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Moreover the Spirit lifted me up, etc. It is noticeable that the position to which Ezekiel was thus transported in his vision from his place in the inner court (Eze_8:14), was identical with that which he had just seen occupied by the cherub chariot before its departure (Eze_10:19). What he is about to see will throw light on the significance of their departure. The gate is probably, here as there, that of the court of the temple. Five and twenty men. The number at first reminds us of the worshippers of the sun, in Eze_8:16; but that, as we saw, was probably a company of priests. On the other hand, the two who are named are styled princes of the people, which suggests a lay rather than a priestly status, and they are seen in a different locality. Conjectures as to the significance of the number vary.
(1) Two from each tribe of Israel, with the king at their head.
(2) Two from each of the twelve divisions of the army, each containing twenty-four thousand men (1Ch_27:1-15).
(3) Representatives of twelve regions of the city—a kind of municipal council, with their president. Possibly, after all, the number was used more or less vaguely—a "round" number, as we say (Smend). It is probably safe, however, to think of them as representing the lay element of authority. Nothing is known further as to the persons named. Jaazaniah is distinguished by his parentage from his namesake of Eze_8:11 and Jer_35:3. Both were probably familiar to those for whom Ezekiel wrote, as leaders of the party that was "always devising mischief," in opposition, i.e; to Jeremiah and the true prophets. Possibly the meanings of the names Jaazaniah (equivalent to "God hearkens") the son of Azur (equivalent to "The Helper"), Pelatiah (equivalent to "God rescues") the son of Benaiah (equivalent to "God builds"), are chosen as with a grim irony. The name of Azur meets us in Jer_28:1 as that of the father of the false prophet Hananiah. The death of Pelatiah was probably an historical event to which the prophet pointed as a warning to those who, either at Jerusalem or among the exiles, were speaking as he spoke.
Eze_11:3
It is not near, etc. The words take their place among the popular, half-proverbial sayings of which we have other examples in Eze_8:12; Eze_9:9; and Eze_18:2. As in most proverbs of this kind, the thought is condensed to the very verge of obscurity, and the words have received very different interpretations.
(1) That suggested by the Authorized Version. "It (the judgment of which the true prophets spoke) is not near. Let us build houses, not, as Jeremiah bids (Jer_39:5), in the land of exile, but here in Jerusalem, where we shall remain in safety. Are we threatened with the imagery of the 'seething pot' (Jer_1:13)? Let us remember that the caldron protects the meat in it from the fire. The walls of the city will protect us from the army of the Chaldeans." The temper which clothed itself in this language was that of the self-confident boastful security of Jer_28:3; and the death of Hananiah, the son of Azur, in that history presents a parallel to that of Pelatiah in this.
(2) Grammatically, however, the rendering of the Revised Version is preferable: The time is not near for building houses; probably, as before, with a reference to Jeremiah's advice. "We," they seem to say, "are not come to that plaint yet. We will trust, as in (1), in our interpretation of the caldron."
(3) On the whole, I incline, while adopting the Revised Version rendering, to interpret the words, as Smend takes them, as the defiant utterance of despair: "It is no time for building houses, here or elsewhere. We are doomed. We are destined (I borrow the nearest analogue of modern proverbial speech) 'to stew in our own juice.' Well, let us meet it as we best may."
I find what suggests this view
(1) in the improbability that the thought of the caldron could ever have been received as a message of safety (comp. Eze_24:3, Eze_24:6); and
(2) in the despairing tone of most of the sayings that Ezekiel records (Eze_18:2; Eze_37:11). Probably there were, as in other like crises in the history of nations (say, e.g; in those of the Franco-German War) rapid alternations between the two moods of boastful security and defiant despair—the galgenhumor, the courage of the gallows, as Smend calls it; and the same words might be uttered now in this temper, and now in that. In either case, there was the root element of the absence of repentance and submission.
Eze_11:4, Eze_11:5
The prophet still, we must remember, in his vision, is bidden to do his work as a true prophet, and to rebuke the defiant speech which he had heard. As in Eze_2:2, the Spirit of Jehovah comes upon him, and throws him into the prophetic ecstasy. It is noticeable that here, as in Eze_2:3, his message is not to Judah only, but to the whole house of Israel as represented by those to whom he spoke. I know the things. This, as ever, was one of the notes of a true prophet, that he shared, as was needed for his work, in the knowledge of him from whom no secrets are hid (Joh_2:24, Joh_2:25; Mat_9:4; 1Co_14:25). Thoughts, as well as words, were laid bare before him, as they were to his Lord (Heb_4:12).
Eze_11:7
They are the flesh, etc. The prophet is led to retort their derisive or defiant words. Not they, but the carcases of their victims, were as the "flesh" in the "caldron." For themselves, there was another fate in reserve. Neither to be protected by the caldron nor to meet their doom in it, but to be brought out of it. Death, by famine, sword, or pestilence (Eze_5:12), might be the doom of some, but for others, perhaps specially for those whom the prophet addresses, there would be captivity first, and death from the sword which they feared, afterwards.
Eze_11:9
The strangers are, of course, the Chaldean invaders, and the prediction finds its fulfilment in the massacre of the princes of Judah at Ritdah (Jer_52:9, Jer_52:10), which was in Hamath, the northern border of Israel (1Ki_8:65; 2Ki_14:25). Then they should see that their defiant speech as to the "caldron" and "the flesh" would be of no avail. Thus they should know that the prophet had spoken in the name of Jehovah, and that their punishment by the heathen was the righteous retribution for their having walked in the ways of the heathen.
