IN the trust that the Lord will, for His own name’s sake, give me much reverence of spirit while treading upon such holy ground, I would give forth to the Church what I believe to be a true, though feeble and imperfect, interpretation of the awful yet beautiful vision described by the prophet Ezekiel (chapters 1 & 10), and its connection with every other revelation of visible glory recorded in Scripture. It is not, however, with the desire of producing a skillful interpretation, by which the mind might be amused or interested, that I do so, but because it is clear to me that it involves most important principles both of judgment and conduct; and, if rightly understood, would enable many a saint to detect error and darkness in his path, and to turn from that which is set aside, by the verdict of God, for dishonor and death, “ to see this great sight,”-so often partially, but so soon to be completely and perfectly revealed, as it is written, “ The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it” (Isa. 40;5).
The renewed, and, therefore, emboldened spirit of the saint is called into present intimacy with this glory; not only the moral glory made known to us in the face of the Lord Jesus, but the grandeur, holiness, and majesty soon to be revealed to sight; for “ God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit, for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God” (1 Corinthians 2;10-12); and it is, indeed, one of the special acts of “ the Comforter” “ to take of the things of Christ” (the things concerning His glory, for He saith, “ All things that the Father hath are mine”), “ and show them unto us,—to show us things to come” (John 16;13-15).
Al! serious thought of God’s glory is painful to the flesh; for “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all;” whereas the flesh is but darkness, and in it is no light at all; and light and darkness cannot meet in fellowship. “Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty,” is His name and character; whereas we “are carnal and sold under sin.” Might, power, and majesty belong unto God; “all flesh is grass, and the glory of it as the flower of the field;” for the sun of God’s glory is “no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth” (James 1:1111For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways. (James 1:11)). The new creature in Christ Jesus can alone have fellowship with it,—the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus can alone enable us to gaze on it with an undimmed eye, and with a happy and fearless heart.
Thus the glory of the Lord was made known to Daniel (Daniel 10): “His body was like beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in color to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude;” and the effect on him is thus described by himself: “ There remained no strength in me; for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength.” The hand of the Lord then touches him, and he is set first upon his knees, and then upright; but still “ he stood trembling, and set his face toward the ground and stood dumb;” but when the voice of the Lord was heard in grace, saying, “ O man! greatly beloved, fear not, be strong; peace be unto thee, be strong, yea, be strong,” the ready answer is, “ Let my Lord speak, for thou hast strengthened me.”
In the vision of similar glory given to Isaiah (Isaiah 6) we see the same results: “I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and hid train filled the temple; above it stood the Seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God of Hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory;” then he said, “Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts!” But when the living coal from the altar had touched his lips with the blessed word, “Thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin is purged;” he was prompt to answer the Lord’s call of “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” by “Here am I, send me.”
At mount Tabor, when the glory of the kingdom was revealed in the person of its King, who was transfigured before His, disciples, and that “visage which was marred more than that of any man,” did shine as the sun, and His raiment became white as the light, and the majesty of the voice of God was heard, “they fell on their faces, and were sore afraid;” and in after days, when the glory of the same Lord was revealed yet more distinctly to one of those very disciples, “ he fell at his feet as dead”(Revelation 1:13-1813And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. 14His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; 15And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. 16And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. 17And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: 18I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. (Revelation 1:13‑18)). But, as at Tabor, Jesus had touched them, and said, “ Arise, be not afraid;” so also at Patmos, He laid His right hand on John, saying, “Fear not; I am the first, and the last: I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death:” and thus strengthened, he could give heed to the voice “ as the sound of many waters,” in collectedness and joy of spirit, and bear away the messages of love and warning to the Churches: and yet more, when the voice of the trumpet called him up to heaven, “immediately he was in the Spirit,” and so could stand beside the dazzling throne before which the elders bowed, either to weep or to rejoice, in fellowship of heart with all that was revealed there. He was in the Spirit, and that glory is the Spirit’s home.
In the vision before us (Ezekiel 1) this is repeated.
