Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 33:1
Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
1 6. The illustration duty of the watchman in war.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Again – And. For Ezek. 33:1-20, compare Ezek. 18 notes.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
CHAPTER XXXIII
The prophet, after having addressed several other nations,
returns now to his own; previously to which he is told, as on a
former occasion, the duty of a watchman, the salvation or ruin
of whose soul depends on the manner in which he discharges it.
An awful passage indeed; full of important instruction both to
such as speak, and to such as hear, the word of God, 1-9.
The prophet is then directed what answer to make to the cavils
of infidelity and impiety; and to vindicate the equity of the
Divine government by declaring the general terms of acceptance
with God to be (as told before, Ezek 18:3; Ezek 18:4 c.,)
without respect of persons so that the ruin of the finally
impenitent must be entirely owing to themselves, 10-20.
The prophet receives the news of the destruction of Jerusalem
by the Chaldeans, about a year and four months after it
happened, according to the opinion of some, who have been led
to this conjecture by the date given to this prophecy in the
twenty-first verse, as it stands in our common Version: but
some of the manuscripts of this prophet consulted by Dr.
Kennicott have in this place the ELEVENTH year, which is
probably the genuine reading. To check the vain confidence of
those who expected to hold out by possessing themselves of its
other fastnesses, the utter desolation of all Judea is
foretold, 21-29.
Ezekiel is informed that among those that attended his
instructions were a great number of hypocrites, against whom he
delivers a most awful message. When the Lord is destroying
these hypocrites, then shall they know that there hath been a
prophet among them, 30-33.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXXIII
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Again the word of the Lord came unto me,…. After the delivery of various prophecies concerning the ruin of other nations, the Ammonites, Tyrians, and Egyptians, a fresh prophecy comes from the Lord concerning the Jews:
saying; as follows:
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Calling of the Prophet for the Future – Ezekiel 33:1-20
The prophet’s office of watchman. Eze 33:1. And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Eze 33:2. Son of man, speak to the sons of thy people, and say to them, When I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from their company and set him for a watchman, Eze 33:3. And he seeth the sword come upon the land, and bloweth the trumpet, and warneth the people; Eze 33:4. If, then, one should hear the blast of the trumpet and not take warning, so that the sword should come and take him away, his blood would come upon his own head. Eze 33:5. He heard the blast of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood will come upon him: whereas, if he had taken warning, he would have delivered his soul. Eze 33:6. But if the watchman seeth the sword come, and bloweth not the trumpet, and the people is not warned; and the sword should come and take away a soul from them, he is taken away through his guilt; but his blood will I demand from the watchman’s hand. Eze 33:7. Thou, then, son of man, I have set thee for the watchman to the house of Israel; thou shalt hear the word from my mouth, and warn them for me. Eze 33:8. If I say to the sinner, Sinner, thou wilt die the death; and thou speakest not to warn the sinner from his way, he, the sinner, will die for his iniquity, and his blood I will demand from thy hand. Eze 33:9. But if thou hast warned the sinner from his way, to turn from it, and he does not turn from his way, he will die for his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul. – Eze 33:7-9, with the exception of slight deviations which have little influence upon the sense, are repeated verbatim from Eze 3:17-19. The repetition of the duty binding upon the prophet, and of the responsibility connected therewith, is introduced, however, in Eze 33:2-6, by an example taken from life, and made so plain that every one who heard the words must see that Ezekiel was obliged to call the attention of the people to the judgment awaiting them, and to warn them of the threatening danger, and that this obligation rested upon him still. In this respect the expansion, which is wanting in Ezekiel 3, serves to connect the following prophecies of Ezekiel with the threats of judgment contained in the first part. The meaning of it is the following: As it is the duty of the appointed watchman of a land to announce to the people the approach of the enemy, and if he fail to do this he is deserving of death; so Ezekiel also, as the watchman of Israel appointed by God, not only is bound to warn the people of the approaching judgment, in order to fulfil his duty, but has already warned them of it, so that whoever has not taken warning has been overtaken by the sword because of his sin. As, then, Ezekiel has only discharged his duty and obligation by so doing, so has he the same duty still further to perform. – In Eze 33:2 is placed at the head in an absolute form; and ‘ , “if I bring the sword upon a land,” is to be understood with this restriction: “so that the enemy is on the way and an attack may be expected” (Hitzig). , from the end of the people of the land, i.e., one taken from the whole body of the people, as in Gen 47:2 (see the comm. on Gen 19:4). Blowing the trumpet is a signal of alarm on the approach of an enemy (compare Amo 3:6; Jer 4:5). in Eze 33:5 is a participle; on the other hand, both before and afterwards it is a perfect, pointed with Kametz on account of the tone. For Eze 33:7-9, see the exposition of Eze 3:17-19.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Watchman’s Office; The Prophet a Watchman to Israel. | B. C. 587. |
1 Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 2 Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman: 3 If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people; 4 Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. 5 He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul. 6 But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand. 7 So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me. 8 When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. 9 Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.
The prophet had been, by express order from God, taken off from prophesying to the Jews, just then when the news came that Jerusalem was invested, and close siege laid to it, ch. xxiv. 27. But now that Jerusalem is taken, two years after, he is appointed again to direct his speech to them; and there his commission is renewed. If God had abandoned them quite, he would not have sent prophets to them; nor, if he had not had mercy in store for them, would he have shown them such things as these. In these verses we have,
I. The office of a watchman laid down, the trust reposed in him, the charge given him, and the conditions adjusted between him and those that employ him, Eze 33:2; Eze 33:6. 1. It is supposed to be a public danger that gives occasion for the appointing of a watchman–when God brings the sword upon a land, v. 2. The sword of war, whenever it comes upon a land, is of God’s bringing; it is the sword of the Lord, of his justice, how unjustly soever men draw it. At such a time, when a country is in fear of a foreign invasion, that they may be informed of all the motions of the enemy, may not be surprised with an attack, but may have early notice of it, in order to their being at their arms and in readiness to give the invader a warm reception, they set a man of their coast, some likely person, that lives upon the borders of their country, where the threatened danger is expected, and is therefore well acquainted with all the avenues of it, and make him their watchman. Thus wise are the children of this world in their generation. Note, One man may be of public service to a whole country. Princes and statesmen are the watchmen of a kingdom; they are continually to employ themselves, and, if occasion be, as watchmen, to expose themselves for the public safety. 2. It is supposed to be a public trust that is lodged in the watchman and that he is accountable to the public for the discharge of it. His business is, (1.) To discover the approaches and advances of the enemy; and therefore he must not be blind nor asleep, for then he cannot see the sword coming. (2.) To give notice of them immediately by sound of trumpet, or, as sentinels among us, by the discharge of a gun, as a signal of danger. A special trust and confidence is reposed in him by those that set him to be their watchman that he will faithfully do these two things; and they venture their lives upon his fidelity. Now, [1.] If he do his part, if he be betimes aware of all the dangers that fall within his cognizance, and give warning of them, he has discharged his trust, and has not only delivered his soul, but earned his wages. If the people do not take warning, if they either will not believe the notice he gives them, will not believe the danger to be so great or so near as really it is, or will not regard it, and so are surprised by the enemy in their security, it is their own fault; the blame is not to be laid upon the watchman, but their blood is upon their own head. If any person goes presumptuously into the mouth of danger, though he heard the sound of the trumpet, and was told by it where the danger was, and so the sword comes and takes him away in his folly, he is felo de se–a suicide; foolish man, he has destroyed himself. But, [2.] If the watchman do not do his duty, if he might have seen the danger, and did not, but was asleep, or heedless, or looking another way, or if he did see the danger (for so the case is put here) and shifted only for his own safety, and blew not the trumpet to warn the people, so that some are surprised and cut off in their iniquity (v. 6), cut off suddenly, without having time to cry, Lord, have mercy upon me, time to repent and make their peace with God (which makes the matter much the worse, that the poor creature is taken away in his iniquity), his blood shall be required at the watchman’s hand; he shall be found guilty of his death, because he did not give him warning of his danger. But if the watchman do his part, and the people do theirs, all is well; both he that gives warning and he that takes warning have delivered their souls.
II. The application of this to the prophet, Eze 33:7; Eze 33:9.
1. He is a watchman to the house of Israel. He had occasionally given warning to the nations about, but to the house of Israel he was a watchman by office, for they were the children of the prophets and the covenant They did not set him for a watchman, as the people of the land, v. 2 (for they were not so wise for their souls as to secure the welfare of them, as they would have been for the protection of their temporal interests); but God did it for them; he appointed them a watchman.
2. His business as a watchman is to give warning to sinners of their misery and danger by reason of sin. This is the word he must hear from God’s mouth and speak to them. (1.) God has said, The wicked man shall surely die; he shall be miserable. Unless he repent, he shall be cut off from God and all comfort and hope in him, shall be cut off from all good. He shall fall and lie for ever under the wrath of God, which is the death of the soul, as his favour is its life. The righteous God has said it, and will never unsay it, nor can all the world gainsay it, that the wages of sin is death. Sin, when it is finished, brings froth death. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven, not only against wicked nations, speaking ruin to them as nations, but against wicked persons, speaking ruin to them in their personal capacity, their personal interests, which pass into the other world and last to eternity, as national interests do not. (2.) It is the will of God that the wicked man should be warned of this: Warn them from me. This intimates that there is a possibility of preventing it, else it were a jest to give warning of it; nay, and that God is desirous it should be prevented. Sinners are therefore warned of the wrath to come, that they may flee from it, Matt. iii. 7. (3.) It is the work of ministers to give him warning, to say to the wicked, It shall be ill with thee, Isa. iii. 11. God ways in general, The soul that sinneth it shall die. The minister’s business is to apply this to particular persons, and to say, “O wicked man! thou shalt surely die, whoever thou art; if thou go on still in thy trespasses, they will inevitably be thy ruin. O adulterer! O robber! O drunkard! O swearer! O sabbath-breaker! thou shalt surely die.” And he must say this, not in passion, to provoke the sinner, but in compassion, to warn the wicked from hi way, warn him to turn from it, that he may live. This is to be done by the faithful preaching of the word in public, and by personal application to those whose sins are open.
3. If souls perish through his neglect of his duty, he brings guilt upon himself. “If the prophet do not warn the wicked of the ruin that is at the end of his wicked way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; for, though the watchman did not do his part, yet the sinner might have taken warning from the written word, from his own conscience, and from God’s judgments upon others, by which his mouth shall be stopped, and God will be justified in his destruction.” Note, It will not serve impenitent sinners to plead in the great day that their watchmen did not give them warning, that they were careless and unfaithful; for, though they were so, it will be made to appear that God left not himself without witness. “But he shall not perish alone in his iniquity; the watchman also shall be called to an account: His blood will I require at thy hand. The blind leader shall fall with the blind follower into the ditch.” See what a desire God has of the salvation of sinners, in that he resents it so ill if those concerned do not what they can to prevent their destruction. And see what a great deal those ministers have to answer for another day who palliate sin, and flatter sinners in their evil way, and by their wicked lives countenance and harden them in their wickedness, and encourage them to believe that they shall have peace though they go on.
4. If he do his duty, he may take the comfort of it, though he do not see the success of it (v. 9): “If thou warn the wicked of his way, if thou tell him faithfully what will be the end thereof, and call him earnestly to turn from it, and he do not turn, but persist in it, he shall die in his iniquity, and the fair warning given him will be an aggravation of his sin and ruin; but thou hast delivered thy soul.” Note, It is a comfort to ministers that they may through grace save themselves, though they cannot be instrumental to save so many as they wish of those that hear them.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
EZEKIEL – CHAPTER 33
ETHICAL CHARGES TO JEWS IN CAPTIVITY
Verses 1-20:
Verses 1, 2 call upon Ezekiel to speak to his own people, Israel, “the word of the Lord,” message from the Lord, advising them that when the Lord should bring the sword upon the land, they should take a person of their own, their own native people and set him to be a watchman, sentinel, or guardian for the land, Isa 21:8; Eze 3:11. Heretofore God’s message by Ezekiel had been judgment threatening. Hereafter they are more conciliatory. Heretofore Ezekiel was forbidden to address his own people from ch. 24-27; He had prophesied against the nations. He now turns to charge and comfort Israel and Judah. They were to choose their watchman with caution, laying their hands on no man suddenly, 1Ti 5:11.
Verse 3 indicates that the watchman is to be on guard for the enemy, the sword-bearer from the invader. At the sight of the enemy sword-bearer, he was to “sound the trumpet,” the call to battle, and warn the people, for the security or protection of their lives and property, Joshua ch. 6.
Verse 4 asserts that the watchman, having faithfully alerted the people of invading danger, has thereby done his duty. If any person disregards his warning and is slain or taken captive, the watchman can not be blamed or held accountable, Lev 24:14; Mat 27:25. The issue is: Do men heed the trumpet, sounded by God’s appointed watchman? If not, they are responsible for their own destruction, Lev 1:4; Lev 20:9; Lev 20:11; 2Sa 1:16; 1Ki 18:13; Act 18:6; Act 20:26; Pro 1:25-29; Pro 29:1.
Verse 5 charges that the one who did not take heed, is without excuse, for the loss of all that he has, Rom 2:1; Rom 14:11-12. The one who obeys the trumpet call is said to deliver or be able to have his life saved, preserved or liberated, Joh 7:17.
Verse 6 warns that if the watchman is unfaithful in his trust, sees the sword-coming danger, and does not sound the trumpet, warning the people, and any person die without the warning, his blood will be required at the hand or life of the watchman who shall be put to death, for having slain the innocent by his silence, Gen 9:6; Isa 56:10. Israel, having failed her national responsibility, is now approached, from the point of personal, witnessing accountability, Rom 14:11-12.
Verse 7 makes the application of the lesson. Israel was set as a guardian to the nations against idolatry, and become subjects of Divine judgment, when she did not protest their idolatry, but condoned it, then embraced it. To warn of such, Ezekiel asserted that the Lord had set him to be a spiritual watchman; His trusteeship, appointment as a sentinel over Israel, was from God, not the people of the land, Eze 3:17; Hab 2:1.
Verse 8 continues God’s charge to Ezekiel, regarding, the message of warning he was to deliver to the wicked of Israel, and his personal accountability to God, Gen 2:17; Isa 3:11; Pro 8:36; Pro 11:21.
Verse 9 gives the alternative. If Ezekiel warns the wicked, and he does not turn or repent, his blood will be upon his own head, without excuse. But Ezekiel, having sounded out the sentinel message faithfully, delivers himself from any Divine chastening in the matter, Pro 29:1; Luk 12:47; Act 13:46; Heb 2:3; Heb 12:25.
Verse 10 calls upon Ezekiel to inform the people of Israel that if their iniquities remain upon them, they remain in impenitence toward God, though they mourn in self pity, how would they expect to go on living, under the hand of both an holy and just living God, Eze 24:23; Eze 37:11; Isa 49:14; Lev 26:39; Pro 1:25-29.
Verse 11 directs Ezekiel to advise all in Israel that God holds or finds no pleasure in the death of the wicked, the obstinate, impenitent, and unbelieving, but wills that all the wicked, and each wicked one personally repent, turn away from his evil, unbelieving, impenitent course of life and live. He beckons that all turn to Him, asking “why will ye die?” 2Sa 14:14; Lam 3:33; Hos 11:8; Dan 9:13; Hos 14:1; Act 3:19; Act 26:20.
Verse 12 discloses that Divine judgment, even to death, may fall upon a righteous man who turns to willful, impenitent disobedience, even as Annanias and Sapphira, and some at Corinth did, Act 5:3-11; 1Co 11:29-32. Yet, when the wicked repented, and turned to God by faith, among all the people of Israel, each could be, and was, pardoned and saved, or delivered from eternal death, 2Ch 7:14; Isa 55:6-7. The idea is that being saved did not keep a believer from capital punishment, under the law, or wickedness repented of, no longer kept a wicked man from going to heaven.
Verse 13 further explains that when a righteous man (one saved) is assured he shall surely live, live forever, with eternal life, such would not guarantee him immunity from punishment, from the death penalty of the Mosaic law. This is what is also affirmed “the soul (individual) that sinneth, it shall die,” each for his own sins, Eze 18:4-5. To trust in one’s own righteousness, and turn to iniquity, will bring just civil punishment upon the law-breaker, even to death, is the idea, Eze 3:10; Eze 18:24; Luk 18:9.
Verses 14, 15 continue a description of God’s judgment and mercies extended, based on man’s personal choice and actions, regarding deeds of right and wrong, under the law of Israel. When one had done wrong, stolen a pledged thing, or robbed a person, if he restored the pledge stolen thing, then walked in upright moral and ethical ways, he was to be pardoned from the death penalty for theft, as provided by the just and holy law, as set forth Exo 22:5; Eze 20:11; Mat 19:17; 1Co 15:58.
Verse 16 asserts that when the thief and robber had made restitution for his wrong, and given evidence of a reformed course of behavior, none of his former sins should be legally held against him, and any occasion of death would be abrogated, Eze 18:22; Lev 18:5; Luk 19:8.
Verse 17 declares that some in Israel yet claimed that the ways of the Lord were not equal or impartial. They sat in judgment against God, and pronounced Him to be unjust in His ways; Irony of ironies, Isa 55:8-9.
Verses 18,19 restate the principle of capital punishment, to which the righteous are not immune from its penalty of death, when he deliberately turns and commits a capital crime, Gen 9:6. It further states that the wicked who repents of and turns from his sins shall surely live, referring not to capital crimes, but to salvation from eternal death, Isa 55:6-7; Joh 6:37.
Verse 20 chides the “would be wise” captives of Israel for their setting in judgment, to indict God with unfair administration of His laws of holiness, mercy, and judgment-justice, as in Eze 18:25. See also Job 32:2; Job 34:5; Job 34:10; Mal 2:17; Mal 3:14. See also Gen 18:25; Deu 32:2; Deu 34:4; Psa 50:6; Rom 2:5-6; Psa 145:17; Jer 12:1; Zep 3:5.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
EZEKIELS COMMISSION RENEWED (Chap. 33)
EXEGETICAL NOTES.Eze. 33:2. Speak to the children of thy people. The prophet turns from foreign nations to Israel again. The early portion of the chapter (Eze. 33:2-20) seems to have been imparted to Ezekiel on the evening previous to the arrival of the news of the downfall of Jerusalem (Eze. 33:22), and was a preparation for the latter part (Eze. 33:23-33) imparted after the messenger had come. This accounts for the former part standing without date, which was properly reserved for the latter part. If the people of the land take a man of their coasts and set him for their watchman. The men were themselves to appoint the watchman, whence, in case they did not give heed to him, they withstood and strove against themselves, and so should be more convicted of their guilt and folly.Lange.
Eze. 33:3. If when he seeth the sword comeinvaders. An appropriate illustration at the time of the invasion of Judea by Nebuchadnezzar.He blow the trumpeta horn, with clear resounding tone (Joshua 6).
Eze. 33:4. His blood shall be upon his own head. He will be to blame for his own fall. The head is named from the custom of carrying on the head. Blood often stands for blood-guilt.Hengstenberg. According to others, the image is derived from sacrifice, in which the offerer transferred his guilt to his victim by laying his hand on the victims head (Lev. 1:4; Lev. 24:14; Mat. 27:25).
Eze. 33:5. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul. The alone self-guiltiness of the individual is here made still more manifest.
Eze. 33:6. He is taken away in his iniquity. Mishap befalls no one undeserved, even if under the circumstances he might have been delivered. But the unfaithful watchman is punished for his neglect.Hengstenberg.
Eze. 33:7. I have set thee a watchman. The I is emphatic. Ezekiels appointment to be a watchman spiritually is far more solemn, as it is derived from God, not from the people. The lesson is, that the relation between the prophet (and in general the servant of God in His kingdom) and the people is one full of responsibility. Thou shalt hear the word at My mouth and warn them from Me. Safety therefore demanded that the prophet have free speech. That God should have given them a true seer in their midst was a sure proof of His favour, which might well keep off despair. Jehovah would fain save the wicked, and threatens wrath through His prophet only that every one may take heed and reform.Geikie.
Eze. 33:11. I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. To meet the Jews cry of despair in Eze. 33:10 Ezekiel here cheers them by the assurance that God has no pleasure in their death, but that they should repentand live (2Pe. 3:9). A yearning tenderness manifests itself here, notwithstanding all their past sins; yet with it a holiness that abates nothing of its demands for the honour of Gods authority.Fausset.
Eze. 33:12. The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression. Self-righteousness, ever disposed to justify itself, had adopted among the exiles a comfortable theory that they were punished for the sins of their forefathers rather than for their own. Ezekiel again exposes this deception, as he had done before (chap. Eze. 3:20; Eze. 18:24; Eze. 18:26-27).Geikie. The heart that in distress misunderstands its God will not tread the path of repentance, which determines the return of salvation; and man is quite prone to mitigate his guilt and to think that God has dealt too hardly with him.Hengstenberg.
Eze. 33:21. In the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth montha year and a half after the capture of the city (Jer. 39:2; Jer. 51:5-6), which took place in the eleventh year and fourth month. The one who escaped may have been so long on the road through fear of entering the enemys country (Henderson); or, the singular is used for the plural in a collective sense. Naturally the reopening of the prophets month for consolation would be deferred till the number of the escaped remnant was complete: the removal of such a large number would easily have occupied seventeen or eighteen months.Fausset.
Eze. 33:22. The hand of the Lord was upon me in the evening. Thus the capture of Jerusalem was known to Ezekiel by revelation, before the messenger came. My mouth was opened and I was no more dumb. He spake the message from God to the people contained in Eze. 33:2-20 in the evening before the tidings came.
Eze. 33:24. Those wastes of the land of Israel. Less Jerusalem itself than the other cities which had been stripped of their inhabitants (Jer. 33:10; Jer. 33:13), in which those who were without possessions (Jer. 39:10) shared with the returned fugitives (Jer. 40:12), having all at once come to great wealth of land and were puffed up.Hitzig. That there were such people is proved by the revolt in which Gedaliah, the Chaldean governor, was slain.Hengstenberg. Compare also the representation in Nehemiah 1 of the desolate condition of things, though an interval of upwards of a century had elapsed. Abraham was one, and he inherited the land, but we are many. Some of the bands of fighting-men which had escaped the Chaldeans, not improbably stood aloof, keeping the country disturbed by harassing forays. But, like true Jews, even their robber life was dignified by a religious colouring. Few though they were, they fancied there was no reason to despair, since the land had been given to Abraham when he was alone in the midst of the whole population, a much more hopeless position than theirs. Ezekiel, however, predicted a terrible end to these visionaries.Geikie.
Eze. 33:25. Ye eat with the blood. The eating of the blood was forbidden in Gen. 9:4 as the first step to the prohibition of murder. In the blood of animals was to be seen a type of the blood of men. The prescription had a didactic end. It was to call forth an abhorrence of shedding human blood. Whosoever disregarded this prohibition showed, under the Old Testament, after the law had made the horror of animal blood national, that the germ of the murderous spirit was in him.Hengstenberg.
Eze. 33:26. Ye work abomination. The abomination is adultery. The feminine form of the verb is surprising.
Eze. 33:28. That none shall pass through. Cleared of men, even of passing travellers. The ravage of robbers and wild beasts rendered the ordinary roads unsafe.
Eze. 33:30. The children of thy people still are talking against thee. Though going to the prophet to hear the word of the Lord, they criticised, in an unfriendly spirit, his peculiarities of manner and enigmatical style (chap. Eze. 20:49), making these the excuse for their impenitence. By the walls and in the doors of the houses. In the public haunts and privately.
Eze. 33:31. As My people. So respectful, attentive, and apparently earnest and willing.Hengstenberg. Ironically, those who should be mine; or, as if they would be My people and still are not. With their mouth they show much love. They deal tenderly with their mouththey show ardour; affect in words an ardent love to God and His words, while the real inclination of their heart goes quite another wayis turned to Mammon, the god of the Jewish old man.Hengstenberg.
Eze. 33:32. Thou art unto them as a very lovely songa song of love, a lovers song. They praise thy eloquence, but care not for the subject of it as a real and personal thing, just as many do in the modern Church.Jerome. One that hath a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument. Amidst the national impoverishment they amuse themselves with the surpassing rhetorical gifts of the new classic.Hengstenberg.
Eze. 33:33. That a prophet hath been among them. No mere orator. The difference they discover in painful experience when it is too late. The threatened punishment has already overtaken them. They are already excluded from the promised salvation which can be gained only by true repentance.Hengstenberg.
HOMILETICS
THE OFFICES OF THE CIVIL AND SPIRITUAL WATCHMAN COMPARED AND CONTRASTED
(Eze. 33:1-9.)
Having sung in strains of unequalled sublimity the dirge of the great monarchies, Ezekiel returns with redoubled intensity to the duty of teaching. The enthusiastic disciple of Jeremiah, he carries out to their most startling consequences the principles but dimly sketched in the creed of his loved master. In this chapter he develops in increased sharpness of definition and fulness of detail the doctrine which is the prominent feature of his prophetic missionthat of the responsibility of the individual soul separate from the collective nation, separate from the good or ill deserts of ancestry. Other prophets, says Stanley, have more of poetical beauty, a deeper sense of Divine things, a tenderer feeling of the mercies of God for His people. None teach so simply, and with a simplicity the more remarkable from the elaborate imagery out of which it emerges, this great moral lesson, to us the first of all lessons. On this narrow but solid plank of the doctrine of human responsibility Ezekiel crosses the chasm which divided the two parts of his eventful life. It is almost the last doctrine which we hear announced before his country fell. It is the first that meets us as he recovers from the shock after all is over. This truth we shall find strikingly illustrated in the teaching of the present and succeeding paragraphs of this chapter. In these verses we have the offices of the civil and spiritual watchman compared and contrasted
I. In the manner of their appointment.
1. The civil watchman is appointed by the careful discrimination of his fellow-countrymen. The people of the land take a man of their coasts and set him for their watchman (Eze. 33:2). It is a mutual arrangement. The rulers of the state see the need of guarding its interests, and after due inquiry select the man who in their judgment is best qualified to discharge the duties required, and the man willingly accepts the post. It is a human appointment, and the fount of authority is human, though sanctioned by the aggregate wisdom of the governing body. The government may be mistaken in the character of the man selected. They can only do their best in providing for the immediate exigencies of the state; or they may err in their conception of the trust with which they invest their officer. Human wisdom is at the best imperfect.
2. The spiritual watchman is Divinely appointed. I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel (Eze. 33:7). Here the authority is supreme and infallible. The Divine discernment is unerring. God never calls and commissions the wrong man, and never appoints His servant to a work that He does not at the same time give him power to do, however unwilling he may be to accept the responsibility. The authority thus delegated is indisputable, because backed by supreme power, and from which there is no appeal. The office of the spiritual watchman is superior to all earthly governments, and has often to be exercised above and in opposition to their worldly policy.
II. In the duties assigned to each. 1. To exercise constant vigilance. When he seeth the sword come upon the land (Eze. 33:3). Thou shalt hear the word at My mouth (Eze. 33:7). It is the duty of each to be ever in a wakeful, listening attitude. The look-out on board the ocean-steamer and the advanced night-picket of a slumbering army has each a responsible post. The safety of both vessel and army depends upon their keenness of vision and delicacy of hearing. It is their duty to detect the first indications of danger. The duties of the civil and spiritual watchman are alike in demanding a highly sensitive alertness and heroic fidelity. The excavations at Herculaneum, buried by an eruption of Vesuvius more than eighteen hundred years ago, revealed the figure of a sentinel who remained immovable at the post of duty till swathed and suffocated with the molten lava.
2. To give distinct and timely warning. Blow the trumpet and warn the people (Eze. 33:3). Warn them from Me (Eze. 33:7). It is not enough to keep a sharp look-out. Every threatened movement of the enemy must be faithfully reported, and a loud, clear, earnest warning sounded when the slightest advance is made by the attacking force. The watchman should be every moment braced up to duty, and no indulgence permitted that will impair his faculties. The greater the peril, the more urgent and unmistakable should be the alarm.
III. In the reality and limitation of the responsibility of each. If the watchman, seeing the threatened evil, neglects to warn the people, he is responsible for the calamities they may suffer; if he warns the people and they suffer by not giving heed to the warning, he himself is clear of blame (Eze. 33:4-6; Eze. 33:8-9). Ezekiel, while explicit in teaching what in his day was the novel doctrine of personal responsibility, is careful to define its limits. Unlimited responsibility would be intolerable; it would tend to paralyse rather than evoke effort. Personal responsibility is ever limited by ability, opportunity, and the nature and scope of the trust with which we are invested. There is no discharge from responsibility but by obedience to obvious duty. The burden is then transferred to those towards whom duty has been faithfully fulfilled.
LESSONS.
1. The true watchman is placed in a position of great honour and responsibility.
2. Should preserve all his faculties in the highest possible state of healthy development and exercise.
3. Is faithful in the degree in which he retains the consciousness of his Divine call.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Eze. 33:1-9. Individual Responsibility
1. Recognised by the directness of the Divine revelation. The word of the Lord came unto me (Eze. 33:1).
2. Augmented by the importance of the office in which he is installed. The people of the land take a man and set him for their watchman. I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel (Eze. 33:2; Eze. 33:7).
3. Is limited to the faithful discharge of specific duties. To be on the alert, to raise the alarm, to warn of approaching disaster (Eze. 33:3-5; Eze. 33:9).
4. Involves serious blame when obvious duty is neglected. His blood will I require at thine hand (Eze. 33:6; Eze. 33:8).
The duty of the spiritual watchman is to warn faithfully the impenitent of their imminent danger, and of the willingness of God to receive them graciously and save them freely if they will repent. Whosoever hears the watchmans warning and yet takes no heed to it shall perish, and his blood shall be upon his own head. But the minister who knows the danger that is before sinners, and yet neglects to sound the faithful note of warning, shall not only be in part the cause of their ruin, but shall also bring upon his own head an awful condemnation. They no doubt justly perish on account of their neglect to watch and pray continually; but he incurs at once the guilt of his own and that of their disobedience to God. What a heavy account they shall have to render who make excuses for sin, flatter sinners, and promise them pardon and peace without penitence and faith!Fausset.
Eze. 33:2. Take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman. A National Guardian.
1. An important officer in time of public danger.
2. Is selected for some special qualifications he possesses above other of his countrymen.
3. The safety of the country is entrusted to his care.
4. Should be vigilant and faithful in the discharge of duty.
5. Is accountable for his conduct to those who appoint him.
One man may be of public service to a whole country. Princes and statesmen are the watchmen of a kingdom, that are continually to employ and, if occasion be, expose themselves for the public safety.M. Henry.
The calling to the office of preacher is twofoldone immediate, the other mediate; the former is from God, the latter from man (Act. 26:15-16; Act. 6:5). No blind man, nor dreamer, nor drowsy sleeper is fit for an office that takes its name from wakefulness.Lange.
Eze. 33:4-5. Faithful Warning
1. Should be clearly and earnestly uttered.
2. Secures the safety of those who give heed to it.
3. Is uttered in vain to those who neglect it.
4. Deprives the heedless of any ground of complaint for the suffering he refused to avoid.
Eze. 33:6. Neglect of Duty
1. Inexcusable where the duty is clearly defined and publicly proclaimed.
2. An unmistakable evidence of moral deterioration.
3. Always involves calamity and suffering to somebody.
Of the watching which is enjoined upon ourselves we are not relieved by the obligation which lies upon the watchman. Hence he who is overtaken unwarned does not fall guiltless, for his security and carelessness were the occasion of his fall. Contempt of danger is no true courage. Every one must carry his soul as in his hand. What a mournful condition is it when the Church does not watch, the State does not protect, the house does not admonish!Lange.
Eze. 33:7-9. The Ministerial Calling
1. Divine in its institution. I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel.
2. Is to interpret the meaning of the Divine Message. Thou shalt hear the word at My mouth.
3. Should be faithful in warning as well as in instruction. And warn them from Mespeak to warn the wicked from his way.
4. Involves grave responsibility. That wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
5. Retains the Divine approval only so far as it is strictly faithful. But thou hast delivered thy soul.
With a spiritual watchman there must be found a spiritual life, a spiritual light, a spiritual wakefulness, and dutiful fidelity in all parts of his office.Starke.
Even when the preachers conscience is free from guilt in regard to the ungodly who perish in their sins, what a sorrow does it occasion in the life of the preacher when he has to see the impenitent die in their sins! I would not willingly be saved, said Augustine, without you.
HOMILETICS
THE UNSWERVING EQUITY OF THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT
(Eze. 33:10-20.)
I. Is joined with the most tender solicitations for the best welfare of men.
1. Jehovah has no satisfaction in the ruin of the sinner (Eze. 33:10-11). It is a false conception of God to regard Him as implacable and difficult to propitiate. Such a view is possible only to the mind debased by sinful indulgence and hardened by unbelief. Without mans solicitation, and without his daring to hope for such favour, God offers him life and salvation, and reveals His love in the wondrous plan which His spontaneous mercy has provided for the redemption of the sinning race. So slow is man to comprehend, and so little reason had he to expect the possibility of such kindness being shown to him, that Jehovah solemnly pledges the integrity of His Divine character in assuring him of the factAs I live, saith the Lord. He has more pleasure in pardoning than punishing.
2. Jehovah condescends to plead with the sinner to turn from his iniquities and accept life. Turn ye, turn ye, from your evil ways; for why will ye die? (Eze. 33:11). Amazing spectacle! Incredulous condescension! God pleading with manthe highest reason expostulating with human folly and unreason! The monarch imploring rebels to return to their allegiance and the parent entreating the prodigal to reform may seem the despair of baffled helplessness. But not so with our Heavenly King and Father. His condescension is all the more conspicuous and significant because He is so strong, so righteous, and so unselfish in His aim to rescue man from his self-delusion and ruin. A greater marvel still is, that in the presence of this Divine solicitude man remains obdurate and indifferent. How deceitful and deadly an enemy is fondly-cherished sin!
II. Recognises the responsibility of the individual soul. I will judge you every man after his ways (Eze. 33:20). Life or death depends on individual action. Israel is to be treated no longer as a collective nation, in the mass, but as individuals, each one by himself. This doctrine was so novel and startling to the Jew, and so opposed to his notion of special privileges to be enjoyed by the aggregate nation, irrespective of the moral condition of individuals, that the masters of the Synagogue hesitated to receive the Book of Ezekiel into the sacred canon, and when it was adopted, decreed that it should not be read by any Jew who was not above thirty years of age. And yet throughout the Bible there is no truth more clearly taught than this. It is this responsibility that gives a moral character to each mans actions, and is the basis on which he must be ultimately judged.
III. Distributes with exact impartiality reward and punishment according to individual conduct (Eze. 33:12-16; Eze. 33:18-19). The seeming righteous will not escape punishment if they sin (Eze. 33:12-13; Eze. 33:18). The wicked will not be denied reward if they reform (Eze. 33:12; Eze. 33:14-16; Eze. 33:19). No man can shelter himself under the shadow of ancestral piety, or under the reputation of a blameless life. Personal virtue can make no atonement for a single sin. On the other hand, the most abandoned need not despair. The Lord pardoneth and absolveth all those who truly repent and unfeignedly believe His holy gospel. The final decisions of the Divine government cannot be charged with the least injustice, but will compel universal adoration.
IV. Is the subject of querulous complaint by the wrong-doer. Yet the people say, The way of the Lord is not equal; but, as for them, their way is not equal (Eze. 33:17; Eze. 33:20). Wrong-doing blinds the mental vision, dulls and vitiates the moral sense, and incapacitates the soul from exercising righteous judgment. Ignorance is always obstinately one-sided. Reminds one of the Irish juryman who had never met eleven such obstinate men as his fellow-jurors; and of the recruit who maintained he was the only man of his company who was keeping step. The sinner is ready to blame any one but himself, and even dares to impugn the equity of the great Judge of all the earth. The reckless audacity of such a charge reveals his own condemnation.
LESSONS.
1. Divine justice and mercy are inseparable.
2. If we embrace the principles of the Divine government it becomes easy to do right and difficult to do wrong.
3. The destiny of every man is, under God, in his own hands.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Eze. 33:10-11. A yearning tenderness here manifests itself, still seeking, notwithstanding all that has taken place, the return of those who survived to the way of peace. But with that tenderness what a stern and unflinching holiness! There can be no relaxation or abatement mentioned in respect to this, not even amid the moanings of pain and cries of distress which arose from the people; no return to life possible but through a return to righteousness.
Eze. 33:10. Unrepented Sin
1. Produces a sullen disposition.
2. Fosters the mistaken notion that we are punished for the sins of others rather than for our own.
3. Reflects upon the sincerity of the Divine promises.
4. Fills the soul with despair.
Thus ye speak. But not well, whilst ye have hard thoughts of God and heavy thoughts of yourselves, as if your sins were unpardonable, and that ye were already ruined beyond relief; whereas true repentance is a ready remedy, a plank after shipwreck that would set you safe and render you right again. This they had been told before (chap. 18), but to little purpose. The word was not mingled with faith in their hearts, and did therefore run through them (Heb. 2:1) as water runs through a riven vessel.Trapp.
It is common with those that have been hardened with presumption, when they were warned against sin, to sink into despair when they are called to repent, and to conclude there is no hope of life for them.M. Henry.
All in the end feel sin, but they hate it not.The way of the unconverted in this respect is to look rather to the temporal than to the eternal life.To despair, instead of turning to God, is but another form of the pride that is in the human heart.Despair is another kind of impenitence.How contrasts touch one another!The godly also are sometimes on the brink of despairDavid, Psalms 38, and Cain, Genesis 4. That punishment should always be heavier to us than sin!He who would justify himself would perhaps throw the blame even upon God.God always deals unfairly with the wicked, as they think.Lange.
Eze. 33:11. The Pitifulness of the Divine Mercy
1. Finds no delight in punishing. I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.
2. Yearns for the recovery of those who have abandoned the way of obedience. But that the wicked turn from his way and live.
3. Breaks forth in tenderest persuasiveness. Turn ye, turn ye; for why will ye die?
4. Is declared with the most solemn asseveration. As I live, saith the Lord.
This is one of those precious places, those mellifluous honeycombs which we should go on sucking towards heaven, as Samson once did towards his parents (Jdg. 14:9). Here, if anywhere, we may find strong consolation. God when He swears desires certainly to be credited. O happy we for whose sakes God vouchsafeth to swear! and O wretched we if we believe not God, no, though He swear to us!Trapp.
The living God wills life, and also gives it to those who will; but unless men also wish it, He certainly does not give.Lange.
Why will ye die?I have been to you a nursing Father. Will ye not love Me? I have opened a bleeding altar, even Calvary, that the foulest of sinners may approach. Why will ye stay at a distance in shame and sin? I have borne and had patience. I have stretched out My hands all the day long to a gainsaying people. My prophets have laboured and wept; they aver, being filled with My Spirit, that their hearts desire and prayer is, that Israel might be saved. Why will you resist the ministry of grace? I have aided the ministry with slow and gentle corrections. Why will you fight against Me? You are beloved for your fathers sake; you have been to Me a pleasant vineyard. I have planted you with the choice vine of Sorek; and what could I have done for My vineyard that I have not done? Why then will ye prefer idols to Me? Why will you prefer shame to glory, death to eternal life?Sutcliffe.
Eze. 33:13. It was a widespread delusion among the Jews that they possessed a hereditary righteousness; that whatever they themselves might be, yet the righteousness of their pious fathers, from Abraham down, would avail them; and if they experienced the contrary in their misfortunes they held themselves justified in murmuring against God. The prophet teaches, on the contrary, that the fate of every generation is determined by its own relation to God.Hengstenberg.
Many eminent professors have been ruined by a proud conceitedness of themselves and confidence in themselves. He trusts to the merit of his own righteousness, and thinks he has already made God so much his debtor that now he may venture to commit iniquity, for he has righteousness enough in stock to make amends for it; he fancies that, whatever evil deeds he may do hereafter, he can be in no danger from them, having so many good deeds beforehand to balance them. He thinks himself so well established in a course of virtue that he may thrust himself into any temptation and it cannot overcome him, and so by presuming on his own sufficiency he is brought to commit iniquity.M. Henry.
Not that we are evil by nature is what finally condemns us, but that we remain evil in spite of the goodness of God which seeks our conversion.Lange.
Eze. 33:14-15. Genuine Repentance
1. Is not only sorrow for sin, but a turning from it.
2. A striving to do the right.
3. Shown in the restitution of all wrongfully acquired goods.
4. A permanent blessing only by walking in harmony with the living Word.
Conversion
1. Of heart.
2. Of conduct.
3. Of life.Lange.
Penitency is almost as good as innocency.Trapp.
Eze. 33:15. Robbery and violence would be too gainful a trade if a man might quit all scores by repentance and detain all he had gotten; or if the fathers repentance might serve the turn, and the benefit of the transgression be transmitted as an inheritance to the son. If the pledge remained it must be restored. The retaining it is committing a new iniquity, and forfeits any benefit of the promise. If he hath it not, nor is able to procure it, his hearty repentance is enough, with reparation; but to enjoy the spoil and yet to profess repentance is an affront to Almighty God, and a greater sin than the first act of violence, when he did not pretend to think of God, and so did not think of displeasing Him. Whereas now he pretends to reconcile himself to God and mocks Him with repentance, while he retains the fruit of his wickedness. He who is truly penitent restores what he hath left to the person who was deprived of it, and pays the rest in devout sorrow for his trespass.Lord Clarendon.
Eze. 33:17; Eze. 33:20. False Estimates
1. Inevitable when Divine things are measured by a human standard.
2. The product of a mind warped with error and sin.
3. Recoil in punishment upon those who are blind to their own falseness and injustice.
Eze. 33:17. When men find fault with the ways of God as not equal, it is because their own ways are not equal. On the other hand, God says, Do not My words do good to him that walketh uprightly? (Mic. 2:7). God meeteth him that worketh righteousness; those that remember God in His ways (Isa. 64:5). The cause of sceptical cavils at the ways of Divine providence and grace lies in the unbelievers faulty state of heart which corrupts the understanding.Fausset.
HOMILETICS
THE INFATUATION OF UNBELIEF
(Eze. 33:21-33.)
I. Blinds the soul to the significance of passing events.
1. The greatest calamity is not understood. The city is smitten (Eze. 33:21). No greater disaster could happen to the Jew. The impregnable, the invincible Jerusalem in ruins, the sacred Temple violated and destroyedimpossible! Yet the impossible had happened; and the people, stupefied by the greatness of the calamity, or by the inveteracy of their wickedness, failed to grasp the meaning. In their unbelieving infatuation they could not see that the Divine guardianship that encompassed the city with a shield that no mortal enemy could pierce had been withdrawn, because of their sins.
2. The plainest evidences of faithful warning were ignored. Ezekiel predicted that he would be silent for some time on matters affecting Israel until news of the downfall of Jerusalem came. The prediction was exactly fulfilled, and he once more opens his mouth concerning Israel (comp. chap. Eze. 24:27 with Eze. 33:22)another proof of the Divine sanction to the warnings of His servant; yet this, like many other similar evidences, was unheeded. We are infatuated indeed when passing events cease to interest us and suggest no lessons of either warning or counsel.
II. Intensifies the practice of the grossest sins (Eze. 33:24-26).
1. Covelousness (Eze. 33:24). They cling in a spirit of desperate covetousness to the land already lost, and which now belonged to their conquerors. The savage greed with which the scattered few held by the land of their forefathers might excite compassion did we not know how hopeless was their task and how utterly selfish their aim. They wished to keep the land not to reform but to indulge abuses.
2. Idolatry (Eze. 33:25). The sin which had been the occasion of all the distresses that now afflicted the land, instead of being put away, was carried on with aggravated enormities.
3. Tyranny. Ye stand upon your sword (Eze. 33:26). They do not seek to rule on principles of right and equity, but by the tyranny of force and arms. It was the wild anarchy of reckless desperadoes. The tyranny was all the more cruel because of the unprotected and helpless condition of the few that still remained in the land.
4. The worst form of immorality (Eze. 33:26). Adultery. How deep was the degradation of the chosen people of God when they descended to the worst practices of the heathen, and veiled them under the sacred name of religion! Unbelief is immorality, and abandons man to the tyranny of all kinds of abominations.
III. Invokes a more terrible punishment (Eze. 33:27-29). Ruin shall be piled on ruin; the wastes shall be reduced to more hopeless wastes; desolation shall reign supreme. By an inevitable retribution, the sword on which they placed their chief dependence and with which they had oppressed the weak shall be the instrument of their own destruction, and the pestilence shall finish the work left undone by the sword. The desolating ruin shall be so complete that the fields and vineyards, once so peacefully cultivated and so abundantly productive, shall be the haunts of wild beasts and the terrified inhabitants become their prey. Travellers will be careful to avoid the infested region: None shall pass through (Eze. 33:28). Terrible indeed will be the punishment that shall overtake the obstinately unbelieving.
IV. Makes mockery of the most earnest utterances of the Divine message (Eze. 33:30-32).
1. There is the show of charmed interest in the messenger. They come unto thee as the people cometh; they sit before thee as My people. With their mouth they show much love. Thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument (Eze. 33:31-32). Their interest in the preacher is superficial, like that of many present-day hearers. They are pleased with a rich, musical voice, with oratorical eloquence, with dramatic posturings, with ritualistic display and full choral effects; and that is all. It is the same kind of pleasure they have in listening to a well-rendered song, or a solo on the violin by an accomplished performer. The serious meaning of the message and its application to their practical life they have no desire to understand.
2. They make sport of both messenger and message in public and private. The children of thy people still are talking against thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying(with a chuckling contemptuousness that reveals the hollowness and baseness of their hypocritical concern)Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the Lord (Eze. 33:30). An invitation, not to ponder the Divine message, but to listen to their garbled version of it, as they reproduce it with flippant sportiveness and grotesque caricature. It is a sad evidence how completely unbelief has degraded and infatuated the soul when the message that deals with its eternal interests is made the subject of fun and ridicule.
3. They are too far steeped in infamy to attempt to practise what they hear. They hear thy words, but they will not do them; their heart goeth after their covetousness (Eze. 33:31-32). They love sin more than godliness. To give heed to the Divine message would break in unpleasantly on the round of self-indulgence with which they are encircled as with an iron band. They have resisted so many appeals that the heart has become as hard as adamant. How dangerous it is, wrote John Foster, the celebrated essayist, to defer those momentous reformations which conscience is solemnly preaching to the heart! If they are neglected, the difficulty and indisposition are increasing every month. The mind is receding degree after degree from the warm and hopeful zone, till at last it will enter the arctic circle, and become fixed in relentless and eternal ice.