Eze_11:13
Pelatiah the son of Benaiah. We must remember that this a as part of the vision, but it may be assumed, in the nature of the case, that it represented what then or afterwards was a fact in history. Had Pelatiah died suddenly during a council meeting? Compare the death of Hananiah in Jer_28:17. As it was, even in the vision, the death so startled and horrified the prophet, that he burst out again into a prayer like that of Jer_9:8. Was the "residue," the "remnant" of Israel, represented by one of the chief counsellors of the city, to be thus cut off?
Eze_11:14
The answer to that question comes as by a new inspiration from the word of the Lord.
Eze_11:15
The men of thy kindred, etc. The full force of the phrase can hardly be understood without remembering that the word for "kindred" implies the function and office of a goel, the redeemer and avenger of those among his relations who had suffered wrong (Le 25:25, 48; Num_5:8), and the point of the revelation is that Ezekiel is to find those who have this claim on him, his true "brethren," not only or chiefly in his natural relations in the priesthood, but in the companions of his exile (the LXX; following a different reading, gives, "the men of the Captivity"), and the whole house of Israel, who were in a like position, who were condemned by those who had been left in Jerusalem. As in Jeremiah's vision (Jer_24:1), they were the "good figs;" those in the city, the vile and worthless. They were the remnant, the residue, for whom there was a hope of better things. They were despised as far off from the Lord. They were really nearer to his presence than those who worshipped in the temple from which Jehovah had departed. Ewald and Smend take the words as indicative: "Ye are far," etc.
Eze_11:16
Yet will I be unto them as a little sanctuary; better, with the Revised Version, a little while, as marking that the state described was transient and provisional. For a time, Ezekiel and the exiles were to find the presence of Jehovah manifested as in the vision of Chebar (Eze_1:4-28), or felt spiritually, and this would make the spot where they found themselves as fully a holy place as the temple had been. There also they would have a "house of God." But this was not to be their permanent lot. There was to be a restoration to "the land of Israel" (verse 17; Eze_37:21), to the visible sanctuary, to a second temple no longer desecrated by the pollutions that had defiled the first. As with all such prophecies, the words had "springing and germinant accomplishments." In Ezekiel 40-48, we have Ezekiel's ideal vision of their fulfilment. A literal but incomplete fulfilment is formed in the work of restoration achieved by Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, and the hopes then cherished by Haggai and Zechariah. A more complete but less literal fulfilment appears in the Church of Christ as the true Israel of God (Gal_6:16), and in the Jerusalem which is above (Gal_4:26). In the fact that in the seer's vision of that heavenly city there is no temple, but the presence of "the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb" Rev_21:22), we find the crowning development of Ezekiel's thought. Intermediate expansions are found
(1) in the gradual substitution of the synagogue for the temple in the religious life of Israel;
(2) in our Lord's words to the woman of Samaria (Joh_4:21-24); and
(3) in his promise that where two or three are gathered together in his Name, there he would be in the midst of them (Mat_18:20). The thought that it is the presence of Jehovah that makes the sanctuary, not the sanctuary that secures the presence, Ezekiel may have learnt from the fate of Shiloh (Psa_78:60).
Eze_11:17
I will give you the land of Israel. The marginal references in the Authorized Version show how entirely Ezekiel was following in the footsteps of his master Jeremiah, as he had done in those of Isaiah, in their prophecies of restoration. Here also the law of" springing and germinant accomplishments" finds its application. Ezekiel (47:13-48:35) has his ideal of a new geographical Israel, as of a new local temple, a land from which idolatrous shrines and high places have disappeared. St. Paul (Romans 9-11.) clings to the thought of a restoration of the literal Israel, even while he strips it of Ezekiel's geographical limitations.
Eze_11:19
I will give them one heart. The LXX; following a different reading, gives "another heart" (as in 1Sa_10:9); but the Hebrew, represented by the Authorized and Revised Versions, is, without any doubt, right. As in the symbolic action of the joining of the two sticks in Eze_37:15-22, so here, the hope of the prophet, like that of Isaiah and Jeremiah (Jer_32:37-39), looked forward to the unity of the restored people. Judah should no longer vex Ephraim, nor Ephraim Judah (Isa_11:13). The long standing line of cleavage should disappear. Oneness of purpose and of action would characterize the new Israel of God. So, in our Lord's prayer for his Church, there is the prayer that "they may be one"—made perfect in one (Joh_17:21-23). Left to itself, Israel tended, as all human communities have tended, to an ever-subdividing individualism, fruitful in sects and parties and schisms. Even the highest of those aspirations has remained as yet without any adequate fulfilment. The ideal unity of the Christian Church is as far distant as that of the Church of Israel. It remains for us to welcome any approximate fulfilments as pledges and earnests of the future unity of the true Israel of God in the heavenly Jerusalem. In the prophet's thoughts that unity was to be brought about by the Divine gift of a "new Spirit," loyal, obedient, unselfish. We note how distinctly, whether consciously or unconsciously, Ezekiel reproduces the thought, almost the very words, of Jer_31:31-33; Jer_32:37-39; how his words are in their turn reproduced in Rev_21:3-5. The eternal hope asserts itself again and again in spite of all partial failures and disappointments. I will take the stony heart out of their flesh. The thought is, as we have seen, identical with that of Jer_31:31-33, but the form in this instance is eminently characteristic of Ezekiel, and meets us again in Eze_36:26. The "stony heart" is that which is "hardened" (Eze_3:7) against all impressions of repentance, to all natural or spiritual aspirations of the good. So Zec_7:12 speaks of those who had made their hearts "harder than an adamant stone." So we may remember, by way of illustration, that Burns says of the sin of impurity that "it hardens a' within," that "it petrifies the feeling." Ezekiel had seen enough of that stoniness in others, perhaps had, at times, felt it in himself.
