{* MAY b *) .1 isz. THE PREACHER'S COMMENTARY ON THE PROPHECIES OF EZEKIEL THE ^teacher's Complete |)omiletieal C 0 M M E N T A R Y OS THE OLD TESTAMENT {ON AN ORIGINAL FLAN), BHirij Critical autj (Explanatory ilotrs, EnUirrs, &c. &c. BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. & o n-ti n 11 . RtCHARD D. DICKINSON 89 FARRINGDON STREET. 1892. HOMILETICAL COMMENTARY ON THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET E Z E K 1 E I, CHAPTERS I.— XL By the REV D. G. WATT, M.A. CHAPTERS XII— XXIX. By the REV. T. II LEALE. CHAPTERS XXX.— XLYIIL By the REV. GEO. BARLOW. % o n D q a : RICHARD D. DICKINSON", 89 FARRIXGDOX STREET. 1S92. PREFACE. This Commentary is the work of three different authors. The portion chapters i.-xi. is written by the Eev. D. G. Watt, M.A.; xil-xxix. by the Eev. T. H. Leale; xxx.-xlviii. by the Eev. G. Barlow. The Exegetical Notes contain, in a condensed form, the results of recent Eiblical criticism, and will be found a valuable help in the interpretation of the text and in furnishing facts of contemporaneous history to elucidate the pro- phecies. The Vision of the Temple (chapters xl.— xlviii.) is treated in its ideal aspect, and, viewed in this light, it becomes full of suggestiveness to the practised homilete. Every available work on this confessedly difficult book has been diligently consulted, and the choicest and most helpful passages of the best authors are condensed in the body of this Commentary. Of the 390 Eomiletic Outlines all are original, except those which bear the names of their respective authors. Among other works, the following writers on the Erophecies of Ezekiel have been carefully scanned : — W. Greenhill, E. Henderson, Eatrick Fairbairn, Hengstenberg, Keil, M'Farlan, Archbishop Newcombe, Bishop Horsley, Dean Stanley, Kitto, Dr. Frazer's a Synoptical Lectures," Geikie's " Hours with the Bible," Fool's "Annotations," Lightfoot on "The Temple," F. D. Maurice's "Prophets and Kings," Guthrie's "Gospel in Ezekiel," and the following Com- mentaries— The Speaker's, Lange's, A. Clarke's, Benson's, Sutcliffe's, Matthew Henry's, Trapp's, and Fausset's. Amid the wealth of imagery in the use of which Ezekiel is so lavish, and the dry facts of history, the aim throughout has been to detect and develop the great moral truths of which the thoughtful sermoniser is in constant search in his anxious study of the Word of God. G. B. Sheffield, August 1890. HOMILETIC COMMENTARY BOOK OF EZEKIEL. INTRODUCTION. No prophetical book sets the 'writer, the dates, the places of its contents so distinctly forth as that of Ezekiel does. It is not only a record of what the Lord spoke by His prophet, it is also a record of personal experiences during the period in which he was an organ for special divine impulses. The one is as instructive as the other. The book shows that Ezekiel was the child of a priestly family, and had been taken into captivity when the king of Babylon carried away the wealth, the strength, the skilled industry of Jerusalem. No direct information is com- municated as to his life before the captivity, or as to the first five years of his enforced exile. We cannot say that he had ever officiated as a priest in the Temple of Jerusalem, though his movements show apparent familiarity with its compartments (chap. viii.). He was one of a colony of his fellow-exiles who had been settled — why, he does not say — by the Chebar, somewhere among " the rivers of Babylon," and had established a characteristic organisation for themselves. " The elders " once and again took counsel with Ezekiel in his own house ; for he was a householder and married to a woman whom he warmly loved. He starts his narration from the fifth day of the fourth month of the fifth year, when the distinguished episode in his life, by which he became known, was commenced with his first vision of God. That revelation affected his constitution in a remarkable manner. Mental conditions, of course, would be altered thereby; but bodily affections were still more palpably influenced. The sensation of eating the roll of writing, of being lifted up and carried away, of the strong hand of the Lord laid upon him ; the sitting " astonished" — stunned — seven days, the lengthened duress, the loss of power of speech, except when authorised by the Lord to utter His messages, and other physical phenomena, betoken at once the action of God and of a disorder in Ezekiel's health. Perhaps his nervous system was one of that highly sensitive kind whose conditions under excitement cannot be foreseen ; and that it should have been upset could not be regarded as an unlikely thing. God's instruments are not always such as man would employ. He chose, for an apostle, Paul, whose "bodily presence was weak;" is it impossible that He would choose, for a prophet, a man of a peculiarly nervous temperament 1 If A 1 H0M1LST1C COMMENTARY: EZEKIEL. the "abundance of revelations " given to the former affected his bodily frame, , lations not haveaffected Ezekiel's physical constitution ? The symptoms did not disappear at once. Though he had recovered the walking (xii. 3-7). yet the statement that the elders were accustomed to go to his house to hear his words (viii. 1, xiv. 1, xx. 1), indicates that weak- ,;.d physical disability clung to him for a considerable time — perhaps to the tenth month of the ninth year (xxiv. 1). At that date he was confronted with something more than physical ailment. He endured the chastisement whereof all Bons are partakers, and learned how " deep calleth unto deep" as tluy cross the sea of life. The wife whom his eyes liked to rest upon was down at his side by a sudden stroke. No open cry of anguish broke from his lips. Every sign of sorrow and mourning was sternly repressed; yet the pathetic reference to what she had been to him suffices to prove how hard it must have been to say " Thy will be done." Under the dark shadow of this sad event his last prophecy concerning the of nndestroyed Jerusalem was uttered. Then for about three years he remained dumb, as if his bereavement had aggravated his previous disordered bodily symptoms. Only when the first part of his commission was fulfilled, when his position, as the sign of troubles impending over the Holy City, was no longer tenable, the turning-point of his affliction was reached. The news of" the capture of Jerusalem became the signal for recovery of the free use of his organs of speech (xxxiii. 22), and no mention is made of any bodily infirmities when executing the second part of his commission. Thus he passes from view. Like Moses, like prophets and apostles, "he was buried, and no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day." Is this significant of a principle of the divine rnment, intimating that true conduct not outward appearances, that life not death, are to be perpetuated in the thoughts of men? Esekiel was profoundly conscious of'the dates when he spoke by the Spirit, and might be said to keep a journal of them. For him "inspiration " was not iy an ecstasy of his own mind. From the fifth to the twenty-seventh year of hi ice in Chaldea he knew that he was an organ which the Lord used >und forth the notes of judgment and mercy. The sphere of his prophetic activity was not only the captives, but also the Jews still remaining in Judea. Between the two portions there was no cor- diality, and we might fancy that the property of the exiles had been some- what dishonestly or forcibly appropriated by the others (xi. 15). The task of iel was hard. He saw that both divisions were oppressed and depressed, and open to the glitter of flattering prospects presented by unworthy men. He had to dispel vivid illusions, to expose clamant evils, to render patient under the bard facts of punishment, to urge unpalatable truths which were no more agreeable to them than toother people. More than other prophets he ordered to watch for souls ; more than to others the modelling of the future krael w him. The last fortress of Judaism as it had been is to rodden under the feet of the heathen, but out of its ruins anew one is to be 1, and he has to make a sketch of it. More magnificent and moving symbols of the glory of the Lord than had been given in the Temple of Jerusalem came to t; I ebar, and testified that He could preserve there a people for Hi' self. His gifts and calling are without repentance, yet he means to HOMILETIC COMMENTARY: EZEKIEL. bring the people to perceive their unfaithfulness that tW Wi + a • , , living God, that the eternal holiness is n^^^^LTt ^ ^ responsible for its own sin, Buried seed does not S^^ffjS * may prevent it sprouting for many a day, and out of thi Period of hi 1 were to spring forces for the creation of a new Juda sm to wh£h H 5 ^ worship would be altogether abhorrent. A new ^2"™^ ^ ^ and Ezekiel is the pioneer of this new phase of d^Tne Xtbn ^h?™' point to an inauguration of divine worshio far ™Z T « aS t0 secured by the reconstruction of tli !I or T nipl oVi sT' 1 T ?° * original form; to point, in fact, to tlj l^oZZ^Zt^^ nation were intended to foreshadow and introduce » (SpeaZ's cTf T ^ he given one of the highest places among the men of The CM tT'J' I ^ not absurd to make a comparison between MoTes and 111 W ^ *' ^ visions of God and instructed the tribes oft ob f^f M°SeS had to the pattern shown to him; he gave detail of t £ lld a.sanc^ry according therein; he set before the congregS Z 1 e and de^h . « ^ 1 1 "^ One speaking unto him from off the mercv seat fri I? * 1°™ °f cheruW Did not Ezekiel hear a ^& ^Sj^SSn DM 7 not stand between the people and the Lord? D,V1 ™ecierublm? M he sanctify God, and so to be fitted for the foto »o^ Hon T ^^ ^ '° their own land and before all Jw^^^X*^* who, in chaps, xl.-xlviii., was authorised to prescribe TemnTe and I I? T ' future times, and so place the crown upon uf p^SSe^ ""^ ** All Sr^T' m W ^ ,Carri6d °Ut WS Service is i^tructive and stimulating All his faculties are put at the call of the Lord-his eves ears W tl u sets forth plainly and amply that which he has been ZCZa T \ Sf ' He or be exculpated from their wo T A^^Tf ^°* their T^6 than flint," it is not from indifference to the 1" , ♦ f^™*' harder of his countrymen, it is from fta^^K^ " fT^8 fate faithful and adequate representat Z (hi 10 He is"? ^ ^ " * "of undaunted and audacious courage," one of P ^ SamS°n'" " The dead, but sceptered sovereigns, who still rule Our spirits from their urns " as to the rehg10ns the polities, the trade of other nations oo Had he M Were lound m the busy marts of ancient Tyre ? Each of hi« w„MO rm^ hewas ,fitted t0 point th6«° • -Ipos i0 si et'hic Lathers ^'^ " *°0Mider ™d rearra"Se the *■>*• of their The style of Ezekiel is elear enough on the whole. At times « a sublimity, HO MIMETIC COMMENTARY: EZEKIEL. ua~ wlmllv his own" distinguish it. "Strange cora- t'-,'1"n:'- 1"aU,y- m6-,3 \ Uortcd to when by means of them he can biMti0M "* gr,°te8qU: TZ l no«l force of bis delations, and invest his "*£ 'I':-;. and ^details as are naturally connected with ''• W1U1 M' W ; / L- Mnri The stir and pomp of Babylonian life Wd '•"■' ~'"1 "' ' (oloss'l symbolic figures, which have been E£S^7^£S Noughts had been "T 1 ^ naTaWes proverbs^ pictures are all used to present and impress ! "'I ' Stl deliver and in this view he freely repeats himself, so as to ; ;; ;: h: ;: : t^ng that he is *, p^ .«*»-* ^ i. w^ : . S 16-21 withxxxiii. 1-9 j vi. with xxxv,; xvi. with xxn. and xxui ; ■'"u-itl. wxiii 10-20) lie has favourite and peculiar expressions: lhe :: 11" "The hand of the Lord was upon -,"<< Thou son ml ' « Thus saith the Lord God ; - and a tendency to sum up with, So shall . t;,ev know that I am the Lord." Individuality and unity mark Ins .'. ^rk and help us to perceive what he was whom the Lord mou ded into Z lit for that juncture of affairs in which he lived and acted as a ^l^nSable likeness of phraseology is to be noticed between Ezekiel and u,„ and is an indication, not that one borrowed from the other, but that ^ "oilar mission had made for itself a similar verbal garment. A much more ;vniark:lblll pandlelism, however, is found between Lev xvn. xxvi. and he t.,rlv portioi, of Ezekiel's prophecies. To account for this by saying that r ,.ki. i wrote both, or that some scamp interpolated Ezekiel's words into the book of the law in order to give the former or the latter a factitious authority, , explanation quite worthy of those who can tell to a line what Isaiah ,. or did not write: or who can clear out of the Four Gospels the many v ords which Jesus of Nazareth did not speak, and actions which lie did not ko I 1 have no skill for such legerdemain. I can do no more than suppose &at Ezekiel had -so closely studied the condition of affairs described in Leviticus that he, perhaps unconsciously, adopted its expressions in reference to a rebel- lious and gainsaying people. oty justice bus been meted out to Ezekiel and his work. Not only was he treated harshly at the outset of his prophesying, but the Jews of later times, we ar( | , ,i at the last revision of the Hebrew canon, disputed as to whether the Book of Ezekiel should be included therein, and in after-days forbad that ,ul,l be read until thirty years of age had been passed. If it has not fared quite so badly among Christians, yet Jerome, 1500 years ago, applied epithets eh are re-echoed by unnumbered commentators, and do not encourage tudy Scripturarum oceanus et mysterwrwn Dei labyrmthus. A certain class rna are still less respectful, and therefore less likely than Jerome to itual power of the prophet. Preachers of our day say that they never taken a text out of it, or but three or four times during the course of a lengthened ministry. Reuss suggests, as a ground for this neglect, that "Christian commentators have found less in him than in others of what they .:/., Hebrew texts, direct relations, true or pretended, with the and Ideas of the gospel." Still there are testimonies of another kind. Hengstenberg write . " Whoever penetrates into Ezekiel will be deeply stirred 4 H0M1LET1C COMMENTARY: EZEKIEL. by his earnestness, and ... if it please God to bring great sifting judgments upon us, to pull down what He has built up, and to root out what He has planted, we may gain from him an immovable confidence in the final victory of the kingdom of God, who kills and makes alive, who wounds and heals, and who, after He has sent the darkest cloud, at length remembers His covenant and displays His shining bow." " What things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through comfort and patience of the Scriptures might have hope." The book is divided into two halves, which have striking parallelisms with one another. In the first the carnal confidence of Israel in Jerusalem is buried, in the second a new Temple is built up. The first part embraces chaps, i.-xxiv., and treats of the obstinate wickedness of the people and the approaching overthrow of Jerusalem. The second part embraces chaps, xxxiii.-xlviii., and treats of the new life to the people and the future modified Temple and its worship. Between these two parts stand chaps, xxv.-xxxii., which treat of seven neighbouring heathen peoples. They are warned of the righteous judg- ment of God against them, and their number, seven, probably conveys the intimation that the principles applied to them are applicable to all the ungodly nations. THE PROPHECIES OF EZEKIEL. FIRST MAIN DIVISION. Chapters I.-XXIV. I. —THE DIVINE CALL OF EZEKIEL. Chaps I.-III. 15. 1. The Designation of the Prophet to his Work (Chap. i. 1-3). EXEGETICAL NOTES.— Ver. 1. the father of Nebuchadnezzar as the "Now," the usual Hebrew connective commencement of the Chaldean domi- particle, united to a tense which signi- nion, or from the birth of the prophet — fies an action associated with something such are the suggestions made by various which has already transpired. It seems expositors. The first and the last are to have place here, neither because the the most improbable ; still, it would be Book of Ezekiel is a continuation of that misapplied labour to discuss whether the of Jeremiah, nor because a preceding third or the fourth is the more likely portion of Ezekiel's prophecies has been There is no part of the prophecies de- lost, but rather because of thoughts pending for illustration upon a settle- which were in the mind of the writer, ment of the point from which Ezekiel and in succession to which his call came. reckons. No doubt it had some bearing "In the thirtieth year." No note is upon him and his contemporaries; it given to define the point from which seems to have none upon us. "In. this date takes its origin. It was the the fourth" — month is omitted in the thirtieth from the last jubilee year, or Hebrew, as frequently with Ezekiel. from the finding of the Book of the The fourth month of the ecclesiastical Law in the reign of King Josiah (2 year corresponds to our June-July, when Kings xxii. 8), or from the era fixed by nature is prolific with storms. "In the 110 Ml LET IC COMMENTARY: EZEKIEL. fifth day of the month" — was this a Sabbath 1 Bo it has been affirmed be- I after he received a fur- ther commission (iii. 1G). This is too ous a footing from which to trace a parallel to the case of the banished John (Rev. i. 10). "As I was among the captives " — literally, " and I in the midst of the captivity." He has not yet mentioned who he is, so by this silence he calls special attention to his en- vironment. He sets forth that he was amongst, and was one of those Jews who had been carried away from their ancestral land, and subjected to the shame and pain of captivity. He was a troubled man along with other troubled men. Not that he was under enforced Bervile labour, as the Israelites were in Egypt, " the house of bondage ; " he had a considerable amount of personal liberty ; but he was far from the land of promise, and oppressed with a sense of his exile. " By the river of Chebar." It is not at all certain to-day where this river was. It is not necessary to sup that Ezekiel was beside it, because the murmur of the water might dispose to quietude, and prepare his mind for ■ 'pi'iinessto God. Something less senti- mental than that took him thither. He had been located in the district, through which the water flowed, by the para- mount power as a district which could be easily superintended, and in which there was need of population. Such wars as Nebuchadnezzar carried on, like the wars which modern Turks have waged, could not but have been the ion for large parts of his dominions tn fall out of cultivation. It would be politic to settle an industrial people like the Jews in such places, and grant them full permission "to build houses and dwell in them, and plant gardens, and i at the fruit of them." Abundance of water was needed lor BUch operations. So the captive Jews were by a river. All was not pleasant there. Just as the later Jews were confined to the slums oi Rome on the right hank of the Tiber, and satirised as 'J'rn/i. tl>>, rini, so was scorn heaped upon the earlier captives by " the rivers of Babylon." There they Were teased and tormented. " They G that carried us away captive required of us a song, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion." A somewhat truculent temper was engendered; but God did not forsake them, and even there did exceeding abundantly above what they thought. " The heavens were opened." The exile perceived the sky cleft open. Perhaps it was not materially so, but only to the eye of faith. Yet as he speaks of it as an actual fact, it is pre- ferable to consider the appearance to have been shown to " eyes open," as was that to John the Baptist, to Stephen, to Peter. "I saw visions of God" — phe- nomena produced by God and relating to His Godhead ; He was at once the author and the object of them. They were somewhat differently presented from those which Ezekiel received after- wards, which were " in visions " (chaps, viii. 3, xi. 24, xl. 2). Ver. 2. "The fifth year of King Jehoiachin's captivity." Jehoiachin had been placed on the throne of Judea b Nebuchadnezzar ; but, following ad- vice from the partisans of an Egyptian alliance, and in defiance of the protesta- tions and threatenings of Jeremiah, he had pursued a procedure at variance with the interests of the Babylonian empire. Nebuchadnezzar soon trampled down the feeble revolt, and, in little more than three months of kingship, Jehoiachin was made captive and carried away to Babylon with the prophetic de nunciation ringing in his ears that he would " die childless " — the last of the line of David which was traced through Solomon. His captivity was rigorous for years. He was kept in confinement and clothed in prison garments, and that, with their own troubles, must have made the thousands of Jews who had been transported with him to regard the date of their exile as deeply significant. So Ezekiel says to them — his contemporaries and hearers — that four years of their captivity had gone by, and then he was made cognisant of manifestations of God. This mode of dating he adheres to in bis succeeding prophecies, never again refer- ring to the thirtieth year of verse 1. Ver. 3. " The word of the Lord." Appearances were fortified, as so often IIOMILETIC COMMENTARY: EZEKTEL. in God's revelations, by words heard. " Came expressly." Ezekiel uses here a form of Hebrew emphasis, i.e., repeat- ing the same verb. Such a repetition, in this connection, can scarcely mean that the word came directly to him, but rather that it was certainly, verily, really a divine word which in " coming came to him." It needed a special attestation, and that was given to it. The same authenticating feature is ex- hibited in the frequent reiterations and assertions by Ezekiel that he was acting under divine impulse and authority. "Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzl" The order in the Hebrew, is, "Ezekiel, the son of Buzi the priest." Of course Ezekiel was a priest by descent ; but this order of the' Hebrew may be in- tended to signify that, being in captivity, he had never fulfilled any specific priestly functions. His name, as usual among the Jews, has a meaning, and is to be translated either " God is strong," or *' God will strengthen." Hengstenberg decides for the former, and says it is to be explained that "Ezekiel was he in relation to whom God is strong." Baum- garten chooses the latter, and says it signifies " he whose character is a special confirmation of the strength of God." The idea insisted on by Hengstenberg, following an older commentator, that it "is not a name he had borne from his youth, but an official name which he had assumed at the beginning of his calling," appears to be groundless. It is true of all the prophets, both that God is strong to fulfil His purpose, and that He will give strength to His servants for that part of His work which He has assigned them. " In the land of the Chaldeans." This topographical addition seems to be intended for a further attestation that it was the word of the Lord which really came to Ezekiel. The Chaldee version interpolates thus, " In the land [of Israel, and again a second time He spake to him in the land] of the Chaldeans." It is believed that " the Jews had a notion that the Shechinah could not overshadow a prophet out of the Holy Land." Per- haps a strain of this notion is to be heard in the wail of the captives " by the rivers of Babylon " when they ask, " How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land 1 " The notion was to be eradicated. God could endue a man with prophetic power even in Chaldea, and that is further witnessed to by the words " tvas there upon him." " The hand of the Lord " is a frequent Scrip- tural expression, and indicates that the thing which was to be done was done in submission to the restraining or the impelling energy of the Lord. HOMILETICS. (1.) General Conditions of the Designation. I. The time to receive fuller knowledge of the Lord is uncertain. Who can tell why the call to Ezekiel came in the fifth year, and not in the first, second, &c. 1 The pain and pressure of exile galled, no doubt, as deeply in the earlier j'ears as in the later, yet Ezekiel had not seen " the heavens opened." What is uncertain to men is fixed ivith God. He is " the only wise God." He sees the end from the beginning of all lives. He alone knows where it is best to lead "the brook" across the way of His people, by drinking of which they "will lift up their heads." Though uncertain, men are not to be unconcerned. Having no criterion as to the appropriate time for special unfolding of the will of God, that does not sanction an utter indifference as to what they would have Him do. They must "wait on the Lord and keep His way," ever hoping that He will " exalt " them to see what they do not yet see of the glorious majesty of His kingdom. Though uncertain, men shoidd always be on the alert. Waiting for blessing is not real and valid waiting, except they who wait are sensitive to the approach of the Lord. His word comes to comfort, strengthen, open up a duty, and those are the good and faithful ser- vants who honour Him by receiving it, no matter at what time, convenient or inconvenient to them, He may vouchsafe, it. Though unce/tain men mtist never //"MILETIC COMMENTARY: EZEKIEL. lose faith. However lung it be ere a word coined — one year or five years — they must believe in God. He has not forgotten His people. Let them trust that in month He will bestow favour on them and His depressed interests. II. The place is undistinguished. It has no memorable associations. The land of th I us was devoid of that instructive relation to the Jews which both I the mountains of Sinai had. The river of Chebar could not stir their thoughts as the Jordan could. But God can produce in an obscure or obnoxious place that which will be a hallowed memory. He can make communications in a n as to Adam, in an outlying district of Luz as to Jacob, in a cave of the desert as to Elijah, in exile as to Ezekiel. He may manifest Himself anywhere — in ship or customhouse, by road or rail, in a family or alone. It has no recog- religious privileges. The captives could not make yearly pilgrimages to the City of the Great King; they could not approach to the place where His honour dwelt. For them there was no treading of His courts, no appearing before Him, no burnt- offerings and sacrifices to offer for His acceptance. Their hearts might thirst and faint for His altars, but they could not be relieved. As Nathanael in after times, they might have put a question expressive of contempt and unbelief, Can any good thing be obtained by the rivers of Babylon? They had not yet learned by experience that the Lord would make " a little sanctuary " for them in the place to which He had driven them, and there reveal His justice and His grace. So when Ezekiel was constituted an organ of new revelations, they were blessed where they did not look for blessing. Happy is it that the help of God is for the feeble who cannot, for the charged with duty who must not, for the wan- derers who may not enter into the assemblies of worshippers, as well as for those who have all means of grace at their command. " In all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee." "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." III. The person is inconspicuous. So far as is known, there was nothing to give prominence to Ezekiel over other members of priestly families, or the general body of his fellow-captives. " There is no respect of persons with God." He does not limit His manifestations by any classifications which men may make. "Base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen." The boy with a good education or the boy without it, children who are taught by their parents the truth in Jesus from their earliest days, or children wdio have Learned no more than they learned in a Sunday-school, may equally obtain from God an entrance into "the secret of His covenant." designation of Ezekiel furthermore suggests — God can provide Jit agents in unexpected circumstances. He only knows when and where it is required that He .should make special additions to men's knowledge of Him and His ways, and He has the wisdom and the power to select the persons to whom that knowledge can iven. So He finds Enoch amid gigantic iniquities, Moses in the palace of Pharaoh, Ezekiel among the captives of Babylon, Paul (Saul) among the fiercest of persecutors, Luther in a monastery. Lowly places or prominent places cannot be obstacles in His path of goodness and mercy. He proves that "His strength erfect in weakness." God can bestow great boons on the person lie mag call. An exile amongst exiles, with none of the appointed external means of worship, in the face of political dis- abilities, pressed upon by social troubles, allied to men who had no heart to help him, yet Ezekiel not only found God near, but, moreover, saw heavenly things, and was touched by a hand which made him one of the forces of the world. It tells us that not any circumstances of life, not any conditions of body need to prevent us from being dignified by a faith in the unseen, and sitting in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. God can increase His servant's power by connecting him with an organisation. Robinson Crusoe, alone on Juan Fernandez, mitrht'have received lar^e favours from 8 HOMILETIC COMMENTARY: EZEKIEL. God, but he could not use those favours for the welfare of neighbours. Power with men depends more or less upon the links which bind us to them. There is influ- ence from a family. When the solitary are set in families it is that they may give and find help which could not have been otherwise secured. Each member has ;i power to affect the rest who are within the same circle. There is influence from a caste. Commercial, social, intellectual, religious interests bind men to one another, and that bond enables them to carry out schemes which could not have been ac- complished individually, e.g., guilds, trades' unions, companies, an aristocracy, an army, a priesthood, a denomination of Christians. There is influence from a nation. The members of a small nation are not so powerfully backed as those of a large. Givis fiomamis sum was a phrase which gave, to the person who could employ it, greater consideration and security than were given to the citizens of any other state contemporary with the Roman. The phrase, "I am a Hebrew of the Hebrews," — however the speaker of it might have been counted as "the offscourin"' of all things," — was pregnant with mightier influences than have been wielded by the nationalities of those who derided him. The use of a nation's influence cannot be indifferent to God who loveth righteousness; and in Ezekiel He designated a man who had received a certain education and status on account of his priestly origin, and who, because he was a Jew and could contribute to Hebrew literature, has obtained a position which commands the suffrages of the world. " This also is of the Lord of hosts, who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working." Organi- sations may be hurtful by checking the fair development of personal life, but they can also add to personal power. (2.) Preliminary Steps to the Designation. L " Ezekiel, the son of Busi the priest " (ver. 3). It is sometimes argued that Ezekiel was trammelled by his connection with the priestly organisation, that his lineage induced him to weave a sacerdotal element into his prophecies, that he presents " a Levitical turn of mind, in virtue of which he sets a high value upon sacred customs." Attempts to prove this do not appear eminently successful. When commentators say that his sacerdotalism is shown in the demands he makes for obedience to the requisitions of the Law, we seem to hear in that statement, not a simple reading of the prophecies, but a reading with inter- polations from fancy or prepossession. Isaiah, Jeremiah make the same demands, and, taking account of the different circumstances of Ezekiel, he exhibits no more of a sacerdotal tendency than they do. It would have been an odd place in which to manifest " a genuine priestly turn of mind " — whatever that may mean — the place where he could not by any means fulfil the special functions of the priest- hood; but a very suitable place in which to endeavour to impress the captives with the conviction that they were still "under the law to God," even though far from the Temple of Jehovah. It would be as hard to signify where Ezekiel exhibits " a strong priestly feeling," marking him off from other prophets, as it would be to exhibit a strong pastoral and fruit-gathering feeling in Amos (chap. vii. 14). Yet Fairbairn writes, " In Ezekiel alone of the later prophets does the priestly element become so peculiarly prominent and prevailing as to give a tone and impress to the general character of his ministrations, and to render even his prophetical labours a kind of priestly service " (p. 8). We see — what we expect to see ! God chooses prophets not to unfold their own ancestral or technical habits, but His true and broad righteousness and love. That Ezekiel, when acting in accordance with this, should employ imagery borrowed from the Law and worship of Israel was natural. He did it, however, not as one who would exalt whatever the priests had to carry out, but as one who had been taught that against the degrading ten- dencies of Israel there was no barrier, against heathenism there was no power, in Temple, offerings, or priests. He was taught that there was no preservative in the evil days of dire captivity save in the latent energy and intrinsic truth of "the 9 II0M1I.ETIC COMMENTARY: EZEKIEL. lively oracles" given by x ' So he sets himself, not to do a service for priest- liness, but for the Law. As n priest he was doubtless one of that kind whose lips . and as an enforcer of the Law was " the messenger of the Lord of hosts " (Mai. ii. 7). II. -Now I was among the captives" (ver. 1). I del had been, apparently, by himself. His mind had been exercised upon the Bad daya that were passing over him and his people. He had been laying himself open to thoughts of the Lord, and then he was called into a nearer communion than he had ever experienced. Unconsciously he was stepping for- ward to receive competency to do actions for God. He does not tell how he had only that, while so employed, "it came to pass " that God spoke to him. They who would learn of Christ must: 1. Go alone with Him. Things pass in secret from Him which no stranger need intermeddle with, and no personal insufficiency need intercept. 2. Go with all cares. Outer circumstances may be harassing, associates may be lukewarm or ungodly, prospects may seem utterly blank, but neither ignore them nor make light of them before Him, for "He caretli for you." 3. Go in hope, th>it lie will manifest Himself. Unlooked-for light may be lifted up on you, strength may be infused, faith be increased, and new scenes in your history be entered on; for "He is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond what you think." Ill 'The heavens were opened" (ver. 1). 1. Men have faculties for realising what is beyond the earth. "\Ye dwell on the borders of the unknown, and can take interest in noticing the traces of what may be therein. God's hands have made us and fashioned us so that this is possible. To use only animal functions, to develop only earthly aims, and to present a muti- lated nature to all the influences which play upon us, is a spectacle darkened with criminality in reference to ourselves and our Maker. But to use our faculties for looking at "the things unseen and eternal," that is the part of full and true man- hood— a token that our life is a life worth living. 2. (/•, I . l HOMILETIQ COMMENTARY: EZEKIEL. and Bet apart by the Lord alone, and he, with all true prophets, is a type of the coming time when the children should be all taught of the Lord, for the Spirit would be poured out upon us from on high. We are under this dispensation. We must guard against supposing that human appointments to ministry for the Lord arc valid if He has not called to it. There is no true ordination but that of the hand of the Lord, and there is no true service but that which opens out to more service. Vague longings for God may be turned into real manifestations; visions of God may prepare for feeling the hand of God. Such are the ways of "the i [srael, who giveth strength and power to His people: blessed be God ! " " Of His fulness have all we received, and grace for grace." " I saw visions of God." The Sources of Religious Sensibility. 1. Man must consider himself. Let him examine his own nature, look at the wonderful mechanism which is going on in his own breast, and he will surely awake to a sense of the high and exalted relations which his existence sustains. But he lives in the world. Material objects engross and enthral his mind. He converses not with his own spirit. He considers not what manner of being he is. Let this thoughtlessness be laid aside, and it will not be strange if he come to a living con- ception of that mighty Being from whom we all spring, and by whom we all subsist. 2. 1L' must consider the wonderful works external to himself. The green earth and its diversities of scenery, the canopy above it, bright with stars and burning suns, show visions of power, wisdom, goodness transcending his utmost ability to ire and fathom. Let him think of these, and will he not feel how awful and stupendous the Author of such prodigies must be '? 3. He must consider how different man is from what he might have been expected to be. With eyes to see visions of God, he bends them to the earth. He does not realise the purposes for which he is made, the character he is to acquire, the destiny placed within his reach. How much is there in the course of human affairs to trouble and perplex? Ignorance and superstition brood over a large portion of the habitable globe. In Christian countries how little is seen of that purity, faith, and piety which Christ enjoins. But all that need not destroy the conviction that we are under a wise and merciful God — that it is impossible for Him who has dis- played in the frame of man, in the constitution of the outer world, in the gospel of Christ, such tokens of wisdom .and love, to exercise other than a government of perfect benevolence. It is absurd to suppose that we, who are but of yesterday, should be able to interpret the many mysterious and inscrutable events in human affairs, though all will be clear when the day shall dispel the midnight vapours. 1. He must consider liow God has been trusted in. We know of men who have been subjected to heavy assaults because they believed in the Word of God — of Jesus Christ, in despisal and rejection, upheld by communings with His Father; and we learn that in duties, harassments, weariness, death, our safety, strength, olation will be obtained in those retirements of the soul where our eyes are opened to see visions of God. — Madge (condensed). ILLUSTRATIONS. Dates. — The Jews, if there is any truth in their history at all, were a journalising people. . . . The prophets keep a diary of tlieir visions. Everywhere do they record the dates, the . the day of the month, the attending chronological circumstances of the burdens and meaaagea with which, as they allege, they have been commissioned by the Lord. If these dates ; nt in by compilers, long after the times of the prophetic visions, then there is no reason for it, no meaning in it. . . It is an easier theory that every word of the prophetic writings had heen forged. There is but one other supposition : the dates and the visions are from the same persons, and these are the prophets themselves writing and speaking at the times they 14 IIOMILETIC COMMENTARY: EZEKIEL. profess to write and speak, and in relation to actual existing events that form the subjects of their warning. The seers, the times, the nation, the national life, it is all one true picture in its parts most truthful and natural ; in its whole suggestive of an extraordinary and difficult problem. Let any man attempt to explain its natural without bringing in its supernatural, or some other supernatural — if he can. — Taylor Lewis. Names. — What is the real historical significance of the deeply religious character of Jewish names, their strong theistic or rather monotheistic aspect, their continual expression of faith and hope, their so frequent allusions to the ideas of covenant and redemption ? And why too, may we ask, do so many of these appellations end in El and Jah, ever calling up the two great divine names with their most holy ideas ? Let the reader ponder well the fact, and see if he can find any other reason for this national seal, this naming after the Lord, as we may call it, than the great all-explaining fact that they were indeed "a chosen people," "an elect people," whom for high and world-wide reasons God had taken as His own "when he separated the sons of Adam 'and gave the nations their inheritance." It is a standing memorial, handed down from generation to generation, that "this was the people whose God/' whose El or Mighty One, was Jehovah, the God of the Covenant, who had been their fathers' God, and who had given them those glorious promises, ineffaceable by the bondage of generations, that in them and in their seed all the nations of the earth were to be blessed." — Taylor Lewis. Visions.— Thankfulness for being made capable of seeing this "burning west" [glorious vision of Arran], and of being so affected by its beauty, gave place to thankfulness for the spiritual eye opened in me, by which I saw the Eternal Light and the Eternal Beauty ; thankfulness that was much mingled with self-condemnation, as I reflected that . . . that which my spiritual eye saw is an ever-present glory, to be seen wherever the eye opens on it ; and yet my memories of it were of what had been seen only at long intervals ... in a solemn sense of choice. 1 say in a sense of choice, because I do not feel in reality that the opening of the eye that sees the spiritual, so that the spirit is flooded with its proper light, is so simple a matter, or so absolutely to be determined by a mere volition, as the opening of the bodily eye. That "glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" we do not see in its brightness simply by turning to it. For such vision beyond habitual faith we wait on the Holy Spirit, and have it not in our own hand. But still we know that he that soweth bountifully reaps bountifully. — Macleod Campbell. Power. — The distinction is always assuming more and more importance to my mind, viz., that between the special acting of the Divine Spirit in the revelation of truth not previously revealed to men, and His acting in enabling us to apprehend that truth, and to advance in its light and the life which it feeds. ... No explanation seems adequate which admits not — rather, assumes not — that God can, and when it seemeth good to Him does give the human spirit to know His own presence, and His own touch, otherwise than in that highest way which is com- munion with Himself in the light of life. This . . . the whole record of Eevelation seems to me to teach as to those great events in the history of intercourse between God and men which we have been accustomed to receive as "Divine Revelation," viz., a knowledge of being spoken to by the living God which was not an inference from the nature of that which God spake — a knowledge common to Balaam and Jonah with Moses and Samuel, and distinct from all communion in the word that came to them. What this was I know not, and may never know. . . . What we seek to know is, surely, the actual fact as to what God does in the earth, of which we may not make our own experience the measure ; while we cannot be too thankful for that clear consciousness of seeing light in God's light which may be our temptation to do so. — Macleod Campbell. Experience of God.— Now and then a great experience comes unexpected and unsought. It touches the greater chords of the soul, and lifts it above the common level of emotion, out- runs all former knowledge. . . . But what other experience is like that of the personal disclosure of God in the soul. . . . There comes an hour to some, to many, of transfiguration. It may be in grief; it may be in joy; it may be the opening of the door of sickness; it may be in active duty ; it may be under the roof or under the sky, where God draws near with such reality, glory, and power that the soul is filled, amazed, transported. All before was nothing ; all afterwards will be but a souvenir. That single vision, that one hour, is worth the whole of life, and throws back a light on all that went before. It . . . gives to the soul some such certainty of invisible, spiritual truths as one has of his own personal identity. When one has had this hour of divine disclosure, of full and entrancing vision, it never can be retracted, or effaced, or reasoned against, or forgotten. — Ward Beecher. 2. The View given to Ezekiel of "the Likeness of the Glory of the Lord " (Chap. i. 4-28)v EXEGETICAL NOTES.— Ver. 4. (ii. 11), "came out of the north," the The storm-cloud. " A whirlwind," a region from which the Chaldean forces tempest such as Job perceived (xxxviii. proceeded, and, in general, to the Jews, 1), or like that which Jonah encountered "the region pregnant with destiny" 15 IIOMILKTIC COMMENTARY: EZEKIEL. (Hengst.). " A great cloud, and a fire infolding itself."' Fire in volumes was mixed up with the cloud, and (Exod. ix. 21) flashed hither and thither, circling round. " A brightness was about it,*' the cloud, "and out of the midst thereof.' of the fire, "as the colour of amber," or as the eye of chasmal. The appearance was such as Ejave tints, shone, burned like chasmal. The mild colour of amber does not seem to express the meaning of this uncertain word. There was a look like that of ore glowing from " the midst of the fire." "Vers. 5-14. The living creatures. Ver. 5. Out of this same fire came " the likeness of four living creatures," re- presenting all beings with life (llev. iv. 6) ; and, as the best representative of vital energies, each of the four had " the likeness of a man." But not entirely fo. Ver. 7. " Their feet," including knee and thigh, were of the nature of " a straight foot ; " they were upright, not bent, and that part which was next the ground was "like the sole of a calf's foot, and they sparkled like the colour," the eye, the gleam " of bur- nished," or shining, " brass "' (Rev. i. 15). Their wings proceeded from their shoulders, for (ver. 8) "they had the hands of a man under their wings,"' one hand under eacli of "their four sides." Ver. 9. Two "wings" of each " were joined " to a wing of each of its nearest neighbours, and as each had four faces, one of which looked towards a distinct quarter of the sky, "they turned not when they went." So "they went every one straight for- ward" in the direction in which any one of their faces looked, and as a con- junct whole. Ver. 10. Of the four faces, one was like that of " a man," another like that of "a lion," another of "an ox," and the fourth of "an eagle." Ver. 11. "Thus were their faces, and their wings were stretched upward;" rather, and their faces and their wings were separated from above, i.e., it could be seen that their heads were distinct and their wings were dis- tinct, though two wings of one were in contact with two wings of others. Ver. 12. They were moved by an irre- sistible impulse, and, separated as they were from one another, yet they were animated by one life-breath. " Whither the spirit was to go, they went." Ver. 13. " Their appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appear- ance of lamps," torches ; " it," the fire, was separate from, and "went up and down among the living creatures." Ver. 14. The creatures had a motion which made the impression as of a " flash " of a meteor, or " the zigzag course" of "lightning." * Vers. 15-21. The wheels. Ver. 15. "Behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four faces." Ezekiel saw wheels upon the ground, one in close proximity to each of the four creatures, and lower than they. Ver. 1G. "They four" wheels " had one likeness ; " each consisted of two wheels really, " as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel," set in the other at right angles. Ver. 17. "They went upon their four sides;" they could go in any direction without turn- ing round. Ver. 18. "As for their rings," circumference or felloes, "they were so high that they were dreadful," they had both height and terribleness, and " full of eyes round about." Ver. 20. * The cherubims in Tabernacle and Temple had each one face ; those of Ezekiel have four faces. We work up in dreams a mixture of thingB which we have come across in different places. Did Ezekiel, in his ecstasy, make up his representations of the living creatures with objects familiar to those who sojourned in Assyria, the land of his exile? "The approaches to the hall at Nimroud were guarded by pairs of colossal figures. At the chief entrance were human-headed winged linns, the human shape being continued down to the waist, and furnished with arms. . . . Expanded wings Bpring from the shoulders and spread over the back. . . . The entrance on the south was guarded by human-headed winged bulls, whilst the two doorways on the north wen- both guarded by winged lions with the heads of men and with human arms. . . . It will be observed that the four forms (and those only) chosen by Ezekiel to illustrate his description — the man, the lion, the bull, and the eagle — are precisely those which are con- stantly found on Assyrian monuments. . . . They could find no better type of intellect and knowledge than the head of the man ; of strength than the body of the lion; of rapidity of motion than the wings of a bird." — Layard. 1G HOMILETIC COMMENTARY : EZEKIEL. " The spirit of the living creature was in the wheels." The same energy which actuated the former actuated the latter also, and they were one in standing, going, or rising upwards. Vers. 22-28. The throned one. Ver. 22. Above "the heads of the liv- ing creatures" Ezekiel saw an expanse extended, having a colour like that " of the terrible crystal," exciting fear by its purity and splendour. Ver. 23. " Under the firmament," or expanse, which therefore came between the throne and the living creatures, " were their wings straight, the one toward the other," joined to one another, as ver. 11. "and every one had two which covered ;" there was a wing for each side of "their bodies." Ver. 24. When the living creatures were in movement " the noise of their wings was like . . . the voice of speech," rather, " the noise of tumult, as the noise of an host." The sounds were heard only when they were in motion, for " when they stood they let down their wings." Ver. 25. Their movement or rest was not self-directed, but was instigated or checked by " a voice from the firmament that was over their heads," from Him who was on the throne, since, ver. 26, " above the firmament was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of " the pale- blue " sapphire stone, and upon the likeness of the throne," not the distin- guishable form of a man, but " the like- ness as the appearance of a man." " No man hath seen God at any time." This manifestation had three aspects — ver. 27. (1.) Over the dim form was shed shining light like to glowing ore, and the same as in ver. 4, which radiated " from the appearance of his loins even upward " (chap. viii. 2). (2.) Upon the lower part, " from the appearance of his loins even downward was as it were the appearance of fire." (3.) All round was a shining light (ver. 28), " as the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain." Those three aspects were united to frame " the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord." The visions of God over- powered Ezekiel, " I fell upon my face " (Rev. i. 17). The details of this wondrous vision may be summarised. A furious storm from the north is seen driving a vast cloud, pervaded and glowing with rest- less fires, and surrounded with radiance. From this fiery cloud four living beings appear, whose general aspect was that of man. Each had four different faces and four wings, and two of the wings were stretched out in juxtaposition to the wings of others. One spiritual energy stirred in the living creatures, and under its impulse they moved like meteors shooting across the field of vision and shining with the brightness of fire. By the side of each creature was a gigantic double wheel, not needing to turn when it changed from one direction to another. Eyes were set round the outer rims, and, possessed by the same energy as the living creatures, the wheels made all move- ments perfectly simultaneous with theirs. Above all was an expanse of awful pure- ness, and on which was the likeness of an azure throne. Some one in the figure of a man was seated on this throne — the upper half of his body shining like glowing metal, the lower half like fire, while, girdling round the throne, the hues of a bright rainbow were displayed. A voice proceeded from this throne-crowned expanse, at the sound of which the living creatures let down their wings in lowly reverence and silence. Ezekiel also heard himself addressed by an unseen speaker. The appearances which accompanied the designation of Ezekiel, and also the repetition of their prominent aspects at other turns of his service, indicate the fact of a special meaning adhering to them in view of what was appointed him.* 1. The storm, the cloud, the fire, signify the wrath of God and the sufferings which may proceed therefrom. " The Lord hath His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet " (Nah. i. 3). Of Israel * " If any one ask3 whether the vision is lucid, I confess its obscurity, and that I can scarcely understand it ; but yet into what God has set before us, it is not only lawful and useful, but necessary to inquire. We shall perhaps but skim the surface of what God wills, yet this is of no small moment." — Calvin. B 17 en a p. i. IWMILKTIC COMMENTARY: EZEKIEL. it is said, " The Lord thy God is a con- suming fire, even a jealous God " (Deut. iv. 24). Bzekiel is to prepare himself to carry a message of judgment and woe to his people j he is to be invested with authority and then to inspire them with terror. But not unmitigated. " The brightness round about," which vers. 27 and 28 signify to be that of the rainbow, warrants the belief that pity and grace will surround all inflictions. The false prophets spoke of deliverance without punishment and without re- pentance; Ezekiel has to bear down all such fancies, and proclaim that there will be scathing trials, but afterwards a new heart and the outpoured Spirit. 2. The cherubim. In chap. x. 20, Ezekiel intimates that the living creature which he saw by the Chebar he was led to recognise as the cherubims. An im- portant part is assigned to them in the Bible. They were placed at the east of the garden of Eden ; they stood over the Ark of the Covenant in Tabernacle and Temple. In each case they signified the divine presence. Hence the familiar expressions, " He dwelleth between the cherubims," "He sitteth between the cherubims." Their outstretched wings form "the chariot of the cherubims." While it is also said, "He rode upon a cherub," as a token that He rules all movements among the forces of nature. It was an obvious reflection of cherubic forms which John saw, in his Revela- tion, " in the midst of the throne." What did they signify 1 In all cases they signify that God is present, and belong to His manifestation in living, organised creatures, in all quarters of the world. It is to be noted that the faces of a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle on each are emblematical of the fulness and power of life. The fact that they were, in Ezekiel, double in number and more complex in form than those found in Tabernacle or Temple, is a fact which goes to prove that they were not real beings, not even angelic, but symbolical, and they "at one and the same time proclaim and veil His presence. When He is honoured as He who is enthroned above the cherubim, He is acknowledged as the God" who 18 rules the world on all sides, in power, wisdom, and omniscience." They re- present not God Himself, except as He is absolute Life, working in living creatures and moving them to the ends which He prescribes. In accordance with those ends, the cherubims had the appearance which bright burning coals of fire have, yet the fire was separate from them. Tims was indicated that all living creatures could be made to carry out the righteous judgment of God with ominous rapidity. So Ezekiel was prepared to testify that all hopes of earthly help which Israel might cherish would be speedily falsified. 3. The ivheels. In the Buddhist, and partially in the Hindu religion, a wheel " is the symbol of supreme power in the hands of certain monarchs, who are held to have exercised universal dominion, and who are, for this reason, termed turners of the wheel." A similar idea is conveyed here. The wheels represent the forces of nature as distinct from, but in working harmony with, living beings. This distinction appears from chap. x. 13, where the right interpretation seems to be that the wheels were called G algal, "whirlwind ;" and from chap. x. 6, where fire was taken from between them. Those natural energies revolve, along with the cherubim, under obedience to one and the same inworking impulse. They are used when the Spirit will, and go to any quarter of the heaven that He wills. One wheel is within another; changes are complicated, and not in one direc- tion only. They are full of eyes : " the symbol of intelligent life ; the living Spirit's most peculiar organ and index." "Space is everywhere equally present to them." They do not move blindly ; they can perceive that which is opposed to the interests of God in any quarter ; they can follow up ail traces of His enemies, and carry His terrors wherever they should strike. Ezekiel must ex- pect to speak of various trials hanging over all classes in Israel, and certainty in their infliction. 4. The appearance of a throned man. " Whose faith has centre everywhere, Nor cares to fix itself to form." This portion oi the vision is seen upon H0M1LETIC COMMENTARY: EZEKIEL. a firmament which presents " visible poetry, gloriously embossed, and whose psalms are writ in the rhythm of mo- tion." It intimates that " the heavens do rule," that all forms of animate and inanimate existence are under the will of the God of glory.