Scripture Reading: Ezek. 1:6-9, 11; Isa. 40:31; 2 Cor. 4:7; 1:12; 12:9; 1 Cor. 15:10; Phil. 4:13; Psa. 17:8; 57:1b; Acts 20:34; Col. 3:9; Psa. 29:6a; Rev. 1:15
The first chapter of Ezekiel contains many figures which compose one picture. Unless all these figures are applied in a spiritual way, they seem to be meaningless. Consider, for example, the four faces of the living creatures: the face of a man, the face of a lion, the face of an ox, and the face of an eagle. If we apply these things spiritually, they are quite significant.
In this message we will consider the eagle’s wings, the human hands, and the calf’s hoofs. The four faces are the expression of the living creatures, and the wings, the hands, and the hoofs are related to the actions and moves of the living creatures.
Speaking of the living creatures, Ezekiel 1:6 says, “Every one had four faces, and every one had four wings.” Surely the wings are the wings of an eagle because among the creatures represented by the four faces, only the eagle has the wings.
Verse 8 says, “They had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides.” On every side there was the wing of an eagle, and under the wing there was the hand of a man.
Verse 7 speaks of the calf’s hoofs: “Their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf’s foot.” Of the creatures signified by the four faces, only one, the ox, has straight feet. Man’s feet are not straight but are shaped like an L. A lion does not have feet, but instead has paws with claws. An eagle also has claws. Strictly speaking, verse 7 speaks not of ox’s feet but of calf’s feet, or, hoofs, which are straight.
If we would understand the spiritual significance of the eagle’s wings, the man’s hands, and the calf’s hoofs, we need to remember the significance of the blowing of the wind, the hovering and brooding of the cloud, and the consuming, searching, enlightening, and burning of the fire, out of which comes the glowing electrum. As we have pointed out, the experience of all these things causes us to become the living creatures, expressing Christ and living out His life in a corporate way.
Let us now begin to consider the eagle’s wings.
According to the pure Word it is easy to see the spiritual significance of the eagle’s wings, the man’s hand, and the calf’s feet. In the Bible the wings of an eagle signify the strength of God applied to us. In Exodus 19:4, God said to His people, “Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.” This verse speaks of the strength of God applied to His people. Isaiah 40:31 says, “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” This also shows us that God’s strength applied to us is like the wings of an eagle.
In the New Testament the eagle’s wings are the grace, the power, and the strength of God in Christ applied to us. Second Corinthians 4:7 says, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not out of us.” This is the eagle’s wings. In 1:12 Paul says, “Our boasting is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in singleness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and more abundantly toward you.” Again, this is the eagle’s wings. Furthermore, in 12:9a the Lord Jesus said to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” Because of this, in 12:9b Paul could say, “Most gladly therefore will I rather boast in my weaknesses that the power of Christ might tabernacle over me.” In our experience of the Lord, the power of Christ may overshadow us, even as the eagle’s wings overshadow the covered ones. From these verses we can see that the eagle’s wings signify the strength and the grace of the Lord Jesus applied to us.
In 1 Corinthians 15:10 Paul says, “By the grace of God I am what I am; and His grace unto me did not turn out to be in vain, but, on the contrary, I labored more abundantly than all of them, yet not I but the grace of God which is with me.” This is the eagle’s wings. Whatever we do and whatever we are should not be according to our own wisdom, strength, and ability but by the grace, power, and strength of the Lord. Therefore, as Paul says, if we boast, we should boast in the Lord (1:31). We have no boast in ourselves or in anything else but only in the Lord. His power, strength, and grace are the eagle’s wings to us today.
In our Christian life we all should bear four wings on four sides, showing others that whatever we are and whatever we do is not by ourselves and is not of ourselves but of God, so that the excellency of the power may be of God and not out of us.
Each of the four living creatures had four wings, two for covering and two for moving. “Their wings were joined one to another” (Ezek. 1:9a). This joining is for moving. Later we will see that this moving is altogether a corporate matter.
