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 signifies man as God’s creature (Isa. 11:12; Jer. 49:36; Rev. 7:1). Revelation 5:9 says that the Lord has redeemed us out of four sources: out of every tribe, tongue, 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 every direction of the earth we can enter the city. Therefore, the number four symbolizes that we are the people redeemed from many tribes, tongues, peoples, and nations. In the eyes of God we are the four living creatures.
The four living creatures are reckoned not as individuals but as a group. All of them are counted as one entity. Later on 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 east, north, south, and west. This indicates that as the four living creatures we are not only the unique expression of Christ but also that we are the complete expression of Christ. We express Christ in every direction, toward every side. We are the four living creatures expressing Christ in an adequate and complete way.
The main point of Ezekiel 1:5 is that the four living creatures bear the appearance of a man. Verse 26 says that “upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it.” Man is a great word in the Bible. God’s intention is with man, God’s thought is focused on man, and God’s heart is set upon man. God’s desire is to gain man. The fact that four living creatures bear the appearance of a man and that God on the throne also bears 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 upon Christ’s divinity. 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 about how the Lord washed the feet of His disciples, we may not offer any praise. Likewise, when we read about the miracle of the Lord’s feeding more than five thousand people with five loaves and two fish, we may feel that this was something great, but we may have no appreciation for His ordering the people to sit down in groups or for His directing the disciples to gather the broken pieces left over so that nothing would be lost. Such 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 its lowliness and tenderness. At the Lord’s table meeting, we need to praise the Lord 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, which 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 appreciate angels so much. The angels are His servants. God tells them to go, and they go; He tells them to come, and they come. The angels are also our servants (Heb. 1:13-14). As believers we all have our own angel (Acts 12:12-15). We need to drop the concept that it is better to be an angel than a man. We need to see how glorious and how marvelous it is that we are 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 in order 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 manifest Himself. God cannot be manifested without man. Man was created in God’s image in order to be God’s expression. God is the center of the universe, but He needs an expression, and this expression is through man. Without man, God has no expression. The millions of angels cannot be the expression of God. 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 man-child. We were the first man; Christ is called the second man (1 Cor. 15:47); we have become the new man by regeneration; and now there is the prospect that we may become the man-child. This ministry is not only for the new man but is also for the man-child.
We may talk about the church as the expression of Christ, but we may not realize what the expression of Christ is. The Christ whom the church must express is the man upon the throne. If we would express Christ, we need to realize Christ today is still a man. We do not express merely God; 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 needs 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 bear 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 into the human race. God needs a man.
The religious teachings in Christianity encourage us either to be like an angel or to be like God. However, the divine revelation unveils that God’s desire is to have a man. We need to remember that the subtle one tempted the first man by 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 man. But in His redemption and salvation God has no intention of making anything other than man. God’s redemption and God’s salvation are to bring us back to the beginning and to recover us to being a proper man. We are the living creatures and we have God’s life within us, yet we bear the appearance of a man. We should not try to be like an angel. Instead, in whatever we do, in whatever we say, and in whatever we express, we should be a man. This is what God needs today.
The vision in Ezekiel 1 reveals three crucial matters concerning the four living creatures’ bearing the appearance of a man. First, God’s glory is manifested upon them. The manifestation of God’s glory depends upon their having the appearance of a man. Where they are, there God’s glory is. God’s glory is not separate from them, and apart from them God’s glory cannot be manifested. Second, these living creatures are the means of God’s move. God’s move depends on them. When they move, God will move, for 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 sitting on the throne. God’s throne dominates everything on 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 God’s eyes and in God’s hands, man has such an 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 gain 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 experiencing the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum.