Before we proceed with our consideration of Ezekiel, let me say that
I have not prepared an outline of yesterday morning's study because
we broke off in the middle of a section. When we have completed this
section, I will give you the second outline. We are still occupied
with the preparation of the Lord's servants for His ministry, and
yesterday morning we were considering the Throne above the firmament
and the likeness of a Man upon it. As you will remember, we
concluded yesterday by pointing out the importance to the servants
of the Lord of seeing that Throne - what it means to the Lord's
servants to recognise that there is a Throne, and that there is a
Man upon that Throne. We passed on into the New Testament, and we
saw that it was that that accounted for everything in the first days
of the church. They were able to sing, and to pray, and to preach,
and to suffer, and to die, because they knew the Man was on the
Throne! So that part of the vision came first and was of very great
importance to Ezekiel.
I expect you know what the name "Ezekiel" means; if you do not,
let me tell you that it means: "God shall be my strength." And
Ezekiel had to have vision and experience that made his own name
true. All this that Ezekiel was seeing was just establishing the
meaning of his own name, "God is my strength." We shall only have
strength as we see the Man on the Throne! That is a very important
thing for ministry.
Now, before I go on, I want to say a very definite word to you
brothers and sisters here. I see in these prophecies of Ezekiel
something which seems to correspond very closely to what God is
doing out here. You know that God did a great thing in the West,
it was in the West that the Lord raised up a very strong ministry
and testimony, and from the West for many years the Lord sent out
spiritual blessing all over the world. It is to the West that many
countries owe a very great deal. I think that is recognised by
everyone. In the West there were many great teachers, there were
great men of God, and from these men of God and their teachings,
blessing has come to many parts of the world. We can say that
Christianity, or the church in the West, has been greatly used in
the past. But that is not as true today, as it was. The West has
lost something. The testimony has become weak. The state of the
church has become very poor. The measure of spiritual value has
become very limited and it seems to me that the Lord is moving
away from the West and it looks to me as though He is moving to
the East, for I see the Lord doing a new thing in the East. It
would seem that He has made a beginning all over again and in the
last thirty or so years, God has been doing a very wonderful thing
in the East and I believe that you are a part of that thing that
the Lord is doing.
The Lord is seeking to raise up here a testimony, a testimony in
spiritual fullness. You see, the Lord must have this. He
must have His purpose and His truth represented on this earth.
This that He has revealed in the letter to the Ephesians is not
just something in heaven only, there must be an expression of it
here in this world. We know that that is the purpose of this
dispensation. The Lord must have it. He cannot close the
dispensation until He has got it: a representation of His own
thought concerning the church. That is the manifestation of Christ
in His Body. I repeat: the Lord must have it. He has not
got it in the West, only in very small ways. I believe that it is
there in small companies, but speaking of the people of God as a
whole, the Lord has not got it. He has tried to have it, but His
people have failed Him. Now He is beginning again and He is
beginning in the East.
There is a very great responsibility resting upon you brothers
and sisters. It is no less a responsibility than providing the Lord
with that which He must have before the end of the
dispensation. There may be weaknesses and imperfections, we are
all conscious of those, probably you are conscious of those, but
the Lord is seeking to do something, to do something in a new way
and in a fuller way - that which will be on this earth a true
expression of His mind as fully as He can have it. Now, I have
said that to you and in saying that I have pointed out your great
responsibility and that will explain very many things. It will
explain why the Lord will not allow you to be satisfied with
anything less than His full thought.
Well, I trust that you can see more than I have said, but if you
could recognise it, that is exactly what is in the book of
Ezekiel. The Lord had had a full testimony in one place. His
people failed Him there and what we see here is the Lord moving
away from that and bringing His revelation in another place. He is
moving away from the earthly, to the heavenly. It is as though the
Lord was saying, "I am not able to do what I wanted to do there.
The condition of things there does not permit Me to realise My
full purpose, so I move away and start again somewhere else." That
is what is in this book. But that is the kind of thing that the
Lord has done from time to time, He has begun to do something in a
certain place with a certain people. For the time being there has
been something very much of the Lord there, and then the Lord has
come up against something that prevented Him going on; it put a
limitation on the Lord. The Lord has been patient, but then He
found that He could not go on, and He has had to say, "I cannot do
what I intended there, I must do it somewhere else." You see that
is true to history.
