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Testimonies for the Church Volume 5
This vision was given to Ezekiel at a time when his mind was
filled with gloomy forebodings. He saw the land of his fathers lying
desolate. The city that was once full of people was no longer inhabited.
The voice of mirth and the song of praise were no more heard within
her walls. The prophet himself was a stranger in a strange land, where
boundless ambition and savage cruelty reigned supreme. That which
he saw and heard of human tyranny and wrong distressed his soul,
and he mourned bitterly day and night. But the wonderful symbols
presented before him beside the river Chebar revealed an overruling
power mightier than that of earthly rulers. Above the proud and cruel
monarchs of Assyria and Babylon the God of mercy and truth was
enthroned.
The wheellike complications that appeared to the prophet to be
involved in such confusion were under the guidance of an infinite
hand. The Spirit of God, revealed to him as moving and directing
these wheels, brought harmony out of confusion; so the whole world
was under His control. Myriads of glorified beings were ready at His
word to overrule the power and policy of evil men, and bring good to
His faithful ones.
In like manner, when God was about to open to the beloved John
the history of the church for future ages, He gave him an assurance of
the Saviour’s interest and care for His people by revealing to him “One
like unto the Son of man,” walking among the candlesticks, which
symbolized the seven churches. While John was shown the last great
struggles of the church with earthly powers, he was also permitted
to behold the final victory and deliverance of the faithful. He saw
the church brought into deadly conflict with the beast and his image,
and the worship of that beast enforced on pain of death. But looking
beyond the smoke and din of the battle, he beheld a company upon
Mount Zion with the Lamb, having, instead of the mark of the beast,
the “Father’s name written in their foreheads.” And again he saw “them
that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over
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his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass,
having the harps of God” and singing the song of Moses and the Lamb.
These lessons are for our benefit. We need to stay our faith upon
God, for there is just before us a time that will try men’s souls. Christ,
upon the Mount of Olives, rehearsed the fearful judgments that were
to precede His second coming: “Ye shall hear of wars and rumors of