In the last message we considered God’s judgment upon seven representative nations surrounding the nation of Israel: Ammon, Moab, Edom, Philistia, Tyrus, Zidon, and Egypt.
The dates of Ezekiel’s visions are significant. For instance, the vision in chapter twenty-six concerning Tyrus was in the eleventh year, and the vision in chapter twenty-nine concerning Egypt was in the tenth year. This indicates that Ezekiel’s record is not according to chronology but according to meaning. He wrote not according to the sequence of history but according to the sequence of meaning. According to spiritual meaning or significance, Tyrus comes before Egypt, although in fact Ezekiel saw the vision concerning Egypt before the vision concerning Tyrus. The record regarding these seven nations is arranged not according to historical events but according to meaning. This is a strong proof that these seven nations have a spiritual significance.
The last three nations—Tyrus, Zidon, and Egypt—are mainly related to worldly wealth and natural resources. Tyrus represents worldly riches and wealth, which damage the church life. We may say that we love the church, but if we pursue the wealth and riches of the world, we will become a damage to the church life. We need to look to the Lord that, in His mercy, none of us in the local churches in the Lord’s recovery would care for worldly riches. Instead of caring for the riches of the world, we should prefer to be poor.
Out of caring for worldly riches comes Zidon as the pricking briers and the grieving thorns, as indicated by the Lord’s parable in Matthew 13:3-23. The church is like a farm for producing something (1 Cor. 3:9). Briers and thorns frustrate the growth of the proper plants on the farm. In the church life none of us should care for the world’s wealth and riches. If we care for riches, we may hinder not only our own growth but also the growth of others.
The last nation, Egypt, is closely related to Tyrus and Zidon and represents the development of natural resources for others to trust in. When the people of God become poor and are short of food, they put their trust in Egypt. But God said that Egypt was a staff made of reeds and was not strong enough to trust in (Ezek. 29:6-7). If you trust in Egypt, you will hurt yourself. This indicates that natural resources are not trustworthy. Even many worldly people realize this. If you put your trust in natural resources or in the riches that come from the development of natural resources, you will be a damage to the church life.
We should not regard this understanding of the spiritual significance of the seven nations as mere knowledge. Rather, we need to apply this understanding to ourselves in the church life.
In this message we come to the third section of the book of Ezekiel—the section of recovery (chs. 33—39). God’s judgment is always with a purpose, and God never executes His judgment without a purpose. The purpose of God’s judgment is to bring in recovery. He does not exercise judgment apart from His purpose to recover something.
We need to remember that God’s judgment is based upon His righteousness, His holiness, and His glory. Whenever the condition among His people or in the world does not match His righteousness, holiness, and glory, God will exercise His judgment for the purpose of recovery. God wants to recover His people according to His righteousness, holiness, and glory. As we will see, whereas God’s judgment is by fire, God’s recovery is by life.
In His recovery by life, the first thing the Lord does is to set the watchman. Ezekiel 33:7 says, “So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.” A watchman is one who has been commissioned by God to give His people a warning, to sound the trumpet to cause God’s people to turn to Him and repent. The principle is the same in the New Testament, where God sent John the Baptist as a great watchman. When John the Baptist came, he sounded the trumpet of repentance, crying, “Repent!” (Matt. 3:1-2). In principle, Ezekiel voiced the same thing when he urged the people to turn from their evil ways. God did not want them to die; His desire was that they would turn and live. Concerning this, Ezekiel 33:11 says, “Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?”