V. Will one day receive a rude and painful awakening. When this cometh to pass (lo, it will come), then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them (Eze. 33:33). The threatened judgment fell on Israel, and, when it was too late, they saw the value of the opportunities they had despised. Those who do not know the preciousness of their privileges by using them aright shall here after be made to know by being deprived of those privileges for ever. It is the wail of many that they did not know the value of their blessings until they were lost.
LESSONS.
1. The lowest depth of unbelief is not reached without many faithful warnings.
2. Unbelief is subtle and deadly in its progress.
3. The cure of unbelief is a merciful act of God.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Eze. 33:21. Bad News
1. Always travels fast.
2. Its lesson should be seriously pondered.
3. Is disregarded only by the infatuated.
Eze. 33:22. The opened mouth of a servant of God is his frankness; the contrary is trimming and flattery; and it is also distinguished from sarcastic witticisms, evil speaking, and insult. The servants of God should be frank in speech, yet not like insolent fellows who believe they may say everything because no one can contradict them, at least when in the pulpit.Luther.
Eze. 33:23-29. The new discourse here first takes up again the former threatening and meets those who, still giving themselves up to illusions, thought that the judgment would not inexorably run its course. But before the seed of Divine hope could be sown, the last thorns and thistles of false human hopes, and of the efforts that grew out of them, had to be destroyed, which even now, although against all appearances, were convulsively grasped by those who avoided the passage through the strait gate of repentance which is the condition of participating in the Divine hope, and did not wish to put off the spotted garment of the flesh.Hengstenberg.
Eze. 33:24-29. The Inheritance of the Wicked
1. A desolate waste. They inhabit those wastes of the land of Israel (Eze. 33:24).
2. Yet held with a dogged pertinacity. We are many: the land is given us for inheritance (Eze. 33:24).
3. The scene of unrestrained riot and wickedness. Ye shed blood: ye work abomination (Eze. 33:25-26).
4. Defies the most desperate efforts to retain it. The sword, devouring beasts, the pestilence, are beyond their power to vanquish (Eze. 33:27).
5. Is finally swept by the desolating vengeance of outraged justice. I will lay the land most desolatebecause of their abominations (Eze. 33:28-29).
Such was the infatuation of the escaped remnant in the now wasted lands of Judea that they were even still full of self-sufficient confidence. Had this confidence been resting on the restoration of Gods favour through their repentance, it would have been a reasonable confidence; but it rested on utterly false reasonings as to the relation in which they stood to Abraham. Abraham, they reasoned, obtained from God the inheritance of Canaan, and we are his children, and therefore are entitled to succeed to his inheritance. Abraham was but one when he obtained the grant of the land; much more shall we retain it as our own who are many. But they utterly shut their eyes to the fact that Abraham pleased God in all his ways, and was therefore called the friend of God; they, on the contrary, displeased God in all their ways by working abominations and standing upon their sword, as if might made right.Fausset.
Eze. 33:24. Strange infatuation! That when the sign of Gods displeasure had been so strikingly displayed against them for their sins, scattering all their vain confidence to the wind, they should still, without abandoning those sins, hope for the peculiar tokens of the Divine favour! Yet in a more subtle and refined form we find the same flagrant inconsistence practised by the Jews of our Lords time who, in like manner, reckoned with confidence on being children of Abraham, as if that alone were enough to secure them in all covenant blessings, while He charged them with being in spirit children of the devil, and consequently entitled only to look for the portion of the lost (Joh. 8:33-44).Fair bairn.
Walls, cities, go to ruin, but a fool will still plant himself on the ruins (Pro. 27:22). When the mask falls from the hypocrite, then will the beast of prey which lay behind become manifest; and we shall all be made manifest before the judgment-seat of Christ: then the masquerade will be out.Lange.
Eze. 33:27. The Divine vengeance does not need to rush upon its victim from behind in order to lay hold of him, nor does it require to make a long and laborious search after him; but where he has fled to and fancies himself hidden, whether it be in the heights or in the depths, there the vengeance of God lies in readiness, and has been expecting him to come to it. In the end we all come to God. Alas that so few should fall into His arms, while so many fall upon His sword! If the wild beasts of passion do not tear a man, the pestilence of his natural corruption will gradually consume him.Ibid.
Eze. 33:27-29.The small remnant in Judea being so far from righteousness, the prophet could only speak to them as a minister of condemnation. What they had to expect was only judgment still more severe and exterminating than what had yet been appointed. For them the desolations of the land must become still more desolate, and new horrors be inflicted by the sword, the pestilence, and the wild beast. All must be reduced to a howling wilderness, as it really was, that the new hope for Israel might spring from another and better root, and that the people might know how impossible it was to attain to blessing from God without first separating from sin.Fairbairn.
Eze. 33:28. Desolate shall it be at last about every ungodly man; for as the heart so is the life. First of all sin desolates, then come desolations through death; finally, we pass into the desolation of an eternity without God.Lange.
Eze. 33:29. See chap Eze. 30:19.
Those are intractable and un-teachable indeed that are not made to know their dependence upon God when all their creature-comforts fail them and they are made desolate.
Eze. 33:30-33. The Preachers Critics
1. Use every opportunity in public and private to hold him up to ridicule. Thy people still are talking against thee by the walls, and in the doors of the houses (Eze. 33:30).
2. Are eager to give their own garbled version of his message. Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the Lord (Eze. 33:30).
3. Observe the outward decorum of worship. They sit before thee as My people, and hear thy words (Eze. 33:31).
4. Show a fondness for the word which the state of their hearts contradicts. With their mouth they show much love; but their heart goeth alter their covetousness (Eze. 33:31).
5. Are charmed with the music of eloquence. Thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument (Eze. 33:32).
6. Listen not for profit, but to pick up material for scornful gossip. They hear thy words, but they do them not (Eze. 33:32).
7. Only when calamity comes do they learn the value of what they despised. When this cometh to pass shall they know that a prophet hath been among them (Eze. 33:33).
In making use of human agents to reveal His will to men, the Lord teaches us to look for no external perfection. There may be found all the diversities of manner and nearly all the imperfections which distinguish ordinary speakers, for the Spirit, even in His highest operations, must still leave free-play to native peculiarities of thought and utterance. But in regard to its substance Gods Word is perfect, and stands nobly apart from all that is of man. Let it ever be ours, therefore, to hear it with reverence and bow to its requirements with child-like submission. It is we who must fall in with its terms, not it that must accommodate itself to ours.Fairbairn.
The Word of God is a very serious matter. Let every one take heed how he hears, that he be not a hearer only, but a doer. What the prophet announces comes to pass, and if the fulfilment takes place the mere hearer will be the loser; he is overtaken by the threatened punishments and excluded from the promised blessings. He has not to deal with an excellent orator; but behind the Son of man stands the Lord, mighty to punish and to save.Hengstenberg.
Eze. 33:30. Public persons are a common subject of discourse. Every one takes liberty to censure them at pleasure, and faithful ministers know not how much ill is said of them every day. But God takes notice, not only of what is decreed against them, or sworn against them, or written against them, or spoken with solemnity and deliberation, but of what is said against them in common talk, and He will reckon for it. His prophets shall not always be made the song of the drunkards.M. Henry.
Eze. 33:31. Merely to hear without doing makes all preaching unprofitable. Strange that sermons of rebuke should be more attractive than grace-sermons. Men would rather be smitten than caressed. They think, perhaps, that in the love there is too much of design. If one has been struck by the cudgel, it is still possible to preserve ones heart and head; but love leaves nothing to ones self, it demands allthe whole man and the whole life.Lange.
Their heart is on their halfpenny, we say; neither can the loadstone of Gods Word hale them one jot from the earth. As serpents have their bodies in the water, their heads out of the water, so here: as those Gergesites, they mind a swine-sty more than a sanctuary.Trapp.
With all their loud mouth-professions of love to God and His ordinances, the love which reigns in their heart is love of self, of fame, pleasure, and gain. Covetousness is a grand rival to the love of God, so that where the love of Mammon is, there the love of God is not.Fausset.
Eze. 33:32. Mere habit as regards the hearing of sermons makes people indifferent, and at last stupid. Pious sentimentalism is spiritual adultery. Satan goes with us into church. Edification and the capacity for it are two different things.Lange.
Eze. 33:33. A true prophet will always leave beind him the impression of a true prophet.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Chapter Fifteen
PREPARATION FOR RESTORATION
33:1-35:15
Ezekiels predictions of the destruction of Jerusalem had become a tragic reality. No more does the prophet sound forth the threatening blast against the inhabitants of Judah, for Judah no longer existed. It was time for consolation. Hope had to be rekindled. A remnant had to be prepared for the restoration and rebirth of the nation. Ezekiel opens this section of the book with an oracle underscoring individual responsibility and the power and potential of repentance (chap. 33). Then the prophet predicts the removal of the corrupt leadership of the nation (chap. 34) and the national enemies of Judah (chap. 35). By so doing he sets the stage for his later prophecies of restoration.
1. THE RENEWAL OF EZEKIELS COMMISSION
33:133
A. The Prophet as a Watchman 33:19
TRANSLATION
(1) And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, (2) son of man, speak to the children of My people, and say to them: When I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from their midst, and set him as their watchman; (3) if he sees the sword come against the land, and he blows the horn, and warns the people; (4) then whoever hears the sound of the horn, and does not take warning, if the sword come and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head; (5) he heard the sound of the horn but did not take warning, so his blood shall be upon him; for if he had taken warning he would have delivered his soul. (6) But if the watchman sees the sword come and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword come and take a person from them, he is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the hand of the watchman. (7) And as for you, son of man, I have set you as a watchman to the house of Israel. Therefore, when you hear from My mouth a word, then you shall warn them from Me. (8) When I say to the wicked: O wicked man, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked of his way, that wicked one shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will seek from your hand. (9) But if you warn the wicked one of his way to turn from it, and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your own soul.
COMMENTS
Following the interlude in which Ezekiel spoke to foreign nations, the prophet is again instructed to devote his attention to the children of your people. When God in His sovereign will determines to bring a sword, i.e., war, upon a land, normally that land would try to protect itself as best it could. A responsible person was appointed as watchman charged with the task of sounding the alarm as the enemy approached (Eze. 33:2). Normally the watchman would warn his neighbors by means of a horn (Eze. 33:3; cf. Amo. 3:6). Those who failed to heed the warning blast were responsible for their own death; for if they had taken refuge or had fled the doomed land, they would have saved their lives (Eze. 33:4-5). No blame can be attached to the watchman in such a case. He did his job. But if the watchman sees the danger and fails to sound the alarm, he is responsible for the death of those who were slain. Even if those who died were worthy of death because of their iniquity, still the watchman would be held accountable by God. That unfaithful watchman would someday pay for his negligence (Eze. 33:6).
The principle applies to a spiritual watchman such as Ezekiel. The fundamental responsibility of an Old Testament prophet was to convey to Gods people any threatening word which he might have heard from the mouth of God (Eze. 33:7). If he fails to warn the wicked man of the consequences of his way, the blood of that wicked man will be upon the hands of the prophet (Eze. 33:8), The prophet can only clear himself before God by the faithful discharge of his duty of sounding the alarm. Whether or not the sinner heeds the prophets call to repentance, the watchman has saved his own life (Eze. 33:9).
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
1-6. This command came the evening before the messenger arrived announcing the fall of Jerusalem (Eze 33:21-22). For two years Ezekiel had been unable to speak to the people, and had spent his time in writing prophecies against foreign nations, but now he is commanded to speak, which must have been certain proof to him that information of the city’s fall was about to arrive. (See Eze 24:26.) He seeks now to prepare the people for this awful news. He points out that it was not lack of patriotism and sympathy, but a grave and urgent sense of duty, which had led him to blow the trumpet of warning. (Compare Hos 8:1; Hab 2:1; Jer 6:6; Jer 4:5.) The spirit of the people (Eze 33:10, compare Eze 24:23) indicates that the rumor of this awful disaster had reached them even before the direct messenger to Ezekiel arrived. 7-9. Compare Eze 3:17-21. The out-ward imagery vanishes in Eze 33:7. It is of no Chaldean invader that the prophet had to give warning, but of each man’s own special sin, which was bringing ruin upon himself and on his country (Plumptre).
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And the word of Yahweh came to me saying, “Son of man, speak to the children of your people and say to them, When I bring the sword on a land, if the people of the land take a man from among them and set him for their watchman, if when he sees the sword come on the land he blows the horn and warns the people, then whoever hears the sound of the horn and does not take warning, if the sword comes and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head. He heard the sound of the horn and did not take warning. His blood will be on him. Whereas if he had taken warning he would have delivered his life. But if the watchman sees the sword come, and does not blow the horn, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.” ’
‘And the word of Yahweh came to me saying.’ Once again Ezekiel receives a direct word from Yahweh. ‘Son of man.’ A continual reminder to Ezekiel that he is but a mortal man, and yet also bordering on a title by its constant use. It thus also designates him in its use as one chosen of God.
First a general principle is stated. The setting of watchmen to watch for the enemy was a common occurrence. Every border would have its watchtowers, every city its watchmen. And, as soon as an enemy was seen to be approaching, the long curved horns the watchmen carried would be sounded as a warning to the people, and would go on being sounded until they were sure that the people had heard. This gave those in the fields the opportunity to flee within the walled cities for refuge, and enabled the defending troops to ready themselves.
The responsibility was a great one, and they would use men with sharp eyes. The safety of the people would depend on their early warning. But once they had given their warning their task was done. It was then up to others to take notice of the warning and implement what was necessary for deliverance, and for those in the fields to seek refuge. Any failure then would not be the responsibility of the watchman, but of those who heard the warning.
But if the watchman saw the enemy coming and did not give warning, then their blood would rest on him. He would have failed in his duty and would be to blame for all that followed. It was an awesome responsibility. They would be blood guilty in the eyes of the relatives of the dead, and in the eyes of God.
‘When I bring a sword on the land.’ In a sense every invader is under the hand of Yahweh. Nothing happens without His say so. But this also implies guilt on the part of the invaded nation. For some reason they are receiving punishment.
‘He is taken away in his iniquity.’ The punishment is being exacted on this person. But if it is the watchman’s fault, the watchman must also bear the blame. This is a hint of the application to follow. Note that in the illustration God has spoken of a land against which He has ‘brought the sword’, therefore it is a blameworthy land and its people sinful. But they might have been spared if the watchman had done his duty. Thus we are prepared for the fact that a watchman of Yahweh is to be looked for, to turn men to repentance so that they may escape punishment.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Ezekiel’s Charge as a Watchman Over Israel In Eze 3:16-21 we have the Lord’s charge to Ezekiel as a watchman over His people Israel. His duty was to tell the people what he saw and heard from the Lord. Immediately after this charge God is going to give Ezekiel prophecies of the impending judgment upon Judah (Eze 3:22 to Eze 24:27) as well as seven nations (Eze 25:1 to Eze 32:32). These are the words of warning that Ezekiel is to deliver to Israel. At the end of these prophecies the Lord restates His divine charge to Ezekiel as a watchman over Israel (Eze 33:7).
Eze 3:17, “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.”
Eze 33:7, “So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.”
Eze 33:7 So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.
Eze 33:7
1. Enoch:
Jud 1:14-15, “And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”
2. Noah:
2Pe 2:5, “And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness , bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;”
3. David:
Psa 40:9-10, “ I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O LORD, thou knowest. I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation.”
Eze 33:8 When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
Eze 33:9 Eze 33:6-9
[26] Kenneth Hagin, The Art of Intercession (Tulsa, Oklahoma: Faith Library Publications, c1980, 1984), 102-4.
[27] Kenneth Hagin, The Art of Intercession (Tulsa, Oklahoma: Faith Library Publications, c1980, 1984), 131-3.
Eze 33:10 Therefore, O thou son of man, speak unto the house of Israel; Thus ye speak, saying, If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live?
Eze 33:10
Eze 33:11 Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
Eze 33:12-16
Eze 33:21-29 Justification In Eze 33:21-29 the Lord tells the prophet that the people were seeking their justification by their birthright as Jews. In addition, they were hearing God’s Word, but not obeying it (Eze 33:30-33). True justification before God comes when the people hear and obey His Word.
Eze 33:28 For I will lay the land most desolate, and the pomp of her strength shall cease; and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, that none shall pass through.
Eze 33:28
[28] Avraham Negev, The Archaeological Encyclopedia of the Holy Land, 3rd ed. (New York: Prentice Hall Press, c1990, 1996), comments on “Roads.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Justification The book of Ezekiel reveals God’s plan to redeem His people Israel back unto Himself. The theme of Eze 33:1-20 is God’s plan to justify Israel through repentance and obedience to Him. Ezekiel has prophesied of judgments upon Judah and other nations in the preceding chapters. Now God is telling this prophet how the Jewish people are to respond to such prophecies of future judgments. These destructions are intended to bring repentance and righteousness to Judah and the nations; for God takes no pleasure in their destruction (Eze 33:11), but rather in their repentance, in the way the Ninevites repented at the preaching of Jonah. The phrase, “When I bring the sword upon a land” (Eze 33:2) refers to the time when these prophecies of judgment come to pass. God’s statement that He has placed Ezekiel as a watchman over the house of Israel (Eze 33:7) means that God will divinely place His watchmen amongst the people in a position where they will be heard as proclaim the truth to the people. The people should recognize them as a fulfillment of God’s prophecies and repent; for this is God’s plan to redeem His people Israel. In this passage of Scripture God makes a provision for escape from divine judgment and forgiveness of sins. Thus, God’s judgment serves a redemptive purpose.
In the case of Ezekiel, God divinely placed him in the office of a priest over the Jews in Captivity so that he would be heard, because it was the Jewish tradition to assembly together on the Sabbath and to hear the Scriptures being taught by the priests. They justified themselves as God’s people because their father was Abraham (Eze 33:21-29). When they did assemble to hear the local priest exhort them from the Law, they did not obey what they had heard (Eze 33:30-33).
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Prophet as a Watchman
v. 1. Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, v. 2. Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, v. 3. if, when he seeth the sword come upon the land, v. 4. then, whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, v. 5. He heard the sound of the trumpet and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. v. 6. But if the watchman see the sword come, v. 7. So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel, v. 8. When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surelydie, v. 9. Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it, v. 10. Therefore, O thou son of man, v. 11. Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, v. 12. Therefore, thou son of man, say unto the children of thy people, v. 13. When I shall say to the righteous that he shall surely live, v. 14. Again, when I say unto the wicked, v. 15. if the wicked restore the pledge, v. 16. None of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him, v. 17. Yet the children of thy people say, v. 18. When the righteous turneth from his righteousness and committeth iniquity, he shall even die thereby, v. 19. But if the wicked turn from his wickedness, v. 20. Yet ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Eze 33:1
If we may think of Ezekiel as compiling and arranging his own prophecies, we may think of him as returning, with something like a sense of relief, to his own special work as the watchman of the house of Israel. For upwards of two years the messages which it had been given him to write (how far they were in any sense published we have no means of knowing) in Ezekiel 25-32; had dealt exclusively with foreign nations. Now his own people are again the object of his care. He resumes his pastoral office at once for warning and consolation. From this point onwards, with the exception of the strange Meshech-Tubal episode in Eze 38:1-23; Eze 39:1-29; all is leading onwards to the final vision of the rebuilt temple, and the redistributed land of Israel, and through them to the times of the Messianic restoration. No date is given here for the word of the Lord which now came to him, but it may, perhaps be inferred, from Eze 39:21, Eze 39:22, that it was immediately before the arrival of the messenger who brought the tidings that Jerusalem was taken. In the ecstatic state indicated by “the hand of the Lord” he knew that some great change was coming, that he had a new message to deliver, a new part to play.
Eze 33:2
Speak to the children of thy people. (On the force of the possessive pronoun, see note on Eze 3:1.) The formula is carried on throughout the chapter (Eze 33:12, Eze 33:17, Eze 33:30). Set him for their watchman. Ezekiel falls back upon the thought of Eze 3:17, but the image is expanded with characteristic fullness. The function of the watchman, in which he sees a parable of his own office, is to stand upon his tower (2Sa 18:24, 2Sa 18:25; 2Ki 9:17; Hab 2:1), to keep his eye on the distant horizon, and as soon as the clouds of dust or the gleam of armor gives notice of the approach of the enemy, to sound the trumpet of alarm (Amo 3:6; Hos 8:1; Jer 4:5; Jer 6:1), that men may not be taken unawares. If he discharge that duty faithfully, then, as in Eze 3:17-21, the blood of those that perish through their own negligence shall rest on their own head.
Eze 33:6-9
But if the watchman: etc. The words imply what we might almost call the agony of self-accusation. The prophet asks himself whether he has acted on the warning which was borne in on his mind at the very beginning of his mission. Has he sounded the trumpet? Has he warned the people of the destruction that is coming on them? The outward imagery vanishes in Eze 33:7. It is of no Chaldean invader that the prophet had to give personal and direct warning, but of each man’s own special sin which was Bringing ruin on himself and on his country.
Eze 33:10
Thus ye speak, saying, etc. At the earlier stage the prophet had to contend with scorn, incredulity, derision (Eze 12:22). They trusted in the promises of the false prophets (Eze 13:6). They laid to their soul the flattering unction that they were suffering, not for their own sins, but for the sins of their fathers (Eze 18:2). Now they stand face to face with the fulfillment of the prophet’s words. They cherish no hopes, and they make no excuses. They have fallen into the abyss of despair. Admitting their own sin and the righteousness of their punishment, does not the very admission exclude hope? Who can bring life to those that are thus dead in trespasses and sins? The parallelism with Le 26:39-42 is so striking that it can scarcely be accidental
Eze 33:11
Say unto them, etc. To meet that despair the prophet has to fall back on the truth which he had proclaimed once before (Eze 18:32). He must appear as uttering a message of pardon resting on the unchanging character of the great Absolver. Now, as ever, it is true that he willeth not the death of the wicked, that all punishment (in this world, at least) is meant to lead to repentance, and that for those who repent there is the hope of restoration and of life. No righteousness in the past avails against the transgression of the present (Eze 33:12); but then also no wickedness of the past prevails to shut out the penitent’s claim to pardon. As a man is at any given moment, when the judgment comes on him, so is he dealt with. In some sense, as in Eze 33:13, the righteousness of the post may become a stumbling-block. The man may trust in it, and be off his guard, ceasing to watch and pray, and so the temptation may prevail.
Eze 33:15
If the wicked restore the pledge. In Eze 18:7, Eze 18:12, Eze 18:16, this and its opposite had been grouped with other forms of good and evil. Here it stands out in solitary preeminence. The reason may possibly be found in the fact that a time of exile and suffering was likely to make the sin, which the penitent thus showed that he had renounced, a specially common one. The starving man pledged his garment or his tools for the loan of money or of food at a price far below its value. There was a real self-sacrifice, a proof of the power of the faith that worketh by love, when the creditor restored it. The primary duty, when a man turned from evil, was, as far as in him lay, to overcome his besetting sin and make restitution for the past. Compare the words of the Baptist (Luk 3:12-14), and those of Zacchaeus (Luk 19:8). The statutes of life. The words are used as in Eze 20:11 and Le Eze 18:5, on the assumption that, if a man kept the statutes, he should (in the highest sense of the word) live in them. It was reserved for the fuller illumination of St. Paul, taught by a representative experience to proclaim the higher truth that the Law, ordained for life, was yet the minister of condemnation and death unless there was something higher than itself to complete the work which it could only begin (Rom 7:10; Rom 8:3; comp. also Heb 7:19).
Eze 33:17
The way of the Lord is not equal. The prophet now proclaims what he had been taught, perhaps then, without proclaiming it, in Eze 18:25-30. Men are dealt with by the Divine Judge, not as their fathers have Been before them, not even as they themselves have been in times past, but exactly as they are. Where could there be a more perfect rule of equity? The question how far Ezekiel thinks of the judgment itself as final, whether there is the possibility of repentance and pardon after it has fallen, and during its continuance, is not directly answered. He is speaking, we must remember, of a judgment on this side the grave, and therefore what we call the problems of eschatology were not before him. But the language of the document which lies at the basis of his theology (Le 26:41) asserts that if men repented and, “accepted” their earthly punishment, then Jehovah would remember his covenant, and would not destroy them utterly. And his own language as to Sodom and Samaria (Eze 16:53) indicates a leaning to the wider hope. If the problems of the unseen world had been brought before him, we may believe that he would have dealt with them as with those with which he actually came in contact, and that there also his words would have been, “O house of Israel, O sons of men, are not my ways equal? are not your ways unequal?”
Eze 33:21
In the twelfth year, etc. The capture of Jerusalem took place in the fourth month of the eleventh year (Jer 39:2; Jer 52:6) from the captivity of Jehoiachin and the beginning of Zedekiah’s reign. Are we to assume some error of transcription? or is it within the limits of probability that eighteen months would pass without any direct communication from Jerusalem of what had passed there? There is, I conceive, nothing improbable in what is stated. The exiles of Tel-Ahib were not on the high-roads of commerce or of war. All previous communications were cut off by the presence of the Chaldean armies. In the words, one that had escaped, the prophet clearly referred to the intimation given him at the time of his wife’s death (Eze 24:26). When the fugitive entered he saw that the hour had at last come. One would give much to know who the fugitive was, but we can only conjecture. Had Baruch been sent by Jeremiah to bear the tidings to his brother prophet? Such a mission would have been a fulfillment of Jer 45:5. A later tradition ascribes to Baruch a prominent part as a teacher among the exiles of Babylon (Bar. 1:2) shortly after the destruction of Jerusalem.
Eze 33:22
Now the hand of the Lord. When the messenger arrived he found the prophet in a state of ecstasy. This was in the evening. In that prophetic ecstasy his mouth was opened, and the long silence broken, and though he had not heard the message with his outward ears, he had taken, as it were, that message as his text. It was not till his discourse was ended, and the morning came, that he himself heard the terrible tidings from the lips of the messenger. Then a change came over him. He was no more dumb. The long silence was broken. Had the silence lasted, we ask, from Eze 3:26 onward? Had the whole intervening period been one of simply symbolic action, and of written but unspoken prophecies? The words at first suggest that conclusion; but it is traveled by the facts; by the commands of Eze 12:10, Eze 12:23; by the order to “prophesy” in Eze 13:2; by the message to speak unto the elders in Eze 14:4; by the question, “Doth he not speak parables?” of Eze 20:49. I infer, therefore, that, though the silence had been dominant, it had not been unbroken. To some, at least, a message had been spoken. Others may have been allowed to read the written prophecies. The death of the prophet’s wife tended, probably, to the continuance of the silence, and it seems a legitimate inference from Eze 24:27 that it had continued from that date onward.
Eze 33:24
They that inhabit thou wastes of the land. The utterance that follows was probably the direct result of what Ezekiel heard from the messenger. He it was who reported the boastful claims of those who had been left in the land by the Chaldean armiesthe “bad figs” of Jeremiah’s parable, the least worthy representatives of the seed of Abraham. the assassins of Gedaliah (Jer 41:1, Jer 41:2), who in these “waste places,” the dens and eaves in which they found a refuge, led the lives of outlaws and bandits. The very words of their boast are reproduced: “Abraham, when he was yet but one, received the premise of inheritance. We are comparatively many, and are left as the true seed of Abraham (comp. Mat 3:9). The land is ours, and we will take possession of the estates of the exiles.”
Eze 33:25
Ye eat with the blood. It is characteristic of Ezekiel that the first offence which he names with horror should be a sin against a positive commandment. He felt, as it were, a sense of loathing at what seemed to him a descent into the worst form of pollution, forbidden, not to the Jews only (Le Eze 17:10; Eze 19:1-14 :26; Deu 12:16), but to mankind (Gen 9:4); compare the scene in 1Sa 14:32. The same feeling shows itself in Zec 9:7 and Act 15:20, Act 15:29. The prohibition of blood took its place, in later Judaism, as among the precepts of Noah, which were binding even on the proselytes of the gate, upon whom, as distinct from the proselytes of righteousness, the rite of circumcision was not enforced; and as such were accepted by the council at Jerusalem, as binding also among Christian converts. Not for such as these was the inheritance of Israel, and the prophet asks indignantly, after naming yet more hateful offenses, Shall ye possess the land?
Eze 33:26
Ye stand upon your sword. The words point to the open assertion of the law that might is right. Men relied on the sword, and on that only, for their support. Assassinations, as in Jer 41:1-18; were, so to speak, as the order of the day. Ye work abomination. The noun, Ezekiel’s ever-recurring word, indicates both the act of idolatry and the foul orgiastic rites that accompanied it. The verb, curiously enough, has the feminine suffix. Was it used intentionally, either as pointing to the prominence of women in those rites (Jer 44:15), or to the degrading vices which involved the loss of true manhood (2Ki 23:7)? So some have thought; but I agree with Keil, Smend, and others, in seeing only an error of transcription. Once more, after heaping up his accusations, Ezekiel asks the question, “Shall ye possess the land?” “Are you the seed of Abraham?”
Eze 33:27
They that are in the wastes. The words paint, with a terrible vividness, what was passing in Ezekiel’s fatherland. Did the fugitives of Judah seek the open country? they were exposed to the sword of the Chaldeans or of marauding outlaws. Did they seek safety in fortresses or caves? they were exposed, crowded together as they were under the worst possible conditions, to the ravages of pestilence.
Eze 33:30
The children of thy people. The words, like those of Eze 14:1 and Eze 20:1, Eze 20:49, throw light on the prophet’s relations to his people. Now that the long silence was broken, and the prophet spoke with greater freedom than he had ever done before, he acquired a fresh notoriety. The character of his last utterance, vindicating, as it might seem, the claim of the exiles to “possess the land,” as against that of the remnant “in the wastes,” may even have made him popular. The Authorized Version against is misleading; read, with the margin and the Revised Version, about. There was for the time no open hostility. They talked much, in places of private or public resort, of the prophet’s new action. Each invited his neighbor to go and hear the prophet as he spake to them his message from Jehovah. And they came as the people cometh, in crowds, even as my people, the people of Jehovah, with reverent gestures and listening eagerly. Never before, we may well believe, had the prophet had so large or so promising a congregation. But he was taught to look below the surface and to read their thoughts, and there he read, as preachers of all ages have too often read after him, that they were hearers, and not doers (Mat 7:24-27; Jas 1:23-25). In words they showed much love (the LXX. gives “falsehood”), spoke pleasant things, but the root-evil, the besetting sin, was still there. Their heart went after their covetousness (camp. Mat 13:22; 2Ti 4:10).
Eze 33:32
A very lovely song; literally, a song of love, an erotic idyll, the word being the same as in Eze 33:31. Yet this was the meaning of the large gathering. They came to hear the prophet, as they would to hear a hired singer at a banquet, like those of Amo 6:5. The prophet’s words passed over them and left no lasting impression. All that they sought was the momentary tickling of the sense. The words receive a special significance from Psa 137:3. The Jewish exiles were famous among their conquerors for the minstrel’s art. The nobler singers refused to “sing the songs of Zion in a strange land;” others, it may be, were not so scrupulous. Had the prophet seen his people gather to listen to such a singer? Were they better occupied when they were listening to his message from Jehovah.
Eze 33:33
When this cometh to pass. The words can scarcely refer to the immediately preceding predictions in Eze 33:27, Eze 33:28, which were primarily addressed to “the people in the waste places,” the remnant left in Judah, and we have to go back to the wider, more general teaching of Eze 33:10-20. That was the prophet’s message of judgment, his call to repentance. When the judgment should come, as it surely would, then they would know, in the bitterness of self-condemnation, that they had been listening, not to a hireling singer, but to a prophet of Jehovah.
HOMILETICS
Eze 33:1-9
The watchman.
Ezekiel here returns to an idea which he has expressed earlier (Eze 3:17). He stands as a watchman for his people. Every Christian preacher and teacher is in a similar position. The same may be said of every Christian man and woman who knows the peril of sin and has an opportunity of warning the ignorant and. careless.
I. THE DUTIES OF THE WATCHMAN.
1. To watch. In order to serve his people he must first of all see for himself. We can only teach men what we have first learnt. The prophet must be a seer, the apostle a disciple, the missionary a Christian. To watch means
(1) to be awake while others sleep;
(2) to fix attention while others are listless;
(3) to look abroad while others are satisfied with what they can see at home.
The Christian watchman must be spiritually alert; he must not be satisfied with his own notions; he must sweep the horizon of truth; he must consider the distant and the future, but chiefly that which is approaching and of practical moment. He must look especially in two directions:
(1) into the revealed truths of Christianity, to see indications of the principles of life and death;
(2) into the actual world, to note its condition. Knowledge of men must go with knowledge of Scripture. The Christian teacher must not be a mere bookworm or cloistered student; he must know the worldmen and affairs.
2. To warn. Having seen danger, the watchman must at once inform the city of the fact. He must wake the slumbering guard, blow the trumpet, or run to the belfry and sound the alarm. The Christian teacher is to warn as well as to comfort and exhort (1Th 5:14).
II. THE LIMIT OF HIS RESPONSIBILITY. The watchman has but to watch and warn. When he has been quick to detect approaching danger, perhaps at first but as a faint cloud of dust on the horizon, and vigorous in blowing his trumpet to rouse the city, his part is done. He cannot meet the foe in the plain and prevent them from approaching the city. He cannot man the walls and guard the citadel. He can but blow his trumpet. Further, if the people will not heed or believe him, he cannot compel them to prepare for the conflict. If they still prefer their couches to their swords, the watchman cannot force them to arm. He is not the commander of the city. The greatest Christian teacher is but a watchman. No servant of Christ can compel men to turn from their carelessness and face the stern facts of life. If they will not hearken to faithful expostulation, the preacher can do no more for them. They are free, and they must choose fur themselves.
1. This is a warning to the careless. They may refuse to attend. They can fall asleep again, vexed at the rousing trumpet-blast. But if they do this it is at their peril.
(1) The danger is not the less because it is neglected.
(2) The folly and sin of negligence aggravate the faults of those who give no heed to warning. Now they are without excuse. They can blame no one but themselves.
2. This is a consolation for the faithful watchman. If he is a true man, he must grieve over his negligent hearers. Still, his Master will recognize his fidelity.
III. THE GUILT OF HIS NEGLIGENCE.
1. It is failure in a trust. The citizens sleep in time of peril, and no one expects them to be on guard. But the watchman’s special duty is to be awake and give warning. He who is entrusted with responsibility is expected to be true to his charge.
2. It is sin against light. The watchman sees the danger which the sleeping citizens do not perceive. His knowledge adds to his responsibility. His sin is but negative, he gives no false news, he does not play the traitor by opening the gates to the enemy. Yet he is unfaithful.
3. It is negligence that hurts others. It risks a whole city. We risk the welfare of all whom we might help to save, if we fail to warn them. Fear of disturbing their peace is no excuse. The watchman must have courage to sound the alarm. There are times when the harp must be exchanged for the trumpet. The preacher must have courage to say unpleasant things.
Eze 33:10
A question of despair.
I. THE CAUSE OF THE DESPAIR. The prophet has just been told that his responsibility is limited to his warning the people faithfully. If the watchman blows the trumpet lustily he can do no more. The blood of the careless people will then be on their own heads. But this truth, which gives consolation to the prophet, is alarming to the people. It is meant to be so. Yet the alarm may be taken in a wrong way. Instead of rousing themselves to meet and overcome the danger, the people may sink down paralyzed in the blankness of despair. The explanation of this despair is suggested by the language of the people.
1. A consciousness of guilt. The people perceive that their transgressions and their sins are upon them. The pilgrim feels the weight of his burden. The sudden awakening of an evil conscience plunges its possesser into midnight darkness. The new thing is not to know that wickedness was done; that knowledge was always possessed, though hitherto not much considered. It is to know that the sins still rest upon their doer, i.e. it is the feeling of present guilt for past deeds of wickedness.
2. An experience of the consequences of sin. “And we pine away in them.” The death-penalty of sin does not come like a flash of lightning. Sin is a slow poison. It kills by a sort of spiritual consumption. With an awakening conscience the man perceives himself to be in a spiritual decline. No perception can be more provocative of despair.
II. THE QUESTION IT AROUSES. “How should we then live?” The despair is not yet absolute, or it would not suggest such a question as this. The most awful despair does not live in Doubting Castle. It is immured in a black dungeon of certain negation. Possibly the question suggested does not expect any answer. It sees no reply, and does not believe that any can be given. The decline is so steadfast, and the disease of sin that causes it so deep-rooted, that the despairing soul cannot look for deliverance, and the question is a sort of expostulation offered to the prophet when he would take a more hopeful view. Still it is a question, and therefore it leaves room for an answer. It is much that men should be brought to ask such a question. Too many do not perceive their danger, though they live in sin unrepented and unrestrained. The question implies certain thoughts.
1. Sinners are in imminent peril of death. To those who are truly awakened the prospect must be alarming. But the danger is not the less for those who do not yet perceive it.
2. Men cannot save their own souls. These endangered people must look elsewhere for safety. Unless salvation comes from above, it cannot be had.
3. Men need light on the way of salvation. It is not visible to the eye of sense; it cannot be discovered by thinking. The world needs a gospel. The heathen pine away, not knowing the Divine source of life.
4. Christ answers the Question of despair with a gospel of hope. The answer is suggested in the next verse (Eze 33:11). It is completed in the gospel of Christ.
Eze 33:11
God’s desire for the world’s salvation.
This is a Divine oath. God swears by his own life (see Heb 6:13). This shows how certain are the words spoken, how earnestly God desires men to accept them, and how difficult it is for men to believe them.
I. MEN HAVE FOUND IT DIFFICULT TO BELIEVE THAT GOD HAS NO PLEASURE IN THE DEATH OF THE WICKED. Doctrines of reprobation were once popular. People thought that God destined the greater part of mankind to eternal misery before they were born, in order to magnify his own glory. The heathen have had ideas of gods who delighted in blood. Christians have thought that there is a certain Divine satisfaction in taking vengeance on the sinner. Consider the causes of these views.
1. Divine warnings. God warns sternly. Hence he is thought to will harshly. It is supposed that he desires to do what he threatens.
2. The analogy of human passions. With man “revenge is sweet.” Therefore it is thought to be so with God. Men act too much in order to please themselves. Therefore they imagine that God does the same.
3. The experience of Divine judgments. They are at times so sweeping and wholesale, and escape from them seems to be so hopeless, that their victims are tempted to regard them as the outcome of God’s own desires.
II. IT IS A FACT THAT GOD HAS NO PLEASURE IN THE DEATH OF THE WICKED.
1. This is positively affirmed. Here it is stated on oath. No truth of revelation is more clear or positive than this.
2. It is true to the character of God. God is love, and love can have no pleasure in suffering and death. God is our Father, and a true father can have no pleasure in the death of his children.
3. It is confirmed by the action of God, who has sent his Son to save the world. While death is the wages of sin, the gift of God is the opposite-eternal life. The New Testament is a grand contradiction to theological pessimism.
III. THE DEATH OF THE WICKED IS DUE TO THEIR OWN WILLS. “Why will ye die?” He wills to die who wills the means of death. The man who takes poison takes his life. When the process is revealed this is done openly. When it is not seen it is still done. The sinner then wills his own death, though unwittingly, by deliberately choosing the course that will certainly issue in it. Now, this is a matter of a man’s own volition. So absolute is the territory of will that the wicked may yet die in their sins, although God not only does not desire their death, but earnestly desires their salvation. The awful freedom of man’s willthis is the rook on which universalism breaks.
IV. GOD ENTREATS MEN TO TURN AND LIVE.
1. It is possible for all to live. As the sinner chooses his own death, so the means of life-deliverance are within his reach. He cannot save himself, but he may choose whether he will be saved.
2. The condition of life is conversion. “Turn ye from your evil ways.” This is true repentance. It means more than regretful tears. It takes place in the will, not merely in the emotions. A tearless change is true conversion, while weeping without change is worthless sentiment. Yet this does not require perfect conquest of evil and a full recovery from it before God will have mercy. We are to turn round. The progress up the hill to light and life has yet to be made. Repentance sets cur faces in the right direction.
3. God urges and entreats sinners to turn and live. This shows
(1) their great danger;
(2) God’s wonderful compassion and love; and yet
(3) the difficulty of inducing men to repent.
Thus God still pleads in infinite pity with his lost children. Happy are they who hear his gracious call and respond to it!
Eze 33:12-16
Past and present.
I. THE PRESENT WILL NOT BE JUDGED BY THE PAST. This is one principle underlying the various very clear statements of the passage. It is a principle that is needed in order to balance the influence of other principles that appear to work in an opposite direction. Indeed, at first sight it seems to be contradictory to some well-known laws. Is it not repeatedly asserted that a man will be judged by his past life? The sins of the past may be forgotten, but they stand recorded in the book of judgment and the guilt of them remains on the sinner. How, then, is it possible for the present and future to be free from the past?
1. The past lives by its effects in the present. If, however, by effort of will, aided by Divine grace, we neutralize the bad past, then that past is slain.
2. Forgiveness removes the guilt of the past.
3. Past innocence has no power in it to prevent present sin. It is a help in that direction, for it works through the force of habit. But habit may be resisted and broken.
II. PAST RIGHTEOUSNESS WILL NOT EXCUSE PRIEST SIN. We are judged chiefly, at all events, by what we are, rather than by what we were. Moreover, there is no possibility of our having acquired an extra stock of merit in the past which we can set off against our present failing. We never have a balance on the credit side of our account with Heaven. At our best we are but “unprofitable servants’ (Luk 17:10). An employer cares little for old testimonials. He must see a certificate of character up to date. If a man has borne an excellent reputation for years, and at last breaks down and disgraces himself, he is said to have “lost his character.” His good name in the past now counts for nothing. It is utterly gone. Now, the practical warning that issues from these considerations is that we must take good heed to our present life. It is of no use to hark back to the day of conversion for assurance. We may long have left the good beginnings of that day. There is no security in past service, position in the Church, etc. We need to be on our guard against falling, even to the last. It is possible to turn aside at the eleventh hour. The ship may be wrecked in sight of the haven; then her passengers will not be saved by their memory of their long prosperous voyage.
III. PAST SIN WILL NOT PREVENT PRESENT SALVATION. Happily, the principle works both ways. If we must first take it as a warning against trusting in a good past, we may also consider it as a reason for not despairing on account of a bad past.
1. The bad past may be forsaken. The grace of Christ will help us to break loose from the tyranny of habit.
2. The bad past may be forgiven. The Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world removes the stains of guilt from penitent souls. Then God will no more accuse them of the past. Pardon covers the past with oblivion.
3. The new present is what God observes. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2Co 5:17). Then God only looks at the new life and judges of that. Therefore we supremely need grace for the present moment. We live in the present. Religion is for the present.
Eze 33:17
Charging God with injustice.
I. IT IS NATURAL FOR MEN TO BE CONCERNED ABOUT THE JUSTICE OF GOD‘S ACTIONS. The moral character of Providence is of immense importance. If God acted from caprice, there would be no ground on which we could rely in approaching him, and our whole lives would lie at the mercy of chance. If he were unjust, the most fearful confusion would result. Our security lies in the justice of God, in our knowledge that he will only do what is fair and equable and right. Though we depend on the mercy of God, we cannot refrain from appealing repeatedly to his justice. We are much concerned to know that he is perfectly just.
II. THERE ARE CIRCUMSTANCES UNDER WHICH GOD APPEARS TO BE UNJUST. It certainly cannot be said that nature and providence are clear revelations of Divine justice, so legibly written that he who runs may read. The world abounds with inequalities. There are the greatest differences in the lots of innocent children. Good men fall into adversity; bad men prosper. The special ground of difficulty with the readers of Ezekiel was that men of time-honored character were punished, while notorious sinners were pardoned. This was apparently a matter of much distress and doubt, leading to accusations against God for not acting equally, i.e. fairly.
III. IT IS FOOLISH TO FORM HASTY OPINIONS CONCERNING GOD‘S JUSTICE.
1. We do not know all the facts. We see a certain superficial condition; what lies deeper is hidden. Possibly Ezekiel’s contemporaries did not know of the fall of the men of good repute, or of the amendment of their notoriously wicked acquaintances.
2. We do not know all the principles on which God acts. They may be ultimately based on justice, and yet they may be complicated with various considerations. God is not only rewarding and punishing.
3. We do not know the true character of events. What we name evil may really be good. At all events, there may be mercies in disguise.
IV. MEN ARE SLOW TO RECOGNIZE GOD‘S PERCEPTION OF CHARACTER. Most people are reluctant to admit that characters are susceptible of change. They label their acquaintances with certain moral titles, and they refuse to allow that those titles are altered. At all events, this is especially true in regard to changes for the worse in themselves and in regard to alterations for the better in others. A man takes it for granted that he will always be estimated according to his old good character. On the other hand, the world is slow to believe in repentance and amendment. It regards the pardon of the sinner as unreasonable, because it will not see that when he repents he is no longer a sinner.
V. IT IS COMMON TO LAY THE CHARGE OF MAN‘S INJUSTICE TO GOD‘S ACCOUNT. “But as for them, their way is not equal.” Straight lines look crooked when regarded through a crooked glass. To the unjust man justice seems to be unjust. Sin gives an evil color to holiness. The righteousness of God is obscured by man’s unrighteousness,
VI. IT WOULD BE WELL FOR MEN TO CONSIDER THEIR OWN WAYS INSTEAD OF JUICING GOD‘S WAYS. The trouble that is wasted in difficult theological speculations had better be spent in searching self-examination. While we are looking for a mote in God’s eye, we Jail to see the beam in our own eyethe beam that caused us to fancy there was any mote in God’s eye at all! Theology is too often an excuse for the neglect of religion, but difficulties in providence do not destroy the guilt of sin.
Eze 33:24
The right of the many.
The idea seems to bethough Abraham was but one man, yet he was promised Canaan; much more, then, must his descendants have a right to the land, since they now form a numerous nation. This plea is urged against the threat that the Jews shall be expelled from their land. It is not difficult to discover its hollowness. But it is propped up by common fallacies against which we need to be on our guard.
I. THE PLEA. It stands on two grounds.
1. That children have a right to their father‘s property. This is recognized in law and equity. If a man dies intestate, his family inherits his goods as a matter of course. The same is looked for in regard to the special privileges of Divine grace.
2. That numbers multiply rights. If Abraham had a right to the land, much more must a whole nation of his descendants hold that right. This democratic age glories in the rights of numbers. No doubt the people have rights as against privileged monopolists. Thus it may well be urged in an over-populous country, that the people have certain rights in the land, that there must be some limit at least to landlord monopoly. The same democratic feeling passes over to religion. Christ preached to the people, and “the common people heard him gladly” (Mar 12:37). Hence the idea that privilege in religion is transferred from the monopolist to the multitude, from priest to people, from Israel to the world.
