen the “living creatures,” which I take it were angels, he opened his eyes again, and he saw a wonderful illustration of the divine Providence, and this exhibition was in the figure of a wheel. You must know that this is not the only place where the comparison is to be found; for among the classics, the Romans and the Greeks were accustomed to compare the wondrous works of God in Providence to a wheel. The story goes, that a certain king being taken prisoner, was bound in chains, and dragged along at the chariot wheels of his conqueror. As he went along, he kept looking at the wheel, and shedding tears-looking at the wheel again, and lifting up his eyes and smiling. The conqueror turned and said, “Wherefore art thou looking at that wheel?” He said, “I was thinking, such is the lot of man; just now I was here; now I am there; but soon I may be here again at the top of the wheel, and thou mayest be grinding the dust.”

So it is with our life…Ah! man, thou art strong, and great, and rich; thou mayest stand now as the uppermost part of it; but it is a wheel, and you may yet be brought low. And you, poor, who are depressed and downcast, who are weeping because you know not where you shall lay your heads-that wheel may revolve and you may be lifted up. Our own experience is never a stable thing; it is always changing, always turning round. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/3114.cfm