Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 11:1
Moreover the spirit lifted me up, and brought me unto the east gate of the LORD’s house, which looketh eastward: and behold at the door of the gate five and twenty men; among whom I saw Jaazaniah the son of Azur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people.
1 12. The men that plot evil
1. The gate referred to is the outer eastern gate; the position taken up by the cherubim and glory was outside the temple precincts wholly. Jaazaniah and Pelatiah are named “princes of the people.” Possibly they were more prominent members of the ruling party. It is the manner of the prophet to introduce elements of reality into his symbolical pictures (cf. ch. Eze 24:16 seq.), and it is unnecessary to regard these two personages as fictitious or seek for some symbolical meaning in their names. A different Jaazaniah was mentioned in ch. Eze 8:11. The twenty-five men here are not to be identified with those in ch. Eze 8:16; they are rulers and leaders of the people ( Eze 11:2).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The gate – The gate of the templecourt. The gate was the place of judgment.
Five and twenty men – Not the same men as in Eze 8:16. There they were representatives of the priests, here of the princes. The number is, no doubt, symbolic, made up, probably, of 24 men and the king. The number 24 points to the tribes of undivided Israel.
Jaazaniah … Pelatiah – We know nothing more of these men. The former name was probably common at that time Eze 8:11. In these two names there is an allusion to the false hopes which they upheld. Jaazaniah (Yah (weh) listeneth) son of Azur (the Helper); Pelatiah (Yah (weh) rescues) son of Benaiah (Yah (weh) builds). In the latter case, death Eze 11:13 turned the allusion into bitter irony.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Eze 11:1-12
Prophesy against them.
Evil in high places
The spirit told Ezekiel that the princes were the men that devised mischief and gave wicked counsels to the city. How often have we seen this prostitution of great mental power and great official authority through the service of evil! Imagine the picture of five-and-twenty men, the princes of Israel, all given over to the conception of evil policies and the execution of selfish designs! We shall miss the whole purpose of Divine revelation if we suppose that evil is local, or that it is confined to the ignorant and the poor. Evil is universal: it is in the thrones of the nations, as well as in the hovels and huts of poverty; the king has wandered as far from the standard of righteousness as has the meanest subject of his crown. Education when not sanctified is simply an instrument of evil. Great social station, when it is divorced from the action of a healthy conscience, only gives a man leverage, by the working of which he can do infinite social mischief. Moral security, therefore, is not in circumstances, but in character. When princes are right and just, wise and patriotic, it does not follow that the people will follow their example, or reproduce their excellences; but when the princes are of a contrary mind it is easy to imagine how their great influence may contribute vastly to the spread of wrong thinking and mischievous action. Religious apostasy means social anarchy. When the princes ceased to pray they ceased to regard human nature as of any value: slaughter became a pastime; heaps of slain men were passed by as mere commonplaces, and the whole city became as but a cauldron in which the flesh of men might be boiled. But God Himself says He will make this use of the city; He will make it a cauldron, and they who supposed it was a place of security shall find what uses providence can make of human arrangements. The Lord says that He is proceeding on account of the sins of the people, saying, I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them. The empire of the mind is supposed to be the exclusive property of the individual: what brother can take out of his brothers heart all the thoughts that live there? What man can read the mind of his dearest friend, and be as familiar with that friends motives as he is with that friends conduct? The mind can shut out the closest observer, yet the one observer that it cannot exclude is the living God. The things that come into the mind determine the real character of the mind of man, Conduct is but a short measure by which to estimate a mans character. (J. Parker, D. D.)
A vision of priesthoods
I. The destruction of a corrupt priesthood. The evil of the priesthood of that city and day is seen in this vision to consist in–
1. Their unhallowed designs and influence. The inventions of the genius of evil are, as they were then, often manifold and deep.
2. Their contempt of sacred things. They actually play about the cauldron that Jeremiah had seen in a vision of retribution. Familiarity with sacred things is perilous to men who lose true sacredness of living, for they are tempted to use their wit to cover their shallowness, with regard to themes wherein they should stand in awe and sin not.
3. Their false security. Their assertion about the Chaldean invasion, It is not near, illustrates the presumptuousness that ever marks mere professors of piety.
4. Their conformity to evil associations. Whereas the one consecrating cry of all true priesthoods is, Be ye separate, the histories of all corrupt priesthoods reveal a conformity to the world with which they have to do, that may well be charged against them in the words heard in the vision, Ye have done after the manner of the heathen.
5. Their liability to terrible retribution. The death of Pelatiah, at the very time when Ezekiel was pronouncing the doom of this priesthood, is an emblem of retribution history records, and prophecy predicts on all the false.
II. The indications of a man belonging to the true priesthood.
1. Open to Divine illumination. As Ezekiel was lifted up by the Spirit, and afterwards had that Spirit fall upon him–indicating, surely, special contact with the Divine; so there is the promise to every regenerate man that he shall see heavens opened.
2. Sensitive to impressions from human life. To be Divinely enlightened does not indicate that there will be any functionalism, any stoicism in the man.
3. A wide conscious brotherliness. The cry to the exile, thy brethren, thy brethren, indicated that not alone in the twenty-five who had fallen, but in the scattered throngs that would be gathered again, he recognised a brotherhood. So our Master has taught us, all ye are brethren.
4. Commissioned to proclaim inspiring promises. The priestly prophet was to utter as surely as was Isaiah, and every God-sent messenger, a comfort ye.
III. The formation of a true priesthood.
I. Divinely collected. God knew where the scattered were, and would gather them again. The eye of God resting alike on all classes and castes, churches and countries, discovers the genuine men. He has been a sanctuary for a little time to them in the midst of uncongenial pursuits, hostile circumstances, adverse experiences; but from every such Babylon of evil He will gather them for His sacred work.
2. Divinely regenerated. No words could more forcibly express a complete moral and spiritual reformation than the words in which the eternal Spirit of Goodness declares, I will put a new spirit within you, and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh.
3. Divinely adopted. They shall be My people, etc. (Urijah R. Thomas.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER XI
This chapter denounces the judgments of God against those
wicked persons who remained in Jerusalem and made a mock of
the types and predictions of the prophets, 1-13;
compare Eze 11:3 with Jer 1:13.
God promises to favour those who were gone into captivity, and
intimates their restoration from the Babylonish yoke, 14-21.
Then the shechinah, or symbol of the Divine Presence, is
represented forsaking the city, as in the foregoing chapter it
did the temple, 22, 23;
and the prophet returns in vision to the place from which he
set out, (Eze 8:1. &c.,)
in order to communicate his instructions to his brethren of the
captivity, 24, 25.
NOTES ON CHAP. XI
Verse 1. At the door of the gate five and twenty men] The same persons, no doubt, who appear, Eze 8:16, worshipping the sun.
Jaazaniah the son of Azur] In Eze 8:16, we find a Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan. If Shaphan was also called Azur, they may be the same person. But it is most likely that there were two of this name, and both chiefs among the people.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The spirit; the Spirit of God, as Eze 2 2.
Lifted me up; as at first, so still it supports him, and removes him from place to place.
The east gate: either of the east gates, whether that which leads into the first court, or into the second court, or into the house of the Lord, may be here understood, though probably this last. For this number you find, Eze 8:16. If you will suppose the prophet was brought to the east gate, where the glory of the Lord, now departing, was gone up from the temple, it is much the same.
Which looketh eastward: a pleonasm, or redundance of expression.
Five and twenty men: some inquire whether these were the same with those twenty-five Eze 8:16. To me it is most likely they were, for in that same place we find them, and likely about the same work, worshipping eastward. Nor are the two arguments urged by some conclusive against it, nay, one of the two is plain for it, viz. that quoted from Eze 8:16.
Among whom; as forward ringleaders and chief among them.
Jaazaniah: this man by his fathers name added appears to be another, not he that is mentioned Eze 8:11.
Pelatiah, named here for no good quality, but for that dreadful sudden death whereby he became a warning to others.
Princes of the people; either as public officers, or as heads of their families.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. east gateto which theglory of God had moved itself (Eze10:19), the chief entrance of the sanctuary; the portico or porchof Solomon. The Spirit moves the prophet thither, to witness, in thepresence of the divine glory, a new scene of destruction.
five and twenty menThesame as the twenty-five (that is, twenty-four heads of courses, andthe high priest) sun-worshippers seen in Eze8:16. The leading priests were usually called “princesof the sanctuary” (Isa 43:28)and “chiefs of the priests” (2Ch36:14); but here two of them are called “princes of thepeople,” with irony, as using their priestly influence to beringleaders of the people in sin (Eze11:2). Already the wrath of God had visited the peoplerepresented by the elders (Eze9:6); also the glory of the Lord had left its place in the holyof holies, and, like the cherubim and flaming sword in Eden, hadoccupied the gate into the deserted sanctuary. The judgment on therepresentatives of the priesthood naturally follows here, justas the sin of the priests had followed in the description(Eze 8:12; Eze 8:16)after the sin of the elders.
Jaazaniahsignifying”God hears.”
son of Azurdifferentfrom Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan (Eze8:11). Azur means “help.” He and Pelatiah (“Goddelivers”), son of Benaiah (“God builds”), are singledout as Jaazaniah, son of Shaphan, in the case of the seventy elders(Eze 8:11; Eze 8:12),because their names ought to have reminded them that “God”would have “heard” had they sought His “help” to”deliver” and “build” them up. But, neglectingthis, they incurred the heavier judgment by the very relation inwhich they stood to God [FAIRBAIRN].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Moreover, the spirit lifted me up,…. From the inner court of the temple, where the prophet was, according to the last account of him, Eze 8:16; it was the same Spirit that took him by the lock of his head, and lifted him up, as in Eze 8:3; and perhaps in the same manner:
and brought me unto the east gate of the Lord’s house, which looketh eastward; where were the cherubim, and the wheels, and the glory of God above them, Eze 10:19;
and behold at the door of the gate five and twenty men; not the same as in Eze 8:16; for they were in a different place, between the porch and the altar; and about different service, they were worshipping there; and seem to be men of a different order, priests; whereas these were at the door of the eastern gate, sitting as a court of judicature, and were civil magistrates; though Jarchi and Kimchi take them to be the same. Some say Jerusalem was divided into twenty four parishes, districts, or wards, and everyone had its own head, ruler, and governor; and that there was one who was the president over them all, like the mayor and aldermen of a city;
among whom I saw Jaazaniah the son of Azur; not the same that is mentioned in Eze 8:11; he was the son of Shaphan, this of Azur; he was one of the seventy of the ancients of Israel, this one of the twenty five heads or rulers of the people; he seems to have been a prince; by having a censer in his hand, this was a priest: the Septuagint and Arabic versions call him Jechoniah:
and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah; these two are mentioned by name, as being principal men, and well known by the prophet; and the latter is observed more especially for what befell him, hereafter related:
princes of the people; men who were entrusted with power and authority to exercise the laws of the nation; and who should have been reformers of the people, and ought to have given them good advice, and set them good examples; whereas they were the reverse, as follows:
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Judgment upon the rulers of the nation. – Eze 11:1. And a wind lifted me up, and took me to the eastern gate of the house of Jehovah, which faces towards the east; and behold, at the entrance of the gate were five and twenty men, and I saw among them Jaazaniah the son of Azzur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, the chiefs of the nation. Eze 11:2. And he said to me: Son of man, these are the men who devise iniquity, and counsel evil counsel in this city; Eze 11:3. Who say, It is not near to build houses; it is the pot, and we are the flesh. Eze 11:4. Therefore prophesy against them; prophesy, son of man. – Ezekiel is once more transported from the inner court (Eze 8:16) to the outer entrance of the eastern gate of the temple ( , as in Eze 8:3), to which, according to Eze 10:19, the vision of God had removed. There he sees twenty-five men, and among them two of the princes of the nation, whose names are given. These twenty-five men are not identical with the twenty-five priests mentioned in Eze 8:16, as Hvernick supposes. This is evident, not only from the difference in the locality, the priests standing between the porch and the altar, whereas the men referred to here stood at the outer eastern entrance to the court of the temple, but from the fact that the two who are mentioned by name are called (princes of the people), so that we may probably infer from this that all the twenty-five were secular chiefs. Hvernick’s opinion, that is a term that may also be applied to princes among the priests, is as erroneous as his assertion that the priest-princes are called “princes” in Ezr 8:20; Neh 10:1, and Jer 35:4, whereas it is only to national princes that these passages refer. Hvernick is equally incorrect in supposing that these twenty-five men take the place of the seventy mentioned in Eze 8:11; for those seventy represented the whole of the nation, whereas these twenty-five (according to Eze 11:2) were simply the counsellors of the city – not, however, the twenty – four duces of twenty-four divisions of the city, with a prince of the house of Judah, as Prado maintains, on the strength of certain Rabbinical assertions; or twenty-four members of a Sanhedrim, with their president (Rosenmller); but the twelve tribe-princes (princes of the nation) and the twelve royal officers, or military commanders (1 Chron 27), with the king himself, or possibly with the commander-in-chief of the army; so that these twenty-five men represent the civil government of Israel, just as the twenty-four priest-princes, together with the high priest, represent the spiritual authorities of the covenant nation. The reason why two are specially mentioned by name is involved in obscurity, as nothing further is known of either of these persons. The words of God to the prophet in Eze 11:2 concerning them are perfectly applicable to representatives of the civil authorities or temporal rulers, namely, that they devise and give unwholesome and evil counsel. This counsel is described in Eze 11:3 by the words placed in their mouths: “house-building is not near; it (the city) is the caldron, we are the flesh.”
These words are difficult, and different interpretations have consequently been given. The rendering, “it (the judgment) is not near, let us build houses,” is incorrect; for the infinitive construct cannot stand for the imperative or the infinitive absolute, but must be the subject of the sentence. It is inadmissible also to take the sentence as a question, “Is not house-building near?” in the sense of “it is certainly near,” as Ewald does, after some of the ancient versions. For even if an interrogation is sometimes indicated simply by the tone in an energetic address, as, for example, in 2Sa 23:5, this cannot be extended to cases in which the words of another are quoted. Still less can mean non est tempus , it is not yet time, as Maurer supposes. The only way in which the words can be made to yield a sense in harmony with the context, is by taking them as a tacit allusion to Jer 29:5. Jeremiah had called upon those in exile to build themselves houses in their banishment, and prepare for a lengthened stay in Babylon, and not to allow themselves to be deceived by the words of false prophets, who predicted a speedy return; for severe judgments had yet to fall upon those who had remained behind in the land. This word of Jeremiah the authorities in Jerusalem ridiculed, saying “house-building is not near,” i.e., the house-building in exile is still a long way off; it will not come to this, that Jerusalem should fall either permanently or entirely into the hands of the king of Babylon. On the contrary, Jerusalem is the pot, and we, its inhabitants, are the flesh. The point of comparison is this: as the pot protects the flesh from burning, so does the city of Jerusalem protect us from destruction.
(Note: “This city is a pot, our receptacle and defence, and we are the flesh enclosed therein; as flesh is preserved in its caldron till it is perfectly boiled, so shall we continue here till an extreme old age.” – Hlsemann in Calo V. Bibl. Illustr.)
On the other hand, there is no foundation for the assumption that the words also contain an allusion to other sayings of Jeremiah, namely, to Jer 1:13, where the judgment about to burst in from the north is represented under the figure of a smoking pot; or to Jer 19:1-15, where Jerusalem is depicted as a pot about to be broken in pieces by God; for the reference in Jer 19:1-15 is simply to an earthen pitcher, not to a meat-caldron; and the words in the verse before us have nothing at all in common with the figure in Jer 1:13. The correctness of our explanation is evident both from Eze 24:3, Eze 24:6, where the figure of pot and flesh is met with again, though differently applied, and from the reply which Ezekiel makes to the saying of these men in the verses that follow (Eze 11:7-11). This saying expresses not only false confidence in the strength of Jerusalem, but also contempt and scorn of the predictions of the prophets sent by God. Ezekiel is therefore to prophesy, as he does in Eze 11:5-12, against this pernicious counsel, which is confirming the people in their sins.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Message of Wrath to Jerusalem; Presumption of the Princes; Awakening Predictions. | B. C. 593. |
1 Moreover the spirit lifted me up, and brought me unto the east gate of the LORD‘s house, which looketh eastward: and behold at the door of the gate five and twenty men; among whom I saw Jaazaniah the son of Azur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people. 2 Then said he unto me, Son of man, these are the men that devise mischief, and give wicked counsel in this city: 3 Which say, It is not near; let us build houses: this city is the caldron, and we be the flesh. 4 Therefore prophesy against them, prophesy, O son of man. 5 And the Spirit of the LORD fell upon me, and said unto me, Speak; Thus saith the LORD; Thus have ye said, O house of Israel: for I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them. 6 Ye have multiplied your slain in this city, and ye have filled the streets thereof with the slain. 7 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Your slain whom ye have laid in the midst of it, they are the flesh, and this city is the caldron: but I will bring you forth out of the midst of it. 8 Ye have feared the sword; and I will bring a sword upon you, saith the Lord GOD. 9 And I will bring you out of the midst thereof, and deliver you into the hands of strangers, and will execute judgments among you. 10 Ye shall fall by the sword; I will judge you in the border of Israel; and ye shall know that I am the LORD. 11 This city shall not be your caldron, neither shall ye be the flesh in the midst thereof; but I will judge you in the border of Israel: 12 And ye shall know that I am the LORD: for ye have not walked in my statutes, neither executed my judgments, but have done after the manners of the heathen that are round about you. 13 And it came to pass, when I prophesied, that Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died. Then fell I down upon my face, and cried with a loud voice, and said, Ah Lord GOD! wilt thou make a full end of the remnant of Israel?
We have here,
I. The great security of the prince’s of Jerusalem, notwithstanding the judgments of God that were upon them, The prophet was brought, in vision, to the gate of the temple where these princes sat in council upon the present arduous affairs of the city: The Spirit lifted me up, and brought me to the east gate of the Lord’s house, and behold twenty-five men were there. See how obsequious the prophet was to the Spirit’s orders and how observant of all the discoveries that were made to him. It should seem, these twenty-five men were not the same with those twenty-five whom we saw at the door of the temple, worshipping towards the east (ch. viii. 16); those seen to have been priests or Levites, for they were between the porch and the altar, but these were princes sitting in the gate of the Lord’s house, to try causes (Jer. xxvi. 10), and they are here charged, not with corruptions in worship, but with mal-administration in the government; two of them are named, because they were the most active leading men, and perhaps because the prophet knew them, though he had been some years absent–Pelatiah and Jaazaniah, not that mentioned ch. viii. 11, for he was the son of Shaphan, this is the son of Azur. Some tell us that Jerusalem was divided into twenty-four wards, and that these were the governors or aldermen of those wards, with their mayor or president. Now observe, 1. The general character which God gives of these men to the prophet (v. 2): “These are the men that devise mischief; under pretence of concerting measures for the public safety they harden people in their sins, and take off their fear of God’s judgments which they are threatened with by the prophets; they gave wicked counsel in this city, counselling them to restrain and silence the prophets, to rebel against the king of Babylon, and to resolve upon holding the city out to the last extremity.” Note, It is bad with a people when the things that belong to their peace are hidden from the eyes of those who are entrusted with their counsels. And, when mischief is done, God knows at whose door to lay it, and, in the day of discovery and recompence, will be sure to lay it at the right door, and will say, These are the men that devised it, though they are great men, and pass for wise men, and must not now be contradicted or controlled. 2. The particular charge exhibited against them in proof of this character. They are indicted for words spoken at their council-board, which he that stands in the congregation of the mighty would take cognizance of (v. 3); they said to this effect, “It is not near; the destruction of our city, that has been so often threatened by the prophets, is not near, not so near as they talk of.” They are conscious to themselves of such an enmity to reformation that they cannot but conclude it will come at last; but they have such an opinion of God’s patience (though they have long abused it) that they are willing to hope it will not come this great while. Note, Where Satan cannot persuade men to look upon the judgment to come as a thing doubtful and uncertain, yet he gains his point by persuading them to look upon it as a thing at a distance, so that it loses its force: if it be sure, yet it is not near; whereas, in truth, the Judge stands before the door. Now, if the destruction is not near, they conclude, Let us build houses; let us count upon a continuance, for this city is the caldron and we are the flesh. This seems to be a proverbial expression, signifying no more than this, “We are as safe in this city as flesh in a boiling pot; the walls of the city shall be to us as walls of brass, and shall receive no more damage from the besiegers about it than the cauldron does from the fire under it. Those that think to force us out of our city into captivity shall find it to be as much at their peril as it would be to take the flesh out of a boiling pot with their hands.” This appears to be the meaning of it, by the answer God gives to it (v. 9): “I will bring you out of the midst of the city, where you think yourselves safe, and then it will appear (v. 11) that this is not your caldron, neither are you the flesh.” Perhaps it has a particular reference to the flesh of the peace-offerings, which it was so great an offence for the priests themselves to take out of the caldron while it was in seething (as we find 1Sa 2:13; 1Sa 2:14), and then it intimates that they were the more secure because Jerusalem was the holy city, and they thought themselves a holy people in it, not to be meddled with. Some think this was a banter upon Jeremiah, who in one of his first visions saw Jerusalem represented by a seething pot, Jer. i. 13. “Now,” say they, in a way of jest and ridicule, “if it be a seething pot, we are as the flesh in it, and who dares meddle with us?” Thus they continued mocking the messengers of the Lord, even while they suffered for so doing; but be you not mockers, lest your bands be made strong. Those hearts are indeed which are made more secure by those words of God which were designed for warning to them.
II. The method taken to awaken them out of their security. One would think that the providences of God which related to them were enough to startle them; but, to help them to understand and improve those, the word of God is sent to them to give them warning (v. 4): Therefore prophesy against them, and try to undeceive them; prophesy, O son of man! upon these dead and dry bones. Note, The greatest kindness ministers can do to secure sinners is to preach against them, and to show them their misery and danger, though they are ever so unwilling to see them. We then act most for them when we appear most against them. But the prophet, being at a loss what to say to men that were hardened in sin, and that bade defiance to the judgments of God, the Spirit of the Lord fell upon him, to make him full of power and courage, and said unto him, Speak. Note, When sinners are flattering themselves into their own ruin it is time to speak, and to tell them that they shall have no peace if they go on. Ministers are sometimes so bashful and timorous, and so much at a loss, that they must be put on to speak, and to speak boldly. But he that commands the prophet to speak gives him instructions what to say; and he must address himself to them as the house of Israel (v. 5), for not the princes only, but all the people, were concerned to know the truth of their cause, to know the worst of it. They are the house of Israel, and therefore the God of Israel is concerned, in kindness to them, to give them warning; and they are concerned in duty to him to take the warning. And what is it that the must say to them in God’s name? 1. Let them know that the God of heaven takes notice of the vain confidences with which they support themselves (v. 5): “I know the things which come into your minds every one of them, what secret reasons you have for these resolutions, and what you aim at in putting so good a face upon a matter you know to be bad.” Note, God perfectly knows not only the things that come out of our mouths, but the things that come into our minds, not only all we say, but all we think; even those thoughts that are most suddenly darted into our minds, and that as suddenly slip out of them again, so that we ourselves are scarcely aware of them, yet God knows them. He knows us better than we know ourselves; he understands our thoughts afar off. The consideration of this should oblige us to keep our hearts with all diligence, that no vain thoughts come into them or lodge within them. 2. Let them know that those who advised the people to stand it out should be accounted before God the murderers of all who had fallen, or should yet fall, in Jerusalem, by the sword of the Chaldeans; and those slain were the only ones that should remain in the city, as the flesh in the caldron. “You have multiplied your slain in the city, not only those whom you have by the sword of justice unjustly put to death under colour of law, but those whom you have by your wilfulness and pride unwisely exposed to the sword of war, though you were told by the prophets that you should certainly go by the worst. Thus you, with your stubborn humour, have filled the streets of Jerusalem with the slain,” v. 6. Note, Those who are either unrighteous or imprudent in beginning or carrying on a war bring upon themselves a great deal of the guilt of blood; and those who are slain in the battles or sieges which they, by such a reasonable peace as the war aimed at, might have prevented, will be called their slain. Now these slain are the only flesh that shall be left in this caldron, v. 7. There shall none remain to keep possession of the city but those that are buried in it. There shall be no inhabitants of Jerusalem but the inhabitants of the graves there, no freemen of the city but the free among the dead. 3. Let them know that, how impregnable soever they thought their city to be, they should be forced out of it, either driven to flight or dragged into captivity: I will bring you forth out of the midst of it, whether you will or no, Eze 11:7; Eze 11:9. They had provoked God to forsake the city, and thought they should do well enough by their own policy and strength when he was gone; but God will make them know that there is no peace to those that have left their God. If they have by their sins driven God from his house, he will soon by his judgments drive them from theirs; and it will be found that those are least safe that are most secure: “This city shall not be your caldron, neither shall you be the flesh; you shall not soak away in it as you promise yourselves, and die in your nest; you think yourself safe in the midst thereof, but you shall not be long there.” 4. Let them know that when God has got them out of the midst of Jerusalem he will pursue them with his judgments wherever he finds them, the judgments which they thought to shelter themselves from by keeping close in Jerusalem. They feared the sword if they should go out to the Chaldeans, and therefore would abide in their caldron, but, says God, I will bring a sword upon you (v. 8) and you shall fall by the sword, v. 10. Note, The fear of the wicked shall come upon him. And there is no fence against the judgments of God when they come with commission, no, not in walls of brass. They were afraid of trusting to the mercy of strangers. “But,” says God, “I will deliver you into the hands of strangers, whose resentments you shall feel, since you were not willing to lie at their mercy.” See Jer 38:17; Jer 38:18. They thought to escape the judgments of God, but God says that he will execute judgments upon them; and whereas they resolved, if they must be judged, that it should be in Jerusalem, God tells them (Eze 11:10; Eze 11:11) that he will judge them in the borders of Israel, which was fulfilled when Nebuchadnezzar slew all the nobles of Judah at Riblah in the land of Hamath, on the utmost border of the land of Canaan. Note, Those who have taken ever so deep root in the place where they live cannot be sure that in that place they shall die. 5. Let them know that all this is the due punishment of their sin, and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God against them: You shall know that I am the Lord,Eze 11:10; Eze 11:12. Those shall be made to know by the sword of the Lord who would not be taught by his word what a hatred he has to sin, and what a fearful thing it is for impenitent sinners to fall into his hands. I will execute judgments, and then you shall know that I am the Lord, for the Lord is known by the judgments which he executes upon those that have not walked in his statutes. Hereby it is known that he made the law, because he punishes the breach of it. I will execute judgments among you (says God) because you have not executed my judgments, v. 12. Note, The executing of the judgments of God’s mouth by us, in a uniform steady course of obedience to his law, is the only way to prevent the executing of the judgments of his hand upon us in our ruin and confusion. One way or other. God’s judgments will be executed; the law will take place either in its precept or in its penalty. If we do not give honour to God by executing his judgments as he has commanded, he will get him honour upon us by executing his judgments as he has threatened; and thus we shall know that he is the Lord, the sovereign Lord of all, that will not be mocked. And observe, When they cast off God’s statutes, and walked not in them, they did after the manners of the heathen that were round about them, and introduced into their worship all their impure, ridiculous, and barbarous usages. When men leave the settled rule of divine institutions, they wander endlessly. Justly therefore was this made the reason why they should keep God’s ordinances, that they might not commit the abominable customs of the heathen, Lev. xviii. 30.
III. This awakening word is here immediately followed by an awakening providence, v. 13. Here we may observe, 1. With what power Ezekiel prophesied, or, rather, what a divine power went along with it: It came to pass, when I prophesied, that Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died; he was mentioned (v. 1) as a principal man among the twenty-five princes that made all the mischief in Jerusalem. It should seem, this was done in vision now, as the slaying of the ancient men (ch. ix. 6) upon occasion of which Ezekiel prayed (v. 8) as he did here; but it was an assurance that when this prophecy should be published it should be done in fact. The death of Pelatiah was an earnest of the complete accomplishment of this prophecy. Note, God is pleased often-times to single out some sinners, and to make them monuments of his justice, for warning to others of what is coming; and some that thought themselves very safe and snatched away suddenly, and drop down dead in an instant, as Ananias and Sapphira at Peter’s feet when he prophesied. 2. With what pity Ezekiel prayed. Thought the sudden death of Pelatiah was a confirmation of Ezekiel’s prophecy, and really an honour to him, yet he was in deep concern about it, and laid it to heart as if he had been his relation or friend: He fell on his face and cried with a loud voice, as one in earnest, “Ah! Lord God, wilt thou make a full end of the remnant of Israel? Many are swept away by the judgments we have been under; and shall the remnant which have escaped the sword die thus by the immediate hand of heaven? Then thou wilt indeed make a full end.” Perhaps it was Ezekiel’s infirmity to bewail the death of this wicked prince thus, as it was Samuel’s to mourn so long for Saul; but thus he showed how far he was from desiring the woeful day he foretold. David lamented the sickness of those that hated and persecuted him. And we ought to be much affected with the sudden death of others, yea, though they are wicked.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
EZEKIEL – CHAPTER 11
A VISION OF WRATH AGAINST LYING RULERS
Verses 1-13:
Verse 1 continues with the assertion that the spirit lifted Ezekiel up in his vision and placed him at the east gate of the Lord’s house (the temple) facing eastward, v. 24; Eze 3:12; Eze 3:14; Eze 8:3; Eze 10:19. There at the door or entrance of the gate he saw twenty five men, rulers in Jerusalem and Judea. Among them, or in their midst, as if presiding over them, were two princes of kingly lineage, Jaazaniah the son of Azur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah. These seem not to be the same 25 men who were worshipping the sun in the same place, as recounted Eze 8:11; Eze 8:16, for they were priests.
Verse 2 declared that these 25 men were devisers, instigators, and perpetrators of mischief and evil counsel in Jerusalem, provoking God to wrath, Eze 10:2.
Verse 3 states that they repeatedly said that “It is not near,” or they were not likely to be judged or carried away captive, in spite of former prophecy, Jer 25:11-12; Jer 29:10. They therefore advised progress in building, proceeding as in the past, even as the people of the pre-flood Noah days, Mat 24:37-39. It appears that the 25 devisers of mischief would have the people build houses so strong that should the enemy come they would no longer be as flesh waiting to be boiled in a cauldron, as described Jer 1:13. They were self-savers, obstinate against God in their idolatrous advocacy, defying their own law, Exo 20:4-5.
Verse 4 directs Ezekiel therefore to prophecy against them, those yet in Jerusalem, though far away in Babylon, except as. carried to Jerusalem in visions. God would have His dispersed captives to hear from Ezekiel what was yet to befall the rebellious of their remnant in Jerusalem. The repetition is meant to emphasize the earnestness of Ezekiel and certainty of his prophecies, 2Pe 1:20-21.
Verse 5 recounts Ezekiel’s testimony that the Spirit of the Lord fell heavily upon him, stronger than entered into him, and commanded him to speak up and out about what he had seen and heard, Eze 2:2; Eze 3:24. For until this time he had been silent, hearing and learning of the Lord, as Paul did in Arabia, Gal 1:15-20; Eze 2:2; Eze 3:24. Ezekiel was told to proclaim to them that God knew what they had said, their scornful jests, and what was in their minds, completely, every one of them, Psa 139:1-4; Ecc 12:14; Mat 12:36.
Verse 6 then describes what these evil princes and governors of Israel, Judea, and Jerusalem had devised. They were charged with wanton murder, in the streets and city of Jerusalem, for which He would hold them responsible, Eze 7:23-24; See also Mic 3:1-3; Jer 39:4-5.
Verse 7 further charges that those whom they had slain were their own flesh, and the city of Jerusalem had been and was their caldron. The slain were those killed at Chaldean invasion against Jerusalem for which God held her rulers responsible. Ezekiel was to make this plain, yet He promised that He would bring the remnant out of Jerusalem, the caldron, Eze 24:3; Eze 24:6; Eze 24:10-11; Mic 3:3.
Verse 8 warns that they of Jerusalem had feared the sword and He would yet surely bring a sword upon them v. 6. Their chastening would yet be full, from Chaldea.
Verse 9 adds that the Lord would bring the remnant out of Jerusalem, delivering them by the sword into the hands of other strangers and heathen, even as they had adopted morals, ethics, and the religions of many idolatrous orders. He would lead them into the plains of judgment, executing judgment.
Verse 10 asserts that they should fall by the sword, as the instrument of Divine retribution for their sins, 2Ki 25:19-21; Jer 39:6; Jer 52:10. God declared that He would judge them “in the border of Israel,” on the frontier, or by a nation nearby, even Chaldea at Riblah where Zedekiah and his sons were executed, Jer 52:9-11. This was to continue until in captivity, Eze 5:8; Psa 106:30, too late to cry, they would come to recognize and acknowledge that He was Lord, Psa 9:16, even of all the earth. The chief officers, priests, and 60 men of Jerusalem were also slain, 2Ki 25:19-21.
Verse 11 adds that “this city,” of Jerusalem should not be their caldron, their place to die. Nor should they. long be the flesh or life of the city of peace. Then it is again asserted that He would judge them in the border or “border area” or frontier of Israel, alluding again to the final siege of captivity that would also carry them away into Babylon, v. 3, 4. This was done as described, Eze 39:4-5.
Verse 12 declares that they should then comprehend that He was the Lord, Master of the universe, and that they had not either walked in the way of His statutes or executed His judgments. But they would then know that they had embraced and walked after the ways of their heathen neighbors, nations about them, as forewarned Deu 12:30-31.
Verse 13 recounts that as Ezekiel, overwhelmed by the Spirit, spoke those words of fiery judgment to the two princes and 25 rulers or governors in Jerusalem, Pelatiah, the son of Benaiah, believed to be leader of the scorners, v. 1, of the two princes, fell down dead, like Ananias, Act 5:5. So moved was Ezekiel in the vision, yet enraptured, that he fell down in painful bitterness of soul and cried out with a loud voice, “Oh Lord God! wilt thou make a full end of the remnant of Israel?” Eze 9:8. He spoke as if he had forgotten all hope in the covenant promise of God to preserve Israel until the Redeemer should come, Gen 49:10; See also Deu 9:18; Jos 7:6; Jos 7:9; 1Ch 21:16-17; Psa 106:23; Psa 119:120.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
Here the Prophet admonishes the people that perverse leaders would be the cause of their destruction. For if the blind lead the blind both will fall into the ditch (Mat 15:14; Luk 6:39.) Since, therefore, the elders of the city were such wicked apostates, they drew with them the whole body of the people into the same ruin. Now, therefore, the Prophet shows that the state of the city was so corrupt that no hope of pardon remained, since those who ought to be the eyes of the whole people were involved in darkness. But he names the five and twenty seniors Whence it is probable, that this number was chosen in the midst of confusion, or that a definite number is put for an indefinite; and I rather embrace this second view. Whatever it is, it implies that those who held the reins of government were impious despisers of God, and hence it is not surprising that impiety and defection from God and his law had begun to increase among the whole people. But we must remark the Prophet’s intention. For common soldiers are accustomed to consider their commanders as a shield, as we this day see in the Papacy. For this is their last refuge, since they think themselves guilty of no fault when they obey their holy Mother Church. Such also formerly was the obstinacy of the people.
Lastly, men always throw off all blame from themselves, under pretense of error or ignorance. Hence the Prophet now shows that the city was not free from God’s wrath, since it was corrupted by its leaders and rulers; nay, that this was a cause of its destruction, since the people were too easily led astray by perverse examples. Meanwhile, we must notice the Prophet’s freedom, because he here fearlessly attacks the most noble princes. He was, indeed, out of danger, because he was an exile: but it seems that he was at Jerusalem when he uttered this prophecy. He shows, therefore, his strength of mind, since he does not spare the nobles. Hence this useful doctrine is collected, that those who excel in reputation and rank are not free from blame if they conduct themselves wickedly, as we see happens in the Papacy. For, as to the Pope himself, it is in his power to condemn the whole world, while he exempts himself from all blame. And as to the Bishops, now twenty or thirty witnesses are required, and afterwards even seventy: hence one of those horned beasts could not be convinced, unless the whole people should rise up: so also it was formerly. But here the Prophet shows, that however eminent are those who are endued with power over the people, yet they are not sacred nor absolved from all law by any peculiar privilege, since God freely judges them by his Spirit, and reproves them by his Prophets. Lastly, if we wish to discharge our duty rightly, especially when it consists of the office of teaching, we should avoid all respect of persons, for those who boast that they excel others are yet subject to the censures of God. For this reason it follows —
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(4.) THE CALAMITY THREATENED TO JERUSALEM (Chap. Eze. 11:1-13)
EXEGETICAL NOTES.The movements of the Glory of the Lord are intermitted for a time. During that interval a new condition is entered into by Ezekiel. Hitherto, notwithstanding the unfolding of so many abominations before his eyes, and by which his heart must have been greatly distressed, his lips have been sealed in regard to any denunciation of them. Now, when the cherubic throne is hovering over the east gate, he is led to that spot and is empowered to utter a severe rebuke against the representatives of Jerusalem, and also to declare promises to the elders who represented the exiled.
Eze. 11:1. Ezekiel is placed by the spirit-power at the gate of the temple-court, under the Glory, and, behold, in the opening of the gate twenty-five men. This number makes us think of the twenty-five men mentioned in chap. Eze. 8:16; but we cannot suppose them, as some do, to be the same. They were worshipping the sun, and we should conclude that they were slain by the watchers with the weapon of destruction. Besides, the standing-place of the twenty-five of chap. 8 indicated that they were priests. That is not indicated here, and we are rather led to believe, from the position of the present twenty-five, and from their characterisation (Eze. 11:3), that they represent present civil authorities who were consulting with one another on matters of state; and I saw in their midst Jaazaniah the son of Azur, therefore not the elders of Israel he had previously seen (chap. Eze. 8:11), and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people. It is most likely that the two princes named were living in Jerusalem at that time, and noted as being leaders among the dominant party. Or they may have been singled out in order to point to the inconsistency between their names and the course they advocated. The Lord who hears (Jaazaniah) and who helps (Azur): the Lord who delivers (Pelatiah) and builds up (Benaiah); and they were departing from the Lord!
Eze. 11:2-3. These are the men that devise mischief and give evil counsel in this city; they set up an opposition to Gods messages, and provoke His wrath. The gist of their opposition is stated; but the Hebrew construction does not favour the translation of the A. V. The curtness of the phraseology renders the meaning obscure. Who say, Not in nearness [is] the building of houses, it [is] the caldron and we [are] the flesh. Any interpretation must take account of this as the evil counsel, and that it was held to be audaciously iniquitous. It obviously refers to some circumstances of that period, and we may find them indicated in that prophecy of Jeremiah in which he instructed the captive Jews to build houses, &c. (chap. Eze. 29:5). These princes scoffed at that message thus, Those who are far off, in a land of exile, may take, if they please, the prophets advice and build houses for themselves there. That does not concern us hereit is too remote a district from ours. Let Jerusalem be a pot, which Jeremiah (chap. Eze. 1:13) declares is to smoke and boil by the fury of a hostile invasion from the north, then we shall be the flesh within it; its strong fortifications and sure defences shall preserve us against any flame of war that may kindle around us. We have no occasion to be terrified or succumb to warnings. So they rejected the ways of the Lord and trusted to their own devices; and would such a defiant spirit, on the part of those who were called to honour Him, be met by the Lord?
Eze. 11:5. The impelling might of the Spirit moves Ezekiel to an utterance, Thus saith the Lord, So ye say, O house of Israel, and what riseth up in your spirit, I know it. Not only is He cognisant of their overt words and several plottings, but also of the real aims and wishes which underlie their proceedings, and holds them responsible (Eze. 11:6) for the consequences resulting therefrom.