* Besides, He is in a human form, which cannot be ade- quately seen, while the appearance of brightness and fire, and a rainbow, in- dicates the holiness and righteousness and grace which make a glorious unity in Him, and are possessed in absolute perfection — a type of the glory and grace of Him who was made flesh and dwelt among us. " God is the unrepre- sentable One. He has no similitude ; and yet, without any misgiving or sense of inconsistency, there are ascribed to Him acts and appearances which, with- out the conceptive or imaging faculty, can have for us neither force nor mean- ing" {Lewis). The mighty voice and the movements with the cherubims point to the truth that He punishes His enemies and comforts His friends. Thus, sitting above the cherubims, He does the same as in the Temple, yet with differences. He was about to work in new methods, and would make known to exiled Israel, through Ezekiel, that if their covenant was to " vanish away," He would not go. He would rule the heathen as well as His chosen seed, and one day evoke from all quarters the glorious cry, " Hallelujah ! for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth ! " " One God, one law, one element, And one far-off Divine event, To which the whole creation moves." ■ — Tennyson. " There was nothing accidental or capri- cious about this vision ; all was wisely adjusted and arranged, so as to convey beforehand suitable impressions of that work of God to which Ezekiel was now called to devote himself. It was sub- stantially an exhibition by means of emblematical appearances and actions, of the same views of the Divine char- acter and government, which were to be unfolded in the successive communica- tions made by Ezekiel to the covenant- people " (Fairbairn). HOMILETICS. (1.) The Vision is Suggestive Regarding the Government of God. I. As to its resources. 1. They are manifold. Wind and fire, thunder and lightning, the wisdom of man, brute force, patient labour, swift movements are significant portions of the materials which He can gather to execute His purposes. Men live in perpetual contact with forces which may affect their organs of sight, hearing, taste, touch, and which can be marshalled in any number, in any strength, and at any moment. We see wrongly if we do not see that the uniform of God's servants is worn by all animate and inanimate creatures. 2. They are mutable. They are restrained and again in motion, now in the darkness and then in the light, here as a glow and there as a meteoric flash, acting inertly at one time and intensely after that. Changes continually come up. How remarkable are the vicissitudes in nations, churches, families. We are settled in nothing — in nothing but in God. 3. They are inscrutable. " We are but of yesterday and know nothing." We see little else than an item on the outside of a few of His resources. " His judg- ments are a great deep." "His providence walks and works, darkly, deeply, changeably, wheels about so that mortals cannot tell what conclusions to make " as to all the causes which bring about changes, or as to all the consequences which * "The cherubim with the living wheels form, so to speak, the chariot, the base for the living God. All this is the mere forecourt of the divine sphere; the innermost circle is re- served for God as living Spirit. If we approach from the side of the world, this heavenly- fulness of life may already appear to be the Godhead or God. But when we are in possession of the Divine Personality, that fulness will be a predicate of God, a mere substratum, so to say, of His Personality." — Dorner. 19 HOMILETIC COMMENTARY : EZEKIEL. shall follow. " His ways are high above, out of our sight," with nations, councils, churches, individuals — in panics, wars, demoralisations. 4. They are subordinated to one pervading impulse. Living or non-living, one and the same mighty Spirit works in all. The Spirit which brooded over a chaotic creation " renews the face of the earth " year by year. The Spirit of understanding and of love is the "Spirit of judgment and of burning." He divides to each thing severally as He will ; but there is no division in their camp. They do not fall out by the way. They work together to fulfil His word. There i* no crookedness in their goings when He commands to go "straightforward." They run very swiftly in accordance with the might by which He energises them. No bullet goes so fairly or rapidly to the target as do the manifold resources of God when stirred by the Spirit of life. Why should men resist Him? Why do they yield to a spirit of error, of lying, and of whoredoms, except on the ground that they rebel and vex the Holy Spirit? When will that kingdom which is righteousness, peace, joy in the Holy Ghost, be permanent on earth? But what- ever discord may be introduced by men, the Spirit will not be baulked in His aims. " He maketh the wrath of man to praise Him," and He will avenge the dishonour done to His righteousness and grace by means of the pliant resources at His command. They do not look back, that would have denoted unwillingness; nor turn aside, that would have intimated self-will ; nor suspend their movements before their course is completed, that would have spoken of weariness. So should men follow obediently, unswervingly, persistently Him who guides wanderers into the way of life, and sustains them therein. 5. They inflict chastisement. Gales, fire, lightning, are disastrous in various ways to men. The doors of Lebanon open that the fire may devour its cedars. Snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest rain upon the wicked, and Ezekiel saw such agencies in action as ominous of calamities which he was to declare would befall his people. Thus, above Nebuchadnezzar and his desolating army ; above losses, pains, bereavements ; above wars, depression of trade, lower- ing of health, we must observe the signs of the Lord condemning untruthfulness, unrighteousness, formality, pride, selfishness. " Who can stand before Him when once He is angry?" Is there not a warning to "cease to do evil, to learn to do well"? 6. They may be brought from any quarter. Out of the north, as the Assyrians; out of the east, as the plague of locusts in Egypt ; out of the north-east, as the Euroclydon in Paul's sea passage to Rome, God's resources can be drawn. Men may boast of their soldiery or navy, of their preparedness- for any war, of their civilization or religiousness, of their worship or their benevolence ; but they lay themselves open to the menacing word, " I the Lord do blow upon it." In front, in flank, or in rear assailants may fall upon them. " Political changes and revolu- tions are, after all, only the moving of the shadow on the earthly dial-plate, that marks the mightier motions going forward in the heavens." — Moore. 7. They radiate with mercy. His resources are not only for punishment. They are meant to show to men their evil and their need of repentance ; to show that God is " not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repent- ance." Judgment is His " strange act." He wants to purify the world, though the process be slow, just as He is separating the dross from the heart of every believer in His Son. Even if a deluge of wrath is sent forth in order to sweep off evil habits from a people, after the floods have lifted up their voice the rainbow will appear. The covenant of the Lord is sure in faithfulness and mercy. " Once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Him- self." "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself." II As to the representation of the divine. 1. It is supreme. All things are under His feet. He is a Prince upon His throne. Nothing stirs or rests, nothing develops or degenerates, nothing pains or 20 HOMIEETIC COMMENTARY: EZEKIEL. soothes apart from His control. It is not a mechanical force which operates the changes of all creatures. It is One who possesses power, wisdom, righteousness, love — "who does His will among the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of this earth." What can stand if He will overthrow ? Who hinder if He will open the gates to anxiety, sorrow, shame, death 1 2. It is closely allied to man. Ezekiel saw " the likeness of the appearance of a man." We must not say that God is corporeal and has the figure of a man, but we can say that He has some striking affinities with human nature — " For we are also His offspring " — and these foreshadow the mystery to be presented in the end of the world, and in which Paul grandly exults. God " was manifest in the flesh." Therefore was it possible for the Son of God to pray " That they all may be one ; as Thou, Father, art in me and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us." 3. It is beyond our knowledge. " He dwells in the light which no man hath seen or can see." He does condescend to our faculties, and by means of the hiero- glyphics of undefined forms, of clouds, fire, living beings, revolutions, He shows us what His power and resources are. Our thoughts of Him suggest more riddles than they can solve. No research can define Him. There is a glory excelling that which men have beheld. He has never appeared as He really exists ; but " He has so appeared as to leave no doubt on the minds of His servants as to their knowing that they have seen God." If in certain aspects He is " unknowable," yet all doubts as to His character pass away when Jesus reveals Him. " He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." III. As to the preparation of a human servant. 1. Reverence. A deep feeling pervades Ezekiel of the holy supremacy of God. He who is glorious produces another state of mind than that which springs from a gratified curiosity or an increased knowledge, and the man who is not " moved with fear " before the manifested will of the Almighty is a man who will never serve Him aright. The sight of Christ Jesus, the only-begotten of the Father, will lay us at His feet, utterly self-emptied by a sense of His spotless glory and our unworthi- ness. and will be a prelude to His touch and restoration. 2. Weakness. Ezekiel cannot act of himself in co-operation with this all-ruling God. He has no strength to carry out such arduous duties as are justly required. But this weakness is his stepping-stone to light and power. When he is weak then is he strong, for God will bestow sufficient grace. Trust in self is gone that God may work. Wisdom, energy, faithfulness not his own are open to him. 3. Called. Ezekiel is thrilled by the voice which addresses him. He could not serve at all till that call of God wTas heard. Men cannot act for His kingdom by their own impulses and preparations. It is not colleges or ordination by man which make fit, but, hearing the voice of the Lord within, they can take up any service pointed out, in face of their other occupations, of fears, of reluctance. Before Him all events, however solemn, all duties, however untried, become dwarfed and feasible. " In Christ strengthening me I can do all things." Between His voice and yours let no other voice come. You will know the mark to aim at, and reach " the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." If we teach or preach about His kingdom without knowing we are warranted by Him, it is rather sin than service. His must be the impulse and sustainment. 4. Susceptible. Ezekiel hears ; for it is little matter to have the call of God if we have not ears to hear. We must let that mind be in us which will desire to recognise and apprehend whatever He will say to us. " If men did consult with Christ, and do all upon His warrants, they should never miscarry in their ways, but proceed farther in the paths of godliness in a few weeks than they did before in many years." — Greenhill. " Though you have no visions of God, unwavering fealty to His law will secure that He will guide you by His counsel, and afterwards receive you to glory." — Goulti/. When the suggestions and motions of God's Spirit come on a receptive heart, they subdue carnal reasonings, stubbornness of will, all 21 IIOMU.ETIC COMMENTARY: EZEKIEL. shifts and pretences, and frame " a vessel unto honour, sanctified and meet for the Master's use," such as Ezekiel became. " It is of much concernment for ministers to see that they have a good and clear call to their ministry. If they can clear it up that God hath sent them, they may expect His assistance, His blessing, His protection, and success in their labours. However things prove, this will be their comfort in the midst of opposition, reproach, persecution, hazard of liberty and lives ; I was called of God, I am in Mis work, in His way, He brought me into His vineyard, He will stand by me, I will go on, let Him do with me what He pleaseth." — Greenhill. ILLUSTRATIONS. God the life of all things. — Nothing exists, subsists, is acted upon or moved by itself, but by some other being or agent; whence it follows that everything exists, BubgiBts, is acted upon, and is moved by the First Being, who has no origin from another, but i> in Himself the force which is life. — Swedenbory. God has a world of real forces in Himself. He bears within Him an inexhaustible spring, by virtue of which He is the Life eternally streaming forth, but also eternally streaming back into Himself. He neither empties nor loses Himself in His vital activity. He is a sea of self-revolving Life ; an infinite fulness of forces moves, so to speak, and undulates therein. — Dorner. In this communication of life, God gives Himself so unreservedly that creation feels Him as her own, His joy as her joy, His peace as her peace, His strength as her strength, His personality' and independence as her personality and independence. — W. White. Foreknowledge. — The divine foreknowledge has put a stamp of that which was coming upon that which went before. This stamp is the basis of figurative language, of analogy, of typology, of prophecy, yea, of all knowledge. Every lower thing is a figure, a type, or prophecy of a higher thing ; every present thing contains a representation of a coming thing, and every visible thing is more or less the image of things invisible. God's foreknowledge thus becomes the great highway of knowledge to man, by which he can traverse not only the earth, but the universe so far as it is accessible to his inspection. — W. White. Clouds. — Those war-clouds that gather on the horizon, dragon-crested, tongued with fire ; — how is their barbed strength bridled ? What bits are these they are champing with their vaporous lips; flinging off flakes of black foam? Leagued leviathans of the sea of heaven, out of their nostrils goeth smoke, and their eyes are like the eyelids of the morning. . . . Where ride the captains of their armies? Where are set the measures of their march? Fierce murmurera, answering each other from morning until evening — what rebuke is this which has awed them into peace ? What hand has reined them back by the way by which they came ? " The wondrous works of Him which is perfect in knowledge ? " We have too great veneration for cloudlessncss. — Iluskin. Human ignorance. — There has never been a weak deity worshipped, and it is safe to say there never will be one. Man is too strong himself not to admire strength, and looks with pity or contempt upon weakness. And no deity can be pitied or despised and hold his sovereignty over men's minds. The heavens must be braced beyond the possibility of fall, or they who live beneath the dome could never gaze with awe into the overhanging spaces. ... I do not expect that any of mortal kind have a correct idea of God. . . . How little do we know even yet of the qualities and uses of material and finite Nature ! For Nature is yet a mystery. She sits like the veiled prophet in the inner temple of her abode, whose outer walls we in our groping have at last stumbled against, and upon the panels of whose mighty gates a few of our most ambitious scientists are beginning to rap. If, then, so little is known of Nature, how little indeed must we know of the Invisible Spirit, who is so removed from our senses that no man could look upon His face and live. How flippantly men talk of God ! As if they could understand the measureless reality whose reflection they only behold ! The men who say God must be this or that, must do this or that, are for th^ most part men who have great intellectual vanity and great spiritual ignorance. The bowed head, the closed eye, the hand on the mouth and the mouth in the dust, — these are the evidences of piety, and, I may say, of spiritual knowledge also. — W. II. Murray. An infinite unknown. — We are separated from it, not by any anger of storm, not by any vain and fading vapour, but only by the deep infinity of the thing itself. — Iluskin. Capable are we of God, both by understanding and will ; by understanding, as He is that soverei'JTii truth which comprehends the rich treasures of all wisdom; by will, as He is that sea of goodness whereof whoso tasteth shall thirst no more. — Hooker. A Seer. — The more I think of it, the more I find this conclusion impressed upon me — that the greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something, and tell what it saw in a plain way. Iltndreds of people can talk for one who can think, but thousands can think for one who can see. To see clearly is poetry, prophecy, and religion — all in one. — Iluskin. Law in the spiritual. — Laws are operant in the things of the Spirit as truly as in the 22 HO MI LET 10 COMMENTARY: EZEKIEL. things of matter. The forces there are not disorderly, nor do the movements which they generate start haphazard. They are not impulsive, freakful, and fickle. They who suppose that the coming of the Spirit to human consciousness is the result of arbitrary sending and of periodical ordering, and not the result of a ceaseless and ceaselessly expressed benevolence, doubtless mistake. . . . The anarchy must be reduced to order; the chaos taught the use and made to feel the force of law ; the imperfect organisations of society be supplanted by the perfect. . . . The Spirit, through change of custom, law, and habit, and by a gradual transition of the world from old to new, can, at last, after ages of revolution and growth, accomplish another structure. — W. H. Murray. God manifested. — He the Creator, the Governor, became a presence clear and plain before men's hearts. He, by the marvellous method of the Incarnation, showed Himself to man. He stood beside man's work. He towered above, and folded Himself about, man's life. And what then ? God in the world must be the standard of the world. Greatness meant something different when men had seen how great He was. Just suppose that suddenly Omni- science towered up above our knowledge, and Omnipotence above our strength, and the Infinite Wisdom stood piercing out of the sight of our ignorant and baffled skill. Must it not crush the man with an utter insignificance ? . . . He would be brought face to face with facts. He would measure himself against the eternal pillars of the universe. He would learn the blessed lesson of his own littleness in the way in which it is always learnt most blessedly — by learning the largeness of larger things. ... If you could only see God for ever present in your life, and Jesus dying for your soul, and your soul worth Jesus dying for, and the souls of your brethren precious in His sight, and the whole universe teeming with work for Him, then must come the humility of the Christian. — Brooks. In the divinity of His person there is laid an infinite, eternal, and unchangeable ground for the most unbounded confidence. If He were a being possessed of nothing higher than the highest possible endowments of humanity, we might well scruple to place in such an one a con- fidence stretching through eternity. But being God, in trusting in Him we rely upon a power that cannot be withstood, upon a wisdom which hath no limits, upon a truth that is infallible, upon a love that is unchangeable, upon a fidelity that cannot fail. — W. White. The enduring Word of God. — We are not more unworldly than the patriarchs, more spiritual than the prophets, more heavenly-minded than the apostles; we are not nearer the great celestial verities than men of the olden time — at least by any philosophy, or science, or culture of our own 'that is independent of the study and the grace of the Scriptures ; we are not beyond the Bible either in its letter or its thought. There are ideas there the world has not yet fathomed ; there are words and figures there whose rich significance interpretation has not yet exhausted. The scriptural style and the scriptural language are not meant for one age, but for all ages. Its Orientalisms will grow in the West ; its archaisms will be found still young in the nineteenth century. Science is ever changing, as it is ever unfinished; its language is ever becoming obsolete, as it is ever superseded ; philosophy is continually presenting some new phase of its ever-revolving cycles; the political world is ever a dissolving view ; literature becomes effete, and art decays ; "but the word of our God shall stand for ever." Not so sure are the types of nature as even the form and feature of this written word, if it be indeed the word of God, uttered in humanity, breathed into human souls, informing human emotions, conceived in human thoughts, made outward in human images, and indissolubly bound, as the wondrous narrative of the supernatural, in the long chain of human history. — T. Leiris. Changes. — We are apt to fret and murmur at the motions of the wheels when they cross our hopes and interests ; but if the Spirit of God be in the wheels and acts them according to His own pleasure, then all our impatience is groundless and sinful. We should stay and quiet our minds under all turns and changes in a world for discipline, rebuke, threatening, lamenta- tion, calling. — M. Meade. Unity. — The prophet, cast into the wide world and feeling himself lost in it, was led by the Divine Teacher into a region of thought to which the Israelite had been hitherto compara- tively a stranger — was led to see how each part of the universe, which must have often seemed to him a storehouse of divided material idols, was pointing when seen by the divine light to a spiritual unity, as its explanation and its centre. . . . It is Spirit only which distinguishes and unites, which brings each thing forth in its clearness and fulness, and brings all into harmony, ... a Spirit which had come from some higher region. There is One, human and divine, from whom this Spirit has proceeded, in whom it dwells perfectly. — Maurice. 3. The Commission to Ezekiel (Chaps, ii.-iii. 1-15). EXEGETICAL NOTES.— Ver. 1. captivity, the title must have been con- " Son of man." This is the customary ditioned by that fact, and would signify form of address to Ezekiel, and is used to the exiled prophets, away from the only of him and- Daniel among all the city which God had chosen to place His prophets. As both were prophesying in name there, that above them He was 23 U0M1LET1C COMMENTARY: EZEKIEL. who was the God of the spirits of all unconscious and his spirit came to him flesh, who would communicate with the again; nor scarcely the Holy Spirit, as souls He owned, and supply all that operative in prophetic revelation ; but would make up for absence from the the Spirit which was in the living crea- land of promise and covenant. The tures, and which, no doubt, was the title baldly could intimate, as is said by Spirit of God. commentators, that Ezekiel was in need Ver. 3. "The children of Israel." The of a continual reminder of his human most common expression used by Ezekiel origin and frailty and un worthiness, or for his people, perhaps significant of an that he was to watch against being amalgamation already begun of the Jews pulfed up by his visions, or that he was with the remnants of the ten tribes for- spoken to familiarly as a special friend merly gone into captivity. " To a re- of God. We may listen to the phrase bellious nation," or to the nations, the as expressing both a contrast and a con- rebels. They who were children of him nection between the speaker and the who wrestled with the angel are dete- hearer. riorated, not to the level of a heathen Ver. 2. •' The Spirit." Not the spirit nation, as in Isaiah i. 4, but to that of of Ezekiel, as if he had been altogether heathen nations. HOMILETICS. (1.) Requisites for Executing the Commission (ii. 1-8). I. Lively attention Ezekiel must no longer lie upon his face ; he must stand upon his feet if he is rightly to hear the voice of him that speaks. The call of God demands of our human faculties a readiness for action. They may be dead in sins or stunned by some masterful emotion, and the first thing needed is that they should be raised from such a state; then they will be fitted to hear and to obey. To be in a condition to do the work of the Lord, so far as that condition is dependent on a man himself, is to be in an attentive attitude regarding Him. Are we watching so that the moment in which the Master of the house comes we will open to Him ] LT. Impulses to secure apprehension. The Lord acts in nature. He pledged Himself of old that the seasons should not cease while the earth remaineth, and He sends forth His Spirit in spring and reneweth the face of the earth. He works thus on man. Spiritual power, understanding, and love are wrought in their hearts by Him. Supplies suited to all the duties He may impose are forthcoming. He will bring persons who may be unconscious into consciousness, in darkness into light, and the hardest position in His kingdom can be occupied when the Spirit of the living God has entered into the occupant and the words of the Almighty Speaker are heard. Until he is fitted by the Spirit to hear the voice, words would be spoken in vain, however adapted to the sins, or weakness, or ignorance of his soul. But he is quickened. The Spirit enters into him, and the words which follow profit him. So two factors develop our apprehension of God's will — His Spirit in us and His words to us. The efficacy of the words proceeds from the Spirit ; the words are the means by which the Spirit energises us. Read the Word of the Lord, preacli it, spread it, but never be forgetful that the grasping it by the understanding and obeying it with the will come from the Spirit whom Christ sends from the Father. HI. A clear defining of the evil to be engaged with. God practises no con- cealment to His servant. He urges him to count the cost, and look, by His light, on the materials he has to deal with. He is to regard them as God directs. He is io submerge any tendency to make excuses for his people, and also his wishes for peace, comfort, honour, remuneration, and hold up to view the solemn and deep- searching decisions of the Lord. 1. The evil is contrariety to God. Israel had forsaken Him to serve idols. To 24 HO Ml LET 1C COMMENTARY: EZEKIEL. leave Hiin, to pervert His ordinances, or the mixing up devices of their own with these is a renunciation of His authority — is rebellion. Departing from the Lord was the root which sent its sap into each branch, twig, leaf of their conduct before His sight, and gave character to every false, unjust, selfish, impure thought, word, or action, with which they were chargeable. In dealing with men on God's behalf, His servants must never blink the fact that it is not mere mistakes, mere misfor- tune, they have to contend with • but it is with " the minding of the flesh, which is enmity against God." Yet they will not refrain from urging His claims to implicit submission, and will desire to execute their service in the knowledge that they are "earthen vessels," and "the excellency of the power" is with God alone. 2. The evil is hereditary. It does not die out when a generation is dead. It was operative in the Israel who dwelt in Canaan, and it is operative in the Israel captive in Babylon. As the fathers resisted the Holy Ghost so did the descendants. Parents should learn not to continue in sin against God for their children's sake, and children learn that a father's example is not a binding rule as to what to worship. Not from parentage, not from ancestors, not from mere antiquity must we learn our duty, but always try our procedure by the revealed will of God. 3. The evil affects both the inner and the outer life. The heart is at one with the conduct. No chasm, no rotted bridge lies between them and prevents them from uniting their forces against God. No regrets within hamper the words and deeds which offend Him, and the sinning men go with unblushing faces in their own ways. Such is the evil to be dealt with, and " who is sufficient for these things?" It is not merely perplexing to human strength and wisdom; it is im- possible for men to encounter it effectively, except the Spirit is given them from 'above to know what God is, and what God purposes for salvation. IV. Support from the authority of God. Any attempts to destroy such rooted impiety could bring nothing but reproaches, repulses, and defeats, if not under the authorisation of the Lord the Spirit. That is provided — 1. By positive appointment: "I send thee." Ezekiel has good ground for the stand he is required to take. He is an ambassador of the great king — sufficient warrant for any message of woe or of comfort, and a pledge that all needs will be supplied. The secret place for receiving true power, knowledge, wisdom, and adaptation to a service is here. I do not go to it of myself. I do not seek my own things but the things which are Jesus Christ'3. I have behind me all forces, for He is with me who has " all power in heaven and in earth." 