Scripture Reading: Ezek. 43:1-5, 43:6-12, 43:18-27; 44:4, 44:5
After the completion of the building of the house, the glory of the Lord returned. In his early ministry Ezekiel had seen the glory of the Lord depart in a series of steps. First, the glory of the Lord left the temple and hesitated upon the threshold (Ezek. 9:3; 10:4). From the threshold it went out to the city. From the city the glory of the Lord went further out to the Mount of Olives on the east side of the city (11:23), and from there the glory of the Lord ascended to the heavens.
When the Lord in His leaving stopped on the threshold of the house, this indicated that He was not happy to leave. He did not want to leave, but He was forced to do so. Indicating His unwillingness to leave, He hesitated and lingered at the threshold. Eventually, He was forced to leave because of the abomination, whoredom, and degradation of the people. But now the glory of the Lord is returning by the same way He left. He departed from the east side, and now He is returning from the east (43:1-3).
It is important for us to understand why the glory of the Lord came back. The glory of the Lord returned because the building of the temple was completed. This is the crucial point. How much the Lord desires to come back to the earth! Yet, for His coming back He needs a place for the soles of His feet to rest, a place upon which He can set His feet. His habitation, His house, is the place on earth where He can put His feet.
Throughout the centuries the enemy in his subtlety has kept Christians from knowing anything about the building. Christian teachers emphasize greatly the matter of salvation and to some extent the matter of spirituality, but they rarely emphasize the matter of building. God’s concern is not merely with salvation or with spirituality but with the building. For years the Lord has burdened us with one thing — the building. The building is nothing other than the church.
Brother Watchman Nee was fully committed by the Lord with the burden for the church. I knew him very well, and I knew that he was burdened for the church and for the building of the church. He realized that for the building up of the church, there was the need of the inner life, and the Lord gave him many messages on the inner life. However, these messages were not released so that people could be spiritual in an individual way but so that the church could be built up. All of his messages on the inner life were for the building up of the church. But the subtle enemy, Satan, has utilized some so-called spiritual people to publish many of his messages on the inner life to be used for individual spirituality. Those who put out the inner-life books by Brother Nee do not have much regard for his books on the church life. Many Christian bookstores sell The Normal Christian Life; Sit, Walk, Stand; What Shall This Man Do?; The Song of Songs; and so forth — all books on the individual spiritual life — but very few sell Brother Nee’s books on the church. They seldom sell The Normal Christian Church Life, The Glorious Church, Further Talks on the Church Life, or other books by Brother Nee that have the word church in the title. Here we can see the enemy’s subtlety.
Do you believe that the Lord cares only for spirituality? Let me assure you that the Lord does not care merely for spirituality; He cares for the building up of the church. Regarding this, we need to expose the subtlety of the enemy. Some have said that Witness Lee is different from Watchman Nee — that Watchman Nee is for the spiritual life but Witness Lee is too much for the church. That Brother Nee was not only for the spiritual life but also very much for the church is indicated by his books such as Further Talks on the Church Life, The Orthodoxy of the Church, and The Glorious Church.
Today the Lord is not concerned merely for individual spirituality. Even if many spiritual people such as Daniel had been raised up in Babylon, the glory of the Lord would not have gone there to fill them. The Lord’s glory did not return to Daniel; rather, it returned to the temple after it was rebuilt.
After the measuring of the whole building, the Spirit brought Ezekiel to the east gate where he saw the appearance of the glory of the Lord returning. “And it was according to the appearance of the vision which I saw, even according to the vision that I saw when I came to destroy the city: and the visions were like the vision that I saw by the river Chebar” (Ezek. 43:3). When I first read this verse, I thought that the word I should be He.To my impression, the verse should read, “When He came to destroy the city.” Nevertheless, the proper translation is, “When I came to destroy the city.” It seems strange that Ezekiel would say that he came to destroy the city. This means that when the prophet went to Jerusalem, the Lord also went to Jerusalem. The Lord went there in Ezekiel’s going there. In his earlier ministry, Ezekiel saw the glory of the Lord leave the temple and the city, but in his later ministry he saw the glory coming back to the house of the Lord.
