(5) EZEKIEL 16: 60 - 63; EZEKIEL 20: 33 - 44
(5) EZEKIEL 16: 60 - 63; EZEKIEL 20: 33 - 44
These chapters speak of God’s relations with His people. It is a happy coincidence that the subject should come before us on Lord’s day. Chapter 20 [p. 396] brings in the bond of the covenant; but chapter 16 refers back to the covenant made with Israel in the days of their youth. The Lord helping us to apprehend the import of the bond of the covenant, we shall greatly gain in the consideration of these chapters. The order in which the truth has come before us already in this book has been, first of all, the position which the prophet fills as identified with those in captivity, and then the opened heavens and the vision of the instrumentality of divine government now that Jerusalem was given up. Then Ezekiel is seen as bearing the iniquity of Israel, lying on his side for three hundred and ninety days. In the shaving of his head and beard, there is the setting aside in figure of all that beauty that attached to Israel. This is involved in the death of Christ. Then the remnant is formally acknowledged, and the resurrection of Christ is typified in the prophet being lifted up by a lock of his hair and carried between the heavens and the earth to Jerusalem. Following on that there is the marking of those who sigh and cry for the abominations, and the heavenly testimony in the cherubim, in which Jehovah Himself is found in the midst of the scene of judgment, everything transpiring under His perfect scrutiny; then He is a sanctuary to the remnant.
These chapters would therefore introduce what God was to His people at the outset and what He is to the remnant; what He was at Pentecost. He is to us, for there is no change in His love. Following on all the light we have had, I believe the Lord would impress us with the love of God. The covenant He made is still good, and would be rendered permanent. He says in chapter 16: 60: “Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant”. A further thought is conveyed by the bond of the covenant in chapter 20. The covenant [p. 397] represents all that is towards us as expressed in the death of Christ; the bond is the obligation which it involves on our side. Those who commit themselves to the Lord’s supper enter into that bond. Chapter 20 makes much of the Sabbath; the Sabbath was the sign of the first covenant just as the Lord’s supper is a sign of Christ’s love to us. They had disregarded the Sabbath, and similarly the Lord’s supper has not been regarded entirely in its true bearing in the assembly. So chapter 20 is to bring us into the bond of the covenant, first by rule, firm and stringent (verse 33), then by the rod, which I suppose would be discipline. It is the rod of love now. The application of verses 33 to 37 to ourselves is very plain; they remind us that it is a very real thing to have to do with God, and while He deals with us in grace, yet He takes account of the guilt of the assembly in which we have all had our part. God expresses His resentment of their history in that regard when He says: “With a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out, will I reign over you”. We cannot be indifferent to the history of the assembly; God is not, and He bears all in mind in dealing with us. In chapter 20 He takes account of the history of Israel from the time they came out of Egypt; He is not addressing the remnant, but the whole house of Israel; and the chapter has its bearing therefore in relation to the history of the assembly. The whole assembly is addressed in Philadelphia, but the features the Lord approved of are seen in a few. The recovery of the truth has in view the whole assembly being gathered out for Christ. Those who are in the position of the remnant acknowledge the guilt of the whole assembly.
In Ezekiel 12 we have a captive’s baggage referred to, and the prophet establishes a sign in the bringing out of his baggage in their sight “as they that go forth into captivity”. The captive’s baggage would [p. 398] hardly contain the best robe, and you would look in vain for any heavenly clothes there. There are those in captivity today who still claim that the land is theirs, and they do not admit having a captive’s baggage. If you were to suggest to the archbishops that they were in captivity, they would not admit it, and yet if you were to look through their baggage you would find the proof in their garment. One knew a brother who retained his surplice after he had come into the light, and eventually he wore it again. It was really a captive’s baggage. The prophet takes it up as a sign that they were going into captivity, but there were those who did not accept it; they said the land was theirs. The bond of the covenant does not enter into the captive’s baggage, and the instruction in chapter 20 points to heavenly things.
The expression in verse 33, “With a mighty hand”, is the same as used when God dealt with the Egyptians. The God of Israel would deal with His people in the same way as He did with the Egyptians. He goes over the ground again and will bring them into the wilderness (verse 35); not the wilderness of Egypt but that of the nations, and for us it would be the wilderness of the different systems that have been established. Many of us have found our home in them, but we have been called out of them all, and they are a wilderness to us. That is how God works. Christendom is in captivity; those who profess the Lord’s name have gone out from their heritage, their relations with God; all that has been given up for worldly things; and now God would bring His people back so that we are no longer strangers but “fellow-citizens of the saints, and of the household of God”. We come back to the house. The departure and captivity is from what the assembly was as set up in the beginning.
What we have had before us has been leading up to the recovery. Chapter 5 shows they had to go [p. 399] through a terrible process of discipline in their hearts, after which the remnant was formally acknowledged in chapter 9. That should be understood; no one is omitted, and the man with the inkhorn marks everyone that sighs and cries. Chapter 10 brings in the heavenly light that operates with a view to our deliverance from earthly surroundings and then God says in chapter 11, “Yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries whither they are come”. Then come those chapters, which correspond with the recovery of the Lord’s supper, in which we have the love of God and the bond by which we are held on our side. But recovery involves what we have in chapter 20, “with fury poured out, will I reign over you”, and coming under the rod, as in verse 37. These things show we are in a serious position and one that cannot be regarded with lightness, or accepted without exercise. There are those who run into the position like the man in Mark 10, but who soon left it. Blind Bartimaeus did not run into it. The other came running into the way with an apprehension of the Lord Jesus as a good man, like many today who come to Him with religious sentiment, but when the Lord tested him, he went out, whereas blind Bartimaeus sat by the wayside and did not come into the way until the Lord called him. He was in a good position when he sat by the wayside, and he had light as to the Person of the Lord, “O Son of David, Jesus”, Mark 10: 47.
