Behold the Bridegroom
Ten Lectures
On The
Second Coming And Kingdom Of The
Lord Jesus.
Address on Daniel 1 (Wolston)
2nd December 1910 130 Queen Victoria Street, London EC Now it is Daniel's personal history as a man, and as a saint of God, and as a servant of God I want to travel over with you this evening. Daniel was a captive. Now I think you know, dear friends, that the thing that struck one first of all was this, that if Daniel looked round he must have felt this, that everything is gone, it is all up. Here am I, a captive in this strange city. If he had not been made of the kind of stuff that...
2nd December 1910
130 Queen Victoria Street, London EC
Now it is Daniel's personal history as a man, and as a saint of God, and as a servant of God I want to travel over with you this evening. Daniel was a captive. Now I think you know, dear friends, that the thing that struck one first of all was this, that if Daniel looked round he must have felt this, that everything is gone, it is all up. Here am I, a captive in this strange city. If he had not been made of the kind of stuff that he was he would have gone with the tide. The tide was running tremendously strong in Babylon. Here is a man who has enough grit to stand, to take his stand for God. The meaning of his name is interesting, 'God is judge.'
The king for his own purpose tells the master of his eunuchs that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, of the king's seed, and of the princes, and he now indicates what kind of an examination they should go through. You have his preliminary examination, his curriculum, that which he fed upon, his character developed, and in the close of the chapter you have his final examination. He and his three comrades come out at the top of the class. I have heard it said that if a man is a Christian, he must necessarily be a milksop. Nonsense, don't you believe it. A man that is a downright Christian, it is wonderful what God will do with him, and you will find as you read this man's history how step by step he was promoted, until I say, first of all, he is on the Bench; then he is made Prime Minister; then he is made Chancellor of the Exchequer of the whole kingdom of Persia. That is where he comes in for his deepest trials, at the close of his history.
Well now, the examination was this - it was a matter with them what they were personally. Because you are a Christian, you need not be a fool. Because you are on the Lord's side there is no necessity for lacking anything that a man should be as a man passing through this world. God has given to us all a little bit of gift, and each one according to his several ability. I do not doubt that God took into account the ability of this fine young man. The next thing is that he is appointed a provision of the king's meat, and the wine he drank, so that at the end of three years he might stand before the king.
Now look, the moment he sees what is before him, he begins to feel, 'Well, I belong to God, and I know Jehovah has got certain principles and lines for his servant', and he had not forgotten what he had learned as a youth, that is to say, he knew the Scriptures. I think the great lack, my dear friends, today, is that young men do not know the Scriptures. There is not the study of the Scriptures there might be, and there should be. Timothy was told that from a child he had known the Holy Scriptures. The fact is, my dear friends, the character of things today is immensely altered. When I was an unconverted lad[1], I remember my dear mother somehow instilled into my mind as a child that there was something very wonderful in the book, and although I did not know Christ - I was not converted as a child - they told me I used after breakfast in the morning get hold of the big family Bible my father had been reading in, and I would squat cross-legged under the dining-room table with the old book on my knees, and there I was poring over the Old Testament and its stories. I attribute a good deal of the little I do know to the early training my dear mother gave me. If any of you here tonight are fathers, see that you instruct your young ones in the Scriptures. Inculcate the value of them, and beget if you can in their hearts a desire that they might learn and know the Scriptures, and possibly your son may turn out a hundred fold better than his father. [1] For Dr Wolston's testimony of his conversion we would recommend reading 'How I found the Lord, available from Chapter 2 - London When it comes to this point in the 8th verse, we find Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat. He had a good chance of eating and drinking, and most men are governed by their stomachs when they are young, and even when they get up a little bit in life, too. Do not pretend to be men that are not influenced by this. We are so constituted that we are so influenced, but here comes in the opportunity for self-denial. It is a grand thing, purpose. Old Barnabas exhorted the converts that with purpose of heart they should cleave to the Lord. I exhort you tonight with purpose of heart to cleave to the Lord. I think purpose is a grand thing. We are far too much like those jellyfish that you always form the acquaintance of when you go to the seaside in the summertime. You say, 'Oh yes they are very pretty, but mark, every wave moves them. Young men today - lots of them - they are a mere conglomeration of jellyfish. They are moved by whatever comes along. Now, I ask you honestly, as you weigh up your own history, and cast a retrospective look at your life, so you think, my beloved young fellow-christian that you have been like Daniel, a man of purpose? 'No', you will say, 'no'. The man that can say 'No' is the man for a difficulty. If you will take the trouble to go back and read what God told His people in Leviticus, as to what they were to eat, Leviticus 11, and 22, you will find the kind of food God said His people were to eat, and what they were.not to eat. Then again you will find the story of the Nazarite, the man who denied himself wine from the day of his birth. Daniel says, 'I am not going to act on the world's lines. In plain language, he was a separate man. He had this sense that this does not exactly suit a man who belongs to God, and he therefore declined to mingle it in his food, to be on all fours, so to say, with the world about him. I will tell you what you will find. A separated man will very soon be an enlightened man, and the enlightened man will be the useful man and the useful man will be the preserved man.
Now time goes on, and he feeds on that which is exceedingly simple. Let me apply it. You will find that as Christians what you feed on will form you. I mean what you read. Reading today forms men's minds immensely, forms their feelings. If you are feeding on the stuff which is around you today, do you think you are going to grow up spiritually? Not you, nor I. You will have to be careful what you are feeding your soul on. You will not be the worse for carrying with you a small pocket Testament. That is where the Spirit of God will turn you to, to enlighten you, to feed you and refresh you.
Well, the curriculum runs by. Of all the places in this world, where would you have expected to find, or not find, I should say, a man of God who could unfold the mind of God? Most certainly not in Babylon. It was the last place in this world where you would have looked to find a man like Daniel. Now at the end of the days they come in before the king Nebuchadnezzar, and among them all was found none like Daniel and his companions; therefore they stood before the king. In all matters of wisdom, and understanding that the king enquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm. I like to see men come out at the top. If you are in for some examination it is no evidence of Christianity for you to be at the bottom of the class. I know when I was a student up at King's, I must honestly own the Lord helped me to hoist my flag a little for Christ. They used to dub me 'Spurgeon' there. When they had their little go, it was my turn, and I turned the gospel guns on them till bye-and-bye they gave me a pretty wide berth. They all took for granted that 'Spurgeon' was a numbskull, and he would be at the bottom of the class. Well, they were surprised. They did not get all the prizes, I can tell you.
Daniel comes out here at the top of the class. I do not know whether you have noticed a striking verse in Psalm 119, verse 98. 'I have more understanding than all my teachers, for thy testimonies are my meditation.' That was the concluding point Daniel reached here. Of all in his class, of all in his college, the king felt these four young men could be trusted. They had wisdom from God. God helps His children if they are set to be here for His glory and for His service.
Well now, the next chapter, the second chapter, is not so much Daniel's personal history, but you get how he was used of God. What you have got in the second chapter takes place in the early part of King Nebuchadnezzar's reign. He had a dream. He could not remember the dream, and nobody could give him any light upon it. It is the vision he had of the great image. He had had that dream and could not recollect what it was about. He demands that his wise men shall recall the dream and likewise interpret it. They admit they cannot deal with this difficulty. Nebuchadnezzar was a very hot-tempered man, but I believe in chapter 4 he wrote of his conversion and published it to the world. That wicked and godless man was at length brought down, and he was brought to a knowledge of the Lord. Here in his hot temper he sends an order out that all the wise men should be killed, Daniel included. Now observe what Daniel does. He desired of the king that he should give him time, and he would show the interpretation. He went to his house and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, his companions. He was a great believer in fellowship and prayer. He gets his brethren together. First he was a separate man, next I find God helped him greatly and he was an enlightened man. Now I find he is a very prayerful man. What is the result of this little prayer meeting? It is a very interesting story. He goes to God with his brethren, and then was the secret revealed to Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blesses the God of heaven. There is something very lovely about this. When he got an understanding of the vision, he did not bolt off to Arioch, and say, 'I have got it.' He turns round and praises and worships God. He blesses God for the revelation. Then observe how he draws his brethren in, 'Thou hast made known to unto me what we desired of thee, for thou hast made known to us the King's matter.' If you can get another brother to get with you in prayer, do so. Show me three or four fine hearty young men who love to come together and pray, and I will show you men whom God will use. And show me men that are prayerless, and I will show you men who will drift along through life, one day happy and the next day miserable, and really no practical use. I never forget the night when I was converted I got an invitation to go the next night to a prayer meeting. That was a splendid start. If you have to do with some young converts, give them a nice, warm, affectionate shake of the hand, and say, 'We will pray together, and we will praise the Lord together.' It is wonderful how it works. Why is it nowadays we hear people talking of not much blessing? I tell you why. There is not much prayer. There is not much individual and collective waiting upon God. There is not the expectation, you see. I do want to stir your minds up, my beloved brethren over this matter, and I learn a great lesson here from Daniel. He goes to God in prayer to have revealed to him a most momentous thing, and it was revealed. When it is revealed, he gives God thanks, but delightful to me, he brings his brethren in. There was nothing at all of self in Daniel. It was fellowship. 'Thou hast made known to us the King's matter.'
He comes in to the king, and reveals to the king what nobody else could reveal. You have that remarkable story of the figures which stood before him, and which is a remarkable panoramic view of the history of the world, and the four monarchies that have dominated it. The Roman Empire is gone today. I do not doubt it will be revived again, but an empire that has perhaps thought itself as great is going to pieces in exactly the same way. The nation is on the downgrade today. The iron and the clay, what is firm, rigid, and divine in itself, is mingled with the clay, which is merely human. You see today how Socialism and all that kind of thing is working. The end will be exactly the same as it was with the empire of Rome. When Rome was at its full height, people began to get engrossed with pleasure, and money making and the like, and they lost what marked them as a martial nation, and they were overthrown. Today you will find it is the same thing. What marks the young men of today very, very largely? It is pleasure, and the acquisition of money so that it may be spent in pleasure. Daniel sees the end of it. He sees the stone cut out, and falling upon the feet of the image. That is the coming back of our Lord Jesus Christ in power and might and majesty and glory. The empire will come up again by and bye, but it will have this remarkable feature. There will be the recognition of an imperial head, and at the same time the ten kings. That is why I have little doubt Britain will come in, and not Ireland, and that is why Home Rule is bound to come, let me say in passing. I do not know when it will come, but it will come. Ireland never formed part of the Roman empire, and when that empire is revived, I have little doubt Ireland will then have what it is determined to have, so I have not the shadow of a doubt that will come. That is the value of reading Scripture, and knowing Scripture. You need not meddle with politics one bit, because a Christian belongs to heaven, and it is a great thing to see that a Christian belongs to heaven.