We need to be deeply impressed with the fact that the glory of God returned only after the building of the temple was completed. If we want to dwell in the church and manifest His glory in the church, the church must be complete. If the church today corresponds to all the details of the holy building of God covered in these chapters of Ezekiel and thus is built up in every aspect, God will dwell in the church gloriously. Therefore, in order for the glorious God to dwell in the church, the church must be built up to become the dwelling place of God.
God wants to have the church built up on earth because He desires to have a dwelling place on earth. He, the God of the heavens, wants to live on the earth. The place where He lives, His dwelling place, is the church. Since God dwells in the church, those who want to seek God and contact Him must come to the church. Our main burden in this study of Ezekiel is to see the dwelling place which God desires to have on earth. If we have the grace to be built up in the church, the God of glory will live among us.
Verse 2a says, “And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east.” The glory returned from the east, that is, from the direction of the sunrise. The direction of the sunrise signifies glory (Num. 2:3). The Lord came back from the glory. He left toward the east, and He came back from the east.
Ezekiel 43:2 also says, “And his voice was like a noise of many waters.” The Lord returned not only with glory but also with a great noise, for His voice was as the noise of many waters. This indicates that whenever the Lord’s glory comes back to the church, there will be a great deal of noise. When the Lord’s glory leaves, we should be quiet. Quietness indicates that the glory is gone, but noise is a sign that glory has returned. In Acts 2, on the day of Pentecost, it was not quiet. “There was a sound out of heaven, as of a rushing violent wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting” (v. 2). Whenever the church is revived, there will be a loud sound and a great noise.
According to Ezekiel 43:2, “The earth shined with his glory.” The earth was under the light, the shining of the Lord’s glory. There was no darkness. On the day of Pentecost, the city of Jerusalem was under the shining of such a light. Whenever the church has a revival, God’s glory is expressed, the voice of God is heard, and God’s glory shines forth. However, without the manifestation of God and the voice of God, there is darkness.
Ezekiel 43:3 says that the appearance of the Lord was the same when He returned as when He came with the prophet to destroy the city. This comforting word reveals how merciful the Lord is. Even while Ezekiel was in captivity, the vision of the Lord was there. The vision of the Lord came not only to the holy land but also to the place of captivity.
In Zechariah 1:8 the Lord was riding on a red horse among the myrtle trees in the bottom. At that time the Lord’s people were in a low place, in the bottom, but the Lord was riding among them to bring them out. This indicates that He was with those in captivity. The Lord was still with His people but not in a normal way.
Ezekiel 43:4 says, “The glory of the Lord came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east.” The Lord came back by the east gate.
The temple has three gates: one toward the east, one toward the south, and one toward the north. The gates on the south and the north are for the convenience of the people, but the gate toward the east is not only for the convenience of the people but also for the glory of the Lord. In the church life we need several gates, but the most important one is the east gate — the gate that is open to the glory of the Lord. This means that in the church life we need a gate which is open to the glory of the Lord. We should not only care for convenience; we should care especially for the glory of the Lord. In the church life the first consideration we should have is the Lord’s glory. The decisions in the church life must be made primarily according to the Lord’s glory. Even in making decisions concerning the day and time of the meetings, we should care for the Lord’s glory and not simply for people’s convenience. The church must be open to the Lord’s glory so that His glory may come into the church.
The glory of the Lord came into the house, and “Behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house” (v. 5). Eventually, the house and the inner temple were filled with the glory of the Lord.
Here we see that the Lord has returned to the earth. Because He had lost His standing on earth, He went back to the heavens. The Lord’s standing on earth is the building up of His house. In order for the Lord to come back to the earth, He needs a built up church as His standing on the earth. The Lord will not simply come back to the earth; the Lord will come back to the church.
At the time Ezekiel saw the glory of the Lord, he also saw a man standing by him. He saw both the glory of the Lord and the Lord as a man. The man who stood by him said, “Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever” (v. 7a). The words the place of my throne prove that the man who stood by Ezekiel was the Lord Himself. According to the grammatical construction, “The place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell,” does not seem to be a good composition. It may be that because His desire and joy were with His house, the Lord neglected the matter of grammar. He was fully occupied with His house.
The Lord was so happy with His house that seemingly He did not care about grammar. Upon His return to the temple, the Lord was very happy. The house had been recovered, and once again He had a place for the soles of His feet. Therefore, He said, “Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet.”
Here we see the Lord’s desire for His house, for the church. The Lord cares for the recovery of the church life. He has been desiring and waiting to come back to the church. This is why we have so much joy in the meetings. We are joyful and happy because the Lord within us is joyful and happy. He is happy because in the church He has a place — a place for His throne, a place for the soles of His feet. For centuries the Lord did not have on earth a place for the soles of His feet. How happy He is that, having been kept away from the earth for so long, He now has the local churches as the place of His throne and the place of the soles of His feet! It is marvelous that the Lord, the almighty God, could utter the word recorded in verse 7: “The place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet.”
If I had been Ezekiel, I might have asked, “Since You are the almighty God, why do You care about such a small place? Why does this place make You so happy?” If Ezekiel had asked this question, the Lord might have answered, “I love this particular place on earth because it is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet.”
The place of the soles of the Lord’s feet is the place of His throne. The throne is for God’s government, administration, and kingdom; it is the place from which He can administrate. The soles of the Lord’s feet are for His move on earth. Apart from the temple as the place of His throne and the place of the soles of His feet, the Lord has no base for His administration and move on the earth. Unless the church is built up, the Lord has no standing to administrate His government and to move on the earth. Furthermore, the church is the place where the Lord can dwell for His rest and satisfaction.
In verse 7b the Lord told Ezekiel that the people had offended Him by their whoredom and by their carcasses. Here the Lord did not rebuke the house of Israel for their behavior and conduct, but for their whoredom and carcasses. Whoredom is fornication. No matter how kind and nice a certain wife may be and no matter how many good things she does, if she loves a man other than her husband, this is whoredom. In principle, this was the situation of the church at Ephesus in Revelation 2. The Lord said that they had done many good works but they had lost the first love (v. 4). He was saying that, besides Himself, they loved some other things. This is whoredom. No matter how good, pure, or holy something may be, if we love that thing more than we love the Lord Himself, this is whoredom. Not many Christians today simply care for the Lord Himself. Instead, many care for other things, including things that are good, fundamental, spiritual, and holy. This is whoredom.
Carcasses are dead things. Ezekiel 43:7b speaks of “the carcasses of their kings in their high places.” In interpreting this part of the verse, after high places we may insert of Zion to indicate that these high places here might refer to the high places on Mount Zion. According to custom, the bodies (carcasses) of the kings were buried beside the temple. This is why the Lord says that the threshold of the carcasses was close to His threshold and that the post of their grave was close to His post in the temple (v. 8). On one side was the Lord’s sanctuary; on the other side was the grave of the bodies of the kings. Thus, these were not the carcasses of people from the lower classes but of the kings, people of a high standing.
After pointing out these abominations, the Lord told Ezekiel how to instruct the people: “Thou son of man, show the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities” (v. 10a). The Lord did not charge Ezekiel to teach God’s people the law and the Ten Commandments as He had charged Moses. Rather, He told Ezekiel to show God’s house to the people. Here the Lord seemed to be saying, “From now on, it is a matter not of the dispensation of the law but of the dispensation of My house. Simply to keep the law is not good enough. You have to keep the form, the fashion, the ordinances, the statutes, the laws, the comings in, and the goings out related to the house. You should behave not merely according to the Ten Commandments but also according to My house.”
According to verse 10 God wanted Ezekiel to show the temple to the house of Israel so that the people would be ashamed of their iniquities. The temple of God is a pattern, and if the people would examine themselves in light of this pattern, they would know their shortcomings. It was God’s intention to check the living and conduct of the people of Israel by His house, His habitation, as a rule and pattern. The living of the people of God must match the temple of God. Showing the temple to God’s people exposes their sins and shortcomings and causes them to be ashamed of their iniquities.