“This,” says the prophet, “ was the appearance of the likeness of the Lord, and when I saw it I fell upon my face;” but the voice that spoke to him said, “ Stand upon thy feet, and I will speak to thee, and the Spirit entered into me when he spake unto me, and set me upon my feet.”
The knowledge of God’s glory, then, is answered thus by man. All he may have boasted in as comeliness in the flesh is turned to corruption; he learns by it his own weakness, poverty, and uncleanness; he is cast into the dust, and can only say with a trembling heart, “ I have heard of thee with the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth thee, wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42: 6). But herein may we rejoice, that grace can then come with its message of joy “to fill the hungry and empty with good things,” to set us upon our feet, that we may have fellowship with the glory which has humbled us.
The visions made to Isaiah and Ezekiel, which cast them to the dust as men, and taught them to know in power the solemn truth, “ All flesh is as grass,” became graven within them; and out of their trembling yet strengthened hearts came forth those mighty utterances of everlasting truth which were the bringing in of all they had seen to bear in destruction upon the pride of Israel and the nations, and the declaration of the triumphs of the grace they had known; “ For as truly as I live, saith the Lord, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord” (Numbers 14: 21).
Daniel was strengthened to tell the burthen of sorrow and then of joy which remained to his own people; and John (the Church’s Daniel) was the messenger of all that eventful tale of woe, and yet of surpassing triumph, which was to be the history of the Bride of the Lamb, from the day of His absence till they are crowned together “ in the day of his espousals, and the day of the gladness of his heart.”
If, therefore, the flesh has still vigor for its own pursuits, if the world has still power to charm us, defiled as it is, is it not because we have not yet seen, or that we abide not in the glory of God’s presence? When the prophets saw these wonders, surely they needed nothing else, except as they could use in service to the glory they had seen. When John had seen the throne and Him that sat on it, and had heard the harpers and the new song of the Lamb’s exaltation, what was earth to him? Surely nothing, save as the place of his tribulation and patience; and this is the privilege of every saint, to know that glory in spirit, and by judging all present things in the light of its permanent and surpassing excellence, to be enabled “ to count them but dung;” so that not only flesh should lose its comeliness in our eyes, however naturally attractive, but all that is adapted to it, “ the lust of the eye and the pride of life”-all that the “god of this world” has to give, to keep the heart away from God, should be turned into corruption before us; for this is the sure portion of it all; all, all that is of man, when the glory of the throne of the Lamb breaks in upon this sinful world, when its utmost beauty, “the grace of the fashion of it,” will wither and fade before the burning radiance of the light of God’s glory in the face of His Son, —then shining as the sun in its strength.
In the unfeigned hope that many will enter into the truth of these prefatory remarks, by having communion with the revelations themselves, through the Spirit, I would go on to the explanation of that in Ezekiel, as the representation of the presence of God in administrative government on earth, and therefore never revealed, indeed never existing, till a fit place had been raised for His presence among His own separated people.
Jehovah had called Abraham to Himself, and watched over him with tender care; He was equally the God of Isaac and Jacob, and His eye was never removed from their circumcised children; but until His arm was raised in power for their rescue out of Egypt, He had never been openly declared to the heathen as their Guardian. As far as the world could discern it, there was no evidence of God’s direct interference with anything on earth till then, except in judgment. It was true that the cry of Israel in their bondage had risen up unto Him, and He had not ceased to remember His covenant with their fathers; and “ He looked upon them, and had respect unto them:” but the world cared not for that; it knows God only in His acts; and until they were seen in judgments upon Egypt, neither His love for Israel nor His faithfulness to His promises were known or regarded. Israel’s deliverance was, however, to make God known; and so “ That ye may know that I am the Lord,” was the message to Pharaoh: and further, they were delivered into a condition, in which, as separate to Him, God might exhibit Himself, through them, to the world; and so they were led forth by the glory of the Lord into liberty in the wilderness, that the glory might eventually dwell among them in the nearest fellowship. The cloud and fire went before them to the mount of God in the wilderness; and there Jehovah came near unto them, and spoke unto them, but they could not then bear Him so near unto them; and they said unto Moses, “ Speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die,”—for they were dismayed by the glory of His presence. But God answered their weakness in mercy; “and the law was ordained in the hands of a Mediator” (Galatians 3: 19). The sacrifices were also immediately appointed, as typically foreshadowing the love of God in setting apart a sinless substitute for man’s sin, and the holiness of God finding no answer in man, but in His death. The tabernacle erected for God’s dwelling place, was sanctified for Him also by the sprinkling of blood; and then it is said, “ There will I meet you to speak there unto thee; and there will I meet the children of Israel, and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory, and I will dwell among the children of Israel, and be their God” (Exodus 29: 42-45). The gradual approach of man to his God to be blessed, and God to man to make him a blessing, may be distinctly traced in what follows, in accordance with this declared intention of the Lord.
The presence or visible glory of Jehovah was either accompanied or surrounded by a cloud; and this cloud was the sure token of His presence, enfolded, as it were, within it, or very near to it. It was first made visible to Israel as guiding them on to the Red Sea, and through it (Exodus 13: 20-22 14: 19, 20, 24), —as their rereward also in their danger, and out of which it is declared the Lord looked when He troubled the host of the Egyptians. The glory itself is noted as first made visible to them when the manna was given (Exodus 16: 10); yet still afar of, though hovering round them, and leading them on; but it was not until the event before stated had taken place, where the cloud rests on the mountain, and the people are led to the foot of it, that they learn what man is slow to learn, that “ our God is a consuming fire,” and that all flesh must be destroyed by His presence; the scene described there is man’s humiliation before the holiness of God, as I have before briefly shown in the history of the prophets, and man’s only answer to that holiness in God’s own gift of love, the blood of the holy victim (Exodus 24: 6-8 Hebrews 9: 18, 19); and then, as sanctified by that blood, boldness of access to the glory which had but just caused them “ exceedingly to fear and quake.” Before the shedding of the blood sprinkled upon the altar and the people, none dare touch the mountain (Hebrews 12: 20, 21); but after this “ went up Moses, Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the Elders of Israel; and they saw the God of Israel, and there was under His feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in clearness;” and as the evidence of their boldness in His presence, it is said, “And upon the nobles of the children of Israel He laid not His hand, also they saw God, and did eat and drink.” And into yet nearer access was the typical mediator called; for he was folded up in the cloud with the glory of the Lord as it, which the cloud covered six days, “and the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the children of Israel.” It was this glory, thus for the first time described to us, that afterward came yet nearer to all the people dwelling in the midst of the camp of Israel; at times visible to all Israel, but always, until grieved away by their sin, dwelling between the cherubim in the most holy place in the golden Tabernacle, to be consulted by the anointed high priest as the channel of God’s wisdom and love to Israel. The cloud was always visible to all Israel, as hovering over the camp by day and by night in the wilderness, as the sign of God’s presence within the tabernacle; but when the glory was grieved away, as though it were the chariot of the Lord, it enfolded the glory and hid it, and rolled away at the bidding of Him who was within it. Its first entrance into the camp of Israel, as its dwelling-place, is recorded in Exodus 40: 33-35 after the golden mercy-seat, or propitiatory, is set up, the priests cleansed and anointed, “according to all that the Lord commanded Moses, and so Moses had finished the work.” The cloud then covers the tent of the congregation:— “And the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle, and Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation.” And then again, after the cleansing of the people (Leviticus 9: 23, 24), when “the glory of the Lord appeared unto all the people, and there came a fire from before the Lord, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat, which, when all the people saw, they shouted and fell upon their faces.”