II. THE FALLACY.
1. The descendants of Abraham may not be his true children. It was a mistake to make much of descent from the great ancestor. That only condemned the more heavily the sins of his unworthy descendants. John the Baptist rebuked this mistake when he told the proud Jews that God was able to raise up children to Abraham from the very stones of the wilderness (Mat 3:9). St. Paul pointed out that not all who were of the stock of Israel could be accounted the true Israel of God (Rom 9:6). They are Abraham’s children who inherit Abraham’s faith.
2. Where no right exists, the number of claimants will not create it. The right to Canaan was only conferred by God’s grace, and only held on condition of faithfulness. It could be and it was withdrawn when that condition was broken. The number who claimed the right could not affect the question as to the desert of the people to retain it. No one merits the kingdom of heaven. If millions claim the privileges of the kingdom, the millions have no right to it. The number of sinners creates no fight to have the pardon of sin. If the whole world deserves destruction, the whole world may be destroyed. Its numbers will not save it. If we appeal to God’s grace, that applies to a single individual. Not a sparrow falls to the ground without his notice. He has infinite love for the most obscure of his subjects. Therefore the multiplication of the number of the guilty will not arouse his pity in a new and special manner.
3. Each individual must seek individual grace. We cannot be made citizens of the kingdom of heaven en masse. We must go single file through the strait gate.
4. There is room in the grace of God for the greatest number. The multitude of applicants can never be too great for infinite bounty. The many can claim no rights. But the gospel is for them, not for the few. Christ came to give his life a ransom “for many” (Mat 20:28).
Eze 33:30-33
Popular preaching.
Ezekiel illustrates the characteristics of popular preaching in his own person and example. He is also brought to see how vain and delusive the attractiveness of it may be.
I. THE SECRET OF POPULAR PREACHING.
1. A good voice. Ezekiel’s preaching was “as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice.” The first physical condition of preaching is to be able to make one’s self heard. The story of Demosthenes declaiming with pebbles in his mouth by the seashore shows how the Greeks valued good articulation in oratory.
2. A graceful manner. Ezekiel was compared to a skilled player of music. The human voice is a delicate instrument. The manner in which it is used considerably affects the attractiveness of the speaker. An audience likes to hear pleasant speaking.
3. Rhythmic utterance. The special charm of Ezekiel’s speech was compared to song and music. There is a rhythm of thought as well as of words. People do not enjoy rude shocks to their prejudices.
4. Imaginativeness. We have the substance of Ezekiel’s preaching, and even in the reduced form of an abstract and a translation it teems with imagery. People enjoy good illustrations. The concrete is more interesting than the abstract.
5. Fervor. The popular description of Ezekiel’s preaching would do injustice to the prophet if we were not able to supplement it with is recorded utterances. Ezekiel was not an empty, mellifluous rhetorician. He put his heart into his words. Though less pathetic than Hosea and Jeremiah, and though falling short of the rapture of Isaiah, he was a preacher of power and earnestness. Pleasant words cloy if forcible words do not accompany them. Demosthenes the orator of force was greater than Cicero the orator of grace.
6. Truth. Ezekiel spoke true wordswords that were true to fact and life, true to the heart of man, and true to the thought of God. There is a spell in truth. To speak truth feebly may arrest attention when to clothe error with all the charms of rhetoric fails.
7. Inspiration. Ezekiel was a prophet. He spoke under Divine influence. This was the greatest cause of his power. The preacher needs to be a prophet. He must drink of the Divine well if he would give forth words of power.
II. THE FAILURE OF POPULAR PREACHING.
1. Popularity is no proof of success. In his early preaching Ezekiel was neglected (Eze 3:7). But there came a turn in the tide, and then his name was in everybody’s mouth, and people thronged to hear him. Yet this was not success. There is no proof that a good work is being accomplished, in the fact that crowds hang upon the utterances of a famous speaker. It may be that he is prostituting his gifts, and catering only for applause, to the neglect of truth and right, like Jeremiah’s pleasant-speaking rivals (Jer 23:16, Jer 23:17). But even if he speaks like Ezekiel, like Ezekiel he may be to the people but a pleasant voice.
2. To be interested in preaching is no proof of truly benefiting by it.
(1) There may be a social interest, in following the crowds who run after a fashionable orator.
(2) There may be an emotional interest, when the pulpit is taken as the Sunday substitute for the stage, and people relieve the ennui of commonplace existence by indulging in the emotions stirred by eloquence.
(3) There may be an intellectual interest, when theological questions are in vogue, as in Puritan times, when men discussed predestination at the alehouse. Milton represents Satan and his crew debating deep theological problems in hell. Their interest in theology did not save them. We may be interested in the substance of preaching, and anxious to learn truth, and yet still fall to receive the designed good of the message.
3. Preaching fails if it does not lead to practice. Ezekiel’s hearers flatter hum with lip-thanks, and make verbal acknowledgments, of what he says; but they go no further.
(1) The heart is not touched. Their heart goeth after their covetousness.”
(2) The conduct is not affected. “They hear thy words, but they do them not.”
Ezekiel agrees with St. James, that hearing without doing is vain (Jas 1:22). So Christ teaches in his parable of the house on the sand and the house on the rock (Mat 7:24-27).
Eze 33:33
The recognition of a prophet.
I. A PROPHET IS NOT ALWAYS RECOGNIZED. Ezekiel was among his people as a prophet, yet they did not admit his claim. This is the more remarkable because they recognized the charm of his preaching, which had become exceedingly popular. His higher ministry was still ignored. While the common people heard Christ gladly, and confessed that “never man spake like this Man,” his greatest message was ignored, and his chief claim set aside by the multitude. God sometimes sends a prophet to these later times. His gifts and powers are recognized, but the world is slow to perceive that he brings a message from God.
1. The deeper truth does not show itself in outward effects on the senses.
2. Men are too often out of all sympathy with spiritual truth.
3. A prophet‘s words may refer to the future.
II. A PROPHET WILL BE RECOGNIZED WHEN THE TRUTH OF HIS WORDS IS CONFIRMED BY EVENTS.
1. A prophet’s words are true. The mere utterance of lofty thoughts is of little value if those thoughts are not true. The authority of a prophet resides in the truth of his message.
2. A true prophet’s words concern facts of life. They have not only to deal with unseen verities; they also concern the application of those verities to everyday experience. There they may be seen and tested. Religion bears upon life. Its truth is illustrated by its working in the world. If our faith will work, we have a good reason for believing that it is grounded in truth.
3. A prophet’s words will be tested by events. The false prophet will be surely exposed. If people had not very short memories they would observe how a succession of modern prophets have fixed near dates for the accomplishment of predictions in Daniel and the Revelation; the wave of time has wiped out these fatal dates, and yet the world exists! On first thought we should think it a privilege to have been contemporaries with the prophets-to have heard Isaiah preach, and Ezekiel, and Hosea; to have listened to Peter and John and Paul; above all, to have been in the throng that gathered on the shores of the Sea of Galilee when Jesus was on earth. Yet our present privileges are really greater than any could have been under those circumstances, because we have the grand confirmation of history.
III. A PROPHET SHOULD BE RECOGNIZED BY HIS HEARERS.
1. Not to recognize him reveals spiritual callousness. The true prophet is not only discerned by visible signs. We are required to “try the spirits” (1Jn 4:1). Thus it is possible to know whether a man comes to us from God. At all events, we may judge by the present moral and spiritual results of teaching. Without waiting for historical events, “by their fruits ye shall know them” in their influence on present-day life. It is to the disgrace of the Church that some of her best teachers have been tabooed as heretics or neglected with chilling indifference.
2. Not to recognize him means to miss a golden opportunity. For a prophet to have been among us, and yet not to have been recognized, means a sad loss. He may have been popular as a preacher, yet we have grieved his heart if we have not acknowledged his Divine mission. When it is too late this is seen. No sooner is the persecuted or neglected prophet departed than a chorus of praises springs up around his grave. It would have been better to have hearkened to his living words. Men build the tombs of dead prophets, and stone their living successors.
HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON
Eze 33:7
The commission of the watchman.
In the position occupied by Ezekiel there was much that was special and peculiar; his commission and his duty accordingly differed in many respects from those of other prophets, and in a degree still more marked from those of ordinary ministers of religion. Still, the points in which his ministry accorded with that of other heralds of Divine righteousness and mercy were both more numerous and more important than those which were special to himself. The consideration of Ezekiel’s calling must therefore not only help us to realize what was his work, but help us to apprehend and feel how solemn and sacred is the responsibility attaching to the office of every true religious teacher and preacher.
I. HIS DIVINE APPOINTMENT. Upon this the mind of the prophet was clear. He had heard his God, the God of his fathers, addressing his inmost nature: “I have set thee a watchman.” He did not assume the office and the work at the instigation of his own heart. It was not through vanity or ambition that he took upon him to speak authoritatively to his countrymen. He was not invited or summoned by the house of Israel to be their counselor. The voice that called him was Divine; it was a voice which he had no moral option but to obey.
II. HIS SPECIAL CHARGE. Ezekiel did indeed receive messages for others than his countrymen; he communicated the mind and will of God to Edom and to Moab, to Tyre and to Egypt. But it was the house of Israel to whom he was sent, who were placed, in a measure, under his care. They were his own people and kindred, sharing his inherited advantages and privileges. And he seems to have felt towards them very much, as centuries afterwards, Paul felt towards his kindred according to the flesh. He had a burning zeal and solicitude for their welfare. He counted it an honorable and sacred, although a very painful, office to watch for their souls.
III. HIS PERSONAL QUALIFICATIONS. It is not fanciful to lay great stress upon the appellation by which he is constantly addressed by the Lord himself: “Son of man.” In order to mediate between God and man, a prophet needs not only a nature reverent and receptive towards God, but a nature sympathetic towards man. A true man, understanding human strength and weakness, entering into the trials and temptations of human life, appreciating human motives, hopes, fears, and aims, the minister of religion is qualified to deal with the souls of his fellow-creatures. No one can read the book of his prophecies without feeling that Ezekiel was just such a man.
IV. HIS RECEPTIVE ATTITUDE. Ezekiel’s first business was to place himself in communication with the Being in whom is all truth, in whom is all authority. “Hear the word at my mouth!” was God’s command. A mind confident in its own wisdom, self-sufficient and arrogant, could not fulfill the prophetic office aright. The prophet speaks for God; but he must first be with God. He must see the vision he is to relate, and hear the message he is to repeat. There is ever danger lest religious teachers should teach upon their own account; but reverence and modesty should lead them to regard themselves as vehicles of truth and warning, promise and encouragement, to their fellow-men.
V. HIS ACTIVE DUTY. “Warn them from me!” was the Divine command; which implies that the house of Israel was in danger, and needed stirring and authoritative admonition. And this was indeed the ease, as is apparent from the facts of their history. It is an unthankful office to discharge, and Ezekiel met, as every faithful Teacher must do, with hostility and unbelief, with resentment and ingratitude. But the duty was plain, and the prophet fulfilled it, whether men gave heed or forbore. And his ministry was not wholly in vain.T.
Eze 33:8, Eze 33:9
The responsibility of the watchman.
It was well that the prophet should be given clearly to understand what was expected and required of him, not by men to whom he was sent, but by God who sent him. Plainer language could not have been used than this, in which Ezekiel is not only told the nature of his message to the house of Israel, but is informed of the responsibility attaching to the manner in which the commission was fulfilled.
I. THE DUTY. The special duty of the watchman or guardian, as here explained, concerns the treatment of the wicked. More particularly it is for him
(1) to warn the wicked;
(2) to assure the inattentive and impenitent that the punishment of death awaits him;
(3) to admonish him to repent.
II. THE POSSIBILITY OF FAILURE. Enthusiasm sometimes loses sight of this. Many a young minister of religion commences his work with the conviction that God’s message has only to be delivered in order to its acceptance; that the moral Law is so beautiful that it has but to be exhibited in order to be revered and honored; that the gospel is so precious and glorious that no one who hears it can fail to embrace it. Experience dispels many of our illusions; and it is soon found that there are men capable of listening to the threats of the Law and to the promises of the gospel with utter indifference and unconcern. Ezekiel was reminded that some of the wicked might not turn, might die in their iniquity. Doubtless he found that this was actually the case. It is no discredit either to the message or to the messenger that men do not accept the Word and act upon it. Our Lord Jesus had occasion to marvel at the unbelief of those to whom he ministered; and when St. Paul preached, “some believed, and some believed not.”
III. THE UNFAITHFUL WATCHCASE. This is the appointed guardian who “does not speak to warn the wicked of his way.” This unfaithfulness may be accounted for by indolence, or by undue fear, or by a desire to conciliate and please his hearers. But all such motives should be consumed by a burning desire on the part of the spiritual guardian to commend himself to his Master. The watchman is assured that if, through his unfaithfulness, the wicked dies unwarned and impenitent in his iniquity, the blood of the perishing shall be required at the watchman’s hand.
IV. THE FAITHFUL WATCHMAN. Faithfulness does not involve uniform or even usual success. The earnestly and frequently warned may nevertheless die in his iniquity, The fervent prophet, the zealous preacher, the diligent pastor, may have the inexpressible sorrow of seeing little fruit of their labor. It may be necessary that the testimony should be borne, even though rejected and despised. But the servant of the Lord is assured, for his encouragement, that, if he does his duty, he delivers his soul His workmanship may perish in the flames; yet he himself may be saved, though through the fire.T.
Eze 33:12, Eze 33:13
The vanity of transitory goodness.
The ministers of religion are often pained and sometimes discouraged by instances, such as are here referred to, of that goodness which is “as the morning cloud and the early dew, which soon goeth away.”
I. THERE IS A GOODNESS WHICH IS SPECIOUS, BUT SUPERFICIAL. Like the seed growing upon rocky soil, it springs up rapidly, and its show is fair; but the reality has no correspondence to the appearance. Impressible, easily influenced, and fickle natures are the soil upon which this growth is observed.
II. IN TIME OF TRIAL THE BASELESSNESS OF THIS GOODNESS IS MADE APPARENT. The man trusts to his own righteousness, commits iniquity, and transgresses the Divine Law. Temptation assails, persecution terrifies, ridicule overcomes, evil example persuades; and then the weak character yields, unable to endure the probation. Such cases are frequent in the experience of all who work for God and have to deal with a variety of human character and disposition.
III. GOODNESS WHICH DOES NOT ENDURE PROBATION IS NOT REMEMBERED, AND AVAILS NOTHING IN GOD‘S SIGHT. The character of a man is regarded as a whole, and is not judged by any partial aspects or manifestations. Because a man has had good feelings or has performed good acts, it does not follow that he is a good man. It is life, and not any one day of life, which is the true period of probation. A virtue that cannot endure temptation is no true virtue. “He that endureth to the end shall be saved.”
APPLICATION. The minister of religion must not be misled by the mere appearance of piety. He must wait and look for the proof of that deep-seated principle, which alone can govern the conduct and transfigure the life. At the same time, he must make use of every means to fortify men against inevitable temptation, and especially must he admonish the young and inexperienced to watch and to pray, and to take unto them the whole armor of God.T.
Eze 33:14, Eze 33:15
The efficacy of repentance.
If, on the one hand, the prophet was warned that some seemingly righteous, superficially good, would fail, he was encouraged, on the other hand, by the assurance that some wicked persons would, as the result of his admonitions, repent and convert, and would be brought to true and Divine life.
I. THE SEAT OF REPENTANCE. This must be the spiritual nature. The promptings to a better life come from within, from better feelings and better convictions and purposes. Repentance is a change of mind, of heart.
II. THE MANIFESTATIONS OF REPENTANCE. These will vary with the previous life, with the special circumstances, the opportunities and position of the convert. In Eze 33:15 these practical proofs of repentance are mentioned, and these acts may be taken as examples of the modes in which true repentance will undoubtedly display itself.
III. THE REWARD OF REPENTANCE.
1. The evil deeds of the former life shall not be remembered or imputed.
2. The sentence of death shall be cancelled.
3. The penitent and reformed shall live, i.e. in the life of God himself.T.
Eze 33:20
Divine equity.
Ezekiel was well aware that his message would not meet with universal acceptance. But he was also aware that it would meet, not only with indifference and unbelief, but also with hostility and rejection. The very principles of the Divine government would be questioned. Forewarned is forearmed. And the prophet was himself convinced of the Divine justice. For were he not so convinced, the heart would have been taken out of his work, and his personal and ministerial life would have been blighted and weakened.
I. THE DIVINE EQUITY CHALLENGED. There were those who, when they listened to the intentions of the Supreme Ruler, as declared by his minister, criticized the principles of God’s administration, affirming, “The way of the Lord is not equal.”
1. There is a presumption against this criticism, arising from human ignorance and the limitation of human faculties.
2. And there is a presumption against it, arising from all that we certainly know of the character of the supreme Eternal Judge.
3. Another objection in many cases arises from the character of those who censure the ways of God: they have much to fear from judgment by a righteous and impartial tribunal.
II. THE DIVINE EQUITY VINDICATED. It is very remarkable that the method of vindication is not by a labored argument, but by a direct statement of fact and a direct appeal to men’s reason and conscience. “O house of Israel, I will judge every one of you after his ways.” That is to say:
1. God’s judgment and the consequent retribution are facts which no objection or skepticism can destroy.
2. The principles of God’s judicial action are such as it is hard for any reasonable man to blame or dispute. Every man is to be judged individually, and every man is to be judged upon his own conduct and his own character. These considerations have only to be amplified and to be pondered, and they afford a convincing and satisfactory reply to the objections of the captions and critical.T.
Eze 33:21
Evil tidings.
Ezekiel had relatedly and most plainly foretold the capture of Jerusalem. He waited in sad suspense for the fulfillment of his inspired prediction. At last it came; and one who had escaped from Jerusalem, and who had fled eastward, brought the tidings to the children of the Captivity.
I. THESE TIDINGS AFFECTED EZEKIEL AS A MAN, AROUSING HIS SYMPATHY.
II. THESE TIDINGS AFFECTED HIM AS A PATRIOT, AFFLICTING HIM WITH HUMILIATION. Jerusalem was the metropolis of his country, of his race,it was the scene of events famous in national story. It had been won by the prowess of David; it had been adorned by the opulence and splendor of Solomon; it had been the emporium of commerce, and the home of the learned and the great. It had been the chosen seat of the sanctuary of Jehovah. How could a true-hearted Hebrew like Ezekiel hear of the capture and fall of the city of David, without feeling his heart sore and anguished because of his country’s bitter humiliation?
III. THESE TIDINGS AFFECTED HIM, AS A DEVOUT ISRAELITE, WITH SINCERE DISTRESS. Ezekiel looked upon this event as a chastisement from God inflicted because of the unfaithfulness of the people, and their neglect to use their privileges and opportunities as they should have done. When the blow fell, his fears were realized and his sorrow was stirred within him, because of this consequence of Judah’s sins, and because of the evidence afforded of the displeasure of the righteous God.
IV. THESE TIDINGS AFFECTED HIM AS A PROPHET WHO RECOGNIZED HEREIN THE FULFILMENT OF THE INSPIRED PREDICTION. What befell Jerusalem was what Ezekiel had, in the name of the Lord, repeatedly and plainly foretold. He could not but be confirmed in the veracity of his God and in the authenticity of his own commission, when the word which he had spoken was fulfilled, and when the disaster of which he had faithfully warned his fellow-countrymen fell upon them in all its destructiveness and desolation.T.
Eze 33:23-29
The powerlessness of privilege to save.
At length the prophet’s lips are opened; and he who for so long has been dumb, so far as ministration to his own people was concerned, is set free to testify to the sons of Abraham. While silenced as regards Israel, Ezekiel has prophesied concerning the heathen nations. Now he again addresses his countrymen, and it is interesting to observe to what purpose he uses his recovered liberty of speech. Always candid, fearless, and faithful, the prophet assures his countrymen that a position of privilege, regarded by itself, is no guarantee of salvation and blessing, that privileges neglected and abused only entail the severer condemnation.
I. ISRAEL‘S PRIVELEGES. These were many, but Ezekiel makes especial reference to two.
1. The descent of the nation from Abraham, the father of the faithful and the friend of God.
2. The promise of inheriting the land. This Jehovah had given to the progenitors of the nation, and he had fulfilled his gracious assurance. No people were so highly favored; they possessed the memory of their glorious ancestors; the laws and promises given by Moses, their great leader, deliverer, and legislator; the institutions of priesthood, sacrifice, and worship, by which God revealed himself to his people and secured to them his mercy and favor; and all the associations and advantages connected with the occupation of the land of promise.
II. ISRAEL‘S UNFAITHFULNESS. The people had Abraham to their father, but they did not the works of Abraham, and they had not Abraham’s faith. The people did possess the land, but they did not use their national privileges as they might have done, they did not make the land a land of righteousness and true piety. The prophet, in this passage, refers to faults and sins of two orders, with which the people are especially upbraided.
(1) Idolatrous apostacy; and
(2) moral delinquency,both of which are charged upon the people with that outspoken plainness by which Ezekiel’s writings are so strikingly and honorably marked.
III. ISRAEL‘S PUNISHMENT. There is a certain monotony about these threats and denunciations. Because of the abominations which these highly favored people have committed, it is foretold:
1. That multitudes shall be slain by the sword of the enemy, by the wild beasts that shall multiply because of the desolation of the land, and by the pestilence.
2. That the country, in consequence of the calamities befalling its inhabitants, shall be wasted. The pride and pomp of her power shall cease, and her mountains shall be desolate, that done shall pass through.
IV. ISRAEL‘S WITNESS TO GOD. This is an unintentional and unconscious witness, but nonetheless a valuable and effective testimony for all who receive it. Those who see and hear of the fulfillment of the Divine warnings and predictions cannot but have their faith confirmed in the truth and power of the Most High, and in the righteousness of his dealings with the sons of men. He is shown to be a Judge, from whose observation and cognizance no misdemeanor can be screened, and from whose righteous sentence no criminal can escape.T.
Eze 33:30-33
The prophet’s reception.
Oftentimes have faithful ministers of religion to share the experience and the distress of Ezekiel, who was listened to with a measure of curiosity, interest, and satisfaction, but whose counsels were unheeded and whose requirements were unfulfilled. The Lord, who commissioned his servant the prophet, assured him that, notwithstanding his authoritative commission, he should meet, from many who heard his voice, with incredulity and practical rejection. Some, who were gratified with his discourse, his poetical illustrations, his sublime flights of imagination, his grand and rhetorical invective, should nevertheless refuse or neglect to put his precepts and admonitions into practice. There is something very picturesque in the account here given of the prophet’s reception. Some of its points are these
I. GENERAL INTEREST. The people talk of him, even if they talk against him; they say one to another, “Come, let us hear the word.” Ezekiel had not, therefore, to complain of neglect.
II. OUTWARD AND VERBAL RESPECT. His prophetic vocation is acknowledged. The people come to him and sit before him and listen to his discourse. There is every outward demonstration of honor.
III. ENJOYMENT OF HIS LANGUAGE. “Thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument.” The melody of the prophet’s speech, the grace of his diction, the grandeur of his style, excite and please the imagination of all who are capable of literary appreciation.
IV. PROFESSIONS OF LOVE. There is something beyond mere admiration. “With their mouth they show much love.” A witness within assures the people that the prophet is a man who feels for them and desires their welfare. Love awakens love, and in a superficial way they feel a certain attachment to the prophet personally; they know him to be their true friend.
V. CONSCIOUSNESS OF INCONSISTENCY BETWEEN THE PROPHETIC DOCTRINE AND THEIR OWN LIFE. This arises from their disobedience to the prophetic counsel and requirements. They hear the words of the Lord, but they will not do them; their heart goeth forth into covetousness. A schism is thus created between their innermost convictionsthe voice of reason and of conscience on the one hand, and their habitual practice on the other. The Word fails to produce a moral reformation. In such cases the prophet prophesies in vain.
VI. MATTER IS THUS LAID UP FOR FUTURE REPENTANCE. When we see what is best and do it not, we may be assured that our choice is one which we shall surely come to regret. The Hebrews of Ezekiel’s time knew that he was a just and faithful man, to whom they listened with interest and pleasure. They were assured that the time-should come when they should know that there had been a prophet among them, and that in neglecting his ministrations they had forfeited blessings then placed within their reach, and had wronged their own souls. Privileges neglected and abused can never be recalled, but their memory will be bitter when they rise up in judgment against the unfaithful.T.
HOMILIES BY J.D. DAVIES
Eze 33:1-9
The watchman’s office.
All the resources of God’s ingenuity are employed to find argument and appeal for man’s slumbering conscience. The incidents of ordinary life are carved into channels for the conveyance of Divine messages. No man shall say that the message was above his comprehension. For even a child can understand if it is willing. Lessons concerning the heavenly life meet the eye of the observer all the day long. As prudent men act to conserve their bodily life, so God acts in our spiritual concernments.
I. A HOSTILE INVASION SUPPOSED. In the earlier days of human history raids from neighboring tribes were frequent. International rights and usages were things unknown. Such an act as a public declaration of war was never considered a public duty. The more secretly and suddenly a hostile army could make its attack, the more to its credit. Hence a border population was kept in continual suspense. It had to bear the brunt of a thousand alarms and a thousand perils. Such invasions were often the act of God. Even idolatrous and wicked men are sometimes God’s instruments, God’s hand. As often as the invaders marched on territory to vindicate a right or to punish an offence, they marched at God’s command. If the motive for war was mere desire for plunder, or greed of laud, or sheer military ambition, God was not in it. For God cannot sanction any form of iniquity, whether it be public or private. But war is often the scourge which God uses to vindicate his claims or to punish men; and though in outward appearance the invasion may seem only a piece of human real ice, it is, in truth, an act of God’s retribution. As God has his methods for chastising individual men, so has he his methods for chastising nations. His forms of penalty are myriad fold.
II. A SENTINEL APPOINTED. In such a time of peril as that of invasion the people knit themselves together for mutual defense. It was wise economy to choose one who should be drafted off from other occupation to fill the watchman’s post. One was selected for the office specially suitable. All were not equally apt for this work. Such a man was chosen as had long resided on the border territory, one who knew the distant signs and prognostications of war, one who knew the contour of the country, and could occupy the best points of observation. An expert with eagle eye and cool nerve was selected. This was practical wisdom. By such a precaution war was sometimes averted. If the foe lost the advantage of secrecy, his plans were foiled. Or a resisting force could be gathered. Or possibly the removal of their cattle, or their own flight for a time, would avert the catastrophe. The season or other natural circumstance would come to their aid, and the deadly clash of arms be avoided. Immense gain might be attained by well posting a sentinel.
III. IT WAS A POST INVOLVING TREMENDOUS RESPONSIBILITY, The interests and fortunes and lives of the entire nation were placed in the keeping of one man. He was responsible to ten thousand persons of every rank and station. The safety of the empire hung on him. It was a distinctive honor to be selected for the post, a proof that he possessed remarkable qualities of soul; and this responsible occupation did the man goodit tended to develop all that was gracious and excellent in him. Responsible service is an ennobling and a joyous thing. It nourishes large and generous sympathy.
IV. FAITHFULNESS DEMANDED. The characteristic quality of a watchman is faithfulness. He might be deficient in many bodily and mental qualities, and yet be a good sentinel; but fidelity to dutyfidelity to the momentous trustthere must be, or he had better not be a watchman. Better, far better, appoint no watchman than have a man who is unfaithful. The blood of tea thousand innocent man justice might require at his unfaithful hands. Equally true is this of God’s watchman, the prophet. The first and most central requisite is faithfulness. He may be deficient in bodily stature and strength, he may be deficient in learning and culture, he may be deficient in high birth and in social standing, but he must be gifted with trustworthiness. This is an essential. If he be unfaithful, he is of all men most unsuitable. If he accepts the office, and neglects its high duties, his guilt is immeasurable. Better for his own sake, better for others’ sake, that he had never been God’s messenger to men, than to lack fidelity in his tremendous trust. An unfaithful preacher must be held up to the world’s execration.
V. POSSIBLE FAILURE. Yet even faithfulness will not ensure success. The people may not credit his warnings. They may deride his anxieties. They may persuade themselves that the peril is not so near as he avers. It is a matter that can wait. They may put down to official propriety, or to sensitive regard for his own credit, what ought to have been put down to wise solicitude and to approaching disaster. In a thousand cases men persist in deceiving themselves as to the nearness of the peril. Tea thousand men have fallen over the precipice of ruin through self-infatuation, and ten thousand more will follow. They will not learn practical wisdom from the folly and the ruin of others. And it becomes every one of us to lay the lesson upon our own hearts: “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” Oh for a prophet’s vision to interpret the signs of the times!D.
Eze 33:10-20
Men’s misconception of God’s government.
Men are naturally prone to merge themselves in the nation. This was, perhaps, a stronger habit among the Jews than among us. They could not understand how that, while God punished the nation, he could protect the individual. Israel may be depressed in fortune, while yet Daniel and his companions are elevated. Sodom may be destroyed, but Lot shall be preserved.
I. SUFFERING OFTEN BLINDS MEN‘S EYES TO GOD‘S EQUITABLENESS. It is natural to suppose that luxurious prosperity is due to our merits; and, if adversity visits us, we judge ourselves to be hardly dealt with. Scarcely one man in a thousand realizes the fact that he deserves nothing, and that the common benefits of air and food are the unpurchased gifts of God. As soon as the suspension of Divine favors is felt we are disposed to complain. We cannot conceive that we have deserved such hardship. We see others, no more replete with virtue than ourselves, enveloped in silk and purple, riding abroad in gilded chariots. Does God really rule over the interests and fortunes of men? We have abandoned some evil courses: is not God going to reward us for this? Still, we can only think of our losses and our afflictions; we cannot see the higher benefits God is bringing to us. Through our blinding tears we can only see oppression and injustice. Through selfish tears we see only what we have lost, not what we have gained. We would rather discover injustice in God than iniquity within ourselves. Truly has it been said, “There’s none so blind as those who will not see.”
II. NATIONAL CALAMITY IS A SYMBOL OF PERSONAL PERDITION. The overthrow of a nation is something visible, impressive, startling. Yet it is not the worse thing that can happen to a man. He may have to transfer his political allegiance to another. He may have to live under a different set of laws and institutions. He may have to quit scenes in nature, with which he has been long familiar, for other scenes in a distant land. This loss, dishonor, banishment, are intended to remind him that there is a worse exilean exile from his spirit’s home, an exile from the kingdom of God, of which Canaan was but a symbol. To be compelled to dwell among idolaters was a gracious chastisement, to make his spirit recoil from the fear of dwelling forever among the foes of God. And if the Hebrew exile took to heart the lesson, that banishment to Babylon might become to him salvation.
III. NATIONAL CALAMITY IS CONSONANT WITH PERSONAL WELL–BEING. The typical Jew was murmuring in Babylon that this destruction of the nation was incompatible with God’s promise of lifea promise founded on personal repentance. “If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live?” Their idea of life was free life in Judea. God’s idea of life was their return to allegiance and piety. “In his favor,” and in this alone, they could find life. Consequently, a penitent Jew could have found the highest life, even while an exile in Babylon. If he personally felt and confessed his sin, if he reposed his soul on God’s great mercy, if he bowed his spirit to God’s will, and walked humbly with his God, this was life of the noblest kind. And, like a saint of later date, he could “rejoice even in tribulation.” Better to dwell on Chebar’s banks in the society of Jehovah than to dwell in the palaces of Jerusalem without God as a Friend. If God be my God, exile has no terror for me. Where God is, there is my heaven.
IV. RIGHTEOUSNESS MUST BE PERSONAL, NOT HEREDITARY NOR TRADITIONAL. The foolish and hurtful idea dwelt in the minds of the Jews that God’s former favor to them as a nation was a guarantee for all future security. It was a species of anti-nomianism. Their maxim was, “Once righteous, always righteous, notwithstanding our deeds.;’ They imagined that they could not fall from their exalted position. It is marvelous how deep-rooted in some minds this prejudice respecting traditional piety becomes. But the fervid piety of former days will avail us nothing if faith and love are now dead. It is only a living faith, a present submission, that God accepts. And if our former faith and love have evaporated, there is clear evidence that it was only a pretence, and not the reality. To be accepted of God, and to be accounted worthy of heaven, I personally must be righteous. The righteousness of the nation is nothing else than the righteousness of the component parts. And unless I individually am righteous in God’s esteem, I shall be rejected and condemned in the great assize.
V. PERSONAL RIGHTEOUSNESS HAS ITS BOOT IN SINCERE REPENTANCE. Repentance is the birth of right and honest feeling towards God. Whether our past feelings and actions have been wrong by way of omission or by way of guilty commission, the whole sin, greater or less, will be candidly confessed. Repentance does not consist in excessive grief, but in genuine turninga complete change of mind. The repentant man opens his mind to the light. He allows the light of truth to enter every part of his nature. He yields to the light. He follows the light. He submits his thought, his choice, his will, his life, to God his King. He welcomes the indwelling and the inworking of the Holy Spirit. Righteousness is gradually wrought into the warp and woof of his nature, and so he becomes the righteousness of God through his Spirit.
VI. GOD‘S COUNSELS ADVOCATING REPENTANCE ARE PROOFS OF HIS COMPASSION. Full well God knows that the possession of perfect righteousness is the noblest possession any man can acquire, and that this righteousness must begin in sincere and thorough repentance. We have a thousand proofs of God’s compassion towards the erring children of men. We have them especially in the gift of his only Son, and in the gift of his Divine Spirit. But the crowning proof of his compassion is in stooping to plead with men’s prejudices and pride. He remonstrates and entreats as if he were the party about to be benefited. Such self-forgetful love was never seen before on earth. It is distinctive of our redeeming God. And when he succeeds, and the human heart relents, then a new wave of joy rolls through the realm of heaven. “There is joy in the presence of the angels of God.”D.
Eze 33:21-29
Right, not might, the foundation of stable empire.
The shortest path to gaining empire over men seems to be might, or might conjoined with cunning. But “things are not what they seem.” The throne whose foundations have been well and slowly laid will attain to greater permanence. The oak that has been rooting itself for a hundred years will resist many a howling tempest. Things unseen are the things that endure.
I. WE HAVE AN INSTANCE OF DIVINE CHASTISEMENT UNHEEDED. “The city is smitten.” The city of which they had been so proud, the city which had seemed an impregnable stronghold, was captured by the invader. Their honored sanctuary was leveled to the ground. Precious lives were sacrificed. Their honor was trampled in the dust. Judah’s scepter was broken. It had been long time announced that this would be the outcome of Jehovah’s anger, and now the warning had been completely verified. If this painful event did not afflict their souls as an unmistakable chastisement for sin, then nothing would. The tree that remains fruitless, after skilful and severe pruning, is hopelessly barren. Affliction not Converted into blessing becomes a great disaster. Black clouds that dissolve not in rain become magazines of thunderbolts.
II. AN INSTANCE OF FALLACIOUS REASONING. Although their numbers were decimated by war, they discovered that they were yet more in number than when Abraham dwelt in the land. He was in a minority of one, yet his posterity attained possession. These, his degenerate progeny, were still a strong body compared with solitary Abraham. Therefore their case was not utterly forlorn. True, they had been defeated, driven back, pressed into the barren hills and wastes of the laud, yet they could still muster a thousand or two. This was enough to regain a conquest. Their confidence was in numbersin themselves. “We are many; the land is given us.”
III. THE IMPORTANT ELEMENT OMITTED. The vital omission was this, that Abraham had God at his back, and all the resources of heaven for his defense; they had set God against them as their foe, and all the forces of righteousness were leagued for their overthrow. Their banners were stained with vice and crime. They had forsaken God, and had sought unto idols. No marvel, then, that God had forsaken them. Violence; adultery, sensuality, and murder cried to Heaven for vengeance, and did not cry m vain. The pleasures of sin had blinded their eyes to the real facts of the case. They had forgotten that God had declared himself the Arbiter in the field of war, and a moment’s reflection would have convinced them that God was with their adversary. The white escutcheon of their father Abraham had been by them basely defiled; and the worst feature was thisthey perceived it not.
IV. AN INSTANCE OF JUDICIAL VISITATION. The great Judge of men had pronounced his verdict, and all their boastful expectations were reversed. Over against their boast, “The land is given us for inheritance,” God placed his edict, “The mountains of Israel shall be desolate, that none shall pass through.” The ministers of Divine vengeance had received their commission, and the time for revoking it had passed. Wild beasts, the pestilence, and the sword had heard the fiat of God, and proceeded to do their deadly work. No fortress could protect them against such insidious enemies. Into every secret cave of the mountains wild beasts and miasma would force their way. The army of God is a hundredfold more difficult to oppose or to elude than any host of human king. Sane men will promptly yield.
V. THE GREAT LESSON LEARNT TOO LATE. “Then shall they know that I am the Lord.” The light which they had sullenly barred out of their minds all their lifetime shall find its way within in the hour of death. Some men will listen to no warning voice except the warning voice of death. They learn at last what, had they learnt before, would have been their salvation. But now to them the lesson is useless; it serves only to admonish others. Crowds of men are practical infidels all through life, although they profess to believe in a reigning God; but death scatters the clouds of unbelief, and is a startling revelation of the invisible world. Amid the excitements and the turmoil of life they would not reflect, nor ponder, nor decide. They preferred to remain in the haze of doubt. At no point would they brace up their moral energy to say, “I know.” Yet there comes an hour when faith, and righteousness, and God, and judgment will be real. “Then shall they know.”D.
Eze 33:30-33
Superficial religiousness.
The Fall in Eden is an old story, yet it is repeated every day in our midst. Each one of us is in a garden of privilege. To each of us daily comes Divine commands and Divine prohibitions. The path by which we may rise to higher things, yea, to a higher life, lies open before us. It is straight and clearly seen. The path which runs downward to destruction is hard by. The tempter is still busy with his seductive whispers and false blandishments. Everything in our personal destiny hangs on this pivot, viz. whether we will listen to the voice of God or to the wily voice of the devil. Conscience or inclinationwhich shall rule us?
I. THE TRUE PROPHET BRINGS A MESSAGE FROM GOD.
1. A prophet possesses a spiritual organ by which he can receive communications from God. He is in touch with God. All his best faculties are enlarged and vitalized, so that the knowledge of God’s will can be reached and received. To such a one God conveys special information, and delegates him to convey it to others. He is put in trust with the heavenly wisdom for the well-being of his fellow-men.
2. Such a revelation is known and recognized, partly by the internal character of the message, partly by the character and endowments of the man. Except where prejudice and guilty habits blind the vision, the hearers of the message feel and confess that it comes from a Divine origin.
3. Such a message must always conform to the known character of God. If the message is trivial, unimportant, puerile, baneful, it is clearly not from God. Falsehood is introduced somewhere. If it is a message salutary, elevating, purifying, benevolent, certainly it is Divine. It may run counter to a man’s inclinations; it often will; nevertheless, if its tendency is to lead men to faith and holiness, it has the signature of God.
II. THE PROPHET‘S MESSAGE EXCITES PUBLIC ATTENTION.
1. There is a craving to know the unknown. Men long to see the unseenlong to scan the future. Especially in times of adversity, in hours of serious illness, men yearn to know what the immediate future will bring. In times of health there is a prurient curiosity to gaze into the distant future, the great eternity. But in times of pressing personal danger a feeling of self-interest is vividly astir. Men naturally want to have clear and accurate knowledge respecting God, and respecting his dispositions manward. They want to know what the womb of the future contains for them.
2. The message will be welcome in proportion as it gratifies inclination, flatters pride, and opens a vista of sunny hope. Fidelity on the part of the prophet often exposes his message and himself to public contempt.
3. Shallow hearers discuss the messenger rather than his message. They “talked about him by the walls and in the doors of the houses.” It was a matter of street-gossip rather than of heart-searching and personal profit. Was the preacher eloquent or dull? Was his voice mellifluent or harsh? Was his style plain or ornate? These are the trivial questions men ask, instead ofWhat word from God did he bring? By what steps can we find reconciliation? What immediate duty presses for fulfillment?
4. Imitation of good men is a confession of their excellence. “They come as my people come, and sit as my people sit.” Such conduct is grossly inconsistent is self-condemning.
III. THE PREACHER‘S MESSAGE MEETS WITH A SERIOUS HINDRANCE.
1. Obedience is difficult. To lend the ear is easy. Receiving the message is somewhat pleasant. It requires no serious effort. But to undo the past, this brings the ridicule of companions. To create new habits, this is laborious. To confess our past life to be folly, this is painful
2. The heart is preoccupied. Its tendrils of affection have entwined about other things. They can more easily trust to visible wealth than to the invisible God. They know by experience that money brings luxury, ease, human honor, sensuous pleasures; and they have learnt to prize these. The joys of religion are unknownfar away in cloudland. The eagerness for gain chokes the Word, so that it becomes unfruitful. “The love of money is the root of all evil.” Covetousness is idolatry.
3. Behind this opposition lies the degrading power of Satan. “He blinds the minds of those that believe not.” He gives to gold a blandishment which belongs alone to the surface. By the excessive pursuit of worldly gain he deadens the moral sensibilities and destroys the eye of immortal hope.
IV. THE PROPHET‘S MESSAGE, RESISTED, DARKENS HUMAN DESTINY.
1. Men’s neglect of the warning in no way hinders the catastrophe. The evil announced by God still “cometh to pass.” “Judgment slumbereth not.” The wheels of God’s chariot are all the while moving on. As the poet says
“Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small.”
2. Comprehension of the truth often comes too late. When overwhelmed with the predicted calamity, men wake up to the fact that “a prophet has been among them.” They had thought him only a plain man, who sought to alarm them needlessly and at every inconvenient time. Now how totally different the matter seems! Alas! how often does the sense of eternal things visit the soul too late!
3. Then comes useless self-blame. The lost man naturally reproaches himself. In the new light that has dawned he sees the folly of blaming others. He lashes only himself. He becomes his own tormentor. That Being whose word cannot be broken says, “Lo, it will come!”D.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
Eze 33:1-9
Ministerial and individual responsibility.
The supposition in the text is that it is a time of war and consequently of danger; that therefore the people choose one that lives near the boundary of the kingdom or the province, and appoint him as a watchman, to give the signal at the first approach of the enemy. It is not pressing the figurative very far to say that all the life of man below is a time of spiritual conflict; we are all engaged in a long, a lifelong campaign. The enemy whom we have to fight is strong, subtle, dangerous (see Eph 6:12); and it may well be that one here and another there should be chosen as a spiritual “watchman “to observe and to forewarn.
I. THE MINISTERIAL FUNCTION. Those who have accepted the post of the Christian minister today are in a very similar position to the Hebrew prophet. It is their province:
1. To keep well in view the movements of their time; to observe with great care the advances which are made on the one band, and the withdrawals and retreats upon the other hand; to note with constant and sleepless vigilance the temper and spirit, the tendency and current, of the time.
2. To understand and to interpret all that is passing, in the light of revealed truth; to distinguish between a change of form and a decadence of life or a departure from Divine truth; to know what attitude should be taken up toward that which is new, and which approaches the people of God with professions of good will,whether of welcome or resistance.
3. To utter the voice of truth, which is (or should be) the voice of Christ, with all promptitude, decision, earnestness, unflinching fidelity.
II. THE DUTY OF THE INDIVIDUAL CITIZENS. This is very clear; it is to heed and to act.
1. To give earliest heed to the warning that is uttered, to consider well whether it is not true, to have a mind prepared to receive the message. For as the watchman has been “taken” and been “set” by them (Eze 33:2), and is their chosen guardian, he is entitled to their respect, while to his solemn monition a serious regard is due.
2. To act immediately on conviction; to place a distinct distance between themselves and the threatened evil; to keep the insidious theory, the subtle falsehood, the dangerous half-truth well out of their mind; to refuse any entrance to the perilous habit or the tainted practice; or, on the other hand, to welcome the old truth in its new form, render the old service in the new method, as the more suitable and the more excellent way.
III. THE LARGE ELEMENT OF MINISTERIAL RESPONSIBILITY. The watchman who sleeps at his post or who fails to arouse his fellow-citizens when the enemy is in sight, is severely condemned (see Eze 33:6, Eze 33:8). The spokesman for God who does not “watch for souls as one that must give account,” who has no deep feeling of the seriousness of his position, and no abiding sense of the urgency and imperativeness of his duty, is gravely at fault; so also is that watchman (minister) who perceives but who does not speak, or who does not speak quickly, plainly, forcibly in the ears of the people,he will have an account to give, and a judgment to bear, from which he may well shrink. But there is also
IV. A LARGE REMAINDER OF INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY. “Every man must bear his own burden” here. No man can devolve it upon his religious teacher. He is only responsible for speaking the truth faithfully; that done, his soul is delivered (see Eze 33:5, Eze 33:9). Whether we, as individual men and women, are assimilating Divine truth or are appropriating deadly error; whether we are forming healthy and life-preserving habits, or poisonous and pernicious ones; whether we are moving up the incline of heavenly wisdom and Christian purity, or descending the decline of folly and of wrong; whether we are exerting an elevating and redeeming influence, or a depressing and degrading one, upon our contemporaries and upon those who will succeed usthis must depend very largely indeed on whom we hear, and how we hear. Therefore let the Master say to us, “Take heed how ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that which he seemeth to have [thinketh that he hath]” (Luk 8:18).C.
Eze 33:10, Eze 33:11
The hope and the way of life.
Taking these words apart from their immediate application, as we may do without departing from their spirit and inner meaning, we are invited to think of
I. HUMAN HOPELESSNESS. “Our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we pine away in them.” The men into whose lips these words are put are very far from being the only ones to whom they apply. All men everywhere may say the sameall who live on in conscious departure from the will of God.
1. Sin bears its penalty with it; it enfeebles the body, it injures the mind, it lowers the life, it degrades the soul,it robs of Divine favor, of spiritual worth, of abiding peace.
2. It may become an increasing burden. It may indeed lead down to a most dangerous and deplorable insensibility, so that the sinful man no more knows how serious and fatal is his condition than does the man who lies down to sleep in the snow, or he who talks freely and happily in a delirium; but often the conscious burden of sin rests with a heavy and growing weight upon the soul, and despondency leads down to despair.
3. It ends in hopelessness; the man feels that he is “pining away,” that there is nothing for him in the future, his heritage is forfeited; there is nothing beyond but the gates of death. But he has not taken into his account
II. THE DIVINE DISPOSITION. “As I live I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked,” etc. There is much in this statement:
1. Regarded in its negative aspect. “God has no pleasure,” etc. That may not seem much to us who have become habituated to think of him as a Divine Father; but it was very much indeed to those who had not thus learnt of Christ, very much indeed to those who lived in an age when the Divine powers were supposed to find a terrible satisfaction in the miseries they inflicted on their enemies. Then the cruelty of man was transferred, in thought, to the beings who were worshipped, and they were believed quite capable of taking pleasure in the sorrows and in the death of their devotees. But God tells us here that that is not his disposition. The reaping by guilty men of the full consequences of their sin against himself would give him no pleasure at all; it would not be to satisfy him that their course would go downward until it ended in death.
2. Regarded in its positive aspect. God would “that the wicked turn from his way and live.” If the absence of any desire on the part of the Supreme that sin should go on and down to death gives a gleam of hope to the hopeless, how much light may not be gained from the presence of a distinct and positive desire on his part that the sinner should live? If God wills that it should be so, there can be no occasion to despair; there must be reason, and strong reason, to hope. To know that this is the Divine disposition is a great thing indeed; it is to have left midnight a long way behind; it is to have entered the dawn of the morning. But we have much further to go into the light of day; for the prophet’s message includes
III. THE DIVINE CHALLENGE. “Turn ye for why will ye die?” This includes:
1. A summons to repentance. Clearly repentance is an act which it is open to any soul to render at once if he will. It is not therefore either
(1) the feeling of a certain amount of emotion, for this is not always at command; or
(2) a certain amount of good works done or sacred services performed, for this can only be the issue of time. Repentance is the turning of the heart and of the will to God and righteousness; it is the act of the soul by which it turns away from its evil course of godlessness and wrong-doing, and turns toward the Divine Father with the full and fixed intention of henceforth serving him in the ways of righteousness. To do that which any and every soul may do and should do without a day’s delay, God is summoning his disloyal servants (see Act 17:30).
2. A gracious and powerful appeal. “Why will ye die?” Why should we die, when:
(1) Death means so sad and so great a sacrificethe loss of a human soul, capable of such beauty and such blessedness on the one hand, and of such baseness and such misery on the other hand?
(2) God has done such great things to save us; has so loved us as to give his only begotten Son to die for us, and by his death to restore us.
(3) The way of life is so free and so open to us all: “Whosoever believeth shall not perish, but have everlasting life.”
3. The life that is offered us in Christ means all that eternal life is found to be here and will prove to be hereafter.C.
Eze 33:12-19
God’s equal way.
These words bring out
I. THE OPPORTUNITY OF THE STONER. God gives him the opportunity of returning, and of recovering that which was lost (see previous homily). He is “not to fall in the day that he turns from his wickedness.”
1. God condemns and warns him; he tells him that his sin is ruining him, leading him to death (Eze 33:14).
2. He hearkens and repents; has so deep a sense of his folly and his guilt that he turns utterly away, in heart and in life, from all his wrong-doing (Eze 33:14, Eze 33:15). And then:
3. God takes him back freely and fully into his Divine favor (Eze 33:16). His sin is frankly forgiven him, and he “lives” unto God and in his sight.
This opportunity is offered to:
1. The ignorant idolater who has been brought up in the dark shadows of superstition.
2. The man who, though brought up in the light of truth, has fallen into flagrant and shameful sin, into vice or crime.
3. The man who, while maintaining the proprieties of behavior, and perhaps the semblance of devotion, keeps his heart closed against the truth and grace of Jesus Christ. To all of these, though they have lived through many years and even whole periods of sin, there is open the gateway of immediate return and of full reconciliation to God.
II. THE PERIL OF THE RIGHTEOUS.
1. His God–given hope. He looks for life: “He shall surely live” (Eze 33:13). The future before him is bright with many a precious promise; the further he goes the more he has to expect at the hands of the faithful and generous Giver. But let him not presume; here is:
2. His serious danger. He may, like the Jew, and like too many an erring Christian, imagine a favoritism on the part of the Supreme which does not exist, and, presuming upon it, may fall. If once the devout man loses his humility; forgets that he is but a weak, endeavoring human spirit; fosters in himself a sense of security; “trusts to his own righteousness; “then he stands at once within the circumference of spiritual peril. It is “when he is (consciously) weak, then he is strong” (2Co 12:10). And, conversely, when he is confidently strong, then is he weak, then is he most exposed to the darts of the enemy: pride precedes a fall.
3. His condemnation and his doom. His former “righteousness will not deliver him;” for his iniquity and in his iniquity “he will die.” No man living in sin may look up to God and say, “I was once pure,” with any hope of acceptance; God requires of us that we be pure in heart, loyal in spirit, upright in word and deed, or he cannot grant us his benediction or admit us to his home.
III. THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN BOTH RESPECTS.
1. God is righteous in forgiving the sinful man and restoring him to fullness of life. The Pharisaic view of this act is that it is unrighteous, inasmuch as a guilty soul is taken back to favor and raised up to life and joy. But there are two things overlooked.
(1) God is ever seeking the best in man; he is working towards purity and goodness. How can this be promoted in the sinful? In no way so well as by the extension of Divine mercy. Unrelieved penalty only crushes and condemns to a hopeless continuance in sin; but mercy implants hope,it leads to penitence, and it ends in purity, in wisdom, in moral and spiritual well-being.
(2) Though mercifully restored to life, the sinner does not fail to suffer; some penalty for past transgression he must pay. In the nature of things, or rather under the working of the wise and righteous laws of God, sin works immediate mischief in the soul, and it importantly affects the life; so that not even the abounding mercy of God makes it the same thing to a man whether he spends his earlier years in wisdom or in folly.
2. God is merciful even in condemning the backslider. For if he were to act otherwise, if he were to allow a man, because he had once been righteous, to fall into any sinfulness without condemning and punishing him, what license he would be giving to iniquity, and how would he be multiplying transgression on every hand! It is in the true and lasting interest of our race, and of all his intelligent creation, that God affixes his rebuke and some appropriate penalty to all wrong-doing or wrong-being, in whomsoever it may be found. Thus the Divine Ruler and Father of men is righteous when he forgives, and is merciful when he condemns. His ways are equal, and if we fail to see it, it is because we fail to recognize the profound righteousness of mercy, and the equally profound mercy of righteousness.C.
Eze 33:23-25
Ill-grounded hope.
The address of the prophet is delivered to that “miserable fraction in Judaea who dwelt among its desolations, and who, notwithstanding all they had seen and suffered of the righteous judgments of God, were still wedded to their sinful ways, and cherishing the most groundless hopes They were appealing in the most confident manner to their connection with Abraham, and on that ground assuring themselves of their right to possess the land of Canaan. ‘ He, though but one, got the land for an inheritance, and we, his descendants, who are a greatly larger company than he could boast of, may we not justly expect to be kept in possession of it?'” (Fairbairn). The prophet dismisses this claim in the language of decisive disallowal and of strong rebuke. Fie tells them that, so far from God raising their position and making them possessors and rulers in the land, they may look for more judgments from his hand, for their iniquities were loudly demanding them. Here were
I. MEN MISTAKING THEIR SPIRITUAL POSITION. It was much, in their mind, that they “had Abraham to their father.” How little that mere genealogical fact weighed in the estimate of God we know from the language of the great prophet John, and of that One who was so much greater than he (Mat 3:9; Joh 8:33-39). While boasting of their descent from Abraham, they were, in character and conduct, everything that Abraham was noteverything from which that “friend of God” would have turned away with holy indignation (see verses 25, 26). Consequently, they were numbered amongst the most disloyal subjects of Jehovah, and were the objects of his most severe displeasure. Their confidence in themselves was utterly misplaced. They may be said to be the spiritual ancestors of a very numerous seed. How many are they who because
(1) they have been born and brought up in the midst of some Christian community, or because
(2) they have gone through the formal rites of some Christian Church, imagine themselves to be the sons of God, enjoying his Divine favor and subjects of his spiritual kingdom! Yet the state of their heart, and even the tenor of their life, effectually disprove it. Their hearts are far from God, and their deeds from uprightness and Christian worth.
II. MEN DELUDING THEMSELVES WITH A FALSE HOPE. This, of course, follows from the other. The remnant of the Jews were hoping to become the possessors of the land, and to rise to the position from which their countrymen had fallen. But their hopes were vain, for they were built upon mistake and error. We may be looking forward to some position of authority and influence in the Church of Christ, or to a home in the heavenly country; but we have no right whatever to expect either of these if our claim is based either on fleshly connections or on the formalities of devotion, and the sooner we awake from our dream the better will it be for us. We must understand the one and only ground for hope in the future is our real, spiritual union with Jesus Christ, and the consequent rectitude of life which is the invariable and happy fruit of it.
III. A FAITHFUL HUMAN TEACHER. It is a very painful thing to extinguish a pleasant but a false hope in the heart. Yet it has sometimes to be done at all costs. And kinder far is it to destroy that hope when it is budding than to let it grow to maturity when it has to suffer a severe and sad extinction. The faithful course is always the kind one as well as the wise one, when all things are counted.C.
Eze 33:30-32
The test of piety.
If we read “of thee” instead of “against thee”, and understand that the captives by the Chebar were talking in not unfriendly fashion of the prophet, all the parts of this deliverance are consistent, and they supply a valuable lesson for all time. We learn what is the true test of piety; that it is found
I. NOT IN ATTENDANCE ON RELIGIOUS ORDINANCES. These Jews were saying to one another, “Come and hear,” etc; and they not merely exhorted one another thus, but they went and heardthey sat and listened to the truth as it was spoken by Ezekiel. But they were far from being right with God for so doing. We may be very attentive upon all “means of grace,” may never absent ourselves from the “house of the Lord,” may go solemnly and even reverently through all the outward ordinances of the Christian faith, and yet remain outside the kingdom of Christ. None were more constant in their “devotions” than the Pharisees, and none more blameless in their attitude and, demeanorand none more really ungodly than they.
II. NOT CRITICAL UNDERSTANDING OF THE TRUTH. These captives of Babylon were habitually speaking about Ezekiel, and no doubt discussing his prophetic deliverances; they were probably very keen disputants, very fine analysts of his sentences, very careful hearers of his doctrine. But they were not “the children of wisdom” and heirs of the best inheritance. We, too, may take a very systematic view of the faith we hold, or we may be clever critics of the message to which we listen in the sanctuary, we may be able to discuss with much special learning and a great show of piety the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, but we may be very wide indeed of that knowledge of God which constitutes eternal life.
III. NOT SENSIBILITY. These hearers by the river-side were affected by what they heard. They “liked” Ezekiel well. His discourses charmed them much; they felt moved by his words as he spoke with that directness, fervor, and imaginative force which characterized his utterance, and which, whenever put forth, never do fail to attract and to delight. But it is one thing to be moved by sacred eloquence, and quite another thing to be filled with true conviction and to be governed by Christian principle. They who depend on the exciting impulses that come from the large assembly, the strains of powerful music, or the fervid addresses of the pulpit, for the movements of their soul, are leaning on the reed, are building on the sand. The piety that will be wanted for the long path of duty, for the deep waters of trouble, for the searching fires of temptation, for the hour of heroism, for the day of judgment, must go deeper down into the nature of spiritual reality than the stratum of sensibility.
IV. BUT OBEDIENCE. “They do them not.” That was their defect; there was found the fatal omission. They had not the spirit of obedience. We know what the Master said on this subject (see Mat 7:24-27). And that which Jesus Christ especially and emphatically calls upon us to do, which it is a fatal error to leave undone, is
(1) to come into close personal union with himself (Mat 11:28, Mat 11:29; Joh 6:35, Joh 6:50, Joh 6:51; Joh 15:1-7; 1Jn 3:23);
(2) to follow him in the path of purity, devotion, love.C.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
B. SECOND PRINCIPAL PART.Ezekiel 33-48
THE PROPHECY OF GODS MERCIES TOWARD HIS PEOPLE IN THE WORLD
_______________
I. THE RENEWAL OF EZEKIELS DIVINE MISSION.Ch 33.
1And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2Son of man, speak to the sons of thy people, and say to them, When I bring a sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from their borders, and set him for3their watchman; And he sees the sword coming upon the land, and blows4the trumpet, and warns the people; And any one hears the sound of the trumpet, and does not take warning, and the sword comes and takes himaway, his blood shall be upon his own head. 5He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him, since, letting6himself be warned, he would make his soul [his life] escape [would deliver it]. And the watchman, when he sees the sword coming, and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword shall come and take away a soul [a man] from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood7will I require at the watchmans hand. And thou, son of man, [as a] watch man have I given thee to the house of Israel, and [so] thou hearest the word8out of My mouth, and thou warnest them from Me. If I say to the wicked, Wicked man, thou shalt surely die, and thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, he, the wicked man, in [on account of] his iniquity shall9die, but his blood will I require at thy hand. But if thou dost warn a wicked man of his way, that he turn from it, and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in [on account of] his iniquity, but thou hast delivered thy soul.10And thou, son of man, say to the house of Israel: Thus ye say, saying, If our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we pine in [on account of] them,11how shall [can] we then live? Say to them, As I live, saith [sentence of] the Lord Jehovah, if I should have pleasure in the death of the wicked! but in the turning of a wicked man from his way, that he may live. Turn ye, turn ye12from your evil ways; and why will ye die, O house of Israel? And thou, son of man, say to the sons of thy people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression, and through [in the] wickedness of the wicked shall he [the wicked] not stumble [fall] in the day of his turning from his wickedness; and a righteous man shall not be able to13live thereby [namely, because he is a righteous man] in the day of his sin. When I say of the [to the] righteous, He shall surely live, and he trusts in his righteousness and commits iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered, and in14his iniquity which he does, in it shall he die. And when I say to the wicked, Thou shalt surely die, and he turns from his sin, and does judgment andrighteousness: 15If the wicked shall restore a pledge, shall repay what he had robbed, if he walks in the statutes of life, that he do no iniquityhe shall16surely live, he shall not die! All his sins which he sinned, they shall not be remembered to him; he does judgment and righteousness; he shall surely17live! And the sons of thy people are saying, The way of the Lord is not18rightbut they, their way is not right! When a righteous man turns from his19righteousness and commits iniquity, then he shall die thereby: And when a wicked man turns from his wickedness, and does judgment and righteousness,20thereby shall he live. And ye say: The way of the Lord is not right? Everyone as his ways [are] will I judge you, O house of Israel.21And it came to pass, in the twelfth year, in the tenth [month], on the fifth of the month of our captivity,22the escaped from Jerusalem came to me, saying, The city is taken. And the hand of Jehovah was upon me [came upon me] in the evening before the coming of the escaped, and He opened my mouth, until he came to me in23the morning; and my mouth was opened, and I was no longer dumb. Andthe word of Jehovah came to me, saying, 24Son of man, the inhabitants of those ruins on the ground of Israel are saying, Abraham was one, and he got the land for a possession, and we [are] many, and the land is given us for a possession25Therefore say to them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Ye eat upon [with] the blood, and ye lift your eyes [continually] to your abominable idols, and shedblood, and shall ye possess the land? 26Ye stand upon your sword, ye do abomination, and pollute every one his neighbours wife, and shall ye possess27the land? Say thus unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, As I live, if they who are in the ruins shall not fall by the sword! And him that is in the field will I give to the beasts to be eaten, and they that are in the forts28and in the caves shall die of the pestilence. And I give the land to waste and desolation, and the pride of its strength ceases; and the mountains of29Israel are waste, that no one passes over them. And they know that I [am] Jehovah, when I give the land to waste and desolation, because of all their30abominations which they have done.And thou, son of man, the sons of thy people talk of thee beside the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one with another, each with his brother, saying, Come now, and hear 31what the word is which proceedeth from Jehovah! And they will come to thee as a people comes, and will be before thee [as] My people, and they hear thy words, and they will not do them; for [but] in their mouth they are prating loves [ever making love-songs, have wanton pieces in their mouth]; their heart goes after32their gain. And lo! thou art to them as a wanton song, beautiful of sound [voice], and one striking the chords well; and they hear thy words, and do33them not. And when it comeslo! it comes, then they know that a prophet was in the midst of them.
Eze 33:2. Vulg.: de novissimis suis(licet ex infimis suis, Rosenm, vel de excellentioribus, Lyra).
Eze 33:3. Sept.: … .,
Eze 33:4. … et non se observaverit
Eze 33:12. Sept. …
Eze 33:16. …
Eze 33:21. Sept. … . Vulg.: vastata est civitas! (Another read.: , Syr.)
Eze 33:22. … . .
Eze 33:25. Another read.: , fully.
Eze 33:26. … (Another read.: .)
Eze 33:28. Sept.: … .
Eze 33:31. … . . . Vulg.: quia in canticum oris sui vertunt illos et avaritiam suam
Eze 33:32. Vulg.: quasi carmen musicum, quod suavi dulcique sono canitur;
Eze 33:33. …
EXEGETICAL REMARKS
It is a question whether the last division of our book opens with this chapter. Kliefoth denies it from the contents, which point back to what precedes, Eze 3:17 sq., Eze 18:20 sq. The third part must begin with Eze 33:21. In contrast to the foreign nations, Eze 33:2 associates this word of threatening against Israel with the words of threatening against foreign nations previously given, as is done also in Isaiah and Jeremiah. Eze 25:1 to Eze 32:32 numbers thirteen words of God; thereto belongs Eze 33:1-20 as a fourteenth, in order to make out the number 2 7. The contents, threatenings and warnings, are not suited as an introduction to the promises of the third part; while, on the contrary, they are quite proper as a conclusion to the preceding portions. Hengstenberg also regards Eze 33:1-20 as the authors conclusion, but to the whole of what precedes, namely, Ezekiel 1-32. The text does not show the impossibility of Ezekiel having delivered a prophecy to his people before the arrival of the escaped; but the admitted rsum out of the preceding is no argument against the supposition of an introduction to the following, as we shall see, just as little as the want of a specification of time. For with reference to the latter point, Hitzig justly points to the historical notice standing in the middle, Eze 33:21-22. Its importance for the present chapter, in fact, makes any farther indication of time superfluous; as was remarked by Hv., who in this only goes too far, that he makes the revelations on to Ezekiel 39 to have been imparted to the prophet in one nightthe portion Eze 33:1-20 forming the somewhat earlier introduction revealed to him, and Eze 33:21-33 attaching itself to the other very closely as a new introduction.
This chapter has first of all its relation to the transition portion, Ezekiel 25-32. In this respect it likewise has a transition character, which on one side gives indication of itself in this, that it, as also Ezekiel 25-27, points back to the earlier part. For as the predictions of judgment upon those without are in some sense an appendage to the repeated, always increasingly definite prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem, so Eze 33:2 sq., in what it says of the watchman-agency of Ezekiel, attaches an admonition for Israel to try themselves, in presence of this activity of the prophet, whether Ezekiel had not dealt faithfully with his obligation, or Israel with his warning; but especially as regards the exiled, the verses 10 sq. render conspicuous, in contrast with the despair of these, Gods will and procedure, and verses 17 sq. set forth these as being the right way. If people will not renounce every kind of a connection, for which there is no foundation, they will findwhere now what was announced in Ezekiel 24-26 sq. begins to enterthe supposition of a close to the past prophetic activity of Ezekiel, the prophecy of judgment, quite deserving of acceptation. It was a close proceeding out of as well as with that which had preceded. But by reason of the relation of this chapter, as now indicated, primarily to Ezekiel 25-32., is farther expressed its relation to the first main division, Eze 1:-24. On the other side, however, the transition character of the section Ezekiel 25-32. (pp. 11, 12) is proved by that which is contained in these chapters of a preparatory, introductory nature to the second main division of the book. This is the case also with our present chapter. It might already be regarded as a preparation for something new, that at the close with what precedes the call of Ezekiel is formulated out of it, and Israel is challenged to self-examination, as also to an acquittal of the prophet and a justification of God. The in part verbal reference of this chapter to Ezekiel 3, 18, in Eze 33:2-20, certainly does not (as Keil supposes) set forth the call of Ezekiel for the future, but it contains a renewal of his divine mission. The connecting together of the two halves of the chapter is on no account to be regarded as merely accidental. The two verses 25 and 26, just as Eze 33:15, alike point back to Ezekiel 18; and on the other hand, that Eze 33:10 b is in accord with Eze 24:23, cannot be overlooked (Hitz.). The full-toned charge in Eze 33:2 : Speak to the sons of Israel, and say to them, suits well as a commencement, while Eze 33:24 looks only like a continuation. What Ezekiel must say to the sons of his people (Eze 33:2) prepares for the opening of his mouth (Eze 33:22), and so introduces what is to be said in Eze 33:25. There can be no doubt that what is stated in Eze 33:21-22 is the fulfilment of Eze 24:26-27; so that the new, to which the verses 220 form the preparation and introduction,the prophecy of Gods mercies toward His people in the world,is the second main division of the book. The passage, also, Eze 33:10 sq. explicitly directs the despairing to grace, while in the parallel passage, Eze 33:24 sq., the stout-hearted are, on the contrary, pointed to the judgment; so that the section Eze 33:23 sq. speaks just as much of threatening as of the opposite.
Eze 33:1-20. What kind of a sending of Ezekiel that was which is now renewed.
Eze 33:1. On what occurred in the twelfth year, after the taking of Jerusalem, on the evening or during the night before the escaped made his appearance, comp. at Eze 33:22. The address being to the sons of thy people (Eze 33:2), shows that he was now to turn from foreign nations to Israel againalthough is still used, not , as at Eze 33:31 for the first time. There is already a preparation made for the great turn which divides the book.If an application to the fellow-exiles of the prophet is primarily to be understood, there is still a more general one indicated in what follows,that to the Israel of the captivity the Israel at home were to be added, that Israel generally were to be contemplated. For with this also agrees the house of Israel in the application of the similitude (Eze 33:7), according to which the children of the people of the prophet were thought of in common, as those who were entering into one and the same condition(), just as in the similitude itself land is spoken of, and placed quite absolutely (comp. Eze 14:13).The idea is first expressed figuratively, Eze 33:2-6, before Israel is put into the frame and hung on the wall (Eze 33:7-9). , spoken generally, but not altogether hypothetically; so, however, that the hearers should think of a case before them which had either actually occurred or was in the act of doing so. The enemy was on the way (Hitz., Grot.), was standing at the cross-way (Eze 21:26 [21], Eze 24:2). The turning of the matter into a similitude is peculiar to our passage, as distinguished from Eze 3:16-21. Peculiar, also, is the trait in a manner necessitating a certain experience on the part of the hearers, that the people of the land in question, the men, were themselves to appoint the watchmen, whence, in case they did not give heed to him, they withstood and strove against themselves, and so should be the more convicted of their guilt and folly., singular, but in a plural sense: from the end on all sides, the entire territory of the land; according to the suffix, to be understood of the whole community, with reference to and (Gen 19:4; 1Ki 12:31). Hv., Tuch decide for an ellipsis .On , comp. on Eze 3:17.
Eze 33:3. Corresponding to the fundamental idea of, . of the clear resounding tone. That we are to think of a horny sort of instrument, if not one simply of horn, is evident from its being exchanged with , in Joshua 6. for example. is distinguished as a signal for the calling together of the people, in Num 10:6-7, from the sounding of an alarm at a breaking up. Here it is manifestly applied to the announcement of the enemy, for a warning or advertisement to the people (comp. Eze 3:17, and pp. 72, 73).
Eze 33:4. , who hath ears to hear (Rev 2:7; Rev 2:11, etc.). for .And the sword comes, when the sword is a-coming, and what is to be feared cannot be a matter of doubt. Ewald: so that the sword came and carried him away, then his blood, etc. According to Hengst.: because people are wont to carry on their heads; according to others, the image is derived from sacrifice, in which the offerer transferred his guilt to his victim by the laying on of his hand (Lev 1:4; Lev 24:14; Mat 27:25).
Eze 33:5. The alone self-guiltiness of the individual is here made still more manifest. An explication without any need of the , for., as much as , Eze 33:4.Hitzig: Because he let himself be warned, he has delivered his soul. is here the participle.
Eze 33:6. The similitude has hitherto proceeded on the supposition that the watchman does his duty, because this is really the case in hand. But now the other supposition is made, that he has neglected what belonged to his calling., masculine, referring to .Since only the soul which continues in sin is liable to death (Eze 18:4, etc.), a wicked person is presupposed (as at Eze 3:18) as the one that should be carried away; it should be through his guilt, on account of it and in it. But while previously the guilt of his blood was simply his own, the blood-guilt of his disobedience in respect to the intended warning is now, without regard to his guilt otherwise and generally, sought at the hand of the watchman. It is to be observed that for this is used here, while we have at Eze 3:18; Eze 3:20.That the case supposed is only a possible, by no means a real one, appears from the application made of it at Eze 33:7 to Ezekielfor the the (comp. Heb 13:17). At the same time is his installation as watchman to the house of Israel taken out of human hands,in that case, when men appoint for themselves a watchman, the last-named possibility (Eze 33:6) might all the more readily take place,and Jehovah carries back the watchman-office of Ezekiel expressly to Himself (I have given thee)., such literally was the expression used of the call given in Eze 3:17, so that we must think of supplying to the words marks of quotation; therefore not importing that the prophet must thereby be instructed with respect to the future.
Eze 33:8. The same as before, only with a still more emphatic address than at Eze 3:18.
Eze 33:9. So here again; comp. at Eze 3:19 (Act 20:25-26).
Eze 33:10. Since nothing of the neglect of duty which had taken place is charged upon the prophet, only the original direction given him is again literally repeated: the guilt must be sought among the people, as was really the case, and indeed is clear from their own lips, as stated here., their saying is set over against that which had been said to the prophet in divine direction, according to which he must speak; their doing also in regard to the Lord, as they had known it from the prophets behaviour toward them, set over against his doing and acting.Of what nature the divine mission of Ezekiel was from the first has been repeated (Eze 33:2-9) in the similitude and its explanation, and now (hence repeated in Eze 33:11) there follows in what manner this mission of his is renewed to the prophet. A reference is made back to Ezekiel 18, but the difference between what is said there and here must not be overlooked. While there no consciousness of guilt, no confession of sin, appears (Eze 18:2), the predominantly recriminative work of Ezekiel has still produced so much effect that they now say: Our transgressions and our sins are upon us. But this consciousness and this confession tinges in the darkest manner the feeling of despair in regard to life. It is by no means for the purpose of excusing themselves that the people appeal to the passage Lev 26:39. Consequently, the upon us is not to be understood as meaning: testify against us (Rosenm.), but as of a burden under which they are sinking ( , comp. on Eze 24:23; Eze 4:17). Those who represented themselves in Ezekiel 18 as expiatory sufferers for their ancestors, here are pining away under their own burden, and that with reference to the prospect of life, likewise repeatedly opened up in Ezekiel 18. (Eze 33:23; Eze 33:32). We must, therefore, take into account the pressure, were it only of the evil forebodings, the foreshadows of the event mentioned in Eze 33:21, if not the actual knowledge of the taking of Jerusalem; so that in this also may be seen preparation, an introduction to what was to follow.
Eze 33:11. What for this despair in respect to life (i.e. deliverance, salvation, favour) was the declared mind and will of Jehovah in Eze 18:23; Eze 18:32, the same is here emphasized in the peculiar protestation: As I live, while there it is only: Have I any pleasure? or: for I have no pleasuresee there also Eze 18:30-31.
Eze 33:12. We learn, however, that the question is about conversion: He combats despair only in so far as it is a hindrance to repentance. To afford mere tranquillity is not the aim of the prophet (Hengst.). Comp. on Eze 18:20, where in like manner with reference to conversion we have this antithesis: righteousness of the righteous, and: wickedness of the wicked. Through this antithesis to , the expression becomes clear (Niphal); Gesen.: he shall not be unfortunate. His own righteousness no means of deliverance, so soon as he falls into transgression; and wickedness, again, no necessary destruction, so soon as a change to the better comes. ( is likewise infinitive.) Because presently the case of the righteous was to be spoken of, it is said by way of introduction thereto: And a righteous man, etc. , in, through, on account of his righteousness.
Eze 33:13. To the righteous man who continues such, assurance of life is promised. Confidence in ones own righteousness (singular, as an actual quality), when one does unrighteousness (Eze 3:20), may be on the one side, but on the other side there will be no remembrance of the earlier righteousnesses. Comp. Eze 18:24; Eze 18:26.
Eze 33:14. The contrast with the wicked. Here an address to such, because this is what is wished for; comp. Eze 18:21.
Eze 33:15. A lively form of speech, hence without the copula, an exemplification. Comp. in reference to it, Eze 18:7; Eze 18:12; Eze 18:16; Eze 18:21; Eze 18:28; Eze 20:11.
Eze 33:16. Comp. Eze 18:22.
Eze 33:17. Comp. on Eze 18:24 sq. The immediate occasion for blame is formed here by such a representation of the wicked (Eze 33:14 sq.) who repented, over the righteous who does unrighteousness. The fact alone that a righteous man could be spoken of before them in such a manner, more especially that turning, turning, is what they are called to, while they had placed their confidence upon the righteousness of the righteous (Eze 33:12)if not their own, yet that which belonged to them, descended to them as the people of God from their pious forefathersthat is the stone in the way of the Lord which the divine address takes away, in order to throw it to the quarter to which it belongs, namely, to the false way of Israel, which they had chosen for themselves with their outward carnal self-righteousness in such and such religious observances. Eze 33:18-19, however, do not simply repeat Eze 33:13-14, but the two cases of the righteous and the wicked return again in the form which is the most appropriate for setting forth clearly and distinctly the way of the Lord, and in which it strikes at first sight, and at the same time with reference to the command given: Return, return. Hence not , as at Eze 33:13, but (Eze 3:20), and with nothing farther , namely, by these two parts: turning from his righteousness, which is left unnoticed, and doing unrighteousness. (Rosenm.: , collective.) Comp. Eze 18:24; Eze 18:26. The wicked throws light on this caricature of turninga turning it also is, indeed, only to what is evilby his, on the contrary, turning from his wickedness (in Eze 33:14 it is from his sin).
Eze 33:20, as also Eze 18:29, repeats the charge for the purpose of making a suitable close. Comp. Eze 18:30 (Eze 7:27).
Eze 33:21-22. The fresh turn.
The fact is now an accomplished oneJerusalem is taken (Eze 24:25); and therewith we have, as had been foretold at the close of Ezekiel 24, not only the arrival of the escaped, but as the main thing the opening of Ezekiels mouth, that he might no more be dumb. This historical notice in the middle of the chapter is therefore the kernel of the whole: the renewal of the divine mission of the prophet, over against the completed acts of judgment, now gives to his prophecy the expression of Gods compassions toward His people in the world, with which the second main division of the book is occupied.
The indication of time which was to mark the turning-point for the prophet (for Jerusalem was overcome on the 9th of the 4th month of the 11th year) teaches us to understand the expressions: in the day, inch. Eze 24:25, or: in that day, Eze 33:26-27, of what was to take place more than sixteen months afterwards. Hitzig regards it as very improbable that Ezekiel should first have received in January 586 the report of what had happened to Jerusalem in July 588; and in place of considering that the text could not mean to speak of the report, he makes the prophet over and above contradict himself, inasmuch as, according to Eze 26:1-2, he had already in the eleventh year heard the report of the matterwhich, however, is not necessarily rendered clear by Ezekiel 26.and then at the close he changes the twelfth year into the eleventh, which is supported by the Syrian translation alone. Hengst. justly remarks that the notice does not refer to the first report concerning the taking of Jerusalem, and then proceeds: The news of such events spread with amazing rapidity. The intelligence, doubtless, arrived in eight, or at the most fourteen days at the abode of Ezekiel; so that the difficulty is not removed by assuming most arbitrarily an error in the text, and putting the eleventh in place of the twelfth year. The meaning of what was announced beforehand in Ezekiel 24, and according to our verse had now actually occurred, is that in place of all reportsso fitted to awaken hope, yet traversing the way of the Lord with His people, always again paralysing their necessary conversionwhich up to the last had arrived, a certain fugitive shall now speak, and, as an eye-witness, place beyond all dispute what had actually happened. The matter-of-fact voucher given into the hand of the exiled with this escaped one must have removed out of the path of safety what at least the strong walls of Jerusalem threw in the way of their turning to the Lord. For the meaning ascribed to , to make ones escape, get off through flight (Gen 14:13), it is not necessary, with Hengstenberg, to suppose an ideal person, a collective, that is, a band of exiles, as Ezekiel had already intimated, Eze 14:22-23, that a whole host of such fugitives would come to the exiles, so that these by their miserable plight should be a living proclamation of the frightful catastrophe through which they had passed. Hitzig thinks that the fugitive may have escaped immediately after the bloodshed at Mizpah from the band of Ishmael (Jer 41:10); if not, which is improbable, only after the flight which ensued into Egypt. J. D. Michaelis explains out of the remoteness of Ezekiels place of residence the so late arrival of the fugitive, especially considering the frightful disorder that took place.
Eze 33:22. And the hand of Jehovah, etc.; comp. Eze 37:1; Eze 1:3. The effect of it was the opening of the mouth. But this latter can be virtually and actually distinguished. In that respect the opening of the mouth of Ezekiel took place when it was commanded him that he should speak to the sons of his people, in respect to whom he had been dumb from the time indicated in Ezekiel 24. He began to do so at Eze 33:1 of this chapter, to which, therefore, the expression concerning the hand of Jehovah brings us backnamely, that this hand had now removed from him his previous dumbness, so that he might henceforth again speak to Israel, and should do so. J. D. Michaelis remarks quite correctly: the prophet fell into ecstasy, and the word contained in Eze 33:2-20 was imparted to him. In regard to the time, it is more precisely stated that the divine cause comes into operation on the evening before the coming of the escaped; and parallel therewith was the effect, the opening of the prophets mouth, , therefore in the interval between the evening and the morning. It was hence independently of the escaped that the prophet got a renewal of his commission, and, indeed, while there was combined with the removal of his previously enforced silence a direct positive revelation and communication. Through a divine movement and working, everything was thus prepared and introduced for that which was going to take place on the fugitives arrival. For the circumstance that on his actual arrival Ezekiels mouth was opened ( is not to be regarded as an emphatic repetition for the purpose of connection with what follows, but in contradistinction to ), adds to what was done potentia, as it now also took place actu, so that the divine word, Eze 33:2-20, given with this aim, for this particular moment destined, was now also spoken to the people by the prophet; and in proof that he was no more dumb, he immediately proceeded to give the continuation of it (Eze 33:23 sq.). In Eze 24:27 it was said Ezekiels mouth should be opened with the escaped. In the wider sense, namely, at the same time, about the time, when the escaped should come, it took place in the evening; literally, it took place with him in the morning, and the renewed prophetical mission of Ezekiel began then in fact. [One may designate the following prophecies as the prophetically represented victorious history of Israel, of the kingdom of God among men. The wonderful, truly great, and divine is set forth here as a contrast to the present. In the presence of death only resurrection and life! The deepest humiliation of the covenant-people, their apparent annihilation is the path to their true greatness, nay, to their eternal glory.Hv.] Hengst. remarks: On the night before the arrival of the exile-band, which was doubtless announced the day before, took place the opening of the prophets mouth, the removal of the seal as it were from it. The impulse to speak to the people again asserted itself. The prophetic activity itself first commenced after the exile-band appeared, the arrival of which was to form the ground for the receiving of the new disclosures. Only after the complete death exhibited before their eyes, the annihilation of all earthly hopes, could the announcement of the joyful resurrection be made. Comp. besides on Eze 3:26-27; Eze 29:21.
Eze 33:23-33. The Renewed Mission of Ezekiel in view of the State of Heart of those in Canaan (Eze 33:23-29), and then of those in the Captivity (Eze 33:30-33).
What sort of a mission that of Ezekiels was which was renewed to him, namely, to do the part of a watchman, to warn the people, we have already seen in Eze 33:2-9. Hence in the connection of the following section with Eze 33:1-20 things stand in their proper order, and it entirely corresponds with a continuation of the divine discourse, that such a position of the prophet at the renewal of his divine mission first of all comes to an explanation with those who are still to be warned, to be threatened. The beginning of the divine word made known to Ezekiel corresponds very closely with that contained in Eze 33:8-9. It is a complete misunderstanding on the part of Kliefoth, when he would not find the inhabitants of these waste places, as he renders, in the desolated Jerusalem, or in the desolated cities of Judah, or in the desolated land of Canaan, i.e. in the remnants of the people who still remained there, but drags into the text the exiles in the certainly not too well cultivated regions on the Chaboras. with the article implies demolition, ruins of cities and houses. Hitzig: these wastes, less Jerusalem itself than the other cities which had been stript of their inhabitants (Jer 33:13; Jer 33:10), in which those who were without possessions (Jer 39:10) shared with the returned fugitives (Jer 40:12), having all at once come to great wealth of land, and were puffed up. Things were lying in a comfortless state; how do the hearts adjust themselves to the comfortless position of things? That there were people who still, ever giving themselves up to illusions, thought that the judgment would not inexorably run its course, was proved by the revolt in which Gedaliah, the Chaldean governor, was slain (Hengst.). Comp. also the representation in Nehemiah 1. of the desolate condition of things, though an interval of upwards of a century had meanwhile elapsed!As even in the time of Jesus they were always throwing themselves back on Abraham (for example, John 8, Mat 3:9), so was it the case here. An argumentum a minori. Since to Abraham, an individual man, in his posterity the land was given for a heritage, the less they conceive could it possibly fail to themnamely, to keep the land; not so properly with Hengst. to receive it again, for they do not give it up as lostwhen in point of number they were many, and still more in the feeling of their souls they were without the knowledge of sin and the sense of guilt. In the words of Hengst: they held themselves to be the true continuation of Abrahams being, the bearers of the promise given to him (Gen 15:7)the posterity in whom Abraham inherited it, to whom therefore it was given. They overlooked the wide gulf that stood between them and him; if they were Abrahams children, they would have done his works. (Comp. at Eze 11:15.)
Eze 33:25. To eat upon the blood is explained by Keil as eating of flesh which has not been cleansed of the blood; comp. Lev 19:26. A fundamental law of the theocracy (Hv.). The prohibition was given so early as at Gen 9:4. There with respect to the shedding of blood, as the infliction of death, murder; so that it was aimed against the spirit of murder (Hengst.). Targum: You eat upon innocent blood. From the blood a transition is made to the eating. In Leviticus 19. it appears in connection with the service of idolatry, as also here.Lev 18:6; Lev 18:15, Lev 22:3; Lev 4:27.The question is repeated in Eze 33:26. To stand or place ones self is=to support ones self, therefore to place his confidence thereon, which carries farther the shedding of blood. feminine; hence it has been understood of the women, with reference to immodest idolatrous worship. Hengst. points to Eze 13:17 sq. (The feminine character of the sinner is already indicated in Gen 4:7, where it appears unmanly to let sin conquer, instead of ruling over it,) Hitzig: stands for on account of the following. Eze 18:12; Eze 16:50; Eze 5:11. The abomination must, according to Hengst., be adultery; Eze 18:6; Eze 18:11.In Eze 33:27, three punishments are placed over against 2 3 sins. The parallel to Eze 33:10here referring to presumption, there to despairis confirmed by: As I live (Eze 33:11). (Eze 33:24), a play of words.Ch. 5.17, Eze 14:15; Eze 14:21; 2Ki 17:25., the mountain-tops, difficult of access; hence asylums, mountain-fastnesses, to which (as deeps to heights) the caves correspond on the other side, and which come into consideration as refuges from the sword and ravenous wild beasts, but not from the pestilence. (1Sa 13:6; Jos. Bell. Jud. 1:16. 4) Eze 5:17; Eze 14:21.
Eze 33:28. Eze 6:14.(Niph.) Eze 30:18; Eze 7:24. , Eze 14:15. Cleared of men, even of passing travellers.
Eze 33:29. Eze 32:15.
Eze 33:30-33. The reference in the preceding verses to the accomplished fact of Jerusalems overthrow is followed in Eze 33:30 by a glance into the immediate surroundings of the prophet, as they stood related to his fresh mission. The position of matters was here full of consolation; the consolatory work of Ezekiel must begin, the announcement of salvation is going to proceed. How do the hearts of the exiles feel in regard to this? The prophet cannot speak comfort by means of Abraham, after the manner in which they comforted themselves in Canaan (Eze 33:24). He is no servant of sin, but of the living God (Hv.). A putting of the prophet right, therefore, with respect to the men, such as that which fell to his lot at the outset of his mission, is entirely suitable also here for the new beginning and for the continuation even to the end.And thou corresponds to the application, Eze 33:7. (who talk among themselves; they are presented to the prophet, as it were, with a: See there!Hengst.). Hitzig makes the matter too pointed when he expounds: Not who confer together upon thee, but who converse about thee as about a matter that is of no great interest to them. On the contrary, indicates a continuation of the discourse and a sense of interest, which Hv. thinks cannot be understood otherwise than with a hostile feeling. Still less, however, accords with such an interpretation the regular assembling of the people about the prophet, and above all, the impression which the fulfilment of his predictions will probably have made upon them. He hence forms the beloved standing object of their plauditsmust have done so, we may rather say. , sitting down by the walls(upon the divan, Hengst.)as much as: in secret, or within their houses. (Scarcely, as Hv.: the sons, etc., who speak against thee in the house, are thy opponents secretly, and in the doors of the houses, in public, there every one acknowledges thee.) , without, namely, standing under the gates or doors of the house. And speak; this continues the action of the previous clause. The full form of expression likewise imports more than Hitzig will concede to them.The words: Come now, etc., appear also to intimate that they must now expect something new, different from what they had been hitherto always hearing. But is it as at Hos 6:1? Would they only hear, as they say, and not also obey? not return to the Lord?The prophet must not deceive himself on this account, that his person is their daily theme within and without, nay, that they come in a manner to the word of the Eternal, as is described in Eze 33:31, namely, as the coining of people, that is, like streaming multitudes, in vast crowds (as on great solemnities, Hv.)to which is parallel , in an emphatic manner designating either: My people ironically, those who should be Minehear, but do not; or: as My people, that is, as if they would be My people, and still are not. Ewald: as if they were the true community. Or may it not be as Hengst.: so respectful, attentive, and apparently earnest and willing? What they will not do is clear from Eze 33:11; the words of the prophet aim at the hearts conversion., Hitzig: for the lovely is according to their taste; but ? and is certainly suggested by . Lovely things were such as they liked, desired, longed for; hence they are only about the doing of that which is pleasant in their mouth, smacks agreeably to them. Gesenius, however, puts it: For with the mouth they do what is well-pleasing (to God), but their heart goes after their unrighteous gain. Hengst. declares the meanings of loveliness and well-pleasing to be without foundation, and renders: they deal tenderly with their mouth, properly: they show ardour, affect in words an ardent love to God and His word, while the real inclination of their heart goes quite another way, is turned to mammon, the god of the Jewish old man. Hv.: for lewdness they follow with their mouth. with Ezekiel (comp. at ch.23.) and Jeremiah unquestionably denotes impure love, passionate desire, especially unchaste fleshly desire, whether as akin to , or to gaping after (gaffen), looking after, or to snatching at (Germ. happen), hoping for, earnestly expecting. So much is clear as to the meaning of the word; all besides is imported, or arbitrarily connected with it. (only in the plural), however, occurs not merely in Eze 33:31, but also in Eze 33:32 connected with , song. What else, then, can it signify but love-songs (songs of impure love)? To the fact that they do not the words of the prophet, which according to their own confession proceed from Jehovah (Eze 33:30), the form a restriction: certainly they also do, they are at the doing in their mouth: as much as, with words, with the tongue. What is received by the ear, this in the mouth becomes love-songs; the doing of that they make out of the words of God spoken by the prophet. Hence, after that in Eze 33:31 the expression has been explained, or more exactly defined, the statement: and they hear thy words, etc., is again resumed. So that their doing remains in the mouth; the heart does not participate in it, as is presently indicated when it is said that their heart goes after its covetous, fraudulent gain ( from , to make a cut; Eze 22:27; Eze 22:12). Nay, they take such advantage of the words of God, which Ezekiel announces to them, that they turn them to their own account; whence it is not so much their warm regard for Jehovah, as Jehovahs for them, which here comes into consideration. In some such way they treat the divine promises as loving declarations of a hot paramour. We are not, however, on this account obliged to interpret by: frivolous jokes, words of mockery (with the Targum), or: falsehood, deceit, with the older translations. Not that they would only amuse themselves, but more, they turn grace into wantonness (Judges 4). With them also, therefore, the matter concerns the substance of things, not so much the lovely form; and they were perverting it to excess according to their hearts lust.
Eze 33:32. According to Hitzig, must signify not song, but lovely singer. does not necessitate that, for it may be referred to the fine tones of the song. But if it applies to the fine voice of the prophet, then it is to be understood that, after he has in been coupled with his prophecy (to which, however, the reference according to the connection must chiefly be made), he is thought of apart, and continues the reference to the prophet, without therefore constraining us by this personal reference to understand also directly and simply of him. (Hiph. of ), with , signifies either to play well, beautifully, or to do so vigorously, bravely. Junius refers what is said to the prophecies of doom upon those who are without (Ezekiel 25-32). Hengst., in a manifestly modern fashion: they rejoice amid the national impoverishment at the admirable rhetorical gifts of the new classic (!).
Eze 33:33. This verse joins to the repetition of their not doing the prediction of their unfailing and so different knowledge of the prophet.And when it comes, in a general sense, what he speaks; not the more special utterance in Eze 33:27-29, which at least does not sound like a song of loves, rather the prophecies which were now going to follow. Thus the tone with which this second main division of the book commences is different; not: they shall know that I am Jehovah, but as at Eze 2:5, where the language employed was still of a general kind. (See there.)The: behold it comes, points back to the circumstance that the judgment on the people has actually come; and as such a thing has come, so certain also shall the following discourses be seen to be as to their fulfilment. (Hitz.: the matter shall certainly come to pass which is the object of thine address. Hv.: And lo! it is already fulfilled; this must signify, Jerusalem is fallen, and the truth of the predictions perfectly established.) The experience is, however, a painful one, because the peoples impenitence will exclude them from the future salvation. What far-reaching and, at the same time, true prospective vision, even to the days of the Son of man! It had already been declared to them through the prophets in the midst of them; so much the more, when He Himself actually came and spoke to them, did every pretext for their sin fall away, Joh 15:22.
DOCTRINAL REFLECTIONS
Compare the Reflections at pp. 72, 73, and on ch 18
1. Woe is me, exclaimed the apostle, if I preach not the gospel! (1Co 9:16.) This is a lesson which belongs to all those who have had the care or oversight of others committed to them. With that is not to be confounded the circumstance, that each individual has his particular gift from God, by means of which he can be profitable to his neighbour. The general love demands that we should seek the salvation of each other, Jude 2123 (Cocceius).