Eze. 11:7. Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Your slain, whom ye have placed in the midst of it, they are the flesh and it is the caldron. Your slain are those who had been cut down through the outrages of the princes themselves (see chap. 24.), and also those who perished because of the wicked counsels whose effect had been to bring the Chaldean army against Jerusalem. Ezekiel gives them back their own words, as containing an undoubted truth, but in a different sense from that in which they had used them. There will be flesh protected in the caldron from the fire, but it will represent those who are slain. A grim satire: The dead are the safe! And one shall bring you forth from its midst; the princes and their abettors should not be defended in the city. They should be taken out of it to answer for their crimes.
Eze. 11:9. A sword ye have feared, and a sword will I make to come upon you, saith the Lord Jehovah. They were in apprehension of the war which had been pressed on by the king of Babylon, and, contrary to the urgent representations of Jeremiah, made a coalition-with Egypt; yet, notwithstanding their schemings, the hand of strangers, the Chaldean forces, would perpetrate violent deeds under the impact of divine impulses.
Eze. 11:11-12. The supposed security would be invaded: the city would not be a caldron for them; taken away from it, on the frontier of Israel will I judge you; they would be captives, and taken to the extremity of their land to undergo punishment. Jeremiah narrates (chap. Eze. 39:4-5) how this threat was fulfilled in the bloody scenes at Ribla in Hamath on the northern border of Israel, and where, as an Assyrian tablet in the British Museum tells, the headquarters of Nebuchadnezzar were on this expedition. Like all other tribulations, this had for its ulterior end to work the conviction that the Lord was their only real king, in whose statutes ye walked not, and whose judgments ye did not; but ye did according to the judgments of the nations round about you: a difference from what was stated in chap. Eze. 5:7, as to surrounding nations; but evidently referring here to such corrupt practices of their neighbours as they copied. The materials, out of which proceeded the destruction of the then existing Jewish government, are thus set forth, and, that destruction being so distinctly predicted, the people should learn that it was with the most perfect reason that God claimed for Himself the honour of supreme ruler. It is lamentable if we must gain the knowledge of God by our own destruction,if He, in whom we live and move and are, is first recognised by the strokes which break our own head (Heng.)
Eze. 11:13. A portentous event impresses the prophetic words. And it came to pass that as I was prophesying Pelatiah, the son of Benaiah, died. Though this incident is still part of Ezekiels ecstasy, it is probable that one of the chief advisers of Jerusalem died about the time in some such awfully sudden manner and when surrounded by his fellows in the temple. The effect on the sensitive Seer is great, and suggests bitter and painful thoughts as to the slaughter of his people as happened previously (chap. Eze. 9:8): and I fell on my face, and cried with a loud voice, and said, Ah Lord Jehovah, dost Thou make an utter end of the remnant of Israel? He speaks as if he had forgotten all grounds of hope, and as if the people in the capital were the real representatives of Israel in whose mournful fate all Israel would be overwhelmed and lost. He will learn that it is otherwise.
HOMILETICS
REFUGES OF LIES BROKEN UP
Under the boastings of its leading men the people of Jerusalem were living in fancied security. They had heard from Jeremiah the prophet announcements of coming woes; but they put far from themselves the evil day, and buoyed themselves up with the expectation that, even if it did come, they would escape its troubles. Theirs is a common state of mind in respect to the truths of God which are wished not to be true, and we need to stand in His light that we may be disabused of our hurtful errors. He aims to help us thereto by a procedure such as is disclosed in this paragraph. He shows that self-constituted refuges
I. Are based on miscalculations. Men calculate that there is no necessity immediately to renounce past courses: the judge is not standing before the door; the call to watch for the Masters coming can be trifled with for a while. Thus many vaguely feel, if they do not positively present excuses as to the incidence of a season of searching and decisive trial. They may walk on in darkness till that day overtakes them as a thief. For, as all events are uncertain, to risk the present space given for repentance is, it may be, to risk the building of a house without means to finish it, the being overwhelmed by ruin from which there will be no opportunity to escape. We can use now but not then to flee.
II. They are abortive before God. He knows all that comes into the heart, the mouth, the hands, and so is able to test the real character of each. The stand made by men in self-defence is untenable. Fancies will not shut out afflictions, spring up when they may. No causes, no secret purposes can be so encrusted that they will elude the penetration of the eyes that are as a flame of fire. To cherish hopes, apart from Christ, that we shall be preserved from future evils, is to cherish hopes on a quicksand over which the tidal wave is beginning to rise Sins make culprits, and the righteous Lord will not let one elude His sentence, whatever the rank, the numbers, the religious privileges be. Search lest thy refuge lie open to the flood of divine condemnation.
III. They are open to dislocations. One is from the word of the Lord. It came by prophets. It has come, in these last days, by a Son. We read, we hear what He hath spoken, and learn that the entire bearing of that word of the living God is to convict of sin and to bring to immediate faith in the Saviour from sin. Again and again were men urged to Hear the Word of the Lord; again and again are we urged now, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
Another is from the action of human influences. The sword, captivity, spoiling of goods affected the contemporaries of Ezekiel: an ailment, an emigration, a pecuniary loss operate upon us. We shall miss the true reasons for such shakings of our usual affairs, if we do not trace in them the will of the righteous and loving Lord, who would show to us that we have been trusting in that which is of the flesh, who would draw us to plant our feet upon the Rock of ages. I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and punish the men that are settled on their lees: that say in their hearts, The Lord will not do good, neither will He do evil (Zep. 1:12).
Thus are records made that the Lord sets His face against our doings that are not good, and that, whether they are to be classed under unfaithfulness to Him or unbrotherliness to men, He will expose them to utter collapse. No schemes, no confidences will be capable of resisting Him. The Lord is known by the judgment that He executeth.
Who will accept the decisions of the Holy One as to their hopes of safety coming storms? Who will forsake all and follow Christ? If you would not be broken by His judgment, do not break His statutes; if you would secure your lives, walk in His laws.
A VISION OF SUDDEN DEATH (Eze. 11:13)
Painful associations were linked in with the sudden end of Pelatiahs counsel and boastings. While the consensus of human testimony proves that such an immediate cessation of the activities of life is not considered as always stamped with the brand of punishment, it is always regarded as more or less of a calamity. Even they who know that the hand of the Good Shepherd is leading them into the unseen world, yet shrink from this manner of exit from the present world. The feeling is to be accounted for because of
I. The general mysteriousness. There are no precise premonitions, no apparently gradual preparations. For though such a death must have been preceded by causes adequate to produce it, those causes, whether physical or mental, have not been credited with the deadly force which they exert. The death appears to be the bursting forth of a new and poignant energy, and our hearts are awed by the sad and startling memento which marks its route. Besides, the selection is utterly incomprehensible. Two men are given equal prominence in the course taken by Jerusalem, yet one expires in a moment, and the other still breathes the vital air. One of a family goes in an instant down to the grave, but all the other members go more or less slowly. We may be surprised at the falling of the lot, but we have no light as to its movements. Only this can we be sure of, that He who gave life takes it away in a method that is at once wise and good. Blessed be the name of the Lord!
II. The utter helplessness. No nursing, no skill can be made the least use of. We may cry for a parting word, a pressure, a look; but we cry with no result. We see the living now, in a moment we see they are not, and we can do nothing for them, we can only look. They pass altogether beyond our aid. They seem still beside us, but they have gonewhere?
III. An indescribable contiguity of solemn spiritual conditions. Pelatiah is hearing the word of the Lord by Ezekiel, and in the very sound thereof hears the command of the King of terrors. Mercy and judgment stand hand in hand. The hearer becomes at once a dweller in the silent land. What will be learned there? The judgment of the All Holy, unaffected by any ignorance, misconception, shrinking! What if he be impenitent? What if his tongue be still vibrating with words in which he gave counsel against good? What if he has not cleansed his hands from the filth of dishonest gain or the blood of those he has injured? He is struck powerless. He is in face of iniquity at this step, he is confronted with its penalty at the next.
IV. A shock to natural feelings. Fear for oneself and pity for another cannot be restrained. Surprise and awe might have affected Pelatiahs fellow-counsellors for a time. The effect was transient. They persisted in their wicked devices in the city; they acted in fatal correspondence thereto. Their seasonable impressions, like the morning cloud and early dew, soon vanished away. On the other hand men, with the love to God and man which stirred Ezekiel, pray that such a sudden stroke may not cut down those who are still in their trespasses; they ask for sparing mercy that such persons may be moved to work the works of God before the night cometh in which no man can work. How vain is prayer when the sinners prayed for will go on in evil ways! How sad it is that the godly should be concerned for the coming doom of transgressors, and yet the transgressors themselves remain unmoved. Let believers imitate Ezekiel, and when judgments descend on some, lift up their prayer for the remnant that is left (Fausset).
Wert thou this moment to go through the gates of death, wouldst thou go as one who had walked or had not walked thereto in the footprints of Jesus? Watch, for ye know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man cometh.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
A. The Jerusalem Leaders Denounced 11:113
TRANSLATION
(1) And a spirit lifted me up, and brought me unto the eastern gate of the house of the LORD, the one that faces east, and behold, in the entrance of the gate twenty-five men. And I saw in their midst Jaazaniah ben-Azur and Pelatiah ben-Benaiah, princes of the people. (2) And He said unto me, Son of man, these are the men who devise iniquity, and give wicked counsel in this city; (3) who say, It is not near, let us build houses.[247] It is the pot, and we are the meat. (4) Therefore, prophesy against them, prophesy, O son of man. (5) And the Spirit of the LORD fell upon me, and said unto me, Speak! Thus says the LORD: You have said thus, O house of Israel, and the things of your spirit I surely know. (6) You have multiplied your slain in this city, and you have filled its streets with slain. (7) Therefore, Thus says the LORD: Your slain which you have put in your midst, they are the meat, and it is the pot; but you shall be brought forth[248] from its midst. (8) A sword you have feared, and a sword I shall bring against you (oracle of the Lord GOD). (9) And I will bring you out from its midst, and I will place you in the hand of strangers, and I will execute judgments among you. (10) With the sword you shall fall, upon the border of Israel I shall judge you; and you shall know that I am the LORD. (11) It shall not be your pot, nor shall you be in its midst as meat; but I will judge you unto the border of Israel. (12) And you shall know that I am the LORD in whose statutes you did not walk, and whose judgments you did not execute, but have done according to the judgments of the nations which are round about you.
[247] Lit. not In the near (future) the building of houses.
[248] Another reading is, I will bring you forth.
COMMENTS
The leading citizens of Jerusalem were convinced of the impregnability of the Holy City. In Eze. 11:1-13 Ezekiel was commissioned to smash this vain delusion. Blackwood succinctly summarizes the vision which is unraveling: Jerusalem will die, but faith will lives.[249]
[249] Blackwood, EPH, p. 84.
In this vision the prophet feels himself swept off his feet and carried by a spirit to another part of the Temple. From the inner court where Ezekiel was last said to be standing (Eze. 8:16), the prophet was transported to the eastern gate of the outer court. This was the spot where the throne-chariot had momentarily set down (Eze. 10:19). This area just outside the sacred Temple precincts was traditionally a place of public assembly (cf. Jer. 26:10).
At the eastern Temple gate Ezekiel saw twenty-five men. Are these the same men Ezekiel observed worshiping the sun in Eze. 8:16? Probably not.[250] The former company was a priestly group, while these twenty-five appear to have been lay leaders. Furthermore, the two groups are seen in different localities. What significance there may be in the number twenty-five cannot be ascertained.[251] The men seem to have been members of a political pressure group.
[250] Many capable commentators do make the identification between the two groups.
[251] Various conjectures (1) two from each tribe of Israel with the king at their head; (2) two from each of the twelve divisions of the army with their commander; (3) two representatives from each of the twelve regions of the city with their president.
Two of the twenty-five men were easily identified by Ezekiel. Jaazaniah[252] and Pelatiah were prominent statesmen, princes of the people (Eze. 11:1). This term refers to the ruling class of Judah, not necessarily the royal family.[253]
[252] Not to be confused with the Jaazaniah of Eze. 8:11 who was the son of Shaphan. This Jaazaniah was the son of Azur. An Azur is found In Jer. 28:1 as the father of Hananiah the false prophet. Could this Jaazaniah have been the brother of Hananiah?
[253] See Jer. 26:10; Jer. 26:12; Jer. 26:16; Jer. 26:21; Jer. 36:14, et al.
The twenty-five men are said to be those who devise iniquity and give wicked counsel in this city, i.e., Jerusalem (Eze. 11:2). Exactly what this iniquity and counsel consisted of is not certain. Since this narrative dates from the latter half of Zedekiahs reign, Jeremiahs experiences with the princes may give some indication. In open contradiction to Jeremiahs constant proclamation of certain doom for Jerusalem, the princes optimistically advised the people of the citys invulnerability. This anti-Babylon faction constantly agitated for revolt against the authority of Nebuchadnezzar. Such policies were tantamount to rebellion against the will of God (Jer. 27:12 ff.), and were therefore politically and spiritually disastrous.
The defiant boast of these evil counselors is cited in Eze. 11:3. It (the judgment of which the true prophets spoke) is not near;[254] let us build houses. Jeremiah had bidden the exiles in Babylon to build houses and settle down for a long stay (Jer. 29:5). The evil princes urged that houses be built[255] in Jerusalem, that business proceed as usual. Jeremiah had threatened the inhabitants of Jerusalem with the image of the seething pot (Jer. 1:13); but the rebel party regarded Jerusalem as the caldron which would protect the meat the inhabitants of the city from the fire of destruction. The schemers thus assured themselves that the walls of Jerusalem would afford them adequate protection in the event of an attack by the army of Babylon.
[254] The Greek version turns this into a question, Is not the time at hand to build houses?
[255] Many modern commentators prefer the translation the time is not near to build houses. The idea would then be that all attention should be devoted to war against Babylon, not house-building. While this translation is possible, the explanation is farfetched.
In his vision Ezekiel heard himself bidden to do the true work of a prophet in rebuking the defiant rebels. Concerning these Jerusalem leaders God had an urgent message. The repetition of the command to prophesy (Eze. 11:4) underscores this urgency. As in Eze. 2:2 Ezekiel felt the Spirit of God fall upon him. He knew that he would speak the word of the Lord inerrantly, and hence he prefaced his visionary oracle with the phrase Thus says the Lord. His message was addressed to the house of Israel, a term which in Ezekiels day was restricted to the people of Judah the remnant of Israel. God knew what the leaders of Israel had been saying, and He knew their thoughts as well (Eze. 11:5).
In Eze. 11:6 Ezekiel makes a serious accusation against the Jerusalem leadership: You have multiplied your slain in this city. This has been taken by some to be prophetic invective against the violence of the Jerusalem leadership.[256] The term slain is often used in classical Hebrew prophecy to refer to the helpless victims of social and political iniquities.[257] Plenty of examples from the biographical narratives of Jeremiah can be adduced to substantiate the charge of ruthlessness against the national leaders in Jerusalem. However, context here would seem to point in the direction of another interpretation of the accusation in Eze. 11:6. It might be called a predictive accusation. The defiant attitude of the anti-Babylonian party would result in the streets of Jerusalem being filled with those slain by Babylonian swords. The princes or governmental leaders were ultimately responsible for this needless slaughter.
[256] Wevers. NCB, p. 94.
[257] E. g., Isa. 1:21-23; Amo. 2:6-8; Hos. 4:1-3, Mic. 3:1-3.
The prophet was led of the Lord to respond to their derisive and defiant caldron simile. The evil practices of Jerusalems rulers had resulted in a situation in which the city walls would only serve to entrap and not protect. The gullible inhabitants of Jerusalem were bound together within the city for slaughter. The Jerusalem caldron was a pot of death, and the leaders were responsible for the slain the corpses which would fall in the streets of that city. But at least those slain would remain in Jerusalem, interred in their native land. For the war-mongers a worse fate was in store. They would fall into the hand of the ruthless Nebuchadnezzar and would be brought forth by him out of the midst of Jerusalem (Eze. 11:7).
Stripped of metaphor, Eze. 11:7 states simply that Jerusalem will afford no protection to the inhabitants. Many would be slain; others would be carried away into captivity on foreign soil. With all their talk about security, the leaders really feared an attack by the sword, i.e., Babylon. These fears, Ezekiel announced, would be justified by events (Eze. 11:8).
In Eze. 11:9 Ezekiel becomes more specific about the expulsion of the leaders from Jerusalem, and in so doing he eliminates any ambiguity in his previous statement. Their expulsion from Jerusalem spoken of in Eze. 11:7 would not result in escape to safe refuge. God would deliver them into the hands of strangers, i.e., the Babylonians. Through the instrumentality of these foreigners God would execute His judgments upon the rebels (Eze. 11:9). Ultimately they would fall by the sword. They would taste the judgment of the Lord upon the border of Israel. This prediction was fulfilled when the princes of Judah were massacred at Riblah (Jer. 52:9-10) which was on the frontier of the old Northern Kingdom (cf. 1Ki. 8:65; 2Ki. 14:25). When this prediction came to pass they would know that I am the Lord that Yahweh is not indifferent to the conduct of man (Eze. 11:10).
Eze. 11:11-12 a simply serve to underscore the dramatic predictions of the previous verses. Jerusalem would not serve as a caldron to protect the meat, i.e., these leaders, from the fire of the Babylonian army. Rather, they would experience divine judgment upon the border of Israel. The fulfillment of these predictions would establish that the one who spoke through the prophetic mouthpiece was really Yahweh, the God who will not leave the wicked unpunished. These leaders had disregarded the statutes and ordinances of the Lord, but on the contrary had followed heathen customs and practices (Eze. 11:12). They were therefore deserving of divine wrath.
As Ezekiel prophesied in his vision a dramatic event took place. One of the leaders, Pelatiah ben Benaiah, dropped dead.[258] Whether the death of Pelatiah was an actual event which is incorporated into the vision,[259] or whether it is purely a symbolic and visionary occurrence cannot be determined. In any case Ezekiel was startled and horrified by this occurrence. He certainly interpreted it as an ominous sign. Following his natural impulse as prophetic intercessor, Ezekiel fell on this face in earnest supplication before the Lord. In a loud voice he cried out his exasperation and agony, Ah Lord God? A question conveys an oblique petition on behalf of his people.[260] Will You make a full end of the remnant of Israel? The remnant of Israel would be those who were left in Jerusalem after the Babylonian siege in 597 B.C. The prophet interpreted the death of Pelatiah, one of the chief counselors of the city, to mean that the entire population of Jerusalem would share a similar fate.
[258] Compare the death of the false prophet Hananiah (Jer. 28:17).
[259] Taylor (TOTC, p. 110) feels Pelatiah actually died in Jerusalem at the very moment that Ezekiel had his vision. Subsequent reports of the incident reaching the exiles would have confirmed the authenticity of the vision and Ezekiels supernatural power.
[260] Compare the prayer in Eze. 9:8.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
III. DECLARATIONS BY THE PROPHET 11:125
Chapter 11 sets forth two declarations by the prophet in his vision. The first (Eze. 11:1-13) denounced the leaders in Jerusalem. The second brought comfort to the exiles in Babylon (Eze. 11:14-21). To these declarations is attached a note about the conclusion of this vision (Eze. 11:22-25).
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(1) Brought me unto the east gate of the Lords house.This is the same place, the main outer entrance to the whole Temple enclosure, to which the prophet had seen the cherubim go (Eze. 10:19). It is not expressly said where he was brought from; but the last place mentioned was the court of the priests (Eze. 8:16), and so far the vision appears to be consecutive. Standing in that innermost court, he had seen the Divine presence go forth to the outer entrance; and he also is now transported thither.
Here he sees twenty-five men, the same number whom he had seen worshipping the sun in the inner court. They appear, however, to have been priests, while these seem to be secular leaders. Hence they are generally supposed to be a different set of men. It is nevertheless by no means impossible that they may be the same idolatrous priests, who, by prostituting their holy office to idolatry, gained an ascendancy over a sinful people. Otherwise, the number twenty-five may represent the king, with two princes from each of the twelve tribes; or is possibly a number without any other especial significance than as representing a considerable array of the most prominent people of the nation. Two of these are mentioned by name. If the Jaazaniah here is the same with the Jaazaniah of Eze. 8:11, it settles the point that the men here are not to be understood of the priests, since he there represented a different class (see Note on Eze. 8:11). The names are significant: Jaazaniah = Jehovah hears, son of Azur = the helper; Pelatiah = God rescues, son of Benaiah =Jehovah builds. Names of this sort were common enough among the Jews, but they seem here intended to bring out the false hopes with which the people beguiled themselves; and in view of this, the sudden death of Pelatiah (verse. 13) was particularly impressive. These princes were active in misleading the people to their destruction.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
THE POLITICAL LEADERS OF THE PEOPLE GIVE WICKED COUNSEL, AND ARE INVOLVED IN THE CITY’S RUIN, Eze 11:1-21.
1. The spirit lifted me See notes Eze 3:12; Eze 3:14; Eze 8:3.
Brought me unto the east gate Jehovah and the chariot of his glory had previously removed to this place (Eze 10:18-19). This was probably the outer gate of the temple and faced the rising sun. The gate in oriental cities was the place of judgment.
Five and twenty men Are these the twenty-five sun worshipers mentioned in Eze 8:16? No; these are not priests. These are the princes, or, literally, “captains,” of the people. The army and laity, as well as the priesthood, are now seen to be involved in rebellion against God. The number twenty-five may represent two from each tribe, or two from each division of the army, or two from each of the twelve regions of the city, led by the king or the general; or, being the usual symbolical number of solidarity, it may merely represent pictorially “the whole house of Israel” (Eze 11:5).
Jaazaniah and Pelatiah Jaazaniah is a different man from the one mentioned in Eze 8:11. These were no doubt men well known in Jerusalem and also to the exiles. Their names make the allusion peculiarly striking: Jaazaniah “Jehovah listens” son of Azur, “the helper”; Pelatiah “God delivers” son of Benaiah, “Jehovah builds”! No wonder Ezekiel became unpopular when he pointed out by name the chief leaders of Israel and exposed their wickedness. These men were probably regarded by many as the leaders of the patriotic party in Jerusalem. They believed the holy city could never be captured, and advised rebellion against Babylon and alliance with Egypt. (See chap. 17.) Ezekiel and Jeremiah and all others who prophesied the conquest of Jerusalem by Babylon were called false prophets (Jer 18:18; Mic 3:11), and were no doubt declared to be in the pay of the Babylonian court.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Moreover the Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the east gate of Yahweh’s house, which looks eastward. And behold at the door of the gate five and twenty men. And I saw in the midst of them Jaazaniah, the son of Azzur, and Pelatiah, the son of Benaiah, princes of the people.’
Ezekiel was now also transported to the east gate by the Spirit Who lifted him up as before and brought him there. The east gate was the main gate of the temple which was sited from east to west. At the door of the gate were twenty five men. These were not the same as the ‘about twenty five’ of Eze 8:16 but the repetition of the number must be significant. Five is the number of covenant, and five times five may therefore again signify representatives of the whole covenant community. They include at least two of the princes of the people. Possibly the idea is also that they have replaced the men who were in vision destroyed in the temple as the debased leaders of Israel, or possibly they are the lay version of the twenty five in the inner court, thus demonstrating that both priesthood and laity were defiled.
Among the twenty five were at least two especially prominent men, princes of the people, although in fact they were all prominent men (Eze 11:2). Most would be replacements for those who had been carried off into exile. Thus they were mainly not men of long experience. The gate would be large and have a spacious area where men could gather. It was common for the leaders of a community to meet in such a place (compare Jer 26:10). Space was at a rare commodity in most ancient cities which tended to be an unplanned huddle of houses.
Jaazaniah was a fairly common name. It was found on ostraca (inscribed pieces of broken earthenware) at Lachish and Arad, and the name is also found in 2Ki 25:23; Jer 35:3. Thus we need not identify this Jaazaniah with that in Eze 8:11. These two men had clearly been prominent in Ezekiel’s younger days, and he recognised them.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Judgment upon the Rulers
v. 1. Moreover, the Spirit lifted me up and brought me unto the East Gate of the Lord’s house, which looketh eastward, v. 2. Then said He unto me, Son of man, these are the men that devise mischief and give wicked counsel in this city, v. 3. which say, It is not near; let us build houses v. 4. Therefore prophesy against them, prophesy, O son of man, v. 5. And the Spirit of the Lord fell upon me and said unto me, Speak, Thus saith the Lord, v. 6. Ye have multiplied your slain in this city, v. 7. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, Your slain whom ye have laid in the midst of it, they are the flesh, and this city is the caldron, v. 8. Ye have feared the sword, v. 9. And I will bring you out of the midst thereof, v. 10. Ye shall fall by the sword, v. 11. The city shall not be your caldron, v. 5. neither shall ye be the flesh in the midst thereof, v. 12. and ye shall know that I am the Lord, v. 13. And it came to pass, when I prophesied, that Pelatiah, the son of Benaiah, died,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Eze 11:1
Moreover the Spirit lifted me up, etc. It is noticeable that the position to which Ezekiel was thus transported in his vision from his place in the inner court (Eze 8:14), was identical with that which he had just seen occupied by the cherub chariot before its departure (Eze 10:19). What he is about to see will throw light on the significance of their departure. The gate is probably, here as there, that of the court of the temple. Five and twenty men. The number at first reminds us of the worshippers of the sun, in Eze 8:16; but that, as we saw, was probably a company of priests. On the other hand, the two who are named are styled princes of the people, which suggests a lay rather than a priestly status, and they are seen in a different locality. Conjectures as to the significance of the number vary.
(1) Two from each tribe of Israel, with the king at their head.
(2) Two from each of the twelve divisions of the army, each containing twenty-four thousand men (1Ch 27:1-15).
(3) Representatives of twelve regions of the citya kind of municipal council, with their president. Possibly, after all, the number was used more or less vaguelya “round” number, as we say (Smend). It is probably safe, however, to think of them as representing the lay element of authority. Nothing is known further as to the persons named. Jaazaniah is distinguished by his parentage from his namesake of Eze 8:11 and Jer 35:3. Both were probably familiar to those for whom Ezekiel wrote, as leaders of the party that was “always devising mischief,” in opposition, i.e; to Jeremiah and the true prophets. Possibly the meanings of the names Jaazaniah (equivalent to “God hearkens”) the son of Azur (equivalent to “The Helper”), Pelatiah (equivalent to “God rescues”) the son of Benaiah (equivalent to “God builds”), are chosen as with a grim irony. The name of Azur meets us in Jer 28:1 as that of the father of the false prophet Hananiah. The death of Pelatiah was probably an historical event to which the prophet pointed as a warning to those who, either at Jerusalem or among the exiles, were speaking as he spoke.
Eze 11:3
It is not near, etc. The words take their place among the popular, half-proverbial sayings of which we have other examples in Eze 8:12; Eze 9:9; and Eze 18:2. As in most proverbs of this kind, the thought is condensed to the very verge of obscurity, and the words have received very different interpretations.
(1) That suggested by the Authorized Version. “It (the judgment of which the true prophets spoke) is not near. Let us build houses, not, as Jeremiah bids (Jer 39:5), in the land of exile, but here in Jerusalem, where we shall remain in safety. Are we threatened with the imagery of the ‘seething pot’ (Jer 1:13)? Let us remember that the caldron protects the meat in it from the fire. The walls of the city will protect us from the army of the Chaldeans.” The temper which clothed itself in this language was that of the self-confident boastful security of Jer 28:3; and the death of Hananiah, the son of Azur, in that history presents a parallel to that of Pelatiah in this.
(2) Grammatically, however, the rendering of the Revised Version is preferable: The time is not near for building houses; probably, as before, with a reference to Jeremiah’s advice. “We,” they seem to say, “are not come to that plaint yet. We will trust, as in (1), in our interpretation of the caldron.”
(3) On the whole, I incline, while adopting the Revised Version rendering, to interpret the words, as Smend takes them, as the defiant utterance of despair: “It is no time for building houses, here or elsewhere. We are doomed. We are destined (I borrow the nearest analogue of modern proverbial speech) ‘to stew in our own juice.’ Well, let us meet it as we best may.”
I find what suggests this view
(1) in the improbability that the thought of the caldron could ever have been received as a message of safety (comp. Eze 24:3, Eze 24:6); and
(2) in the despairing tone of most of the sayings that Ezekiel records (Eze 18:2; Eze 37:11). Probably there were, as in other like crises in the history of nations (say, e.g; in those of the Franco-German War) rapid alternations between the two moods of boastful security and defiant despairthe galgenhumor, the courage of the gallows, as Smend calls it; and the same words might be uttered now in this temper, and now in that. In either case, there was the root element of the absence of repentance and submission.
Eze 11:4, Eze 11:5
The prophet still, we must remember, in his vision, is bidden to do his work as a true prophet, and to rebuke the defiant speech which he had heard. As in Eze 2:2, the Spirit of Jehovah comes upon him, and throws him into the prophetic ecstasy. It is noticeable that here, as in Eze 2:3, his message is not to Judah only, but to the whole house of Israel as represented by those to whom he spoke. I know the things. This, as ever, was one of the notes of a true prophet, that he shared, as was needed for his work, in the knowledge of him from whom no secrets are hid (Joh 2:24, Joh 2:25; Mat 9:4; 1Co 14:25). Thoughts, as well as words, were laid bare before him, as they were to his Lord (Heb 4:12).
Eze 11:7
They are the flesh, etc. The prophet is led to retort their derisive or defiant words. Not they, but the carcases of their victims, were as the “flesh” in the “caldron.” For themselves, there was another fate in reserve. Neither to be protected by the caldron nor to meet their doom in it, but to be brought out of it. Death, by famine, sword, or pestilence (Eze 5:12), might be the doom of some, but for others, perhaps specially for those whom the prophet addresses, there would be captivity first, and death from the sword which they feared, afterwards.
Eze 11:9
The strangers are, of course, the Chaldean invaders, and the prediction finds its fulfilment in the massacre of the princes of Judah at Ritdah (Jer 52:9, Jer 52:10), which was in Hamath, the northern border of Israel (1Ki 8:65; 2Ki 14:25). Then they should see that their defiant speech as to the “caldron” and “the flesh” would be of no avail. Thus they should know that the prophet had spoken in the name of Jehovah, and that their punishment by the heathen was the righteous retribution for their having walked in the ways of the heathen.
Eze 11:13
Pelatiah the son of Benaiah. We must remember that this a as part of the vision, but it may be assumed, in the nature of the case, that it represented what then or afterwards was a fact in history. Had Pelatiah died suddenly during a council meeting? Compare the death of Hananiah in Jer 28:17. As it was, even in the vision, the death so startled and horrified the prophet, that he burst out again into a prayer like that of Jer 9:8. Was the “residue,” the “remnant” of Israel, represented by one of the chief counsellors of the city, to be thus cut off?
Eze 11:14
The answer to that question comes as by a new inspiration from the word of the Lord.
Eze 11:15
The men of thy kindred, etc. The full force of the phrase can hardly be understood without remembering that the word for “kindred” implies the function and office of a goel, the redeemer and avenger of those among his relations who had suffered wrong (Le 25:25, 48; Num 5:8), and the point of the revelation is that Ezekiel is to find those who have this claim on him, his true “brethren,” not only or chiefly in his natural relations in the priesthood, but in the companions of his exile (the LXX; following a different reading, gives, “the men of the Captivity”), and the whole house of Israel, who were in a like position, who were condemned by those who had been left in Jerusalem. As in Jeremiah’s vision (Jer 24:1), they were the “good figs;” those in the city, the vile and worthless. They were the remnant, the residue, for whom there was a hope of better things. They were despised as far off from the Lord. They were really nearer to his presence than those who worshipped in the temple from which Jehovah had departed. Ewald and Smend take the words as indicative: “Ye are far,” etc.
Eze 11:16
Yet will I be unto them as a little sanctuary; better, with the Revised Version, a little while, as marking that the state described was transient and provisional. For a time, Ezekiel and the exiles were to find the presence of Jehovah manifested as in the vision of Chebar (Eze 1:4-28), or felt spiritually, and this would make the spot where they found themselves as fully a holy place as the temple had been. There also they would have a “house of God.” But this was not to be their permanent lot. There was to be a restoration to “the land of Israel” (verse 17; Eze 37:21), to the visible sanctuary, to a second temple no longer desecrated by the pollutions that had defiled the first. As with all such prophecies, the words had “springing and germinant accomplishments.” In Ezekiel 40-48, we have Ezekiel’s ideal vision of their fulfilment. A literal but incomplete fulfilment is formed in the work of restoration achieved by Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, and the hopes then cherished by Haggai and Zechariah. A more complete but less literal fulfilment appears in the Church of Christ as the true Israel of God (Gal 6:16), and in the Jerusalem which is above (Gal 4:26). In the fact that in the seer’s vision of that heavenly city there is no temple, but the presence of “the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb” Rev 21:22), we find the crowning development of Ezekiel’s thought. Intermediate expansions are found
(1) in the gradual substitution of the synagogue for the temple in the religious life of Israel;
(2) in our Lord’s words to the woman of Samaria (Joh 4:21-24); and
(3) in his promise that where two or three are gathered together in his Name, there he would be in the midst of them (Mat 18:20). The thought that it is the presence of Jehovah that makes the sanctuary, not the sanctuary that secures the presence, Ezekiel may have learnt from the fate of Shiloh (Psa 78:60).
Eze 11:17
I will give you the land of Israel. The marginal references in the Authorized Version show how entirely Ezekiel was following in the footsteps of his master Jeremiah, as he had done in those of Isaiah, in their prophecies of restoration. Here also the law of” springing and germinant accomplishments” finds its application. Ezekiel (47:13-48:35) has his ideal of a new geographical Israel, as of a new local temple, a land from which idolatrous shrines and high places have disappeared. St. Paul (Romans 9-11.) clings to the thought of a restoration of the literal Israel, even while he strips it of Ezekiel’s geographical limitations.
Eze 11:19
I will give them one heart. The LXX; following a different reading, gives “another heart” (as in 1Sa 10:9); but the Hebrew, represented by the Authorized and Revised Versions, is, without any doubt, right. As in the symbolic action of the joining of the two sticks in Eze 37:15-22, so here, the hope of the prophet, like that of Isaiah and Jeremiah (Jer 32:37-39), looked forward to the unity of the restored people. Judah should no longer vex Ephraim, nor Ephraim Judah (Isa 11:13). The long standing line of cleavage should disappear. Oneness of purpose and of action would characterize the new Israel of God. So, in our Lord’s prayer for his Church, there is the prayer that “they may be one”made perfect in one (Joh 17:21-23). Left to itself, Israel tended, as all human communities have tended, to an ever-subdividing individualism, fruitful in sects and parties and schisms. Even the highest of those aspirations has remained as yet without any adequate fulfilment. The ideal unity of the Christian Church is as far distant as that of the Church of Israel. It remains for us to welcome any approximate fulfilments as pledges and earnests of the future unity of the true Israel of God in the heavenly Jerusalem. In the prophet’s thoughts that unity was to be brought about by the Divine gift of a “new Spirit,” loyal, obedient, unselfish. We note how distinctly, whether consciously or unconsciously, Ezekiel reproduces the thought, almost the very words, of Jer 31:31-33; Jer 32:37-39; how his words are in their turn reproduced in Rev 21:3-5. The eternal hope asserts itself again and again in spite of all partial failures and disappointments. I will take the stony heart out of their flesh. The thought is, as we have seen, identical with that of Jer 31:31-33, but the form in this instance is eminently characteristic of Ezekiel, and meets us again in Eze 36:26. The “stony heart” is that which is “hardened” (Eze 3:7) against all impressions of repentance, to all natural or spiritual aspirations of the good. So Zec 7:12 speaks of those who had made their hearts “harder than an adamant stone.” So we may remember, by way of illustration, that Burns says of the sin of impurity that “it hardens a’ within,” that “it petrifies the feeling.” Ezekiel had seen enough of that stoniness in others, perhaps had, at times, felt it in himself.
Eze 11:20
That they may walk in my statutes, etc. Out of the new spirit there was to grow the new lifea life of righteousness and obedience, as in worship, so also in the acts of man’s daily life and his dealings with his neighbours. So, and not otherwise, could the actual relation of Jehovah correspond to the ideal, as it had been declared of old (Exo 6:7; Le Exo 26:12; 1Sa 12:22; 2Sa 7:23). This, for Ezekiel, was the crowning blessedness of all, as it had been that of earlier and contemporary prophets (Hos 2:23; Jer 24:7). To that thought he returns again and again, as to the anchor of his hope (Eze 14:11; Eze 27:14; Eze 36:28; Eze 37:23, Eze 37:27).
Eze 11:21
But as for them, etc. We note the peculiar phraseology. The heart of the people walks not simply after their detestable things, but after the heart of those things. There is, as it were, a central unity in the evil to which they unite themselves, just as the heart of man turns to the heart of God when the two are in their ideal relation to each other. For those who did this, whether in Jerusalem or among the exiles, there was the prospect of a righteous retribution. The words close the message which Ezekiel heard in the courts of the temple in his visions, but which he was to deliver (verse 25) to them of the Captivity.
Eze 11:22, Eze 11:23
Another stage of the departure of the Divine glory closes the vision. It had rested over the middle of the city. It now halts over the mountain on the east side of the city, i.e. on the Mount of Olives (2Sa 15:30; Zec 14:4). Currey mentions, but without a reference, a Jewish tradition that the Shechinah, or glory cloud, remained there for three years, calling the people to repentance. What is here recorded may trove suggested the thought of Zec 14:4. We may remember that it was from this spot that Christ “beheld the city, and wept over it” (Luk 19:41); that from it He, the true Shechinah, ascended into heaven. Here, perhaps, the dominant thought was that it remained for a time to direct the work of judgment. And so the vision was over, and the prophet was borne back in vision to Chaldea, and made known to the exiles of Tel-Abib the wonderful and terrible things tidal he had seem
HOMILETICS.
Eze 11:3
The false confidence of unbelief.
Jeremiah told the captives to settle in the land of exile and build houses there, because the Captivity was to last for generations (Jer 29:5). But the frivolous people have rejected that wise counsel, and they declare that such provision for exile is not necessary. “It is not time to build these houses the prophet spoke of,” they say; “we will stay in the city, like the flesh in the cauldron.”
I. IMPENITENCE CREATES FALSE CONFIDENCE. This is to be expected, just as we see, on the other hand, that a deep sense of guilt brings with it a fear of judgment to come. When we feel and own our sin, we must admit that we deserve punishment, and we must see that the ground of assurance is cut from beneath our feet. What right have we to believe that God will shield us from harm, while we are bidding defiance to his Law? But while a soul is impenitent the ill desert and threatening doom are not perceived. It does not own that it should be punished. It defends itself and shelters itself behind innumerable excuses. Moreover, the moral sense is now blunt, and the faculty of spiritual insight blind. The messenger of God, too, is regarded as an enemy, and therefore little attention is given to his word. Thus arises a meretricious faith, the opposite of true faith, the confidence of unbelief.
II. FALSE CONFIDENCE POSTPONES AND MINIMIZES THE PROSPECT OF CALAMITY.
1. It postpones. Possibly the evil day may lie in the future. This much is tacitly admitted, But it is so far away that we need not give any consideration to it. While the prophet declares that it is at the door, the reckless unbeliever relegates it to a region of dim futurity beyond the horizon of practical considerations.
2. It minimizes. Even if it is admitted that the dreadful day is near, the evil of it is mane little of. “There is no need to build houses,” these “Jerusalem sinners” exclaim. The storm may come soon, but it will quickly pass. Thus men make the least of the prospect of future punishment. False confidence first postpones the consideration of it, and then softens its terrors. To the impenitent sinner hell is first a far off possibility; then, though it is a, nearer future, it is not thought to be so unendurable as the preachers declare.