The Bible reveals that the wings of an eagle are not only for power but also for protection. In Psalm 17:8 David asked God to hide him under the shadow of His wings. Psalm 57:1 speaks of making our refuge in the shadow of God’s wings, and 63:7 speaks of rejoicing in the shadow of His wings. Psalm 91:4 says, “He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust.”
The grace, power, and strength of the Lord are both for moving and for covering us. On the one hand, the Lord’s grace is the power for us to move; on the other hand, the Lord’s power is our protection, our hiding place. We are under the overshadowing of the grace and the power of Christ, and we are under the covering of His power. Whatever we do and whatever we are must be by the grace of the Lord and the power of the Lord. At the same time, we are under the overshadowing, the covering, of the Lord’s grace and power.
This indicates that as Christians, God’s children, we should have an element that causes others to wonder at us. They should sense that something is covering and overshadowing us. They should realize that we are normal, yet there is something empowering, strengthening, overshadowing, and covering us.
The front face of the four living creatures is the face of a man, but the body is that of an eagle. Two of his wings are stretched forth to join to the other living creatures, and two of his wings are wrapped around his body for a cover. Thus, if you look at his face, he looks like a man, but if you look at his body, he looks like an eagle. He looks like a man, but he moves like an eagle. This indicates that we must always express ourselves like a normal man, for example, like a normal and proper husband, wife, parent, or child. But when others look at us and consider us, they should realize that there is something covering, empowering, strengthening, protecting, and overshadowing us. As a result, it should be difficult for others to describe us. Those who work with such a person might say, “He can suffer the things we cannot suffer, and he can bear a responsibility that we cannot bear. He understands things more deeply than we do. What kind of person is he? How can he live this way?”
The point here is that with us as children of God there should always be something mysterious. Although we suffer, we are happy and rejoice in the Lord because something is covering us. We have two wings for moving and another two wings for covering and overshadowing us. These moving and overshadowing wings should give others an impression of the Divine Being. We have the four wings of an eagle, giving others the impression that we have God with us as our power and protection. This is the eagle.
Ezekiel 1:8a says, “They had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides.” This indicates that a proper, normal Christian should always do things exactly like a man. This is to use man’s hands. This was Paul’s testimony in Acts 20:34: “You yourselves know that these hands have ministered to my needs and to those who are with me.”
Regarding faith in God, we need to be balanced. Some may claim that since they have faith in the almighty God to supply all their needs, there is no need for them to use their hands to do anything. In particular, they may suppose that there is no need for them to work in a human way. But consider the apostle Paul. Paul was balanced; with him there always were two sides. His writings indicate that he had not only the eagle’s wings but also the hands of a man. He could say that he conducted himself not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God and that the grace of God with him was not in vain. This is the side of the eagle’s wings. However, he also said that he labored more than all the other apostles. We may think that there was no need for Paul to work with his own hands. But Paul took the way of working with his own hands. This indicates that even though he experienced the eagle’s wings, he was still very human in his living, taking the human way and doing things in a human way.
Sometimes the young people may imagine that because they are seeking the Lord, there is no need for them to study hard. They may hope that, even without studying, they may pass their examinations with high grades. This attitude is mistaken. Young people, no matter how much you seek the Lord, love the Lord, and care for the Lord, you still need to be diligent in your studies. This means that no matter how much the grace of God is with us and no matter how much the Lord is empowering us, we must nevertheless fulfill our human duty in our daily living. For instance, we should eat healthy food in the human way and according to human principles. If we do not eat in a proper human way but instead try to behave like an angel, we will get sick. We have to do things in a human way. Under the eagle’s wings there should be human hands, and these hands should always be working. This is to be balanced.
The worldly people, on the contrary, have only the hands of a man; they do not have the wings of an eagle. But many so-called religious people seem to have only the eagle’s wings; they do not have the man’s hands. We need to have both the wings of the Lord’s empowering grace and the hands of a man, cooperating with God in a human way.
