Now we come to the holy building of God. We have seen in previous chapters the appearance of the glory of the Lord, the judgment of God by fire, and the recovery of the Lord by life. Now we come to the last section, the holy building of God. This section covers chapters forty through forty-eight. We have to be clear that all three foregoing sections are for the last section. The glory of the Lord, the judgment of the Lord, and the recovery of the Lord are for the building of God. We may even say that the issue of the glory of the Lord, the judgment of God, and the recovery of the Lord is the building of God.
At the beginning of this section, it mentions the year, the month, and the day (40:1). By comparing the year mentioned here with the year mentioned at the beginning of chapter one, we can see that there is a difference of twenty years. The vision of the appearance of the glory of the Lord which Ezekiel saw in chapter one was seen in the fifth year of the captivity. The vision of the building of God's house which he saw in chapter forty was in the twenty-fifth year of their captivity. Twenty years is not a short time. Remember that Ezekiel was thirty years of age when he saw the first vision. Thirty years is the age at which a priest can begin to function. When he saw the last vision, he was fifty years old, the age of retirement for a priest. According to Numbers 4:3, the priest served from the age of thirty to the age of fifty. This is quite meaningful. This indicates that to see the building of God, Ezekiel needed more maturity in life. When he saw the first vision, he was still young, only thirty years of age. But when he saw the vision of God's building, he was at the age of retirement, indicating that he had further maturity in life and could see the building of the Lord. Very few Christians have seen anything of the Lord's building due to their immaturity. Some of them are still under thirty years of age, and perhaps others are under twenty-five years. They are not even qualified to be an apprentice. How could they see the vision of God's building? To see the building of God needs further maturity in the spiritual life.
It is very meaningful that all the years were counted in increments of five. The first vision was seen in the fifth year, and the last vision was seen in the twenty-fifth year. Twenty-five is five times five. We have to remember that five in the Bible signifies man plus God. Man the creature plus God the Creator can bear responsibility. Four is the number representing the creature, and one is the number representing the Creator. Five is four plus one, meaning that man as the creature plus God as the Creator can together bear responsibility. The number twenty-five means not only the maturity, but also the full qualification for bearing responsibility.
This year was also called the fourteenth year. The twenty-fifth year was counted from the time of their captivity, whereas, the fourteenth year was counted from the time of the destruction of Jerusalem. In 40:1 it says, "after that the city was smitten." The number fourteen in the Bible is composed mainly of seven times two. Seven is the number of completion, and two is the number of testimony. This tells us that for fourteen years, the destruction of the city of Jerusalem had been a strong testimony to the people. Originally, the people of Israel did not believe that the city would be destroyed. But Ezekiel prophesied concerning the destruction of the city of Jerusalem and his prophecy was fulfilled. Fourteen years after the destruction of Jerusalem, Ezekiel saw further visions. This means that the testimony of the destruction of the city was sufficient; it stood for fourteen years. After the fourteen years, the people in captivity realized that it was a strong testimony.
Furthermore, the Bible says that Ezekiel saw the visions at the beginning of the year in the first month. The first month indicates a new start. The building of God must have a new start with us. When we see something of the building of the church, it is a new start in our life. It is also the tenth day. According to Exodus 12:3, the tenth of the first month was the day that the people of Israel prepared the lamb for the Passover. Surely this refers to Christ, our Passover, for our redemption. Whenever we have a new beginning in our Christian life, it is based on Christ and His redemption. We ourselves, by what we are and what we can do, can never have a new beginning. We are not qualified to have a new beginning. We have no merit to have a new beginning. Any new beginning we can have in our spiritual life is always based upon Christ, the Passover Lamb, and His redemption. By Christ and His redemption, we can have a new beginning in our Christian life.