The Simple Answers… To Life’s Most Important Questions.
Bible Study Course Lesson 10 – 5
We don’t talk about it as much these days, since it’s taken for granted – but here it needs to be mentioned again: the key to Bible study is to merge and harmonize all the verses on a subject. Revelation was not just given to John; a very similar revelation was also given to Daniel.
Another similar vision was given to Ezekiel, to Isaiah, to Moses; all of these men saw pieces of the truth, and all of them wrote it down as they understood it; and it’s up to us to rightly divide, and rightly merge, the word of God.
Today’s case in point is the four beasts of Revelation 4:6-9. As has been said, this vision is meant to be a symbol – there is no actual creature that literally has eyes all over its wings, and for that matter, what possible use could six wings be in heaven where there is no air?
FOUR FACES
The word “beast” is slightly misleading, what it really says is “creatures”. These creatures happen to look like various beasts – Lion, Ox, Man, and Eagle, to be precise – but they are clearly angels, which you can confirm by comparing the number of wings with the Seraphim (“Fiery angels”) in Isaiah 6:2.
Now the word Seraphim, here left untranslated, is the only time this word is applied to angels. Elsewhere, like Numbers 21:6-8, the word is translated “fiery” or “fiery serpent” (from the tendency of the bite of a viper to burn like fire). However, the word itself simply means “burning thing”.
Which of course fits angels quite well (Hebrews 1:7), as they are described in Ezekiel 1:5-13 – which brings us back to the four beasts in Revelation, as once again we have a description of these “fiery flying creatures”, who again exhibit the same four faces as in Revelation.
One difference though – in Revelation, he sees four different creatures, each with their own face. But Ezekiel sees four identical creatures, each with all four faces. How would that work? Which face speaks? Which one eats? So these nutty visions are meant to be just that – visions (Ezekiel 1:1).
But more to the point… two slightly-different versions of the same vision. Since both must be true, and since it’s hard to imagine there are two different kinds of symbolic creatures which are so similar, somehow we must reconcile how Ezekiel and John could disagree on such a basic detail.
And it’s actually surprisingly easy, and the key is Ezekiel 1:12. These angels do not turn their bodies when they move – each face remains fixed towards a certain point of the compass. Exodus 25:20 confirms that one of the faces always looks towards God’s throne.
Now this means if you were standing in front of the throne of God, you would see the front, left, right, and back side of each creature. Thus, it would appear to be four unique creatures, each with a different face… from your perspective.
But John was simply standing in one place, and the throne of God was not in motion in Revelation 4-5; however, in Ezekiel the throne was approaching Ezekiel (Ezekiel 1:4), and very much in motion (Ezekiel 1:14), which allowed Ezekiel to see the same scene from all angles, and thus to confirm that each beast had all four faces.
So the discrepancy is simply a matter of perspective; what both writers saw was true – from their point of view. And yet neither writer saw the whole truth – which is what we’re going to try to uncover today.
YOU’RE FOURFACED TOO
Ezekiel 1:10 goes into considerable detail as to which face looked which direction; but it didn’t tell us which face turned towards God. Now knowing that this was symbolic, and not meant to be understood as real… what would God be trying to tell us?
What does it mean to show a certain face to someone? Our language has words like “two-faced”, which means a person who is nice to your face, but mean behind your back; so it’s not hard to understand that these faces are meant to illustrate how these beasts interact with others.
We all have masks we wear. There’s one face we use talking to our mother, another face talking to a boss, another to a customer, and another to a waitress (and still another to a FedEx driver). To be sure, these faces don’t physically change to the extent that a bird is different from a cow, yet nonetheless each of these faces and the attitudes behind them change quite visibly.
So to understand the faces of the beasts, just think about the relationships angels have to us, to God, and to each other. To God, they are messengers. And of these four creatures, which would you choose to carry messages? (Ecclesiastes 10:20).
Thus it’s perfectly logical why God “sees” them as His birds – though some are good birds and some are bad birds (Revelation 18:2). You can also see this by comparing Matthew 13:4 and verse Matthew 13:19 This is a symbol God uses repeatedly, that will help us unlock a lot of cool stuff in time: birds represent angels.
For instance, in Job 28:7, 20-23, we see that neither the “good” birds nor the “vultures” (foul and hateful birds) understand the path of righteousness. The way of Wisdom. Which is why the other Elohim cannot teach you about salvation, for they don’t know where it is (Acts 4:12).