2. By a full title to use His name. He deputes Ezekiel to stand in His stead. All that he is to say, so standing, will express the true state of the relations between God and the people, and will all hold good. His servants are prompted to learn thoroughly and to utter plainly that which God has revealed. If they are not able to appeal to any special vision or ordination of the Lord, they can lie open to His Spirit, be led into all the truth, and declare it with no hesitancy of accent. They "preach not themselves but Christ Jesus the Lord." "Their word is with power." V. Persevered in through all circumstances. 1. Because fitted for men. A divine message is not dependent for its truth on any earthly position in which it may be uttered, or on any treatment which it may receive. Accepted or rejected, it retains its authority and adaptation. Farmers must prosecute operations in their fields whatever the appearance of the clouds may be, sure that vivifying rays of the sun will act. So they who are sent with the truth of God must affirm its declarations, even if to do so be both arduous and unproductive. Their encouragement and their constancy are to be taken from God, not from the results which might gratify the mind of the flesh. 2. Because it will not be altogether vain. Should no success, such as teacheis are eager to see, ever come, and people maintain their attitude of disobedience to God, some end, which He has proposed, shall be sure of accomplishment. He will 25 HOMILKTIC COMMENTARY: EZEKIEL. vindicate His righteousness and love somehow, and present the way of truth so that men will not be able to plead ignorance of His appeal to them. They shall know, even though they persist in stubbornness and rebellion, that a prophet — a man with words of rebuke and impulse — has been among them. "The light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the light," 3. Because obstacles are not bound to paralyse efforts. Men who have God on their side are stronger than all that can be against them. His kingdom never has attempted an advance except in face of chiding, and adverse reports, and sullen looks. His servants are not to count such trials as strange things, but set their faces as a flint and urge His warnings and entreaties unwaveringly. When the Lord is on their side they need not fear men's procedure. Like their perfect Exam pier, they should be warranted to say, " When I would have gathered you, \ e would not." VI. Demands implicit submission. To stand before the Lord of hosts, like Elijah, and be empowered to bear His messages, what stronger force can there be than that to constrain men, who are loyal to God, to do whatsoever He wishes? What if their preaching and teaching seem to be addressed as to a blank wall? That will not prompt them to falter, to blunt the edge of the sword of the Spirit, or to compromise the claims of any truth. "It is required of stewards that a man be found faithful." They are not so to the interests of the kingdom of God, they who are unwilling to meet evil reports or good reports; to stand in the midst of calumnies, threats, oppressions ; to find in the very obstinacy of their hearers that which develops a deepening regard for God and a deepening sympathy for men. For all true-hearted men will be anxious not to be rebellious as others whom they see to be rebellious, being sure of this, nobody but himself can make him a rebel. Above all, should preachers and teachers hear the voice of Jesus, so that they shall speak what He bids them, and never be disheartened by the indifference, the levity, the contempt, the resistance shown by those who do not take heed how they hear. (2.) Conscious Acceptance of the Commission (Chaps, ii. 8 — iii. 3). EXEGETICAL NOTES.— Ver. 9. eat and fill thy bowels with this roll." " Sent unto me ; " rather, put forth unto So the eating could not be corporeal ; it, me (as in chap. viii. 3). Ver. 10. "Writ- too, was happening in the visions, and ten within and without," as indicat- enjoined Ezekiel to take whatever would ing the number of overwhelming afflic- be spoken to him into his inner man, tions which were to fall upon the rebel- there to be assimilated with his own lious. feelings, thoughts, will, and then to be Chap. iii. ver. 3. " Cause thy belly to declared to the people. HOMILETIGS. Duty Accepted for Reasons. L As the commission issues from a divine source. This is signified — 1. By lti direction. A hand carried the symbolic medium of the commission, and Ezekiel recognised that hand to be His whose mighty voice he heard. God often appoints to duties by figures which are not unfamiliar to men. Moses saw a bush burning, Tsaiah had a live coal laid upon his lips, Jeremiah's mouth was touched by a hand, and Ezekiel is shown a book. And now, when men hear of the cross, the tomb, the throne, they are told of that which is not revealed by flesh and blood, but by our Father in heaven. Thus the Christ, who is always with us, directs to hearts the truth He would have them believe and obey, and what we ought to desire Lb not vision but faith. " We walk by faith, not by sight." 2. By its plainness to the understanding. Ezekiel could not have made anything 26 HO MI LET IC COMMENTARY : EZEKIEL. out of the book unless its Holder had unrolled it and showed its contents. Then he gets a glimpse of the persons to whom he has to go, and of the prominence he is to give to threats of coming woes. The Lord would let His servant clearly see ■what he has to do. He wishes no vagueness or obscurity to be in any mind as to the certain retribution for sin. He wants to convince our intelligence. Mysteries there cannot but be in His procedure, but He sanctions no blind faith. He gives us as much light as we can bear for the time, and more will be added. " He opens the understanding to understand the Scriptures." " He gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater." The boldest of all followers of Christ the Way will be those who most clearly see that He is the Light, and that " whoso believes in Him shall not abide in darkness, but shall have the light of life." They have the witness in themselves. Lighten our darkness, O Lord ! 3. By its announcing tribulations to come. God only can tell the sorrows, pains, and harassment which will be imposed on any sinners ; and Ezekiel may see written on the roll those future sufferings which men could not foresee. The Israelites did suffer in their native land, and if sin had been its own punishment, the punish- ment would assuredly have ended there. But it did not, and they were deported into foreign countries in order to be visited there also for their rebelliousness. Sin is not its own avenger. The evils which follow it are signs of God's rule. He manifests His righteous character, and His determination to govern the world in righteousness. In due places and at fit times He will make His utter abhorrence of wrong to appear. He is never at a loss where to strike, or whom. " We are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth," and that all suffering among the peoples of the world to-day are in accordance with His purposes of old. He is fulfilling them before our eyes, though we cannot compare them with predic- tions of them, as Ezekiel and Israel could. "The Lord reigneth, let the people tremble." II. As the commission is accompanied with power to fulfil it. The book- roll was not handed to Ezekiel with the guarantee of priests or church, nor from the archives of the Temple. It was from the Lord Himself. Ezekiel may gather from this fact — 1. That there would be new revealings of the ride of the Lord. He had not exhausted all methods for characterising the proceedings and the destinies of men. Fresh conditions, such as those in which His chosen people were found, opened up the occasion by which He could unfold distincter views of His just and good will. It might be said that all He can show must be already indicated ; but Israel would not, or could not, read the logical conclusions implied in the law and the prophets. They needed further teaching, and God is no miser with His knowledge and wisdom. He freely would impart to all; He never binds Himself to use only established institutions, and thus does He the more thoroughly bring His word to the platform from which all classes hear. We expect more light, even with a knowledge of His will far beyond that which Ezekiel could receive ; and in pre- sence of novel conditions of science, politics, ecclesiastical developments, we should be on the outlook for further manifestations of Christ, (t who is the power of God and the wisdom of God." If it be said that the Book of Bevelation is closed now, it should not be said that wider and distincter views of Bevelation are also shut out. We must welcome the better things which the Lord will spread before us. 2. That there would be sensitiveness to receive fuller knowledge. Nature had pre- sented to Ezekiel its storms and lights and animal forms actuated by one controlling force, and he had been deeply moved ; but no special message was there of which he could say, " This is for me alone." Now there is, not Ezekiel's case only, but myriads of other cases attest that the Spirit of the living God does speak to human consciences with the old appeal, " Thou art the man ! " He will i/ot let His Word miss its opportunities. He singles out one and another on the ground of their competence to obey Him ; and if there be a single person who has no sense of God being naar 27 IIOMILETW COMMENTARY: EZEK1EL. and bringing something to him personally, it is because he or she is shutting the ear " lest they should hear with their ears and understand with their hearts." For " the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart." God opens the door of faith, and men may enter in and receive that which flesh and blood could not Lrive, but which He can. :;. That this knowledge would be assimilated to his thoughts and ivays. Ezekiel has to eat the book. It is not that he is merely to learn its meaning, but it is that he is to make all its words his own. He is to "inwardly digest" them, that thev may obtain a form suitable to his character and environment. The Lord imparts them so that they shall be turned into bone and muscle for prophetic tasks. Thus they will be psychologically the prophet's own representation, and yet prepared by divine energy to convey an adequate idea of what the people must hear from the mouth of the Lord. This power to take and eat the book symbolises the truth that, without having thus assimilated the words of God, no one ought to teach and preach. " Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." Certainly no one will live for ever who does not eat of the bread of life which Christ gives. The word of hearing does not profit if not mixed with faith, but when with the heart man belie veth, then will fruit be borne. God knows our need ; He gives power to the faint, and " in Christ strengthening we can do all things." This is "true inspiration. The divine does not remain as a strange element in the man ; it becomes his own feeling thoroughly, penetrates him entirely, just as food becomes a part of his bodily frame" (Umbreit). III. As the commission produces satisfaction with itself. Ezekiel had the sweet experience that he was called by God to serve Him, and found it eminently pleasant to "know no will but His." This experience follows on complete sub- mission to all that He gives us to know of Himself. Once taught of God, we should have no doubts and no reserves. Men's commissions often disappoint, because power to carry them out is not welded into them. God never lets His workers go on their own charges ; He is prepared to supply all their need. Let them but be consecrated to Him, present their bodies as a living sacrifice, take all the strength and love which Jesus has for them, and they will be enabled to exclaim, " I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, for Christ's sake." To be used for the Lord will be a sweeter experience than we shall find elsewhere. Even if we have to tell of painful and woful things, we shall do so, knowing that we are not acting on the promptings of our own temper, not serving our own desires, but obeying "the Lord, the Lord God merciful and gracious, who will by no means clear the guilty." Come what may in our life-service, a little or a great duty, one to which we run or one from which we shrink, we shall surely be able to say, as Jeremiah did, " Thy words were found, and I did eat them ; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart; for I am called by Thy name, O Lord God of hosts." (3.) Ratifications of the Commission (Chap. iii. 4-15). EXEGETICAL NOTES.— Vers. 5, 6. contracted. He will be able to give his " Of a strange speech and of an hard whole attention to the meaning rather language.'' The marginal reading, deep than to the vocal sounds of the words of li]> and heavy of tongve, indicates in which he declares the messages of the that nothing is referred to here about Lord, and must aim that his people tho- the characteristics of national languages. roughly understand the words he uses. It is the obscurity and embarrassment " They would have hearkened to thee." of a foreign speech, to a man who cannot The obstacle meeting the prophet, if he employ them, which are brought to view. spoke in the words of the Lord to the Ezekiel is to speak no tongue but that- heathen, would be their language. When of Israel. His sphere is definite and he speaks. to the Israelites, it is their 28 UOMILETIC COMMENTARY : EZEKIEL. hardness of heart. Familiarity with reli- gious words often counteracts their power. Ver. 9. " As an adamant." A very hard stone of some kind. We may doubt if it be a diamond, as in Jer. xvii. 1 ; but it signified to Ezekiel that he would be made more than a match for the contumacy of Israel. He would be neither shamed, nor terrified, nor put down before his rebellious people. Ver. 1 2. " The Spirit," the same which moved in the living creatures, " took me up," or, as in ver. 14, " lifted me up." He had been standing on his feet, but now there came a feeling as if he were raised from the ground and about to be removed from the spot at which he had seen " visions of God." Just as he was turned, "I heard behind me a voice of a great rushing " — a sound of loud and commingled noises, but not that, as in our Bible, they only conveyed the cry, " Blessed be the glory of the Lord from his place." The ap- pearance of the glory of the Lord was to be withdrawn for a season from the sight of Ezekiel, but wherever it might be, resting or moving, he was to know that matter for praise and honour must belong to it. It is not said who gave forth this doxology ; but as the only articulate voice mentioned is (chap. i. 28) that of Him who is on the sapphire throne, the voice would appear to have proceeded from thence, and so clearly that it could be distinguished from the other accompanying sounds, which Eze- kiel goes on to specify. Ver. 13. The sound of great rushing was caused also by " the noise of the wings of the living creatures" — when flying, the wings touched one the other, as was intimated chap. i. 24 — " and the noise of the wheels." Ver. 14. "I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit." He was de- pressed and also excited. He felt his own insufficiency, and in a glow of indig- nation regarding the work he had to do. He went straight to it, for he was mas- tered by the mighty hand. His state was akin to that of Paul (1 Cor. ii. 3, 4), "I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling ; and my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." Under the hand of the Lord Ezekiel went into society. Ver. 15. Tel-abib, the place near which, probably, Ezekiel's home was ; but instead of living in comparative seclusion, he was required to lay himself open to his fellow-exiles. " And I sat where they sat." There is a difficulty in the Hebrew of this clause. The way of solving it which is taken by the Eng lish Bible is that suggested by ancient Jewish critics. The Septuagint has an other way, by leaving out " and," and rendering the other words, " those who were there." Some later commentators prefer a slightly different Hebrew punc- tuation, and translate, " and I saw them dwelling there ; " while others give this version, " and where they were dwelling there " — a version perhaps the least open to objections — "I remained astonished " — stunned. Ezra ix. 3, 4, indicates that Ezekiel's posture was that of a man who does not move by reason of his emotion and infirmity. There follows continuous silence for " seven days," not as a fixed time for mourning, but as a period of purification and probation for appointed services (Lev. viii. 33). This paragraph conveys to Ezekiel the purport of the order he had carried out in eating the roll. There are repe- titions of matters which had already been communicated to him, but they are applied to a somewhat altered condition. The sight of the glory of the Lord, the summons to serve this God of Glory, the consent to do as he was instructed, are followed up by the command to go and do the service in the allotted sphere. Thus in later days Andrew, Peter, Philip followed Jesus of Nazareth before they were called by Him to become fishers of men. And in our days it is not enough to look to Christ and feel inclination to take up a portion of work for Him ; men and women need to get the opportunity which is furnished by the Lord opening a door. By this He ratifies His own call. 29 E0MILET1C COMMESTARY : EZEKIEL. HOMILETICS. L The adaptedness of God's messages (vers. 4-6). 1. They are transmissible by means of tvords. Man's language and thought are bound to each other by coherent links. Given words will suggest ideas correspon- dent to them, and so men can understand what the purport of a message is. The fact that God is on another plane than His creatures is not an obstacle to His com- municating with them, if He choose to do so. But it is impossible for them to perceive His method of doing so. Yet it carries a self-evidencing power, and true men can unhesitatingly say, "Thus saith the Lord." Mysteriousness does not in- validate consciousness. We may eat the fruit though we cannot tell how the tree produced it from soil and atmosphere. 2. They are translatable into every tongue of men. It may be rude or culti- vated, that of Israel or of a heathen nation, no matter which, all men are His off- spring and capable of receiving what God wishes to let them know. His children, scattered abroad over the earth — Cretans and Arabs, Indians and Negroes — hear in their own tongues wherein they were born the wonderful works of God. " He will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." 3. They suppose competent messengers. A fit messenger will speak in the language of the people to whom he conveys the words of God. To repeat them in a dead language, or in a foreign language, or in the hard, unusual terms of a ver> ar, is to go against the desire of God that all people should understand His will Preachers and teachers should aim to employ language which will produce the clearest and most widespread impression of what God has given for their hearers. It was a characteristic of our perfect Exampler that " the common people heard Him gladly." He should be copied in this, if possible, by all who would speak for the Father. 4. They do not compel acceptance. It may be no discredit to one who is endea- vouring to do spiritual good to men that he is not attended to. He may speak precious truths in vain, and that not because of the unsuitableness of his message, but because of the state of those who hear. Like his Lord, he may feel grieved because of the hardness of their hearts. He makes his appeal to those whose eyes the god of this world has blinded — " who love the darkness rather than the light " — who are as free to reject as to accept the words of the Lord. But while be- lieving this, let all who speak His words be sure that they state them as they ought, and then, if they are not hearkened to, they will be free from blame for their unsuc- cess — they will sorrow over the sad fact that it is God who is not hearkened to. 5. They are partial in their diffusion. There are tribes and nations which have not received any special messages regarding the glory and grace of the God and Father of their spirits. "His ways are past finding out." It is sometimes said that if the servants of God had been more devout and enterprising, such a condition of ignorance as to the true God would not have remained. There is a certain amount of truth in this representation; but it would be an error if we let that aspect alone be regarded. We have this also to notice, that behind it there is the mightier and more mysterious fact that God has not commissioned messengers to go to certain peoples, who yet, if He had done so, would have embraced His messages! "Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight." We are dumb with silence. We can only wait, believing that "He doeth all things well." IL Sufficient grace proffered (vers. 7-11). 1. To meet foreshadowed difficulties. The Lord is wishful that His servants should not be surprised at hindrances. Their first impression generally is, that, having become obedient to the Almighty One, He will make a clear way for them to walk in. That impression is not caused by anything He has said or omitted to say. He knows how the consciences of men will deal with His righteous claims and turn themselves away from hearing the law ; so He urges His people to count the 30 HOMILETIC COMMENTARY: EZEKIEL. chap. in. cost of serving Him, to expect rebuffs and disappointments. Then, if they fail to win men, God will have prepared them for just such an event. They need not be cast down, however painful their trials ; they must act on His authority, though they have to make a hard, determined advance. 2. To enable to stand firm. For all such failures God will bestow surpassing strength. If the rejecters are obstinate, He will make His servants more tenacious than they. He will "give a mouth and wisdom, that all their adversaries will not be able to gainsay or resist." They go forth with precious promises from "a faithful Creator." He does not pledge Himself to give them comforts or converts — He does pledge Himself to give " mercy to the faithful." Jeremiah heard Him say, " They shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee, for I am with thee to deliver thee." Suspicious and angry looks may confront us, but they will not dismay us, for the Lord is at our right hand. " God so wishes some- times His servants to acquiesce in His government that they should labour even without any hope of fruit. Therefore let us learn to leave the event in the hand of God when He enjoins anything upon us. It ought to suffice us that our obedi- ence is pleasing to Him." — Calvin. 3. To maintain unbroken communion. His words remain with His people. His Spirit is ever bringing to their remembrance the things He hath spoken. Ready to receive Him, they find a spring opened on every parched pathway — something fitted to sustain them in all duties and discouragements. It will be from their own negligence, or fear, or unbelief, that they will lose the light of His countenance. " The same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth and is no lie ; and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him." 4. To promote conduct correspondent to His assurances. " He giveth grace upon grace." "To him that hath shall be given ;" and intimation is made to Ezekiel that He expects: (1.) Acknowledgment of His authority. From Him alone is it derived. No man, no ordinance, no institution can convey the power to receive God's words to any person. Every claim to possessing such power is baseless, since He claims that it belongs to His own inworking, and is communicated to whomso- ever He chooses. Men can truly speak with a "Thus saith the Lord," but it is because they have been " called " of God, and have bowed to that call. Such men may preach boldly, for they will be warranted to believe that they do so through the power of Christ speaking in them. (2.) Univavering adherence to His word of truth. There must be no compromises with selfish and worldly thoughts. Whether the truth is listened to approvingly or carelessly, whether it is acquiesced in or utterly rejected, no part of it is to be concealed — "all my words" — no part is to be mutilated, for He who speaks is "the Lord God." The rain cometh down from heaven and falls on soil which absorbs it, or on flinty rocks which throw it off, so is the word which proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord. " We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord." III. Appointment to labour for God (vers. 12-15). 1. By the energy of the Spirit. He* knoweth the deep things of God, and is able to show where, when, and how His servants must go to speak from His mouth. It cannot be an impossible duty to be " filled with the Spirit : " it cannot be a special duty for a few amongst those who obey the Lord : one in the lowliest sphere may receive this " unspeakable gift " as assuredly as one in the most conspicuous sphere ; and, supplied with the Spirit, all believers in Jesus will hear His voice calling them into His footprints, and act for His glory in all ways. They will learn to prosecute His interests, and not their own, wherever He leads them. Not by desire for a position amongst men, not for " filthy lucre," not for success will they be led amongst acquaintances or strangers. They will go to be "a sweet savour of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish." Sanctified by the Holy Spirit, they will speak in His mighty power. 2. In the face of soul-reluctances. The circumstances into which the Spirit lifts 31 I10M1LETIC COMMENTARY ■■ EZEKJEL. the children of God are not always agreeable to them. Nothing promising may appear, their opportunities may be few and contracted, or the people may be apathetic and scornful. Not despondency only, but chagrin may infest the hearts of those whom He has "chosen for Himself, that they might show forth His praise." They are disposed to murmur that they are not kindly treated by being appointed to such a work, or are not qualified to face the difficulties, and, with more pity for themselves than trust in the Lord, to exclaim, "Who is sufficient for these things'?" Alas ! in such " bitterness of spirit " there may be the result of misapprehension of the ways of God and irritation against them. Our only security against mistakes and disobedience is in obtaining the gift of power — in the hand of the Lord being strong upon us. Under it we may have a masterful experience like that of Paul, " I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ, for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh." We shall bear the strain, however we may feel as if we could cry, " Send by whom Thou wilt send, but not by me." 3. With sufficient upholding. "All the need" of those who have given them- selves up to the rule of God has a guaranteed supply. Their weakness, fear, and much trembling do not exhaust it. They will not long falter, and will not retreat, because they " go in the strength of the Lord God." They will bear the heat and burden of their day of labour, because " greater is He that is for them than all that can be against them." 4. Affected by strange hindrances. A wide door and effectual was opened before Ezekiel, but disablement and silence formed his first experiences upon entrance thereunto. Peter is to be converted before he can strengthen his brethren. Paul has to go into Arabia before he is fit to be a chosen vessel unto the Lord. Many a later Christian has found unexpected obstacles interfering with the service to which he believed himself called by his Master. Weak health, uncertainty what first to do, severe temptations and doubts have appeared obstructing his devotedness. Sometimes he is inclined to give up or let despondency unman him. But no : he has to hope in God, for he will yet praise Him for the help of His countenance. He must sow the good seed of the kingdom, if he can ; if he cannot, he must wait till God tells him to go and work in the field. All delay, all pain, all inability to do what we hoped to do have purposes which will not really hinder " the end of the Lord." "All things work together for good to them that love God" and to the interests of His righteousness and salvation amongst men. ILLUSTRATIONS. Communication from God.