By
Garrick D. Augustus
For so many years the subject of Ezekiel’s Vision recorded in Chapters One, Nine, Ten, and Forty through Forty-eight have eluded Christians—even some of those who display earnest zeal and keen intellect in the study of the Sacred Scriptures. Indeed, from the earliest of times, the Book of Ezekiel was deemed by the Jews—the Cabalistic Pharisees—who came out of the Babylonian captivity, to be such a Book of Mysteries, that a Jew was not allowed to read It until he was 30 years old! See Footnote on Ezekiel 1:5, in the Douay Version of the Bible.
One inspired author, commenting on the Call of the Prophet Ezekiel writes: “The Call of Ezekiel to the Prophetic Office is one of the most interesting experiences of the Ancient Seers, and the revelation of what he saw by the river Chebar is perhaps of greatest importance to Heaven and Earth at this time than is any other Vision on Sacred record, because in a remarkable way it reveals That Which united Heaven and Earth, even as the Dardanelles link two important Seas”. Pre-Eleventh Hour Extra, Page 5.
Ezekiel was among the captives from Jehoiachin’s captivity in the year 599 BC, under the reign of Zedekiah, the Kingdom of Judah was completely destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and his notorious army. This leg of history is of highest interest since Ezekiel informs us of the time he had the various Visions. His first Vision was “by the river Chebar” in the “fifth year of king Jehoiachin’s captivity”. This was in the year 595 BC. Ezekiel’s last Vision was “in the five and twentieth year” of his captivity, which takes us to 594 BC.
In Ezekiel’s Last Vision, we read: “In the five and twentieth year of our captivity, in the beginning of the year, in the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the City was smitten, in the selfsame day, the Hand of the Lord was upon me, and brought me thither. In the of Visions God brought he me into the Land of Israel, and set me upon a very high Mountain, by which was as the frame of a city on the South.
“And he brought me thither, and behold, there was a man whose appearance was like the appearance of BRASS, with a line of flax in His Hand, and a measuring reed; and He stood in the Gate. And the man said unto me, Son of man, behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears, and set thine heart upon all that I shall shew thee; for to the intent that I might shew them unto thee art thou brought thither; declare all that thou seest to the House of Israel. And behold a wall on the outside of the House round about, and in the man’s hand a measuring reed of six cubits long by the cubit and an hand breadth of the building, one reed; and the height, one reed. Then came he unto the Gate which looketh toward the East and went up the stairs thereof; and measured the threshold of the Gate, which was one reed broad; and the other threshold of the Gate, which was one reed broad”. Ezekiel 40:1-6
THAT BRASS-COLORED MAN IS CHRIST
From the nature of the account of this Vision, it is clear that the “man whose appearance was like the appearance of BRASS, with a line of flax in His Hand, and a measuring reed”, standing in the Gate, is none other than the Lord Christ Jesus (Yashua the Messiah). See Daniel 10:5-6; Revelation1:14.
ZION THE CITY OF DAVID
The fact that in this Vision, Ezekiel was transported “into the Land of Israel” shows that the events about which he wrote (Chapters 40 to 48 inclusive) all occur in the Land of Israel…the domain of the Kingdom of Glory in Its infancy.
It should also be noted that Mount Zion is on the southern portion of the Promised Land, the place of ancient king David’s palace grounds. The “high mountain by which was the frame of [the] city” can be nothing less than Mount Zion, the Place of the Palace of the Great King. See Psalm 48:1-4
THE KING OF THE CITY
It is of interest to note that anciently, Zion was known as the “city of David” (2 Chronicles 5:2). In the TYPE, David was the king of God’s own choosing, to preside in Zion’s royal courts. So too in the ANTITYPE, Christ—the Lamb, the King, is seen standing on Mount Zion with the 144,000. See Revelation 14:1; 12 Tract 44. The name ‘David’ means “The Beloved”, and refers to Christ ( See 8 Tract 96).
And since Mount Zion, is the city of ancient David, where more fitting a place for Antitypical David to sit than in the City which bears ancient David’s name, his royal insignia! Who else can bear this insignia than the The Beloved Himself—Christ, the “Majesty [King] of the Universe”—when He visits the Earth, and sits as The King, in Judgment (Matthew 25: 31-46). See also The Dardenelles of the Bible, Page 5 and The Judgment and The Harvest, Page 47.
What can the “measuring reed” in the hand of Christ represent, but the LAW by which all will be judged (‘measured’) during the time of the Judgment for the Living in His Church on Earth? This same Truth is repeated in the Book of Revelation: “ And there was given me a reed like unto a ROD: and the Angel stood, saying, rise, and measure the Temple of God, and [measure] the Altar, and [measure] them that worship therein. But the Court which is without the Temple, leave out, and measure It not: For It is given unto the Gentiles: and the Holy City shall they tread underfoot 42 months”. Revelation 11:1-2.
THE ‘PRINCE’ OF THE PALACE
Special attention should be paid to “the Gate which looketh toward the East” because therein lies the key to understanding the Vision. After describing the details of the Palace (Temple), the Lord speaks of the “Prince” (King) of this Palace: “Then He brought me back the way of the outward Sanctuary which looketh toward the East; and It was shut.
