(7) EZEKIEL 36: 24 - 32; EZEKIEL 37: 1 - 19
(7) EZEKIEL 36: 24 - 32; EZEKIEL 37: 1 - 19
In these chapters we have come definitely to the work of God in His people. Hitherto we have been occupied in the main with His dealings governmentally, dealings perhaps that were external. John 3 has a direct allusion to what we now have before us. It is good to see how God triumphs, and that in all His dealings with us He is not attempting to improve the flesh. There is a wholly new start, and the correspondence with John’s gospel is perhaps more striking here than elsewhere, especially as chapter 36 is directly alluded to in John 3.
The work of God in us is marked by certain instincts from the outset, instincts that may not always be intelligible to those who possess them. Jacob when born is a type of one who is a subject of the work of God, he laid hold of his brother’s heel. It cannot be said that he was intelligent as to what he did, for he was a babe, but he had instincts of life; a work of God was there; he displaces in principle the man first born after the flesh. And that is what marks everyone who is born again; there may not be at the outset much intelligence as to what has taken effect in the soul, but there are instincts, and the people of God take account of these instincts, and are thereby assured of the work of God. The principle is one of displacement of the man born after the flesh, typified in Esau.
Chapter 37 has to do more with what is collective; it involves resurrection; we are risen. In chapter 36 it is the work of God which fits us for the sphere of resurrection. We have the two sides in John’s gospel; the individual believer is there treated of up to the [p. 412] end of chapter 9. In chapter 7 the Spirit is known as come down from a glorified Christ in heaven; in chapter 8 the Lord says (verse 12), “I am the light of the world; he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life”; the believer now moves in relation to Christ. Chapter 9 shows the believer as isolated through being true to the light he has, the light of life. The Lord says to him, “Thou, dost thou believe on the Son of God?”. He answers, “And who is he, Lord ... ?” and the Lord says, “Thou hast both seen him, and he that speaks with thee is he”. Now this is the end of the individual side; he has arrived at the thought of the Son of God, the One who is declared to be “Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by resurrection of the dead”. Romans 1: 4. Hence the succeeding chapters of John to the end of the eleventh, bring out the power of the Son of God in resurrection. “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified by it”. He is glorified in the raising up of the dead. Chapters 10 and 11 treat of the resurrection, and then chapter 12: 1, 2, shows the company figuratively risen. So we have life in these chapters treated not so much in connection with the work of God in us in a moral way but with resurrection. For us to be risen is, of course, by faith; it is not exactly the work of God in us, but the work of God in Christ; it is what we understand now. When we are actually risen it will not be by faith; what is actual is not by faith. He raises us actually by the Spirit.
The man in chapter 9 is a sample of one who has traversed the road which leads to life. “I give them life eternal”, John 10: 28. In describing the bride in The Song of Songs it says, “Thy hair is as a flock of goats, on the slopes of mount Gilead”, Song of Songs 4: 1. I think that means that each of them [p. 413] had had separate relations with God. A goat is a creature that isolates itself, and the saints are viewed by the Lord collectively as a flock of goats. In John 10 it is a flock of sheep, but the Lord sees previous history as described in the man who was isolated and cast out. The company is formed by those who have a separate, isolated experience. We are not converted in bunches; each one has to judge himself. There has to be the separate experience of isolation and self-judgment, and then we are set together as a flock of goats in which expression the Lord emphasises the isolation that we have to experience prior to our collective relations. I doubt if any of us is rightly in the company unless as having this experience with God. It is secret individual relations with God that make moral fibre in the christian; he is of positive value in the company then. “God maketh the solitary into families”. When one is cast out the Lord takes him up. Another thought is expressed in The Song of Songs in regard to the hair: “The locks of thy head like purple”, Song of Songs 7: 5. If on the one hand there is individual dealing with God, there is also suffering. The man in John 9 suffered. The purple indicates suffering. It is the royal colour; “If indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him”, Romans 8: 17. This is the time of suffering.
The “new spirit” in Ezekiel 36: 26 is not the Holy Spirit; it is your spirit; verse 27 refers to God’s Spirit, an additional thought. The former is that part of you which is in direct relation to God; that is what man’s spirit is: “the Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit”, Romans 8: 16. Verse 26 goes with the new birth in John 3 as directly born anew; you are born from top to bottom. The whole moral being is affected; it is not simply something in me, but I am affected. Therefore my spirit is changed. There is nothing that impresses you more than a man’s [p. 414] spirit. It is the answer to Philippians 1: 19: “The supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ”. It is difficult to say that always marks you, because if it did there would be no room for anything else; you would be perfect. “Except any one be born anew”, refers to the whole man; it is from the outset. It is the same word as is used by Luke in chapter 1: 3, from the very first, or “from the origin”. The man is changed; therefore your identity is changed in that you do not recognise the flesh any more. It is not that you have another spirit; you have a new spirit, you are born anew. You are affected in your being by the work of God.
You have the beginning of things in new birth and then the next thing is the Son of man is lifted up. That deals with the “old man”, what I was. Jesus was made sin for us. The serpent of brass was like the thing that sinned, and Jesus was made sin in wondrous grace. All that I was as born in the flesh is dealt with, morally of course, in the Son of man lifted up, and that makes way for God to give the Spirit. It is on the ground of your faith in the lifted-up Son of man that you get the Spirit, not on the ground of being born again, which is the sovereign act of God.
John’s gospel begins at the end of the wilderness journey, because he is dealing with the subject of life. Emphasis is laid on the Spirit. So in Ezekiel 37: 1 we read, “The hand of Jehovah was upon me, and Jehovah carried me out in the Spirit”. It is not simply that Jehovah spoke to him, but that He carried him out in the Spirit. In chapters 3 to 6 of John’s gospel the Lord is dealing with what is entirely spiritual in the great question of life, and many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him, because this subject depends on the Spirit. The Spirit is spoken of more in Ezekiel than in any other prophet. The natural man is shut out.
[p. 415] It is a spiritual matter. The body of the book has reference to the governmental dealings of God, then he comes to this great subject of life, and the Spirit is emphasised.
New birth is not exactly life, because life in Scripture is in power and enjoyment. In Genesis 1 the seed of the fruit is in itself, but the life in it begins to be operative only when it begins to take on from its environment. Now the first feature of the environment in John 3 is in the uplifting of the Son of man. All that lay upon me, the liabilities of my sin, have been dealt with effectively in the uplifted Son of man. It is after you have the Son of man lifted up that faith comes in (verse 15); earlier it is not faith, it is a question of the work of God. God having dealt with me in the death of Christ, there is something to believe. I am not called upon to believe what is wrought in me, but in something outside of me. There is no efficacious faith save by the new spirit. Many believed on Him because of the signs; it was not efficacious faith. Faith does not take account of what is visible, the signs, but of the things that are invisible.
In verse 11 the Lord says: “We speak that which we know”, you are now in the presence of Jesus speaking and testifying. All that is for your faith, and then the next thing is the love of God. That is the next thing in the environment. You are beginning to take on from the environment just as any seed does. It is dependent on the heat of the sun and moisture, and I think all these things are set out in the subsequent teaching of the Lord.
In chapter 4 the living water is introduced, but that is not what you are to believe in. You believe His words, “The words which I have spoken unto you are spirit and are life” (chapter 6: 63). That is, the natural man is completely shut out. Peter says to Him, “To whom shall we go? thou hast words of life eternal”. Peter desired what the Lord had, the words.
When you come to Ezekiel 37 it is “the whole house of Israel” (verse 11), all the land of Israel. Chapters 36 and 37 as applying to christians involve the two parts of John’s gospel. The first dealing with us individually, and the second, beginning at chapter 10, taking account of what is collective.
In the valley in Ezekiel 37: 1 we are able to take account of each other from the standpoint of the sovereign work of God. He works in us and brings us into an entirely new sphere. The assembly on the line of His purpose would answer to that, where all things are of God. The next thing is unity in life. The stick of Ephraim and Judah become one, as it were, in the hand of Christ. It is the most perfect expression of unity you could get, and it is the only way to bring about that unity we all so desire to see. We have the same instincts, and what can He not do? He has a weapon now; He has that by which He can effect things, and in His hand they become one stick. John 10 comes in on that line; the sheep know Him and He knows them, and there is unity in the enjoyment of life; there is one flock. It speaks of a “holy flock” in chapter 36: 38, “As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her set feasts, so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men: and they shall know that I am Jehovah”. That is what we ought to aim at in our fellowship, “flocks of men”. There is another beautiful thought in that chapter. There is “no more the reproach of famine” (verse 30). There is plenty to eat and delight in. In verse 26 you have the preparation, by the work of God, for this new life. If you think of christendom today, you think of spiritual barrenness, the reproach of famine. Now here when God begins to work and life is brought in, there is no more reproach of famine. You will observe the chapter begins with the “Mountains of Israel”, and then all the features of the land are spoken of, so that they should be fit for this new life. God works to bring in these conditions, and then He brings us into them. It says, “I will increase them with men like a flock”. These would be living men, and they are described as a holy flock. There would not be much famine if we were in the good of that. If we expect God to work now, the great thing is to have the conditions of life; He will work if the conditions are there, “Give ye them to eat”, Matthew 14: 16. It is a reproach to us that there should be no food. The Lord’s supper would correspond to the set feasts in verse 38. We come in, in that way, as a holy flock, as outwardly assembled. We come together in assembly to partake of the Supper.
Chapter 37 is collective: “These bones are the whole house of Israel”. The second part of John’s gospel gives the collective side. In chapter 13 the Lord washes their feet. It is to bring out the results of the work of God. He has the assembly in view; it is collective, and therefore in chapter 14 He speaks to the company. As we walk in the light of the assembly we come in for the gain of the Spirit as viewed in that chapter. You realise the good of the Comforter if you keep the Lord’s commandments. It is His operations in the company that supply the conditions of life.
We have referred to the resurrection of Christ in connection with chapter 8, the growth of hair suggesting inherent power as well as external power. This chapter 37 is the resurrection of the people. Romans contemplates the resurrection of Christ as apprehended in the gospel, but in Colossians we read, “In which ye have been also raised with him” (chapter 2: 12). I think of this chapter on that line. Colossians deals with life and our being quickened with Him, not yet raised up as in Ephesians. In the [p. 418] former epistle resurrection is by faith; we take the ground of resurrection because Christ is risen; but quickening is not by faith; we are made to live actually by the Spirit.
What we have arrived at in chapter 37 is very beautiful; they dwell in the land; they have food, there is unity and blessing. Thus you can see how God has wrought. On these lines as saints become spiritual, they come to see what life is.