Ezekiel not only said that it was the thirtieth year, but he also said that it was the fifth year. The thirtieth year was counted from the year of his birth, but the fifth year was counted from the year of captivity. Five years had passed since they had gone into captivity. Remember that five means four plus one, signifying the Creator added to the creatures. Why did the visions come in the fifth year of the captivity and not in the first year or the second or the third? It was because the people were not ready until the fifth year. Ezekiel, being under the age of thirty, was not ready; likewise, the people also were not ready until they had been in captivity five years. One more point about the fifth year: five years before, Ezekiel was but twenty-five, not thirty. Numbers 4:2-3 tells us that all the priests began their ministry at the age of thirty. But Numbers 8:24 tells us that all the Levites started to serve at the age of twenty-five. Apparently there is a contradiction in the Bible. One chapter says they started to serve when they were twenty-five, and another chapter says they started to serve when they were thirty. What is the difference? This indicates they needed five years of apprenticeship. They could not come into the priestly service right away. They needed to be trained and disciplined for five years. At the beginning of the captivity, Ezekiel was an apprentice. He had just come into his apprenticeship. He was a learner. He did not see the visions at the beginning of his apprenticeship, but at the end of his apprenticeship, when he had fully matured. This means that to accept and receive the visions requires the maturity of life. For Ezekiel to see the visions, he needed the maturity of thirty years, and for the people to receive the visions, they needed five years to mature. This shows us that in spiritual things there is the need of maturity. You cannot see or receive spiritual things when you are young. We all must look to the Lord that He would grant us the maturity in life so that we may see the spiritual things, and that we may be able to accept, receive, and take in all the spiritual things.
Let us now consider the place where he saw the visions. The place was not a good place, but was the land of the Chaldeans. Chaldea was the place where Babel began. The name Babel in Hebrew is the same word as Babylon in Greek. Therefore, Chaldea was just Babylon. We know from Genesis 11 that Babel was the place Satan collected all the fallen people to rebel against God. That was the very place where Ezekiel saw the visions—the place where Satan started a great rebellion against God among the fallen people. But hallelujah! That was also the place out of which God had called Abraham and His chosen people. Unfortunately, most of His chosen people had been carried back to that place as captives by Ezekiel's time. Their captivity was a kind of fall. They had fallen into the very place from which their forefather Abraham had been called out by God.
Let me ask you a question. Where is today's Christianity? Do you consider that today's Christianity is in the land of Canaan? Or is it in the land of the Chaldeans? What would you answer? Surely most Christians today are not in the good land, but are in the place of degradation. This is why the book of Ezekiel fits today's situation when so many Christians are not in the good land, but in the land of Chaldea.
When Ezekiel received the visions, he was by a river. In this book, there are two rivers. One river is in chapter one, and the other is in chapter forty-seven. The river Chebar carried the people of God away from God, but the river flowing out of the temple brought people into God's life. Do you realize that today on this earth there are still these two rivers? One river is the trend, the course, the tide, of this world. This river from the fallen world carries people away from God. But hallelujah! There is also another river on this earth. Wherever this river flows, everything shall live.
By which river are you today? Are you by the river Chebar? Or are you by the river that flows out of the dwelling place of God? You may say that you are by the river of the living water which comes out of the dwelling place of God, but do you not still have something of the course of this age? Are you not yet in the trend of today's world? If you are still in the trend of today's world, you are not by the river of the living water, but by the river Chebar. You are not in the holy land of Canaan; you are in the land of the Chaldeans. Two rivers are flowing today. One is the river of this world, and the other is the river of the holy land. One is the river that carries people away from God, and the other is the river which brings people back to God. One is the river which destroys the building of God, and the other is the river which is for the building up of God's dwelling place.