So far we have covered four main points: the oneness, the priesthood, the kingship, and the altar. The fifth point is the laying of the foundation. All four previous points are for this. The oneness, the priesthood, the kingship, and the altar are all for laying the foundation. So we need to apply all of these things in a practical way.
We do not need much teaching, but we do need some practical application. During the past years of watching and observing, I have noticed that in some places, although it seemed that the people had come back to Jerusalem, no foundation had been laid. Year after year no foundation was laid. A group of people had come back to claim the proper ground of the church life, but there was no foundation.
After we have returned to Jerusalem and have claimed the proper ground, the urgent need is to lay the foundation. We are not for the ground; we are for the foundation. Although we need to come to the unique ground of unity, we are not for the ground, but for the foundation. I believe we all know who the foundation is. The foundation is Jesus Christ. “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 3:11). This is the unique foundation on the unique ground.
Some say that we emphasize the ground too much and simply forget the foundation. We do not admit this. We take the ground for the foundation. We take the ground for Christ. But I have noticed that some who come back have laid a foundation which is not Christ. In some places they claim to have taken the ground, yet they have not laid Christ as their foundation. Instead, speaking in tongues or something else other than Christ Himself is their foundation. Regardless of how good it is, as long as it is not Christ Himself, it is not the proper foundation. Such a foundation becomes a divisive factor. We may say that we have returned to take the unique ground, yet we lay a divisive foundation. Do you see how subtle this is? So we must be extremely careful.
I like the book of Ezra because there is not much teaching in it. In the beginning they did not have the prophets. All they had was the oneness, the priesthood, the kingship, and the altar.
In some places today, they do not have the oneness, they do not have the priesthood, they do not have the kingship, and they do not have the altar. They only have many prophets. It seems they have nothing but mouths in the Body. Even the toe becomes a mouth. There is much talking and many doctrines, but no oneness, no priesthood, and no kingship. They simply do not care about bringing people into the presence of God to help them contact the Lord and be possessed by the Lord. They only care for the teachings of the Bible. They have many prophets, but no priests. They do not care for God’s altar, and they do not care for the divine authority, the kingship. They simply have much talk with many opinions.
Praise the Lord that at the beginning of the recovery there was no prophet. The people simply came together as one man. Some may say that they were ignorant and foolish, but let us all be so foolish! Let us come together as one man foolishly. We do not need to be so clever and wise. We must simply come together with the Lord’s people to be one man. We must learn to be so foolish, without any opinions. Could you learn to only open your mouth for praising and never for speaking? This is what we mean by being foolish.
Many do not know how to bring people into the presence of the Lord, they do not know how to submit themselves under the headship of Christ, and they do not know how to be one with others. They simply do not know how to give up their opinions and be foolishly one with others. They do not know how to put everything upon the altar. There is absolutely no consecration. If the situation is like this, it is dreadful indeed. I prefer to be in a place with foolish people, where everyone is filled with Christ, everyone is under the headship of Christ, and everyone puts everything on the altar. If others say that we are foolish, we say: “Praise the Lord, we are so spiritually foolish!”
In the beginning of Ezra, there were no teachers and no prophets. Today’s Christianity always thinks that to build up a church we need a great teacher. But be sure that a great teacher will bring great troubles, a small teacher will cause only small troubles, and no teacher produces no trouble. If there are two big teachers, be sure there will be two big divisions. There is no need to argue about this matter; it has been proven by history.
All troubles and all the divisions have come from the teachers. Wherever there is a teacher, it is certain there will be trouble and division. Mere teaching never builds-it only divides and tears down.
I really like this book of Ezra. From the beginning there is no teacher and no prophet. There is just the oneness. All the people came together to Jerusalem as one man (Ezra 3:1). If we do not learn to be foolish, we can never be one with others. All the clever people can never be one. I am always afraid of the clever ones. Do not be so clever; then you can be one with others.
Sometimes someone will say that a certain person is a good brother. But I always want to know how good! If he is foolishly good, that is marvelous. But if he is cleverly good, I will run away from him. I cannot tell you how much I have suffered in the past from clever ones. In the church, the Lord does not need any clever people. The first clever one was Judas who betrayed the Lord Jesus. He was really clever. When we read the New Testament, we see that all the disciples and early believers were built up together because they were foolishly one.
How can we be one? We must give up our opinions and become foolish. All the people in the beginning of the New Testament came together as one. They had the priesthood, they had the kingship, and they put everything on the altar to be burnt. Do you not think that they were foolish? If I were there, I might ask them, “What are you doing? We need all those things for the Lord’s work.” They were really foolish.
What I mean is this: if we look into the situation at the time of Ezra, what they were doing was foolish. When all the adversaries saw these foolish people put everything on the altar and burn it, they were happy. But later when the adversaries saw the laying of the foundation, they were not so happy. In the beginning it seemed foolish-there was no teaching, and they did not call the congregation together to give them instructions. No, they all came together as one man. And they had the priesthood, the kingship, and the altar. Brothers and sisters, we all need to be so foolish. Do not be taught and instructed to be so clever. Learn to be so simple and foolish that you put everything on the altar.
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