— He can have His infinite and, at the same time, His finite side of being. He has His own eternal thought, and can also think, and does constantly think, the thoughts of time. He is all-knowing, and, therefore, more intimately present in our souls, yea, spiritually nearer to us, we may say, than we are to oursel-ves. He knows us not by media, by signals outward or interior, not by induction from effects or by foreknowledge from causes, but by direct and immediate presence, even by spirit-pervading, interpenetrating spirit. He can think our thoughts as we think them, feel our feelings as we feel them, know our knowledge as we know it; if He cannot do this, then are there deep places in His universe of soul unknown to Him as they truly are. If He cnn do this, then he can make a revelation in language, in any language, in any actions, signals, symbols, in any outward representations, in any inward affections of the soul, in any finite way. If God thus comes down to us, we see reason why He should adopt that style of speech which is the most outward, the most pheno- menal, and, therefore, the most universal. It is the language of the Infinite speaking through media to the human mind, even as one unseen human soul speaks to another human soul through the outward undulations of the air. The words and images are specially selected and specially arranged with reference to the wants of our human race in their peculiar moral history. The words are not outwardly spoken to the prophet's cars or telegraphically signalled to his imagining sensorium. They are, psychologically, the prophet's words, the prophet's images, yet still none the less specially designed through the linked media of revelation, as the very best possible words, the best possible imagery through which such an approximate communica- tion of the ineffable could be made to human minds. Let us be thankful for every type, for every metaphor, for every impassioned appeal, for every instance of the divine condescension 32 HOMILETIC COMMENTARY : EZEKIEL. in coming down to us, taking the scale of our thoughts, and speaking to us in our own human emotions, our own human conceptions, as well as in our own human words. — Lewis. No man by searching could ever comprehend the glories of a sunrise. Only as the sun, coming up from behind the hills of the morning, reveals himself, could we know what morning is. And so only as God, moving up by a law of motion inherent and undiscoverable, lifts Himself into the horizon of man's observation, can man know what God is. All we know of God, therefore, we know because of revelation made of Himself by Himself. — Murray. Nearer than " the next street," even nigh to our spirits within, and yet above us high as heaven is above the earth, is God felt to be when the words of [prophets and] apostles address themselves "to every man's conscience in the sight of God." While not rejecting the thought of exceptional dealings amounting to the miraculous, my faith acknowledges as normal, and underlying all hope in preaching as all responsibility in hearing, a true inward divine teaching in the Spirit, enabling him who is yielded to i ', and in the measure in which he is yielded to it, to understand and welcome revelation. — Macleod Campbell. The evil religious condition. — In the national spirit and character prevalent in any age, every member of the nation without exception has a share. Every one contributes to this spirit, not only when as a child of the age he is infected, if not by all, yet by one or other of the sins universally diffused ; but also when, through neglect of energetic protest, admonition, correction, and punishment, he does not meet it with opposition sufficiently decided. But sinful acts, manifold and widely ramified, point back to sinful tendencies, of which they are manifestations. There is nothing external without an internal counterpart. At the root of illegal acts lies the illegal condition. . . . God's eye pierces to the heart, and His lips of truth describe the sinful tendency as already a sinful act, a transgression of that law of His which requires obedience of heart and inclination. — Philippi. Submission. — What we can help and what we cannot help are on two sides of a line which separates the sphere of human responsibility from that of the Being who has arranged and controlled the order of things. The divine foreknowledge is no more in the way of dele- gated choice than the divine omnipotence is in the way of delegated power. The Infinite can surely slip the cable of the finite if it choose to do so. — Holmes. It is absolutely necessary that, in activity as in rest, you should not only support the idea of God, but that it should be welcome to you; that you should feel the need to blend it with everything; that it should not disturb but complete your life. If it were not so, God would not be to you what He ought to be, nor would you be to Him what you ought ; in both cases your life would be mutilated, false, absurd. — Vinet. Every time Jesus had to act or speak He first effaced Himself, then left it to the Father to will, to think, to act, to be everything in Him. Similarly, when we act or speak, we must first efface ourselves in presence of Jesus; and after having suppressed in ourselves, by an act of will, every wish, every thought, every act of our own self, we are to leave it to Jesus to manifest in us His will, His wisdom, His power. With Jesus the believer holds direct communication, and through Him alone we find and can possess the living Father. — Godet. Heceptiveness to truth. — I must have my spirit brought into contact with the quality and character and reality of truth, so as to be affected by it in accordance with its proper nature. All spiritual truth is addressed to the conscience in man, and is understood only by the con- science ; and if the conscience is not in action, the truth is to him like light grasped by the hand instead of received by the eye. A grammarian or logician is apt to forget that there may be meaning in the words or reasonings which require the co-operation of another faculty. All spiritual truth is of inspiration, and speaks to what is of the nature of inspiration within man. All that God speaks to us through others, or from without, is intended to make us better apprehend what He is speaking to each in the secret of His being.— Ershine. Prescience of God. — It cannot but seem to us a higher perfection to know all things at once than gradually to arrive to the knowledge of one thing after another, and so proceed from the ignorance of some things to the knowledge of them ; and that nothing is more certain than that all possible perfection must agree to God : so we find His own word asserting to Him that most perfect knowledge which seems to exclude the possibility of increase. It is not impossible to assign particular instances of some or other most confessedly wicked actions, against which God had directed those ordinary means of counselling and dehorting men, and which yet it is most certain He did foreknow they would do ; as Ezekiel was directed to speak to the revolted Israelites with God's own words to warn and dehort them from their wicked ways. — Howe. Differing results from truth. — It is from no fault inherent in the earth that it enables the upas-tree poison to be eliminated from the same soil that gives us the bread of life. The tree elaborates deadly essences through an organism and chemistry of its own — a devil in the tree — so the heart of man misuses the good things of God. — W. M. W. Independence. — Warm your body by healthful exercise, not by cowering over a stove. Warm your spirit by performing independently noble deeds, not by ignobly seeking the sym- pathy of your fellows. — Thoreau. To feel, to think, to do only the holy right, To yield no step in the awful race, no blow in the fearful fight, — Anon. c 33 I10M1LETIC COMMENTARY: EZEKIEL. There is tonic in the things that men do not love to hear, and there is damnation in the thingB that tricked men love to hear. Free speech is to a great people what winds are to oceans and malarial regions, which waft away the elements of disease and bring new elements of health ; and where free speech is stopped, miasma is bred and death comes fast. — Beccher. Find, in every stress of spiritual fortune, in every hour of supreme exposure to evil, in every time of assault from wickedness, find your resources within yourselves ; not of yourselves, but within yourselves. Too many people have an outside God. What they need, what the world needs, is, as Paul said, " Christ in you the hope of glory." — Murray. Inspiration. — As the water with which we water the seed sown in the ground does not create the plant which grows out of it, but stimulates the development of the organs which had previously been formed in the germ and sets their power in action, so the Holy Spirit docs not Substitute Himself for the individuality of the sacred author. He awakens his faculties, He groups his experiences, He places him in immediate contact with salvation, and by that means confers upon him a special gift — the distinct intuition of that aspect of gospel truth which answers most specially to his own character and needs. The pole which attracted the sentiment or intelligence of each writer was not situated for all at the same point on the sphere of revelation. — Godet. Moral government. — Who shall not aim at the same end at which God aims in revealing the gospel — that end to which creation, providence, laws, precepts, ordinances, grace, reason, conscience, revelation, everything else is subservient — right moral action in principle and practice? Who shall not use the same means for this end which God uses — that truth or system of truth which is imbedded in His perfect moral government — which ever places man in the Altitude of an agent, teaching his dependence on God only as a reason for acting and doing ? Who shall not aim to make the same impression on the human mind which God aims to make by His commands to act, His exhortations to act, His invitations, His entreaties to act, thus throwing every iota of responsibility for the issues of eternity on man as an agent — for what he does, for the deeds done in the body ? God's revealed moral government, the glorious gospel of the blessed God, is by Him designed and fitted, not to hold a world of moral beings like this in the slumbers of spiritual death, but to rouse and move and stir them to the instant, the ceaseless, the joyous activities of that spiritual life which is the only and absolute perfection of a spiritual being. — Taylor. Spirit and matter. — All life, individual as well as universal, has, as its ground of origina- tion and subsistence, as its root and its link, God's \oyos and God's irvevfj.a. Everything lives and moves and suhsists, closely united and reciprocally attracted in one element — in Him. '•As an army is organised by its general, and is arranged according to his plan of battle, even so are banded together the starry hosts and the groups of atoms according to the will of one Eternal Spirit. This creating and ordaining Spirit pervades every cell, generates and regulates the flight of every working bee, according to the eternal purpose of the whole. . . . That which generates the galvanic current in the most opposed elements of the voltaic pile; that which gives the living weapon of defence to the electric eel, by the contact of moist heterogeneous pai is ; i hat which inclines the magnetic needle to the north — precisely the same creative prin- ciple orders and controls the whole fabric of the world, creates and vitalises the organic cell, arranges the intercourse between spirit and matter." Above the material stands the power as the material of materials; above the power stands life as the power of powers; above life Stands the spirit as the life of life ; above all spirits stands God as the Spirit of spirits, and there is no solution for the enigma of the reciprocal action of all things but this all-effecting and pervading chief monad, which unites all contraries in itself and through itself. — Delitzsch. Self-sacrifice. — The completest self-sacrifice gives the coinpletcst self-possession ; only the captive soul which has flung her rights away has all her powers free ; simply to serve, under instant orders of the living God, is the highest qualification for command. This is the mean- ing of that great saying of Cromwell's, "One never mounts so high as when one knows not whither one is going " — a saying which the wise and prudent scorned as a confession of hlind- ness, hut which reveals to simpler minds the deepest truth. — Martineau. Waiting. — God has so arranged thechronometrv of our spirits that there shall be thousands of silent moments between the striking hours.— Martineau. She accepted it all absolutely, unconditionally. The past never confused the present : her life went on from moment to moment, from step to step, as naturally as plants grow and flower. She said, "I think there are lighthouses all along our lives, and God knows when it is time to light the lamps." — Anon. Let tomrue rest and quiet thy quill be ! Earth is earth and not heaven, and never wdl be. Plan's work is to labour and leaven — As best he may — earth here with heaven. "Fis work for work's sake that he is needing; Let him work on and on as if speeding Work's end, hut not dream of succeeding; Because if success" wcreintended, Why, heaven would begin ere earth ended. — Browning. u HO MI LET 10 COMMENTARY : EZEKIEL. CHAP. III. II— THE ENTRANCE BY EZEKIEL ON THE EXECUTION OF HIS COMMISSION. Chaps. III. 16— VII. Ezekiel had been fully accredited, but did not begin his work as a messenger of the Lord when he was sent among the people. He remained in their midst, silent and astonied — stunned — for a season. Then came instructions, conveying distinct intimation of the responsibilities of his position, of the thraldom in which he would be held, and thereto the first communications for the people followed. 1. Responsibilities Illustrated (Chap. iii. 16-21). EXEGETICAL NOTES. Ver. 16. " At the end of seven days the word of the Lord came." The power to prophesy is not inherent in man. It is not produced by his agency. It comes and goes according to occult influences which do not obliterate the mental con- dition of the recipient. Rather they enter into such correlation with him as to enhance his susceptibility for what is divine, and are always in a certain cor- respondence with constitutional ability, circumstances, acquirements of the per- son on whom they operate. Ver. 17. "I have made" — given — "thee a watchman." This shows to Ezekiel how he is to think of himself in the work appointed. He is, as it were, to cover with his eyes the objects placed under his view, and to take action in correspondence with their appearances. He is to look, search, announce or de- nounce. The watchman is thus closely allied to the seer — only this is the pas- sive state of which the former is the active. "Unto the house of Israel." Not as an organic unity, but as made up of individuals, part of whom are wicked and part righteous, and the prophet is to inspect carefully the marks which are traceable on each so as to impart appro- priate warnings. " Hear the word at my mouth." He is not to produce his own opinions, or to state that which may agree with the opinions of the people ; he is to stand in the light of pure truth and goodness and tell its manifestations. " Give them warning." Be not a lec- turer on history or business ; do not sit as a professor to set forth the doctrines that are to be accepted as credible ; spend not your time in making up com- plaints for the people about their dis- tresses as captives in a foreign land. Show that the real evil is in themselves, not in their environment; rouse up a conviction of danger to them so long as they cherish any delusion as to external relationship to the Lord God, if they are disregarding His laws. The future is ominous with storms, and they will be struck down if they follow the ways of their own heart. "From me." It is I who warn. I speak to thee and use thy capabilities. Take a fearless mes- sage, for I am with thee. Do not tra- vesty the sketch I intrust thee with by inserting colours which I warn thee not to put there. Ver. 1 S. " When I say unto the wicked." God comes into personal com- munication with transgressors when His servant delivers His message faithfully. " Thou shalt surely die." The identical threat against the first sinner (Gen. ii. 17) is valid throughout all generations. In every world sin is death as contrasted with life. " Nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way." Once to give warning is not to fulfil the charge devolving on the prophet. There are to be repetitions and perhaps private appeals. The representations are to be made, moreover, against both the man and his doings ; for there are sin and sins — an evil disposition and exhibi- tions thereof. "To save his life." The purpose of the Lord in speaking to the wicked man is to bestow life upon him — not merely to put a stop to. iniquity. He hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked. If life is not secured he " shall die in his iniquity," in the sins he has committed ; so he will bring the 35 110MILET1C COMMENTA RY ': EZEKIEL. ty upon himself; ••'but his blood will I require at thine hand.-' His blood is typical of his life, and He, whose are all souls, will take a reckon- ing for that life towards the loss of which a guilty negligence has contributed. Ver. 1 9. '• Yet if ... he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way ; " if he do not repent — change his mind and conduct; "thou hast delivered thy soul:" thou wilt stand clear of any accusations of having dealt unfaithfully in thy office. In later times Paul was able to say, "I am pure from the blood of all men." Ver. 20. A parallel case to that of the wicked is now illustrated, but having reference to a righteous man. It is sup- posed that " a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness." He does not show a simple weakness in obeying, but a disposition to evil. He yields his members to "commit iniquity, and I lay — give — a stumblingblock before him." God tempteth not any man, but He arranges the circumstances of men so that an evil heart finds occasion to assert its power, and to draw from the paths of righteousness into the ways of sin. Tli us gold and silver (chap. vii. 19), and a regard for sensuous worship (chap. xiv. 4, 7), affected the Israelites so that they stumbled. Pharaoh is an illustration of an individual, under pro- vidential events, becoming hardened against the good and holy will of the Lord (Exod. vii. 3, 22, viii. 15). " Be- cause thou hast not given him warn- ing, he shall die in his sin." The watchman will be counted guilty of negligence, but his neglect will not excuse the sin of the wanderer from righteousness. That will bring death. " And his righteousness," his external habits and actions, which, " touching the righteousness which is in the law," were blameless, " shall not he remembered," they shall be regarded as if they had never been. Ver. 21. On the other hand, " if thou warn the righteous man that the righteous sin not ; " or, if thou icarn the righteous not to sin as a righteoits man, i.e., as professing to have a charac- ter which is unspotted by iniquity, and he is confirmed in his right standing by your words, " thou hast delivered thy soul." Thus Ezekiel learns the principles by which he is to be moved in carrying on the office of a watchman. Incidentally the procedure of the divine government, in respect to moral character, is indi- cated, but that is a subject deferred to chaps, xviii. and xxxiii. more especi- ally. IIOMILETICS. God's call to service is a trust (vers. 1G, 17). Such a call may be special and capable of being distinctly realised, as by Ezekiel; or it may be general and only its principles appreciated, as by those on whom wishes to do good, vague aspirations, dreams, impressive events have been operating; but whatever be the method in which the call is made, its character as a trust is never altered. I. Its features as relating to God show this. 1. Tlh' call U conveyed by Cod. He can act on the human will through any one of the faculties which all'ect it. Prepared eyes can see visions of God, as did Ezekiel, Paul and others; sensitive ears can perceive the sounds of His voice, as did Isaiah, John, and others. He uses the means for producing clear views of duty, more or less definite desires and purposes, firm resolves; and whether these tend towards prophesying, preaching, teaching in families or schools, directing the sickly or dying, they who experience them should receive them as coming from the Father of Lights, the Ruler of all events. They may be recognised, so far as they issue from Him, as sent by Him. though the recipients should not have " heard His voice at any time or Been His shape." The labourers go to work in His vineyard at the hour in which lie finds them idle. The child of a godly mother responds 30 H0M1LET1C COMMENTARY : EZEKIEL. to His impulse with, "0 Lord, truly I am thy servant." An apostle affirms, "A dispensation of the gospel is committed to me." 2. It is concerned with the truth of God. His truth contains knowledge for the wayfaring man, guidance for the lost, bread for the hungry, healing for the wounded, life for the dead in sins — who will dare to smother its virtue '] Let the methods of the call be what they may, the work is to be begun and continued in simple acquiescence to that which He reveals. He will not allow another standard. No herald, soldier, minister should think of modifying the terms in which a govern- ment made a declaration of war or a proffer of peace to another government. . Less reasonable is it to affect to modify the terms which the mighty God may instruct His servants to bear. "The foolishness of God is wiser than men." His words are perfectly and always true. One man's mind may apprehend them somewhat differently from that of another man, one speaker proclaim them less vigorously than another ; but, in any case, the truth in Jesus must not be departed from, must not be tampered with ; it must be set forth as His. 3. Its contents are meant for all hearers. Ezekiel is appointed watchman, not for some individuals or for some sections of his people, but for the whole house of Israel. The Lord of the spirits of all flesh has teachings for the young and adult, for poor and rich, for wicked and righteous, and it is not for those whom He calls to be His messengers to alter or prescribe limitations to the reach of His words. He may endow one with a gift suited for children, and another with that adapted to the rough or the cultured, and a third with that fitted for the unconverted or believers ; each is to use his gift in the distinct understanding that the truth of God is applied to specific conditions. Underlying this conviction of the adaptation of God's word to each person should be the strong living thought that the whole world lies within the scope of the divine holiness and love. In our own houses, or outside of them, there are those for whom His food is prepared, and are we not to distribute it] "I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise." II. Its features in those who are called show this. 1. In reference to the messages they receive, there is to be : (1.) A consistent impressibleness to their power. His servants must stand in living and persistent regard to God. Creeds, catechisms, systems, churches, and ecclesiastical assemblies of all kinds, are as likely to interfere now between Him and the single- mindedness of those whom He sends forth, as was manifested by the old priesthood, of whom it was said, "Ye have caused many to stumble at the law." We need to abide with the Holy Spirit, so that the truths already learned of Christ should retain as fresh a divine power over us as truths which may have been newly given to us ; we should seek for the ability to link on the one to the other, so as to be " perfect and complete in all the will of God " whensoever we speak for Him. (2.) A readiness to accept more. Ezekiel had seen the glory of the Lord and been lifted up by the Spirit, but he is to expect further revelations. None have such abundance of light and impulse for service that they need no more. They have not yet attained. The glory and grace of the Only-begotten cannot be comprehended in a lifetime. Our minds must receive the mould which is suited to our Lord's own promise, "To him that hath shall be given." 2. In reference to the responsibility imposed on the messengers. They are required : (1.) To look at things in the light of God. It is sometimes an object of desire to see the truth of things just as God sees them. Such desire is worse than foolish, whether it relate to our sins or duties. But to ask that we may rightly perceive how either sin or duty stands in view of the Holy One is wise, and fitted to move us toward conformity to the mind of Christ. Many a sailor can satisfactorily tell what he must do with* his vessel in a storm, and yet is unable to measure the pres- sure or the velocity of the wind. And the simplest servants of the Lord may so learn His thoughts and ways as that they shall be practical] v agreed with God, and 37 OHap. m. EOMILETIC COMMENTARY: EZEKIEL. yet be ^t ill far from complete knowledge of Him. Nevertheless, practical walking in the light of His countenance is to be maintained continually. (2.) To tell ofh, rs what is shown of God. The spiritual eye and the heart sensitive to His stations respecting man's procedure and what man should do are not to be unused. They are to be made means of convincing all and judging of all ungodly deeds and righteous efforts. Plainness and faithfulness must be brought to the front. Evasion or compromises are out of place in the service of Him who seeth not as man seeth. The message is from Him, and will be associated with His gracious power working in us to will and do. "If a watchman want eyes and knowledge, how can he discern danger, instruct the ignorant, heal the wounded, reduce the straying, lift up the fallen, feed the hungry, comfort the feeble, resolve conscience, and compare things past with things present and future?" — Greenhill. Postulates for an effective watchman (vers. 18-21). 1. Discrimination in addressing the people. He has to act for all, but the wicked are to be spoken to as wicked and the righteous as righteous. Human intelligence may not be capable of distinguishing the inward moral character of persons ; that inability must not lead to the confounding of wickedness with right- eousness. The warning has to be uttered with all plainness, in reference to dispo- sition or action. The application must be somewhat personal — like that of Nathan to David, "Thou art the man!" The forms of application may be indefinitely varied, but the gist of it will ever define the separation which discriminates " the precious from the vile." The fear or the gentleness which prevents a follower of Christ from making it clear that sin is death — no matter whether the sinning one be poor or rich, a so-called worldly man or a so-called Christian — must be counter- acted by the remembrance that " God cannot be mocked ; for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap." Preachers and teachers of the gospel may be deficient in some valuable qualifications ; they must not be deficient in determina- tion to avoid whatever will lead into a mistake as to moral conduct. They have nothing to learn from the maxim, "Live and let live." They have to hold forth the word of life to those who may be dead in sins, and to those who may have Veen freed from sin but been tempted to go back to their former master, so that they may know they have not life. 2. Singleness of aim. The purpose of God, in calling men to receive and promulgate His messages, is to save from death. He does not want the soul to revise its past records but to make new records. He does not care so much to avert punishment as to repress the tendencies to punishable conduct — to turn from wickedness and wicked ways to righteousness and righteous ways, from death to life. There may be many pleasant results following our religious efforts, yet the labourer must not aim at less than saving the souls alive of those for whom he acts. He is intrusted with that on which depends, not the mere pleasure or comfort or happiness of men, but their lives, and no consideration should be allowed to divert the directness of the aim he is appointed to take. 3. Certainty of injhtence. He who brings the word of the Lord does not work in vain. It may be that he does see results such as he wishes to see, or results Buch as he most earnestly deprecates should not occur; but the Master sees that he sheds "a savour of life unto life, or of death unto death." Still it can never be matter of indifference to learn what is the influence which is exerted. " When Jesus beheld the city He wept over it." "There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." " What is our hope or joy or crown of rejoic- ing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming?" How needful to abide under the seriousness of the conviction that we are affecting, for weal or for woe, tho.^e with whom, as Christ's servants, we have intercourse, and seek " by all means to save some." " Let us throw the net oft, we may catch fish in a dead sea." 38 HOMILETIC COMMENTARY: EZEKIEL. chap. hi. 4. Subordination to God. He retains in His own power all decisions as to ■death and life, and His messengers are but instruments for declaring the principles on which He grounds His procedure. He calls them to " be not weary in well- doing"— to be "instant in season, out of season ;" but to not one of them does He give a title to pronounce, over the wicked or righteous man, the sentence, "I con- demn thee to die. I absolve thee from thy sins." " Who art thou that judgest another1?" It is arrogancy and boldness to step into Christ's place, and impose any laws, decrees, or inventions of men upon the consciences of others, or to judge the conditions of men, without warrant from Christ and His Word. Prophets may not do it, much less others. That power is not transferred ; the power which He does confer is to declare that God Himself denounces death on the impenitent, that He gives life to those who turn to His ways. He who teaches otherwise does not stand to his appointment as a watchman and travesties the authority which he might rightly wield. 