LIFE-STUDY OF EZEKIEL
Read and pray: “But unto you who fear My name will the sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings; and you will go forth and leap like calves of the stall.” (Mal. 4:2)
THE WIND, THE CLOUD, THE FIRE, AND THE ELECTRUM
In this message we will consider Ezekiel 1:4. This verse covers four main things: the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum (bright metal). First, a stormy wind came from the north. Second, a great cloud came with the wind. Third, there was a fire turning itself. Fourth, out of the fire came electrum.
Genesis 1 begins with a word concerning God, and Ezekiel 1 opens with a glorious vision of God. Those who know God can testify that our spiritual experiences are according to our knowledge of God. In the same way, our service and the matters of the church also depend on our knowledge of God.
The degree of our knowledge of God will determine both the degree of our spiritual experience and the situation of the church. Spiritually speaking, everything we have depends on the being of God, on His vision and manifestation, and on our knowledge of God.
The visions in the book of Ezekiel do not begin with man, but with God. The visions, which begin from the north, where God is, show us God in His will, plan, intention, work, action, and relationship with man.
These visions reveal what God expects man to be in relation to Him. In addition to the four matters mentioned above, the visions in chapter one include the four living creatures, the wheels with lofty and awesome rims, a sky as clear as crystal, the glorious throne of God, and the man upon the throne. As we consider the glorious visions of God in this chapter, it is necessary to pay close attention to all these matters.
The Bible is a book of figures revealing God and spiritual things to us. God is Spirit, and as such He is abstract, mysterious, invisible, intangible, and unfathomable. God is not only abstract, but all spiritual things are also abstract.
Without the figures in the Bible, it would be quite difficult for us to understand God and spiritual things. In His wisdom, God uses visible, material things to describe invisible, spiritual things. Furthermore, He uses signs and symbols to express abstract and mysterious matters.
For this reason, the Bible uses many types, figures, and images to describe and interpret spiritual things. A great number of items in the universe are symbols of spiritual things.
For example, the sun symbolizes Christ as our light (Mal. 4:2; Luke 1:78), and bread symbolizes Christ as our life supply (John 6:35). Actually, all the positive things in the universe can be used to portray what Christ is to us.
God’s intention in His creation is to use the things of creation to illustrate what Christ is. This means that the whole universe came into existence for the purpose of describing Christ. For example, if the vine had not been created, the Lord Jesus could not have used a vine to describe Himself (John 15:1).
If there were no foxes and birds, Christ could not have compared His situation in His ministry to that of foxes with their holes and birds with their nests (Matt. 8:20). Even the pasture was created so that the Lord Jesus could use it as an illustration of Himself (John 10:9).
Because the universe with its billions of things and people was created for the purpose of describing Christ, He, in revealing Himself, can find in any environment something to serve as an illustration of Himself. The entire universe is a figure of Christ.
If we see this, we will realize how rich, deep, unlimited, and unfathomable Christ is. Just as the Bible as a whole is a book of figures, so Ezekiel, as a miniature of the Bible, is also a figurative book, a book full of figures.
These figures are presented in the form of visions. The visions that Ezekiel saw were absolutely related to God and to spiritual things and, therefore, should not be understood in a literal, physical way. If we try to interpret Ezekiel’s visions literally, we will not be able to understand them.
When I was young, I could not understand the book of Ezekiel. The more I read this book, the more confused I became. In particular, I could not understand the matter of the four living creatures. Each of the living creatures had four faces: in front, the face of a man; on the right, the face of a lion; on the left, the face of an ox; and at the back, the face of an eagle (Ezek. 1:5-6, 10).
Furthermore, “the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf’s foot,” and “under their wings they had hands of a man” (vv. 7a, 8a). I thought that the figure of the living creatures was very strange, and I could not understand it at all.
I thank the Lord that as I gradually advanced in my spiritual experience, I began to understand Ezekiel’s visions by comparing the record in Ezekiel with other portions of the Word.
Eventually, like someone putting together the pieces of a puzzle in order to have a complete view, I put various parts of the Word together and began to see the figures of spiritual matters portrayed in the book of Ezekiel, realizing that Ezekiel uses visible, physical things to represent spiritual things.
Now in our study of Ezekiel we need to see the intrinsic spiritual significance of the figures in this book, considering them in the light of the whole Bible and comparing them with our spiritual experience. We will now begin to consider the four matters in Ezekiel 1:4, point by point.
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