III. THERE IS GREAT DANGER IN FALSE CONFIDENCE. The Jews were simply deceiving themselves. Their very language should have revealed their folly to them. They described the city as a cauldron in which they were as the flesh. Their only application of this metaphor was to represent themselves as well inside the city, and therefore as not needing to build other houses. But the prophet did not have to go far afield to find another very obvious application of the same metaphor. The cauldron is to be set on a fire, and the flesh is only placed in it to be seethed. The cauldron, therefore, symbolizes a very dreadful fate (verse 7). The danger is not the less because we close our eyes to it. Meanwhile a false confidence hinders the impenitent from fleeing from the impending calamity and seeking a place of refuge. Light views of sin and judgment to come lull the careless into a fatal sleep.
Eze 11:5
God’s knowledge of man’s thought.
I. THE FACT. We know a few men; God knows all. None are so obscure, or remote, or secretive as to hide from him. We know the exterior life; God knows the life withinevery thought, and wish, and dream, and fancy. We know in part and with many obscurities, having to piece together scattered hints, and possibly Falling into great blunders in our estimation of our neighbours. God knows completely and without possibility of error, searching into the deep secrets of the heart, not setting down aught in malice, but also not blinded to sad truths by the partiality of an imperfect love.
1. God knows our ideas. He sees when we are in error, observes the crooked course of our ill-trained thinking, and notes the narrowness of our notions. He also knows the true thought which is not understood by our fellow men.
2. He knows our desires. If he does not grant them, it is not because he is ignorant of them. Before a prayer is out of our lips the wish of it has reached the mind of God. When we cannot find words to express the longing of our souls, those vague, dumb desires are exactly measured and fully comprehended by God. God knows our evil desires, the wicked wishes that have not yet found vent in wicked deeds.
3. He knows our sorrows. Though the heart only knoweth its own bitterness among men, the sympathetic knowledge of God has gauged it to the bottom. No one can say, “My grief is quite beyond comprehension.” No one can be utterly misunderstood. Misjudged by man, the martyr is known to God.
4. God knows our sin. There is no secret place where a deed of wrong can be done without the eye of God seeing it. Abel is murdered in the field, but still his blood cries to God for vengeance.
II. ITS CONSEQUENCES.
1. Hypocrisy is a mistake. It only hides our shame from the less important spectators, while the all-seeing eye of God regards it as an addition to the guilt which lurks beneath.
2. Postponement of punishment is no guarantee for escape. The criminal who is not caught red-handed hopes that he will now elude the vigilance of the ministers of justice, and the longer he remains undetected the more confident does he grow in the assurance that he will never be caught, until long years of immunity almost beget a feeling of innocence. But if God knows all, there is no escape from his anger behind the obscuring growth of years.
3. God‘s long suffering is manifest. The heathen might say, “My God does not strike me, because he has not discovered my offence.” But when the omniscience of God is admitted, his forbearance is seen to be a wonder of patience and love. He knows all, and yet he is still ready to pardon, still waiting to be gracious, nay, even still heaping upon his sinful children many favours!
4. There is hope of salvation. If our escape lay only in our concealment of guilt, there would always be a danger of ruin through discovery. The criminal who has no better hope than this is standing on thin ice. But now we see that God knows the worst of us, and yet offers pardon and reconciliation through the gift of his Son, we have the greatest encouragement to accept his grace. Moreover, since he knows our troubles, hopes, fears, aspirations, and difficulties, he can send the exact help we need.
Eze 11:16
The sanctuary of the exile.
The Jews of Jerusalem boasted themselves in their temple, but with a false confidence, for that splendid edifice was to be razed. On the other hand, the poor exiles of Babylon looked upon their state of separation from Jerusalem as involving a loss of the privileges of the sanctuary. Daniel prayed with his window open towards Jerusalem, as though God were still to be sought in the sacred city (Dan 6:10). But Ezekiel gives the captives the assurance that God will be their Sanctuary during the short time of exile in the distant land of their captivity.
I. GOD IS THE BEST SANCTUARY. No Solomon can arise by the banks of the Chebar to build a new temple. The splendour of Lebanon and the skill of Hiram, together with the wealth and devotion of the Jewish nation at the height of its glory, produced a wonder of the world, which a feeble band of heartbroken captives could never dream of equalling. Yet the sorrow-stricken remnant of pious Israel were to have something better than gilded walls and cedar pillars. They were to have God as their Sanctuary.
1. God vouchsafes his presence to his people. He does not only give a house of worship; be comes himself.
2. God‘s presence sanctifies. It is a sanctuary. The place where Moses stood before the burning bush was “holy ground,” for God was there (Exo 3:5). Chaldea was far from the “Holy Land;” yet if God were there he would make light in the centre of heathen darkness. Wherever God visits us he makes a sanctuary. The workshop is a holy place when God is in it.
3. God‘s presence saves. The temple was regarded with a false confidence and a foolish superstition as a charmed asylum, but the event proved the delusiveness of such an assumption. When God is with us anywhere, however, we are safe; for he is “a Sun and a Shield.”
II. THIS SANCTUARY IS TO BE FOUND IN EXILE.
1. In exile from the native land. The colonist far removed from the home and Church of his fathers, may find God in the bush or on the prairie. Though no “place of worship” may he within his reach, he need not feel banished from gracious influences. If his heart turn to God, God will be with him as his Sanctuary.
2. In exile from the old delights. When trouble comes, a man is, as it were, driven from the land flowing with milk and honey out into a waste howling wilderness. But One is with him, and the God who met the poor fugitive Jacob will make a Bethel in the desert of trouble.
3. In exile from heaven. We seek another country. Here we are pilgrims and strangers; our citizenship is in heaven. Nevertheless, God is with us here and now to train and guard and cheer us with the sanctuary of his presence.
4. For a short season. God would be the Sanctuary in exile “for a little time,” not because he would soon desert the banished, but because he would bring them home again. If God is with us in trouble, he will bring us out of trouble. He is with us here for a season, that he may lead us to be with him in heaven forever. Christ came into exile from heaven to be with us here on earth that he might bring us back to God. He “tabernacled with us,” was our Sanctuary in exile during his earthly ministry. Now he has gone to prepare a place for us in the eternal home.
Eze 11:17
Restoration and reunion.
I. THE DIVINE PRESENCE SECURES FUTURE SALVATION. The promise that God will be with his children in exile “as a Sanctuary” (Eze 11:16) is immediately followed by the assurance that he will bring them back to their land. It is not for nothing, then, that the poor exiles have the Sanctuary that is better than Solomon’s splendid templeGod’s very presence. If God is with us, the future is ours. God is not only a Stay and a Comfort today, he holds the key of tomorrow. Therefore God only needs to be a Sanctuary for “a little while.” Our light affliction “endureth but for a moment.” The presence of God should make the hardship of the moment doubly endurable, first because of its own immediate help, and. secondly on account of the cheering prospects it opens out. The light of such a future should throw back rays of comfort into the darkest experience.
II. THE FUTURE SALVATION IS TO BE A GREAT RFSTORATION. God will bring the exiles home again. This implies two things.
1. Deliverance from evil. The Jews were scattered among heathen peoples whose alien temper and domineering spirit were sources of trouble; e.g. Daniel, and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Sin plunges us into hurtful conditions. For wholesome discipline God’s true people may be thrown into circumstances of persecution and peril. but this will not be forever. If the Son of God is with the three in the furnace, he will deliver them from it.
2. Restoration to the old home. The exiles are to return to Canaan. Souls exiled from the kingdom of heaven by sin will, when pardoned and renewed (see verse 19), be restored to the privileges which were the birthright of allfor all have been children, and “of such is the kingdom of heaven.” Further, those who have been thus far restored may well feel the need of a more perfect recovery to the home of God, since this earth is not heaven, and here the people of God are “pilgrims and strangers” seeking “another country, that is, a heavenly.” God’s perfect restoration includes the bringing of his children home to heaven.
III. THE GREAT RESTORATION INCLUDES PERFECT REUNION. The nation was scattered; the promise is that it shall be reunited. Sin divides; redemption unites. All evil has a disintegrating influence on national and family life. Its root is selfishness, and selfishness implies severance. But love is the source of the better life, and love is the closest bond of union.
1. National reunion. So with the Jew. A nation will be safe against internal strife when Christian principles are followed.
2. The reunion of mankind. War is a vast and hideous fruit of selfish sinful passions and narrow hardheartedness. Christianity, if triumphant, would kill war by miring the nations in brotherhood, thus bringing “peace on earth.”
3. The reunion of individuals. In restoration to God we learn patience, sympathy, and charity in regard to our fellow men.
4. The reunion of families. This begins on earth in pure home love. But it will be completed in the great restoration of families when all can meet in the home beyond the grave.
Eze 11:19, Eze 11:20
The heart of flesh.
Two mistakes are commonly made by well meaning social reformers. Too much faith is placed in external improvement, and too much power is credited to man. It is not perceived that the greatest evil is in the heart, and that the only cure can be found in the help of God. but both of these deeper truths are recognized in the passage before us.
I. THE NATURE OF THE GREAT CHANGE. Eze 11:17 had promised an external restoration; now we have the assurance of an internal transformation. It is the heart that is to be changed. The very centre of the being must be renewed. For this David prayed (Psa 51:10). The need of it was pointed out to Nicodemus by Christ (Joh 3:3). Note the characteristics of the new heart.
1. Unity. “One heart.” The internal discord will cease. A man with divided affections is like a two-hearted monster. But doubtless the unity here referred to is social. Sin having brought quarrels among men, the new state will be one of harmony.
2. Life. The old heart was of stone, and therefore dead. The new heart is of flesh, and living. Sin deadens the soul. The death of sin is the resurrection of the better nature.
3. Susceptibility. The stony heart cannot feel. This is the dangerous result of sin. The conscience is seared. The guilt of sin and its danger are not felt. The appeals of Divine grace are unheeded. Tears are wasted on a marble statue. Rain and sunshine cannot fertilize a granite rock. But the new heart is tender. As when Moses strikes the rock the streams flow, so when God’s Word. reaches the stony heart with the power of his Spirit a new feeling is awakened.
4. Naturedness. The new heart is of flesh, not of some rare ethereal substance. The Christian is not to have the heart of an angel, but just a man’s true natural heart. The Christian is the true man. Christianity is in harmony with nature. Inhumanity is unnatural. The lack of natural affections is a sign of unspirituality. Cold saintliness is not an effect of God’s grace, but a product of man’s perversity. God puts a heart of flesh in the flesh. Thus there is harmony, and all is natural.
II. THE SOURCE OF THE GREAT CHANGE. God promises to effect this wonderful transformation. Only he can do it. We can change our clothes, our habitation, our outward manners, but not our hearts. The depth of the change renders it too much for man. So does the previous condition of those on whom it has to be wrought. As the heart is of stone, it is too cold to feel its need, and too dead to strive after a better condition. In this hardness and indifference the hapless condition of the sinner is completed. Even the penitent cannot create in himself a clean heart. But left to himself, man is not likely to become penitent. Now, God promises to do what man can never accomplish for himself. He will take away the old evilremove the heart of stone. He will give a new naturethe heart of flesh. He will also inspire power into this new nature by putting “a new spirit” in his children. This is done by the gift of his Holy Spirit.
III. THE RESULTS OF THE GREAT CHANGE. This change takes place in the heart; it is inward, and therefore secret. But its consequences cannot be hidden, for out of the heart are “the issues of life.” No one can have the heart of flesh and behave like a being of stonecold, unsympathetic, inactive. Two consequences are noticed.
1. Obedience. The heart of flesh is given that God’s people may walk in his statutes and keep his ordinances and do them. We cannot truly obey God till we love him. When the heart is right with God the most natural result is that the conduct should be right also. Yet, be it observed, this is not to be regarded as a merely necessary result of God’s action within us, for Eze 11:20 describes a purpose rather than a certain result. God gives a heart of flesh “that” his people “may walk,” etc. It is still left with them to exert themselves in the way of obedience.
2. Adoption. “Thy seed shall be my people, and I will be their God.” God owns his renewed people as his children; they own him as their Father. The right heart is at one with God.
Eze 11:25
Preaching to the captives.
I. THE PREACHER MUST START FROM A REVELATION MADE TO HIMSELF. The prophets were seers. The apostles were eyewitnesses of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. No preacher can go forth with God’s Word unless he has first received that Word. For it is not his business to gather congregations merely to hear his “guesses at truth,” nor is he called to set before men his most profound speculations, if those speculations are only wrought out of his own ideas. He is a messengertherefore he must bear a message; a heraldtherefore he must have a gospel to proclaim. Where shall the modern preacher find his Divine word? He cannot pretend to be an Ezekiel at home among the cherubim, to whom the inmost wheels of the Divine mysteries seemed to be revealed. Nevertheless, he has his revelations:
1. In the Bible. Of all men the preacher is called to be a diligent student of this rich storehouse of revelation. The modern preacher does not see Ezekiel’s cherubim, but he can read the New Testament, of which Ezekiel knew nothing; and the gospel story of Jesus of Nazareth is a greater revelation than the visions of an Old Testament prophet.
2. In experience. Every preacher must have his own vision of Scripture truth. We can only speak what we have seen and heard. The truth must be interpreted by experience.
II. THE PRIVATE REVELATION OF TRUTH IS GIVEN FOR PUBLIC DECLARATION. Ezekiel might have thought himself a rarely privileged soul, and have considered his visions as choice mysteries to be kept secret, and not to be waisted on unsympathetic ears, like pearls cast before swine, if he had not understood his duty as a prophet of Israel too well to make such a mistake. Freely he had received, freely he must give. All who know God’s truth are under sacred obligations to do what in them lies to declare that truth. It is not possible forevery one to be a preacher by word of mouth. Still, in some way missionary enterprise should follow the reception of Divine truth. We who have the gospel are bound to give it to those to whom it is vet an undreamed secret.
1. This declaration is to be unreserved. Ezekiel spoke all the things. Some were obscure; some might cause offence; some might be abused. Yet he was not at liberty to hold hack anything. The preacher must not shun to “declare the whole counsel of God.”
2. This declaration is for all. It was given to Ezekiel’s neighbours, the captives, without distinction. As there are no esoteric truths in God’s revelation, so there is no spiritual aristocracy of the initiated. The only limit is our capacity to receive. “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.”
III. THE DECLARATION OF DIVINE TRUTH IS ESPECIALLY NEEDED BY THOSE WHO ARE IN TROUBLE. Ezekiel “spake unto them of the Captivity.”
1. It is a peculiarly Christian duty to bring the consolation of God to the troubled. This is suited to the sorrowful. Lighter thoughts may amuse in hours of ease. But when darkness gathers about the soul, nothing short of the deep verities of God will satisfy. Those verities may not be always pleasant. Much that Ezekiel saw filled him with distress. Still God’s truth is all wholesome and healing, and his last words are his best, as Ezekiel’s hearers must have found when the prophet concluded with the wonderful promise of the “heart of flesh” (verse 19).
2. The gospel is peculiarly appropriate for those who are spiritually captives, i.e. in bondage to
(1) superstition,
(2) doubt,
(3) fear, or
(4) sin.
Christ came to proclaim liberty to such captives (Luk 4:15).
HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON
Eze 11:2
Evil counsellors.
Ezekiel was a true patriot; and it was accordingly to him matter of great distress that his countrymen were misled by ungodly and self-seeking counsellors and princes. “If gold rust, what shall iron do?” If those occupying positions of authority and eminence are unfaithful, what can be expected of the multitude who go as they are led? By whatever name they are called, and to whatever gifts or acquirements they owe their influence, there will always, in every state and in every Church, be men who lead, who guide the thoughts and control and inspire the actions of their fellows and inferiors. It was the prophet’s sorrow to see posts of power at Jerusalem occupied by those who led the citizens astray and encouraged them in their rebellion against God. His experience and reflections lead us to think of great men who are at the same time counsellors of evil in the community.
I. THE COUNSELLORS OF A NATION OWE THEIR POSITION AND INFLUENCE TO GIFTS AND ACQUIREMENTS FOR WHICH THEY ARE INDEBTED TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE.
II. SUCH POSITION AND INFLUENCE ARE NECESSARILY ACCOMPANIED BY GRAVE RESPONSIBILITY.
III. THE COUNSELLORS OF A NATION. ABUSE THEIR TRUST WHEN THEY SEEK TO DIRECT PUBLIC POLICY SO AS TO SECURE PERSONAL AND PRIVATE ENDS. That this is often done no student of political philosophy and history, no observer of contemporary politics in any nation, can doubt. Men profess zeal for the public good, and upon such profession are exalted, by the favour of a prince or of the public, to positions of eminence and power. no sooner are they securely in office than they make use of their newly acquired power to gain some ends dear to their own interests, passions, or prejudices. Some by oppression or peculation amass great wealth; some find means to revenge themselves upon their enemies and rivals; some seek to get into their own hands the reins of supreme power; some regard office as the opportunity for advancing their family or their friends to posts of consideration and emolument. In public such persons speak of patriotism, of popular rights, of disinterested devotion to the public good. But in reality they are always scheming to secure some advantage to themselves. So much is this the case in certain communities that among them the “politician” is loathed and despised by all men of integrity and honour.
IV. EVIL COUNSELLORS ARE ACTUATED BY BASE MOTIVES. Politicians are sometimes in the pay of their country’s enemies; they are sometimes the instruments of a despot who seeks to rob the people of their rights, and to establish a tyranny; they are sometimes indifferent to their fellow countrymen’s sufferings, if only they themselves may profit by their nation’s fall. Self is their rule, their impulse, their one consideration. What they do they do not as unto the Lord, but unto men.
V. EVIL COUNSELLORS LEAD A COMMUNITY INTO ERROR AND RUIN. The multitude ever follows the guidance of the few. The uninstructed and ill-informed are at the mercy of their superiors. Old Testament history abounds with instances of misleading by unprincipled rulers. It is mentioned to the condemnation of one and another of the kings that they “caused Israel to sin.” And what was true of the “chosen nation” is true of every people; at some epoch or other the pride, the vanity, the ambition, the meanness, or the selfish sloth of those in authority has led the nations into some course of infatuated folly, and the people have suffered for the offences of their leaders.
VI. RETRIBUTION WILL SURELY OVERTAKE SUCH AS BY WICKED COUNSEL LEAD THE PEOPLE ASTRAY. The time must come when the secret purposes of wicked rulers will be brought to light and exposed. Some are hurled by the indignation of the people from the lofty position to which they have been allowed to climb. Some retain their position whilst they live, but their memory is accursed. But of all we are assured upon the highest authority that they shall be brought into judgment, and that their deeds shall not be unpunished.T.
Eze 11:3
Judgment deferred.
The evil counsellors of Jerusalem did their worst to counteract the effect of the message which the Lord’s prophets were commissioned to communicate. Thus it came to pass that the inhabitants of the city were encouraged to neglect the obvious duties of repentance and supplication; and, when the time of judgment came, were found unprepared. The means by which the devisers of mischief brought about this result are described in this passage. They induced the citizens to believe that, if the threatened judgment were ever to come, it would not be yet, not probably in their time; and encouraged the citizens to build houses, and to live as if no catastrophe were about to befall them. If the ruin of Jerusalem were appointed, at all events that ruin was “not near.”
I. THE WAY IN WHICH SINNERS TREAT THE THREATS OF GOD‘S AUTHORIZED MINISTERS.
1. It is often the bounden duty of faithful messengers of God to foretell the approach of chastisement and judgment. A painful duty it always is; and it is to be leaped that on this account many shrink from discharging it. Even the tender and gracious Jesus now and again denounced the sins of the self-righteous and hypocritical, and warned such that condemnation awaited them. No one can carry out the office of a minister of righteousness who does not remind the unbelieving and impenitent that “the wages of sin is death.”
2. It is observable that such admonitions are often treated with neglect and contempt. It has been thus from the time of Noah, whose warnings were unheeded and ridiculed by his contemporaries. The admonitions of Christ himself in some instances only embittered the hostility of those whom he reproached. Every servant of God has had occasion to exclaim, “Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?”
II. THE ERROR WHICH SINNERS COMMIT IN SO TREATING GOD‘S MESSAGE.
1. Many who hear the warnings and threats addressed to them give no credit to what they hear, and do not expect the predictions to be fulfilled. They have more confidence in their own judgment and in their own good fortune than in the Word of the Lord. They do not wish to believe, and they will not bellow.
2. Many who do not absolutely disbelieve and reject the message, nevertheless persuade themselves that its fulfilment will be indefinitely deferred, and indeed is altogether uncertain. Such seems to have been the case with the evil counsellors, whose guidance was accepted in Jerusalem. Their answer to every prediction of calamity was this: “It is not near!” It is with the same excuse that the Word of God is so constantly encountered in our own days; and there are those who may not make this excuse in words, who yet cherish it in their hearts and act upon it in their conduct. “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the hearts of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.”
III. THE FOLLY AND WICKEDNESS OF SUCH TREATMENT OF GOD‘S MESSAGE. What shall be said of the attitude of those whose one reply is this: “It is not near”?
1. They must be reminded that time, after all, is of comparatively little importance. The main question for us is thisIs God angry with the wicked? Is his wrath to be revealed against the ungodly? If it is so, then how can we attach great importance to the questionWill this be made manifest this year or next year; now or at some future time?
2. They must be reminded that the judgment foretold may be actually nearer than is supposed or believed. It was so in the case of Jerusalem in the time of Ezekiel. It has often been so. Men have been eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, when sudden destruction has come upon them.
3. They must be reminded that, near or far, the judgment of the Supreme Ruler is inevitable. “Who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth?”T.
Eze 11:5
Divine omniscience.
Among the many elements of that superiority which is distinctive of monotheism over polytheism must be noted the perfect knowledge which the one God possesses of all the creatures whom he has made. Men who believe in the “gods many” of the heathen have not, and cannot have, that constant sense of the Divine omniscience which must exercise so signal an influence for good over the worshipper of the Supreme.
I. THE REASONABLENESS OF THIS DOCTRINE. We attribute to the Deity infinite perfection; and this is not consistent with the limitation of his knowledge. It is absurd to suppose that he who has made the mind of man has lost the power of recognizing the thoughts and intents of the heart which he fashioned by his power and wisdom. There is no part of his universe in which God is not present. Much more evidence is it that the Father of the spirits of all flesh is in possession of every secret of the intellectual and spiritual nature of man.
II. THE FORGETFULNESS OF THIS DOCTRINE. It is evident that the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and especially the false teachers and evil counsellors in the city, lost sight of this great truth. God was not in all their thoughts. It may net have occurred to them, as they pursued their selfish plans and lived their irreligious life, that every purpose and hope was known to the Divine Lord and Judge. “All things are naked and opened to the eyes of him with whom we haw to do.”
III. THE TERROR WHICH THIS DOCTRINE SHOULD HAVE FOR EVIL DOERS WHO ARE REMINDED OF IT. God knows the wicked things that come into men’s minds and are encouraged to abide therethe injustice, the covetousness, the falsehood, the impurity, the cruelty, the hatred, the malevolence, which are distinctive of those who depart from God. Such qualities, even before they find expression in word and act, are repugnant to the nature of the just and holy God. And he is not simply an observer; he is a Judge. He disapproves and condemns thoughts, sentiments, and purposes which are in opposition to his own laws, to his own character. He has revealed his intention to bring men into judgment for all their conduct, and forevery secret thing, good or bad. From this reckoning with the Judge of all there is no escape. The prospect may well strike the impenitent sinner with dismay.
IV. THE DISSUASIVE POWER WHICH THIS DOCTRINE SHOULD EXERCISE OVER THOSE WHO ARE HESITATING WHETHER OR NOT TO YIELD TO TEMPTATION. In order to resist temptation to sin, it is not enough to guard our actions, to order aright our circumstances and associations. It is in the mind that the real battle must be fought. And upon this battlefield, what auxiliary is so potent and effectual as the remembrance of the Lord’s omniscience? He is with us to assist us in the regulation of our thoughts and desires; for he knows alike the force of temptation, and the sincerity of our endeavour to check and to overcome it.
V. THE WELCOME GIVEN BY GOD‘S PEOPLE TO THIS DOCTRINE. The same truth is a joy and consolation to the Christian, which the ungodly man finds an occasion of distress and dread. Why is this? It is because God has in Christ made himself known to his heart as his Friend and Father. Thus openness and confidence and holy intimacy prevail between the Christian and his God. The faithful servant of God knows his infirmities and his faults, and he is grateful to be assured that those are known to his Father in heaven, who will deal leniently and compassionately with them, and will assist him in overcoming them. God knows the aspirations and endeavours of his own children, is interested in every effort to attain to a fuller knowledge of himself, and a more constant and practical subjection to his will. In Psa 139:1-24, the feelings of the good man, conscious of the Divine omniscience, find a full and most poetical and fervent expression, There is nothing which such a man would wish to hide from such a Friend.T.
Eze 11:13
Remonstrance and intercession.
It is remarkable that whilst Ezekiel was commissioned to censure and to denounce the political action of the evil counsellors of Jerusalem, he took no pleasure in the awful practical expression which the righteous Judge saw fit to give to this censure and denunciation. It was the prophet’s business to expose the wicked policy of Pelatiah; but this man’s death was to Ezekiel a severe shock and sorrow, calling forth from his sympathetic and patriotic heart the words in which he deprecated with all reverence and submission the displeasure of the Lord.
I. THE OCCASION OF REMONSTRANCE AND INTERCESSION. In this passage the occasion was twofold.
1. The pressure of present affliction, in the death of one of the leaders and rulers in the metropolis.
2. The apprehension of future calamity and disaster such as the present affliction foreboded. What had happened to one would, in all likelihood, happen to others. Similarly, every well wisher to his country and his Church is, in times of trial, driven to the throne of grace for merciful forbearance and interposition.
II. THE PRESENTATION OF REMONSTRANCE AND INTERCESSION.
1. There is an identification on the part of the suppliant of himself with his people. After all, whatever might be the errors of any class of his countrymen, Ezekiel was a Hebrew, and he could not but suffer in the sufferings of his country; its misfortunes could not but afflict him; its ruin could not but humiliate and distress him.
2. There is an implicit admission of the justice of the Divine action; the prophet does not complain of what had been wrought by the hand of Divine and judicial authority. No affliction was undeserved.
3. There is supplication that ills apparently impending may be averted. As Abraham pleaded for Sodom, so Ezekiel pleaded for Jerusalem. There is but a remnant: of that remnant shall a full end be made? As if he added, in the language of the patriarch, “That be far from thee, Lord!”
APPLICATION. The Christian cannot fail to be reminded, by this passage, of the intercessory office of Christ. We have an Advocate with the Father, appointed and accepted by that Father’s love. Here is our refuge and our hope in the time of calamity and under the fear of judgment. Our High Priest is a powerful and successful Intercessor. Our sins have deserved that “a full end” should be made of humanity. But through Christ mercy is extended, clemency exercised, and salvation assured to those who place themselves under the patronage and protection of the great Mediator and Advocate.T.
Eze 11:16, Eze 11:17
Exile and restoration.
There is a change in the tone of the prophet. A full end shall not be made of the remnant. The metropolis shall fall, the king shall be led captive. The enemy shall prevail. But the children of the Captivity shall not be forgotten; they shall experience the protection and fellowship of their covenant God; and they shall be brought back to the land of Israel, when Divine purposes are fulfilled, and when the time is ripe.
I. GOD A SANCTUARY FOR A SEASON IN A FOREIGN LAND. This must have been a precious and encouraging assurance to the captives in their banishment. They loved Jerusalem, and they loved the temple. Far from the scene of their national privileges, they were yet not forsaken by the God of their fathers.
1. Every holy place has its true meaning and value from the residence in it of the Eternal. It is not the costly material of which a sanctuary is built, the labour and art with which it is decorated, the robed priesthoods who minister, or the lavish offerings and sacrifices that are presented; it is not these things that make a temple. It is the presence of God himself to receive and bless the worshippers, that endears the building to the enlightened and pious.
2. God may manifest his presence and favour in p!aces where no sacred edifices exist. So Jacob understood, when he awoke from his slumber and his dream, and exclaimed, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not!”
“Where’er they seek thee, thou art found,
And every place is hallowed ground.”
Those upon the stormy deep, those in the primeval forests, those in the waterless deserts, those in the caverns of the earth, have met with God in the exercises of devotion. And he was a Sanctuary to his banished ones in their captivity in the East, as near to them as he was to those still permitted to resort to the courts of the temple at Jerusalem. “The tabernacle of God is with men.”
3. Thus God’s spiritual presence may be realized and enjoyed even in a world of sin. Earth is in a sense the scene of exile and of banishment. But for all that, God will be to his people a Sanctuary in the place and during the period of their captivity. His Church is his temple, and from it he never departs.
II. GOD THE RESTORER OF HIS BANISHED ONES.
1. The dispersion and banishment are appointed for a time and for a purpose. There were reasons why the sons of Abraham should be exiled from the land promised to their progenitor, the father of the faithful. It was apparent to the wisdom of God that only thus could they be preserved and delivered from the temptations, especially to idolatry, to which they had so often yielded. The discipline was severe, but it was effectual. The period of exile was not prolonged vindictively.
2. The restoration is as providential as the Captivity. The language of the text is very emphatic upon this Feint: “I will even gather you from the people,” etc. “He deviseth means whereby his banished ones may return.” It was this prospect which sustained and cheered the Hebrew people amidst disasters at home and exile abroad. The land of their fathers was their land; and in due time they were to enter and possess it.
3. The restoration of the Israelites prefigured the final salvation of all God’s people. Their exile shall not last forever. There is a better country, even a heavenly, a Jerusalem above; yonder is the promised inheritance, and the eternal abode of the blessed gathered from every land.T.
Eze 11:19
Spiritual transformation.
This promise is one of the most precious to be found in the Old Testament Scripture. Relating as it evidently does in this passage to the nation of Israel as a whole, it has generally been taken by Christians as having applicability to all who yield themselves to God, to be dealt with by his renewing and transforming grace.
I. THE NATURE THAT NEEDS TRANSFORMATION. This is characterized by hardness. It is “the stony heart” which Divine grace undertakes to soften and renew. The hard or stony heart is that which is insensible to spiritual realities, upon which neither Law nor gospel makes any impression, which resists every appeal whether of righteousness or of mercy.
II. THE POWER THAT EFFECTS THE TRANSFORMATION. The powerlessness of all human agency and endeavour is apparent. Man’s influence can do much; but here is the most difficult of all problems to be solved; here is the necessity for something more than reformationfor actual renewal Hence God, the Almighty, undertakes the work himself. He speaks here with authority, as the Being who needs no counsellor, no helper, who has infinite resources at his disposal, who exercises his own prerogative. It is not here explicitly stated what are the means he employs; but we know that they are means in harmony with the moral nature of man, that his appeal to us is an appeal of truth and love. In the Christian dispensation, the agent of transformation is the Holy Spirit given at Pentecost, and perpetually abiding in the Church, and the instrumentality employed is the gospel of our Saviour Jesus Christ, appropriated by the faith of the believing hearer of the Word.
III. THE EFFECTS AND EVIDENCES OF THIS TRANSFORMATION.
1. Newness of spirit supersedes the old disposition to disobey and rebel. Every reader of the New Testament knows what stress is laid upon the new covenant, the new birth, the new life, newness of the spirit, etc. In fact, this verse from Ezekiel is peculiarly in harmony with the Christian dispensation and all that belongs to it.
2. Unity of heart is one form of newness; for it comes to supersede the division and opposition which prevail where God’s authority is rejected and where God’s Word is despised. It is our Lord’s prayer concerning the members of his Church, that they “all may be one”one in him and in the Father, and so one each with the other.
3. Sensitiveness is what is intended by the heart of flesh. The nature which God by his grace renews is a nature which responds to the love of God by gratitude, faith, and consecration. A heart delighting in what pleases God, dreading what offends him; a heart loving all whom God loves, and inspiring a life of scrupulous and hearty obedience;such is the new heart, the heart of flesh, which is the best gift of God to his children.
“A heart resigned, submissive, meek,
My dear Redeemer’s throne;
Where only Christ is heard to speak,
Where Jesus reigns alone.”
T.
Eze 11:20
Mutual possession.
This language is of frequent occurrence in Scripture, and applies to the relation between Jehovah and his chosen and covenant people Israel. It is ideal, for, as a matter of fact, the descendants of Abraham and of Jacob were constantly in rebellion against God, and alienated from him by their wicked works. Yet it was actually true of an election within the nation. And it remains forever applicable, in strict and literal truth, to all those who receive Divine grace, acknowledge Divine authority, and rejoice in Divine communion.
I. THE OBEDIENT ARE CLAIMED AND OWNED BY GOD AS HIS PEOPLE. “They shall be my people,” says the Eternal. They are his:
1. To possess. They are his property, and they bear upon them his mark.
2. To control. They are his servants, yielding themselves to him, and their powers as instruments in his service.
3. To love. God loves his own people, as a father loves his own children, as a husband loves his own wife.
4. To bless. The Lord is mindful of his own. There is nothing that is for their good which he withholds from them.
II. GOD IS CLAIMED AND OWNED BY THE OBEDIENT AS THEIR GOD. On this account:
1. They reverence him. Let others offer their adoration where they will, the Lord, say they, is our God, and him only will we serve.
2. They trust him. His ways may sometimes be dark, and his counsels perplexing; but he is theirs, and therefore they will not withdraw their confidence from him.
8. They glorify him with all their powers. To them there is no limit to their Lord’s claims and authority; he has but to say, Go, and they go; Come, and they come; Do this, and it is done.
4. They hope in his promises. He has given them his word that they shall be brought to everlasting salvation; and the assurance, coming from their own covenant God, inspires them with a bright and consolatory hope. “This God is our God forever and ever; our Guide, even unto death.”T.
Eze 11:25
The prophetic office.
In these few and simple words we have a declaration of the office and function of the inspired prophet, and in a certain sense of every true religions teacher whom God commissions to be the vehicle and conscious agent in communicating his truth, counsels, admonitions, and encouragements to men.
I. RECEPTION. The prophet and every religious teacher must come mediately or immediately into spiritual communication with the Divine Mind.
1. The Source from which the communication proceeds is none other than God himself.
2. The matter which is received is what is commonly called revelation; the thoughts and commands and purposes of the Supreme are made known to a human spirit.
3. The vision, the hearing, of the prophetic soul are made ready by Divine grace to appreciate the communication.
II. IMPARTATION.
1. Thus the prophet, the religious teacher, is a mediator, capable on the one side, of fellowship with God, and on the other of correspondence and communion with his fellow men.
2. There are special qualifications, by reason of which he can fulfil the commission received; he should be a man of quick intelligence, of tender sympathy, of dauntless courage, of manifest authority.
3. Yet his chief credentials are simple and moraltruthfulness, conscientiousness, and simplicity of nature and habit.T.
HOMILIES BY J.D. DAVIES
Eze 11:1-13
The summary punishment of official guilt.
As a rule, God is extremely patient towards human rebellion. He reproves and remonstrates and warns long before the executioner appears. Yet sometimes he departs from this course, by a summary act of vengeance. The penalty that follows some crimes is swift and sudden. The Chaldean nobles who laid an impious snare for Daniel were soon overtaken with judgment. When Herod accepted the profane flattery of his courtiers, he was soon consumed with inward disease. Ananias and Sapphira had scarcely completed their falsehood when the sword of the executioner fell upon them. At times God starts out of his secret place, and suddenly vindicates his outraged majesty.
I. MARK THE FLAGRANCY OF SIN IN PRIESTS AND PEOPLE. In all probability these twenty-five men were the heads, or princes, over the twenty-four courses of the priests, while Jaazaniah and Pelatiah may have held a yet higher rank in the temple. It may be that Pelatiah was high priest or ruler of the temple. Certain it is that they were “princes of the people.”
1. Their position was one of vast influence. Their opinions would be accepted as the opinions of the people. Their example would be widely imitated. To a large extent, they would influence the life and conduct of the population. As they had the privilege of access to God, and possessed the means of knowing his will, the people would, as a matter of course, look to them for guidance. Profanity or infidelity among the chief priests would speedily infect the Hebrew flock. Hence, for others’ sakes, it behoved them to be prudent, devout, and circumspect.
2. Thy had turned Divine warning into ridicule. This seems the only satisfactory way of explaining their boast, “We dwell securely.” “This city is the cauldron, and we are the flesh.” Jeremiah, who still dwelt in Jerusalem, had seen, in a vision from God, “a seething pot, and its mouth was towards the north.” The heads of the priestly order had parodied this, had treated it as an image of self- security, instead of as an omen of danger. As if they had said, “Be it so! This city, with its bastions and gates, impregnable as brass or iron, is a cauldron, and as the flesh is safe in the cauldrons, equally so are we!” They laughed at every intimation of danger. In the teeth of a hundred warnings, in the teeth of a score of defeats and overthrows, they persisted in a conviction of safety. Like fools of other nations, they “made a mock at sin.”
3. This senseless hardihood led to aggravated crime. One sin soon breeds a thousand others. They, who had the administration of justice, abused their office, and ruled with a sword of terror. Either by excessive lenity, in not repressing crime; or else by excessive tyranny, human life was held cheaply in the city. Death was a common occurrence, and excited no horror. Civic strifes abounded. The number of the slain increased, and these princes were responsible for the foul deed. They were the persons who “had filled the streets with the slain.” The stains of human blood were upon their skirts.
4. The exact measure of their sin was known. Not an item in their evil deeds was unknown nor unregistered. They had tried to conceal their misdeeds, had endeavoured to minimize their offences, were attempting to persuade themselves that Jehovah did not trouble about such matters. But imagine their surprise and confusion when every iota of offence, ay, and every secret evil thought, was fully laid out in the bill of attainder. The amount and degree of each man’s guilt is allotted with scrupulous exactness.
II. OBSERVE THE PROPHET‘S COMMISSION. Ezekiel was employed by God to convey the last remonstrance to these princes.
1. ,Elevation of mind is needed to fit men for reproving sin. “The Spirit lifted me up.” We live, for the most part, on such a low level of spiritual feeling, that we must be “lifted up” in order to see the real wickedness of sin, in order successfully to remonstrate with sinners. Nothing can really “lift us up” to a nobler life but the power of the Holy Ghost.
2. Knowledge is given to men for use. No sooner was it revealed to the prophet who were the ringleaders in the nation’s sin, than at once the Spirit said to him, “Prophesy against them, O son of man.” Here is work for man which the cherubim cannot do. It is the prerogative of man that he can gain access to the understanding, the judgment, the reason, the feeling, of his fellow man. Therefore God uses men to convey his messages of grace and admonition to guilty men. All the knowledge of Divine things which we have is given us for the advantage of all. “No man liveth unto himself.”
3. Divine command and Divine strength are given at one and the same time. When the voice said to Ezekiel, “Speak!” “the Spirit of the Lord fell upon him.” Duty and ability
always go together. God has Never given to man a command which he was unable to obey. When God said to Moses, “Go forward!” God knew that the sea would divide at the fitting time. When Jesus said to the man with a withered band, “Stretch it forth!” he knew that along with the effort would be imparted new strength. Some duties may appear formidable to a man who forgets the promised cooperation of Divine grace. But whenever a spirit of faith possesses a man, he can say, like Paul, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” In a very terse prayer did an ancient Father in the Church express this truth, “Give: and then commuted what thou wilt.”
4. The plainest reproof is the greatest kindness to men. Every accusation of God is laid by the prophet before these guilty men. It is a false friendship that conceals any part of the truth from our fellows, especially from relatives and kindred. Smooth words are not always the coin of affection. We read of one “whose words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords.” Very wisely did David say, “Let the righteous reprove me; it shall be a kindness.” It needs an abundance of wisdom, and a deep well spring of love, to speak the whole truth to an erring friend, if we would win him back to paths of virtue and piety. The centrifugal force of duty is often greater than the centripetal force of kindness. Had Eli been more firm and faithful with his sons, he might have saved the ark of Goday, the whole nationfrom disaster. We must “speak the whole truth in love.”