5. Award according to faithfulness. Office in the kingdom of God does not screen its holder from the righteous judgment of God if he is negligent in duties. He will reckon with them, both for what has been let alone or unfaithfully carried out, and for what has been attended to and faithfully fulfilled. The day will come when He will announce the reward or woe. Omission of duty may be as fatal as commission of evil — the negligence which does not extinguish a spark may occasion a conflagration as destructive as that which intentional malice may cause. How earnestly is the question to be pondered : Do we watch for souls as they that must give account, that we may do it with joy and not with grief? Laws forjudging moral conduct (vers. 18-21). 1. Impartiality will be dealt otit. " There is no respect of persons with God." The righteous man, if he turn to evil, is condemned equally with the wicked man. and a wicked man, if he turn to righteousness, is saved equally with a righteous man. They who have served the Lord cannot expect that He will wink at, or take no account of their transgressions of His law, on the ground- that they have been serving Him, just as they whose hearts have been stout against Him are not to suppose that He will be indifferent to the repentings which are kindled in them. They who have begun wrong may turn to righteousness and will be treated as righteous doers, while they who have done right may turn into a wrong way and will be treated as wrong. This rule for moral life has to be looked at without blinking — I am to have sentence passed upon me by the holy God not for what I profess to be, but for what I do. 2. Judgments -proceed according to the direction of conduct. One step aside does not of itself proclaim that a man has -left the way in which he has been walking. His fixed departure is known by the steps which succeed to the first. Those suc- cessive steps will result from the disposition of the traveller, and God alone can judge of that. We can see, however, that a first stumble out of the way of right- eousness may be the commencement of a new course, which, if followed on, will bring to the way of wickedness. The man, as he verges away, may still wear some of the habits he has used hitherto, and may speak in an idiom often different from that of the country whose frontiers he has crossed over; but he has changed his direction — the light falls upon his back, and his face is becoming more suffused with the darkness towards which he is tending. His case calls for the warning that he has left the right way, and that the end of his movement is death — no matter if he does retain some resemblance of his former gait. A wicked man abides in death not because of one sin, or one class of sins, so much as because he goeth on still in his trespasses — because he " hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest liis deeds should be reproved." 3. Guiltiness is not transferable. One's wicked or righteous doing is from himself. No scheme is possible to be devised by which we can transfer our moral 39 HOMILETIC COMMENTARY: EZEKIEL. conduct BO that it shall be no longer ours. There is no escape from the righteous judgment of God, Circumstances, tempters, preachers can never bear the blame of that which has been perpetrated by our own hearts. We may not have been advised or warned by those whose duty it was to advise or warn us ; their failure not, ill any degree, alter the character of the direction we have taken. " Every man must bear his own burden." Ignorance may be a ground for inflicting few stripes upon a disobedient servant, but cannot destroy his obligation to the master. " I never was told " will never be a lever by which we can lift off from ourselves the unrighteousness and the death which is by sin. ILLUSTRATIONS. Readiness to serve. — It is infinitely sweet and lovely to be the organ and spokesman of the Most High. The most painful divine truths have for the spiritual man a gladdening and quickening side. — //. To my Master I stand or I fall ; what to me is the world's acclaim? I hear not its loud applause, I heed not its hitter blame. I am not hound hy the laws of Herod's judgment-hall, When it praiseth me, it hath cause; Yet what it seeth for flaws It seeth, nor seeth it all. — GrecniceU. He shall die. — Christ died to save the world from the curse of death under which it is;, not a fut me death of misery, but an actual death of worse than misery, a death which involves our liking that which is evil. It does not occur to us that to like to be wicked is to he damned. We say that mere wickedness, mere self-indulgence, merely heing alienated from God, is not worthy to be called death unless there be misery conjoined with it — that suffering is more to be feared than sinning. In that speaks the death of man. That is death which fears suffering more than sinnitiL''. A sinful state is the chief of evils; sinning is damnation : self-indulgence :s t" he cast into hell ; the worm that dieth not and the fire that is not quenched are unbridled passions. To be damned is not to he miserable but to be bad, and Christ is spoken of as saving us from sin, from corruption, from vain conversation, from this evil world, never from pain. It is hard to believe that damnation can he a thing that men like. Corruption is cor- ruption in man's view, though worms like it. Is damnation less damnation in God's view, though men like it? To he loved by a man whom we treat as an enemy is to have coals of fire heaped upon our head. To he loved as God loves us, we beincr such as we are, is to be cast into a lake of fire. The love of Christ, the sight of God as He truly is, must have power to save men from sin. They learn that sin is damnation and understand their Maker. — Hinton. A wrong direction fatal. — The painful warrior, famoused for fight, After a thousand victories once foiled, Is from the books of honour razed quite, And all the rest forgot for which he toiled. — Shakespeare. 2. Prophetic Thraldom (vers. 22—27). l.XEGETICAL NOTES.— A fresh to go to them, now impels him to go- impulse from the Lord impresses upon from them, " into the plain," or, better, Ezekiel another characteristic of his valley, as in chap, xxxvii. 1 — probably mission. By eating the roll he was the same depression of ground as this taught that his words should be those near Tel-abib. of the Spirit of God ; by being f t'n • II<>I;/ Sj/irit. He is given to dwell in our body as His temple. He takes the things that are Christ's and shows them to us. lie teaches to profit, and we receive power, love, and a sound mind. The efficacy of all true ministry depends on Hie energy. It is as the servants of the Lord live in the 42 IIOMILETIC COMMENTARY : EZEK1EL. Spirit and walk in the Spirit that they adequately fulfil the mission to which they are called. And since He is freely and fully promised for the asking — as the gift of a father to his children — what sorrow and shame may not affect us who might have received so much of His power and yet have been satisfied with so little ! " Is the Spirit of the Lord straitened 1 Are these His doings 1 " 3. First Instructions by Signs and their Interpretation (Chaps, iv. 1-v. 17). . EXEGETICAL NOTES.— Ezekiel is ordered to carry out certain specified processes. Their purport is expressed by the words (iv. 3), " This shall be a sign to the house of Israel." The use of such signs is partly to be accounted for by the circumstances of a prophet whose dwelling was in a country in which symbolical figures were striking and not unusual ; partly by the psycho- logical fact that his actings were to educate the people while as yet his tongue cleaved to the roof of his mouth. It is a mootpoint with students of pro- phecy whether to regard all actings of this sort as internal sensations vividly realised, or as taking form externally. " No general principle can be laid down by which to determine how far such actions pertain to the province of the external or internal."' — Oelder. To say, that all that was commanded to Ezekiel is to be accounted for by the vividness of his mental view, seems to contravene such statements as that he sat astonied seven days ; that he removed his goods from one place to another in sight of his people ; that he made no mourning for his deceased wife. To say, on the other hand, that all are to be taken literally seems to land us amid insurmountable difficulties, such as that he lay three hundred and ninety days without turn- ing, while he is during that period to make and bake cakes of unprecedented ingredients; and also that he was to burn a third portion of his shaved hair in the midst of Jerusalem, though he was in Tel-abib. We need not be troubled at failing to find a satisfactory decision on this matter. What is of paramount interest is to find the mean- ing involved in each symbolical act. That that meaning will not be agreed in by every one cannot surprise us. A large element of indefiniteness exists in all symbolism, and men of different dis- positions will create images of unlike contour through the haze of the inde- finiteness. Nevertheless, thoughts may be expanded, and desires for light and guidance excited and heightened, as well as deadened, by the very uncertainty. Act-sjmibolism exists under similar con- ditions as word-symbolism. " To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to others in parables." " By hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see and shall not perceive." With inwrought modesty, and prayers for the opening of our understanding by the Holy Spirit, should all Scripture-symbols be considered. The four symbolical processes, which Ezekiel is here required to employ, form parts of one whole presented in varying phases. That whole is, Israel given up to punishment for sins. The coincidence of this section with Lev. xxvi. is note- worthy. The most probable explanation thereof is that Ezekiel had thoroughly studied the picture drawn in the lav/ and reproduced its salient features freely. The siege of Jerusalem symbolised (iv. 1-3). Ver. 1. "Take thee a t:le," or a brick, shaped in clay and afterwards dried by the sun or burnt in a fire. Multi- tudinous specimens, of the kind which Ezekiel was to use, may be seen, in the British Museum, with letters and also warlike scenes depicted on them. " And pourtray upon it the city," or rather a city, which is immediately specified as the one least likely, " Jeru- salem." Ver. 2. "Build a fort against it." An instrument of ancient warfare, so con- 43 II't.MlLETW COMMENTARY: EZEKIEL. structed as to overtop the walls of the besieged place, and so to give oppor- tunity for the besiegers to reach the defenders with their weapons. ''And cast a mount against it." llai.se au embankment from which to attack advantageously. "And set battering- rams against it round about." Beams suspended BO as to be readily driven against the walls. "At Kouynijik there is the monument of the siege of an im- portant city in which no less than seven battering-rams are employed." — Layard. The prophet is to regard himself as doing that which he pourtrays on the tile. He acts under commission from God, and so it is the Lord Himself who is to be viewed as operating against Jerusalem by means of the Chaldean army. Ver. 3. "Take unto thee an iron pan." A common utensil for cooking in the Bast, it was to be fixed perpendicularly, us "-a wall of iron between thee and the city." A separation was thus made between the prophet and the city, and the iron pan symbolised the barrier which had been produced between the Lord and His unfaithful people. "The decree and the sentence of God against them would be rigidly carried out, and God would not hear their prayers and complaints and bend to them in mercy. I low fur they must have degenerated for Him to deal thus!" "And thou shalt lay siege against it." The siege would be in Ezekiel's lifetime, and by him as acting for the Lord. So it is cd that "this shall be a sign to the house of Israel," i.e., to the twelve tribes red abn ad. both those in captivity and the remnant tot il 1 in their native land. in the time of Kzekiel the dis- tinction between the ten tribes and the two tribes was fast disappearing. A trace of its existence is stili seen in vers. ."> ami 6, but rather as a relic lioin the I ban a reality of the present. When ■ ii tribes were led into captivity Judah represented all [srael, and in the course ".' time the remainders of the several t: ■■ • amalgamated with Judah. This event is not dimly pre- miah's words, " The house of Judah shall walk with the ho; ■I! Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers " (iii. 18). All attempts to show that the lost ten tribes have been found, or hopes that they may be, must be dismissed as based on untenable sur- mises. The period of punishment symbolised (iv. 4-8). Ver. 4. "Lie thou also upon thy left side." The posture which Ezekiel has to assume of lying continuously for a lengthened time on the same side is a picture of the low condition of the people, not only throughout the siege of Jerusalem, but in the whole period of chastisement. The prophet becomes their representative here, not, as in vers. 1-3, that of the Lord. In taking that unshifting posture, he must be open to no slight suffering, " and," so it is added, " lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it." He is one of them, and shares the punishment of their guilty conduct for the allotted time — a symbol of penalty, not of expiation. Thus, too, " thou shalt bear their iniquity," is not to be ex- plained as meaning that his action was to signify the forbearance of God while the people were sinning, but the inflic- tion of chastisement because of sins they had committed. Ver. 5. " For I have laid upon," or I have given, " thee the years of their iniquity according to the number of the days." The Lord had defined the limit of time beyond which the punishment of Israel would not go, and He required the prophet to be subject to the con- straint of lying on his left side for the number of days corresponding to the years during which Israel would bear their inicputy. A similar posture was to be taken for Judah. Ver. G. " Lie again on thy right side, and thou r;halt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days." Any ex- planatious, referring the three hundred and ninety and the forty days to events which took place before the degradation of the Israelitish people from their national position, are forbidden by the fact that Ezekiel is to exhibit what is to happen. The children are to bear HOMILETIC COMMENTARY: EZEKIEL. stripes for the unfaithfulness of their fathers. The duration of the punish- ment threatened — four hundred and thirty years — is obviously related to the bondage of the chosen people in Egypt and their wanderings in the wilderness. The condition into which they would fall would involve a suffering for their sins comparable to that M hardship and discipline which had of old been laid upon their fathers," and illustrative of the Deuteronomic prediction, " The Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again," &c. (Deut. xxviii. 68). Moreover, as the ten tribes had forsaken the worship appointed by their God, in a way that Judah had not, the period of suffering to the former is prolonged far beyond that designated to the latter. But no satisfactory elucidation of the two dates, as exact points of chronology, is forth- coming. It is best, perhaps, to regard both as symbolical of a lengthened time of punishment such as might be paral- leled by the servitude in Egypt, and also of a brief term of punishment such as might be compared with the trials of the sojourn in the desert. And while the sojourn in the desert was the passage from slavishness to freedom, from igno- rance to knowledge of God's laws, so the privations and calamities befalling Judah for forty years would be an education out of which hope and peace would come. The captive Israelites would thus be taught that only in association with the captive Jews could they look for shortened suffering and following bless- ing. " I have appointed thee each day for a year." A reference to the judg- ment passed upon the tribes of Israel for their murmurings on account of the report of the spies. "After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years " (Num. xiv. 34). Thus past history is used to represent the future — what God has done in respect to sins God will do. Ver. 7. " Thine arm shall be un- covered." The meaning of this figure, drawn from ancient habits in war, may be taken to be that action was to be pro- ceeded with — that the allotted penalties were to be now begun. By this gesture and the preceding actions " thou shalt prophesy against it," i.e., Jerusalem, as representative of the whole house of Israel. Ver. 8. "Behold I will lay bands upon thee " (cf. iii. 25). It was the Lord who put Ezekiel under constraint, and he could not act as a reprover till his mouth was opened by divine sanction. Was his constraint embodied in some form of disease, first in his left side and then in his right 1 Was it, like Paul's thorn in the flesh, an " infirmity" which the Lord would not cause to depart 1 "And," so it is said, "thou shalt not turn thee from one side to another." There will be no averting of the punish- ment and no relaxation of it, " till thou hast ended the days of thy siege," accomplished the full time of being a sign to Israel. This paragraph exhibits one of the characteristics of Ezekiel as a prophet, viz., his tendency to describe surround- ing and future circumstances by terms and events found in the byegone course of the Lord's people. The fact of his exile, and apparently cast out of the covenant which carried the destinies of Israel, moved him to dwell upon the past dealings of God to such a degree that he thought and felt about all the matters which came before him in the light and forms of preceding times. But this tendency does not warrant us to be- lieve that the present and future should go on in the very grooves in which the past had left its traces : rather it helps us to see that He who had begun His wise and good work for Israel would carry it on without change of direction. Ezekiel is to show that the austere and stern aspects of God had not been oblite- rated by the years in which He had borne the sins of His people patiently, and that the light of His countenance had not been forever withdrawn because of their failures in obedience to His will. The commentator who would treat Ezekiel's prophecies as if they must be expounded literally and not with great freedom, is least of all likely to unfold their true interpretation. " The eye that can look through the shell into the 45 chap. iv. EOMILKTW COMMENTARY: EZEK1EL. kernel may see the future tilings of image of what is to be, yet its essential I 'a administration mirrored in the character and necessary result.'' — /'air- past — not, indeed, the exact copy and bairn. HOMILETICS. God's Action against Iniquities in a People. I. It is carried on by various agencies. The cloud, the fire, the implements, the composite beings of Ezekiel's inaugurating vision, are all ruled from the sapphire throne, and Ezekiel is made as a central figure round which their operations proceed. By him and in him the Lord shows that pains and disabilities, soldiers and military materials, carry out His will and visit for iniquities. People professing IT is name must know that there is no such thing as chance, accident, human ambition, or forces apart from His directing word. The operator at the telegraph clock transmits the message which another person hands to him; so Ezekiel or the army of Nebuchadnezzar carries out what the righteous God has decided on. Whether the earth rejoices or trembles, everything that produces the one state or the other is " created" by the Lord who reigneth. For every sin there is not only an adapted penalty but a suitable agency for inflicting the penalty. Bow many a trouble, in State or Church or individuals, would lose its aspect of incomprehensibleness, if faith would but say, "The Lord is there and He is too wise to mistake." II. It is resolute. No secondary agent which He employs will fail in execut- ing that whereto lie has sent it. Ezekiel is laid under unrelaxing bands till he has fulfilled the time appointed, and the Chaldean forces will be kept persistently besieging Jerusalem till the sacred city is subjugated. The Lord will not be turned aside. lie will not stop halfway to what He has purposed to effect. "Because nee against an evil work is not executed speedily, men's hearts are fully set in them to do evil;" and should God refrain to strike when His righteousness and mercy have been set at nought, what would happen but that His people would become incredulous as to His sincerity in denouncing sin, and be uninstructed as to its real heinousness in His view? He does not spare the rod because of the mere crying of His children, since His hatred to sin and regard to holiness never change — change what else may. Whatsoever His hand and His counsel deter- mined before to be done against His holy child, Jesus, He will accomplish, even though it be by wicked hands. God is faithful. III. It is impartial. All who are involved in the common sin are the objects of suffering — rich and poor, free and bond, priest and prophet. Israel was His chosen people, Jerusalem the place where His honour dwelt; but great religious privileges did not shelter them from God's "vengeance" when they neglected and rejected His ways. From the Churches of Christ, from the families of the godly, from private rooms and bended knees men have gone into paths of sin, and shall they escape? No ; they shall be overtaken by suffering and woe in some form or other, as certainly, if not more so, than men who never heard of the Christ of God. Boast of Icing perfect in love, of divine right on your side, if you will; but be sure that no persuasion of sanctity or superiority will avert from you the messen- appointed by God to chastise von for evil yielded to. IV. It is according to established order. Every generation of His children must learn th.it the evil He has hated lie will always hate. What God has done God will do again when the same moral procedure is maintained by men. Our (lays of levity and hardness of heart and backsliding take us on to days of dead- and dishonour as indubitably as "days of heat lead on to days of cold. We may see the consequences which shall follow our pride, our wrong companionships, our neglect of the ways of Christ, in the bitter griefs and pangs which befell Israel ; 46 II0M1LETIC COMMENTARY : EZEKIEL. the scenery in which we suffer, and the agencies which act there may be utterly unlike those of ancient Judea or Chaldea, but the Holy One of Israel is our Holy One. In the old centuries the judgment of God was according to truth : it is so in modern centuries. " Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever ; a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom." V. It is proportionate. It is the action of the Just One, and takes steps in proportion to the nature and persistence of the offences against Him. Light neglected or misused prepares for the greater condemnation. Sodom is under an easier punishment than Chorazin, Judah than Israel. Ezekiel could not appor- tion the just time of tribulation — that is ever the prerogative of the Almighty King — but Ezekiel could be made to state and display His holy sentences. No doubt He allows excuses where they can be legitimately made ; but that is only another form of saying that He weighs the doings of His people in scales in which no undue element is present. Then He gives forth His decision for hundreds of years or for tens — for half a lifetime or for a few weeks. Not a day beyond what is right and fair will any transgressor be afflicted. What trust and submission ,hould not be given to the God of all spirits ! Scanty means of subsistence symbolising punishment (chap. iv. 9-17). EXEGETICAL NOTES.— Ver. 9. The several sorts of vegetable food — the richest and the poorest in nutritive ele- ments— being placed " in one vessel," signified that all classes of the popula- tion would be obliged to gather every particle they could, and then find it difficult to obtain sufficient provisions. The " bread " from such a mixture was to be made by Ezekiel in a quantity corresponding to "the number of the days that thou shalt be on thy side, three hundred and ninety days." This is the period of Israel's punishment as referred to in ver. 5. It is a sign of the time during which the ten tribes should remain in captivity among the Gentiles, and of the low estate in which they would be there. Ver. 10. Of the prescribed food Eze- kiel was to " eat by weight twenty shekels a day," somewhere about ten ounces of English measure, and a very scanty portion for ordinary healthful nourishment ; but, as in instances of shipwreck and sieges, meant to maintain life as long as possible — "too much for dying, too little for living." "From time to time shalt thou eat it : " not to make one poor meal, but to take a " ration " at stated intervals. Ver. 11. So also "thou shalt drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin" — about a pint, and sadly insufficient for a climate like that of Central Asia. Ver. 12. The food was to be eaten, as common " barley cakes " still are in the East, after having been baked in hot ashes ; but with a strange peculiarity, " thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out of man " (cf. Isa. xxxii. 1 2). The dung was not to be used as an ingredient of the cakes, as has been strangely supposed, but of the fuel. The use of human ordure in fuel was not practised, and the order to employ it was meant to indicate " in their sight " — for clear and deep impression — that which is stated in Ver. 13. "The Lord said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles." The children of Israel would find them- selves, during the period of their cap- tivity, in such a condition that the laws of Moses in reference to foods could hardly be kept. They would have to eat their bread defiled — what their souls might loathe — and so would become al- most as the heathen. They would not be able to boast of their special separate- ness. Ver. 14. Ezekiel had submissively accepted the divine appointments hither- to— he makes a protest now. "Then said I, Ah Lord God! behold, my soul hath not been polluted;" and he goes on to specify certain kinds of forbidden food from which he had rigidly abstained. The ricidness was all the more appro- 47 E0M1LETIC COMMENTARY: EZEK1KL. priate in that Ezekiel was dwelling in a heathen country. By means of adhering to all ritual observances a fence was planted round Israel against the en- croachment of conquering heathendom, and the prophet was a rallying-point for strength to the exiled people when they .-trow to live not as did the heathens. The observance of legal institutions that could be observed outside of the Holy Land was consistently maintained by Ezekiel, and he argues from the particular commands in reference to foods to the general obligation which he acknowledged in reference to everything by which he would have been consciously defiled. It is the appeal of a servant who has gone far beyond obedience to the mere letter — who is sensitively alive to being clean in heart as well as in act — who would shun the appearance of evil. For he could not plead any commandment prohibiting the use of the prescribed fuel ; he could make a plea only from his own disgust, which was not simply that of his senses, but also of his moral feelings. It is no sign of priestism in Ezekiel. Peter the apostle, who was not a priest, showed something of the same spirit. But the case of Peter (Acts x. 14), who was not a captive, is not altogether parallel to this. The only point of similarity is that Peter had "not eaten anything common or unclean." Ver. 15. The answer to Ezekiel's pro- test is a relaxation of the original order. " Then he said unto me, Lo I have given thee cow's dung for man's dung." Nothing is more usual in those parts of the East than to observe cow's dung, mixed with grass, straw, Arc, made up into fuel for cooking. It is not likely that Ezekiel, any more than his neigh- bours, would consider himself polluted by eating cakes baked with this inodorous material, and so he makes no objection to the command, "Thou shalt prepara thy bread therewith."' Ver. 16. "I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem." This alludes to the forty days during which Ezekiel was to lie on his right side, and signified that, in the period of Judah's sufferings corresponding thereto, a lack of sufficient nourishment to sustain activities with energy would be experienced. The bread would not be polluted, as the bread given in the wilderness was not polluted, by the place ; but as the natural supply found there was not sufficient for the wants of a multitude, so the supplies for Judah would be marked by scanti- ness : still the punishment would not be so severe or so continuous as that of Israel. It was that of a remnant, and would be "cut short in righteousness." In the besieged city "they shall eat bread by weight and with care," as those who are hard put to and anxious ; "they shall drink water by measure and with astonishment," as in perplexed wonder whether and when the sources would run dry. Ver. 17. The Lord had reason for this procedure. His broken covenant necessitated that they should feel a deficiency of " bread and water, and he astonied," be in perplexity and wonder, "one with another," each and all, " and consume away," become gaunt and offensive, " for their ini- quity." Hunger and thirst, sorrow and dismay, would fall upon the sinners in Zion, as the ancient book of the law had threatened (Lev. xxvi. 39). HOMILETICS. God's Action against Iniquities Affecting His Servants. 1. Servants w7to know the Lord's will and do it not sink into destitution and perils simitar to tJieirs who sit in darkness and have no light This aggravation of the misery cannot but be experienced, viz., contrast with the blessings which they have forfeited by misuse, ferae! had rejected its ( lod, had chosen the way of the heathen, and having thus broken the conditions of its covenant with God, nothing remained but that it should be treated as the heathen. The son has left his father's house, wasted his substance, fallen into want, and is on the verge of perishing with hunger. 48 UOMILETIC COMMENTARY: EZEKIEL. Not the worthiness of godly friends, not the calling ourselves Christians, not obser- vance of the external rites of worship can hinder from entering into the state of those who live as without God in the world. A professedly Christian nation may be largely affected by commercial depression, sorrow, despondency, doubt, and dark fears for the future, if it is not true to God. The statement is sometimes made that Christian nations are no better than heathen nations, and the grounds for it, if we could see clearly, might be perceived in some indifference, neglect, antagonism to the holy, just, and good law of God. All evil things which transpire prove that He will not be mocked ; least of all by those to whom He has manifested His righteousness and love. They must bear the fate of the heathen, whatever be their surprise and repugnance at what is undergone. 2. Servants who do His will are subjected to trials in common with those by whom they are surrounded. The bands which bind men into society are not forged so as to allow an escape, from evils which are rife in the community, for one of its constituent parts. They who fear the Lord fall into straitness, hunger, become weakly, if the circumstances in which they dwell are replete with the influences which produce such effects. Innocent children suffer from famine as well as men whose actions have contributed to the intensity of the famine ; so does the man who humbly prays for relief as well as the man who curses the hardships he has to put up with. It is not in freedom from the troubles which stir in their environ- ment that the sons of God are to find their comfort ; it is in the conviction that they have not gone with a multitude to do evil, and that God writes their names in His book of remembrance. If they receive good in society from the hand of the Lord, shall they not receive evil also 1 Every one who wants to be where the Supreme Will directs him to be, and to help the brothers who are within his power to reach, must be ready to encounter pinchings, disgusts, wearying hopes, anguish as well as sufficient grace. The Christ must needs " suffer many things " by coming amongst men, and His servants who would walk in His spirit may look for trials which, in a sense, they do not deserve. Let them see in Ezekiel one who, like themselves, had neither the mission nor the resources of Jesus Christ, and be instructed to take up and endure galling burdens for the welfare of the people in whose sufferings they are associated. Not in vain shall they suffer according to the will of God. " Those periods of tribulation and chastisement, which the prophet here repre- sents, have they not a voice for other times '? . . . The lukewarm and fruitless professor — so long as he cleaves to the way of iniquity, and refuses to yield a hearty surrender to the will of God — is in bondage to the elements of the world, and therefore can have no part in that good land which fioweth with milk and honey. The doom of Heaven's condemnation hangs suspended over his head ; and if not averted by a timely submission to the righteousness of God, and a cordial entrance into the bond of the covenant, he shall infallibly perish in the wilderness •of sin and death." — Fairbairn. Sensitiveness to Spiritual Evil (Chap. iv. 1215). Burden-bearing with others, and to any extent for them, may expose to unplea- sant associations and proceedings. Past habits and confirmed tastes may receive shocks which are hard to withstand. Yet the duty has to be done for the Lord. In such difficulties against service we must not accept their darkest aspects. We must learn to apply our natural shrinking from what is unpleasant to the case before us, and proceed according to the light which may be given to us. Our sensitive- ness to anything that we feel unbecoming should inform us — 1. That we have to maintain past faithfulness to duty. Ezekiel did not like the thought of turning out of the way in which he had hitherto walked and kept him- self pure. It was no ignoble consistency he was desirous to preserve. Consistency D 49 110)11 LET IC COMMENTARY: EZEK1EL. may be a fault when it weds us to what is unwise and not truly kind. It is a grand thing when it impresses the need of being able to hold ourselves in self-respect by being obedient to what we regard as right and sacred. What more honourable in a young man than that he will say, " I have not been discredited by low and offensive habits, and I shrink from them with loathing"? Or for a man, who is known to profess allegiance to Christ the King, to say, " I have not been contracting the taints of the spirit of the world ; I have not been a cause of reproach to the Blessed Name by my cold disregard of the interests of the kingdom of Christ, and I shudder at the idea of doing anything which will seem contrary to my past conduct"? Yet there may be something more. There may be such a susceptibility to the appearance of evil that men will deprecate being taken into a course on which they may have to touch that which is not morally wrong, but which offends their taste for what is spiritually pure. It is bad to have one string out of tune. In seeking our own improvement, a book whose suggestions are not altogether true and holy could be read ; in seeking the best way of helping others we might see unclean courts and houses, and contact with smutty persons might appear in view. What man or woman, sensitive to the continuance of their pureness of thought and con- duct, would not rise up with the cry, " 0 my soul ! come not thou into their secrets; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united"? Bypast separateness from evil becomes a ground from which to act against approaching, apparently defiling influences. The man who has lived "unspotted from the world" will not readily reconcile himself to step into a place where his garments may become soiled. His faithfulness heretofore to the requirements of the holy law will impel him to repu- diate what might seem to defile him now. How blessed would this earth be if the hearts of all people deprecated every- thing which would lower the standard of moral taste or shake confidence in the prosecution of the high prize of a stainless life ! 2. That xoe should regard our inward feelings as well as the external act in respect to what is required of us. The inward is not to be sullied. The Master's deci- sion has for ever placed the state of men's hearts in a more important position than that of their words and deeds. That which comes out of the heart is that which defiles, and every one who would be as his Master must endeavour to keep the heart so clean as that no pollution shall mingle in its movements. It is a true stimulus to struggling believers to hear, from the lips of one of ancient days, such an appeal as this of the burdened prophet. How it may urge us to guard our acquired sensitiveness to defiling acts, to keep that which we have already attained, and long to be pre- vented from all filthiness of the spirit, so as to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord \ The outward is not to be accepted without appeal. The hard and irksome processes appointed for Ezekiel might be entered into by him, but he wanted part of them to be less unpleasant and trying to his tender conscience. So he sought for an alteration in the requirement. Thus it seems that what i3 the present will of God may not be followed by immediate acquiescence. An attack of disease does not compel the patient to say, " I must submit, without an effort to get rid of it." The disobedient act of a child, which must be punished, does not demand the parent to inflict that kind of punishment against which the child revolts. The contents of that cup, in which the venom of the world's sins was concentrated, could not be drank, by Him who came on purpose to drink it, without a cry of aversion towards the awful task of love. And we are bound to make every attempt at extrication from external proceedings with which we have to do, if we are likely to suffer any moral defilement by them. "It were better for me to die than that any man should make my glorying void." But no outer event can hurt our souls unless our souls turn it to evil. 3. That alleviation to our souls will be granted by God. No command of God to His servants can have an element in it which will really deprave their souls. Still that fact does not dim His fatherly pity so. that He caunot see their shrink- 50 no MI LET 1C COMMENTARY: EZEKIEL. ings. Let a change not disparage His justice, holiness, truth, and He is willing to alter the conditions of His instructions, and make them less dreadful to the moral fastidiousness of His own. He has a respect even for their exaggerated feelings, and in His wisdom and love mitigates that which pains them. He pities them "like a father." He does not desire to impose one unnecessary pang upon them. They may ask Him for whatsoever alleviation might ease their trouble and revulsions, in the hope that He will relax the stringency of His demands, if He does not renounce them. We have to do with God, who has tender compassion for every one who wants to be pure in heart. He does not quench the smoking flax. " Let it teach us not to be rigid and stick to our wills, and think it disparage- ment to abate of our wills and right, and yield to others, when God, who is infi- nitely above us, can yield to us, and doth so daily, bearing our infirmities." — Greenhill. The last methods of punishment symbolised and interpreted (chap. v. 1-17). EXEGETICAL NOTES.— The re- quirements made of Ezekiel still pro- ceed in his house. Already he has been a sign that Jerusalem would undergo a thorough siege ; that specified periods of stringent suffering should be allotted to both portions of the house of Israel ; that hunger, anxiety, and defilement would be encountered ; and furthermore, he is to be a sign of the various forms of penalty which should be incurred as the closing manifestations of the Lord's dealing justly with iniquities. In this case, as in the preceding three, we ap- pear necessitated, by the very conditions of the requirement, to suppose that Ezekiel could not be expected to carry on literally the processes assigned to him. How could he, in the disabled state to which he must have been re- duced if he had externally obeyed the previous requirements, shave his head and beard with a sword, or burn the appointed part of hair in Jerusalem itself 1 Even if it were certain that he could do so, it would be unbecoming to believe that the Lord Himself literally drew a sword after the third part of hair which was scattered to the wind. Notwithstanding these difficulties, we are sure that the actuality of the things signified was somehow conveyed to the minds of his captive countrymen — the method of doing so being unknown. Ver. 1. "And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp knife" — rather sword, as in the end of ver. 2. He was not, besides the sword, to "take a barber's razor," but he was to use the sword as a barber's razor. A closer rendering of the Hebrew warrants this explanation. " A razor of barbers thou shalt take it " — i.e., the sword, as the gender intimates — • "to thee;" "and cause it to pass upon thine head and thy beard." In the hands of an earlier prophet the use of a razor had already been made signi- ficant of punishment by the Lord. " In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired . . . the head and the hair of the feet; and it shall also consume the beard " (Isa. vii. 20). Moreover, in accordance with biblical representations, shaving off the hair of the head and beard was one of the signs of mourning and reproach, and, besides, it was forbidden to priests (Lev. xxi. 5). God, enjoining a priest to reverse his own ritual observance, would give addi- tional emphasis to the keenness of the calamity shadowed forth: "then take thee balances to weigh and divide" (lit.) "them," i.e., the hair. An ap- portionment of distinct sufferings is to be carefully measured out, so that all may feel " the judiciary providence of God." We modify the words of an old Latin commentator, and say, " The sword or razor signifies divine ven- geance, the head the city, the balances its equity, and the hair the people to whom punishments shall be distributed." Or, as Theodoret says, " The sword in- dicates avenging power, the shaving of the beard the removal of grace and glory, the scales and weights the deter- mination of divine justice." Ver. 2. Ezekiel is commanded to 51 IinVILETIC COMMENTARY: EZEKIEL. arrange the hair in proportionate parts, and to dispose of each. "Thou shalt hurn with fire " — in a flame — " a third part in the midst of the city " — in the midst of the model of the besieged city which lay before him — "when the days of the siege are fulfilled" — when the days for his symbolical completion of the siege had come to an end; "and thou shalt take a third part and smite about it " — i.e., the city— "with a knife," or sword, as ver. 1 ; "and a third part thou shalt scatter in the wind." The rest of the people have perished ; this third alone survives. It must, therefore, include within itself both the poor, who might be left un- settled in Judea, as well as the numbers who hud been dispersed among other countries. And there seem^ no valid objection against considering that it in- cluded the people of a more distant future than that which would be passed through by the living generation. The lot of the nation, as a nation, is involved in the action of the Lord. The next words show the symbol passing into a reality, while an intimation of sufferings in the land of exile is made : "and I will draw out a sword after them." They shall not escape because of change of locality. By this procedure of Ezekiel three kinds of punishment are set forth. One part of the people dies in flames — ver. 12 interprets this of famine and disease; a second part dies in flight, sallies, battles ; the surviving part be- comes " tribe of the wandering foot and weary breast." But the people will not be absorbed or obliterated. Ver. 3. " Thou shalt also take thereof" — from that scattered portion — "a few in number, and bind them" — this "very small remnant" of hairs — "in thy skirts," ends of his garment. God has to fulfil His covenant of mercy; seed must be preserved as the instru- ments of His purposes ; and Ezekiel is required to signify, by caring for the safety of a few, the eternal purpose of God. But even of this few not all would be delivered. Ver. 4. " Then take of them again, and cast them into the midst of the fire " — a different word from that of ver. 52 2, and signifying a somewhat diverse mode of suffering about to befall the reduced number of people. They were not all right in heart, the best were tainted and needed a purgation, a proof of how deplorable was the spiritual con- dition of the surviving people. This infliction would not be confined to the unfaithful among the gathered ones : "thereof" — from this consuming fire — "shall a fire come forth into all the house of Israel : " the doom of the few involves the doom of the whole people as such. " Judgment must begin at the house of God, and what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God V A striking parallel to this de- claration to Ezekiel is found in Isaiah. "And if there should yet be a tenth in it, this shall again be consumed ; (yet), as the terebinth and the oak, though cut down, have their stock remaining, (even so) a sacred seed (shall be) the stock thereof" (vi. 13). — Cheyne. A divine interpretation of his sym- bolical action is given to Ezekiel. He hears words describing the guilt of and the judgments which shall fall upon Jerusalem and his people ; and, first of all, there is conveyed a meaning which is to be attached to Jerusalem. Ver. 5. " Thus saith the Lord God ; This Jerusalem " — it is unnecessary to supply is — "I have set it" her, "in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her." It has been common for nations, whose means of locomotion are neither convenient nor rapid, to consider their country the cen- tral point around which other countries are clustered. Such a notion might have been accepted by the Jews in reference to Judea ; but it is not with such a reference that the situation of Jerusalem is specified here. In explaining this reference it is not requisite to point out how the Holy Land stands in relation to Egypt and Syria, to Assyria and the Isles of the Gentiles. We decline the merely local limitations as not expres- sive of the fact intimated, while we still perceive, in the then active influences of the world, certain advantages adhering to the site which Jerusalem occupied. The true interpretation is elsewhere. HOMILETIC COMMENTARY: EZEKIEL. It is thus stated by Keil : " Jerusalem is described as forming the central point of the earth, neither in an external, geographical, nor in a purely typical sense, as the city that is blessed more than any other, but in a historical sense, in so far as ' God's people and city actu- ally stand in the central point of the God-directed world-development and its movements ; ' or, in relation to the his- tory of salvation, as the city in which God hath set up His throne of grace, from which shall go forth the law and the statutes for all nations, in order that the salvation of the whole world may be accomplished." Ver. 6. " And she hath changed " — the ordinary usage of the word changed refers to murmuring, opposing, rebelling against, or some such action, and often with a statement of the object, as here, against which the act operates — she rebelled against "my judgments" — though they were known, yet were they so disregarded as to incur the crime of turning them "into wickedness more than the nations " — to a degree of evil which even the heathen could not be charged with, "and" she rebelled against " my statutes more than the countries that are round about her; for they" — of this Jerusalem — "have refused my judgments " — with a kind of disdain — " and my statutes they have not walked in them." The penalty of such a course follows. Ver. 7. "Therefore thus saith the Lord God ;" but before announcing the doom an emphatic presentation of their unhallowed conduct is made: "Because ye multiplied" — a somewhat infelicitous rendering of a difficult term, for which a translation like " ye raged " is better, i.e., made a turmoil in acting as rebels — " more than the nations that are round about you," and " have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept my judgments, neither have done accord- ing to the judgments" — laws and ways of living and worshipping — "of the nations that " are "round about you." Further on (chap. xi. 12) Ezekiel accuses the people thus, " Ye have done after the manners (lit. judgments) of the heathen that are round about you." There is no real contradiction between the two representations. The heathen pursued courses which were opposed to God's will, and Israel did the same ; but the former showed also that the word of the law was written in their heart, and, so far as they had obeyed that transcript, they had done that which Israel had not done. Israel had resisted both revealed and natural obligations. Ver. 8. " Therefore thus saith the Lord God " — the suspended threatening is now pronounced — "Behold I, even I, am against thee " — a solemn assevera- tion that the covenanted relationship to the Lord, however boasted of, would not shield from the punishment due to Israel for their violation of the covenant. He would prove that He was not a dead God — a mere name of power and holi- ness— " and will execute judgments in the midst of them" — the means of punishment shall be forthcoming and effective "in the sight of the " heathen "nations." Thus one aspect of retribu- tive justice is unfolded — it will be public : the heathen shall know that He is Lord by the judgment which He executeth. Another is presented — it is exceptional. Ver. 9. " And I will do in thee that which I have not done, and whereunto I will not do any more the like" — there would be peculiarities in the woes which should befall Israel that would be marked as unique throughout all time. If acts as shocking as those referred to in next verse are observed in the dis- tressed periods of other nations, we must remember that when a wife or child is expelled from the home, the calamity, though similar, is far worse than when a guest or servant is expelled. Such was the relation of Israel to God that their punishment had elements of horror in it which the same suffering happening to another people had not. The primary reference of the threatening is clearly to the then existing Israel, but seems to be applied by the Lord Jesus to that genera- tion of the Jews who were subjected to terrible calamities when Jerusalem was besieged and destroyed by the Romans. " Then the tribulation shall be such as was not since the beginning of the world, nor ever shall be" (Matt. xxiv. 21) — 53 HOMILETIC COMMENTARY: EZEKIEL. '• because of all thine abominations " — a frequently used word, expressing actions and habits which, however common and palliated, were such as the Lord could not endure to hear and see in His professed people — each sin had done harm and each would be reckoned in. Ver. 10. The punishment will be characterised by such intensity of suffer- ing that family ties will be ruthlessly disrupted. " The fathers shall eat the sons," as had been predicted should come to pass if they would not hearken to the Lord, but walked contrary to Him (Lev. xxvi. 29), "and the sons shall eat their fathers," and all who survive " will I scatter into all the winds." Ver. 11. From this verse to the end of the chapter the punishment is more fully announced as from the Lord. The emphatic '• therefore " (Heb.), which is prefixed to several of the declarations of this chapter, is here followed by the solemn oath, "As I live, saith the Lord God." I, the Living One, shall die if these judgments are not executed. This oath is sustained by His self-existence — that which is the basis of all truth and reality, and a guarantee that there will be no revocation, no reversion: " He can swear by no greater." " Surely because thou hast defiled my sanctuary." They had entered into the place where His honour tabernacled, and taken a course there which proved how completely they had cast off His supremacy. They had not been restrained by any reverence or attachment. They had occupied it "with all thy detestable things and with all thine abominations " — wickedness of all kinds had been practised, and the way in which it was carried on is shown in chap. viii. We shall mistake this accusation if we confine its reference sokly to the employment of the Temple for idolatrous proceedings. The Temple was the ideal heart of the theocracy. All spiritual energy proceeded from it; all objects of that energy reacted on it. So that if the people indulged in evil elsewhere, and came impenitent into the courts of the Lord's house, they defiled the s inctuary, and their ears were made to tingle with the indignant remonstrance 54 of Isaiah, " Who hath required this at your hands to tread my courts?'' or with that of Ezekiel afterwards, " Should I be inquired of at all by them ? " The glory due unto the name of the Lord had been polluted, and He will take steps to clear it. "I will also dimi nish," our English version supplies thee. In comparing Deut. iv. 2, where this same Hebrew word is employed, " Ye shall not add to this word which I com- mand you and ye shall not diminish from it," the expression seems sufficient without adding thee. As the Israelites had taken away from the rights of God to His sanctuary, so He will diminish the benefits He had hitherto bestowed on them. Ver. 12. An explanation is now given of the symbolical actions prescribed in ver. 2. From this it is made clear that the fire there is to represent disease and starvation as among the destructive agencies affecting the sinful people. Ver. 13. The menaced penalties being carried out, "'mine anger shall be ac- complished;" its full force will be brought to act so as to inflict every item of the penalties due to such transgressors. "And I will cause my fury to rest upon them;" it will find its goal in those who suffer from it, and there come to an end : it will have finished "His strange work." "And I will be comforted." We might translate, in accordance with another signification of the Hebrew, / repent myself. It is preferable to retain the translation of our version, as better expressing the idea that the old has ended and that the ground for a new procedure will be laid. ( Vide Isa. x. 24-27, in reference to Assyria.) This betokens one mode of the divine life. It is a highly figurative, and, of course, imperfect token ; but, so far as we can explain, it shows that the Lord receives satisfaction in vengeance accomplished, since the violators of His honour are fairly punished and His rights are fully vindicated. A God who could not assert and maintain, at any cost, His own just and perfect authority, would be only an idol-god. Nor is it Himself alone whom the finished punishment concerns. "They," the next verse is proof that it is HOMILETIC COMMENTARY: EZEKIEL. other nations who "shall know that I here are those "of famine," which shall the Lord have spoken in my zeal," and be bitter and destructive and accumu- not the prophet iu over-eagerness or fac- lative in its horrors: "I will increase tiousness. The words are again repeated the famine ; " hunger upon hunger will in vers. 15 and 17, and show that Ezekiel come "upon you." was speaking by direction of the living Yer. 17. Another element of terror is God of Israel, who would not allow His mentioned for the first time, " evil righteous laws to be trampled under men's beasts." We may suppose that they feet. History has become a guarantee are to be taken literally ; but it is diffi- for the divine origin of the threaten- cult to see how they could be a notice- ings. able ingredient in the cup of misery Ver. 14 is a further statement of the which was to be drank by a beleaguered penalty which was to be executed on city, and Hengstenberg is probably right the devoted city. " Waste and a re- in referring the phrase to the heathen, proach," a reproach "among the nations on the ground that the designation of that are round about," and waste " in brutalised men, who have no breath the sight of all that pass by." from God, as beasts is deeply rooted in Ver. 15. "So it" — Jerusalem — "shall the Scriptures. "And pestilence and be a reproach," &c. Inferences of seve- blood " — some terrific diseases — " shall ral kinds will be drawn from the sad pass through thee." A solemn appeal and ruined state of the punished people, to the certainty of the accomplishment and lessons of moral worth become dis- comes in, as already, on the ground of tincter. the Lord being the speaker in reality. Ver. 16. According to the ground- Repetition of the same expression is a text, Deut. xxxii. 23, " the evil arrows " characteristic of Ezekiel's style. HOMILETICS. Where Much is Given, Much is Required (vers. 5-17). As each stage of a physical process manifests another condition of the materials which are under the action of forces, so each stage in national affairs expresses a changed aspect of the relations between the Creator and the creature, the great King and His subjects, the Holy and the unholy. If the punitive treatment of the Jews was painfully startling, the presentation of it, which the prophet is com- missioned to make, is meant to unfold, to the existing and other generations, a fresh development of the thoughts and ways of God. These verses may be held to show that the sorest penalties will be a consequence of privileges set at naught. In them observe — I. The advantages conferred. 