Let us now go on to consider the calf’s hoofs, a matter of particular importance in the vision recorded in Ezekiel 1.
We all should walk like a calf, having straight hoofs. No Christian should walk on lion’s paws. While we can apply the boldness of a lion to our Christian character, we should not apply the lion’s paws to the Christian walk. Neither should we walk with the claws of an eagle. Those who walk with the claws of an eagle will eventually hurt others.
Also, we should not walk with the feet of a man. Man’s feet are good, but they are somewhat crooked. Human cleverness is something crooked. This is why Paul said that he did not conduct himself in fleshly wisdom, that is, not in human cleverness. Instead of being crooked or clever, our Christian walk should be straight and frank. This is why Paul tells us not to lie to one another (Col. 3:9). We should never lie to a brother. To lie is to be crooked. If you are able to speak something, speak it honestly. If you are not able to speak honestly, simply do not speak.
During the last days before the Lord Jesus was crucified, He went to Jerusalem and was surrounded by the leaders of religion and politics. On one occasion, “the chief priests and elders of the people came to Him as He was teaching and asked, By what authority do You do these things?” (Matt. 21:23). In His answer the Lord Jesus said to them, “I also will ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, from where did it come, from heaven or from men?” (vv. 24-25a). Then they reasoned among themselves, saying, “If we say, From heaven, He will say to us, Why then did you not believe him? But if we say, From men, we fear the crowd, for all hold John as a prophet” (vv. 25b-26). In this kind of dilemma, they considered that the best answer was a crooked one. Thus, they turned to the Lord Jesus and said, “We do not know” (v. 27a). Actually they did know, but they would not tell. This indicates that they were crooked. Then the Lord Jesus, knowing their crookedness, said to them, “Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things” (v. 27b). Here we see that whereas the chief priests and the elders were crooked, the Lord Jesus was straight. The Lord Jesus’ feet were calf’s hoofs; with Him there was no crookedness.
If we read the four Gospels, we will see that while the Lord Jesus was on earth, He walked in a very straight way. Step by step His walk was straight. He walked on the earth with calf’s hoofs.
We also should walk in this way today. If we walk in a crooked way, we should not expect the church to be built up. In the church life we all need to learn to be frank, honest, faithful, and sincere. We should be simple and single. If we mean yes, we should say yes; if we mean no, we should say no. Anything more than that is from the devil (Matt. 5:37), the father of all lies (John 8:44). One may lie with a good intention, but that lie is still of the devil. We should not walk according to our crooked man’s feet but should walk with calf’s hoofs. Man’s feet are crooked, but calf’s hoofs are straight.
Not only the Lord Jesus was straight in His walk, but also the apostle Paul was very straight, frank, faithful, and honest in his walk. By reading Paul’s Epistles to the Corinthians, we can realize that Paul was a straight and frank person. In 1 Corinthians 4:21 he asked, “What do you want? Should I come to you with a rod or in love and a spirit of meekness?” What if one of the Lord’s servants should write a letter asking such a question to a church today? The whole congregation would be shocked. If we would be a faithful servant of the Lord, we must be straight in such a way.
In addition to being straight, the calf’s hoofs are also cloven, or divided. According to Leviticus 11:4-6 any animal that does not have cloven hoofs is not clean. All the clean animals have their hoofs cloven, divided. Clean animals such as the cow and sheep have two characteristics: the chewing of the cud and the dividing of the hoof.
The divided hoof signifies that in our walk with the Lord we need a proper discernment to divide the right things from the wrong and the clean things from the unclean. To have a hoof that is not cloven, like that of a camel, is to have a walk without discernment. As believers in Christ, we need to have such a walk that we can discern what is right and what is wrong in the eyes of God. We need this kind of discernment in our daily Christian walk.
We need this discernment also concerning the practice of the church life. In this country the term local church has become somewhat popular. Many groups pick up this term and in a loose way call themselves a local church. Therefore, we need to be able to discern whether a particular group of believers is in fact a normal, proper, genuine local church. We need the cloven hooves. We should not be careless, thinking that simply because a group says that they are a local church, they must indeed be a local church. Some groups are genuine and others are not. Some are right and some are wrong. Some are real and some are not real. We need discernment. Both in our daily Christian walk and in the church life, we need the cloven hoofs of the calf.