The result of Daniel unfolding the image is this that in verse 18, the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon. The king saw he was a man of wisdom and knowledge and could be relied upon. He was God's man in Babylon. Then Daniel requested of the king, and he set Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego over the affairs of his prosperity. Daniel sat in the gate of the king. He was raised to what we should term 'the Bench'. He was the Lord Chancellor to give a judgment in the place of the king, the most important position, perhaps that he could occupy at that time.
Now I pass over chapter 3, which does not give you Daniel's history. You find these three men who were influenced by him. Here is a very great lesson, my dear young fellow. You do not know what influence you have on the people round about you. Look at the influence Daniel had on these three men. His personal influence on them was this, it made them firm, and when Nebuchadnezzar in his impiety and folly put up a great big image of gold, what did those three young fellows say? They say to the king, 'If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us. If not, be it known to thee, O king, we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image that thou hast set up.' I think that is splendid. Look at it, those men with the fiery furnace facing them. What would be the harm of bowing down to worship? It is the king's command, too. But the King's command involved the denial of what was due to Jehovah, and that they could not give up even if it was to cost them their lives to maintain it. It is remarkable to see the result. Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished and says, 'Did we not cast three men into the midst of the fire. Lo I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and the form of the fourth is like a son of God.' What was the effect of this splendid devotedness? They got the company of Christ. If you want the company of Christ, you will have to be firm. You cannot have His company if you are going to let slip that which is very precious to his heart. God in his wonderful grace preserved them. The only thing the fire did was that it burned off their bonds, and set them free. We have to take care lest we get weak, and lose our moral fibre, or spiritual muscle, so to speak, which the Holy Ghost alone can produce in us.
Now there is only one bit more, and I am going to close. I find in chapter 5 Daniel is able to unfold things to Belshazzar, Nebuchadnezzar's grandson. You will find at the close of this 5th chapter again a bit of exaltation. You may say, 'Why the third place?' Belshazzar was reigning as joint king with his father, inside the city, and now the promise was that the man who could read the writing on the wall, he should be the third ruler. In fact, he was made Prime Minister. Daniel read the writing. Belshazzar was infidel, but nevertheless he proclaimed the tidings that Daniel was the third, and he was. It was not very long lived, his position, because the king passed away that night. But look at the next chapter, and you find somehow or other Darius came to understand about Daniel. Who was this man that was made Prime Minister in the very moment of the death of Belshazzar? You see what he does. It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom 120 princes, and over these three presidents, of whom Daniel was first. I should call him Accountant General of the whole empire. He was the man whom the king held responsible for all the accounts. Well, what follows? He got hated. If you are going to be faithful to God you may expect to be hated. Your master was hated and rejected by the world, and men of the world will do their best to trip you up. Look at the man, they say to one another in verse 5. The princes and the presidents sought to find an occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom, but they could not, because he was faithful, neither was there error or fault found in him. It is a fine thing when you are in an office and you are surrounded by godless men, if they are able to say this, 'You will find no fault with his work. He is the best worker in the whole place'. Then they appeal to Darius's vanity, and say, 'O king, make a law that nobody shall be prayed to for 30 days except yourself.'
Look at Daniel in verse 10. When Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went unto his house, and his windows being open, he kneeled on his knees and prayed as he did aforetime. What effect had that decree upon Daniel? It had not a feather's weight. He was not driven to his knees in a difficulty. When the difficulty came it found the man in this condition of power. He had his windows open. Now you know the Eastern houses were built low upon the ground. He was not afraid of being seen. He flung his windows apart. I tell you what I think some of us would have done. We would have shut the windows, or drawn down the blinds. He had learned in his book that when God's people were captive in the land of the enemy, if they turned towards Jerusalem, and looked towards Jerusalem, and prayed towards Jerusalem, God would hear and answer. Here is this man in the face of an edict that consigned him to a den of lions looking towards Jerusalem. Very well, of course they come and find him praying and making supplication before his God. You know the end of the story. He was pitched into the den of lions, but you must remember, he came out of it, too, and he came out unscathed.
Now today there has been no book assailed like the book of Daniel. In our day Daniel is not cast into a den of lions, but he has got into a den of critics. Do you think the critics are going to destroy him? His book will come out from the den of critics, and when the critics are dead and damned, the book of Daniel will stand. It is the word of God. That is the point.
The story is a very beautiful one. That night the king went to his palace, and passed the night fasting, and his sleep went from him. Darius had a miserable night, and Daniel had a grand one. The man in the den of lions passed a grand night, and the man who sealed him in could not sleep. The man with a bad conscience has an awful bedfellow. Darius had a very bad night, but in the morning he comes out with a lamentable voice, and says, 'O Daniel servant of the most high God, has thy God whom thou servest continually been able to deliver thee?' That is fine. I think we serve Him intermittently. Then said Daniel, 'O king, live for ever'. I am all right. You have had a miserable night, but I have had a grand one. 'My God has sent His angel, and shut the lions' mouths, that they have not hurt me.' Daniel comes out, and his accusers go in and you will find, of course, the king exalted Daniel. He is more than ever exalted and confided in by the king, and this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius, and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian. He lived through three kings.
We must not go further, except only I will draw your attention to one verse in chapter 10, verses 10 and 11. 'O Daniel, man greatly beloved.' If you can put at the end of your name M.G.B. that is the finest affix you can get to your name. 'Man greatly beloved.' By whom? By God. He greatly loves the man that is here for God, set for His will, determined to be by grace for Him. I desire, my young friends, that it might be so with you to purpose in your heart to follow the Lord, that He may able to use you, and to come and communicate His mind to you, expressed in these three words, 'Man greatly beloved.'
Ezekiel's 40 Days
Israel's End; Or Guilt, Grace, And Glory.
(Ezek. 4: 1-11)
"NOW it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin's captivity, the word of the Lord came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of the Lord was there upon him" (Ezek. 1: 1-3).
These verses introduce to us a very remarkable man, who was alike a priest, a poet, and a prophet of no mean order. The meaning of his name, Ezekiel, it whom God will strengthen," is instructive when we remember what he himself passed through as a captive. It was as being directly sustained by God, that he was able to identify himself with the sorrows of the guilty nation whose judgment he first predicts with great detail, and whose final deliverance and exaltation by the hand of God, he describes with the utmost precision.
Josephus states that Ezekiel was a youth when carried away captive, but whether such was the case we have no certain means of being assured, and the general character of his writings would scarcely bear out the supposition. He was contemporary with Jeremiah and Daniel, and his prophecy would appear to open about the fifth year of his captivity, B.C. 594. This we learn from Ezek. 1: 2. You will remember that Jehoiachin, king of Judah, was carried into captivity in the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar, along with a great many of his subjects. Thus the record stands. "And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came against the city, and his servants did besiege it. And Jehoiachin, the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he, and his mother, and his servants, and his princes, and his officers: and the king of Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign. And he carried out thence all the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king's house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the LORD, as the LORD had said. And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valour, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths: none remained, save the poorest sort of the people of the land. And he carried away Jehoiachin, to Babylon, and the king's mother, and the king's wives, and his officers, and the mighty of the land, those carried he into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon. And all the men of might, even seven thousand, and craftsmen and smiths a thousand, all that were strong and apt for war, even them the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon" (2 Kings 24: 11-16).
Though the power of Judah was broken, and Jehoiachin, carried captive, Jerusalem was not then destroyed, and over it the King of Babylon set Jehoiachin's uncle, changing his name from Mattaniah to Zedekiah. He reigned eleven years in Jerusalem, doing evil in the sight of the Lord, and eventually breaking his covenant, and rebelling against the King of Babylon, thus leading to the sack of the city in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar (see 2 Kings 25: 8-10). During these eleven years Ezekiel dwelt by the river Chebar, a captive, and there it was that he says, "The heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God." He there learned that God's ancient people were not only in captivity but to be in captivity to the Gentiles, and that, because of their guilt God would not own them any longer. He further learned that the power of the sword was to be passed into the hands of the Gentiles, although, as I have said, at that time the capture of Jerusalem, then ruled over by Zedekiah, had not yet taken place.
While at Chebar Ezekiel receives the following instructions from the Lord (Ezek. 4: 1-11): "Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and portray upon it the city, even Jerusalem: and lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and cast a mount against it; set the camp also against it, and set battering rams against it round about. Moreover, take thou unto thee an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city; and set thy face against it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel. Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it; according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity. For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year. Therefore thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and thine arm shall be uncovered, and thou shalt prophesy against it, And, behold, I will lay bands upon thee, and thou shalt not turn thee from one side to another, till thou hast ended the days of thy siege. Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof, according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side, three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof. And thy meat which thou shalt eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time shalt thou eat it. Thou shalt drink also water by measure, the sixth part of an hin: from time to time shalt thou drink."
In representing thus the impending siege of
Jerusalem, God points out the years of iniquity that led to her judgment - for Israel in general three hundred and ninety, and for Judah forty. To Ezekiel comes the striking command, "Lie thou also upon thy left side.. three hundred and ninety days" (Ezek. 4: 4). And then: Lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days. I have appointed thee each day for a year" (Ezek. 4: 6). The sin of Israel exceeded that of Judah, but Israel is looked at as a whole, and the interests of the whole nation are not only before the eye of the prophet, but he is to identify himself with their iniquities. However little the guilty nation may have felt, without doubt this godly prophet deeply felt and owned before God the sin of his nation, and accepted the consequences thereof, and whether for three hundred and ninety days for Israel, or forty days for Judah, bore their iniquities in spirit before God in the remarkable position which these verses describe, himself, without doubt, sustained by God, otherwise it would have been impossible for him, for so protracted a period, to have so remained and obeyed the strict injunction, "And thou shalt not turn thee from one side to another, till thou hast ended the days of thy siege" (Ezek. 4: 9), or lived upon the scanty diet detailed in Ezek. 4: 9 to 11. The point of Ezekiel's "forty days" would seem to be this, that he absolutely identifies himself with the iniquity of his nation, and is prepared to bear the consequences of their iniquity, and that without a murmur.
One very striking feature in Ezekiel's history would seem to be the entire subordination of his whole life and feelings as a man to the great prophetic work to which he was called. He neither speaks nor acts like an ordinary man, but thinks and feels as a prophet. One very striking illustration of this is found on the occasion of the death of his wife. There is something deeply touching in his brief narrative of the moment when "the desire of his eyes" was taken away with a stroke, and when he was commanded not to mourn. The word of the Lord ran thus: "Son of man, behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke: yet neither shalt thou mourn nor weep, neither shall thy tears run down. Forbear to cry, make no mourning for the dead, bind the tire of thine head upon thee, and put on thy shoes upon thy feet, and cover not thy lips, and eat not the bread of men. So I spake unto the people in the morning; and at even my wife died; and I did in the morning as I was commanded" (Ezek. 24: 15-18).
That was indeed a memorable day. God noted it by the command, "Son of man, write thee the name of the day, even of this same day: the king of Babylon set himself against Jerusalem this same day" (Ezek. 24: 2). The day that Nebuchadnezzar began the siege the wife of the prophet died, and although she was the object of his tenderest affections he was not to mourn, and did not. That he possessed the sympathies and affections of humanity is manifest by the beautiful touch of tenderness with which the narrative is introduced; but he subordinates himself entirely to the will of Jehovah, and sinks the interests of his individual life in the work of his prophetic office.
All this is intensely in contrast with almost every other great servant of God, whose history we have recorded in the Old Testament. While the events of Ezekiel's personal history are thus kept out of sight, it is interesting to notice the remarkable vigour and energy clearly manifest in his character. God knew that he had to oppose a "rebellious house," who were "impudent and hardhearted" (Ezek. 3: 7-9), and hence said to him: "Behold, I have made thy face strong against their faces, and thy forehead strong against their foreheads. As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead; fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house."
Ezekiel's writings abound with figurative representations, but whether unfolding heavenly visions, or truths clothed in the garb of allegory and enigma, definiteness and vigour of conception mark his words in a very striking way. What he saw in vision is described with a clearness, sharpness of outline, and minuteness of detail which almost belong to real existence; and while one says again we never meet him in his writings as an ordinary man, you cannot but feel that he was manifestly an extraordinary one - he was just, in fact, the suited vessel that God could take up and use to reveal His mind in the unfolding of striking truths as to Israel's judgment near at hand, or her future glory which his prophecies disclose.
It may help you to read his prophecy with greater interest if I briefly glance at the salient features of the book, and indicate its general outline. In attempting to do this, I cannot do better than quote the words of another, to whom I am indebted for much light on the subject. "The first twenty-three chapters contain testimonies from God against Israel in general, and against Jerusalem in particular. After that the surrounding nations are judged; and then, beginning with chapter 33, the prophet resumes the subject of Israel, announcing their restoration as well as their judgment. Finally, from chapter 40 to the end we have the description of the temple and of the division of the land."*
*"Synopsis of the Books of the Bible," by J. N. Darby, vol. ii. No more valuable or helpful expository work on Scripture exists in the English language than this. It will well repay careful perusal, and is strongly recommended.
The general scope of the book is as follows: -
The earlier chapters describe the sin of Israel which made God's judgment of them a necessity, as His name had been dishonoured and His house polluted. The glory of the Lord thereupon leaves that house and retires to heaven. The judgment then falls on Jerusalem, and the nation is scattered. Their many enemies, who rejoice in their chastisement at God's hand, and in the removal of His house and presence from the earth, are then severally judged by Him. Next, a work of repentance and self-judgment in Israel takes place on their restoration to their land and to God's enjoyed favour. Their ancient foe, the Assyrian, then seeks again to dislodge them, and is overwhelmed by God's own direct interposition. The temple, God's earthly house, is then rebuilt, never again to be disturbed. The glory returns to that house and to Israel, in connection with their acceptance of their once-rejected but now gladly-owned Messiah - the true David. The book closes with God's blessing flowing out through the whole earth, now at peace and rest under the sway of Jehovah-Jesus, the last word of the prophecy being, "The Lord is there" (Ezek. 48: 35).
The destruction of Jerusalem is the central point of Ezekiel's earlier predictions. Before that visitation of God's chastening hand arrived, through His chosen rod, Nebuchadnezzar, He warns the people against indulging in blind confidence in Egyptian help (Ezek. 17: 15-19; compare Jer. 37: 7-9), to rid themselves of the Babylonian yoke, and assures them that the destruction of their city and temple was certain, and near at hand. This prediction is finally confirmed by the announcement that Nebuchadnezzar had invested the city (Ezek. 24: 2).
During the interval between the commencement of the siege and the arrival of the news that Jerusalem had actually fallen (Ezek. 33: 21), the burden of his prophecy (Ezek. 25 - 32) is against foreign nations, whom God would judge because they had interfered with those who had been His people, but whom He, because of their sins, had now not only called Lo-ammi (not My people), but treated as such.
From the thirty-third chapter on, his principal object is to show how God will yet step in and restore Judah and Israel, now captive and scattered, to their own land, and bless them under the true David, when He will "make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all; and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms, any more at all" (Ezek. 37: 22). Thereafter follow the final judgment of their earliest foe - the Assyrian - the Gog and Magog of Ezekiel 38 and 39, and then the directions regarding the rebuilding of Jehovah's temple, the re-establishment of sacrifices suited to the moment, and the redivision of the land of Palestine.
It will be impossible to go much into detail, but a cursory glance at the contents of the three main divisions, just indicated, I will attempt. Ezekiel 1 opens with Ezekiel beholding a vision of God's throne, not now, as formerly, seen in Jerusalem, but outside the city and unconnected with it. The attributes of Gad, under the figure of four distinct classes of created beings on earth - a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle - the four being united in one - are the supporters of this throne on which the God of truth sits. It is evidently the universal sovereign throne of God here presented, as in relation to the Gentiles. Those who had hitherto been owned as His people He judges from that throne. He is no longer in their midst. What Ezekiel saw deeply impressed him, and he says: "This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard the voice of one that spake" (Ezek. 1: 28). This reminds one strongly of the vision John had in Patmos when he fell at the Lord's feet as dead (Rev. 1: 17).
What Ezekiel heard, as given in Ezekiel 2, indicates plainly God's relation to Israel. And he said, "Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee" (Ezek. 2: 1). This epithet, "Son of man," is the one by which God repeatedly, right through the book, addresses His prophet, and gives us the key to His position in relation to Israel. It is Christ's own title, the one by which He loved to speak of Himself all through the Gospels, where He is viewed as the rejected One of Israel, and really as being outside the nation. By God's giving it to Ezekiel, the prophet is put in direct connection with Christ as rejected. It is very important to apprehend the import of this title, which the 8th Psalm attributes to Jesus in connection with His rejection and exaltation, and which the Lord Himself specifically adopts as being rejected as the Messiah (see Psalm 2) by Israel. I refer to His striking injunction to His disciples recorded by Luke. He had asked them, "Whom say the people that I am?... Peter, answering, said, The Christ of God. And he straitly charged them, and commanded them to tell no man that thing; saying, The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day" (Luke 9: 18-22).
As regards Israel, God was rejected, and Ezekiel takes his place with Him and His throne, and consequently is sent with messages to the people here described as "impudent," "stiff-hearted," and "most rebellious." He was to speak whether they would "hear" or "forbear," but any way they should "know that there hath been a prophet among them" (Ezek. 2: 4-7). He then has handed to him a roll of a book, written within and without, like the one John saw (see Rev. 5: 1).
In Ezekiel 3 Ezekiel eats the roll which he had received, finding it sweet as honey in his mouth. God's communications are always sweet to the receiver, though their final intent have not that character. He is then strengthened of God and bid go to the children of his people. It needed that his forehead should be as adamant (Ezek. 3: 9) to testify to such it a rebellious house," whose moral iniquities compelled God to cast them off. Carried by the Spirit of God to Tel-abib among the captives (Ezek. 3: 15), he then again sees the glory of the Lord (Ezek. 3: 23), and is told not to go among the people. They were so rebellious that they were not to be warned. God would make his tongue cleave to the roof of his mouth (Ezek. 3: 26) to enforce his silence, for He would no more plead with them in love, as He had done by Jeremiah, until He again opened his mouth.
Ezekiel 4, which we have already considered, depicts the impending siege of, and famine at, Jerusalem, which Jehovah, in Ezekiel 5 says, He "had set in the midst of the nations and countries round about her" (Ezek. 5: 5) to give a true testimony to Himself. So far from that had she been that her "wickedness more than the nations round about her" (Ezek. 5: 6) compelled His condign judgment, a just retribution for her sins. She therefore instead of being a witness to Him should be "a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and an astonishment unto the nations round about" (Ezek. 5: 15).
Ezekiel
6 shows that this judgment was to be executed not only on Jerusalem, but on all the high places of the mountains of Israel - notorious for their idols - as well as the valleys and rivers. They should know that Jehovah had not "said in vain that I would do this evil unto them" (Ezek. 6: 10), for those far off should die of pestilence, and those near by should fall by the sword, yet mercy would spare a remnant (Ezek. 6: 8).
The desolation culminates in Ezekiel 7, when an end comes on "the four corners of the land" (Ezek. 7: 2). "Mischief shall come upon mischief" (Ezek. 7: 26) is the striking conclusion. The reason of all this overwhelming judgment by Jehovah is plain. "As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty: but they made the images of their abominations and of their detestable things therein, therefore have I made it unto them an unclean thing (see margin). And I will give it into the hands of strangers for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil; and they shall pollute it" (Ezek. 7: 20, 21). The temple, the place of His holiness, into which God's professing people had introduced idolatry in all its forms, was to be polluted by "the worst of the heathen" (Ezek. 7: 24). With chapter 7 the first prophecy which delineates the judgment of God's earthly people concludes. They no longer are His witnesses, save as their very judgment, lasting to this day, is a standing testimony to the truth of His Word, a solemn consideration for faithless and Christless Christendom.
With Ezekiel 8 commences a new section of Ezekiel's prophecy, extending to the end of Ezekiel 19. In it are a number of distinct revelations. The prophet is in his own house, with the elders of Judah, when Jehovah's glory appears to him, and, in "the visions of God," he is taken to Jerusalem, "to the door of the inner gate that looketh toward the north, where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy" (Ezek. 8: 3). He then sees in detail the reasons for God's judgment, as he beholds the awful idolatry carried on there by the very leaders of Israel. The year before the Lord had threatened to give up His Sanctuary. Now Ezekiel sees why He was compelled to do it.
In Ezekiel 9 the destruction of Jerusalem lowers on the threshold, and the men with slaughter-weapons are seen (Ezek. 9: 1, 2). Then "the glory of the God of Israel" begins to depart from the house. It first goes up from the cherub to the threshold of the house (Ezek. 9: 3), and thereon God commands the deeply deserved vengeance to be executed on those who had so sinned. Those who "sighed and cried for the abominations done," were. to he spared (Ezek. 9: 4), none other. The mass showed their moral state of depravity by saying, "The Lord hath forsaken the earth, and the Lord seeth not" (Ezek. 9: 9). Because He had not judged their sin they inferred that He was indifferent to it. Fatal mistake!
Ezekiel 10 is intensely interesting. The throne and its Occupant are again in view (Ezek. 10: 1). The man clothed with linen and possessing the ink-horn (Ezek. 9: 2, 3) is thus commanded: "Go in between the wheels, even under the cherub, and fill thine hand with coals of fire from between the cherubims, and scatter them over the city. And he went in in my sight. Now the cherubims stood on the right side of the house, when the man went in; and the cloud filled the inner court. Then the glory of the LORD went up from the cherub, and stood over the threshold of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was filled with the brightness of the LORD'S glory" (Ezek. 10: 2-4). That house had been filled with the Lord's glory at first, for deepest blessing (see 2 Chr. 5: 13, 14). Now it was similarly for judgment. The city which contained it was to be consumed with coals of fire. Jehovah's ire could no longer he restrained, and He leaves His throne, stands upon the threshold, and, so to say, superintends the judgment He has commanded. There is something intensely solemn in this. The cherubims and the crushing wheels of that throne, again detailed here (Ezek. 10: 7-17), could have effected this easily, but not so, the dishonoured Lord of that sadly-defiled house stands on its very threshold, personally to direct the judgment which would efface its existence. Nebuchadnezzar a little later was the providential power used to this end, but the personal intervention of Jehovah here could not but deeply strike the spiritual mind.
Ezekiel 11 reveals the spirit of unbelief that dominated the dwellers in Jerusalem. The prophet sees five and twenty princes of the people whom God describes as "men that devise mischief and give wicked counsel to this city" (Ezek. 11: 2, 3). These twenty-five men were, I judge, the high priest and the twenty-four heads of the courses of the priests, which shows the awful state of affairs when the official leaders of religion were the prime movers in idolatry and every sin. They regarded Jerusalem as impregnable, spite of Jeremiah's previous warnings. These God afresh threatens, and one of them dies on the spot, as Ezekiel speaks (Ezek. 11: 13).This leads him to intercession, and he learns that, as regards those who had already been taken captive, God would be to them "a little sanctuary" (Ezek. 11: 16),and bring them back to their land eventually.
Then the glory of the Lord, which in Ezekiel 10: 18,19 had moved from the threshold of the house, as if loath to leave it, and stood over the cherubims - who in their turn mounted up from the earth - took its final departure. We read, "And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city" (Ezek. 11: 23).That mountain, I conclude, was the Mount of Olives, from whence Jesus went up, and to which He will yet return.
So the glory of God left the earth, and though it revisited it at the birth of the Lord Jesus, again it retired when He, rejected of earth, ascended to heaven. When He shall return that glory will, on the ground of His redemption work, not only fill the house, yet to be rebuilt, but will flood the earth as well (see Num. 14: 21). "Lord, hasten that day," our hearts may well cry.
Ezekiel 12 foretells the ineffectual efforts of King Zedekiah to escape the snare set for him, and predicts his being brought to Babylon. "Yet shall he not see it, though he shall die there" (Ezek. 12: 13), isthe divine forecast of his sad history - some five years later. "So they took the king, and brought him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah; and they gave judgment upon him. And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him to Babylon" (2 Kings 25: 6,7).The godless proverb in Israel, "The days are prolonged, and every vision faileth" (Ezek. 12: 22), i.e., that God's messages were worthless and not to be heeded, He now says shall cease to be used, for the Son of man was bidden to say, "The days are at hand, and the effect of every vision" (Ezek. 12: 23).Unbelief might say, "The vision that he seeth is for many days to come, and he prophesieth of the times that are far off" (Ezek. 12: 27).God's answer was, "There shall none of my words be prolonged any more; but the word which I have spoken shall be done" (Ezek. 12: 28).
In Ezekiel 13 the false prophets of Israel who seduced and deceived the people by "vain vision" and "lying divination" (Ezek. 13: 7), saying, "Peace; and there was no peace; and one built up a wall, and lo, others daubed it with untempered mortar" (Ezek. 13: 10), are exposed and judged.
Ezekiel
14 shows the elders of Israel again sitting before the prophet, who learn that they will be judged according to their iniquities. "Repent, and turn yourselves from your idols" (Ezek. 14: 6) is then uttered in the ears of prophets and people alike, God declaring that the presence of such men in their midst as Noah, Daniel, and Job would not stay His judgment. Their righteousness would deliver only their own souls (Ezek. 14: 14-20).
Under the figure of the vine tree (see Ps. 80, Isa.
5) which yields no fruit, Ezekiel 15 shows that only utter consumption was before Jerusalem and its inhabitants. A worthless tree was only fit for fuel.
In Ezekiel 16 Jerusalem is reminded of God's dealings in grace, and that what had been in misery and degradation He had washed, anointed, and beautified. All His favour, however, she had used in the service of idols, and to procure the support of Egypt and Assyria. She had played the harlot, and should be dealt with as such, her very paramours being made the executors of God's just judgment of her. Spite of this, His oath and covenant of promise (see Ezek. 16: 8) would yet be made good (Ezek. 16: 62, 63).
The riddle and the parable of the two great eagles of Ezekiel 17 find their explanation in Zedekiah's certain judgment, for breaking his covenant with Nebuchadnezzar. This he had made, and sworn by God (see 2 Chr. 36: 13) to keep. God had put the power of the kingdom in Nebuchadnezzar's hand, for he was the head of gold that Daniel saw. The Babylonian king feared God in measure, and respected His name. By intriguing with Pharaoh to escape Nebuchadnezzar's yoke, Zedekiah broke his covenant to which Jehovah's name had been attached. This filled up the cup of his wickedness, and led to his downfall, for God said, "As I live, saith the Lord God, surely in the place where the king dwelleth that made him king, whose oath he despised, and whose covenant he brake, even with him in the midst of Babylon he shall die" (Ezek. 17: 16).
Ezekiel
18 contains the important principle that the soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him" (Ezek. 18: 20). The individual would be dealt with by God according to his own conduct. It is not a question of what their fathers had been. Their own iniquities demanded and would entail God's judgment. Long before, God had threatened to visit "the iniquities of the fathers upon the children" (see Ex. 34: 7). This principle is departed from. Individually they were guilty, and as such would be judged; nevertheless, where repentance was manifest, God would pardon, for He had no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezek. 18: 23). It must be borne in mind that what is spoken of here is temporal judgment, physical death, because of sin now. It gives us no teaching as to the eternal judgment of sin, which is taught elsewhere.
The demand for "lamentation for the princes of Israel" in Ezekiel 19 gives in allegory the subjugation of Jehoiakim (2 Kings 24: 1), and then the captivity of Jehoiachin, terminating thus the regal power of the house of David, which had no longer "a sceptre to rule" (Ezek. 19: 14).
Ezekiel
20 commences a new prophecy which terminates in Ezekiel 23. God reminds Israel of what He had done for them in bringing them out of the land of Egypt "and into a land flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands" (Ezek. 20: 6). They had rebelled on their road to that land in the wilderness. "Nevertheless," He says, "mine eye spared them from destroying them, neither did I make an end of them in the wilderness" (Ezek. 20: 17). Spite of all His grace they had polluted themselves, and God determined to scatter them among the heathen. But God would fulfil all His purposes, and would yet re-gather them, saying, "I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm" (Ezek. 20: 34). But as he pled with their fathers, and purged them in the wilderness, so would He yet do to the returning house of Israel. And the rebels would die on their road to the land (Ezek. 20: 34-38).
Ezekiel 21 unfolds in very striking language the onslaught of Nebuchadnezzar on Jerusalem. It seemed a question in his mind whether he should attack Jerusalem or Ammon. "For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways (to Jerusalem and Ammon), to use divination: he made his arrows bright, he consulted with images, he looked in the liver" (Ezek. 21: 21). Jerusalem might think it "false divination" (Ezek. 21: 23), but God's judgment must be carried out, so the sword is unsheathed and not to return to its scabbard. God's throne had left the earth, "the times of the Gentiles" had begun; the judgment-day of the wicked prince of Israel - Zedekiah the profane - had come, and God would overturn - overturn - overturn - until He come whose was the throne and the diadem - even Christ Himself (Ezek. 21: 25-27).
