There was once a prophet who looked into the King’s house in heaven, and saw “visions of God.” He wrote out a description of some of the things that he saw; we may read it in the book of Ezekiel. In the first chapter he describes the living throne that he saw there.

In the sanctuary that was built on earth to teach the people about the Lord’s true temple, there was a veil separating between the holy and the most holy places, of which we spoke last week. On this veil, figures of angels were worked in gold thread. This was to teach that the Lord’s real temple is a living house.

God’s throne in heaven, made of living creatures, is a pattern of what He means His whole universe to be; it shows that He is to be enthroned in every creature, ruling it by His Spirit.

Read in the first chapter of Ezekiel the description of the beings that form God’s throne, and you will see how the will of God is done in heaven. This will teach you how He would have it done in you on earth; for Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.”

“Whithersoover the Spirit was to go, they went, thither was their spirit to go.” We are told what it was that made them always want to go the way of the Lord; it was because “the Spirit of life was in them.”

This same Spirit of life is in everything that God has made, and wherever He is allowed to have His way, the will of God is perfectly done. It is this that makes the flower grow in the way that God wants it, it is this that teaches the bird the way in the air. All nature is part of that great living temple where God is enthroned, and yet each living being is a complete separate little sanctuary.

But the place where God most desires to have His throne in this earth is in the heart of man. This He made to be the Holy of holies—His own secret dwelling place. “The kingdom of God is within you.”

We have found that God rules by His Spirit of life, within the living beings that He has made. Let us see how this was represented in the worldly sanctuary.

Within the Most Holy place there was but one article of furniture—the Ark of the testimony, over which was the Mercy-seat, and cherubim with outspread wings, figures of those of which you have read in Ezekiel. So it is clear that this was meant to represent God’s throne.

Within the sacred Ark were two tables of stone, upon which were written the ten commandments. Those commandments were to teach the people the way of the Lord. This shows that all our hearts are to be the throne of God, and His will is to be done in us, we must have His way within us. But there is only one thing that can put it there, and that is “the Spirit of life.”

You will remember that when God spoke the law with His own voice from Mount Sinai, the people were afraid, and went and stood afar off, that they might not hear the voice of God. They said, “Let not God speak with us lest we die.”

But God does not speak His Word to kill us; it is to give us life. Moses said to them, “Hear, and your souls shall live.” And Paul afterward said that we receive the Spirit that makes us able to do God’s will, by hearing His Word in faith.

This shows us that the Spirit of life is in the Word of God. The law, the Word of God, that was in the Ark, was to show that His law written in our hearts will make us His living throne, from which He will rule over our whole bodies. It will lead us “whithersoever the Spirit is to go,” and make us able to do His will on earth as it is done in heaven.

But could the law as the Israelites had it, on tables of stone, do this wonderful work for them? No, for all things in that worldly tabernacle were only a shadow—“figures of the true.” It could show the people what they ought to do, but it could not give them the power to do it.

But “to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin,” and sin brings death. So this was “the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones.” It could condemn people to death, but it could not save them.

God wrote His law on the tables of stone, and gave it to the people because of their ignorance of Him, and their unbelief, that it might be their schoolmaster to bring them to Christ. It was to show them that they were sinners, with no power in themselves to do the will of God, so that they might come to Jesus to be saved from sin, and receive from Him the “Spirit of life,” that would enable them to walk in the way of God.

For when we come to Jesus, and listen to His Word in faith, it is “written, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.” This will put the way of God within us, so that we shall always go in it.

When Moses brought down from the mountain the tables of stone that God had given him, his face shone so that the people could not look upon him. And when the Ark containing the law was put in the tabernacle, a cloud of glory rested over it. So glorious was God’s holy law, even when written upon tables of stone.

But God says that “if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious,” “the ministration of the Spirit” written and engraven on the living tables of the heart, shall “exceed in glory.”

So, great as was that glory, it is much more glorious to have the law of God written in our hearts. When this is done, the Word is made flesh as it was in Jesus of Nazareth. Of Him John said, “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, . . . full of grace and truth!”

The grace and truth that come into your hearts when the Spirit of Jesus writes His law there, will be more glorious than the cloud that rested over the Ark, or the glory of Moses’ face.

The King’s house is made for glory and for beauty. It is His presence within that makes it holy, and that also makes it “all-glorious within.” When He takes up His abode there, the glory shining out in the life will bear witness to His presence within, for He cannot be hid. “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

God says to each one of us: “My son, attend to My words; incline thine ear unto My sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart; for they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.”

The Present Truth – October 3, 1901
E. J. Waggoner

The Kings House The Throne