Now, I don't want to give you a sense of too great importance,
this ought to be a very humbling thing, it ought to bring upon us
a very great sense of responsibility. That brings me back to what
I said at the beginning this morning, it was in that movement of
God that Ezekiel was found. It was a movement of God onward, but
away from the place that He had been for so long. It was a new
movement of God and for that ministry Ezekiel needed the strength
of God. So his name means "The Lord shall strengthen". If you
like, you can write that name over yourselves. I don't know what
the world would think if they saw over your hall the name:
"Ezekiel", but in your great responsibility write that name
spiritually over your heart. The Lord has called us into a great
responsibility, but the Lord will be our strength.
Now, I think that is a worthwhile introduction to our further
consideration.
So we come to the next part of "the visions of God" which
were the preparation of the Lord's servant; that is, what was
under the firmament, what was directly under the Throne. And the
first part of this was:
"The Four Living Ones"
What are known to us as the cherubim. There are eight references
in fullness to the cherubim in the Bible. If you like, I will
allow you to write these down: Genesis 3:24, Exodus 25:18-20,
Exodus 26 verses 1 and 32, 1 Kings chapters 6 and 7, Isaiah
chapter 6, Ezekiel chapter 1 and chapter 9, and Revelation
chapters 4 and 5. There you have the eight references to the
cherubim in fullness. There are other references to them in the
Bible, I only give them to you; not because we're going to study
all those now, of course. We do recognise that these cherubim
were not real creatures, they are not a real creation, they are
only symbols of spiritual things. There are many ways in which we
could prove that to be so. I do not think it would be profitable
to turn aside to try and prove that that is so.
One thing about them is this: that in different places they are
different in representation. For instance, here in Ezekiel they
have four wings; in Isaiah they have six wings. That is only to
emphasise particular spiritual principles. And you will notice
that there are other differences in the references to the
cherubim. This means that at one time, in one place, certain
things are emphasised, at another time, in another place, certain
other things are emphasised. It is the spiritual principles which
are to be taken note of, so that these cherubim are
symbols of spiritual realities. We must not imagine that they are
actual beings. We know quite well, that especially in the East,
symbols are the common way of teaching, while in the West we do
use some symbols. In the East it is a much more prominent thing to
use symbols; that has always been true. I suppose your Chinese
dragon is one of those things. I don't know whether that Chinese
dragon ever actually existed, but you know that the dragon is
intended to represent some spiritual idea. Right from the very
earliest days of history in the East, symbolism was the common way
of teaching or representation. So the Bible, right from beginning
to end, is just full of symbolism - things taken up by God to
teach spiritual truth.
Now then, we look at these "four living ones." First we take
account of their number, their number is four. Everything about
them speaks of the number four. They have four likenesses, each
one of the four has four likenesses. And there are four of them.
They have four wings. Now I think I need not stay with all the
details. Their characteristic number is four; and as you may know,
four is the number of creation. If we want to cover all the
dimensions of the creation, they are covered in the number four:
north, south, east, and west cover the whole world; there are the
four seasons of the year: spring, summer, autumn, and winter. In
the Bible the four winds are referred to, four winds as coming
from "the four corners of the earth". Now, we know that the world
is not square, it does not have four corners, but this is a
symbolic way of speaking, "the four corners of the earth" mean the
whole world. And I could go on like that with the number four. It,
therefore, represents the whole creation; it is the number of
creation. Keep that in mind as we move on to their four
likenesses.
You see, they had four likenesses: the likeness of a man, the
likeness of a lion, the likeness of an ox, the likeness of an
eagle; and those four are representative of four parts of the
creation. The lion represents the wild creation, the ox represents
the domestic creation, the eagle represents the flying creation,
and the man represents the human creation. All creation is
represented here. But then, what is the symbolism? This is so well
known that I'm almost afraid to mention it. The lion is the symbol
for royalty and government. The ox is the symbol of service and
sacrifice. The eagle is the symbol of heavenliness and mystery.
And the man is the symbol for representation. That is the
symbolism.
We ask, "What is the meaning of all that?" Surely it is
impossible to not see that this, in the first place, is a symbolic
representation of Christ. It is Christ in His four-fold capacity.
The Lion is "the Lion of the tribe of Judah", out of
Judah came the Ruler, so that the Lion is the symbol of the
government or royalty of the Lord Jesus. You probably know that
the gospel by Matthew corresponds to that. It is the gospel of the
King.
The Ox is the symbol of service and sacrifice, and
again, that is a representation of the Lord Jesus, the servant of
Jehovah sacrificing Himself: "The Son of Man came not to be
ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life". The ox
corresponds to the gospel by Mark. It is in the Gospel by Mark
that, more than anything else, Jesus is seen in service giving
Himself.
The Man aspect of the cherubim is very clear, "The Son
of Man is come". That is the message of Luke: Jesus the Man.
And the Eagle, is the symbol of heavenliness and
mystery, and that is clearly seen in the gospel by John. The Lord
Jesus so often in that gospel speaks about His having "come down
from heaven", and yet there is a mystery about Him that no
one can understand. He is a Man, but He is more than a Man. This
is the eagle symbolism. So I say it is quite difficult not to see
the Lord Jesus as represented by the cherubim.
They are called "the living ones", In our translation, a word is
introduced that is not there in the original. In one translation,
it is living "creatures"; in another translation, it is living
"beasts", the four living "beasts". Well, of course, to begin with,
man is not a beast, and an eagle is not strictly a beast. Those
words are not in the original. They have had to be there because
of the impossibility of translating it. You know the impossibility
of translating some words, probably we're up against that now
every day! Some words are untranslatable from one language into
another. What is here in the original text is this: just the
plural form of the word "life". Now you see, it is impossible to
translate that: Life in a plural form. In the Greek language that
is quite simple and clear. You might be able to translate it into
Chinese, I don't know, but it simply means the plurality of
life. The chief characteristic of the cherubim was Life: - "In
Him was Life". What was the Life for? The Life of the
creation! Jesus is the Life of the creation. Of course
that is now the new creation!
We go back to the first appearance of the cherubim. Man has
sinned, God has cursed the race and the earth, He has driven man
out of the garden in which there was "the tree of Life" and He
has placed the cherubim at the gate to guard the way of the tree
of Life. What does all that mean? The sinful and fallen creation
can never have that Life. That Life can only be had by "a
new creation". Between that which represents the fallen creation
and that which represents the unfallen creation, stands Christ as
"The Door". Christ says, "There is no Life for
that sinful creation; there is only Life in a new creation." So
the cherubim stand between. You see, Christ always stands between
an old creation and a new. There is no Life outside of
Christ. There is Life inside of Christ. Christ as "The Life"
stands at the door. He says "No" to one creation, and "Yes"
to another. Well, I think we can say that the cherubim represent
Christ. They represent Christ as the Life.
Now, it is also very difficult not to see that the cherubim in
relation to the Throne affect the whole creation. The Throne is
linked with the creation - in creation and redemption. On the one
side, it relates to the creation; on the other side, it relates to
the redemption of the creation! God's Throne governs those two
things. The Chariot-Throne of God is linked with God's creative
and redemptive power. This Throne says that God is concerned with
the redemption of the creation. You notice over the Throne there
is a rainbow. The rainbow is the symbol of God's covenant of
redemption. You will find that rainbow again in the book of the
Revelation and presently we shall see its connection in that book,
but let us be quite sure of what we have just said.
Here is the Chariot-Throne of God! Underneath are the symbols of
the whole creation. The whole question is the question of Life
for the creation, but we have seen the tremendous energies and
power of those movements of the Throne! All the energies and
movements of God are in relation to a new creation, a redeemed
creation. So it is difficult not to see that the Throne is moving
in relation to Divine Purpose - the Divine Purpose in creation. That
movement is by way of the Lord Jesus. That new creation is
to have Him as its King. That is by way of His service and
His sacrifice. That will be an expression of His Heavenly
Character, and it is all summed up in:
The Man After God's Own Heart.