Moving on, how to angels always appear to humans? As I’ve shown many times, they appear with the face of a man! How else could humans sometimes “entertain angels unawares”? Hebrews 13:2. And these faces take care of their front and back sides (Ezekiel 1:10).
But to their left and right they show the face of an ox and a lion, respectively. Now we are “a little lower than the angels” (Psalms 8:5). God, on the other hand, is far above the stars (Isaiah 14:13), where Satan wished to be. Left and right therefore, must be faces they show to other angels.
Now let’s suppose we had a couple of angels standing side by side in a row. Behind them, they show the face of an eagle/messenger to God. Towards us, they show the face of a man, for they are men, same as us – just older.
But each angel shows the face of an ox – a mostly submissive but powerful work animal – to his left side. Which means the angel on his left, when he looks right, displays the face of a lion; the face of a king! (Proverbs 19:12, 30:30, Zephaniah 3:3).
Lions are rulers; oxen are servants. Lions eat oxen, and make them a part of their body. And the symbolism of right and left-handed things is, as in our own bodies, a symbol of mastery and submission (Genesis 48:14-19).
So to God, they are messengers; to us, they are brethren; to the angels above them (at their right hand) they are servants, and to the angel below them (at their left hand) they are masters. Hence, four faces. Just like you have four faces you show to your children, to your father, and to your elder and younger brothers.
WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS
One of the most famous symbols in Ezekiel’s vision is the wheels within wheels (Ezekiel 1:15-18). If we took it as literally translated, it would have to be rendered as some sort of a jet engine, which I doubt is what was actually happening. If for no other reason than the fact that these wheels have “eyes” round about them, and thus are obviously symbolic.
So if not a literal wheel – what was Ezekiel actually trying to say here? Well, this was an appearance of God; and what is most frequently associated with God appearing? Ezekiel 1:4, Job 38:1, Isaiah 17:13, etc.
So clearly, God often uses a whirlwind to hide in; even the “pillar of cloud” that led the Israelites could be imagined as a very mild whirlwind – I mean, could you think of a better way to describe a tornado than a pillar of cloud? (Exodus 14:19-25).
As for the pillar of fire, clearly the same pillar had both – in that verse, “the LORD looked… through the pillar of fire and of the cloud”. Again confining ourselves to the real world, tornados frequently are filled with lightning due to the static electricity discharges they cause.
Thus it would literally be a pillar of fire and of cloud at the same time. And fully capable of “tearing off the chariot wheels” of the Egyptians if God so chose. What’s more, if it was full of lightning, it means it was also full of angels. And if full of angels… then it was “full of eyes round about”!
Which is all well and good, but doesn’t change the fact that Ezekiel used the word for “wheel”, and not whirlwind (a word which exists in Hebrew). But again consider the matter of perspective; from the top side, a tornado does indeed look like wheel spinning within another wheel.
What’s more, God specifically compares wheels to whirlwinds in Isaiah 5:28; and in a scene of the same throne room in Daniel 7:9, God’s “wheels” are as a burning fire. Only this time, Daniel used a different (Aramaic) word which can mean either wheel or whirlwind.
Finally, in 2 Kings 2:11 we see yet another vision of God’s same throne, this time called a “chariot of fire”, which is how Elijah was carted off to retirement… by one of these “whirlwinds”. So it seems to me that instead of wheels, God’s chariot uses whirlwinds for motion (Isaiah 66:15, Jeremiah 4:13, Nahum 1:3, etc.).
The whirlwinds themselves would be created by the wings of the angels (yes, this actually would be a useful purpose for wings that do nothing in outer space). What’s more, “a noise of a great rushing (wind)” is exactly what you’d expect from a whirlwind.
But within these particular whirlwinds there are many lightnings and eyes, which is to say, many other angels under them (metaphorically and literally – Ezekiel 1:21) who are ascending and descending from heaven all the time (Genesis 28:12, John 1:51, etc.).
Ezekiel described it as best he could, given the words his language had. But if I were describing this vision, I would have said that the creatures held up a large glass platform with their wings, and below them their wings create a tornado-like vortex which lifts the platform (Ezekiel 3:11-14); which vortices are likewise filled with other angels all supporting the throne of God.
GOD’S RV
Thus all these visions are describing the same exact place; sometimes with different symbols, and always with different and overlapping details – but one truth is behind them all. Reading Ezekiel 1:13 again, you can see how 2 Kings 2:11 was perfectly reasonable when it called this same vehicle a “chariot of fire”.