2. In the office, calling, service which belongs to preachers, two things unite,namely, the appointment through men, that is, in the present case, through the Church, as is implied in the similitude Eze 33:2 sq.; and that the Lord gives preachers to Jerusalem, as is said at Eze 33:7. Where this latter is not regarded, there the other also cannot be considered. If the civil magistrate, hence the State, or private individuals to whom the patronage belongs, will assert for themselves the vocatio ministrorum, they thereby ignore the Christian rights of the Church, just because they do not acknowledge the supreme right of God over His people. For it belongs to the Church to choose and ordain her servants, according to the order of Christ and His apostles; and a particular community, although it may be locally formed, does not at all stand related to the whole Church after the manner that a single commune, as a section of the civic commonwealth, stands related to the State; but it is in respect to constitution the Church itself, which has its representation in the community as regards its full possession of life. Not otherwise appear to us the communities of the Acts of the Apostles and of the apostolic epistles. Hereditary relations might well enough beget a temporary legal right of a historical kind, but really destitute of foundation, in so far as it is at variance with the fundamental rights of the Church, and can be proved to be the remnant of an antagonistic claim of rights, an unjust usurpation. We are not to speak with the Remonstrants of rights conferred upon the Church by the State in the matter of the vocatio ministrorum, since the State has no right to confer, because possessing none. And so the Reformation, if it found itself very much in the position, could not have the right, to erect a throne for the Csareo-papal government of the Church, since the Church, having the right to govern itself, renounces itself when it gives up to the State, or to the persons in whom the civil power concentrates itself, rights which are absolutely the Churchs own, which therefore the civil power cannot possess, unless these rights are to be turned to foolishness. In every tyranny exercised on the conscience, foolishness plays its part. But the claim of right, which, since the Reformation, has crept in for the conferring of rights which are against right, is of a piece with that of summus episcopuswhence the Papistical leaven of this title clearly appears. For it is Papistical doctrine in the general to ascribe the right of vocation to the bishops, if the Roman chair should not have granted special exceptions in regard to the election of pastors. When the limits of State-power have been formulated in this way, that it has to do with things circa sacra, but not in sacris, it certainly does look odd enough that a supreme bishop should indeed inspect the walls of the sanctuary, but must not tread upon them. The experience of upwards of 300 years, however, has shown much else than the absurdity of the formula in questionhas proved the neglected, though oft-repeated and powerfully expressed, warnings of Luther and of the symbolical books, against the intermingling of the spiritual and civil jurisdictions, to have been only too well grounded. And when the Reformed theologian Heidegger, in his Medulla Theologi, with the view of smoothing over the folly of that formula, would not have the oversight and power of the State limited to the circa religionem et ecclesiam, but apostrophises the magistrate as et ecclesi membrum excellens, thereby giving him to participate in the power which belongs to the Church, and then ascribing to him the obligation of serving Christ and His kingdom, and of advancing this kingdom with the authority lent him by God;or when Burmann, also a Reformed theologian, enumerates the offices of the magistrate circa sacra, and among these reckons not merely the appointment and ordering of the acts of public worship, so as to secure that all be done according to the word of God, and the providing a safeguard against ecclesiastical arbitrariness, and the interposition on behalf of oppressed fellow-believers, and so forth, but also the suppression of errors, of heretics and heterodox, the reformation of the Church when it has become corrupt, etc.;in all this we have a glance afforded us into a state of things which has actually existed, but which, and along therewith the alleged ground for such civil interferences, in spite of the so-called Christian State, has long since passed away. But what is to be matter of controversy with the State will, above all, have reference to the so-called church patrons, for patronage is really of Romish heathenish origin, and has never at all, in conformity with its proper sense, been Christianized as a juridical advocateship; at least a good part of the Germanic feudal lordship has infused itself into this assumption of a right of private domination. Now if, in opposition to all of this nature that is at variance with the self-government of the Church by means of the organization peculiar to her, a stand is to be made, and, in particular, the choice and calling of pastors are effected in this way through men, there still is, as the other factor, the Lord, whose body the Church of God is, and the right of the Church in its last source is the constitution granted by her sole Head, Christ. In consequence of this regimen principale, all are brethren who serve one another, the Lord alone has the supreme authority (theocracy or Christocracy); so that the Church, in respect to its inner spiritual form, is no democracy, neither is it an aristocracy any more than a hierarchy, but a monarchy in the highest sense of the word. Through the Holy Spirit, and by dint of such supreme invisible sovereignty, was Ezekiel sent to Israel, just as in ordinary circumstances the humblest village pastor is sent from the same quarter, whether it may be for grace or for judgment. For it is Gods good pleasure that through such service on the part of men the divine will in respect to men should be accomplished (Eph 4:11 sq.); and the calling of a minister in any particular case will be perfect, where the internal through the Spirit corresponds with the external through the Church or its organs.
3. Ewald maintains that the ultimate ground of all possibility of a true conversion stands in this, that in connection with the divine grace, which is ever working for good, a genuine prophet never fails, who, in perilous times announcing the pure truth, informs and warns all with dauntless, clear words. Against enthusiasts and Schwenkfeldians it has not, indeed, been denied by the teachers of the Church, that God, if such had been His will, could also immediately as from Himself have converted and saved men; yet still the Church has always held fast the conviction, that the public ministry and vocation to it in the Church is requisite by a hypothetical necessity, namely, with reference to the good pleasure and purpose of God.
4. The prophets are to be reckoned among the extraordinary ministers. In the old Reformed theology, the extraordinary vocation was represented as threefold:(1) When God effect it directly through His voice, as in the case of Abraham, Moses, the prophets under the Law, John the Baptist, and the apostles; (2) when it takes place by announcement through a human instrumentality, as in the case of Aaron and the tribe of Levi, by means of Moses as the mediating agency; (3) when the internal impulse of the Spirit drives in one direction or another, as was the case, for example, with the deacon Philip.
5. Death is the wages of sin, and sin is the destruction of people; and so, by reason of the universal sinfulness, quite apart from particular charges of guilt, an absolutely sinless extinction of life is not to be thought of; only relatively heavier or lighter will the guilt weigh in particular cases. But beside ones own guilt, that of each individual man, there stands upon the tablet of the Judge, as fellow-partakers thereof, human society in the general (through education, instruction, customs, etc.), and in particular its chiefs, as governors, princes, lords, teachers, etc., who should serve not merely as possessors of the dignity and of office, but also as examples to be looked up to in whatever place they may be.
6. This is, however, the brightest and most glorious distinction of the prophetic calling, to proclaim the joy of the Creator in connection with the life of the converted sinner (Umbreit).
7. We have not on this account to despair of life, because knowing that we are in the midst of death. For this knowledge of death excludes only the thought of life, as that which might still be in ourselves, and could proceed out of us; but such knowledge by no means takes from us, it rather brings nearer, the prospect of life out of ourselves, namely, in the living God. The conversion version from sin to God, as also from all dead works of a simply legal nature, or of self-righteousness, is hence a burying in regard to the life which is merely mans, while in reality it is the way of that life which God gives, and which He Himself is.
8. Conversion, internally considered, is the change of a mans state of mind into conformity with the will of Goda change, therefore, in which his internal feeling cannot be alone operative, but in which that effects his transformation in the power of God, which is the moving impulse from a higher power in respect to what he is going to be. But outwardly it appears as the complete reformation of his behaviour, since he turns from a direction toward the world into a direction toward God. The change which takes place in his state of mind in all the elements conditioning it becomes manifest in the transformation of his life. This change of mind is as to its nature a single decisive and deeply conscious actthe act of the whole inner life; but precisely on this account not the isolated occurrence of a single hour, of a particular frame or deed, though it frequently also comes to its highest manifestation in a particular hour, frame, or deed. It is not an abstract single change, but a revolution resting on a concrete single change, on a definite turning-point, an always renewed and always more deeply penetrating and pervading revolution, which is quite fitly designated by the term conversion. It is the everlasting deed of the man in the power of his God with reference to the old life (Lange, Pos. Dogmatik).
9. Evil ways are not only the bad ways of wicked works, but also the false ways of righteousness. Nay, it is above all important, that whoever will live should turn from his own wisdom and fancied power, as if he could sanctify himself to God, and give Him the glory, and receive from Him justification by grace (Cocc.).
10. Because conversion of heart, sincere conversion, can at any moment savingly interrupt the course of development of sin, which would otherwise run on to its consummation in the judgment of death, so the disobedience of unbelief toward the alluring word of grace must be regarded as the sin unto death.
11. When it is said that God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, it must be understood after this manner, as if He were not inclined to give pardon to the penitent. God does not delight in judgment in such a way as not to delight in the justification of him who repents; as if repentance in faith on the word which promises grace to the sinner were of no account with God, or as if there were no righteousness of God available through which the penitent might obtain salvation. This word very clearly shows that there was no necessity for Israel pining away in their own sins, or in those of others, if they were but themselves in the right way. For whenever they turned from their evil way, life was thenceforth prepared for them. Whence it follows, that for that life neither a temple nor a state was requisite, so that those only should pine away of worldly sorrow who have their glory in these carnal and earthly things; whereas for such as would bend their hearts to believe in God, there should be no wasting away in their own or their fathers sins, or in those of the people, but they should have life in hope, and should not feel the want of state-support or temple or priesthood, and carnal things of that sort, but should find all laid up for them in God, who would be mindful of His covenant with Abraham, and provide the Seed in which the Gentiles were to be blessed (Cocc.).
12. The greatest danger that can arise out of suffering is that a man should misunderstand his Maker; one of the hardest problems for the servants of God is to bring reason into the suffering (Hengst.).
13. The law in the Old Covenant directed its chief attention upon sin. The knowledge of sin must be for men the result that came out of all those imperatives, Thou shalt not, and Thou shalt. Hence the prophets in their relation to the law could, in the first instance, pursue no other aim than to set forth men as sinners. Sin remains as the mark of interrogation behind the righteousness of the righteous. As the conflict between the law and the carnality of man is not closed by the law, the doing of what is right according to the law may acquire for any one the predicate of a righteous person, but it will always only in particular cases be done aright according to the law; the righteousness out of the law must be righteousnesses, specific such as, for example, are mentioned in Eze 33:14 sq. (and in contrast therewith Eze 33:25 sq.). So that there is a righteousness of the righteous, Eze 33:12-13; Eze 33:18, while still man does not see himself placed through the law in the position of a perfectly happy relation to God, freed from guilt and the curse of the law. It is not, however, knowledge alone of his sins and knowledge of himself as a sinner which the law gives to man, but along therewith the knowledge that the righteousness, the reality of which corresponds to God, which is the righteousness of God, must come as a revelation outside the law from God Himself through grace.
14. That with the completed fact of the overthrow of Jerusalem the silence of Ezekiel should be brought to an end, and he should be no more dumbthis circumstance lent to the fact in question a special character, caused it to appear so much the more in a peculiar light, as a parallel must be provided for it. Accordingly, it not merely seems as if Jerusalem must have fallen, so that salvation might with open mouth be prophesied, as the starry orbs of night disappear before the rising sun, but it was in reality so; and parallel with this first destruction, the last destruction of the Holy City, and the total dispersion of the people throughout the Roman world, on the one hand, made room for the fulness of the Gentiles at the table of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and on the other, caused the gospel salvation to be preached to every creature. Jerusalem became then thoroughly desolate; but John saw a new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven. The Jews have been scattered abroad everywhere, but the Israel of God are being gathered meanwhile from all the ends of the earth, on the ground of the prophetic word, rendered more certain through the fulfilment certified by the apostles.
15. Neither danger, or, more correctly, the anxious concern and dread about danger, such as we can well imagine to ourselves, nor any other hindrance, must be permitted to throw itself like an insuperable wall in the way of a servant of God. This is no apology worthy of a prophet, I labour in vain; I preach to deaf ears; but in season and out of season is the work to be carried on, and sinners to be admonished. No one must bury his talent (Matthew 25.). And this holds equally with respect to magistrates and heads of families (Lavater).
HOMILETIC HINTS
Eze 33:1. We men are daily and always anew to be reminded of our obligations, for individually and collectively we are slothful and negligent men (Stck.).
Eze 33:2-3. How profitable in dangerous times is the guardian care of watchmen! They must not, however, betray the confidence of the community, and must have open eyes, in order that the people of the Lord may not be taken by surprise. But when the Lord does not keep the city, the watchman waketh in vain, even though he does not fall into sleep (Luther).The sword is the judgment, but the trumpet the holy gospel; the man who spies and watches is the bishop, whose part it is to preach and testify of the future judgment (Clement).Sollicitudo officium prlati est, non celsitudo (Bernard).The calling to the office of preacher is twofoldone immediate, the other mediate; the former is from God, the latter from man, Act 26:15-16; Act 6:5 (Cr.).Who would choose a blind man to be the watchman of a city? How could he see the danger and give warning of it? How unreasonable is it, therefore, to appoint a spiritually blind or unconverted man to be a teacher ! He does not at all see the danger, and how can he give warning? Isa 56:10-11; Mat 15:14 (Starke).The office and work, the service and fidelity of a right bishop or overseer of the community.The profitableness and blessing of fidelity; on the other hand, the injury and curse of unfaithfulness.The importance and responsibility of the prophetic calling (Umbr.).Although in the present day ministers are chosen and ordained to church employment by men, yet may such human choice, when it is rightly gone about, be also termed divine. But since it is God who assigns ministers their place, He ought to be entreated to send true and good ministers to His people (Luther).What sort of a watchman would he be who should keep silence about the breaking out of a fire, because he would not rouse people out of their sleep? And so, what sort of teacher would he be who should remain silent at the sins of the ungodly, that they might not be disturbed in their sleep of security? (St.)No blind man, nor dreamer, nor drowsy sleeper, is fit for an office which takes its name from wakefulness (Berl. Bib.).
Eze 33:4-6. To let ones self be warned, what a profitable, serious, and yet very much neglected prescription!Ask those who have gone to hell; they will in a body give thee for answer, We would not take warning (Stck.).The disregarded or despised warnings from youth up.Men can but warn, they cannot deliver.The power and the weakness of our love.I hear the message well enough, but I want faith.
Eze 33:6. Of the watching which is enjoined upon ourselves: Watch, for ye know not, etc., we are not relieved by the obligation which lies upon the watchman. Hence he who is overtaken unwarned still does not fall guiltless, for his security, carelessness, etc., were the occasion of his fall.Contempt of danger is therefore no true courage.Every one must carry his soul as in his hand.What a mournful condition is it, when the Church does not watch, the State does not protect, the house does not admonish! (Stck.)
Eze 33:7-9. Natural life and soundness of health are indispensably necessary to an ordinary watchman, and not less necessary are life and strength in the inner man to a spiritual watchman, Lam 2:14 (Lange). With a spiritual watchman there must be found a spiritual life, a spiritual light, a spiritual wakefulness, and dutiful fidelity in all parts of his office (St.).As the prophet on the mouth of God, so the preacher is dependent on the word of God. He has by this to prove every word of man; on this last his office has no dependence.The apostle pleads in the stead of Christ, 2Co 5:20.Mark, Christian hearer! For Gods sake, and because God wishes it, thy teacher must warn thee. Therefore be not wroth with him; if thou shouldst be so, then be assured that it is not with him, but with God, that thou art enraged, Gal 1:6; Gal 1:10; Deu 18:19 (St.).Sympathy may be cruelty; everything at the right place and at the right time.Love can cover the sins which are committed against us, but never can call evil good.Whosoever despises him that is sent, fails in respect also to Him that sent him.But they are no servants of God who flatter the ungodly.(Comp. Homiletic Hints on Eze 3:17 sq.) The warnings which teachers have failed to give afford no justification to the wicked before God, for God warns them Himself in His word, Luk 12:48 (St.).A more intolerable judgment comes upon Chorazin and Bethsaida than upon Tyre and Sidon (Heim-Hoff.).The position of the servants of God is certainly not a comfortable one, since they have to dwell among those who are called briers and scorpions, and are likened even to lions; whence they do not get off without pricks and wounds (Stck.).But the preaching is not enough which consists simply in the word. An evangelical watchman must teach conscientiously and live holily (H. H.).Even when the preachers conscience is free from guilt in regard to the ungodly who perish in their sins, what a sorrow does it occasion in the life of the preacher when he has to see the impenitent die in their sins!The pain connected with the preachers office, which the world understands not.I would not willingly be saved without you (Augustine).
Eze 33:10. All in the end feel sin, but they hate it not.The way of the unconverted in this respect is to look rather to the temporal than to the eternal life (St.).To despair, instead of turning to God, is but another form of the pride that is in the human heart.Despair is another kind of impenitence.How contrasts touch one another! The godly also are sometimes on the brink of despairDavid, Psalms 38, and Cain, Genesis 4That punishment should always be heavier to us than sin! (Stck.)He who would justify himself would perhaps throw the blame even upon God.God always deals unfairly with the wicked, as they think.When Gods judgments break forth, then men readily remember their sins (Stck.).One must hate sin before one can live (B. B.).He whose sin keeps him away from God, loves his sin more than his life. Why will ye die? God, therefore, always asks again.We must not despair of Gods compassion, but turn ourselves toward it (Stck.).When the Holy One swears, He lets Himself down to the lies, the faithlessness, and fickleness which prevail on the earth. He comes before the judgment-seat of men, and bears His testimony against sinners who would die.Unbelief must be ashamed and dumb, or be compelled to pass sentence on itself.He does not swear by His love, of which the smaller number only have some feeling; but that He lives all know (B. B.).Indubitable as the love of God is, yet not the less necessary is conversion for men.Seek no back-doors, no bribery of the saints, no hushing up of the conscience with pious forms of speech; but go straight into the heavenly kingdom, as the prodigal son made for his father.We can think nothing good of ourselves; our whole salvation is hence a divine work (H. H.).The living God wills life, and also gives it to those who will; but unless men also wish it, He certainly does not give. To work this will, to lay the will of the flesh to sleep under Gods wordthis is the aim of the universal grace, i.e. the grace which God offers to all men through His word. But where the will has been wrought, there will also the performance be made good, according to the good pleasure of God; so that our conversion is not only His requirement, but also His working, although the deed is mans.
Eze 33:12-13. (See Homiletic Hints on Eze 18:24; Eze 18:21 sq., 26, 27 sq.)Righteousness from works does not preserve and save men.It is not the righteousness of the righteous that is the question, but the righteousness of God, which is manifested indeed in the law, but does not come out of the law.The righteous who are such by faith will live, and will live in their faith.One must begin, but one must also continue to the end.Unfaithfulness smites its own Lord.The truly righteous also know of failings, but not of falling away.Not that we are evil by nature is what finally condemns us, but that we remain evil in spite of the goodness of God, which seeks our conversion.No true penitent needs despair on account of his old sins, nor faint because of them, Psa 25:3; Mat 9:2 (Cr.).In true conversion it is not enough that there be a breaking off of some sins, but of all, Isa 1:16; Jam 2:10 (Starke).But this is the true life, if one can say with Paul: I live not, but Christ liveth in me, Gal 2:20 (Stck.).Trust upon ones own righteousness is not faith, but trust upon the righteousness of God in Christ. Not assuredly the letter of our righteousness, but the spirit of that imputed to us, brings the assurance that we are children of God, and shall also remain such.
Eze 33:14 sq. The voucher for the reckoning here furnished by means of the thief on the cross.Conversion of heart, of conduct, of life.The separation from sin is effected not only by the forgiveness of all our sins and of our sinful state, but also by a walk in all goodness after the Spirit, who now begins His ascendency.Man becomes free when in his conscious want of freedom he gives himself up to the free-making God (Lange).The improvement of the life shows that things have become better with a man, that God has taken an interest in his soul, in order that it might not perish.
Eze 33:17 sq. (Homiletic Hints on Eze 18:25-29.) More than five years intervened [viz. between this and the similar utterance in Ezekiel 18.], and the people had still not got a step farther. Thus God Himself, by His example, teaches all parents, guardians, etc., patience. And we should much more exercise patience when we think of our own sins and of Gods patience with us, but should also not be weary of watching and warning (Schmieder).An honest man has still much more faith in the world than God Himself, Gen 19:14 (St.).Gods way is right even when He, nay, just because He does not allow the righteous to be righteous, and does not leave the sinner to perish.Let him who thinks that he stands take heed that he do not fall!Do this, it is ever again said, and thou shalt live.Good works are productions of God, in consequence of the will having been set free by Him from the doing of evil to the doing of good.The last day will make it clear that Gods way has been right.
Eze 33:21-22. The opened mouth of a servant of God is his frankness, the contrary is trimming and flattering; and it is also distinguished from sarcastic witticisms, evil speaking, and insult. The servants of God should be frank in speech; yet not like insolent fellows, who believe they may say everything because no one can contradict them, at least when in the pulpit (Luther).Gods word will take effect at last; woe to him who then finds that he is a stricken man, who should have long ago recognised himself to be in that case !At last it comes, what men would not believe (Berl. Bib.).Our silence and our speaking are both of God.In the time of Gods long-suffering which sinners abuse, the righteous must often be silent till the judgments actually take place (B. B.).
Eze 33:24 sq. The deceitful conclusions of self-love.The hereditary nobility in its foolish pretensions.Of Abraham matters nothing, but to be like Abraham is what is needed.Noblesse oblige.Walls, cities, go to ruin, but a fool will still plant himself on the ruins, Pro 27:22.What is promised to faith, unbelievers will often be found appropriating to themselves (Stck.).The hope of the ungodly must come to shame.When the mask falls from the hypocrites, then will the beast of prey which lay behind become manifest; and we shall all be made manifest before the judgment-seat of Christ; then the masquerade will be out.There have not only been persons bearing merely the name of Jew, but there still are, and always have been, plenty of nominal Christians.Our life must not belie our profession, else in our claim to the inheritance of the saints we shall reckon without our host.Holy ruins are relics on which there is no inheritance.
Eze 33:26. The natural man stands upon nothing else than his sword.In relation to sin men ought not to be womanish, but women to be manly (Hengst.).
Eze 33:27. The divine vengeance does not need to rush upon its victim from behind in order to lay hold of him, nor does it require to make a long and laborious search after him; but where he has fled to and fancies himself hidden, whether it be in the heights or in the depths, there the vengeance of God lies in readiness, and has been expecting him to come to it.In the end we all come to Godalas! that so few should fall into His arms, while so many fall upon His sword!If the wild beasts of passion do not tear a man, the pestilence of his natural corruption will gradually consume him.
Eze 33:28 sq. Desolate shall it be at last about every ungodly man; for as the heart is, so is the life. First of all sin desolates; then come desolations through death; finally, we pass into the desolation of an eternity without God.The knowledge of the Eternal many times the most terrible humiliation in what is temporal.
Eze 33:30 sq. It is suspicious when people praise the fineness of a preachers voice, address, etc. (Right.).Ezekiel shows that this is what may happen even with earnest and godly preachers, for what is there from which man cannot suck sugar?Externally to hear Gods word, men will often encourage themselves, but not through Gods grace to reduce it to practice, Jer 42:1-2 (St.).Merely to hear, without doing, makes all preaching unprofitable.How many unwashed mouths wipe themselves clean on the servants of God!Strange that sermons of rebuke should be more attractive than grace-sermons! It shows that the gospel requires a much greater earnestness of spirit than the law. But men would still always rather be smitten than caressed; they think, perhaps, that in the love there is too much of design. If one has been struck by the cudgel, it is still possible to preserve ones heart and head; but love leaves nothing to ones self, it demands allthe whole man, and the whole life.Shun the society of mockers, for nothing that is good can come of these (Stck.).They only praise the eloquence, they do not trouble themselves about the matter, unless it be that it does not directly concern them, but the heathen, Ezekiel 25 sq. (B. B.A measure for judging of the flocking to mission festivals.There will always be hypocrites, who hear, indeed, but do notyea, do quite differently from what their hearing should lead them to do. But God knows the thoughts of the heart, and looks upon all the ways of all men, and in His own time will avenge the despite done to His servants upon their despisers. Finally, we should not suffer ourselves to be entertained with Gods word as with music. God does not play in His word that we may dance (Luther).To hear, but also to obey, that is the main thing.Mere habit as regards the hearing of sermons makes people indifferent, and at last stupid.The Lord preserve us from empty pews, but still more from stupid hearers, who only wish to show their Sunday clothes, and to have been in church!How readily may a preacher deceive himself regarding his hearers!God read here to Ezekiel a lecture on homiletics.Pious sentimentalism, also, is spiritual adultery.So must God to-day still be Love, since thus only can the world quietly remain the world, which He has loved so much.The dear God (liebe Gott) the love-song of people of the world.Satan goes with us into church.Edification and the capacity for it are two different things.A true prophet will always leave behind him the impression of a true prophet.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
Under the figure of a Watchman, the Lord sets forth the duty of his Servants; in the blessed consequence of their giving warning, and the awful consequence if they neglect it.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The Prophet here draws the figure of a watchman, and points out the distinguishing features of his office. After which, the Lord declares that he had set Ezekiel in this Character, to the house of Israel: and most solemnly admonisheth him of the great responsibility of the charge. And as the blood of souls becomes infinitely more important in this high trust, than the watchman of a city or garrison, in warning the people entrusted to him of the danger of their bodies; the subject riseth to an higher degree of magnitude. With what holy fear and trembling, if this thought were duly considered, would the spiritual watchmen in the Church of Jesus, enter into the priesthood! And how would all such cry aloud, and spare not, in admonishing sinners of their danger, and holding up Christ as the only city of refuge for the manslayer to flee to, who by sin had murdered his own soul!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Eze 33:8
‘My own notion is,’ said Keble once, ‘that clergymen generally have more to blame themselves for as to neglect in the way of example and the way of intercession than in the way of direct warning.’
Eze 33:11
This is the motto and text of Richard Baxter’s Appeal to the Unconverted, at one part of which he breaks out thus: ‘Turn ye… . It is the voice of every affliction to call thee to make haste and turn. Sickness and pain cry, Turn; and poverty, and loss of friends, and every twig of the chastizing rod cry, Turn; and yet wilt thou not hearken to the call? These have come near thee and made thee feel; they have made thee groan, and can they not make thee turn?
‘The very frame and nature of thy being itself be-speaketh thy return. Why hast thou reason, but to rule thy flesh and serve thy Lord? Why hast thou an understanding soul, but to learn and know His will, and do it? Why hast thou a heart within thee, that can love, and fear, and desire, but that thou shouldst fear Him, and love Him, and desire after Him’?
References. XXXIII. 11. Bishop E. C. S. Gibson, Messages from the Old Testament, p. 194., J. Oswald Dykes, Outlines of Sermons on the Old Testament, p. 253. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxx. No. 1795. XXXIII. 14. J. Baldwin Brown, The Soul’s Exodus and Pilgrimage, p. 255. XXXIII. 30-33. W. M. Punshon, Outlines of Sermons on the Old Testament, p. 259.
Eze 33:31
It is almost incredible how the soul of these Semites is bound up with the prey of pennies.
C. M. Doughty, Arabia Deserta, I. p. 55.
Eze 33:32
To seek no more than a present delight, that evanisheth with the sound of the words that die in the air, is not to desire the word as meat but as music, as God tells the Prophet Ezekiel. And, lo, Thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well upon an instrument: for they hear Thy words and they do them not. … If anyone’s head or tongue should grow apace, and all the rest stand at a stay, it would certainly make him a monster; and they are no other, who are knowing and discoursing Christians, and grow daily in that respect, but not at all in holiness of heart and life, which is the proper growth of the children of God.
From Coleridge’s Aids to Reflection.
‘Dr. Dove preach’d before the King,’ is an entry in Evelyn’s Diary for the reign of Charles II., immediately followed by the further comment: ‘I saw this evening such a scene of profuse gaming, and the King in the midst of his three concubines, as I had never before seen. Luxurious dallying and profane-ness.’
References. XXXIII. 32. J. H. Thom, Laws of Life (2nd Series), p. 196. XXXIII. 32, 33. R. Winterbotham, Sermons and Expositions, p. 87.
Eze 33:33
It seems hard to be generous, not easy even to be just to the times upon which our lot is cast. The very expression ‘our present day’ conveys with it something of disparagement, implying a contrast with other ages in whose very silence we find an eloquence rebuking the clamour that surrounds us. Yet much that we now look on as prosaic, and perhaps decry as unreal, if read as history would enchain our imaginations; if spoken as prophecy would stir our very souls. Future chroniclers will make it their wisdom to decipher the Runes we are now dinting, and will understand their import better than we who leave them on the rocks.
Dora Greenwell.
As a rule, people discover a man to be worth listening to only after he is gone; their hear, hear! resounds when the orator has left the platform.
Schopenhauer.
The voice comes deepest from the sepulchre, and a great name hath its root in the dead body. If you invited a company to a feast, you might as well place round the table live sheep and oxen and vases of fish and cages of quails, as you would invite a company of friendly hearers to the philosopher who is yet living. One would imagine that the iris of our intellectual eye were lessened by the glory of his presence, and that, like eastern kings, he could be looked at near only when his limbs are stiff, by wax-light, in close curtains.
Landor.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Divine Expostulation
[an evangelistic address]
Eze 33:11
We ought now and then to have an address from every pulpit that is distinctly evangelistic By an evangelistic address I mean one that is specifically designed to show men the way of salvation, and to induce them to enter it and prosecute it to the end. In a stated ministry we cannot always have such addresses; we must have steady, persevering, sober, devout exposition of the divine Word. Occasionally, however, there ought to be a change, and that change ought to express itself in an ardent attempt to persuade men to come to the Saviour.
What is the Christian idea? Christian teachers are always talking to men about conversion, change of heart, and consequent change of habit The Christian teacher seems to be intent upon pressing upon the attention of men a certain scheme of thought. He will not speak to us so much about practical life, conduct, habit, manners, and the like; he persistently addresses himself to the exposition and enforcement of certain abstract or metaphysical arguments. The plea is in part good; if good, it is very good. This is the only way worth proceeding, attempting the prosecution. The Christian idea is that if you can really alter a man’s thought, you at the same time alter the man’s life. The Christian teacher, therefore, if really sent from God, begins with the heart. He does not come to wash the hands, but to cleanse the soul; knowing that when the heart is really clean, thoroughly purified, the hands cannot be foul. He would make the fountain good that he may purify the stream. Why, then, this irrational and ungrateful aspersion upon the Christian ministry, that it is always dealing with thoughts, conceptions, intellectual and spiritual attitudes, and not addressing itself to social oppressions, and political considerations and exigencies?
For the reason I have given, we believe that the Christian method is the most fundamental; it carries everything before it; it is only abstract that it may become concrete; it only comes down with celestial power and grace upon the heart that it may work out all manner of social reconciliations and duties. Are we right? We want to be right; we do not want to be as they are who simply beat the air. We know we could make a show of greater progress, but we also know that it would be but an appearance, a vain and transitory ostentation, because we believe that until the heart is right the hand cannot be clean, and we further believe that when the heart is right the hand will be industrious in all manner of kindly, gracious, helpful service. Are we right? How persons do under-estimate the power and the value of right-thinking! Who pays any attention to mere thought? Who in reality cares for the truly and lastingly spiritual? The carnal man likes to see demonstrations; he is fond of banners; he likes to see that something is, as he phrases it, going on. It is the judgment of a fleshly man. There is no real philosophy or durableness in his proposal. It is a noise for today and a disappointment for tomorrow. But when the heart is right, when the thinking is true, when all internal estimates are exact, and we do know the true relation and values of things, then our whole conduct is built upon the right scale and is directed to the right end, and issues in delightful and heavenly satisfaction, because it is inspired by the right motive. We hold that motive is everything. We judge conduct by the motive. Conduct that does not represent motive of the highest quality is a lie. Character that has not at its very core the right motive is a calculated hypocrisy. The motive determines the quality. If a man be building from the outside and only on the outside, then be sure he is not a durable builder. Hence the slowness, or the apparent slowness, of the Christian movement. You can write a programme in a few moments; you can, by using proper instrumentalities, organise a demonstration for fourteen or ten days, and it shall be quite impressive and portentous to some minds and eyes; but it means nothing unless there be behind it a conviction, a spiritual reality, a noble motive then it must win. Time is with it, the movement of the sun is with it, God is with it; all checks and recessions are only part of a great process: the right must come to throne and crown.
Hence it is that the Christian teacher does not take such an active part in many fussy, aggressive, and noise-creating reforms. When a match is struck there is more noise than when the sun rises. All the great movements of the universe are silent. No man ever heard the falling back of the gates of the morning; yet the morning opens her radiant portals and comes up high in the sky to create the miracle of noontide. But what can we expect from outside critics when the men within the Church itself are not spiritual? They are organisers, machine-makers, manufacturers, always getting up something, and absolutely leaving no room for the ministry of God the Holy Ghost. When your minds are full of right thoughts we need take no further care of you you are under the government of God; but whilst you have cast out the evil thoughts and have not received the good thoughts you are yourselves a temptation and an opportunity to the devil. First of all, then, we lay down this proposition, that a man must be born again; not merely restored, reformed, redressed, rehabilitated, but born, born again; starting life as a babe, with a babe’s heart, and a babe’s eye of wonder, and a babe’s trustfulness. “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.”
The proposition which Christianity has to make to men is: All this being granted, what you have to receive into your hearts is the power of the Cross of Christ. Who is Christ? He has many names that you need not learn just now. Have you begun at the right name? If you set a child down to begin anywhere about the middle of the alphabet he will never be able to find the place again. You must begin at the beginning; then there can be no mistake about it. Reason, nature herself tells you when you are right. My Lord hath a thousand appellations, yea, by ten thousand names is he known to all the adoring angels, but to me he is known first and midst and last by the sweet name Saviour. Shall we make that name a little more English and say Saver? The man who is this plucks out of danger, draws in from peril, raises from hopelessness and helplessness; yea more, raises the dead. That is the true poetry, that the eternal reason. Possibly some men have begun at the wrong end of the appellations of Christ. Men may have been thinking of him as God, as King eternal, immortal, invisible; they may have been exciting their veneration and thus reducing their penitence or their contrition; in other words, they may have been working on the wrong side of their nature. What man wants in the first instance is the distinct consciousness that he needs a Saviour. Until he gets that consciousness he can make no progress. Let a man think he is quite well and he will never send for a physician; let a man believe himself able to direct all his own movements, and he will never trouble any counsellor for suggestion or advice; let a man fall into ill-health and feel more and more that he cannot cure himself, then he will begin to ask where the healer lives. It is exactly so with regard to this gospel. Let a man feel that the world as he knows it is quite enough for him, that he wants no other treasure than gold, that he wants no other duration than time, and that he is able to meet all exigencies out of his own resources; and that man is outside the very purpose and mission of the Son of God. Saith Christ, “I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance”; “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick”; “The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
Until we realise the full meaning of these terms we cannot apply to Christ; we could not accost him in the right spirit, or address him in the right tone; even if we tried to pray, our prayers would freeze into ice upon our reluctant lips. Only broken-heartedness can pray; only helplessness can cry mightily to Heaven; only agony has the key of the Cross. If you have never felt this emotion in regard to the aggravation and guilt of sin, you are not gospel-hearers. Why should you be? The gospel has nothing to say to you. The gospel meets men who are inquirers, who are saying, Who will show us any good? This world is poor, is there no other world from which we can draw higher light and richer streams of blessing? Then the gospel will say, Let us tarry here, on this very spot, and talk this matter out; and it will not withhold from you any of its treasure, any of its music, any of its love. The first thing, however, is that you must supply the opportunity, you must come with a definite necessity. No man ever came to Christ with that necessity and went away empty. On the last day of the feast Jesus stood and cried, “If any man thirst ” That is what we mean by need. When a man does not thirst he does not inquire for the stream, but when his throat is burning with thirst his lips are full of heat because of want of water; he tries to say, though chokingly, Where is the well? where is the stream? Then a child might lead him; but so long as that necessity is not biting him, burning him, scorching him, he holds his head aloft, he will not be talked to, he will not have any dogmatic teaching; let him alone. The time will come when he will ask the least child that can talk to tell him where the living stream doth flow.
The Christian idea is that there is only one Saviour. But he is a thousand Saviours in one. He has all man needs, and man needs all he has. It is a very complex problem, though simple in some of its aspects. Man never knows how great a being he is until he knows Christ. Christ makes the man himself so much larger. Christ develops necessities the man never suspected; Christ touches imagination, and imagination creates or dreams new universes; Christ gives us life, and gives us life more abundantly, so that we increase in capacity. This is what education does for a man. The man says, It will be enough for me that I can read a little, and if I can sign my own name. So be it; now teach him to read a verse, and in the degree in which he enjoys that verse he says, I think I will try to read the next one. That is what we call the true evolution of Christian education, so that a man cannot be quite content or satisfied with one degree of progress: what he has done prepares him to do something more. His first prayer encourages him to breathe his second, and when he prays again he prays still more, and as he prays he knows what the Apostle means when he says, “Pray without ceasing.” Little by little. Christ’s life does not come down upon us in great overpowering cataracts. The life of Christ within us springs up a little today and a little tomorrow; only do not let the babe think he is a man, or the man suppose that he is an angel. Do not outrun your inward progress; be calm, be modest, be hopeful, be grateful, and ye shall grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
There is, then, only one Saviour, but, I repeat, he is a thousand Saviours in one. He addresses himself to the very mystery of our manhood. He does not ignore our will. He knows that we are fearfully and wonderfully made; he knows that he is dealing with the handiwork of God, for a moment spoiled by the devil; therefore he saith, What wilt thou, poor blind man? what wilt thou, lonesome leper? Therefore saith he, “Believe ye that I am able to do this?” and when he reproaches us he says, “Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life”; and in that last, grandest, sublimest plaint he says, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! killer, stoner of prophets and missionaries, how often would I have gathered thee together as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not”: and these words he could hardly speak, for he was choking with emotion, and the tears were running from his eyes. Jesus Christ, therefore, does not come down upon us overpoweringly, tyrannously, or oppressively; he comes pleadingly, he has a proposal to make, he comes with invitations: Ho! every one that thirsteth, come: let the unrighteous man come, and the wicked man, each forsaking his way and his thoughts, and he shall be led into abundance of pardon. Christianity is a pleading religion, it is a missionary religion; it goes out after that which is lost, and will not return until it hath found it.
The gospel has only one time now! The gospel has no tomorrow; “Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation.” All earnestness has only one time. Earnestness never says, Can I do this tomorrow? Burning earnestness never says, We can put this off a day or two. The gospel is the most ardent earnestness that is known, and it is continually saying, To-day, Now: Buy up the opportunity: Work while it is called day, for the night cometh wherein no man can work. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might, with a will, with a tremendous concentrated energy, for in the grave there is no device.
Christianity has only one way believe! How this word has been maltreated! To believe is to give the soul over to the keeping of the way of God. The commandments were not delivered to us, we are delivered to the commandments. It is the eternal that holds the temporal, the divine that involves the human. We have before explained this word “believe.” It occurs in the first instance in connection with Abram. The Lord took him out to show him all the lights of the night in a land where they can be seen as they cannot be seen here, and as they were all gleaming like bannerets in the sky, host on host, infinite, endless, the Lord spake certain great promises to Abram, utterly stunned his reason, and overwhelmed his imagination. The man took a little time, and then, according to the historian, Abram believed God. What a crisis in human history! And the Hebrew word means so much that is tender; it means Abram embosomed and nestled himself in God. Abram like a little babe went to the very bosom of God, and lay there. Abram believed God, how his face shone! how his voice changed! how the whole heaven became spiritual to him because of his claimed kinship with the Eternal himself! Belief is not assenting to something, saying, That is true: I see no reason against it: in the meantime your proposition seems to be wholly impregnable, your position is invincible: on the whole I accede and consent. That is not faith; that is a mere intellectual action. To believe is to nestle the soul in God. Where is your soul? We do not want your intellectual assent to disputable propositions: we want you to say, I believe; Lord, help my unbelief! I will go over to the side of God.
Christianity has only one purpose Holiness. Christianity ends in conduct. Christianity begins in motive, but it ends in character, in manhood. We are to be perfect men in Christ Jesus; we are to be as he was on the earth; we are to breathe his spirit, repeat his deeds, follow his footsteps, and represent him to mankind, so that we cannot be Christ himself, but we can be Christ-ones, Christians, and we ought to be able to say, There you see as much of Christ as it is possible to see here and now.
Christianity has only one test Service: to die for Christ, to work for Christ, to be always repeating Christ’s great mission to the world. One time, Now; one way, Believe; one purpose, Conduct; one grand test, Service. Lord, what wilt thou have me do? watch a door, light a lamp, or preach thy Word? Wouldst thou make me a great thunder-voice to the age, or wouldst thou have me teach what little I know of thy kingdom by patient suffering, by heroic patience? Not my will, but thine, be done; only dismiss me not thy service, Lord!
The Prophet and the People
Eze 33:30-33
When it is said, “The children of thy people still are talking against thee,” we must not misunderstand the word “against.” The prepositions are variously used in English, and especially perhaps in old English. When the Apostle Paul says, “I know nothing by myself,” he, does not mean through the exercise of his own penetration; the word “by” in that connection means more literally and truly concerning I know nothing concerning myself. In this instance the word “against” would perhaps be better replaced by the word “about”; then the text would read, “The children of thy people still are talking about thee,” thou art still a popular name among them; they discuss thy gifts and graces, they have much to say about thy personality, thy manner, thy voice, thy whole scheme and tone of ministry: thou art still the subject of popular criticism and estimate. A paraphrase of this kind best suits what follows, namely: they “speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the Lord.”
The text is a beautiful picture: man is saying to man, Come, let us hear the word of the Lord. That is the only thing worth doing. All other things derive their value and importance from that central thought, from that vital action. There is no other word worth listening to. The word of the Lord comes forth from eternity, and reverberates through the ages, and returns to eternity; it is true, every whit and syllable, every tone and whisper, just as true in the undertones as in the mighty thunders and tempest-blasts of its power. How charming, then, is the idea that man is saying to man, Come, and hear what God the Lord will say; come, and listen to the true music, the only music, and your hearts will be made glad. This invitation expresses the action of a very profound instinct in human nature; not only so, it expresses a need, an aching, yearning need of the heart. Man likes to hear his mother tongue after long residence in foreign lands where the language has been a difficulty in the way of enjoyment; how musical is the native language, the speech into which the man was born! there is a hint here of our higher relationships, our true kindred, our real ancestry. Trace that ancestry as you may stop here, stop there, build an altar in this place, and begin to express a wonder in some other locality, amid all the hills and valleys of human history; and all that may be partially because temporarily right: but all the theories go back to one Creator. There is no theory that has the large support of wise and learned men that does not leave room for a living, personal, mighty, tender Redeemer. Hence the folly of those who, more blatantly perhaps than they are quite conscious of, declare amid all the conflicting voices of theory and speculation, As for us, we will say “The Lord hath made us, and not we ourselves.” I do not know of any man who ever said that he made himself, even though he worship under the rent canvas of agnosticism; he simply cannot tell who made him, and there are moments when I do not wonder at his amazement. The heart needs a voice other than human; the soul says, I have not seen all my relatives: I hear their voices, and I like them; some of the tones are good; but the tones are more suggestive than final: I hear the ocean in the shell. Where is that ocean? Where is that mighty roar? I am not content with the shell; I want to go and see the instrument out of which there comes such thundrous, solemn music. So give the soul fair play, let it talk itself right out in all its native frankness, under the inspiration of necessity, rather than under the force of merely mechanical instruction, and the soul cries out for the living God; even men who in public are loud controversialists, when shut up alone with the stars, looking at those mysterious palpitations of light from secret, solemn places in the hills, put out a hand, gropingly and meaningly, though they never confess that they have been guilty of a religious exercise. Religious exercises are manifold, and the sanctuary has an infinite roof, and there are men who can only sigh their religion, who can only grope after their deity, their ultimate thought: and there are others who having seen Jesus are content to stop there and build the tabernacle of their life. When the desire to hear God’s word ceases, life in all its noblest aspects and best aspirations closes, perhaps for ever. When the soul is no longer conscious of an aching, a gnawing hunger, the man is dead: he may try to talk himself into a kind of spasmodic life, but in the truest sense he is dead; when the earth satisfies him, when time is enough, when the senses alone bring him all the contentment or all the joy he needs, he is a dead man.
The text brings before us a distressing possibility:
“And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness” ( Eze 33:31 ).
The people come to hear the letter only, and there is no letter so disappointing as the letter of the Bible. If you stop at a certain point you miss everything; you are surrounded by mountains, but they are so high that you cannot see any sky beyond them, and, therefore, they become by their very hugeness prison walls. To profess or to attempt to read the Bible without the spirit of the Bible is to plunge into one mystery after another, and to return from the disastrous exercise stung with disappointment. The people were artistic, not penitent; they were students of vocal exercises; they actually formed an opinion of the man’s voice: to think that Ezekiel’s ministry should have sunk to that humiliation! But Christ’s own ministry was brought down to a similar degradation, “They,” the people, “wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth”; they remarked upon his personality and his method, his voice, his action; they were artists, not penitents. And we want no artists in their professional capacity in God’s house; we want no millionaires in the sanctuary; we expel all pedants from the altar: in God’s house we are simply sinful, necessitous, repentant men and women; we have left all else outside; we do not know how the man is talking, we have no care about his method of speaking to us; we say with the heart’s concern, What is it? deliver the message; tell us the news from heaven; bow goes the march eternal? what would the Lord our God have us be and do? Great questions will elicit great replies; solemn looks will make a solemn ministry; a visible hunger will make the steward of the household bring out all the bread the King has given him.
Ezekiel’s hearers were formal, not vital. The congregation addressed by the Prophet might have met this morning for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness. This is not ancient history, whatever else it may be. If Ezekiel could have lived upon “loud cheers,” he would have been living now; if he could have satisfied himself with popular applause, he would have reigned as a king; but he said, I do not want your mouth-worship, I want to find you at the Cross. For in the Old Testament, as certainly as in the New, there is the Cross by which alone men are saved. You can find the Cross in the Old Testament if you want to find it. It is the glory of God sometimes to conceal a thing, but that Cross always projects its shadow across the human history of the Old Testament.
Here is misdirected admiration:
“And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument” ( Eze 33:32 ).
