As we pointed out in the first message, the book of Ezekiel is of four sections. The first section, consisting of chapter one, presents a vision of the appearance of the glory of the Lord. This chapter reveals how God is manifested, how God moves, and how God administrates His government through the coordination of the four living creatures. The second section includes the next thirty-one chapters and covers the judgment of God by fire. In this section we see that God judges His people and the heathen nations by Himself as a consuming fire. The third section (chs. 33—39) is concerned with God’s recovery of His people by life. After carrying out His judgment, God comes in to recover. Whereas God’s judgment is by fire, His recovery is by life. The last section (chs. 40—48) covers the holy building of God. The issue, the result, of God’s recovery by life is a holy building, which is the consummation of the entire book of Ezekiel. Thus, the four sections of Ezekiel cover four main things: the vision of the appearance of the glory of the Lord, the judgment by fire, the recovery by life, and the holy building of God. This is a sketch of the book of Ezekiel, a book that begins with a glorious vision and ends with a holy building. This indicates that God’s goal is the building.
We have also seen that the book of Ezekiel and the book of Revelation are similar. Like Ezekiel, Revelation covers the four matters of vision, judgment, recovery, and building, and it covers them in the same sequence that we find in Ezekiel. The vision of the Lord in Revelation 1 is followed by God’s judgment, God’s recovery, and God’s building. Ultimately, the book of Revelation, like the book of Ezekiel, consummates with God’s building with its twelve gates. From this we see that the books of Ezekiel and Revelation are not only similar but are also parallel to each other. The former is on the history of God’s people in the Old Testament; the latter is a revelation of the church in the New Testament. God’s Old Testament people were a foreshadow, a prefigure, a type, of the New Testament church.
If we read Ezekiel carefully, we will realize that it portrays a picture of the church. In a sense, the picture in the Old Testament is more clear and complete than the revelation in the New Testament. Therefore, in reading Ezekiel we should not merely be concerned with the history of Israel or with prophecies regarding Israel, but we should consider the clear picture of the church, in particular the picture unveiled here of the degraded situation of the church. Because the degradation of Israel is a picture of the degradation of Christianity, what we see in this picture is applicable to today’s situation.
In this message we will begin to consider the second section of Ezekiel—the judgment of God by fire. In chapters two through twenty-four we see God’s judgment on Israel, His chosen people, and in chapters twenty-five through thirty-two, His judgment on the Gentiles, the nations. God’s judgment is first upon His people, the children of Israel, and then His judgment comes upon the Gentiles. This matches the principle in the New Testament, seen both in the book of Revelation and in 1 Peter, that God first judges His house (1 Pet. 4:17) and afterward judges the unbelievers.
In the Old Testament Israel was God’s chosen and elect people. God had delivered the people of Israel out of Egypt and had brought them into the good land. God’s putting the people of Israel into the good land typifies God’s putting us into Christ, who is our good land today. Ezekiel 20:6 says that the good land is the glory of all lands. Christ is the glory on earth, and God has put us into the glorious Christ, who, in His unsearchable riches, is a land flowing with milk and honey.
The people of Israel experienced three stages of the enjoyment of Christ. In the first stage they enjoyed Christ in Egypt as the Passover with the unleavened bread and the bitter herbs. In the second stage they enjoyed Christ while they were wandering in the wilderness as the heavenly manna and the living water. In the third stage they enjoyed Christ as the land, full of rich produce.
These three stages match our experience today as believers in Christ. When we were saved, we enjoyed Christ as the Passover Lamb. Afterward we began to enjoy Christ as our daily portion, our daily manna. However, this is not the ultimate enjoyment of Christ. The ultimate enjoyment of Christ is to enjoy Christ in the church as the good land with all His unsearchable riches.
Concerning Christ as the good land, Ezekiel 20:6 says, “In the day that I lifted up mine hand unto them, to bring them forth of the land of Egypt into a land that I had espied for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands.” Milk and honey, both of which are the product of the mingling of the plant life and the animal life, represent the riches of the good land of Canaan. In Christ there are both spiritual food (honey) and spiritual drink (milk). Both milk and honey are the issue of Christ being two kinds of life: the redeeming life, typified by the animal life, which has blood, and the generating, or multiplying, life, typified by the plant, or vegetable, life. On the one hand, the life of the Lord Jesus is a redeeming life—a life which has the blood that was shed for our redemption. On the other hand, the life of the Lord Jesus is a producing and generating life—a life that was released through His death on the cross for His multiplication and increase. These two aspects of His life have been blended to produce milk as our spiritual drink and honey as our spiritual food. Christ is now our milk and honey, and as such He is our supply and enjoyment. If we abide in Him as our good land, we will enjoy the riches of His supply.
Eventually, Israel, God’s chosen people, were living in the good land with a temple and a city. The temple signifies God’s house, and the city signifies God’s kingdom. God’s presence is in His house, and God’s authority is in His kingdom. In the church life today, we enjoy Christ as our good land, and therefore we have God’s presence and God’s authority. Because we are God’s elect living in Christ and enjoying all that He is, in the proper and normal church life, we have God’s temple with His presence and God’s kingdom with His authority.