In Ezekiel 22 Jehovah sums up and recapitulates the sins of what He now calls "the bloody city" (Ezek. 22: 2), and of the princes, the prophets, the priests, and the people of Israel. He says, however, "I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none" (Ezek. 22: 30). judgment must have its way, but one cannot but note the tenderness of God for His people, ere the stroke fell, strikingly reminding us of the blessed Lord's words at a later date; "How often would I have gathered thy children together as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not" (Luke 13: 34).
In Ezekiel 23 the sins of
Samaria (Israel) and Jerusalem (Judah) are very solemnly portrayed. In each case illicit intercourse with the heathen, which He had forbidden, is the ground of Jehovah's judgment. They were sisters in sin, and should be similarly judged (Ezek. 23: 32). God vindicates His judgment, saying, "Because thou hast forgotten me, and cast me behind thy back, therefore bear thou also thy lewdness and thy whoredoms" (Ezek. 23: 5). They were to reap what they had sown.
Ezekiel 24 records the fact that "the king of Babylon set himself against Jerusalem this same day" (Ezek. 24: 2). The siege of the city now commences. The same day, as we have seen, Ezekiel's wife dies (Ezek. 24: 18). The terrible judgment falling on Jerusalem is graphically described under the figure of a caldron on the fire.
Ezekiel 25 to 32 are occupied with detailing
God's threatened judgments on the various nations round about Israel because of their bygone conduct towards, and existing spirit of hatred to His people. They would rejoice at the destruction of Jerusalem, and the setting aside of God's earthly sanctuary. He would let them know that though His earthly people had failed He still was God. If judgment fell upon His own people, because of their sin, His hand would also be upon those who hated the objects of His love. The latter He had been obliged to chastise because of their sins.
Chapter 25 brings
Ammon, Moab, Edom, and the Philistines before us as the objects of prophetic dealing by God. They were really intruders in, and dwellers on, Israel's territory. The first three were related to God's people by consanguinity (see Genesis 19: 36-38 as regards Moab and Ammon, and Genesis 25: 25-30 regarding Edom). When Israel took possession of Palestine, by God's command, under Joshua, Philistia, a strip of land about forty miles long, and ten to twenty broad, lying between Joppa and Gaza, on the sea-coast, and west of the tribes of Dan and Simeon, was not subjugated (see Joshua 14: 2). As a consequence of this failure on Israel's part, the Philistines were ever thorns in their sides, and sometimes their masters. They were finally subdued in the days of Samuel (see 1 Sam. 7: 13). Confederates in opposing God's chosen people, these four nations are now marked out as special objects of divine vengeance, for, if you touch God's people, you touch Him.
Their delight that Israel was humbled by God did not better their case. The judgment of Edom is graphically described by Obadiah, verses 17 and 18 of his prophecy confirming God's threats found in our chapter, "I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel" (Ezek. 25: 14). Remarkable further instruction as to this is given by Daniel, who says that, when the king of the north shall yet attack Israel (see Ezek. 38, 39), "these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon" (Daniel 11: 41). The reason for this is plain. God will finally punish them, and the Philistines too, by the very people they so persistently persecuted. When Messiah sets up His kingdom, and Ephraim and Judah are again one, Isaiah tells us, "They shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east together; they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them" (Isaiah 11: 14). The retributive judgment of God will yet be executed by Israel on these nations, who long ago so oppressed them.
Ezekiel 26, 27, and 28 form a separate prophecy regarding Tyre, which was in Israel's territory. That godless city, alluded to by the Lord Jesus in the Gospels (see Matt. 11: 21), represents the world with its riches and lusts. It hated God and God's people, and was glad of Israel's fall, as giving freer course to the gratification of her own selfishness. Her triumph God thus checks, saying in chapter 26, "Son of man, because that Tyrus hath said against Jerusalem, Aha! she is broken that was the gates of the people; she is turned unto me; I shall be replenished now she is laid waste. Therefore, saith the Lord God, Behold I am against thee, O Tyrus (Ezek. 26: 2, 3); "I will make thee like the top of a rock thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon; thou shalt be built no more" (Ezek. 26: 14); "Though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found again" (Ezek. 26: 21). This prediction Alexander the Great was the means of carrying out (B.C. 332).
The motives that move the world are wonderfully exposed by God in these prophecies. It dislikes Him and His people alike, but must yet answer to Him, and receive judgment at His hands.
Ezekiel 27 describes the grandeur and commercial relations with all the world of Tyre, and then announces that in "the day of thy ruin" (Ezek. 27: 27) all her former friends "shall hiss at thee; thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt be any more" (Ezek. 27: 36). Such is the world and its end, fickle as the waters which carried Tyre's ships. Tyre represents the commercial glory of the world which passes away.
Ezekiel 28 depicts the prince and the King of Tyre, both judged for their pride. He who is the prince of this world's glory (see John 14: 30, John 16: 11) is represented here as a man, and is told, "Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas. yet thou art a man, and not God... thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas" (Ezek. 28: 2, 8). There is little doubt that in what follows, in Ezek. 28: 11 to 19, the King of Tyre is emblematical of Satan - the prince and god of this world. A creature of God, his heart was lifted up; he corrupted his brightness, became an apostate from God, and the enemy of God and man. His advantages had been the occasion of his fall. He exalted himself against God, and was cast out, as profane, from the mountain of God.
Sidon's fate is then told us. Sidon had been associated with Tyre as "a pricking brier" and "a grieving thorn" to the house of Israel (Ezek. 28: 24). Her judgment is predicted, and then God declares that He will re-gather the house of Israel, when the judgment of the nations is executed. His words are, "Yea, they shall dwell with confidence, when I have executed judgments upon all those that despise them round about them; and they shall know that I am the LORD their God" (Ezek. 28: 26). God's purposes are never frustrated either by the sins of His people or the pride of His foes.
Ezekiel 29 to 32 give us the judgment of
Egypt, Israel's old oppressor. God had given Nebuchadnezzar the supreme power. Egypt as a nation was proud of its governmental power. She had said, "The river is mine, and I have made it" (Ezek. 29: 9). God would not allow this assumption, nor permit her to have what He had given to Nebuchadnezzar for His own purposes. Every nation must bow to him. It was God's ordainment, for he was "the mighty one of the heathen." Assyria had already fallen (see Ezek. 31: 10, 11). Pharaoh must fall also. If Tyre which Nebuchadnezzar besieged by land and water for thirteen years without success - yielded him no wages, Egypt should be his recompense, and her judgment would lead to Israel's blessing (Ezek. 29: 18-21).
It is important in reading these prophecies to observe that Nebuchadnezzar is regarded as the servant of God, in executing His judgment, both on Jerusalem and on the nations round about, and thus really freeing the land of Israel of them. Doubtless, in all this which has historically taken place, we have a picture of that which will yet occur in Israel's future history, when God again puts His hand to recover, restore, and bless them in their land, then to be for ever free from every oppressor.
In Ezekiel 33 we enter a new phase of God's dealing with His people. We look on to the last days, yet to come. The people are looked at as having been judged. He has carried out His word spoken in Hosea; they are, "Lo-ammi," that is," not My people." Their judgment has been but partial, however, for bad indeed as that was which Ezekiel describes, before Messiah's return their case will be yet more terrible, as they suffer under the two beasts described in.
Rev. 13 - the revived Roman Empire and
Antichrist Individual conduct is again in question in Ezekiel 34. The shepherds of Israel are exposed; their conduct toward the flock being entirely in contrast to the tender care of God, who now emphatically declares: "Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep and seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel. I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God. I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick. but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment" (Ezek. 34: 11-16). He further says: "And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. And I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; I the LORD have spoken it" (Ezek. 34: 23, 24). He then adds, "There shall be showers of blessing." It is God who will deliver the sheep, and bring in the true David, the Lord Jesus Christ, whom, in Ezek. 34: 29, He calls "a plant of renown." Of Israel He says, "And ye are my flock, the flock of my pasture" (Ezek. 34: 31). God again owns them as His people. Ezekiel 35 again brings Edom, Israel's blood relation and perpetual hater into view (see Ezek. 35: 5), God's judgment on them will be according to their hatred of His people.
In Ezekiel 36 the restoration and blessing of Israel is most touchingly unfolded. The mountains of Israel are addressed. "Ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel; for they are at hand to come" (Ezek. 36: 8). Their foes had declared the land to be one that devoured its inhabitants, that is, that it was barren. God would make it fruitful beyond all measure, and multiply earthly blessings to His people (Ezek. 36: 30). More than this, He would bless them spiritually. Ezekiel 36: 24-29 describe their spiritual regeneration, alluded to by the Lord when speaking to Nicodemus. The Jew must be new-born to enter God's kingdom on its earthly side, just as, today, the Christian is born again to participate in its joys on the heavenly side.
Ezekiel 37 gives us
Israel's national resurrection. We behold a valley full of dry bones, which the prophet presently sees coming together clothed with flesh and skin, living, and standing on their feet, an exceeding great army. This, he learns, is the whole house of Israel (Ezek. 37: 11). God will yet take the twelve tribes out of their grave among the nations, where they now are, put His Spirit in them, and cause them to live (see Ezek. 37: 12-14). Under the figure of the two sticks, joined in one, we get the re-uniting of the divided kingdoms of Ephraim and Judah. They are made one nation. God says, "And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all; and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all" (Ezek. 37: 22).
Then the true David, the Lord Jesus Christ, will be their king. Absolutely cleansed from their sins (Ezek. 37: 23), they will walk in the fear of the Lord. They will be under the blessing of the everlasting covenant of peace (Ezek. 37: 26). Gods sets His sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. What infinite grace after all the sin of that nation, culminating in the murder of His Son and their Messiah, for God thus to say, "My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall he my people" (Ezek. 37: 27).
Ezekiel 38 and 39 present the final attack of Gog and Magog, their oldest enemy - the Assyrian - upon them, when replaced in Palestine, and enjoying God's blessing. The prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal - probably Russia, Muscovy, and Tobolsk (Ezek. 38: 2, 3) - comes up against Israel, only to be utterly overwhelmed by God, who will maintain His people according to His word. The Gog and Magog of Ezekiel must not be confounded with the Gog and Magog of Revelation 20. The former attack Israel before the millennial reign of Christ, whereas the latter come against the saints generally, at the close of the thousand years of the Lord's reign.
Ezekiel 40 to 46 reveal divine instruction as to the rebuilding of God's sanctuary in the midst of His people. "A sanctuary which shall no more be defiled" (Ezek. 43: 7). Connected with the rebuilding of the temple is, of necessity, found the reestablishment of sacrifices and an earthly priesthood.
The glory of the Lord revisits the earth, and Jehovah returns to His house in Ezekiel 44, and returns to remain, hence the striking word, "This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it, because the LORD, the God of Israel, hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut" (Ezek. 44: 2).
In Ezekiel 45 the portion of the prince, the priests, and the Levites is arranged, and the passover re-established (ver. 21).
Ezekiel 46 regulates their worship of God, now known on true redemption ground.
In
Ezekiel 47 waters flow from the sanctuary, healing on every hand, and the waters abound with fish. It is a striking figure of the blessing that will flow out in the millennial reign of Christ, for "everything shall live whither the river cometh" (ver. 9), is the statement. Widespread indeed will the blessing be, but it is not absolute or complete even in that day, for "the miry places thereof and the marshes thereof shall not be healed; they shall be given to salt" (Ezek. 47: 11). The millennial day of glory is imperfect at the start, and also at the finish, when Gog and Magog again oppose God. Only in the day of God - eternity - will everything be as God would have it, and, blessed be His name, will have it, to His everlasting glory.
The division of the holy land among the twelve tribes occupies Ezekiel 48, as well as the place of the rebuilt Jerusalem, and the prophecy closes with the blessed statement, "And the name of the city from that day shall be Jehovah-shammah," that is, "The Lord is there" (Ezek. 48: 35).
How wonderful are God's ways! How deep His mercy! Who but He would have foretold such a wondrous ending to the history of a people so guilty and disobedient as Israel had been. But God is God, and the millennial day, will convince the world of that, which we know now, that "God is love."
The House of God
Lecture 3.
The House of God.
(Eph. 2: 18‑22; 1 Tim. 3: 14‑16.)
In the New Testament the Assembly of God is presented under four figures — a House, a Body, a Candlestick, and a Bride. Each figure suggests a different idea. The House of God is where He dwells — the relationship of the Assembly to God; the Body of Christ is its relationship to Christ, that by which His life, taken from the earth, is now to be expressed here; the Candlestick is to carry the light the Spirit gives — the responsible vessel of testimony for Christ on earth during His absence; while the Bride is more connected with what is heavenly and eternal, when the Assembly, the object of the affection of Christ, will be for ever with Him who is the Bridegroom. This latter truth presents the final destiny of the Assembly, for "Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish" (Eph. 5: 25-27). And in the day when the last component part of the Assembly shall have been brought in, by the blessed activity of the Spirit of God, the Bride will be taken home by the Lord to be with Himself for ever; a very bright hope to the heart of the Christian. But there it will never cease to be "the fulness of him that filleth all in all," as the Body (Eph. 1: 23), or the dwelling‑place of God, as the House.
Now I will take up the subject of the House of God.
Although presented in an entirely new way in the New Testament, we have the thought and truth of the house in Old Testament days. From the moment of Israel's redemption out of Egypt, the thought of God dwelling in the midst of His people appears. He did not dwell with Adam; He paid him a visit, and retired. He might, and did, in His grace, visit certain of His saints, as recorded in the book of Genesis; but when you come to Exodus, the book of redemption, immediately the people are out of Egypt (the world typically), and upon redemption ground before God, the thought of the Lord having a habitation upon earth, where He could dwell, is presented to us.
The first intimation of this is in Exodus 15, when the Song of redemption is rolling in majestic volume from the lips of God's delivered people, on the shores of the Red Sea, where they were typically, by the death and resurrection of Christ, in the joy of having been brought to God. They say, "The Lord is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation" (ver. 2). In the bosom of the people somehow the idea sprang up that God meant to dwell with them. Passing on in Exodus you find that God answered this by saying to Moses, "Let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them" (Ex. 25: 8). Then giving Moses instructions as to the Tabernacle and all its furniture, God was careful to say, "According to all that I show thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it" (Ex. 25: 9) — instructions which the many church‑makers in Christendom would do well to heed today.
The pattern of the Tabernacle was kept on high, in heavenly glory. When Moses went up into the mount, and spent those forty days with God, the people thought he was going to get the law. Not that alone. He had gone to get God's mind and to see lovely pictures of Christ. He received the tables of stone, but far better than that he saw many shadows of Christ. He walked through God's picture gallery, and saw all that is summarised in Exodus 31: 7‑ 11. The Tabernacle and all its furniture spoke of Christ in some aspect or other. I do not say that Moses apprehended the full meaning of all that passed before his eye, but ere he came down from the mount God said, "And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was showed thee in the mount" (Ex. 25 40). That is surely a lesson for us. If we are going to learn anything about God's habitation (and we are now inquiring about the Church, for men are wonderful church-makers), let us see that we get our eyes on the heavenly pattern. The importance of this is manifest, for these Old Testament details of the Tabernacle building and furniture, were, says Paul, "the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount" (Heb. 8: 5). Moses implicitly obeyed his instructions, for in Exodus 39 and 40 we read no less than sixteen times that all was done "as the Lord commanded Moses." Happy and wise servant!
God's object in having the Tabernacle reared is very distinctly stated: "I will sanctify the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar: I will sanctify also both Aaron and his sons, to minister to me in the priest's office" Ex. 29: 44). Aaron and his sons were a type of Christ and the Church, brought into beautiful nearness to God, for every Christian, besides being a living stone, is a priest. We see that in 1 Peter 2: 5, "Ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." These two thoughts go together in Scripture; and here in Exodus you get the first suggestion of them, a dwelling-place for Himself, where God could have those near Him who would minister to Him, and meet His heart and mind. Hence the blessed statement which follows: "And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them: I am the Lord their God" (Ex. 29: 45, 46). God says, Let them clearly understand why I have brought them out of Egypt — it is that I might dwell among them. Separation from the world is a prime necessity to secure God's presence.
But why did God separate them? Why would He not dwell with them in Egypt? How could He, in a scene of idolatry? He must bring them out, and separate them; and when Moses was going to bring them out, Pharaoh — type of Satan's energy, as prince of the world, then as now — contested every inch of the road, and proposed, when hard pressed, a series of compromises. Moses said to him, "Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness" (Ex. 5: 1). Pharaoh said, "Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land" (Ex. 8: 25), i.e., Set up worldly worship. Moses replies, "We will go three days' journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to the Lord our God, as he shall command us" (ver. 27). Then said Pharaoh, "I will let you go, that ye may sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness; only ye shall not go very far away" (ver. 28), i.e., don't be very separate. The next question was, "Go, serve the Lord your God: but who are they that shall go?" Moses replies, "We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go; for we must hold a feast unto the Lord" (Ex. 10: 8, 9). Pharaoh rejoins, "Not so; go now ye that are men" (ver. 11). This means the parents may be for the Lord, but the children must be kept in the world. Moses carries this point, however, and Pharaoh reluctantly says, "Go ye, serve the Lord; only let your flocks and your herds be stayed: let your little ones also go with you" (ver. 24). This meant, take the children but leave your goods — or run your business on worldly lines. Moses' answer was grand: "Our cattle shall also go with us; there shall not an hoof be left behind" (ver. 26). And in Exodus 12: 32 Pharaoh cedes the flocks and herds also. The devil knows that out‑and‑out separation from the world is what must mark God's people, if they are to he fit for God's company, and He to bless them with His presence. Hence Satan's persistent effort to hinder their escape from the world.
The moment they were out, God says, I am going to dwell among you. Then the Tabernacle was reared; and by‑and‑by the Temple was built. It was called God's House, His glory filled it, and any one in that day who sought God must go to that Temple — that was where He was to be found. And that is why the Ethiopian eunuch went up to Jerusalem, because he thought God was there. He went to the spot where he thought God could be found, but he came away disappointed. Why? God was not there then. Failure, sin, and idolatry had come in, and God had disowned His earthly people, and forsaken His House, the Temple. Ezekiel tells us (Ezek. 9 and 10) how His glory, which had so blessedly filled the House of the Lord in Solomon's day (see 1 Kings 8: 10, 11), began to depart. It was very reluctant to go, and moved from the cherubim to the threshold, thence to the east side of the city, upon the Mount of Olives, then it took its upward departure, and God's House was empty. Was it not refilled? Never; it was burned by Nebuchadnezzar.
The remnant of the Jews who came back, with Ezra and Nehemiah, rebuilt the Temple, but we have no account of the glory filling it. Ezekiel tells us (Ezek. 44) that it will come back by‑and‑by to an earthly house yet to be built in Palestine; but we have no account of the glory or presence of the Lord revisiting the earth, until one starry night to a number of shepherds, who were keeping their sheep in the fields of Bethlehem, the angel of the Lord appears, the glory of the Lord shines round about them, and they hear the wonderful tidings, that in Bethlehem, the city of David, that day there had been born to them "a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." When the Son of God became incarnate, the glory of the Lord revisited the earth in connection with His birth and life.
And what was the Temple then? Was the glory in
Herod's Temple? No, it was hid beneath "the veil, that is to say, his flesh," but there it was, in that Man. You remember what He Himself said in John 2. Man is naturally a religious creature, and will go on with form, ceremony, and ordinances, when all life has departed out of them. The Jewish ritual was maintained, but God had departed, He was not there. Then it was that "Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting. And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables; and said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise" (John 2: 13‑16). That shows what God's professed House could come to — a place of merchandise and money — and is it not so today in Christendom? History repeats itself.
"And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign showest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body" (John 2: 17‑21).
Where then was the Temple of God? In His Person, a
Man on earth, sealed with the Holy Ghost. It was not only that He was God's Son — that He was Emmanuel, God with us; but more than that — He was anointed with the Holy Ghost, and He "went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him" (Acts 10: 38). In Jesus' blessed body God was moving here along the earth for three and a half years of public ministry, and if any one sought then to know God, he must go to Jesus. God still dwells on earth today, only now it is not Jesus that is upon earth, but collectively His people, who by the Spirit are His temple — as we shall see — and further He Himself is in their midst.