In this consisted the strength and value of Israel, that they were thus made, as a people, a vessel unto honor, sanctified to contain the treasure of God’s glory; their high and holy prerogative was the fulfillment of the promise;— “I will dwell among you, and walk among you; and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people.” And it was in the understanding of this, that Moses pleaded so earnestly” If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence; for wherein shall it be known here, that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? is it not that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth” (Exodus 33). When Abraham was called out to receive the promises of God, it was said to, him by the Lord, “I will bless thee, and make thy name great;” but to this was added, “ and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blest;” this has clearly never been fulfilled in Abraham personally, nor indeed in his seed, whether natural or spiritual; but surely it will be (for the gifts and callings of God are without repentance) when they are able to sustain the glory of God’s abiding presence, that He may act through them in blessing to others; to this was Israel called in the manner I have shown; they were chosen out of the nations, and set on high, not only to be blessed by their own happiness in the favor of God, but to carry about with them in the wilderness the golden tabernacle, and its holy and gracious inhabitant; and afterward in the land of their rest, to have His presence ever with them in the “ exceeding magnified temple,” and so to exhibit the blessing of His presence to the world, that all nations might turn to Him from their gods of wood and stone, as it is written, “ My house shall be a house of prayer for all nations;” and in this they failed, for they sinned, and the glory departed, and the vessel was broken. To the same place, though in a far higher sense, is the mysterious and spiritual Israel called (1 Corinthians 3: 16, 17; 2 Corinthians 6: 16). And the day is not far distant, when it will be seen to be true in both, in the triumph of God’s grace and power, for “the Scripture cannot be broken.”
After the Lord had thus taken His place in the midst of His people Israel, His name and character were of course developed according to the circumstances that called them forth. In their journeying through the wilderness, He was known as their Guide and Shepherd, though oftentimes smiting them in righteousness, and turning away from them in sorrow. All the glory afterward unfolded, and yet to be more fully so, was doubtless always in the cloud which declared His presence, for “He is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever.”— “The I AM,”— “The Lord God Almighty, which is, which was, and which is to come.” But every event in Israel’s history brought forth in broader and more distinct features, His attributes and His purposes. Thus in tracing Israel’s perplexing history of that day, we see Him as their Shepherd opening heaven for their food, when earth was barren, and bearing them on eagles’ wings in His love; yet we shall see, too, how often He hid His face from them in wrath, and how constantly He was thrown upon the remembrance of His own covenant; though for the fathers’ sakes He never left them, but always went before them. The glory, however, soon departed from the tabernacle to the cloud: and in every instance, I believe, where He exercises wrath against them, the glory is seen coming, not from the tabernacle, but the cloud, as though fie had been previously grieved, and driven from the place He desired to dwell in, by their sin; and only continued with them in long-suffering till He was provoked by their rebellion to vindicate His holy name, as still present with them, by chastisement and judgment. “But he, being full of compassion, destroyed them not; yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath; he remembered that they were but dust, a wind that passeth away and cometh not again” (Psalms 78; 38; 39).
When coming into the land, the glory of the Lord takes the part, seen soon after by Joshua, and made known to him in these words, “Nay, but as Captain of the Lord’s host am I come” (Joshua 6;14). The changed circumstances of Israel revealed the Lord, not any longer as the tender and vigilant Shepherd only, but as the “Lord mighty in battle.” Having “rolled away the reproach” of His people in circumcision by the banks of the Jordan; having sealed in this sign His own gracious forgetfulness of the forty years’ sin and shame, He leads them on to victory. The overflowing waters of Jordan stand up in a heap, and are still till the glory moves on—the proud walls of Jericho fall before it, “ for the ark of the Lord compassed the city;” and though grieved and driven away by the sin of Achan, as promptly returns at the cry of repentant Israel; and all the might of. Canaan is quickly subdued in righteousness, by the power of the glory of the Lord dwelling in the midst of His consecrated people.
After the death of Joshua, they served the gods of the nations; though in remembrance of His covenant, the glory still continued among them in long-suffering and sorrow, yet was Israel subjected, for their sin, to the nations which had been so easily subdued by them while they were walking in obedience; but as the glory still “ dwelt among them,” whenever they cried unto the Lord in penitence, He arose in their behalf, and “ delivered them out of the hand of all their enemies.” It was not till the iniquity of the priesthood had polluted the sanctuary, and that even this was undegraded by Israel, except as oppressive to themselves (1 Samuel 2), and little cared for by those who feared Him, that “ He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men, and delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy’s hands” (Psalms 78: 60;61), and “Ichabod” was written upon Israel (1 Samuel 4: 21;22).
(To be continued.)