The covenant in chapter 16 reminds us of the faithfulness of God; in chapter 20 there is the response on our side suggested by the bond of the covenant. In the former chapter God says, “I ... entered into a covenant with thee” (chapter 16: 8), and that stands. In other words the relations with God entered into with the assembly stand. It is an abstract thing now, but His dealings are to bring us into it that we may enjoy it. The faithfulness of [p. 400] God is one of the most important things in the position, “God is faithful, by whom ye have been called into the fellowship of his Son”, 1 Corinthians 1: 9. Again, “God is faithful, that our word to you is not yea and nay ... in him is the yea, and in him the amen” (2 Corinthians 1: 18, 20), that is in Christ. Ezekiel 16 I think answers to it. It was a question of their being established in what they had forsaken. They had forgotten, but God said, “Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant” (chapter 16: 60). The recovery is sure to bring to light a lot of extraneous matter, and God says in chapter 20: 38, “I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me”, you may reckon on that. But the thought underlying the covenant made with them at the beginning, when they were young, is very precious.
“There shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings” (chapter 20: 43), is part of the process of recovery. Jehovah is dealing with them now on the ground of His faithfulness. He had said, “And thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate; thou also and thy daughters, ye shall return to your former estate” (chapter 16: 55). That is, they would return to their natural weakness; it was degeneration. Christendom is degenerating to what it was before the light of the gospel came in. The world is fast drifting back into darkness worse than paganism, into “its former estate”. It is simply appalling for any one to move about in this world and come into contact with the teaching prevailing amongst men, tainted with elements of paganism and orientalism of the worst kind. Men are drifting back into darkness. Chapter 16 shows that God enters into a covenant with His people and as we come into the light of it we abhor [p. 401] our relations with what we were once connected with. If christians only knew the awfulness and corruption of what many of them are connected with they would abandon it. Well, God is bringing us into the light of His love, and that is eternal. As we enter into the bond of the covenant we enter into what is eternal. The movement that has been going on all these years is the outcome of the faithfulness of God. Every promise is true, unalterable, and His faithfulness brings us back to Him. There is the constant renewal of the thing to us in the cup, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, this do, as often as ye shall drink it”; it appeals to us in that way.
The bond of the covenant brings in response on our side which shows we are true to the bond. That is where many of us are very weak. Some would say that this is putting us under bondage, but it is the perfect law of liberty. I have been brought back to the perfect love of God and I want to dwell in it. There is a second party, and we come in as such in the acceptance of it. But see the terms of it! All the wealth of heaven is proposed. Is it not worth while entering into it? It is not now a question of the faithfulness of God, but of our responsibility; the idea of a bond is that I enter into it with a view to being true to it. It is by prayer in the Holy Spirit that we keep ourselves in the love of God. The first activity of the Spirit is to shed abroad the love of God in our hearts.
Now that we are surrounded with so many systems, the fellowship is more important than ever, “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, ... I drew them with bands of a man, with cords of love”, Hosea 11: 1, 4. He draws by the bond of love, and as we sit down to the Lord’s supper weekly that is what comes before us, the drawing of love and the bands of a man. We know we could not keep ourselves in [p. 402] it, but the God that restores us will keep us. That does not of course militate against what we have said as to the word, “Keep yourselves in the love of God”, Jude 21.
“I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, but they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am Jehovah ... . For in my holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel, saith the Lord Jehovah, there shall all the house of Israel serve me, the whole of it, in the land” (chapter 20: 38 - 40). You see now what He has in mind; the whole assembly comes into view. What a testimony He raises up to Himself in the presence of the whole profession! Then He says, “As a sweet savour will I accept you, ... and I will be hallowed in you in the sight of the nations” (verse 41).
The mountain in verse 40 would suggest the seat of strength, and would emphasise the importance of the strength of the position. The foundation of God stands. “All the house of Israel” is the whole assembly, and He omits none. If all are not present, God misses those who are absent. Our position now is we are going on to the land while we are maintaining first principles. The heavenly city is in prospect, and we are going on to that. Its light bears upon us reflectively, throws back its beams, “Her shining was like a most precious stone”, Revelation 21: 11. The light of the assembly at Pentecost stands also and we hold to that. We shall never get back to pentecostal days, but we are going on to the city, and we have that before our souls now.
God secures His portion, and according to verse 40 they were to yield Him His offerings. There are heave offerings and the first-fruits. The former were specially emphasised in the tabernacle system. The heave is the movement of the heart God-ward, and the wave offering is what comes before His eye.
[p. 403] The covenant rightly understood brings about movement of the heart, and there is something for God now. The first-fruits would bring in Christ, “the first-fruits, Christ; then those that are the Christ’s at His coming”, 1 Corinthians 15: 23.
God is now operating with a view to the deliverance of saints, and things are becoming more and more manifest; the good figs are very good, and bad figs are very bad. The profession is becoming worse, the vitality is leaving it, and it is becoming a mere shell. The truth regarding the Person of the Lord Jesus is being given up, but God is gathering out what is good with a view to the rapture. Many of the Lord’s people are dissatisfied; they are sighing and crying, and if some of us who have more light had a deeper sense of our obligations, there would be more deliverance. Christ is the first-fruits for God, and every bit of increase we make is on that line. Then He says, “As a sweet savour will I accept you”. It is ourselves that He accepts; it is not worship that He looks for, but worshippers. It is the persons that God wants; “The Father seeks such as His worshippers”.