“Then said the Lord unto me: This Gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by It; because the Lord, the God of Israel, hath entered in by It, therefore it shall be shut. It is for the Prince; the Prince, He shall sit in it to eat bread before the Lord; he shall enter by the porch of the Gate, and shall go out by the way of the same”. Ezekiel 44:1-3.
Since “no MAN shall enter in” by “the East” Gate but the “Lord, the God of Israel”, and the fact also that this “Gate” is reserved “for the Prince” Who “shall; enter by the way of the porch of the [East] Gate”, it is clear that both the Prince and the Lord are one and the same Person!
This “Prince”, moreover, is the same Personage alluded to in an earlier Vision given to Ezekiel, wherein the Lord said: “And I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them: I the Lord have spoken it”. Ezekiel 34:24. Indeed, the Gospel Prophet Isaiah also, clearly shows the DUAL NATURE of this God-Prince, when he refers to Him as “the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father”, and in the same breath, also, as the “Prince of Peace”! See Isaiah 9:6 Mystery of Mysteries! Wonder of divine Love! “Unto US a Son is GIVEN” (Ibid)
That God would take the form of a human being and retain that human FORM, and continue to intervene in the affairs of finite humanity as ”God with US” (Matthew 1:23) in that human form; yea being forever “US”, all through eternity, is a mystery that no finite mind can fathom. Indeed, this will be the study of the redeemed through the ceaseless ages of eternity! See Desire of Ages, Pages 25.
Those who are truly “David’s Followers” (8 tract 56) are encouraged and strengthened, and unbelievers are left dumbfounded when they realize that the “Lord God of Israel” is a SERVANT of His People—the “servant David”, the “Prince” of the Palace on Mount Zion!
The carnal, unregenerate, Babylonian mind cannot fathom such a One as God, because, to the Babylonians, anciently, as well as in our day, “The gods…dwelling is not with flesh” (Daniel 2:11). To the Babylonian mind, God is not only invisible, but so far removed from us, that the Prophecy: “Sing and rejoice, O Daughter of Zion: for lo, I come , and I will dwell in the midst of thee” (Zech. 2:10), does not mean what it says—that God WILL COME and LITERALLY DWELL (reign) in the midst of His People. To the Babylonian mind, it is impossible for the Scriptures to really mean what they say in this regard because to him, God’s “dwelling is NOT with flesh” (Daniel 2:11)—there is no such thing as God becoming flesh, and dwelling “with US”.
GOD’S REPRESENTATIVE?
Babylonian theologians therefore teach that since God is so far removed form us, then humankind must have someone in the PLACE of God, to represent Him—a visible representative, a Viceroy (Vicar), a visible king on Earth. Such is the teaching of the most powerful CULT in our day—The Roman Catholic Church, the lineal descendant of ancient Babylon’s Mystery Religion.
It was this hellish doctrine which the Pharisees brought with them from Babylon, which caused the Jews to reject Christ as the Messiah, because He claimed to be God in the flesh.
And wherever such a teaching is found, whether in the fallen Protestant Churches or among professed “Reformers” in our day (who are still struggling with this lingering vestige of the religion of Mystery Babylon), this teaching must be identified and called for what it is—Babylonish and ANTI-CHRISTIAN. See 1 John 4:1-3; 2 John 7.
JESUS USUALLY TALKS ABOUT
HIMSELF PROPHETICALLY IN THE
THIRD PERSON!
One fundamental feature of the Prophetic Scriptures is that the very One (Jesus) Who indicted the Scriptures, speaking in Them, through His Prophets, usually speaks about HIMSELF, grammatically, I the third person. This is a hallmark of Holy Writ which many Bible Students have over-looked, and consequently fallen into the snare of the Babylonish, anti-Christian doctrine of the redeemed servant-king to be enthroned as ruler over God’s People. Because Jesus Himself speaks in the third person in Ezekiel 37:24 about someone (“David My servant”) to reign as king over His People, It is difficult for those who approach the study of the Bible with a Babylonish mind-set to grasp the Truth that Jesus is here speaking about HIMSELF. This Truth can be illustrated even plainer in other Scriptures. For example, in Isaiah we read: (1) “Behold My servant, whom I uphold; Mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth. I have put My Spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles….A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto the Truth”. Isaiah 42:1-3. See also Matthew 12:18-20, where Matthew definitely applies this Prophecy to Christ.
(2). “He shall see the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied; by his knowledge shall My righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities”. No keen and honest Bible Student would fail to see that Christ, in the above Scriptures is speaking about HIMSELF as if he is speaking about a third person (“My servant”), yet when confronted with a similar situation as is found in Ezekiel 37:24, many fail to see this same principle. The religion of Mystery Babylon has had such a lasting impact upon such minds, that they CANNOT reconcile the two. See Romans 8:7
THE ‘PRINCE’ LIGHTENS THE EARTH WITH HIS GLORY!