III. SEE THE ATTENDANT ENERGY OF GOD. “It came to pass when I prophesied, that Pelatiah died.”
1. How foolish is carnal security. Walls that seem made of brass or granite are weaker than paste-board, unless they have God behind them. Foundations built by men are built on nothingness. Belshazzar conceived himself secure because the enormous walls of Babylon were about him; yet “in the selfsame night was Belshazzar slain.” God’s weapons of offence can penetrate easily all the poor defences of men.
2. Man’s opportunity is brief. It is an act of mercy that God allows any opportunity for escape. Such favour is seldom ever shown by an earthly king. Yet sin so blinds men that they imagine the reprieve wilt last forever.]t does not accord with God’s wise and gracious plans to announce when the reprieve shall absolutely close. Often it closes when least expected. The day of salvation is the passing momentthe fleeting now.
3. The retribution of God is sometimes summary. Men often persuade themselves that some change of circumstance, some lengthened illness, will precede the final stroke. They lean upon a broken reed, an empty shadow. “God seeth not as man seeth.” He had seen that Pelatiah had reached a climax of sin, had received this special messenger with haughty scorn, was hardening his heart under this new reproof of Ezekiel. Hence to lengthen out his day of grace was waste of mercy, was to encourage others in sin. Therefore it was better that the scene of trial should suddenly close. The Lord smote him that he died. “He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.”
IV. MARK THE BENEVOLENT SOLICITUDE OF GOD‘S SERVANT. The sudden death of Pelatiah corroborated the truth
that his personal presence was their only security, so now he assures the dispersed of Israel that, if they desired his presence, he would be to them still a “Sanctuary.” All that he had been to them aforetime in Jerusalem he could be to them in Babylon. Alter all, their case need not be so deplorable. Better to be in Chaldea along with God, than in Jerusalem without him. They had supposed that God had identified himself with that gorgeous temple in Jerusalemthat he was there in a sense in which he could not be elsewhere. This error must be unlearnt. Having God with us, we may have all real good.
III. SEVEREST DISASTER IS OFTEN THE CRADLE OF BLESSING. Already it began to appear that the defeat and captivity of Israel were needful, yea, were working good in the banished ones. Already the exiles had lost faith in idols, and were ashamed of their past folly. Already they found that if they returned in spirit and prayer to the true God, he would still be their substantial Friend. The faith and courage of Daniel and other young men in Babylon indicate the improvement in religious life which was budding. The presence of Ezekiel as a teacher among them was an omen for good. We have seen how (Eze 8:1-18.) the elders of Judah had sought his presence, and this, doubtless, that they might hear some word from the Lord. The sights of idolatry in that idolatrous land had probably sickened their minds and filled them with disgust. Now they sorrowed over lost privileges and lost opportunities. By the side of Chebar they “hung their harps in the willows,” and wept. The sunshine of prosperity had spoilt their simple faith and loyalty; but in the shades of adversity they began to learn wholesome lessons. Here their character shall be re-created, their piety shall be revitalized. Earthly misfortune is heavenly discipline.
IV. THE HIGHEST GOOD IS INTERNAL. Far better to have a fortune within than a fortune outside us. This wealth is durable, abiding, inalienable. No amount of money can purchase honesty, or courage, or tender sensibility, or heart-purity.
1. Regeneration is promised. “I will put, a new spirit within you.” The stony heart shall be changed into a heart of flesh. Men are often too blind to appreciate the best possessions; but when our judgment is enlightened, we perceive that this is the richest boon God can give or man receive. This is an inner fountain of blessing”a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”
2. There follows a spirit of filial loyalty. Possessing this new nature, God’s Law will become a delight. The sentiment of David is reproduced in them: “Oh, how I love thy Law!” Better still; they learn to say, like Jesus, “I delight to do thy will, O God!” The path of obedience now becomes a fascinationa flowery mead or a fragrant grove. As the stars of heaven observe their proper orbits, so the new-born man spontaneously runs in the statutes of God. Obedience is no longer irksome; it is as natural as breathing, as natural as fruit-bearing.
3. Covenant relationship. “They shall be my people, and I will be their God.” This covenant secures for the chosen ones the inalienable favour and protection of God. God obtains, by mutual treaty, a new proprietorship in these people; they, on their part, obtain a proprietorship in God. They have a claim yielded to them by Divine condescensiona claim upon God they did not possess before.
4. National unity. “I will give them one heart.” Division had been one source of weakness in the former time. Civic rivalry had been the forerunner of national disaster. Now a better feeling shall prevail. “Judah shall not vex Ephraim, Ephraim shall not envy Judah.” Union of the tribes shall be strength.
5. On this shall follow demolition of idolatry. “They shall take away all the detestable things.” The more we know Godhis Fatherhood, love, and mercythe more we see the folly and vanity of idols. The baubles that pleased a child are despised when we become men. Our growing love to God will make us intolerant of every rival. As the burnt child dreads the fire, so the restored Hebrews abhorred idols. The man who has a clean heart desires also a clean home. Real reformation begins withinat the centre, and works outward.
V. GOD‘S GOVERNMENT DEALS WITH THE INDIVIDUAL MAN. Such is the series of precious donations God engaged to bestow upon his afflicted people in exile; yet their repentance and submission was the pivot on which all good depended. If one here and there still clung to the old idolatry, that one should be excluded from all share in the nation’s regeneration. His sin shall bear its proper fruit. The new covenant was to be personal as well as national; for God will not overlook the individual in the crowd. “Each one shall give account of himself unto God.” The one among the guests destitute of the wedding garment was in a moment espied by the King. Not a solitary culprit shall escape the scrutiny of God’s eye, nor the operation of God’s Law. As the light of day penetrates every chink and corner of our globe, so the light of God’s righteousness will disclose every sin of man.D.
HOMILIES BY W. JONES
Eze 11:1-13
The presumptuous security of sinners exhibited and condemned.
“Moreover the Spirit lifted me up, and brought me unto the east gate of the Lord’s house,” etc.
I. THE PRESUMPTUOUS AND FALSE SECURITY OF SINNERS EXHIBITED. (Eze 11:1-3.) The twenty-live men here mentioned are not the same as those mentioned in Eze 8:16; for already they have been slain in vision. In both places the number is a round one. And in this place it is clear that they were leaders of the people; for they gave counsel unto them, and two princes of the people were in the midst of them. Their conduct shows to us:
1. Sinners boasting their security in defiance of the declarations of the Lord by his prophets. Some of the exiles in Babylon had looked forward to a speedy return to their own land. Jeremiah the prophet sent to them a letter to correct this error, saying, “Build ye houses, and dwell in them;” and assuring them that not until they had accomplished seventy years of exile would they be permitted to return to the land of their fathers (Jer 29:1-14). In the same letter he threatened those that were loft at Jerusalem with “the sword, the famine, and the pestilence.” And these five and twenty men, in mockery of the words of the prophet, said, “It is not near to build houses.” They encouraged themselves and others in the opinion that, however it might be with the captives in Babylon, they were safe enough in Jerusalem, and need not trouble themselves about building houses. Moreover, Jeremiah had seen in vision a seething pot, or cauldron, with its face toward the north, which symbolized the coming of the kingdoms of the north against Jerusalem and against the cities of Judah, and taking them (Jer 1:13-16). And in derision of this prophecy these twenty-five men said,” This is the cauldron, and we a, e the flesh.” As the flesh within the cauldron is safe from the surrounding fire, so they regarded themselves as safe within their city wails, whatever forces may rage outside them. They deemed their position a secure one, and would trust to their city walls and defensive arrangements, rather than heed the words of the Prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel. In most ages there have been presumptuous and profane scoffers at the threatenings of Divine judgments (cf. 2Pe 3:3, 2Pe 3:4). And in our own age there are many who persist in sin, notwithstanding the warnings addressed to them in the sacred Scriptures. And if their own conscience also remonstrates with and warns them, they make light of its admonitions. They seem to think that they can sin on with impunity, that somehow they will escape the natural consequences of their trangressions (cf. Jer 5:12).
2. Sinners in influential positions forming wicked plans and proffering wicked counsel, and so misleading others. “These are the men that devise mischief, and give wicked counsel in this city.” They entered into political intrigues, and formed plans of resistance against the enemy in direct opposition to the will of God expressed by Jeremiah (Jer 21:8-10; Jer 27:8-18; Jer 38:17-23). By following this course, these five and twenty men had brought calamity and slaughter upon many whom they had misled (verse 6). Sin, mischievous in any one, is especially mischievous in those who, by reason of their position and influence, lead others astray. When leaders in society by evil and perilous examples, or politicians or statesmen by unwise or unrighteous speeches or measures, or authors by injurious books, mislead or corrupt others, it is unspeakably pernicious. Great is the responsibility attached to great influence, and great is the guilt when that influence is exerted for evil.
II. THE PRESUMPTUOUS AND FALSE SECURITY OF SINNERS CONDEMNED. (Verses 4-13.) Notice:
1. The Divine knowledge of their evil designs. “Thus saith the Lord; Thus have ye said, O house of Israel: for I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them;” or, as Hengstenberg translates, “And that which riseth up in your mind I know.” To the Omniscient all their thoughts and purposes were fully known (cf. Deu 31:21; Psa 139:1-6; Joh 2:24, Joh 2:25; Act 1:24; and see a homily on this verse which appears below).
2. The disastrous consequences of their evil designs. “Ye have multiplied your slain in this city, and ye have filled the streets thereof with the slain.” At this time bloodshed and murder were terribly prevalent in Jerusalem, and were amongst the chief crimes mentioned by Ezekiel as calling for the Divine judgment upon the city and its guilty inhabitants (cf. Eze 8:17; Eze 9:9). And in addition, “the slain” includes those who would be killed “by the Chaldeans, already slain from the standpoint taken up in the discourse of God.” And they are said to be the slain of” the men that devise mischief,” because their deaths were a consequence of their evil counsels. Who can gauge the miseries that arise in every age from the evil counsels of incompetent, unprincipled, or wicked leaders of men?
3. The fatal issue of their evil designs. (Verses 8-13.) Here are several points which call for brief notice.
(1) The utter failure of their boasted security in the city. “I will bring you out of the midst thereof, and deliver you into the hands of strangers, and will execute judgments among you.”
(2) Their slaughter in the execution of the just judgment of God. “Ye have feared the sword; and I will bring a sword upon you, saith the Lord God . Ye shall fall by the sword; I will judge you in the border of Israel.” And this prophecy was fulfilled with remarkable fidelity. After they had taken Jerusalem, the Chaldean army made prisoners of many of the chief men; they also captured King Zedekiah as he was endeavouring to escape by flight; and they carried them “to Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon, to Ribtah in the land of Hamath,” on the northern border of Israel; and there the King of Babylon slew the princes and nobles of Judah, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him in chains, to carry him to Babylon (2Ki 25:18-21; Jer 39:4-7; Jer 52:8).
(3) Their recognition of Jehovah as the true and supreme God when it was too late. “And ye shall know that I am the Lord” (we have noticed these words in Eze 6:7, Eze 6:10). “It is lamentable,” says Hengstenberg, “if we must gain the knowledge of God by our own destruction, if he in whom we live, and move, and are, is first recognized by the strokes which break our own head. The knowledge has here, moreover, no moral import. It is a mere passive knowledge, forced upon the ungodly, unconnected with repentance.”
(4) The awful earnest of the fulfilment of the words of the prophet. “And it came to pass, when I prophesied, that Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died.” In vision Ezekiel beheld the death of Pelatiah; and it seems to us that he died, in fact when this prophecy was made known unto him. “This incident, whose awful character is attested to us by the impression upon Ezekiel, symbolizes prophetically the certainty in actual fact of the judgment of death on the others also (cf. Jer 28:17)” (Schroder). And so the issue of their presumptuous security and wicked counsel was to be their violent and ignominious death. We have in this an illustration of the issue of persistent wickedness. “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” “The wages of sin is death.” “Sin, when it is full grown, bringeth forth death.”
III. THE SORROW OF A GODLY MAN IN VIEW OF GOD‘S JUDGMENTS UPON THE WICKED, “Then fell I down upon my face, and cried with a loud voice, and said, Ah, Lord God! wilt thou make a full end of the remnant of Israel?” To Ezekiel the death of Pelatiah was an awful pledge of the death of all the others against whom he had prophesied; and it so deeply affected his spirit as to cause him to cry out thus to God (we have noticed these words on Eze 9:8). “Sudden or great judgments do put the saints and servants of God upon humble, earnest, and argumentative prayer. Humble, ‘Then fell! down upon my face;’ earnest, ‘and cried with a loud voice;’ argumentative, ‘Ah, Lord God! wilt thou make a full end of the remnant of Israel?'” (Greenhill).
CONCLUSION. Learn:
1. The peril of presumption in any course which is opposed to the will of God.
2. The great worth to a people of wise and upright leaders.W.J.
Eze 11:5
God’s knowledge of our thoughts.
“I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them.” Hengstenberg translates, “And that which riseth up in your mind I know.” The fact thus stated is
I. Most REASONABLE.
1. From the nature of God. Grant that God is infinite, and the statement of our text must be true. Nothing can be so great as to overmatch his comprehension; nothing so small as to escape his notice. Our Lord declared the Divine interest in the smallest and lowliest things (Mat 6:26-30; Mat 10:29, Mat 10:30). It is unphilosophical to think that even the smallest thing is in any way unknown to him. It is limiting his knowledge.
2. From the nature of the human mind.
(1) It is the most wonderful creation of God. Man can reflect, reason, anticipate, imagine. “God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him.” We have reason, conscience, affection, adoration. The greatness of the human mind appears very clearly when we consider its achievements. Mention some of them. Its capacity and impulse for progress also indicate its greatness. “It never rests, it has never attained, it is never perfect. Its law is progress. A point which yesterday was invisible is its goal today, and will be its starting post tomorrow.”
(2) It is the sphere of the most wonderful operations. We see much of God in his operations in matter; e.g. power, wisdom, constancy. We see more of him in his operations in mind; e.g. more marvellous power, profounder wisdom, richer goodness. In the government of mind the righteousness, truth, and love of God are manifested. We see most of God in his dealings with sinful, disordered minds. The sin of man occasioned the most glorious display of the Divine mind and will. We see the wisdom and love of God in his method of reconciling, saving, lost men as they were never manifested before. I do not wonder, then, that God knows everything that arises in our mind, for our mind is his most wonderful creation, and his most wonderful creation disorganized, ruined; and he is engaged in saving it. How deep must be his interest in it!
II. Most WONDERFUL. Not because of anything in God as a difficulty or hindrance to this vast and minute knowledge; but:
1. Because of the intellectual quality of” the things that come into our mind.” How insignificant, trifling, vain, many of them are! How few really great thoughts ever rise in our mind! We know how trying it is to be compelled to listen to the trivial talk of an ill-furnished mind; to hear all the paltry details of matters in which we have no interest or concern. Yet God knows all our petty, trifling, vain thoughts. Not one of them escapes him. How wonderful!
2. Because of the moral quality of “the things that come into our mind.” Not only are many of our thoughts insignificant and trifling, many are also mean, corrupt, and sinful. It is painful to become acquainted with the ungenerous or base thoughts and feelings of another’s mind and heart. We shrink with loathing from the contemplation of the malicious or cruel designs of any one. In our own selves there is much that we would not that any one should gaze upon, or any mind know, so deeply are we ashamed of it. Yet God knows every dark thought and guilty memory; we can hide nothing from him. He regards all sinful thoughts and feelings with unutterable hatred; yet he knows them every one. But while hating our sin with unappeasable hatred, he loves us with unspeakable love. He looks at our thoughts and weighs them, because they are ours, and he would save us from the vain and sinful ones, and inspire and strengthen within us the wise and good ones. His love for us is as great as his knowledge of us, and leads him to interest himself in all that concerns us.
III. MOST ADMONITORY.
1. No thoughts are unimportant. Since the Lord takes knowledge of, and is so deeply interested in, all that arises in our mind, nothing there can be trivial. You think that your foolish or vain thoughts are of no importance; that they are not like words or actions which affect others: that thoughts influence no one so long as they remain unexpressed. But your thoughts give tone and colour to your mind and character. To a great extent they arise out of your character, and they react upon your character according to your treatment of them. If you foster the impure thought, it will make you more impure; if you entertain the trivial thought, it will increase your triviality. Your mind is God’s temple. Should you not take heed how you treat it?
2. All our thoughts should be such as he approves. They should be:
(1) True. He exhorts us to “buy the truth, and sell it not;” to “prove all things; hold fast that which is good.” He is himself the “God of truth.” Jesus Christ is “the Truth.” We should cultivate the true in thought in every department of knowledge and of life. Endeavour to think only those thoughts which accord with the reality of things. Be true.
(2) Pure. Shun with loathing the unchaste desire or impure feeling. You cannot prevent the low or foul suggestion; but you are free to welcome such suggestion, or to shrink from it with repugnance. Welcome it, and it will corrupt you. Resist it, and it cannot contaminate you. If you would be free from impure thoughts, you will gain your end most swiftly and surely by cultivating pure and beautiful ones. If your thoughts be true and pure, God will smile approval, etc. Be pure.
(3) Earnest. Let not your true and holy thoughts be dreamy, visionary, impractical. We are in a world of toil and trial, sin and sorrow, sickness and death, a world that cries for help; and God demands earnest thought with a view to noble life and work.
CONCLUSION.
1. Here is warning to the wicked. God knows all your life and thought. You cannot hide anything from him (cf Job 34:21, Job 34:22; Psa 139:1-6; Heb 4:13). And he who knows us will also judge us. “Cleanse thou me from secret faults.” “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin.”
2. Here is encouragement to the good. God knows your thoughts, devices, purposes, motives. lie never misunderstands you. If, like Job, you are misjudged by man, you may say with him, “But he knoweth the way that I take.” Therefore be encouraged.W.J.
Eze 11:14-20
A suffering people scorned by man and comforted by God.
“Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, thy brethren,” etc.
I. A SUFFERING PEOPLE SCORNED BY THEIR BRETHREN WHO THOUGHT THEMSELVES SECURE. (Eze 11:15.) A considerable number of the fellow countrymen of Ezekiel were, like him, suffering the privations and sorrows of exile; and the people that still remained in Jerusalem, instead of pitying the exiles, despised and insulted them. They spake of them:
1. -As rejected of God. “Unto whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, Get you far from the Lord;” or, “Be ye far from Jehovah.” These proud dwellers in Jerusalem thought that the presence of the Lord Jehovah was confined to the temple in that city, that the captives in Babylon were cut off from his presence, and rejected by him. They judged from outward appearances, and concluded that, because they were still in their own land and in the sacred city, while their brethren were in exile, they were the favoured people of God, and their brethren were cast off by him. And they came to this conclusion not sorrowfully because of the privations of their brethren, but with Pharisaic self-complacency and cruel disdain.
2. As having no portion in the land of Israel. The inhabitants of Jerusalem assumed that they who had gone into captivity had forfeited their estates, and that those estates should become the property of those who remained in the country. They said, “Unto us is this land given in possession.” That which they unjustly denied to their exiled brethren they claimed for themselves. They arrogated to themselves an exclusive position as a people near unto the Lord, and exclusive possession of the land which he had given unto the whole of the Israelites. By their spirit and conduct these inhabitants of Jerusalem remind us of some in our own age who “profess and call themselves Christians,” and who claim that only in their community can salvation be found, that only as administered amongst them are the sacraments valid, and that the Church of which they are members is the only true one. They could heartily join with the self righteous people of Jerusalem in saying, “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, are these.” But not they who think themselves holiest and nearest to God, or who have the greatest reputation for religion amongst men, are most highly esteemed by him, but rather “the poor in spirit,” the “lowly in heart.” “The high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy, dwells with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit.” It was not the proud Pharisee, but the penitent publican, that” went down to his house justified: forevery one that exalteth himself shall be humbled; but he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”
II. A SUFFERING PEOPLE VINDICATED AND COMFORTED BY THE LORD GOD. (Verses 16-20.) The despised captives are vindicated and consoled by several gracious and encouraging assurances, which we will briefly notice.
1. That they were the true people of God. “Son of man, thy brethren, thy brethren, the men of thy kindred, and all the house of Israel wholly.” The Prophet Jeremiah had already declared that the Israelites who were in exile were better in the sight of God than those who remained in Jerusalem (Jer 24:1-10.). And now Ezekiel is told that his true brethren, brethren in spirit as well as according to the flesh, are to be found, not in Jerusalem, but among the exiles by the river Chebar. To them, as Hengstenberg points out, the future of the kingdom of God belonged, while “those who remained in Jerusalem, notwithstanding their high pretensions, were doomed to destruction.” “All the house of Israel wholly,” as contrasted with “the inhabitants of Jerusalem,” is to be understood as a general statement, since there was in Jerusalem a godly remnant (Eze 9:4-6). and amongst the exiles there were some who were not faithful to the Lord Jehovah (Eze 14:1-5). But, in the main, the true Israel was to be looked For, not in Jerusalem, but among the exiles in Babylon. How different in this respect was the Divine estimate from that of the Pharisaic dwellers in the sacred city I And may it not be in our day that to him who “seeth not as man seeth,” not they who boast their privileges and piety, but the despised and- lowly, are the genuine Israel of God?
2. That they should find in the Lord God ample compensation for their lost privileges. “Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord God; Although I have cast them far off among the heathen, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little Sanctuary in the countries where they shall come.” It is more correct to translate, “I will be to them a Sanctuary for a little” time or season, referring to the comparatively short period of their captivity. Though they were far removed from their “holy and beautiful house,” yet they should have communion with God; for he himself would be present with. them, and the realization of his presence transforms any place into a hallowed temple. The people of Israel were too prone to regard the presence of God as confined to the temple at Jerusalem, or at most to the Holy Land. Under this impression, the Prophet “Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.” The Lord God, in assuring them that he would be to them as a sanctuary during their exile, corrects this error, and gives the germ of the precious truth that the devout and humble spirit may offer acceptable worship and hold blessed communion with him anywhere. And in this assurance we have an anticipation of the inspiring declaration of our Lord, “The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth,” etc. (Joh 4:23, Joh 4:24). In the presence of God with them as a Sanctuary the exiles would find- compensation for their enforced absence from their homes and from the temple and its ordinances. We have here a test of godly character. When the heart is truly and thoroughly right with God it finds compensation in him forevery privation and loss. The assurance that we have him for our Portion will sustain and satisfy us in time of sorest need, and enable us to sing-
“Jesus, to whom I fly,
Doth all my wishes fill,
What though created streams are dry,
I have the Fountain still
Stripped of mine earthly friends,
I find them all in One;
And peace and joy that never ends,
And heaven in Christ begun.”
(C. Wesley.)
3. That they should be restored to their country and privileges by the Lord God. “Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord God; I will even gather you from the people, and assemble you out of the countries where ye have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.” The inhabitants of Jerusalem said, “Unto us is this land given in possession;” but in answer thereto the Lord says to the exiles, “I will give you the land of Israel.” And the promise was fulfilled when “the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus King of Persia” to proclaim permission to them to return to their own land and to rebuild the temple of the Lord Jehovaha permission of which more than forty thousand availed themselves. “It is well for us,” says Matthew Henry, “that men’s severe censures cannot cut us off from God’s gracious promises. There are many that will be found to have a place in the holy land whom uncharitable men, by their monopolies of it to themselves, have secluded from it.”
4. That they should receive from the Lord the highest spiritual favours. (Verses 18-20.) Here is the assurance unto them of four spiritual blessings.
(1) Unity of heart towards God. “I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you.” Their heart had long been divided between the true God and idols, but it should be fixed upon him. By means of the discipline of the Captivity, their hearts were united to fear his Name. Such, in fact, has been the case; for since their return from Babylon they have not bowed down to idols.
(2) Tenderness of heart towards God. “And I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them an heart of flesh.” By resisting his will and Word and by persisting in sin they had hardened their hearts; and he promised to give them a heart “soft and susceptible of the impressions of Divine grace. The promise is essentially Messianic, although a beginning of its fulfilment is already to be recognized in the period immediately after the return from the exile” (Hengstenberg). Resistance of Divine influence and rebellion against Divine commands still harden human hearts. “Take heed lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” St. Paul speaks of some who have so hardened their heart as to be “past feeling” (Eph 4:18, Eph 4:19). It is only God by his grace that can change the stone to flesh, and make the hard heart tender in penitence and piety.
(3) Conformity of conduct to the will of God. This follows as a consequence of the change of heart. The renewed heart leads to a reformed life. Their reformation had two chief aspectsthe renunciation of their sins, particularly the complete severance of themselves from idolatry (verse 18), and their positive compliance with the holy will of God. This was the end aimed at in putting the new spirit within them: “That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances.” The piety of the heart must and will be seen in the practice of the life. If the fountain be purified, the stream will be pure.
(4) Confirmation in the most exalted and blessed relationship. “And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.” This follows in natural order what has gone before. By the renewal of their hearts he restores them to himself as his chosen people; and by the obedience of their lives to him they testify that he is their God. This relationship is the richest of all blessings; it comprises all needful good, and crowns every other blessing. If “the Lord is my Shepherd, I shall want nothing.” “If God be for us, who can be against us?” “Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the Strength of my heart, and my Portion forever.”W.J.
Eze 11:16
God the Sanctuary of his people.
“Yet will I be to them as a little Sanctuary in the countries where they shall come.” Instead of “as a little Sanctuary,” it is better to translate, “a Sanctuary for a little.” The assurance given in the text seems strange at first. The Lord Jehovah will be a Sanctuary to his people. He is the grand Object of worship: how, then, can he be the place of worship? The exiles in Babylon were far removed from all the joyous privileges of public worship; from their temple, with all its precious and sacred associations, they had been ruthlessly sundered. They had long forsaken God, and at length they became a prey to their enemies. And in this idolatrous country, while the inhabitants of Jerusalem were dividing them, and boasting their own security, Jehovah promises the captives that he himself will be to them a Sanctuary, and in himself he would compensate them for the loss of their religious privileges. All those blessings which they had been accustomed to associate with the sanctuary he would bestow upon them.
I. THE SANCTUARY WAS A PLACE OF REFUGE AND SAFETY. Through centuries men had been accustomed to take refuge in sanctuaries from the enemies or persecutors by whom they were pursued, and there every life was held to he inviolably secure. The most implacable foe was compelled to recognize the security afforded by the holy place (cf. 1Ki 1:50-53). So Jehovah promises to Israel to be to them a sacred and inviolate asylum from all dangers in the land of their captivity (cf. Isa 8:14; Isa 32:2; Psa 9:9; Psa 46:1, Psa 46:7, Psa 46:11). The Lord was a Sanctuary for his scattered peoplea Sanctuary from the storm of persecution, from the oppressions of their conquerors, and from the rage of their enemies. He still sustains this relation to his people. He is still “a Refuge for us.” How blessed that in a life so stormy as man’s often is, God is a Sanctuary unto him! Let us hide ourselves in him.
II. THE SANCTUARY WAS A PLACE OF COMMUNION WITH GOD. There God manifested himself to his people, and made communications of his will to them (cf. Exo 25:22; Num 7:89). So that the promise to be a Sanctuary unto his people was a promise of communion with himself; that, though they were driven from the temple of their fatherland, yet in their exile God would still commune with them. This assurance involves more than we sometimes recognize. If we commune with God we mast receive his thoughts. “How precious are thy thoughts unto me, O God!” etc. Communion with God involves the realization of his gracious presence. In fellowship there is always friendliness. “Henceforth I call you not servants,” etc. (Joh 15:15). How inspiring and blessed it is to feel the friendly presence of God with us! We may always have this sanctuary of communion with the Highest. In all the rush and roar and turmoil of a busy and troubled life we may realize the safety and comfort of the sanctuary of the Divine presence. We may have a Gerizim or a Zion which none can behold but God and the angels. We may have a holy of holies in our poor hearts, which we may carry with us into the Babylon of the world’s business and strife.
III. Let us take hold of the principle involved in the text, which we take to be THAT THE LOSS OF EVEN THE MOST PRECIOUS POSSESSIONS IS MADE UP TO US BY GOD OUT OF THE FULNESS WHICH DWELLETH IN HIM, IF HE IS OUR PORTION. The promise of the text involved as much to the exiles in Babylon. If the Lord is our Portion, he will afford us blessed compensations for any privations we may be called to sustain. Let us take illustrations of this. There are times when some of the people of God are subjected to loss of property; their natural comforts are much diminished; many of the enjoyments of life, which they had regarded as essential to their happiness and almost to their life, are taken away; and they have painful misgivings as to how they shall bear these privations in the future. We dread to meet the shock of reduced position and straitened circumstances. But when the shock comes, we find fall compensation in God. His grace sustains us. His peace grows within us. His comforts delight our soul. lie is “the Strength of our heart, and. our Portion forever.” We are enabled to say, with St. Paul, “I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content,” etc. (Php 4:11-13). The Divine comp nations are also given in painful bereavements. In your home there was a beautiful and beloved child; yon held that child as a most precious gift of God; your very worship of God became more impassioned and devout as you thought of that living and dear revelation of his goodness to you. Your child was to you “a little sanctuary;” through his beloved life you drew nearer to God. Yet God took your child away from you; and oh, the anguish of your desolate heart! Perhaps you were in danger of thinking more of the child than of God, of loving the gift more than the Giver, of prizing the sanctuary more than the God of the sanctuary. And so God took away the child whom you almost idolized. At first you were sorely afflicted, but God said, “I will be to thee a Sanctuary,” and gradually the troubled heart became still, and was calmed and comforted. And now by his own love God makes up to you for your great loss. And in coming years, when you imagine you will lack the tender filial ministries you had anticipated from your child, he will more than supply the deficiencies by the arrangements of his own infinite tenderness and care. God also compensates his people for the loss of religious privileges. In his providence he sometimes removes us by sickness from the services of the sanctuary, and we have a season of weary waiting for his restoring hand. We anticipate with sadness the Lord’s day, when his people will be worshipping in the courts of his house, and we suffering through the lonely hours at home. But the day arrives, and with it a joyous disappointment. God himself becomes to us a Sanctuary. He compensates us for the loss of psalmody by inspiring diviner music in our heart, for the loss of “common worship” by giving us deeper spiritual communion with himself and with all holy souls, and for the loss of sacred ministrations by the immediate and blessed ministry of his Holy Spirit to our spirit. And so the day we dreaded was rich in present blessing, and bright with gleams of the glory that awaits us in the future. Or in his providence God removes us to a district where we are separated from the influence of a generous and godly friend, or from the ministry of a valued teacher or pastor. Our regret is very keen, our misgivings as to our future progress are serious, and perhaps our dissatisfaction with providential arrangements is in danger of becoming great. But in this also the Lord becomes to us a Sanctuary. To our increased need he gives more of his infinite fulness. And we find that by blessing us with another teacher or pastor, or by means of the devout and earnest study of his holy Word, or by the ministry of good literature, or by the immediate action of his Holy Spirit upon our spirit, he compensates us for all our losses. Herein is one of the great blessednesses of the portion of the godly. As our need grows, God reveals unto us his own infinite sufficiency more and more fully, and out of that sufficiency he giveth more grace. The more loud and fierce the storm, the more closely does he enfold us in his inviolate protection. The more numerous and urgent our requirements, the more abundant and prompt are his supplies. Make him your Portion, and infinite resources are yours (cf. Psa 84:11; Lam 3:24; Mat 6:33; 1Ti 4:8).W.J.
Eze 11:19
A united heart the gift of God.
“I will give them one heart.” The exiles in Babylon, to whom the text was addressed, had long wandered from God into idolatry. Their heart had not been fixed or united. The promise was fulfilled in their case in this sensethat since their return from captivity they have never lapsed into idolatry.
I. THIS PROMISE IS APPLICABLE TO THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, Oneness of interest and heart in the welfare of a Church on the part of its members is essential to its prosperity.
1. Oneness of heart in brotherly unity is necessary. “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” etc. (Psa 133:1-3.). To secure this we must exercise mutual forbearance and charity, and cultivate an affectionate regard for each other.
2. Oneness of desire for the prosperity of the work of God is necessary. There is reason to fear that this desire is not very deep on the part of some Church-members, who very often grumble at what others are doing, and do nothing themselves. If we have this desire, we shall take it to God in prayer. We shall “keep not silence, and give him no rest,” etc. (Isa 62:6, Isa 62:7). If we have this desire, it will lead us to personal efforts to attain its fulfilment. To retain this unity of desire we must be prepared to waive personal opinions as to minor methods, keeping the eye steadily fixed upon the grand objects which we are aiming at. Mutual concessions are necessary to abiding unity. In seeking unity in the Church let us trust the promise of the text, and use appropriate means to secure it.
II. THE TEXT IS APPLICABLE TO DIFFERENT CLASSES OF PERSONAL CHARACTER. Examples of hearts divided and purposes unsettled are to be found in every province of lifein business, in mental culture, in religion. Yet everywhere the thing is evil. Division is weakness. “The roiling stone gathers no moss.” “A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.” One-heartedness is essential to progress in anything. The men who have attained marked success in any pursuit have followed it steadily and persistently. Concentration is power. “Unity is strength” everywhere and in everything. Let us specify certain characters to whom the text is applicable.
1. To the insincere. There are persons who are not true, whose thoughts and words do not agree, whose appearance and reality are not harmonious. Our text is a promise for them if they will receive it. The man of renewed heart is honest, true. The mere form of godliness, or profession of discipleship to Christ, will avail us nothing. Unless we have the life and power of Christ, the name of Christian will be worse than worthless to us. The genuine Christian is sincere and upright.
2. To those who are endeavouring to “serve God and mammon.” It is impossible to be at once devoted to worldly ends and to God. A worldly spirit is incompatible with real religion. The spirit of the world is opposed to the spirit of Christ. One or other must be supreme in us. We cannot yield ourselves to the pursuit of the pleasures, honours, or riches of this world, and to the service of the Lord Jesus at the same time. It is impressible to combine the two things. God promises to give us one hearta heart undivided and thoroughly fixed upon himself. Are we willing to receive the blessing, and to receive it now?
3. To those who “halt between two opinions.” Many are wavering and undecided as to personal religion. They have not resolved to try to combine the service of” God and mammon;” but they have not elected whom they will serve. They have often been religiously impressed, but never decided. They have often felt the supreme importance of religion, but have not yielded to its claims. They are wavering and undecided. They feel without wisely acting. They have religious emotion, but not religious resolution. They procrastinate the great choice till “a more convenient season.” They will not take the decisive step. They are not one-hearted. Now, they may obtain a united heart from God. The hesitation which is so injurious and perilous to them would be banished if they would accept God’s promise in the text, and decide by his help to serve him. He would “give them one heart,” and sufficient strength to perform their resolution. And then they could sing, with David, “My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.” Thus the text promises to us unity and thoroughness of heart. Our own weakness we know; and how prone to unsteadiness, change, and division our hearts are. But “God is greater than our heart,” and he proffers to us the unity and stability which we need. In the strength of his promise let us pray, “Unite my heart to fear thy Name,” and let us consecrate ourselves unreservedly unto him.W.J.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Eze 11:1. Five and twenty men The same who are represented in chap. Eze 8:16 as worshipping the sun. They were princes of the people; that is to say, most probably members of the great Sanhedrim. Compare Jer 26:10.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
4. The Leaders of the People (Ch. 11.)
1And the Spirit lifted me up, and brought me unto the gate of the house of Jehovah, the east one, which looketh eastward; and behold, in [at] the opening of the gate five-and-twenty men; and I saw in their midst Jaazaniah the 2son of Azur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, the rulers of the people. And He said unto me, Son of man, these [are] the men that devise mischief, and 3that counsel evil counsel in this city; That say, [it is] not near, building 4of houses; it [is] the caldron, and we [are] the flesh. Therefore prophesy upon them, prophesy, son of man. 5And the Spirit of Jehovah fell upon me, and He said unto me, Say, Thus saith Jehovah: Thus said ye, O house of 6Israel, and the things which rise up in your spirit, I know it. Ye have multiplied your slain in this city, and filled its streets with slain. 7Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Your slain, whom ye have laid in its midst [the citys], they [are] the flesh, while it [is] the caldron, and one brings you 8forth out of its midst. A sword ye feared; and I cause a sword to come 9upon you: sentence of the Lord Jehovah. And I bring you forth out of its midst, and give you into the hands of strangers, and execute judgments on 10[among] you. By the sword shall ye fall; on Israels border will I judge you; 11and ye know that I am Jehovah. It will not be the caldron for you, so that 12ye should be the flesh in its midst; on Israels border will I judge you. And ye know that I am Jehovah, ye that walked not in My statutes, neither executed My judgments, and [but] did after the judgments of the heathen which were round about you. 13And it came to pass, as I prophesied, that Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died; and I fell upon my face, and cried with a loud voice, and said, Ah, Lord Jehovah! art thou making an utter end of the 14remnant of Israel? And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying: 15Son of man, thy brethren, thy brethren [are] the men represented by thee as kinsman, and [yea] the whole house of Israel, it wholly, to [of] whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem say, Be far from Jehovah; unto us was itthe land given for a possession. 16Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Because I removed them to a distance among the heathen, and because I scattered them in the countries, I become [became] to them for a sanctuary for a little in the countries whither they came. 17Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, And I gather you out of the nations, and assemble you out of the countries in which you were scattered, and give you the land of Israel. 18And they come thither, and they take away all its detestable things and all 19its abominations out of it. And I give them one heart, and a new spirit will I give in your inward part, and I take away the heart of stone out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh. 20That they may walk in My statutes, and keep My judgments, and do them, and may be to Me for a people, and 21I may be to them for a God. And [as for them] whose heart walketh after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations, their way give I 22upon their head: sentence of the Lord Jehovah. And the cherubim lifted up their wings, and the wheels [were] beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel over them above. 23And the glory of Jehovah rose up from over the midst of the city, and stood over the mountain which is on the east of 24the city. And the Spirit lifted me up, and brought me to the land of the Chaldeans, to the exiles, in the vision, in the Spirit of God; and the vision 25which I had seen rose up from above me. And I spake to the exiles all the words of Jehovah which He showed me.
Eze 11:1. Sept.: … . .
Eze 11:3. ;Nonne dudum dificat sunt domus?
Eze 11:7. Anoth. read.: . Sept.: . and all the Versions.
Eze 11:13. ; anoth. read.: .
Eze 11:15. The second is omitted by some Codd., Sept., and Arab.Sept.: … . … . … ,
Eze 11:16. in sanctificationem modicam
Eze 11:17.
Eze 11:19. . … (Anoth. read.: . , Syr., , Syr., Sept., Arab., Chald., Vulg., , in some Codices.)
Eze 11:21. instead of , there is a reading .
Eze 11:24. .
