(Continuing our study from last week, we will explore the topic of righteousness as revealed in the fourth chapter of Ezekiel, a vision that has been unsealed for our admonition in these latter days that we may know what is required to obtain the righteousness of Christ, our only hope of entering the heavenly portals. The long unexplained 430 year prophecy therein is placed in its proper context to reveal the attempts by God to manifest Christ’s Righteousness in the Seventh-day Adventist church and how it will finally be accomplished.)
Ezek. 4:1, 2 — “Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and pourtray upon it the city, even Jerusalem: and lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and cast a mount against it; set the camp also against it, and set battering rams against it round about.”
Here the prophet was commanded to portray a city, a Jerusalem — the capital of the church. This Jerusalem, of course, is not really the geographical Jerusalem, but a city that stands for what Jerusalem itself stood — the Church scattered throughout the “Gentile” nations. Moreover, Ezekiel himself was actually told that this symbolization is concerning the church while scattered among the Gentiles. (See Ezek. 4:13.) Furthermore, Ezekiel is commanded to lay siege against it, to take it! Now, since this Jerusalem stands for the Church while among the Gentiles, and since God commands His own servant, the prophet, to besiege it, to protest against it, and to take it, it is therefore obvious that the Church, the Jerusalem here portrayed, is shown as having been drawn away from God, and that God is endeavoring to rescue her, to effect a reformation in her midst. For such cause, therefore, is Ezekiel’s siege.
Finally, since the Christian church, Jerusalem, away from its original geographical location, was for the first time in history so attacked, or besieged, by Martin Luther — by the Protestant Reformation — the fulfillment of this prophecy obviously commences with Luther. This fact will be seen throughout the chapter as we continue to study it verse by verse.
Ezek. 4:3 — “Moreover take thou unto thee an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city: and set thy face against it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.”
The wall of iron, illustrated by the iron pan, is a perfect symbol of the separation which
existed between Luther and the so-called Jerusalem, the Church. This was to be a sign, not to Judah, the antitypical two-tribe kingdom among the Gentiles but to Israel, to the members of the antitypical ten-tribe kingdom while scattered among the nations.
Ezek. 4:4, 5 — “Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity. For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.”
To lay one’s iniquity upon someone else, is to free the sinner from the penalty which he deserves. It is an act which credits the sinner with “righteousness” which he has not earned, and this is what Inspiration calls “righteousness by grace.” Previously the iniquity of the Jews was laid upon Christ, and the nation was given a chance to step out of her death-cell, so to speak, and to stand free in Christ. Many, but not all, then availed themselves of this “righteousness by grace” and stepped into “righteousness by faith.” This same “grace,” you see, was again offered to the church in the sixteenth century, for to lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon Ezekiel means practically the same as to lay the iniquity of us all upon Christ.
This grace through Ezekiel continues 390 days — years (Ezek. 4:6). After this period of time, the house of Israel, the Protestant churches, bear their own iniquity; that is, after this given period of time runs out, then this extended “grace” ceases and there is to be no other.
Ezekiel then bears their sins no longer. Then is the time in which they must hold fast to “righteousness of faith” if they are to be rewarded with “Christ’s righteousness” and with eternal life.
Ezek. 4:6, 7 — “And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year. Therefore thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and thine arm shall be uncovered, and thou shalt prophesy against it.”
Ezekiel was to lie down on his right side, not only for the iniquity of the house of Israel, but also for the iniquity of the house of Judah and thus bear their iniquity, too, for forty years. And so both houses (the whole of Christendom), are given the same chance, the same opportunity. The one comes first in time, and the other last. Three hundred ninety years of “grace” are given to the former, and 40 years to the latter, a total of 430 years. During this period of time they are to triumph over sin, and at last to attain “righteousness by faith,” and to be rewarded with “the righteousness of Christ.” The exact year in which this period of 430 years begins, we shall see as we continue our study.
Ezek. 4:7, 8 — “Therefore thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and thine arm shall be uncovered, and thou shalt prophesy against it. And, behold, I will lay bands upon thee, and thou shalt not turn thee from one side to another, till thou hast ended the days of thy siege.”
The uncovering of Ezekiel’s arm, of course, means that the might of the Reformation shall be seen, and the sins of Jerusalem shall be laid open — shall be prophesied against.
Moreover, the things spoken of here are sure to take place, for Ezekiel is bound down so that he cannot turn over and change the symbolization. He cannot get up at will, until he has accomplished God’s command, until he has ended the days of his siege. Then in the end of this time he is to arise and from then on let everyone bear his own iniquity. Ezekiel, therefore, while lying down is symbolizing conditions during the Reformation from Luther’s time down to the end of the 430 years. Then Ezekiel arises and is made the watchman: “Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at My mouth, and give them warning from Me.” And since this prophecy is now unfolded for the first time, Ezekiel, obviously, is especially figurative of this final effort of revival and reformation, of the effort after Ezekiel is through lying down and while he is up and active. Consequently, the same effort which Luther put forth in the sixteenth century is to be carried out in a greater way now in the twentieth century, for such is the prophet’s charge.