Eze_11:20
That they may walk in my statutes, etc. Out of the new spirit there was to grow the new life—a life of righteousness and obedience, as in worship, so also in the acts of man's daily life and his dealings with his neighbours. So, and not otherwise, could the actual relation of Jehovah correspond to the ideal, as it had been declared of old (Exo_6:7; Le Exo_26:12; 1Sa_12:22; 2Sa_7:23). This, for Ezekiel, was the crowning blessedness of all, as it had been that of earlier and contemporary prophets (Hos_2:23; Jer_24:7). To that thought he returns again and again, as to the anchor of his hope (Eze_14:11; Eze_27:14; Eze_36:28; Eze_37:23, Eze_37:27).
Eze_11:21
But as for them, etc. We note the peculiar phraseology. The heart of the people walks not simply after their detestable things, but after the heart of those things. There is, as it were, a central unity in the evil to which they unite themselves, just as the heart of man turns to the heart of God when the two are in their ideal relation to each other. For those who did this, whether in Jerusalem or among the exiles, there was the prospect of a righteous retribution. The words close the message which Ezekiel heard in the courts of the temple in his visions, but which he was to deliver (verse 25) to them of the Captivity.
Eze_11:22, Eze_11:23
Another stage of the departure of the Divine glory closes the vision. It had rested over the middle of the city. It now halts over the mountain on the east side of the city, i.e. on the Mount of Olives (2Sa_15:30; Zec_14:4). Currey mentions, but without a reference, a Jewish tradition that the Shechinah, or glory cloud, remained there for three years, calling the people to repentance. What is here recorded may trove suggested the thought of Zec_14:4. We may remember that it was from this spot that Christ "beheld the city, and wept over it" (Luk_19:41); that from it He, the true Shechinah, ascended into heaven. Here, perhaps, the dominant thought was that it remained for a time to direct the work of judgment. And so the vision was over, and the prophet was borne back in vision to Chaldea, and made known to the exiles of Tel-Abib the wonderful and terrible things tidal he had seem
I. IMPENITENCE CREATES FALSE CONFIDENCE. This is to be expected, just as we see, on the other hand, that a deep sense of guilt brings with it a fear of judgment to come. When we feel and own our sin, we must admit that we deserve punishment, and we must see that the ground of assurance is cut from beneath our feet. What right have we to believe that God will shield us from harm, while we are bidding defiance to his Law? But while a soul is impenitent the ill desert and threatening doom are not perceived. It does not own that it should be punished. It defends itself and shelters itself behind innumerable excuses. Moreover, the moral sense is now blunt, and the faculty of spiritual insight blind. The messenger of God, too, is regarded as an enemy, and therefore little attention is given to his word. Thus arises a meretricious faith, the opposite of true faith, the confidence of unbelief.
II. FALSE CONFIDENCE POSTPONES AND MINIMIZES THE PROSPECT OF CALAMITY.
1. It postpones. Possibly the evil day may lie in the future. This much is tacitly admitted, But it is so far away that we need not give any consideration to it. While the prophet declares that it is at the door, the reckless unbeliever relegates it to a region of dim futurity beyond the horizon of practical considerations.
2. It minimizes. Even if it is admitted that the dreadful day is near, the evil of it is mane little of. "There is no need to build houses," these "Jerusalem sinners" exclaim. The storm may come soon, but it will quickly pass. Thus men make the least of the prospect of future punishment. False confidence first postpones the consideration of it, and then softens its terrors. To the impenitent sinner hell is first a far off possibility; then, though it is a, nearer future, it is not thought to be so unendurable as the preachers declare.
III. THERE IS GREAT DANGER IN FALSE CONFIDENCE. The Jews were simply deceiving themselves. Their very language should have revealed their folly to them. They described the city as a cauldron in which they were as the flesh. Their only application of this metaphor was to represent themselves as well inside the city, and therefore as not needing to build other houses. But the prophet did not have to go far afield to find another very obvious application of the same metaphor. The cauldron is to be set on a fire, and the flesh is only placed in it to be seethed. The cauldron, therefore, symbolizes a very dreadful fate (verse 7). The danger is not the less because we close our eyes to it. Meanwhile a false confidence hinders the impenitent from fleeing from the impending calamity and seeking a place of refuge. Light views of sin and judgment to come lull the careless into a fatal sleep.
Eze_11:5
1. God knows our ideas. He sees when we are in error, observes the crooked course of our ill-trained thinking, and notes the narrowness of our notions. He also knows the true thought which is not understood by our fellow men.
2. He knows our desires. If he does not grant them, it is not because he is ignorant of them. Before a prayer is out of our lips the wish of it has reached the mind of God. When we cannot find words to express the longing of our souls, those vague, dumb desires are exactly measured and fully comprehended by God. God knows our evil desires, the wicked wishes that have not yet found vent in wicked deeds.