Since it lacks a clear name in Ezekiel, I’m going to use this term for the balance of the lesson – God’s chariot of fire, or as someone I knew once called it, “God’s dune buggy”. Knowing this is its function, a new class of scriptures opens up that can shed light on this subject – compare Psalms 18:6-14 to Ezekiel’s vision.
Note that the Lord flies “upon a cherub… upon the wings of the wind”. Ezekiel makes it clear that the top pair of the angel’s wings and heads are supporting the floor of the vehicle (Ezekiel 1:22-28). Compare this to the details of God’s throne room in Revelation 4:6, 15:2, 21:21; and also to the place where Moses and the elders met God in Exodus 24:9-11.
Each of these places has a “firmament”, or surface, that is apparently made of blue glass. It is clearly some sort of a separation between heaven and Earth, for above this blue glass floor is the Lord’s throne (Ezekiel 1:28).
Based on Ezekiel 1:10’s statement “as the body of heaven for clearness”, this “sea of glass” is meant to represent the vastness of the sky between His throne and His footstool (Isaiah 66:1). And below that sky are four angelic creatures and their whirlwind-wheels to pull His chariot.
And yet, calling it God’s chariot, though true, isn’t the whole story; because it’s more than that. Go back to Psalms 18 one more time, and look closely at verse 11. Compare to Deuteronomy 5:22, 1 Kings 8:12, etc., and you can see that this “pavilion” atop this chariot is actually God’s tabernacle!
The Hebrew word used for pavilion is cukkah (see the same word transliterated in Genesis 33:17). From now on, I’ll call this a succoth since that’s how the word is usually spelled in English. You may recognize this word from its use for the “booths”, the tents God commanded Israel to dwell in during the feast of tabernacles (Leviticus 23:42-43). 5
So if this word is applied to the chariot, then it means that the blue platform held up by angels is not a sports car, but the Lord’s mobile home! His succoth! You see the same vehicle referenced in Psalms 104:1-4, Isaiah 19:1, Revelation 1:7, Psalms 97:1-6, and many other places.
However, my point for right now is rather different. Remember, this is God’s camper. What else could it possibly picture if not the tabernacle of Moses? (2 Samuel 7:5-7). That was God’s pavilion in the wilderness, for 2 Samuel 11:11 clearly says that the Ark dwelt in a “succoth” just like Israel.
…and when you think about it… wasn’t the tabernacle also moved by a whirlwind (in a manner of speaking)? Numbers 9:15-23. Compare that last passage to Ezekiel 1:19-21; see how the same unnecessarily-repetitive description underlines that whenever and wherever the spirit (the whirlwind above the tabernacle) wanted to go… they went!
As further proof that the chariot of fire and the tabernacle in the wilderness are the same, read Psalms 68:17-18. Note the references to the Lord’s chariot being among other chariots of God, with his thousands of angels, as they were in Sinai.
Then in Psalms 68:24, he says “they have seen thy goings” (as Ezekiel, David, and all of Israel at Sinai did)… the goings of my God, when they moved the sanctuary!
THE CHARIOTS OF GOD
Angels are men; many scriptures attest to this. Daniel even specifically calls Gabriel “the man Gabriel” (Daniel 9:21). So the fantastic visions we see in various places are given to show us something about the man, some aspect of his nature or some glimpse of his future, to help us better understand something.
So the four beasts of Ezekiel were part of a vision that was given to make a certain point, and reveal a certain set of facts to us. But the symbols themselves were just one of many God could have chosen, depending on the point He was trying to make.
For example, if this is indeed a chariot, then God would be totally justified in representing the “creatures” with four faces as horses; as He did in 2 Kings 2:11. For the angels come and go out from under the chariot like lightning (Ezekiel 1:14);
And what sound does lightning make? Thunder. And what are the necks of horses “clothed” in? Job 39:19. Thus, horses – at least their necks – have a direct connection to angels. And of course, these angels do the job of horses in Jeremiah 4:13 – they pull the chariot of God.
Note comparison of horses to eagles, which we have already established is a symbol for angels. Also note all the same metaphors, clouds, whirlwinds, eagle-faces, and chariots as in the other stories. Because these are all the same vision!
The same story is told again in Joel 2:1-6; again the darkness and clouds, again the chariots and horses, and so on. But now we’re dealing with the plural of chariots, still heavenly chariots but not the same heavily chariot as God’s tabernacle is (Psalms 68:17). [Note that the Hebrew word doesn’t necessarily require this number to be taken literally.]
