Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 2:1
And he said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee.
1 7. The rebellious people to whom the prophet is sent
1. Son of man ] Better, child of man. The phrase is used over ninety times, and expresses the contrast between the prophet, as one of mankind, and the majesty of God, whose glory he had just seen.
stand upon thy feet ] At the sight of the great glory of God the prophet had fallen to the ground (ch. Eze 1:28). He is bidden stand on his feet. Not paralysis before him is desired by God, but reasonable service. The prophet’s falling down was natural, yet a condition unfit for God’s purposes, and not desired by him to continue. Those whom he calls to his service are his fellow-workers, who may look upon his face. It is man erect, man in his manhood, with whom God will have fellowship and with whom he will speak stand upon thy feet “that I may speak with thee.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Son of man – This phrase (which occurs elsewhere in Scripture) is applied especially to Ezekiel and Daniel, the prophets of the captivity. Ezekiel is thus reminded of his humanity, at the time when he is especially permitted to have contact with God.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
CHAPTER II
The prophet, having been overwhelmed with the glorious vision in
the preceding chapter, is here strengthened and comforted, 1, 2;
and then commissioned to declare to the rebellious house of
Israel the terrible judgments that would very shortly come upon
the whole land, if they repented not; with a gracious assurance
to Ezekiel that God would be constantly with him while executing
the duties of his office, 3-5.
The prophet is also commanded to be fearless, resolute, and
faithful in the discharge of it. 6-8,
as he must be the messenger of very unpleasing tidings, which
well expose him to great persecution, 9, 10.
NOTES ON CHAP. II
Verse 1. And he said unto me] In the last verse of the preceding chapter we find that the prophet was so penetrated with awe at the sight of the glory of God in the mystical chariot, that “he fell upon his face;” and, while he was in this posture of adoration, he heard the voice mentioned here. It is evident, therefore, that the present division of these chapters is wrong. Either the first should end with the words, “This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord,” Eze 1:28; or the first verse of this chapter should be added to the preceding, and this begin with the second verse.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And he that sat upon the throne, Jesus Christ, whose messenger Ezekiel must be to the Jewish captives, now gone into captivity to Babylon.
Son of man; a phrase very familiar with Ezekiel in this prophecy, and he useth it for distinction, being now among angels, perhaps to keep him humble, who had such great revelations, which might occasion him to think of himself above what was meet, as prophecy. 2Co 12:7.
Stand upon thy feet; arise, resume thy wonted strength of soul and body, which seem lost by thy fall to the ground. Fear not my coming to punish thee, I come to send thee forth a prophet; arise, therefore, and be as other prophets, ready to receive the Divine oracles, which usually came to prophets standing: and with this command God sent forth a power enabling him to arise and stand.
And I will speak unto thee; get thyself into a fit posture and readiness, and I will speak: what that was appears in what followeth, Eze 2:3.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. Son of manoften applied toEzekiel; once only to Daniel (Da8:17), and not to any other prophet. The phrase was no doubttaken from Chaldean usage during the sojourn of Daniel and Ezekiel inChaldea. But the spirit who sanctioned the words of the prophetimplied by it the lowliness and frailty of the prophet as man”lower than the angels,” though now admitted to the visionof angels and of God Himself, “lest he should be exalted throughthe abundance of the revelations” (2Co12:7). He is appropriately so called as being type of the divine”Son of man” here revealed as “man” (see on Eze1:26). That title, as applied to Messiah, implies at once Hislowliness and His exaltation, in His manifestations asthe Representative man, at His first and second comingsrespectively (Psa 8:4-8;Mat 16:13; Mat 20:18;and on the other hand, Dan 7:13;Dan 7:14; Mat 26:64;Joh 5:27).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And he said unto me,…. The glorious Person who sat upon the throne, whose appearance is described in the latter part of the preceding chapter:
son of man; as he was to be that spake unto him; and so it may denote relation, affection, and familiarity; or otherwise it is expressive of humiliation; of the frail, mean, and low estate of man, through the fall, Ps 8:4; wherefore some think Ezekiel is thus addressed, lest he should be lifted up, and think himself as one of the angels, because he had seen so great a vision; just as the Apostle Paul was humbled, lest he should be exalted above measure, through the visions and revelations he had, 2Co 12:7. Kimchi mentions this, but assigns another reason; that because he saw the face of a man in the above vision, he let him know that he was right and good in the eye of God; and was the son of man, and not the son of a lion, c. which is exceeding weak and trifling. Abendana, besides these, mentions some other reasons given as that because he saw the “mercavah” or chariot, and ascended to the dignity of the angels on high, it is as if it was said, there is none born of a woman, as this; or because he was carried out of the holy land, as Adam was drove out of Eden; and therefore called the son of the first Adam, being drove out of Jerusalem, and out of the temple, where he was a priest. It may be observed, that this is a name which our Lord frequently took to himself in his state of humiliation; and that none but Ezekiel, excepting once the Prophet Daniel, is called by this name; and no doubt the reason of it is, because he was an eminent type of Christ; and particularly in his mission and commission, as a prophet, to the rebellious house of Israel:
stand upon thy feet; for he was fallen upon his face, at the sight of the vision, Eze 1:28; when a divine Person speaks, men ought to stand and hear, and be in a readiness to do his pleasure:
and I will speak unto thee; which is said for his encouragement, being spoken by him who has the words of truth and grace, and of eternal life.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Call of Ezekiel to the Prophetic Office – Eze 2:1 and Eze 2:2. Upon the manifestation of the Lord follows the word of vocation. Having, in the feeling of his weakness and sinfulness, fallen to the ground before the terrible revelation of Jehovah’s glory, Ezekiel is first of all raised up again by the voice of God, to hear the word which calls him to the prophetic function. – Eze 2:1. And He said to me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, I will speak with thee. Eze 2:2 . Then came spirit unto me as He spake unto me, and it placed me on my feet, and I heard Him speaking unto me. – The address occurs so frequently in Ezekiel, that it must be regarded as one of the peculiarities of his prophecies. Elsewhere it occurs only once, Dan 8:17. That it is significant, is generally recognised, although its meaning is variously given. Most expositors take it as a reminder of the weakness and frailness of human nature; Coccejus and Kliefoth, on the contrary, connect it with the circumstance that God appears to Ezekiel in human form, and find in it a amicitiae , that God speaks in him as man to man, converses with him as a man with his friend. This last interpretation, however, has against it the usus loquendi . As denotes man according to his natural condition, it is used throughout as a synonym with , denoting the weakness and fragility of man in opposition to God; cf. Psa 8:5; Job 25:6; Isa 51:12; Isa 56:2; and Num 23:19. This is the meaning also of in the address, as may be distinctly seen from the various addresses in Daniel. Daniel is addressed, where comfort is to be imparted to him, as , “man greatly beloved,” Dan 10:11, Dan 10:19, cf. Dan 9:23; but, on the contrary, in Eze 8:17, where he has fallen on his face in terror before the appearance of Gabriel, with the words, “Understand, O son of man,” in order to remind him of his human weakness. This is also the case in our verse, where Ezekiel, too, had fallen upon his face, and by God’s word spoken to him, is again raised to his feet. It is only in Ezekiel that this address is constantly employed to mark the distance between the human weakness of his nature and the divine power which gives him the capacity and the impulse to speak. Not, however, with the design, mentioned by Jerome on Dan 8:17, “that he may not be elated on account of his high calling,” because, as Hvernick subjoins, Ezekiel’s extremely powerful and forcible nature may have needed to be perpetually reminded of what it is in reality before God. If this were the meaning and object of this address, it would also probably occur in the writings of several of the other prophets, as the supposition that the nature of Ezekiel was more powerful and forcible than that of the other prophets is altogether without foundation. The constant use of this form of address in Ezekiel is connected rather with the manner and fashion in which most of the revelations were imparted to him, that is, with the prevalence of “vision,” in which the distinction between God and man comes out more prominently than in ordinary inspiration or revelation, effected by means of an impression upon the inner faculties of man. The bringing prominently forward, however, of the distance between God and men is to remind the prophet, as well as the people to whom he communicated his revelations, not merely of the weakness of humanity, but to show them, at the same time, how powerfully the word of God operates in feeble man, and also that God, who has selected the prophet as the organ of His will, possesses also the power to redeem the people, that were lying powerless under the oppression of the heathen, from their misery, and to raise them up again. – At the word of the Lord, “ Stand upon thy feet,” came into the prophet, which raised him to his feet. here is not “life consciousness” (Hitzig), but the spirit-power which proceeds from God, and which is conveyed through the word which imparted to him the strength to stand before the face of God, and to undertake His command. , partic. Hithpa., properly “ collocutor,” occurs here and in Eze 43:6, and in Num 7:89; elsewhere, only in 2Sa 14:13.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Prophet Commissioned to Reprove. | B. C. 595. |
1 And he said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee. 2 And the spirit entered into me when he spake unto me, and set me upon my feet, that I heard him that spake unto me. 3 And he said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed against me, even unto this very day. 4 For they are impudent children and stiff-hearted. I do send thee unto them; and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD. 5 And they, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, (for they are a rebellious house,) yet shall know that there hath been a prophet among them.
The title here given to Ezekiel, as often afterwards, is very observable. God, when he speaks to him, calls him, Son of man (Eze 2:1; Eze 2:3), Son of Adam, Son of the earth. Daniel is once called so (Dan. viii. 17) and but once; the compellation is used to no other of the prophets but to Ezekiel all along. We may take it, 1. As a humble diminishing title. Lest Ezekiel should be lifted up with the abundance of the revelations, he is put in mind of this, that sill he is a son of man, a mean, weak, mortal creature. Among other things made known to him, it was necessary he should be made to know this, that he was a son of man, and therefore that it was wonderful condescension in God that he was pleased thus to manifest himself to him. Now he is among the living creatures, the angels; yet he must remember that he is himself a man, a dying creature. What is man, or the son of man, that he should be thus visited, thus dignified? Though God had here a splendid retinue of holy angles about his throne, who were ready to go on his errands, yet he passes them all by, and pitches on Ezekiel, a son of man, to be his messenger to the house of Israel; for we have this treasure in earthen vessels, and God’s messages sent us by men like ourselves, whose terror shall not make us afraid nor their hand be heavy upon us. Ezekiel was a priest, but the priesthood was brought low and the honour of it laid in the dust. It therefore became him, and all of his order, to humble themselves, and to lie low, as sons of men, common men. He was now to be employed as a prophet, God’s ambassador, and a ruler over the kingdoms (Jer. i. 10), a post of great honour, but he must remember that he is a son of man, and, whatever good he did, it was not by any might of his own, for he was a son of man, but in the strength of divine grace, which must therefore have all the glory. Or, 2. We may take it as an honourable dignifying title; for it is one of the titles of the Messiah in the Old Testament (Dan. vii. 13, I saw one like the Son of man come with the clouds of heaven), whence Christ borrows the title he often calls himself by, The Son of man. The prophets were types of him, as they had near access to God and great authority among men; and therefore as David the king is called the Lord’s anointed, or Christ, so Ezekiel the prophet is called son of man.
I. Ezekiel is here set up, and made to stand, that he might receive his commission, Eze 2:1; Eze 2:2. He is set up,
1. By a divine command: Son of man, stand upon thy feet. His lying prostrate was a posture of greater reverence, but his standing up would be a posture of greater readiness and fitness for business. Our adorings of God must not hinder, but rather quicken and excite, our actings for God. He fell on his face in a holy fear and awe of God, but he was quickly raised up again; for those that humble themselves shall be exalted. God delights no in the dejections of his servants, but the same that brings them low will raise them up; the same that is a Spirit of bondage will be a Spirit of adoption. Stand, and I will speak to thee. Note, We may expect that God will speak to us when we stand ready to do what he commands us.
2. By a divine power going along with that command, v. 2. God bade him stand up; but, because he had not strength of his own to recover his feet nor courage to face the vision, the Spirit entered into him and set him upon his feet. Note, God is graciously pleased to work that in us which he requires of us and raises those whom he bids rise. We must stir up ourselves, and then God will put strength into us; we must work out our salvation, and then God will work in us. He observed that the Spirit entered into him when Christ spoke to him; for Christ conveys his Spirit by his word as the ordinary means and makes the word effectual by the Spirit. The Spirit set the prophet upon his feet, to raise him up from his dejections, for he is the Comforter. Thus, in a similar case, Daniel was strengthened by a divine touch (Dan. x. 18) and John was raised by the right hand of Christ laid upon him, Rev. i. 17. The Spirit set him upon his feet, made him willing and forward to do as he was bidden, and then he heard him that spoke to him. He heard the voice before (ch. i. 28), but now he heard it more distinctly and clearly, heard it and submitted to it. The Spirit sets us upon our feet by inclining our will to our duty, and thereby disposes the understanding to receive the knowledge of it.
II. Ezekiel is here sent, and made to go, with a message to the children of Israel (v. 3): I send thee to the children of Israel. God had for many ages been sending to them his servants the prophets, rising up betimes and sending them, but to little purpose; they were now sent into captivity for abusing God’s messengers, and yet even there God sends this prophet among them, to try if their ears were open to discipline, now that they were holden in the cords of affliction. As the supports of life, so the means of grace, are continued to us after they have been a thousand times forfeited. Now observe,
1. The rebellion of the people to whom this ambassador is sent; he is sent to reduce them to their allegiance, to bring back the children of Israel to the Lord their God. Let the prophet know that there is occasion for his going on this errand, for they are a rebellious nation (v. 3), a rebellious house, v. 5. They are called children of Israel; they retain the name of their pious ancestors, but they have wretchedly degenerated, they have become Goim–nations, the word commonly used for the Gentiles. The children of Israel have become as the children of the Ethiopian (Amos ix. 7), for they are rebellious; and rebels at home are much more provoking to a prince than enemies abroad. Their idolatries and false worships were the sins which, more than any thing, denominated them a rebellious nation; for thereby they set up another prince in opposition to their rightful Sovereign, and did homage and paid tribute to the usurper, which is the highest degree of rebellion that can be. (1.) They had been all along a rebellious generation and had persisted in their rebellion: They and their fathers have transgressed against me. Note, Those are not always in the right that have antiquity and the fathers on their side; for there are errors and corruptions of long standing: and it is so far from being an excuse for walking in a bad way that our fathers walked in it that it is really an aggravation, for it is justifying the sin of those that have gone before us. They have continued in their rebellion even unto this very day; notwithstanding the various means and methods that have been made use of to reclaim them, to this day, when they are under divine rebukes for their rebellion, they continue rebellious; many among them, like Ahaz, even in their distress, trespass yet more; they are not the better for all the changes that have befallen them, but still remain unchanged. (2.) They were now hardened in their rebellion. They are impudent children, brazen-faced, and cannot blush; they are still-hearted, self-willed, and cannot bend, cannot stoop, neither ashamed nor afraid to sin; they will not be wrought upon by the sense either of honour or duty. We are willing to hope this was not the character of all, but of many, and those perhaps the leading men. Observe, [1.] God knew this concerning them, how inflexible, how incorrigible, they were. Note, God is perfectly acquainted with every man’s true character, whatever his pretensions and professions may be. [2.] He told the prophet this, that he might know the better how to deal with them and what handle to take them by. He must rebuke such men as those sharply, cuttingly, must deal plainly with them, though they call it dealing roughly. God tells him this, that it might be no surprise or stumbling-block to him if he found that his preaching should not make that impression upon them, which he had reason to think it would.
2. The dominion of the prince by whom this ambassador is sent. (1.) He has authority to command him whom he sends: “I do send thee unto them, and therefore thou shalt say thus and thus unto them,” v. 4. Note, it is the prerogative of Christ to send prophets and ministers and to enjoin them their work. St. Paul thanked Christ Jesus who put him into the ministry (1 Tim. i. 12); for, as he was sent of the Father, ministers are sent by him; and as he received the Spirit without measure he gives the Spirit by measure, saying, Receive you the Holy Ghost. They are impudent and rebellious, and yet I send thee unto them. Note, Christ gives the means of grace to many who he knows will not make a good use of those means, puts many a price into the hand of fools to get wisdom, who not only have no heart to it, but have their hearts turned against it. Thus he will magnify his own grace, justify his own judgment, leave them inexcusable, and make their condemnation more intolerable. (2.) He has authority by him to command those to whom he sends him: Thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God. All he said to them must be spoken in God’s name, enforced by his authority, and delivered as from him. Christ delivered his doctrines as a Son–Verily, verily, I say unto you; the prophets as servants–Thus saith the Lord God, our Master and yours. Note, The writings of the prophets are the word of God, and so are to be regarded by every one of us. (3.) He has authority to call those to an account to whom he sends his ambassadors. Whether they will hear or whether they will forbear, whether they will attend to the word or turn their backs upon it, they shall know that there has been a prophet among them, shall know by experience. [1.] If they hear and obey, they will know by comfortable experience that the word which did them good was brought to them by one that had a commission from God and a divine power going along with him in the execution of it. Thus those who were converted by St. Paul’s preaching are said to be the seals of his apostleship, 1 Cor. ix. 2. When men’s hearts are made to burn under the word, and their wills to bow to it, then they know and bear the witness in themselves that it is not the word of men, but of God. [2.] If they forbear, if they turn a deaf ear to the word (as it is to be feared they will, for they are a rebellious house), yet they shall be made to know that he whom they slighted was indeed a prophet, by the reproaches of their own consciences and the just judgments of God upon them for refusing him; they shall know it to their cost, know it to their confusion, know it by sad experience, what a pernicious dangerous thing it is to despise God’s messengers. They shall know by the accomplishment of the threatenings that the prophet who denounced them was sent of God; thus the word will take hold of men, Zech. i. 6. Note, First, Those to whom the word of God is sent are upon their trial whether they will hear or whether they will forbear, and accordingly will their doom be. Secondly, Whether we be edified by the word or no, it is certain that God will be glorified and his word magnified and made honourable. Whether it be a savour of life unto life or of death unto death, either way it will appear to be of divine original.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
2
EZEKIEL – CHAPTER 2
THE EMPOWERING OF THE SPIRIT, v. 1, 2
Verses 1, 2:
Verse 1 recounts Ezekiel’s call from the man upon the throne. He called to Ezekiel “Son of man, stand upon thy feet.” This phrase “Son of man” was used by our Lord of Himself seventy nine (79) times in the New Testament, meaning “heir of humanity,” or “heir-redeemer” of humanity, 1Co 15:45-47. Of Ezekiel, Jehovah uses the term 91 times, indicating that the message of Ezekiel was to be concerning the redemption of all men, not merely that of Judaism. His call to stand upon his feet called for attention and reverence to the voice of a majestic authority, from whom he was to receive a call and instructions, as used Dan 10:11; Act 26:14-18. This phrase “Son of man” was used by Jehovah in addressing Ezekiel and Daniel only once as Old Testament prophets, Dan 8:17. Each was to understand that redemption was to be offered to all nations, to all people, not to Israel only, Joh 3:16; Rom 1:16.
Verse 2 adds that the empowering spirit, the same spirit that directed the four living creatures and the four double wheels, entered into Ezekiel when the majestic voice came from the throne, called upon him to stand upon his feet as one who says to his master “say on”, “I am at your command,” or “I am available.” See Eze 3:12; Eze 3:14 and Amo 3:7; Rev 22:19. Ezekiel then affirmed that he gave heed or responded obediently to the majestic voice from upon the throne, Luk 14:35 b. It is not by “might” nor “by power,” but by the spirit (Divine dynamics) from God that men may understand and do the will of God, Zec 4:6; Rom 8:9; Rom 8:14-16.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
Here the Prophet narrates that he was chosen by the command of God. For God never prostrates his people so as to leave them lying upon the earth, but continually raises them afterwards. As to the reprobate, they are so frightened at the sight of God, that they utterly fall and never rise again. But it is different with the faithful, because the pride of the flesh is corrected in them; then God stretches forth his hand to them, and restores them, as it were, from death to life. And this difference we must mark diligently, because we see the impious often dread the voice of God. But if they disdainfully despise him when speaking, they are frightened by his hand when some signs of his wrath and vengeance appear: but yet they remain lifeless. In like manner the faithful dread the voice of God, but the result is altogether different, as we see here: because after God has humbled them, he commands them to be of good courage, and shows that he intended nothing else but to establish them by his power. At the same time the Prophet teaches that nothing was accomplished by this voice till the Spirit was added. God indeed works efficiently by his own words, but we must hold that this efficacy is not contained in the words themselves, but proceeds from the secret instinct of the Spirit. The Prophet therefore shows us both truths. On one side he says, I heard the voice of God, so that I stood on my feet: God thus wished to animate his confidence: but he adds that he was not raised up by the voice, until the Spirit placed him on his feet
This work of the Spirit, then, is joined with the word of God. But a distinction is made, that we may know that the external word is of no avail by itself, unless animated by the power of the Spirit. If any one should object, that the word was useless, because not efficacious by itself, the solution is at hand, that if God takes this method of acting there is no reason why we should object to it. But we have a still clearer reply: since God always works in the hearts of men by the Spirit, yet his word is not. without fruit; because, as God enlightens us by the sun, and yet he alone is the Father of Lights, and the splendor of the sun is profitless except as God uses it as an instrument, so we must conclude concerning his word, because the Holy Spirit penetrates our hearts, and thus enlightens our minds. All power of action, then, resides in the Spirit himself, and thus all praise ought to be entirely referred to God alone. Meanwhile, what. objection is there to the Spirit of God using instruments? We hold, therefore, that when God speaks, he adds the efficacy of his Spirit, since his word without it would be fruitless; and yet the word is effectual, because the instrument ought to be united with the author of the action. This doctrine, thus briefly expounded, may suffice to refute foolish objections, which are always in the mouths of many who fret about man’s free-will: they say, that we can either attend to the word which is offered to us or re jeer it: but we see what the Prophet says. If any of us is fit for rendering obedience to God, the Prophet certainly excelled in this disposition, and yet the word of God had no efficacy in his case, until the Spirit gave him strength to rise upon his feet Hence we collect, that it is not in our power to obey what God commands us, except this power proceeds from him. Now it follows —
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
HEARING THE VOICE OF GOD
Eze 2:1 to Eze 3:27
IN our previous discourse we discussed the visions of God. Visions without a voice might be easily misinterpreted. That is why God, having revealed Himself, commonly expresses Himself. God has from the first made appeal to man both through eye and ear. His earliest manifestation was immediately upon His finished creation, for no sooner was that greatest marvel of the Divine endeavor finished in Adam and Eve, than God, who stood before them, blessed them and expressed to them both His pleasure and His plan.
After the fall this custom was not changed, for God walked in the Garden of Eden, in the cool of the day, and when Adam and his wife hid themselves from His presence, God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou?
The manifestation then, in sight and speech, has been the common course of Divine conduct. To the discerning eye God is manifest; and to the hearing ear God is vocal. This also is of grace, namely, that the Almighty One, and the One all-wise, should consent to walk and talk with man.
The Scripture for todays study finds its existence, as well as its explanation, in that fact. It opens with the Voice of God; it rehearses the Vices of Israel: it concludes with The Vision of the Book.
THE VOICE OF GOD
And He said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee.
And the Spirit entered into me when He spake unto me, and set me upon my feet, that I heard Him that spake unto me.
And He said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the Children of Israel (Eze 2:1-3).
God communes then with a mortal man. Son of man as employed here is not to be interpreted as it was when applied to Jesus Christ. Then it meant the totality of all that was highest in human kind. Here it means the off-spring of the flesh, a mere mortal.
In reading the New Testament one might conclude that Son of Man always referred to the God-man; but in the Old Testament one discovers that it was once used as here, a mere reference to fleshly descent, with possibly the additional suggestion of fair human representation.
Daniel was one so described. The exact language as addressed to him, was, Understand, O son of man: for at the time of the end shall be the vision. And Daniel records, Now as He was speaking with me, I was in a deep sleep on my face toward the ground (Dan 8:17-18).
Aside, however, from the two instances of Daniel and Ezekiel, the term was reserved for Him who was at once the Son of Man, Davids descendant, and the Son of God, the Fathers equal.
But the language, here, is as if He had said, Man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee!
Both the tone and the language employed convey the dual thought: (1) God deigns to talk face to face with mortals; and (2) What God has to say is so important that ones attitude should be the very best for hearing. Not that of a man prone on the ground but that of a man on his feet, his spirit alert, his ears itching to catch every syllable and every word.
There are men who talk about progressive revelation and who almost uniformly finish their argument with the conclusion that God is still speaking to us, and that what He says is just as much inspired, and is as equally sacred as are the Old and New Testament Scriptures.
We consent to their first proposition, but dissent from their conclusion. Verily God is still in communication with men. He speaks to us in the still small voice and often makes duty clear, and gives to privilege, assurance. But there are few indications either that the Bible, as we have it, is an incomplete revelation, or that these whispers of the Holy Ghost constitute a new bible.
Dr. R. F. Horton, in his volume Verbim Dei makes an eloquent plea for continued revelation, but strangely admits that after we have received all that God has to say to the present day individual, We return to the Bible to find the message there, more luminous, more harmonious, more Divine.
A few years ago H. G. Wells, the tin-god modernist, promised the world a new bible; but up to the present he has not produced it, and we imagine that when it comes it will be a sorry substitute for the old.
This is not to deny that God is still speaking with men; but it is to affirm that His speech, as recorded in the volume for which He takes full responsibility, is still living, vocal and eloquent; and through it He talks with mortals, directs their conduct and even determines their destiny.
It is not necessary to either behold the face or hear the voice in order to get a direct and Divine message. I have not seen my daughter for months, and of course in that time I have not had one sound from her lips; but, in the letter of the week, her heart and mind were as perfectly expressed, as though I had been in her presence.
God does talk with men; God does tell us His thought, but does that even best by the letters of His love, recorded in the sacred pages; by the counsels of His wisdom to be found in the same; yea, even, by the words of His warning sprinkled here and there.
Of course revelation has not ended, the Bible is not a dead Book; it is a living one, and Gods voice is not silenced, it is eloquent, and mans soul is not paralyzed, save by sin! The saint can hear and feel and respond.
Ezekiel wrote, [God] said unto me, and the present-day Christian can equally affirm, God talked to me!
His voice and His speech were clean Ezekiel says, I heard Him that spake unto me. Certainly!
When He visited Daniel, who had seen a vision, he said unto Daniel, Behold, I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation: for at the time appointed the end shall be (Dan 8:19).
And then He straightway explained to Daniel the meaning of the vision he had beheld.
When Paul was on his way to Damascus Suddenly there shined round about him a light from Heaven: and he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? And when he heard the voice, he said, Who art Thou, Lord?
The people who were with him heard the voice but did not distinguish the sound. The speech was intended for him and him alone.
When John was in the Isle of Patmos he also was granted a vision, and at the sight of the same he fell at His feet as dead, but the Lord laid His right hand upon [him], saying unto [him], Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore. * * Write the things which thou hast seen, etc.
According to the Book itself the printed revelation is complete; and so far as human experience or observation goes, we have no need of further printed revelation. Mans salvation is there fully provided and presented! Not one path of duty but is illumined; not one place of privilege but is marked; not one bypath of danger, but is so labeled. And yet, God adds to a perfect guide the still small voice, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it.
I never yet have heard a sound that I believed was made by the mouth of my God; but I insist He has spoken to me many times, and though the outer ear caught nothing, to the inner ear His Word was louder than thunder. When duty waited me, I knew His will; when danger threatened me I heard His warning! My failures, at least, are not Gods fault.
How much of light may fall upon the path of the unbeliever we may not know; but for the believer, at least, there is enough and to spare. If we walk in the darkness it is because we fail to keep our fellowship with Him.
There are times when some hotel puts me in an outside room next to the street car, on a summer night; and the sounds are disturbing. Being dull in my left ear I immediately sink my right ear deeply into the pillow and so succeed in hushing the sounds that threaten sleep. I have sometimes thought that when the voice of God is indistinct and not understandable it is because we have turned a deaf ear toward Him, and when the path is obscure it is because we have left in neglect the Word that would have been a lamp to our feet and a light to our pathway.
Again, God speaks in the interest of His own.
Son of man, I send thee to the Children of Israel.
What a significant phrase, The Children of Israel! How that phrase looms in all Old Testament Scripture! From the twelfth chapter of Genesis, (where God called Abraham,) to the last chapter of Revelation, (where Israel, redeemed from sin, completes Gods victory against the adversary,) this is an ever-recurrent phrase, Children of Israel.
There is an utter indisposition in these days to believe that God has or ever had any favorites in the nations of the earth; but if His special interest in Israel be denied, those who so argue have upon their hands the colossal task of explaining this peopletheir past, their present, and their prospects. They have held the center of history for five thousand years; and to-day, living without a country they can call their own, scattered, harried, despised, there is a universal feeling that somehow the future itself is so tied up with them that you cannot imagine its procedure apart from them.
For thousands of years they have moved through the world as the Gulf Stream moves through the ocean; in it yet not of it; a part of it, yet separate from it; and as the Gulf Stream affects the temperature of every shore, so Israel largely dominates the temper of every nation, and there is not the slightest prospect that her influence will ever lessen, much less, her history end.
The reason is not far to seek, God is still interested in Israel. Do you not recall Pauls Letter to the Romans, how after having presented their folly, their terrible defection from the Faith, their deep degradation through sin, their utter opposition to the very God whose promises were always their sufficiency and at times their sole support, he comes at last to the question, Hath God cast away His people? (Rom 11:1), and answers:
God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
God hath not cast away His people which He foreknew.
God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear.
Rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy (Rom 11:2; Rom 11:8; Rom 11:11).
Israel has a future, and, on that account, Gods interest in them never wanes; and the worlds interest waxes.
Their cast off condition, however, is in sheer consequence of what is suggested in todays text, namely,
THE VICES OF ISRAEL
They are a rebellious people. The Lord says of them,
A rebellious nation that hath rebelled against Me: they and their fathers have transgressed against Me (Eze 2:3).
They are impudent children and stiff hearted (Eze 2:4).
Be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words,
* * nor be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house (Eze 2:6).
Thou shalt speak My Words unto them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear: for they are most rebellious (Eze 2:7).
A year or two ago Corra Harris, a woman novelist, was reported to have accepted a Chair in Rollins college, Winter Park, Florida, where Hamilton Holt was President, and where the educational laboratory was supposed to uncover the last secret of life.
Corras chair was called THE CHAIR OF EVIL. She was to have students selected from the more advanced group and they were to be led in a study of evil. The President said the class would not consider the actual practice of evil, but rather, the history and philosophy of it as contrasted from virtue.
Evil, Mr. Holt explained, is one of the oldest classics of human nature. It is usually taught by people morally illiterate and mentally corrupt, when it should be an important part of the education of youth, carefully analyzed and defined with reference to preparing adolescent youth for dealing intelligently rather than emotionally or weakly with instincts, not merely of the body but of the mind.
But Mrs. Harris does not enjoy the distinction she imagines. There was another woman who beat her to this office, and her name was Eve, and she taught Adam in this particular branch.
Evidently they were both fairly good scholars, judging by the aptitude of their descendants, for though Israel was looked upon by God, and was doubtless of the best nation for goodness and righteousness and uprightness, yet a large portion of the Old Testament was given to the pathetic confession of Israels failure in virtue and falling into vice.
If, therefore, this ancient people, well-advanced in intelligence, well-environed in location, and well-instructed in morals,recognizing God not only as existing, but as the rewarder of righteousness itself,failed, what chance is there for the Russian experiment which multiplies instructors in sin, refuses even the admonitions of the Prophets of righteousness, and dispenses with God altogether?
Frank E. Downs, newspaper correspondent, wrote recently upon Russias failure, and declared that it was a uniform debacle. The five-year-plan, so much published and praised, he insists is a signal failure; and literally millions of Russia were entering upon a winter, alarmed lest sheer starvation should overtake them. He declares the promoters of the plan to be in dire financial straits, their industrial employees from America were being sent back, not because they had completed their job, but because there was no longer money with which to retain them. Their people are ill content; their future problematical, but with a fair certainty of ignominious failure.
What else was to be expected! The fate of Israel in forgetting God would naturally not exceed the sorrows of Russia in rejecting Him; and yet for Israel the promise was lamentations, and mourning, and woe (Eze 2:10).
Yet they resented Prophet-interference. God, knowing this, warned Ezekielbriars and thorns * * and * * scorpions all to be endured if he prove faithful. God never sends a man out under false pretenses. He never paints the path to be pressed by the Prophets feet in rosy colors. He knows full well the unpopularity of prophetic work. The commission to duty is not a picnic of delights. Turning men from sin to righteousness is not a spare minute pleasant job. Preaching the truth is not an attendance upon a pink tea. When Christ commissioned the Twelve He said:
Go. * * And as ye go, preach * * Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.
Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses?.
Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless, as doves.
But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues;
And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for My sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. etc.
Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul.
What a commission! What courage was required! The cause that marks progress without opposition is a worthless cause. The gospel that costs one nothing to receive it and taxes one in no whit to deliver it, is no gospel.
I heard a preacher praised as never having made an enemy. What a doubtful commendation! How unlike his Masters experience, and equally unlike his Masters ministry. They opposed Him; they hated Him; they caused His arrest; they cried, Crucify Him, they nailed Him to the Cross, they scoffed at and spit upon Him when He was dying.
Paul dared to write to Timothy, anticipating the end of the age,
This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good.
Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away (1Ti 3:1-5).
As Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the Truth (1Ti 3:8).
Thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience, persecutions etc. (1Ti 3:10-12).
If any man say that Paul was indulging in a distempered imagination, look about you and see if it be not so, even now; perilous times have come! Every single prophecy of that Apostle has been fulfilled. It is a day when the cowardly are seeking a substitute for Christianity; and philosophies are being put forth in the Name of Christ that have no more kinship to Christianity than chalk has to cheese. The day when the Virgin Birth is laughed at by the biologists, the time when miracles are scoffed by the materialists, the day when the Atonement is rejected by the Unitarians, the day when the inspiration of the Scriptures is derided by new theologians, and when the Holy Ghost is reduced to an impersonal influence by modernists, and when sin itself is both explained away and practised in the same breath; when salvation is called mere culture and sanctification is an advanced study the resurrection a myth, and Heaven a mirrage.
Preaching the Gospel was not popular in Ezekiels day; nor is it in this end of the age; nor did God ever promise that it would be. The New Testament Apostles perished as martyrs every one, but the Truth they preached marches on; their blood became the seed of the Church, and their doctrines so permeated society that Roman laws, extant till this day, reveal the saving, sanctifying influence of the same. It is the Prophets work to do, to dare, to die, but to go down as his Master went to the Cross, confident of victory.