EXEGETICAL REMARKS
The execution of judgment on the guilty inhabitants of Jerusalem is followed, as a second act, by the fire of wrath on the city, in connection with the departure of Jehovah from, the temple (Ezekiel 10). The vision is brought to a close by means of a striking occurrence. But, as in Ezekiel 9 in the midst of destruction there was at the same time the exercise of forbearance, so here also comfort and promise are joined with it. In the outset we have in Eze 11:1 (comp. at Eze 3:12; Eze 3:14; Eze 8:3) a new ecstatic commencement as regards the prophet. The locality to which (from where it is not said, and Eze 8:16 is not the rule for it; comp. on the other hand, Eze 10:5) he is transported is that mentioned in Eze 10:19. As in Eze 8:16 we have from , so here from . The express repetition of the quarter of the heavens has something which points to Eze 8:16, without thereby identifying the five-and-twenty here with those mentioned there; it is only the similar turning away from the God of Israel towards an east, rich in hope, as they imagine, that can be hinted at therein. Comp. on Eze 8:16. At the opening of the temple is not=at the opening of the gate. Moreover, those mentioned in Eze 8:16 cannot (in accordance with Eze 9:6 sq.) be conceived of as any longer alive. The Jaazaniah (=) in their midst, who is first mentioned by name, accords in name and appositional statement with Eze 8:11 : and Jaazaniah standing in their midst, but without the possibility of their being the same person, as their fathers are different; only their parallel disposition (we shall be able here also to notice it) might have been meant to be hinted at. There is some allusion to Ezekiel 8 in the expression. We know nothing more otherwise, either of the first named or of the second. [Hengstenberg extracts symbolically from the names of the men themselves and of their fathers the concentration of their thoughts: all was full of joyous music to them. God-hears, the son of the Helper, and God-helps, the son of God-builds, are to him excellent names for men who promise themselves salvation without repentance, the direct opposite of the name Jeremiah: God-casts-down.] The fact that the two who are named are designated as princes of the people, as it is commonly translated, does not at the same time assign this position to the remaining twenty-three, as the expositors admit; on the contrary, they appear thereby to be distinguished above the rest of the men; and the reason for it seems to be given in their importance, which immediately follows (Eze 11:2). The , however, are by no means ; but the more general meaning of admits of the sense demagogues, those having sway over the people, rather than of elders (), or presidents of parts of the city, or members of the Sanhedrim, or presidents of the classes of priests, or of our thinking of the twelve princes of tribes and the twelve royal officials (colonels), with the king himself (Klief.) or commander-in-chief of the army. In their quality as bearing sway over the people they come into consideration, not as representing the civil authority of Israel, as those in Eze 8:16 represent the spiritual chiefs of the covenant-people (Keil.). In this way, also, it might be explained why the two are mentioned by name. The number given (25) may be intended to express a parallel with Eze 8:16, just as a parallelizing tendency to Ezekiel 8 seems to belong to the expression here at the close of the vision. With the patriarchically representative constitution of Israel, where the influence of the elders and heads of families easily pervaded the whole nation (Saalschtz, Archol. ii. 432, 4), the two individuals named may nevertheless also be, if not princes of tribes, yet elders of the people, although they are not here designated as such officially. It is no ordinary sitting of a college, as Hitzig alleges, but an assemblage of persons like-minded (officials, notables, individuals out of the mass) that is represented; perhaps, however, in order to represent the house of Israel (Eze 11:5) amply, designedly in the form of two for every tribe, and one more besides.
Eze 11:2. Son of man, Eze 2:1., with no fixed boundary between cause and effect, stretching from the moral to the physical, from the subjective to the objective,mischief, as it results from injustice. Their evil counsel turns out ill. Their manner of speaking in Eze 11:3 is the popular-rhetorical, which makes an impression on the sensuous mass by its striking, figurative character, and is easily remembered. How they think, and what corresponding counsel they give, is shown first of all by the statement: It is not near, building of houses,their reply, namely, to the prophets of this period, who supplement one another, Ezekiel and Jeremiah. The distinctive expression in the case of the formercomp. Ezekiel 7, especially Eze 11:7-8 ( )is met by the bold denial , and at the same time, (building of houses) ridicules the letter of Jeremiah to the exiles (Eze 29:5), beginning with (build ye houses), which threatened those at Jerusalem with sword, famine, and pestilence, etc. [Other explanations of these words are either hardly justifiable linguistically,such as Luthers, those of the Sept. and Vulg. (Ewald takes as a question, Gram. 324a),or give a far-fetched sense, such as Hitzigs.] Positively their meaning is expressed to this effect, that Jerusalem will keep its inhabitants, as the caldron keeps the flesh; and therefore their counsel is, to remain and to trust to the secure walls, instead of trusting the word of the prophets. [According to Hvernick, with allusion to Jer 1:13; according to Kliefoth, alluding to Jeremiah 19?] Bunsen: We sit here in Jerusalem warm and protected, like the flesh in the caldron.
Their reply to the prophetic word is answered in Eze 11:4 : thereforethe repeated prophesy; and in Eze 11:5 we have Ezekiels immediate carrying out of the command in virtue of the divine equipment; comp. Eze 8:1. The Spirit, instead of the hand of Jehovah, because of the revelation in word (). Jehovah knows what rises up in their spirit (Eze 20:32), as His Spirit also goes forth to meet their spirit. Thus there is a return to their saying. [ refers to (Deu 31:21; Hos 5:3; Psa 139:2; Joh 2:25), or it is a collective feminine.] The expression: house of Israel, emphasizes almost ironically the contrast of what they pretended, what they also ought to be. Their mischievous devising, their bad counsel (Eze 11:2), is set before their eyes in Eze 11:6 in its ultimate effect in actual fact, by means of the result to which it will lead when they are brought forth (Eze 11:7). Not that their deeds hitherto are to show the wickedness of their plots,neither from the epoch of Jeconiah (Hitz.), nor, in accordance with a more general interpretation, of murder in a refined and gross sense (Hv.),which would lie outside the context, but the slain (, properly: to pierce through, as happens in the case of those who are put to the sword) are those to be slain by the Chaldeans, already slain from the standpoint taken up in the discourse of God. They are by their wicked counsels the authors of their death (Hengst.). , comp. Eze 6:7; Ew. Gram. 278a.
Eze 11:7. A retributive () interpretation of their proverb in accordance with such a result of their counsel. It is fulfilled, but how? Not for themselves. Inasmuch as theyin contrast with their remaining in the city, which they have strongly asserted (Eze 11:3)are brought forth, they remain alive, as distinguished from those slain as the result of their counsel. Yet comp. Eze 5:2. (Like the Sept. and Vulg. [Eng. Vers. also], Ewald reads instead. of .) [J. D. Mich.: Many citizens misled by you shall perish in the city, for whom it will be the caldron, and they the flesh which is cooked therein; only ye yourselves shall not be the flesh in this caldron, but shall be dragged forth and cut in pieces elsewhere.]
Eze 11:8. From fear of those who are able to kill the body (Mat 10:28), but not from fear of God (otherwise they would have hearkened to the word of His prophets), they took the walls of Jerusalem as a caldron, which was to enclose them securely as the flesh. (Ye would not give yourselves up to the Babylonians, as Jeremiah advised you, because ye were afraid of being put to death by them, etc., a Lap. Their revolt from the Chaldean king, the coalition and Egypt, will not save them from the sword of Babylon, on the contrary will bring it upon them, Hengst.) Eze 6:3. Comp. also at Eze 5:11.
Eze 11:9. Now comes the question how it will be with the bringing of them forth (Eze 11:7). First of all, Jehovah (not Babylon, as it may appear outwardly) is He that brings them forth. Then farther, there is along with that His design, His aim; comp. Eze 7:21; Eze 5:10; Eze 5:15.
Eze 11:10. Eze 5:12. Comp. the fulfilment, 2Ki 25:18 sq.; Jer 39:6; Jer 52:10; Jer 52:24 sq., or , in Eze 11:11 (Ew. Gram. 351a), removes the judgment not merely outside Jerusalem, which was to be a caldron for them, but outside Israel, which they have represented so badly (Eze 11:5).
Eze 11:12 explains more definitely what is meant by the experimental knowledge of Jehovah in Eze 11:10,that where they have not made themselves known before the heathen as Israel by doing what is right, He will make Himself known to them as Jehovah by means of His judgment, which deprives them of city and land. Comp. Eze 6:7; Eze 6:13; Eze 5:7.
The sudden dying of Pelatiah takes place literally within the sphere of the vision merely, although in his case there may have been a corresponding reality at the same time, or at least about this time. As the prophet had to predict to the individual in question, as well as to his fellows, their being brought forth out of Jerusalem for judgment by the sword, but not their immediate death (Eze 11:4 sq.), this incident, whose awful character (Act 5:5) is attested to us by the impression upon Ezekiel, symbolizes prophetically the certainty in actual fact of the judgment of death on the others also (comp. besides, Jer 28:17). And so Ezekiel sees them all already dead, and Eze 9:8 repeats itself. Comp. there. Just as there, so here also it is the portion of the people still remaining at Jerusalem, in the land of Israel, and the standpoint of feeling is likewise (as against Hengst.) that of the exiles. For , comp. Jer 4:27; Jer 5:10; Jer 5:18; Eze 20:17. According to Hvern.: a juridical term for the carrying out of the final sentence. [Hvern. and Hengst. find an allusion besides to the name of the individual in question,that the help of Jehovah is at an end, that with him, as it were, all salvation for Judah fell to the ground (?).]
But while Eze 9:9 sq. emphasized guilt only, and Gods justice only as confronting it, Eze 11:14 introduces, and that solemnly, Gods mercy.Still Eze 11:15 does not on that account form any antithesis (as Hvernick), but rather confirms what is announced in Eze 9:9. For those in reference to whom remark will be made, and not merely of their being spared, but more positively even of their being preserved in an extraordinary manner, are different from those for whom Ezekiel interceded. He did so from a brotherly heart, and, because speaking from the standpoint of feeling of the exiles, characterized these also at the same time, in accordance with Jeremiah 24. Thy brethren, thy brethren, namely, those who are so in truth, and not merely according to the flesh (Mat 12:48; Rom 9:3). The repetition in the first place lays emphasis on this, but then farther, at the same time, puts in his right place the prophet of the glory of God in the midst of the exile, as we have seen Ezekiel to be (see the Introd.) in this his calling. For the designation of the exiles as men of thy (predicate, not subject) is not=thy kinsmen (Gesen.), which after such emphasizing would be equivalent to a weakening of the idea, but it reminds the prophet of his duty. [The Sept. read .] embraces the whole duty of the (the brother or nearest kinsman): redemption of goods and property, of liberty and life, the avenging of blood, the marriage obligation, and thus the entire representation of, giving of assistance to, and attorneyship for him who was reduced to poverty, slain, or dead. The expression: and the whole house of Israel, just as little adds the laity (Hitzig) to the others, as by the expression: the men, etc., is meant the priests only, as Hvernick also understands, in accordance with his view of the twenty-five in Eze 11:1; but the discourse sets over against the title (Eze 11:5) the thing itself, over against the name the reality, and at the same time deals with the (as in Eze 9:8, so here in Eze 11:13) so-called remnant of Israel, inasmuch as, corresponding to the repetition (thy brethren, etc.) at the beginning of our verse, the whole house of Israel (Eze 9:8), by being repeated through means of: it wholly, is made emphatic. (Eze 20:40; Rom 11:26.) Hengst.: The contrast is, of course, such only on the whole; otherwise Jeremiah even would be no true Israelite. According to Ezekiel 9., even in Jerusalem there is an election under the Lords sheltering protection, although it cannot prevent the downfall of the city; and according to Ezekiel 14. there is also among the exiles much refuse. [Joh 1:47 (Ezekiel 48.); Rom 2:28-29; Rom 9:6; Jer 7:4; 1Ti 3:15; 1Co 3:9.] The idea which is expressed by stands forth still more prominently by means of the contrast, so far as appearances go, to which those who are still for the moment the inhabitants of Jerusalem (Eze 12:19) give expression, in accordance with their Pharisaic, hypocritical self-exaltation. Their characteristic dictum is quoted. For the imperative , comp. on Eze 8:6 and Joh 9:22. What they themselves are inwardly in reality, the appearance of thatits outward realizationthey cast to those in exile. They fall into a kind of holy zeal. In this position which they assumed toward their brethren, they themselves bear witness that they are not in the true sense brethren (Hengst.)., Exo 6:8.
Over against such a saying (Eze 11:15) on their part, Eze 11:16 places the retributive saying of Jehovah: Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord, etc. And what is retribution towards Jerusalem is at the same time promise towards the exile. But there are two things said and therewith promised by God. The first, which is in reply to that saying: Be far from Jehovah (Eze 11:15), which made a declamatory use of their being outwardly far from the temple at Jerusalem, is the declaration so rich in promise: I become a sanctuary to them,a thought which must from the first in Ezekiel 1, along with other things, have been indicated by the vision at the river Chebar, but which especially the vision in Ezekiel 8 sq. has brought as a compensation for the symbol of the presence in the outward temple of Jerusalem. The older Jewish expositors think of the synagogues. , not before the direct speech, like: Yea, etc., and therefore impressively repeated (Hitz.); but in fact granting the reality, although tracing it back to Jehovah expressly, it begins like a protasis which gives the reason, or at least in the sense of: if, although, or the like, [, according to Gesen. asylum, which is too narrow.] , either the length of time, or in the sense of measure (in some measure), which does not suit the context so well, and a promise of God, as here, still less.(Isa 8:14; Joh 2:19; Rev 21:22.)
The second answer to the saying of the inhabitants of Jerusalem has reference to the statement: to us was the land given (Eze 11:15). Hence Eze 11:17, with therefore, parallel to Eze 11:16, and continuing the promise by means of , in the oratio directa. I gather you (Jer 23:3)comp. Joh 11:52for which the return from Babylon was merely the outward substratum. In how spiritual a sense the return is conceived, namely, as at the same time an inward return to Jehovah (Jer 24:7), and therefore into the land promised by Him, is shown immediately by Eze 11:18. And they, etc., i.e. the parties addressed, the parties mentioned. The history of the Jews after the exile proves the purification of Palestine from the previous idolatry (Eze 5:11).To the gathering corresponds the divine bestowal in Eze 11:19, just as it explains the reformation (Eze 11:18). [Hitzig: , another heart, like the Sept.] The one heart (Act 4:32) and the new spirit in the inward part are parallel. The old spirit which ruled them inwardly did not permit the harmony and concord which now ensue. But with the gift of a new spirit, the heart of stone, the unnatural element, is at the same time removed out of the flesh, and the natural elementan heart of fleshis given. It is therefore no antithesis of Holy Spirit and flesh, as elsewhere,not the contrast of nature and grace, but a new spirit and the opposite of the one heart that is to be given, i.e. the old spirit, that confront each other,nature and the unnatural. The manner of expression is peculiar to Ezekiel. As they take away () all the detestable things and abominations out of the land, so Jehovah takes away () the heart of stone out of their flesh. The stony heart stands in relation to the idols; so also the heart of flesh, the new spirit, the one heart, stands in relation to the only true God (1Ki 18:21; Psa 86:11; Jam 1:8; Jam 4:8). Comp. the opposite in Eze 11:21. [Commonly the heart of flesh is taken as a soft heart, receptive of the impressions of divine grace, and the stony heart as the human heart in its natural condition.] Comp. Eze 36:26; Jer 31:33; Jer 32:39; Psa 51:12 [10]. Israel, by her apostate, polytheistic conduct, has fallen entirely out of what was natural to her as a people,that she should be the people of the one true God, the people of His holy law. This unnatural element of her conduct as a nation is to cease by means of the divine gift and working, and so in Eze 11:20 fits in quite simply as defining the purpose. Comp. besides, Eze 11:12.
Eze 11:21. In contrast, either those at Jerusalem who have filled the land with their idolatry (Eze 11:18), or those among the people of God to be restored who shall prove worthless (comp. Eze 14:3), or the latter as well as the former. (In a grammatical point of view, comp. Ew. Gr. 333, p. 820.) Just as one may take up idols into his heart, so a heart may be ascribed to them. It is only the practical side of his becoming one with them, so that one is represented as one heart (Eze 11:19) and one soul with them, when his heart walketh after their heart, instead of walking in Jehovahs statutes (Eze 11:20). Comp. besides on Eze 9:10.
Eze 11:22. The closing scene of the vision of Ezekiel 8-11 Comp. the previous scenes connected with the movement and departure of the glory of God out of the most holy place of the temple, as equivalent to and parallel with the vision of glory in Eze 1:1-28; Eze 8:4; Eze 9:3; Eze 10:3-4; Eze 10:18-19.Comp. Eze 10:19.
Eze 11:23. The expression: from over the midst of the city, points at the same time to this circumstance, that the execution of judgment and the exercise of forbearance within the city (Ezekiel 9), as well as the throwing of the coals of fire over the city (Eze 10:2), were a manifestation of glory. The position in Eze 10:19; Eze 11:1 (inasmuch as the city stretches to the north and south beyond the temple, Hitz.), indicates also the middle of the city. Such an abandonment of the temple, therefore, is at the same time an abandonment of the city (Hos 5:15). While the vision still lasts, the glory of Jehovah stands over the Mount of Olives (2Sa 15:30; Zec 14:4), as is the view of ancient and modern expositors alike. Its situation and height are suitable (the commanding point in reference to Jerusalem, which is overlooked from it in its whole extent, Hengst.). (Comp. Luk 19:37; Luk 19:41 sq., luke 21:37, luke 22:39; Act 1:12.) Comp. Eze 43:2. Whether for the purpose of there presiding over the judgment on Jerusalem and the temple, or whether for the purpose of going back from thence to heaven, it is not said. This is objectively the end of the vision, but likewise subjectively as regards the prophet, Eze 11:24; comp. on Eze 11:1, Eze 8:1; Eze 1:1; Eze 3:11 (Act 10:16). The fulness of the description lays emphasis on the divine superhuman as well as non-human character of the revelation made to him, with a view specially to those to whom he in Eze 11:25 communicates it. , as throughout Holy Scripture. Yet the word, in a pre-eminent sense (John 1), is finally the deed, the Word of God .
DOCTRINAL REFLECTIONS
1. Demagogism in Israel is characterized in Numbers 16 as a laying stress on the universal priesthood of Israel, as opposed to the special office of Moses and Aaron. In our chapter its seductive skill in words is turned against the prophets of the period, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, inasmuch as the popular orators harangue their public on the possession of Jerusalem and the dwelling in the promised land. If, therefore, in Numbers 16 the argument is borrowed from the idea of Israel,what she is to be according to Exo 19:6,it is argued in our case from the existing reality of Jewish affairs at the moment; hence, in comparison, also a degenerate demagogism, just as everything in Israels case points downwards. Perhaps we may compare the relation of social demagogism to the old republican demagogism, which latter at least still inscribed the ideas, liberty, equality, fraternity, on its red banner, while socialism agitates merely in reference to the actual relations of society for the moment.
2. Hvernick admits the remarkable literal fulfilment of Eze 11:9-11, but refuses, on the other hand, with Grotius, to understand them as a prediction. The idea of the threatening in our prophet here lies much deeper, in the nature of the subject itself; the extent of its application accordingly is also much wider. Hengstenberg remarks: The prophecy cannot have been framed merely after the event; Ezekiel laid his book before his contemporaries, who were able to put him right. And the guarantee for the predictions which were fulfilled in the lifetime of the prophet lies in those which did not come to be fulfilled till long after his death. The confidence of Ezekiel is a sufficient proof that there is a supernatural element, etc. Certainly neither the canon of Nitzsch, that the prediction must not destroy the history, nor the limitation of Tholuck, that the detailed prediction must not be expressed before the subjects who are actors in the history, can suffice for regulating the prophetic gift of divination. Alike the psychologico-anthropological and the specifically theological elements are deprived of an adequate scientific basis.
3. It is lamentable if we must gain the knowledge of God (Eze 11:10; Eze 11:12) by our own destructionif He in whom we live, and move, and have our being, is known only by the strokes which break our own head. The knowledge has in this case, moreover, no moral import. It is a mere passive knowledge, forced also upon the ungodly, unconnected with repentance (Hengst.).
4. Although the prospect which the divine promise (Eze 11:16 sq.) opens up regarding the captives of Israel is expressed everywhere in forms of Old Testament life as it appears under the law, yet the New Testament background, the Messianic salvation (Ewald), shows itself behind it. The realization of the covenant into which God entered with Israel for the human race, that they should be to Him a people and He should be to them a God, remains a theme down even to Rev 21:3. With this the fulfilment also coincides, as it brought the return from the exile. The exiles were gathered out of their banishment to be a people again, and that on the recovered soil of Israel, under Zerubbabel, Ezra, Nehemiah; just as those who had continued to dwell in the heathen countries solemnly professed by their visits to the feasts at Jerusalem (Acts 2.) that they belonged to the nation of the Jews. The reformation of the religious condition was an energetic one, as directed against the heathenish lusts after idolatry on every hand which prevailed before the exile. Comp. also the period of the Maccabees. Monotheism became the purifying fundamental dogma of the Jewish nation. And there was also developed a scrupulous legality, down even to Pharisaism, in the trivial actions of life. It was a new spirit, and proved to be in general, and in comparison with the previous stony heart, which Gods judgment had broken in pieces, an heart of flesh; but yet it was merely an heart of flesh. The New Testament interpretation must not as a matter of course be put upon Eze 11:19 sq., as is done by Cocceius and the most of believing expositors. The prophetic words do not affirm this; but the prospect into the New Covenant does not open till at the close, where God gives the assurance that He will make Himself known as their God to those who have become His people. For this took place when He , Joh 1:11. Only , . . . (Eze 11:12). The renewal for that is not contained in Eze 11:19 sq. Cocceius, indeed, interprets (Eze 11:16) by: sanctuarium paucorum, i.e. Deum per inhabitationem suam in aliquibus, paucis, eos sanctificare, and finds therein the antithesis to Isa 53:12 and Rom 8:29!
5. What the vision of the glory of Jehovah which Ezekiel had at the Chebar already signified, but still more in accordance with its supplementary confirmation as well as renewal by means of Ezekiel 8 sq., that obtains in the statement: I become to them for a sanctuary (and that not merely in a rhetorical sense, as it may be understood in Isa 8:14, and hence as an emblem of protection and also of blessing), its retrospective, but, at the same time, preparatory (as regards Ezekiel 40 sq.) expression, and, in general, one that is predictive and rich in promise. The saying in Eze 11:15 does not indeed affirm anything expressly of the temple, but would make the presence of Jehovah be decided as a matter of fact by the possession of the land. But so much the more does the divine reply, in contrast with the material possession of the land, draw attention to the sanctuary, by means of which Jehovahs presence in the land is brought about, and in which one is able to draw near to Jehovah (, as opposed to ). Since, then, Jehovah promises to be to them a sanctuary, i.e. a temple in this connection, the priestly-prophetic office of Ezekiel is brought specially to light, by means of which the exiles approach God, and God makes Himself known to them, and in addition to which there is the glorifying of the name of Jehovah in and through Daniel; but along with that in general, there is promised a presence of God in spirit and in truth, as Joh 4:20 sq. expresses it in respect of worship. Thus the exile might be to the Jews a school as regards the indwelling of the Word in flesh among men full of grace and truth, as regards the revelation of glory as of the Only-Begotten (Joh 1:14), as regards the temple which appeared in Jesus Christ (Joh 2:19 sq.).
[The dispersion, besides being a just chastisement on account of sin, and a salutary discipline to lead the heart of the people back to God, had an important end to accomplish as a preparatory movement in Providence for opening the way for Messiahs kingdom. It was very far from being an unmixed evil. As a mere external arrangement, it was destined to be of great service in diffusing the knowledge of God, and providing materials for the first foundations of the Christian Church, by giving the bearers of Gods truth a place and an influence in many of the most commanding positions in the heathen world. But still more important and necessary was the end it had to serve, in spiritualizing the views of the better part of the Jews themselves, and training them to the knowledge and service of God, without the help of a material temple and an earthly kingdom. Practically it had the effect of indefinitely widening the bounds of Canaan, or of giving to the world at large somewhat of its distinctive characteristics, since the devout worshipper at Babylon, Alexandria, Rome, or wherever he might be placed, found himself a partaker of Gods presence and blessing as well as in Jerusalem. What a mighty advance did the kingdom of God thus make toward the possession of the world! And in rendering the dispersion of His people instrumental to the attainment of such a result, how strikingly did the Lord manifest His power to overrule a present evil for the accomplishment of an ultimate good! Nor were it, perhaps, too much to say, having respect to the issues of things, that the dispersion of the Israelites among the nations was fraught with as much blessing for the Church and the world as even their original settlement in Canaan.Fairbairns Ezekiel, p. 114.W. F.]
For a little, it is said in Eze 11:16, Jehovah Himself will be a sanctuary; in view of the destiny of the Jewish people, the state in exile could only be of a provisional character, only preparatory. For salvation is of the Jews, and the destiny of the peopleand this must be upon its own soilis the building of the temple of the kingdom of God (Ezekiel 40. sq.). Palestine became the cradle of the incarnation of God in Christ, and thus of the Church on earth. But now, when the exile of the Jews has become a long period, the Jews must have fallen out with their destiny, as in such a case they have neither recognised their temple in Christ, nor built themselves as a people for a temple of God (Eph 2:21; 1Co 3:16 sq.; 2Co 6:16; comp. Joh 17:19 sq.).
6. How different the Babylonian exile from the present! In the latter case, no proof of the presence of God; the people can keep only feasts of commemoration, and dream of the future; between the distant past and the distant future an immense empty space, a complete Sahara. In the former case, for him who looks more deeply, in the deepest humiliation there are everywhere traces of the loving care of God, pledges of the enduring election, of the future glorification (Hengst.).
7. As against Keil, who quotes Hengstenberg for his view, we must assert that the passage Deu 30:6 does not lie at the foundation of the promise in Eze 11:19, as was held already by Cocceius, who quoted in addition Col 2:11 sq., and the Epistle to the Hebrews. The one heart can only mean in the case of the individual a united heart,a heart, therefore, which does not in its thoughts go from one thing to another, which does not through its lusts scatter itself on outward things, but is held together by the fear of God in its bent towards Him; which comes to the same thing as , i.e. a whole heart, not divided between God and any other (Deu 6:5; Deu 10:12). But here it is the people as a whole and generally that are spoken of. Their – is well known (Mat 19:8); it has come to light by means of their history, that even the best, the noblest of this people shared in it (Mar 16:14). We call attention to the passages in our prophet, Eze 2:4; Eze 3:7. Comp. Isa 48:4 (and this, too, with reference to idolatry); Jer 5:3. They have hardened themselves in such a way (Deu 10:16, like Pharaoh under the plagues) in opposition to the law, that Gods law, which was written on tables of stone, is written as it were, with its penalties and its curse, upon stony Israel. But whatever their hardness may be, there is confronted with it (Deu 9:27) what they are in Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob; in other words, that they are as flesh, that is their nature, and hence to be the Lords servant. And that God says He will give back, restoring what originally belonged to their nature (an heart of flesh), in contrast with the unnatural and that which is against nature which has grown up in them (the heart of stone). Comp. on the other hand, Joh 1:13.
8. There is generally more said than ought to be said according to Gods word, that in its natural state mans heart is hard as a stone (Hengst., Keil). It becomes the heart of stone only by hardening. By nature it is rather an heart of flesh, which grace confronts with spirit of Spirit (Joh 3:6). Even in the case of Pharaoh there comes forth on repeated occasions the fleshy element of his heart (Exo 8:4; Exo 8:21; Exo 8:24 [ Exo 8:8; Exo 8:25; Exo 8:28], Exo 9:27, etc.). And with the fleshy state of the heart manifold gifts of God are conceivable, as was the case with Israel from their fathers (hereditary blessing).
9. The heart of stone, which has become such by hardening, God breaks in pieces. Thus it happened to Pharaoh. He does not break it; in that case it must have been an heart of flesh. But this is done in Zec 12:10. Or, as in our chapter, God takes away the heart of stone, and gives an heart of flesh. The keeping apart of flesh and stone is as important as that of flesh and spirit.
10. In a threatening (Eze 11:21) the whole terminates in a remarkable way. The idols are in themselves deadmere reflexes and objective representations of the popular spirit; but even as such they exercise an enormous power over individuals. What power has Mammon now, as a Jewish (?) national god, over Jewish minds, although he is in himself a mere shadow?Jehovah even may be an idol. With the idol-images the idols themselves do not yet disappear from a land(Hengst.).Little children, keep yourselves from idols, the disciple of love still says to us (Umbr.).
11. The Messianic significance of the Mount of Olives, which is not denied by the Jews even, has its Christological fulfilment in the Gospels; but in addition, the whole movement of the glory of Jehovah in Ezekiel 10, 11 has its meaning for the life of the Son of God in the flesh. Jerome remarks: By degrees the glory of the Lord takes its departure from Jerusalem. After it leaves the temple, it stands first on the threshold, thereafter at the entrance of the east gate, finally over the Mount of Olives, whence the Saviour ascends to the Father. Comp. the beginning in Luk 2:46, the continuation in Joh 2:14 sq., along with the New Testament passages already quoted in the exposition; and for the end, still farther, Mat 21:12 sq., Mat 24:1 sq. (Mat 27:5; Mat 27:51). One might say, Ezekiel has seen beforehand the life of Jesus in its elements of judgment in reference to the Jewish people.
12. Baumgarten (The Acts of the Apostles, on Ezekiel 1, Clarks Trans.) remarks on the glory of Jehovah in relation to the Mount of Olives: It was therefore a departure, and yet a remaining in the neighbourhood; if the outward protection and blessing of Jehovah should be withdrawn from His people, the invisible power of His Spirit will remain near them, and perhaps manifest itself the more gloriously. It is the very same Ezekiel, who has afterwards brought vividly before us this side of promise and hope even in the departure of the glory of Jehovah; it is just Ezekiel who has beheld, represented, and described in the most impressive way the awakening, creative power of the Spirit of Jehovah for the whole nation of Israel (Ezekiel 37.). In like manner, Jesus, in whom dwelleth the divine glory bodily, withdraws from the Jews (Joh 8:21); but His standing on the Mount of Olives is a sign that He remains invisibly and blessedly near them, Act 3:26.
HOMILETIC HINTS
Eze 11:1-3. Do thou also give thyself up to the drawing of the Spirit of God. Wherever He may lead thee, it will be to a joyful end at last. But beware of the leading of the evil spirit (Starck).When those who bear sway over the people are not able even to master their own wicked thoughts and words, but rather strive against Gods thoughts and words, it must certainly turn out ill both for themselves and for the people. The beautiful names of such leaders avail nothing, just as little as the voice of the people is, as is said, the voice of God, unless it be that Gods judgment is made known by it.We learn from this chapter how great a blessing from God it is for a people to have pious leaders.That the prophet names only two may show us how it is the few who draw so many after them: so it is in the senates of princes, so it is in the free states (Luther).Thus God reveals the thoughts of men, 2Co 5:10.
Eze 11:3. They allude to Jer 1:13, and insinuate that the prophet contradicts himself. What! thou threatenest us with captivity, and yet thou sayest this city is the caldron, and the Chaldeans will be the fire! If it is Gods pleasure to cook us, then we shall remain in the caldron! Just as abandoned and profane men are always in quest of subtleties wherewith they may put down the heavenly doctrine, so they turned what was said by the prophets into the opposite: Well, then, we shall be thoroughly cooked, and shall therefore remain in Jerusalem onwards to extreme age (Calv.).Impenitent sinners delight themselves in their sins, and do not suffer themselves, in the midst of their ungodly conduct, to dream of anything but pure good fortune, Jer 5:12 (O.).In this way reason is accustomed always to drive all judgments out of the mind, or to comfort itself with the thought how it is quite able to withstand them by means of the flesh (Berl. Bib.).Now-a-days still there are certain men who love to make the word of God contradict itself (Luther).
Eze 11:4. They are against the prophets, and therefore prophecy is against them, and that without regard of their persons, or of the multitude at their back. Our prophet mentions the ringleaders even by name. How indelicate! how imprudent! how defiant! Is it not? But with Gods word at our back, we have the Almighty Himself at our back, and Gods servants are neither to be dumb dogs nor flatterers of men.Son of man the prophet remains notwithstanding; his is the weakness, the power is Gods.God does not suffer Himself to be mocked, Gal 6:7 (Starck).
Eze 11:5. It is not the commissioned servants that speak, but the Spirit of their Father, Mat 10:20. He is the Preacher, they are merely the voice, Joh 1:23 (Berl. Bib.).What rises up out of the heart of man (Mat 15:18-19) is of such a nature, that God must put a bridle on it; and this is just Gods bridle, that the darkness is dragged to the light, and reproved by the light, Eph 5:13.It is of no use, therefore, to make a show in the theatre of the world, even if the matter obtains the applause of men, because it goes at last before the heavenly tribunal, where God alone will be Judge. He knows our thoughts, and will not accept our subterfuges, nor allow Himself to be mocked by our subtleties. What men have held to be the highest wisdom, God will show them to be a vain conceit, and worthless (Calv.).
Eze 11:6 sq. God is in word and deed a righteous Judge. To that very point to which the counsel of the ungodly brings those who follow them, God brings the ungodly themselves in the end. He judges them according to their words, although not as they mean them.The irony in the divine retribution.The caldron, the coffin.The flesh is slaughtered; the caldron broken in pieces.The retribution of God (1) attaches itself to the form of the sin, but (2) changes the substance of the sin into the substance of the punishment.
Eze 11:8. The sword, therefore, does not come by chance where it comes, but Gods hand is in the matter (Berl. Bib.).
Eze 11:9-12. He who will not bend his heart before God must bend his head to strangers (Starck).They had not chosen to know God from His word, and so they were now to learn to know Him, according to His word, from His works. If Gods law does not enlighten so as to impart a knowledge that is saving, then must Gods righteousness in judgment enlighten so as to impart a knowledge which is not saving (Luther).
Eze 11:13-14. If one will not listen to words, then God must speak by means of examples, which in that case call to us, Luk 13:3; Luk 13:5 (Berl. Bib.).A sudden death in the case of the ungodly is the most terrible thing that can happen, 1 Thessalonians 5. To the pious, on the other hand, who are always living in sight of death, even the most sudden death does not come unexpected (Luth.).Although the pious do not find fault with Gods sentence, yet they look on the ruin of the ungodly with a sigh (O.).When an angry father is going about in the house with a rod, even a dutiful child is afraid, falls at his feet, and pleads for his brothers and sisters: this a believer also does for the ungodly when God punishes them, Exodus 32. (Starke).
Eze 11:15. It is not the word brother that is of consequence, but what the word expresses, and therefore it is repeated; and just as little is it the dwelling together that is of consequence, but their being one with each other (Eze 11:19) is the reality of brotherhood.1Jn 5:16 : There is a sin unto death, for which one is not to pray.What the inhabitants of Jerusalem say reminds one of the manner of speaking of many in the only-saving Church, as well as of many who fancy that they are the community of the faithful.Comp. the Pharisee, Luk 18:11.But the meek shall inherit the land, Matthew 5.There is a passage here which is worth noting, that we may learn not to estimate the state of the Church according to the common judgment of men, nor according to the glitter, which for the most part dazzles the eyes of the simple. For thus it comes about that we suppose we have found the Church where there is no Church, and are in despair when it does not present itself before our eyes. Rather are we to hold fast by this, that frequently the Church is preserved in a wonderful way in secret; and farther, that members of the Church are not those puffed-up people who impose upon fools, but rather the common people, whom no one regards (Calv.).
Eze 11:16. The exile a Jewish school, in which the Jews (1) may learn the spirit of the temple, (2) may be prepared for the Spirit of Christ, (3) might have been educated in the spirit of true Christianity.
Eze 11:17-20. True return home is return to the true God.
Eze 11:18. The true cleansing of the Church has taken place under the New Covenant; the perfect cleansing will take place on the day of harvest, at the last judgment.True reformation of life must show itself by earnest hatred of what is evil, Psa 119:128 (Starck).
Eze 11:19-20. To the one heart belonged the outward union of the tribes under one name (Jews), the unity of endeavour on the part of all to return to Canaan, the unity in the doctrine of Moses, their unanimity against all idolatry, etc. From the stone we may take the following properties: that it is hard, deaf, fixed, etc. The flesh, on the other hand, is soft, moveable, receives impressions, feels pain and blows (Starck).The grace of God makes man again natural, human; before he is unnatural, inhuman.For true Christianity it is not enough to perform this and that other act of outward worship, at times even to do what is good, but one must become another man (Starke).It is not merely gross idolatry that is to be rejected, but everything that is at variance with the word of God (Luther).
Eze 11:21. The walk after the heart of the idols stands opposed to the walk after the heart of God (Hengst.).The fountain of all evil is to be sought nowhere else but in the innermost depth of the heart, Mat 15:19 (Starke).
Eze 11:22. Jesus lifts up His hands (Luk 24:50), and departs in the act of blessing; here, on the other hand, the uplifted wings announced the outpouring of the curse. The Mount of Olives on both occasions, the contrast and the predictive type.The life of Jesus in decisive moments, and the glory of the Lord in Ezekiel.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
The Prophet is still on the subject of the visions of God. A striking judgment is recorded of the immediate effects of Ezekiel’s preaching. The Lord gives also many exceeding great and precious promises before the close of the Chapter.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
It is remarkable here again in this place, how the Lord taught his servant the Prophet by vision, and though in prison at Babylon, yet in spirit he is led to Jerusalem. Sweet teaching of the Lord, when his gracious impressions are upon his people. The Lord makes every place a Bethel, and all events as the blessed teaching of visions. So was the beloved apostle. Rev 1:10 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Eze 11:2-3
The plans of the conspirators did not mature all at once Ezekiel on the Chebar had time to hear of them, and direct a prophecy against the ‘men that devise mischief. These revolutionary spirits were not unaware of the risks they ran: ‘This city is the caldron, and we be the flesh’. With a certain grim-ness of humour they acknowledge that it will be hot for them, but the strong city will protect them as the pot protects the flesh from the fire. Ezekiel tells them that the only flesh left in the pot will be the dead lying in the streets; the living will be pulled out and judged far away on the borders of Israel.
Prof. A. B. Davidson, The Exile and the Restoration, pp. 31, 32.
References. XI. 5. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. x. No. 591. XI. 16. Ibid. vol. xxxiv. No. 2001.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Prophetic Malediction
Eze 11
A remarkable characteristic of this chapter is that it gives the vision from an unexpected and totally different point of view. We are not to look upon the chapter as an historical sequence; it is rather another aspect of a dream. In the ninth chapter, those who had not divine marks upon their foreheads were slain by the destroying angels; in the tenth, the city itself, as we have already seen, had fire scattered upon it with a view to its destruction. After this we should have thought the tragedy complete. The prophet in this eleventh chapter sees evildoers again, and once more he pours upon them his prophetic malediction. We are to consider that the same things which have been before looked upon by the prophet are now regarded from a distinct point of view. Not historical sequence, but moral variation, must be regarded as the key of what follows. In the eleventh chapter the princes are judged, blessings are promised upon those who repent, and at the end the glory of the Lord vanishes altogether from the city, and Ezekiel is in vision restored to Chaldaea to tell the captives what he has seen.
From Eze 11:1-12 we have the judgment on the “princes.” When he was come to the east gate of the Lord’s house Ezekiel saw five-and-twenty men, princes of the people. Against those men a terrible indictment is produced. The spirit told Ezekiel that the princes were the men that devised mischief and gave wicked counsels to the city. How often have we seen this prostitution of great mental power and great official authority through the service of evil! The prophets prophesy falsely; men who are ordained to proclaim the truth have taken up with the practice of telling lies, and misrepresenting the powers and thought of God; the whole head is sick, the whole heart is faint: the disease of which God complains is not cutaneous, nor does it attach itself to any of the inferior members of the body; it has penetrated the very head, the very genius, the supreme power and dignity of the state. Imagine the picture of five-and-twenty men, the princes of Israel, all given over to the conception of evil policies and the execution of selfish designs! We shall miss the whole purpose of divine revelation if we suppose that evil is local, or that it is confined to the ignorant and the poor. Evil is universal: it is in the thrones of the nations, as well as in the hovels and huts of poverty; the king has wandered as far from the standard of righteousness as has the meanest subject of his crown. Education, when not sanctified, is simply an instrument of evil. Great social station, when it is divorced from the action of a healthy conscience, only gives a man leverage, by the working of which he can do infinite social mischief. Moral security, therefore, is not in circumstances, but in character. When princes are right and just, wise and patriotic, it does not follow that the people will follow their example, or reproduce their excellences; but when the princes are of a contrary mind it is easy to imagine how their great influence may contribute vastly to the spread of wrong thinking and mischievous action When wealth is sanctified, poverty will feel the blessedness of it; but when wealth is left without sanctification, it will become an instrument of monopoly, oppression, and utterest selfishness. Does God forbear to prophesy against falsehearted princes? Is it true that all religious judgment is directed against the poor? Did the ancient prophets only make themselves free to the houses of the needy, that there they might speak their words of threatening? On the contrary, the ancient prophets thundered at the doors of kings, spoke their judgments to the occupants of thrones, denounced mighty men who were doing wrong, and impeached princes of high treason “Therefore prophesy against them, prophesy, O son of man.” The message which the Spirit of the Lord delivered through Ezekiel was, “Thus have ye said, O house of Israel: for I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them. Ye have multiplied your slain in this city, and ye have filled the streets thereof with the slain.” What was to be the upshot of this action? Were men permitted to do these monstrous deeds and to escape with impunity? Is there not a “therefore” in the divine reasoning?
The seventh verse will reply:
“Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Your slain whom ye have laid in the midst of it, they are the flesh, and this city is the caldron; but I will bring you forth out of the midst of it.” ( Eze 11:7 )
This conies of alienation from God. Religious apostasy means social anarchy. When the princes ceased to pray they ceased to regard human nature as of any value; slaughter became a pastime; heaps of slain men were passed by as mere commonplaces, and the whole city became as but a caldron in which the flesh of men might be boiled. But God himself says he will make this use of the city; he will make it a caldron, and they who supposed it was a place of security shall find what uses providence can make of human arrangements. Thus the passage may be taken from either of two points of view: the princes had made the city as a caldron, or God would so make it; the place which had been regarded as a security for the living God should henceforth become only a security to the dead. Like many cf the figurative expressions of Ezekiel, it is impossible to fix any definite and exclusive meaning to his words; yet it is impossible not to see that the spirit of judgment runs through the entire issue of this malediction. The Lord says that he is proceeding on account of the sins of the people, saying, “I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them.” The empire of the mind is supposed to be the exclusive property of the individual: what brother can take out of his brother’s heart all the thoughts that live there? What man can read the mind of his dearest friend, and be as familiar with that friend’s motives as he is with that friend’s conduct? The mind can shut out the closest observer, yet the one observer that it cannot exclude is the living God. The things that come into the mind determine the real character of the mind of man. Conduct is but a short measure by which to estimate a man’s character. The things that he would do are the things that he does in reality, according to the judgment of God. But this has also a gracious as well as an alarming aspect. If the sins that come into the mind arc set down against us as positive charges, all the blessed intentions which come into the heart, and which would execute themselves if they could, are also regarded as accomplished facts. The cup of water which we would give, were it in our power, is recorded in our name as if we had actually given it. Thus the way of the Lord is equal.
In the thirteenth verse there is a remarkable incident. Whilst Ezekiel was prophesying in vision, Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died. He was one of the princes of the people who devised mischief and gave wicked counsel. It would seem as if the prince had fallen dead at the prophet’s feet. The incident overwhelmed Ezekiel for the moment, for he fell down upon his face, “and cried with a loud voice, and said, Ah Lord God! wilt thou make a full end of the remnant of Israel?” as if he had said, Shall every one die as Pelatiah has died? is this but the beginning of a course of destruction? am I to see man after man fall dead at my feet? wilt thou not spare thy judgment, O Lord, and give even the worst men a place for repentance? We have already seen how the prophet himself was overwhelmed when he came to minister the judgments of Heaven: they were too heavy for him; he could not wield such thunder and remain at ease. It is one thing to hear of destruction by the hearing of the ear, and another to see it carrying its processes of desolation and annihilation through houses, and districts, and cities. All startling events should not terminate in themselves, but should be regarded as significant of the full judgment that is yet in reserve. In the death of Pelatiah, Ezekiel saw the death of all the wicked, and therefore with a loud voice he inquired whether the Lord would not stay the hand of wrath.
From the fourteenth verse a new tone is noticeable. It would seem as if for the moment the Lord was about to change his course:
“Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord God; Although I have cast them far off among the heathen, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come” ( Eze 11:16 ).
Instead of “a little sanctuary” read “as a sanctuary for a little,” the original word being rather an adverb than an adjective. The idea is that the sanctuary was to exist for a little time, or was to be in some degree a sanctuary. Already God has declared that he had vacated the temple, and given up Jerusalem to the wrath of the destroyer; and yet now with characteristic clemency he halts a little, and says, even in the fury of his indignation, that an outstretched hand or an eye uplifted in prayer will turn aside his anger and elicit expressions of his love.
A beautiful picture he represents in the nineteenth verse:
“I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh.” ( Eze 11:19 )
Thus can God rebuild broken and scattered ones. Through all the mind of the exiles the Lord could send unity of purpose, and could knit the hearts of his people together in one strong brotherhood. This promise of unity is set in opposition to the state of the wicked as described in Isa 53:6 : “We have turned every one to his own way.” This is the result of self-will. Unity is broken up, and each man becomes a king to himself, and he who was his own king soon becomes his own god. The Lord’s answer to all this self-completeness and self-idolatry is, “I will give them one heart and one way.” The purpose of Christ, too, is that all! his Church should be one. In the Lord’s intercessory prayer this: is one of the main points. In the early Church we read, “The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul.” How does the Lord propose to make Israel united? He proposed as usual to proceed fundamentally. No mechanical arrangement is suggested. We cannot have unity by schedule or stipulation. We can only have unity by a changed state of heart; therefore the Lord says, “I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh.” Stoniness of heart is unnatural, altogether an incongruity, wholly a libel upon the purpose of God in the creation of man. God would have us sensitive, responsive, easily impressible, so that we can be moved by divine appeals, and instantly respond to every call to the enjoyment of divine fellowship. This is the thing that is wanted in every age: not a new hand, but a new heart; not a new arrangement, but a new spirit. From the beginning the Lord has moved according to this policy: “This shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts.” The Psalmist cried, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” What is true of the Old Testament is equally true of the New. God’s method of procedure does not change, except in things that are outward and temporary. Still it is the heart on which God fixes his attention; still it is the spirit that he would renew and establish in righteousness. The Apostle Paul says, “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind”; and again he describes the Corinthians as “the epistle of Christ,… written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.” Thus in wrath God remembers mercy. Even whilst his hand is held up and stretched out bearing a glittering sword, he is still open to the cry of penitence and to the desire of convicted hearts.
From Eze 11:22-25 we have another picture of the abandonment of the city, the final departure of the divine glory:
“Then did the cherubims lift up their wings, and the wheels beside them; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above. And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city” ( Eze 11:22-23 ).
The meaning always is that the divine glory may vanish. Let us work while it is called day, for the night cometh wherein no man can work; let us redeem the time, buy up the opportunity, seek the Lord while he may be found, and call upon him while he is near. Faithful preachers must always declare the brevity of the day of grace. We see how all things here are marked with brevity. How little a time there is for our education! In how short a period we have to gather our experience! Though the number of years fully told is but small, yet no man has any guarantee that he will live to see their expiry. The destroyer is at the door, judgment has already gone forth against evil-doing; at any moment the avenging lightning may strike us down. It is well to live under this consciousness of the brevity of life, when it moves us to deeper prayer, and compels us to sweeter communion with him whom we may at any moment see, as it were, face to face. Brevity need bring with it no alarm to prepared hearts; indeed, the fact of the brevity is itself an element in the true enjoyment of the Christian. He says of all separations, They are but for a little while; he says of all affliction and pain, They endure but for a moment; he says of all the unsatisfactoriness of time, The time of my satisfaction is hastening; I shall see the Lord, and be made comely with his beauty.
“Afterwards the spirit took me up, and brought me in a vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea, to them of the captivity. So the vision that I had seen went up from me. Then I spake unto them of the captivity all the things that the Lord had shewed me” ( Eze 11:24-25 ).
In these verses Ezekiel is charged to declare the vision to them of the Captivity. The spirit took him up and brought him to Chaldaea; then the vision that he had seen went up from him, and then he began to address the people, the mourning exiles, telling them of the things that the Lord had showed him. Probably this was the hardest part of the whole process through which he had passed. Sometimes the enjoyment of a vision will not bear transference into words; some joys are spoiled by speech. We keep them in our hearts; we ponder them in silence; we will not let the vision go: it was so bright, so tenderly beautiful, so exactly what the soul needed in its pain and fear. On the other hand, there are visions that must be told in the plainest terms, for on the proper telling of them much may depend of the world’s education, rectification, and solid progress. But who can tell all that he knows? When the thunderer has delivered his most alarming messages, he knows that he has only spoken in whispers, for the thing that is coming is so much larger than the way in which he has foretold it Men should be careful only to say what they themselves have seen. We cannot repeat the visions of other men. They are useful for purposes of reference and for purposes of confirmation, but any vision that is to be told to the highest advantage of the hearer must be told as a vision which the man himself has seen. Herein is the power of true preaching. The preacher does not repeat a lesson, he relates an experience. The preacher takes up the visions of the ancient prophets only because he can confirm them by his own happy religious consciousness. To-day we see everything Ezekiel saw, or Jeremiah, in so far as our own age is concerned. Whatever may change, the law never undergoes any modification; righteousness is as stern as ever, holiness is still as the unspotted snow; the gospel is still the ineffable sweetness of the divine love; the Cross is still the one central and eternal necessity of a sinful world. The form of the vision changes, but the God of the vision abides the same. Let us say of the Lord that he is good and that his mercy endureth for ever; let us declare that righteousness is unyielding, and that the inflexibility of its spirit is the very guarantee of the largeness and tenderness of the gospel. It righteousness could be changed in its demands, or modified in its severity, there would be no need of the gospel; it is because the law is unchangeable that the gospel is needed to absorb, engross, fulfil, and glorify it. Jesus Christ did not come to abolish the law, except by its fulfilment. Let us tell what we have seen of God’s readiness to forgive. We may not have seen many instances of positive forgiveness in others, but the gospel we have to declare is that we ourselves are pardoned, we ourselves have undergone the wondrous change, we ourselves know what it is to have had the stony heart taken away, and a heart of flesh set in its place. If we thus keep to our own experience and declare it with modesty, simplicity, and unction, men may listen with interest, and who shall say that they will not accept our word and flee for refuge to the same redeeming Christ?
Prayer
O thou Saviour of the World, may every soul hear thy cry, saying, Turn ye turn ye! why will ye die? Thou didst say, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! how often would I have gathered thee! Thou hast said, Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. On the last day of the feast, thou didst stand and cry, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. Thou art the Saviour of the world; thou hast tasted death for every man; thou wouldst not that any should die, but that all should turn and live. We remember thy sweet word: thou art come to give us life, and to give us life more abundantly, life upon life, even unto immortality, the immeasurable duration of bliss. This is thy gift, eternal life: may none die; plead with every heart; show thy Cross to every one who is asking the upward way; bring all men to the tree of life. Amen.
God’s Omniscience
Eze 11:5
We have found it convenient to divide nature into matter and mind. Some of us regard all so-called body as an incarnation, in some sense an expression of thought: every bridge, every picture, every house, each is an embodied incarnation, or represented thought. We realise this more vividly because its applications are very large. Men look at a bridge who never suppose that that bridge is only a thought put into stone: hence they talk about that which is practical forgetting that there is nothing practical, in the truest and largest sense of the term, that does not back upon infinity, mystery, deity. The bridge does not begin and end in itself; it represents a man, a thinking man, a student, a man who has deeply thought over mathematics, quantities, forces composition and resistance of forces; a man who has talked metaphysics to himself before he called in a man with a spade to begin to dig. The labourer never could have dug if the mathematician had not thought. Why do we not see that everything belongs to God? Why this cutting asunder of the currents of things? What has the fountain done that the very stream which has issued from it should be cut off as if it had originated itself? All things are religious. It may be convenient for us to shut our eyes to that fact, and thus perpetrate a species of idolatry, instead of entering into some act of profound and simple worship; but there stands the fact, that every bridge is a thought, every picture is a thought, every building is a thought, every pebble claims the care of the creatorship of God. Man, above all things known to us, represents the thought or purpose of God. What wonder then that God knows what is in man knows man’s thoughts before they are in shape? The Psalmist says, “Thou understandest my thought afar off” before I know it myself; thou knowest my thought in plasm, while it is yet a film, while it is the mystery of a mystery, coming up out of eternity to tabernacle for a while within the narrow spaces of time. Jesus “needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man.” These are the texts that prove the deity of the Son of God. Of what other man could it be said without palpable exaggeration: He needed not that any should testify of man, because he read him through and through, was part of him, was always in the inmost sanctuary of the man’s heart? Curious Carpenter I marvellous Man! The mystery is greater if we limit Jesus Christ to humanity than if we accord him the prerogatives and dignities of Godhood. On either theory there is mystery enough. On the one side we find the mystery of darkness and palpable contradiction; on the other side we find the mystery of light and possible glory to come.
The doctrine of the text is that the mind or man can have no secrets from God. This ought not to be a commonplace; it should be indeed the very sanctuary in which men worship, and think and grow in all holiest edification. We are face to face with the omniscience of God, and especially with that omniscience as applied to mind. You know everything that is in your child’s wardrobe: you know very little of what is in your child’s mind. God may know all the stars, and yet he may be shut out from the human mind; but he says, No: “I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them.” There is no escape from God. “Thou God seest me.”
This doctrine is the more remarkable as being so prominently set forth in the Old Testament Very little is said in the New Testament about what we call the attributes of God; yet they are all assumed. The New Testament did not come first to re-write the Old Testament, and then say it approved of it: the New Testament assumes the Old Testament, and every word and letter in it Without the Pentateuch we could not have had the Gospels: they would have come upon us as nothing else has come, with a kind of rudeness, violence, and sense of intellectual and moral collision; we should have been startled by a miracle without being prepared for it. You cannot have read the Gospels if you have not read the Pentateuch. By reading I do not mean going through the words, but reading with the heart, appreciating with the mind, responding with the soul, tabernacling God in the very heart’s heart. The New Testament re-writes the Old Testament by assuming it.
God’s omniscience is mental: “I know the things that come into your mind.” Not only does he know all the worlds, he knows what is going on in the secret heart of the meanest member of the innumerable throngs that tenant the mansions he has built. This is a doctrine; at this moment we are not dwelling upon the fact, but upon a certain conception of God, and that conception accords God the power of intimately reading everything that ever passes through the human soul. It is a grand conception. Whoever dreamed it ought to have influence upon human thought; and seeing that many men dreamed the same dream, and represented it in the same words, there seems to grow up from these facts an argument that God himself revealed to the dreaming mind his own omniscience in all mental as well as in all material spheres. Wonderful is the concurrent testimony of the Bible upon this mental omniscience. “I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me.” All our murmurings are not spoken; our deepest, bitterest murmurings are inarticulate sighs, sounds often soundless to human ears, but which fall under the roof of heaven like minor thunders; there is a complaining heart, a begrudging, and reproaching, and fretfulness, never uttered in words that can be written out in form of libel and signed as printed slanders. The murmur is sometimes in the look, in the furtive glance, sometimes in the ill-suppressed sigh, sometimes in a suggestive twist of the body, sometimes in a gnarled, wrinkled old face that ought to have been all sunshine. God says: I know it, I know what you are thinking about, what you are complaining concerning; I know all your little frets and all your unspoken complaints against my providence. “I know their imagination which they go about.” That is a penetrating judgment, quite the subtlety of insight, the most piercing of all mental actions. God says: I follow their imagination now a dream, now a nightmare, now something so bad you will not, dare not speak it I know all the tricks of the serpent when he plays upon the imagination of men. “The Lord looketh on the heart” not the little muscle which the physiologist calls heart, but that spirituality which makes the man. “The Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts.” No man can believe this fully and live another day. Yet every man believes it theoretically, and calls it a commonplace. Think of it, that God’s eye burns on your soul’s soul! That we may write down in a creed, and give it distinct enumeration as a separate and gorgeous dogma, but if a man really believed that, got hold of it with his whole soul, he would commit suicide; in some form at least he would utter a protestation arising out of sheer intolerable agony: never to have a moment to himself; the soul to have no eyelid, closing which it can exclude God, as the eyelid of the body can exclude the midday; never, never to have one moment’s release from the burning criticism of God: who can bear it? Yet we must write it theoretically, insist upon it dogmatically, and pass it by simply regarding it as a commonplace. But it is no commonplace: if a fact, it should burn us, it should afflict us with the profoundest humiliation. God judges by our dispositions as well as by our actions. This is the supposition that lay at the heart of the old bitter Calvinism. When such Calvinists as Boston said there were children in hell not a span long, they vindicated that monstrous doctrine by the very theory that God judges dispositions, not actions; protoplasm, not completed growth: God does not need to wait until he sees what the child may turn out, so said the old pestiferous Calvinism; God knows what the child is, he reads the plasm, the quality and stuff of which the child is made: he saw Iscariot in Iscariot’s father, in Iscariot’s father’s father, in Adam. That is how it is we have a damned world; and as for children being a span long or men being six feet long in hell, that, said the old Calvinism, has nothing to do with it; it is the disposition that is perditioned, not the stature in feet and in inches.
“I know the things that come into your mind, every one cf them.” This should be a great terror to us. Hear Job ( Job 34:21 ): “His eyes are upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his goings.” What! not a moment’s loneliness? not one secret thought, not one undivided purpose? What! not one little corner of the heart in which the man can sit and think his own thoughts without the presence and without the criticism of God? Hear Job again ( Job 42:2 ): “No thought can be withholden from thee.” Nor did Job bear testimony alone, in some mood of desolateness representing the pessimism of the human mind: the Psalmist, man of the harp, said, “He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see?… He that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know?” This is the cold argument of cold reason. This is no dreaming, affrighted, hysterical rhetoric; here is a man arguing as he would argue in geometry: He that planted the ear, shall he himself be deaf? he that formed the eye an eye that can take in a universe at a glance is he himself a blind Creator? God knoweth the way of the soul. Here is an evil thought against a brother; we have never spoken it, yet it is written in heaven as if an historical incident, day, and date, and hour, and minute, and there stands the record of heaven, God the Registrar. Here is a secretly planned device wrought out in the chamber of imagery, and we say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge with the Most High? We elaborate all our mischief, and it is all telephoned to heaven. The soul will not keep secrets from God. If your soul has told you that it is going to do something for you without telling God about it, your soul has told you a lie. Whenever the soul speaks it speaks right into a telephone it cannot help doing so; if it wanted to avert its head it would speak but into another telephone, if possible, of larger capacity and finer sensitiveness. There is nothing that is hidden from God. “The ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his goings.” Before the man sets a foot outside on the path, the Lord says, He will take this course to-day sinuous or direct, or uphill or down the valley, or he will call a ship and bid the captain speed across the flood, that he may get his mischief done the more quickly: it is all foreseen, it is all known in heaven; there is no escape. “Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down: and though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them.” No escape! This is the doctrine of the Bible. If we believed it we could not live. Yet we would not for the world deny it We write down “omniscience” as a divine attribute; then we call its application a commonplace.
“I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them.” This should be a great comfort to us. What! both a terror and a comfort? Yes: behold the goodness and the severity of God. God is love our God is a consuming fire. The good have nothing to fear. “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.”
What was the comfort of Job? God’s omniscience. The very thing that is a terror to the bad man is a comfort to the good man. Hear Job ( Job 23:10 ): “He knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” Here is a man rejoicing in the very doctrine that fills the world with terror. Observe, if it were a terror only life would be destroyed; it is because it is a comfort as well as a terror that the Christian can face the sublimity of the doctrine of the omniscience of God. This was the comfort of David “The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous.” And again, “The Lord knoweth the days of the upright”; and again, “He that keepeth thee will not slumber”; and again, “When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path.” Think of men drinking comfort at this fountain! We have just declared that if God looked only that he might judge and deal out righteous judgment to the sinner’s heart no man could live before him. “Enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.” And yet we go to this very fountain on the one side a fountain of lava, on the other a fountain of crystal water and on the consolatory side we drink, lift up our heads by the way, and are glad. “He knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are but dust.” His omniscience is our defence. The very thing we were afraid of a moment ago we now run into as pursued men might run into a city of refuge. He knoweth our frame, he knoweth how slender we are and frail, he knoweth the temperature of our blood; he knoweth the peculiarity of our structure; he is physiologist as well as theologian; he knows our weight, our stature, everything about us, and he remembereth that at our best estate we are as dust and as vanity, and because he knows so much he speaks so tenderly. The knowledge of God is either our hell or our heaven.
Did Jesus Christ and his Apostles say anything about this omniscience? They assumed it, in some instances they almost explicitly referred to it. Jesus Christ described God in these terms “Thy Father which seeth in secret.” That is the Old Testament written all over again in one sentence. There must be prayers we dare not tell our dearest friends about. Distrust the man who can tell you all he ever prayed. Whilst on the one hand there are public prayers meant for public edification, and that ought to be published all round the earth in every language of man, there are other prayers that are prayed when the door is shut, bolted, sealed. That door may not be wooden or physical; we have doors that are mental, and whilst we are looking at our friend we can be plunged into the depths of eternity. He may think he sees us and hears us, but he does neither the one nor the other. Jesus reiterates the doctrine when he speaks about a falling sparrow; he says, “One of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.” Your Father will say, That is my bird. It took God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost to set that little pendulum-heart in motion; it took the whole Trinity to shape that eye. “God knoweth your hearts.” Hear Paul: “The Lord knoweth them that are his.” And John comes in with a great gospel of this whole doctrine, and says, Do not be too despondent, do not be too overwhelmed with dejection; “if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.” He knows how you came into that difficulty; he understands how it was that you were caught in that wickedness; he saw how it was that you fell into drunkenness and shame; he knows all the story of your bankruptcy. These things being so, let us leave our judgment with God. Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest how I came to be this and do this and say this; I am sorry for it all now, but I am fearfully and wonderfully made; I did not make myself, and I cannot unmake myself; my judgment is with the Lord, other men rebuke me and condemn me, other men think they speak more wisely and to greater purpose than I do, and yet somehow I cannot hold my tongue; I want to serve thee in my very blunders: God be merciful to me a sinner. I will leave my judgment in thine hands; thou knowest all things: now it is my mother, now it is my father, now they are both operating in me by an interaction that tears and wounds me and enfeebles me; thou knowest all things: it is better to fall into the hands of God than into the hands of men: thy very omniscience is my protection if my purpose be right.
This being so, leave all providence with God. Do not intermeddle with providence. Forbear thou from meddling with God. Do allow God some room in his own universe. Do not pester thyself with heresies, and straying theologies, and erratic speculations, and new inventions that have been offered for patent at the office, but have been declined because nobody fully comprehended the specification. Do not tear thyself to pieces because of evildoers, but rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him, and he shall give thee thine heart’s desire. God cares more for his Church than we can care about it. He bought it with blood he will not forsake it.
Prayer
Almighty God, thou hast sent forth thy word as a sign; thou hast given unto men kindly ministry that cannot be mistaken; thou hast charged thy ministry as with thunder and lightning, also with warnings deep and solemn, also with promises and welcomes tenderer than all we know of human love. Strange men hast thou created; we cannot tell all they say, nor do they themselves know what they speak: yet we are sure that their word is not the word of man, the creation of time, the picture of a transient moment; it cometh up from eternity, it trembles with the music of another world. We know thy word when we hear it; there is none like it: sometimes it is a terrible word, splitting the heart as fire splits the rock; and sometimes a gentle, gracious morning dew that the weakest flower can cany without the sense of burdensomeness: but thy word is alway unlike every other word: may we hear it, treasure it, answer it, and live according to its discipline, and be glad because of its rich promises. Oh that we had hearkened unto thy law, and that thy commandments had been the delight of our heart! then had we been signs to our brethren; they would have seen our peace, and have asked whence such tranquillity came. But are we not carnal and weak as men? Are we not yet in our nonage? Are we not also carried about by fear, anxiety, trouble, and imagined care? Ought we not to be the sons of peace, the children of light, the princes of God, calm amid all upset, tranquil though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea? We have trusted to ourselves, and not to the living God; hence our agitation, and unrest, and disturbance, and distrust, no better than atheism. But these confessions we make because of a voice within us which says, If we confess our sins thou art faithful and just to forgive us our sins. We would not confess the iniquity were we not inspired by hope of pardon, and by a conviction that even yet our life may be made beautiful by God. Hear us when we confess; listen to us when we plead; because we confess at the Cross, we plead at the Cross, and we abide at the Cross, and other altar we have none. Our prayers are mighty through Jesus Christ, Priest of the universe, Intercessor on behalf of man: may each heart say, He is my Advocate, therefore my cause shall not fail; I have entrusted him with my pleading, therefore will he bring an answer of security. Thus may we stand upon eternal rocks, thus may we abide though the wind be high and the thunder roar. Amen.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
XV
PROPHECIES ON THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM
Ezekiel 4-14
Jeremiah was preaching in Jerusalem while Ezekiel was preaching in a similar strain to the exiles in Babylon. Jeremiah found that the people thought that Jerusalem, the center of Jehovah worship, could not and would not be destroyed. Ezekiel found the same conditions in Babylon. In the time of Isaiah, when the Assyrians were close at hand, God protected them and swept away 185,000 of their army and saved Jerusalem with the Temple. Their confidence in the perpetuity of their city seemed to be fixed. So they did not believe their city, their Temple, and their country would be destroyed. “It is God’s nation, God’s people, and God’s Temple,” they said. Moreover, they had false prophets in Jerusalem, prophets who were preaching the safety of the city, also false prophets in Babylon among the exiles, preaching the same thing. They preached that the exiles should speedily return; that the power of Babylon would be destroyed. There was one lone man in Judah, and one lone man in Babylon, preaching the destruction of the nation. This gives us some idea of Ezekiel’s task, the tremendous task that he had, to make those people believe that their nation, their city and their Temple were going to be destroyed. In order to get them to believe that, he made use of all these symbols, metaphors, and other figures which we have in this great section. He made use of these symbols, or symbolic actions, to make his preaching more vivid and more impressive, and he began this series of symbolic actions about four and a half years before the city was surrounded by Nebuchadnezzar, about six years before it fell, for the siege lasted one and a half years.
The symbol of the siege of Jerusalem and its interpretation are found in Eze 4:1-3 . The great truth he wanted to impress upon them was that Jerusalem would be besieged and would be taken and destroyed; so he was commanded by Jehovah to take a tile, or a brick, a tablet in a plastic condition, and to draw thereon a picture of a city, representing mounds cast up against the city on every side, from which the enemy could shoot their arrows down into the city and at the defenders on the walls. He was also told to set a camp round about it representing the soldiers encamped; he was to place battering rams there. These were huge beams of wood with iron heads which were pushed with great force by a large number of men, and thus driven against the walls and would soon make great holes in them. Then he was told to take an iron pan and put that between himself and this miniature city to represent the force that was surrounding it, and as that iron pan was impenetrable, so this besieging force was impenetrable, hard, and relentless, and would inevitably take and destroy the city without mercy.
Then he was told to lie upon his left side as if a burden was upon him. He was to do this according to the number of the years of the iniquity of Israel. He was to be bound while lying thus on his left side and he was to remain in that position 390 days. Then he was to lie upon his right side and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days, representing the forty years of their iniquity; these, of course, are symbolic numbers in both cases. The commentators have been greatly baffled to figure out these periods which apply to Israel and Judah. The best explanation seems to be that of Hengstenberg who makes the 390 years refer to Israel’s sin of idolatry beginning with Jeroboam and going down to the final captivity; likewise, the forty years, to Judah’s iniquity beginning forty years prior to the same captivity. According to this reckoning Israel’s period of iniquity was much longer than that of Judah and this accords with the facts of their history.
The scarcity and pollution of their food during the siege and after is symbolized in Eze 4:9-17 . Ezekiel was to take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt, various kinds of cheap grains that the very poorest of the people ate, mix them together and cook them on a fire made with the most disgusting and loathsome kind of fuel possible, and eat about twenty shekels per day and drink a little more than a pint of water. Twenty shekels would be probably about a pound of our bread, one pound of this cheap, coarse bread, and a little over a pint of water a day. His soul revolted at such loathsome fuel and he was promised a better kind of fuel used by very poor people at that time. This again is a literary symbolism, the idea being to bring before those people the fact that terrible scarcity was before them, great depredation, and almost starvation, and when they were carried into the various nations their food would be unclean and polluted and they would be compelled to eat this unclean food.
The fate of the population by the siege and their dispersion is symbolized in Eze 5:1-4 . Ezekiel was told to take a sword, make it as sharp as a barber’s razor, cut off the hair upon his head, take balances and divide it into three equal portions. Evidently Ezekiel must have resembled Elijah more than he did Elisha. A third part of it was to be put in the fire in the midst of the city; a third part, to be smitten with the sword round about, evidently hacking it to pieces; and a third part, to be scattered to the winds, and the sword was to go after it and hack it to pieces.
What is the meaning? One-third of the inhabitants of their beloved city should perish with famine and pestilence; one-third should be slain in the siege; the other third should be scattered among all the nations of the earth, and even this third the sword should pursue and nearly all of them should be cut off. These arc striking symbols, full of meaning. They must have had some effect upon the hearers.
The interpretation of the foregoing symbols, as given by the prophet in Eze 5:5-17 , is that this is Jerusalem. Eze 5:5 says: “I have set her in the midst of the nations, and countries are round about her.” The remainder of this section goes on to show how Judah had sinned, how she had revolted, how she had forsaken God, and Eze 5:8 says, “Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I, even I, am against thee; and I will execute judgments in the midst of thee in the sight of the nations.” Verse Eze 5:10 : “Therefore the father shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments on thee; and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter unto all the winds . . . and will draw out a sword after them.” Verse Eze 5:13 : “Thus shall mine anger be accomplished . . . and I shall satisfy my fury upon them.”
The prophecies of Eze 6:1-7 ; Eze 6:11-14 are prophecies against the mountains of Israel, that is, the seats of idolatry. All the kings that sought to create a reformation among the people had to deal with the high places. Hezekiah removed many of them, and at last Josiah removed all of them. They were renewed in the reign of Jehoiachim and doubtless in the reign of Zedekiah. It was against these high places that the prophets had been uttering their denunciations for centuries. Ezekiel, from the plains of Babylon, looks across the vast distance and sees the mountaintops and the hills with their shrines and altars and idols and he utters his prophecies against them. In the latter part of Eze 6:3 he says, “I will destroy her high places,” and in Eze 6:5 he gives a terrible picture: “I will lay the dead bodies of the children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones around about your altars,” and then he pictures the destruction of the idolatrous symbols of worship.
But hope is held out to Israel. In Eze 6:8 is the gleam of hope through this awful picture of destruction: “Yet will I leave a remnant, in that ye shall have some that escape the sword among the nations, when ye shall be scattered through the countries.” And then he says that many of those scattered through the countries shall remember God and regent, verse Eze 6:9 : “And those of you that escape shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be carried captive,” and the last part of Eze 6:9 says, “And they shall loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.” There was hope for the people throughout the countries that some of them would survive. There was scarcely a ray of hope for the city that any should escape. So Ezekiel preaches the doctrine of the remnant as does Isaiah, Amos, Hosea, Jeremiah, and all the other prophets of this period.
Eze 7 is a lament, or dirge, over the downfall of the kingdom of Judah, and it is divided into four parts, thus:
1. The end is come upon the four corners of the land (Eze 7:1-4 )
2. The end is come upon the inhabitants of the land (Eze 7:5-9 )
3. The ruin is come unto all classes and is universal (Eze 7:10-13 )
4. The picture of the dissolution of the state (Eze 7:14-27 ) The theme of Eze 8 is, Israel’s many idolatries, which have profaned the Lord’s house and have caused him to withdraw from it. The date of this prophecy is fourteen months after the previous sections we have studied, in the sixth month, 591 B.C., which corresponds to our October.
Then the prophet sees what he calls the image of jealousy in the Temple (Eze 8:1-6 ). He sees a new vision of the Lord, and the one who sat above that firmament whose appearance was like unto fire, appears to Ezekiel again and, strange to say (we have to interpret this as a vision in symbol), took him by a lock of the hair of his head and carried him all the way from Babylon to Jerusalem. The Spirit took him thus and set him down at the door of the gate of the inner court and there he saw what he calls an “image of jealousy.” It was not jealousy pictured, but an image of some of their deities, some form of Baal set up in the very Temple of Jehovah, which provoked him to jealousy. Thus, he pictures the idolatry of the people as existing in the very Temple and its sacred precincts made place for their idols.
The prophet now sees another vision, the secret idolatry of the elders in the chambers of the gateway (Eze 8:7-13 ). The images there were worshiped by the people at large. Now the elders, the leaders, are engaged in it, and he says in Eze 8:10 , “So I went in and saw; and behold, every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed upon the wall round about.” Eze 8:11 : “And there stood before them seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel; and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, every man with his censor in his hand; and the odor of the cloud of incense went up.” All this is used to represent the elders, the leaders of the people of Jerusalem, who were idolaters in secret, if not openly.
The women were lamenting and weeping for Tammuz, or Adonis, a heathen solar mythical being, nature personified and represented in winter as perishing or languishing, and in spring, reviving. Some writers think it represents the hot season of the year, as nature is all dead and withered, and is revived later on. Here the women are described, the ladies, the society ladies of Jerusalem, weeping as the heathen women did, because the force of nature, represented in this physical being, was apparently dead. It was a strange sort of worship indeed. It is not known as to just what the nature of this worship was, but it was something like that.
Then Ezekiel was shown the sun worship (Eze 8:10-18 ). The latter part of Eze 8:16 says: “about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of Jehovah, and their faces toward the east; and they were worshiping the sun toward the east.” This gives us some idea as to the depths to which the people had gone in their idolatrous worship, even in Jerusalem and the Temple.
The first act of divine judgment, the slaughter of the inhabitants, is presented in Eze 9 . Jehovah is represented as crying out and calling seven men, supernatural beings, six of them armed with a sword, and the seventh one armed with an inkhorn. These come forth into the Temple area and from there into the streets of the city. The man with the inkhorn set his mark upon all that should not be slain. Thus they entered the Temple; Ezekiel sat still in the vision and in a short while six supernatural men cut down a vast number. When they cut down all the Temple force they went out into the city and the slaughter went on. Eze 9:8 says, “And it came to pass, while they were smiting, and I was left, that I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah Lord Jehovah! wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel in thy pouring out of thy wrath upon Jerusalem?” Ezekiel saw that if these six angelic beings went through the city, not many would be left. He cried out but it was of no avail. The second act of divine judgment is symbolized in Eze 10 . Here Ezekiel sees the same glorious vision of God that he saw at first, and the voice came from him above the firmament saying to a man clothed in linen, “Take some fire” from that central place among the cherubim “take some of that divine fire and scatter it over the city.” Then we have the description of how one of the cherubim, with one of those arms, took some of the fire and handed it out to this other being and he went abroad and scattered that fire over the inhabitants of the city. That is a symbol also. The latter part of Eze 10 is simply an extended description of the same vision recorded in Eze 1 . We have a threat of destruction and a promise of restoration in Eze 2 . The occasion of the destruction of Jerusalem was virtually the revolt on the part of the princes against Nebuchadnezzar. It was the princes of Judah that led Zedekiah into revolt, the princes that were so obnoxious to Jeremiah, the princes of Judah that caused the downfall of the city and tried to put Jeremiah out of the way. Ezekiel, in vision, sees those princes and he sees them counseling and planning to make a league with Egypt and revolt against Nebuchadnezzar. He denounced them. Eze 10:2 says, “And he said unto me, Son of man, these are the men that devise iniquity and that give wicked counsel in this city; that say, The time is not near to build houses.” If we are going to fight, this city will be a caldron and we will be the flesh, and it is better to be in the frying pan than in the fire. This city, the capital, may be destroyed; the time of war has come; let us fight and stay inside.” They did so, and in the remainder of the chapter we have the denunciation of Ezekiel. He says, “I will bring you forth out of the midst thereof, and deliver you into the hands of strangers.” And that actually happened, for Nebuchadnezzar captured all these princes with Zedekiah; they were brought before him at Riblah and every one slain with the sword.
The latter part of the chapter states that there will be some left; a remnant will be saved among the exiles. There shall be a few found faithful, and in Eze 10:17-19 is a marvelous promise: “I will gather you out of all the countries where you have been scattered,” and in Eze 10:19 , he anticipates Christianity, saying, “I will give them a new heart, and put a new spirit within them, and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep mine ordinances, and do them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.” The hope of the nation was in the exiles, not in the people that were left in Jerusalem. Immediately following that, the cherubim that had appeared near the house of Jehovah, were removed east on the Mount of Olives and departed thus from the city, signifying that Jehovah had abandoned Jerusalem.
There are two symbolic actions described in Eze 12 . Ezekiel is told to gather up such things as be would require to take with him if he were going into exile, just as one would pack his trunk or grip to go to another place. So Ezekiel packs up his goods in the sight of the people in the daytime, and has them all ready. That night he goes to the wall of the city and digs a hole through, and with his goods upon his shoulder makes his way through that hole of the wall to go out. It was a symbolic action, performed to impress the people. He interprets his action thus: The people of Jerusalem shall take their belongings and go into exile, and Zedekiah, the prince of Jerusalem, will dig a hole through the wall of the city and with his goods upon his shoulders will try to escape. He actually tried to do that, but was taken. Eze 12:11 says, “Say, I am your sign: like as I have done, so shall it be done unto them; they shall go into captivity.” Verse Eze 12:12 : “And the prince that is among them shall bear upon his shoulder in the dark and shall go forth: they shall dig through the wall to carry out thereby: he shall cover his face, because he shall not see the land with his eyes.” This is a mild way of expressing the truth that Zedekiah tramped all the way to Babylon with his eyes having been bored out by Chaldean spears.
Another symbolic action is recorded in Eze 12:18-19 , as to the eating of bread and drinking of water, and then Ezekiel quotes a proverb, “The days are prolonged, and every vision faileth.” They were saying that the visions and prophecies did not come true. He answers, “Thus saith the Lord God: I will make this proverb to cease, and they shall no more use it as a proverb in Israel; but say unto them, The days are at hand, and the fulfilment of every vision.”
The false prophets and prophetesses are characterized in Eze 13 . Jeremiah had to contend with the false prophets, but Ezekiel had to contend with the false prophets and prophetesses. They are described thus:
1. The false prophets are described as jackals burrowing in the ground, and making things worse instead of better (Eze 13:1-7 ).
2. They whitewash the tottering walls that the people built and they daub them with untempered mortar (Eze 13:8-16 ). The people built up walls of defense by their foolish plans and the false prophets agreed with them. They tried to smooth the danger over, saying, “Peace for her.”
3. The denunciation of the false prophetesses (Eze 13:17-23 ). These women deceived the people. Verse Eze 13:18 : “Thus saith the Lord God: Woe to the women that sew pillows upon all elbows, and make kerchiefs for the head of persons of every stature to hunt souls!” These pillows were little cushions fastened on the joints of their hands and arms to act as charms. The custom exists today in the East. Ezekiel denounces them in verse Eze 13:20 : “Wherefore, thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I am against your pillows, wherewith ye there hunt the souls to make them fly, and I will tear them from your arms; and I will let the souls go, even the souls that ye hunt to make them fly.” These were the spiritualists of that day. They are with us yet, only their methods are different.
The answer of Jehovah to idolaters who inquire of him is found in Eze 14 :
1. The answer is this, Put away your idols or look out for the judgment of God. There is no use in coming to inquire of Jehovah through me if you are idolaters in heart (Eze 14:1-11 ).
2. The principle of divine judgment is found in Eze 14:12-23 . It is this: Righteous men shall not save sinners, only their own souls. Notice verse Eze 14:14 : “Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness.” Verse Eze 14:16 : “Though these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord God, they should deliver neither sons nor daughters; they only should be delivered, but the land should be desolate.” So no matter how many righteous men there may be, and how righteous they may be, only they themselves shall be saved in the terrible sack of the city. Thus, the righteous could not save Jerusalem, any more than Lot could save Sodom.
QUESTIONS
1. What the problem of Ezekiel in Babylon and what prophet with
2. What encouragement did the people have both in Jerusalem and in Babylon to believe in the safety of their holy city and nation, and what Ezekiel’s method of impressing upon the exiles the fallacy of such an argument?
3. What the symbol of the siege of Jerusalem and what its interpretation? (Eze 4:1-3 .)
4. How are the people bearing their sins here symbolized and what the interpretation? (Eze 4:4-8 .)
5. How is the scarcity and pollution of their food, during the siege and after, symbolized in Eze 4:9-17 ?
6. How is the fate of the population by the siege and their dispersion symbolized? (Eze 5:1-4 .)
7. What is the interpretation of the foregoing symbols, as given by the prophet in Eze 5:5-17 ?
8. What are the prophecies of Eze 6:1-7 ; Eze 6:11-14 and what is the history of these high places?
9. What hope is held out to Israel amid this awful picture?
10. What the theme of Eze 7 and what its parts?
11. What was the theme and date of Eze 8 ?
12. What was the “Image of Jealousy” seen by Ezekiel (Eze 8:1-6 ), and what the particulars of this vision?
13. What is the prophet’s vision of the elders and what its interpretation (Eze 8:7-13 )?
14. What was the abomination of Tammuz? (Eze 8:14-15 .)
15. What of the sun worship? (Eze 8:16-18 .)
16. How is the first act of divine judgment and slaughter of the inhabitants represented? (Eze 9 .)
17. How was the second act of divine judgment symbolized? (Eze 10 .)
18. Explain the threat of destruction and the promise of restoration in Eze 11 .
19. What two symbolic actions described in Eze 12 , and what their interpretation?
20. How are the false prophets and prophetesses characterized in Eze 13 ?
21. What is the answer of Jehovah to idolaters who inquire of him and what the divine principle of judgment? (Eze 14 .)
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Eze 11:1 Moreover the spirit lifted me up, and brought me unto the east gate of the LORD’S house, which looketh eastward: and behold at the door of the gate five and twenty men; among whom I saw Jaazaniah the son of Azur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people.
Ver. 1. Moreover the Spirit lifted me up. ] The same Spirit of God that lifted up and acted the living weights and the wheels; like as the same breath causeth the diverse sounds in the organs.
Unto the east gate.
Five and twenty men.
Among whom I saw Jaazaniah.
“ Iudex locusta civitatis est malus. ” – Scaliger.
Ezekiel Chapter 11
This is entirely confirmed by chapter 11 which completes this portion of the prophecy. In the vision of Jehovah Ezekiel is given to behold the excessive and scoffing presumption of the leaders in Jerusalem who counselled the king Zedekiah to his and their ruin in flat contradiction of Jehovah’s message by Jeremiah, whose style and imagery they seem to have adopted to suit their own purpose.
“Moreover the Spirit lifted me up, and brought me unto the east gate of Jehovah’s house, which looketh eastward: and behold at the door of the gate five and twenty men; among whom I saw Janzaniah the son of Azur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people. Then said he unto me, Son of man, these are the men that devise mischief, and give wicked counsel in this city: which say, It is not near; let us build houses: this city is the cauldron, and we be the flesh. Therefore prophesy against them, prophesy, O son of man. And the Spirit of Jehovah fell upon me, and said unto me, Speak; Thus saith Jehovah; Thus have ye said, O house of Israel: for I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them. Ye have multiplied your slain in this city, and ye have filled the streets thereof with the slain. Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Your slain whom ye have laid in the midst of it, they are the flesh, and this city is the cauldron: but I will bring you forth out of the midst of it. Ye have feared the sword; and I will bring a sword upon you, saith the Lord Jehovah. And I will bring you out of the midst thereof, and deliver you into the hands of strangers, and will execute judgments among you. Ye shall fall by the sword; I will judge you in the border of Israel; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah. This city shall not be your cauldron, neither shall ye be the flesh in the midst thereof; but I will judge you in the border of Israel: and ye shall know that I am Jehovah: for ye have not walked in my statutes, neither executed my judgments, but have done after the manners of the heathen that are round about you.” (Ver. 1-12)
There appears no sufficient reason in the similarity of the number twenty-five for identifying the scoffers here described with the sun-worshippers between the porch and the altar of Eze 8 . Here the leaders at least were princes of the people, not of the sanctuary or of the priests. As the previous scene set forth the religious apostasy, so this the audacity and infidelity of their civil chiefs, though in the door of the gate of Jehovah’s house. They were the evil counsellors who thwarted His word through the prophet to Zedekiah. Jeremiah exhorted the Jews in Jerusalem to submission under the king of Babylon, and the captives to build houses and plant gardens and raise up families in their exile, praying for the peace of the city, till the seventy years were accomplished and a remnant should return to Jerusalem. The false prophets predicted smooth things both at home and abroad, in every way fomenting rebellion under the colour of patriotism and pretending Jehovah’s name while encouraging to insubjection under His humbling hand.
Verse 3 is somewhat obscure and has given occasion to much difference of version and interpretation in detail, while the general truth seems plain enough. In the Septuagint it is taken interrogatively: “Have not the houses been newly built?” So nearly the Vulgate. Gesenius and Ewald follow in somewhat similar style: “Is it not near, the building of houses?” Rosenmller, De Wette, and Young, on the contrary, take it thus: “It is not near to build houses;” that is, the time of peace for such work is far off, meaning that they were resolved to resist the Chaldeans to the last, spite of the prophet’s warning. Luther and Diodati are substantially like the Authorized Bible; and so too the modern translation of Leeser as well as of Henderson.
Certain it is that they set themselves against the true prophets and even turned the figure of Jeremiah into derision by making it a phrase favourable to their own policy. Therefore the marked emphasis with which Ezekiel was called on to prophesy against them, the Spirit of Jehovah being said to fall upon him, with a renewed charge to speak in Jehovah’s name, for their secrets were out in His light. And Jehovah after recounting their murderous doings retorts on them their proverb; only it was their slain that were the flesh and the city the cauldron, while they themselves are told to get out, but not to escape as they expected. Jehovah would bring on them the dreaded sword, and this outside the city to which they were so closely cleaving, for they should be delivered into the hand of strangers for judgment. Nay, Jehovah solemnly declares that He would judge them on the boundary of Israel, and they should know that He is Jehovah. Thus the city should not be to them for a cauldron, nor they flesh in its midst, but judged by Jehovah at the borders, forced to feel then in whose statutes they had not walked, and whose judgments they had not executed, but rather acting according to those of the nations around.
Thereon, as Ezekiel prophesied, Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died (ver. 13, 14), which drew out the prophet into sorrow and intercession for the remnant. For the captive loved the men, scornful though they might be, who dwelt in Jerusalem. On this the word of Jehovah impresses on him that his brethren emphatically, the men of his relationship, “yea the whole house of Israel,” were objects of contempt to the haughty inhabitants of Jerusalem who assumed the most self-complacent airs because they were still in the city of solemnities, as against their brethren in captivity. (Ver. 15) “Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Although I have cast them far off among the heathen, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come. Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, I will even gather you from the people, and assemble you out of the countries where ye have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel. And they shall come thither, and they shall take away all the detestable things thereof and all the abominations thereof from thence. And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh: that they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God. But as for them whose heart walketh after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations, I will recompense their way upon their own heads, saith the Lord Jehovah.” (Ver. 16-21)
In a day of sin and ruin it is ever thus. Those who boast in antiquity and order and succession and rule as a lineal and exclusive possession are but ripening for divine judgment; while the most decried and despised are such as have the truth and blessing in circumstances of humiliation and weakness, as Jehovah here promised to be a little sanctuary to the scattered Jews in the countries whither they came; and that they should be gathered from the peoples and have the land given them; and this too with one heart and a new spirit, the heart of stone being supplanted by one of flesh in order to obedient ways and true recognition of and by God, while the obdurate idolaters should meet with the due reward of their deeds.
“Then did the cherubim lift up their wings, and the wheels beside them; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above. And the glory of Jehovah went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city.” (Ver. 22, 23) Then there is a farther removal of the divine glory, not from the temple only but from Jerusalem. It went up from the midst of the city and stood on mount Olivet “Then the Spirit took me up, and brought me in a vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea, to them of the Captivity. So the vision that I had seen went up from me. Then I spake unto them of the captivity all the things that Jehovah had showed me.” (Ver. 24, 25) It reminds one of Mat 28 where the risen Jesus is seen on a mountain of Galilee, giving His great commission to the disciples as to all the nations, without saying a word about His ascension to heaven. It is Jerusalem left aside indeed, a remnant sent out by the Lord resuming His Galilean place in resurrection, the beautiful pledge of His return spite of present rejection. The curtain drops over the Shechinah when it reaches Olivet, till we hear of its reappearance in the last chapters for the latter day. Compare also Zec 14:4 with Act 1:9-12 .
The prophet brought back in Spirit, though all the while in his own home with the elders before him in bodily presence, declares the awful scenes he was given to behold: what consolation for the captives!
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Eze 11:1-4
1Moreover, the Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the east gate of the LORD’S house which faced eastward. And behold, there were twenty-five men at the entrance of the gate, and among them I saw Jaazaniah son of Azzur and Pelatiah son of Benaiah, leaders of the people. 2He said to me, Son of man, these are the men who devise iniquity and give evil advice in this city, 3who say, ‘Is not the time near to build houses? This city is the pot and we are the flesh.’ 4Therefore, prophesy against them, son of man, prophesy!
Eze 11:1 the Spirit lifted me up This was not the first or last time Ezekiel was impacted by the Spirit (cf. Eze 2:2; Eze 3:12; Eze 3:14; Eze 8:3; Eze 11:24; Eze 43:5). See note at Eze 3:12.
the east gate of the LORD’S house We know from Jer 26:10 that this was a place of public assembly (like the city gate in local settings). This gate is mentioned in Eze 10:19. This is where the portable Throne Chariot lifted up and left the Temple area.
Jaazaniah son Azzur There are three others mentioned by this same name but who have different fathers (cf. Eze 8:11; 2Ki 25:23; Jer 35:3). Be careful of confusion.
Pelatiah We know nothing of this man. It is obvious that these two men were leaders of the people. The nobility had been exiled with Ezekiel in 597 B.C. and, therefore, these were new leaders.
NASB, NJB,
JPSOAleaders of the people
NKJVprinces of the people
NRSVofficials of the people
TEVleaders of the nation
REBof high office
The NKJV has the literal (BDB 978 construct BDB 766). This would imply they are high government leaders. The problem comes in how to identify them because most of these leaders were exiled with Ezekiel and the royal court (597 B.C.). These may have been
1. some who escaped capture and deportation
2. some of lesser stature who assumed the role of leadership in the vacuum caused by the exile
Eze 11:2 Son of man See note at Eze 2:1.
who devise iniquity and give evil advice in the city Their attitude is depicted in Eze 11:3; Eze 11:15. They are false leaders (cf. Eze 11:4), so common in Israel’s religious and civic life!
Eze 11:3 Is it not time to build houses? This city is the pot and we are the flesh What they were saying is
1. We are the chosen ones. Those who were exiled were judged by God, but He is not going to judge us who remain in the chosen city! We are His choicest vessels (cf. Eze 28:26; Jer 29:5, i.e., build houses in Jerusalem now! Also note Jer 21:8-10, where the prophets were preaching Peace, peace and yet the destruction of Babylon is surely coming).
2. The phrase to build houses may be an idiom for starting a family (or family line, cf. Deu 25:9; Rth 4:11).
Not only is the first phrase in doubt, but also the second. It could be
a. a metaphor for protection
b. a metaphor for destruction
All being noted, I think it is a parallel to the false prophets’ message of
a. peace is sure
b. the city will never fall
c. we who remain are the chosen ones
3. YHWH has already rejected us, why should we serve Him?
4. Let us prepare for war (i.e., build fortifications, not build houses)!
Eze 11:4 prophesy against them Ezekiel had done this earlier in Eze 3:4; Eze 3:17.
The VERB prophesy (BDB 612, KB 659) is a Niphal IMPERATIVE. It is used twice for emphasis! YHWH, by His Spirit, directed the prophet (Eze 11:5) what to say, when to say it, and who to say it to.
spirit. As in Eze 2:2. Hebrew. ruach, App-9. See note on Eze 8:3.
the east gate. Compare Eze 43:1.
the LORD’S. Hebrew. Jehovah.s. App-4.
door = entrance.
five and twenty men. These are not the same as in Eze 8:16, but were princes of the People, a title never given to priests, who were called “princes of the sanctuary” (Isa 43:28). They were probably those referred to in Jer 38:4.
men. Hebrew Ish App-14.
Jaazaniah. Not the same as in Eze 8:11.
Let’s turn now in our Bibles to Ezekiel, chapter 11.
Now Ezekiel is in Babylon during the time of these prophecies, but the Spirit of God transports him back to Jerusalem. And there he sees things that are transpiring in Jerusalem.
Now as a background, there are some Jewish zealots who are still in Jerusalem who have rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar and they are thinking that they are going to be successful in their rebellion. There are false prophets in Jerusalem that are encouraging the people in their rebellion, telling them that they are going to push Nebuchadnezzar right out of the picture. Jeremiah is in Jerusalem saying, “Don’t listen to the false prophets. They are prophesying to you lies in the name of the Lord. You’d be much better off to surrender to the Babylonians, because if you try to resist you will be slain by the sword and the pestilence and the famine. So, surrender to Nebuchadnezzar.” But Jeremiah is accused of treason and is imprisoned by Zedekiah the king.
But they have sent messengers, the false prophets, to those in Babylon, saying, “Hang loose, it won’t be long. We’ll defeat the Babylonians and you’re going to be allowed to come back to Jerusalem. You’ll be allowed to dwell in Jerusalem, so don’t build houses. Just hang loose, deliverance is coming soon.” But Ezekiel is there in Babylon saying, “Settle down, build houses. It’s going to be a long time before there is any return back to Jerusalem. So, just realize that those that are in Jerusalem are going to be destroyed and the false prophets with them.”
So, you have a confusing situation in that you have false prophets that are encouraging a soon victory over the Babylonian army. You have the true prophets of God, Ezekiel and Jeremiah, that are speaking God’s truth and saying, “No, we are not going to conquer over Babylon, that God is judging the nation Israel for their sins, because they’ve turned against God and it’s going to be a long period of judgment. You’re going to be in Babylon,” as Jeremiah said, “for seventy years, so make the best of it. Settle down, make the best of it there, because you’re not coming back in a hurry.”
Now Ezekiel is in Babylon, but there in Babylon occasionally he gets carried by the Spirit back to Jerusalem where he beholds the things that are happening in Jerusalem and he relates them to the people there in Babylon. And so in chapter 11 we have another one of these instances where:
The spirit lifted me up, and brought me unto the east gate of the LORD’S house, which looks eastward: and behold at the door of the gate there were twenty-five men; among whom I saw Jaazaniah the son of Azur ( Eze 11:1 ),
Now, this is not the Jaazaniah among the twenty-five men that he had seen earlier in a vision. That was the son of Shalman, I think it was. But this is a different Jaazaniah, probably a popular name. I don’t know why.
and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, and they were the princes of the people. Then said he unto me, Son of man, these are the men that devise mischief, and they are giving wicked counsel to the city: They are saying to them, [Look,] it isn’t near; let us build houses: this city is the caldron, and we be the flesh ( Eze 11:1-3 ).
The destruction isn’t near. The city is like a caldron in which we are protected from the fire. Babylon’s fires may burn, but they won’t burn us, because the city is the caldron and we are like the flesh. It’s going to be a long time before the heat will ever get to us. So just go ahead and build your houses and settle down, because we are protected by this city from Babylon.
Therefore prophesy against them, prophesy, O son of man. And the Spirit of the LORD fell upon me, and said unto me, Speak; Thus saith the LORD; Thus have ye said, O house of Israel: for I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them ( Eze 11:4-5 ).
Notice that. God says, “I know the things that are coming into your mind, everything.” That’s sort of a heavy thought isn’t it? ” I the Lord,” He said, “do search the hearts.” God knows every thought that comes into your mind; nothing is hid from Him with whom we have to deal. Actually, the Bible says, “All things are naked and open before Him” ( Heb 4:13 ). “I know everything that comes into your minds.”
Ye have multiplied your slain in this city, and ye have filled the streets thereof with slain ( Eze 11:6 ).
That is, by their false counsel they have encouraged the people to rebel, but all it’s going to do is multiply the number of people that will be killed. As Jeremiah was saying to them, “Surrender and you can save your lives. They will be merciful to you if you surrender. You know, they’ll take you to Babylon, give you a nice place to live an all, but surrender to them, don’t resist.” But these men by their false prophecies encouraging them to resist were only multiplying the number of people who were to be killed.
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Your slain whom ye have laid in the midst of it, they are the flesh, and this city is the caldron: but I will bring you forth out of the midst of it ( Eze 11:7 ).
So the people that have already died, they’re the only ones that are going to be protected from the fire of Babylon. They are the flesh, they are the ones who are going to be protected, but you are going to be carried away captive. You’re going to be led out of this city.
You have feared the sword; and I will bring a sword upon you, saith the Lord GOD. I will bring you out of the midst thereof, and deliver you into the hands of strangers, and will execute judgments among you. Ye shall fall by the sword; I will judge you in the border of Israel; and ye shall know that I am the LORD ( Eze 11:8-10 ).
Interesting prophecy, “I shall judge you in the border of Israel.” Now, when the Babylonian army came against Jerusalem and conquered it, the king, Nebuchadnezzar, remained in the city of Riblah, which is on the border of Israel. And they brought them to Nebuchadnezzar in Riblah where he judged them. Zedekiah you remember was captured and brought to Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah, and there Nebuchadnezzar killed his sons, right before his eyes, and then put his eyes out and he took him captive unto Babylon. And so a very fascinating prophecy of Ezekiel who is over in Babylon, really not knowing what’s going on except by the Spirit of God, as he is taken back and sees these things and he predicts the fact that they will be judged in the borders of Israel, which indeed they were.
And this city shall not be your caldron ( Eze 11:11 ),
It will not be a protection to you. It’s not going to save you from the Babylonian fire.
neither shall ye be the flesh in the midst thereof; but I will judge you in the border of Israel ( Eze 11:11 ):
Again repeated, and thus they were.
And ye shall know that I am the LORD: for ye have not walked in my statutes ( Eze 11:12 ),
God’s indictment against them, “Now, you’ve not walked in My statutes.”
neither have you executed my judgments, but have done after the manners of the heathen round about you ( Eze 11:12 ).
So their failure was to not walk in the ways of the Lord, but to follow the patterns of the heathen society around them, or to succumb to the mores.
Now, there is strong pressure upon us as Christians to forsake the statutes of God and to walk according to the popular mores of our society. There’s tremendous pressure in our society today to accept things that God has condemned. And this pressure of the society is such that if you dare to condemn those things that God has condemned then you’re looked upon as some kind of a religious nut, a prude, a backwards individual. “Don’t you realize that times have changed? We’re not living back in the Victorian age any longer. This isn’t a Puritan society.” And this tremendous pressure, to do what? Exactly what the children of Israel did that brought their destruction. Forsake the commandments, the statutes, the judgments of God, and start living like the people around you. But we dare not, for as sure as God did judge the nation Israel, so will He judge us if we do the same things.
Now, it came to pass, when I was prophesying, that [this fellow] Pelatiah, the son of Benaiah died ( Eze 11:13 ).
So while he was there prophesying to them, this guy fell over dead. That’s powerful preaching.
Then I fell on my face ( Eze 11:13 ),
Now, it wasn’t something that Ezekiel was expecting, because it shocked him.
I fell on my face, and I cried with a loud voice, and said, Ah Lord GOD! wilt thou make a full end of the remnant of Israel? ( Eze 11:13 )
Are you going to wipe them all out, Lord?
Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, your brothers, even your brothers, the men of your own family, and all of the house of Israel wholly, are they unto whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, Get you far from the LORD: unto us is this land given for a possession ( Eze 11:13-15 ).
They’re saying that this land is ours, we are not going to be defeated; we are not going to fall.
Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Although I have cast them far off among the heathen, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come ( Eze 11:16 ).
God said, “I will watch over them in the lands where they’ve been driven. I will be to them a little sanctuary there.” God will preserve His people even though they’ve been driven throughout the world.
Now, that of course, again, is another amazing prophecy, because though the Jews have been hated, scorned, discriminated against, perhaps more fiercely than any other nationality, yet, in spite of two thousand years without a homeland, they have continued to exist as a race of people. Nothing short of a divine miracle. There has been no other national ethnic group in the history of man that has been able to remain as a national identity for more than five generations without a homeland. If they don’t have a nation that they can say, “That’s our homeland,” they have lost their national ethnic identity in five generations. That is why you never meet an Ammonite, a Hittite, Perizzite, or any of these other people that were once great and powerful nations. Because without a national homeland, they’ve lost their national ethnic identity. And yet the Jew remain because God made them a little sanctuary. God was watching over to preserve them and they remained an ethnic group, a national identity, for more than two thousand years after having been driven from their homeland in the first captivity of Nebuchadnezzar. Of course, they went back for a period of time, but then since 70 A.D. they’ve been driven out of the land and still to the present day, whether they be in China, whether they be in Germany, whether they be in Russia, whether they be in Yemen or Africa, or the United States, the Jew has been able to maintain his national identity because God has made them a sanctuary. And you can only explain it by that fact. Because no other nation, no other ethnic group has been able to maintain an identity. So the Lord promises to be a little sanctuary in all of the lands where they’ve been scattered.
Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even gather you from the people, and assemble you out of the countries where ye have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel ( Eze 11:17 ).
Now this is not referring to the re-gathering after the Babylonian captivity, but is more of a reference to the present re-gathering.
And they shall come thither, and they shall take away all the detestable things thereof and all the abominations thereof from thence. And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you ( Eze 11:18-19 );
Now, that has not yet been fulfilled. God is gathering them back in the land, but this new Spirit that God has promised has not yet been fulfilled. It will take place when God defeats Russia’s invasion of Israel. And we’ll get to that as we move on in Ezekiel chapter 39, the last verse of 39, God declares that in the day in which He is sanctified before the nations of the earth, He will again put His Spirit upon the nation of Israel. So this prophecy is relating to chapter 39 and to a day that is yet future, when God manifests Himself unto these people in such a dramatic way and He puts His Spirit upon them again.
I will give them one heart, I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh ( Eze 11:19 ):
Now Paul the apostle tells us in the New Testament that blindness has happened to Israel in part until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. God’s Spirit in the present time is working primarily among the Gentile nations, among you who have been called of God. Actually, among all men. Not that the Jews are excluded, because the gospel is open to all men, but there seems to be a national blindness on these people in regards to Jesus Christ. And it is interesting, I have talked to some of them who are extremely knowledgeable of the scriptures. And you wonder, when they know the scriptures so well, why is it that they do not see that Jesus was indeed the promised Messiah? You wonder how they can just explain away those prophecies, Daniel chapter 9, Isa 53:1-12 , Psa 22:1-31 , Zechariah chapters 11 through 12 and all. You wonder, how can they not see the truth that Jesus is indeed the promised Messiah? And there can only be one explanation, and that is what Paul gave us, that there is a blindness that has happened to these people.
A couple of years ago when we were in Israel and I was speaking at a congress in which the Christians from all over the world were seeking to demonstrate to Israel our support of them as a people, I received a letter from one of the rabbis in Jerusalem. And the letter was a rebuke for my being there at that congress showing support for the nation of Israel. He said, “You have no right being here, for Israel has no right to be existing as a nation.” This same rabbi had sent a letter to King Hussein in Jordan and asked the Jordanian king to annex Measharim into Jordan, because they wanted nothing to do with the modern state of Israel. They said, “Israel has no right being a state, and you as a minister have no right being here supporting the nation of Israel.”
Well, I had been witnessing to these guides for quite some time and they do know the scripture quite well. And I showed them the letter and I said, “Look what one of your rabbis sent me.” And they read the letter and they were horrified, because they appreciate the fact that I love Israel and had been supporting Israel. And they said, “Ah, don’t pay any attention to that, Chuck, they’re a bunch of religious nuts. They’re radicals, you know. They don’t know what they’re talking about. They’re just religious radicals. Don’t pay any attention to that.” I said, “But they’re rabbis.” “Ah, it doesn’t make any difference. They’re nuts, you know, just don’t pay any attention to them.” And I said, “Have you ever stopped to think that those rabbis that rejected Jesus from being the Messiah were perhaps just like them, some religious fanatics? And that Jesus was indeed the Messiah, but these religious fanatics rejected Him, and here you are two thousand years later, in spite of all of the evidence, still following the religious nuts of those days.” They didn’t have any answer. But surely anyone looking at the evidence of prophecy and of the life of Jesus Christ must conclude that if Jesus wasn’t the Messiah, there never will be a Messiah. It would be impossible for any man to come along today and prove that he was of the lineage of David. No one has his genealogy and can trace it back to David any longer. So, God is going to change their hearts, though. This stony heart is going to be turned to a heart of flesh.
Ya know, one thing about the Jewish people is that they are a very dynamic people. They’re very alive. They love to sing, they love to show their feelings in dancing and in singing. And quite often over there, the bus drivers and the guides, they’ll get together and they’ll sit at a table and they’ll start singing their Jewish, typically Jewish, songs and they really get into it. I mean it’s a ya know, “Hah…” and the whole thing ya know and the dancing and they get up and they start dancing around and singing. They really get into it. And it’s a lot of fun, because they are such a dynamic people. They’re exciting to be around. Oh, I can hardly wait until they get turned on to Jesus Christ. With all of that excitement and all of that expression that they have when they really discover the true Messiah, what a glorious day when the heart of stone is replaced; God does a heart transplant and He puts in a heart of flesh.
That they may walk in my statutes ( Eze 11:20 ),
You see, this is the thing they had failed to do and that’s why the judgment was coming.
that they will keep my ordinances, and do them: that they shall be my people, and I will be their God. But as for them whose heart walks after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations, I will recompense their way upon their own heads, saith the Lord GOD ( Eze 11:20-21 ).
Now, at this point, these cherubims representing the glory of God and the presence of God that was once there in the temple but was lifted from the temple, out to the porch, from the porch to the east gate. Now he watches as the Spirit of God is removed even from the east gate of the temple to the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem.
Then did the cherubims lift up their wings, and the wheels beside them; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above [them]. And the glory of the LORD went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city [the Mount of Olives]. And afterwards the spirit took me up, and brought me in a vision by the Spirit of God [back] into Chaldea [back to Babylon], to them of the captivity. So the vision that I had seen went up from me. Then I spake to them of the captivity all of the things that the LORD had showed me ( Eze 11:22-25 ).
So, he was taken by the Spirit, went through these interesting experiences, and then brought back and shared with these people that were around him there the vision that God did give to him.
Now, it is interesting, the glory of the Lord, the last place there on the mount to the east of Jerusalem. It was on this same mountain that Jesus ascended into glory. It was on this same mountain that Jesus came in His entry to Jerusalem as the King, as the Messiah, fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah, “Behold, rejoice greatly, oh daughter of Jerusalem, behold thy King cometh unto thee, but He is lowly, sitting on the colt, the foal of an ass” ( Zec 9:9 ). And it is upon this same mount that Jesus will return. As Zechariah said, “And He shall set His foot in that day on the Mount of Olives, and it will split in the middle” ( Zec 14:4 ), an all, and right there where he saw the glory of the Lord departing from the mountain there on the east, there is where the glory of God in the person of Jesus Christ will come. And again, as He comes into Jerusalem, the glory of God’s presence once more returning to the land and the beautiful restoration of God and the glorious kingdom of God when it comes.
“
Eze 11:1-2
THE DEPARTURE OF GOD’S GLORY
This chapter concludes the section of Ezekiel 8-11 with the departure of God’s glory. That momentous event is recorded in the last paragraph of the chapter; and prior to that there are recorded two very important messages: (1) for those remaining in Jerusalem, and (2) for the exiles in Babylon, in Eze 11:1-13, and in Eze 11:14-25 respectively.
Howie expressed a view held by some that, “This is not a continuation of the vision that began in Ezekiel 8, but another vision is included here because of its content. We reject this altogether; because, (1) there has been no record thus far in these chapters of Ezekiel’s having been transported back to the Chebar; (2) when he was transported back to the Chebar, the elders were still waiting there for his vision to end and for the explanation of it that Ezekiel then shared with them; and (3) the dramatic double message of these first 21 verses was extremely pertinent to Ezekiel’s ability to answer the questions of the elders that had brought them to Ezekiel in the first place.
These reasons, which to us seem unanswerable, entitle us to receive this whole chapter as the concluding section of these four chapters describing Ezekiel’s vision-journey to Jerusalem.
The practical divisions of the chapter are:
(1) God’s Spirit takes Ezekiel to the outer eastern gate of the temple where he sees a group of twenty-five men, apparently the and governmental leaders of the nation, two of whom are named (Eze 11:1-2);
(2) their light-hearted parable reflecting their false sense of security is turned around upon them and made to reflect a prophecy of their doom (Eze 11:3-12);
(3) Ezekiel’s vision is confirmed by the sudden death of Pelatiah (Eze 11:13);
(4) God comforted the exiles with a message of blessing and protection, recognizing them as the “righteous remnant,” actually, the “true Israel of God,” thus completely negating the claims of the crooked leaders in Jerusalem (Eze 11:14-21);
(5) God’s glory is forever separated from the secular temple of Israel (Eze 11:22-23); and
(6) God’s Spirit transports Ezekiel back to his residence on the Chebar in Babylon where the elders are still there waiting to hear his message.
Eze 11:1-2
“Moreover the Spirit lifted me up, and brought me unto the east gate of Jehovah’s house, which looketh eastward: and behold, by the door of the gate five and twenty men; and I saw in the midst of them Jaazaniah the son of Azzur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people. And he said unto me, Son of man, these are the men that devise iniquity, and that give wicked counsel in this city.”
The mention of Jaazaniah and Pelatiah in that group of twenty-five men, along with their designation as “princes of the people” leads to the conclusion that all of these men were governmental and leaders of the people. The particular meaning of the four proper names in 1 was given by Plumptre. Jaazaniah means God hearkens; Azzur means The Helper, Pelatiah means God rescues, and Benaiah means God builds. It has been suggested that the reason behind the giving of these names was to show the contrast between what their names meant and the wickedness of their counsel. Jaazaniah is distinguished from other persons with that name. We have no further information about either one of them beyond what is given here.
The prophet was now lifted by the Spirit, and brought to the east gate, that is, to the place whither the glory of God had departed. There he saw a conclave of five and twenty men presided over by princes of the people, who were devising iniquity, that is, plotting against the king of Babylon. They declared that they were safe in their city.
Instructed of the Spirit, Ezekiel uttered a denunciation of them, and declared God’s vengeance against them. Taking up their figure of the cauldron and the flesh, he declared that they should be brought forth from the midst thereof, and that on account of their sin.
As he prophesied, one of the princes died, and Ezekiel, filled with amazement, fell on his face before Jehovah, and appealed to Him for intercession. This appeal was answered by the declaration that Jehovah would protect those scattered among the nations, Himself being to them-a sanctuary in the countries where they had come. He promised, moreover, that eventually He would restore them to the land of Israel, and that in their coming they would be morally and spiritually cleansed and restored, but that vengeance would inevitably fall on such as were persistent in their sin. Again, a vision of the glory of God departing from the city was granted to him. Returning from these visions, he uttered in the hearing of the captives all the things that the Lord had showed him.
Chapter Eleven
The End Of The Vision
The eleventh chapter gives us the last part of the remarkable vision which came to Ezekiel in the sixth year, as mentioned in 8:11. The prophet still speaks of what he saw when, by the Spirit, he was given to behold conditions prevailing in Jerusalem, and Gods attitude toward them. The Lord made these things known to him in order that he might press home upon the consciences of those who had been taken captive the importance of heeding the Word of the Lord as given by Jeremiah, a brother-prophet, that the captives should settle down in the lands wherein they had been placed by their conquerors, and should build houses and plant vineyards and prepare for a stay in the land of the stranger for a period of at least seventy years, during which time the land was to keep sabbath.
Against this command many revolted. They supposed the Lord would intervene and open the way for them to return to Palestine. False prophets, who had risen up, encouraged them in this expectation. It was against these men that many of Ezekiels messages were directed.
Moreover the Spirit lifted me up, and brought me unto the east gate of Jehovahs house, which looketh eastward: and behold, at the door of the gate five and twenty men; and I saw in the midst of them Jaazaniah the son of Azzur, and Pelatiah the son of Be-naiah, princes of the people. And He said unto me, Son of man, these are the men that devise iniquity, and that give wicked counsel in this city; that say, The time is not near to build houses: this city is the caldron, and we are the flesh. Therefore prophesy against them, prophesy, O son of man-vers. 1-4.
In the spirit Ezekiel once more was carried to the east gate of the temple court. There, by the door of the gate he beheld five and twenty men, princes of Israel-men who represented the attitude of the people toward God. Among these, two are mentioned by name, Jaazaniah the son of Azzur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah. It is evident that these two must have had special influence among the people and are, therefore, singled out in this way.
The word of the Lord came, saying, Son of man, these are the men that devise iniquity, and that give wicked counsel in this city. Jerusalem was besieged by the Chaldean armies. By the mouth of Jeremiah God had counseled capitulation to the demands of the foe, and had promised that those who willingly gave themselves up would go into captivity, but that their lives would be preserved; whereas the rest-those who refused to obey-would be utterly destroyed by these leaders opposing the word of the Lord and ridiculing the counsel given by Jeremiah.
They insisted that this was no time to build houses; that is, in the lands of their captivity, and in mockery they exclaimed, This city is the caldron, and we are the flesh. That is, they recognized the fact that Jerusalem was as a caldron with a living fire beneath and above it, and they like to the flesh within. Nevertheless, they still preached, Peace, peace, when there was no peace, assuring the people that in a little while the Chaldean armies would turn away from Jerusalem and the holy city be preserved from judgment.
In opposition to their optimistic prophecies God again spoke through Ezekiel.
And the Spirit of Jehovah fell upon me, and He said unto me, Speak, Thus saith Jehovah: Thus have ye said, O house of Israel; for I know the things that come into your mind. Ye have multiplied your slain in this city, and ye have filled the streets thereof with the slain. Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Your slain whom ye have laid in the midst of it, they are the flesh, and this city is the caldron; hut ye shall be brought forth out of the midst of it. Ye have feared the sword; and I will bring the sword upon you, saith the Lord Jehovah. And I will bring you forth out of the midst thereof, and deliver you into the hands of strangers, and will execute judgments among you. Ye shall fall by the sword; I will judge you in the border of Israel; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah. This city shall not be your caldron, neither shall ye be the flesh in the midst thereof; I will judge you in the border of Israel; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah: for ye have not walked in My statutes, neither have ye executed Mine ordinances, but have done after the ordinances of the nations that are round about you-vers. 5-12.
He who knows all things not only heard the words of these leaders but also knew the thoughts that were in their hearts, and He declared, Thus have ye said, O house of Israel; for I know the things that come into your mind. The slain had been multiplied in the city, and the streets filled with dead bodies. These were indeed the flesh, and the city truly was the caldron. And in accordance with the word of the Lord through His prophets, Jerusalem would be taken by the enemy, and those who were not slain would be brought forth out of the midst of it and delivered into the hands of strangers who would be Gods instruments to execute judgments upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Escape would be impossible. Try as they might they could not deliver themselves from their cruel foes; throughout all the land they would be given up to judgment, and would know that Jehovah had spoken when these things were fulfilled. Not in Jerusalem alone but also throughout all the land of Israel would they know the vengeance of the Chaldeans, which would be all the fiercer because of the prolongation of the siege of the city. Israel had no title to cry for help from God, for they had not walked in His statutes nor carried out His ordinances, but they had behaved themselves in accordance with the ways of the heathen round about them.
And it came to pass, when I prophesied, that Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died. Then fell I down upon my face, and cried with a loud voice, and said, Ah Lord Jehovah! wilt Thou make a full end of the remnant of Israel?-ver. 13.
Even while the words were in Ezekiels mouth he saw in the vision that Pelatiah dropped dead. Evidently this actually occurred in Jerusalem at this very time. Stirred to the depth of his heart by the beginning of the fulfilment of his words, he fell down upon his face and mourned before God, saying, Ah Lord Jehovah! wilt Thou make a full end of the remnant of Israel?
The Lord answered, revealing the love of His heart toward His erring people and promising to meet, in grace, any who turned to Him, even in the land of their captivity, while judgment must have its way with those who refused to hear His voice.
And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Son of man, thy brethren, even thy brethren, the men of thy kindred, and all the house of Israel, all of them, are they unto whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, Get you far from Jehovah; unto us is this land given for a possession. Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Whereas I have removed them far off among the nations, and whereas I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them a sanctuary for a little while in the countries where they are come. Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I will gather you from the peoples, and assemble you out of the countries where ye have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel. And they shall come thither, and they shall take away all the detestable things thereof and all the abominations thereof from thence. And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh; that they may walk in My statutes, and keep Mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be My people, and I will be their God. But as for them whose heart walketh after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations, I will bring their way upon their own heads, saith the Lord Jehovah-vers. 14-21.
Jehovahs words were addressed, as before, to Ezekiel as Son of man. His own near kinsmen were among those who had rebelled against the Lord, and they, with others, had been removed far off among the nations, but God would never forget any who, in the land of their captivity, turned to Him. He said, Yet will I be to them a sanctuary for a little while in the countries where they are come. The temple might be destroyed. No place on earth would any longer be designated as that where Jehovah had set His name, but no soul would ever seek Him in vain. No matter what the circumstances in which His people were found, if any turned to Him with all their hearts He would reveal Himself to them and would Himself be a sanctuary unto them. Moreover, in due time He will gather a remnant of His people back to their own land.
Notice the definite promise, I will gather you from the peoples, and assemble you out of the countries where ye have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel. And they shall come thither, and they shall take away all the detestable things thereof and all the abominations thereof from thence.
When that day comes the remnant will be accepted of God as the nation and will be regenerated. He says, I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh; that they may walk in My statutes, and keep Mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be My people, and I will be their God.
This promise has never yet been fulfilled. The present return of many Jews to Palestine, while still in unbelief, is in one sense a partial fulfilment of this prophecy; it is, doubtless, preparatory to it. But when the actual fulfilment comes the people themselves will return to the Lord; they will judge their sins, and bowing before God will confess their guilt, even the guilt, as we now know, of the rejection of their promised Messiah; and when they thus turn back in heart to God He will establish them in the land, and will give them a new nature through a second birth, even as He does to all individuals now who turn to the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.
But when they do come there will be no blessing for those who persist in taking the path of self-will and who go on defiantly in their sins. The word of the Lord is, I will bring their way upon their own heads.
Then did the cherubim lift up their wings, and the wheels were beside them; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above. And the glory of Jehovah went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city. And the Spirit lifted me up, and brought me in the vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea, to them of the captivity. So the vision that I had seen went up from me. Then I spake unto them of the captivity all the things that Jehovah had showed me-vers. 22-25.