Now if we follow the pattern, if the Lord’s chariot pictures, in reality, His succoth, His temporary house… it stands to reason that these 20,000 chariots would correspond to the succoths or houses of all the saints! The same saints who ride out of heaven behind Him in Revelation 19:11-15!
COALS OF FIRE
In Ezekiel 8:2-4, Ezekiel sees the same vehicle “according to the vision” he saw in chapter 1; and he is carried to Jerusalem by a man matching the description of the Lord from Ezekiel 1:26-27. This man speaks in first person as the Lord in Ezekiel 8 and 9, pronouncing various sorts of doom for various sorts of backsliding Israelites, which isn’t our focus today.
But in Ezekiel 10 we get another look at the same vehicle, and a new detail is added that we didn’t know before; under the throne, between the creatures, there is an altar with coals of fire! (Ezekiel 10:2, 6-7). Naturally, this is what we’d expect if this vehicle was a higher type of the tabernacle, which had an altar in front of it!
Now when the angel obeys the command to throw these coals into the city, it doesn’t tell us what happened… here. But the same event is also recorded where the same kind of angel, dressed in the same linen, obeys the same command in Revelation 8:1-6.
Note the cloud filling the house in both places, the fact that seven angels were present, but only one of them went in the temple; then compare the very similar event in Leviticus 16:2-4, 12-13. These are not separate prophecies of different times and places, but all speaking of the same events – they just need to be merged and harmonized.
Once again, that’s not my goal today; however, I will point out one thing; imagine you were on the Earth, watching flaming coals fly off of some heavenly altar over your head to land on Earth. What would that look like? What, in our Earthly experience, might that look like?
Think about it, then keep reading about the seven trumpets in Revelation 8:7-9:1, and you’ll see that 4 of the first 5 trumpets involve “fiery hail”, a “mountain of fire”, a “great star”, or “a star”. The fourth involves darkening of the sun, moon, and stars – which would be consistent with repeated meteorite showers and asteroid impacts as described by the other trumpets!
Or, to speak metaphorically, “coals” from God’s altar, thrown to Earth; and these things would, of course, cause “great earthquakes”, a water impact in, say, the Atlantic would destroy “a third of the ships”, and for the 6th trumpet, a “star falling from heaven” in the right spot would easily trigger a super volcano (Revelation 9:1-2).
And again, all of these things are consistent with the appearance of “coals” being thrown off of a heavenly barbeque grill onto the Earth – from the perspective of the Earth, at least.
GOD’S CAMPSTOVE
Anyway, enough about that. Prophecy bores me, as it should you – for an asteroid strike or a super volcano happens once, makes a lot of fireworks and kills a lot of people who probably have it coming, then the universe moves on and continues to function according to the laws and patterns which ARE worth studying… because they are eternal (well, most of them anyway).
That’s why it’s more interesting to focus on the fact that along with God’s mobile tabernacle, there is also an altar underneath it full of glowing coals (Habakkuk 3:3-6, Amos 9:1). Which underscores the connection between the tabernacle and the chariot, because the tabernacle and all the things associated with it had to remain mobile as long as Israel needed to be mobile!
We see this altar again underneath the Lord’s chariot in Isaiah 6:1-6, where it was used to forgive Isaiah’s sins and holyify Him. But why would an altar – not even an altar, a single coal – do that? Exodus 29:37. Some translations aren’t clear but the GWV makes it easy:
Exodus 29:37 (GWV) For seven days at the altar make peace with the LORD and set the altar apart for its holy purpose. Then the altar will be most holy. Anything that touches the altar will become holy.
Jesus also alluded to this “magic” ability of the altar in Matthew 23:18-20, telling us that the altar sanctifies the gift (makes it holy). What that meant to Isaiah is that even a coal from that altar, when it touched his tongue, communicated this holiness and took away his iniquity and his sin.
What it meant in the most literal sense was that any animal which was sacrificed on this particular altar became holy, and only the priests were allowed to eat the meat of it. But what does it mean to “make holy”? Remember, not a fancy word; it just means “to set apart”, in this case, set apart for God’s exclusive use.
Now we know the mechanics of that process pretty well; it happens when your life is hid with Christ (Colossians 3:3). That, in turn, happens when you are baptized into His house; either by water, or by the holy spirit, or… by fire (Isaiah 4:4). This clearly was a spirit of burning, and clearly purged his iniquity – which of course is what fire does (Numbers 31:23).
It’s also clearly what Jesus and the Father are (Deuteronomy 4:24, Psalms 50:3). And it is also through this fire that people make a covenant to belong to God (Psalms 50:4-6). Which means that whatever is offered on that altar legally becomes God’s, to do with whatever He will; it is separated (made holy) unto the Lord (2 Timothy 2:19).