“Afterward he brought me to the gate, even the gate that looketh toward the east: And behold, the Glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east: and His Voice was like the Vision which I saw when I came to destroy the City: and the Visions were like the Vision that I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell upon my face. And the Glory of the Lord came into the house by the way of the Gate whose prospect is toward the east. So the Spirit took me up, and brought me into the inner Court, and behold, the Glory of the Lord filled the house. Ezekiel 43:1-4
Once again, it can be further seen that as “the Gate that looketh toward the east” is reserved for the LORD, and as in Chapter 44 “no man” but the LORD is to enter through it, here is seen again that the ‘PRINCE’ is coequal with the LORD—they are one and the same Person! It should be especially noted too that it is at this time that “the EARTH’ shines with “HIS GLORY”. This is a direct fulfillment of the Loud Cry Prophecy: “And…I saw another Angel come down from Heaven, having great Power; and the EARTH was lightened with HIS GLORY”. Revelation 18:1
As Ezekiel states that “David my servant shall be king” and “My servant David shall be…prince” (Ezekiel 37:24, 25), it can be clearly seen that the words ”king” and “prince” are used interchangeably. This must be so, otherwise one would have to split the Prophecy into antitypical David the “king” and antitypical David the “prince”—an unscriptural endeavor.
REPUDIATION OF DEAD MEN
AS KINGS PREREQUISITE TO
THE LORD’S DWELLING WITH US!
In a most unequivocal manner, the Lord told Ezekiel that He will reclaim His rightful “place” as King, and sit and reign over His People as soon as His people totally repudiate the idea of men as kings (especially the dead ones—the ‘carcasses’) when He declared: “Son of man, the place of My Feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children for ever, and My Holy Name shall the House of Israel no more defile, neither they nor their kings, by their whoredom, nor by the carcasses of their kings in their high places. In their setting of their threshold by My thresholds, and their post by My posts, and the wall between me and them, they have even defiled MY Holy Name by their abominations that they have committed: wherefore I have consumed them in mine anger. Now let them put away their whoredom, and the carcasses of their kings, far from me, and I will dwell in the midst of them forever”. Ezekiel 43:7-9
The presumption to aspire to the Throne of the Eternal One, “setting their threshold by My threshold, and their post by My post” is the very spirit of the Papacy and that of Lucifer, (the first pretender to the Throne) who has always aspired to be equal with God.
It was from the carnal mind of Lucifer that prompted Israel to seek a mere man to be king over them, and thus, the Lord “gave [them] a king in [His] Anger and took him away in [His] Wrath” (Hosea 13:11), just as he acceded to their wish for flesh, and in His Anger gave them quails to satisfy their gluttony which also brought upon them the wrath of God”. Read numbers chapter 11. Such will be the end of those today who have not yet learned from Israel’s sad history of rejecting God’s Ways. A king will be given in accordance with their carnal hearts, but the retribution of the Wrath of God will also follow for this rebellion against Heaven—the “STRONG DELUSION” (2 Thess. 2:11)—the false human king, anti-Christ will be unleashed upon the world, and all those who have rejected God will have a taste of hell before God finally destroys them (beginning with Ezekiel 9).
THE LORD’S FINAL PLEA
In His final plea with His People today is: “Now let them put away their whoredom, and the carcasses of their kings, far from Me, and I will dwell in the midst of them forever”. The idea, you see, of a human king is actually the main reason Zechariah 2:10 has not been fulfilled! It cannot be over emphasized, that the Lord Jesus yearns to come and PERSONALLY reign over His People, but there is a “LET”, and obstruction,a hindrance—men appointing THEMSELVES or their friends as kings, or even worse, appointing as king the “carcasses” of those who are already in their graves! What “cabalistic mysticism”, utter blasphemy—pretenders to the Throne of Yahweh!
To those who are ensnared by the heresy of this doctrine which comes straight from the pit of hell, much Grace still abounds for the saving of the soul. The God of Israel has given a most glorious Promise if only His People today will ‘repair the breach’ that Ancient Israel made when they rejected God as their King. That Promise is the opportunity to see the Kingdom established, with all that pertains to it, for He says He will “shew [us] the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the laws thereof”. Ezekiel 43:11. But to show us “the goings out” and the “comings in” is to reveal to us Who is the “Prince” (King) of this kingdom really is, since the Scriptures tell us it is He [Who] shall ENTER [in] by the way of the Porch of the Gate, and shall GO OUT by the way of the same”—the entrance that “looketh toward the East”. Ezekiel 44:1-3. Can we now see the reason for the “East Gate” as recorded in Ezekiel Chapter Ten, after the Sealing Angel has made his Report? It signifies that Jesus will descend to earth to purify His Church, and simultaneously set up His Kingdom!
And the fact that when the Kingdom is established, “the name of the City from that day shall be, “THE LORD IS THERE”, proves that He has not always hitherto been literally here on Earth, and He will then actually, and fully TAKE “the reins in His Own Hands” (T.M. 300), to sit “upon the Throne of David…to order and establish His Kingdom with judgment and with justice from henceforth even FOREVER” Isaiah 9:7; Daniel 2:44; Luke 1:32).
“Even so come Lord Jesus”. Revelation 22:20