As the vision came to an end and Ezekiel beheld the cherubim lift up their wings with the wheels of government beside them, he saw the glory of the God of Israel over them above. It was evident that God still lingered in mercy, even though that mercy was despised, for the glory of Jehovah went up from the midst, then stood upon the mountain, which is on the east side of the city. This is the Shekinah glory which had dwelt between the cherubim in the Holiest of all. It now stood over upon the Mount of Olives, the very place where the Lord Jesus Himself was to stand before He ascended to heaven. The last the prophet saw of the glory in this vision it still waited there upon the mountain top, as though God was reluctant to forsake His people, in spite of the fact that they had proven so disobedient and hardhearted.
As the vision passed Ezekiel opened his eyes to find himself in the land of Chaldea on the banks of the Chebar with a group of the captives gathered about him, to whom he revealed all that he had seen and heard.
Eze 11:16
In trying to understand the great promise of the text, note-
I. The idea of asylum and protection. “I will be as a little sanctuary.” “I will be the shield and protector and sure refuge of trusting souls.” Is not this what every awakened soul needs and seeks? Some safe, sure refuge from all that threatens, afflicts, alarms; from the thunders, loud or deep, of broken law; from the accusations of conscience, from the troubles of life, from the terrors of death-asylum from them all? A true and real relief in all soul-trouble-in anything that agitates a man’s deepest consciousness; in anything that touches the health, and so the safety of the soul, can be found only in one way-by moving Godwards, and entering, although it may be at first with fear and trembling, into the built and open sanctuary of His presence.
II. A sanctuary means, also, at least in the nomenclature of the Scriptures, a place of purification, where we may wash and be clean; and may so avail ourselves of the helps to goodness which are provided, that the rest of our time may be pure and holy. Our very words tell us this. “Sanctity;” “sanctification”-a sanctuary is not equal to its name if it does not promote these. Safety is a poor, even a mean, thing, if it be indeed conceivable, without purity.
III. A further idea in the word sanctuary is the idea of nourishment. A hospice for the entertainment of strangers, or any hospitable house, is never without bread. And will not God feed His refugees? Will He be a little sanctuary in which they may die? On His table there is bread enough and to spare.
IV. This is a text (1) for all our changes of place, for our journeys, for our absences. It is a text to take round the world with us if we are going. “I will be to them as a little sanctuary-” where?-“in the countries where they shall come.” (2) In all states. For all times and for all troubles and for all needs, there is a present, gracious God, with all His grace also present, to heal, to help, to love unto the end.
A. Raleigh, The Little Sanctuary, p. 1.
References: Eze 11:19, Eze 11:20.-G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 156. Eze 11:21.-G. Gilfillan, The Dundee Pulpit, p. 161. Eze 12:6.-J. M. Whiton, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxx., p. 166. Eze 12:27.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xx., No. 1164. Eze 13:7.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xi., p. 143. Eze 13:10.-G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 158. Eze 13:10, Eze 13:11.-C. J. Thompson, Penny Pulpit, No. 675; J. Baines, Sermons, p. 201. Eze 13:10-12.-Spurgeon, Ibid., vol. xiv., No. 816.
Eze 11:1-25. The priests and the leaders of the nation were steeped in wickedness, defied God and the judgments His prophets had announced. They devised mischief (or iniquity) and gave wicked counsel. Their wicked counsel consisted in disobedience against Jehovah and His Word. In regard to the judgment they said, It is not the time to build houses; this is the cauldron and we are the flesh. They knew of Jeremiahs letter which he had sent to the elders who were carried away captives. In that letter, Jeremiah, believing Gods Word concerning the long duration of the captivity, gave the advice, Build ye houses and dwell in them Jer 29:1-32. They ridiculed that divinely given advice. They still thought themselves safe in Jerusalem. The phrase this is the cauldron means the city of Jerusalem; and we are the flesh themselves. As the flesh in the cauldron is preserved from the fire by the cauldron itself, so they felt themselves secure in the doomed city. That these wicked leaders were still in the city shows that the judgment in chapter 9 was not a complete judgment. It began at the sanctuary, and the wicked worshippers Ezekiel saw in his vision were smitten first of all, while the man with the inkhorn marked the entire remnant for preservation. Then the Spirit fell upon Ezekiel and he uttered Jehovahs message.
The message of judgment is followed by a message of mercy. Eze 11:14-21 are yet to be fulfilled in that nation. The final departure of the visible glory of the Lord concludes this chapter. It held its ascension from the Mount of Olives. From the same place, He who is the Lord of Glory and reveals the glory of the Lord, went back to the Father. And when He returns His feet shall stand upon the Mount of Olives Zec 14:1-21. It will be at that blessed time when Israel and Jerusalem will behold the return of the glory, which Ezekiel beheld departing from city and temple.
the spirit: Eze 11:24, Eze 3:12, Eze 3:14, Eze 8:3, Eze 37:1, Eze 40:1, Eze 40:2, Eze 41:1, 1Ki 18:12, 2Ki 2:16, Act 8:39, 2Co 12:1-4, Rev 1:10
the east: Eze 10:19, Eze 43:4
behold: Eze 8:16
Jaazaniah: 2Ki 25:23
Pelatiah: Eze 11:13, Eze 22:27, Isa 1:10, Isa 1:23, Hos 5:10
Reciprocal: Jer 42:1 – Jezaniah Jer 52:27 – the king Eze 9:6 – at the Eze 40:6 – unto Mat 4:1 – of the spirit Luk 6:30 – Give Rev 21:10 – he carried
Eze 11:1. The vision was continued and Ezekiel saw the same men who were mentioned in chapter 8: 16. with one other named specifically. They were all leading men of Judah who were engaged in the worship of the sun which was one form of idolatry.
Eze 11:1-3. Moreover the spirit lifted me up It seems it should rather have been rendered, And the spirit had lifted me up, for here he appears to go back to speak about those twenty-five men of whom he made mention Eze 7:16, but had broken off from speaking of them to speak of things of greater importance; but he now returns to them again. And brought me unto the east gate Caused me to see those parts in my vision just as if I had been there. And behold at the door five and twenty men The same who are represented in Eze 8:16, as worshipping the sun. They were princes of the people That is, most probably, members of the great sanhedrim: compare Jer 26:10. Among whom I saw Pelatiah, &c. Named here for that dreadful, sudden death, whereby he became a warning to others. Then said he unto me Namely, the divine appearance which was before my eyes. These are the men that give wicked counsel They probably advised and encouraged the people to use the Chaldean rites of worship, in order to please and gain the favour of that nation. Or, they persuaded the Jews that they had no reason to fear future trouble or mischief from the Chaldeans, and therefore rendered them secure in their sins. Which say, It is not near The threatened danger and ruin by the Chaldeans. These were such as put the evil day far from them, as is said Amo 6:3, and so went on securely in building houses, and making such like improvements. This city is the caldron, and we be the flesh Jeremiah had foretold the destruction of Jerusalem under the figure of a seething-pot, or caldron, Jer 1:13. And Ezekiel himself uses the same metaphor, Eze 24:3-4, &c. So these scoffers made use of the same expression on purpose to deride the menaces of the prophets; as if they had said, If this city be a caldron, we are well content to be the flesh that is boiled in it. We will share all fates with her, we will either be preserved or perish with her. So Michaelis, who thinks the words are a proverb.
Eze 11:2. These are the men that devise mischief, and give wicked counsel in this city. These twenty five men, with two princes at their head, Jaazaniah and Pelatiah, were the infidel club of the temple. They determined on having Jeremiahs life with a storm of violence. They thwarted all his ministry, they advised the king to break the fealty he had sworn to the king of Babylon, they brought destruction upon their country, and then upon themselves.
Where shall we find their fellows in the present age, but in the illuminati of Europe; in L Academie Franoise, to whom Voltaire and Diderot are the two Hebrew culprits. Where shall we find their successors, but in the socinian, alias, the unitarian clubs of our seats of letters; of whom John Berridge writes, I withdrew myself from them, because I found that lowering the Son was lowering the FatherI had almost given over prayer. Where shall we find their equals in dignity, but in the learned and new translators of the prophets, and of the christian scriptures, in whose notes we find no trace of the prexistence of Christ, or of the Hmousion faith, that the Son is one substance with the Father?
Eze 11:3. This city is the caldron, and we are the flesh. The infidels spoke these words in contempt of Jeremiah, who had used the phrase in Jer 1:13. They also showed their infidelity by building houses, as in the most flourishing times. Caldrons were long boilers, used at the foot of mount Olivet and other places, to cook the peace-offerings of the temple.
Eze 11:11. This city shall not be your caldron I will judge you in the border of Israel. Nebuchadnezzar judged the rebels at Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he put sixty six to death. He then slew Zedekiahs children, all young, and put out the fathers eyes. These predictions, all lumuinous and tragic, were revealed to Ezekiel to support the faith of the exiles.
Eze 11:13. It came to pass when I prophesied, that Pelatiah died. So also Hananiel died. Jeremiah 28. Such was likewise the case in the new- testament church. Act 5:5. There is a sin unto death. These are punishments which the great Judge keeps in his own hands. Because of the schisms and gnostic desecrations at Corinth, some slept, and others were sickly. What can mortals say? God standeth in the congregation of the righteous, the Judge of quick and dead.
Eze 11:16. Yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come. The wicked in Jerusalem gladly occupied the lands of former captives, in hopes that they would never return; they bade them go far enough from the Lord. Such is the heart, the unregenerate heart of man. Now, on the contrary, the Lord, more compassionate than man, says, I will spread my wing over them. I will be to them as a little sanctuary, and I will renew my covenant with them, in all its promises and grace.
This text was much used by the French protestants in exile, whenever they opened a little temple, as in London, Bristol, Cork; in Holland and other countries. Here they grew rich, and prospered, and rewarded England with the silk trade.
Eze 11:23. The glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain. The critics all say mount Olivet, which is on the east; and so the Chaldaic reads. As our Saviour, passing the foot of mount Olivet, wept over Jerusalem, so the glory seemed to leave the once holy but now polluted sanctuary with reluctance. Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, oh that thou hadst known, at least in this thy day, the things that belong to thy peace.
REFLECTIONS.
When impious men sway the secular and religious affairs of a nation, it may be reckoned among the last of their calamities. Jaazaniah and Pelatiah, noble by birth, high in office, and infidel in principle, devoted their extraordinary talents to misguide the rulers, and to despise religion. They mocked at Jeremiahs words in calling the city a caldron, and said in derision, it is not near; let us build houses, and prepare to live; yet the city was not the pot to them, for about seventy rulers were slain at Riblah. Note reader, and note it well, that this is the usual spirit which goes before destruction. God sends strong delusion on the men who artfully obey not the truth.
They destroy a multitude of souls besides their own. These two princes led their sovereign to rebellion against the conqueror of Asia, when there was no prospect of national defence; yet they retained the fame of wisdom! They filled Jerusalem with infants slain to Moloch, with good men unjustly condemned at their tribunals, and with men massacred who wished Zedekiah to adhere to his league with Nebuchadnezzar. What do ministers, consummately hardened, care for the life of man?
Vengeance sometimes falls from the Lord on one sinner, that all may fear. While Ezekiel saw Jerusalem in the visions of God, he saw Pelatiah die suddenly; for the church has sometimes prayed against an oppressor, and then his case is awful in the extreme. But Ezekiel was permitted to see him die, that the elders of the captivity, being possessed of the knowledge of the princes death by prophecy, and finding it confirmed by letters, they might revere Ezekiel as inspired of God, and patiently wait in the district of Chebar till Jerusalem drank the cup; and not destroy themselves by insurrectionan ill-advised effort to regain their devoted country. Thus divine providence, by making one wicked man a fearful example, conveys manifold comfort to the church, and instruction to the world.
God farther endeavours to reconcile Jeconiahs people to their captivity by promising to build them a little Zion, and to give them every promise of the new covenant; for inspired men in comforting the righteous did always slide into the Messiahs times. They had been sorely divided in sentiment; but henceforth he would give them one mind and one heart joined to himself, and they should no more be divided between him and idols. He would give them a new and regenerate spirit or temper of mind, which should lead them to love him with all the powers of the soul and affections of the heart, as illustrated more largely in the thirty sixth chapter. But here we should carefully notice that these promises were very imperfectly fulfilled on the return of the jews from the Babylonian captivity, as appears from the corrupt state of religion in Malachis time; and they were fulfilled only to a small number in the primitive church; the great completion is consequently reserved for the glory of the latter day.
Ezekiel 11. The Departure of Yahweh.
Eze 11:1-13. Another Guilty Group.The doom has been executed with grim thoroughness, the guilty are all slain (Eze 11:9); it is therefore surprising to come here upon another guilty group. Clearly this passage presupposes a slightly different time, but it admirably serves to strengthen the reasons for Yahwehs departure from the city. Besides the idolatry already described (Eze 11:8), another type of guilt is illustrated by this group of twenty-five (probably twenty-four and a president) who give wicked counsel in the city. Apparently these were statesmen who favoured the policy (condemned by Jeremiah) of revolt from Babylon. In proverbial language they compare the city to a caldron, and themselves to the flesh within it: the fire may blaze round the pot, but the flesh within it is protected. The sense of security which they thus express is rudely shattered by the prophet, who is inspired to announce that the only people safe within the city would be those whom their wicked policy had already slaingrim irony!while they themselves would be thrown from the pot into the fire, driven out of their fancied security by the sword which they fear towards the cruel destiny reserved for them by the Babylonians away on the distant northern borders of ancient Israel; and then they would be compelled by the logic of fact to acknowledge the power and the character of Yahweh who punishes those who ignore His law. In point of fact, after the fall of Jerusalem the Hebrew prisoners were taken to Riblah (Eze 6:14) and there put to death (2Ki 25:21). Immediately after this announcement one of the leaders of the guilty group fell deadthis Ezekiel may have seen in virtue of his gift of second sightand the prophet, horrified, uttered a piercing prayer for the remnant, like that which he had offered before when the angels were slaying the wicked people (Eze 9:8).
(The meaning of the first clause of Eze 11:3 is not clear: perhaps it should be read as a questionhave houses not recently been built?and taken to indicate a sense of returning prosperity and confidence: so LXX.)
The assurance of judgment on the people of Jerusalem 11:1-13
The Spirit next lifted Ezekiel up in his vision and transported him to the east (main) gate of the temple courtyards where God’s glory had moved (cf. Eze 10:19). There the prophet saw 25 of the governing leaders of the people of Jerusalem, including Jaazaniah the son of Azzur and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah. [Note: See Cooper, p. 139, for archaeological confirmation of the existence of these men in Jerusalem at this time.] These 25 civic leaders were not the same individuals as the 25 sun-worshipping priests whom Ezekiel had seen earlier (Eze 8:16). Jaazaniah the son of Azzur does not seem to be the same man as Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan in Eze 8:11. The name was evidently common at this time (cf. 2Ki 25:23; Jer 35:3). Gates were the traditional places where city elders administered justice and conducted legal matters.
YOUR HOUSE IS LEFT UNTO YOU DESOLATE
Eze 8:1-18; Eze 9:1-11; Eze 10:1-22; Eze 11:1-25
ONE of the most instructive phases of religious belief among the Israelites of the seventh century was the superstitious regard in which the Temple at Jerusalem was held. Its prestige as the metropolitan sanctuary had no doubt steadily increased from the time when it was built. But it was in the crisis of the Assyrian invasion that the popular sentiment in favour of its peculiar sanctity was transmuted into a fanatical faith in its inherent inviolability. It is well known that during the whole course of this invasion the prophet Isaiah had consistently taught that the enemy should never set foot within the precincts of the Holy City-that, on the contrary, the attempt to seize it would prove to be the signal for his annihilation. The striking fulfilment of this prediction in the sudden destruction of Sennacheribs army had an immense effect on the religion of the time. It restored the faith in Jehovahs omnipotence which was already giving way, and it granted a new lease of life to the very errors which it ought to have extinguished. For here, as in so many other cases, what was a spiritual faith in one generation became a superstition in the next. Indifferent to the divine truths which gave meaning to Isaiahs prophecy, the people changed his sublime faith in the living God working in history into a crass confidence in the material symbol which had been the means of expressing it to their minds. Henceforth it became a fundamental tenet of the current creed that the Temple and the city which guarded it could never fall into the hands of an enemy; and any teaching which assailed that belief was felt to undermine confidence in the national deity. In the time of Jeremiah and Ezekiel this superstition existed in unabated vigour, and formed one of the greatest hindrances to the acceptance of their teaching. “The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord are these!” was the cry of the benighted worshippers as they thronged to its courts to seek the favour of Jehovah. {Jer 7:4} The same state of feeling must have prevailed among Ezekiels fellow exiles. To the prophet himself, attached as he was to the worship of the Temple, it may have been a thought almost too hard to bear that Jehovah should abandon the only place of His legitimate worship. Amongst the rest of the captives the faith in its infallibility was one of the illusions which must be overthrown before their minds could perceive the true drift of his teaching. In his first prophecy the fact had just been touched on, but merely as an incident in the fall of Jerusalem. About a year later, however, he received a new revelation, in which he learned that the destruction of the Temple was no mere incidental consequence of the capture of the city, but a main object of the calamity. The time was come when judgment must begin at the house of God.
The weird vision in which this truth was conveyed to the prophet is said to have occurred during a visit of the elders to Ezekiel in his own house. In their presence he fell into a trance, in which the events now to be considered passed before him; and after the trance was removed he recounted the substance of the vision to the exiles. This statement has been somewhat needlessly called in question, on the ground that after so protracted an ecstasy the prophet would not be likely to find his visitors still in their places. But this matter-of-fact criticism overreaches itself. We have no means of determining how long it would take for this series of events to be realised. If we may trust anything to the analogy of dreams-and of all conditions to which ordinary men are subject the dream is surely the closest analogy to the prophetic ecstasy-the whole may have passed in an incredibly short space of time. If the statement were untrue, it is difficult to see what Ezekiel would have gained by making it. If the whole vision were a fiction, this must of course be fictitious too; but even so it seems a very superfluous piece of invention.
We prefer, therefore, to regard the vision as real, and the assigned situation as historical; and the fact that it is recorded suggests that there must be some connection between the object of the visit and the burden of the revelation which was then communicated. It is not difficult to imagine points of contact between them. Ewald has conjectured that the occasion of the visit may have been some recent tidings from Jerusalem which had opened the eyes of the “elders” to the real relation that existed between them and their brethren at home. If they had ever cherished any illusions on the point, they had certainly been disabused of them before Ezekiel had this vision. They were aware, whether the information was recent or not, that they were absolutely disowned by the new authorities in Jerusalem, and that it was impossible that they should ever come back peaceably to their old place in the state. This created a problem which they could not solve, and the fact that Ezekiel had announced the fall of Jerusalem may have formed a bond of sympathy between him and his brethren in exile which drew them to him in their perplexity. Some such hypothesis gives at all events a fuller significance to the closing part of the vision, where the attitude of the men in Jerusalem is described, and where the exiles are taught that the hope of Israels future lies with them. It is the first time that Ezekiel has distinguished between the fates in store for the two sections of the people, and it would almost appear as if the promotion of the exiles to the first place in the true Israel was a new revelation to him. Twice during this vision he is moved to intercede for the “remnant of Israel,” as if the only hope of a new people of God lay in sparing at least some of those who were left in the land. But the burden of the message that now comes to him is that in the spiritual sense the true remnant of Israel is not in Judaea, but among the exiles in Babylon. It was there that the new Israel was to be formed, and the land was to be the heritage, not of those who clung to it and exulted in the misfortunes of their banished brethren, but of those who under the discipline of exile were first prepared to use the land as Jehovahs holiness demanded.
The vision is interesting, in the first place, on account of the glimpse it affords of the state of mind prevailing in influential circles in Jerusalem at this time. There is no reason whatever to doubt that here in the form of a vision we have reliable information regarding the actual state of matters when Ezekiel wrote. It has been supposed by some critics that the description of the idolatries in the Temple does not refer to contemporary practices, but to abuses that had been rife in the days of Manasseh and had been put a stop to by Josiahs reformation. But the vision loses half its meaning if it is taken as merely an idealised representation of all the sins that had polluted the Temple in the course of its history. The names of those who are seen must be names of living men known to Ezekiel and his contemporaries, and the sentiments put in their mouth, especially in the latter part of the vision, are suitable only to the age in which he lived. It is very probable that the description in its general features would also apply to the days of Manasseh; but the revival of idolatry which followed the death of Josiah would naturally take the form of a restoration of the illegal cults which had flourished unchecked under his grandfather. Ezekiels own experience before his captivity, and the steady intercourse which had been maintained since, would supply him with the material which in the ecstatic condition is wrought up into this powerful picture.
The thing that surprises us most is the prevailing conviction amongst the ruling classes that “Jehovah had forsaken the land.” These men seem to have partly emancipated themselves, as politicians in Israel were apt to do, from the restraints and narrowness of the popular religion. To them it was a conceivable thing that Jehovah should abandon His people. And yet life was worth living and fighting for apart from Jehovah. It was of course a merely selfish life, not inspired by national ideals, but simply a clinging to place and power. The wish was father to the thought; men who so readily yielded to the belief in Jehovahs absence were very willing to be persuaded of its truth. The religion of Jehovah had always imposed a check on social and civic wrong, and men whose power rested on violence and oppression could not but rejoice to be rid of it. So they seem to have acquiesced readily enough in the conclusion to which so many circumstances seemed to point, that Jehovah had ceased to interest Himself either for good or evil in them and their affairs. Still, the wide acceptance of a belief like this, so repugnant to all the religious ideas of the ancient world, seems to require for its explanation some fact of contemporary history. It has been thought that it arose from the disappearance of the ark of Jehovah from the Temple. It seems from the third chapter of Jeremiah that the ark was no longer in existence in Josiahs reign, and that the want of it was felt as a grave religious loss. It is not improbable that this circumstance, in connection with the disasters which had marked the last days of the kingdom, led in many minds to the fear and in some to the hope that along with His most venerable symbol Jehovah Himself had Vanished from their midst.
It should be noticed that the feeling described was only one of several currents that ran in the divided society of Jerusalem. It is quite a different point of view that is presented in the taunt quoted in Eze 11:15, that the exiles were far from Jehovah, and had therefore lost their right to their possessions. But the religious despair is not only the most startling fact that we have to look at; it is also the one that is made most prominent in the vision. And the Divine answer to it given through Ezekiel is that the conviction is true; Jehovah has forsaken the land. But in the first place the cause of His departure is found in those very practices for which it was made the excuse: and in the second, although He has ceased to dwell in the midst of His people, He has lost neither the power nor the will to punish their iniquities. To impress these truths first on his fellow-exiles and then on the whole nation is the chief object of the chapter before us.
Now we find that the general sense of God-forsakenness expressed itself principally in two directions. On the one hand it led to the multiplication of false objects of worship to supply the place of Him who was regarded as the proper tutelary Divinity of Israel; on the other hand, it produced a reckless, devil-may-care spirit of resistance against any odds, such as was natural to men who had only material interests to fight for, and nothing to trust in but their own right hand. Syncretism in religion and fatalism in politics-these were the twin symptoms of the decay of faith among the upper classes in Jerusalem. But these belong to two different parts of the vision which we must now distinguish.
I.
The first part deals with the departure of Jehovah as caused by religious offences perpetrated in the Temple, and with the return of Jehovah to destroy the city on account of these offences. The prophet is transported in “visions of God” to Jerusalem and placed in the outer court near the northern gate, outside of which was the site where the “image of Jealousy” had stood in the time of Manasseh. Near him stands the appearance which he had learned to recognise as the glory of Jehovah, signifying that Jehovah has, for a purpose not yet disclosed, revisited His Temple. But first Ezekiel must be made to see the state of things which exists in this Temple which had once been the seat of Gods presence. Looking through the gate to the north, he discovers that the image of Jealousy has been restored to its old place. This is the first and apparently the least heinous of the abominations that defiled the sanctuary.
The second scene is the only one of the four which represents a secret cult. Partly perhaps for that reason it strikes our minds as the most repulsive of all; but that was obviously not Ezekiels estimate of it. There are greater abominations to follow. It is difficult to understand the particulars of Ezekiels description, especially in the Hebrew text (the LXX is simpler); but it seems impossible to escape the impression that there was something obscene in a worship where idolatry appears as ashamed of itself. The essential fact, however, is that the very highest and most influential men in the land were addicted to a form of heathenism, whose objects of worship were pictures of “horrid creeping things, and cattle, and all the gods of the house of Israel.” The name of one of these men, the leader in this superstition, is given, and is significant of the state of life in Jerusalem shortly before its fall. Jaazaniah was the son of Shaphan, who is probably identical with the chancellor of Josiahs reign whose sympathy with the prophetic teaching was evinced by his zeal in the cause of reform. We read of other members of the family who were faithful to the national religion, such as his son Ahikam, also a zealous reformer, and his grandson Gedaliah, Jeremiahs friend and patron, and the governor appointed over Judah by Nebuchadnezzar after the taking of the city. The family was thus divided both in religion and politics. While one branch was devoted to the worship of Jehovah and favoured submission to the king of Babylon, Jaazaniah belonged to the opposite party and was the ringleader in a peculiarly obnoxious form of idolatry.
The third “abomination” is a form of idolatry widely diffused over Western Asia-the annual mourning for Tammuz. Tammuz was originally a Babylonian deity (Dumuzi), but his worship is specially identified with Phoenicia, whence under the name Adonis it was introduced into Greece. The mourning celebrates the death of the god, which is an emblem of the decay of the earths productive powers, whether due to the scorching heat of the sin or to the cold of winter. It seems to have been a comparatively harmless rite of nature-religion, and its popularity among the women of Jerusalem at this time may be due to the prevailing mood of despondency which found vent in the sympathetic contemplation of that aspect of nature which most suggests decay and death.
The last and greatest of the abominations practised in and near the Temple is the worship of the sun. The peculiar enormity of this species of idolatry can hardly lie in the object of adoration; it is to be sought rather in the place where it was practised, and in the rank of those who took part in it, who were probably priests. Standing between the porch and the altar, with their backs to the Temple, these men unconsciously expressed the deliberate rejection of Jehovah which was involved in their idolatry. The worship of the heavenly bodies was probably imported into Israel from Assyria and Babylon, and its prevalence in the later years of the monarchy was due to political rather than religious influences. The gods of these imperial nations were esteemed more potent than those of the states which succumbed to their power, and hence men who were losing confidence in their national deity naturally sought to imitate the religions of the most powerful peoples known to them.
In the arrangement of the four specimens of the religious practices which prevailed in Jerusalem, Ezekiel seems to proceed from the most familiar and explicable to the more outlandish defections from the purity of the national faith. At the same time his description shows how different classes of society were implicated in the sin of idolatry-the elders, the women, and the priests. During all this time the glory of Jehovah has stood in the court, and there is something very impressive in the picture of these infatuated men and women preoccupied with their unholy devotions and all unconscious of the presence of Him whom they deemed to have forsaken the land. To the open eye of the prophet the meaning of the vision must be already clear, but the sentence comes from the mouth of Jehovah Himself: “Hast thou seen, Son of man? Is it too small a thing for the house of Judah to practise the abominations which they have here practised, that they must also fill the land with violence, and (so) provoke Me again to anger? So will I act towards them in anger: My eye shall not pity, nor will I spare.” {Eze 8:17-18}
The last words introduce the account of the punishment or Jerusalem, which is given of course in the symbolic form suggested by the scenery of the vision. Jehovah has meanwhile risen from His throne near the cherubim, and stands on the threshold of the Temple. There He summons to His side the destroyers who are to execute His purpose-six angels, each with a weapon of destruction in his hand. A seventh of higher rank clothed in linen appears with the implements of a scribe in his girdle. These stand “beside the brasen altar,” and await the commands of Jehovah. The first act of the judgment is a massacre of the inhabitants of the city, without distinction of age or rank or sex. But, in accordance with his strict view of the Divine righteousness, Ezekiel is led to conceive of this last judgment as discriminating carefully between the righteous and the wicked. All those who have inwardly separated themselves from the guilt of the city by hearty detestation of the iniquities perpetrated in its midst are distinguished by a mark on their foreheads before the work of slaughter begins. What became of this faithful remnant it does not belong to the vision to declare. Beginning with the twenty men before the porch, the destroying angels follow the man with the inkhorn through the streets of the city, and slay all on whom he has not set his mark. When the messengers have gone out on their dread errand, Ezekiel, realising the full horror of a scene which he dare not describe, falls prostrate before Jehovah, deprecating the outbreak of indignation which threatened to extinguish “the remnant of Israel.” He is reassured by the declaration that the guilt of Judah and Israel demands no less a punishment than this, because the notion that Jehovah had forsaken the land had opened the floodgates of iniquity, and filled the land with bloodshed and the city with oppression. Then the man in the linen robes returns and announces, “It is done as Thou hast commanded.”
The second act of the judgment is the destruction of Jerusalem by fire. This is symbolised by the scattering over the city of burning coals taken from the altar-hearth under the throne of God. The man with the linen garments is directed to step between the wheels and take out fire for this purpose. The description of the execution of this order is again carried no further than what actually takes place before the prophets eyes: the man took the fire and went out. In the place where we might have expected to have an account of the destruction of the city, we have a second description of the appearance and motions of the merkaba, the purpose of which it is difficult to divine. Although it deviates slightly from the account in chapter 1, the differences appear to have no significance, and indeed it is expressly said to be the same phenomenon. The whole passage is certainly superfluous, and might be omitted but for the difficulty of imagining any motive that would have tempted a scribe to insert it. We must keep in mind the possibility that this part of the book had been committed to writing before the final redaction of Ezekiels prophecies, and the description in Eze 8:8-17 may have served a purpose there which is superseded by the fuller narrative which we now possess in chapter 1.
In this way Ezekiel penetrates more deeply into the inner meaning of the judgment on city and people whose external form he had announced in his earlier prophecy. It must be admitted that Jehovahs strange work bears to our minds a more appalling aspect when thus presented in symbols than the actual calamity would bear when effected through the agency of second causes. Whether it had the same effect on the mind of a Hebrew, who hardly believed in second causes, is another question. In any case it gives no ground for the charge made against Ezekiel of dwelling with a malignant satisfaction on the most repulsive features of a terrible picture. He is indeed capable of a rigorous logic in exhibiting the incidence of the law of retribution which was to him the necessary expression of the Divine righteousness. That it included the death of every sinner and the overthrow of a city that had become a scene of violence and cruelty was to him a self-evident truth, and more than this the vision does not teach. On the contrary, it contains traits which tend to moderate the inevitable harshness of the truth conveyed. With great reticence it allows the execution of the judgment to take place behind the scenes, giving only those details which were necessary to suggest its nature. While it is being carried out the attention of the reader is engaged in the presence of Jehovah, or his mind is occupied with the principles which made the punishment a moral necessity. The prophets expostulations with Jehovah show that he was not insensible to the miseries of his people, although he saw them to be inevitable. Further, this vision shows as clearly as any passage in his writings the injustice of the view which represents him as more concerned for petty details of ceremonial than for the great moral interests of a nation. If any feeling expressed in the vision is to be regarded as Ezekiels own, then indignation against outrages on human life and liberty must be allowed to weigh more with him than offences against ritual purity. And, finally, it is clearly one object of the vision to show that in the destruction of Jerusalem no individual shall be involved who is not also implicated in the guilt which calls down wrath upon her.
II.
The second part of the vision (chapter 11) is hut loosely connected with the first. Here Jerusalem still exists, and men are alive who must certainly have perished in the “visitation of the city” if the writer had still kept himself within the limits of his previous conception. But in truth the two have little in common, except the Temple, which is the scene of both, and the cherubim, whose movements mark the transition from the one to the other. The glory of Jehovah is already departing from the house when it is stayed at the entrance of the east gate, to give the prophet his special message to the exiles.
Here we are introduced to the more political aspect of the situation in Jerusalem. The twenty-five men who are gathered in the east gate of the Temple are clearly the leading statesmen in the city; and two of them, whose names are given, are expressly designated as “princes of the people.” They are apparently met in conclave to deliberate on public matters, and a word from Jehovah lays open to the prophet the nature of their projects. “These are the men that plan ruin, and hold evil counsel in this city.” The evil counsel is undoubtedly the project of rebellion against the king of Babylon which must have been hatched at this time and which broke out into open revolt about three years later. The counsel was evil because directly opposed to that which Jeremiah was giving at the time in the name of Jehovah. But Ezekiel also throws invaluable light on the mood of the men who were urging the king along the path which led to ruin. “Are not the houses recently built?” they say, congratulating themselves on their success in repairing the damage done to the city in the time of Jehoiachin. The image of the pot and the flesh is generally taken to express the feeling of easy security in the fortifications of Jerusalem with which these light-hearted politicians embarked on a contest with Nebuchadnezzar. But their mood must be a gloomier one than that if there is any appropriateness in the language they use. To stew in their own juice, and over a fire of their own kindling, could hardly seem a desirable policy to sane men, however strong the pot might be. These councillors are well aware of the dangers they incur, and of the misery which their purpose must necessarily bring on the people. But they are determined to hazard everything and endure everything on the chance that the city may prove strong enough to baffle the resources of the king of Babylon. Once the fire is kindled, it will certainly be better to be in the pot than in the fire; and so long as Jerusalem holds out they will remain behind her walls. The answer which is put into the prophets mouth is that the issue will not be such as they hope for. The only “flesh” that will be left in the city will be the dead bodies of those who have been slain within her walls by the very men who hope that their lives will be given them for a prey. They themselves shall be dragged forth to meet their fate far away from Jerusalem on the “borders of Israel.” It is not unlikely that these conspirators kept their word. Although the king and all the men of war fled from the city as soon as a breach was made, we read of certain high officials who allowed themselves to be taken in the city. {Jer 52:7} Ezekiels prophecy was in their case literally fulfilled; for these men and many others were brought to the king of Babylon at Riblah, “and he smote them and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath.”
While Ezekiel was uttering this prophecy one of the councillors, named Pelatiah, suddenly fell down dead. Whether a man of this name had suddenly died in Jerusalem under circumstances that had deeply impressed the prophets mind, or whether the death belongs to the vision, it is impossible for us to tell. To Ezekiel the occurrence seemed an earnest of the complete destruction of the remnant of Israel by the wrath of God, and, as before, he fell on his face to intercede for them. It is then that he receives the message which seems to form the Divine answer to the perplexities which haunted the minds of the exiles in Babylon.
In their attitude towards the exiles the new leaders in Jerusalem took up a position as highly privileged religious persons, quite at variance with the scepticism which governed their conduct at home. When they were following the bent of their natural inclinations by practising idolatry and perpetrating judicial murders in the city, their cry was, “Jehovah hath forsaken the land; Jehovah seeth it not.” When they were eager to justify their claim to the places and possessions left vacant by their banished countrymen, they said, “They are far from Jehovah: to us the land is given in possession.” They were probably equally sincere and equally insincere in both professions. They had simply learned the art which comes easily to men of the world of using religion as a cloak for greed, and throwing it off when greed could be best gratified without it. The idea which lay under their religious attitude was that the exiles had gone into captivity because their sins had incurred Jehovahs anger, and that now His wrath was exhausted and the blessing of His favour would rest on those who had been left in the land. There was sufficient plausibility in the taunt to make it peculiarly galling to the mind of the exiles, who had hoped to exercise some influence over the government in Jerusalem, and to find their places kept for them when they should be permitted to return. It may well have been the resentment produced by tidings of this hostility towards them in Jerusalem that brought their elders to the house of Ezekiel to see if he had not some message from Jehovah to reassure them.
In the mind of Ezekiel, however, the problem took another form. To him a return to the old Jerusalem had no meaning; neither buyer nor seller should have cause to congratulate himself on his position. The possession of the land of Israel belonged to those in whom Jehovahs ideal of the new Israel was realised, and the only question of religious importance was, Where is the germ of this new Israel to be found? Amongst those who survive the judgment in the old land, or amongst those who have experienced it in the form of banishment? On this point the prophet receives an explicit revelation in answer to his intercession for “the remnant of Israel.” “Son of man, thy brethren, thy brethren, thy fellow-captives, and the whole house of Israel of whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, They are far from Jehovah: to us it is given-the land for an inheritance! Because I have removed them far among the nations, and have scattered them among the lands, and have been to them but little of a sanctuary in the lands where they have gone, therefore say, Thus saith Jehovah, so will I gather you from the peoples, and bring you from the lands where ye have been scattered, and will give you the land of Israel.” The difficult expression “I have been but little of a sanctuary” refers to the curtailment of religious privileges and means of access to Jehovah which was a necessary consequence of exile. It implies, however, that Israel in banishment had learned in some measure to preserve that separation from other peoples and that peculiar relation to Jehovah which constituted its national holiness. Religion perhaps perishes sooner from the overgrowth of ritual than from its deficiency. It is a historical fact that the very meagreness of the religion which could be practised in exile was the means of strengthening the more spiritual and permanent elements which constitute the essence of religion. The observances which could be maintained apart from the Temple acquired an importance which they never afterwards lost; and although some of these, such as circumcision, the Passover, the abstinence from forbidden food, were purely ceremonial, others, such as prayer, reading of the Scriptures, and the common worship of the synagogue, represent the purest and most indispensable forms in which communion with God can find expression. That Jehovah Himself became even in small measure what the word “sanctuary” denotes indicates an enrichment of the religious consciousness of which perhaps Ezekiel himself did not perceive the full import.
The great lesson which Ezekiels message seeks to impress on his hearers is that the tenure of the land of Israel depends on religious conditions. The land is Jehovahs, and He bestows it on those who are prepared to use it as His holiness demands. A pure land inhabited by a pure people is the ideal that underlies all Ezekiels visions of the future. It is evident that in such a conception of the relation between God and His people ceremonial conditions must occupy a conspicuous place. The sanctity of the land is necessarily of a ceremonial order, and so the sanctity of the people must consist partly in a scrupulous regard for ceremonial requirements. But after all the condition of the land with respect to purity or uncleanness only reflects the character of the nation whose home it is. The things that defile a land are such things as idols and other emblems of heathenism, innocent blood unavenged, and unnatural crimes of various kinds. These things derive their whole significance from the state of mind and heart which they embody; they are the plain and palpable emblems of human sin. It is conceivable that to some minds the outward emblems may have seemed the true seat of evil, and their removal an end in itself apart from the direction of the will by which it was brought about. But it would be a mistake to charge Ezekiel with any such obliquity of moral vision. Although he conceives sin as a defilement that leaves its mark on the material world, he clearly teaches that its essence lies in the opposition of the human will to the will of God. The ceremonial purity required of every Israelite is only the expression of certain aspects of Jehovahs holy nature, the bearing of which on mans spiritual life may have been obscure to the prophet, and is still more obscure to us. And the truly valuable element in compliance with such rules was the obedience to Jehovahs expressed will which flowed from a nature in sympathy with His. Hence in this chapter, while the first thing that the restored exiles have to do is to cleanse the land of its abominations, this act will be the expression of a nature radically changed, doing the will of God from the heart. As the emblems of idolatry that defile the land were the outcome of an irresistible national tendency to evil, so the new and sensitive spirit, taking on the impress of Jehovahs holiness through the law, shall lead to the purification of the land from those things that had provoked the eyes of His glory. “They shall come thither, and remove thence all its detestable things and all its abominations. And I will give them another heart, and put a new spirit within them. I will take away the stony heart from their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh: that they may walk in My statutes, and keep My judgments, and do them: and so shall they be My people, and I will be their God”. {Eze 11:18-20}
Thus in the mind of the prophet Jerusalem and its Temple are already virtually destroyed. He seemed to linger in the Temple court until he saw the chariot of Jehovah withdrawn from the city as a token that the glory had departed from Israel. Then the ecstasy passed away, and he found himself in the presence of the men to whom the hope of the future had been offered, but who were as yet unworthy to receive it.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary