Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 2:3
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.
3. to a rebellious nation ] Rather, nations. First the people are called the children of Israel, then described more particularly as “nations,” the reference being either to the two houses of Israel, the north and south, or to the people as a whole considered as consisting of larger divisions (Psa 106:5) as “peoples” is used elsewhere (Hos 10:14; Deu 33:19). There hardly lies in “nations” any suggestion that they were as the “heathen.” The general character of the people is described as “rebellious;” and they had “rebelled” continuously throughout all their history, they and their fathers; cf. ch. Eze 16:23. Israel is a moral person, with an unbroken identity all through its history; and its disposition has been uniformly disobedient it is a rebellious house.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Nation – literally, as in the margin – the word which usually distinguishes the pagan from Gods people. Here it expresses that Israel is cast off by God; and the plural is used to denote that the children of Israel are not even one nation, but scattered and disunited.
Translate: I send thee to the children of Israel, the rebellious nation that have rebelled against Me (they and their fathers have transgressed against Me, even to this very day), and the children impudent and stiff-hearted: I do send thee unto them.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Eze 2:3-5
I send thee to the children of Israel.
The commission of Ezekiel
I. The commission. Is it not an act of infinite condescension, that God should take any notice of us? For what are we? Poor finite creatures; of limited capacities, with tendencies to evil, tendencies to the very thing that God Almighty hates, detests, and abhors. Not only with tendencies to these things; but in the actual perpetration of sin; committing crime upon crime. And yet God sends His message to us. Why? Because He knows the original dignity of the soul of man; He knows what it was before he fell; He knows what it was capable of then; and He knows what the soul of man can yet be made through the blood of the Cross and through the power of the Holy Ghost: and, therefore, God sends messages to man. I do send; thou shalt say. We have no business to go and preach unless God send the outward call of the Church and the inward call of the Spirit. And hence our own Church asks all its candidates for holy orders–the bishop puts the question–Dost thou believe that thou art inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost to take upon thee this office? Oh, solemn question! But what shall they speak? They shall speak, Thus saith the Lord. The authority for the message is I do send; the nature of the message is what the Lord hath said.
II. The way in which this message, which the prophet had been commissioned to deliver, is treated. A twofold way: some receive it; others reject it. Concerning the apostolical ministry, concerning the word preached by the apostles, some believed the thing spoken, and some believed not.
III. They who receive this message, and they who reject it, shall both know at last that it came from the Lord. They who receive it, knew it long before. The indwelling Spirit of the living God testifies with your spirits that these things are true. But take the case of those who reject the Gospel. Oh, they find out also that it was all true. I appeal from the present to the future. You know there is a story in history of a poor woman who considered herself aggrieved, and applied to Philip, King of Macedon. She found him in a state of intoxication: I appeal, said she, from Philip, under the influence of wine, to Philip, sober and able to judge. And so I say, if the world, with its allurements, enchant and ensnare you now, and intoxicate your spirit. I appeal from that state to the hour when you shall turn your pale face to the waft, when friends and kindred and medical men shall whisper, It will soon be all over: then you shall find, as true as that there is a God, that the Bible is a Divine revelation, that the things which we said to you, concerning which you thought us too much in earnest, are all perfectly true. (T. Mortimer, B. D.)
Proximity not identification.
He was a prophet though the house was rebellious. Can the Lord find no better place for His prophets? Can He not make them a second garden? He made one: can He not make two? Can He not cause His prophet to stand in some high tower where he will be untainted by the pollution of place and time, and whence he can thunder out the Divine word? Has the prophet to mingle with the people, to live with them, to touch their corruptness, to feel the contagion of their evil manners? Might he not have a pedestal to himself? No. The Son of Man when He comes will go on eating and drinking, a social reformer, a brother, a fellow guest at tables; He will take the cup after we have partaken of it, and we may cut Him what morsel of bread He may eat, or He will hand them to us; He will be one of His fellowcreatures. And yet Ezekiel was a prophet. So is the Son of Man. Nothing could mingle Ezekiel with the rebellious house, so as to be unable to distinguish between the one and the other. Proximity is not identification. We may sit close to a murderer, and be quite distinct from him as to all our proclivities, and desires, and aspirations. We need not be corrupt because we live in a corrupt age; we need not go down because the neighbourhood is bad. It is poor pleading, it is irreligious and inexcusable defence, which says it could not resist atmospheric pressure, the subtle influence of social custom and habitude. It is the business of a prophet to stand right up from them, apart from them, and yet to be so near as to be able to teach them, exhort them, rebuke them, and comfort them, when they turn their face but a point towards the throne, the Cross, and the promised heaven. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Commission given to ministers
1. To declare Gods will;
2. To assert His authority;
3. To seek, notwithstanding all our discouragements, the salvation of their souls.
Learn hence–
1. The importance of the ministry;
2. The duty of those who are ministered unto. (G. Simeon, M. A.)
Sin a treason
How does any man know but the very oath he is swearing, the lewdness he is committing, may be scored up by God as one item for a new rebellion? We may be rebels, and yet neither vote in Parliament, sit in committees, or fight in armies. Every sin is virtually a treason, and we may be guilty of murder by breaking other commandments besides the sixth. (R South.)
Rebellion against God
There is as much felony in coming pence as shillings and pounds (Manton). The principle is the same, whatever the value of the coin may be: the prerogative of the Crown is trenched upon by the counterfeiter, even if he only imitates and utters the smallest coin of the realm. He has set the royal sign to his base metal, and the small money value of his coinage is no excuse for his offence. Anyone sin wilfully indulged and persevered in is quite sufficient to prove a man to be a traitor to his God. The spirit of rebellion is the same whatever be the manner of displaying it. A giant may look out through a very small window, and so may great obstinacy of rebellion manifest itself in a little act of wilfulness. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The preachers duty
Like as the fountain, though no man draw of it, doth still send forth his springs; or as a river, though no man drink of it, yet doth it keep his course, and flow nevertheless; even so it behoveth him that preacheth the word of God, to do what lieth in his power, though no man give any attentiveness, or have any care to follow the same. (J. Spencer.)
Impudent children and stiff-hearted.
Impudence and stiff-heartedness
1. Progress in sin makes impudent. It is an exceeding evil to be past shame, to be impudent in sinning. If ever God show mercy to such sinners, they must be ashamed.
2. Where there is an impudent face there is a hard, stiff heart. And this is one of the greatest evils.
3. God sends His prophets and ministers about hard services, such as are full of discouragements when looked upon with a carnal eye.
4. Ministers should not so much look at the persons they are sent to, or the event of their ministry, as at their call. Gods will and command must content us, support us. What if we be scoffed at, reviled, made the offscouring and filth of the world; yet here is the comfort of a true prophet, of a true minister, Christ sent him; and He that set him to work will pay him his wages, whether they hear or hear not to whom he is sent.