3. He knows our sorrows. Though the heart only knoweth its own bitterness among men, the sympathetic knowledge of God has gauged it to the bottom. No one can say, "My grief is quite beyond comprehension." No one can be utterly misunderstood. Misjudged by man, the martyr is known to God.
4. God knows our sin. There is no secret place where a deed of wrong can be done without the eye of God seeing it. Abel is murdered in the field, but still his blood cries to God for vengeance.
II. ITS CONSEQUENCES.
1. Hypocrisy is a mistake. It only hides our shame from the less important spectators, while the all-seeing eye of God regards it as an addition to the guilt which lurks beneath.
2. Postponement of punishment is no guarantee for escape. The criminal who is not caught red-handed hopes that he will now elude the vigilance of the ministers of justice, and the longer he remains undetected the more confident does he grow in the assurance that he will never be caught, until long years of immunity almost beget a feeling of innocence. But if God knows all, there is no escape from his anger behind the obscuring growth of years.
3. God's long suffering is manifest. The heathen might say, "My God does not strike me, because he has not discovered my offence." But when the omniscience of God is admitted, his forbearance is seen to be a wonder of patience and love. He knows all, and yet he is still ready to pardon, still waiting to be gracious, nay, even still heaping upon his sinful children many favours!
4. There is hope of salvation. If our escape lay only in our concealment of guilt, there would always be a danger of ruin through discovery. The criminal who has no better hope than this is standing on thin ice. But now we see that God knows the worst of us, and yet offers pardon and reconciliation through the gift of his Son, we have the greatest encouragement to accept his grace. Moreover, since he knows our troubles, hopes, fears, aspirations, and difficulties, he can send the exact help we need.
Eze_11:16
I. GOD IS THE BEST SANCTUARY. No Solomon can arise by the banks of the Chebar to build a new temple. The splendour of Lebanon and the skill of Hiram, together with the wealth and devotion of the Jewish nation at the height of its glory, produced a wonder of the world, which a feeble band of heartbroken captives could never dream of equalling. Yet the sorrow-stricken remnant of pious Israel were to have something better than gilded walls and cedar pillars. They were to have God as their Sanctuary.
1. God vouchsafes his presence to his people. He does not only give a house of worship; be comes himself.
2. God's presence sanctifies. It is a sanctuary. The place where Moses stood before the burning bush was "holy ground," for God was there (Exo_3:5). Chaldea was far from the "Holy Land;" yet if God were there he would make light in the centre of heathen darkness. Wherever God visits us he makes a sanctuary. The workshop is a holy place when God is in it.
3. God's presence saves. The temple was regarded with a false confidence and a foolish superstition as a charmed asylum, but the event proved the delusiveness of such an assumption. When God is with us anywhere, however, we are safe; for he is "a Sun and a Shield."
II. THIS SANCTUARY IS TO BE FOUND IN EXILE.
1. In exile from the native land. The colonist far removed from the home and Church of his fathers, may find God in the bush or on the prairie. Though no "place of worship" may he within his reach, he need not feel banished from gracious influences. If his heart turn to God, God will be with him as his Sanctuary.
2. In exile from the old delights. When trouble comes, a man is, as it were, driven from the land flowing with milk and honey out into a waste howling wilderness. But One is with him, and the God who met the poor fugitive Jacob will make a Bethel in the desert of trouble.
3. In exile from heaven. We seek another country. Here we are pilgrims and strangers; our citizenship is in heaven. Nevertheless, God is with us here and now to train and guard and cheer us with the sanctuary of his presence.
4. For a short season. God would be the Sanctuary in exile "for a little time," not because he would soon desert the banished, but because he would bring them home again. If God is with us in trouble, he will bring us out of trouble. He is with us here for a season, that he may lead us to be with him in heaven forever. Christ came into exile from heaven to be with us here on earth that he might bring us back to God. He "tabernacled with us," was our Sanctuary in exile during his earthly ministry. Now he has gone to prepare a place for us in the eternal home.
Eze_11:17
II. THE FUTURE SALVATION IS TO BE A GREAT RFSTORATION. God will bring the exiles home again. This implies two things.
1. Deliverance from evil. The Jews were scattered among heathen peoples whose alien temper and domineering spirit were sources of trouble; e.g. Daniel, and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Sin plunges us into hurtful conditions. For wholesome discipline God's true people may be thrown into circumstances of persecution and peril. but this will not be forever. If the Son of God is with the three in the furnace, he will deliver them from it.
2. Restoration to the old home. The exiles are to return to Canaan. Souls exiled from the kingdom of heaven by sin will, when pardoned and renewed (see verse 19), be restored to the privileges which were the birthright of all—for all have been children, and "of such is the kingdom of heaven." Further, those who have been thus far restored may well feel the need of a more perfect recovery to the home of God, since this earth is not heaven, and here the people of God are "pilgrims and strangers" seeking "another country, that is, a heavenly." God's perfect restoration includes the bringing of his children home to heaven.
III. THE GREAT RESTORATION INCLUDES PERFECT REUNION. The nation was scattered; the promise is that it shall be reunited. Sin divides; redemption unites. All evil has a disintegrating influence on national and family life. Its root is selfishness, and selfishness implies severance. But love is the source of the better life, and love is the closest bond of union.
1. National reunion. So with the Jew. A nation will be safe against internal strife when Christian principles are followed.
