Although everything seemed to be lost due to God’s judgment, God showed forth His mercy. We praise the Lord that in His judgment there are still His mercy and the visitation of His mercy. How marvelous! This also is applicable to today’s Christianity. Although the situation is pitiful and seemingly hopeless, God’s mercy is still present. No matter how much Christianity is under God’s judgment, God’s mercy still remains there.
In the midst of His judgment upon Israel, God was merciful to His people and provided a number of things for them.
First, in His mercy God established watchmen such as Ezekiel to warn the people (3:17). As we read the book of Ezekiel, we can see that the people of Israel were not happy with him, because Ezekiel did not speak pleasant words to them. God told Ezekiel that He was sending him to a rebellious house, to those with hard foreheads and stiff hearts. However, He said that He would make Ezekiel’s forehead harder than theirs and his heart harder than theirs, as a diamond is harder than flint (vv. 8-9). In His mercy God established such a watchman to warn His people. The principle is the same today.
Before God sent fire to exercise His judgment, He sent His angel to mark out His seekers (9:4). He marked out those who sighed and cried over all the sinfulness and evils in the city of Jerusalem. God told His angel to mark them out so that they would not be killed by the sword, not be killed by pestilence, not be devoured by beasts, and not suffer famine. Only the marked-out ones would remain alive. The situation is the same today. Certain dear seekers have truly been marked out by God. No matter how much other Christians fight, they have nothing to do with that. These marked-out ones are not damaged by the fighting among Christians. Neither do they suffer a shortage of spiritual food or have any kind of spiritual disease. Praise the Lord that He has some marked-out ones. At the beginning of the Lord’s recovery in this country, in 1962, some brothers and I prayed day after day for the seeking ones, praying that the Lord would bring them into His recovery. Today the Lord still has His seeking ones, those who have been marked out by Him.
Ezekiel 6:8-9 says, “Yet will I leave a remnant, that ye may have some that shall escape the sword among the nations, when ye shall be scattered through the countries. And they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols: and they shall loathe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.” Here we see that in the midst of His judgment God, according to His great mercy, preserved a remnant. Most were killed by the sword, and others died of famine or pestilence or were devoured by beasts. The rest were scattered in captivity, where God kept them as a remnant. The principle is the same today. God has not only marked out the seekers, but He has also preserved and kept a remnant. I believe that those who come into the church life in this country will be the remnant, the seekers marked out by God. The remnant—the seekers marked out by God—will be brought by the Lord into His recovery.
God said that even in the captivity He would be a sanctuary to His people for a little while (11:16, lit.). He became not a permanent sanctuary like the one in Jerusalem but a temporary sanctuary to His captured and scattered people.
If you tell others that Christianity has become degraded, they may argue with you by saying that they have the Lord’s presence in their meetings. We must admit this fact. It is true that the Lord is a sanctuary for a little while to those in captivity. We should not say that they do not have the real presence of the Lord at all; rather, we should point out that this is only a temporary sanctuary. Here and there, in some homes and groups, they have the Lord’s presence in a temporary way as a temporary sanctuary. However, no one should be satisfied with a temporary sanctuary. The temporary sanctuary should be a calling back to Jerusalem, back to the permanent sanctuary.
We praise the Lord that in His mercy He promised those in the captivity that one day He would bring them back to the land (11:17). The land to which He would bring them would be on the highest mountains of Israel (20:40). The high mountains typify the resurrected and ascended Christ. The Christ whom we experience and enjoy today in the local churches is very high, for He is the resurrected and ascended Christ.