Why? Because it is baptized, fully immersed, in the Fire which pictures the body of an adult Elohim! Therefore it is a part of Him now… and therefore separated for His use – made holy! And thus, has its sins forgiven – for if He died, so likewise have they.
BAPTISM OF FIRE
We’ve discussed the baptism of fire at length in the past, and as you’ll recall it is the final covenant with the Father, one which you cannot currently survive – but which God is preparing you for. But now consider something very basic and common-sense; how exactly would you be baptized by fire?
Fire burns up – by this I mean it only burns things above it. Which means to be baptized in fire, you would have to be above the coals, placed in the flames, roasting in it like the sacrifices on the altar! Where your selfishness (flesh) can be turned into spirit (smoke). Because that’s what fire does; it exists to convert matter to air – flesh to spirit.
Continuing in Psalms 50:14-19, and adding it to Psalms 40:6-10, we see that the alternative to offering sacrifices and burnt offerings on the physical altar (the only place you could have sacrificed burnt offerings), was a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart.
Which is to say that whatever the altar represents, the sacrificial beast was roasted atop the very same thing our heart is broken upon. This is important because it means the heart and spirit are broken while they are above this same altar! In a baptism of fire!
Paul connected these two types of sacrifices more solidly in Hebrews 10:5-9, talking about this same passage, showing that the contrast between not wanting burnt offerings and wanting us to do God’s will instead shows that one replaces the other (Hosea 6:6).
But my point is to extend his logic one more step and say that if one replaces the other, then it stands to reason that they both happen in the same place – on the altar! And yet it is obvious that you cannot offer your broken spirit upon the altar of Moses. I mean, how would that even work??
So if these spiritual things cannot be sacrificed on that altar, where, then, are they offered? Wherever the spirits and hearts of men are broken today, wherever the light of God’s judgment shines forth today… that is the true type of the physical altar of Moses today.
If the altar of Moses cannot receive the sacrifices of a broken spirit; if the priests of Aaron cannot eat of the sacrifices of a broken heart (Hebrews 13:10), it can only mean that the altar of Aaron is the shadow of a far greater altar – that altar of Melchizedek.
What does that mean in practice? Well, where did your spirit begin to be broken? Where was your heart humbled? In a house of God. Which means that the better altar, the true altar which is to this day watched over and protected by the cherubims (Matthew 4:6)… is the ekklesia. The houses of the servants of God.
THE TRUE ALTAR
So what, then, would a single coal off of that altar represent? Well, coals were once wood; wood comes from trees, and trees picture families or houses of people – angelic as well as human (Judges 9, Isaiah 14:4-12, particularly verse 8 compared to Revelation 12:10).
So a single coal on that altar would represent a flame of fire who is part of the house of the Elohim. The current, very much imperfect, houses of the sons of God… human and angelic alike. All of us are candles of the Lord, remember, who provide “the light of the world” – they no less than we, for are they not “a flame of fire”?
All of us are given a charge to “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine” (2 Timothy 4:2). They no less than we (Galatians 3:19, Acts 7:53, Hebrews 2:2, etc.).
The light of these coals is the result of the stiff wood of our unbroken spirits being burned by God’s presence, but the fact that we are coals means we are not (yet) consumed (Exodus 3:2); yet again the fact that we are coals means we have had our wooden, unbroken spirit converted (at least partially) to living spirit.
Each coal then, is a single one of those houses. Some coals burn brighter than others; some burn quickly, then are consumed; some, like the burning bush, are never consumed for they supply enough of their own oil (works of the soul) that the wood itself need not burn.
Because in every candle, it is only the oil that burns – keep the bowl supplied with oil, and the wick will burn forever. Let the oil run out… and the wick will burn and the candle will die. So likewise your wick will never be extinguished provided you keep it full of oil – or, failing that, borrow some from Jesus (Isaiah 43:1-7).
Notice that passage refers to the three baptisms, and particularly notes that in the baptism of fire “you will not be burned, nor shall the flame kindle upon thee”. Just as happened to Daniel’s friends (Daniel 3:16-27).
But note that this only applies to his sons and daughters “even every one that is called by name”! Those, in other words, who are in His house – which again means the altar must represent the current ekklesia!
So a coal off the altar represents a holy angel or human apostle and his house. In the case of Isaiah, it was obviously an angel. He came to burn Isaiah with a small bit of flame, enough to awe a human and burn away some of his carnality, but slowly (Daniel 10:5-11, 15-19) – not as God’s presence would do it, all at once, so we would be consumed (Ezekiel 22:31, 1 Timothy 6:16, etc.).