1. A favourable position : " Set in the midst of the nations." It is obvious that certain countries, certain cities, are distinguished above others by climate, materials for traffic, openings to surrounding people. In some such beneficial conditions the ancient Jerusalem was situated ; but above them, and of greater importance still, was the fact that there was His sanctuary — the place where His honour dwelt. Both temporal and spiritual benefits come from God, and each advantage should be regarded as enforcing a higher obligation. 2. The personal interest of God. It is He who condescends to speak to them, to punish them Himself. He did not treat them on the same lines as He did the other tribes of men. No nation had God so nigh it as this people. They were the children of Abraham, His friend. He bare them and carried them all the days of old. Whosoever touched them touched the apple of His eye. Their offences were offences against Him — not against some vague "accusation" of their own consciences. It is well to come to that position from which we see that God is with us in a wider sense than Israel surmised, that in Christ He reconciles the 55 IWMILETIC COMMENTARY: EZEKIEL. world unto Himself, that we stand amid the light of that life which is given to " whosoever will." 3. Opportunity for influencing others. To fancy that this Jewish people was chosen simply to be the worshippers of the only true God is to suppose that which would not accord with other manifestations in His realm. His sun exhales vapour from water, the vapour is turned into showers, the showers fall upon the earth and make it bring forth and bud. So is it that every person is to contribute to the good of others, and so His chosen nation was to be instrumental in making known His way and saving health among the people sitting in darkness. His purposes to bless that we may be blessings are not changed. He works to form vessels fit for His use, and one of the most potent influences, with souls which have been made alive to God through Jesus Christ, should be this — the Lord my God supplies me with grace, and I should live so as to promote His holy and good claims over men. Alas ! so many do not realise their position as stewards of God, and many, like the Jews, cause His name to be blasphemed instead of honoured. Yet much has been given. II. The unhallowed disposition cherished by the advantaged. That they who have known the true God should " change His judgments into wickedness and should not walk in His statutes," evidences their disposition to be — 1. Marked with contempt jor God. Their own judgments are preferred to His. And even where there might be a formal Agreement with His revealed will, it is, on their part, no submission to Him, but a carrying out of their own desires. They act as if God were of less consideration than themselves. They will not have Him to reign over them. They feel at liberty to make that which He intended for good into a means for doing wickedly. Prayers will be repeated, public worship will be patronised, and still the heart will continue to cherish its selfish, worldly pursuits, as if God could be mocked and overcome. 2. More guilty than that of the heathen. The Jews gloated over the ignorance and low hopes of the uncovenanted peoples, and yet the latter had been more faithful to their streaks of light than the Jews to their dayspring. There is no monopoly by the Jewish people of this inconsistency. Not a few among Christians take pleasure in telling of the cruelties, falsehoods, lusts which are observed among the tribes and people who are not Christian, and turn such sad aspects into a means of setting off how much purer and better a state is their own. The comparison is often very unfairly made. And even if it were not — if the sins of heathendom were gross and numerous beyond those of Christendom — the rules of Christ are too often toned down and laid aside, both in the practice of Churches and the con- duct of individuals. Their guilt in tampering with duty is far more offensive than that of the heathen can be. " Woe unto thee, Chorazin ! woe unto thee, Bethsaida ! " III. The severe punishment which manifests the guiltiness of those who have received much. When favoured children go out of the ways of their Holy Father, they walk upon hard, thorny, desolate tracts, where they perish. 1. In those troubles they are treated by the Lord Himself. "Behold I, even I, am against thee." Secondary agents will be employed, but in poverty or losses, diseases or hostile actions by other people, are to be recognised weapons wielded by the Lord against whom we have sinned. He docs not abdicate His authority to things which cause pain and ruin, so that they do their will. We receive evil from His hand as well as good. And emphatically so if we have been living in open sins against Him. It is always a difficult matter to say what the sins are which bring about special stripes from the Lord; but there need be no difficulty in acknowledging that He "will execute judgments in anger and in fury and in furious rebukes," and that those judgments need not be the same for the same sins. Dishonesties, untruths-, intemperance, will produce misery sooner or later, but the misery which comes in consequence of such transgressions is very different in its actions upon the individual sinners and their families. God knows how to deal 56 UOMILETIC COMMENTARY: EZEKIEL, out in perfect wisdom the sufferings appropriate to the several cases, and the keenest pang of their suffering ought to be this, " My King, my Father, has be- come mine enemy, and fights against me." 2. The punishment is intense. " I will do that which I have not done, and whereunto I will not do any more the like. Neither shall mine eye spare, neither will I have any pity." There will not be a grain of excessiveness in the punish- ment : it will be balanced to a hair's weight by the amount of sin. The perfect Judge alone can so accurately poise the scales; but none who know the right will fail to see that, however unparalleled the severity may seem, it is altogether pro- portioned to the offences, and will exhibit the magnitude of the guilt incurred. 3. The lesson is intended to be widely taught. The Lord will not do " His strange work" in secret. Other souls must be made to hear and fear, and His judgments shall be shown to " the nations round about in the sight of all that pass by." They will be differently affected by the lesson. Some will utter re- proaches, others will frame taunts, and others will be instructed ; but in some sort of dim form those proceedings against sin will make their principle enter into the thoughts of men, and contribute to the shaping of that unwritten law, with its penalty for wrong-doing, which has become established among nations who have lived in different spheres of growth. Where do we not find the maxim, that the heavier the punishment, the greater the guilt 1 IV. The continued maintenance of the justice of God's rule. <: I the Lord have spoken it " — however unlike it may appear that He should punish so, how- ever awful the sufferings inflicted may be. " The divine righteousness remains always equally energetic." — Heng. Ezekiel is a medium for conveying the denun- ciations, but below those denunciations it is to be believed that righteousness and truth stand. They will not be moved by the assaults of men, let men beat against them as they will. And the prophet is a pattern from whom all preachers and teachers may learn to let the thoughts of God so enter into them, that when they do tell, as tell they must if they will be faithful servants, of the " weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth" which shall be endured by those who make light of the Son of God, they should do it, not with extravagance or with mitigation, but with the strictest adherence to the manifestation made of the terror of the Lord. The gospel enters into no terms with those who forsake the Lord ; it insists on repent- ance or destruction. If He is " not willing that any should perish," He would sooner see them perishing than that they should continue persistently to defile His holy presence. In Churches and out of them the solemn asseveration holds sway, " He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses ; of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite to the Spirit of grace % " God's Comfort in Punishment Achieved. " I will cause my fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted" (ver. 13). There are conventional ideas about God, just as there are about what is proper procedure in society. Conventionalisms cannot hold their ground in the latter when a strong, clear impulse from the realities of life breaks upon them ; and, in the former, superficial conceptions regarding divine procedure will be tested and remodelled when men, who see visions of God, set forth their impressions of Him " who ruleth by His power for ever." Their utterances may sound as if bordering on what. is harsh and untenable, or as if altogether too familiar; but they will lay open aspects of the Almighty which, from one cause or other, have been dimmed and disturbed. Thus it might happen that deep convictions of the pity of the Lord for suffering, and His patience with wrong-doers, would foster a mode of 57 JloMILETIC COMMENTARY: EZEK1EL. Bpeaking of Hia dealings with people whom He had favoured, as if He could be nothing but soft and soothing and pleading, as if iu His nature there were no materials for an unflinching resolution to see right done, even though the punish- ment of the wrong-doers was unexampled. Then a holy man will exclaim, in the word of the Lord, "I will laugh at your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh : " or, " Ah ! I will ease me of mine adversaries." Lax notions are shaken off, and we learn to think that " our God is a consuming fire," who is comforted when His fury has found a resting-place. Making allowance for the somewhat figurative turn of these words, we can perceive in them — I. All punishments are measured. He that maketh the stormy wind to fulfil His word, that says to the sea, "Hitherto thou shalt come and no further," He says to every consequence of sin, " Thou shalt not put a hair's weight of distress more than I appoint." Men may talk of the germs of disease which settle upon a vine as if they will increase so as to destroy it, unless checked by human appli- ances ; politicians may speak of armies invading a country as if they would ravage it till it was made waste, unless human diplomacy intervene. It is not often con- sidered that behind every disease and every army the Divine Will means to control each, and exactly fix what, it shall do. We are under a Lawgiver whose preroga- tive can never be contravened, and who claims to define every event by His hidden or revealed decree. Every sufferer may believe that he bears just what and just as is suitable to perfect righteousness and wisdom. IL Right is vindicated. When the evil ways of men have taken them into woe then the Judge of the earth is satisfied, for they have received the due reward of their deeds. This means more than is often understood by the expression, " Sin is its own punishment." If that were all the punishment, then every prosperous tyrant, every unconfessing murderer, every successful mercantile swindler, every unabashed liar would have endured all possible suffering. The sin, the very thing which stands out as the worst of evils to a holy mind, being regarded as an advan- tageous proceeding by the unholy, could hardly be punished in the actor, since he delights in it or is unimpressed by its vileness. Thus viewed there would be little in sin to fear ; it could be made a subject for despisal ; and the moral order would be abandoned. It is not, however. God's rule is not so feeble and uncertain in its operation as to let it be. " He sitteth on the throne judging right," and He executes punishments which prove that there are retributions attached to the committal of sin entirely independent of the thoughts of sinners about their conduct. These retri- butions will find out their appropriate objects, as a resting-place is found, and will remain till the just award has been measured off. It is an awful fact for those who have sinned and have not repented. To neglect its bearing, to refuse to face its reality may be common, but the sentence against evil will not be annulled. Let those who reject Christ Jesus realise the solemn contents of the words, " He that believeth not, the wrath of God abideth on him" — His fury rests upon them. Then, when bitter wrong has been righted, when vengeance has placed its marks upon the rebellious, when the hideous past has been swept over by an obliterating storm of justice, then the Holy One sees that right has proved its power to crush wrong and maintain its supremacy, and He is comforted. IEL The ground is cleared for a new movement. The Lord is not comforted merely because He sees the flaunting edifices of wrong utterly in ruins. Withered, scattered leaves form materials for the growth of a coming spring ; the refuse of fallen buildings becomes a location in which plants and insects make a home, and the desolation of a country or the depression of a people gives an opening through which stirring influences may enter. Gibbon's statement in " The Decline and Fall " — that when " the fierce giants of the North broke in " upon an enervated people who were but " a race of pigmies," they " mended the puny brood" — asserts this principle. By Ezekiel's time the Israelites had become boasters, sensual, hypo- crites; the covenant God made with their fathers had been shivered into fragments ; 58 110 Ml LET W COMMENTARY: EZEKIEL. what good could accrue from the continuance of such a state of things ? Abolish it or suspend it, and a way will be opened for operating in new methods of right- eousness, wisdom, and grace. That opening is a comfort to the Lord. He will enter upon a course from which higher and better results will be attained. The old has vanished, the new will arrive. So the Lord Jesus refers to Jerusalem and says, " Behold, your house is left unto you desolate " — that is the close of the bad past — and He goes on to add, " Ye shall not see Me henceforth till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord " — that is the pledge of better movements. 1. " The Lord reigneth, let the people tremble." He " will execute judgment upon all, and convince all that are ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed." 2. " The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice." However lung His will may be disobeyed, yet a King shall reign in righteousness. " Also unto Thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy, for Thou renderest to every man according to his work." Judg- ment and mercy shall complete the purposes of Him who inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy. 4. Further Instructions as to the Consequences of Israel's Conduct (Chap. vi.). EXEGETICAL NOTES.— The judg- ment on places oj' idolatry and the wor- shippers (ver. 1-7). After asserting, in ver. 1, his renewed consciousness that he was to speak from the inworking power of the Lord, Ezekiel unfolds the procedure which will be taken. Here he has special reference to the whole country, as in chaps, iv. and v. the city Jerusalem was chiefly in view. Ver. 2. " Son of man, set thy face," a frequent command given to the pro- phet, and intended to impress him with a vivid sense of the objects he was to address ; " towards the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them." The Lord has a controversy with the mountains and their prominent physical features, as if they had ears and faculties for understanding. He, as it were, directs His admonitions through them to the men who had disordered those features by setting up forbidden idols and paying open dishonour to His holy name. Ver. 3. "And say . . . Thus saith the Lord God to the mountains and to the hills, to the rivers" — the last word is used of the beds or channels in which waters run, and should be trans- lated here by gorges or ravines ; it thus forms a more exact parallelism "to the valleys." " They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks and poplars and elms, because the shadow thereof is good " (Hosea iv. 13). Cf. ver. 13 below. " Behold I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places." The Hebrew word for high places is occasionally employed simply to signify elevated spots, but more com- monly refers to them as the shrines for worship habitually carried on. The worship in such places was part of that nature-worship which has prevailed in many regions of the world, and in which Baal, the sun -god, had a prominent share (Num. xxii. 41, Josh. xiii. 17). From what quarter the Israelites were influenced towards Baal-worship is doubt- ful, but they had yielded to it, and crowned the high places, which lay ex- posed to the rays of the sun, with figures of some sort. How far that worship was alien to the mind of the living God is illustrated by what the reforming King Josiah did in his zeal for the Lord (2 Kings xxiii.), and in what Ezekiel adds. Ver. 4. All the apparatus belonging to this idol-worship is doomed to destruc- tion, "your altars shall be desolate," not fit to be resorted to, " and your images," in margki, sun -images, but probably figures of some kind represent- ing Baal, the god of the sun, and Astarte, goddess of the moon, " shall be broken, 59 IH'MILETIC COMMENTARY: EZEK1EL. and." directing the address to the people, " I will cast down your slain before your idols." This is a reference to Lev. xxvi. .'}(», though this special word for idols is found chiefly in Bzekiel. It is probably connected with a root which signifies filth, and is a contemptuous description of them— they are dung, or 5. " And I will lay the dead carcases of the children of Israel he- fore their refuse-gods " — the gods they cried to could not defend from death, and, their nothingness having been proved, they would be defiled by the corpses of their unhelped devotees ; " and I will scatter your bones round about your altars" — the utmost igno- miny would be cast upon idolatry by this utter desecration of its materials for worship. Ver. 6. The declaration is made that, beside the destruction in the high places, &c, extreme desolation would be pro- duced wherever population had gathered. The ground of this extension of punish- ment is indicated in Isaiah's words, " According to the number of thy cities so are thy gods," and the end aimed at is to sweep away every trace of idol- service, " that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate." The Hebrew word in the preceding portion of this verse and translated desolate is different from this one, which more appropriately should be translated be guilty. The altars are regarded as participating in, and so held guilty of the sin which they were used to carry out. A similar sen- tence was passed by the prophet sent to Jeroboam in the word of the Lord. When the king " stood by the altar to burn incense " the prophet cried, " O altar, altar, thus saith the Lord, Behold . . . upon thee shall Josiah offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men's bones shall be burnt upon thee." The refuse- idols should be done away with and the sun-pillars be hewn down and a complete abrogation ensue of all that had been unfaithfully done. " And your works" — "whatever can be ascribed to men which they have not taken from the mouth of God and the commands of His law " — " may be abolished." Ver. 7. "And the slain" — a word in the singular, as if to show that one mind had animated the mass of the slain in practising idolatry — "shall fall in the midst of you." There will be survivors to see the slaughtered idolaters, and the eye will affect their heart so that they shall recognise the action of the al- mighty, righteous One, "and ye shall know that I am the Lord." Thus a ground is laid for the following pro- mise. H0MILET1CS. Creation's Materials Instructing Men (vi. 1-7). It is common enough for men of all countries, when under the influence of strong emotions, to appeal to inanimate objects as if they were animated. It is a natural form of speech, proceeding from the formative hand. "He that formed ear shall Be not hear?" There is a likeness of the Creator in the creature ; and when the impulse of feeling moves us to speak to sun or stars, to mountains or as if they could comprehend our meaning, we are imitating Him who made all things and knows to what uses He can put them all. In His Word prophets and apostrophise created objects as witnesses of the Lord's doings. Thus Ezekiel doen, and here we may consider — L There is a life in created objects. " Prophesy against the mountains." This susceptibility in creation was signified to Kzekiel in his " visions of God:" this is signified by Apostle Paul in the words, "All things have been created for (Jlirist, and in Him all things consist" — have their continuance and order. Each has its post and its purpose in the administration of God ; and because it helps to accomplish His far-reaching will, it maybe truly regarded as having a portion in that life with which He fills all things. All things may not be called GO HOMILETIC COMMENTARY: EZEKIEL. chap. vr. living, but they are sustained by that life which is present everywhere. They suffer in man's bondage to corruption — " The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together." They are abashed and silent when ordered to be so by the Son of Man — " He rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm." Not as a frsak of fancy, but as a suggestive and awful fact, we may look at the materials of nature and find tokens of the living God, observant of us and interested in us and our ways. In view of mountains and hills, girded by ravines and valleys, we may exclaim, " Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid Thine hand upon me ! " IL There is a perversion of created objects. Men who look at and act upon nature colour it and swathe it with their own thoughts and aims. Advantages of position, capabilities for the application of human strength and skill to material things, are turned into means of doing that which pleases men and displeases the Lord. Mountains and valleys, heaps of stones and carved pillars, are thus associ- ated with man in man's sins. They are placed under a sentence of condemnation, and marked with signs of disorder and destruction. What though they have no consciousness of good and evil, what though they have no power of action against the will of man, they are made into his instruments for evil, and must be broken when he is broken. For God does not abandon His claim over them. Every creature of His is good, only the dark shadow has fallen on them ; their glory is tarnished ; their tribute to the Maker's praise is obstructed ; their pollution is as "a smoke in His nose," and He "will make them desolate." But man is the cause of all the eviL It is his procedure with the forms of things which depraves them ; the mountain is occupied with the worship of the created sun, the shade of trees becomes the haunt for immoralities under the sanction of the gods. Thus are the creatures perverted. In olden times, altars were polluted, oblations were vain, incense was an abomination ; in modern times, our buildings for public worship, with their decorations, our church music, with its display or its listlessness, may be perverted so as to be a condemnation of the worshippers. What need is there to serve the Lord in the beauty, not of any outward appearance, but of holiness ! III. There are tokens of doom on created objects. 1. In their desolation. " I will bring a sword upon you [mountains], and will destroy your high places." The ruins and the dreariness of spots, in which people were accustomed to serve their gods, suggest to inspecting eyes that the supremacy and sanctity of the Most High had been invaded there, and the invasion had been repelled with unsparing vehemence. Judgments were executed upon them, not because they could be held guilty, but because they had been the scenes of human wrong-doing. We are taught the needed lesson that sin is to be abhorred, not only because it defiles the sinner, but also because it draws the trail of the serpent over all he uses in his sin. "Every prospect" does not "please" where "man is vile." 2. In the human sufferings they are made witnesses of. " I will lay the dead carcases . . . before their idols." The very places to which they would flee for shelter will be turned into shambles; the reed they leaned on shd.1 pierce their hand. So deserted would the districts become that the bodies woulu lie unburied, be made into ghastly skeletons, be bleached and crumble into pieces ; their "bones would be scattered round about their altars." The fields of battle, the shores of surging seas, the ruins of earthquakes, with more or less distinct utterance, declare in Reason's ear, We are witnesses of the pains and death inflicted on a world over whose physical features the dishonour done to God has been imprinted, and we tell back to hearing ears that that God is holy in all His ways, cannot look upon sin, and will make good His title to supreme power and righteousness." 61 en at. vi. IIOMII.ETIC COMMENTARY: EZEKIEL. BXEGETICAL NOTES.— Vers. 8- 10. A gleam of comfort. Ezekiel has told how bitter ruin and slaughter should teach the children of Israel that "God ruleth in Jacob unto the ends of the earth," and now he will tell that that same truth would be learned in another way. Some of those who have survived and been taken into captivity shall be moved, by the hard conditions of their lives, to acknowledge that they have done very wickedly, and that God has done righteously. Ver. 8. "Yet will I leave a rem- nant that ye may," or, in that ye shall, "have some," because they have been preserved so as to "escape the sword among the nations," and who will be found amongst their fellow-countrymen "scattered through the countries." Ver. 9. In the privations and sorrows of exile, like the prodigal son in feeding on husks, they would come to them- selves, and recall what they had been and done. " They that escape of you shall remember me." The thought of Gtid Himself would be brought dis- tinctly into their hearts, and that would alter their convictions as to their by- gone life. They would perceive that against Him, Him onty, they had sinned ; "because I am broken with their whorish heart." The "Speaker's Com- mentary," in agreement with others, pro- poses to translate thus : Because 1 have broken their whorish heart, which hath departed from Me, and their eyes, &c. Hengstenberg, with others also, says, " The word properly means, ' I was broken : ' this stands for, ' I have broken for myself;'" a translation which is equivalent to the former. Both signify that it was not what their whorish heart did to Him, but what He did to it, that is set forth. We cannot acquiesce in this opinion. The remnant, who re- membered the Lord, perceived also that by various methods He had shown how grieved and provoked and wounded He was by the people turning away from His worship — that He was broken by their unfaithfulness. The expression is peculiar — is it more so than others in reference to the Lord % " I also will laugh at your calamity, I will mock," &c. (Prov. i. 26). "Wilt thou be alto- gether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail?" (Jer. xv. 18). "Behold I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves" (Amos ii. 13). This pain to God was occa- sioned, not by the inward only, but also by the outward proceedings of Israel, " with their eyes, which go a whoring after their refuse-idols : and," in con- sequence of this remembrance of " the Lord and the words of His holiness," "they shall loathe themselves," will look into the face of their past con- duct with deepest aversion, " because of all the evils," &c. Ver. 10 should be read, "And they shall know that I the Lord have not said in vain that I would do this evil unto them." The words do not assert that the remnant should know He was the living God, but that He was true to all His warnings about the evil things which had come to pass among "a disobedient and gainsaying people." "By the correspondence of utterance and event, they know that He who spoke by the son of man is Jehovah — is God in the fullest sense." E0MILETIC8. Conditions of Spiritual Knowledge (vers. 8-10). Among those indicated by the verses are — L A specialising action of the Lord. " I will leave a remnant." Out of the idolatrous people ; out of their broken-down trust in their land, their Temple, their covenant with God ; out of their ranks as they were living amidst heathenism, what hope could there be that one even would receive a new life in his spirit? For men it might be impossible, but not for God. It is His spontaneous action. They would not have sought Him. They would have continued in sin and sorrow unless a power external to themselves had moved upon them. " Except the Lord of 62 HO M1LETIG COMMENTARY: EZEK1EL. chap, vl hosts had left us a very small remnant,"