5. Those who are sent of God must deliver, not their own, but Gods message. (W. Greenhill, M. A.)
A ministry to the unresponsive
We may preach and preach, said a great bishop once to his ordinands, and our words will seem to fall upon a stone, and not upon a mans heart. Under any such trials of patience and hopefulness, Ezekiels experience will prove helpful. How awful is the reason assigned! They will not hearken unto thee, for they will not hearken unto Me. As our Lord said long afterwards (Joh 15:18), the servant could not expect to be welcomed when the Lord had been in effect rejected, The exiles hearts were not right with God; therefore, of course, they could not appreciate Gods envoy. What they said, as he reports it, exhibits human perversity in some very advanced forms, which are by no means obsolete; it is only too easy to translate their objections into language which is anything but dead. Hear some of them complain that the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the childrens teeth are set on edge. We are punished because our fathers sinned; is that fair? Can the way of the Lord be called straight: It is not straight, but twisted, contorted, and our sense of justice is shocked: as many nowadays declare that the inequalities of human condition, or other natural facts which cannot be smoothed over or explained away, have made them incapable of believing that the world is governed by a righteous Providence. Or there are these who openly say, We will be as the heathen: it is the cry of that wild impatience which would fain get rid of the responsibilities avowedly involved in the profession of religion. Or if the mood is not so distinctly rebellious, it is that of a sullen despair which masks itself under an apparent acknowledgment of sin: Our hope is lost, we are cut off, we pine away in our transgressions,–how then should we live? The gloom, we see, is faithless, even if it does not reach the point of revolt. Again, there are others who reject, as we might say, on the grounds of common sense and common experience, the supernatural character of prophecy; every vision faileth predictions are disproved, or, to quote a modern dictum, miracles do not happen. Ezekiel is, in effect, bluntly told that facts are against him. Or even, say others, if there is something in his prophecies, the vision is of times far off: things will last our time we need not disturb ourselves–as a comfortable selfishness has often persuaded itself before some great Day of the Son of Man, e.g., in the years that ushered in the French Revolution. Or others have their own prophets, much better worth hearing than Ezekiel, who tell them what is pleasant to think of, with no austere requirements, no rigid prohibitions, no croaking bodements of a dismal, intolerable future; the result of which is, that the hands of the wicked are strengthened to go on in their evil way by visions of a peace that is no peace. Or the style and contents of Ezekiels preaching are cavilled at: the misgivings which it secretly awakens are silenced by critical remarks on its obscurity: They say of me. Doth he not speak parables? Practical men, they assume, may web dispense with attending to a voice that cannot put plain meaning into plain words. Or there are others, probably among the younger sort, who at first sight seem more promising; they listen to the prophet with real enjoyment, as they might to one who can sing pleasantly and play well; only it is a mere aesthetic pleasure, a gratification of the sense of beauty for its own sake, with no moral movement of the will: they hear thy words, but they do them not. Or, lastly, there are men grave and highly respectable, who come with all appearance of seriousness to sit before Ezekiel as pupils, and inquire, through him of the Lord; but he is bidden to repel them as self-deceivers who have set up, and retain, their idols in their hearts: favourite sins with them prove stumbling blocks to bar all progress upward; therefore on them shall come the doom of being answered according to their idols. Ezekiels ministry was, as we thus see, preeminently a ministry of penetration into character. Its leading feature is a close, severe, persistent dealing with conscience; he has been truly called the prophet of personal responsibility. He shows that if, to some extent, heredity involves very real disadvantage, if children suffer because parents or ancestors have sinned, yet in the last resort no one soul will be spiritually rejected from the mercies and blessings of the Divine covenant simply on account of the sins of other persons, which he has not personally shared in or made his own. So does Ezekiel prepare the way for that Saviour who, while He built up His Church as a spiritual home for all believers, conferred a new dignity, sacredness, preciousness, on each individual soul for whom He died. What a thought it is, the interest that the Most High God takes in each one of us singly! That fact has a twofold bearing: it imposes on us the obligation of walking in the fear of the Lord, of standing in awe and striving not to sin, of recognising that the revelation of a true God, as culminating in the incarnation of a Son of God who gave Himself up for us all, must needs have a stern side. But the other aspect of our personal relation to God is that in which the Gospel mainly presents Him–that which was illuminated by the Cross and summarised in St. Johns assertion that He is Love. (Canon Bright.)
Shall know that there hath been a prophet among them.—
Wicked men left without excuse
God will leave wicked men without excuse. It is Gods intention; they shall never be able to challenge Me, nor to justify themselves. Gods primary intentions, where He sends prophets and means of grace, are the good of His elect, their comfort, sanctification, and salvation; but His secondary intentions are the iuexeusableness of the wicked, and their just damnation. When God sends His word to any place, it shall and must prosper in the thing whereunto He sends it (Isa 55:11); be it to win and draw, or to harden and make inexcusable. See Isa 6:9-10. (W. Greenhill, M. A.)
Prophets are witnesses for or against their hearers
They shall know there hath been a prophet amongst them; his person, his pains, his truths, his life, his sufferings, his death, will all come in for witnesses one day. Every prophet, every preacher that Christ sends, is a witness, as well as an officer or a minister; I have made thee a minister and a witness (Act 26:16). All faithfnl ministers are Christs witnesses (Act 1:8). They bear witness of Christ and His doctrine; and if we receive not Him and His doctrine, they will be Christs witnesses against us. As for Me and My prophets, My ministers, you despised, or only gave the hearing, and that was all: and My charge is not false; here are My witnesses. What say you to it? Speak, you ministers of such a city, and such a place. What, did you not preach many a sermon, shed many a tear, sweat many a drop, make many a prayer for them? did ye not early and late watch for the good of their souls? etc. Yea, Lord, but they would not receive us, they would not believe our report we made of Thee, they would not take Thy yoke upon them, etc.; we shook off the dust of our feet against them. This will be dreadful, when such witness of the prophets comes in against hearers. (W. Greenhill, M. A.)
The preacher a correcter of consciences
The verification of the compass is a matter of serious importance in navigation. The vessel is moored, and by means of warps to certain government buoys, she is placed with her head toward the various points of the compass, one after another. The bearing of her compass on board, influenced as that is by the attraction of the iron she carries, is taken accurately by one observer in the vessel, and the true bearing is signalled to him by another observer on shore, who has a compass out of reach of the local attraction of the ship. The error in each position is thus ascertained, and the necessary corrections are made. Now in the Church your people are like that observer on board ship. Their consciences have been all the week affected by the influence of things immediately around them, so that they are in danger of making serious mistakes even in their reading of the Book of God. But in the pulpit, you are like the observer on shore. You are away from the magnetic agencies–mostly metallic–which so seriously affect them; therefore you can signalise to them their true bearings, and thus prepare them for the voyage of the week which is to follow. (W. M. Taylor.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 3. Son of man] This appellative, so often mentioned in this book, seems to have been given first to this prophet; afterwards to Daniel; and after that to the MAN Christ Jesus. Perhaps it was given to the two former to remind them of their frailty, and that they should not be exalted in their own minds by the extraordinary revelations granted to them; and that they should feel themselves of the same nature with those to whom they were sent; and, from the common principle of humanity, deeply interest themselves in the welfare of their unhappy countrymen. To the latter it might have been appropriated merely to show that though all his actions demonstrated him to be GOD, yet that he was also really MAN; and that in the man Christ Jesus dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. When the acts of Christ are considered, it is more easy to believe his eternal Godhead, than to be convinced that the person we hear speaking, and see working, is also a man like unto ourselves.