You do not get the knowledge of God now except in connection with what He calls His Assembly, in some way or other. It might be in a desert place (see Acts 8: 26‑40), through the ministry of some servant, who is an integral part of the Assembly; or it might be in the bosom of the gathered Assembly, as Paul says, "But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all: and thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth" (1 Cor. 14: 24, 25). He recognises the presence of God in the midst of His people.
In Matthew 21, where the Lord cleanses the Temple, similar to the action which John gives, at the beginning of His ministry, He said to those whom He drove out a second time, "It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves" (Matt. 21: 13). Quoting an Old Testament scripture (Isa. 56: 7), He calls it "my house" there, only to show how utterly had man in responsibility failed, touching divine things; what God designed as a place of prayer, man had made to be a den of thieves. It only shows what divine things can become in the hands of man, so corrupt is he in the moral springs of his being. Two days afterwards He said "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate" not "my house" now, but "your house" —
"For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord" (Matt. 23: 38, 39). As to the house where God was supposed to be, He has to say, It is "desolate" — He is not there.
The next thing is the Lord is slain, the Messiah is refused, He is put to death by His own people — the house is empty, and the grave is filled. Then He is raised from the dead, ascends on high, the Holy Ghost comes down, and the first effect is that He filled the house where the disciples were, and sat upon each one. That filling of the house carries with it the deeper thought of the House in which God dwells, i.e., the Assembly looked at corporately. The body of the individual believer is equally said to be the temple of the Holy Ghost. There is no doubt as to the corporate thing, because we read, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" (1 Cor. 3: 16). The Assembly of God in Corinth Paul here distinctly calls "the temple of God." In the same epistle, he says, of individual Christians: "Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body" (1 Cor. 6: 19, 20). Thus we get the collective side of the truth, and find all believers on earth at this moment united in one spiritual building as the Temple of God that man does not see.
You may put up a building that man can see, and call it a church; but that is not the thought of Scripture. There is upon earth what God calls His Assembly, His House, His Temple. It is there where He now dwells; and none compose that but God's own children, who have been born of the Spirit, led to believe on the Son of God, are washed in the blood of Christ and sealed by the Spirit also. Looked at collectively they are God's Temple, where He dwells, and there is immense privilege connected with that.
When the individual believer is looked at as the
Temple of the Holy Ghost — which is true as to his body, because he is sealed by the Spirit — he must walk carefully for that very reason. If he go into associations unsuitable to the Lord, he takes the Holy Spirit with him; for this blessed Spirit does not leave him, as He is the earnest of our inheritance until redemption is put forth in power unto the purchased possession (Eph. 1: 13, 14). The indwelling of the Spirit of God in the body of each believer is indeed a wonderful truth, and the Christian must be careful not to grieve Him. He will not leave us, therefore we must take care not to grieve Him, which is the purport of the exhortation, "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption" (Eph. 4: 30).
We must be careful not to confuse the truth of the
House of God — with which responsibility is connected — with the truth of the Body of Christ, which develops our privileges as members thereof according to the counsel of God, for Christ is the Head of a body, every member of which is in vital union with Him by the Holy Ghost. This could not be said of every one now who is of the House of God in its responsible aspect. All baptized professors of Christ are professedly there; but the Body is composed of real believers, united by the Holy Ghost to the living, ascended Man in glory the Head, who has His Body on the earth.
Any one who is a member of the Body of Christ is an integral part of Christ. If you belong to Him, you are part of Him. That is why it says, "For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ" (1 Cor. 12: 12). If I had written that chapter I should probably have said, "So also is the Church." God there calls the Church Christ. In Genesis 5, where God speaks about Adam and Eve, it says, "Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam" (ver. 2). It is the same thought, that the Bride and Bridegroom are one — Christ and the Church are one. In the Body of Christ everything is real, because no one can be a member of the Body of Christ without being a true Christian, born and sealed of the Spirit. But there might be in that which has its responsibility as the House of God today, those who have nothing to do with Christ save by profession. (See 2 Tim. 2, 3)
On the day of Pentecost the House of God and the
Body of Christ were co‑extensive. All was real. The stones in the House were the members of the Body, for they all had the Holy Ghost; and this is still true of the divine work, Christ's building. But the House as committed to man's responsibility has widened out so as to include an immense mass of lifeless profession in Christendom. We have already seen how the Assembly grew, as believers in Samaria, in Caesarea and then among the Gentiles, came in. The introduction of a new labourer, a wise master builder in God's building, Paul, marked a notable day in the Assembly's history. He brought out what had been hidden till then — "the mystery" — which was that Jew and Gentile, wrought in by grace, born of God, and sealed by the Spirit, are made one in Christ, and united to Him who is the Head, at God's right hand. It may help you to get hold of the truth of the Assembly being the Body of Christ if you see this — that the Head of the Church was never dead. He who is Head of the Church. was dead — He died as Messiah and Man; but He never was Head of the Church till He was alive from the dead.
When did Adam become the head of a race? As a fallen sinner, out of Eden, then he begat his family. When does Christ become Head of the Church? Not till He goes to God's right hand, and the Holy Ghost comes down; then this wonderful new structure is formed, which is to enjoy God, and display Christ. All this was the result of the Spirit being here personally, founded on Christ being glorified. If you read the Acts you will he struck with the thought that there is not only a mighty influence, but a divine Person dwelling here upon earth. Ananias had "lied to the Holy Ghost" — "not to men but to God" (Acts 5). The Spirit could say to Philip, "Go near, and join thyself to this chariot" (Acts 8: 29). To the prophets of the Assembly at Antioch "the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them" (Acts 13: 2), and then sent them out on that wonderful missionary tour amongst the Gentiles. Again, Paul was "forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia" (Acts 16: 6), because He wanted to send him into Europe with the gospel. All this shows that there was a divine Presence dwelling in this new structure, here upon earth. God's Assembly was God's House, which He built, and in which He dwelt.
If a man build a house he can do one of three things — he can sell it, let it, or live in it. God neither sold, nor let His House — He came to live in it; and that is a wonderful truth for a Christian to see. It puts a new character on the Assembly, and makes me ask myself if I have ever really taken in the words, "In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit" (Eph. 2: 21, 22). The habitation of God through the Spirit is what the Assembly is now, while God's work is going on, and the final thought is, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God," as seen in Revelation 21 — that is the completed building — what it is growing to now, when all will be perfectly according to His mind in the new heavens and earth. In Acts 19, Paul found a company of twelve, who had been baptized with John's baptism, and had not heard about the Holy Ghost having come. "And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied," and the Assembly of God was locally formed in Ephesus. A wonderful work went on, and eventually there came to them the beautiful epistle, bearing their name, which is occupied with unfolding the truth of God as to "the mystery." The Ephesian believers are there told that they "are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone" (Eph. 2: 20). No builder is here named. Are not the apostles the builders? Not according to this scripture — they are themselves stones: "The foundation of the apostles and prophets" — the truth which they, the apostles and prophets of the New Testament brought out, appears to me to be that on which our faith reposes, Christ himself being the chief corner stone."
Now see what an important thing the House of God is. People think it is some place where they go, so they take off their hats, and I have no objection to that. It is done out of reverence, and if there be one thing that should mark God's Assembly it is reverence, and I am sure we are not so marked by that as we might be. It is impossible to over‑estimate the magnificence of the truth that the Assembly is the habitation of God through. the Spirit. If we were summoned to the palace and presence of King Edward VII., there would be a kind of behaviour suited to the occasion; and if we remember that God's people are His habitation through the Spirit, it will produce a gravity in my mind and yours, that perhaps has not always been present there. Get hold of what it is to be the habitation of God through the Spirit. Where is it to be seen today? Alas, it is not in evidence. It is composed of all God's people today, though they are scattered in the divers so‑called "churches" of Christendom, not walking together, to our sorrow and shame, be it said. The Assembly of God today in any place, is all the people of God in that place, and none others — not any few, however they may assume to be the Assembly. All mere professors are outside the divine work of the House of God, however they may have the solemn responsibility of their place in it as committed to human builders.
If you, my hearer, have not been truly converted, born of God, washed from your sins by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and sealed by the Spirit of God, having experienced what Christ speaks of as the baptism of the Holy Ghost, by which all are baptized into one body, and cemented into one spiritual building — you are outside, and your name of Christian is absolutely valueless, save that you cannot free yourself from the responsibility that attaches to it. I beg all unconverted professors of Christ to ponder the path of their feet, because there is coming a day when the Lord must reject what is unreal. Even in Peter's day the time had come when judgment must begin at the House of God. That of which I have been speaking is real, what God builds, what the Spirit forms, and what the world does not see. Happy is he or she who is a living stone in that building.
While we are passing on through this scene, where
Christ was rejected, there is a spot where He can come and dwell — the Assembly, which is divinely constructed. Do you think an unconverted person is there, an unregenerate man? No; though it is quite possible for such to intermingle with those who constitute that Assembly. The Assembly of the living God is that which is the fruit of His own blessed grace. To men once dead in sins, by His Spirit's activity He has communicated life. Through the knowledge of Christ dead and risen, they have received the Spirit of God as the witness of the forgiveness of their sins, and all such have become an integral part of the Assembly of the living God.
We are brought there into the region of life, freshness, brightness, joy, perennial gladness, peace with God, enjoyment of God, and apprehension of His love. It is indeed a wonderful thing to be an integral part of the Assembly of the living God. You ask me who form it. All the saints of God on earth today. Every saint may not know it, but such is the fact, and what I desire is, to wake up in every believer's heart an increased sense of the blessedness of being part of God's Assembly. If I get the sense of what that is, I shall have then the thought, I must get clear of the world, I must be separate if I am going to answer at all to God's thought for His people.
Now let us turn to 1 Timothy 3, where Paul gives us remarkable instruction in regard to God's House. It was possible for Timothy or others to behave very badly in it. It is the aspect of the House to which I have referred where man has his responsibility. In writing to Timothy he says, "These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly: but if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth" (1 Tim. 3: 14, 15).