2. The reunion of mankind. War is a vast and hideous fruit of selfish sinful passions and narrow hardheartedness. Christianity, if triumphant, would kill war by miring the nations in brotherhood, thus bringing "peace on earth."
3. The reunion of individuals. In restoration to God we learn patience, sympathy, and charity in regard to our fellow men.
4. The reunion of families. This begins on earth in pure home love. But it will be completed in the great restoration of families when all can meet in the home beyond the grave.
Eze_11:19, Eze_11:20
I. THE NATURE OF THE GREAT CHANGE. Eze_11:17 had promised an external restoration; now we have the assurance of an internal transformation. It is the heart that is to be changed. The very centre of the being must be renewed. For this David prayed (Psa_51:10). The need of it was pointed out to Nicodemus by Christ (Joh_3:3). Note the characteristics of the new heart.
1. Unity. "One heart." The internal discord will cease. A man with divided affections is like a two-hearted monster. But doubtless the unity here referred to is social. Sin having brought quarrels among men, the new state will be one of harmony.
2. Life. The old heart was of stone, and therefore dead. The new heart is of flesh, and living. Sin deadens the soul. The death of sin is the resurrection of the better nature.
3. Susceptibility. The stony heart cannot feel. This is the dangerous result of sin. The conscience is seared. The guilt of sin and its danger are not felt. The appeals of Divine grace are unheeded. Tears are wasted on a marble statue. Rain and sunshine cannot fertilize a granite rock. But the new heart is tender. As when Moses strikes the rock the streams flow, so when God's Word. reaches the stony heart with the power of his Spirit a new feeling is awakened.
4. Naturedness. The new heart is of flesh, not of some rare ethereal substance. The Christian is not to have the heart of an angel, but just a man's true natural heart. The Christian is the true man. Christianity is in harmony with nature. Inhumanity is unnatural. The lack of natural affections is a sign of unspirituality. Cold saintliness is not an effect of God's grace, but a product of man's perversity. God puts a heart of flesh in the flesh. Thus there is harmony, and all is natural.
II. THE SOURCE OF THE GREAT CHANGE. God promises to effect this wonderful transformation. Only he can do it. We can change our clothes, our habitation, our outward manners, but not our hearts. The depth of the change renders it too much for man. So does the previous condition of those on whom it has to be wrought. As the heart is of stone, it is too cold to feel its need, and too dead to strive after a better condition. In this hardness and indifference the hapless condition of the sinner is completed. Even the penitent cannot create in himself a clean heart. But left to himself, man is not likely to become penitent. Now, God promises to do what man can never accomplish for himself. He will take away the old evil—remove the heart of stone. He will give a new nature—the heart of flesh. He will also inspire power into this new nature by putting "a new spirit" in his children. This is done by the gift of his Holy Spirit.
III. THE RESULTS OF THE GREAT CHANGE. This change takes place in the heart; it is inward, and therefore secret. But its consequences cannot be hidden, for out of the heart are "the issues of life." No one can have the heart of flesh and behave like a being of stone—cold, unsympathetic, inactive. Two consequences are noticed.
1. Obedience. The heart of flesh is given that God's people may walk in his statutes and keep his ordinances and do them. We cannot truly obey God till we love him. When the heart is right with God the most natural result is that the conduct should be right also. Yet, be it observed, this is not to be regarded as a merely necessary result of God's action within us, for Eze_11:20 describes a purpose rather than a certain result. God gives a heart of flesh "that" his people "may walk," etc. It is still left with them to exert themselves in the way of obedience.
2. Adoption. "Thy seed shall be my people, and I will be their God." God owns his renewed people as his children; they own him as their Father. The right heart is at one with God.
Eze_11:25
1. In the Bible. Of all men the preacher is called to be a diligent student of this rich storehouse of revelation. The modern preacher does not see Ezekiel's cherubim, but he can read the New Testament, of which Ezekiel knew nothing; and the gospel story of Jesus of Nazareth is a greater revelation than the visions of an Old Testament prophet.
2. In experience. Every preacher must have his own vision of Scripture truth. We can only speak what we have seen and heard. The truth must be interpreted by experience.
II. THE PRIVATE REVELATION OF TRUTH IS GIVEN FOR PUBLIC DECLARATION. Ezekiel might have thought himself a rarely privileged soul, and have considered his visions as choice mysteries to be kept secret, and not to be waisted on unsympathetic ears, like pearls cast before swine, if he had not understood his duty as a prophet of Israel too well to make such a mistake. Freely he had received, freely he must give. All who know God's truth are under sacred obligations to do what in them lies to declare that truth. It is not possible forevery one to be a preacher by word of mouth. Still, in some way missionary enterprise should follow the reception of Divine truth. We who have the gospel are bound to give it to those to whom it is vet an undreamed secret.
1. This declaration is to be unreserved. Ezekiel spoke all the things. Some were obscure; some might cause offence; some might be abused. Yet he was not at liberty to hold hack anything. The preacher must not shun to "declare the whole counsel of God."
2. This declaration is for all. It was given to Ezekiel's neighbours, the captives, without distinction. As there are no esoteric truths in God's revelation, so there is no spiritual aristocracy of the initiated. The only limit is our capacity to receive. "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear."
III. THE DECLARATION OF DIVINE TRUTH IS ESPECIALLY NEEDED BY THOSE WHO ARE IN TROUBLE. Ezekiel "spake unto them of the Captivity."
1. It is a peculiarly Christian duty to bring the consolation of God to the troubled. This is suited to the sorrowful. Lighter thoughts may amuse in hours of ease. But when darkness gathers about the soul, nothing short of the deep verities of God will satisfy. Those verities may not be always pleasant. Much that Ezekiel saw filled him with distress. Still God's truth is all wholesome and healing, and his last words are his best, as Ezekiel's hearers must have found when the prophet concluded with the wonderful promise of the "heart of flesh" (verse 19).
2. The gospel is peculiarly appropriate for those who are spiritually captives, i.e. in bondage to
(1) superstition,
(2) doubt,
(3) fear, or
(4) sin.
Christ came to proclaim liberty to such captives (Luk_4:15).
I. THE COUNSELLORS OF A NATION OWE THEIR POSITION AND INFLUENCE TO GIFTS AND ACQUIREMENTS FOR WHICH THEY ARE INDEBTED TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE.
II. SUCH POSITION AND INFLUENCE ARE NECESSARILY ACCOMPANIED BY GRAVE RESPONSIBILITY.
III. THE COUNSELLORS OF A NATION. ABUSE THEIR TRUST WHEN THEY SEEK TO DIRECT PUBLIC POLICY SO AS TO SECURE PERSONAL AND PRIVATE ENDS. That this is often done no student of political philosophy and history, no observer of contemporary politics in any nation, can doubt. Men profess zeal for the public good, and upon such profession are exalted, by the favour of a prince or of the public, to positions of eminence and power. no sooner are they securely in office than they make use of their newly acquired power to gain some ends dear to their own interests, passions, or prejudices. Some by oppression or peculation amass great wealth; some find means to revenge themselves upon their enemies and rivals; some seek to get into their own hands the reins of supreme power; some regard office as the opportunity for advancing their family or their friends to posts of consideration and emolument. In public such persons speak of patriotism, of popular rights, of disinterested devotion to the public good. But in reality they are always scheming to secure some advantage to themselves. So much is this the case in certain communities that among them the "politician" is loathed and despised by all men of integrity and honour.
IV. EVIL COUNSELLORS ARE ACTUATED BY BASE MOTIVES. Politicians are sometimes in the pay of their country's enemies; they are sometimes the instruments of a despot who seeks to rob the people of their rights, and to establish a tyranny; they are sometimes indifferent to their fellow countrymen's sufferings, if only they themselves may profit by their nation's fall. Self is their rule, their impulse, their one consideration. What they do they do not as unto the Lord, but unto men.
V. EVIL COUNSELLORS LEAD A COMMUNITY INTO ERROR AND RUIN. The multitude ever follows the guidance of the few. The uninstructed and ill-informed are at the mercy of their superiors. Old Testament history abounds with instances of misleading by unprincipled rulers. It is mentioned to the condemnation of one and another of the kings that they "caused Israel to sin." And what was true of the "chosen nation" is true of every people; at some epoch or other the pride, the vanity, the ambition, the meanness, or the selfish sloth of those in authority has led the nations into some course of infatuated folly, and the people have suffered for the offences of their leaders.
VI. RETRIBUTION WILL SURELY OVERTAKE SUCH AS BY WICKED COUNSEL LEAD THE PEOPLE ASTRAY. The time must come when the secret purposes of wicked rulers will be brought to light and exposed. Some are hurled by the indignation of the people from the lofty position to which they have been allowed to climb. Some retain their position whilst they live, but their memory is accursed. But of all we are assured upon the highest authority that they shall be brought into judgment, and that their deeds shall not be unpunished.—T.
Eze_11:3
I. THE WAY IN WHICH SINNERS TREAT THE THREATS OF GOD'S AUTHORIZED MINISTERS.
1. It is often the bounden duty of faithful messengers of God to foretell the approach of chastisement and judgment. A painful duty it always is; and it is to be leaped that on this account many shrink from discharging it. Even the tender and gracious Jesus now and again denounced the sins of the self-righteous and hypocritical, and warned such that condemnation awaited them. No one can carry out the office of a minister of righteousness who does not remind the unbelieving and impenitent that "the wages of sin is death."
2. It is observable that such admonitions are often treated with neglect and contempt. It has been thus from the time of Noah, whose warnings were unheeded and ridiculed by his contemporaries. The admonitions of Christ himself in some instances only embittered the hostility of those whom he reproached. Every servant of God has had occasion to exclaim, "Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?"
II. THE ERROR WHICH SINNERS COMMIT IN SO TREATING GOD'S MESSAGE.
1. Many who hear the warnings and threats addressed to them give no credit to what they hear, and do not expect the predictions to be fulfilled. They have more confidence in their own judgment and in their own good fortune than in the Word of the Lord. They do not wish to believe, and they will not bellow.
2. Many who do not absolutely disbelieve and reject the message, nevertheless persuade themselves that its fulfilment will be indefinitely deferred, and indeed is altogether uncertain. Such seems to have been the case with the evil counsellors, whose guidance was accepted in Jerusalem. Their answer to every prediction of calamity was this: "It is not near!" It is with the same excuse that the Word of God is so constantly encountered in our own days; and there are those who may not make this excuse in words, who yet cherish it in their hearts and act upon it in their conduct. "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the hearts of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil."
III. THE FOLLY AND WICKEDNESS OF SUCH TREATMENT OF GOD'S MESSAGE. What shall be said of the attitude of those whose one reply is this: "It is not near"?