I send thee to the children of Israel] To those who were now in captivity, in Chaldea particularly; and to the Jews in general, both far and near.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And he: see Eze 2:2.
Said unto me; either vocally, or by impression upon his mind.
Son of man: the prophet had seen, Eze 1:26 of the former chapter, a very glorious person on a throne above the firmament, and now the prophet is called son of man, perhaps, as the Jews conjecture, to encourage the prophet in his prophetic work, and to assure him he should be owned by that glorious One, who appeared as a man, and calls Ezekiel son of man: it is certain he would never forget what he had seen, and it is likely this as oft as it was spoken, would mind the prophet what relation it might have to the vision.
I send thee; I am sending, or he that sendeth thee is whom thou sawest on the throne advanced above angels, who directs them in their course of ministry subserving the will of God, and who will give them charge of thee in thy way.
Children, Heb. sons; God gives them still the name of sons and children, he is not hasty to abdicate, to disinherit, and cast off.
To the children of Israel, now in the low estate of captives: the lessening name of Jacob had been too great, one might think; but God tells the prophet they were the children of Israel, that prince who wrestled with God, and prevailed, Hos 12:3-5. It is very likely they had some that feared and sought the God of Jacob, and did wrestle as he had done before them: it insinuateth some hope, however, that God would redeem them, Psa 25:22, would be good unto them, Psa 73:1; his dominion was over them, Psa 114:2, and they were a peculiar people, Psa 135:4,12.
To a rebellious nation, Heb. nations that are rebellious, very disobedient: as rebellion is the highest crime against the supreme magistrate, so were Israels sins against God. Hence some will have Ezekiel to be commissioned a prophet to denounce Gods judgments against the heathen, who are in Scripture called by the word here used. But though Ezekiel did prophesy against the nations, as against Egypt. Babylon, Gog, and Magog, yet here these nations in this third verse are the Jews, who were like the nations in their idolatry and manners; they had degenerated from their father Israel, and rebelled against Israels God. If the title
Israel be comfort to the best, the appellation given to the rest, they were a
rebellious nation, is terror and menace as well as rebuke to the worst, and God intimates they were what they accounted the Gentiles to be, polluted, profane, and hated of God.
That hath rebelled against me: this was implied in the former word, but thus expressly added to ascertain the charge, and to aggravate the crime of this people, who were from their fathers days to this very day rebelling against God. It was the glory of St. Paul, he served God with pure conscience; it is the shame of this nation, they have rebelled from their fathers.
They and their fathers have transgressed against me, even unto this very day; their fathers before them, and they with their fathers, and all successively; God was provoked at once with two generations of rebels, fathers who gave example, and children which took it.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
3. nationrather, “nations”;the word usually applied to the heathen or Gentiles;here to the Jews, as being altogether heathenized withidolatries. So in Isa 1:10,they are named “Sodom” and “Gomorrah.” They werenow become “Lo-ammi,” not the people of God (Ho1:9).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And he said unto me, son of man,…. Now follow his mission and commission, and an account of the persons to whom he was sent:
I send thee to the children of Israel; that were captives in Babylon, in Jehoiakim’s captivity; so Christ was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, Mt 15:24;
to a rebellious nation, that hath rebelled against me; or, “rebellious Gentiles”, u; not the nations of the earth, though Ezekiel did prophesy many things concerning them; but the Jews, the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin; or the twelve tribes of Israel, called Gentiles, because they joined with them in their idolatries; and, as Kimchi says, were divided in their evil works; some worshipping the gods of the Ammonites; and some the gods of the Moabites; and all guilty of rebellion and treason in so doing against the God of heaven:
they and their fathers have transgressed against me, [even] unto this very day; which is an aggravation of their rebellion; their fathers had sinned, and they had followed their ill examples, and had continued therein to that day; and as they, did to the times of Christ, when they were about to till up the measure of their iniquity, Mt 23:31.
u “ad gentes, rebelles”, Junius & Tremellius, Polanus, Starckius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The calling of the prophet begins with the Lord describing to Ezekiel the people to whom He is sending him, in order to make him acquainted with the difficulties of his vocation, and to encourage him for the discharge of the same. Eze 2:3 . And He said to me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to the rebels who have rebelled against me: they and their fathers have fallen away from me, even until this very day. Eze 2:4 . And the children are of hard face, and hardened heart. To them I send thee; and to them shalt thou speak: Thus says the Lord Jehovah. Eze 2:5 . And they – they may hear thee or fail (to do so); for they are a stiff-necked race – they shall experience that a prophet has been in their midst. Eze 2:6 . But thou, son of man, fear not before them, and be not afraid of their words, if thistles and thorns are found about thee, and thou sittest upon scorpions; fear not before their words, and tremble not before their face; for they are a stiff-necked race. Eze 2:7 . And speak my words to them, whether they may hear or fail (to do so); for they are stiff-necked. The children of Israel have become heathen, no longer a people of God, not even a heathen nation ( , Isa 1:4), but , “heathens,” that is, as being rebels against God. (with the article) is not to be joined as an adjective to , which is without the article, but is employed substantively in the form of an apposition. They have rebelled against God in this, that they, like their fathers, have separated themselves from Jehovah down to this day (as regards , see on Isa 1:2; and , as in the Pentateuch; cf. Lev 23:14; Gen 7:13; Gen 17:23, etc.). Like their fathers, the sons are rebellious, and, in addition, they are , of hard countenance” = , “of hard brow” (Eze 3:7), i.e., impudent, without hiding the face, or lowering the look for shame. This shamelessness springs from hardness of heart. To these hardened sinners Ezekiel is to announce the word of the Lord. Whether they hear it or not ( , sive-sive, as in Jos 24:15; Ecc 11:3; Ecc 12:14), they shall in any case experience that a prophet has been amongst them. That they will neglect to hear is very probable, because they are a stiff-necked race ( , “house” = family). The Vau before (Eze 2:5) introduces the apodosis. is perfect, not present. This is demanded by the usus loquendi and the connection of the thought. The meaning is not: they shall now from his testimony that a prophet is there; but they shall experience from the result, viz., when the word announced by him will have been fulfilled, that a prophet has been amongst them. Ezekiel, therefore, is not to be prevented by fear of them and their words from delivering a testimony against their sins. The , and , are not, with the older expositors, to be explained adjectively: “ rebelles et renuentes ,” but are substantives. As regards , the signification “thorn” is placed beyond doubt by in Eze 28:24, and in Aramaic does indeed denote “ refractarius;” but this signification is a derived one, and inappropriate here. is related to , “to burn, to singe,” and means “ urtica,” “stinging-nettle, thistle,” as Donasch in Raschi has already explained it. is, according to the later usage, for , expressing the “by and with of association,” and occurs frequently in Ezekiel. Thistles and thorns are emblems of dangerous, hostile men. The thought is strengthened by the words “to sit on ( for ) scorpions,” as these animals inflict a painful and dangerous wound. For the similitude of dangerous men to scorpions, cf. Sir. 26:10, and other proof passages in Bochart, Hierozoic. III. p. 551f., ed. Rosenmll.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
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EZEKIEL’S COMMISSION, v. 3-10
Verses 3-10:
Verse 3 sounds forth God’s call or mandate to Ezekiel. He was addressed as “Son of man,” by the true “Regent,” majestic one upon the throne of Eze 1:26-28. This Jehovah, who was to come, charged or mandated him to go to the children of Israel in their captivity in Chaldea in the very name of the Lord. They had gone so far into idolatry, before being carried away captive in their own land, that God called them a rebellious or willfully lawless nation, a nation that had willfully reveled against Him. They had become heathenized like Sodom and Gomorrah, Isa 1:10. This Jehovah spoke to Ezekiel, directly from his throne in glory, to Ezekiel’s ear, by the river of Chebar, in Chaldea. He charged that the fathers of Israel, once His obedient servants, had transgressed against Him and His holiness and goodness, even to that very day, as also described Isa 1:4. Israel had fallen morally, ethically, and religiously below the level of heathen nations, living in the slime pits of willful sin, Pro 29:1. They had become one “of the nations,” an heathen nation themselves, forsaken of the Lord, not His people any longer, as described Hos 1:9.