The prophetic office is the expression of Divine solicitude. Why did God send Ezekiel to a people that He knew would not hearken? (Eze 2:3).
Why expose the Prophet to those who would not hear? (Eze 2:10).
For the same identical reason that a father follows with sympathetic interest, and with constant endeavor, the disobedient son; that a mother sends letters of entreaty to a prodigal daughter.
God is not in the habit of interesting Himself only in the things that will come right; God is not indifferent to things that are wrong, for God is love. Christ went to Capernaum, Christ anguished over Chorazin; Christ was bereft when He looked upon Bethsaida, for they, like Israel, were iniquitous, their hearts were as hard as steel, their feet preferred the ways of iniquity; His Word they would not hear! But that did not silence His appeal, or diminish His solicitude.
Jerusalem itself was little better. That is why He pled with it and wept over it.
I have lived in four cities since entering the pastorate; Lafayette, Ind.; Bloomington, Ill.; Chicago, and Minneapolis, and have not seen any one of them saved. In fact, I am painfully conscious that I but slightly affected their character; but the extent of my influence was never the measure of my interest.
Babson is regarded in America as a sort of financial thermometer. But Babson is much more than that; he is a moral monitor also. Scarce a deliverance from his pen that does not contain a warning against godlessness and an encouragement to the Christian graces.
Years ago, when we were at the peek of prosperity, he uttered his word in season; warned us that the new generation, reaching the fields of labor since the war was over, but coming to it at a time when profits were easy and luxury was common, were being unfitted by those very facts to face the future; and Babson said, as clearly as uninspired man could declare it, that we were in for a financial debacle, the result of our moral debauch, and that nothing would ever save us from economic difficulties except a religious revival should sweep the nations.
Men would not hear him then. People talk sometimes of blind pessimism, but nothing is so blind as optimism. People speak of the good old days of prosperity but nothing worse than plenty when it destroys the sense of dependence upon God. The Israel of Ezekiels day was like the Church of mine, and the Divine prescription for that time has not been changed, it is the only one for all time.
THE VISION OF THE BOOK
I looked, behold, an hand was sent unto me; and, lo, a roll of a book was therein;
And He spread it before me; and it was written within and without: and there was written therein lamentations, and mourning, and woe.
Moreover He said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou findest; eat this roll, and go speak unto the House of Israel.
So I opened my mouth, and He caused me to eat that roll.
And He said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness? (Eze 2:9 to Eze 3:3).
It was a book of Divine revelation. It contained information that Israel neededwarning against her wicked ways, and promised judgment against her sins.
In that experience Ezekiel is to have a multitude of successors. What is the business of the preacher today except to take in what God has given, and, so masticate the Word and digest the same, as to make it a part of his very life.
The greatest preachers the world has ever known have had the Book live in them. John, the Apostle, was a chief among the disciples of Jesus. His lifes labors considered, the Epistles and the apocalypse that came from his hand, give him high place. He stands on a level with Peter and with Paul. You will remember the experience that John had. Like Ezekiel, he heard a voice from Heaven speaking unto him and saying, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel * * and eat it up. * * And it was in his mouth sweet as honey. * * And [the Lord] said unto [him], Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.
Who is fit to preach at home? Who is equipped to preach abroad? To bear the glad tidings to the dark corners of the earth?
The University graduate? Not necessarily. The honor man from the theological seminary? Not necessarily. The eloquent valedictorian of his high school class? Not necessarily!
Charles Spurgeon was not a product of the schools. Dwight L. Moody never set foot in a college nor sat at the feet of one theological professor; but both Spurgeon and Moody fed upon the Word. With them it was sweet to the taste and when they had so digested it that it became a part of their lives they were equipped to preach.
Let Zions watchmen all awake,
And take th alarm they give;
Now let them from the mouth of God
Their solemn charge receive.
Tis not a cause of small import
The pastors care demands;
But what might fill an angels heart,
And filled a Saviours hands.
They watch for souls, for which the Lord
Did Heavenly bliss forego,
For souls, which must forever live,
In rapture or in woe.
May they that Jesus whom they preach,
Their own Redeemer see;
And watch thou daily oer their souls,
That they may watch for thee.
The Prophets responsibilities are sacredly solemn.
Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the House of Israel: therefore hear the Word at My mouth, and give them warning from Me.
When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.
Again, When a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumblingblock before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
Nevertheless if thou warn the righteous man, that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned; also thou hast delivered thy soul (Eze 3:17-21).
The true preacher does not make the message; he delivers it; he is the messenger sent to deliver the divinely given message. It is not his to create, or substitute therefor, or to so re-form sentences as to make them acceptable when delivered. It is his to pass on that which he also hath received. It may be as bitter to him as were these rolls in the bellies of Ezekiel and John, sweet to the taste because true, but bitter in the belly because it contained the signal of danger, yea, sentence of doom.
But its delivery is none the less imperative on that account. There are many things that we say that we wish we did not have to say. The Central Presbyterian Church of Atlanta, Georgia, printed in its Sunday bulletin the following table It must have been painful even to edit it, but truth is always salutary in its final effectsand so they sent it forth:
Five per cent of all the church-members enrolled on the records do not exist.
Ten per cent more cannot be found.
Twenty-five per cent never contribute a penny to the church or cause of Christ.
Seventy-five per cent never attend the midweek prayer-meeting.
Ninety per cent have forgotten the family altar.
Ninety-five per cent present never win a recruit for Christ or the church.
What an arraignment! And yet how needful the information. I am afraid that proud as we are of our blessed brotherhood in this church, the cold facts of our competence would change that statistical table but little.
What does it signify? Most of all this, that we poorly esteem our God and wretchedly understand the meaning of salvation.
A detachment of the American army entered a small French village one day out of which they had just driven the German army. The few remaining inhabitants rushed out to greet them. They sang, they danced, they sobbed; they behaved almost like people who were beside themselves.
One young officer, looking on them, said, Well, I am glad to help these people, but I do not see why they should be so crazy over it.
Ah, Monsieur, answered an old lady, That is because you dont know; you dont know, what you saved us from.
How sad our state by nature is!
Our sin, how deep it stains!
And Satan binds our captive minds
Fast in his slavish chains.
But, hark! a voice of sovereign love!
Tis Christs inviting word:
Ho! ye despairing sinners, come,
And trust upon the Lord.
My soul obeys the almighty call,
And runs to this relief;
I would believe Thy promise, Lord;
O help my unbelief.
A guilty, weak, and helpless worm,
On Thy kind arms I fall;
Be Thou my strength and righteousness,
My Saviour and my all.
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
HOMILETICS
(1.) REQUISITES FOR EXECUTING THE COMMISSION (Eze. 2:1-8)
I. Lively attention. Ezekiel must no longer lie upon his face; he must stand upon his feet if he is rightly to hear the voice of him that speaks. The call of God demands of our human faculties a readiness for action. They may be dead in sins or stunned by some masterful emotion, and the first thing needed is that they should be raised from such a state; then they will be fitted to hear and to obey. To be in a condition to do the work of the Lord, so far as that condition is dependent on a man himself, is to be in an attentive attitude regarding Him. Are we watching so that the moment in which the Master of the house comes we will open to Him?
II. Impulses to secure apprehension. The Lord acts in nature. He pledged Himself of old that the seasons should not cease while the earth remaineth, and He sends forth His Spirit in spring and reneweth the face of the earth. He works thus on man. Spiritual power, understanding, and love are wrought in their hearts by Him. Supplies suited to all the duties He may impose are forthcoming. He will bring persons who may be unconscious into consciousness, in darkness into light, and the hardest position in His kingdom can be occupied when the Spirit of the living God has entered into the occupant and the words of the Almighty Speaker are heard. Until he is fitted by the Spirit to hear the voice, words would be spoken in vain, however adapted to the sins, or weakness, or ignorance of his soul. But he is quickened. The Spirit enters into him, and the words which follow profit him. So two factors develop our apprehension of Gods willHis Spirit in us and His words to us. The efficacy of the words proceeds from the Spirit; the words are the means by which the Spirit energises us. Read the Word of the Lord, preach it, spread it, but never be forgetful that the grasping it by the understanding and obeying it with the will come from the Spirit whom Christ sends from the Father.
III. A clear defining of the evil to be engaged with. God practises no concealment to His servant. He urges him to count the cost, and look, by His light, on the materials he has to deal with. He is to regard them as God directs. He is to submerge any tendency to make excuses for his people, and also his wishes for peace, comfort, honour, remuneration, and hold up to view the solemn and deep-searching decisions of the Lord.
1. The evil is contrariety to God. Israel had forsaken Him to serve idols. To leave Him, to pervert His ordinances, or the mixing up devices of their own with these is a renunciation of His authorityis rebellion. Departing from the Lord was the root which sent its sap into each branch, twig, leaf of their conduct before His sight, and gave character to every false, unjust, selfish, impure thought, word, or action, with which they were chargeable. In dealing with men on Gods behalf, His servants must never blink the fact that it is not mere mistakes, mere misfortune, they have to contend with; but it is with the minding of the flesh, which is enmity against God. Yet they will not refrain from urging His claims to implicit submission, and will desire to execute their service in the knowledge that they are earthen vessels, and the excellency of the power is with God alone.
2. The evil is hereditary. It does not die out when a generation is dead. It was operative in the Israel who dwelt in Canaan, and it is operative in the Israel captive in Babylon. As the fathers resisted the Holy Ghost so did the descendants. Parents should learn not to continue in sin against God for their childrens sake, and children learn that a fathers example is not a binding rule as to what to worship. Not from parentage, not from ancestors, not from mere antiquity must we learn our duty, but always try our procedure by the revealed will of God.
3. The evil affects both the inner and the outer life. The heart is at one with the conduct. No chasm, no rotted bridge lies between them and prevents them from uniting their forces against God. No regrets within hamper the words and deeds which offend Him, and the sinning men go with unblushing faces in their own ways. Such is the evil to be dealt with, and who is sufficient for these things? It is not merely perplexing to human strength and wisdom; it is impossible for men to encounter it effectively, except the Spirit is given them from above to know what God is, and what God purposes for salvation.
IV. Support from the authority of God. Any attempts to destroy such rooted impiety could bring nothing but reproaches, repulses, and defeats, if not under the authorisation of the Lord the Spirit. That is provided
1. By positive appointment: I send thee. Ezekiel has good ground for the stand he is required to take. He is an ambassador of the great kingsufficient warrant for any message of woe or of comfort, and a pledge that all needs will be supplied. The secret place for receiving true power, knowledge, wisdom, and adaptation to a service is here. I do not go to it of myself. I do not seek my own things but the things which are Jesus Christs. I have behind me all forces, for He is with me who has all power in heaven and in earth.
2. By a full title to use His name. He deputes Ezekiel to stand in His stead. All that he is to say, so standing, will express the true state of the relations between God and the people, and will all hold good. His servants are prompted to learn thoroughly and to utter plainly that which God has revealed. If they are not able to appeal to any special vision or ordination of the Lord, they can lie open to His Spirit, be led into all the truth, and declare it with no hesitancy of accent. They preach not themselves but Christ Jesus the Lord. Their word is with power.
V. Persevered in through all circumstances.
1. Because fitted for men. A divine message is not dependent for its truth on any earthly position in which it may be uttered, or on any treatment which it may receive. Accepted or rejected, it retains its authority and adaptation. Farmers must prosecute operations in their fields whatever the appearance of the clouds may be, sure that vivifying rays of the sun will act. So they who are sent with the truth of God must affirm its declarations, even if to do so be both arduous and unproductive. Their encouragement and their constancy are to be taken from God, not from the results which might gratify the mind of the flesh.
2. Because it will not be altogether vain. Should no success, such as teachers are eager to see, ever come, and people maintain their attitude of disobedience to God, some end, which He has proposed, shall be sure of accomplishment. He will vindicate His righteousness and love somehow, and present the way of truth so that men will not be able to plead ignorance of His appeal to them. They shall know, even though they persist in stubbornness and rebellion, that a propheta man with words of rebuke and impulsehas been among them. The light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the light.
3. Because obstacles are not bound to paralyse efforts. Men who have God on their side are stronger than all that can be against them. His kingdom never has attempted an advance except in face of chiding, and adverse reports, and sullen looks. His servants are not to count such trials as strange things, but set their faces as a flint and urge His warnings and entreaties unwaveringly. When the Lord is on their side they need not fear mens procedure. Like their perfect Exampler, they should be warranted to say, When I would have gathered you, ye would not.
VI. Demands implicit submission. To stand before the Lord of hosts, like Elijah, and be empowered to bear His messages, what stronger force can there be than that to constrain men, who are loyal to God, to do whatsoever He wishes? What if their preaching and teaching seem to be addressed as to a blank wall? That will not prompt them to falter, to blunt the edge of the sword of the Spirit, or to compromise the claims of any truth. It is required of stewards that a man be found faithful. They are not so to the interests of the kingdom of God, they who are unwilling to meet evil reports or good reports; to stand in the midst of calumnies, threats, oppressions; to find in the very obstinacy of their hearers that which develops a deepening regard for God and a deepening sympathy for men. For all true-hearted men will be anxious not to be rebellious as others whom they see to be rebellious, being sure of this, nobody but himself can make him a rebel. Above all, should preachers and teachers hear the voice of Jesus, so that they shall speak what He bids them, and never be disheartened by the indifference, the levity, the contempt, the resistance shown by those who do not take heed how they hear.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Chapter Three
THE CALL AND COMMISSION
2:1-3:27
Heavenly visions were not granted to Biblical saints merely to excite their (and our) curiosity, but rather to incite them to proclaim the divine word. Chapters 2 and 3 contain the commission which Ezekiel in connection with his inaugural vision recorded in the preceding chapter. As in the case of Jeremiah, the commissioning came in stages separated presumably by some time intervals which for the most part cannot be determined, At each stage of the process Ezekiel was given time to assimilate the message and adapt himself before the commissioning continued.
One of the basic characteristics of the Book of Ezekiel becomes clear in this section. Ezekiel had a propensity for repetition. In the various accounts of his commissioning certain standard phrases and thoughts are repeated with only slight modification. The material in chapters 2 and 3 can be discussed under the following four heads: (1) the call to service (Eze. 2:1-7); (2) the preparation for service (Eze. 2:8 to Eze. 3:15); (3) the responsibilities of service (Eze. 3:16-21); and (4) the restrictions on service (Eze. 3:22-27).
I. THE CALL TO SERVICE 2:17
Following his mind-boggling visionary experience, Ezekiel heard the call of God to prophetic service. He was told in no uncertain terms where and how he was to serve. In this paragraph Ezekiel is (1) strengthened (Eze. 2:1-2); (2) warned (Eze. 2:3-5); and (3) charged (Eze. 2:6-7).
A. Ezekiel Strengthened 2:12
TRANSLATION
(1) And he said unto me, Son of man, stand upon your feet, and I will speak to you. (2) And the Spirit came into me as he spoke unto me and it caused me to stand upon my feet and I heard one speaking unto me.
COMMENTS
The Lord as usual took the lead in the commissioning of the prophet. It was His voice (Eze. 1:28) rather than that of one of the cherubim which Ezekiel heard giving him the first command he ever directly had received from God (Eze. 2:1).
The title son of man occurs over eighty-five times in the Book of Ezekiel. In most cases it precedes a command of God. In Hebrew thought and language son of man is equivalent to man. The term son often is used to denote membership in a class. Thus a son of man would be a member of the class of man, a mortal. The designation emphasizes the human frailty of Ezekiel as over against the awesome might and majesty of God. Though he had been privileged to see the majestic, heavenly vision of Gods throne-chariot, he was nevertheless nothing more than a human being. Within a few years Daniel would use this title in a technical sense of that divine-human one who would receive a kingdom from the Ancient of Days (Dan. 7:13). Jesus application of the title son of man to Himself seems to be based more on Daniels usage than on Ezekiels.
The first command given to Ezekiel in the book is the command to stand upon your feet. The standing position is apparently the correct posture from which to hear the divine commission (Eze. 2:1). It is service not servility which God desires most. Davidson comments It is man erect, man in his manhood, with whom God will have fellowship and with whom He will speak.[105]
[105] Davidson, CB, p. 15.
Even as the Lord issued this command to Ezekiel spirit came into him. In the light of Eze. 3:24 it is best to understand this spirit as the Spirit of God. The Spirit came into the prophet compelling him and enabling him to comply with the command just issued. That Spirit supplemented and revived Ezekiels physical powers, like a fresh breath of life.[106] What a blessed truth is intimated here. Frail and feeble man can be empowered and indwelt by the Holy Spirit. God supplies the power to perform His special service.
[106] Feinberg (PE, p. 23) sees the entrance of the Spirit as forming the basis of Ezekiels prophetic inspiration.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(1) Son of man.The voice that now came to Ezekiel was articulate, and spoke to him in words which he could understand. It is not said who it was that spoke, but the He in connection with the vision before him could be none other than the Most High, whose glory that vision was given to reveal. The phrase son of man is common enough throughout the Scriptures, as meaning simply man, but is never used in an address to a prophet, except to Ezekiel and Daniel. To Daniel it is used only once (Dan. 8:17), while to Ezekiel it is used above ninety times. The reason is, doubtless, that since he was the prophet of the captivity he was addressed in the common terms of the language where he lived. Son of man for man is so common in the Aramaic languages that it is even used of Adam himself in the Syriac version of 1Co. 15:45-47. The address to Ezekiel here as man, just as under similar circumstances to Daniel when he had fallen upon his face through awe of the supernatural presence (Dan. 8:17), is doubtless in compassion to his weakness. And then comes the strengthening command, Stand upon thy feet, that he may be able to receive the communication God is about to make to him.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
EZEKIEL RECEIVES HIS COMMISSION FROM JEHOVAH, Eze 2:1-8.
The circumstances are the most solemn possible. The man whom Jehovah honors thus with a private interview must be about to receive no ordinary commission. Beyond any other in Scripture this might be called the preacher’s chapter.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1. Son of man This was a form of address which was very common in Chaldea, especially when the gods were supposed to speak. (Compare Lightfoot.) It vividly calls attention to the contrast between human mortality and weakness and divine eternity and majesty. Yet let it be noticed that when Jehovah in the likeness of a man upon a throne (Eze 1:26) wants a messenger to speak to mankind he searches for one who is pre-eminently human. The whole prophecy shows how powerfully Jehovah can use a man to display his glory when he speaks and acts not according to his own will, but Jehovah’s.
I will speak unto thee “The Hebrew here indicates confidential conversation with the prophets although he may only take part as a listener.” Orelli.
Stand upon thy feet The man of flint (Eze 3:9) must rise up and receive his commission standing (Eze 1:28). He must at once be taught obedience and courage, and stand ready to run at the conclusion of the message.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Mission of Ezekiel – The Book of Judgment ( Eze 2:1 to Eze 3:11 ).
‘And he said to me, “Son of man, stand on your feet and I will speak with you.” And the spirit entered into me when he spoke to me, and set me on my feet, and I heard him who spoke to me.’
‘Son of man.’ This was a favourite address by God to Ezekiel, occurring over ninety times. It was a reminder to him that in contrast with the One he had seen he was simply a man, a creature of earth, born of human parents. ‘Son of –’ indicates partaking of the nature of. But it was also a constant reminder to him that he was a man, higher than the beasts. He was a man, and yet only a man. But its constant use was also an indication that he represented man, that he was a specially chosen man. He was the one through whom God was approaching men.
The idea would develop further in Daniel 7 where Israel was ‘a son of man’ in contrast to the nations who were wild beasts, and to their glorious representative who would come into the presence of God to receive kingship, and power and dominion on their behalf (Dan 7:13-14; Dan 7:27). It became a favourite designation by Jesus of Himself, the great, final Representative of man Who was finally to be seated at God’s right hand in power and glory.
The command to ‘stand on your feet’ revealed that God had an active purpose for him which had to be fulfilled. He could not receive such words flat on his face. God would not speak to him until he had stood up. Often we too are on our faces when we should be up and ready to be doing. Unlike the ancient kings He did not want man in humiliating postures. He wanted them erect and active in His service.
‘And the Spirit entered into me when he spoke to me, and set me on my feet.’ The Spirit has already been seen active with regard to the charioteers (Eze 1:12; Eze 1:20). Now He possessed Ezekiel and set him on his feet. The vision had so weakened Ezekiel that he knew that without the Spirit’s help he would never have been able to stand up. It reminds us that it is only with the Spirit’s help that we can stand in the presence of God. Otherwise we would be helpless before Him, cowering and afraid. Then Ezekiel became aware of what the voice was saying to him.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Eze 2:6 And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns be with thee, and thou dost dwell among scorpions: be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house.
Eze 2:6
Jer 1:8, “Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the LORD.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Ezekiel’s Commission (Comparison with John the Apostle on the Isle of Patmos) – In Eze 1:1 to Eze 3:21 we are given a description of Ezekiel’s supernatural vision and divine commission to be a witness to the Jews in Captivity. In a similar way that John the apostle was banished on the isle of Patmos and had a heavenly vision, so does Ezekiel have a vision in his banishment by the river Chebar. The Lord gave both of them a tremendous revelation using symbols of future events. Both of their books open with a vision. Both visions begin with a visitation from the throne of God. John the apostle was visited by Jesus Christ, who was now ascended to this heavenly throne. Ezekiel simply saw the throne with it glory, for Jesus Christ had not yet taken upon Himself the form of man. Both apocalyptic visions end with a description of heaven, where those who are faithful will abide eternally. Both men are given symbolic revelations of those events that will lead up to the fulfillment of all things.
Both are given books to eat. They both experienced the books to taste like honey. John says that it became bitter to his belly, while Ezekiel says that he went in bitterness of spirit.
Eze 3:1-2, “Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou findest; eat this roll , and go speak unto the house of Israel. So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat that roll.”
Eze 3:3, “And he said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness .”
Eze 3:14, “So the spirit lifted me up, and took me away, and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit ; but the hand of the LORD was strong upon me.”
Rev 10:9, “And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey .”
While John seems to emphasize the role of the Church in the last days, Ezekiel places emphasis upon the role of the nation of Israel.
Eze 1:1 to Eze 3:21 Ezekiel’s Divine Commission (Comparison with Other Divine Commissions) Eze 1:1 to Eze 3:21 describes the prophets divine commission to be a witness to the Jews in Captivity. We often find a divine commission at the beginning of the story of God’ servants in the Scriptures. We see in the book of Genesis that Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob each received their commissions at the beginning of their genealogies, which divide the book of Genesis into major divisions. We also see how Moses received his divine commission near the beginning of his story found within Exodus to Deuteronomy. Joshua received his commission in the first few verses of the book of Joshua. In addition, we see that Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel each received a divine commission at the beginning of their ministries. The book of Ezra opens with a divine call to rebuild the Temple and the book of Nehemiah begins with a call to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, which callings Ezra and Nehemiah answered. In the New Testament, we find Paul the apostle receiving his divine commission in Act 9:1-22 at the beginning of the lengthy section on Paul’s life and ministry.
Each of these divine callings can be found within God’s original commission to Adam in the story of Creation to be fruitful and multiply. For these men were called to bring the about the multiplication of godly seeds. The patriarchs were called to multiply and produce a nation of righteousness. Moses was called to bring Israel out of bondage, but missed his calling to bring them into the Promised Land. Joshua was called to bring them in to the land. Esther was called to preserve the seed of Israel as was Noah, while Ezra and Nehemiah were called to bring them back into the Promised Land. All of the judges, the kings and the prophets were called to call the children of Israel out of sin and bondage and into obedience and prosperity. They were all called to bring God’s children out of bondage and destruction and into God’s blessings and multiplication. The stories in the Old Testament show us that some of these men fulfilled their divine commission while others either fell short through disobedience or were too wicked to hear their calling from God.
The awesome vision of God in the opened heavens would leave a deep impression on Ezekiel throughout his entire life as a priest to the children of Israel. This vision of God’s holiness would always stand as a measuring rod for Ezekiel as he spoke to the corrupt and wicked hearts of God’s people.
Moses had such an experience at the burning bush to launch him into his ministry (Exodus 3-4). God gave the children of Israel a similar vision as they stood before Mount Sinai and beheld God’s descent upon the mount (Exodus 19). We see Isaiah being given a vision of God on His throne (Isaiah 6). Jeremiah received his calling and a vision in the opening chapter of his book. Paul the apostle was struck down on the road to Damascus with a vision by which God called him into his ministry (Act 9:1-22).
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Commission of Ezekiel to Be the Lord’s Prophet.
v. 1. And He said unto me, Son of man, v. 2. And the spirit entered into me when He spake unto me, v. 3. And He said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, v. 4. For they are impudent children, v. 5. And they, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, v. 6. And thou, son of man, v. 7. And thou shalt speak My words unto them, v. 8. But thou, son of man, v. 9. And when I looked, behold, an hand was sent unto me, v. 10. and He spread it before me,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Eze 2:1
Son of man, etc. It is noticeable that the phrase (ben adam), as addressed to a prophet, occurs only in Ezekiel, in whom we find it not less than eighty times, and in Dan 8:17. As used elsewhere, e.g. in Num 23:19; Psa 8:4; Job 25:6; Isa 51:12; Isa 56:2, and in Ezekiel’s use of it, it is probably connected with the history of Adam, as created from the ground (adamah) in Gen 2:7; Gen 3:19. The prophet is reminded, in the very moment of his highest inspiration, of his Adam nature with all its infirmity and limitations. In the use of a like phrase (bar enosh, instead of ben adam) in Dan 7:13 we have the same truth implied. There one like unto man in all things is called to share the sovereignty of the “Ancient of Days,” the Eternal One. Here the prophet, nothing in himself, is called to be the messenger of God to other sons of men. It is in many ways suggestive that our Lord should have chosen the same formula for constant use when speaking of himself (Mat 8:20, and passim in the Gospels). Stand upon thy feet. The attitude of adoration is changed, by the Divine command, into that of expectant service, that of awe and dread for the courage of a soldier of the Lord of hosts (compare the parallels of Eze 3:24; Eze 43:3, Eze 43:5; Dan 8:18).
Eze 2:2
And the Spirit, etc. It scarcely admits of question (though the Hebrew has no article, and so far Luther’s Version, “Ich ward wieder erquickt,” is tenable) that the word is used in the same sense as in Eze 1:20, Eze 1:21 (comp. Eze 3:24). The Spirit which moved the “living creatures” and the “wheels” in the mysterious symbol was now in him. Ezekiel finds in that fact the ground of his prophetic inspiration (comp. Num 24:2; Jdg 11:29; 1Sa 10:6, 1Sa 10:10; Isa 11:2, etc.)
Eze 2:3
To a rebellious nation; literally, with Revised Version, nations that are rebellious. The Hebrew word (goim) is that used elsewhere for “heathen” and that may be its sense here. As in Eze 28:22. Judah and Israel may be thought of as having fallen to the level of the heathen. Part of Ezekiel’s work was actually addressed to the heathen as such (ch. 25-32.). The word may, however, be used in the plural to include both Judah and the remnant of the northern kingdom. They and their fathers. The words anticipate the teaching of Eze 18:1-32. The people to whom the prophet was sent could not say that they were suffering for the sins of their fathers. They, in their own persons, had transgressed up to the very day on which the prophet received his mission. They had rebelled as their fathers had done in the days of Moses and Joshua (Num 14:9; Jos 22:18).
Eze 2:4
Impudent children and stiff-hearted; literally, hard of face (i.e. callous to their shame) and stiff of heart. The LXX. gives aptly, (compare the “past feeling” of Eph 4:19). Thus saith the Lord God. In the Hebrew, Adonai Jehovah; which the LXX. represents by , and Luther by “der Herr Herr.” The two highest names of the God of Israel were ‘used to denote the fulness of the prophet’s inspiration. The same formula occurs in Eze 3:11, Eze 3:27 : Eze 13:8; Eze 22:28, and passim. So also in 2Sa 7:18, 2Sa 7:19, 2Sa 7:20, 2Sa 7:29; and elsewhere.
Eze 2:5
Whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, etc. The latter word is used in the sense of “cease” or “desist,” as in 1Co 9:6 and Eph 6:9. The same formula meets us in Eph 6:7; Eze 3:11, Eze 3:27. The prophet is warned beforehand of the (at least) probable failure of his mission, wholly or in part. We note the parallelism of thought, though not language, in 2Co 2:15, 2Co 2:16. Such, at all times, has been the condition of the prophet’s work. The expectation is grounded upon the antecedent fact of their being a “rebellious people.” There is the consolation that in the end, partly through the fulfilment of his words, partly, it may be, through the witness of their own conscience, they shall know that there has been a prophet among them (comp. Eze 33:33; Jer 28:9). We note that it is the first time that Ezekiel claims that name for himself.
Eze 2:6
Though briers and thorns be with thee. The two Hebrew nouns are not found elsewhere, and have consequently puzzled translators. The LXX. gives two verbs, ; the Vulgate, increduli et subversores. The words, however, are formed from roots that imply “pricking” or “burning,” and the Authorized Version rendering, followed by the Revised Version, is tenable enough. A cognate form of the first is found in Eze 28:24, and there the LXX. gives , and the Vulgate, spina. A like figurative use of “scorpions” is found in 1Ki 12:11 and Ecclesiasticus 26:7 (compare also our Lord’s words in Luk 10:19). Be not afraid Compare the like command in Jer 1:17. The words imply, probably, a past as well as a future experience. Ezekiel had already known what it was to dwell among those whose hearts were venomous as scorpions. The comparison was a sufficiently familiar one among both Eastern and Greek writers.
Eze 2:7
Thou shalt speak my words, etc. The words conveyed
(1) a ground of encouragement in the fact that the words would be given by Jehovah (romp. Jer 1:7, Jer 1:17; Mat 10:19, Mat 10:20); and
(2) a warning against the intermingling of lower thoughts and a self-originated message (Eze 13:7; Eze 22:28). They are most rebellious; literally, the Hebrew being a noun, they are rebellion, or stubbornness, itself.
Eze 2:8
Be not thou rebellious, etc. The words convey a warning against the prophet’s natural weakness. Instinctively he shrank, as Moses had done (Exo 3:11; Exo 4:10-13) and Isaiah (Isa 6:5) and Jeremiah (Jer 1:6), from his dread vocation of being a “mortal vessel of the Divine Word.” In so shrinking he would identify himself with the very “rebellion” which he was sent to reprove, and would incur its punishment. Eat that I give thee. As in the parallel of Rev 10:9, the words imply that what was to be given him was no message resting, as it were, on the surface of the soul. It was to enter into the prophet’s innermost life, to be the food and nourishment of his soul; to be, in our familiar phrase, “inwardly digested” and incorporated with his very flesh and blood. He was to live “not by bread only” (Deu 6:3), but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of Jehovah.
Eze 2:9
An hand was sent (put forth, Revised Version) unto me, etc. Apparently the hand was not that of the human form seated on the throne (Eze 1:26), nor of one of the four living creatures (Eze 1:8), but one appearing mysteriously by itself, as in the history of Belshazzar’s feast (Dan 5:5). The words connect themselves with the use of the hand stretched out of a cloud as the symbols of the Divine energy both in Jewish and Christian art. The writer has in his possession a Jewish brass tablet, probably of the sixteenth century, commemorating the legend of the miraculous supply of oil at the Feast of the Dedication, in which such a hand appears as pouring oil into the seven-branched candlestick, or lamp, of the temple. Lo, a roll of a book, etc. The words remind us of the volume, or roll, in Psa 40:7; Jer 36:2; Zec 5:1; like those which are still used in Jewish synagogues.
Eze 2:10
It was written within and without. Commonly such rolls, whether of vellum or papyrus, were written on one side only. This, like the tables of stone (Exo 32:15), was written, as a symbol of the fulness of its message, on both sides. And as he looked at the roll thus “spread before” him, he saw that it was no evangel, no glad tidings, that he had thus to identify with his work, but one from first to last of lamentations, and mourning, and woe. Jeremiah had been known as the prophet of weeping, and was about this time (probably a little later) writing his own Lamentations (the Hebrew title of the book, however, is simply its first words) over the fall of Jerusalem. Ezekiel’s work was to be of a like nature. The word meets us again (Eze 19:1, Eze 19:14; Eze 26:17; Eze 27:2, Eze 27:32; Eze 28:12; Eze 32:2, Eze 32:16) as the keynote of his writings. Out of such a book, though the glad tidings were to come afterwards, his own prophetic work was to be evolved.
HOMILETICS.
Eze 2:1
God speaking, and man listening.
This second chapter of the prophecies of Ezekiel introduces us to the personal call and commission of the prophet. The first chapter was engaged with preliminary and preparatory visions. Now the prepared soul receives the direct word from God.
I. GOD SPEAKING. God speaks to Ezekiel:
1. In words. Previously the prophet’s attention had been arrested by visionsglorious, awful, soul-stirring visionsvisions that not only roused his feelings, but that must also have awakened in his mind many strange thoughts by their profound suggestiveness; still only visions, and therefore mysterious revelations shrouded in a measure of uncertainty. Now God proceeds from the vague vision to definite speech. It matters not whether we consider that the speech came in physical sound, in real air waves, that any other listener, had he been present, might have understood, or whether the words were impressed on the mind of the prophet. In any case, he heard them, and thus he received a clear, definite, unmistakable message. We are not left to uncertain visions, nor even to the difficult hieroglyphics of nature. We have a revelation in language, a written Bible.
2. In direct address. God spoke immediately to Ezekiel. Here is the contrast between the prophet and the ordinary bearer of a Divine message. We receive our messages at second hand from God’s inspired teachers. They held direct communications with Heaven. But may not we do something similar, not indeed in new prophecies or gospels, but at least in the illumination of soul which makes the old truth stand out in a new light, or helps us to make a fresh application of it to new circumstances? By his Spirit God does thus speak directly to every listening soul, though the words are those of familiar truth.
II. MAN LISTENING. Speech is useless without a hearer. For ages the “silent proclamation” of nature has been spread before the gaze of heedless witnesses. The difference between the seer and the man who beholds only material facts may lie in the natures of the men more than in the external facts that are presented to them. The one is a seer because he has eyes to behold what is equally present to the other, though unperceived for lack of sight to discover it. So the prophet must have “ears to hear” the message of God. And all who would receive God’s message in their souls must have the heating ear. The manner of the delivery of the Divine message to Ezekiel suggests the way in which it should be received.
1. In a certain human simplicity. Ezekiel is addressed as “son of man.” When nearest to Heaven he must not forget his human nature. The prophet is our fellow man. The knowledge of heavenly truth does not kilt human nature, nor destroy the kinship between the enlightened and the ignorant.