It is very significant that the human hands of the four living creatures are under the eagle’s wings. This indicates that in doing everything we should be under God’s grace and under His covering. In all that we do, we should depend on the Lord and express Him. In this matter we are altogether different from the worldly people, who neither rely on God nor express Him. All their actions do not express God but express themselves. In contrast, in everything we do we should be under the Lord’s grace and power, depending on Him and expressing Him.
Let us now go on to consider the calf’s hoofs, a matter of particular importance in the vision recorded in Ezekiel 1.
We all should walk like a calf, having straight hoofs. No Christian should walk on lion’s paws. While we can apply the boldness of a lion to our Christian character, we should not apply the lion’s paws to the Christian walk. Neither should we walk with the claws of an eagle. Those who walk with the claws of an eagle will eventually hurt others.
Also, we should not walk with the feet of a man. Man’s feet are good, but they are somewhat crooked. Human cleverness is something crooked. This is why Paul said that he did not conduct himself in fleshly wisdom, that is, not in human cleverness. Instead of being crooked or clever, our Christian walk should be straight and frank. This is why Paul tells us not to lie to one another (Col. 3:9). We should never lie to a brother. To lie is to be crooked. If you are able to speak something, speak it honestly. If you are not able to speak honestly, simply do not speak.
During the last days before the Lord Jesus was crucified, He went to Jerusalem and was surrounded by the leaders of religion and politics. On one occasion, “the chief priests and elders of the people came to Him as He was teaching and asked, By what authority do You do these things?” (Matt. 21:23). In His answer the Lord Jesus said to them, “I also will ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, from where did it come, from heaven or from men?” (vv. 24-25a). Then they reasoned among themselves, saying, “If we say, From heaven, He will say to us, Why then did you not believe him? But if we say, From men, we fear the crowd, for all hold John as a prophet” (vv. 25b-26). In this kind of dilemma, they considered that the best answer was a crooked one. Thus, they turned to the Lord Jesus and said, “We do not know” (v. 27a). Actually they did know, but they would not tell. This indicates that they were crooked. Then the Lord Jesus, knowing their crookedness, said to them, “Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things” (v. 27b). Here we see that whereas the chief priests and the elders were crooked, the Lord Jesus was straight. The Lord Jesus’ feet were calf’s hoofs; with Him there was no crookedness.
If we read the four Gospels, we will see that while the Lord Jesus was on earth, He walked in a very straight way. Step by step His walk was straight. He walked on the earth with calf’s hoofs.
We also should walk in this way today. If we walk in a crooked way, we should not expect the church to be built up. In the church life we all need to learn to be frank, honest, faithful, and sincere. We should be simple and single. If we mean yes, we should say yes; if we mean no, we should say no. Anything more than that is from the devil (Matt. 5:37), the father of all lies (John 8:44). One may lie with a good intention, but that lie is still of the devil. We should not walk according to our crooked man’s feet but should walk with calf’s hoofs. Man’s feet are crooked, but calf’s hoofs are straight.
Not only the Lord Jesus was straight in His walk, but also the apostle Paul was very straight, frank, faithful, and honest in his walk. By reading Paul’s Epistles to the Corinthians, we can realize that Paul was a straight and frank person. In 1 Corinthians 4:21 he asked, “What do you want? Should I come to you with a rod or in love and a spirit of meekness?” What if one of the Lord’s servants should write a letter asking such a question to a church today? The whole congregation would be shocked. If we would be a faithful servant of the Lord, we must be straight in such a way.
In addition to being straight, the calf’s hoofs are also cloven, or divided. According to Leviticus 11:4-6 any animal that does not have cloven hoofs is not clean. All the clean animals have their hoofs cloven, divided. Clean animals such as the cow and sheep have two characteristics: the chewing of the cud and the dividing of the hoof.