Verse 4 charges that they of Israel then existed as impudent, stiff hearted, stubborn, hard-faced, insolent children, Eze 3:7-9. To such the Lord said, “I send you or deputize you,” Ezekiel. He then advised Ezekiel to say directly to them “Thus saith the Lord God.” His message was not his own, but from Him who sat upon the glory-throne. So it is, always, with true prophets and witnesses for God, they bear messages of Him, to all men, Rev 19:10 b; Joh 15:16-17; Joh 15:26-27; Joh 20:21; Act 1:8-9; Mat 28:18-20.
Verse 5 then assures Ezekiel that whether they accept or do not accept this message, as a rebellious people, they would know, by the Spirit that empowered Ezekiel, that there had been a Divine prophet among them, Rom 2:1; Isa 55:10-11. They would not be in ignorance, Eze 33:33.
Verse 6 calls upon Ezekiel to avoid fear from this rebellious people of Israel or of any thing they may have to say. For “the fear of man bringeth a snare,” or entrapment, Pro 29:25; and “fear hath torments.” God’s prophets and witnesses are to be free from torments of fear, 1Jn 4:18; Rom 8:15. Though briers, thorns, and stinger scorpions were to be all about him, literally and figuratively, as he spoke for the Lord, Ezekiel was charged “not to be afraid of their words,” nor dismayed at their glaring, rebellious looks, though they were a rebellious people, Luk 12:4; 1Pe 3:14. They were to reject, not Ezekiel, but, Ezekiel’s God who sat enthroned in glory, overlooking His universe (chosen people in rebellion) and all men, Act 7:51-60.
Verse 7 continues a Divine charge to Ezekiel to speak the words of the Lord to His rebellious children of Israel, who had then become as heathen nations, v. 3; 2Ti 2:2. He was to keep on declaring the message, through all the land of Chaldea, whether the people obeyed or continued to rebel, 1Co 15:58; Gal 6:9. It must be faithfully carried, just as the farmer works on through sunshine and through clouds, knowing harvest will come, Psa 126:5-6.
Verse 8 calls upon Ezekiel as the “Son of man,” who received this commission, to avoid becoming discouraged and falling into rebellion with the very ones in whose environment he was to preach, Jos 1:6-9. He was called upon to eat or consume what God had given to him, as in Eze 8:3; 1Ti 4:15-16; Tit 1:9; Tit 2:7-8; Tit 2:11-15; Rev 10:9-10.
Verse 9 adds that when Ezekiel looked, or opened his eyes, a hand was sent, stretched out from the throne to him. In the hand was a scroll of a book for him to examine and preach to this rebellious people. In it was contained the message of God to a sin seared people, in whom God was yet interested, whom He loved, even in their rebellion, Rom 10:20-21; Isa 65:2.
Verse 10 explains that the hand of Him who spoke from the throne of majestic glory spread the scroll-back visibly before him, and it had written upon it words from the Lord, on both sides. Usually they were written on only one side. Three things were set forth therein: 1) Lamentations , 2) Mourning, and 3) Woe! These were to be sent upon them as fruits of Divine retribution for their sins, designed to bring them back to God, 2Ch 7:14-15; 1Jn 1:8-9. Men should esteem the words of the Lord of more value than their necessary food, Job 23:12.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
The Prophet now more clearly explains the object of the vision which he has formerly mentioned, namely, that being armed with authority he might more freely discharge the office of Prophet among the Israelites. For we know that God claims this honor to himself alone, that he should be head in his Church, and deservedly so, for he is not called our Lawgiver in vain, (Isa 33:22; Jas 4:12,) and our wisdom consists in nothing else but in attending to his instructions. Since, therefore, God alone is to be heard, every mortal, whatever he professes himself, must be rejected, unless he comes in the name of God, and can prove his calling, and really convince men that he does not speak except by God’s command. Therefore, that Ezekiel may not labor in vain, he ought to prove himself divinely inspired, and this was done by the vision. Now he more clearly explains that object of the vision. Here it may be remarked, that figures are illusory without an explanation. If the vision only had been offered to the eye of the Prophet, and no voice of God had followed, what would have been the advantage? But when God confirmed the vision by his word, the Prophet was enabled to say with advantage, I have seen the glory of God. And this can also be transferred to sacraments, because if signs only are presented to our eyes they will be, as it were, dead images. The word of God, then, throws life into the sacraments, as it has been said concerning visions.
Since Ezekiel so often uses this form of speech, saying, that he was called Son of man, I do not doubt that God wished to prevent the people from despising him as one of the common herd. For he had been dragged into exile not without ignominy: since then he differed from the generality in no outward appearance, his doctrine might be despised and rejected. God, therefore, takes him up, and, by way of concession, calls him Son of man. So, on the other hand, he signifies that the teaching ought not to be estimated by outward appearance, but rather by his calling. It is quite true, that his language was then more prolix, and we see how our Prophet differs from the rest. For his language has evidently a foreign tinge, since those who are in exile naturally contract many faults of language, and the Prophet was never anxious about elegance and polish, but, as he had been accustomed to homely language, so he spoke himself. But I have no doubt that God wished purposely to select a man from the multitude contemptible in outward appearance, and then to raise him above all mortals by dignifying him with the gift of prophecy.