To save us, then, and make us holy, through the foolishness of preaching. To roast us, as it were, a little at a time so that we can survive it. Just as you, yourself, roast meat; you don’t cook it at the hottest possible temperature, but rather, at the hottest temperature that can get the inside cooked without turning the outside to inedible ash (Jeremiah 10:24). Likewise, burning our bodies to ash before our insides have been properly roasted would be counterproductive to God.
Because remember, the sacrifices on the altar were not usually left to become ashes; they were instead cooked in the spirit of God and then the high priest removed them from the flame and made them part of his own flesh (ate them, made them part of his house). Whereupon they would become a coal upon that same altar!
So the sacrifices of broken hearts and spirits were offered to the Father through the house of a man or angel; and if they made a “sweet smelling savor”, then the priest removed them from the flame, laying hands upon them to make them part of the house of the Melchizedek-Jesus.
Making them no longer part of the house of Apollos or Paul or Natnee, but rather, of the house of Jesus for whom we, the altar, were preparing them! Because it is only by joining that house that Isaiah’s sin could have been actually taken away!
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
In Revelations 6:9, it is under the heavenly altar that God “hides” our souls. This is interesting, because the blood of the animals which were offered on this altar was poured out at the base of this altar (Leviticus 4:7).
We know that the life is in the blood, therefore these lives are buried under the houses, or under the body of Christ. Now if the souls do indeed go under the altar, then it must also picture Abraham’s bosom – since that’s where Lazarus went (Luke 16:22-23), and where Jesus apparently was (John 1:18).
When Jesus died, where did His spirit go? Luke 23:46. So into God’s hands. Thus the altar must in some sense also picture God’s hands. And isn’t Jesus, as the Spirit of the Father, like God’s right hand? (Psalms 110:1, Psalms 48:10, Psalms 77:9-10, etc.).
Thus, the altar pictures Jesus’ spiritual body; which of course, is where Jesus went after His resurrection – to the body God had prepared for Him. Which of course, also pictures the saints; for are not we, humans, the works of His hands? Job 14:10-15, 2 Samuel 14:14.
When Jesus died, committing His spirit into the Father’s “hands”, He was quoting from, and fulfilling, Psalms 31:5; and if you keep reading until you get to verses 19-20 you’ll see that His spirit was going to be hidden “in the secret of thy presence”, “kept secretly in a pavilion”! (Yes, the same word succoth used for God’s chariot earlier, and which also pictures the tabernacle.)
With that word succoth again, that passage in Isaiah 4 that we read earlier deserves another look; read the whole chapter, not in the KJV; maybe the BBE. Note the seven women. These would be the seven churches of Revelation 1:20. And what are they asking for? Jesus’ name!
Because with that new name their shame will be taken away… when they are “recorded for life” in Jerusalem (compare to Luke 10:20, Revelation 13:8, etc.). All of those still living in Zion will be part of these seven churches, and thus when they marry the Lamb they will all be cleaned with the “women”. More on the seven churches another day.
For now, suffice it to say that they will be cleaned by the “washing of the filth” (water baptism into a human house), “purging of the blood”, by the “spirit of judgment” (baptism of the spirit of Christ), and finally by the “spirit of burning” when they are burned upon the altar by the Father’s spirit and prepared for the priesthood of Melchizedek!
Anyway, moving on to Isaiah 4:5-6, you see again the description of the succoth of God, surrounded by cloud, smoke, fire, and so on which covers “every dwelling place” – which is to say, all the HOUSES of the saints!
The one verse for this lesson is all of Psalms 4; the only sacrifices God ever wanted were “sacrifices of righteousness”, sacrifices of putting your trust in the Lord (Psalms 4:5). The sacrifices of communing with your heart.
And it was by offering these offerings above this altar, in this flame, that we are “delivered from bloodguiltiness”, and it is through this flame that “our tongue sings aloud of thy righteousness” (Psalms 51:14) which is exactly what happened to Isaiah – and which happens to most of us through a house of God.
When God “setteth apart him that is Godly for himself”, which is to say… brings them to touch the altar, whereupon… they are made holy unto the Lord, and “made to dwell in safety”. For if we are the coals, and if the flame represents the spirit of the Father…
Then one could truly say that “in Him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28). Until then, we must content ourselves with being hidden in His pavilion, under the altar in His great chariot of fire.