In the twenty-fifth year of our captivity, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city was struck down, on that same day the hand of Jehovah was upon me, and He brought me there. / In the visions of God He brought me into the land of Israel and set me down upon a very high mountain, and on it to the south there was a structure like a city. / And He brought me there, and there was a man, whose appearance was like the appearance of bronze, with a line of flax and a measuring reed in His hand, standing in the gate. (Ezek. 40:1-3)
Have you ever sat down to pray only to find you talking to the air in an empty room? In that silence, you’ll find somehow the self is louder than ever. If you wait, there is a searching, burning judgment that comes. It is moving “to and fro” in your being. And as it moves, it burns. It is a bright fire. “Less of self and more of Thee!” This bright fire illuminates. It makes us torches. It shines in and shines out. Darkness fades away. A moving that happened first within you is now a great wheel, seen with the clarity of a crystal sky above.
This is the story hidden in Ezekiel. We are experiencing a conversation of God in man and man in God in time and space: four living creatures (1:5), a holy habitation. In chapter 40, we see the Lord—as a man of bronze (v. 3)—and Ezekiel—matured through twenty years of spiritual experiences—have a private dialogue in a vision (vv. 2-4). This vision begins not only in a very specific timing, but also in a very specific place: “And He brought me there.”
Where is “there?” This “there” is somewhere very high: a mountain signifying resurrection and ascension (v. 2). As Bible readers know, from chapters 40 to 48, Jehovah reveals a blueprint of God’s temple to Ezekiel—a vision that is not given at the beginning of the book, but twenty years after Ezekiel had come to a mature age for serving. As a fifty-year-old man, Ezekiel was brought to this certain high mountain to meet with the Lord to receive a special vision; he could receive something even closer to God’s heart’s desire than when he was thirty years old.
In this chapter, God shows and measures the whole building in a very detailed way with Ezekiel. It looks like two men walking through, measuring windows, porticos, gates and doors. But such measurements show a deep understanding of what the Lord wants for His house, His church, which is His body expressed on the earth today. Such a building can be measured out as a blueprint so that Ezekiel has a way to serve God’s heart’s desire.
Those who have ever gone to prayer to talk with the Lord in a private and direct way know this scenario. When we go to our room, close our door, and kneel down before the Lord, something transportative happens. Ezekiel and Jehovah apparently are two persons, but in this conversation, they are one. We, too, find ourselves in the book of Ezekiel — close to the Lord, even one with Him. In our prayer, isn’t such a man standing at the gate? Aren’t we, too, being measured? If we truly apply the Bible in our daily life, we should be very familiar with this person with the appearance of bronze with a line of flax and a measuring reed in His hand (v. 3). As God shows us the precise measurements (vv. 3, 5), His measuring is a divine examination, judgment, and possession (Ezek. 43:7). And as He brings us through in this tangible one-on-one conversation, our life is anchored, no longer on fluctuating feelings, but on the unshakeable reality of His house.
What, then, is the outcome of this mountain-peak experience? At this height, with a 360-degree vantage point in our spirit, far above our natural circumstances and Babylonian captivity, He reveals something precious to us. The more we speak with God about His house, the more we know how to carry out the serving around us. From measurements to patterns, we should go on to “describe the house” and “measure the pattern” to the people in the church life. Mature serving ones who know God intimately know that when the Lord speaks with us personally in prayer, He shows us picture after picture, vision after vision, with specific detail about a saint, a burden, or an issue. Thus God imparts into us His standards, His measurements, His thresholds related to this divine and human house of God. He dialogues with us in order to give us that blueprint of His ultimate building work: “…set your heart on all that I show you, because for this purpose you have been brought here, that it may be shown to you. Tell all that you see to the house of Israel” (v. 4). From this height, we have clarity and perspective, and what we see, we declare!
At the end of this book, in chapter 47, we are brought back to the entrance to find a flowing river (Ezek. 47:1). This flow of water runs out from the threshold of the house, and it flows to us first. We are led through it. The same One who measured the house is the One who leads us through it, ankle-deep, then knee-deep, then to the loins, until there is water to swim in. And this flow empowers, strengthens, and heals us (v. 9). It makes us the first glad participants of this salvation as a mighty flow. It makes us the ministers of His heart’s desire, serving with maturity and walking and dialoguing with Him in our spirit, serving His builded church unto His satisfaction. This is the proper result of our “mountaintop” experiences! Serving the house is that glad overflow of our intimate dialogue with the Lord. And as we are matured, lifted up, revived, we are ultimately strengthened to behold and to handle the most precious vision: the builded church, God’s dwelling.
(Above are notes of fellowship taken from a gathering on 9/6/2026, not reviewed by the speaker.)