We must now see how God prepares him for the discharge of his duties. I send thee, he says, to the children of Israel, a rebellious race, that is, disobedient and revolting. In this manner the Prophet was able to escape as soon as he saw the odious duty’ assigned to him, for its difficulty alone would frighten him. But a double trial is added when he saw himself engaged in a contest with numberless enemies. He challenged, as it were, to conflict all the Israelites of his day, and this was a most grievous trial. But another trial was, not only that he perceived himself beating the air, — to use a common proverb, rebut he must have felt it a profanation of heavenly doctrine to address it to impious men, and that too only for the purpose of exasperating them still further. We see, then, that the Prophet had no inducement of earthly gratification to urge him to undertake his duty. If God wished to use his agency, he ought to afford him some hope of success, or, at least, he ought to leave it sufficiently uncertain to urge him to make every effort. But when in the first instance this difficulty occurs, that he has to deal with a perverse and stubborn generation — next, that he is drawn into a hateful contest — thirdly, that he is advised to cast what is holy before dogs, and pearls before swine, and thus, as it were, to prostitute the word of God, surely his mind must despair a hundred times when he pondered these things within himself. Hence it was God’s plan to arm him with unconquerable constancy, so that he might go forward in the course of his calling.
We must bear in mind, then, this principle: when God wishes to stir us up to obedience, he does not always promise a happy result of our labor: but sometimes he so puts our obedience to the test, that he wishes us to be content with his command, even if our labor should be deemed ridiculous before men. Sometimes, indeed, he indulges our infirmity, and when he orders us to undertake any duty, he at the same time bears witness that our labor shall not be in vain, and our industry without its recompense: then indeed God spares us. But he sometimes proves his people as I have said, providing that whatever be the result of their labors, it is sufficient for them to obey his command. And from
passage we readily collect that our Prophet was thus dispirited. And we read the same of Isaiah; for when he is sent by God, he is not only told that he must speak to the deaf, but what God proposes to him is still harder. Go, says he, render the eyes of this people blind, and their ears dull, and their heart obstinate. (Isa 6:9.) Not only therefore does Isaiah see that he would be exposed to ridicule, and so lose the fruit of his labor, but he sees that his address has but one tendency, and that the blinding of the Jews: nay, even their threefold destruction — though even one destruction is enough: but, as I have already said, God sometimes so wishes his servants to acquiesce in his government, that they should labor even without any hope of fruit: and this must be diligently marked. For as often as we are called upon by God before we apply ourselves to our work, these thoughts come into the mind: “What will be the result of this?” and “What shall I obtain by my labor?” And, then, when the event does not turn out according to our wish, we despond in our minds: but this is wresting from God a part of his government. For although our labor should be in vain, yet it is sufficiently pleasing to God himself; therefore let us learn to leave the event in the hand of God when he enjoins anything upon us; and although the whole world should deride us, and despair itself should render us inactive, yet let us be of good cheer and strive to the utmost, because it ought to suffice us that our obedience is pleasing to God.
For this reason Paul says, (2Co 2:15,) that the gospel, although it is a savor of death unto death, is yet a sweet savor unto God. When it is said that the gospel brings death, our judgment might immediately suggest to us, that nothing is better than to leave it. Therefore Paul meets us, and says, we ought not to judge the gospel by its success. Although, therefore, men not only remain deaf, but even become worse, and rush headlong in fury against God, yet the gospel always retains its sweet savor before God. The doctrine of the Prophet is the same. Now, if any one objects that God acts cruelly while he so purposely blinds men, that those who are already sufficiently lost perish twice or thrice over, the answer is at hand — God offers his word indiscriminately to the good and bad, but it works by his Spirit in the elect, as I have already said; and as to the reprobate, the doctrine is useful, as it renders them without excuse. Next, that their obstinacy may be broken down — for since they refuse to yield willingly to God, it is necessary that they should yield when conquered — when, therefore, God sees the reprobate thus broken down, he strikes them with the hammer of his word. At length he takes away all excuse of ignorance, because being convicted of their own conscience, whether they will or not, they become their own judges, and their mouth is stopped. Although they do not cease their rebellion against God, yet they are subject to his judgment. Although, therefore, this may seem absurd, that God should send his Prophets to render the people blind, yet we must reverently submit to his counsel, even if the cause is unknown to us for a time. But, as I have said, we do understand, to a certain extent, why God thus strives with rebellious and obstinate men.
Now, therefore, since at the very beginning Ezekiel is informed of the result, it is scarcely doubtful that God wished to prepare him to descend to the discharge of his duty without yielding to any obstacles. For some who seem to be sufficiently ready to obey, yet when difficulties and obstacles occur, desist in the middle of their course, and many recede altogether; and some we see who have renounced their vocation, because they had conceived great and excessive hopes of success, but when the event does not answer their expectations, they think themselves discharged from duty, and even murmur against God, and reject the burden, or rather shake off what had been imposed upon them. Because, then, many retreat from the course they had undertaken, because they do not experience the success they had imagined, or had presumed upon in their minds, therefore before Ezekiel begins to speak, God sets before him trials of this kind, and informs him that he would have to deal with a rebellious people.
He says the children of Israel are a revolting nation; for מרד , mered, signifies to rebel or resist, and the noun “rebellious” is suitable enough. Therefore I send thee to the rebellions nations, because directly after follows the word מרדו, merdo, which means who have rebelled against me. We know that among the Jews this is a word of reproach; for they often call us גוימ , goim “Gentiles,” as if they called us “profane,” “rejected,” and altogether alienated from God. Lastly, this word goim means with them “pollution” and “abomination; ” we are to the Jews like dung, and the off-scouring of the world, because we are goim. And there is no doubt that this pride filled the minds of the people in the days of the Prophet; God therefore calls them unbelieving nations. I confess, indeed, that this is sometimes used in a good sense; but because the Scriptures more usually call foreigners goim who are not partakers of God’s covenant, hence it became a mark of disgrace and reproach among the Jews. It is scarcely doubtful, then, but that God wished to abolish the honorable title which he had assigned to them; for it was a holy nation and a priestly kingdom. When, therefore, God calls them goim, it is just as if he should say, that they were cut off from all that dignity in which they formerly excelled, and differed in nothing from the profane and re-jeered nations, as we have a similar description in Hosea. There the Prophet is ordered to take a harlot to wife. (Hos 1:0.) He says that he begat a son and a daughter, and that, he called the son לאעמי, lo-ammi that is, “not God people.” Then he called his daughter “not beloved.” By this vision the Prophet shows that the Jews were rejected, so that God no longer thinks of them as sons, but repels them as foreigners. So also in this place rejection is denoted, when the Prophet, as the mouth of God, calls them Gentiles. The plural number is used, that he may the better express the defection which oppressed the whole people. If a few only were such as this, the Prophet might still feel encouraged. But God here pronounced the severest sentence, because the whole people, taken both at large and separately, was rebellious; and this is the reason why the plural number is used.