1. They must be reminded that time, after all, is of comparatively little importance. The main question for us is this—Is God angry with the wicked? Is his wrath to be revealed against the ungodly? If it is so, then how can we attach great importance to the question—Will this be made manifest this year or next year; now or at some future time?
2. They must be reminded that the judgment foretold may be actually nearer than is supposed or believed. It was so in the case of Jerusalem in the time of Ezekiel. It has often been so. Men have been eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, when sudden destruction has come upon them.
3. They must be reminded that, near or far, the judgment of the Supreme Ruler is inevitable. "Who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth?"—T.
Eze_11:5
I. THE REASONABLENESS OF THIS DOCTRINE. We attribute to the Deity infinite perfection; and this is not consistent with the limitation of his knowledge. It is absurd to suppose that he who has made the mind of man has lost the power of recognizing the thoughts and intents of the heart which he fashioned by his power and wisdom. There is no part of his universe in which God is not present. Much more evidence is it that the Father of the spirits of all flesh is in possession of every secret of the intellectual and spiritual nature of man.
II. THE FORGETFULNESS OF THIS DOCTRINE. It is evident that the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and especially the false teachers and evil counsellors in the city, lost sight of this great truth. God was not in all their thoughts. It may net have occurred to them, as they pursued their selfish plans and lived their irreligious life, that every purpose and hope was known to the Divine Lord and Judge. "All things are naked and opened to the eyes of him with whom we haw to do."
III. THE TERROR WHICH THIS DOCTRINE SHOULD HAVE FOR EVIL DOERS WHO ARE REMINDED OF IT. God knows the wicked things that come into men's minds and are encouraged to abide there—the injustice, the covetousness, the falsehood, the impurity, the cruelty, the hatred, the malevolence, which are distinctive of those who depart from God. Such qualities, even before they find expression in word and act, are repugnant to the nature of the just and holy God. And he is not simply an observer; he is a Judge. He disapproves and condemns thoughts, sentiments, and purposes which are in opposition to his own laws, to his own character. He has revealed his intention to bring men into judgment for all their conduct, and forevery secret thing, good or bad. From this reckoning with the Judge of all there is no escape. The prospect may well strike the impenitent sinner with dismay.
IV. THE DISSUASIVE POWER WHICH THIS DOCTRINE SHOULD EXERCISE OVER THOSE WHO ARE HESITATING WHETHER OR NOT TO YIELD TO TEMPTATION. In order to resist temptation to sin, it is not enough to guard our actions, to order aright our circumstances and associations. It is in the mind that the real battle must be fought. And upon this battlefield, what auxiliary is so potent and effectual as the remembrance of the Lord's omniscience? He is with us to assist us in the regulation of our thoughts and desires; for he knows alike the force of temptation, and the sincerity of our endeavour to check and to overcome it.
V. THE WELCOME GIVEN BY GOD'S PEOPLE TO THIS DOCTRINE. The same truth is a joy and consolation to the Christian, which the ungodly man finds an occasion of distress and dread. Why is this? It is because God has in Christ made himself known to his heart as his Friend and Father. Thus openness and confidence and holy intimacy prevail between the Christian and his God. The faithful servant of God knows his infirmities and his faults, and he is grateful to be assured that those are known to his Father in heaven, who will deal leniently and compassionately with them, and will assist him in overcoming them. God knows the aspirations and endeavours of his own children, is interested in every effort to attain to a fuller knowledge of himself, and a more constant and practical subjection to his will. In Psa_139:1-24, the feelings of the good man, conscious of the Divine omniscience, find a full and most poetical and fervent expression, There is nothing which such a man would wish to hide from such a Friend.—T.
Eze_11:13
I. THE OCCASION OF REMONSTRANCE AND INTERCESSION. In this passage the occasion was twofold.
1. The pressure of present affliction, in the death of one of the leaders and rulers in the metropolis.
2. The apprehension of future calamity and disaster such as the present affliction foreboded. What had happened to one would, in all likelihood, happen to others. Similarly, every well wisher to his country and his Church is, in times of trial, driven to the throne of grace for merciful forbearance and interposition.
II. THE PRESENTATION OF REMONSTRANCE AND INTERCESSION.
1. There is an identification on the part of the suppliant of himself with his people. After all, whatever might be the errors of any class of his countrymen, Ezekiel was a Hebrew, and he could not but suffer in the sufferings of his country; its misfortunes could not but afflict him; its ruin could not but humiliate and distress him.
2. There is an implicit admission of the justice of the Divine action; the prophet does not complain of what had been wrought by the hand of Divine and judicial authority. No affliction was undeserved.
3. There is supplication that ills apparently impending may be averted. As Abraham pleaded for Sodom, so Ezekiel pleaded for Jerusalem. There is but a remnant: of that remnant shall a full end be made? As if he added, in the language of the patriarch, "That be far from thee, Lord!"
APPLICATION. The Christian cannot fail to be reminded, by this passage, of the intercessory office of Christ. We have an Advocate with the Father, appointed and accepted by that Father's love. Here is our refuge and our hope in the time of calamity and under the fear of judgment. Our High Priest is a powerful and successful Intercessor. Our sins have deserved that "a full end" should be made of humanity. But through Christ mercy is extended, clemency exercised, and salvation assured to those who place themselves under the patronage and protection of the great Mediator and Advocate.—T.