The divided hoof signifies that in our walk with the Lord we need a proper discernment to divide the right things from the wrong and the clean things from the unclean. To have a hoof that is not cloven, like that of a camel, is to have a walk without discernment. As believers in Christ, we need to have such a walk that we can discern what is right and what is wrong in the eyes of God. We need this kind of discernment in our daily Christian walk.
We need this discernment also concerning the practice of the church life. In this country the term local church has become somewhat popular. Many groups pick up this term and in a loose way call themselves a local church. Therefore, we need to be able to discern whether a particular group of believers is in fact a normal, proper, genuine local church. We need the cloven hooves. We should not be careless, thinking that simply because a group says that they are a local church, they must indeed be a local church. Some groups are genuine and others are not. Some are right and some are wrong. Some are real and some are not real. We need discernment. Both in our daily Christian walk and in the church life, we need the cloven hoofs of the calf.
Ezekiel 1:7 tells us that the calf’s hoofs “sparkled like the color of burnished brass.” The shining of brass comes from the heat of the furnace. The more the brass is burned and tested, the brighter it shines. This indicates that we need a walk that has been tested and burned by the Lord. If our walk has been tested in this way, it will be like shining brass, enlightening others and becoming a kind of shining to them. If we have been tested and examined by the Lord, our walk will shine like burnished brass, giving light to others, testing them, and causing them to realize whether their walk is right or wrong.
Likewise, if we have the proper discernment concerning what the genuine church life is and if we have been tested and examined by the Lord in the church life, then our walk in the church life will be like shining brass, enlightening others and testing them. But if we are careless and sloppy, lacking discernment concerning the church life, to us everything will be about the same. Black, white, and gray will seem to be the same. This means that we are unable to exercise any discernment. If this is our case, then our walk will be like a darkened stone, with no light.
If our walk is a walk of discernment, we will discern all the things in our Christian walk, and eventually our hoofs will be like shining brass. Wherever we go and whatever way we take, our walk will shine upon others, giving them light and testing them.
In the Bible a calf signifies freshness and livingness. A believer in Christ who enjoys grace and lives in the presence of God is always new and fresh, and with him there is no oldness. Sometimes you may meet a brother who is quite young humanly but spiritually is rather old, lacking in freshness and newness. At other times you may have fellowship with an older brother who is very experienced in the Lord. Whenever he prays, you sense something new and fresh. In all of our activities as believers, we should be new and fresh. If we become old, we no longer are living creatures.
The Bible says that a calf skips and jumps (Psa. 29:6; Mal. 4:2). This means that a calf is alive. Our Christian walk should not be a dead walk but a “skipping walk,” a walk which is full of life. A calf is young and vigorous, full of energy. We all should be full of life, like a young calf, coming to the meetings like skipping calves. May the Lord cause us all to skip like calves!
All these points on the calf’s hoofs are related to our Christian walk. The Christian walk is straight and frank. It is also a walk with discernment, a walk that shines and gives light to others and tests them, and a walk that is vigorous, full of life, energy, freshness, and newness.
When we talk of feet like shining brass, we should remember Revelation 1:15, where we are told that the feet of the Lord Jesus “were like shining bronze, as having been fired in a furnace.” We all should have a walk like the Lord’s walk.
In a later message we will see that the four living creatures are coordinated together. They can be coordinated only by this kind of life and walk. This life is a life with eagle’s wings and human hands, and this walk is a walk of calf’s hoofs.
The Christian life must be this kind of life, and the Christian walk must be this kind of walk. It is by having this kind of life and walk that we, the living creatures, can be coordinated and become one entity. Coordination is the central point in the first chapter of Ezekiel. This coordination, however, depends upon all the foregoing items: the wind, the cloud, the fire, the electrum, and the four living creatures with the four faces and having the eagle’s wings, human hands, and a walk with the calf’s hoofs. If we would have a proper coordination, we need such a Christian life and walk. We need a life that has the wings of an eagle and the hands of a man, and we need a walk that has the straight hoofs of a calf. May the Lord impress us with all these matters so that we may have the proper coordination in the church life.