When we get no further than the voice we soon become weary. There are very few persons who know anything about voices: there are incarnate stupidities to whom all voices are alike; the voice of a public bellman and the voice of the finest speaker that ever uttered his native tongue are both alike. There are spheres in which it is right to study the voice and cultivate the voice, and in which it is right to play well upon the instrument for there is no instrument like the human voice. Instrumental music even the mighty organ has its limitations; but the human voice has in it tears, entreaty, passion, living solicitude: if men would therefore attend to the fact that they are called upon to preach by the voice, they could have no competitors in journalism. Journalism is by the necessity of the case all writing: it has no voice, no heart-tone; it has a simulation of it, and sometimes when the words are written with the heart rather than with the hand they have a strange and mighty palpitation: and some things cannot be spoken until they have been written notably the Bible. It was to be written, set down in such form as was possible, yet all the while it was throwing itself beyond its literal limitations; and in the Bible you have a thousand Bibles, a thousand revelations. What is wanted in every congregation is earnestness. Let the people have a subject as well as the preacher; and no man should come to church except to hear God’s word, and so to hear it as to be compelled to do it. For religion is an action as well as a thought: Christianity is a sacrifice as well as a theology. Many men who cannot understand Christian metaphysics can do Christian charities, can exemplify Christian tempers, and so can interpret concretely the subtlest, profoundest metaphysics of divine thinking. There are great doers as well as great speakers; there are men mighty in holy deed as well as masters in sacred thought; there are heroes as well as metaphysicians: we cannot be both, but we can be the one or the other. The true metaphysician will by the degree of his truthfulness be compelled to be earnest as well as subtle, and the hero who knows nothing about spiritual metaphysics will see that in doing God’s will he is becoming a great scholar in God’s school. “What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God”: there is a school in which there are hoary-headed scholars and little children just spelling their first little lesson.
The text presents us with the possibility of a too-late discovery.
“And when this cometh to pass (lo, it will come), then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them” ( Eze 33:33 ).
But the man is dead! It is no use building a granite monument to him; he does not know what you are doing: if you had shaken hands with him warmly whilst he lived you would have helped him in his work. Do not let the man pass away, and then grave his name on memorial brass: a cup of cold water, part of the five loaves and two fishes you were keeping for yourselves, would help him to love and think, and would cheer him into richer, broader prayer than even he has uttered in the night of his trouble. Who does not know what it is to make a discovery too late? Parents say, If we had brought up our children upon another basis they would have been a comfort to us in our old age. The talk is too late; no other parent will heed it: every man must make a fool of himself. Who has not heard men complain that they have neglected their educational advantages? They played truant when they were children; they did not attend to the instruction that was given to them; they had an opportunity of becoming really well informed and highly instructed, but they allowed the opportunity to pass by without improvement Too late! the greatest realisation of loss is that a prophet has vanished, a prophet has been here and gone. Will he not return? Never. Foolish are they who stretch their necks to look over the horizon to see if the prophet is not coming. John rebuked that irrational expectancy when he said to those who were asking questions concerning the Messiah, “There standeth one among you whom ye know not; he it is.” The prophet is never far away if you really want him. If you are looking out for a prophet of your own invention, or that shall correspond with your own nightmare which you impiously call a dream, that prophet is miles upon miles beyond the widest horizon which any possible heaven ever made. Your mother could be a prophetess to you if you wanted to pray: your father, who is probably not a great scholar in the literal sense, could speak things to you that would open your imagination to new universes if you really wanted to be guided in upward thinking and heavenly action. There is no prophet, how poorly gifted soever, who cannot hand you the key of the kingdom of heaven if you want to go in; and no Ezekiel that ever flamed like a constellation in the prophetic heavens can help you if you do not want him.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
XVIII
PROPHECIES OF THE RESTORATION
Ezekiel 33-39
The subject of this chapter is Ezekiel’s prophecies of the restoration of Israel. Jeremiah (Jeremiah 30-33) gave a similar group of prophecies, and in the book of Isaiah (40-66) we find this same theme: The restoration of Israel and its future glory. Here Ezekiel discusses the same theme.
We saw in the last chapter that Ezekiel had, in a prophetic way, disposed of the foreign nations, the enemies of Israel, having predicted the entire overthrow of all those who had been the means of Israel’s downfall with the exception of Babylon. He gave no direct prophecy of the downfall of Babylon, only an indirect one prophesying her rule over Egypt for about forty years, which implied that he believed that Babylon would fall at the end of that period. Thus it may be seen that these chapters on the restoration of Israel are in their logical place in his prophecies. He had predicted the fall of Jerusalem, the capital, and the scattering of the people among all the nations. Then he predicted the fall of all the nations that were her enemies, and having finished with them, the way was made clear for his predictions regarding the future of Israel. He devotes these seven chapters to the blessed age, the messianic age, which follows the return of Israel from her exile in these foreign lands.
The great function of the prophet is here set forth. He is to be a watchman (Eze 33:1-20 ). The figure, of course, is an Oriental one. It was the custom in those lands to build a watchtower on the border of their territories, or at the approaches to their cities, or near their great centers, and appoint a man to stand upon the watchtower and when he saw an army coming he was to blow his trumpet and warn the people. There were many throughout Israel and all Oriental lands. The prophet transfers the figure to spiritual functions as regards the people of Israel.
The duty and responsibility of the watchman are set forth in Eze 33:1-6 , which are easy to comprehend and which need not be commented upon except that the watchman has the responsibility for the lives of those over whom he watches. If he sees the foe coming and warns, his duty is done. If he sees the foe coming and does not warn and any of the inhabitants lose their lives, their blood shall be required at his hands because he had failed in his duty. He shall suffer as a result of that failure.
This duty and responsibility were impressed upon Ezekiel thus: The Lord speaks unto Ezekiel and says, “So thou, son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel. …. When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shall surely die, and thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way; that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thy hand. Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it, and he turn not from his way; he shall die in his iniquity, but thou hast delivered thy soul.”
A glance at the situation will explain this more clearly. Ezekiel in Eze 18 , prophesied and brought before the people that great doctrine of individual responsibility and liberty. He exploded the old theory that a man is the slave of his environment and must necessarily suffer for the sins of his fathers. It is not necessary that he should perish because of the sins of his fathers. Ezekiel brought before them the great doctrine that Jehovah does not will the death of any man; that Jehovah has given to all men the privilege and possibility of repenting and if they repent and turn, the penalties of their past sins or their father’s sins are forever abrogated and they are free from them. The doctrine of individualism is there set before us, and this chapter is an application of that principle.
Ezekiel now realizes that, since his nation is destroyed, their capital in ruins, the center of religious worship is gone, that his duty is to speak to individuals; that now it is with individual Israelites. His duty is to warn them of their own sins and the dangers that are consequent upon their sins. He is not to speak to the nation in the mass any more, but he is to deal with individuals and put each individual upon his own personal responsibility and relationship to God. He can thereby prepare the people to return to the land and begin anew the nation God has purposed they should become.
The condition of the minds of the people is that of despondency, making the prophet’s appeal of no effect. Eze 33:10-20 , especially in Eze 33:10 , we have the condition of their minds set forth: “Thus ye speak, saying, Our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we pine away in them; how then can we live?” This indicates at once that the people were in a state of despair. They had no hope; they believed that their doom was inevitable; that it was useless for them to think of enjoying fellowship with God and life any more. To counteract that complaint and that condition of mind, Ezekiel brings before them four great principles which are found in the remainder of this section, and I will embody the substance of these verses in these four statements:
1. That Jehovah desires that men shall live.
2. That man is not irrevocably bound by the past, but may repent.
3. That men are to come to God individually and thus come into the new Israel.
4. That men are judged more by what they are than by what they have been.
Let us now discuss the theme, occasion, and date of the prophecy of Ezekiel in Eze 33:21-33 . On hearing of the fall of Jerusalem, Ezekiel announces the conditions of return. These conditions are moral and religious. In Eze 33:21 we have the date of this prophecy: the twelfth year, that is one year after the fall of Jerusalem, tenth month and fifth day of the month, almost eighteen months after the fall. He says, “One that had escaped out of Jerusalem came unto me, saying, The city is smitten.” Some find a chronological difficulty here. Some of the ancient versions say it was in the eleventh year and tenth month, which means that Ezekiel heard of the fall of Jerusalem six months after that event occurred. According to this account of Ezekiel it was a year and six months. It seems to them almost incredible that it would require eighteen months for the news of that great event to reach the prophet and much more likely, he received the news at the end of six months, that being ample time for the caravans to reach Babylon and the news to spread. But it is better to take it as it stands, allowing for probable delays on the part of this messenger in getting to Babylon.
Now, after he received news that the city was smitten, he had a word to say to the people that remained in Palestine; that remnant spoken of in Jeremiah (40-44), Ezekiel addresses in Eze 33:23-29 . Note verse Eze 33:24 : “Son of man, they that inhabit those wastes of the land of Israel speak, saying, Abraham was one, and he inherited the land: but we are many; the land is given us for inheritance,” which seems to refer to the miserable remnant that was left at Mizpah, Bethlehem, and various other places. They say, “Abraham was one, only one, and he inherited the land, but we are many and the land is given us for an inheritance.” Their idea is that since to Israel was given this land, and they were the nucleus of Israel, and since Abraham being only one, developed into such a large nation, they who are many have as many more chances of developing into a great nation, and therefore they remain in Palestine believing that they will become a great nation and possess the land for all the future. The people who said that were still practicing their idolatry. Ezekiel says, “Thus saith the Lord God: As I live, surely they that are in the waste places shall fall by the sword; and him that is in the open field will I give to the beasts to be devoured; and they that are in the strongholds and in the caves shall die of the pestilence.”
In Eze 33:30-33 , we have the effect of Ezekiel’s prophecies upon the people with whom he dwelt, there by the river Chebar in Babylon. Here is a passage of great comfort to a preacher sometimes. Ezekiel has now become popular and he is drawing fine congregations; the people are flocking to hear him, and they say, verse Eze 33:30 : “And as for thee, son of man, the children of thy people talk of thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the Lord.” And he goes on to say how they came and heard the words but did them not, for with their mouth they show much love but their heart goeth after their gain. They have a great many good things to say to their preacher but their hearts go after their gain. “And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument; for they hear thy words, but they do them not.” “Fine sermon, very lovely song, prayed splendidly,” they say but they never think of heeding what the preacher says.
The evil shepherds are described (Eze 34:1-10 ). They feed themselves, not the flock. Jeremiah had something to say regarding those evil shepherds. Ezekiel has a strong denunciation of them in these ten verses. These shepherds feed themselves and care for themselves, but care nothing for the sheep, and the sheep wander through the forests and the deserts and upon every high hill and are scattered among all the nations of the earth and there are none that seek after them to bring them back. As a result the shepherds are denounced verse Eze 34:10 : “Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my sheep at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the sheep; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; and I will deliver my sheep from their mouth, that they may not be food for them.”
But Jehovah takes care of his sheep after disposing of the evil shepherds. Jehovah will undertake the care of the flock in the restoration period (Eze 34:11-19 ). Notice particularly verse Eze 34:11 : “Behold, I myself, even I, will search for my sheep, and will seek them out.” Latter part of verse Eze 34:12 : “So I will seek out my sheep; and I will deliver them out of all places whither they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.” Verse Eze 34:15 : “I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God.” Jehovah says that he will be the shepherd. He makes no reference here to a messianic Saviour, the Christ, or King that is to come. He himself is going to do it. And then in Eze 34:17-22 , Jehovah says that he is going to separate and distinguish between different parts of the flock.
Verse Eze 34:17 : “I judge between sheep and sheep, the rams and the he-goats.” He is going to see that the leaders among the people of Israel are not like cattle that go down to the stream and drink and muddy the water, thus making it unfit for the others to drink. Jehovah is going to distinguish between them and see that they are in their proper places. Then from Eze 34:23-31 it says that Jehovah will raise up David as Shepherd and there shall be great prosperity. He said before, “I will be the Shepherd,” but now he says, “I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd.” This is messianic and refers to the work of Christ. In the latter part of Eze 34:26 , he describes the prosperity that shall come: “There shall be showers of blessing.” Here is where the words of the song, “There Shall Be Showers of Blessing,” came from. The prophet continues the magnificent description of the prosperity of the country and how all shall flourish under the rule and care of this great Shepherd, David, not David himself in person, but a member of his dynasty and of his family, who is Christ, our Lord.
There is a prophecy against Edom in Eze 35 . The substance of this chapter is this: Mount Seir, or Edom, had sinned against Judah and Jerusalem at the time of her calamity (Eze 35:5 ). He charges Edom with two sins: (1) “Thou hast had a perpetual enmity”; (2) “Thou hast given over the children of Israel to the power of the sword in the time of their calamity.” When Edom, or Mount Seir, found Israel down, they trampled on her as hard as they could. Eze 35:10 mentions a third sin, and that is (3) “Thou hast said, These two nations and these two countries (northern and southern Israel) shall be mine, and we will possess it.” The point is this: When Israel was deported to Babylon and the country left desolate, the Edomites came from the south and took possession of all the land of Judah they possibly could and began to inhabit and make it their possession. Because of that the prophet’s denunciation is buried against them, prophesying the downfall of their capital and their country. It was necessary for the prophet to do this. They were encroaching upon Israel, and they must be driven forth from the land to make way for Israel.
Then there is a prophecy concerning the land of Israel in Eze 36:1-15 . This is the counterpart, or the other side, of the prophecy (6) where he denounced the mountains of Israel because they were the high places of worship and predicted their desolation and overthrow. In the future age, the mountains of Israel shall be delivered out of the hand of the enemies, and they shall become abundantly fruitful. Notice, especially, verse Eze 36:8 : “But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people Israel; for they are at hand to come,” i.e., “Ye shall till and sow and I will multiply men upon you; all the house of Israel, and the cities shall be inhabited and the waste places shall be builded.” Then he says, “And I will multiply upon you man and beast,” carrying forward his glowing description of the prosperity and fruitfulness of the land.
In Eze 36:16-23 the prophet says that Jehovah will do this thing for his name’s sake and in honor of his own holy name: “Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God: I do not this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for my holy name which ye have profaned among the nations whither ye went.”
In Eze 36:24-38 , we have the restoration and regeneration of Israel. Here we come to the New Testament ground, in the gospel dispensation. This is Ezekiel’s deepest, sweetest, and best prophecy. This passage calls to mind a notable challenge of Alexander Campbell, substantially in these words: “The whole world is challenged to produce even one passage in any part of God’s Word, from Genesis to Revelation, proving that God ever commanded prophet, priest, preacher, or layman to sprinkle or pour water just water pure water, on man, beast, or thing as a moral ceremonial or religious rite.” In response to the challenge the one passage cited was this scripture, Eze 36:25 . Of course it was easy for Mr. Campbell to show the irrelevancy of this passage. It does not meet the requirements of the challenge because:
(1) It is not a command of God to any man to do any sprinkling whatever, but an express declaration of some kind of sprinkling that God himself will do.
(2) The clean water of the text was not even in its type just water, but was a compound called the water of purification whose recipe is found in Num 19:1-10 . This was a liquid compound of ashes and water. A red heifer was burned. Into the burning was cast cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet cloth. The ashes of this burning were gathered up and mingled with water and this mixture was called the water of cleansing, or of purification.
(3) The typical efficacy of this mixture was in the ashes of the red things burned: the red heifer, the red cedar wood, red hyssop, and scarlet cloth; red signified blood. The antitype is the blood of Christ, Heb 9:13-14 : “For if the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on the unclean sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
(4) The whole passage in Eze 36:21-38 refers to those last gospel days when the Jews, long disobedient, blinded, and scattered, will be gathered and saved, as set forth by Paul (Rom 11:25-36 ). This salvation will be of grace (Eze 36:22 ). It will be by regeneration (Eze 36:25-26 ). This regeneration will produce a spirit of obedience (Eze 36:27 ). This regeneration consists of at least two parts, cleansing and renewal. The cleansing (Eze 36:25 ) is effected by the application of Christ’s blood typified by the water of purification, the antitype of which is the blood of Christ (Heb 9:13-14 ; 1Jn 1:7 ). The renewal (Eze 36:26 ) is the change of man’s nature. Both of these ideas appear in Joh 3:5 : “Except one be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” This is one birth. It is the Spirit birth. The water signifies cleansing; the Spirit, renewal. The same ideas appear in Tit 3:5 : “The washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, which he poured out upon us richly, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” In none of these passages is there the slightest reference to baptism.
Now let us consider the vision of dry bones (Eze 37:1-14 ) and its interpretation. What are these dry bones? Is this a literal resurrection from the dead, or is this a conversion, a spiritual resurrection? It is not either. Eze 37:11 gives the clue to the interpretation. These bones are the house of Israel. What makes them so dry? “Behold, they say, Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off.” They have no hope whatever as to the resurrection, or renewal of their national existence. They were saying, “We are scattered among all the nations. Our city and our capital is gone and there is no hope for our nation and our people any more.” Nationally or religiously, they were as dry bones which had no hope of a resurrection. Now there is no distinct reference to any resurrection of the body, nor of any spiritual regeneration. It is national.
The prophet was required to preach to them. He preached and the bones began to come together and he kept on preaching and flesh came upon them, and by and by they stood up. The whole house of Israel raised to a new national life and existence! Then he kept on preaching and the result was as we see in verse Eze 37:14 : “I will put my spirit within you and ye shall live and I shall place you in your own land and ye shall know that I am Jehovah.” That was fulfilled to some extent in the return of the 50,000 after the decree of Cyrus, but it was never completely fulfilled. An army of about 50,000 whose spirit Jehovah stirred up, returned at first, and that stirring up was the result of the preaching of Ezekiel and Jeremiah and the study of the latter part of the book of Isaiah. The figure of the resurrection is used in Eze 37:12 , thus: “I will open your graves and cause you to come out of your graves,” but the graves are national graves, not literal. This is referred to by Paul (Rom 11:15 ) as a resurrection and contemplates the final gathering of the Jews before the millennium.
The union of Judah and Israel is symbolized in Eze 37:15-28 : “Take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim.” These two sticks he joined together. This is a symbolic action similar to many other actions of Ezekiel which we have already considered. The meaning of it is this: “Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his companions; and I will put them with it, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in my hand.” Jeremiah prophesied the same thing; so did Isaiah in substance; so did Hosea; so did Amos, Micah, and Zephaniah.
It was the belief of all the prophets that when Israel returned from exile it would be one nation, a united nation. Ezekiel goes on, “I will make them one nation in the land, upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be to them all; and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all.” In Eze 37:24 the king is called “David my servant,” that is, one of his descendants; a member of his dynasty shall be king over them and they shall have one shepherd. Then he says, “I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them.” Verse Eze 37:27 : “My tabernacle also shall be with them; and they shall be my people,” all of which has its fulfilment in the millennial age. This reminds us of Rev 21:3 .
An account of the invasion of Gog and Magog is found in Ezekiel 38-39. This is the picture of the last and final struggle of all the nations with God. We find that John refers to the same struggle in Rev 20:7-9 : “When the thousand years are finished, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall come forth to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the war: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up over the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down out of heaven and devoured them.” Ezekiel says, Eze 38:2 : “Son of man, set thy face toward Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him,” nations lying probably away to the north of Israel on the borders of the Caspian and Black Seas representing the great barbarian hordes that infested central Asia and northern Armenia on the very outskirts of the then known world. “I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed and in full armor, a great company with buckler and shield, all of them handling swords.”
What does this mean? Ezekiel is picturing the millennial age, the messianic age, and away in the future after the glorious age has been in progress, for how long we cannot tell, he sees this vision of the final struggle. Israel has been enjoying the blessedness of that age for centuries and the nations around her have been destroyed. The nations lying far off on the outskirts of the world now rouse themselves for a final onslaught on God’s kingdom. “And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell securely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates.” Thus the people are unprotected; they are living in the messianic age when all is peace and harmony. “I will go to them that are at rest.” What for? “To take the spoil and to take the prey.” This is the final conflict of the barbarian nations of the world with their vast hosts, against the messianic kingdom.
What is to be the result? We find in Eze 38:17-23 , Ezekiel says the prophets have for a long time been prophesying of this very thing, though we do not have any distinct reference to the prophecy. As Gog, with his hosts, encompasses the whole land of Israel and surrounds the city, then Ezekiel says in the latter part of Eze 38:18 , “My wrath shall come up into my nostrils . . . I will rain upon him, and upon his hordes, and upon the many peoples that are with him, an overflowing shower, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.” That is to be the end of Gog and his innumerable hordes.
Then we have this statement, Eze 39:4 : “Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy hordes and the peoples that are with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.” And in Eze 39:9 , he says, “And they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall make fires of the weapons and burn them, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the handstaves, and the spears, and they shall make fires of them seven years.” Eze 39:12 says that the people of Israel are going to bury all those that fall and they are to be seven months burying the dead, and are to have a rule that when any person finds a bone he is to set up a mark by it until the body has been buried outside in the valley. Then we have the feast of all the birds of the air and the beasts of the field upon the slain. The chapter closes with a description of Israel’s restoration (Eze 39:28-29 ). The best commentary on the destruction of Gog is found in that short passage, in Rev 20 , where John pictures Satan as raising an insurrection among all the nations of the world at the close of the millennium. Ezekiel pictures it as taking place a long while after the restoration and the blessed messianic age. (See the author’s discussion of this subject in his book on Revelation.)
QUESTIONS
1. What is the theme of this section and where do we find the same subject discussed in Jeremiah and Isaiah?
2. Show the logical order of these prophecies.
3. What is the great function of the prophet and how is it here set forth?
4. What is the duty and responsibility of the watchman?
5. How was this duty and responsibility impressed upon Ezekiel?
6. What is the condition of the minds of the people and how does the prophet meet it?
7. What is the theme, occasion, and date of the prophecy of Ezekiel in Eze 33:21-33 , and what is the chronological difficulty here and its solution?
8. Whom does the prophet address in Eze 33:23-29 , what the occasion of this address and what the prophet’s message to them?
9. What is the effect of Ezekiel’s preaching on the people in exile (Eze 33:30-33 )?
10. How are the evil shepherds described in Eze 34:1-10 , what the prophet’s denunciation of them and how does Jehovah take care of his sheep?
11. What is the prophecy against Edom in Eze 35 and why?
12. What is the prophecy concerning the land of Israel in Eze 36:1-15 ?
13. What is the motive of Jehovah in doing all this (Eze 38:16-23 )?
14. Expound Eze 36:24-38 , showing the controversy about it, and its true interpretation in the light of the New Testament.
15. What the vision of dry bones (Eze 37:1-14 ) and what its interpretation?
16. How is the union of Judah and Israel symbolized and what the glorious picture that follows (Eze 37:15-28 )?
17. Give an account of the invasion of Gog and Magog and the result (Ezekiel 38-39). Discuss fully.
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Eze 33:1 Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Ver. 1. Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying. ] A new commission to preach again to his countrymen, which he had not done since Eze 24:27 . See Trapp on “ Eze 24:27 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Ezekiel Chapter 33
The prophet now returns to speak of Israel, their shepherds, and their mountains, their restoration, national revival, and re-union under one head, the Beloved, their Prince for ever, when the last enemy before the reign of peace comes to his end with all his lusts. (Chapters 33-39)
Under the figure of a watchman, Ezekiel is set to warn the house of Israel, so that if any slighted the sound of the trumpet, their blood might be on their head; if the watchman blew not, his blood should pay the penalty.
“Again the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman: if when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet and warn the people, then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet and taketh not warning, if the sword come and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning, his blood shall be upon him; but he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul. But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand. So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me. When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.” (Ver. 1-9) It is individual responsibility that becomes now the ruling principle, though this does not hinder, as we see, the call and duty of one to warn many. Such was the prophet’s place.
“Therefore, O thou son of man, speak unto the house of Israel; Thus ye speak, saying, If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live? Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? Therefore, thou son of man, say unto the children of thy people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression: as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness; neither shall the righteous be able to live for his righteousness in the day that he sinneth. When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousness shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it. Again, when I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; if he turn from his sin, and do that which is lawful and right; if the wicked restore the pledge, give again that he had robbed, walk in the statutes of life, without committing iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die. None of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him: he hath done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live. Yet the children of thy people say, The way of the Lord is not equal: but as for them, their way is not equal. When the righteous turneth from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, he shall even die thereby. But if the wicked turn from his wickedness, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall live thereby. Yet ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal. O ye house of Israel, I will judge you every one after his ways.” (Ver. 10-20) It was a day of judgment, not of grace, with which some strangely confound it. Despair would avail nothing; repentance would. Past righteousness should not screen present sin, nor past sin hinder present turning away from it. But let such walk softly. The ways of righteousness are immutable; the wages of sin, death. The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the holy is understanding; whilst they that confess and forsake sins find mercy. In vain therefore did any complain of the Lord’s ways as not equal; it were well if they felt their own iniquity. Life is theirs who walk righteously; death for such as turn from the Lord. They should be judged each according to their deeds, challenging the Lord, as insensible to their own state as to His goodness.
If the reading be correct (for there is a variation in some copies, perhaps to lessen the interval), the tidings of Jerusalem’s fall were long in reaching the prophet, when he opened his mouth, long closed, and gave a solemn warning of further judgment, and the rather because of the pretension to take up the language of faith, when their heart was far from the Lord. Grace is sufficient for any one and for all circumstances, but it is inseparable from the faith that gives glory to God, as in Abraham. But what were they? What their ways? What their judgment of themselves? Alas! steeped in sin, contemning the ordinances of the Lord, and abandoned to wickedness, they thought as highly of themselves, as (we have seen) they said ill of Him. What then could be announced but judgment at His hand?
“And it came to pass in the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth month, in the fifth day of the mouth, that one that had escaped out of Jerusalem came unto me, saying, The city is smitten. Now the hand of Jehovah was upon me in the evening, before he that was escaped came; and had opened my mouth, until he came to me in the morning; and my mouth was opened, and I was no more dumb. Then the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Son of man, they that inhabit those wastes of the land of Israel speak, saying, Abraham was one, and he inherited the land: but we are many; the land is given us for inheritance. Wherefore say unto them, thus saith the Lord Jehovah; Ye eat with the blood, and lift up your eyes toward your idols, and shed blood: and shall ye possess the land? Ye stand upon your sword, ye work abominations, and ye defile every one his neighbour’s wife: and shall ye possess the land? Say thou thus unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah; As I live, surely they that are in the wastes shall fall by the sword, and him that is in the open field will I give to the beasts to be devoured, and they that be in the forts and in the caves shall die of the pestilence. For I will lay the land most desolate, and the pomp of her strength shall cease; and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, that none shall pass through. Then shall they know that I am Jehovah, when I have laid the land most desolate because of all their abominations which they have committed.” (Ver. 21-29) To plead the promises in such a state of things is ruinous. Equally so was it to affect care for the prophet’s word, listening as men do to a charming song.
“Also, thou son of man, the children of thy people still are talking against thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from Jehovah. And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness. And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not. And when this cometh to pass (lo, it will come), then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them.” (Ver. 30-33) To hear and not do is but to increase condemnation; as the issue would prove when the warning that pleased their ears was verified in their destruction.
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Eze 33:1-6
1And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2Son of man, speak to the sons of your people and say to them, ‘If I bring a sword upon a land, and the people of the land take one man from among them and make him their watchman, 3and he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows on the trumpet and warns the people, 4then he who hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, and a sword comes and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head. 5He heard the sound of the trumpet but did not take warning; his blood will be on himself. But had he taken warning, he would have delivered his life. 6But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet and the people are not warned, and a sword comes and takes a person from them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require from the watchman’s hand.’
Eze 33:1 This is the literary marker for a new prophecy.
Eze 33:2 speak As so many of Ezekiel’s prophecies this one starts out with the command speak or say (BDB 180; KB 210, Piel IMPERATIVE).
to the sons of your people This is found only in Ezekiel (cf. Eze 3:11; Eze 33:2; Eze 33:12; Eze 33:17; Eze 33:30; Eze 37:18) and mostly in this chapter.
If I bring a sword upon a land This theme is amplified in chapter 21. The sword was one of several items of judgment (sword, famine, plague, wild beasts, e.g., Eze 5:17).
watchman The world translated watchman is really a Qal ACTIVE PARTICIPLE of the VERB to look out, look about or spy out (BDB 859, KB 1044, cf. Eze 33:2; Eze 33:6[twice],7). This is the man who stood on the wall (or in a watchtower) to give an early warning of danger (cf. Eze 3:16-21; Isa 56:10; Jer 6:17; Hos 9:8).
Eze 33:3 he sees the sword coming The sword is used as a metaphorical way of referring to an invading army. In this case it refers to the army of Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon.
the trumpet This refers to the sophar (BDB 1051) or ram’s horn. It was used both for religious purposes and for war (cf. Jos 6:4; 2Sa 2:28; 2Sa 18:24-25; Psa 81:3; Joe 2:15; Amo 3:6; Hab 2:1). See Special Topic: Horns Used By Israel .
warns This VERB (BDB 264, KB 265, Hiphil PERFECT) means to warn or possibly from an Aramaic root, to teach (cf. Exo 18:20). It is found in the VERB form only and predominately in Ezekiel in two forms.
1. Hiphil, to warn or caution (cf. Eze 3:17-18[twice],19,20,21[twice]; Eze 33:3; Eze 33:7-9)
2. Niphal, to be warned (cf. Eze 3:21; Eze 33:4-5[twice],6)
Eze 33:4; Eze 33:6 his blood will be on his own head. . .but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand Ezekiel felt the pressure of speaking God’s word to a non-responsive people (as did Isaiah and Jeremiah). In a sense he is defending his message of judgment on Judah. If he had not spoken, the inhabitants could have blamed him or God for the destruction and death of the nation. But he did speak and they still did not respond.
The word blood stands for a person’s life (cf. Eze 18:13; Lev 17:11; Lev 17:14).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
the LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4,
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 33
Now as we get into chapter 33 God now begins to instruct those captives who are in Babylon.
Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman: If when he sees the sword come upon the land, he blows the trumpet, and warns the people; Then whosoever hears the sound of the trumpet, and takes not warning; if the sword comes, and takes him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, he did not take warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul. But if the watchman see the sword come, and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned; and the sword comes, and takes away any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand. So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me ( Eze 33:2-7 ).
Now God is commissioning Ezekiel to speak His word to the captives, the people of God there in the land of Babylon. And God is holding Ezekiel responsible for speaking the word of God to them. And God likens it unto a watchman that has been set up to warn the people of an impending invasion. If the watchman sees the enemy coming and he blows the trumpet to warn the people, then he has fulfilled his obligation. His responsibility was complete when he blew the trumpet and gave warning. What the people do with the warning is not in the responsibility of the watchman. He cannot help what the people do with the warning that he gave. His job was to give the warning. The people could respond however they wanted to the warning. It was then their responsibility how they responded. And so God said, “Now I have set you like a watchman. If you don’t warn them, then you are responsible and I will hold you responsible for them. But if you warn them, then they are responsible for themselves.”
In our Christian witnessing, I think that it is important that we realize that we are much like a watchman. God has set us to give a warning unto people. Now, what they do with it is their business. God has not commissioned us, really, to argue people in to the kingdom of heaven, or to pressure or to force people into the kingdom of heaven. God has commissioned us to witness His truth, and what people do with that witness is their business. And I realize that there’s nothing I can do beyond witnessing for the Lord. It is interesting to me how that there are some people that when you witness to them it’s like they’ve been waiting for you all their lives. And they’re just ready to accept. They are so eager, really, that they don’t always even give you the chance to finish your witness. And there are others that you give the same witness to, and it’s like it’s falling on deaf ears. It’s like they don’t even hear you. It’s like they haven’t even heard anything you’ve said. And it doesn’t seem to penetrate at all. It has no effect upon them. Now, this causes me to realize that the Holy Spirit is the one that has to do the work of conviction and the drawing of these people to Jesus Christ. My responsibility is as a watchman just to blow the trumpet, to declare, “The Lord is coming soon.” Now what you do with that is your own business.
And so God said to Ezekiel, “Now look, you’re like a watchman, Ezekiel. Your responsibility is to give the people My word. That’s all. What they do with it after that is their responsibility. But I’m going to hold you responsible to warn them, to give them My word.”
So when I say to the wicked, O wicked man, you will surely die; if you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at your hand. Nevertheless, if you warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul ( Eze 33:8-9 ).
The Lord gave him much the same kind of a commission back at the beginning of the book in the third chapter of Ezekiel.
Therefore, thou son of man, speak unto the house of Israel; Thus ye speak, saying, If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we thus then live? ( Eze 33:10 )
The question, very important question: if our transgressions and our sins be upon us and they are destroying us, how should we then live?
Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? ( Eze 33:11 )
And so here we see the heart of God and we understand now a bit of the truth of God and not the perversion that has been fostered by Satan through the ages that God is cruel and harsh and almost relishes judging. Not so. God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, any wicked. But God cries unto them to turn.
I often hear the complaint: how can a God of love send a man to hell? Well, the complaint itself is wrong. Because the Bible does not teach that God actually sends men to hell. They go there by their own choice, against everything that God has done to keep them from hell. Now, God has given to us free choice. I can choose what I want. God doesn’t force me to serve Him. He doesn’t force me to love Him. He gives me that choice, and He respects the choice that I make. But God does everything short of violating my choice to bring me into His kingdom. But if I refuse every innovation of God towards me, every invitation of the Spirit, if I do despite to the Spirit of grace, trample under foot the Son of God, account the blood of His covenant wherewith He was sanctified an unholy thing. If I say, “Aw, the blood of Jesus Christ, means nothing to me.” If I am stubborn, rebellious, and I hang in there, I can make it into hell, but it’s the hardest trip in the world. Not easy to go to hell. You’ve got to fight against God every step, and finally you have to step over Jesus Christ, who actually sort of lays Himself out in your path to stop you from your madness. But the madness of man.
God says, “Turn ye, turn ye, for why would ye die, O house of Israel?” The path that they have taken is a path of destruction. They are pining away in their transgressions and sins. And God is crying to them to turn.
Therefore, thou son of man, say to the children of thy people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression: as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness; neither shall the righteous be able to live for his righteousness in the day that he sinneth. When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trusts in his own righteousness, and commits iniquity, all of his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it. Again, when I say to the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; if he turns from his sin, and does that which is lawful and right; If the wicked restores the pledge, and gives again that which was robbed, if he walks in the statutes of life, without committing iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die. And none of his sins that he has committed shall be mentioned unto him: he hath done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live ( Eze 33:12-16 ).
Isn’t that glorious? God’ll never mention any of your past iniquities again as you turn to Jesus Christ. Of course, this is written in the pre-grace age. This is written under the old law of the covenant. But what is true under this as far as God not remembering our sins again is true under grace, the grace of God whereby we have that forgiveness of sins.
Yet the children of thy people say, The way of the Lord isn’t equal ( Eze 33:17 ):
“God isn’t fair.” How many times we’ve heard this complaint against God. “God isn’t fair.” This is the underlying complaint, really, whenever a person says, “How can a God of love… ?” you know that they are challenging the fairness of God. No matter what they say after that. There is that subtle challenge of the fairness of God. And how many times the fairness of God has been challenged by man. And here the children of Israel were challenging, “The way of the Lord isn’t equal.”
God says, “You tell them,”
their way isn’t equal. When the righteous turns from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, he shall even die thereby. But if the wicked turns from his wickedness, and does that which is lawful and right, he shall live thereby. Yet ye say, the way of the Lord is not equal, O ye house of Israel, I will judge every one of you after your ways ( Eze 33:17-20 ).
Now, at this point,
It came to pass in the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth month, in the fifth day of the month ( Eze 33:21 ),
So we’re coming into a whole interesting aspect here now.
that one that had escaped out of Jerusalem came unto me, saying, The city is smitten ( Eze 33:21 ).
And so the news finally arrived. It was a year earlier that Jerusalem fell. But one of the persons who had escaped finally comes to Ezekiel bringing him the news that Jerusalem was smitten.
Now the hand of the LORD was upon me in the evening, before he that was escaped came; and had opened my mouth, until he came to me in the morning; and my mouth was opened, and I was no more dumb ( Eze 33:22 ).
Now the Lord, you remember, told Ezekiel that he was going to be dumb until they got word of the destruction of the city of Jerusalem. So the Lord opened his mouth and he was no more dumb.
Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, they that inhabit those wastes of the land of Israel speak, saying, Abraham was one, and he inherited the land: but we are many; and the land is given us for an inheritance ( Eze 33:23-24 ).
So the Lord is saying to Ezekiel, “Though Nebuchadnezzar has conquered Jerusalem and has set up Gedaliah as a governor, yet the hearts of the people are still rebelling against Nebuchadnezzar.” They are saying, “Look, Abraham was only one man and God gave him the land, and we are many so we can take the land still.” And so even at the time of Gedaliah they were not really totally subdued. The people were still rebellious in their hearts. And so God is speaking to Ezekiel concerning the attitude that the people had who were back there in the land. Of course, Jeremiah was with them. Jeremiah kept telling them to just surrender to Babylon, things would go well, and if they dared to resist then they would be destroyed out of the land. They did not listen to Jeremiah either.
Wherefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; You eat with the blood ( Eze 33:25 ),
Now these are the indictments against these people saying, “Oh, the land is ours, you know. Abraham was only one and God gave him the land; we are many so the land is ours.” And God says, “Look, just tell them that they eat with the blood.” That is, they were not killing the food as God required in the law, thoroughly bleeding the animals, but they were strangling the animals or killing them in ways by which the blood remained in the animal and they were eating with the blood. They were lifting up their eyes towards idols. They were shedding blood. And God says,
shall you possess the land? ( Eze 33:25 )
You know, here you’re committing all of these evil things against My law and you think I’m gonna let you possess the land?
For ye stand upon your sword, you work abomination, and you defile every one his neighbor’s wife: and shall you possess the land? ( Eze 33:26 )
God says, “You’re incredible. I can’t believe you.”
Say thou thus unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; As I live, surely they that are in the wastes shall fall by the sword, and him that is in the open field will I give to the beasts to be devoured, and they that be in the forts and in the caves shall die of the pestilence. For I will lay the land most desolate, and the pomp of her strength shall cease; and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, and none pass though. Then shall they know that I am the LORD, when I have laid the land most desolate, because of all of their abominations which they have committed. Also, thou son of man, the children of the people still are talking against thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak to one another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and let’s hear the word that comes from the LORD ( Eze 33:27-30 ).
Now, Ezekiel, they’re still talking about you and in their houses they’ll say, “Hey let’s go down and see what the word of the Lord is from the prophet. Let’s go down and see Ezekiel, see what God has to say.”
And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as though they were my people, and they hear thy words, but they won’t do them: for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart is going after their covetousness ( Eze 33:31 ).
Now the people are all talking about you, Ezekiel, saying, “Hey, let’s go down to the prophet and hear the word of the Lord.” And they come and they sit there before you, just like they were My people. And they hear the words that you’re saying, but they’re not going to do them.
Now in James we read that a man who is a hearer of the word and not a doer is a man who is deceiving himself. A lot of deception going on, because so often a person thinks, “Well, I study the Word of God,” or, “I listen to the Word of God,” or, “I hear the Word of God,” or, “I know the Word of God.” That’s not what cuts it. Are you doing? “Be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only” ( Jas 1:22 ).
So God’s indictment against these people because they’re coming and they were listening to the prophet, but they were so filled with their own covetousness they weren’t doers of the Word.
And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that has a pleasant voice ( Eze 33:32 ),
They just enjoy hearing you talk.
you can play well on an instrument ( Eze 33:32 ):
They were going for entertainment.
for they hear thy words, but they do them not. And when this cometh to pass, (lo, it will come,) ( Eze 33:33 )
Boy, when God says it like that you know, hey, it is. No stopping.
then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them ( Eze 33:33 ).
When all these things that you told them happens, then they’ll know. Right now they’re just listening and you’re an entertainment to them.
It’s interesting how that so many people do go to the house of the Lord for entertainment. You know, it’s their place of entertainment. It’s a good socially accepted place of good entertainment. And so many churches are catering to these people who are looking for entertainment.
I heard this story of a Baptist pastor who came to his (and it could be any church) came to his assistants and said, “Fellows, the board is going to meet tonight and determine our salaries for the next year. And we’re having a difficult time making our budget as it is. So it looks like it’s going to be really slim as far as any pay raises this next year. And I think it’s very important that we, all of us, just spend the day together praying because if we don’t get pay raises, it’s going to be a hard tough year. And they’re going to be really taking a look at the budget tonight and things really look very bad for any pay hikes. So, let’s just gather together and let’s just pray that God will somehow work a miracle so that we can all get a raise in pay this next year.” And so they decided in order that their prayers really be very spiritual they would pray in Gregorian chants. And so the assistant pastor began, “Oh Lord, you know that it’s hard to live on $15,000 a year. I pray Thee Lord, that You’ll help the board to be gracious and maybe give me a raise.” And the pastor then offered his prayer and he said, “Yes, Lord, things are tough, and $22,000 a year is hard to live on when I have all of these expenses that I’m not reimbursed for. And so, Lord, please work and grant me a raise in pay.” And then the music director, the one in charge of the entertaining programs for the church said, “Lord, You know that $50,000 a year is a little hard to get by on, but there’s no business like show business, like show business, you know.”
But it’s sort of a sad indictment against those churches that have found it necessary to put on an entertaining program for people in order to draw the crowds. People with itching ears who will not endure sound doctrine. And yet, such is the case in so many places, where people go for entertainment.
And so they were coming to the prophet for entertainment. He had a good voice; could play instrument well. “And they sit before you and they do hear your words, but they’re not going to do them. You’re unto them like a lovely song, but when this comes, and it will come, they will know that there was a prophet among them.” “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Eze 33:1-4. Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman: If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people; Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.
In that case the watchman is quite clear; he has done his duty, he has sounded an alarm, and a fitting alarm, upon the trumpet; he has sounded it immediately, without loitering or delaying. He has not been afraid of giving uneasiness to men; he has done his duty, fearless of remark, and he is clear. Happy also is he in knowing that, by heeding the trumpets warning blast, many have escaped the threatened danger. Still, even then it seems that there are some who hear the trumpet, and will not take the warning. That is the sad part of our service; it makes the most successful ministry to be fringed with black. It cannot be all joy for him who wins the most souls for God; for at times he can sympathize with his brethren, the prophets, in their sorrowful enquiry, Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Listen to this, you who hear the gospel, and yet do not repent; if you heed not the warning, your blood will be upon your own head.
Eze 33:5-6. He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul. But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman s hand.
This is a very solemn truth. It not only concerns me, and the many ministers of Christ who are here, but it is for all of you who know the Lord, for you also are set as watchmen to your families, to your neighbours, to the class which you teach, or which you should teach, in the Sunday-school. May God grant that we may, each one of us, be delivered from other mens sins, for we may become partakers with them in their iniquity unless we bear our testimony against them, and give them warning of the consequences of their evil-doing!
Eze 33:7. So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel;
It is not merely the people who took a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman; but, I have set thee. Oh, the solemn ordination of a true servant of Christ! It is not by laying on of hands of man, nor by a pretended descent from the apostles; it is a call from God.
Eze 33:7. Therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.
That is the way to preach, to get the sermon from the mouth of God, and then to speak it as the mouth of God. Dear teachers, wait upon God for that which you are to teach; take it warm with love out of the very mouth of God, and then speak it for God out of your own mouth. Good will surely come of such teaching as that.
Eze 33:8. When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
Even as God required Abels blood at the hand of Cain, and pronounced him cursed because he was guilty of that blood, so will he require the blood of perishing men at the hands of those set over them, and a curse shall come upon them if they be found negligent.
Eze 33:9-10. Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul. Therefore, O thou son of man, speak unto the house of Israel; Thus ye speak, saying, If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live?
This is as much as to say, We cannot get away from our sins; there is no hope of our living. When men get into the iron cage called Despair, there really seems to be no hope that they will turn from their sin. There is no hope in themselves; their only hope is in the Lord.
Eze 33:11-12. Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? Therefore, thou son of man,
Notice how often God calls Ezekiel the son of man. He had many wonderful visions; but he was to be kept humble by being constantly reminded that he was nothing more than a son of man. He was to be kept sympathetic with the people; they were men, and he was one of them: a son of man. It seems hard that any mothers son of ours should die and perish; the thought that he will perish for ever, is terrible indeed to one who recognizes his union with the race as a son of man.
Eze 33:12. Say unto the children of thy people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression: as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness; neither shall the righteous be able to live for his righteousness in the day that he sinneth.
It is not merely what we have been, but what we are, and what we shall he, that will have to be taken into account. If we have been righteous in our own esteem, what if we turn from it? If we have been sinful, yet if, by Gods grace, we turn from it, the past shall be blotted out.
Eze 33:13. When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it.
There is no salvation for any man without final perseverance, and if that final perseverance were not secured to us in the covenant of grace, there would be no salvation even for the brightest believer, or the most sparkling professor. What are our lights in themselves? Will they not soon burn dim unless the secret oil of Gods grace shall keep them bright? Whatever point any of you have reached, do not begin to put your confidence in that. If you had seemed to be righteous through a lifetime of seventy years, yet, unless the grace of God kept you even to the end, you must perish. The mercy is that we have many precious promises concerning the eternal safety of all who are in Christ, and God will not fail to fulfill every one of them.
Eze 33:14-17. Again, when I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; if he turn from his sin, and do that which is lawful and right; If the wicked restore the pledge, give again that he had robbed, walk in the statutes of life, without committing iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die. None of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him: he hath done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live. Yet the children of thy people say, The way of the Lord is not equal: but as for them, their way is not equal.
Sinners are very fast in judging God. Oh, that they would judge themselves! It is not the Lord who is unjust; it is the balances and weights of men that are unjust. Oh, that they did but know it!
Eze 33:18-20. When the righteous turneth from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, he shall even die thereby. But if the wicked turn from his wickedness, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall live thereby.
Now let us read at the thirtieth verse.
Verses 30-33.
Eze 33:30-31. Also, thou son of man, the children of thy people still are talking against thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the LORD. And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness.
This is another of the great sorrows of the prophetic calling, that however accurately we report the Lords message, however earnestly we try to drive it home to the consciences of our hearers, it must often be said, They sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness.
Eze 33:32. And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not.
Preaching seems to such people to be only a song, or a piece of acting for their amusement; but it is not so. They that can find sport in the things of God, will find it dull sport in hell when they shall be for ever driven away from the presence of God, and from the glory of his power.
Eze 33:33. And when this cometh to pass, (lo, it will come,) then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them.
But then it will be too late for them to know it; for they will have missed their opportunity of profiting by the message that the prophet delivered to them. God grant that it may not be so with any one of us, for his abounding mercys sake! Amen.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Eze 33:1-6
PART III
(Ezekiel 33-39)
HE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE NEW ISRAEL; HOPE FOR
THE FUTURE ENCOURAGEMENT OF THE CAPTIVES;
FORGIVENESS AND RESTORATION;THINGS
PERTAINING TO THE MESSIANIC KINGDOM;
SALVATION FOR ISRAEL ANNOUNCED
(Note: All of these titles have been proposed by various authors for this third section of Ezekiel).