(1) Here all pride is rebuked. The prophet must not suppose that he is anything more than a man.
(2) Human interests are to be considered. The message is given to one man for the sake of his fellows.
2. In manly obedience. Ezekiel is to stand up. He had fallen in fear before the vision of glory. To hear the word of revelation he must arise. God does not delight in the humiliation of his children. We are exhorted to “come boldly unto the throne of grace” (Heb 4:16). Religion does not destroy manliness. Yet God expects the attention shown by a servant to his master. Ezekiel is not to sit. He who receives a word from God is to be awake, listening, attentive, and ready to obey, like the servant who stands by his master’s side.
Eze 2:2
The entrance of the Spirit.
If it were not for another reference to the Spirit in Eze 4:3, we might reasonably suppose that the prophet was referring to his own spirit, and indicating, in picturesque language, that he recovered from faintness, or that his “spirits” rose, that he gained courage and strength. But since this passage plainly shows that none other than the Spirit of God can be meant, it is clear that a very close connection between the Holy Spirit and man is here indicated. The possibility of misunderstanding as to what spirit is designated only emphasizes the idea of the intimate association of the human and the Divine.
I. THE SPIRIT OF GOD ENTERS MAN. We can never fathom the mystery of the nature of God. But it would seem that certain modes of the Divine Being are more within touch of us than others. So, while as our Father God rules and blesses us, and while the Son of God enters humanity generally by taking our nature upon him and becoming our Brother, the Spirit enters into individual souls, and unites himself with our very selves. The Christian is a temple of the Holy Ghost. Something more must lie in this fact than the omnipresence of God, for God is everywhere, and therefore does not need to enter any region of creation. The spiritual entrance must therefore mean the manifestation of his presence
(1) by an exercise of energy, or
(2) by a revelation to consciousness.
The prophet may know the latter form of Divine entrance. The former, however, is the more usual in experience. Now, it is very much to know that God does indeed dwell with the children of men. The earth is not a God-deserted waste. Religion is not a one sided effort of man to reach after God. Spiritual life is not simply an exercise of a man’s own powers. God has his share in the soul’s experience, touching it in its inmost secret being. He is nearer to the spiritually minded man than that man’s own thoughts.
II. THE DIVINE SPIRIT ENTERS THROUGH THE DIVINE WORD. Ezekiel tells us that “the Spirit entered into me when he spake unto me.“ So it was in the days of the early Church. The apostles preached first; then, after their word had been received, the Holy Ghost descended upon the hearers. While it is commonly recognized that prayer is a fitting means through which to obtain a fuller presence of the Spirit of God,
is it so often acknowledged that the reception of truth is an equally important condition? God’s Spirit does not come like a flash of lightning, striking the unexpectant soul, nor like a gift of magic. The understanding of truth is the open door through which the inspiration of life enters. Hence the importance of teaching, preaching, reading the Bible, meditation, cultivating spiritual intelligence and enlightened faith. Yet this very connection between the Spirit and the Word is a rebuke to cold intellectualism. The Word by itself is not enough. When we have comprehended and embraced it to the full, it is still but the door through which to receive the far more important gift of the Holy Ghost.
III. THE ENTRANCE OF THE SPIRIT IS A SOURCE OF STRENGTH. Ezekiel was bidden to stand up. At first it would seem he was so overwhelmed with awe in the presence of sublime visions of heaven, that he could scarcely obey. But as the first sounds of the Word of God reach his dazed ears, the Spirit of God enters him, and at once he acquires a new energy, and is able to stand erect in manly strength. Shame for sin casts us down; inspirations of God lift us up. To see God afar off is to fail down before him in confusion and terror; to welcome God in the shrine of the heart is to enjoy a cheering encouragement and an uplifting power. The Church too often droops and languishes for lack of this inspiring presence. She should remember that God’s Spirit is not only a purifying, enlightening, and comforting influence, but also the supreme Source of energy. That same Spirit which of old brooded over the face of the waters, and brought life and order out of chaos and death, now broods over the human world with infinite powers of life to bestow on all who will receive him. Then, in receiving strength from the incoming of the Spirit, the soul is able to receive more truth from God, as Ezekiel heard more Divine words when he stood up in his new strength. Thus there is no limit to the growth of knowledge and power m this twofold process.
Eze 2:3, Eze 2:4
An embassy to rebels.
The people of Israel are regarded as a vassal nation that has added rebellion to disloyalty, and has gone so far as to throw off its allegiance to its suzerain lord, and now the Supreme Sovereign sends his prophet as an ambassador to declare his will at this terrible crisis.
I. TRANSGRESSORS RIPEN INTO REBELS. They and their fathers had transgressed in the past. But the children have exceeded the wickedness of their parents by breaking out into open revolt. This may refer to the idolatry that follows neglect of the service of the true God, or to the abandonment of Jehovah after previously disobeying him.
1. All sin tends to aggravate its own evil. Rebellion is worse than transgression. The bad child may be more wicked than his corrupt parentat least, if only left to the evil influences of his home. In every man, if sin is chosen, a downward course is being followed into blacker iniquity and more outrageous wickedness, till the goal is reached and the sinner has fully developed the kingdom of hell within him.
2. Moral transgression leads to personal opposition against God. At first the transgressor may have no desire to quarrel with God. He only wants to have his own way, and possibly regrets the misfortune that this happens to be opposed to the Divine will. For a time he tries to sever morality from devotion, and to retain his worship after he has broken up his obedience. This state of discord cannot last. The enemy of God’s Law cannot but become an enemy of God. He who resists the law opposes the government.
3. Concealed iniquity ends in confessed impiety. The transgression may be secret; the rebellion will be open. The sudden fall of a saint that sometimes surprises and shocks the Church may be only the step from disloyalty to rebellion.
4. The progress of sin coarsens and hardens the sinner, The parents “transgressed.” The children are “impudent” and “stiff-hearted.” Reverence cannot long outlive obedience. The conscience which is roughly used loses its sensitiveness and becomes harsh and callous, like the skin of the hand that works with rough materials. Thus the worst sin is least acknowledged, and the greatest sinner most impenitent.
II. GOD DOES NOT NEGLECT HIS REBEL CHILDREN.
1. God has not lost his claims on them. Men may throw off their allegiance to God, but they cannot destroy his rightful authority over them. No soul can outlaw itself. To renounce a sovereign is not to escape from the power of his rule. If an English soldier declared himself a republican, he would not be exonerated from the service of the queen. God is the Judge of all the earthof those who reject his Law as surely as of those who obey it.
2. God desires to recover them. The message may come in wrath, threatening destruction. Yet it need never have been sent at all. The ambassador might have been spared, and an avenging army despatched to the rebellious nation. But God sends warnings before judgments, preaching prophets before destroying angels, invitations to return before mandates of extermination, gospels of grace before swords of doom. The darker the message of warning is, the more assuredly is it prompted by mercy; because, if an exceedingly dreadful punishment is deserved and is even impending, it is an especial mark of God’s forbearance towards the worst of sinners that he holds it back in the hope of urging to repentance those who have been treasuring up for themselves so fearful an accumulation of wrath. Much more, then is the gospel of Christ a message of mercy, inviting sinners back into the kingdom of heaven instead of trampling them underfoot as worthless rebels.
Eze 2:6
Dwelling among scorpions.
I. THE DISTRESS. Ezekiel lay on no bed of roses. His messages of stern denunciation raised up enemies who gave him worse than a thorny coucha very house of scorpions to dwell in. No more hideous picture of distress can well be conceived than that of the faithful prophet thrust into a thicket of briers, which turns out to be a scorpions’ nest. The thorns are bad enough, yet fierce stinging creatures are added. This is a prophet’s Inferno. Captives who only suffered from the grief of exile would hang their harps on the willows in heart-broken despair. Ezekiel’s is a far worse caseto be tormented by his fellow captives in return for his faithful words.
1. A great mission may bring a great distress. The common people are spared; the prophet is tormented. Ezekiel has his scorpion-neighbours; St. Paul, exalted to the third heaven, receives his thorn in the flesh; Christ, the Holy One, is crowned with thorns, pierced with nails, and more terribly wounded with cruel hatred.
2. A man‘s worst enemies may be those of his own household. The scorpions are not pagan Babylonians, but Jews. No rancour is so bad as that of one whose milk of natural affection is turned to the venom of a brother’s hatred. This is the murder spirit of Cain the fratricide, the devilry of Judas the traitor.
3. A guilty conscience is a dangerous sting. If it does not wound its owner, it is likely to turn on its accuser. Ezekiel had to accuse the Jews of sin. We may often take the very ferocity of the attack made upon the gospel as a sign that its opponents are not at ease in their own hearts.
4. A spiteful tongue stings like a scorpion. Ezekiel was cruelly hurt when no bodily harm was done to him. Possibly his enemies were scarcely conscious of the keenness of their words. But the rankling wound which comes from venomous speech is more painful than the fiery swelling of the worst scorpion sting. Spiteful slanderers are more mischievous than the most repulsive insects.
II. THE DUTY. Though scorpions infest the sphere of his labours, still the faithful prophet must toil on, braving their threatening stings. The people at Banias build leafy booths on the tops of poles, for residence during the hot season, in order to escape the attacks of scorpions, which are very abundant in their neighbourhood. No, such escape is permitted to the prophet of God.
1. Unpopularity may be a sign of fidelity. This is a shamefully forgotten doctrine in our day of easy living. Now the popular preacher is regarded as the great preacher, and the unpopular servant of God is regarded, even by his brethren, as a “failure.” If so, then Ezekiel and Jeremiah were “failures,” while their now-forgotten comrades, who prophesied smooth things, were great “successes.” Such a doctrine would have given us no Hebrew prophets to stand in the first rank of God’s heroes. But time is a great avenger. Frederick Robertson of Brighton, whose sensitive spirit was assailed by a scorpion press during his lifetime, is now recognized as a prince of Divine teachers; while the very names of his enemieshappily for themare forgotten.
2. The duty of fidelity in the midst of persecution is blessed with heavenly rewards. The rewards begin on earth in the soul’s culture. Mediaeval monks would roll in thorns for self-chastisement. Persecuted prophets needed to invent no such fantastic devices. The thorns were thrust upon them; their path was beset by scorpions. There is danger in the path of ease. It is better to be stung by the vicious scorpion than bitten by the deadly cobra. The thorn bush of persecution has its venomous insects, but in the flower beds of pleasure lies the serpent whose bite is death.
Eze 2:7
Preaching to unwilling hearers.
There can be no more difficult or painful duty than that of a preacher to unwilling hearers. But it was seen in the case of Hebrew prophets; it was illustrated in Christ’s brave dealings with the Pharisees and Sadducees; and it must necessarily fall at times to the lot of every faithful Christian minister in the present day.
I. IT IS THE DUTY OF THE PREACHER TO DELIVER A MESSAGE TO ALL KINDS OF HEARERS. He cannot select his favourite audience. He has no right to wait till men ask lop his message. He is the herald sent into the camp, who must declare the will of his Master, even though his hearers are too busy with their work or amusement to give him attention, or too unsympathetic to care to hear what he says. With most things the supply is regulated by the demand. The farmer will not grow more corn than the people need for food; the manufacturer turns out the largest quantity of those products that sell must widely. But this spirit of commerce should not obtain any footing in the Christian Church. Yet, no doubt, it has invaded the Church, and the temptation is to echo popular cries from the pulpit, and to bow to the will of the pew. Many people ask for short sermons, restive under the strain of attention to more lengthy discourses. Some wish for pleasant, cheerful themes; they are particularly desirous that no demands shall be made on their thinking faculties; they would luxuriute in sweet, soothing fancies. Then the temptation is to concede what is thus demanded. That is to lower the claims of truth. In this region it is necessary to create the right hunger, and here the supply must precede and exceed the demand. The negligence of the people is no reason for the preacher’s reticence.
II. THE DUTY TO PREACH TO UNWILLING HEARERS RESTS ON DIVINE OBLIGATIONS AND ON HUMAN NEEDS.
1. Divine obligations. The preacher is not the slave of his people, but the servant of God. If he is sent to speak for God, a burden of responsibility is laid upon him. Moreover, he is the custodian of truth. Truth seeks the daylight and the free sir. Men have no right to imprison her because her presence in the busy world is sometimes unwelcome. God’s truth must be brought even where it is not sought, even where it is hated and rejected.
2. Human needs. They who are most reluctant to hear a message from Heaven most need that message, for their very indifference or opposition is a sign of that state of alienation which God is seeking to overcome. If the family were awake when the house was on fire there would be no necessity for the watchman to call to them. But in their sleep is their great danger. Just because they are indifferent they most need to be warned.
III. THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE PREACHER IS LIMITED TO THE FAITHFUL DELIVERY OF HIS MESSAGE. Mark thisthe delivery must be faithful. There is a snare for the preacher in our subject. He may lay the charge of the failure of his message against his hearers, when he ought to have taken it home to himself. Though he cannot command success, it is his duty to aim at it and to labour for it with the utmost assiduity. Possibly the message has not been rightly apprehended by him nor wisely and affectionately commended to the people. He may have been indolent in preparation. He may have been cold or stern, haughty or aloof from his hearers, when he should have approached them in a loving brotherly way. Or his own heart may not have opened to receive the message. How, then, can he expect his hearers to be interested in it? One cold heart can inspire no warmth in other cold hearts. But when the preacher has done his best in the strength of God, he must leave his message. At this point the responsibility shifts to the hearers. Even the words of him who spake as never man spake sometimes fell by the wayside and on stony ground. What wonder if ours seem to fail? The apparent failure of the faithful is indeed no real failure; the words may fail, but the man has not failed, for he has done his dutyand no man can do more than that.
Eze 2:8
Faithful among the faithless.
Ezekiel is to go among the rebellious people; but he is to be most careful not to rebel himself against the will of God. Though he stand alone, yet he must be true.
I. A SEVERE TRIAL. It is difficult to be faithful among the faithless. There is a subtle poison in the atmosphere of evil society. No doubt Christ instituted his Church in part that his followers might be lifted out of the malarious regions of sinful associations, and drawn into a more wholesome climate of saintly companionship. Ezekiel was scarcely allowed any such help from Church fellowship. Like Nehemiah, he had to stand alone and face the current of rebellion. Then, beyond the unconscious temptation to go with the multitude to do evil, there was a very visible danger in the case of Ezekiel. He was called to testily against his brethren with such a message that they would turn against him like so many scorpions. He was to find himself in a border of thorns as the penalty of his fidelity (see verse 6). Although this visible persecution is now rare, the spirit of it is not dead, and there are places still where the faithful must stand alone and be made to smart severely for their integrity. How often this is the case with one high-principled Christian young man in a house of business where the methods of conducting trade and amusement both assail his fidelity! It is hard to be faithful under such circumstances. Yet the duty does not cease. The rebellion of others is no excuse for us also to rebel.
II. A LOFTY DUTY.
1. Extraordinary fidelity. Ezekiel was not only warned not to rebel in the exact manner of his fellow countrymen. He had a higher command laid upon him than any that was imposed upon them. They were only required to keep the general Law of God; he was commissioned to a special task of difficulty and danger in a prophet’s career, and his faithfulness was to consist in his not rebelling against this great task. The most honoured servants of God are those who are set in the posts of greatest danger and required to discharge the most arduous service. Brave men leap to such service and danger in human pursuits, eagerly volunteering to join expeditions into the heart of Africa or in search for the north pole. Some, too, are as eager in God’s service. These are God’s heroes.
2. Superhuman aid. Ezekiel was a man of God, a man of faith and prayer. Hence his power to be faithful. To stand faithful we must feel the influence of God’s grace. It is possible to be
“True as the needle to the pole,
Or as the dial to the sun,”
because needle and dial shadow follow great commanding influences.
III. A SPLENDID EXAMPLE. One faithful man among a host of traitors is a mighty encouragement to the weak. He can be a nucleus about which they can cluster, although they would never have had strength to stand without his great personality. Like a lighthouse in a wild and wintry night, the solitary example of fidelity sheds its encouraging rays far out to the darkness round about. Joseph in immoral Egypt, Daniel in unprincipled Babylon, Paul at wicked Rome, Luther at Worms, Latimer at Oxford,these men are beacon lights shining down the ages. It is worth the cost of all the hardship of exceptional trials of fidelity to become such magnificent inspiring influences for all time.
HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON
Eze 2:1
Son of man.
This expression is so constantly used with reference to Ezekiel that it cannot be considered a mere Oriental idiom with no peculiar significance. There were special reasons why Ezekiel, as the prophet chosen to communicate God’s will to Israel, should be thus designated.
I. TRUE HUMANITY IN THE PROPHET ENABLED HIM TO HOLD COMMUNION WITH THE FATHER OF SPIRITS. Man is God’s chosen vehicle for communicating with man. The ministry of angels is a reality, but such ministry is subordinate to that which is strictly human. Man is made in the likeness of God, and shares in the Divine reason. His highest thinking, it was grandly said by Kepler, is thinking over again the thoughts of God. It is in virtue of this prerogative that human beings are able to enter into the counsels of the Eternal Wisdom. The inferior inhabitants of this globe may indeed express in their structure the designs of the Creator. But man is more than the creature; he is the child of the heavenly Father, who calls his children to share in the revelation of his own character and will. And certain selected individuals, notably those designated “prophets,” are admitted into special relations with the Infinite Spirit, that they may be made the medium of carrying out his purposes of wisdom and of love.
II. THE PROPHET‘S TRUE HUMANITY ENABLED HIM TO ENTER INTO THE CIRCUMSTANCES AND NEEDS OF THOSE TO WHOM HE MINISTERED. The prophets sprang from the people, and knew them from familiar intercourse and intimacy; they knew their sins and weaknesses, their temptations and struggles. Some, like Elijah and John the Baptist, led a life secluded and asceticonly now and again coming forth from their retirement and mingling with their countrymen for some special purpose. But others lived amongst those whom they had known in childhood and youth, and made themselves acquainted with their temporal condition and their spiritual wants. It seems to have been so with Ezekiel. And as participation in common sorrows and sufferings often draws men closer together, it is reasonable to believe that comrades in exile were upon terms of closest fellowship and correspondence. The prophet knew well, in virtue of a common nature and a common lot, the people amongst whom he dwelt, and to whom he was called to minister.
III. THE PROPHET‘S TRUE HUMANITY RENDERED HIS MINISTRY SYMPATHETIC, AUTHORITATIVE, AND EFFECTIVE. Men may see much of one another, may be brought frequently into contact with one another, and yet may have little mutual knowledge, and even feel little interest in one another’s experiences. But this was not the case with Ezekiel, who did not harden his heart against even the disobedient, rebellious, and unresponsive, but, on the contrary, cultivated, as a man, a spirit of true brotherhood with his fellow men. He was deeply pained when it was his duty to threaten or to denounce; he was sincerely glad when it was given him to speak words of kindness and encouragement. There was, in consequence of this human sympathy, an especial authoritativeness in his prophetic ministrations. What he said and did went home, in many cases, to the hearts of those whom he addressed; because they interpreted his words and deeds in the light of his spirit and character.
IV. THE PROPHET WAS THUS A TYPE OF CHRIST HIMSELF, WHO WAS WONT TO DESIGNATE HIMSELF THE SON OF MAN. Perfect Man as well as perfect God, the Lord Christ entered into the position of those whom he came to save. Like Ezekiel, the Lord Jesus came to a captive people; like Ezekiel, he addressed to them words of reproach, words of warning, words of consolation, words of hope. He did more than this: he bore their sins, and carried their sorrows. And thus he brought deliverance to the bondmen, opened the prison doors, and bade the oppressed go free.T.
Eze 2:3
Rebellious nations.
This must have been a bard message for Ezekiel to deliver to his fellow countrymen. It was the heathen, the Gentiles, who were usually designated “nations;” and in applying this designation to Israel, he seemed to degrade the chosen people from their peculiar position of honour, and to rank them with the idolatrous nations whom they were accustomed to despise. And it has been surmised that, in employing the plural, the prophet intended to intimate that the Hebrews no longer constituted one people, one state, but were divided among themselves, dissolved as it were into disconnected and opposing sections and factions. It may be just and profitable to regard Israel as representative of the human race, in respect to this lamentable charge of rebellion, which may certainly be brought against mankind at large.
I. REBELLION IMPLIES ON THE PART OF THOSE WHO ARE GUILTY OF IT THE POSSESSION OF A VOLUNTARY NATURE. If there is no liberty, there can be no rebellion. Rebellion implies intelligent apprehension, and it implies deliberate purpose. The rebel knows what is the authority which he defies, and he defies that authority, not only intelligently, but of purpose. Brutes do not rebel; but men and angels may do, and have done Hence the serious responsibility attaching to rebellion against God on the part of wilful though misguided men.
II. REBELLION IMPLIES A JUST AUTHORITY AGAINST WHICH, CONTRARY TO EIGHT, THE REBEL SETS HIMSELF. There can be no rebellion where there is no government, no rebel where there is no governor. Neither can there be rebellion, properly speaking, against a usurper, who has no claim upon the loyalty and allegiance of those whom he may unjustly denominate his subjects. The moral government of the world is a fact, and its administration is characterized by equity. As the universal Legislator and Judge, God demands the subjection and obedience of mankind; all are his lawful subjects. There is no rebel against Divine authority who can bring against the rule and sway of the great Governor of the universe the charge of injustice and tyranny. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”
III. REBELLION AGAINST GOD INVOLVES GREAT GUILT AND MISERY. This awful fact is not to be questioned by any reasonable student of the moral history of mankind. Nowhere more strikingly than in the history of Israel has it been shown that they who resist Divine authority and violate Divine Law incur the most awful guilt and entail upon themselves the most awful punishments. Sentimentalists may complain that such assertions are the expression of severity and fanaticism; but it remains forever true that “the way of transgressors is hard,” and “the wages of sin is death.”
IV. MAN‘S GUILTY REBELLION PROMPTED INFINITE MERCY TO PROVIDE A VAST REDEMPTION AND DELIVERANCE. The history of the Hebrew people exhibits instances not only of human apostasy, but of Divine compassion and merciful interposition and deliverance. Thus the Captivity was itself a punishment for rebellion, for idolatry, and for all the evils idolatry brought upon the nation. Yet God did not forget to be gracious. He made the Captivity an occasion for displaying his grace; mercy triumphed over judgment. Repentance and submission took the place of resistance and defiance. Discipline, chastisement, answered its appointed purpose. God pitied the rebels even whilst he censured the rebellion. And very similar has been his treatment of mankind at large. The whole race has rebelled, and the whole race has been redeemed. There is spiritual amnesty provided through Christ Jesus, reconciliation through faith and repentance, restoration to affectionate loyalty and to happy subjection through the gracious influences of the Holy Spirit.
V. WHEN REBELLION IS SUBDUED, AND THE REBEL HUMBLED, SUBJECTION IS FOLLOWED BY LOYALTY AND HAPPINESS. God does not leave his work half done. He pardons the penitent, but he blesses the loyal and the reconciled. Great is the change which takes place in the state of him who has laid down the weapons of rebellion and has cast himself in penitence and submission before the footstool of the throne. As rebellion is exchanged for loyalty, and defiance for submission and gratitude, so disgrace is exchanged for honour, and the just sentence of death for the merciful assurance of Divine favour and eternal life.T.
Eze 2:4, Eze 2:5
The prophet’s commission.
Nothing is clearer than that the prophets did not believe themselves to be acting and speaking simply upon the promptings of their own inclinations or their own convictions of what was right and expedient. Whether they were self-deluded or not, certain it is that they deemed themselves ministers and messengers of the Eternal. It was this which gave them both courage and authority. In the most explicit manner, Ezekiel in this passage records his commission to go among his fellow countrymen as the herald of God’s wisdom, authority, and grace.
I. THE COMMISSION. “I do send thee unto them.” There is great simplicity and great dignity in this language of authorization; he who heard it could never forget it. When disappointed in the result of his ministry, or alarmed at the threats of those whom he sought to benefit, these words must often have recurred to the mind of the prophet, inspiring him with fresh zeal and courage. If the ambassador of a powerful king is strengthened in the fulfilment of his trust by the recollection that he received his authority from a court honoured by friends and feared by foes, how much more must the ambassador from God derive courage and confidence from the knowledge that he is sent by the Supreme, who will never desert those who engage in his service and do his will!
II. THE MESSAGE. At first the prophet received no other message than this: “Thus saith the Lord God.” But this was the earnest of much to follow. And, indeed, the whole of the prophecies were amplifications of this. Ezekiel was to go among the children of the Captivity with words from Jehovah. A prophet is one who speaks for, on behalf of, the Divine Being by whom he is commissioned. If the speaker had his own special reasons for believing that the words he uttered were not his own, but God’s, those who listened to his declarations of warning and of promise had a witness within, in the testimony of their own conscience, assuring them that the prophet spoke with Divine authority. And this is so still with all who will listen reverently and obediently to the heavenly voice. It is thus that the Scriptures possess over our minds a preeminent power; their writers preface every authoritative utterance with the statement, “Thus saith the Lord.”
III. THE VARIOUS RECEPTION OF THE MESSAGE. It is in accordance with the reasonableness of the inspired writers that. they cherished such moderate expectations regarding the effect to be produced by their ministry. Fanatics would have felt assured that, in such circumstances, they must meet with ready credence and immediate obedience. Ezekiel certainly had no such delusive anticipations, and was indeed expressly warned that his message would meet with varying reception. Some would hear, some would forbear. It was with Ezekiel as in the Christian dispensation it was with Paul; we are told that the result of his ministry at Rome was that “some believed the things which were spoken, and some disbelieved.”
IV. THE IMPRESSION PRODUCED BY GOD‘S MESSENGER UPON THOSE TO WHOM HE WAS SENT. “They shall know that there hath been a prophet among them.” Even those who were so much under the influence of ignorance, prejudice, evil example, and sin, that they did not and would not turn unto God, nevertheless were well aware that their obstinate impiety was unjustifiable. They might ridicule the prophet in their language, but they reverenced him in their hearts. Beneath the laugh of incredulity was a deep-seated fear, springing from an inward conviction that the voice they rejected was indeed the voice of God. Had one come among them flattering their vanity and pride, and ministering to their sinful tastes, they would in their heart of hearts have despised him. But when one came fearlessly upbraiding them with their unfaithfulness, and denouncing their guilty defection, they could not but know that a prophet had been among them.
APPLICATION. This passage has an especial significance for ministers of God’s Word, and for all religious teachers. It shows them where their strength lies; warns them against enunciating their own speculations or inculcating precepts founded upon their own experience; and directs them to go among their fellow men with this dignified and effective message, “Thus saith the Lord.” They may be tempted to court men’s favour and good will by uttering words of flattery. But it is well that, when so tempted, they should remember that there is in men a conscience, which may be repressed, but which cannot be crushed, which renders a homage, though silent, to the just authority of truth and righteousness, and which recognizes, even though it does not lead to practical obedience, the precepts and the warnings which are from God.T.
Eze 2:8
Prophetic receptiveness.
This Book of Ezekiel is one abounding in figure and symbol; it would be a mistake to take all its contents literally. When we read that the prophet was required by God to eat that which was given him, and are then informed that a written scroll was that which was to be eaten, we are at first surprised. But then we recollect that eating has been in many religions regarded as a sacred and symbolical act. The Mosaic dispensation had its Paschal meal, and the Christian religion has its sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. So that the symbol of the text is quite in accordance with the practices which, upon Divine authority, have prevailed in the Church throughout the ages.
I. IN ORDER THAT THE TEACHER MAY IMPART TO HIS FELLOW MEN, HE MUST FIRST RECEIVE FROM GOD. That this is the meaning of the symbol of this passage is evident from the context. It was in connection with the prophet’s commission that he was bidden to eat the scroll. It was thus that he was to fit and qualify himself for his special ministry; he was to take from God, that he might have wherewith to supply the needs of the people.
II. THE REVELATION OF GOD MUST BE GRADUALLY AND COMPLETELY APPROPRIATED AND ASSIMILATED BY THE MINISTER OF DIVINE TRUTH, Eating is a process by which suitable nutriment is introduced into the bodily system, and assimilated by the organs of digestion, so that it both builds up the bodily structure and supplies the organism with renewed power for life work. Such is the function fulfilled by God’s truth in connection with the spiritual being and life. The teacher of the revealed mind and will of the Supreme cannot be fitted for his service by a superficial and slight acquaintance with his message. That message must sink into the depths of his nature, must penetrate his being, must enter into all the functions of the spiritual life.
III. THE RELIGIOUS TEACHER MAY HAVE TO CONTEND WITH AND OVERCOME NATURAL DISINCLINATIONS TOWARDS SOME PARTS OF THE MINISTRY ENTRUSTED TO HIM. The requirement of God could not but awaken in the prophet’s mind something of repugnance, The scroll he was bidden to eat was filled with lamentations, mourning, and woe; the message he was commissioned to deliver was a message of reproach, of expostulation, of warning, of threatening. Such a ministry could not be agreeable to his natural inclinations; he must have shrunk from it as uncongenial and distasteful. It must often happen that the fulfilment of duty is distressing to the faithful and yet sensitive preacher of righteousness; it is a bitter thing to deliver a message of condemnation to one’s fellow men.
IV. YET IT IS SWEET TO OBEY AND TO FULFIL THE COMMANDS OF THE LORD. When the disinclination to undertake the painful commission had been overcome, a profound satisfaction followed. The prophet found that in keeping God’s commandments there is great reward. The distress is temporary and brief the satisfaction is lasting. The surgeon may often inflict pain upon his patient; the physician may see it right to order a course of treatment which is repulsive. To act wisely and conscientiously may, in such cases, be painful. But let the duty be discharged, and there follows a true satisfaction. It was so with Ezekiel; it is so with every true and faithful servant of God. The office may he one arduous and difficult, painful and repugnant; yet, if it is the office to which God calls a man, obedience and fidelity, the unshrinking fulfilment of the service, will bring a rich reward. Sweet are the delights of those who conquer self, who yield themselves up to the service of that Saviour who himself carried the cross. They shall enter into the joy of the Lord.T.
Eze 2:9
The scroll.
It is certainly remarkable that, whilst the ministry of Ezekiel was to be fulfilled by word of mouth, the communication of its substance should be figuratively represented by the scroll”a roll of a book, written within and without.” What the scroll was to the prophet, it may fairly be said, the volume of Holy Scripture is to us. Holy Writ is the record of successive revelations, and its form, as literature, answers very important purposes. Scripture is the standard of faith and doctrine and practice, to which the ministers of the gospel are bound to refer, according to the well known saying, “The Church to witness, the Scripture to prove.” This strikingly symbolical passage suggests valuable truth regarding both the form and the substance of the inspired volume.
I. THE FORM OF THE WRITTEN REVELATION. The fact is that we have the scroll, the volume, i.e. the mind of the holy and inspired men of old perpetuated in the written form. Certain advantages are by this means secured, which more than compensate for any disadvantages which may possibly be connected with the literary form which revelation assumes.
1. A written revelation, as compared with one merely oral, is deliberate. What men say in conversation, or under the stress of popular oratory, is not to be compared in this respect with what is carefully committed to a literary form. Speech is often intended merely to produce an immediate impression; what is written is probably intended to bear examination, to stand the test of reflection and of time.
2. Continuous. Fragmentary and disjointed utterances are all that can be expected from an ordinary speaker; and even a thoughtful and powerful speaker must usually, by the very conditions of his work, come short in the point of orderliness and continuity. The preparation of a book, and especially of a volume containing in many books the revelation of the Divine mind, involves a design, a plan, a connection and correspondence among the several parts which go to make up the whole.
3. Incorruptible. The untrustworthiness of tradition is proverbial. Wisdom is apparent in the arrangement by which the communication of God’s will to man has been placed beyond the corrupting influences to which every oral tradition is liable.
II. THE SUBSTANCE OF THE WRITTEN REVELATION. The “roll of a book” delivered to Ezekiel may be presumed to have been the emblem of the communications which were to form the matter of his prophetic ministry. And although the writing is described as consisting of mourning and woe, this is probably only because such was the prevailing tenor of the earlier portions of his prophecies. We may say generally that the written revelation through Ezekiel is a summary of that which occupies the entire Bible. The scroll, accordingly, may be considered as:
1. Displaying the Divine interest in mankind.
2. Revealing Divine acquaintance with men’s sinful character their wanderings from God, and the various errors and follies into which sin has ever led its victims.
3. Declaring God’s foresight of the miserable condition into which idolatry, apostasy, and every kind of moral evil and error must certainly plunge the rebellious. Nowhere is this more vividly displayed than in this book of prophecies.
4. Expressing the Divine solicitude for man’s welfare, and the Divine provision for man’s recovery and salvation. In all these several particulars the Book of Ezekiel is a miniature of the Bible. The theme of the prophet, and the theme of Holy Writ as a whole, is surely nothing else than thisthe exhibition of man’s heinous sin, and the offer of God’s merciful salvation.T.
HOMILIES BY J.D. DAVIES
Eze 2:1, Eze 2:2
The interlacing of Divine command and Divine strength.
The commands of God are acts of kindness. If he had abandoned us, he would give us no indications of his will. He is not so unreasonable as to give commands without also proffering help. If he says “This is the way,” he also says, “I will be with thee.” Hence, with Augustine, we may say to God, “Give what thou requirest, and require what thou pleasest.”
I. COMMAND. “Stand upon thy feet.” The form of address, “son of man,” was intended to encourage the prophet. The vision of God’s kingdom, and of his royal state, bad oppressed the mind of Ezekiel, and he had prostrated himself before such majestic splendour. But now the voice of the supreme Monarch assures him that he may also find a place among the honoured servants of Jehovah. Though but a frail man, a descendant of erring progenitors, he was yet a man, and therefore capable of high attainment and noble service. There was no hardship implied in this command to stand upon his feet. It chimed in with his own predisposition. Duty taken step by step, in easy gradations, becomes a delight. The requirement was honourable. There had been occasion for prostrate humility in the presence of the holy God. But humility is the way to honour. Now he is required to lift himself up to the full stature of his manhood, and to be ready for active and willing service. Use thy feet! Look heavenward! Be a man! Equip thyself for service!
II. PROMISE. “I will speak unto thee.” This is a stupendous act of Divine condescension to hold intercourse with fallen, fickle men. It is a mark of special favour if an earthly monarch calls a commoner into his presence, discloses to him royal counsels, and engages his services for the throne. Much greater token of good will is it, if that commoner had been heretofore a detected criminal, a dangerous rebel. But the similitude serves very poorly to illustrate the immeasurable grace of the heavenly King, who stoops to converse with the children of men. Human monarchs have set times, which they set apart to give audience to the noblest of their subjects. But God permits us to approach him at all times, and, if we will but speak to him, he will also speak unto us. “His delights are with the sons of men.” He loves to employ men in his service. Yea! he has determined to employ none but men in proclaiming to their brethren the royal purposes of redemption.
III. INDWELLING POWER While Jehovah spake to his servant, “the Spirit entered into him.” Finding in Ezekiel a readiness to obey, God immediately imparted to him the needed strength. If the will be present with us, the power to perform will not long be absent. When humility opens the door of the human heart, God will enter and abide there. It was not so much Ezekiel who put forth his strength and rose erect, as the indwelling Spirit, “who set him on his feet.” Verily, “in God we live, and move, and exist.” “I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” Ezekiel’s name was no misnomer. In very deed, God was his Strength. And the result of the Spirit’s entrance, further, was “that I heard him that spake unto me.” The very power to hear, whether by the organ of sense, or by the finer aptitude of the spirit, comes alone from God. “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.”D.
Eze 2:2-5
An arduous embassage.
Every prophet is a missionary; every true missionary is a prophet. In an inferior sense of the word, he is a mediatora mediator between God and man.
I. THE MISSIONARY CHARACTER OF THE PROPHET. He is one “sent.” He goes not to this difficult and responsible work by the impulse of his own reason or will. He is in the employ and under the direction of anotherof One whom he cannot disregard. He cannot go or stay, as he pleases, he is a servant. The Son of God himself has undertaken similar work. He was “sent” into our world on an errand of kindness. “As thou hast sent me, so have I sent them.”
II. THE MISSIONARY‘S UNPROMISING FIELD OF ACTION. “I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation.” The possession of outward advantages, or of special Divine favours, does not ensure gratitude or obedience on the part of men. In Eden, man transgressed. In Canaan, the glory of all lands, the Hebrews rebelled. Righteousness is not conveyed by blood relationship. The piety of Abraham did not descend in the line of natural posterity. But rebellion is a weed that grows freely in the degenerate soil of the human heart. The people of Israel, in Ezekiel’s time, were hardened in sin. The evil had become inveterate by long centuries of vicious habit, sad all the alternate measures of kindness and severity which God had employed had failed to reduce the people to submission. Though now in exile and disgrace, yet “to that very day” the rebellious spirit continued. Nor were they even ashamed of the past. No blush tinged their cheeks. All right feeling seemed petrified within!
III. THE MISSIONARY‘S INSTRUMENT. He is armed simply with the authoritative Word of God. What he hears from God, that, and that alone, may he speak! He is not allowed to elaborate, from his own judgment, conditions of reconciliation. He is not to rely for success on the inventiveness of reason, nor on beguiling acts of sophistry, nor on the persuasiveness of subtle rhetoric. He is to proclaim everywhere, “Thus saith the Lord!” Authority is the weapon on which he is to relynot human authority, but Divine. He is to be simply the mouthpiece of Deity. But, being this, he will become the power of God and the wisdom of God. His business is to speak Divine truth with all the pathos of Divine love.
IV. THE MISSIONARY‘S ENCOURAGEMENT. Whether the people would hear, or whether they would forbear, was still an unsolved problem so far as the prophet was concerned. God had not given to him the promise of visible and direct success. But whether they accepted or rejected the Divine overtures, the end which God anticipated would be realized. The people should have this conviction inwrought in their minds, viz. that a messenger from God had been among them. This was all that Ezekiel might confidently expect. This was the goal at which he was to aim, viz. to convince them that he was God’s prophetto commend his mission to the consciences of the people. Hence, if no other end was gained, he was not to feel depression of soul. Whether the people relented or further rebelled, he was to continue his simple work; and rest assured that God would defend his own cause, and bring final good out of present evil.D.
Eze 2:6-8
God’s ambassador a warrior.
The path of duty, since the Fall, is never smooth. We may have an inward sense of delighttranquil satisfaction, arising from the approval of conscience and the smile of Godbut from without we must expect sharp opposition. There is demand for vigilance, skill, and courage.
I. OPPOSITION FORESEEN. Men who have long time departed from God are not easily induced to return. The tree that has grown wildly crooked, cannot readily be restored to straightness and shape. Those who have abandoned the paths of truth and righteousness, sadly degrade their original nature. The cedars are reduced to thorns and briers. Sinners are unprofitable and injurious in the worlda curse to society. They bear no fruit, or only sour and poisonous fruit. They choke the promise of better things. Or they are like scorpions, bent only on mischief. Originally lords of nature, they have sunk to the level of the meanest insects. There is poison in their crafty words. There is a danger in their very looks.
II. COURAGE DEMANDED. “Be not afraid of them.” Why should God’s servants fear? Our adversaries’ words are mere breath. Not a particle of power have they but such as is permitted them by our Master. While they open their mouths in loud boasting, the finger of death is loosening the silver cord within. As the mighty God hath said to the angry waves, so hath he said to these, “Thus far shall ye go, and no further.” They may loudly bark, but it is seldom they have power to bite. The fierce opposition of the ungodly may turn to our good; it may and ought to develop our courage. The severer the conflict, the more strength we may gather, and the greater will be our triumph. As they are so zealous in a bad cause, how much more zealous should we be in the very best of enterprises?
III. THE ONLY WEAPON PERMITTED. In this conflict with human folly and rebellion, our only weapon is to be “the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” “Thou shalt speak ray words unto them.” If they meet us with contempt and malice, we have but to repeat in calmer tones, and with undisturbed patience, the same factsthe message from the lips of God. Any addition of ours, however suitable it may seem, only weakens the force of the message. We must see to it that the edge of the weapon is not blunted by our own carelessness. Our only concern should be that we do speak all the counsel of Godthat it is the Word of God, both in substance and form, which we utter.
IV. AN INSIDIOUS DANGER EXPOSED. “Be not thou rebellious like that rebellions house.” One foe within the camp is more injurious than a thousand outside. If a germ of disease be in the medicine, it will invalidate all its efficacy. Rebellion assumes a myriad forms. It is a hydra with more than a hundred heads. Listlessness in hearing the heavenly commissiona tampering with its fixed terms, a rash attempt to improve the Divine originalthese and such-like acts are seed germs of rebellion in the soul. “If the salt be deprived of its savour,” wherewith shall the corruptions of the world be purged out? An unfaithful ambassador adds fresh aggravation to the revolt of a province. Sin is a contagious evil.D.
Verse 9-ch. 3:3
The bread of heaven.
The appetites of the human body may be regarded by us as pictures and symbols of the inner hunger of the spirit. Not more surely does the body cry out for food than does the inner man crave for truth. He only who has created this complex frame can meet its varied wants.
I. THE HUNGER OF THE SOUL. As the emotional element in man cries out for friendship, as the intellectual asks for knowledge, so the spiritual element eagerly asks after God’s will. “Lord, what writ thou have me to do?” To be out of harmony with God is misery to the soul. To be ignorant of God’s purposes and intentions respecting us must bring perpetual disquietude. Hence the question in some form, either vague or clear, is ever rising to the surface, “What must I do to gain eternal life?”
II. DIVINE PROVISION. In order to qualify Ezekiel more fully for his undertaking, a fresh vision was vouchsafed to him. A hand was stretched out from heaven, containing a parchment roll. In form, it seemed like the “bread that perisheth;” but it was in truth the heavenly mannathe revelation of Jehovah’s will. Man, at the best, is under the dominance of animal appetites; and consequently spiritual facts make most impression on him when presented under material images. But God never deceives. He unfolded the roll; showed him how full it was of instruction and meaning; explained to him its real contents, viz. “mourning, lamentations, and woe.” Like unleavened bread and bitter herbs, this knowledge of God’s will may be most healthful for men at certain seasons of their life. God’s regard for us is too genuine and profound for him to indulge our appetites with dangerous delicacies. The bitter must come before the sweet, darkness before light, sorrow before joy.
III. PERSONAL DIGESTION REQUIRED. The command is heard, “Eat that I give thee.” “Fill thy bowels with this roll.” A superficial acquaintance with God’s will is not enough for the prophet’s equipment. He must observe, learn, masticate, digest, incorporate, the truth. Here is indeed precious counsela Physician’s wise advice. Less food, probably, but more digestion. Heavenly counsel this, which every disciple should write in golden letters on his chamber walls. The truth which God gives to men does not become really theirs until it is assimilated into their own naturebecomes part and parcel of themselves. By examination and reflection and practical obedience, this truth passes into the very blood and nerve and fibre of our being. We become the truth”living epistles, known and read of all men.”
IV. THE TASTE PALATABLE AND PLEASANT: “It was in my mouth as honey for sweetness.” The regenerate man will welcome all the truth of God. Whatever God’s will be, he knows that God’s will is right, and that righteousness must bring blessing and peace. He is not now so blind as to limit his vision to the narrow present; he compasses, in the sweep of his eye, the remote and the future. That the prophet learnt that lamentation and mourning were decreed, was an element of hope. Would the Divine Ruler take such pains with men if he did not intend to do them ultimate good? The very severity of the treatment implied that health would come at last. To do the will of God is always sweet to the renewed man. Unless our spiritual palate is in a diseased condition, every particle of heavenly truth will be “as honey for sweetness.” “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and they were unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart.”D.
HOMILIES BY W. JONES
Eze 2:3-8
The commission to prophetic service.
“And he said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel,” etc. We have here
I. A DISCOURAGING SPHERE OF PROPHETIC SERVICE. (Eze 2:3, Eze 2:4.) Ezekiel was sent to:
1. A people who had mournfully fallen. “I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me.” By descent they were sons of Israel, who had engaged in mighty wrestling with God, and by faith had prevailed; and they ought to have been his sons in character. But instead of that they are here spoken of as “the rebellious nations.” The word is plural, as in the margin; and it is that which is used to denote the heathen as distinguished from the people of God. They are designated “nations,” as if they had something of the sins of all heathen peoples. They were sadly degenerate branches of a noble root. In former times the Israelites had been the Lord’s “peculiar treasure a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exo 19:5, Exo 19:6); now they were “the rebellious nations that have rebelled against” him.
2. A people persistently rebellious against God. Observe the repetition of this charge against them in verses 3, 5, 6, 7, 8. Their rebelliousness had existed long. Generation after generation they had been revolters against Jehovah. “They and their fathers have transgressed against me unto this very day.” The children trod in the sinful steps of their rebellious fathers. Unless restrained by the grace of God, children will imitate their parents, however wicked they may be. Let parents remember the power of their example over their children, and so live that their children may imitate them with advantage.
3. A people openly obdulate in wickedness. “They are impudent children, and stiff-hearted.” They were hard of face; they had lost shame; they had ceased to blush by reason of their sins. “Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? Nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush” (Jer 6:15). And they were “stiff-hearted”an expression which denotes steadfastness and determination in their evil ways; they were hardened in wickedness.
4. A people resolutely hostile to the Lord‘s prophets. “Briers and thorns be with thee, and thou dost dwell among scorpions; be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks.” Three ideas are suggested concerning the people.
(1) Their barrenness. They were as destitute of the fruits of righteousness as dry thorns.
(2) Their injuriousness. They would prick and sting as briers and thorns.
(3) Their venomousness. Like scorpions, they would seek to poison the heart and life of the prophet. They would assail him with envenomed words, and scowling, threatening looks. The life of a prophet of Jehovah was generally one of trial and persecution. Ezekiel is here forewarned of the pains and penalties awaiting him in his future course. In like manner our Lord made known to the twelve apostles the persecutions they would have to encounter in the fulfilment of their mission (Mat 10:16-22). What an evidence it is of the mercy of God that he should send his prophet to so rebellious a people (cf. Hos 11:7-9)!
II. THE SUBLIME CHARACTER OF PROPHETIC SERVICE. It involves two main functions.
1. Reception of Divine communications. “Son of man, hear what I say unto thee.” The prophet must be a devout listener in the glorious temple of God’s great universe. His spiritual ear must be keenly sensitive even to the whispers of the Divine voice.
2. Publication of Divine communications. “Thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God” (verse 4). “And thou shalt speak my words unto them.” It is his business neither to expound the systems of other men, nor to propound his own opinions, but to declare the Word of the Lord. He must speak what he receives from God; and he must speak it in his Name and by his authority. The Christian minister is an ambassador of the Lord Jesus Christ, offering his pardon, etc. (cf. 2Co 5:20).
III. THE UNCERTAIN RECEPTION OF PROPHETIC SERVICE. “Thou shalt speak my words unto them, whether: they will hear, or whether they will forbear.” It was not granted to Ezekiel to know how his message would be regarded by his fellow countrymen. He received no assurance that they would hear and. heed it. Rather it was suggested to him that they might refuse to hear his testimony. Nevertheless, he must deliver to them the words which he received from God. He must
“Learn a prophet’s duty:
For this cause is he born, and for this cause,
For this cause comes he to the worldto bear Witness.”
And now the ministers of Jesus Christ must speak his Word faithfully, irrespective of the treatment which is given to that Word. The treatment which the gospel receives from their hearers they are not responsible for; but for fidelity in the proclamation of that gospel they will be held responsible (cf. Eze 3:16-21).
IV. THE DIVINE ENCOURAGEMENT IN PROPHETIC SERVICE.
1. Obedience to the Divine call demands this service. “I send thee to the children of Israel” (verse 3); “I do send thee unto them” (verse 4); “Be not thou rebellious” (verse 8). The true prophet, whether Hebrew or Christian, is called of God. He cannot decline the service without grievous unfaithfulness and disobedience. He is encouraged to fulfil it by the fact of the Divine commission; for he who calls strengthens and sustains his servants.
2. Attention to the Divine exhortations strengthens for this service. “Be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words,” etc. (verse 6). This exhortation implies that he who gives it will defend his servant. “Be not afraid of their faces; for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord” (Jer 1:8; and see Mat 10:26-31).
3. The assurance of its vindication encourages in this service. “They, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, yet shall know that there hath been a prophet among them.” Because of his covenant relation to the children of Israel, the Lord will send his prophet unto them. “His testimony, the tidings from him, must be heard in the midst of Israel.” The declaration of that testimony was a proof of the fidelity of the Lord to his covenant engagements. And the people should know the genuineness of that testimony. Those who truly heard it would know, by blessed experience of the results of obedience, that a prophet had been among them. And those who rejected it would know by bitter experience, know to their confusion, that a prophet had been among them, and that his words were true. So also shall the mission of every true Christian minister be vindicated, as we see from 2Co 2:14-16.
CONCLUSION.
1. Let those who have received a mission from the Lord be encouraged to fulfil it. (Cf. 2Ti 2:1.)
2. Let those to whom the Word of the Lord is preached “take heed how they hear.“W.J.
Eze 2:9
Eze 3:3
The vision of the roll; or, a view of the prophetic message.
“And when I locked, behold, an hand was sent unto me,” etc. This section concerning the roll of prophecy must be looked upon as being of the nature of vision. It pertained not to the external and material, but to the internal and spiritual. It suggests the following observations concerning the prophetic message.
I. THE PROPHETIC MESSAGE IS RECEIVED FROM THE LORD. “And when I looked, behold, an hand was sent unto me; and, lo, a roll of a book was therein; and he spread it before me.” The volume was unrolled before him that he might become acquainted with the Divine commission given to him; “undertake his mission with a clear consciousness of its difficulty;” and know the Word of the Lord which he was to proclaim. He was not to promulgate his own thoughts, opinions, or convictions however true or noble they might have been); but the things which were revealed to him by God. “Thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God And thou shall speak my words unto them” (Eze 3:4, Eze 3:7). And the Christian minister is to “preach the gospel” (Mar 16:15), to “preach the Word” (2Ti 4:2), after the example of the apostles who, “when they had preached the Word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem, and preached the gospel,” etc. (Act 8:25). “They ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ” (Act 5:42; and cf. 1Co 1:23; 2Co 4:5; Eph 3:8; Col 1:27, Col 1:28).
II. THE PROPHETIC MESSAGE IS BOTH LONG AND MOURNFUL. The roll was “written within and without: and there was written therein lamentations, and mourning, and woe.” This roll is intended to represent the book of the prophet.
1. It was long. “Written within and without.” Such was the extent and fulness of the revelation that the one side, which generally was alone used for writing on, was insufficient to contain it; both sides were required.
2. It was mournful. “There was written therein lamentations, and mourning, and woe.” A correct description of many of the prophecies of this book. How mournful was the moral condition of the people as set forth by the prophet! How woeful the judgments which he proclaimed unto them! Very often the Word of the Lord by the prophets was in fact a heavy “burden” (cf. Isa 13:1; Isa 15:1; Isa 17:1; Isa 19:1; Nah 1:1; Hab 1:1; Zec 9:1; Zec 12:1; Mal 1:1). And the Word of the Lord to the rebellious and the hardened (such as the Israelites were) is still a stern worda word of condemnation and woe. The true prophet cannot prophesy smooth things to stiff-necked sinners. To such characters he must proclaim “the severity of God.”
III. THE PROPHETIC MESSAGE MUST BE WELL DIGESTED BY THE PROPHET. “Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou fin, test; eat this roll,” etc. (Eze 3:1-3). The meaning of this is given in Eze 3:10, “Son of man, all my words that I shall speak unto thee receive in thine heart, and hear with thine ears.” He must receive it, meditate upon it, appropriate it, make it a part of his being. “Here we have the right expression,” says Umbreit on eating the roll, “to enable us to form a judgment and estimate of true inspiration. The Divine does not remain as a strange element in the man; it becomes his own feeling thoroughly, penetrates him entirely, just as food becomes a part of his bodily frame.” There is need of a similar appropriation of the Word of God by Christian preachers today. That Word should be in them not only by intellectual apprehension, but by spiritual assimilation also. It should be not merely on their lips, but in their hearts. This will give the accent and power of conviction to their words when they publish it.
IV. THE PROPHETIC MESSAGE WAS DELIGHTFUL UNTO THE PROPHET. “Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness.” “Thy words were found, and I did eat them,” etc. (Jer 15:16). It seems strange that this roll of “lamentations, and mourning, and woe” should be sweet to Ezekiel. It was so probably:
1. Because it was the Word of the Lord. (Cf. Psa 19:10; Psa 119:103.)
2. Because of the honour conferred upon him in making him the agent of the Lord in hearing and speaking that Word. “It is infinitely sweet and lovely to be the organ and the spokesman of the Most High” (Hengstenberg).
3. Because even its severest portions were righteous. There was nothing that would clash with his sense of justice and truth. Says Calvin, “The sweet taste means Ezekiel’s approbation of God’s judgment and commands.”
4. Because behind the severest judgments there was the grace of the Lord God. In the roll there were promises of mercy and restoration to the penitent. “Athwart the cloud,” says Hengstenberg, “the rainbow gleams. Better to be condemned by God than comforted by the world. For he who smites can also heal, and will heal, if his proclamation of judgment, and the judgment itself, be met by penitence; while, on the other hand, the comfort of the world is vain.” So the roll was in the prophet’s “mouth as honey for sweetness.” Yet there were times when his stern message and his arduous mission were not sweet to him, and he “went in bitterness, in the heat of his spirit” (Eze 3:14; and cf. Rev 10:9, Rev 10:10). The work of the Christian preacher has its sweetness and bitterness; its high and holy joys, and its deep and heart-rending sorrows.
V. THE PROPHETIC MESSAGE MUST BE FAITHFULLY DELIVERED. “Son of man, eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel.” Even despite the determined opposition of those to whom he is sent, he must discharge his mission with fidelity (cf. Eze 3:4-11, the meaning of which is very similar to that of the paragraph, Eze 2:3-8, which has already engaged our attention). And it is required of the ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ that they be faithful to the great trust which is committed to them (1Co 4:1,1Co 4:2; Eph 6:21; Col 1:7; Col 4:7; 2Ti 2:2). Blessed are they who in the review of their life can humbly declare, with St. Paul, that they have kept the glorious deposit which was entrusted to them (cf. 1Ti 1:11; 2Ti 4:7).W.J.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Eze 2:1. He said unto me That is, the Divine Person or Son of God, whom the prophet had seen in glory in the preceding vision. Son of man is here understood to signify the same with a common and ordinary man. See Psa 8:4. And accordingly most commentators understand it as applied to the prophet, to remind him of his frailty and mortality, and of the infinite distance between God and man. See Calmet.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
2. The Divine Commission to the Prophet (Eze 2:1 to Eze 3:11)
Eze 2:1 And He said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak with thee. 2And the spirit entered into me as He spake unto me, and set me upon my feet, and I heard Him that spake unto me. 3And He said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the sons of Israel, to heathens, the rebels, who rebelled against me. They and their fathers have been revolters from me down to this 4very day. And the sons! stiff of face and hard of heart are they, I do send thee unto them [Eze 2:3]; and thou sayest unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah. 5And they, whether they hear or whether they forbear,for they are a house of rebelliousness,know then that a prophet was in their midst. 6And thou, son of man, thou art not to be afraid of them, neither of their words art thou to be afraid; for [although] prickles and thorns are with thee, and thou art dwelling among scorpions, of their words thou art not to be afraid, and at their face thou 7art not to be terrified, for they are a house of rebelliousness. And thou speakest my words unto them, whether they hear or whether they forbear; for they are 8rebelliousness. And thou, son of man, hear what I say unto thee: Thou must not be rebelliousness, like the house of rebelliousness. Open thy mouth, and eat 9what I give unto thee. And I saw, and behold, an hand sent [stretched] unto me; and behold, in it a book-roll. 10And He spread it out before me; and it was written within and without, and on it were written lamentations, and groaning, and woe.
Eze 3:1 And He said unto me, Son of man, that which thou shalt find eat; eat 2this roll, and go, speak unto the house of Israel. And I opened my mouth, and He caused me to eat this roll. 3And He said unto me, Son of man, thy belly shalt thou cause to eat, and thy bowels shalt thou fill with this roll which I give thee. And I did eat; and it became in my mouth as honey for sweetness. 4And He said unto me, Son of man, go, get thee unto the house of Israel, and thou 5speakest in my words unto them. For not to a people obscure of lip and difficult of tongue art thou sent,to the house of Israel. 6Not to many nations obscure of lip and difficult of tongue, whose words thou canst not hear [understandest not],7although I have not sent thee to them, they would hearken unto thee. Yet the house of Israel, they will not be willing to hearken unto thee, for they are not willing to hearken unto me; for all the house of Israel, hard of forehead and stiff of heart are they. 8Behold, I have made thy face hard against their face, and thy forehead hard against their forehead. 9As an adamant harder than stone have I made thy forehead: thou shalt not fear them, and thou shalt not be terrified at 10their face, for they are a house of rebelliousness. And He said unto me, Son of man, all my words that I shall speak unto thee, receive in thine heart and hear in thine ears. 11And go, get thee to the captivity, to the children of thy people, and thou speakest unto them, and sayest unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, whether they hear or whether they forbear.
Ch. 2. Eze 2:2. Sept.: … . . .
Eze 2:3. … . . . ,
Eze 2:5. … ,
Ch. 2. Eze 2:6. … , .
Eze 2:7. Anoth. read.: (Sept., Syr., Arab., Chald.: ).
Eze 2:10. . .
Ch. 3. Eze 2:1. … , . … . (Anoth. read.: , Vulg., Syr., Arab.)
Eze 2:2. K. .
Eze 2:3. … . … … .
Eze 2:5. …. . .
Eze 2:6. … … . ….
Eze 2:7. … .
Eze 2:9. . , …
Eze 2:10. …
Ezekiel 2:11. … .
EXEGETICAL REMARKS
In accordance with the character of the vision of Ezekiel 1 as discussed at p. 31, the installation of Ezekiel to his sphere of labour must now take place, the vision must he realised as a mission (first of all in words). But before the mission conies to be expressed in words (it is said, first of all, merely, Eze 2:1, and I will speak with thee), the prophet is restored, so to speak, physically, i.e. as regards mind and body, to the status quo.
Eze 2:1-2.The Divine Raising up of Ezekiel in order to the Divine Commission
Eze 2:1. And He spake. The voice of one that spake (Eze 1:28, comp. Ezekiel 2:25) must be that of Him who sits upon the throne (Ezekiel 2:26)., man of men. By this expression Ezekiel is immediately contrasted with Him who is speaking to him; for of Him it is said at Eze 1:26 : the likeness as the appearance of a man. Jehovah merely appeared as a man, Ezekiel is a son of man. (Cocc. certainly & mi frater, Psa 22:22; Heb 2:11-12.) Hence the view that this form of address is meant to distinguish him from the angelsapart from such a conception of the chajoth in Ezekiel 1.says too little. On the other hand, it would increase the distinction so as to produce a conflict with the raising up of the prophet which follows, if a humbling of him were meant to be signified by this expression (Raschi),in order that he may not after such visions exalt himself as being only a man (2Co 12:7). It is perhaps meant to be said at the commencement,but even more for those who have to hear him than for Ezekiel himself; and on this account it becomes a stereotyped (Hver.: more than 80 times) form of address to the prophet,that he would not to be able to give such revelations from himself (comp. Introd. 7). But this man of men is called: one whom God strengthens (comp. Introd. 1). His legitimation for the Church lies as much in the one as in the other; in other words, in both together (1Co 15:10). The expression son of man is meant to say to Israel: Thus saith the Lord Jehovah.As regards the divine raising up of Ezekiel which is intended, his falling down comes, first of all, to be considered: stand upon thy feet. This human element, which has come to be expressed, is established by the form of address on the part of Jehovah; yet without the design of humbling the prophet (e.g. as the Jews say, because driven out of Jerusalem, like Adam out of Eden!), rather with compassionate condescension (b Polanus), a divine ecce homo. Then, farther, it corresponds with the stereotyping of this form of address to Ezekiel, and also with an exaltation of him, as respects his prophetic mission, when it is remembered in connection therewith that the vision of Ezekiel 1, with all its direct and special applicability to Israel of that time, had a general human character, and a horizon embracing the whole world: the likeness of a man predominated in the chajoth, the likeness as the appearance of a man was the description of Him who sat on the throne, the number four had the sway numerically over the whole. With this distinction from Ezekiel 9, 10, the mission of Ezekiel takes place, who at the same time is addressed as son of man, as prophet not merely of Israel, but of mankind generally. [Rosenm.: pro simplici homo. Hvern.: a standing humiliation, corresponding with the time of the exile, and the strong, powerful nature of Ezekiel, and at the same time, a lesson for his hearers to look quite away from man. Hengst.: the form of address admits what lies before the eyes in looking at the frivolous objections of the multitude. Hitzig: a self-reflection of the prophet as to the distance between God and him. Klief.: because God speaks with him as man to man, as a man talks with his friend. Keil: the weakness and frailty of man, in contrast with God, which appears the more prominent in the case of Ezekiel, through the preponderance of vision, for the people as for him a sign of the power of God in weakness, who can raise Israel even up again, miserable as she is among the heathen. Umbr.: The call of grace out of the mouth of Him who by the sight of His glory has cast man to the ground in the consciousness of his sin.]Ezekiel is to rise to his feet (comp. Dan 8:18; Mat 17:7; Act 26:16; Exo 33:21), primarily, a corporeal lifting up of the prophet, in order, however, that God may talk with him. , the accusative particle for the prep. (Ew., Lehrb. 264; Ges. 101). Comp. Eze 3:22; Eze 3:24; Eze 3:27.
Eze 2:2. For the divine summons the divine preparation is not wanting, important for all coming time (Eze 3:24; comp. Rev 1:17). , coming in this way, by means of Gods word, is not the consciousness, the thinking power of the prophet, his animal spirits (Hitzig), comp. on Eze 1:28; for the spirit comes into him, does not so much return to him (how would he have been able, Eze 1:28, in a state of unconsciousness, to hear one speaking?); but also not the Holy Spirit for the purpose of inspiration, but: the spirit who was also in the chajoth and in the wheels, Ezekiel 1 (Hengstenberg); just as the context makes us think of that first. God gives him the spirit to set him on his feet, but also to catch His words; on account of the latter, this divine quickening is at the same time expressed as a coming of the spirit into him; it is a quickening of mind and body conjointly, which brings about the transition from the revelation in vision () to the revelation by word. (Hvern.: the Spirit of God, partly as power that overmasters, seizes him, partly as that victorious, divine powerin himselfof genuine courage and noble alacrity in his calling?) An interesting parallel in 1Ki 10:5. (Eze 43:6) = partic. Hithp.; in Eze 1:28, partic. Piel. Raschi: The Shechinah talked within itself in its glory. In that case, = of me. with the participle = Him who (Ewald, Lehr. p. 569 sqq.).
Eze 2:3 to Eze 3:11.The Divine Commission to the Prophet
Eze 2:3-7. What Opposition he has to encounter from his Hearers, as well as the Divine Consolation thereanent
Eze 2:3. And He spake unto meis continually repeated anew, characteristically, indicating the momentary character of the divine communications.The mission is portrayed after the manner of the address. , for which the LXX. have read . The sons (children) of Israel in general are brought down to the level of (which expression is not used for the tribes and families, nor does it, as Hitzig, Klief., mean merely isolated portions of the people), (from ), that which is brought together, like , that which hangs together by means of , custom, in distinction from (comp. Hos 1:9) which is farther explained by: the rebels, and may be illustrated by comparison with Psa 2:1. The article emphasizes them as such in a decided way, and the clause: which rebelled against me, impressively repeats what is applicable to them. (Hengst.: They are described first according to what they ought to have been, sons of him who wrestled and prevailed in faith with God and man; then according to what they really are, a microcosm, as it were, of the whole heathen world, whose religion and morals were reflected in them; the plural goes even beyond Isa 1:4. Polanus refers it to Judah and Israel.) How general the statements are is shown by what follows: they and their fathers(Jer 3:25). The echo makes itself heard still in the speech of Stephen, Act 7:51-53., a Pentateuchal word.
Eze 2:4. But since it is the sons to whom the divine mission directs the prophet, they are put forward, as it were pointed out with the finger, but by no means as children of God, as Hvern. will have it. Stiff is something thoroughly bad (Isa 48:4); it is otherwise with Lard (Heb 13:9), which may at all events be determined by cirstances (comp. Eze 3:8-9). Here the face determines the character of the heart, and of its hardness as one that is evil. This evil hardness of the heart explains the before-mentioned faithlessness down to this very day. The stiffness of the face excludes alike the emotion of shame and the tears of repentance.Thee (thus to those who are , one of the ), to the hardhearted one who is hard (firm) in God, comp. Ezekiels name, Introd. 1 (Eze 3:8-9).Thus saith the Lord Jehovah. And here we are by no means, with J. H. Michaelis, to add in thought: etc. Just this short statement, without any addition, is of indescribable majesty as opposed to the rebels; in connection with it, Virgils quos ego may suggest itself to us. [Sept.: . Vulg.: Dominus deus. Philipps.: the Lord, the Eternal. Other Jewish translators: God the Lord.] It is a short form of Exo 20:2.Because , according to which is usually punctuated, immediately precedes, gets the points of .
Eze 2:5. And they strongly emphasizes those who have been mentioned. To supply out of Eze 2:7 : and speak my words unto them, or the like (Hengst.), is not necessary, is even unsuitable, inasmuch as thus saith the Lord Jehovah precedes (comp. Eze 3:11), and also confuses the meaning of the sentence, which finds its apodosis after the expressively resumed in : they know then, or: they know, however, etc. Nevertheless, preserves the meaning of was (not: is), although, as both cases are supposed: hearing and forbearing, i.e. neglecting to hear, ought not to be so much as: they will then learn by experience, viz. by the fulfilment of the threatenings, which could certainly be applicable to the latter case only. Here the matter in hand is not yet so much hearing and being converted, or not, as is the case afterwards in Eze 3:17 sqq., but only the mere giving ear in general, or the refusing even that; and thus, even whether the prophet finds hearers or not, his thus saith the Lord Jehovah is a fact; they know by means of this testimony, which sounded among them, although they may hear nothing farther, that a prophet has been among them. God has by this given sufficient testimony to Himself (Joh 15:22). Thus the makes the very least supposition which can be made, and gives the reason for this lowest supposition, hearing as well as forbearing to hear, by means of the clause: for a house, etc., and hence also with full accentuation.For , comp. Langes Comment, on Deuteronomy, Doct. Reflect, on Ezekiel 13.
Eze 2:6. But whatever opposition the prophet may have to encounter as regards those to whom he is sent, in reference to his own person (hence the subjective negation )so runs now the divine consolationhe has nothing to fear (Jer 1:8; Jer 1:17; Mat 10:26; Mat 10:28), either from themselves or from their words, which with men usually look worse than themselves, and frequently also are worse, since one pulls down another by such means: slander behind backs creates prejudice, and renders abortive the labours of the preacher. Thou art not to be afraid impressively repeated, thus: no, not at all. , only here, is taken by some literally, as an adjective (Gesen.): rebellious; by some figuratively, as a substantive (Meier): straggling briars, or something hard, that injures: prickles, possibly also something for beating: a whip, scourge. Keil: stinging nettles, thorns. , here like , Eze 28:24. Elsewhere also a figurative and non-figurative expression are combined (Psa 27:1)., according to Keil: if, but better: although. It gives the reason for the charge. is explained by what follows as being the with of association (Eze 3:15; Deu 8:15; 1Ki 12:11; 1Ki 12:14). A gradation: briars, thorns, scorpions! Niphal: to be broken, to pass away, to despair (Eze 3:9).Face, because it is stiff (Eze 2:4).House (Eze 2:5), here again with special reference to his dwelling. Eze 2:7 : Eze 3:4; Eze 2:5. at the close, but with heightened meaning, as it were the incarnation of it. Eze 44:6.
Eze 2:8 to Eze 3:11. What Opposition he might have to encounter in himself, and the Divine Strengthening against it.
Eze 2:8. Hitherto it was the commission as such, viz. a divine one, now it is the same commission as respects what it will contain . Inasmuch as Ezekiel belongs to that house, (as hitherto always in pause-form) is attributed to him also. It has been understood as an adjective, or elliptically (supply , Eze 2:7 : ). Comp. Jonah; Exo 4:13; Jer 1:6. The divine commission is symbolized by means of the following demand, with which every objection is cut off. (Illustrating, at the same time, the form of expression in John 6.) With appetite, hunger, we have here nothing to do.
Eze 2:9 : , comp, Eze 1:1 : consequently in vision. , because is of the common gender; others make the suffix neuter, alleging that is always feminine., written after the manner of the Pentateuch on the skin of an animal, Psa 40:7; Heb 10:7 (Rev 10:2). J. D. Michaelis makes the remark here: such a book rolled about a rounded piece of wood looks not unlike a bakers roll (!).
Eze 2:10. God spreads out this roll before him, so that he can ascertain what follows, the contents of the divine commission, can become acquainted with his mission. It was a so-called opisthograph (Lucian: Vit. Auct. ix.), Pliny, Ep. 49. Written over inside, and on the back (comp. Rev 5:1), not merely, as usual, the inside alone; within and without, indicating a writing of great size, whose fulness of contents is also clear at once to every one, by which writing we are to understand the book of our prophet, whose character, as will immediately appear, is to be specified as (wailing, mourning, lamentation, 19:1), (from the low sound), and (according to Gesen., for ; Ew.: a sound of wailing ). Comp. therewith, Exo 31:18; Zec 5:1; Jer 36:18; Dan 5:25.
Eze 3:1. What he finds before him (Eze 2:8-9); he would certainly not seek it for himself. After the acceptance without objection (symbolized by the eating), the speaking to the house of Israel is to take place: , , without between them, one idea. Only what God imparts to him he is to preach, and that immediately: and therefore nothing of his own, and no delay in accordance with his own judgment (2Ti 4:2). The objectivity and sovereignty of the divine word are strongly emphasized. Comp. Deu 18:18; Jer 1:9 (Mat 10:20).
Eze 3:2. A symbolical transaction, and also taking place in vision (Deu 8:3; Psa 119:130-131).
Eze 3:3. An intensification of the thought to the highest degree, so that the prophet is not merely to be willing to accept (to eat), but what he has accepted is to be his food, on which he lives, and that which fills his inner man, which determines his activity outwardly. Comp. Psa 40:8; Joh 4:31-34 (1Ti 4:6; Luk 6:45). Double accusative, with emphasis (Gesen. Gramm. 126), neut.: as respects sweetness, as sweet as honey. A frequent comparison as applied to the fear of God, His word and the like (comp. Jer 15:16). The bitter element (Rev 10:9-10) is perhaps presupposed in what he saw written on the roll (Eze 2:10; comp. Rom 9:2). In this way the bitter element would come first, and so much the greater an act of obedience would the prophets eating appear. And so Klief. might legitimately emphasize the sweet after-taste, and also point to this, that Ezekiel, after and during all the misery which he has to announce, will have also something sweet in his mouth in saying it, or even in merely knowing it respecting Israel. Comp. Introd. 5; comp. however, Eze 3:14 also.
Eze 3:4. ; comp. the imperative in Eze 3:1; Eze 3:11. A more expressive repetition of the command in the mission. Hence the sweet taste which the prophet experienced in Eze 3:3 symbolizes, first of all, his alacrity; thus the divine preparation, the strengthening experienced in respect of that which would possibly otter resistance in himself; so that there may be a retrospective reference to the main hindrance, namely, that which lay with Israel (Eze 2:3-7).
Eze 3:5. It seems like a relief that Ezekiel is not sent to , which certainly stands for those speaking a language foreign to a Jew (comp. Isa 33:19), as is also explained in so many words in Eze 3:6, and which, in parallelism here with heavy tongue, will mean not so much deep of sound, as rather, in accordance with the cognate idea of deep, viz. obscure as regards the interpretation,is there a reference to the widely-opened lips of the stammering tongue? The plural, because of the collective . So already Calvin. , standing in the middle, refers alike to the positive and to the negative part of the sentence; we may supply: but.The house of Israel is the prophets own house (Eze 3:11), in whose case, therefore, lip and tongue have not the stamp of strangeness for him.
Eze 3:6. This more general thought in Eze 3:5 receives in Eze 3:6 a peculiar colouring, inasmuch as, on the one hand, the many nations are made prominent by the side of Israel,Ezekiels sphere of labour is small and contracted in comparison,and inasmuch as, on the other hand, stress is laid upon the circumstance: whose words (if they had to speak to thee) thou wouldst not understandthus the hindrance as regards their lip and tongue would lie with the prophet. But in the latter respect, it is rather that he has to speak (and speakest in my words, Eze 3:4; Eze 3:11), and not so much to hear. The subject in hand is the power of comprehension which the prophet is to meet with. Now, this is a contrast which lies in thought between the lines. But another connected therewith (just as it is hinted by the contrast drawn between Israel and the heathen, to whom Israel was compared above in Eze 2:3) is expressed in so many words: , where Eze 3:7 is to be understood as the principal clause, and as in parenthesis, so that the sense is: Ezekiel is sent not to those whom he ought to understand, and cannot understand, but to Israel, who ought to hear him, and will not hearken to him. Those to whom God does not send him would throw no hindrance in his way; although he might not be able to understand them, they would hearken unto him with , contrasted indeed with the inability to understand on his part, as well as, of course, on their part also; but only the former reference comes to be considered when the question is as to the right accomplishment of his task, that of speaking Gods words; it does not indeed signify assent (Hengst.), but a giving heed, and therefore what presupposes interest at least, if not desire, and what might possibly lead to more, perhaps, as Kimchi remarks: they would seek after an interpreter of thy words. But although the prophet is sent not to such, but rather to Israel, yet (Eze 3:7) the house of Israel does not manifest even the interest which heathens would show, for they will not even pay any attention to Ezekiel, not to speak of becoming obedient to his words. The relief is thus only seeming. Comp. Mat 23:37. [Similar and different explanations: For the most part is understood as a formula of swearing, or as an asseveration (verily), and the sentence hypothetically (if I sent thee): comp: on the other hand Hitzig, Keil. For , Ew. reads instead of , just as a Lap. does, instead of ! The old translations omit without hesitation, while the Masoretes, on the other hand, mark the verse because of its threefold . Hitzig, Keil: = but, referring and to Israel, and = = they are able, ought to understand thee. The latter expression, however, does not mean the same thing as to hearken to any one. Cocc.: If I had not sent thee to them (Israel), those others (the heathen) would hearken to thee. The words have also been understood interrogatively: if I had not sent thee to them, would not those others hearken to thee?] The meaning we have given harmonizes with the history of Naaman the Syrian, of the book of Jonah, of the woman of Canaan, of the heathen centurion (Matthew 8). Comp. also Mat 11:21 sqq., 12:41.Not unto thee, because not unto me: what a strengthening of Ezekiel! That must have changed his wrath into the sorrow of love, Eze 20:8; comp. Mat 10:24-25; Joh 15:20. considered as a whole, so that the exceptions do not come into consideration. The wicked hardness of the heart (comp. on Eze 2:4) is here attributed to the forehead, because it finds expression there; that the stiffness of the heart is here expressed, proves the correctness of the explanation given on Eze 2:4 of the hardness as applied to the heart (Isa 48:4; Jer 3:3; Exo 32:9; Mat 19:8).
Eze 3:8. The divine strengthening of Ezekiel, now quite clearly expressed, while his labours have become more difficult, and not, as it appeared, more easy, offers itself as the explanation of his name (comp. on Eze 2:4). It is also not without design that the word used in reference to him is not stiff, but hard, which we find repeatedly. A divine confronting. Comp. Jer 1:18; Jer 15:20.
Eze 3:9. The thought is still further intensified by means of the comparison. (from , to hold fast; hence: to keep) means something hard; hence a thorn; here the hardest of precious stones. Harder than stone, a proverbial expression of the diamond. Bochart, comparing the , emery, understands a substance for grinding and polishing. Comp. also P. Cassel on Schemir. According to the Jewish Hagada and Turkish legend: a wonderful worm, whose blood is said to have cut through the stones without noise at the building of Solomons temple. , the admonition sounds like a prohibition and promise in one. Comp. Eze 2:6; Eze 2:5.
Eze 3:10. The conclusion and return to the prophet himself, in view of the possible resisting element in him (Eze 2:8 sqq.). An allusion at the same time to the symbolic transaction in Eze 3:1 sqq.All the words, but those which God will first speak to him.The heart first, because otherwise the ears are of little use (Act 16:14).
Eze 3:11 (Eze 3:15). Comp. Eze 3:4. The house of Israel there is the golah (captivity) here, as a community, a society, which lies nearer to the prophet, because of its being his own people. Thy, not: My (Exo 32:7), Eze 33:2; Eze 33:12; Eze 33:17. As often and together, the words to be spoken following the latter (Eze 2:4). At the same time, a setting forth clearly of the position that he has to speak. Comp. Eze 2:5; Eze 2:7; Eze 3:27.
DOCTRINAL
1. A deeper meaning lies in this awakening word. First, the creature falls down in silence before the infinitude of the Creator; this is humility, the basis and root of all religious conduct. But he whom the Creator has permitted to come but little short of being himself God, whom He has crowned with glory and honour (Psa 8:5), is not to remain lying in half-conscious, silent adoration; he is to rise to his feet, that he may hear the word of God. But certainly he cannot set himself upon his feet; the Spirit must raise him up as a spirit, if he is to understand what God says. Lo, this is the holy psychology of Holy Scripture, this is the freedom of the highest thinking about God, which comes through God and from God (Umbreit).
2. The overmastering divine factor in the prophets does not, however, suffer them to appear by any means unconscious. Ezekiel falling down upon the earth, becomes, even in the midst of the divine revelation, and under the impression of it, thoroughly conscious of what is earthly and human in his own self as contrasted with it [i.e. the revelation]. If this self of the prophet stands in a receptive attitude in that part of the revelation made to him which is pure vision, yet plastic fancy gives symbolic form to the expression, so as to be understood by men, in similitudes drawn from the earthly world, and memory is able to reproduce for us what has been seen. But still farther, where, as in Ezekiel 2, what has been inwardly received and experienced is expressed in words as idea and thought, Ezekiel must first rise to his feet, and become capable in spirit of understanding the divine commission. Besides, a vast elevation of the mere natural life is the unmistakable characteristic of our section; comp. Eze 2:5-6; Eze 3:8-9.
3. John also, although he had lain on the Lords breast, at sight of Him (Revelation 1) fell at His feet as one dead. And by this as a standard, that very great familiarity which proclaims itself in so many prayers of far lesser saints ought to learn to measure and to moderate itself. There is, however, in our prayers more fancy and sham feeling than real intercourse with the Lord.
4. An image of the new birth. When God bids us rise from the death in which we are lying (Eph 2:1; Eph 2:5; Eph 5:14), He at the same time imparts to us His Spirit, who quickens us and raises us up. Similarly is it with our strengthening in all that is good. We are to do our duty; and He brings it about that we are able to do it, Php 2:13 (Cocc.).
5. God does not cast down His own in order to leave them lying on the ground; but He lifts them up immediately afterwards. In believers, in other words, the haughtiness of the flesh is in this way corrected. If, therefore, we often see the ungodly terrified at the voice of God, yet they are not, like believers, after the humiliation, told to be of good courage, etc. (Calv.)
6. It was only when the Spirit was added that some effect was produced by the voice of God. God works, indeed, effectually by means of His word; but the effectiveness is not bound up with the sound, but proceeds from the secret impulse of the Spirit. The working of the Spirit is here connected with the word of God, yet in such a way, that we may see how the external word is of no consequence unless it is animated by the power of the Spirit. But when God speaks, He at the same time adds the effectual working of His Spirit (Calv.).
7. Signs without the word are in vain. What fruit would there have been if the prophet had merely seen the vision, but no word of God had followed it? And this may be applied to the sacraments also, if they were mere signs before our eyes; it is the word of God only that makes the sacraments in some measure living, just as is the case with the visions (Calv.).
8. By means of the repeated the divine revelation in word is identified with the revelation of glory in Ezekiel 1, which was to appear as the Shechinah in the Messiah, according to the Targums falling back upon the older tradition. One of the steps towards the Logos in John 1.
9. In Jehovah and His covenant-relation to Israel lies the necessity of His revelation; His testimony, the tidings from Him, must be heard in the midst of Israel. Thus Jehovah Himself wills not merely the conversion, but also the hardening of the people (Isa 6:9 sqq.), in so far as, first of all, He merely wills the preaching of Himself. Hence, if on the one hand the prophetic preaching must be traced back strictly to the will of God, is to be looked upon as an out-come and transcript of it, not less is this the case as regards its effects; the hearing and not hearing of the same is likewise Gods will, since otherwise He would be under the necessity of withholding His word itself (Hv.).
10. The symbolical procedure with the book-roll belongs manifestly to the vision, is of the nature of vision, however much, as narrated, it resembles an external occurrence. Bordering, according to Tholuck, on the rhetorical domain of metaphor, the representation teaches, at all events, how cautiously the exposition of Ezekiel will have to proceed in this respect.
11. Umbreit remarks on Eze 3:1 sqq.: Here we have the right expression for enabling us to form a judgment and estimate of true inspiration. The divine does not remain as a strange element in the man; it becomes his own feeling thoroughly, penetrates him entirely, just as food becomes a part of his bodily frame. And the written book of the seer, he says in conclusion, bears quite the stamp of something thoroughly pervaded alike by the divine and human.
12. A parallel to the symbolical transaction in Ezekiel, of which Hvernick remarks that it is the reality of an inner state, of the highest spiritual excitement, of the true and higher entering into the divine will, is presented by the second book of Esdras 14:38 sqq. Comp. the difference of this dead, apocryphal imitation, by means of which the thought of pure, divine inspiration is meant to be expressed.
13. The unintelligibility of the language of the heathen world for the prophet is to be taken in a purely formal sense; for as respects the material element, the substance, the manner of the thinking, and not of the mere speaking, there is nothing at all said. For the prophet this inner side of the heathen languages would, it is true, present equal difficulty, if not even more, than that outer one. But emphasis is laid on the willingness of the heathen in spite of both, their pricking up their ears in order to understand, which was wanting in Israel. And therefore, what hinders the understanding lies in the case of the heathen merely in the language; in the case of Israel, on the other hand, in this very circumstance. That the language of Israel was the holy language in which God had spoken from the beginning to them, must as regards the import also have lightened the labours of Ezekiel, and consequently have produced a relief in this respect, where, in the case of the heathen, the language brought with it an additional difficulty. It is sometimes easier to exert an influence upon men of the world than upon men who are familiar with the language of Canaan (Isa 19:18) from childhood up. Just because Israel at once understood what the topic was in Ezekiels mouth (he spake, of course, merely what Moses and the other prophets had spoken, Coco.), their disgust and repugnance towards Gods word as soon as possible turned aside out of his way. The alleviation through the disposition of heart on the part of the heathen became in this case the reverse through the disposition of heart on the part of Israel.
14. The distinction which Greeks and Romans made between their language and that of the barbarians, reduces itself to that of culture. It is otherwise with the distinction between the language of Israel and that of the heathen nations. Israels language is formed by means of Gods word, while the languages of the heathen nations were formed from purely human developments (Klief.).
15. There is thus in Ezekiel the same hopeful (although, in reference to Israel, mournful) outlook into the heathen world, which in the Old Covenant already announces the days of the New. It follows from the stress laid on the receptivity of the heathen, that salvation will yet at some future time be offered to them in an effectual way (Hv.).
HOMILETIC HINTS
Eze 2:1. The name Son of man belongs above all to Him who did not fall to the ground before the vision of the divine glory, but descended from the midst of the enjoyment of this glory to our earth.Ezekiel and Christ, type and antitype.Daniel also is so addressed (Eze 8:17); and if Ezekiel saw God as a man, Daniel saw the Lord of an everlasting dominion as a son of man (Ezekiel 7). Thus they bore upon them the stamp of the future, of the fulness of the times.I know thy weakness, that thou art a man, and canst not bear the splendour of the divine majesty (B. B.).Although preachers are compared to angels, yet they continue men, and ought to keep this always in mind (Stck.).Even the most pious and most gifted teachers are subject to human infirmities, Gal 2:11 (St.).Because teachers are men, hearers ought also to learn to bear patiently with their infirmities, 2Co 12:13 (St.).We ought not to remain lying on the ground, either in sin, or from laziness of the flesh, or with slavish fear, when God calls us (Stck.).So long as man still lies on the ground, God cannot use him for His service (St.).
Eze 2:2. Let visions be ever so great, yet they are not so useful as the word (B. B.).Gods glory is not meant to kill, but rather to make alive.It is the Lord Himself, who fills His children with dismay, that also comforts them again, Hos 6:1 (O.).The world smiles, in order to rage; flatters, in order to deceive; allures, in order to kill; lifts up, in order to bring low (Cyprian).A herald of God ought to stand high above the world, with his spirit in heaven (a. L.).The man whom God sends, He also qualifies for it, and furnishes with the necessary powers, giving him also His Spirit, as is ever still the experience of the servants of God (Stck.).The real prophetic anointing: the spirit came into me.To whomsoever God gives an office, He gives understanding also. The fact that so many void of understanding are in office, may easily arise from this circumstance, that they have their office from men. For it is the Spirit of God, and not the clerical band, that makes the prophet.If Gods Spirit does not uphold, teach, guide, rule, strengthen, keep us, we are nothing (Stck.).There is a difference between our setting ourselves on our feet, and Gods Spirit setting us on our feet. The feet indeed remain our own, but the way along which they run is, like the power by which they are able to do so, Gods, and the steps are also sure steps.O that we were at all times disposed to hear Him who speaks to us! (Stck.)
Eze 2:1-2. At the installation of a preacher in his office: (1) What the congregation ought to consider: that the preacher is only a man, but one whom God sets on his feet by His Spirit; (2) What the preacher ought to consider: all this, as well as in particular that God wishes to speak with him, and that he also ought to have been a hearer ere he comes before his hearers.
Eze 2:3. When God demands obedience from us, He does not always promise a happy issue of our labour; but we ought to allow ourselves to be satisfied with His command, even if our labour should appear ridiculous in the eyes of men: our labour is nevertheless well-pleasing before God (Calvin).Hence the true prophet does not go of his own accord, just as he does not force himself upon the people, and does not come to seek honour and good days with them (Stck.).So God stretches out His hand to sinners (St.).Even at worldly courts ambassadors of princes are a token of friendship (Stck.).Every sinner is a rebel against God.It is a noticeable feature of the Jews of the present day in general, that they make heathens of themselves, and also take part in revolution against Church and State.The apple does not fall far from the tree.There is also a hereditary sin of nations: e.g. French vanity, German cosmopolitanism (want of a fixed centre, Zerfahrenheit), English selfishness (egoism).
Eze 2:4. Through the habit of sinning the countenance becomes stiff, just as the heart becomes hard in sinning (Stck.).And yet the countenance is the noblest, as the heart is the best part of man, Pro 23:26; Mat 15:19 (Stck.).Judas Iscariot, e.g., had a stiff countenance: his question Mat 26:25, his kiss (L.).Thus saith the Lord is the watchword of God against all opposition of men, the right war-cry.
Eze 2:5. Ezekiel may, of course, have thought with himself as Moses did, Exo 4:1 (St.).Preachers ought not to look to, to reckon upon hearers, but to listen to the Lord alone.To preach Gods word compensates even in the case of empty churches.A full church, therefore, is not always a testimony for the preacher, 2Ti 4:3.It serves, at all events, as a testimony, although no other result is attained by the preaching (L.).
Eze 2:6. Fear is a word which does not belong to any vocation of a preacher; but as little also does man-pleasing, which is often merely a form of fear.The comparison with thorns has reference in general to their unfruitfulness, in particular to their tendency to wound, to injure, their being interlaced together, their seeming bloom, their ultimate burning. As regards the expression scorpions, we are to think of the poison, the secret sting, the cunning. And what a wilderness must the house of Israel be! Ezekiel does not go to strayed sheep, but dwells with scorpions (Stck.).In none of the prophetic books is the rigorous spirit of Moses more perceptible than in the case of Ezekiel (Roos). Because God knows our fear, therefore He speaks so repeatedly against it.
Eze 2:7. Rebelliousness may well grieve the servant of God, may even rouse him to anger, but ought never to degrade him to the level of a dumb dog.Spiritual dignitaries are those who carry the word of God high above themselves, even when it meets with nothing but contradiction.And fathers of families also are to be like preachers (L.).
Eze 2:8. The enemies of a preacher are not what is worst for him; his friends are often worse than his worst enemies, and his worst enemy of all by far may be his own self. Therefore, know thyself.Preachers ought to be patterns, not imitators and followers of the flock (St.).What an influence the surroundings of a preacher have upon him! And Ezekiel belonged to the same people (L.).Many a strange thing happens to one when he is with God. On the other hand, the demand: Open thy mouth, and eat, is what we should naturally expect; for what does not man eat, and how many useless books are devoured with the greatest eagerness!By the mere looking at food no one gets his hunger satisfied, but it must be taken and eaten: and so also the mere hearing and reading of the word of God does not save, but it must be appropriated, and afterwards lived upon (St.).
Eze 2:9. The word of God is very tender and delicate,a sweet and deep invitation (B. B.).The hand which presents the Scripture, is the same which also presents to believers the crown, 2Ti 4:7-8 (Stck.).
Eze 2:10. Such unfolding takes place with prayer on the part of believers, Ephesians 1; Psa 119:18 (with burning heart, Luk 24:32; just as in the future with praise and jubilant acclamation, Rev 5:9), with searching (Joh 5:39; Mat 7:8), and not without manifold temptations (Fessel).This book-roll may also be applied to the bad conscience of the sinner, as well as to the condition of a soul under assault from outward oppression, likewise to the book of the law, to the misery of the damned, as well as used in the sense of a reward-book for the ungodly, etc. (Stck.)So man finds in his life first the lamentations over the vanity of all things, then there wakes up the sighing over himself, and the last is the woe of dying.
Eze 2:83:3. The wonderful food of Ezekiel in general (Mat 4:4) and in particular (Joh 4:34).It served him: for protection, for instruction, for strengthening, for quickening.
Eze 3:1. Ezekiel is no prophet of his own heart. Instead of murmuring against the poor instrument who has received so weighty a commission, let them repent (H.).Comede et pasce, saturare et eructa, accipe et sparge, confortare et labora (Jer.).A teacher must have the word of God not merely on his lips and in his mouth, but in his heart, and converted into nourishment and strength (St.).The maxim: Eat what is set before you (Luk 10:8), applies also to the divine revelation. The position of a chooser, which, instead of the motto, what I find, puts what I like, belongs to what is evil (H.).Without having eaten this roll, no one ought to go and preach (B. B.).As against resistance from without we are comforted; as against opposition from within, from ourselves, we are strengthened. In the first case there is suffering, in the second it may come to sin.
Eze 3:2. The word of God is the right food of souls (St.).
Eze 3:3. By our taste our life is determined (Plato).The sweet taste means Ezekiels approbation of Gods judgment and commands (Calv.).It is infinitely sweet and lovely to be the organ and spokesman of the Most High (H.).In the case of those who eagerly hear the word of God, it goes into their heart, and as it were into their bowels; it becomes a treasure within them, out of which they bring forth, in overflowing abundance, necessary and wholesome instruction for others (B. B., St.).Even a difficult office ought to be undertaken and discharged with joy; for God can sweeten even what is bitter in it (St.).Even the most painful divine truths have for the spiritually-minded man a gladdening and quickening side (H.).It is in general the quiet secret of all who suffer in true faith, that in their inmost being wormwood turns to honey (Umbr.).
Eze 3:4 sqq. It was not yet the time of the heathen; it was still Israels time, to whom also the Lord Himself would come, whose forerunners the prophets were (Cocc).
Eze 3:7. Forehead and heart in their psychological correspondence.Where there is the fear of God in the heart, shame still sits upon the forehead.
Eze 3:8. For hard people hard ministers also are suitable, Pro 20:30 (W.). For the rough block a rough wedge.God gives His prophet merely a firm countenance and forehead, but not a hard heart. In order to encounter a hard heart, a firm forehead indeed is necessary, but never a hard heart. The heart is to be full of love, and from love the firm forehead even is to be gained (A L.).
Eze 3:8-9. He who has to contend with the popular spirit is lost, unless he has a firm hold of Omnipotence. He who has not God decidedly with him, must come to terms with the majority (H.).Firm preachers of this stamp were Nathan against David, Elijah, John the Baptist, Stephen (a L.). Comp. Mat 16:18. Nevertheless, the diamond does not occur either in Exo 28:17 sqq. or in Rev 21:19 sqq. Christ will rather be a magnet, Joh 12:32.God imparts to such a strength which far surpasses the strength of the learned. For God never yields to man. Not that the spirit referred to is a stiff-necked spirit, but God gives them words so powerful and mighty, that no one can gainsay them, Luk 21:15 (B. B.).This is that holy to the Lord which shone forth on the forehead of the high priest, just as it belongs to all the servants of God (Stck.).Carnal men stumble thereat, all who wish to be flattered or spared; for what is to the one class a stone for building, is to the other a stone of offence (B. B.).
Eze 3:10. Whoever is to hear, must have confidence in him who speaks, and longing to hear, in order that he may lend his ear to the word. The heart, above everything, must be present, else the man does not hear, Act 16:14 (Cocc).
Eze 3:11. The fact, that it is his own people to whom he had to go, at the same time laid Ezekiel under a solemn obligation (Stck.).We must first hear, then we are to speak (Cocc).
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
The Prophet is here ordained, and a most blessed ordination it was The Lord showeth him what is to be the nature of his ministry, and aids him to be armed for the service.
Eze 2:1
We have here the divine ordination of the Prophet to his ministry. The Lord having prepared his mind by the solemn vision in the foregoing Chapter; and that vision having caused the Prophet to fall upon his face before the Lord! The Ordination now begins. Oh! how devoutly to be prayed for is it, that the ministers of God’s sanctuary, were all thus prepared under impressions of grace, and humbled to the dust of the earth before the Lord, in a consciousness of their own nothingness, when expecting ordination, to go forth to tell others of their nothingness, and the Lord Jesus’s all-sufficiency. I detain the Reader at this verse just to remark the peculiarity of expression by which the Prophet is called, Son of Man! None of the Prophet’s but Ezekiel, as far as I recollect, was ever called by this name; and he no less than ninety times in his prophecy. Was it as a type of Jesus? I ask the question, but determine it not. Certainly it is remarkable. For it is a phrase peculiarly made use of for the Lord Jesus Christ. And of Him it is used in the Gospels more than threescore times.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Eze 2:1
Lord, I find that Ezekiel in his prophecies is styled ninety times and more by his appellation, Son of Man, and surely not once oftener than there was need for…. Amongst other revelations it was needful to reveal him to himself, Son of Man, lest seeing many visions might have made him blind with spiritual pride. Lord as thou increasest Thy graces in me, and favours on me, so with them daily increase in my soul the monitors and remembrances of my mortality.
Thomas Fuller.
References. II. 1. J. Millar, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xli. 1892, p. 326. S. A. Tipple, Sunday Mornings at Norwood, p. 78. J. Coats Shanks, God Within Us, p. 109. II. 1, 2. W. W. Battershall, Interpretations of Life and Religion, p. 113. II. 2. G. Matheson, Voices of the Spirit, p. 78.
Eze 2:4
As I understand the Prophets, a theological revelation is the alpha and omega of their power. ‘Thus saith the Lord’ is not only the formula under which they speak, but the keynote of their convictions. It is because they believe, and only because they believe, that they can announce the true will of God, that they hope to be able to elevate the true nature of man. The ceremonialism and formalism which the Prophets assailed were rooted in the oblivion of theology, in the loss of that very revelation of himself by God of which from the earliest times we have a continuous series of records in the Old Testament.
R. H. Hutton in The Spectator (1886).
Eze 2:5-7
The visible constitution and course of nature, the moral law written in our hearts, the positive institution of religion, and even any memorial of it… are all witnesses, for the most part unregarded witnesses, in behalf of God to mankind. They inform us of His being and providence, and of the particular dispensation of religion which we are under; and continually remind us of them. And they are equally witnesses of these things, whether we regard them or not Then after a declaration that Ezekiel should be sent with a Divine message to the children of Israel, it is added, and they, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, yet shall know that there hath been a Prophet among them.
Butler.
The highest truth the wise man sees he will fearlessly utter, knowing that, let what may come of it, he is thus playing his right part in the world knowing that if he can effect the change he aims at, well if not, then well also, though not so well.
Herbert Spencer.
The proper time to speak truth is just so soon as we know it, for it always appears at its own appointed hour, and we have not the power of speaking premature truths.
Vinet.
Eze 2:5
No river would be navigable were its velocity not checked by friction; and the friction increases as the stream proceeds, until the flow is thus made the easy thoroughfare of exchange. One man may be sure of a truth, but before all men can accept it as truth from his ipse dixit , many men must resist and oppose it.
E. B. Lytton, Caxtoniana (XIII.).
Eze 2:6
Compare the saying of Hobbes that he and terror were born twins.
It is an everlasting duty, valid in our day as in that, the duty of being brave. Valour is still value. The first duty for a man is still that of subduing Fear. We must get rid of Fear: we cannot act at all till then…. A man shall and must be valiant; he must march forward, and quit himself like a man trusting imperturbably in the appointment and choice of the upper Powers; and on the whole, not fear at all. Now and always, the completeness of his victory over Fear will determine how much of a man he is.
Carlyle, Heroes, 1.
Hazlitt, in defining the true partisan, observes that ‘his anxiety for truth and justice leaves him in no fear for himself, and the sincerity of his motives makes him regardless of censure or obloquy. His profession of hearty devotion to freedom was not an ebullition called forth by the sunshine of prosperity, a lure for popularity and public favour; and when these desert it, he still maintains his post with his integrity.’
What have I gained that I no longer immolate a bull to Jove, or to Neptune, or a mouse to Hecate; that I do not tremble as before the Eumenides, or the Catholic Purgatory, or the Calvinistic Judgment-Day if I quake at opinion, the public opinion, as we call it; or at the threat of assault, or contumely, or bad neighbours, or poverty, or mutilation, or at the rumour of revolution, or of murder? If I quake, what matters it what I quake at?
Emerson.
Seeke the goode of other Men, but be not in bondage to their Faces and Fancies; for that is but Facilitie or Softnesse; which taketh an honest minde Prisoner.
Bacon.
When the master of the horse rides abroad, many dogs in the village bark; but he pursues his journey all the same.
Carlyle, Latter-day Pamphlets, Iv.
References. II. 6. “Piain Sermons” by contributors to the Tracts for the Times, vol. v. p. 259.
Eze 2:7
‘To stir the blood I have no cunning art,’ says Wordsworth. ‘ Ach die zrtlichen Herzen! ein Pfuscher vermag sie zu rhren !’ says Goethe. Nor do such authors make it their study to say what the public will like to hear. ‘ Ihr sollt was lernen I meant to teach you something,’ says Goethe again. They deal not in popular falsehoods, but in unpopular truths. They are attracted by topics which the popular writer instinctively avoids, saying, Oh! the public will never attend to that! and indeed the public often receive their gifts but sullenly…. To sustain such writers in their arduous course they must have religion… Religion alone, some absorbing contemplation, some spiritual object more necessary than livelihood, more precious than fame preserves originality and thus feeds literature. It alone can give an author that happy arrogance of Wordsworth.
Professor J. R. Seeley.
Eze 2:7
‘Whoever,’ said Proudhon, ‘puts his hand upon me, in order to govern me, is a usurper, a tyrant, and I declare myself his enemy.’
Reference. II. 8-10. A. Whyte, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xliii. 1893, p. 403.
Eze 2:9-10
‘I am fully persuaded,’ wrote Samuel Rutherford in 1636, ‘that Scotland shall eat Ezekiel’s book, that is written within and without, lamentations, and mourning, and woe. But the saints shall get a drink of the well that goeth through the streets of the New Jerusalem, to put it down.’
Reference. II. 9, 10. G. F. De Teissier, Plain Preaching to Poor People (10th Series), p. 95.
Eze 2:10
In the fifth chapter of the Apologia Newman uses this verse as follows: ‘If I looked into a mirror, and did not see my face, I should have the sort of feeling which actually comes upon me when I look into this living busy world, and see no reflection of its Creator. This is, to me, one of those great difficulties of this absolute primary truth, to which I have referred just now. Were it not for this voice, speaking so clearly in my conscience and my heart, I should be an atheist, or a pantheist, or a polytheist when I looked into the world. I am speaking for myself only: and I am far from denying the real force of the arguments in proof of a God, drawn from the general facts of human society and the course of history, but these do not warm me or enlighten me; they do not take away the winter of my desolation, or make the buds unfold and the leaves grow within me, and my moral being rejoice The sight of the world is nothing else than the Prophet’s scroll, full of “lamentations, and mourning, and woe”.’
In Rob Roy Sir Walter Scott uses this of the cathedral churchyard in Glasgow. ‘The broad flat monumental stones are placed so close to each other, that the precincts appear to be flagged with them, and, though roofed only by the heavens, resemble the floor of one of our old English churches, where the pavement is covered with sepulchral inscriptions. The contents of these sad records of mortality, the vain sorrows which they preserve, the stern lesson which they teach of the nothingness of humanity, the extent of ground which they so closely cover, and their uniform and melancholy tenor reminded me of the roll of the Prophet, which was “written within and without, and there was written therein lamentations, and mourning, and woe “.’
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Ezekiel’s Commission
Eze 2
From beginning to end the Book of Ezekiel may be regarded as a series of divine visions, or one vision presented in many varying aspects. The second and third chapters, which give an account of Ezekiel’s call to his office, ought to be read through as one chapter. We are to understand that although Ezekiel changed from place to place, yet the vision was substantially the same. The prophet is constantly receiving fresh instructions, but the variety of the instruction does not interfere with the continuity and integrity of the divine vision. We must not seek for literal interpretations of many of the mysterious words in this prophecy; our business must rather be to discover the line of spirituality as between God and man, the line along which God comes into the human soul with new instructions, new inspirations, that he may impart new confidence and succour to the hearts of his children. Each man will have his own vision. God is continually speaking to the hearing ear, and continually showing himself to the discerning eye. Inspiration is as distinct and vital in the case of the poorest living prophet of the Lord as in the case of the glowing Ezekiel. Each of us should seek for his own vision, for his own part and lot in the divine inheritance, for his own particular truth; but no one man should imagine that he has been entrusted with the whole vision of God. Men see nature differently, and men interpret the events of the day differently, and each man has an interpretation of his own consciousness, with which no other man can wisely interfere: there should be direct personal communication between the soul and its eternal Lord, and every man should expect to receive his own message or charge from heaven, and should hold himself accountable for the right use of what he has seen and heard, rather than for the right use of what other people have supposed themselves to have received from heaven. The prophets are not to judge one another simply because of contrasts in the visions which they have beheld. To his own master each prophet stands or falls. Visions upon which Ezekiel looked with comparative composure would dazzle the eyes of other men and utterly overflow the capacities of minor souls. Yet how small soever may be the capacity of any prophet, he is responsible alone for the use he makes of it, and according to his degree his enjoyment will be equal to the rapture of the most fervid and glowing souls that ever have been called to receive the baptism of the divine glory.
In the second chapter Ezekiel is in vision recovered from his prostration and made to stand upon his feet. He is addressed by the peculiar title of “Son of man” ( Eze 2:1 ). Who is the wondrous “he” who spoke unto Ezekiel? We are not told as a substantive who is referred to, yet we feel that the reading of the vision permits no other supposition than that it was the most high God whose glories had filled the firmament, and whose majesty had thrown down the prophet upon his face in lowliest humility and adoration. The title “Son of man” we often meet with in the Scriptures, and generally it means nothing more than “Man.” The title is never applied in an address to a prophet except in the instances of Ezekiel and Daniel, each of whom was addressed as “Son of man.” In the case of Daniel, however, the title was assigned only once ( Dan 8:17 ), but in the case of Ezekiel careful enumerators have counted its use in ninety instances. “Son of man” has been used of Adam himself in one version of the Scriptures. A singular dignity would be given to the title if it were abbreviated to the one word “Man”; we should then read: “Man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee.” The tone of such a command is at once compassionate and inspiring: it is compassionate in that it recognises the frailty of the instrument. He is but a man, a creature of the dust, a child of a day whose breath is in his nostrils; he is not mistaken for an angel, or a cherub, or some mighty being unnamed in human speech; but he is recognised as a man, a creature, a brother of the human race, one of a great multitude whose origin is in the dust. On the other hand, it is inspiring in that it recognises the capacity of the prophet to receive a divine communication, to be filled with it, and to accept it as an inspiration that was to end in practical service on behalf of humanity. The prophet does not speak of himself as recovering his own energy, or overcoming his own fear, or as in any sense the originator of new strength and capability; on the contrary, he distinctly recognises the work of God within his soul, and attributes to divine energy his own returning strength. Thus we read in the second verse: “And the spirit entered into me when he spake unto me, and set me upon my feet, that I heard him that spake unto me.” By “the spirit” we are to understand the spirit of God. This was not a man reviving himself, it was a man invigorated and encouraged by divine energy.
The Lord first overthrows a man, and then recalls him to renewed dignity and hope. The two instances which are given even in this early portion of the prophecy are strikingly confirmatory of this view. When Ezekiel first saw the vision he fell upon his face, he was overwhelmed, he could not bear the dazzling glory, the mighty sound of the oncoming hosts thrilled him and paralysed him, and he was for the moment overthrown and undone. But having passed through this experience of humiliation, he was recovered by the very spirit that had for the moment destroyed him. So truly are we in the hands of God! Sometimes we feel that exaltation in very deed comes from on high, and is a divine blessing, a very seal and double assurance of adoption. But it is not so easy to realise that prostration is also an aspect of the divine ministry, and is absolutely essential as the forerunner of the highest excitement and rapture of soul. Whom God throws down into great humiliation he intends to revive and clothe with supreme power. By poverty we may be prepared for wealth; by solitude we may be qualified for the excitement of society; by great pain we may be quickened into great sympathy with all who suffer. Let us not repiningly say that God has overwhelmed us, and laid his hand heavily upon us, and filled us with excessive contempt; even if this were true, it can, by the very necessity of the case, only be true temporarily: we should rather look upon it as intermediate, or as initial, or as in some way preparatory to broader revelation, to higher light, to promotion to larger office and function in the ministry of the universe. No man should rise from his humiliations except by the spirit of God. It is possible for us to do much under the impulse of merely animal spirits; we may be so physically vigorous as to trace our animation to physical causes: he is not truly brought out of prison who is not delivered by the angel of the Lord; he may be released in a dream, he may enjoy freedom in some shadowy state of mind, but real and permanent liberty is the exclusive gift of God. We may pray God to keep us in the house of affliction, which is the house of bondage, until he has wrought in us all his purpose of wisdom and love; this being accomplished he will lead us forth into the garden of delight, or send us in his own name and strength to work out some purpose worthy of our spiritual origin and our immortality.
Now the prophet is given to understand what his exact vocation is to be:
“And he said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed against me, even unto this very day. For they are impudent children and stiff-hearted. I do send thee unto them; and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God” ( Eze 2:3-4 ).
This is the beginning of the distinct commission of the prophet. When does the Lord grant vision only? Is not every vision a preparation for a duty? Is not every period of rapture to be considered as. introductory to a period of service or suffering? We are not called to mere contemplation or rhapsody, or selfish spiritual delight; when we walk by that way of pleasure, or live in that dream of glory, it is that we may at the end be strengthened for ministry, more highly and completely qualified for the rough and arduous work of endeavouring to bring other men to see their sinfulness, and to cry out in the language of penitence.
The two tribes which formed the kingdom of Judah, together with such remnants of the others as had been induced by Hezekiah to cast in their lot with them, are constantly spoken of as “Israel.” Ten tribes had been lost, but the continuity of the whole nation was looked upon as sustained in that small remnant. It may be that one man shall be looked upon as constituting the whole household of his father, so that he should not be a mere individual, but a family, a clan, a tribe, and whilst he lives all the members of the household to which he belonged may be considered to be living too. Far, indeed, they may have gone astray, yea, they may have utterly cut themselves off from the literal covenant of mercy, but the survivor in whose heart there is one spark of divine love is to consider himself as in a federal capacity, and is to go out after that which is lost until he find it.
A very significant expression is “a rebellious nation.” Literally, that phrase might be read “rebellious nations,” because the word so translated is only applied to the heathen, and therefore the children of Israel, God’s chosen ones, the very anointed sons of Heaven, are now regarded as belonging to the rebellious heathen: every spiritual association has been cut, every filament uniting Israel with God has been sundered, and they who were once unique in their relation to Heaven have become, as it were, commingled with the pagans and heathen of other nations. The epithet means less to us than it would mean to an Israelite. Yet, though this alienation had been completed by Israel, God could not surrender his shepherdly relation to the wandering people; in his heart there was a yearning love towards them. God could not forget the past. When God forgets a soul, and turns away from it in disdain, who can imagine what has transpired on the part of that soul to create and justify the divine contempt? The children of Israel are called “impudent children”; in the margin the phrase is “hard of face.” They could hear reproof, and reject it; they could stand up in the presence of accusation without feeling one pang of shame or remorse; they had become habituated to evil, and the practice thereof had become easy to them; all spiritual sensitiveness was lost, all holy feeling had been destroyed; to such condition may men bring themselves by oft-repeated wickedness. Little by little moral sensitiveness is blunted; little by little the nature that was meant to live in God averts itself from the light of heaven; little by little we go down into decay, and noisomeness, and death. Surely men are not hard of face against God all at once? There are times when they have felt keenly that they have done the things that they ought not to have done, and have left undone the things they ought to have done; but custom destroys sensitiveness, familiarity with wickedness hardens the soul and the face against God.
The prophet is given to understand that his message may not at first be received by the people to whom it is delivered; the Lord says, “And they, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear” ( Eze 2:5 ). This expression is used in subsequent verses, so that the prophet was duly prepared for the possible rejection of his word. Ezekiel might have supposed that he had but to deliver the message, and the house of Israel would directly and joyfully respond to his appeal. On the contrary, he is here assured that rejection may be as confidently looked for as acceptance, but whether acceptance or rejection should follow the exercise of his ministry, he was not to be deterred from the discharge of his duty. It is hard indeed to throw away compassion and solicitude upon the wind, or upon the sea, or upon the wilderness. A prophet, how highly qualified soever for his work, might soon become weary of thus abortively endeavouring to do good where the doing of good was an impossibility. Men who are called to the prophetic office are not called to reap their reward from the field in which they exercised their function: they are called upon to sustain themselves by the inspiration of Heaven. If they are delivering a mere speculation of their own, they will soon become weary of repeating the pointless words; if preachers have to live upon their own inventiveness, they will soon fall into self-neglect or into official carelessness; but when they have simply to repeat their message, to translate into the words of time the truths of eternity, where they may at all moments turn aside to refresh themselves at the very fountains of heaven, they will grow stronger and stronger, and in proportion to the stubbornness and ingratitude of the age to which they minister they will strengthen themselves in the living God. Only the Word of God can live through the thick and tremendous dangers which beset a public career. Men who are charged with divine messages, and who look rather at themselves than at the Author of their gospels, will soon succumb to the lures and blandishments of society, for the flesh is weak and the temptation is strong, and men are naturally lovers of ease rather than devotees of labour.
Not only is the prophet warned that the people may not hear him, but he is also warned that they may actually put him in danger and make his life a burden to him. In the vision therefore the prophet hears a voice which says, “Son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words”: they will be angry, petulant, vindictive; they will resent the supposed interference of a holy prophet; they will dislike to be disturbed at their feasts of iniquity and their revels in the house of darkness; but let divine hope exceed human fear, and live thou, O son of man, in the sanctuary of divine truth, and arm thyself with all the panoply of divine grace. If the people be as briers and thorns, and if thou hast to dwell amongst scorpions, still make thine heart strong in the Lord: “Be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house” that is, a house of rebellion, an expression which is used in the prophecies of Ezekiel eleven times. The people were originally the house of Israel, but now they have become the house of rebellion; they have gone from extremity to extremity; lifted up to heaven at one period of their history, they have been plunged down into the pit of death at another. We are not to suppose that a faithful ministry is an easy task. No man can continually rebuke his age, and yet be living a luxurious life, unless indeed he be the victim of hypocrisy, or the tool of some vicious hallucination. The prophets of the Lord have always been opposed to the age in which they lived. Whenever the ministry has fallen into accord with the age, it is not the age that has gone up, it is the ministry that has gone down. A reproachful, corrective, stimulating voice should always be characteristic of a spiritual ministry. No evil shall be able to live in its presence, and no custom, how fashionable or popular soever, should be able to lift up its head without condemnation in the presence of a man who is filled with the burden or doctrine of the Lord. We should have persecution revived were we to revive the highest type of godliness. Sin has not altered, but righteousness may have modified its terms; the earth remains as it was from the beginning, but they who represent the kingdom of heaven may have committed themselves to an unworthy and degrading compromise. Evermore shall the wicked hate the godly, unless the godly take down their banners and are contented to live in dumbness and in traitorous suppression of the truth. Again and again is the prophet encouraged in his work. God would seem to be almost afraid that the prophet would be swallowed up of fear. “The fear of man bringeth a snare.” It is hard to be always on the reproving side; and the hardness is increased by the fact that oftentimes the prophet can only refer to a vision as the ground and authority on which he stands and by which he works. It was a spiritual vision, a spiritual impression, a spiritual assurance; and to oppose spirit to matter has always been a task of the greatest severity.
The prophet is not to go at his own charges, or to deliver messages of his own invention “But thou, son of man, hear what I say unto thee.” Even the prophet must be doubly qualified. It is not enough to be a prophet as if by birth; men must be made prophets by divine communion, by enlarged experience, by spiritual education. The most high God in this vision actually addresses the prophet as if he himself might fall into the rebellion of the people whose heathenism he was to reprove. “Be not thou rebellious like that rebellious house.” Even prophets may be dragged down to the level of their age. What is one amongst many? What is a single persecuted life against the uncounted millions whose eyes stand out with fatness and who have all that heart can wish? A curious process now takes place in this course of divine preparation. Not only has the prophet seen something, heard something; now he has to perform another function “Open thy mouth, and eat that I give thee.” All this is, of course, figurative. “And when I looked, behold, an hand was sent unto me; and, lo, a roll of a book was therein; and he spread it before me; and it was written within and without: and there was written therein lamentations, and mourning, and woe.” In the third chapter the prophet is still represented as eating the roll, that he might be prepared to go forth and speak unto the house of Israel. The prophet was to fill himself with a book. His experience of it is thus stated: “Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness.” Who has not felt in his first call to high office and dignity a sense of pleasure, a sense of having partaken of that most exquisite luxury? The message is known to be so true, so wise, so good, that we feel we have only to deliver it in order to be acknowledged as the heralds and ambassadors of Heaven. This was the experience of John the Divine on the occasion of his eating the little book referred to in Revelation ( Rev 10:10 ). Inward experience is not often confirmed by outward fact and reality in the case of a maledictory ministry. The prophet is assured that he is not being sent to a people of a strange speech and of a hard language, but to the house of Israel: he is not going to speak to a people of a strange speech and of a hard language, whose words he could not understand. This was at once an encouragement and a discouragement: it was an encouragement in that he had the support of relationship, association, and a common history; and it was a discouragement in that the Most High assured him, “Surely, had I sent thee to them,” that is, to people of a strange speech and of a hard language, “they would have hearkened unto thee.”
The prophet is assured that he would have received better treatment from the actual heathen than from the perverted Israelites. Jesus Christ said the same thing in relation to the miracles and the teaching of his own ministry: “Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.” We are not to suppose that any unusual experience has befallen us because the divine word which we declare is thrown back upon us, and is branded with contempt.
The prophet was further assured in most expressive terms that his ministry would fail of effect:
“But the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee; for they will not hearken unto me: for all the house of Israel are impudent and hardhearted” ( Eze 3:7 ).
When men reject truth they do not reject the human speaker, but the divine Author. It was not Ezekiel who was driven away, it was the Most High himself who was profaned. People can only act according to their nature and their quality; having debased themselves into impudence and hard-heartedness, they could only be faithful to their depraved condition and prove the reality of their depravity by their ingratitude, their want of sensitiveness to moral appeal, and their want of shame under divine accusation. How does God meet the hardness of the human heart? We find the answer in Eze 3:9 “As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead: fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house.” The adamant is the diamond, as the word is translated in Jer 17:1 . The Lord says that the people to whom Ezekiel was sent were as flint, but he tells Ezekiel that he shall be to them as a diamond, and the diamond is able to cut the hardest flint. So the words of Ezekiel being the words of God were able to cut through all their resistance, and make themselves felt in the moral nature that was to all appearance destroyed.
In all this, however, Ezekiel is never allowed to speak one word of his own:
“Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, all my words that I shall speak unto thee receive in thine heart, and hear with thine ears. And go, get thee to them of the captivity, unto the children of thy people, and speak unto them, and tell them, Thus saith the Lord God; whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear” ( Eze 3:10-11 ).
The spirit took the prophet up, and he heard behind him “a voice of a great rushing, saying, Blessed be the glory of the Lord from his place.” He “heard also the noise of the wings of the living creatures that touched one another, and the noise of the wheels over against them, and a noise of a great rushing.” The spirit then lifted him up, and took him away, and he went upon his errand in bitterness, in the heat of his spirit; but the hand of the Lord was strong upon him. No longer is the word sweet to his taste; the roll that was given to him was as honey in his mouth, but now that the task is to be practically undertaken, literally and resolutely performed, Ezekiel begins to realise how heavy is the trial which has been assigned him. “But the hand of the Lord was strong upon me,” an expression which means compulsion, or which means an assurance of sustentation, comfort, and ultimate success. No faithful man can rid himself of the: burden of the Lord except by faithfully declaring it, whether men will hear or whether they will forbear. The prophet now leaves the place where he had been, and is brought “to them of the captivity at Telabib, that dwelt by the river of Chebar.” The word “Telabib” means mound of ears of grain, and was probably a place of known fruitfulness, a place of harvest and abundance There the prophet sat where the people sat, and he was astonished among them seven days. He could not break the awful silence. He had a message to deliver, but could not speak it; a preparation of silence in the presence of the people to whom the message was delivered was not the least severe part of Ezekiel’s discipline, Moses had his forty years of exile, Elijah had his forty days in Mount Horeb, St. Paul had to undergo a journey to Arabia, and our Lord himself was driven into the wilderness after his baptism.
These are conditions of life hardly to be explained in words. We know their power, we have entered into their innermost meaning, and yet we can hardly tell through what we have passed. Our solitude is either wasted or turned into the greatest profitableness. A man is not necessarily preparing because he is silent, but when a man is silent he may, if faithful to his divine call, be more strenuously preparing for his work than if he were engaged in tumult and found delight in the midst of the most exciting scenes. Solitude has its dangers; retirement is in itself a very subtle temptation; the soul says: Why not remain here? Why go out to the battle when peace can be enjoyed? Why encounter the fray when one might linger on the sunny side of the mountain, and all day long inhale the fragrance of flowers, and listen to the song of birds? Ezekiel went forth from Telabib into the plain, that there he might have further talk with the Most High God. Again he fell on his face, and again the spirit set him upon his feet, and talked with him as a man might talk with his friend. Not yet was the preparation complete. Ezekiel was commanded in these words, “Go, shut thyself within thine house.” There he might either pray in secret, or begin his mission in a small degree, speaking to one and another, but not yet publicly declaring himself as the prophet and the reformer of Israel. Thus we begin by being overthrown and filled with a sense of humiliation; then we are invigorated by the Spirit of God; then we are driven away that we may see somewhat of the field wherein we are to work; then we have imposed upon us a discipline of silence; then we go forth into the plain to hear, as it were, the whispers, the last trembling cadences, of the divine instruction and exhortation; then we begin within the small limits of our house to speak the word with which we have been entrusted: all the while God will be with us, to watch us, chasten us, help us; and inasmuch as we are identified with him we have the assurance that, troublous as our ministry may be, it will end in victory and in immortal joy.
Prayer
Almighty God, make the place of thy feet glorious, we humbly pray thee. The house is thine, and the book, and the day, and all souls are thine. Let this be a time of revelation, of entrancing and ennobling vision; may the dullest eye be opened to see lights shining afar; may the heaviest ear catch sounds from heaven; may the whole people be richly blessed from above. We thank thee for all hints of the wider life, the greater space, the freer liberty. We bless thee for a day which means heaven begun, toil ended, the battle concluded, tears dried for ever, and service without weariness constituting the delight of eternity. Once we were blind, and did not see these things: then we had heard no voice beyond the grave; but now we see, we hear, and our hearts are alive with joy. This gladness no man gave us, and no man can take away: this is the music of the Lord’s voice; this is the gift of God; this is the purchase of the Cross; this is the meaning of Gethsemane. We worship at the Cross of Christ: there is no other altar where prayer may be made with effect We behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world; we see him in his agony: we will wait, thy grace helping us, until we see him in his triumph. Jesus died, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our iniquities; he is our Saviour: he shall be our Lord and King, and we will know no crown but his, and will for ever worship at his throne. This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes. Fix our vision upon the Son of God; draw out our love towards Jesus Christ; then shall every motive be pure, every impulse shall be upward, and every energy shall be a sacrifice unto God. Come to us as we need to the old man and the young, to the little child, the weary and the ill-at-ease, the broken-hearted, the blind through crying bitter tears, the secret sufferer who dare not tell his complaint, the broken spirit that may not even sigh its distress; come to us as we need. Let our necessity be our plea; let our weakness be our attraction for the Father: then shall we be young, and strong, and glad; there shall be a new tone in our voice, our whole life shall be music, our whole action shall be pleasant unto God. We have sinned; we have done the things we ought not to have done; we have been selfish, unkind, cruel, ungrateful; we have forgotten the lives to which we owe our own; we have turned aside from those who had claims upon us; we have filled our ears with the world’s din and noise that we might not hear the cry of pain or the prayer of poverty; we have uttered thy name and broken thy law; we have entered thy house, but have not been in thy spirit: God be merciful unto us sinners! The blood of Jesus Christ, thy Son, cleanseth from all sin. To that blood we come, night and day, in youth and age; it is the answer to human sin, the reply to dishonoured law. We pray for one another. God bless us every one. Send none uncheered away, or uninstructed, or unblessed, but let every one fed that the Father’s house is as wide as the Father’s universe; and as for his love, it has no height, no depth, no measure to be named in human speech infinite, infinite as God. Now give us the hearing ear, the eye that sees; give us the judgment that waits upon God, the reason that will not speak until its message has been learned; and then send us to our homes, carrying the fragrance of thine house with us: and all the week shall be glad; its work will come quite easily to our hands; we shall do it as if not doing it, for our citizenship shall be in heaven. Amen.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
XIV
THE BOOK OF EZEKIEL INTRODUCTION AND
THE PROPHET’S VISION AND CALL
Ezekiel 1-3
Ezekiel belonged to one of the best and noblest families in Jerusalem, and was apparently a descendant of the family of Zadok, which could trace its descent directly to Aaron. Born in a priestly family he was a priest in his early years. With that privilege, there was familiarity with the law, and with the ritual. He was well educated, a man of the highest culture which Jerusalem afforded at that age.
It was in the year 597 B.C. when Nebuchadnezzar came and besieged Jerusalem, and Jehoiachin surrendered the city to him, that 7,000 of the very best people of Jerusalem, including members of the priestly families, the nobility, the artisans, the smiths, and others of the leading citizens of Jerusalem, were taken away captive to Babylon. Ezekiel was taken with them, and during all the period of his prophecy he is among the exiles in that foreign land.
He was evidently a man of some wealth, as well as culture, and doubtless took a considerable portion of his wealth with him. He had a home, a wife, and possibly a family. He lived in comparative ease and comfort on the banks of the river Chebar, near a place called Tel-abib, not many miles from the city of Babylon.
There was a community of Jewish exiles in that place, and they seemed to be let alone, and were allowed to carry on a little government of their own, for we find that repeatedly the elders of this Jewish community came to Ezekiel to consult him regarding the fate of Jerusalem. It is difficult for us to understand their exact condition. They were apparently in comfortable circumstances.
They heard from home frequently no doubt, for there was a great deal of traffic, traveling, and letter writing in those days. They were, doubtless, envious of the people who had been left in Jerusalem, and were exceedingly anxious as to the fate of Jerusalem itself, as their property to a large extent was still there. They naturally supposed that their property would be confiscated by those who remained in Jerusalem and Judah, and it comes out incidentally in the prophecy of Ezekiel that there was a deep and bitter grudge in their minds because the people who remained in Jerusalem had taken over the property of those who had been carried into exile. There was this reason also, as we find in Jer 24 , that the people who remained in Jerusalem considered themselves to be very good; they thought that they were the favorites of Jehovah since they had been left at home. Those that were taken away captive were therefore the greater sinners. Jeremiah tried to meet that in his parable of the two baskets of figs. The basket of good figs were those Jews in Babylon; and the basket of bad figs, those left in Jerusalem.
It has been said that Jeremiah was the spiritual father of Ezekiel. No doubt there is a large element of truth in that statement. A great man like Jeremiah doubtless had sons in the ranks of prophecy, as Paul had sons in the Christian ministry. Jeremiah must have had a vast influence over Ezekiel, for he had been a prophet thirty years in Jerusalem when Ezekiel was carried away into captivity. That thirty years of ministry stamped upon Ezekiel’s mind and heart, his theology, his religious life, and his view of the great religious questions of his age. He had, no doubt, read Jeremiah’s writings, for they were published in 603 B.C., six or seven years before Ezekiel was taken away. He must have been familiar with a great part of the writings of Jeremiah, for his own book gives in many places almost the exact thoughts and words of his great predecessor and contemporary. They were contemporaries for about fifteen years.
There are many similarities between Ezekiel’s writings and those of Jeremiah. Their themes are nearly the same. Their ideas are often identical. Their problems are very similar. The strange thing is that, although they lived as contemporaries for fifteen years, neither one makes the slightest reference to or mention of the other. Jeremiah knows Ezekiel is prophesying in Babylon, yet he sends a letter all the way from Jerusalem to Babylon with admonition to the exiles, and though Ezekiel must be aware of Jeremiah’s prophesying in Jerusalem, he makes no reference whatever to the fact.
In contrast to Jeremiah, Ezekiel presents some striking peculiarities. His private life was very different, for he had his home and his wife, but Jeremiah was forbidden these. Like Jeremiah he absents himself from all the social enjoyments and pleasures of the people among whom he dwells, refraining from entering into their mournings or their feastings. In contrast with Jeremiah he records no inner struggle such as that prophet passed through, no such complaints, no such murmurings, no such agony, no such mournings and tears, no such doubts of God, no such attempts to give up the work of prophesying. Ezekiel gives no hint that he passed through those temptations which tortured the soul of Jeremiah in the early half of the latter’s ministry. Ezekiel is more calm and judicial; he lays emphasis upon the divine sovereignty more than upon human freedom. He emphasizes the necessity and value of the human institutions, such as the Temple, the ceremonial, the ritual, the priesthood, and sacrifices, which Jeremiah does not. Jeremiah was willing to do without all these, if he could only have the heart religion which kept the people in fellowship with God and in obedience to him.
Ezekiel combines both the institutional and the spiritual. He combines the ritual and ceremonial with the new heart, the heart of flesh, the cleansed and pure spirit. He is in substantial agreement with Jeremiah on several points. His conception of the prophetic office is almost identical with that of his spiritual father. He conceives of himself as the one who is to warn, who is to pronounce judgment and threaten doom. His conception of the character of the people is exactly like Jeremiah’s. His pictures are even more lurid and terrible. His conception of the history of Israel is almost the same as Jeremiah’s. Jeremiah pictures her, from the time of her entrance into Canaan, as going astray after false gods, and her history as one long story of defection and idolatry. Ezekiel pictures her, as from the very beginning prone to idolatry and her history, as a long story of spiritual harlotry.
Ezekiel’s conception of the sin of idolatry is exactly the same as that of Jeremiah’s. He characterizes it in scores of passages by that one striking name which stigmatizes all defection from the worship of Jehovah. His picture of society is much the same as that of Jeremiah’s. He pictures it as having gone to the lowest depths, and as we go on in the study of his prophecy, we shall get some glimpses into those awful scenes which Ezekiel portrays. Like Jeremiah he prophesies the downfall of the state, the devastation of the country, the desolation of the city, the destruction of the Temple and the obliteration of the ritual.
Unlike that of Jeremiah, this book doubtless came from Ezekiel’s own hand, written and completed by himself. It is in many respects the most orderly, the most logical, the most chronological, of all the books of the Bible. Almost every distinct prophecy is dated, so that we can give the exact date, the month and the year, in which these prophecies were given to Ezekiel, or were uttered by him.
The following is an analysis of Ezekiel:
I. The vision of the glory of God and the call to the prophetic office (Ezekiel 1-3).
II. Symbolic prophecies of the overthrow of the city and the state (Ezekiel 4-24).
By means of symbols, symbolic actions, allegories, and metaphors, Ezekiel brings before the minds of the exiles the inevitable fate of their beloved city and state in Palestine.
III. Prophecies concerning foreign nations (Ezekiel 25-32).
IV. Prophecies of the restoration of the people of Israel and the reconstruction of God’s people (Ezekiel 33-39), which are in perfect order.
Having done with the prophecies concerning the foreign nations, he calls the attention of the people to their own glorious future.
V. A vision of the restored Temple and theocracy with the final glory and peace of the redeemed people of God (Ezekiel 40-48).
Under this we have three sections:
1. An account of the restored Temple (Ezekiel 40-43).
2. An account of the ordinances of the Temple as restored (Ezekiel 44-48).
3. The boundaries of the Holy Land and the new distribution of the tribes within it (Ezekiel 47-48), closing with the significant statement that in all this land, this territory, this Temple, the one great fact is that Jehovah is there.
The date of the prophet’s vision and call is the year 592 B.C., the fourth month and the fifth day of the month (about August 5). It was in the fifth year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity. That captivity occurred in 597 B.C. The place was by the river Chebar. The river Chebar was not a river proper, but one of the large irrigating canals which coursed through the plains of Babylon from the Tigris to the Euphrates, irrigating that rich and fertile country in which, some say, the garden of Eden itself originally was located. The irrigated plain of Babylon was probably the richest portion of land in all the world. It produced from two to three hundredfold.
In verse I, we have the expression, “the thirtieth year.” Thirty years from what? Most probably thirty years of his own life, for he was certainly a mature man at this time. If he means the thirtieth year of his own age, then he is the only prophet that gives us any hint as to how old he was when he began to prophesy. The most plausible explanation is that it is the thirtieth year of his age, but this question has never been settled positively.
In Ezekiel I, we have the vision of the glory of God. He says that as he was by the river Chebar, the heavens were opened and he saw visions of God. Isaiah had his vision in the Temple, Jeremiah had his visions, and Ezekiel has a most wonderful vision. He describes it thus: “I looked, and behold, a stormy wind came out of the north.”
Ezekiel saw it as a cloud coming, and he describes it as “a fire infolding itself,” but perhaps a better translation would be “flashing continually,” and as he looked at that great stormcloud moving up before him and the lightning illuminating it, there gradually appeared before him, as it were, the color of amber, a brightness round about it like amber, which was like an amalgam of gold and silver, a very brilliant metal.
He continued to look and he saw emerging from that cloud of flashing fire four living creatures who took on form. These were the four cherubim. Isaiah saw the seraphim, but Ezekiel calls them the cherubim. What are they like? The figure of a man. An angel in the form of a man, with a face fronting east, the face of a man. To the right is another face, the face of a lion; to the left is another face, that of an ox; behind is another face, the face of an eagle. There were four faces to this one figure. A great wing in front, a wing behind, a wing at each side, and a hand in connection with each wing four wings and four hands, straight limbs, the foot round like that of a calk. One of these faces looking east, another facing west, a third one facing south, and a fourth one facing north.
So, looking at it from another direction, we see the face of a man; from another direction, the face of an ox; from another direction the face of an eagle; and another, the face of a lion. The wings in front and behind cover the body excepting the limbs and the feet. The wings at the side were lifted up when they flew and touched one another overhead so that one cherub touched another. When they were still, the wings were lowered to the side.
In the center of this four-square of cherubim was a fire, representing the glory of almighty God, flashing forth. How did they move? They were all one, all made to move by one spirit. When one moved, all moved. They were not independent beings, but had to move together and all actuated and impelled and driven by the Spirit, that one Spirit that was in them.
This represented the four great cherubim which formed the chariot of almighty God, that we find in Revelation 4-5, where John makes use of these four living creatures, but in a little different sense. They are the highest of all the principalities and authorities in the heavenly places. They constitute a chariot upon which almighty God rides forth to do service in the uni-verse. They constitute his executive force. The man represents the highest form of created intelligence. The lion represents the highest form of courage, the ox steadfastness and strength, the eagle the highest form of vision and flight, the most majestic of all birds.
Thus, there are sixteen faces, sixteen wings, sixteen hands, altogether. Their limbs are straight; they are not jointed; they don’t have to bend them when they walk, as they are not subject to the laws of locomotion as we are. How do they move? They have wheels, each one has a wheel, a wheel within a wheel. So that when the cherubim went forward each one was on a wheel. The same wheel which goes forward goes backward. The same wheel which goes to the left, goes to the right. He says these wheels were high and dreadful; that the rims and the felloes of the wheels were full of eyes. Two eyes fixed upon us is enough, but these great wheels full of eyes and all of them apparently looking straight forward form a terrible picture. When the four cherubim go in any direction, they have wheels upon which they glide like lightning; they need not turn, they never go corner-wise. They always go straight.
These cherubim with their great wheels full of eyes flash across the horizon like lightning. What a picture of the movements of almighty God! The eyes in the wheels represent the perfect omniscience of God; the cherubim represent his omnipotence; the wheels, with the lightning like rapidity with which they move, represent his omnipresence. The spirit that animates the four cherubim also animates the wheels, moves all at the same time. As all the cherubim move the wheels move, with one instinct, with one life, with one power, with one motion, in one direction.
Above the chariot of four cherubim was a firmament representing the platform upon which rested the feet of the Almighty himself. When Moses and the elders of Israel saw God they saw him upon a pavement of sapphire; they saw the God of Israel, and did eat and drink. When John saw God it was on a sea of glass. When Ezekiel saw him it was upon a firmament above the cherubim. He says it was crystal, very much the same as John’s vision of the sea of glass. This firmament was supported by these wings stretched out, the four corners joining together.
The noise of the movement of all these wheels (Eze 1:24 ) was the noise of great waters like the noise of the Almighty, the noise of a tumult, like the noise of a host.
Then follows his description of God himself: “A voice above the firmament that was over their heads, was the likeness of a throne as the appearance of sapphire stone, and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness of the appearance of a man.” He was of the color of amber. John said he was like jasper and sardius with a rainbow about his head. Ezekiel says, he is like amber and has a rainbow about his head; the whole appearance from his loins downward was the appearance of fire and there was brightness round about him. Ezekiel said, “It is an appearance of the likeness of the glory of God, and I fell upon my face.” (Eze 1:26 )
The call and commission of the prophet is stated (Eze 2:1-7 ). In verse I Jehovah calls him: “And he said unto me, son of man.” That does not have the messianic meaning which “Son of man” has in the Gospels. It means child of man, mortal man, you mortal being, in contrast with God: “Stand upon thy feet and I will speak with thee.” It is a good thing for a man to know how to stand upon his feet. Sermons have been preached from this text, entitled “Self-respect.” “The Spirit entered into me when he spake with me, and set me upon my feet.” Then he receives his commission. He was to speak to the children of Israel who were rebellious, who had transgressed against him, who were impudent, who were stiffhearted, who were to be unto the prophet like briers and thorns and scorpions. He was to speak to them whether they would hear or whether they would forbear. He had a terrible congregation to preach to: briers, thorns and thistles.
In Eze 2:8-3:3 we have an account of that strange symbolic action, which we find in Rev 10 , where John performs almost the same action. Here is a roll, a scroll, it was written with mourning, lamentation, and woe. It was the message which Ezekiel was to give to those, his fellow kinsmen and exiles. And God says to Ezekiel, You are to eat this roll and go and speak unto the house of Israel. When you have taken it into your soul and are filled with it you can go and speak as a prophet. So he did and he found it very sweet. When John ate the roll he found it sweet in his mouth but exceedingly bitter afterward. Ezekiel found it sweet in his mouth but it did not become bitter afterward. What is the meaning of it? It is this: When God gives us a message, and we take that into our souls, it is one of the sweetest and highest pleasures possible to come to a human soul. Ezekiel found it sweet. It was God’s message, though it was lamentation and woe.
The prophet is sent to Israel, a hardened people (Eze 3:4-11 ): “Thou art not sent to a people of a strange speech and of a hard language, but to the house of Israel.” In Eze 3:9 he says, “As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead.” He needed a hard head to contend with those people.
Then the prophet was ordered to proceed to Tel-abib, not far from the river Chebar, where was a colony of Jews. He says, “The Spirit lifted me up and I heard behind me the voice of a great rushing, saying, Blessed be the glory of the Lord from this place.” And the Spirit lifted him up and carried him away and he was set down by them of the captivity of Tel-abib that were by the river Chebar, and he sat among them astounded seven days.
The charge to Ezekiel is set forth in Eze 3:16-21 . Ezekiel was a watchman to warn the wicked and the righteous. This paragraph shows the tremendous responsibility of the prophet and minister of God.
In Eze 3:22-27 we have an account of the prophet as he was led away to the plain where he saw another vision and had revealed to him the persecutions that were coming to him. Eze 3:25 says, “They shall lay hands upon thee, and shall bind thee with them, and thou shalt not go out among them; and I will make thy tongue cleave to the roof of thy mouth, that thou shalt be dumb.” The prophet was shut up to his message which he received from Jehovah. He was not allowed to speak except as the Lord spoke to him.
QUESTIONS
1. Who was Ezekiel, what of his family, what advantages did he have, what of the colony of Jews in Babylonia, and what of their feeling toward the Jews left at Jerusalem?
2. What was the relation of Ezekiel to Jeremiah?
3. What are the similarities in the writings of Ezekiel and Jeremiah, what strange thing about their ministries and what the contrasts in their work?
4. What can you say of the order, logic, and chronology of this book?
5. Give an analysis of Ezekiel.
6. What was the date and place of the prophet’s vision and call?
7. Describe the chariot of God as seen by Ezekiel and give the meaning of its several parts (Eze 1:1-28 ).
8. How was God represented in this vision?
9. Describe the call and commission of the prophet as stated in Eze 2:1-7 .
10. Explain the symbolic action: of Eze 2:8-3:3 .
11. What was the condition of the people to whom Ezekiel was sent and what his preparation to meet their condition? (Eze 3:4-11 .)
12. Where did the Spirit lead him and what message did the Spirit bring to him in this connection? (Eze 3:12-15 .)
13. How is the charge to Ezekiel set forth in Eze 3:16-21 and what th& warning here for God’s ministers in all ages?
14. Where did the Lord lead the prophet next and how was his solemn charge impressed upon him there?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Eze 2:1 And he said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee.
Ver. 1. And he said unto me. ] Christus solio sic insit ab alto. Christ from his lofty throne thus bespake me, who had now my mouth in the dust, and had no more to say but this, “Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.”
Son of man.
Stand upon thy feet.
“ Deiecit ut relevet, premit ut solaria praestet. ”
And I will speak unto thee.
a Dr Gouge.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Ezekiel Chapter 2
The new attitude is remarkably exemplified in another way by the title God gives to the prophet fallen on his face, in chapter 2, and thenceforward. For when the voice spoke from the likeness of the glory of Jehovah, the words were, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee. So was Daniel styled once (Dan 8:17 ), and Ezekiel more than a hundred times. It is the title Jesus appropriated as the rejected Messiah who should suffer, be exalted, and return in glory as the Son of man. His servants have the same title, as identified with the glory of God, who now declares Himself outside Israel and even judging them by the Gentiles.
Strengthened by the Spirit, the prophet receives his mission to the children of Israel, though, yea, because, they had rejected God – “to rebellious Gentiles, Goyim [for such they really were in truth, no better than heathen morally and much worse in guilt], that have rebelled against me; they and their fathers have transgressed against me unto this very day. And the children are hard of face and stiff of heart. I send thee to them, and thou shalt say to them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah. And they, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear (for they are a rebellious house), shall yet know that a prophet hath been among them.” (Vers. 3-5)
Therefore the prophet was commanded (vers. 6, 7) not to fear them, or their words, or their looks, however rebellious they might be, but the rather to speak Jehovah’s words to them, whether they might hear or forbear, for they were rebellious (or most rebellious).
Further, Ezekiel is cautioned himself not to be rebellious like them, but to open his mouth and eat what God gives him. (Ver. 8) Thereon a hand was extended, and in it a roll of a book, which he spread before the prophet, written on the face and on the back, fully and flowing over; and there was written in it lamentations, mourning, and woe. (Vers. 9, 10) Such was the character of his earlier testimony. We shall see how grace triumphs to God’s glory in the end.
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Eze 2:1-7
1Then He said to me, Son of man, stand on your feet that I may speak with you! 2As He spoke to me the Spirit entered me and set me on my feet; and I heard Him speaking to me. 3Then He said to me, Son of man, I am sending you to the sons of Israel, to a rebellious people who have rebelled against Me; they and their fathers have transgressed against Me to this very day. 4I am sending you to them who are stubborn and obstinate children, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD.’ 5As for them, whether they listen or not for they are a rebellious house they will know that a prophet has been among them. 6And you, son of man, neither fear them nor fear their words, though thistles and thorns are with you and you sit on scorpions; neither fear their words nor be dismayed at their presence, for they are a rebellious house. 7But you shall speak My words to them whether they listen or not, for they are rebellious.
Eze 2:1 Son of man This is literally ben-Adam (BDB 119 CONSTRUCT, BDB 9). This is used often in Ezekiel as a way of referring to Ezekiel as a human being (93 times, cf. Psa 8:4). In Ezekiel it is the way God addresses Ezekiel. This same phrase is found in Job and Psalms. In Dan 7:13 this term takes on divine characteristics as one likened to a son of man coming before the Ancient of Days (i.e., deity) riding on the clouds of heaven. Dan 7:13 is the background for Jesus’ use of this term for himself, which combines humanity and deity (i.e., 1Jn 4:1-3). The phrase had no nationalistic or militaristic rabbinical overtones. See Special Topic: Son of Man .
God addresses Ezekiel.
1. stand on your feet (BDB 763, KB 840, Qal IMPERATIVE)
2. I may speak with you (BDB 180, KB 210, Piel IMPERFECT, but used in a COHORTATIVE sense [cf. Eze 2:2])
Notice the personal (cf. Eze 1:26) God of glory (cf. Eze 1:28) addresses Ezekiel! This is one of the major themes of this book (the personal presence of YHWH in Babylon). Also note a mere human, a fallen human, part of a rebellious people, is addressed face to face, standing before the holy presence. This says something of the dignity of humanity made in the image of God (cf. Gen 1:26-27).
Eze 2:2 the Spirit entered me It is not certain if we are speaking of the Holy Spirit or, more probably, simply a personal metaphor parallel to the hand of the LORD from Eze 1:3 (cf. Eze 3:14; Eze 33:22; Eze 37:1; Eze 40:1). A non-human life force (ruah, BDB 924) entered me (i.e., divine, angel, cf. Eze 37:9; Eze 37:14).
Ezekiel’s call to the prophetic ministry is signaled in several characteristic phrases.
1. spirit/Spirit entered me (cf. 1Ch 15:1; 1 Chr. 20:14; 1Ch 24:20; Isa 61:1; Joe 2:28)
2. I am sending you (cf. Eze 2:3-4)
3. Thus says the Lord GOD
4. do not fear them
5. you shall speak My words to them
6. eat the scroll, Eze 2:8 to Eze 3:3
7. go to the house of Israel and speak with My words to them, Eze 3:4; Eze 3:11
8. spirit/Spirit lifted me up (cf. Eze 8:3; Eze 11:1; Eze 11:24)
For a good brief discussion of ruah (BDB 924) see Norman Siraith, The Distinctive Ideas of the Old Testament, pp. 143-158. See Special Topic: Spirit in the Bible .
SPECIAL TOPIC: THE TRINITY
Eze 2:3 I am sending you to the sons of Israel, to a rebellious people The phrase sons of Israel in the book of Ezekiel is sometimes used for the Northern Ten Tribes, but most often it is used for all of the Jewish people.
The term rebellious is a Qal PARTICIPLE (BDB 597, KB 632). It is followed by a Qal PERFECT of the same VERB (lit., rebels who rebel). Their personal and continual rebellion is directed against the personal God (i.e., Me). This is what their fathers, grandfathers, and great grandfathers also did. To this terrible characterization is added another term for rebellion (transgressed, BDB 833, KB 981, Qal PERFECT). This is defined a a rebellious nation (cf. Exo 32:9; Exo 33:3; Exo 33:5; Exo 34:9; Deu 9:6-7; Deu 9:13; Deu 10:16; Deu 31:27; 2Ch 30:8; Act 7:51).
The term people (BDB 156) is the term goim, which is often used contemptuously by the Israelites of the pagan Gentile nations. It is PLURAL, which probably refers to Israel and Judah. This was purposeful sarcasm.
Eze 2:4
NASB, TEV,
NJB, REBstubborn
NKJV, NRSVimpudent
JPSOAbrazen of face
This was originally an agricultural phrase referring to unruly oxen. Literally it means hard of neck or stiff-necked (BDB 904, cf. Exo 32:9; Exo 33:3; Exo 33:5; Exo 34:9; Deuteronomy 6, 7, 13, 24, 27; Deu 10:16; Deu 31:27).
NASB, NJB,
REBobstinate
NKJV, NRSVstubborn
TEVdo not respect me
The second term (BDB 305 CONSTRUCT 524, lit. strong of heart), in this context, implies a hardness toward God and His revealed will (cf. Eze 3:7).
Lord GOD This is adonaiYHWH, which is a characteristic title of God in the book of Ezekiel. It comes from the term Adon, which is the Hebrew term for master-lord (BDB 10) and the Covenant name for God, YHWH, from the Hebrew VERB to be (BDB 217).
SPECIAL TOPIC: NAMES FOR DEITY
Eze 2:5 a rebellious house This descriptive phrase (BDB 108 construct BDB 598) is used often in Ezekiel (cf. Eze 2:5-6; Eze 2:8; Eze 3:9; Eze 3:26-27; Eze 12:2[twice],3,9,25; Eze 17:12; Eze 24:3). Moses also saw this propensity in Israel (cf. Deu 31:27, also note Neh 9:17), as did Samuel (cf. 1Sa 15:23) and Isaiah (cf. Isa 30:9).
God seems to have chosen a people who were notoriously stiff-necked and rebellious for the theological purpose of demonstrating His long-suffering covenant faithfulness, even amidst their inability to faithful obedience! God did not choose the family of Abraham because of anything special in them, but to reveal His own character (i.e., Deu 7:7-8; Isaiah 48; Jer 7:24-26; Jer 11:7-8). The OT is not primarily about Israel, but about YHWH!
whether they listen or not This is a recurrent theme (cf. Eze 2:5; Eze 2:7; Eze 3:11; Eze 3:27). This is parallel to Isa 6:9-10.
they will know that a prophet has been among them See Special Topic: Prophecy (OT) . God chose to reveal His future actions in order that
1. the people are responsible for their rebellious acts (cf. Eze 2:6-7)
2. He is revealed as the only true God (i.e., predictive prophecy, cf. Jer 28:9; Eze 33:33)
Eze 2:6 There is a series of commands from YHWH to Ezekiel.
1. neither fear, BDB 431, KB 432, Qal IMPERFECT, but used in a JUSSIVE sense and repeated three times
2. nor be dismayed, BDB 369, KB 365, Qal IMPERFECT, but used in a JUSSIVE sense, cf. Jos 10:25; Jer 17:18
The reason Ezekiel is not to be afraid is YHWH’s presence and promises (i.e., Deu 31:8; Jos 1:9; 1Ch 22:11-13; 1Ch 28:20).
God uses several metaphors to describe the reaction to Ezekiel’s words by the rebellious house.
1. thistles (BDB 709, lit. rebel)
2. thorns (BDB 699)
3. scorpions (KB 875, cf. Deu 8:15)
Numbers 1, 2 are found only in Ezekiel. Israel did not want to hear from God. They wanted the covenant blessings, but not the covenant requirements and consequences!
Just a note to those of us who minister to God’s peoplethey will not always appreciate or advocate our ministry (i.e., Moses and Israel). We must remember who we serve and why! It is possible that the thorns, thistles, and scorpions (possibly another thorny bush) refer to a hedge of God’s protection around the prophet and his God-given message.
Eze 2:7 whether they listen or not This is repeated from Eze 2:5 and again in Eze 3:11. The same concept is repeated in Eze 3:27. God will reveal Himself to His covenant people, even if they refuse to hear (cf. Isa 6:9-13). This is because
1. He has an eternal redemptive purpose that involves Israel
2. of His love for the Patriarchs
3. of His character, bound to His promises
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
He said. See Eze 1:28, i.e. He Who was enthroned (Eze 2:26).
Son of man = son of Adam. Hebrew. ben adam. App-14. Used of Ezekiel (exactly one hundred times) by Jehovah, always without the Article. In N.T. used by Christ (of Himself) eighty-six times in Authorized Version (eighty-three times in Revised Version, omitting Mat 18:11; Mat 25:13. Luk 9:56). Used by others of Christ twice (Joh 12:34), making the Authorized Version total eighty-eight, and the Revised Version total eighty-five. Always with the Article in N.T. See notes on Psa 8:4, Mat 8:20, and Rev 14:14. Without the Article it denotes a human being, a natural descendant of Adam. In Ezekiel it is used in contrast with the celestial living creatures (Eze 1). With the Article (as used of Christ) it denotes “the second Man”, “the last Adam”, taking the place, dispensationally, which “the first man” had forfeited, and succeeding, therefore, to the universal dominion over the earth which had been committed to Adam (Gen 1:26, Psa 8:4-8). In the N. T, outside the Four Gospels, it is used only in Act 7:56. Heb 2:6. Rev 1:13; Rev 14:14. And, be side Ezekiel, it is used in OT. only of Daniel (Dan 8:17) stand, &c. Compare Dan 10:11. Rev 1:17. Reminding us that he was not a false prophet, or self-called and sent. Such spoke “out of their own heart” (Eze 13:2, Eze 13:3). Compare Jer 23:16.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 2
And he said unto me, Son of man ( Eze 2:1 ),
Now this is a title that Ezekiel uses quite often. It is a title that Jesus uses in the New Testament concerning Himself. It is a title that was used here for Ezekiel, and quite often the Lord refers to Ezekiel as son of man.
He said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet ( Eze 2:1 ),
Now you remember he fell on his face when he saw this whole thing, saw the throne of God and the brightness and the flashes and all. He fell on his face, and he heard a voice of one speaking. And the voice said, “Stand up.”
and I will speak unto thee. And the spirit entered into me when he spake unto me, and set me upon my feet, that I heard him that spake unto me ( Eze 2:1-2 ).
First he saw, now he is hearing this word of the Lord.
And he said unto me, Son of man, I am sending you to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me: and their father’s have transgressed against me, even unto this very day. For they are impudent children, they’re stiffhearted. And I send you unto them; and you shall say unto them, Thus saith Jehovah God ( Eze 2:3-4 ).
So, he is now commissioned by God to go, not to the house of Judah only, but to the whole children of Israel.
And they, whether they hear, or whether they will forbear, (for they are a rebellious house,) yet shall they know that there has been a prophet among them ( Eze 2:5 ).
I’m going to send you to speak in My name, and whether they listen or not doesn’t matter. They are a rebellious people. When you’re through, they’re going to know that there was a prophet among them.
And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns be with thee, and you do dwell among scorpions: don’t be afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house ( Eze 2:6 ).
Now, he’s telling him, “Hey, they’re not apt to receive you. They’re rebellious, they’re impudent children, and they may take the thorns and pull the thorns across you. A method by which they would punish people is take these thorns and pull them across a person’s body. They have some really heavy thorn bushes over there. But don’t worry about that.
For you are to speak my words unto them, whether or not they listen. But thou, son of man, hear what I say unto you; Don’t you be rebellious like that rebellious house: open your mouth, and eat that which I give to you. And when I looked, behold, there was a hand that was sent unto me; and, lo, [there was a scroll of a book within it, or] there was a roll of a scroll [actually] therein; And he spread it before me; and it was written within and without: and there was writing therein, which were lamentations, and mourning, woe ( Eze 2:7-10 ).
So, the Lord says, “You know, now you’re to eat what I set before you.” And the Lord sets before him this scroll. And he opens it out and all of these woes and lamentations and mournings are written therein.
The eating of it, of course, is symbolic, even as in the book of John. John was given the scroll and he did eat it. And when it was in his mouth, sweet as honey, but in his belly it was bitter. Here he is told to eat the words. Now, you read of a person devouring a book. We say, “Oh, he really devoured that book.” Now you don’t mean that he roasted it and put ketchup on it and took his knife and fork and ate the thing. But he absorbed it, and even as your food becomes a part of your being, so words, ideas, thoughts can become a part of your being as you absorb them. They affect your life. So he is told to eat, to digest in a sense, or eat, devour the words that are here.
We are to feast on the Word of God that it might become a part of our lives. We’re to have an appetite, a hunger for the Word of God. And as we partake or eat of God’s Word, it is as it was to Ezekiel, sweet, it was good, the Word of God. “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Eze 2:1
EZEKIEL’S COMMISSION FROM GOD TO ISRAEL
The thought here and into chapter three is continuous with that of the preceding chapter, all of these things being directly connected with God’s call of this great prophet as a witness to Israel.
In this short chapter, God gave to Ezekiel the description of his mission. It would be to a stiff-necked, hard-hearted, rebellious people. Following the captivity of the northern kingdom, the southern remnant in Judea, including a few defections from the northern group, had become in fact “the united Israel.” At this point in time, Israel was no longer a mighty nation but a discouraged remnant of captives in Babylon.
Despite this, the whole “house of Israel” is in this chapter (Eze 2:3) called a rebellious nation, “the last term, here, being the very word used in the Old Testament for the Gentiles.” This shows the total alienation of the nation from God. We may therefore take the word “rebellious” as the key to Israel’s attitude throughout the prophecy of Ezekiel.
It was the fulfillment of the prophecy of Hosea (Hos 1:9) in which the third child of Gomer was named “Loammi,” the same being a prophetic declaration concerning Israel that, “They are not God’s people, and that he, Jehovah, will no longer be their God.”
Dummelow gives the following summary of God’s commission to Ezekiel.
“It came in three stages and upon three different occasions. The principal one of these is the 1st, which came immediately after the amazing vision of Ezekiel 1 and which occupies all of Ezekiel 2 and Eze 3:1-13. The second came seven days later, among the exiles at Tel-abib (Eze 3:14-21); and the third was connected with a repetition of this vision, apparently in the neighborhood of Tel-abib (Eze 3:22-27).”
Eze 2:1
“And he said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak with thee.”
Matthew Henry commented upon the need for God to send just such a messenger as Ezekiel to Israel. “Although they still retained the name of their pious ancestors, they had wretchedly degenerated. This passage declares that they had become Goim, nations, the word commonly used in that era for Gentiles.”[3] The other sacred writers agree with what is written here. “The children of Israel had become as the children of the Ethiopians” (Amo 9:7). “They had become traffickers, the ancient word for Canaanites” (Hos 12:7). This last word shows that Israel had degenerated to a condition in which they were no better than the ancient pagan Canaanites whom God had removed from Palestine in order to repeople the land with Israelites!
The warning for Christians in all of this is, that if the moral and righteous integrity of Christians deteriorates to a condition in which they are no longer truly distinguished from the unregenerated masses around them, they are doubtless doomed, no less than was ancient Israel, to lose their status and to incur the wrath of God. “Without holiness, no man shall see God” (Heb 12:14).
“Son of man …” (Eze 2:1). Amazingly, this designation of Ezekiel occurs no less than ninety-three times in this prophecy.[4] From the term’s usage in Dan 7:13 and Dan 8:14, it came to be recognized as a Messianic title, the very one, in fact, that was especially preferred by Jesus Christ, “because it was intended as both a concealment and a revelation of the Saviour’s true deity.”
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
As the prophet lay prostrate, he heard a voice commanding him to stand on his feet, and he was immediately empowered to do so by the entrance of the Spirit. He was then commissioned to deliver the message of God to the children of Israel, who were described as having transgressed against Jehovah, and as being “impudent and stiff-hearted.” He was charged to deliver the message of God whether they would hear, or whether they would forbear. The difficulty of his work was recognized, and the prophet was warned not to be rebellious as they had been. The commission was rati6ed by the symbolism of a roll handed to Ezekiel.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
a Hard Commission
Eze 2:1-10; Eze 3:1-11
The people were impudent and stiff-hearted; their words as briars and thorns; their speech like the poison of scorpions; but the prophet was commissioned to go on with his divine mission, undeterred by their opposition. Under such circumstances we must be sure of a Thus saith the Lord. But no man can stand against the continual opposition of his fellows, unless his strength is renewed, as Ezekiels was, by eating that which God gives. Open thy mouth, and eat that which I give thee, Eze 2:8. Let us specially consider the divine denunciations of sin, that our words may be sharper than any two-edged sword. Nothing makes us so strong as feeding perpetually upon the roll of the Book, and especially on the Word within the words. We must eat the flesh and drink in the life of the Son of man, if we can deal aright with the needs of the sons of men.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Chapter Two
The Prophets Commission
And He said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak with thee. And the Spirit entered into me when He spake unto me, and set me upon my feet; and I heard Him that spake unto me. And He said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to nations that are rebellious, which have rebelled against Me: they and their fathers have transgressed against Me even unto this very day. And the children are impudent and stiff-hearted: I do send thee unto them; and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah. And they, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear (for they are a rebellious house), yet shall know that there hath been a prophet among them. And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns are with thee, and thou dost dwell among scorpions: be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house. And thou shalt speak My words unto them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear; for they are most rebellious. But thou, son of man, hear what I say unto thee; be not thou rebellious like that rebellious house: open thy mouth, and eat that which I give thee. And when I looked, behold, a hand was put forth unto me; and, lo, a roll of a book was therein; and He spread it before me: and it was written within and without; and there were written therein lamentations, and mourning, and woe-vers. 1-10.
When God calls a man to act for Him in some particular capacity, He fits him for the service he is to undertake. Augustine well said, Gods commandings are Gods enablings. The flesh may shrink from the great task, but he who counts on God will be able to say, I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord (Mic 3:8). God never sends anyone at his own charges or to act in his own strength, much less to be guided by his own wisdom. This was clearly manifested in the case of Moses (Exo 4:10-15), and of Jeremiah (Jer 1:4-19); and it comes out very definitely here in the call of Ezekiel to the prophetic office. Already he had seen visions of God. Now he was commissioned to be Gods mouthpiece to Israel and the nations. Jehovah still speaks in power and clarity after the lapse of two-and-a-half millennia.
The opening words of this chapter are most challenging. The Lord said to Ezekiel, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee. The expression Son of man is distinctive. In the Old Testament it is used of mankind generally (Job 25:6; Job 35:8; Psa 144:3; Psa 146:3), as also in several passages in the prophets (Isa 51:12; Isa 56:2; Jer 49:18; Jer 49:33; Jer 50:40). It is used prophetically of Christ Himself in Psa 144:3, and Dan 7:13, and we know from the Epistle to the Hebrews that the Son of Man of Psa 8:4 is actually our blessed Lord. But it is a characteristic title of Ezekiel, being found eighty-five times in this book. Once Daniel is so addressed, but it is never applied to any other prophet. It was our Lords favorite title for Himself as recognizing His link with that lost world which He had come to save (Luk 19:10). It emphasized the reality of His Manhood, even as the title Son of God stressed His Deity.
As son of man, Ezekiel was to realize that although divinely called and supernaturally inspired, in himself he was but a man as others to whom he was to proclaim the words given him by God. He was commanded to stand on his feet, at attention, as it were, while the Lord commissioned him for his high and holy office. He was a priest already, and now was to become a prophet-one who was to speak for God to His people the word which had been spoken to him.
Moved and strengthened by the Spirit, undoubtedly the Holy Spirit who had entered into him, Ezekiel stood reverently before the Lord, listening in awe to the voice that spoke to him.
It was no easy service to which he was called. The Lord made it plain that he was to go to a nation of rebels, a people who had failed down through the centuries. The fathers had turned from God to idols, and the children had followed in their steps. Nor was there any likelihood that the children of the captivity, or those remaining in the land, would be any more ready to listen and to obey than their progenitors had been. They were all impudent children and stiff-hearted. Ezekiel was to go to them, nevertheless, and give them another opportunity to repent that more dire calamities might be averted.
He was not to speak as from himself, but he was to declare with authority, Thus saith the Lord God! It is this that gives dignity and force to the messenger of Jehovah. He who goes before his fellows to declare the thoughts of his own mind, or the imaginations of his own heart, is not the messenger of the Lord. It is not for His ambassadors to delight men with eloquent phrases magnifying the achievements of others or glorifying their own labors. The one business of the servants of God is to proclaim the word of the Lord in faithfulness and yet with grace and humility. Where the word of a king is, there is power (Ecc 8:4), and God is a great King whose Word shall never return to Him void, but shall accomplish that for which He sends it (Isa 55:11).
Ezekiel did not have to get up sermons or compose learned discourses. He simply had to receive the word from the Lord his God and then to give it out in the power of the Spirit to those to whom he was called to minister. The same is true of every anointed servant of God today. Such have been called of the Lord to preach the Word, not human philosophy, specious reasoning or vain imaginations, which, after all, are only evil, and that continually (Gen 6:5). This may often involve self-denial on the part of the preacher. Like Paul, he may have to be careful not to depend on the wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ, the real message, be made of none effect. Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick, the well-known liberal orator, has decried expository preaching as the poorest type of pulpit ministry, because it leaves so little scope for the imagination. But this is the very reason the man of God should glory in unfolding the precious truths of the Scriptures instead of weaving a web of oratory out of himself, as a spider makes its lacy snare to entrap its prey.
Irrespective of the peoples attitude toward his message, Ezekiel was to give out what God had given him. And whether they should hear or whether they should forbear-that is, refuse to heed, they would know that a prophet had been among them, when the words he proclaimed had been fulfilled.
He was not to be afraid of any who might threaten bodily harm. His confidence was to be in the One who sent him. Even though suffering resulted, as suggested by briers and thorns, and dwelling among scorpions, he was not to shrink from the task committed to him, nor be dismayed by the angry countenances of the rebellious house of Israel. It always means suffering to stand for God under adverse conditions. But grace will be supplied according as it is needed, that one may be enabled to endure as seeing Him who is invisible.
In ver. 7 the Lord reiterates and epitomizes all that had gone before. Thou shalt speak My words unto them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear; for they are most rebellious. The apparent failure of the prophets mission would not invalidate his authority as the spokesman for Jehovah. It is not necessary that one should be what the world calls successful: it is all-important that one should be faithful to the trust committed to him.
The real danger was that Ezekiel might grow weary of the struggle and become discouraged and fainthearted because of the opposition and the lack of response to his testimony. So the Lord warned him, Be not thou rebellious like this rebellious house. And then He gave the strange command, Open thy mouth, and eat that which I give thee.
As Ezekiel looked he beheld the form of a hand, reaching down from the cherubim, and in it a scroll, the roll of a book. This was the prophetic message he was to give to the people. Opening it up, there was revealed the terrible prophecies of lamentations and mourning and woe which were to be the burden of his message. To eat this roll was to take Gods word into his very being, to make it part of himself, as it were, and so to be prepared to give it out to the remnant of the captivity.
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Eze 2:1
I. In the very Book in which humility and lowliness of mind are constantly inculcated; in which we are always meeting with injunctions to bend and bow, if we would be divinely visited; here are instances of men summoned to get up from the dust of conscious littleness and unworthiness, that they might be divinely spoken with; of men, prone upon their faces in the presence of God, who were requested to place themselves upon their feet before He could say anything to them, or make any use of them. Yet we may be quite sure that their prior prostration was equally indispensable. Once and again Ezekiel fell upon his face, and if he had not so fallen he would never have accomplished what he did. But it is quite true, on the other hand, that no one ever does any great thing in the service of truth and humanity, unless he has superb confidence in himself-unless he can feel that he is divinely called and qualified. If he be not self-satisfied and self-reliant, he will be no servant of the Lord-no polished shaft in His quiver. This is what we may find for ourselves in the angel’s address to the prophet of Chebar-the importance of self-respect; an importance which is frequently implied, and much recognised in the Scriptures.
II. When are we not self-respecting? (1) He is not for one who craves and courts the approbation of others, and sets himself to gain it; who wants it, wants it to comfort and uphold him, who can be strong and happy enough while others are praising or smiling on him, but when they are not waxes feeble and melancholy. (2) Again, he is wanting in self-reverence, who gives himself at all to imitate another, who, in any work which may be laid upon him, tries to repeat the greatness of another, to copy his distinctions rather than to evoke and cultivate his own, to strain after his dimensions, rather than to be as perfect as he can within his own. (3) He is not self-respecting who hesitates at all to go with his convictions, who fears to trust and follow the light within him, when the many are moving in the opposite direction. (4) Beware of losing self-respect through living dramatically-with a daily appearance put on which is not true to the reality-with the frequent assumption before spectators of that which does not belong to you. Beware of losing it, especially, through for ever failing to obey your higher promptings, and for ever regretting and bemoaning the future, while never seriously endeavouring to improve.
S. A. Tipple, Sunday Mornings at Upper Norwood, p. 178.
When God raised Ezekiel and set him on his feet before He spoke to him, was it not a declaration of the truth that man might lose the words of God because of a low and grovelling estimate of himself, as well as because of a conceited one? The best understanding of God could come to man only when man was upright and self-reverent in his privilege as the child of God.
I. There is much today of thoughtless and foolish depreciation of man and his conditions. I want to denounce this as the very spirit of ignorance, shutting men’s ears hopelessly against the hearing of all the highest truths. In large circles of life, there is an habitual disparagement of human life, its joys and its prospects. Man is on his face. He must hear God’s voice calling him to another attitude, or he is hopeless.
II. Many men own the possibility of good which is open to them, while still they are despairing or cynical about the world itself, about the cause of human life in general. This is not merely a speculative opinion. It is an influence which must reach a man’s character. A man can have no high respect for himself unless he has a high respect for his human kind. He can have no strong hope for himself unless he has a strong hope for his human kind. And so, whatever be his pure tastes and lofty principles, one trembles for any man whom he hears hopelessly decrying human life in general, or the special condition of his own time.
III. If a man believes in the misery of human life and does not believe in God, he is dragged down among the brutes. If a man believes in the misery of human life and does believe in God, he is carried up to higher notions of God’s government, which have loftier purposes than mere happiness or pain. The one great question about all the kind of temper of which I have spoken, is whether it still believes in God. For all belief in God is, must be, belief in ultimate good. No view of the universe can be despairing which keeps Him still in sight.
This was the optimism of Jesus. He saw beyond the sin salvation. He never upbraided the sin except to save men from it. “Not to condemn the world, but to save the world,” was His story of His mission. And at His cross the shame and hope of humankind joined hands.
Phillips Brooks, The Candle of the Lord, p. 147.
References: Eze 2:1.-Preachers Monthly, vol. vi., p. 159; S. Macnaughton, Real Religion and Real Life, p. 195.
Eze 2:6
What is here implied, as the trial of the prophet Ezekiel, was fulfilled more or less in the case of all the prophets. They were not teachers merely, but confessors. They came not merely to unfold the law, or to foretell the Gospel, but to warn and rebuke; not to rebuke only, but to suffer. This world is a scene of conflict between good and evil. The evil not only avoids, but persecutes, the good; the good cannot conquer, except by suffering.
I. The case seems to be this:-Those who do not serve God with a single heart know they ought to do so, and they do not like to be reminded that they ought. And when they fall in with any one who does live to God, he serves to remind them of it, and that is unpleasant to them, and that is the first reason why they are angry with a religious man; the sight of him disturbs them, and makes them uneasy. Accordingly, as far as they have power to do it, they persecute him, either, as the text implies, with cruel untrue words, or with cold, or fierce, or jealous looks, or in some worse ways. A good man is an offence to a bad man. The sight of him is a sort of insult, and he is irritated at him, and does him what harm he can.
II. Religious persons are protected in this day from all great persecutions, and they cannot sufficiently be thankful for it. And yet, nevertheless, most true is it, that even now, no one can give his mind to God, and show by his actions that he fears God, but he will incur the dislike and opposition of the world, and it is important that he should be aware of this and be prepared for it. (1) Do not be too eager to suppose you are ill-treated for your religion’s sake. Make as light of matters as you can. This is the true Christian spirit, to be meek and gentle under ill-usage, cheerful under slander, forgiving towards enemies, and silent in the midst of angry tongues. (2) Recollect you cannot do any one thing of these duties without God’s help. Therefore you must pray to Him for the power. (3) None of us, even the best, have resisted the world as we ought to have done. Let us search our consciences; let us look back on our past lives. Let us try to live more like Christians, more like children of God. Let us beg Him to teach us how to confess Him before men, lest if we deny Him now, He may deny us before the angels of God hereafter.
Plain Sermons by Contributors to “Tracts for the Tunes,” vol. v., p. 259; see also J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. viii., p. 141.
References: Eze 2:6.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iv., p. 225. Eze 2:7.-D. Moore, Penny Pulpit, No. 3432. 2-G. W. McCree, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxii., p. 140. Eze 3:5, Eze 3:7.-E. Mason, A Pastor’s Legacy, p. 451; H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 1812. Eze 3:7.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiv., No. 1431; Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 119.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
Eze 2:1-8. We see Ezekiel prostrate upon his face. Then a voice spoke, not the voice of a cherubim; while in Revelation the cherubim speak, in Ezekiel they are silent, Jehovah addressed Ezekiel as son of man; the title which is found exactly one hundred times in this book. Daniel only besides Ezekiel is called by this name. Our Lord called Himself by that name and used it in connection with His suffering, exaltation, glory, and coming again. Ezekiel, too, passed through much suffering, passing symbolically through sufferings which the nation at large was to undergo. He is, therefore, in a measure a type of the Messiah, who took Israels sin and shame upon Himself.
The Word which spoke was followed by the Spirit–and the Spirit entered into me when He spoke unto me. Thus the Word and the Spirit are always connected. Then Ezekiel received his commission. He is sent to an impudent and hard-hearted people. His message is to begin with: Thus saith Jehovah-God. The sender is the Lord; the message is from Him. Then the sender gives also assurance and encouragement.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Son of man
“Son of man,” used by our Lord of Himself seventy-nine times, is used by Jehovah ninety one times when addressing Ezekiel.
(1) In the case of our Lord the meaning is clear: it is His racial name as the representative Man in the sense of 1Co 15:45-47. The same thought, implying transcendence of mere Judaism, is involved in the phrase when applied to Ezekiel. Israel had forgotten her mission. (See Scofield “Gen 11:10”) Eze 5:5-8. Now, in her captivity, Jehovah will not forsake His people, but He will remind them that they are but a small part of the race for whom He also cares. Hence the emphasis upon the word “man.” The Cherubim “had the likeness of a man” Eze 1:5 and when the prophet beheld the throne of God, he saw “the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it” Eze 1:26. See Scofield “Mat 8:20” Rev 1:12; Rev 1:13.
(2) As used of Ezekiel, the expression indicates, not what the prophet is in himself, but what he is to God; a son of man
(a) chosen,
(b) endued with the Spirit, and
(c) sent of God.
All this is true also of Christ who was, furthermore, the representative man–the head of regenerate humanity.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Son: Eze 2:3, Eze 2:6, Eze 2:8, Eze 3:1, Eze 3:4, Eze 3:10, Eze 3:17, Eze 4:1, Eze 5:1, Eze 7:2, Eze 12:3, Eze 13:2, Eze 14:3, Eze 14:13, Eze 15:2, Eze 16:2, Eze 17:2, Eze 20:3, Eze 37:3, Psa 8:4, Dan 8:17, Mat 16:13-16, Joh 3:13, Joh 3:16
stand: Eze 1:28, Dan 10:11, Dan 10:19, Mat 17:7, Act 9:6, Act 26:16
Reciprocal: Eze 38:2 – Son
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Eze 2:1. The voice which Ezekiel heard in the preceding chapter bade him stand upon his feet and it would speak to him. Son of m-an. We have no information in the Bible on why this term was used; especially why it. was restricted as it was. It was used at least 92 times for Ezekiel and once for Daniel (Dan, 8: 17). They were the only writing prophets who spent any time in Babylon, but whether that had anything to do with affecting the forms of address I am not able to say.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Section 2 (Eze 2:1-10; Eze 3:1-11.)
God’s words to be spoken to those who would not hear.
We have now the charge given to the prophet, which, as we see at once, is to speak to a people who will not hear, of whom it can only be hoped that here and there ears may be open to receive it. There is no encouraging hope with regard to the success of the message; yet, whether they would hear or whether they would forbear, they should know that there had been a prophet among them. All the more if there is not to be the encouragement of conscious success, is he to find it in the consciousness of the Lord with him, whom Israel would reject in rejecting His messenger.
He is addressed at once by the title which we have already seen to be characteristic of his prophecy: “Son of man,” says the Voice, “stand upon thy feet, and I will speak with thee.” The title given him is itself a proof that the people to whom he goes have lost their special distinctive place with God, but at the same time that if Israel will not hear, grace will not be thwarted in its object. The message will only go out the more widely, and indeed, with a deeper, sweeter, fuller message, as we abundantly prove today. This title is in itself the foreshadow of One who when standing in the midst of Israel in a day which was then future, would adopt it for His own. The Son of Man would be the Seeker of men, and Himself a man in all the conditions of humanity -Himself the perfect, because unfallen, Man. The Lord’s adoption of this title is, however, distinct in its significance from the use of it by God in His address to the prophet. God never addresses Christ as the Son of Man, but as His own Son; man indeed, but as it is said in Zechariah: “The Man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts” (Zec 13:7). But the Lord’s adoption of it for Himself is peculiar, and characteristic of the uniqueness of His personality. Who but Himself could say, “I the Son of man?” No mere man could claim distinctively to be what all men are. Man indeed He is thoroughly, nor only man, but Son of man, entering into manhood by the door ordained, by its lowliness, to hide pride from man. To the weakness of infancy He is no stranger. He grows and learns as other men, His kinship with whom this name discloses; yet while it discloses this, it distinguishes Him none the less from all else among men -distinctive even because of its universality; for who could distinguish himself by a title that was not distinctive? He was thus Son of man in some sense peculiar to Himself -Son of man, while much more than this. With Ezekiel the term speaks, on the other hand, simply of his identification with men. He is not the son of man, but reminded of the lowliness of his condition, while at the same time this only magnifies the grace which has taken him up; and thus also there is in him a peculiar suitability to convey the message with which he is charged -not an angel, but with human sympathies, and a human intelligence acquired and exercised amid human conditions; himself thus the proof of the heart of God behind the hand of Him who is love and cannot change His nature, even when He is executing judgment.
The feebleness of the instrument is recognized, and thus calls forth Jehovah’s might to sustain it. We see this at the outset here: “Son of man, stand upon thy feet and I will speak with thee.” And not only so, but the Spirit enters into him to make him stand. He cannot even listen to the message in that prostrate condition which, while it may rightly express the nothingness of the creature in the presence of God, at the same time cannot suitably express the divine grace towards him. We see this everywhere in the history of the prophets, as notably in the prophet Daniel, and as again also in the case of John the beloved. God cannot utter His thoughts to one prostrate in the dust before Him. This does not suit the blessed Speaker; and this is already the foretaste of that which enables us to say we have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry, “Abba, Father.” That cry is not yet come in Ezekiel’s case, belonging as he does to a previous dispensation, but none the less the spirit of fear is bidden to depart, in order that the divine communications may have their suited character; for if God is enwrapping Himself in the cloud of judgment, nevertheless there is, as we have seen, the manifestation of One to whom judgment is a strange work, and those iris hues of promise are about the cloud. The messenger must in his spirit reflect this, that he may be fit as a messenger; and whether they hear or whether they forbear, the prophet must be witness in his own person that if “justice and judgment are the habitation of His throne,” “mercy and truth” yet “go before His face.”
But Israel have, in fact, already thoroughly proved themselves, and are no other (except in the privileges which they have perverted) than the nations around. Thus the divine Speaker marks them here: “I send thee to the children of Israel,” He says -to Gentiles -for they are none other than these. They are but “the rebellious who have rebelled against Me. They and their fathers have transgressed against Me unto this very day.” Thus they are children as “impudent of face” as “hard of heart.” Their heart spoke in their faces in such a way that there could be no more concealment, and God sends to them in the full recognition of this, putting against their blasphemous words the speech of the Unchangeable whom they have refused. Thus they shall know, if it be learned by the judgment executed, that there has been a prophet among them. Among such a people does the prophet dwell as briars and thorns wound and entangle those who come in contact with them, as scorpions poisonous in their sting yet he who has been admitted to see the glory of Jehovah need not be afraid among them. How unseemly indeed would be any fear of man on the part of such an one, and how ill would he represent the majesty of Him with whom they had to do! How ill, alas, do we represent Him if in any wise we manifest this, into whose mouths God has put a sweeter message, and to whom the glory of the Lord has been more wondrously revealed than even as Ezekiel saw it here!
And now the prophet is instructed to make thoroughly his own that which he is commissioned to proclaim amongst them. The vision character of what is here, one would think, ought to be plain to us, and an indication of the character of much that is to follow in the prophecy. “I looked,” he says, “and behold a hand was put forth toward me, and lo a roll of a book therein: and he spread it before me, and it was written within and without, and there were written in it lamentations and mournings and woe. And he said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou findest. Eat this roll, and go, speak unto the house of Israel. So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat this roll.” The meaning is perfectly clear, which any literal construction would rather obscure than add any force to. Again we are reminded of the visions of the Apocalypse. The roll of the book is written within and without, which does not simply speak of the fulness of its contents, as it is taken, but rather, one would say, speaks of things outward and manifest as well as of things of a deeper and more hidden nature. That which is manifest is needed by a condition of soul that can see nothing except that which is external while, on the other hand, there are things within, which for those who have hearts to realize, are beyond all this. Even so for the prophet himself there is something that answers to this; for while what was manifest was simply matter for “lamentations and mournings and woe,” yet in the mouth of the prophet there was as the taste of honey for sweetness, and this corresponds with what we have already seen throughout the vision, where the judgment does not stand alone, but the glory of the Lord is revealed in it, and in result, the accomplishment of counsels which are in His heart and which display His heart. Alas, the message might seem such as if it must be addressed to peoples of obscure language and difficult speech, to men of foreign tongues, strangers such as those among whom they were already being scattered. No, these were strangers in heart alone, all the more terrible in their enmity and misconception of the words of God, which above all should have been familiar. The difficulty of foreign speech might have been overcome, but here was a difficulty which no words that the prophet could utter would overcome. “But the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee, for none of them will hearken unto Me.” There was the stubbornness of a condition upon which mercy itself could wait no longer, and the prophet’s brow must be made hard against their brazen front, and his face against their faces. Already, the wrath to be poured out was foreshown in their condition, captives as they were to the heathen around them, who were themselves more capable of hearing the words of God, had they been addressed to them, than those who had been nursed up with them. It is the solemn lesson which we are constantly receiving, that not the lack of opportunity condemns men to judgment, but the fearful mystery of hearts that depart from the living God, who themselves invite the unwilling judgment, and can be constrained by nothing but the doom which in their case is the last touch of mercy which they are capable of receiving.
Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary
Eze 2:1-2. And he Who sat upon the throne, the Son of God, whose messenger Ezekiel is here appointed to be to the Jewish captives now in Chaldea; said unto me, Son of man A title ninety-five times, at least, given to Ezekiel, in this prophecy, in order, as most commentators suppose, to put him in mind of his frailty and mortality, and to keep him humble, amidst so many divine visions and revelations vouchsafed him from God: see Psa 8:4. Stand upon thy feet Arise, fear not, and put thyself into a posture of attending to what I shall say to thee. And with this command God sent forth a power, enabling him to arise and stand. And the spirit entered into me The same spirit which actuated the living creatures and the wheels; when he spake unto me While he was speaking the words, or, as soon as they were spoken.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Eze 2:1. Son of man. Here the Messiah, speaking from the throne of glory, gives his servant a humble title, but a title which he himself assumed after his incarnation, being meek and lowly in heart. This title reminded Ezekiel that though he saw the divine glory, communed with his Maker, and stood before angels, yet he was but a frail mortal. Thus St. Paul, after a sight of the same glory in the third heaven, had to labour under the thorn of infirmity. But the appellation was attended with honour. Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak to thee.
Eze 2:2. The Spirit entered into me. I was revived by his voice. I was renovated by his presence, and inspired to preach and to prophesy. I stood up upon my feet, ready and willing to do all the work of the Lord.
Eze 2:3. I send thee to the children of Israel, the scattered wanderers of the twelve tribes, rebellious of old, and now rebellious still. Ministers must know the character of the people they address, and like physicians who consult on the critical case of a patient, they must study and devise the best means of reclaiming and converting their souls. The question should often be put, Can these dry bones live?
Eze 2:6. Son of man, be not afraid of them. In reading ancient history we are astonished at the courage of certain ambassadors, addressing hostile princes at the head of invading armies. And if they were so bold, (and if otherwise, both their own sovereigns and the enemies they addressed would have despised them) how bold should ministers be who have the omnipotent arm for their defence? Yet we must be prudent, like our divine Master, who said to the woman of Samaria, go call thy husband. Harsh language is the last resource, as it was with our Lord. Matthew 23.
Thou dost dwell among scorpions, a creeping insect of brown colour, having a sting in its tail, and proper as a metaphor to designate the race that sought Jeremiahs life, and despised Ezekiels ministry.
Eze 2:9-10. Lo, a roll of a bookwritten within and without. Isa 34:4. Vellum being scarce was used with care; the manuscripts were neatly rolled, and the finer copies were rolled on a staff. The Egyptians, the Chaldeans, and the Hebrews read from the right to the left. We, on the contrary, like the Greeks, read from the left to the right. The Jew held the staff, or the soft scroll in his left hand; and as he read, coiled it up in his right hand. Of course some inconvenience attended it, when the manuscript was written on both sides. But such indeed was the roll handed to Ezekiel. The heart of the apostate Jews was full of sin, and all their life one continuous revolt. The punishments superinduced by these revolts were lamentations for the country they had lost, mournings for their slaughtered relations, and woes yet to come.
REFLECTIONS.
The Messiah having awed and sanctified the prophet by a sight of his glory, now graciously raised him from the earth, by an absolute assurance that his mission was from heaven. God gives extraordinary support and comfort to men when they have extraordinary work to do. Ezekiel had now to go among thorns and briers, and to prophesy in the midst of scorpions.
Judgments not sanctified by humiliation, render men more hardened and atrocious. So it was partly with the jews in captivity, and more so with the jews left in Judea; for Ezekiels mission bears obvious marks of being addressed, probably by letter, to the people in Jerusalem, as well as to the people in captivity. These were still rebellious men, impudent and hardened, and like briers and scorpions when disturbed by the faithful ministry of a prophet.
The mercy of God is unspeakable, inasmuch as he did not destroy them at once, but continued his ministry among them, whether they would hear or forbear. Surely this should encourage ministers to preach on, even when there seems no hope. Who can tell but the wild and briery wastes may yet become the garden of the Lord.
By the parchment handed to Ezekiel, written on both sides with lamentations, mourning and woe, we learn that ministers must read their bible, and get well acquainted with the miseries which are coming on the ungodly throng, that they may preach with vehemence, and save the wicked with fear, pulling them out of the fire. The indictment preferred against the sinner is written within and without, full of grievous impeachments. When therefore the sins and punishment of nations are considered, it is not a time for rioting and drunkenness, for crowding theatres, and living solely for dissipation and folly.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Eze 2:1 to Eze 3:15. The Call.Eze 2:1-7. The awful silence is broken by a voice from the Almighty upon His throne, bidding the prostrate prophet rise and accept his commission for service; for it is a work and not an inactive prostration that God and the world need. Into the phrase son of man, which occurs nearly 100 times in the book, Ezekiel throws his sense of his own frailty in contrast with the majesty of God as illustrated by the vision of the previous chapter. The service which he feels himself Divinely summoned to render is to declare the message of Godin the first instance a message of doom (Eze 2:10)to his people: a doom justified by the infidelity which they had shown from the beginning of their national history up to that very moment, and which had already swept into exile those whom he was immediately addressing. The prophet is under no illusions: they are a rebellious house, hard-faced and stubborn-hearted, and it is more than likely that they will not listen, though they are free to hear or forbear, as they please: they will be as briers and thorns, symbols of the opposition and persecution the prophet may expect to encounter (some emend these words in Eze 2:6 to mean, they will resist and despise thee). There will be every temptation to refuse to embark upon so perilous a course, to rebel in one way as the people had rebelled in another: but he is to go on without flinching or fear to speak the word that would be given him, and the sequel would show them that he had been a true prophet, Divinely inspired.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
2:1 And {a} he said to me, {b} Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak to thee.
(a) That is, the Lord.
(b) Meaning, man who is but earth and ashes, which was to humble him, and cause him to consider his own state, and God’s grace.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
1. The recipients of Ezekiel’s ministry 2:1-5
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Yahweh instructed Ezekiel to stand on his feet because the Lord wanted to speak with him.
"Not paralysis before him is desired by God, but reasonable service. . . . It is man erect, man in his manhood, with whom God will have fellowship and with whom he will speak." [Note: A. B. Davidson, The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, p. 15.]
"The expression "son of man" [Heb. ben ’ish] is a common Semitic way of indicating an individual man (Psa 4:2; Psa 57:4; Psa 58:1; Psa 144:3; Jer 49:18; Jer 49:33; Jer 50:40; Jer 51:43)." [Note: The New Scofield Reference Bible, p. 840.]
"Son of man" (Heb. ben ’adam) is a distinctive title in this prophecy and stresses the humanity of the prophet in contrast to the supernatural creatures and the deity of the glorious Lord. The Hebrew title appears 93 times in Ezekiel and only once elsewhere in the Old Testament (Dan 8:17). In Dan 8:17, this title, ben ’adam, describes Daniel. In the New Testament, "son of man" describes a person who is both God and man (cf. Dan 7:13, ben ’ish). This was the favorite title that Jesus used of Himself in the Gospels (Mat 8:20; Mat 9:6; Mat 11:19; Mar 2:28; Mar 10:45; Luk 19:10; et al.). In view of its use in the Old Testament, "son of man" stressed Jesus’ true humanity and His dependence on the Spirit of God as well as His deity. [Note: See F. F. Bruce, "The Background to the Son of Man Sayings," in Christ the Lord: Studies in Christology Presented to Donald Guthrie, pp. 50-70.] "Son of" indicates a close relationship even when it does not describe literal son-ship (e.g., "son of peace," i.e., a person associated with peace, Luk 10:6).
"By this title Ezekiel would be reminded continually that he was dependent on the Spirit’s power, which enabled him to receive the message of God (Eze 2:2) and to deliver it in the power and authority of the Lord-’This is what the Sovereign LORD says’ (Eze 2:4)." [Note: Alexander, "Ezekiel," p. 761.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
EZEKIELS PROPHETIC COMMISSION
Eze 2:1-10; Eze 3:1-27
THE call of a prophet and the vision of God which sometimes accompanied it are the two sides of one complex experience. The man who has truly seen God necessarily has a message to men. Not only are his spiritual perceptions quickened and all the powers of his being stirred to the highest activity, but there is laid on his conscience the burden of a sacred duty and a lifelong vocation to the service of God and man. The true prophet therefore is one who can say with Paul, “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision,” for that cannot be a real vision of God which does not demand obedience. And of the two elements the call is the one that is indispensable to the idea of a prophet. We can conceive a prophet without an ecstatic vision, but not without a consciousness of being chosen by God for a special work or a sense of moral responsibility for the faithful declaration of His truth. Whether, as with Isaiah and Ezekiel, the call springs out of the vision of God, or whether, as with Jeremiah, the call comes first and is supplemented by experiences of a visionary kind, the essential fact in the prophets initiation always is the conviction that from a certain period in his life the word of Jehovah came to him, and along with it the feeling of personal obligation to God for the discharge of a mission entrusted to him. While the vision merely serves to impress on the imagination by means of symbols a certain conception of Gods being, and may be dispensed with when symbols are no longer the necessary vehicle of spiritual truth, the call, as conveying a sense of ones true place in the kingdom of God, can never be wanting to any man who has a prophetic work to do for God amongst his fellow men.
It has been already hinted that in the case of Ezekiel the connection between the call and the vision is less obvious than in that of Isaiah. The character of the narrative undergoes, a change at the beginning of chapter 2. The first part is moulded, as we have seen, very largely on the inaugural vision of Isaiah; the second betrays with equal clearness the influence of Jeremiah. The appearance of a break between the first chapter and the second is partly due to the prophets laborious manner of describing what he had passed through. It is altogether unfair to represent him as having first curiously inspected the mechanism of the merkaba, and then bethought himself that it was a fitting thing to fall on his face before it. The experience of an ecstasy is one thing, the relating of it is another. In much less time than it takes us to master the details of the picture, Ezekiel had seen and been overpowered by the glory of Jehovah, and had become aware of the purpose for which it had been revealed to him. He knew that God had come to him in order to send him as a prophet to his fellow-exiles. And just as the description of the vision draws out in detail those features which were significant of Gods nature and attributes, so in what follows he becomes conscious step by step of certain aspects of the work to which he is called. In the form of a series of addresses of the Almighty there are presented to his mind the outlines of his prophetic career-its conditions, its hardships, its encouragements, and above all its binding and peremptory obligation. Some of the facts now set before him, such as the spiritual condition of his audience, had long been familiar to his thoughts-others were new; but now they all take their proper place in the scheme of his life; he is made to know their bearing on his work, and what attitude he is to adopt in face of them. All this takes place in the prophetic trance; but the ideas remain with him as the sustaining principles of his subsequent work.
1. Of the truths thus presented to the mind of Ezekiel the first, and the one that directly arises out of the impression which the vision made on him, is his personal insignificance. As he lies prostrate before the glory of Jehovah he hears for the first time the name which ever afterwards signalises his relation to the God who speaks through him. It hardly needs to be said that the term “son of man” in the Book of Ezekiel is no title of honour or of distinction. It is precisely the opposite of this. It denotes the absence of distinction in the person of the prophet. It signifies no more than “member of the human race”; its sense might almost be conveyed if we were to render it by the word “mortal.” It expresses the infinite contrast between the heavenly and the earthly, between the glorious Being who speaks from the throne and the frail creature who needs to be supernaturally strengthened before he can stand upright in the attitude of service. {Eze 2:1} He felt that there was no reason in himself for the choice which God made of him to be a prophet. He is conscious only of the attributes which he has in common with the race-of human weakness and insignificance; all that distinguishes him from other men belongs to his office, and. is conferred on him by God in the act of his consecration. There is no trace of the generous impulse that prompted Isaiah to offer himself as a servant of the great King as soon as he realised that there was work to be done. He is equally a stranger to the shrinking of Jeremiahs sensitive spirit from the responsibilities of the prophets charge. To Ezekiel the Divine Presence is so overpowering, the command is so definite and exacting, that no room is left for the play of personal feeling; the hand of the Lord is heavy on him, and he can do nothing but stand still and hear.
2. The next thought that occupies the attention of the prophet is the painful spiritual condition of those to whom he is sent. It is to be noted that his mission presents itself to him from the outset in two aspects. In the first place, he is a prophet to the whole house of Israel, including the lost kingdom of the ten tribes, as well as the two sections of the kingdom of Judah, those now in exile and those still remaining in their own land. This is his ideal audience; the sweep of his prophecy is to embrace the destinies of the nation as a whole, although but a small part be within the reach of his spoken words. But in literal fact he is to be the prophet of the exiles; {Eze 3:2} that is the sphere in which he has to make proof of his ministry. These two audiences are for the most part not distinguished in the mind of Ezekiel; he sees the ideal in the real, regarding the little colony in which he lives as an epitome of the national life. But in both aspects of his work the outlook is equally dispiriting. If he looks forward to an active career amongst his fellow-captives, he is given to know that “thorns and thistles” are with him and that his dwelling is among scorpions. {Eze 2:6} Petty persecution and rancorous opposition are the inevitable lot of a prophet there. And if he extends his thoughts to the idealised nation he has to think of a people whose character is revealed in a long history of rebellion and apostasy: they are “the rebels who have rebelled against Me, they and their fathers to this very day”. {Eze 2:3} The greatest difficulty he will have to contend with is the impenetrability of the minds of his hearers to the truths of his message. The barrier of a strange language suggests an illustration of the impossibility of communicating spiritual ideas to such men as he is sent to. But it is a far more hopeless barrier that separates him from his people. “Not to a people of deep speech and heavy tongue art thou sent; and not to many peoples whose language thou canst not understand: if I had sent thee to them, they would hear thee. But the house of Israel will refuse to hear thee; for they refuse to hear Me: for the whole house of Israel are hard of forehead and stout of heart”. {Eze 3:5-7} The meaning is that the incapacity of the people is not intellectual, but moral and spiritual. They can understand the prophets words, but they will not hear them because they dislike the truth which he utters and have rebelled against the God who sent him. The hardening of the national conscience which Isaiah foresaw as the inevitable result of his own ministry is already accomplished, and Ezekiel traces it to its source in a defect of the will, an aversion to the truths which express the character of Jehovah.
This fixed judgment on his contemporaries with which Ezekiel enters on his work is condensed into one of those stereotyped expressions which abound in his writings: “house of disobedience”-a phrase which is afterwards amplified in more than one elaborate review of the nations past. It no doubt sums up the result of much previous meditation on the state of Israel and the possibility of a national reformation. If any hope had hitherto lingered in Ezekiels mind that the exiles might now respond to a true word from Jehovah, it disappears in the clear insight which he obtains into the state of their hearts. He sees that the time has not yet come to win the people back to God by assurances of His compassion and the nearness of His salvation. The breach between Jehovah and Israel was not begun to be healed, and the prophet who stands on the side of God must look for no sympathy from men. In the very act of his consecration his mind is thus set in the attitude of uncompromising severity towards the obdurate house of Israel: “Behold, I make thy face hard like their faces, and thy forehead hard like theirs, like adamant harder than flint. Thou shalt not fear them nor be dismayed at their countenance, for a disobedient house are they.” {Eze 3:8-9}
3. The significance of the transaction in which he takes part is still further impressed on the mind of the prophet by a symbolic act in which he is made to signify his acceptance of the commission entrusted to him. {Eze 2:8-10; Eze 3:1-3} He sees a hand extended to him holding the roll of a book, and when the roll is spread out before him it is found to be written on both sides with “lamentations and mourning and woe.” In obedience to the Divine command he opens his mouth and eats the scroll, and finds to his surprise that in spite of its contents its taste is “like honey for sweetness.”
The meaning of this strange symbol appears to include two things. In the first place it denotes the removal of the inward hindrance of which every man must be conscious when he receives the call to be a prophet. Something similar occurs in the inaugural vision of Isaiah and Jeremiah. The impediment of which Isaiah was conscious was the uncleanness of his lips; and this being removed by the touch of the hot coal from the altar, he is filled with a new feeling of freedom and eagerness to engage in the service of God. In the case of Jeremiah the hindrance was a sense of his own weakness and unfitness for the arduous duties which were imposed on him; and this again was taken away by the consecrating touch of Jehovahs hand on his lips. The part of Ezekiels experience with which we are dealing is obviously parallel to these, although it is not possible to say what feeling of incapacity was uppermost in his mind. Perhaps it was the dread lest in him there should lurk something of that rebellious spirit which was the characteristic of the race to which he belonged. He who had been led to form so hard a judgment of his people could not but look with a jealous eye on his own heart, and could not forget that he shared the same sinful nature which made their rebellion possible. Accordingly the book is presented to him in the first instance as a test of his obedience. “But thou, son of man, hear what I say to thee; Be not disobedient like the disobedient house: open thy mouth, and eat what I give thee”. {Eze 2:8} When the book proves sweet to his taste, he has the assurance that he has been endowed with such sympathy with the thoughts of God that things which to the natural mind are unwelcome become the source of a spiritual satisfaction. Jeremiah had expressed the same strange delight in his work in a striking passage which was doubtless familiar to Ezekiel: “When Thy words were found I did eat them; and Thy word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart: for I was called by Thy name, O Jehovah God of hosts”. {Jer 15:16} We have a still higher illustration of the same fact in the life of our Lord, to whom it was meat and drink to do the will of His Father, and who experienced a joy in the doing of it which was peculiarly His own. It is the reward of the true service of God that amidst all the hardships and discouragements which have to be endured the heart is sustained by an inward joy springing from the consciousness of working in fellowship with God.
But in the second place the eating of the book undoubtedly signifies the bestowal on the prophet of the gift of inspiration-that is, the power to speak the words of Jehovah. “Son of man, eat this roll, and go speak to the children of Israel Go, get thee to the house of Israel, and speak with My words to them”. {Eze 3:1; Eze 3:4} Now the call of a prophet does not mean that his mind is charged with a certain body of doctrine, which he is to deliver from time to time as circumstances require. All that can safely be said about the prophetic inspiration is that it implies the faculty of distinguishing the truth of God from the thoughts that naturally arise in the prophets own mind. Nor is there anything in Ezekiels experience which necessarily goes beyond this conception; although the incident of the book has been interpreted in ways that burden him with a very crude and mechanical theory of inspiration. Some critics have believed that the book which he swallowed is the book he was afterwards to write, as if he had reproduced in instalments what was delivered to him at this time. Others, without going so far as this, find it at least significant that one who was to be pre-eminently a literary prophet should conceive of the word of the Lord as communicated to him in the form of a book. When one writer speaks of “eigenthumliche Empfindungen im Schlunde” as the basis of the figure, he seems to come perilously near to resolving inspiration into a nervous disease. All these representations go beyond a fair construction of the prophets meaning. The act is purely symbolic. The book has nothing to do with the subject-matter of his prophecy, nor does the eating of it mean anything more than the self-surrender of the prophet to his vocation as a vehicle of the word of Jehovah. The idea that the word of God becomes a living power in the inner being of the prophet is also expressed by Jeremiah when he speaks of it as a “burning fire shut up in his bones”; {Jer 20:9} and Ezekiels conception is similar. Although he speaks as if he had once for all assimilated the word of God, although he was conscious of a new power working within him. there is no proof that he thought of the word of the Lord as dwelling in him otherwise than as a spiritual impulse to utter the truth revealed to him from time to time. That is the inspiration which all the prophets possess: “Jehovah God hath spoken, who can but prophesy?”. {Amo 3:8}
4. It was not to be expected that a prophet so practical in his aims as Ezekiel should be left altogether without some indication of the end to be accomplished by his work. The ordinary incentives to an arduous public career have indeed been denied to him. He knows that his mission contains no promise of a striking or an immediate success, that he will be misjudged and opposed by nearly all who hear him, and that he will have to pursue his course without appreciation or sympathy. It has been impressed on him that to declare Gods message is an end in itself, a duty to be discharged with no regard to its issues, “whether men hear or whether they forbear.” Like Paul he recognises that “necessity is laid upon him” to preach the word of God. But there is one word which reveals to him the way in which his ministry is to be made effective in the working out of Jehovahs purpose with Israel. “Whether they hear or whether they forbear, they shall know that a prophet hath been among them”. {Eze 2:5} The reference is mainly to the destruction of the nation which Ezekiel well knew must form the chief burden of any true prophetic message delivered at that time. He will be approved as a prophet, and recognised as what he is, when his words are verified by the event. Does it seem a poor reward for years of incessant contention with prejudice and unbelief? It was at all events the only reward that was possible, but it was also to be the beginning of better days. For these words have a wider significance than their bearing on the prophets personal position.
It has been truly said that the preservation of the true religion after the downfall of the nation depended on the fact that the event had been clearly foretold. Two religions and two conceptions of God were then struggling for the mastery in Israel. One was the religion of the prophets, who set the moral holiness of Jehovah above every other consideration, and affirmed that His righteousness must be vindicated even at the cost of His peoples destruction. The other was the popular religion which clung to the belief that Jehovah could not for any reason abandon His people without ceasing to be God. This conflict of principles reached its climax in the time of Ezekiel, and it also found its solution. The destruction of Jerusalem cleared the issues. It was then seen that the teaching of the prophets afforded the only possible explanation of the course of events. The Jehovah of the opposite religion was proved to be a figment of the popular imagination; and there was no alternative between accepting the prophetic interpretation of history and resigning all faith in the destiny of Israel. Hence the recognition of Ezekiel, the last of the old order of prophets, who had carried their threatenings on to the eve of their accomplishment, was really a great crisis of religion. It meant the triumph of the only conception of God on which the hope of a better future could be built. Although the people might still be far from the state of heart in which Jehovah could remove His chastening hand, the first condition of national repentance was given as soon as it was perceived that there had been prophets among them who had declared the purpose of Jehovah. The foundation was also laid for a more fruitful development of Ezekiels activity. The word of the Lord had been in his hands a power “to pluck up and to break down and to destroy” the old Israel that would not know Jehovah; henceforward it was destined to “build and plant” a new Israel inspired by a new ideal of holiness and a whole-hearted repugnance to every form of idolatry.
5. These then are the chief elements which enter into the remarkable experience that made Ezekiel a prophet. Further disclosures of the nature of his office were, however, necessary before he could translate his vocation into a conscious plan of work. The departure of the theophany appears to have left him in a state of mental prostration. In “bitterness and heat of spirit” he resumes his place amongst his fellow-captives at Telabib, and sits among them like a man bewildered for seven days. At the end of that time the effects of the ecstasy seem to pass away, and more light breaks on him with regard to his mission. He realises that it is to be largely a mission to individuals. He is appointed as a watchman to the house of Israel, to warn the wicked from his way; and as such he is held accountable for the fate of any soul that might miss the way of life through failure of duty on his part.
It has been supposed that this passage {Eze 3:16-21} describes the character of a short period of public activity, in which Ezekiel endeavoured to act the part of a “reprover” (Eze 3:26) among the exiles. This is considered to have been his first attempt to act on his commission, and to have been continued until the prophet was convinced of its hopelessness and in obedience to the divine command shut himself up in his own house. But this view does not seem to be sufficiently borne out by the terms of the narrative The words rather represent a point of view from which his whole ministry is surveyed, or an aspect of it which possessed peculiar importance from the circumstances in which he was placed. The idea of his position as a watchman responsible for individuals may have been present to the prophets mind from the time of his call; but the practical development of that idea was not possible until the destruction of Jerusalem had prepared mens minds to give heed to his admonitions. Accordingly the second period of Ezekiels work opens with a fuller statement of the principles indicated in this section (chapter 33). We shall therefore defer the consideration of these principles till we reach the stage of the prophets ministry at which their practical significance emerges.
6. The last six verses-of the third chapter (Eze 3:22-27) may be regarded either as closing the account of Ezekiels consecration or as the introduction to the first part of his ministry, that which preceded the fall of Jerusalem. They contain the description of a second trance, which appears to have happened seven days after the first. The prophet seemed to himself to be carried out in spirit to a certain plain near his residence in Tel-abib. There the glory of Jehovah appears to him precisely as he had seen it in his former vision by the river Kebar. He then receives the command to shut himself up within his house. He is to be like a man bound with ropes, unable to move about among his fellow-exiles. Moreover, the free use of speech is to be interdicted; his tongue will be made to cleave to his palate, so that he is as one “dumb.” But as often as he receives a message from Jehovah his mouth will be opened that he may declare it to the rebellious house of Israel.
Now if we compare Eze 3:26 with Eze 24:27 and Eze 33:22, we find that this state of intermittent dumbness continued till the day when the siege of Jerusalem began, and was not finally removed till tidings were brought of the capture of the city. The verses before us therefore throw light on the prophets demeanour during the first half of his ministry. What they signify is his almost entire withdrawal from public life. Instead of being like his great predecessors, a man living full in the public view, and thrusting himself on mens notice when they least desired him, he is to lead an isolated and a solitary life, a sign to the people rather than a living voice. From the sequel we gather that he excited sufficient interest to induce the elders and others to visit him in his house to inquire of Jehovah. We must also suppose that from time to time he emerged from his retirement with a message for the whole community. It cannot, indeed, be assumed that the chapters 4-24 contain an exact reproduction of the addresses delivered on these occasions. Few of them profess to have been uttered in public, and for the most part they give the impression of having been intended for patient study on the written page rather than for immediate oratorical effect. There is no reason to doubt that in the main they embody the results of Ezekiels prophetic experiences during the period to which they are referred, although it may be impossible to determine how far they were actually spoken at the time, and how far they are merely written for the instruction of a wider audience.
The strong figures used here to describe this state of seclusion appear to reflect the prophets consciousness of the restraints providentially imposed on the exercise of his office. These restraints, however, were moral, and not, as has sometimes been maintained, physical. The chief element was the pronounced hostility and incredulity of the people. This, combined with the sense of doom hanging over the nation, seems to have weighed on the spirit of Ezekiel, and in the ecstatic state the incubus lying upon him and paralysing his activity presents itself to his imagination as if he were bound with ropes and afflicted with dumbness. The representation finds a partial parallel in a later passage in the prophets history. From Eze 29:21 (which is the latest prophecy in the whole book) we learn that the apparent non-fulfilment of his predictions against Tyre had caused a similar hindrance to his public work, depriving him of the boldness of speech characteristic of a prophet. And the opening of the mouth given to him on that occasion by the vindication of his words is clearly analogous to the removal of his silence by the news that Jerusalem had fallen.