Is ‘it then asked whether a single individual remained who would embrace the Prophet’s doctrine? The answer is easy. The discourse does not relate to individuals, but to the whole people; for the Prophets often use similar language, as when they call the Israelites degenerate and spurious, then sons of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the offspring of Canaan: they inveigh against the multitude promiscuously; for they had in fact a few disciples who could not be classed in that order. (Isa 1:10; Isa 8:16; Isa 57:3; Eze 16:3.) But we must hold what is said by Isa 8:0. — “Bind my testimony upon my disciples.” There the Prophet is ordered from above to address the faithful, of whom a small number remained, and so to address them as if the letter were folded and sealed. But he spreads abroad this discourse among the whole people. So also when God pronounces the sons of Israel to be rebellious nations, he looks to the body of the people; at the same time there is no doubt that God always preserved a seed to serve him, although hidden from man. Daniel was then in exile with his colleagues, and he surely was not a rebel against God; but as I have already said, enough has been brought forward to show that the whole people were impious. God says that he had previously tried what the people was — They have rebelled, he says, against me; by which words he signifies that he was not making an experiment as if they were previously unknown. He says that he had already found out their perverseness by many trials; and yet he says that he sends to them, because he wished, as I have already said, to render their ignorance perfectly excuseless, and then he wished to break down their contumacy, which was otherwise untameable.
He says, they and their fathers have behaved themselves treacherously against me even to this very day He does not extenuate their crime when he says, that they imitated the example of their fathers, but he rather increases their own impiety when he says they were not the beginners of it, but were born of impious parents, as if he should say, according to the vulgar proverb, “a chip of the old block.” (59) Hence it appears that there is no pretext for the error when we use the fathers as the Papists do, who oppose them as a shield to God; for whilst they have the fathers on their tongue, they esteem this a sufficient defense for every impiety. But we see that God not only reckons this as nothing, but that the crime of the children is exaggerated when they plead the evil example of their fathers as the cause of their own obstinacy. Now, not only does the Prophet desire to show this to be a frivolous excuse, if the Jews should object that they framed their life in imitation of their fathers, but as we see, it shows them doubly condemned, because they did not desist from provoking God at the beginning, and so by a continual succession, impiety and contempt of heavenly teaching prevailed through all ages, even to their own. Besides, this passage warns us against abusing the long-suffering of God; for when he sent his Prophet we see the purport of his doing so — the people was now on the brink of utter destruction, but God wished to plunge them deeper into the lowest abyss. Let us take care lest a similar punishment should be our lot if we remain obstinate. When, therefore, God sends some Prophets to one people, and some to another:, it ought to recall us to penitence, and to caution us, lest the word which is peculiarly destined to the salvation of men, should be to us a savor of death unto death, as it was to the ancient people. It follows —
(59) Calvin’s Latin is mala ova malorum corvorum — Tr.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
B. Ezekiel Warned 2:35
TRANSLATION
(3) And he said unto me, Son of man, I am sending you unto the children of Israel, unto rebellious nations who have rebelled against Me, and they and their fathers have transgressed against Me until this very day; (4) and the sons are hard of face and stout of heart. I am sending you unto them and you shall say unto them, Thus says the Lord GOD! (5) But as for them, whether they will hear or refuse (for they are a house of rebels), then they might know that a prophet is in their midst.
COMMENTS
In this paragraph God sets forth the difficulties which Ezekiel would confront in his ministry, the duty which would be his as Gods spokesman. He likewise seeks to encourage Ezekiel in the discharge of his ministry.
Ezekiel was to be Gods representative to the children of Israel. In earlier prophets the term Israel is used of the Northern Kingdom which was carried away captive in 722 B.C. The kingdom of Israel, as distinct from the kingdom of Judah, had long since ceased to exist by the time of Ezekiel. Thus Israel here is not the Northern Kingdom. The term is used two ways in the Book of Ezekiel. Sometimes Ezekiel employs the name Israel for all of the people who had joined in the covenant with God at Sinai. In other words, Israel is the entire Hebrew community of faith. On other occasions Ezekiel refers to the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem as Israel. After the destruction and. deportation of the Northern Kingdom of Israel the inhabitants of the Southern Kingdom claimed this honored title for themselves.
Ezekiels mission was ultimately to the whole contemporary generation of Israelites, both those who were in Judah and those who were in exile. To be sure his ministry had impact back in Judah, at least in the period between 593 and 587 B.C. But verse 11 indicates that his immediate audience was near at hand his fellow exiles. However, Ezekiel does not clearly distinguish between Israelites in Judah and those in Babylon. Often he seems to ignore the miles that separate the two groups.
The audience is described as rebellious nations who have rebelled against Me. The plural nations may be a reference to Israel and Judah.[107] However, the term nations (goyim) usually is restricted to the heathen peoples as over against Gods people. Perhaps the word is here used contemptuously. Israel and Judah have become, by virtue of their rebelliousness against God, no better than heathen nations. The plural also points to the fact that the children of Israel at this time are not one nation, but are scattered and disunited.
[107] Fisch (SBB, p. 9) thinks the two nations intended were the two tribes Judah and Benjamin who formed the Southern Kingdom after 931 B.C. In Gen. 35:11 Israels tribes are called nations.
In the word rebellious which recurs in the early chapters of the book there may be an allusion to the insane and suicidal rebellions which fool-hardy patriots were continually plotting. Nebuchadnezzar was the God-ordained ruler of the world, and to rebel against him was to be in rebellion against the will of God. Over a dozen times Ezekiel refers to his auditors as a rebellious house, lit., house of rebellion.
As God evaluated the history of His people, He saw little or nothing to commend. Four negative qualities had characterized Gods people through the years. They were rebellious, sinful, impudent, and stubborn.
The present generation had rebelled against the Lord. They had refused to adhere to strict monotheism. In their apostasy the present generation was but following the example of their fathers, for they too had transgressed against the Lord. This deplorable disobedience had continued to that very day (Eze. 2:3).
The sons, i.e., the present generation, are further described as being hard of face and stout of heart. The first phrase describes the brazenness of the hardened sinner who displays no shame, who has forgotten how to blush. The second phrase describes that stubborn, unyielding disposition which continues in the path of error in spite of repeated warnings and harsh chastisements.
Ezekiels mission field did not look promising! God wanted him to have no illusions about this work. There was little prospect for success. The important thing, however, was that Ezekiel was to preach only the word of God. His message was to be characterized by and punctuated with the phrase thus says the Lord God (Eze. 2:4). The Hebrew here is adonai YHWH, My Lord Yahweh. Ezekiel frequently makes use of the double term. In English versions when the word LORD or GOD is written in all caps it is an indication that the personal name of God Yahweh is being used.[108]
[108] The four letter personal name of God in the Old Testament was YHWH, For centuries this name was not pronounced on account of reverence for it. Readers would substitute the Hebrew adonai (Lord) for YHWH. When the Hebrew word adonai preceded the sacred name, they substituted elohim (God). By capitalization the English translations have alerted the modern student to the use of the personal name in the original.