Most believers today feel that moral regulations and spiritual principles are sufficient as rules of behavior and conduct. Few realize that our behavior and conduct should be examined not only according to moral regulations and spiritual principles but also according to the church, the house of God.
The common, or lower, teachings in today’s Christianity tell the believers how to behave, that is, what to do and what not to do. The believers are given many rules of conduct. There are also higher teachings which encourage the believers to be spiritual. These teachings are an improvement over the teachings regarding behavior. The Lord did not tell Ezekiel to show the law or spiritual principles to the house of Israel. Rather, the Lord charged Ezekiel to show His house to the house of Israel. Because the house was to be their regulation, the Lord charged Ezekiel to show them “the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof” (v. 11).
Our main concern today should not be with behaving ourselves or even with becoming spiritual. Our concern should be with fitting into God’s house, that is, with how we conduct ourselves in God’s house. The Lord did not command Ezekiel to show the law, the Ten Commandments, to the house of Israel; neither did He command him to show the spiritual principles to the house of Israel. On the contrary, the Lord charged Ezekiel to show His house to the house of Israel.
Suppose a certain young man gets saved. Before he was saved, he treated his parents and his sister quite poorly. Now that he has been saved, he learns how to treat them with respect and to behave rightly and properly in relation to his father, mother, and sister. Later, he learns to be spiritual and to do things such as reckon himself dead. He is good in conduct and in certain matters he is even spiritual; however, he is altogether independent. He is so independent that he is not willing to pray with others. Such a person, who is extremely independent, does not know anything about God’s house. He does not care at all for the church. Everything he does is for himself individually; nothing is for the church, the Body, Christ’s corporate expression.
If this kind of person is measured by the house, he will realize that he is lacking in many ways. For instance, he will realize that he does not have the windows, that is, the life-giving Spirit. He needs to have the windows by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus. The more he calls on the Lord’s name, the more windows he will have. This brother also needs to be checked by and compared with the doors of the house. This may cause him to realize that he has many doors by which he can exit the church life. Concerning the church life, he may come and go as he pleases, coming in one day and going out the next. Although he has many doors, the temple does not have many doors. He does not have windows, but he has many doors, many ways to leave the church life.
We all need to be checked by the building, the house, in our comings in and goings out. If we would come into the church life, we must come in through one gate. Then we need to progress inward and upward, ascending higher and higher. Once we reach the rear of the third story, we realize that we cannot escape, for there are no gates through which we can go out.
In the book of Ezekiel, God measures His people by the temple. For example, in the temple the number six is used many times. As we have pointed out, the number six here, which is used with the wall, the entry, and other parts of the temple, signifies the humanity of the Lord Jesus. This indicates that we need to check our humanity by the building and take the humanity of the Lord Jesus as our humanity.
Another example is related to the wood used in the temple. The wood that was used for a certain purpose had to be of an appropriate measure. This means that the wood had to keep its position and function accordingly. If a piece of wood were either larger or smaller than its prescribed measure, it would not fit properly into the building. In applying this to our experience in the church life today, we need to consider whether in our situation we match the measurements of God’s temple. Suppose God’s wants you to measure three cubits. Do you match this measure, or are you either more or less than three cubits? A sister should stand on the position of a sister. If she presumes to stand on the position of a brother, she will not be within her measure, and this will not match the building or fit into it.
Yet another example of being measured by God’s building involves the cherubim and the palm trees. If we are measured by the cherubim and palm trees carved into the walls, we will consider the matters of the expression of Christ’s glorious image and the expression of Christ’s victory. As one who is in the church life, do you have the image of Christ? Do you express the glory of Christ and the victory of Christ? Have you experienced God’s “carving”? Do you have any wounds or scars which testify that God has been carving you? If we are measured by the temple in this way, we may realize that we are still “smooth wood,” wood that does not have cherubim and palm trees carved into it.
A particularly important point is that in the building there are no independent pieces. Every piece of material has been built in. Every piece is related to others, and no piece is independent. What about you? Are you independent? Have you been built into the building? Do your form and fashion fit into the building? You may say that you like this and not that, but the question is not what you like or do not like but whether or not you fit into the building, into the church. Does your way fit in with the church life?