“The destruction of the old sinful Israel was not the end of God’s dealings with his people. The old order would be followed by a new and perfect kingdom. The destruction of the sinful foreign nations would prepare the way for this. The exiles would be returned to Palestine; and a new kingdom would be set up under totally new conditions of worship and fellowship with God. The remainder of Ezekiel falls into two parts: (1) the first deals with the restoration from captivity (Ezekiel 33-39), and (2) the second deals with the new arrangement and laws of the future kingdom (Ezekiel 40-48).
EZEKIEL’S CALL TO HIS NEW MISSION;
STRESSING THE OLD RULES
It was a discouraging situation that confronted Ezekiel. Israel was not yet a united entity.
(1) There was the arrogant and conceited remnant that remained in Judea, the few left behind by the Babylonians, the few groups of stragglers rounded up by Gedaliah, and a few that had escaped and were in hiding in the remote caves and inaccessible places on the road down to Jericho.
The immoral character and the conceited self-assurance of this group made it absolutely impossible for God to find a place for them in his eternal purpose. They were claiming, that since they were “the seed of Abraham,” then they were the heirs of Palestine and all the other blessings of the Abrahamic covenant. This, of course, was the old conceit of the Pharisees of Jesus’ day who claimed to be the “seed of Abraham,” but were actually the children of the devil (Joh 8:44). Ezekiel would deal with both this group and the second one in this chapter.
(2) This group were those who indeed recognized the sin and apostasy of the nation and the justice of God’s punishment sent upon them, resulting in a depression and discouragement that raised the question among them, “How can we live (v. 10)?”
Before proceeding to deal with these two groups, Ezekiel would turn the thoughts of the people away from their conception that God was going to bless Israel as a nation, to the truth that God’s blessings, all of them, were reserved to individuals who were committed and faithful to God’s Word. It is still a very hurtful and prevalent error in the world that God, some way or other, is going to bless Israel, as a nation. We have never been able to find a single word in the whole Bible that supports such an error. On the contrary, the great Apostle to the Gentiles laid that old error to rest forever in his words of 2Co 5:10, “That each one may receive the things done in the body.”
From this it is easy to see that the first twenty verses here constitute an introduction to this whole final section of Ezekiel.
For that reason, the date of the chapter will not appear until Eze 33:21.
THE TIMELESS PRINCIPLE OF
INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY
(Eze 33:1-9)
Eze 33:1-6
“And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Son of man, Speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from among them, and set him for their watchman; if, when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people; then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning, if the sword come and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him; whereas if he had taken warning, he would have delivered his soul. But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned, and the sword come, and take any person from among them; he is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.”
Individual responsibility is the blunt message here. Even if the watchman does not warn, that cannot excuse the victim. However, there is something else here; and that is the double responsibility of the watchman. Ezekiel indeed had been a faithful watchman to warn God’s people. This was by no means a new principle. Ezekiel had devoted the whole 18th chapter of this prophecy to the same subject. However, there the teaching was stressed to show that the children of Israel were not being punished for their fathers’ sin, but for their own. Here the purpose of showing Ezekiel’s generation of the exiles that it made no difference at all what “all Israel” had done in the past, the important thing turned upon the question of what each individual was doing.
“In these verses, Ezekiel compares himself to an ordinary watchman, to show that it is his duty in that current crisis to care for and warn individual souls. As Bunn noted, “All prophets (and also New Testament teachers) stand in double jeopardy, because they are responsible both to God and to man.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Ezekiel next delivered a series of messages concerning the chosen nation. The first message described the function and responsibilities of the prophet under the figure of a watchman. In the day of danger a watchman was appointed to give notice of the approach of an enemy. If he did his duty and his warning was not heeded, the blood of the slain would be on their own heads. If he failed to give warning and people were slain their blood would be on his head. That was the position occupied by Ezekiel. Set by Jehovah as a watchman for Israel, his duty was to hear the word from the mouth of the Lord and deliver it to the people. If he did so, and the wicked persisted in wickedness, the soul of the prophet would be delivered.
He was then to declare to the people who were lamenting the judgment of their sins that Jehovah had no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked should turn from his ways and live. Past acts of righteousness would not atone for present transgression. Past sin would be pardoned if the sinner turned to Jehovah. On the basis of this announcement the prophet defended Jehovah against the people who charged Him with being unequal in His ways.
Immediately after the delivery of this message, fugitives from the sack of Jerusalem came to the prophet. This had been foretold (24:25-27), and the prophet had been instructed that when they came his mouth would be opened and he would be no more dumb. This prophecy he now declared was fulfilled, and he opened his mouth and foretold that desolation of the land was still determined, and that even those left in the waste places would be destroyed.
This message closed with a rebuke of the people, who, aroused and even interested by the messages of the prophet, had gathered together to hear them, being interested in them as those would be who listened to a lovely song and a pleasant voice and capable playing on an instrument. Their interest was sensual rather than spiritual. The difference between the two may always be detected by the consequent attitude of those who hear. Sensuality hears and does nothing. Spirituality hears and obeys.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Why Will Ye Die?
Eze 33:1-16
The prophet depicts the peasantry of a fertile valley as engaged in pastoral pursuits. It is a peaceful, happy scene; but, creeping through the mountain passes, are their deadliest foes. How necessary that there should be a watchman, trumpet in hand, to give notice; and how unspeakable his guilt if he forbear to sound a warning! We are not responsible for those who refuse to take warning from our announcements, faithfully given; but if we perceive a soul in mortal danger and forbear to warn it, we are not only responsible for its ruin, but we bring awful retribution upon ourselves. Well might Richard Baxter lie awake at night beneath his awful sense of responsibility for the souls of men. God desires our salvation. If only the sinner will confess his sins to the faithful and merciful High Priest, and make such restitution as he can, not one of his sins shall be remembered against him.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Chapter Thirty-three
The Divine Government And Mans Responsibility
No attentive reader can fail to notice the similarity between this chapter and portions of chapter 3 and all of chapter 18. One might wonder why the duplication of instruction, but we may be very sure of this: when God repeats Himself it is in order that His truth may be impressed upon our hearts and minds. It is so easy to forget divine principles and to let slip the teaching of any portion of Gods Holy Word. Repetition is recognized among pedagogues generally as an important process for impressing certain lessons upon the students mind. And so when we find repetition in the Holy Scriptures we may well give the passages in question our most careful consideration, realizing that God had something very important to communicate, or He would not have duplicated it, as in the case of Pharaohs dreams, and the visions of Daniel. When a thing is repeated it is in order to assure us of its great importance and absolute certainty.
We have already noticed, in considering chapter 18, that the principles set forth in these portions do not in any sense picture the grace of God as revealed in the gospel. They have to do definitely with man under the government of God, and particularly in the legal dispensation. God had given His holy law and declared that the man who walked in obedience to it should live long on the earth; whereas he who disobeyed would bring judgment upon himself, and his days on earth would be cut short. But even under law there was provision for repentance. If a man turned to God and abjured his evil ways and sought to walk carefully before Him, God extended mercy and did not immediately execute judgment upon him.
These principles come out clearly in the present chapter.
And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from among them, and set him for their watchman; if, when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people; then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning, if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him; whereas if he had taken warning, he would have delivered his soul. But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned, and the sword come, and take any person from among them; he is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at the watchmans hand. So thou, son of man, I have set 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, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die, and thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way; that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thy hand. Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it, and he turn not from his way; he shall die in his iniquity, but thou hast delivered thy soul-vers. 1-9.
This first section is almost the same as chapter 3:16-21. Once more God emphasized the responsibility of the watchman placed upon the walls of a city in order that he might see the approach of any hostile army and blow the trumpet to warn the people that they might not be taken unawares by the foe. If the watch- man does his part and the people fail to take warning, he has delivered his own soul, and the people themselves will be responsible for their own destruction. But if he fails to give the warning and the people are taken unawares and destroyed by the enemy, the watchman will be held responsible. The blood of the inhabitants of that city will be upon him.
There is surely a very solemn lesson for all of us here who know the danger to which this poor godless world is exposed. We are called upon by God to seek to arouse men to flee from the wrath to come. If they refuse to take warning we have delivered our souls, but if, knowing that the judgment of God is against all who do evil, we fail to sound the trumpet of alarm and men and women are left to die in their sins, there will be a solemn accounting for us at the judgment-seat of Christ. Paul was able to say, in addressing the Ephesian elders, I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men (Act 20:26). So faithful had he been in giving the message that the responsibility was thrown entirely upon his hearers. We might well seek to emulate him.
Ezekiel himself had been set by God to be a watchman to the house of Israel. It was for him to hear the Word at the mouth of Jehovah and give the people warning. As he set forth the principles of the divine government, if men took heed, then God would turn away the sword of judgment; if they refused, as indeed had been the case in so many instances since Ezekiel began to prophesy, then they themselves were responsible for the loss of their own souls, but Ezekiel was free. He had carried out the will of God, and in doing this he had met the requirements of a faithful watchman.
And thou, son of man, say unto the house of Israel: Thus ye speak, saying, Our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we pine away in them; how then can we live? Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? And thou, son of man, say unto the children of thy people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression; and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness; neither shall he that is righteous be able to live thereby in the day that he sinneth. When I say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his righteousness, and commit iniquity, none of his righteous deeds shall be remembered; but in his iniquity that he hath committed, therein shall he die. Again, when I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; if he turn from his sin, and do that which is lawful and right; if the wicked restore the pledge, give again that which he had taken by robbery, walk in the statutes of life, committing no iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die. None of his sins that he hath committed shall be remembered against him: he hath done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live-vers. 10-16.
Here, as in chapter 18, the principle is laid down that no man need consider himself in a hopeless condition because he has failed in the matter of obedience to the law of God. While he is rightly under condemnation because of sin, yet the Lord has no pleasure in the death of the wicked but desires that all men should turn from their evil ways and live. So He entreats those who have gone astray, saying, Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? If men thus turned, God would have mercy on them.
On the other hand, no one was entitled to glory in his own righteousness, or to become careless after a life of obedience to the law. His righteousness did not deliver him if he turned away from the law and took the path of transgression: he would fall in his own wickedness in the day that he sinned. He who trusted in his own past righteousness and congratulated himself on his good record, and so allowed himself to become careless in the future, would have to learn in bitterness of soul that he had to do with One who demanded of him continued obedience to the law that He had given. But if once more he recognized the error of his ways and turned back to God, seeking to walk obediently, the Lord declared he should not surely die, but because of his reformation of life the past would be remitted, and he would live before God here on the earth.
It should be clearly seen that this is not a question of the salvation of the soul; it is not a matter of redemption by the blood of Christ, such as we have in the New Testament. It sets forth Gods dealings with men under law, in accordance with the principles of His government over the earth.
Many in Israel, failing to realize this, blamed God for the disasters that had come upon them, forgetting that He was judging them for their own sins. Notice how they dared to put the blame on the Lord rather than to acknowledge their own failures.
Yet the children of thy people say, The way of the Lord is not equal: hut as for them, their way is not equal. When the righteous turneth from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, he shall even die therein. And when the wicked turneth from his wickedness, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall live thereby. Yet ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal. O house of Israel, I will judge you every one after his ways-vers. 17-20.
Man is always prone to try to find some excuse for his own failures and to make another responsible for the ills that come upon him. It was so with Adam in the very beginning. Instead of frankly acknowledging his own waywardness, he sought to put the blame upon God by declaring, The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. Adam was not merely blaming his wife; the sin was far greater than that: it was impugning the wisdom of God in giving him that wife. So Israel, failing to recognize that their own iniquities had brought judgment upon them, impudently threw the blame back on God as they said, The way of the Lord is not equal. Gods ways are just and right; it was their way that was unequal, and this they needed to learn.
The remaining part of this chapter forms a distinct section in which we have the messages that came to Ezekiel when some of his prophecies were being fulfilled concerning the destruction of Jerusalem.
And it came to pass in the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth month, in the fifth day of the month, that one that had escaped out of Jerusalem came unto me, saying, The city is smitten. Now the hand of Jehovah had been upon me in the evening, before he that was escaped came; and He had opened my mouth, until he came to me in the morning; and my mouth was opened, and I was no more dumb-vers. 21, 22.
Year after year Ezekiel had been declaring that no human power would be able to protect Jerusalem against the onslaught of the Babylonians, nor would God Himself interfere to deliver the city where He of old had set His name. Its iniquities and manifold crimes had reached unto heaven, and judgment must ensue.
At last in the twelfth year of the captivity and the tenth month, word was brought by one who had escaped out of Jerusalem to bring the information, that the city had been smitten and all hope of its deliverance was at an end. This was sad news indeed to those who had dwelt in Chaldea. They had cherished the hope that, after all, Jerusalem might withstand the siege and that God would intervene to give His people victory over the invader, but now they knew that their hope had been in vain.
Before the messenger came, Ezekiels spirit had been greatly disturbed, evidently as God was preparing him for the word he was to receive on the morrow. He sat as one dumb throughout the evening before the messenger reached him. When at last in the morning he was informed as to what had actually taken place, his mouth was opened, and he spoke again in the name of Jehovah, rebuking those who had self-confidently counted on being delivered soon from bondage and returning to take possession of the land.
And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Son of man, they that inhabit those waste places in the land of Israel speak, saying, Abraham was one, and he inherited the land: but we are many; the land is given us for inheritance. Wherefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Ye eat with the blood, and lift up your eyes unto your idols, and shed blood: and shall ye possess the land? Ye stand upon your sword, ye work abomination, and ye defile every one his neighbors wife: and shall ye possess the land? Thus shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: As I live, surely they that are in the waste places shall fall by the sword; and him that is in the open field will I give to the beasts to be devoured; and they that are in the strongholds and in the caves shall die of the pestilence. And I will make the land a desolation and an astonishment; and the pride of her power shall cease; and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, so that none shall pass through. Then shall they know that I am Jehovah, when I have made the land a desolation and an astonishment, because of all their abominations which they have committed-vers. 23-29.
They had said Abraham was but a single person and yet to him God gave the land; they were many: surely the land should be theirs for an inheritance. But Ezekiel reproved them in the name of Jehovah for the sins they had committed. They violated the law by eating with the blood, and by idolatrous practices; innocent blood was shed and there was no repentance; corruption of life, such as characterized the heathen, marked them as those who had thrown off all allegiance to the law of God: therefore, the Lord gave them over to fall by the sword. Let them defend themselves if they could; He refuses to aid them. He had given their land up to become a desolation and an astonishment, and they were to be slain or to go into captivity.
And as for thee, son of man, the children of thy people talk of thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from Jehovah. And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as My people, and they hear thy words, but do them not; for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after their gain. And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument; for they hear thy words, but they do them not. And when this cometh to pass (behold, it cometh), then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them-vers. 30-33.
To Ezekiel God spoke as with His friend. He reminded him how the people to whom he ministered professed admiration for him and his messages, and yet secretly reviled him and spoke against him, having no intention of obeying the word that he proclaimed. They seemed interested in hearing his words, saying one to another, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from Jehovah. But they had no intention of obeying that word. With their mouths they showed much love, but their hearts were set upon covetousness. Ezekiel was to them as one singing a very lovely song with a pleasant voice, and playing well upon an instrument. They delighted in his eloquence and the forceful way in which he presented his messages, but like so many today who can admire a preacher and revel in his utterances, and yet give no heed to his words, so the people of Israel went on in the path of disobedience and refused to take anything seriously that came from the lips of the prophet. When at last the judgments in all their horror fell upon them God declared that they should know a prophet had been among them, but then it would be too late to deliver their souls by heeding his words.
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Eze 33:11
These words of the text ought to touch us, first in the way of warning and then of encouragement.
I. As to the warning contained in this high doctrine it seems obviously and inevitably to result from it: (1) that our spiritual and everlasting condition is in some mysterious manner placed within our own power-that if we die, spiritually and eternally, it will be our own doing, the consequence of our own wilful presumption and miserable folly. Vain and worse than vain, is the notion which we all so readily cherish, that our spiritual condition is not within our own power and that the Almighty will do with us as He pleases without regard to our own exertions. Certainly He will do with us as He pleases, or, as the Apostle says emphatically, “according to the counsel of His own will.” But then it is His irrevocable will and counsel, that, without holiness, no man shall be admitted to His beatific presence. He has no pleasure in the death of Him that dieth, yet if men turn not from their evil ways they must and will die; it is not God’s choice but their own-for themselves. (2) Another great warning in the doctrine of the text is that we have before us no alternative but either to turn or perish. Hence the necessity of our examining ourselves so strictly, and turning so resolutely from all that we find amiss in us. “Lust when it hath conceived, bringeth forth sin: sin when it is finished bringeth forth death.
II. Consider again what encouragement and consolation to all humble and contrite hearts is contained in these divine words. Here we see (1) that, sinful and undeserving as we are, our Heavenly Father watches over us with the utmost possible tenderness and anxiety; and not merely this, but He has taken great pains to impress on our hearts the conviction that He does so watch over us; (2) that whoever turns from any evil way, any wrong course, either of sin committed or of duty neglected, has unquestionably God’s blessing on him; has the best possible pledge and test that he is so far in the right way-a pledge and test doubtless more to be depended on than any external flattery or internal feeling.
Plain Sermons by Contributors to “Tracts for the Times,” vol. iv., p. 233.
References: Eze 33:11.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxx., No. 1795; J. Oswald Dykes, Old Testament Outlines, p. 253; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 159. Eze 33:22.-Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 6.
Eze 33:30-32
The experience which the young priest Ezekiel had to bear among the captives in Babylon is the same in some degree that every serious preacher of God’s word has had to expect. The methods of rejection may be various, but the act is the same; it is rejection by men. The number who may be induced to hear his preaching and knocking is much larger than the number of those who really intend to yield the obedience of faith.
I. Consider this melancholy fact. Many hear the word of the Lord, and hear it with interest, who will obey it not. It is quite wonderful how men hear what is well spoken with pleasure, and yet remain quite unaffected by it in their characters and lives. An unconverted man, a disobedient hearer, sometimes is quicker to appreciate the force of a discourse than a converted and an obedient hearer is. The heart of man easily coins self-flattering hopes out of these passing emotions which religious discourses and appeals may excite. “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.”
II. That is the character. Now what is the reason of it? Their heart goes after their gain. Every man who is to follow Christ is to forsake all that he has and become Christ’s disciple. So long as their hearts are going after their gains they are deaf, they are blind, to the true meaning of the Gospel. They are absolutely insensible to the whole drift of Christ and His Apostles. They are seeking their own things, and therefore the word has no effect upon them. So long as the heart hankers after the treasures or the pleasures of this world, all the church-going, all the appreciation of this preacher or that, goes for nothing, accomplishes nothing, that has fruit in everlasting life.
D. Fraser, Contemporary Pulpit, vol. vii., p. 168.
References: Eze 33:30-33.-W. M. Punshon, Old Testament Outlines, p. 259. Eze 33:32.-G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 264.
Eze 33:32-33
These are the words of the Lord God to the prophet Ezekiel, words in which He describes the effect of the prophet’s preaching upon the children of his people. Ezekiel had by this time become a successful preacher. He was the great sensation of the day; men thought it must be the proper thing to go and hear him, to sit lowly before him, to listen with rapt attention to the impetuous torrent of his words, and when they went away to discuss his message in the gates or on the housetops. But their heart was not touched, nor was their life affected; it was their imagination that was fascinated, and their understanding that was pleased.
I. This state of things is exactly reproduced in the case of every popular preacher. Men whose lives are cruel or impure,-whose hearts are covetous, whose thoughts are bitter,-crowd to hear the preacher of the day, because his words are sweet, because his eloquence is full of melody, because they feel themselves for the moment fascinated, captivated-carried out of, lifted above, themselves.
II. Ezekiel in his popularity is a type, not only of all lesser preachers, but emphatically of Him who is the great Prophet and Preacher of the world, the Master of all ages, the Incarnate Word of God. A very lovely song it is which the Saviour sings; no poet, no prophet, no bard, ever sung or ever dreamed, or ever even strove (and striving failed) to express anything half so sweet, so full, so soul-subduing as the Gospel of the grace of God. And He that sings it hath a very pleasant voice, for sweeter is the voice of Christ than the voice of any angel or archangel, and of any of the heavenly choirs-grander in itself and sweeter far is it to us, because it is a Brother’s voice, and we can feel the sympathy, we can understand the finest, softest shades of meaning which are woven through the melody. Therefore does the world love to listen to His message of salvation, to sit at the feet of Christ, to call Him Great Master, to listen to His words with pleased attention. They hear His words, but do them not. Never shall His voice sound so pleasant, never His song so lovely, as when He shall lead His own to the eternal bowers, and those who are not His shall be shut out for ever. Yet this last unspeakable woe must be our portion, if the Gospel be to us but as a very lovely song-if our attitude towards Christ be one of admiration, not of imitation-if we hear His words but do them not.
R. Winterbotham, Sermons and Expositions, p. 87.
References: Eze 33:33.-E. Paxton Hood, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xix., p. 129. Eze 34:4.-A. G. Maitland, Ibid., vol. xi., p. 392. Eze 34:10.-S. Cox, Expositions, 3rd series, p. 16. Eze 34:12.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vi., p. 204. Eze 34:26.-J. Keble, Sermons from Ascension Day to Trinity, p. 27; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. i., No. 26; Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 55; F. W. Brown, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xx., p. 75. Eze 34:27.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxv., No. 1462. Eze 34:29.-G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 160; J. Budgen, Parochial Sermons, vol. i., p. 108.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
II. PREDICTIONS AFTER THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM (33-48)
CHAPTERS 33-34
A. The Watchman, the False Shepherds, and the True Shepherd
1. The renewed call of Ezekiel as watchman (Eze 33:1-20)
2. Ezekiels mouth opened after Jerusalems fall is announced (Eze 33:21-33)
3. Message against the shepherds of Israel (Eze 34:1-19)
4. The True Shepherd and restoration promised (Eze 34:20-26)
Eze 33:1-20. The commission of Ezekiel as watchman corresponds to the same call in Eze 3:16-21. In Eze 33:10-20 the prophet announces certain principles of divine justice.
The exiles knew that the just wrath of God rested upon them as a nation and that their sins were unforgiven. Therefore they asked, If our transgressions and sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live? They also accused the Lord of inconsistency by saying, the way of the Lord is not equal (Eze 34:20; see also Eze 18:25; Eze 18:29). The answer Jehovah sends them makes known the principles on which He will deal with them individually as a just God. O ye house of Israel, I will judge you every one after his ways. Judgment rested upon them as a nation, but the individual still could turn to the Lord in repentance. What a wonderful declaration it is which is recorded in Eze 34:11! Say unto them, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? What compassion and mercy! As it was a day of judgment which had come upon them, true repentance was the needed thing. A past righteousness could not shield them from the judgment if sin had been committed. As for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness. The wicked confessing and forsaking his sin would find mercy and forgiveness, while those who were impenitent would surely die and not live. None of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him; he hath done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live. And this gracious promise was given in anticipation of the work of the cross, the redemption by the blood of Christ, by which Gods righteousness is declared in passing thus over sins of Old Testament believers who turned to God Rom 3:25. The principles of divine justice are summed up in Eze 33:18 and Eze 33:19 : When the righteous turneth from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, he shall even die thereby. But if the wicked turn from his wickedness, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall live thereby. Needless to say, all this must be viewed as under the law-covenant. But their complaint that the way of the Lord is not equal was wrong, it was their way which was not equal. They were to be judged each according to what he had done.
Eze 33:21-33. In Eze 24:27, the promise had been given to Ezekiel that when the one who escaped from Jerusalem when it fell, arrived, the prophet should no longer be dumb. This dumbness evidently does not mean that he was continually silent, without uttering a word, for he prophesied what is written in chapters 25-32. He was to be dumb concerning Israel; the intervening chapters, before the messenger came, concern other nations. And now that promised messenger arrived and his mouth was opened again to prophesy about Israel. The first message is one of rebuke, describing their condition.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
The Judgments of God
Eze 33:1-13, Eze 33:28-33
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
It may not be pleasant, but it is necessary to warn the saint and the sinner against coming judgments.
1. We need to warn the church against her coming judgments. Even now we can see the gathering of the storm. The church has grown so worldly, so self-centered, so self-reliant; the church, in many places, has gone so far from the faith, denying the very Lord God who bought them, denying everything that is vital to the Gospel she was commanded to preach.
The church has too often turned aside to a social gospel which is not the Gospel. She has mingled herself among men, even the men of the world, and joined hands with them in seeking to direct the conduct of nations and of communities.
Think you that the church can go on much longer without being judged and punished for her unrighteousness?
2. We need to warn the world of coming judgments. The world is rushing headlong away from God. It is becoming more and more “As it was in the days of Noah”; and “as it was in the days of Lot.”
The wicked are doing wickedly. Sin is holding sway.
Is not God preparing to send forth His judgments against the wicked? Do not the signs of the times show that the earth is ripening for judgment, and that judgments are hovering near? It is only the prophet who is blind to the prophetic Scriptures on the one hand, and to the daily course of events, on the other hand, who fails to see that history is rapidly running into the mold of Divine prophecy, and that soon the day of tribulation in which God shall judge the earth will come.
What then? Shall we fail to warn the wicked? Nay. Every true minister of Jesus Christ will cry aloud and spare not. Remember the words in Ezekiel: if we fail to warn the wicked, God will require their lives at our hands.
We must arise and sound the alarm. We must give the cry, “‘Repent, repent, repent,” or destruction shall fall.
God grant that we may not be reckoned among the false prophets and prophesy peace, when there is no peace; who call darkness light, and light darkness; who say of judgment, It shall not be; and of wrath, It slumbereth.
I. AN ILLUSTRATION (Eze 33:1-3)
1. The illustration. God looks out among men to find a simple illustration of His dealings with others. He describes a people against whom He is about to bring the sword. The nation, seeing impending danger, takes a man of their coasts and sets him for a watchman. Then, the Spirit says, “If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people; then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.”
The reason for this judgment is that he heard the sound of the trumpet and took not warning.
2. The application. The warnings of God are heard everywhere today. They are heard from the pulpit; they are heard in nature; they are heard in daily events, and all of them are saying: “There is danger ahead.”
How many there are who have been warned by sickness. They were brought low; they looked the death angel square in the face; they felt their time had come; they knew that they were warned of God; then they prayed for help, and promised God that if He would spare them, they would live for Him. God did spare them; however, they went right on in their evil ways. Their blood shall be required at their own hand.
Here is another man. He is warned by some great physical disaster, a whirlwind sweeps down upon him; a terrific storm overawes him-the lightnings flash, and the thunders roar; the winds howl. Then he cries unto the Lord, and God sendeth a great calm. Immediately he goes on in his evil way forgetful of his warning. God will require his blood at his own hand.
Here is still another man. This one is making money; he is living in ease with every comfort about him, and then, suddenly, a great financial crisis comes. His all is swept from him. This man is fully awake to the sense of his own loss, and he sees the ultimate sweeping away of everything from him, and he hears the call of God to repent and to lay up treasures where moth and rust do not corrupt. However, he refuses to hear and goes on his maddened way, seeking to reclaim his lost fortune, and to establish himself among his fellow men.
This man shall have his blood upon his own head.
II. THE WATCHMAN WHO WARNS NOT THE PEOPLE (Eze 33:6-8)
1. God’s watchmen are set to warn His people. Every minister of the Gospel is a watchman. To him God has given a message of warning which is many-sided, and very vital to the safety of the people.
The Old Testament Prophets were watchmen. They were called to give God’s warning messages to the people concerning their own sins, and God’s judgments which were about to fall upon the people.
2. Many of God’s watchmen refuse to warn of coming dangers. This is where Isa 56:1-12 comes in. Isa 56:10 says: “His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.”
There were many men similar to these among the Prophets. They told the people only the good things, the smooth things, when God prophesied disaster. They told the people all was well, and there was no danger ahead, when God had told them that the storms of His judgments were about to break.
There are many men standing in the pulpits today who simply refuse to give God’s warnings. God tells us there shall be wars and rumors of wars. They stand in their pulpits and preach peace, peace, when there is no peace. They ruthlessly shut their eyes to actual facts as well as to the plain statements of God. God tells them to warn the people concerning the encroachment of worldliness and iniquity upon the church. They refuse and they preach “the contagion of good,” and present only an ethical conception of the Gospel. They never tell them the wages of sin is death, and that the wicked shall be cast into hell with all nations that forget God.
So far as the coming of the antichrist is concerned, they never mention it with one word of warning. Little does it matter to them that God, in His Word, has prophesied the advent of the man of sin, and the rule and the reign of the antichrist. Little does it matter to them that everything in world events shows that the world is hastening on toward the rule of one man. They say nothing about it. God will require the blood of His people at their hands.
God says, “Thou shalt hear the word at My mouth, and warn them from Me.” When, therefore, they refuse to warn the wicked of his way, and they refuse to tell others of the judgments about to fall, God says: “His blood will I require at thine hand.” “Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; * * thou hast delivered thy soul.”
III. GOD’S DESIRE IS TO SAVE AND NOT TO DESTROY (Eze 33:10-11)
1. A complaint. Israel was saying, “If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live?”
There are many today who are decrying God for His judgments. Yet, they go right on in their sins. They want God to reserve His wrath, yet, they will not turn from their unrighteousness. They condemn God, but not themselves. They would make God a holy God, who does not demand holiness; a righteous God, who does not enforce righteousness. Their idea of God would be a God of love, who is foreign to judgment; a God of mercy, who knows nothing of wrath.
2. A vindication. The Lord’s reply is in Eze 33:11. He says: “As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.” Some one will answer: “If God hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked, then why does He say: ‘The wages of sin is death’?” If He does not want the wicked to die, why does He slay them? In reply to such weak insinuation, the Lord says to the wicked, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live.”
God is saying that righteousness will bring life, even as wickedness brings death. In all of this He throws the death of the wicked upon themselves. The responsibility is theirs, not His. They die because they walk the ways of death, God cannot justify the ungodly. Therefore He is helpless to save the wicked in their wickedness.
3. A plaintive cry. Could any words be more filled with the yearnings of His heart than these which fell from the lips of the Almighty: “Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O House of Israel?”
God is described here as pleading, calling, crying unto men to repent. He seems to be saying just what Christ afterwards said! “How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” In this verse, 11, and in these words, “Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die?” God is saying, I would save you, I want to, I am willing, I am ready, but ye must turn; ye must repent or else I cannot. Here it is: “I would, ye would not, I could not.”
IV. THE JUSTNESS OF GOD’S DEALINGS (Eze 33:12-14)
1. The wicked man will die for his wickedness, and the righteous man shall live for his righteousness. The question before us is not the question of eternal life. We are not in the realm of salvation whatsoever. We are walking in the realm of judgments, and of rewards. God has been telling Israel, through Ezekiel, many things concerning His judgments. He tells why the people of Tyre perished. He tells why desolation fell upon Egypt. He shows, withal, His own lamentations for both Tyre and Egypt. He did not want either the one or the other to fall; but they repented not, they refused to turn from their evil ways, and they had to fall. Thus the wicked were overwhelmed because of their wickedness, and they died in their sins.
This is not at all difficult to understand, neither is it difficult to understand that the righteous will live for his righteousness. This is always true. If sin brings judgment unto condemnation, righteousness brings favor, and blessing, and happiness.
2. The righteous, if he sins, will die for his wickedness; while the wicked, if he repents, will live for his newfound righteousness. There are many illustrations of this in the Word of God. Under the first, “The wicked will live when they turn from their wickedness,” we consider Nineveh. God sent Jonah to Nineveh to warn the people. Jonah was commanded to cry, saying, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” Jonah refused, at first, to warn the Ninevites because, as he afterwards said, he knew that if the Ninevites repented and turned from every evil way, God was a gracious God, and merciful, and slow to anger, and of great kindness, and God would repent Himself of doing evil against the Ninevites. This is exactly what God did do. When the Ninevites put on sackcloth and ashes and turned from their sins, God could not remain the same God of honor, and true in His judgments, and still slay them. Thus, when the wicked turn from their unrighteousness, they shall live, and not be punished.
On the other hand, if the righteous turn from their righteousness, they shall surely die. The Children of Israel are a plain example of this. When they were righteous, they were blessed; when, however, they turned from their righteousness, and became sinful, the wrath of God was upon them and they were slain with His great sword.
V. JUDGING THE LORD UNJUSTLY (Eze 33:17)
1. “Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?” These are the words of Abraham as he pleaded with the Lord to spare Sodom. Abraham well knew the wickedness of Sodom. He made no plea whatsoever that God should spare the city on the basis of its own righteousness. He approached God from another viewpoint. He said: “Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt Thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?”
Abraham went so far as to say unto God, “That be far from Thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from Thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” God did not condemn Abraham for the basis of his plea, because that is the basis upon which God judges. The Lord quickly replied: “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.”
In the Book of Ezekiel, God is vindicating His judgments on the same basis, “If the wicked restore * * that he had robbed, walk in the Statutes of life, without committing iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die.”
2. Ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal. This was the charge of the Children of Israel against God. They wanted Him to spare them because they were known as the righteous nation, even though they had turned from their righteousness. God said, “Nay.” “When the righteous turneth from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, he shall even die thereby.” Then God adds: “Yet ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal. O ye House of Israel, I will judge you every one after his ways.”
VI. SOME SOLEMN APPLICATIONS (Eze 33:25; Eze 33:29-30)
1. God’s application of His message upon the Children of Israel. God is vindicating Himself in His judgments against Israel. Until this day, the Children of Israel, who were once a people, are scattered abroad among the nations of the earth as “not a people.” They even, themselves, deny the Lord Jesus altogether.
We remember reading of the time when God chose His people. We remember how they loved Him, and followed Him in the way. How great was God’s blessing’s upon them! How tenderly did He care for them! He loved them as a Father loveth his child.
We remember also how Israel sinned, and how God sent forth His Prophets to warn her. Yet, they repented not, nor turned from their evil ways. The result was that they were defeated in battle; they were driven from their own land, and unto this hour, they are under the judgments of God.
All of this, however, does not mean that God hath cast off His people forever, for He shall yet say unto the North, Give up, and to the south, hold not back. Behold a nation shall yet be born in a day, and God shall yet redeem His chosen nation.
2. God’s application of His message to the Church. In the Book of Romans, chapter 11, we read: “Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in His goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.”
If God spared not Israel when she sinned, neither will He spare and neither does He spare His Church, when she sins. In Rev 3:1-22, we have the picture of the Laodicean Church. She is a worldly Church which has departed from her Lord, and the Lord Himself is standing outside the Church saying: “Because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of My mouth.” The basis of God’s judgments, in every age, are the same; and the basis of judgment against both the righteous and the wicked are the same.
Let no man think because he is a Christian that he will escape the chastening of God if he sins. Not that alone, but we read of certain saints, “For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.” Sin may not only cause chastening in life, but it may bring the chastening of physical death; it certainly will bring sorrow at the judgment seat of Christ.
VII. THE UNEQUALITY OF ISRAEL (Eze 33:31-33)
We now come to what is called, in the last words of Eze 33:30, “The Word that cometh forth from the Lord.” Israel had accused God of a biased judgment. God is now, in plain words, going to show to His people the perfidy of their own hearts.
1. A vain profession. Here is God’s first statement: “They come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as My people, * * with their mouth they shew much love * *. Thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words.”
All of the expressions above were true concerning Israel as they were approached by God’s Prophet Ezekiel. They went through every formality and expression of loyalty to God. They outwardly appeared to be righteous.
2. The true state of affairs. Now we will take the whole of God’s statement: “They hear thy words, but they will not do them.” “They shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness.”” Thou art unto them as a very lovely song,” etc.: “for they hear thy words, but they do them not.”
We begin, now, to understand why it was that they complained against God’s judgments, for, even in the days of their apostasy they carried with them a form of godliness, but denied the power thereof.
In the days of our Lord, He still acknowledged their outward piety. He said that they paid tithes of mint, anise, and cummin. He spoke of the works which they did. He described them as making long prayers; concerning the Law, they would argue even to the details of straining at a gnat. Ceremonially, they made clean the outside of their cups and platters. Before men they appeared righteous. They builded the tombs of the Prophets, and garnished the sepulchers of the righteous. Thus, they appeared outwardly, and thus they still appeared to us when we recently visited Jerusalem. Here, however, is described their true spiritual condition, even as our Lord told it forth.
“All their works they do to be seen of men.”
“They love the uppermost rooms at feasts.”
“They shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men.”
“They devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make a long prayer.”
“They compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and make him twofold more the child of hell.”
“They omit the weightier matters of the Law.”
“They swallow a camel.”
“Within they are full of extortion and excess.”
“Within they are full of dead men’s bones and of all uncleanness.”
“They are serpents-a generation of vipers.”
“They kill and crucify, scourge and persecute.”
Do you wonder that God judged them?
With the nominal church we have a story quite as sad. In many places, very many, they have a form of godliness. They do many things just as outwardly religious, as did the religious Jews. Nevertheless, here is God’s description of these very church people who have a form of godliness and deny the power.
Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water
Eze 33:1-2. For 8 chapters the prophet has been writing against various heathen nations that had mistreated Gods people. Some of that writing is in the form of predictions of things to come upon them, and other parts are a summary of what had previously taken place, and written by way of warning to future generations. Ezekiel now resumes his writing to his own countrymen. The general trend of the passages will be favorable and intended to give encouragement to the people of Israel. However, the seriousness of respon sibility on tbe part of a prophet and and teacher will be given attention. The subject will necessarily include some remarks concerning the respon-sibility of the people under the work of the teacher or prophet. The first lesson on the subject of responsibility is drawn from the work of a watchman in times of danger, especially the dangers of war. At such times a man is placed in one of the watchtowers and equipped with a trumpet to use as a signalling device.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Section 1 (Eze 33:1-33; Eze 34:1-31.)
The opening of the prophet’s mouth.
The prophet’s mouth then is re-opened, because there is grace to be announced. Yet the affirmation of God’s righteous ways unchanged is the fitting introduction to this. The fall of the city shows the people now fully under judgment. Their false confidences are exposed. The law has spoken, and the people, by its verdict are Lo-ammi, without the blood of atonement for their sins, without the place in which alone it could be sprinkled before God, God Himself entirely withdrawn. Moreover, there are no true shepherds among the people only such as are not only inadequate, but false. God must raise up the only Shepherd who can truly represent Him in His care for the feeble and scattered remnant who shall still remain an election, wholly of grace, and who are cast entirely upon Him -themselves also undone, apart from absolute grace. The true Shepherd is found in David (” the beloved “), the real fulfiller of that name and of the unrepenting promises of God to which “the sure mercies of David” are attached.
1. (1) The prophecy here does not begin with the date, as we might expect, that being found, however, in verse 17. God first prepares the message which the re-opened lips of the prophet are to utter. The message given is a repetition almost wholly of Eze 3:1-27; Eze 13:1-23, a repetition which, for the purpose, is more effective than a wholly new statement. It is emphasized, however, in the first place that while men might naturally, and ordinarily would appoint themselves a watchman, the prophet is not appointed of the people, but of God in their behalf. Were there no word from Him, the accountability of the people would still remain, but God had provided a watchman for those too heedless and indifferent to care for their own interests, even the most weighty. How this, nevertheless, would increase the culpability of those who still refused the Voice that spoke to them! How often had He spoken of the sword which He was bringing upon the land! Yet they had taken no heed. Instead of looking for every sign of approaching judgment, they hardened their hearts against all that was given them in this way -nay, pressed upon them by one event after another, and by one messenger after another. What then could there be at last but that which had now come? -the awful signs no more to be refused by their desolate city, and the triumph of the heathen enemy over those who, as the people of God, would have been sheltered from every possibility of successful assault.
The second part of the address here begins at the 10th verse, in which the lesson of the 18th chapter is once more enforced. They would now be ready to plead, and indeed were pleading, that before the unbending righteousness of God it was impossible that men should live. But the Lord replies as He had declared abundantly already, that He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that they turn from their wickedness and live. For one who truly turned to Him, none of his past wickedness should be remembered against him. Could God go on with them in evil ways? Surely it would be impossible even for themselves to think so. There was then but one alternative, and God still pleaded as He had been pleading, that they turn from their evil ways that they might live. Why would they die? Their death was of their own will and not His. If, then, even one who had been righteous, trusting in this past righteousness of his, gave himself up to wickedness, none of his righteous deeds could be remembered: in his iniquity that he had committed, he would surely die. But what is rather emphasized is the mercy that awaits even the worst and vilest who should turn to God. Yet the people would rest the blame of all upon the Lord’s ways as if they were not equal, whereas it was their own ways that are unequal, as their conscience must surely witness against them. Much as men may seek to stifle the voice that speaks for God within them, yet it will one day have full utterance when they will be compelled to hear it.
(2)We have now the confirmation of the judgment foretold in the destruction of the city: “And it came to pass in the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth month, on the fifth of the month, that one who had escaped out of Jerusalem came unto me, saying, The city is smitten. Now the hand of the Lord had been upon me in the evening before he that escaped came, and He had opened my mouth before he came to me in the morning, and my mouth was opened, and I writs no more dumb.” The date here is a significant one, “the twelfth year of our captivity” is, according to the numerical stamp upon it, the time of complete manifestation of the government of God with which the tenth month and the fifth day of the month combine to speak of the responsibility of man before God, of man who can never escape from the presence of Him whose eye is in every place, beholding the evil and the good. It is strange, however, to realize that the date here of the arrival of the man escaped from the city is more than sixteen months after it was taken. It has been naturally thought, therefore, that there must be a mistake in the text which, in common manuscripts of the Septuagint, seems to have been altered to suit. The well-known Alexandrian manuscript, however, agrees with the Hebrew which, as has been already seen, has its own internal evidence of being the correct one. No doubt the report of the capture had long preceded the actual coming of the refugee, delayed as he doubtless was by the conditions through which he had to make his way, and which there is no need to suppose to have been a direct one. It was probably after much wandering that the refugee had found a place at last where he could rest in safety. Until this time, then, the message waited: God dealing with the people in a way suited to the persistency with which they clung to their false hopes, and hardened themselves in obstinate pride of heart that would not listen to the plainest announcements. Now, with the living witness in their midst, they could at least doubt no more that the blow had actually fallen.
The first utterance of the prophet after this, which is addressed to those yet remaining in the desolate land, shows how readily still these hopes would rally; “Son of man,” says the Lord to him, “they that inhabit those waste places in the land of Israel speak, saying, Abraham was one, and he inherited the land, and we are many; the land is given us for a possession.” Had this been the boldness of faith, it might indeed still have been admirable; for the inheritance, as we know, however much the people might even for long years lose possession of it, could never be finally alienated from the children of him to whom God had promised it. But this was another thing, as the character of those who made these utterances showed, mere desperadoes as they were, whose works declared them to be anything but Abraham’s children. Their very conduct is held up before them, therefore. It was not for such to possess the land, surely, and they are warned by the Voice that speaks to them through the prophet: “Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: As I live, surely they that are in the waste places shall fall by the sword, and him that is in the open field will I give to the beasts to be devoured, and they that are in the strongholds and in the caves shall die of the pestilence; and I will make the land a desolation and an astonishment, and the pride of her strength shall cease. And the mountains of Israel shall be desolate that none shall pass through them. And they shall know that I am Jehovah (how differently should they have learned this!) when I have made the land a desolation and an astonishment because of all their abominations which they have committed.”
Among the exiles, however, a transient effect might seem to have been produced by the fulfilment of the prophet’s words. They were now coming to hear the message that he had for them, sitting before God as if His people, and hearing words which, however, they never followed. “Behold,” says the Lord to him, “thou art unto them as a lovely song, a pleasant voice, and one that playeth well upon an instrument; and they hear thy words, but they do them not” -there was no true faith with them. They would know that the prophet had spoken to them only by the voice of the judgment which would overtake them, as it had in fact already overtaken them. They would believe when it was too late, when the prediction was fulfilled, but that would be only to make it vain as to the whole meaning of it. It was no true faith that did not anticipate the fulfilment. Thus everywhere, as one sees, the ruin of man is complete. There could be no proper hope, no expectation any longer, and here the first utterance closes.
2. (1) In the chapter following, we have again no date given as to the time of the message, nor is there another until we come to the closing vision of the temple in the restored land, which is the only other in the book. That which follows here seems now to pour forth without any pause; and while we have once more judgment, in the opening, it is now manifestly connected with blessing, as the way to it. If the people are to be according to God, it must be as Isaiah has said (Isa 4:4), “By the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning,” or as Ezekiel himself has said elsewhere (Eze 20:38) by purging out from them the rebels and those that transgress against God.
Thus we find that the judgment now before us is upon the false shepherds, those who only feed themselves, and make a prey of the sheep. “And the word of Jehovah came unto me saying, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say unto them, even unto the shepherds, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Woe to the shepherds of Israel that feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flock? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill those that are fattened; but ye feed not the sheep. The weak have ye not strengthened, nor have ye healed the sick, nor have ye bound up that which was broken, nor have ye brought again that which was driven away, nor have ye sought that which was lost; but with oppression and rigor ye have ruled over them.” How thoroughly this gives the character of those whom the Lord charged in His day with similar conduct. The rule of the rabbins was an oppressive one, and while they assumed to stand for God and for His word, self-seeking characterized them throughout, and thus of necessity the sheep were scattered: “They were scattered because there was no shepherd: and they became food to all the beasts of the field and were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains and upon every high hill; yea, my sheep have been scattered upon all the face of the earth, and there was none that searched or sought after them.” Nothing stirs the heart of the true shepherd like the wanton abuse or neglect of the sheep, and here is One whose heart never needed to be stirred, but abides continually with His people, however long He may have patience, and however much circumstances may seem to argue that He has forgotten them. Therefore, as we shall see, it is Jehovah Himself who is manifested as the Shepherd of Israel, and that in the One raised up to them in tender grace; One who is Himself Man, and a stranger to nothing in man, except man’s inherent evil.
(2) The doom of the shepherds is therefore now announced. It is the judgment of love which smites for deliverance. There must be an end of this false assumption of the shepherd’s place without the shepherd’s heart -an assumption so peculiarly offensive to Him whose heart is with the sheep, who is afflicted in all the afflictions of His people, and who, when He arises for their help, will make a thorough work of it.
