The Messenger Must be the Embodiment of His Message

T. Austin-Sparks

Now we come back again to the prophecies of Ezekiel. There is a large section of this book with which we shall not be able to deal in detail, so we must find some comprehensive way of dealing with it simply. I think that way will be by looking at the three different titles by which Ezekiel was called. Perhaps you have noticed that in these prophecies Ezekiel has three different titles, and these three titles gather into themselves this large section of the book - (1) "Son of man," (2) "a watchman," (3) "I am your sign."

"Son Of Man."

The first of these three titles is "Son of man." Look at chapters two and three:

And He said unto me, Son of man... (2:1);
And He said unto me, Son of man... (2:3);
And He said unto me, Son of man... (3:1);
And He said unto me, Son of man... (3:3).

And so it goes on right through the book. That is one of the main titles of the prophet. Perhaps you would like to go right through the book and note how many times "Son of man" occurs.

We note then, at the beginning, that this title was peculiar to the Prophet Ezekiel. No other prophet is called by this name in the same way. It marks out Ezekiel in a special way. Now we know that the Lord Jesus chose as His favorite title for Himself, "The Son of Man," but we must not think of Ezekiel in the same way. Ezekiel was unique among the prophets in this title, but Jesus as The Son of Man was unique among all men. So let us be careful not to confuse the two titles "Son of man" and "THE SON OF MAN." If there is any relationship or similarity, it is in the function, and not in the person. That is the matter that we shall now consider.

We have seen that on the Throne above it there was the likeness as of a man, and we have seen that the predominant feature of the cherubims was the man. Therefore, we take note of this place of man in this book; it is a special idea. We also know that man means representation and speech for God. Man is not only a person, he is a Divine idea. There is a man upon the Throne, and while that man is a person, he is not only a person, he is a Divine idea. The idea in God's Mind in creating man was that he should represent God. "Let Us make man after Our Own image, in Our Own likeness." Man is God's fullest thought, and God's final thought.

In the creation God ended with man, and He headed all things up into man. When God has reached such a man, He pronounces His verdict and takes His rest. When He has the man according to His intentions, then He says about everything, "It is very good"; and then God takes His rest. God finds His rest when He has His man according to His Mind.

However, that is not the end of everything. At that point God looks for reproduction. He says to that man: "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth." And the law of creation was that everything should reproduce "after its own kind." Things were never intended to change their form, but everything was given a definite and distinct form. It was a kind of creation, and everything was to reproduce after its kind.

You see, God has made man, and before man has fallen, God says, "Be fruitful, and multiply." God's idea was that unfallen man should multiply, and that unfallen man should fill the earth. But we know that man fell, and the earth was filled with a kind of man that God never intended. Therefore, God put a limit to his life; He fixed the number of his years so that man should not go on indefinitely. I think you see from this that God's idea is a man according to His Own Mind. In a full way, the Lord Jesus was that; therefore, He is "The Son Of Man," and in a sense we can say He was the ONLY Son of Man.

So, the principle of manhood is taken up for the people of God, and that is where Ezekiel comes in. It is not the person, but the function; it is the principle, so that "Son of man" speaks of two things. It means bringing into view God's original thought and pattern. That was a principle that the Lord was wanting to have realized in Israel. Israel is a man in God's eyes, but in this book of Ezekiel Israel is not the man that God intended. In this book Israel is a man which has been marred, and God is moving along the principle of manhood to recover that idea in Israel. Later we shall find that He was unable to do it in Israel as a whole, and He therefore sought to realize it in the remnant. However, the Old Testament closes with this idea as a complete failure in Israel.

When we move into the New Testament, we find ourselves in the presence of the one new man, that is, the corporate man which is the Church. But we are not going on to that this morning, we are just with the principle. In principle, "Son of man" means speaking in relation to an original thought and pattern of God. You have got to recognize that as the key to the whole of these prophecies. What is it all about? What does this whole book mean in all its parts? Well, this title "Son of man" is scattered right over the whole book, and it means that the governing thought of God is this conception of man according to God's Mind. If God sends this collective man into captivity, it means that that man cannot stand before Him any longer. God must have another kind of man. The great illustration of that, of course, is the valley of dry bones - bringing up out of the grave of Babylon a new man with a new heart, and a new spirit.

Now I think that is enough to indicate the meaning of this title. God is moving for the recovery of His original thought. That thought has been lost. This is what Paul meant in speaking to Timothy as the "man of God." His appeal to Timothy was, "O man of God"; that is, God's man - that is what God is after.

We must take this up as to our ministry, and that brings us to this: What are we here for? What is the meaning of our ministry and our work? It is that God may have this corporate man according to His Own Mind. That is the meaning of Ephesians, chapter four:

Until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.

God is working towards this corporate man. We must remember that God's idea is man. I would emphasize that because so many seem to think that God's idea is some organization, some institution, some thing that is called the Church, a way of doing things, a certain teaching - a whole system - and God is not after that. God is not after the Church just as the Church. The object of the Church in God's Mind is that it should be an expression of Christ! The Church is the Body of Christ. It is not a system of teaching. It is not a special form of practice. It is a Man, and it is Christ in corporate expression! We shall come to that later in this book of Ezekiel, but we take up this principle. It is a very important thing for us to recognize the corporate Man!

So this man-principle speaks of three things. First of all, a presentation - God presents His idea, and then a representation of something that expresses that which is presented, and then a declaration, a preaching concerning that. The thing is presented as a Divine thought, and then the thing is represented in a Body, and out of that comes the message.

Now, brethren, have you got those three things? First there is the vision, the Man is presented. You see the Man in the Throne. You get God's idea. God's idea is manhood, manhood of a certain character. From that God has a representation of this something which embodies the idea, and then when God has got that which embodies the idea, there is a message. We must not put it in the other order, preaching it first. We must first of all have seen it, and then there must be an expression of it. There must be that to which we can point and say, "This is it." The message must come out of something that actually exists according to God's Mind.