Ezekiel was told that from that point on the house of Israel was to behave according to God’s house. This indicates that today we should behave ourselves not according to certain teachings but according to the church. The church has to be our regulation. We need to be regulated by the fashion of the church, by the comings in and goings out of the church, by the ordinances, statutes, and laws of the church. This means that we should be God’s people not according to the law of Moses but according to the form of the temple in Ezekiel.
Today the Lord’s concern is not the law — it is the house. His concern is not spirituality — it is the church. The Lord cares for the church, that is, for the place of His throne, for the place of the soles of His feet, for the place where He can dwell for rest and satisfaction. Because the Lord cares so much for the church, His house, we also should care for the church as His house and fashion ourselves according to it. If we realize this, we will not care merely for teachings from the Bible or about the inner life. Likewise, we will not care for speaking in tongues or for a particular way to pray. Instead, we should care absolutely for the church and fashion ourselves according to the church, God’s house.
The church life, or the Body life, is the greatest test of real spirituality. If we cannot pass the test of the church life, our spirituality is not genuine.
We need to see from the book of Ezekiel that the requirement of the indwelling Christ is not according to the law but according to His house. Everyone must be measured and checked according to the measurement of God’s house. We are not under the dispensation of the law; we are under the dispensation of the house. This is the age of the church, not the age merely of being spiritual. Now is the time for the church life. If what we are and what we do cannot fit into the church life, it amounts to nothing in the sight of God and may even be an abomination to Him, a kind of whoredom. Therefore, we need to fashion ourselves according to the church and allow the church to measure us and check us in every aspect.
After the temple, we come to the altar. In 43:18-27 we have the ordinances of the altar. The altar is the place for God’s people to be redeemed and consecrated. According to the record in these verses on the altar, it takes seven days for the people to be purified. They are required to offer a sin offering with the redeeming blood every day for seven days. Then on the eighth day, the day of resurrection, they have to consecrate themselves by offering a burnt offering (v. 27). Following the burnt offering, they enjoy the peace offering as a feast with the Lord and His people. This indicates that after the purification, the cleansing on the altar for seven days, the Lord’s people are accepted by Him, become a satisfaction to Him, and have a feast with Him.
In the church life today, we need the altar both for purification and for consecration. We need to offer ourselves to the Lord as a burnt offering. To do this means that we are absolutely for the Lord. First we need to be cleansed, purged, and purified, and then we can consecrate ourselves to the Lord. In order to keep the temple, we need the altar. In order to preserve the church life, we need purification, sanctification, and consecration through the cross.
The purification requires a period of seven days (v. 26). This indicates that purification cannot be accomplished quickly; it takes a period of time for us to be cleansed and purified, a time in which we are kept away from all negative things. Then on the eighth day, in resurrection, we need to offer ourselves to the Lord as a burnt offering absolutely for His satisfaction. After this, from the eighth day onward, we can have a feast with the Lord, enjoying the riches of Christ in the presence of God.
Verse 12 says, “This is the law of the house; Upon the top of the mountain the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house.” Here we see that the law of the house can be summed up in two points: The house must be upon the top of the mountain, and it must be most holy. To be on the mountain is to be in resurrection and in the position of ascension. This indicates that the church life must be high, on the top of the mountain. The church must also be holy, separated and sanctified from anything worldly.
The law of the house, the law of the temple, is related to God’s character. God is a God of height, and He is a God who is holy. Therefore, He wants His dwelling place also to be high and holy. Everything in the church life must be both high and holy, able to match the law of the temple.
Being high and being holy — these are two great principles concerning the church. Height is the position of the church, and sanctification is the nature of the church. In position the church is high; in nature the church is holy. We should not lower the church, and we should not make the church common. Rather, we must always respect the height of the church and regard the holiness of the church, knowing that in position the church is in resurrection and ascension and that in nature the church is most holy.
Is your church life on the top of the mountain? Is your church life holy? We all need to check ourselves by these two aspects of the law of the house. If in our church life we are in resurrection and in the position of ascension and if we are most holy, then we can be God’s habitation.