Eze_11:16, Eze_11:17
I. GOD A SANCTUARY FOR A SEASON IN A FOREIGN LAND. This must have been a precious and encouraging assurance to the captives in their banishment. They loved Jerusalem, and they loved the temple. Far from the scene of their national privileges, they were yet not forsaken by the God of their fathers.
1. Every holy place has its true meaning and value from the residence in it of the Eternal. It is not the costly material of which a sanctuary is built, the labour and art with which it is decorated, the robed priesthoods who minister, or the lavish offerings and sacrifices that are presented; it is not these things that make a temple. It is the presence of God himself to receive and bless the worshippers, that endears the building to the enlightened and pious.
2. God may manifest his presence and favour in p!aces where no sacred edifices exist. So Jacob understood, when he awoke from his slumber and his dream, and exclaimed, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not!"
"Where'er they seek thee, thou art found,
And every place is hallowed ground."
Those upon the stormy deep, those in the primeval forests, those in the waterless deserts, those in the caverns of the earth, have met with God in the exercises of devotion. And he was a Sanctuary to his banished ones in their captivity in the East, as near to them as he was to those still permitted to resort to the courts of the temple at Jerusalem. "The tabernacle of God is with men."
3. Thus God's spiritual presence may be realized and enjoyed even in a world of sin. Earth is in a sense the scene of exile and of banishment. But for all that, God will be to his people a Sanctuary in the place and during the period of their captivity. His Church is his temple, and from it he never departs.
II. GOD THE RESTORER OF HIS BANISHED ONES.
1. The dispersion and banishment are appointed for a time and for a purpose. There were reasons why the sons of Abraham should be exiled from the land promised to their progenitor, the father of the faithful. It was apparent to the wisdom of God that only thus could they be preserved and delivered from the temptations, especially to idolatry, to which they had so often yielded. The discipline was severe, but it was effectual. The period of exile was not prolonged vindictively.
2. The restoration is as providential as the Captivity. The language of the text is very emphatic upon this Feint: "I will even gather you from the people," etc. "He deviseth means whereby his banished ones may return." It was this prospect which sustained and cheered the Hebrew people amidst disasters at home and exile abroad. The land of their fathers was their land; and in due time they were to enter and possess it.
3. The restoration of the Israelites prefigured the final salvation of all God's people. Their exile shall not last forever. There is a better country, even a heavenly, a Jerusalem above; yonder is the promised inheritance, and the eternal abode of the blessed gathered from every land.—T.
Eze_11:19
I. THE NATURE THAT NEEDS TRANSFORMATION. This is characterized by hardness. It is "the stony heart" which Divine grace undertakes to soften and renew. The hard or stony heart is that which is insensible to spiritual realities, upon which neither Law nor gospel makes any impression, which resists every appeal whether of righteousness or of mercy.
II. THE POWER THAT EFFECTS THE TRANSFORMATION. The powerlessness of all human agency and endeavour is apparent. Man's influence can do much; but here is the most difficult of all problems to be solved; here is the necessity for something more than reformation—for actual renewal Hence God, the Almighty, undertakes the work himself. He speaks here with authority, as the Being who needs no counsellor, no helper, who has infinite resources at his disposal, who exercises his own prerogative. It is not here explicitly stated what are the means he employs; but we know that they are means in harmony with the moral nature of man, that his appeal to us is an appeal of truth and love. In the Christian dispensation, the agent of transformation is the Holy Spirit given at Pentecost, and perpetually abiding in the Church, and the instrumentality employed is the gospel of our Saviour Jesus Christ, appropriated by the faith of the believing hearer of the Word.
III. THE EFFECTS AND EVIDENCES OF THIS TRANSFORMATION.
1. Newness of spirit supersedes the old disposition to disobey and rebel. Every reader of the New Testament knows what stress is laid upon the new covenant, the new birth, the new life, newness of the spirit, etc. In fact, this verse from Ezekiel is peculiarly in harmony with the Christian dispensation and all that belongs to it.
2. Unity of heart is one form of newness; for it comes to supersede the division and opposition which prevail where God's authority is rejected and where God's Word is despised. It is our Lord's prayer concerning the members of his Church, that they "all may be one"—one in him and in the Father, and so one each with the other.
3. Sensitiveness is what is intended by the heart of flesh. The nature which God by his grace renews is a nature which responds to the love of God by gratitude, faith, and consecration. A heart delighting in what pleases God, dreading what offends him; a heart loving all whom God loves, and inspiring a life of scrupulous and hearty obedience;—such is the new heart, the heart of flesh, which is the best gift of God to his children.
"A heart resigned, submissive, meek,
My dear Redeemer's throne;
Where only Christ is heard to speak,
Where Jesus reigns alone."
T.
Eze_11:20
I. THE OBEDIENT ARE CLAIMED AND OWNED BY GOD AS HIS PEOPLE. "They shall be my people," says the Eternal. They are his:
1. To possess. They are his property, and they bear upon them his mark.
2. To control. They are his servants, yielding themselves to him, and their powers as instruments in his service.
3. To love. God loves his own people, as a father loves his own children, as a husband loves his own wife.
4. To bless. The Lord is mindful of his own. There is nothing that is for their good which he withholds from them.
II. GOD IS CLAIMED AND OWNED BY THE OBEDIENT AS THEIR GOD. On this account:
1. They reverence him. Let others offer their adoration where they will, the Lord, say they, is our God, and him only will we serve.
2. They trust him. His ways may sometimes be dark, and his counsels perplexing; but he is their