You will see that the Man feature is the predominant
feature in the cherubim. Now, if we want to have a New Testament
explanation of that, we have one. We have it all in that very full
eighth chapter of the letter to the Romans. In that chapter
creation is seen as in bondage. You remember the words, "The
creation was subjected to vanity... the whole creation groaneth
and travaileth in pain". It is groaning under its bondage, waiting
for its liberty. That is the thing we see in Romans 8. And then we
see that the heart of that situation is "the sons of God" waiting
for "the manifestation of the sons of God". Until God has sonship
in the creation, the creation cannot be delivered. The sons of God
are involved in this situation. But then this chapter
shows us God's eternal mind about those sons, "whom He foreknew...
He foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son... whom
He foreknew, them He also justified, whom He justified, them He
also called" He called.
First of all: the emancipation of the sons and then when that
has been accomplished, the emancipation of the creation. When the
sons are released, then the creation will be released. We have all
that in the eighth chapter of Romans, it's a very wonderful
chapter. And you can take that right back into the beginning of
the prophecies of Ezekiel. In principle, that is exactly what is
here in this vision. God had a thought concerning a people. He
created man with that thought. Man failed Him. God brought the
whole creation and man into bondage. It is groaning in its
bondage. Paul says, "We ourselves grown within ourselves waiting
for our adoption", but God is moving, He is at work in the
groaning creation. All the energies of God are toward getting
those sons out of the groaning creation. He is getting those sons
now. They are not recognised by this world, but the day is coming
when the sons shall be manifested, when God shall display to the
whole universe the sons that He has redeemed. That is what we have
in the fourth and fifth chapters of the book of the Revelation - a
great multitude of redeemed ones displayed to the whole
universe; and when that comes to pass, the creation itself
shall be delivered.
It will not be long before God says: "I create new
heavens and a new earth... the former things are passed away." All
that is here in Ezekiel in principle. Now here is a very
significant thing: in chapters four and five of Revelation, you
have the four living ones. In chapter four, they are connected
with the creation. The song in chapter four is "For Thou didst
create all things, and for Thy pleasure they were
created." The living ones are there in connection with
that, the Divine purpose in creation - "He created all
things in Jesus Christ." The living ones are a representation of
Jesus Christ: King, Sacrifice, Heavenly Man - that gives the
meaning to the creation. "All things were created in Him," and the
living ones are there in the presence of the song of creation, but
in a special way now, it is the song of a new creation.
In chapter five of the book of the Revelation, another song is
being sung, and the living ones are there. This is the song of
redemption, "Thou... hast redeemed"; that's the new
song, and the living ones are there. The purpose of
creation in Christ Jesus - Jesus as the Purpose of creation, and
when the new creation is secured, the living ones are there. It is
a new creation in Christ Jesus. The song of redemption: "Thou hast
redeemed us," - and the redemption is in Christ Jesus. I think
that's all very clear.
You see, that takes us back to Ezekiel - the cherubim, in the
first place, as a representation of Christ. On the one side
related to creation; on the other side, related to redemption. And
all these mighty energies of God concentrated upon that. All the
goings of God are unto that. One creation has failed; God is going
to have a new creation. One representation of God has failed; God
is going to have a new representation. Israel has failed as the
representation of God, He will have His Church. That is what comes
out later in these prophecies.
Now I must leave it there. That is only half of it. The other
half you see, is the wheels; I think we must leave that for this
morning. This is all not only interesting, but very instructive.
It ought to help us to see one thing: here is the Throne of
heaven concentrated upon a full and perfect representation of
the Lord's Mind. When we sum up this whole section, we
shall see more of what that means for us, but it is a tremendous
thing to be right in the way of the goings of God; not alongside
of the goings of God, not in some little bit of the goings of God,
but right in the full way of the goings of God! That is where we
shall find the support of the Throne! That is how it was at the
beginning of the history of the Church. Oh, surely God wants it
like that at the end and I believe that the Lord is moving in that
direction: to have something at the end which corresponds to what
was at the beginning. That will be true of the creation; the Lord
wants it to be true of the Church. I expect you're storing up quite a lot of questions for next
week!