The difference between the Reformation during the 430 years and the one after, is this: During the 430 years “grace” lingered, whereas after this period of time has run out, and while Ezekiel is up, those who fail to attain to “righteousness by faith” will themselves have to pay the price of their sins. No longer are their sins laid upon Ezekiel, and no longer is Ezekiel lying down and inactive; no longer are they to be excused upon the ground of ignorance after the warning has been sounded in their ears, for Ezekiel is plainly told:
“Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the Word at My mouth, and give them warning from Me. When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul. Again, When a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumblingblock before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless if thou warn the righteous man, that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned; also thou hast delivered thy soul. Ezek. 3:17-21.
Ezek. 4:9-11 — “Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof, according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side, three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof. And thy meat which thou shalt eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time shalt thou eat it. Thou shalt drink also water by measure, the sixth part of an hin: from time to time shalt thou drink.”
The cereals mentioned in Ezek. 4:9 are six in number, and are of course symbolical of spiritual food, the food with which the flock has been fed during the 390 years. Six kinds of cereals not only denote six kinds of truths, doctrines, handed to the flock during the 390 year period, but also denote incompleteness of Truth, for number seven, not six, is the Biblical denotation of completeness. They are consequently the doctrines which the reformers brought in:
(1) The doctrine of faith that made the Lutheran denomination; (2) the doctrine of the Spirit that made the Presbyterian denomination; (3) the doctrine of grace that made the Methodist denomination; (4) the doctrine of baptism that made the Baptist denomination; (5) the doctrine of the second Advent of Christ that made the First-day Adventist; (6) the doctrine of the cleansing of the sanctuary along with the Seventh-day Sabbath that made the Seventh-day Adventists. (All other sects with their additions, omissions, and deductions, have obviously branched from these six denominations.)
One may raise an argument, though only a losing one, over the denominations here named, but one can hardly raise any honest argument against the fact that these six doctrines (cereals) are the main doctrines upon which Protestantism as a whole is built. However, be they these or other doctrines, the truth that they are only six, means that a seventh truth is to be unfolded. Moreover, these truths, says Inspiration, were to be given sparingly, by weight, — not everything that pertains to the subject, — and all Christendom knows that this has been the case.
Ezek. 4:12-15 — “And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out of man, in their sight. And the Lord said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, whither I will drive them. Then said I, Ah Lord God! behold, my soul hath not been polluted: for from my youth up even till now have I not eaten of that which dieth of itself, or is torn in pieces; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth. Then He said unto me, Lo, I have given thee cow’s dung for man’s dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread therewith.”
As the barley cake that smote and ruined the Midianite tent did forecast Divine aid for Gideon’s victory over the Midianites, so the cereals eaten as barley cakes do signify that the truths accepted were as of the Spirit, as of Divine origin. In the preparation of them, though, is where the objectionable part comes in, for Inspiration points out that these were baked on “dung” instead of on wood, emphatically denoting that these truths were defiled by men while being prepared for the flock. And what else could the preparation be but the private additions, omissions, perversions, and misapplications by uninspired men who preach from the pulpits on these subjects, and who write the so-called pure Bible truths and hand them to the people?
There is no mystery in this, for everybody knows that the winds of doctrine blowing from all directions, one contradicting the other, cannot all be pure Bible truth. The only surprising part is that Inspiration foresaw it so long ago, and that no one discovered it before Inspiration Itself did unfold it.
God, of course, is not holding this against anyone, for He says: “Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, whither I will drive them.” Ezek. 4:13.
Thus prophecy declares that such has been the spiritual food with which the flock has been fed for 390 years, the years during the Reformation. And who can deny it? Are we, then, still wondering which denomination is dealing out unadulterated Truth to its members? Prophecy declares that none is, for such was to be the food for all throughout the 390 years! And if they do not get new Heaven-inspired Truth after the 390 years are passed, then they must feed on “dung” baked food forever, and die with it.
This, I say again, should not be a surprise to any, for everyone knows that since all the denominations disagree with one another on the doctrines, they cannot possibly all be right. It may, however, be surprising to know that not even one is absolutely right.
The scarcity of even these man-contaminated truths, prophecy declares, is brought upon the Christian world so that they be “astonied,” that they realize their poverty, their need of an absolute truth, so that when the Spirit of Truth shall come, It shall find a responding chord in the hearts of men, else they be consumed away in their iniquity.” — Timely Greetings, Vol. 2, No. 39, pp. 9-17
{ 0 comments… add one now }