(3) Thus the Lord declares that He will come in and search for His sheep and examine their condition. The language is human language, and we see here, according to what Ezekiel has shown us elsewhere, the likeness of a Man upon the throne. God speaks as if He were ignorant; therefore to examine into everything were a first necessity; and in truth there is what answers to this. God is careful to expose fully the evil with which He is dealing, that in His government He may be justified by all His creatures. This is the meaning of all those solemn assurances of a day of judgment to come, when the books are opened, and all the history of those brought before the judgment-seat is thoroughly entered into. There are crises of judgment which anticipate this, in which God allows the character of things fully to come out, allowing to come to a head the evil upon which He is going to smite, and bringing out the secret thoughts of men’s hearts into open day. Thus as to His flock, Jehovah will examine their whole condition and all that has led to it. Their scatterings shall cease when the Voice is heard which. His people know -which does not scatter, but brings together; and this, therefore, by removing every cause of scattering. Yet scattering may be at times the very thing that is of God, which He permits to avoid worse evil: nevertheless it is only permission for a brief time. What is in His heart is gathering, not scattering. And so He declares that He will deliver His flock out of all the places whither they were scattered in the cloudy and dark day. He has realized the darkness of it, and He will bring them out from the peoples, and gather them from the countries, and bring them into their own land. It has been their own land in His mind all the way through; and if for a time it has refused to own them as its inhabitants, there is no setting aside of the purposes which, with God, can never be repented of. The mountains of Israel sball welcome them again, and all the springs shall be set running for their benefit, and all the habitable places of the country shall be filled with them. The mountains, which so peculiarly characterize the land of Israel, shall provide good pasture for them, lifted up and kissed as it were by the light of heaven. That is where God would ever have His people feed, and there are the fat pastures to be provided now. He will feed them and make them to lie down. How thoroughly these things go together in His mind -provision and rest, in which all the evils that have afflicted them in the long past shall be put away, the lost restored, the wounded bound up, the weak strengthened; but, on the other hand, the fat and the strong destroyed! We know what this means: God is thinking of those who have been feeding themselves at the cost of the sheep, and have become fat through the spoiling of others. They of necessity will be the objects of swift, sure judgment: “I will feed the flock with judgment,” says the Lord.
(4) The searching which the Lord institutes is to go down deeper than merely with certain heads of the people: “Behold,” says the Lord, “I judge between sheep and sheep,” not merely between sheep and shepherds. “The rams and the he-goats” seem to speak not alike of objects of His judgment. The rams belong to the flock themselves, but the he-goats are alien to it. They are, as we know, in the Lord’s own picture of judgment, representatives of those whom the Son of Man puts upon His left hand, as He puts the sheep upon His right. Among the sheep there are those who have from God a certain natural place as leaders, and when God is working among His people, as in the days to come, these must of necessity come to the front. Leaders among the people of God are always recognized. It is the character of the leading which determines as to what it is before God. The true leader is he who leads by the Word itself, and to faith in it, and not in the leader, therefore. And he who says, “Follow me as I follow Christ” puts Christ before the eyes of His people as the measure by which he himself and all his leading is to be measured. How good to have those who, if they have found a bit of good pasture, must run. to tell others of it! And this is a kind of leading open to all that have hearts for it. How different the conduct of those of whom the Lord speaks here, who not only have eaten up all the good pasture for themselves, but must tread down and spoil what is left of it: not satisfied with drinking of the clear waters, they must foul the residue with their feet. I low this applies to such as rose up in Israel after this, when the rule of the priest was changed for the rule of the rabbi, is obvious to all; who, as our Lord said, were “teaching for doctrine the commandments of men,” and putting their own word before the word of God. They made the flock eat what they had trodden with their feet, and drink what they had fouled with them. And it is not in Israel only that these things have taken place. Alas, how Christendom has copied them in fullest detail! But God is going to judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. The lean sheep are His objects now -the people who have suffered from these things, and whom He sees suffering. Thus He will save His flock that they may no more be a prey, and will judge between sheep and sheep.
(5) Now we come to what is God’s complete thought for them. He has one true Shepherd that is to be set over them; in that sense, only one; there is not another, and “He shall feed them, even my servant David.” “The introduction of David without anything further or particular,” says Schroeder, “confirms what is stated by Hengstenberg, that the Messiah, the glorious offspring of David, had in the time of the prophet been for long a lesson of the catechism.” That is true, and it is sweet to think how God necessarily supposes that they will know who is spoken of here, the true David, of whom the one in history was only a type. He is to take up David’s place and office in a more glorious fashion: David’s Son is also David’s Lord, “the Beloved,” as His name means; and our hearts recognize Him in this way: “He shall feed them, and He shall be their Shepherd.” And thus alone it can be that Jehovah will be their God. Thus alone will “the covenant of peace” be theirs -the peace by a covenant never to be broken, and as a consequence, all nature at peace with them, evil beasts gone: “They shall dwell in safety in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods.” Eden, but a better Eden, has come for them; and from the hill of God, His dwelling-place among them, the object for every eye and every heart, blessing shall flow out to all the places round about. Heaven yields its seasonable showers: “There shall be showers of blessing.” Thus the curse is removed, and the land yields its increase. The tree of the field comes to its fruit, not casts it, and in all this they shall know that it is Jehovah who has brought them into this blessing; it is Jehovah who has burst the bands of their yoke and delivered them; it is Jehovah who has come in with the deliverance which is now eternal. They shall be no more a prey, nor shall they fear it. There shall be no danger nor thought of danger. How blessed to think of such a time at hand, and for a world trodden by the feet of oppressors, as the world has been.
But the attention is turned once more to God’s central figure for them: “I will raise up for them,” says He, “a plant of renown.” Neither shame nor hunger can be their portion when God has done this. “A plant for a name” is the literal rendering, which reminds us at once of the Name in which is all the revelation of God for man, which has been in His thought from the beginning -revelation come to its completion, and all things taking shape according to this. For this Immanuel (Jehovah, revealed in Christ) is among them; the bond of His humanity is never to be broken, and Israel as His people are compassed with those blessed arms which are yet to be seen about the whole creation of God, linking it forever with God. They need not fear, then, to recognize the weakness which as creatures necessarily belongs to them. It is the wholesome lesson which they have taken so long to learn, and which we are all so slow to learn, though a very simple one: “Ye my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord Jehovah.”
What does this mean? -that we are men. The word is “adam”: God “called their name Adam, in the day that He created them” -a name which comes from adamah, “the ground.” Yes, just to learn that we are men! Have we learnt it? Do we act and speak as if we had truly learnt it? That they were formed out of the clay is not the whole matter, of course, and it is not what made them the offspring of God, or in His likeness, but it is the suited word to keep us humble; yet, even so, it is a word of triumph too, of God’s triumph, for in them the dust of the ground is made to shine with a new glory. He has taken up this very dust, not putting it away as if the material thing were unsuited for Him, but developing all the capacities which are latent in it, which are not capacities of the spirit but for the spirit, in which matter itself becomes a fitted servant of the spirit, and God as the Creator is revealed all through in the goodness of His work. The dust of the ground is become man, and God Himself has met us in Christ, claiming man, even man’s flesh as His, of which He is not, and never will be, ashamed. Is it not the display of His glory, is it not His triumph, this wonder of divine condescension, this stooping of divine love?! Yes, men are thus the sheep of His pasture, and they have no cause to forget, but ever to remember and thank and bless Him ever that they are men.
Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary
BROKEN SILENCE
Ezekiels commission to his own countrymen is now renewed (Eze 33:21-22), and evidences a new tone. Heretofore his functions had been chiefly threatening, but now the evil having reached its worst in the overthrow of Jerusalem, the consolatory element preponderates. (See Eze 22:11.) Eze 33:23-29 of the same chapter, have reference to the handful left in Jerusalem after the siege, the best commentary on which is Jeremiah 40-42. Eze 33:30 to the end describes conditions at Chebar. The last verse alludes to the news in Eze 33:21. When they heard that report which took some time to reach them, they had reason to change their minds about the prophet and his work.
MANY FALSE SHEPHERDS AND THE ONE TRUE ONE (Ezekiel 34)
The shepherds of Israel (Eze 34:2) are not the prophets and priests so much (though they may be included), as the rulers kings, princes, judges. The indictment against them extends to Eze 34:10, at which point encouragement and comfort is given to the scattered sheep, the people of Israel. The language corresponds with that of all the prophets, and points to the regather-ing of the nation in the latter times, and their restoration and blessing in the land again (Eze 34:11-22). This will synchronize with the second coming of the Messiah, here called my servant David (Eze 34:24) and a plant of renown (Eze 34:29). Eze 34:25-28 indicate that millennial conditions are in mind. Though a number of the people returned after the seventy years of captivity, and though they had a larger posterity in the land, yet they were continually under the Gentile yoke, until in A.D. 70, they were finally driven away again in a dispersion which still continues.
JUDGMENT ON MOUNT SEIR OR EDOM (Ezekiel 35)
This is placed here by way of contrast with Israels promised blessing. The Edomites, descendants of Esau, Jacobs brother, had treated their kin shamefully in the past (Eze 35:5), therefore, unlike them their desolations should be perpetual (Eze 35:9). Remember that it is only in their national character of foes to Israel that they are to be destroyed. God is always merciful to individuals who repent. When the whole earth rejoices (Eze 35:14), means Judah and the nations that submit themselves to her God.
MORAL RESTORATION (Ezekiel 36)
It is always understood that the national restoration of Israel implies their moral restoration. They will repent and turn to the Lord before the promised blessings shall be poured out upon them. It is this moral restoration which is foretold here.
We have first restoration of the land (Eze 36:1-15), and then the people (Eze 36:16; Eze 37:28). Eze 36:19-22, like those that follow, are spoken anticipatively. Observe Gods motive for restoring them (Eze 36:22-23). Observe the symbolic allusion to their moral regeneration (Eze 36:25-27), and that afterwards comes the material blessing. Many will have been gathered back to their land before the moral cleansing takes place, but the blessing will be withheld till then (Eze 36:28-38).
VALLEY OF DRY BONES (Ezekiel 37)
In this chapter we have in symbol what the preceding foretold in plain language in other words what the prophet saw in vision. Eze 37:11 is the key to the chapter. The bones are the whole house of Israel on the earth at the time to which the prophecy refers, which is the beginning of the millennial age. The graves are the Gentile nations among which they shall be scattered. They shall be gathered out from among these nations back to their land (Eze 37:12). This will result in their conversion (Eze 37:13), after which they will be filled with the Holy Spirit (Eze 37:14). The two sticks (Eze 37:16) are Israel and Judah which shall again become one (Eze 37:17-27). Following this is a blessing on the whole earth (Eze 37:28). Compare Act 15:16-17.
Verse 8 indicates that the people will return to their land at first unconverted. David my servant (Eze 37:24) is generally understood of the Messiah. The chapter, as a whole, presents a beautiful image of Christian faith, which believes in the coming general resurrection of the dead in the face of all appearances against it, because God said it (Joh 5:21; Rom 4:17; 2Co 1:9).
QUESTIONS
1. Explain the title of this lesson.
2. Quote Eze 33:11.
3. Who are the shepherds of chapter 34?
4. What title is twice given the Messiah in this lesson?
5. What explains the location of chapter 35?
6. What precedes the national restoration of Israel?
7. Explain chapter 37.
8. Tell the story of that chapter in your own words.
9. What does verse 8 seem to show?
10. Of what is the chapter a beautiful image?
Fuente: James Gray’s Concise Bible Commentary
Eze 33:1-6. Again the word of the Lord came unto me It is plain that Ezekiel uttered what is contained in this chapter to Eze 33:20, before Jerusalem was taken by the Babylonians; but how long before is uncertain. Bishop Newcome. Son of man, speak to the children of thy people To the Jews, to whom he had not spoken since he declared what is contained in chap. 24. The reader will find in chap. 3., from Eze 33:17-22, the substance of what is repeated in the first ten verses of this chapter. The instruction is the same in both passages; but the subject is here more fully and explicitly illustrated. When the prophet had confirmed his predictions of evil, both to the Jews and heathen, by exemplifications of the like predictions already fulfilled among the latter, he proceeds to apply home the conclusion arising hence by an expostulation and pathetic address to the hearts and consciences of the Jews. But to what Jews is this addressed? To the Jews who were already in captivity. In order, then, that this address might make the stronger impression on them, and produce its wished-for effect, he immediately subjoins an information, which he here presents, as having been just then received, of the actual capture and destruction of the city of Jerusalem, agreeably to his foregoing prophecies against it: the accomplishment of which prediction against the Jews themselves, joined to his historic narrations before, of the accomplishment of many others against the heathen, both completes his arguments in favour of the credit and veracity of his predictions against Egypt, or other nations, and also proves, by a conspicuous example, the truth of that maxim with which he had concluded his late address to the captive Jews, That God will judge every one after his ways, both Jews and heathen. Obs. on Books, 2:196.
When I bring the sword upon a land When an enemy approaches to any land, which never happens without my appointment or permission; if the people of the land take a man of their coast Or, from among them, to which sense the word , here used, is translated, Gen 47:2; and set him for their watchman Such watchmen were placed upon the turrets of their city-walls, or upon high mountains near, to give notice of the enemys approach: see the margin. If when he seeth the sword come upon the land If, when he spies the enemy marching against it, he blow the trumpet, sound the alarm; and warn the people The sound of the trumpet is a warning, yet it is sometimes necessary to add a warning by word of mouth, and tell the people brought together by the trumpet what he sees. Whosoever heareth, &c., and taketh not warning Considers not, minds not what he hears, nor will be made sensible of the danger, so as to provide for resisting or fleeing from the sword; if the sword come and take him away Destroy him; his blood shall be upon his own head His destruction is owing to himself. He heard the sound of the trumpet He heard as well as others who escaped, and he might have delivered himself as they did who took warning. His blood shall be upon him The guilt and blame of his death cannot be charged on any but himself. But he that taketh warning shall save his soul Shall save his life from the danger that threatens it. In like manner, he that takes warning by the prophets admonition shall preserve himself from the judgments threatened against sinners. But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet If he neglect his charge, which is to give the alarm; and the people be not warned But are surprised by the enemy; if the sword take any person from among them Cut any one off unexpectedly; he is taken away in his iniquity Punished and cut off by the Lord for his sins formerly committed, and in consequence of the present fault of not watching, a great fault in every one that is guilty of it in time of war. But his blood will I require at the watchmans hands The guilt of that blood will I charge upon the watchman, and punish him for it, for he sinned in not giving the necessary warning.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Eze 33:2. If the people of the land take a man and set him for their watchman; and if he be asleep, and blow not the trumpet when the invading army approaches, all are agreed that he ought to die. How much more then a priest, a prophet specially invested with that highest trust of heaven, the souls of men.
Eze 33:7. Oh son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel. See Eze 3:15.
Eze 33:10. If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them. When Ezekiel revolted the jews by these words, as in Eze 24:23, he cited the denunciation of Moses against apostasy. Ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up; and they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in the enemys land. Lev 26:38. The prophet cited this prediction to bring the jews to repentance, but they turned it to despair, and reproached the Lord with injustice, by saying, and with constant repetitions, that his ways were not equal; that their punishments were greater than their faults. Certainly, God gave the jews a power by covenant grace to abstain from idolatry, and the immolation of their children to Moloch, else how could he destroy them for those sins? How gracious then, that heaven should yet say to a nation in full revolt against their Maker, Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways.
But theres a voice of sovereign grace, Sounds from the sacred word; Oh, ye despairing sinners come, And trust upon the Lord.
Eze 33:21. In the twelfth year of our captivity. Ezekiel was led away with Jehoiachin, who is called Jeconiah, and Zedekiah was appointed to succeed him on the throne; but there might be a small loss of time between the taking of the city and the appointment of Zedekiah; for it is a surprising circumstance that Jerusalem should be taken in the eleventh year, the tenth day, the fifth month of Zedekiahs reign; and Ezekiel not hearing of it till a year, and five months, and five days had elapsed. However terrible the tidings, they conferred the highest honour on prophecy.
Eze 33:22. My mouth was opened, and I was no more dumb. The fugitive having apprised him that Jerusalem was smitten, he addresses himself to the jews allowed to remain in the land, still in their blood, and still attached to their idols. He preaches to them on the banks of Chebar, as Jeremiah preached in Judea, and declares that the sword, the wild beasts, and the pestilence should still pursue them. The same Spirit inspired both the prophets to say the same things. There is no peace to the wicked: the war of heaven against them is like the brake of the sea roaring on the beach. Mercy can never be preached to men who retain their sins under the severest visitations of providence.
Eze 33:26. Ye stand, or lie down, or lean upon your sword. There are many glosses on this text. Some suppose it means a cruel mode of putting men to death; but being joined with working abominations, I think Dr. Spencer right in supposing it to be a pagan mode of putting their sacrifice into a vessel or pit, while they consulted their evil genius, and standing with their swords drawn to keep demons at a distance.
REFLECTIONS.
The first object which strikes us here, next to the watchmans duty before considered, is the long suspension of all divine communication, which shows that the captives were confirmed in the old habits of idolatry and vice. God answers not the wicked except in wrath. Saul and Johanan, and many others, could obtain no answers, though they had intercourse and were acquainted with the first of prophets.
The captives made despondency an apology for crimes. When they asked Ezekiel why he mourned not for the sudden death of his wife, he informed them of the carnage which should be in Jerusalem of their relatives left behind, and that there should be no mourning for them; and as they repented not in exile, so their iniquities should be upon them, and they should pine away in their sins. This word revolted all their feelings; and perhaps their unbelief kept them from stoning the prophet. Hence they took occasion to charge all their calamities on the iron fate of Gods supposed decrees, and resolved to live as happy as they could in impenitence and sin.
The Lord is highly indignant when mortals charge their miseries on his government and care. Hence we seem to hear him say, Go, go, Ezekiel, go and undeceive them concerning the blind doctrines of a pagan fate: go tell them that this fate is all a fable which the wicked gentiles have invented to shift the blame of guilt from their labouring consciences to providence. Go and tell them that I abhor it as the worst error that ever entered the human heart, an error which torporizes moral sentiments, obstructs repentance, and reproaches heaven: go and tell them that I denounce and detest it by oath. I would swear by the heavens which shed so many blessings on their heads, but they shall wax old as doth a garment. I would swear by these hills and vales which nourish them with bread, though polluted with their sin; but they also shall pass away. I swear therefore by myself; for I know the truth and cannot lie. I swear that I may for ever confound all libellous reproaches of my impartial providence. I swear that I may clear up my righteousness as the sun at noon day, and charge the whole of human misery on human guilt. I farther declare that I have no pleasure in the death of a sinner, it being my positive pleasure that he should turn and live. Yea, I appeal to all my works of providence and grace for the confirmation of this grand truth. I appeal to all my feelings as a Father, to all the wooings of my Spirit, and to all the tears of my prophets which cry throughout all ages, Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways, for why will ye die, oh house of Israel.
God having cleared his providence of the horrible doctrine of fating men to eternal death, and attached the whole blame to the wicked, next most tenderly expostulates with a people who erred in the ways of sin. Why will ye die? I have been to you a nursing Father. Why will ye not love me? I have opened a bleeding altar, even Calvary, that the foulest of sinners may approach. Why will ye stay at a distance in shame and sin? I have borne and had patience. I have stretched out my hands all the day long to a gainsaying people. My prophets have laboured and wept: they aver, being filled with my Spirit, that their hearts desire and prayer is, that Israel might he saved. Why will you thwart the ministry of grace? I have aided the ministry with slow and gentle corrections. Why will you fight against me? You are beloved for your fathers sake; you have been to me a pleasant vineyard. I have planted you with the choice vine of Sorek; and what could I have done for my vineyard that I have not done? Why then will ye prefer idols to me? Why will you prefer shame to glory, death to eternal life; yea, and force me at last to cast you off, and to elect the gentiles for my peculiar people. Thus, oh Israel, my ways are equal; for when the righteous man leaves my worship for that of idols, he shall die; and when the wicked man turns from his wickedness, he shall live. But your ways are unequal, and the whole blame of your misery lies at your own door. See this subject illustrated in chap. 18.
To conclude, I cannot here deny myself the pleasure of recommending Richard Baxters Call to the Unconverted, written on this text. He began the work at the request of archbishop Usher, and extended it to the length of about four sermons. The preface is admirable, as well as the work. It ran through more than twenty editions during the authors life; it has awakened many careless sinners, and deserves to be studied, analyzed, and imitated by all ministers. His little book on Mat 22:5, and on Heb 4:9, are possessed of equal merit. The late Mr. Edwards has favoured the christian world with an octavo edition of Baxters works, a treasure indeed to families and ministers.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Need of a Deepened Sense of Personal Responsibility (Ezekiel 33), and this alike for himself and his hearers.
Eze 33:1-9. He feels that he is responsible for them, and that they are responsible for themselves. He compares himself, as once before (Eze 3:16-21), to a watchman whose duty is to raise the alarm in case of impending danger; so it is his, in view of the crisis, to care for and warn individual souls.
Eze 33:10-20. But the people are despondent, stupefied by the news of the fall of the city (Eze 33:21), sullenly at last admitting their guilt, but believing themselves to lie under the irrevocable ban of their past. This is the mood which Ezekiel sets himself strenuously to combat. This he does by telling them (a) that God is gracious and yearns not for the destruction but for the conversion of the sinner; (b) that the important thing is not what a man has been, but what he is and what he allows himself to become; (c) that it is possible for him to turn and live, and that, when once he has been warned, the responsibility is his, so that it is idle to challenge the Divine ways as inequitable. In all this there is surely a very real gospel (cf. with the whole passage, ch. 18).
Eze 33:21-29. This message of comfort to the exiles stands in striking contrast with the word of doom announced against those who were allowed to remain in occupation of Judah after the fall of the city. News of this event, which reached the exiles six months after it took place, confirmed Ezekiels predictions, established his reputation as a true prophet (Eze 33:30), and enabled him to declare his message from this time on without sense of restraint. Those in the homeland whom he denounces regarded themselves as the children of Abraham, and true heirs of the land. But their violent and immoral life (the mention of the sword in Eze 33:26 perhaps points to their being implicated in the assassination of Gedaliah; cf. Jeremiah 41) shows that they are no true children of Abraham: and they will pay the penalty in another desolating invasion of the land (a threat fulfilled by the invasion of 581 B.C.; cf. Jer 52:30).
Eze 33:30-33. A vivid picture is here presented of the popularity now enjoyed by Ezekiel, and of the pleasant impression he made. But he is too earnest to be misled by these things; for, though the people listen, they do not heed. Lies are in their mouths (so LXX in Eze 33:31) and their heart is set on gain: and once again they will learn how true his stern word has been.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
A. A warning to the exiles 33:1-20
Since this message is undated, it may have come to Ezekiel about the same time as the previous two in chapter 32, namely, in the last month of 585 B.C. If so, Ezekiel received it about two months after God gave him the six messages recorded in Eze 33:21 to Eze 39:29 (cf. Eze 33:21). Perhaps the writer inserted the present message in the text here because its strong encouragement to repent was more typical of Ezekiel’s emphasis before news of Jerusalem’s fall reached the exiles (Eze 33:21) than it was of his emphasis after they received that news. When the exiles learned that Jerusalem had fallen, Ezekiel’s messages changed. Before then he announced judgment on Judah and Jerusalem (chs. 4-24) and proclaimed several messages of judgment on the nations that opposed Israel (chs. 25-32). After that event his messages were more encouragements that God would restore Israel to her land (chs. 33-48).
There are only two dated prophecies after the fall of Jerusalem: Eze 33:21 and Eze 40:1. These texts introduce all the messages from Eze 33:21 to Eze 48:35, the end of the book. The message in Eze 33:23-33 is an exception; it is a strong call to the Israelites to repent and to recommit to obeying the Mosaic Law. Alexander considered the message in Eze 33:1-20 as the conclusion to the section of oracles against the nations (chs. 25-32). [Note: Alexander, "Ezekiel," p. 904.] Most commentators viewed this message as an introduction to the messages promising future blessings for Israel (chs. 33-48). Obviously it serves a transitional (janus) function in the book and looks both ways, backward and forward.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
1. An exhortation to heed the watchman 33:1-9
This part of Ezekiel’s message of warning to the exiles is similar to Eze 3:16-21. Yahweh re-commissioned Ezekiel to his prophetic task (cf. chs. 2-3).
"Now that Ezekiel’s original ministry of judgment was completed, God appointed him as a ’watchman’ for a second time. His message still stressed individual accountability and responsibility, but the focus was now on the Lord’s restoration of Israel." [Note: Dyer, in The Old . . ., p. 688.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The Lord told Ezekiel to speak to the Jewish exiles in Babylon. He had not spoken messages concerning them for about three years (588-585 B.C.), since the Lord had shut his mouth (Eze 24:25-27), though he had uttered five oracles against the nations during that time (Eze 29:1-16; Eze 30:20 to Eze 32:32). He was now to tell them that if the Lord brought war on a land and the people of that land appointed a watchman for them, they would be responsible if they did not heed his warning.
Watchmen stood on the towers of walls in ancient cities and scanned the horizon for approaching enemies. If they saw one coming, they would blow their trumpet, usually a shophar (ram’s horn), to warn the people who were farming the lands to take refuge in the city. The figure of blood being on one’s head comes from sacrificial practice. The offerer placed his hands on the head of the victim symbolizing the transfer of guilt from the offerer to his substitute.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
THE PROPHET A WATCHMAN
Eze 33:1-33
ONE day in January of the year 586 the tidings circulated through the Jewish colony at Tel-abib that “the city was smitten.” The rapidity with which in the East intelligence is transmitted through secret channels has often excited the surprise of European observers. In this case there is no extraordinary rapidity to note, for the fate of Jerusalem had been decided nearly six months before it was known in Babylon. But it is remarkable that the first intimation of the issue of the siege was brought to the exiles by one of their own countrymen, who had escaped at the capture of the city. It is probable that the messenger did not set out at once, but waited until he could bring some information as to how matters were settling down after the war. Or he may have been a captive who had trudged the weary road to Babylon in chains under the escort of Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, {Jer 39:9} and afterwards succeeded in making his escape to the older settlement where Ezekiel lived. All we know is that his message was not delivered with the despatch which would have been possible if his journey had been unimpeded, and that in the meantime the official intelligence which must have already reached Babylon had not transpired among the exiles who were waiting so anxiously for tidings of the fate of Jerusalem.
The immediate effect of the announcement on the mind of the exiles is not recorded. It was doubtless received with all the signs of public mourning which Ezekiel had anticipated and foretold. {Eze 24:21-24} They would require some time to adjust themselves to a situation for which, in spite of all the warnings that had been sent them, they were utterly unprepared; and it must have been uncertain at first what direction their thoughts would take. Would they carry out their half-formed intention of abandoning their national faith and assimilating themselves to the surrounding heathenism? Would they sink into the lethargy of despair, and pine away under a confused consciousness of guilt? Or would they repent of their unbelief, and turn to embrace the hope which Gods mercy held out to them in the teaching of the prophet whom they had despised? All this was for the moment uncertain; but one thing was certain-they could no more return to the attitude of complacent indifference and incredulity in which they had hitherto resisted the word of Jehovah. The day on which the tidings of the citys destruction fell like a thunderbolt in the community of Tel-abib was the turning-point of Ezekiels ministry. In the arrival of the “fugitive” he recognises the sign which was to break the spell of silence which had lain so long upon him, and set him free for the ministry of consolation and upbuilding which was henceforth to be his chief vocation. A presentiment of what was coming had visited him the evening before his interview with the messenger, and from that time “his mouth was opened, and he was no more dumb” (Eze 33:22). Hitherto he had preached to deaf ears, and the echo of his ineffectual appeals had come back in a deadening sense of failure which had paralysed his activity. But now in one moment the veil of prejudice and vain self-confidence is torn from the heart of his hearers, and gradually but surely the whole burden of his message must disclose itself to their intelligence. The time has come to work for the formation of a new Israel, and a new spirit of hopefulness stimulates the prophet to throw himself eagerly into the career which is thus opened up before him.
It may be well at this point to try to realise the state of mind which emerged amongst Ezekiels hearers after the first shock of consternation had passed away. The seven chapters (33-39) with which we are to be occupied in this section all belong to the second period of the prophets work, and in all probability to the earlier part of that period. It is obvious, however, that they were not written under the first impulse of the tidings of the fall of Jerusalem. They contain allusions to certain changes which must have occupied some time; and simultaneously a change took place in the temper of the people resulting ultimately in a definite spiritual situation to which the prophet had to address himself. It is this situation which we have to try to understand. It supplies the external conditions of Ezekiels ministry, and unless we can in some measure interpret it we shall lose the full meaning of his teaching in this important period of his ministry.
At the outset we may glance at the state of those who were left in the land of Israel, who in a sense formed part of Ezekiels audience. The very first oracle uttered by him after he had received his emancipation was a threat of judgment against these survivors of the nations calamity (Eze 33:23-29). The fact that this is recorded in connection with the interview with the “fugitive” may mean that the information on which it is based was obtained from that somewhat shadowy personage. Whether in this way or through some later channel, Ezekiel had apparently some knowledge of the disastrous feuds which had followed the destruction of Jerusalem. These events are minutely described in the end of the book of Jeremiah (chapters 40-44). With a clemency which in the circumstances is surprising the king of Babylon had allowed a small remnant of the people to settle in the land, and had appointed over them a native governor, Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, who fixed his residence at Mizpah. The prophet Jeremiah elected to throw in his lot with this remnant, and for a time it seemed as if through peaceful submission to the Chaldaean supremacy all might go well with the survivors. The chiefs who had conducted the guerilla warfare in the open against the Babylonian army came in and placed themselves under the protection of Gedaliah, and there was every prospect that by refraining from projects of rebellion they might be left to enjoy the fruits of the land without disturbance. But this was not to be. Certain turbulent spirits under Ishmael, a member of the royal family, entered into a conspiracy with the king of Ammon to destroy this last refuge of peace-loving Israelites. Gedaliah was treacherously murdered; and although the murder was partially avenged, Ishmael succeeded in making his escape to the Ammonites, while the remains of the party of order, dreading the vengeance of Nebuchadnezzar, took their departure for Egypt and carried Jeremiah forcibly with them. What happened after this we do not know; but it is not improbable that Ishmael and his followers may have held possession of the land by force for some years. We read of a fresh deportation of Judaean captives to Babylon five years after the capture of Jerusalem; {Jer 52:30} and this may have been the result of an expedition to suppress the depredations of the robber band that Ishmael had gathered round him. How much of this story had reached the ears of Ezekiel we do not know; but there is one allusion in his oracle which makes it probable that he had at least heard of the assassination of Gedaliah. Those he addresses are men who “stand upon their sword”-that is to say, they hold that might is right, and glory in deeds of blood and violence that gratify their passionate desire for revenge. Such language could hardly be used of any section of the remaining, population of Judaea except the lawless banditti that enrolled themselves under the banner of Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah.
What Ezekiel is mainly concerned with, however, is the moral and religious condition of those to whom he speaks. Strange to say, they were animated by a species of religious fanaticism, which led them to regard themselves as the legitimate heirs to whom the reversion of the land of Israel belonged. “Abraham was one,” so reasoned these desperadoes, “and yet he inherited the land: but we are many; to us the land is given for a possession” (Eze 33:24). Their meaning is that the smallness of their number is no argument against the validity of their claim to the heritage of the land. They are still many in comparison with the solitary patriarch to whom it was first promised; and if he was multiplied so as to take possession of it, why should they hesitate to claim the mastery of it? This thought of the wonderful multiplication of Abrahams seed after he had received the promise seems to have laid fast hold of the men of that generation. It is applied by the great teacher who stands next to Ezekiel in the prophetic succession to comfort the little flock who followed after righteousness and could hardly believe that it was Gods good pleasure to give them the kingdom. “Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.” {Isa 51:2} The words of the infatuated men who exulted in the havoc they were making on the mountains of Judaea may sound to us like a blasphemous travesty of this argument; but they were no doubt seriously meant. They afford one more instance of the boundless capacity of the Jewish race for religious self-delusion, and their no less remarkable insensibility to that in which the essence of religion lay. The men who uttered this proud boast were the precursors of those who in the days of the Baptist thought to say within themselves, “We have Abraham to our father,” not understanding that God was able “of these stones to raise up children to Abraham.” {Mat 3:9} All the while they were perpetuating the evils for which the judgment of God had descended on the city and the Hebrew state. Idolatry, ceremonial impurity, bloodshed, and adultery were rife amongst them (Eze 33:25-26); and no misgiving seems to have entered their minds that because of these things the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience. And therefore the prophet repudiates their pretensions with indignation. “Shall ye possess the land?” Their conduct simply showed that judgment had not had its perfect work, and that Jehovahs purpose would not be accomplished until “the land was laid waste and desolate, and the pomp of her strength should cease, and the mountains of Israel be desolate, so that none passed through” (Eze 33:28). We have seen that in all likelihood this prediction was fulfilled by a punitive expedition from Babylonia in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar.
But we knew before that Ezekiel expected no good thing to come of the survivors of the judgment in Judaea. His hope was in those who had passed through the fires of banishment, the men amongst whom his own work lay, and amongst whom he looked for the first signs of the outpouring of the divine Spirit. We must now return to the inner circle of Ezekiels immediate hearers, and consider the change which the calamity had produced on them. The chapter now before us yields two glimpses into the inner life of the people which help us to realise the kind of men with whom the prophet had to do.
In the first place it is interesting to learn that in his more frequent public appearances the prophet rapidly acquired a considerable reputation as a popular preacher (Eze 33:30-33). It is true that the interest which he excited was not of the most wholesome kind. It became a favourite amusement of the people hanging about the walls and doors to come and listen to the fervid oratory of their one remaining prophet as he declared to them “the word that came forth from Jehovah.” It is to be feared that the substance of his message counted for little in their appreciative and critical listening. He was to them “as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument”: “they heard his words, but did them not.” It was pleasant to subject oneself now and then to the influence of this powerful and heart-searching preacher; but somehow the heart was never searched, the conscience was never stirred, and the hearing never ripened into serious conviction and settled purpose of amendment. Tile people were thoroughly respectful in their demeanour and apparently devout, coming in crowds and sitting before him as Gods people should. But they were preoccupied: “their heart went after their gain” (Eze 33:31) or their advantage. Self-interest prevented them from receiving the word of God in honest and good hearts; and no change was visible in their conduct. Hence the prophet is not disposed to regard the evidences of his newly acquired popularity with much satisfaction. It presents itself to his mind as a danger against which he has to be on his guard. He has been tried by opposition and apparent failure; now he is exposed to the more insidious temptation of a flattering reception and superficial success. It is a tribute to his power, and an opportunity such as he had never before enjoyed. Whatever may have been the case heretofore, he is now sure of an audience, and his position has suddenly become one of great influence in the community. But the same resolute confidence in the truth of his message which sustained Ezekiel amidst the discouragements of his earlier career saves him now from the fatal attractions of popularity to which many men in similar circumstances have yielded. He is not deceived by the favourable disposition of the people towards himself, nor is he tempted to cultivate his oratorical gifts with a view to sustaining their admiration. His one concern is to utter the word that shall come to pass, and so to declare the counsel of God that men shall be compelled in the end to acknowledge that he has been “a prophet among them” (Eze 33:33). We may be thankful to the prophet for this little glimpse from a vanished past-one of those touches of nature that make the whole world kin. But we ought not to miss its obvious moral. Ezekiel is the prototype of all popular preachers, and he knew their peculiar trials. He was perhaps the first man who ministered regularly to an attached congregation, who came to hear him because they liked it and because they had nothing better to do. If he passed unscathed through the dangers of the position, it was through his overpowering sense of the reality of divine things and the importance of mens spiritual destiny; and also we may add through his fidelity in a department of ministerial duty which popular preachers are sometimes apt to neglect-the duty of close personal dealing with individual men about their sins and their state before God. To this subject we shall revert by-and-by.
This passage reveals to us the people in their lighter moods, when they are able to cast off the awful burden of life and destiny and take advantage of such sources of enjoyment as their circumstances afforded. Mental dejection in a community, from whatever cause it originates, is rarely continuous. The natural elasticity of the mind asserts itself in the most depressing circumstances; and the tension of almost unendurable sorrow is relieved by outbursts of unnatural gaiety. Hence we need not be surprised to find that beneath the surface levity of these exiles there lurked the feeling of despair expressed in the words of Eze 33:10 and more fully in those Eze 37:11 : “Our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we waste away in them: how should we then live? Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off.” These accents of despondency reflect the new mood into which the more serious-minded portion of the community had been plunged by the calamities that had befallen them. The bitterness of unavailing remorse, the consciousness of national death, had laid fast hold of their spirits and deprived them of the power of hope. In sober truth the nation was dead beyond apparent hope of revival; and to an Israelite, whose spiritual interests were all identified with those of his nation, religion had no power of consolation apart from a national future. The people therefore abandoned themselves to despair, and hardened themselves against the appeals which the prophet addressed to them in the name of Jehovah. They looked on themselves as the victims of an inexorable fate, and were disposed perhaps to resent the call to repentance as a trifling with the misery of the unfortunate.
And yet, although this state of mind was as far removed as possible from the godly sorrow that worketh repentance, it was a step towards the accomplishment of the promise of redemption. For the present, indeed, it rendered the people more impenetrable than ever to the word of God. But it meant that they had accepted in principle the prophetic interpretation of their history. It was no longer possible to deny that Jehovah the God of Israel had revealed His secret to His servants the prophets. He was not such a Being as the popular imagination had figured. Israel had not known Him; only the prophets had spoken of Him the thing that was right. Thus for the first time a general conviction of sin, a sense of being in the wrong, was produced in Israel. That this conviction should at first lead to the verge of despair was perhaps inevitable. The people were not familiar with the idea of the divine righteousness, and could not at once perceive that anger against sin was consistent in God with pity for the sinner and mercy towards the contrite. The chief task that now lay before the prophet was to transform their attitude of sullen impenitence into one of submission and hope by teaching them the efficacy of repentance. They have learned the meaning of judgment; they have now to learn the possibility and the conditions of forgiveness. And this can only be taught to them through a revelation of the free and infinite grace of God. who has “no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked should turn from his way and live” (Eze 33:11). Only thus can the hard and stony heart be taken away from their flesh and a heart of flesh given to them.
We can now understand the significance of the striking passage which stands as the introduction to this whole section of the book. {Eze 33:1-20} At this juncture of his ministry Ezekiels thoughts went back on an aspect of his prophetic vocation which had hitherto been in abeyance. From the first he had been conscious of a certain responsibility for the fate of each individual within reach of his words. {Eze 3:16-21} This truth had been one of the keynotes of his ministry; but the practical developments which it suggested had been hindered by the solidarity of the opposition which he had encountered. As long as Jerusalem stood the exiles had been swayed by one common current of feeling-their thoughts were wholly occupied by the expectation of an issue that would annul the gloomy predictions of Ezekiel; and no man dared to break away from the general sentiment and range himself on the side of Gods prophet. In these circumstances anything of the nature of pastoral activity was obviously out of the question. But now that this great obstacle to faith was removed there was a prospect that the solidity of popular opinion would be broken up, so that the word of God might find an entrance here and there into susceptible hearts. The time was come to call for personal decisions, to appeal to each man to embrace for himself the offer of pardon and salvation. Its watchword might have been found in words uttered in another great crisis of religious destiny: “The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.” Out of such “violent men,” who act for themselves and have the courage of their convictions, the new people of God must be formed; and the mission of the prophet is to gather round him all those who are warned by his words to “flee from the wrath to come.”
Let us look a little more closely at the teaching of these verses. We find that Ezekiel restates in the most emphatic manner the theological principles which underlie this new development of his prophetic duties (Eze 33:10-20).
These principles have been considered already in the exposition of chapter 18; and it is not necessary to do more than refer to them here. They are such as these: the exact and absolute righteousness of God in His dealings with individuals; His unwillingness that any should perish, and His desire that all should be saved and live; the necessity of personal repentance; the freedom and independence of the individual soul through its immediate relation to God. On this closely connected body of evangelical doctrine Ezekiel bases the appeal which he now makes to his hearers. What we are specially concerned with here, however, is the direction which they imparted to his activity. We may study in the light of Ezekiels example the manner in which these fundamental truths of personal religion are to be made effective in the ministry of the gospel for the building up of the Church of Christ.
The general conception is clearly set forth in the figure of the watchman, with which the chapter opens (Eze 33:1-9). The duties of the watchman are simple, but responsible. He is set apart in a time of public danger to warn the city of the approach of an enemy. The citizens trust him and go about their ordinary occupations in security so long as the trumpet is not sounded. Should he sleep at his post or neglect to give the signal, men are caught unprepared and lives are lost through his fault. Their blood is required at the watchmans hand. If, on the other hand, he gives the alarm as soon as he sees the sword coming, and any man disregards the warning and is cut down in his iniquity, his blood is upon his own head. Nothing could be clearer than this. Office always involves responsibility, and no responsibility could be greater than that of a watchman in time of invasion. Those who suffer are in either case the citizens whom the sword cuts off; but it makes all the difference in the world whether the blame of their death rests on themselves for their foolhardiness or on the watchman for his unfaithfulness. Such, then, as Ezekiel goes on to explain, is his own position as a prophet. The prophet is one who sees further into the spiritual issues of things than other men, and discovers the coming calamity which is to them invisible. We must notice that a background of danger is presupposed. In what form it was to come is not indicated; but Ezekiel knows that judgment follows hard at the heels of sin, and seeing sin in his fellow-men he knows that their state is one of spiritual peril. The prophets course therefore is clear. His business is to announce as in trumpet tones the doom that hangs over every man who persists in his wickedness, to re-echo the divine sentence which he alone may have heard, “O wicked man, thou shalt surely die.” And again the main question is one of responsibility. The watchman cannot ensure the safety of every citizen, because any man may refuse to take the warning he gives. No more can the prophet ensure the salvation of all his hearers, for each one is free to accept or despise the message. But whether men hear or whether they forbear, it is of the utmost moment for himself that that warning be faithfully proclaimed and that he should thus “deliver his soul.” Ezekiel seems to feel that it is only by frankly accepting the responsibility which thus devolves on himself that he can hope to impress on his hearers the responsibility that rests on them for the use they make of his message.
These thoughts appear to have occupied the mind of Ezekiel on the eve of his emancipation, and must have influenced his subsequent action to an extent which we can but vaguely estimate. It is generally considered that this description of the prophets functions covers a whole department of work of which no express account is given. Ezekiel writers no “Pastors Sketches,” and records no instances of individual conversion through his ministry. The unwritten history of the Babylonian captivity must have been rich in such instances of spiritual experience, and nothing could have been more instructive to us than the study of a few typical cases had it been possible. One of the most interesting features of the early history of Mohammedanism is found in the narratives of personal adhesion to the new religion; and the formation of the new Israel in the age of the Exile is a process of infinitely greater importance for humanity at large than the genesis of Islam. But neither in this book nor elsewhere are we permitted to follow that process in its details. Ezekiel may have witnessed the beginnings of it, but he was not called upon to be its historian. Still, the inference is probably correct that a conception of the prophets office which holds him accountable to God for the fate of individuals led to something more than mere general exhortations to repentance. The preacher must have taken a personal interest in his hearers; he must have watched for the first signs of a response to his message, and been ready to advise and encourage those who turned to him for guidance in their perplexities. And since the sphere of his influence and responsibility included the whole Hebrew community in which he lived, he must have been eager to seize every opportunity to warn individual sinners of the error of their ways, lest their blood should be required at his hand. To this extent we may say that Ezekiel held a position amongst the exiles somewhat analogous to that of a spiritual director in the Catholic Church or the pastor of a Protestant congregation. But the analogy must not be pressed too far. The nurture of the spiritual life of individuals could not have presented itself to him as the chief end of his ministrations. His business was first to lay down the conditions of entrance into the new kingdom of God, and then out of the ruins of the old Israel to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Perhaps the nearest parallel to this department of his work which history affords is the mission of the Baptist. The keynote of Ezekiels preaching was the same as that of John: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Both prophets were alike animated by a sense of crisis and urgency, based on the conviction that the impending Messianic age would be ushered in by a searching judgment in which the chaff would be separated from the wheat. Both laboured for the same end-the formation of a new circle of religious fellowship, in anticipation of the advent of the Messianic kingdom. And as John, by an inevitable spiritual selection, gathered round him a band of disciples, amongst whom our Lord found some of His most devoted followers, so we may believe that Ezekiel, by a similar process, became the acknowledged leader of those whom he taught to wait for the hope of Israels restoration.
There is nothing in Ezekiels ministry that appeals more directly to the Christian conscience than the serious and profound sense of pastoral responsibility to which this passage bears witness. It is a feeling which would seem to be inseparable from the right discharge of the ministerial office. In this, as in many other respects, Ezekiels experience is repeated, on a higher level, in that of the apostle of the Gentiles, who could take his hearers to record that he was “pure from the blood of all men,” inasmuch as he had “taught them publicly and from house to house,” and “ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears”. {Act 20:17-35} That does not mean, of course, that a preacher is to occupy himself with nothing else than the personal salvation of his hearers. St. Paul would have been the last to agree to such a limitation of the range of his teaching. But it does mean that the salvation of men and women is the supreme end which the minister of Christ is to set before him, and that to which all other instruction is subordinated. And unless a man realises that the truth he utters is of tremendous importance on the destiny of those to whom he speaks, he can hardly hope to approve himself as an ambassador for Christ. There are doubtless temptations, not in themselves ignoble, to use the pulpit for other purposes than this. The desire for public influence may be one of them, or the desire to utter ones mind on burning questions of the day. To say that these are temptations is not to say that matters of public interest are to be rigorously excluded from treatment in the pulpit. There are many questions of this kind on which the will of God is as clear and imperative as it can possibly be on any point of private conduct; and even in matters as to which there is legitimate difference of opinion amongst Christian men there are underlying principles of righteousness which may need to be fearlessly enunciated at the risk of obloquy and misunderstanding. Nevertheless it remains true that the great end of the gospel ministry is to reconcile men to God and to cultivate in individual lives the fruits of the Spirit, so as at the last to present every man perfect in Christ. And the preacher who may be most safely entrusted with the handling of all other questions is he who is most intent on the formation of Christian character and most deeply conscious of his responsibility for the effect of his teaching on the eternal destiny of those to whom he ministers. What is called preaching to the age may certainly become a very poor and empty thing if it is forgotten that the age is made up of individuals each of whom has a soul to save or lose. What shall it profit a man if the preacher teaches him how to win the whole world and lose his own life? It is fashionable to hold up the prophets of Israel as models of all that a Christian minister ought to be. If that is true, prophecy must at least be allowed to speak its whole lesson; and amongst other elements Ezekiels consciousness of responsibility for the individual life must receive due recognition.