Ezekiel was not required to be successful, only faithful. The important thing was that these people would come to realize that a prophet had been in their midst (Eze. 2:5). They would be forced to recognize Ezekiel as a true prophet when his predictions of calamity came upon them.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(3) I send thee to the children of Israel.Here properly begins the distinct commission of the prophet. After the captivity of the ten tribes, the two forming the kingdom of Judah, with such remnants of the others as had been induced by Hezekiah and others to cast in their lot with them, are constantly spoken of as Israel. (See Ezr. 2:2.) The continuity of the whole nation was considered as preserved in the remnant, and hence this same mode of expression passed into the New Testament. (See Act. 26:7.) It is only when there is especial occasion to distinguish between the two parts of the nation, as in Eze. 4:5-6, that the name of Israel is used in contrast with that of Judah.
A rebellious nation.Literally, as in the margin, rebellious nations, the word being the same as that commonly used distinctively for the heathen, so that the children of Israel are here spoken of as rebellious heathen. There could be no epithet which would carry home more forcibly to the mind of an Israelite the state of antagonism in which he had placed himself against his God. (Comp. the Lo-ammi of Hos. 1:9, and also the discourse of our Lord in Joh. 8:39.) Yet still, the God from whom they had turned aside was even now sending to them His prophet, and seeking to win them back to His love and obedience, in true correspondence to the vision of the bow in the cloud about the majesty on high.
The following verses enlarge, with a variety of epithets and repetitions, upon the hard-heartedness and perverseness of the people. This had always been the character of the Israelites from the time of Moses (see Exo. 32:9; Exo. 33:3; Exo. 33:5, &c), and continued to be to the end (see Act. 7:51); so entirely without ground is the allegation that they were chosen as a people peculiarly inclined to the right. It is to such a people that Ezekiel is to be sent, and he needed to be prepared and encouraged for his work.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
3. I send thee Only a man can speak to men. Only one who is a child of man can sympathize enough with the woes of humanity to act as God’s messenger to them.
To a rebellious nation Literally, nations; LXX., rebellious ones. Here each tribe or division of the people seems to be counted as a nation, for evidently the expression refers to the children of Israel and Judah. Ezekiel did have a message for the heathen, but this is not referred to here.
They and their fathers have transgressed Disobedience is inbred and has been long continued. There must be a taint in the blood. This heredity is not an excuse, but an explanation of the faithlessness and guilty conduct of the present generation. (Compare Eze 16:23.)
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And he said to me, “Son of man, I am sending you to the children of Israel, to nations who are rebellious, who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me, even to this very day. And the children are impudent and stiff-hearted.”
Ezekiel learned that he was being sent to ‘the children of Israel’. While this initially meant to the people of Judah, a now conglomerate people who included people from all the tribes of Israel, Ezekiel was to see his message as wider, as to all the children of Israel. The use of the plural ‘nations’, usually used of the world of nations outside Israel, is probably significant in that Israel and Judah are now seen as ‘nations’ among the nations. Because of their rebellion they have been turned out of the land and have become as the heathen. His message was to be for both Israel and Judah, although initially limited to the exiles in Tel-Abib. This included those carried away to Assyria and to the cities of the Medes (2Ki 17:6; 2Ki 18:11). God still had a message for them, and for all those who were once His people.
Notice the charge, they were in rebellion. Not to obey God and His commandments is not only to be a sinner, but also to be a rebel. It is high treason. And that rebellion had been continual and was still true of them where they were, ‘even to this very day’. They had still not learned their lesson. Indeed they were ‘impudent and stiff-hearted’ (literally ‘hard of face and firm of heart’). They turned a hard face to the pleas of Yahweh, and their hearts firmly resisted Him. It is amazing how men can claim to worship God and yet be impervious to His demands. Many of us do the same.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Observe the characters to whom the Prophet is sent. The house of Israel. So the Lord Jesus declared. Mat 15:24 . But then observe, Israel included the whole Church of Christ. Nor so the Holy Ghost, in after ages, taught by Paul. If ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise, Gal 3:29 . And so God the Father before had declared: Isa 49:6 ; Joh 17:2 . Observe farther, the character of Israel, stiff-necked, rebellious, impudent children. But still children. Never lose sight of this neither. Though as the Prophet saith, they were all this and more, and had a whore’s forehead, Jer 3:3 . yet were never they otherwise than children. Rebellious children, but not rebels. The Holy Ghost makes a nice distinction in the two terms all over the Bible. And I believe, that the Lord hath never once called his children rebels! yea, the Lord appears to have been angry with Moses for calling them so. Num 20:10 . But the Lord expressly called those rebels among them, which were not in the Covenant. For all are not Israel which are of Israel. Neither because they are the seed of Abraham, (for such were the children of the bond-maid Hagar and of Keturah,) are they all children, that is, children of promise. Rom 9:6-7 . If the Reader wishes a clear apprehension of this subject, (and it is a blessed subject to the Church of the living God,) let him see if he can find in all the Bible a child of God called a rebel. But on the contrary, he will find the reprobate expressly called by this name. Hence in the instance of Korah and his company, so are they called. Num 17:10 . Again in Eze 20:38 the Lord saith, he will purge out from among his people the rebels. But when at anytime, as in this Chapter, the Lord speaks of his children, his chosen, he calls them still children, though rebellious children: and pronounceth a woe upon them, (that is, great sorrow of heart, when recovered by grace to a sense of sin), but not everlasting woe for their rebellion. See Isa 30:8-9Isa 30:8-9 ; Isa 65:2 ; Psa 78:8 . And that this woe is only meant temporary, the Lord speaks of those rebellious children, which he had before described, that he waited to be gracious to them. Isa 30:18 . See Eze 20:29-37 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Eze 2:3 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.
Ver. 3. I send thee to the children of Israel. ] So they will needs call themselves. But what saith God in Mic 2:7 ? “O thou that art named the house of Jacob, is the Spirit of the Lord straitened? are these his doings?” See Trapp on “ Mic 2:7 “
To a rebellious nation.
They and their fathers have transgressed against me.
Even unto this very day.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
I send = I am sending.
children sons.
rebellious. rebelled = revolting (against lawful authority), contumacious. Hebrew. marad. Not the same word as in verses: Eze 2:5, Eze 2:6, Eze 2:7, Eze 5:8. Occurs again in Eze 17:15; Eze 20:38.
nation = nations (plural of Majesty) – the whole nation, Israel and Judah. Hence, the great rebellious nation like the heathen.
transgressed = revolted. Hebrew. pasha’. App-44.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
I send: Eze 3:4-8, 2Ch 36:15, 2Ch 36:16, Isa 6:8-10, Jer 1:7, Jer 7:2, Jer 25:3-7, Jer 26:2-6, Jer 36:2, Mar 12:2-5, Luk 24:47, Luk 24:48, Joh 20:21, Joh 20:22, Rom 10:15
a rebellious nation: Heb. rebellious nations, Eze 16:1-63, Eze 20:1-49, Eze 23:1-49
rebelled: Eze 20:18-30, Num 20:10, Num 32:13, Num 32:14, Deu 9:24, Deu 9:27, 1Sa 8:7, 1Sa 8:8, 2Ki 17:17-20, Ezr 9:7, Neh 9:16-18, Neh 9:26, Neh 9:33-35, Psa 106:16-21, Psa 106:28, Psa 106:32-40, Jer 3:25, Jer 16:11, Jer 16:12, Jer 44:21, Dan 9:5-13, Act 7:51
Reciprocal: Psa 78:8 – as their Psa 79:8 – former iniquities Isa 30:1 – the rebellious Isa 58:1 – spare Isa 63:10 – they rebelled Isa 65:2 – a rebellious Jer 4:17 – because Jer 7:25 – the day Jer 36:6 – and read Eze 2:1 – Son Eze 3:1 – go Eze 3:26 – for Eze 12:2 – thou Eze 24:3 – the rebellious Amo 7:15 – Go Luk 10:3 – I send
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
A PROPHETS CALL
Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel.
Eze 2:3
Ezekiels call did not break in, as it were, upon the quiet routine of an untroubled life, but was the crisis of a long preparation, a Divine intervention, at the moment when it was most needed to hinder the man to whom it came from sinking utterly in the depths of his sorrow and despair, adapted in all its circumstances and details to the antecedent conditions of his soul.
I. Ezekiel fell prostrate on the ground, as in adoring awe before the marvellous theophany.He is raised from that prostration partly by a voice that speaks to him, partly by the consciousness of a new spiritual power and presence within him. And the voice calls him by a name which, one might almost say, was identified with Ezekiel till it was identified yet more closely with the Christ. For him, the chief thought conveyed by that name of the son of man was, as in Psa 8:4; Psa 144:3, the thought of the littleness of his human nature. That thought was, it is true, associated even in those very psalms with that of mans greatness as supreme, in the natural constitution and order of the world, over the creation, animate and inanimate, in the midst of which he finds himself; but as yet it had not been connected, as it was a few years afterwards, in Daniels vision, with the exaltation of One Who, though like unto a son of man, was brought with clouds of glory to sit on the right hand of the Ancient of Days (Dan 7:13). For Ezekiel the name son of man simply bore its witness that he stood on the same level with the weakest and meanest of those to whom he spoke, that it was a marvel and a mystery that such an one as he should be called to the office of a prophet of Jehovah.
II. As with other prophets, the mission to which he was thus called was no light or easy task.He was sent to a rebellious house, impudent children and stiff-hearted. His life among them was to be as that of one who dwells among scorpions, and with whom are briers and thorns. There was but little prospect of their listening to him, but he was to do his work regardless of praise or blame, whether they would hear, or forbear hearing. And as in the symbolic language of his contemporary Jeremiah, he was to make the message which it was given him to utter his own, by incorporating it with his very life of life; he was to eat that which was given him, and a hand was sent unto him, and in the hand there was as the roll of a booknot perhaps without a reminiscence of the volume that had been found in the Temple in the days of Josiah (2Ch 34:14), or Jeremiahs roll under Jehoiakim (Jer 36:4; Jer 36:32). A glance at it showed its nature. It was written on both sides, within and without, and from first to last it seemed as if there were no word of hope or promise, nothing but lamentations, and mourning, and woe. But it does not lie with a true prophet to choose his message. His work is to eat what he finds, and so in simple obedience Ezekiel does as he was told to do.
III. Then there came, as in an acted parable, one of the strange paradoxes of a prophets work.The book so full of woe that it might have been expected to find its analogue in the bitterness of gall and wormwood, which were found to be in his mouth as honey for sweetness. In part, as we have already seen, he was echoing the language, and repeating the experience of Jeremiah (Jer 15:16). In part he was reproducing what had been said by the writer of the nineteenth Psalm of the judgments of Jehovah, More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Underlying all three utterances, there was the truth to which the spiritual experience of the ages adds an ever-clearer testimony, that there is an ineffable sweetness and joy in that sense of being in communion and fellowship with God which is the groundwork of a prophets calling.
Dear Plumptre.
Illustrations
(1) 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.
(2) 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).
(3) 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.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Eze 2:3. To avoid confusion I shall again explain that Ezekiel was in Babylon, having been carried there with the bulk of the people of Judah at the overthrow of Jehoiachin. Hence many of the predictions of the captiv-ity had been fulfilled, while others were still to come since the 3rd captivity” in the 11th year of Zedekiah was yet pending. Another thing, God wished the captivity to work certain reforms in the lives of His people, and hence they were to be offered many admonitions and warnings. The Lord did not wish Ezekiel to be discouraged if his admonitions were rejected in most instances and therefore he told him that the people to whom he was sending him were a rebellious nation.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Eze 2:3-5. I send thee to the children of Israel God had for many ages been sending to them his servants the prophets, but to little purpose: they were now sent into captivity for abusing Gods messengers; and yet even there God raises up and sends a prophet among them, to try if their ears were open to receive instruction, now they were holden in the cords of affliction. To a rebellious nation Hebrew, , nations, the prophets commission extending to the dispersed Israelites, as well as the captive Jews, as also to the Jews still in Judea, to whom most of his predictions and reproofs related, and whom his writings would reach, in the order of Divine Providence. They and their fathers have transgressed against me From age to age they had rebelled against him, and were now as much inclined to do so as ever. They are impudent children, and stiff-hearted The Hebrew, , may be more significantly rendered, They are children impudent in their countenance, and hardened in their hearts. They are so far hardened in their wickedness as to have cast off all shame, and even the very outward show of modesty. And whether they will hear, &c. Whether they will regard what is said by thee or not, they shall know that there hath been a prophet, &c. They that obey shall know by the good I will do them; those that will not, by the evil which I will bring upon them. So that the event, answering to thy predictions, shall render thy authority unquestionable, and them inexcusable for not hearkening to the warnings thou hast given them.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Lord explained that He was sending Ezekiel to the Israelites who were rebellious and had rebelled against Him. The current generation and their forefathers had transgressed against the Lord to the present day by violating the Mosaic Covenant. The history of Israel had been "one unbroken apostasy." [Note: C. H. Toy, The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, p. 97.]
"The word ’rebellious’ can be understood as the key to the attitude of Israel throughout the book." [Note: Feinberg, p. 23.]
"Though the technical language of covenant is sparse in Ezekiel, the notion of covenant is everywhere presupposed." [Note: Merrill, p. 369.]