The first thought is the House; the second, the
Church; the third, the pillar and ground of the truth. The House of God is where He dwells here on earth.
The Assembly is then "the pillar and ground of the truth "what is that? A pillar is what supports and holds up a thing. And how is the Church to be the pillar — does the Church teach? Never in Scripture.
The Church is taught. Who teaches then? The Spirit teaches through gifts, through servants of the Lord whom He uses as the gifts of Christ to His Body, the Church; but you never find that the Church teaches. The Assembly, as "the pillar and ground of the truth," is to maintain and uphold the truth by its confession and testimony, to contend for it against all gainsayers, because she has it. When Christ was on earth He was the truth, and now, though hidden in God, He is still the truth; but the Assembly knows Christ, and is the maintainer of the truth on earth where Christ is not. The Assembly is not the truth, the Spirit of God is that. She maintains the truth on earth. She is God's witness to present the truth to men. When she is removed by‑and‑by, at the Lord's coming, the truth will have disappeared from the earth, and men will believe a lie (see 2 Thess. 2: 11, 12). The Assembly, as set up by God on the earth, is the pillar and ground of the truth, and what does not present and maintain the truth is not God's Assembly. Everything connected with Christ and His glory is of vital interest and deepest importance to the Assembly. What she maintains before the world is essentially connected with the Person of Christ, the living centre of all truth. Hence she will give up nothing of the truth.
You see men today give up this, that, and the other part of Scripture. Is this being true to the responsibility of the Assembly as the pillar and ground of the truth? It is the worst unfaithfulness. The Assembly of God was set in this place to hold tenaciously to the truth, for it centres and finds its fulness in Christ and His Person, and what touches the truth in any part of it touches Him. That is the meaning of the next verse: "And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness; God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory" (1 Tim. 3: 16). That was Christ. God, the object of their worship, was never seen of angels till His Son became incarnate. What happened when people believed on Him in the world? They came out of it — the discovery of Christ brought them out of the world, as a moral system that God is going to judge. He who was the Temple of God when here is gone from this scene, and what has God been pleased to leave here in His stead? He has sent down the Holy Ghost, and He has formed a new Temple. Sinners saved by grace, out of Jew and Gentile, are, by the reception of the Holy Ghost, formed into a holy and beautiful House where God dwells. Those who form that House are attached to Christ, love His name, and maintain His truth in the day of His rejection. That is what the House of God in its normal character should be.
How far the Church has departed from this, you know very well. It has failed; man has failed everywhere in responsibility. And now we shall briefly look at how what God formed as His own habitation has become that great outward thing called Christendom, which as such is hastening on to the judgment of God, while all the time there is the real work of God being carried on in it, which is growing to and will result in an holy Temple in the Lord as we have seen. Turn to 1 Corinthians 3: 9, "For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building." The Corinthian Assembly, formed by Paul's ministry, was God's building; and looked at broadly and largely Christendom is the House of God; only we must not in our minds connect with the House all the privileges which belong to the Body of Christ. In the Body all is real; in the House, in this aspect of it, much is mere profession. It is because people were taught that any one baptized was made "a member of Christ, a child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven," that there has come in all the unreality and confusion that is in Christendom today. Members of Christ's Body are those who have been the subjects of the work of Christ. Baptism of the Holy Ghost brings you into the Body. Water baptism only brings you into the House by profession, but that carries with it responsibility, for God is going shortly to judge it. That is why the apostle Peter wrote: "Judgment must begin at the house of God; and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?" (1 Peter 4: 17). You must not shut your eyes to that. The House of God, as Peter sees it in this chapter, will come in for judgment. God acted similarly in Israel's day (see Jer. 25: 29; Ezek. 9: 6). The Christian profession has not remained faithful to God, and Paul says it will be cut off (see Rom. 11: 21, 22).
Speaking of man as a builder, Paul says:
"According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon" (1 Cor. 3: 10). Nobody could lay a foundation in Corinth — Paul had laid it; the foundation was Christ. He had come and told them of Christ dead and risen — and thus laid the foundation. Others might follow, and preach or teach in the Lord's name. Then the apostle describes what might be built by men in responsibility, and points out three classes of builders. "Now, if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is" (vers. 12, 13). The teaching might be solid or worthless, but souls are formed by it. Doctrine influences men's souls. What is really of God will stand, and the reverse be destroyed.
Fire will not destroy the gold, silver, or precious stones; but what about the wood, hay, and stubble? The fire must of necessity destroy them. What is thus built refers to the doctrines, good or bad, by which souls were introduced to the Assembly, some good and really the work of God, others lifeless and dead, induced by vain doctrine to take the ground of the profession of Christ. Every man that takes the name of the Lord on his lips will be tested, and — solemn reflection for all Church builders and Christian workers — every one taking the place of being Christ's servant will be tried, and his work also.
Now see the three classes of builders in the result: — First, "If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward" (ver.
14). What is that? The man is saved, and his work stands. His work is according to God, and he is rewarded. Second, "If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire" (ver. 15). The man is saved, but his work is all lost; there is no reward. Now if I have been busy building up a state of things, and find out in the day of the Lord it has all been a mistake, what loss I shall suffer. That is a serious consideration for every Christian. "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" (ver. 16) is the solemn preface to the third class of builders here spoken of. "If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are" (ver. 17). The man is lost, and his work is lost.
The point of the passage is ministerial labour expressed by various doctrines, and seen by their fruits to be either good, worthless, and vain, or utterly subversive of the truth of God as the case might be; and three cases are given. The first man is saved, and his work stands — all is good. The second man is saved, for the workman was a child of God, but his work was unintelligent and vain, hence his work is lost. The third. man is lost, and his work burned up. He was a corrupter of God's Temple which is holy. This scripture should surely cause every serious man to ask himself," Have I God's mind in what I am building?" To miss this is to ensure nothing but absolute ruin, failure, and destruction in the day of the Lord, so far as the work is concerned, though the workman be saved. The third case given here contemplates manifestly an unconverted servant, an imitator of "Noah's Carpenters" — people who may have helped to build the ark, and yet were not inside it when the judgment fell. Friend, are you one of this kind? Are you busy in Christ's things and have not yet been born again? You should ponder this passage carefully, for clearly its teaching makes Christian service a very serious thing.
Many other scriptures present the House of God as being built by man in responsibility. We see this particularly in Paul's Epistles to Timothy, the first of which we have already glanced at. The first epistle presents the truth, and shows us things in order in God's House. In the second epistle error had come in, the truth been given up, and things had got into great disorder, and the man of God gets instruction how to behave when all is in disorder. There we read: "Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of the Lord depart from iniquity" (2 Tim. 2: 19).
What God builds will abide, and although all the
Lord's people in any locality today do not know each other, yet the Lord knows them all. They ought to know each other, and, if they are set to really follow the Lord, they will soon find each other out. Dear old Anna knew all the Lord's people in Jerusalem and "spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem" (Luke 2: 36‑38). She was over a hundred years of age, but was as energetic as she was devoted, being a real child of her father. She was an Asherite, and of him it was written: "Let Asher be blessed with children; let him be acceptable to his brethren, and let him dip his foot in oil. Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be" (Deut. 33: 24, 25). Her foot was dipped in oil — Holy Ghost energy — truly. The children of God ought to know each other — they are all of one family, one Father, one House, one Body, and they will all be together by‑and‑by.
God's house has now outwardly become as "a great house," with much in it that is not of God, as it is written, "But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour" (ver. 20).
The professing Church in this passage is looked at as a great house, it is all that which calls itself Christian, and every Christian, spite of himself, is of and cannot get out of it. He can, however, cleanse himself from that which dishonours the Lord, and is bound to do so if he will walk in faithfulness, and seeks to be a vessel unto honour and fit for the Lord to use.
"Let every one that nameth the name of the
Lord depart from iniquity," is the divine injunction in a day of evil, and the way to show real love to God's saints, in an evil day, is to maintain the truth at all costs, at its full level. This is the rule of Christian faithfulness. What dishonours Christ the true heart departs from. We are not called to put other people right, each individual must put himself right. The responsibility of the individual never ceases, and if the nominal Church has departed from the truth so much the more need for me to know what it is and act upon it. If I know a thing is wrong, I am done with it, by the grace of God. I am not going to associate myself with what is iniquity.
"But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour and some to dishonour" (ver. 20) describes most graphically what God's house would become. It has come to be a great house — having many rooms, many compartments. When such is the case we are told what to do.
"If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work" (ver. 21). To "purge himself" is the first duty of the faithful follower of the Lord. People say, "Why do you not try to put things right?" I have only to put myself right, because I am not competent to put others right. You put yourself right, and then you will help other people, and that is what I am trying to do. I do thank God for any little bit of light He has given me on His Word, and I am trying to share it. If I purge myself from what is not according to God, and does not suit Christ, I shall be a "vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the Master's use," and so also will you. But there is a moral state needed for Christ to take either you or me up and use us.
We have now seen that the truth of the house of God is very important and blessed, and it all turns on the presence of the Holy Ghost here. The people of God are put and held together, and in its normal state there is not an unconverted one inside — they are all outside. The inmates of God's house are in a wonderful place of privilege. No one knows me that does not live in my house. It is only those who really get into God's house that know Him. There is nothing more blessed than that.
You know the Lord, and by separation from all that is unsuited to His name you can be in the enjoyment of the Lord in the midst of His temple. What has the unconverted man to do with that? Nothing. He is outside. Shall we leave him there? No, by all means try and reach him. Go out and preach the gospel to him. Get him converted. Then show him the way in, to know God, and enjoy Him, and wake up to find himself "a living stone" in Christ's building. Regarding every such case I say, thank God, another stone is added, and it is beautiful to see how God's building is growing.
On the other hand, men have built up an immense mass of profession that must all come down. Christendom is a mass of confusion. What men call the church is no guide. Yet there is a path and a guide. You and I must learn to pick our way in a day like this by hearkening to what God says in His Word. Well said the apostle Paul: "I commend you to God, and the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified" (Acts 20: 32).