LIFE-STUDY OF EZEKIEL
Read and pray: “And from the midst of it came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: they had the likeness of a man.” (Ezek. 1:5)
FOUR IN NUMBER
It is significant that verse 5 speaks of four living creatures. Many verses in the Bible indicate that the number four is related to God’s creation and typifies man as God’s creature (Isa. 11:12; Jer. 49:36; Rev. 7:1).
Revelation 5:9 says that the Lord redeemed us from four sources: from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. Furthermore, Revelation 21 tells us that the New Jerusalem has four sides—the east, the north, the south, and the west—and that each of the four sides has three gates. This means that from all directions of the earth we can enter the city.
Therefore, the number four signifies that we are the redeemed people from many tribes, tongues, peoples, and nations. In the eyes of God, we are the four living creatures.
A CORPORATE EXPRESSION
The four living creatures are counted not as individuals but as a group. All of them are counted as one entity. Later we will see that these living creatures are the corporate expression of the man on the throne.
As such an expression, they express this man not only in one direction but in the four directions of the east, the north, the south, and the west. This shows that, as the four living creatures, we are not only the unique expression of Christ but also the full expression of Christ. We express Christ in all directions, on every side. We are the four living creatures expressing Christ in a proper and complete way.
THEY HAVE THE APPEARANCE OF A MAN
The main point of Ezekiel 1:5 is that the four living creatures have the appearance of a man. Verse 26 says that “upon this likeness of a throne was a likeness as the appearance of a man.”
Man is a great word in the Bible. God’s intention is with man, God’s thought is centered on man, and God’s heart is set on man. God’s desire is to gain man. The fact that the four living creatures have the appearance of a man and that God on the throne also has the appearance of a man indicates that God’s central thought and His arrangement are related to man.
In our reading of the four Gospels, we may be under the influence of a religious concept that places undue emphasis on the divinity of Christ. As a result, we may not have the proper appreciation of the Lord’s humanity.
When we read in the Gospels how the Lord Jesus manifested His divinity by performing miracles, we may praise the Lord for the power of His divinity. However, when we read in John 13 how the Lord washed the feet of His disciples, we may offer no praise.
Similarly, when we read about the miracle of the Lord feeding more than five thousand people with five loaves and two fish, we may feel that this was something great; yet we may have no appreciation for His ordering the people to sit down in groups or for His directing the disciples to gather the leftover fragments so that nothing would be lost.
These things may make no impression on us. If we know how to read the Gospels in a proper way, we will realize that the glorious beauty of the Lord Jesus is manifested in His humanity.
He manifested His glorious beauty not through His divine dignity but through His humanity with humility and tenderness. At the Lord’s table meeting, we need to praise Him for His humanity.
Many Christians have been influenced by the concept that it is better to be an angel than to be a man. If you had a choice, what would you prefer to be—an angel or a man? Perhaps many of us would prefer to be an angel. However, God has enough angels, but He is short of men.
God does not value angels that much. Angels are His servants. God tells them to go, and they go; He tells them to come, and they come. Angels are also our servants (Heb. 1:13–14). As believers, we all have our own angel (Acts 12:12–15). We need to overthrow the concept that it is better to be an angel than to be a man. We need to see how glorious and how wonderful it is to be men.
If we do not desire to be like angels, at least we may desire to be like God. Many Christians are continually striving to be like God. However, God wants to be like us. He even became a man to declare God (John 1:18), and today in the heavens, the Lord Jesus, who is God, is still a man. There is a man on the throne (Acts 7:56).
The Bible clearly reveals that man is the means for God to be manifested. God cannot be manifested without man. Man was created in the image of God in order to be His expression. God is the center of the universe; nevertheless, He needs an expression, and that expression is through man.
Without man, God has no expression. The millions of angels cannot be God’s expression. God needs a corporate man to express Him. You should never despise the fact that you are a man.
In the Bible there are actually only four men: the first man, the second man, the new man, and the male child. We were the first man; Christ is called the second man (1 Cor. 15:47); we became the new man through regeneration; and now there is the prospect that we may become the male child.
This ministry is not only for the new man but also for the male child. We may speak of the church as the expression of Christ; however, we do not realize what the expression of Christ is. The Christ whom the church must express is the man on the throne.
If we want to express Christ, we have to realize that Christ today is still a man. We do not express God only; we express God in a man. The church is the expression of Christ. This means that the church is an expression not merely of God but also of a man.
Ezekiel 1:26 shows us that the Lord today is a man on the throne. God needed a man, and eventually He became a man. We, as the living creatures, express Him as a man. He is the man on the throne, and we also have the appearance of a man.
It is man who fulfills God’s plan, it is man who expresses God, it is man who defeats the enemy, and it is man who brings the kingdom of God to the human race. God needs a man.
The religious teachings of Christianity encourage us to be like an angel or to be like God. However, the divine revelation reveals that God’s desire is to have a man. We need to remember that the subtle one tempted the first man, telling him that if he ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would be like God (Gen. 3:5).
From that day the concept of being like God has been in our blood. Every fallen human being has the concept of wanting to be like God. Certain devilish teachings encourage people to be something other than a man.
But in His redemption and salvation, God has no intention of making us something other than men. God’s redemption and salvation are to bring us back to the beginning and restore us to be a proper man. We are the living creatures and we have the life of God within us; nevertheless, we bear the appearance of a man. We should not try to be like an angel. Rather, in everything we do, say, and express, we should be a man. This is what God needs today.
The vision in Ezekiel 1 reveals three crucial matters related to the four living creatures having the appearance of a man.
First, the glory of God is manifested upon them. The manifestation of God’s glory depends on your having the appearance of a man. Where they are, there is the glory of God. The glory of God is not separated from them, and apart from them, the glory of God cannot be manifested.
Second, these living creatures are the means of God’s move. God’s move depends on them. When they move, God also moves, because His move is with them.
Third, the four living creatures, who bear the appearance of a man, are the means of God’s administration. Ezekiel 1 reveals that God is seated on the throne. God’s throne governs everything on the earth and everything recorded in this book. This throne, therefore, is the center of God’s administration.
However, the center of God’s administration depends on the four living creatures having the appearance of a man. Because of this, there is the administration of God’s throne. If we put these three things together, we will see that man is the means of God’s manifestation, that man is the means of God’s move, and that man is the means of God’s administration. In the eyes of God and in the hands of God, man has a very important position.
We all need to realize that God’s desire is to gain man. God uses the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum to enliven us in order to obtain man as the means of His manifestation, move, and administration. Since man is so important to God, it is crucial for us to be a man and to bear the appearance of a man.
We need to be a man for God’s manifestation, for God’s move, and for God’s administration. For this, we need to be the living creatures enlivened by facing the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum.
🌿 Enjoy more:
Hymn: Worship to the Father – “His Grace in Sonship”
https://hinario.org/detail.php?id=60
No comments:
Post a Comment