God’s intention is not simply to burn us and turn us into ashes. God is a good God with a good purpose. What is His purpose in blowing upon us as the wind, in covering us as the cloud, and in consuming us as the fire? The answer to this question is that out of the fire appears the glowing electrum. The burning of the divine fire is for the manifestation of the electrum.
The Hebrew word for electrum is very difficult to translate. In his note on Ezekiel 1:4 in his New Translation, J. N. Darby says that the Hebrew word denotes “an unknown substance; some think a mixture of gold and silver.” One Jewish version uses the word electrum. Electrum is an alloy of gold and silver. Gold signifies the nature of God, and silver signifies redemption. The King James Version renders the Hebrew word as “amber” because the color of this shining metal is the color of amber, which is somewhat like the color of gold. Electrum is not merely gold nor merely silver but gold mixed with silver.
In the book of Revelation we can see the same principle. Revelation 22:1 speaks of the throne of God and of the Lamb. The One on the throne is not just God and not just the Lamb but the Lamb-God, the redeeming God. In Genesis 1 God was solely God, but in Revelation 22 He is our redeeming God, our Lamb-God. According to Revelation 4:3 God, the One on the throne, “was like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance.” Jasper, which is dark green, signifies God as the God of glory in His rich life, and sardius, which is red, signifies God as the God of redemption. The fact that the appearance of God on the throne is like a jasper stone and a sardius indicates that God is no longer just God but also our Redeemer. These illustrations from Revelation 22 and 4 help us to understand the significance of the electrum in Ezekiel. Our God is not merely the divine Being signified by the gold; He is also the redeeming God, signified by the silver. No longer is He just gold—He is electrum, gold mingled with silver.
When we experience the blowing wind, we enjoy the covering cloud and then we pass through the burning, consuming fire. The result is the glowing electrum, something shining, lovely, precious, and pleasant. As the electrum, the Lord Jesus is the One who has redeemed us and who is everything to us. He is our God, our Lamb, our Redeemer, our jasper, and our sardius. If we consider our spiritual experience, we will realize that the One who dwells within us today is the Lamb-God, the One signified by the electrum.
In the sight of God, before we were saved, we were base and wicked, having nothing that was honorable or glorious. Praise the Lord that He saved us and regenerated us! His wind, His cloud, and His burning fire have made it possible for us to have Him, the redeeming God, within us as the glowing electrum. Now we have Him as the treasure in the earthen vessel (2 Cor. 4:7), and we have thereby become a people of honor and glory. We need to consider how precious and honorable is the Christ who is within us. As the electrum within us, He is the treasure of incomparable worth. This treasure is the issue of the wind, the cloud, and the fire. The more we pass through the wind, the cloud, and the fire, the more the electrum is constituted into our being, making us a people who are filled with the Triune God and who manifest His glory.
We all need to experience more of the spiritual wind, the overshadowing cloud, the burning fire, and the glowing electrum. By passing through this kind of experience, we become the vision of the glory of God. In our experience we have the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum. Then whenever we meet together, we are the vision of the glory of the electrum, having a precious treasure that is shining and glowing.
What we have been considering in this message is the first vision seen by the prophet Ezekiel. This vision portrays the most basic experience among all the spiritual experiences of the divine life. There are various categories of spiritual experience, but this experience is the first, and basic, category—the category of the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum.
We do not experience the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum once for all. On the contrary, this experience is a cycle which should be repeated again and again. Today we may experience the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum, and then after a period of time the wind comes again, followed by the cloud, the fire, and the electrum. This cycle should be repeated again and again throughout our Christian life. From this we see that, in a sense, we Christians have no rest in our spiritual experience. I have been a Christian for over forty-five years, and I have never had any rest from this cycle. Instead, there has been a continual experience of the blowing wind, the covering cloud, the burning fire, and the glowing electrum. Every time this cycle is repeated, more of the electrum is brought forth.
It would be awful for this cycle to stop. In our experience the cycle of the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum should never stop. The more we experience this cycle, the better. It would be wonderful if we daily experienced the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum. This is the real experience of the inner life, and this will bring in the growth in life.