(3.) THE SETTING FIRE TO JERUSALEM, WITH THE WITHDRAWAL FROM THE TEMPLE (Chap. 10)
EXEGETICAL NOTES.— Ezekiel 10:1-8. The sealing of the remnant has proved the faithfulness of the Lord to His covenant; the conflagration of the city will prove His justice by the punishment of the violators of His covenant. But before the sentence is executed the prophet is again made specially cognisant of the truth that the heavens do rule—that not only was he commissioned by the God of Israel, but also that he must be imbued with the profound conviction that every calamity which befalls the guilty city proceeds from the agencies which underlie the sapphire throne of the everlasting King. “Four potencies are engaged in the destruction of the city—He who sits on the throne, the man clothed in linen, the fire, and the cherub who hands it to the angel. The former two are absolutely ruling, the latter two absolutely ministering” (Heng.) The divine glory is manifested in changing aspects, and, while similar to the presentation in the plain of Chebar, yet shows a few differences in form and procedure. “And, to make it more manifest that the judgment is in vindication of His injured holiness and on account of the sins which had been committed against His covenant, the scene of the judicial action is laid in the Temple itself” (Fair.) Reading Ezekiel 10:1-3; Ezekiel 10:6-7; Ezekiel 10:13; Ezekiel 10:15 a, Ezekiel 10:18-19, we get the account of what took place; the remaining verses give elucidations of the scene.
Ezekiel 10:1. When the watcher ceased to speak, Ezekiel’s attention was directed to the change of scenery. “And I saw, and, behold, upon the firmament which was over the head of the cherubim,” though the prophet had not recognised this special organisation till later on (Ezekiel 10:20), yet he keeps to the designation throughout this vision as he did to that of “living creatures” throughout his first vision, the reason for the change of words probably being the presence of cherubic representation in the Temple; “as it were a sapphire stone, as the appearance of the likeness of a throne;” no rainbow appears now. Mercy, in a sense, is past—the marking of the spared ones is completed, and there is scope for wee only. Besides, the appearance of the likeness of a man is not noticed here, but it is indicated by the issuing of a voice. The King was on the throne, though invisible to His servant.
Ezekiel 10:2. “And he said unto the man clothed with linen, Go between the wheels, to below the cherub;” to the space where, not material fire, but the symbol of destruction, which was in its consequences to make Jerusalem like Sodom and Gomorrah, had been seen (chap. Ezekiel 1:13); and he had a direct act to do there, “fill thy hands with coals of fire,” putting his two hands together so as to make a hollow space, “and scatter over the city;” the fiery coals were to destroy Jerusalem, as is illustrated by the words of Isaiah (Ezekiel 33:12; Ezekiel 33:14), “And the people shall be as the burnings of lime; as thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire … The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?” “And he came before my eyes.” It is noteworthy that the man who had put the saving mark on the foreheads is now commissioned to be the agent by whom the desolation of Jerusalem is accomplished. “God has no class of servants too holy or sacred to act, if need be, in the execution of righteous judgments.” Guilt and fiery doom must be proclaimed as well as forgiveness and blessedness: yet punishment will pave the way for salvation. When the Lord washes away the defilement of the daughter of Zion, and purges the blood from Jerusalem by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning, then shall be a place of refuge, and a covert from storm and rain (Isaiah 4)
Ezekiel 10:3. The man’s commission is not performed until the position which is taken by the divine glory and its accompanying phenomena is defined. Ezekiel observes that “the cherubim were standing at the right of the house when the man came,’ i.e., they were on the south side, ready for moving away from the Temple. The avengers had come from the north; they began to slay at the sanctuary; the city, which was about to be laid in ashes, was built southwards of the temple, and at that quarter the glory was impelled to depart from its chosen place; “and the cloud filled the inner court;” as in the Revelation (chap. Ezekiel 15:8), “The Temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from His power,” and wrath was going forth from the sacred place.
Ezekiel 10:4. “And the glory of the Lord rose, from over the cherub, over the threshold of the house”—asimilar movement to that in chap. Ezekiel 9:3, but with the signification here that its departure was now taking place. He leaves a shadow behind and casts a light before Him: “and the house was filled with the cloud”—with the vehicle for the divine glory, which, as the pillar of the cloud to the Egyptians, had a dark aspect in the house; so we conclude from the context, “and the court was filled with the brightness of the glory of the Lord.” Conjectural assertions as to what the cloud portended, and what the brightness, do not seem to be fruitful as explanations. All that appears clear is that the protection and guidance, which were associated with the presence of the glory, would no longer be granted to Jerusalem.
Ezekiel 10:5. The movement of the glory of the Lord was accompanied by the movement of the cherubim. “And the sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard to the outer court,” into which we must suppose Ezekiel had gone from the inner, and from which he could see what took place. It was a thunderous sound (Psalms 29:3), as in the former vision, expressive of the force with which the stroke of the wings were propelled, but conveying more than Hengstenberg suggests. “If the cherub is the concentration of all created life on earth, then its sound is the concentration of all sound on earth.”
Ezekiel 10:6. Now Ezekiel returns to the point he had reached at Ezekiel 10:2. The command to the man is again rehearsed, and it is added, “he came and stood beside the wheel” (Sing.); not some specially-appointed wheel, but that one which happened to be nearest as he went for the fire.
Ezekiel 10:7-8. “And the cherub,” the one next to the wheel beside which the man was, “stretched forth his hand from between the cherubim unto the fire that was between the cherubim, and lifted and gave into the hands of the man clothed in linen, and he took and went out” towards the doomed city, not now as the mediator of salvation, but as an executor of judgment. It is not stated that he scattered the fire then. Either Ezekiel’s vision was filled with some other sight, so that he did not observe the incidence of the destruction, or else a space of time was allowed to intervene. The latter seems most probable. The burning lies beyond the next chapter, where the glory goes away, and Ezekiel ceases to see the vision of Jerusalem. An explanatory remark is made as to the instrument of action in the cherubim: “the likeness of the hand of a man under their wings:” the symbol of human agency and activity is associated with that part of their bodies by which they could be swift in fulfilling their prescribed work, and whose movements were heard far off. The hand “may be naturally regarded as indicating that human agents should not be wanting, at the proper time, to carry into effect the judgment written” (Fair.) “Those who burned the city were immediately the Chaldeans, who are included under the cherubim; but behind them stood another” (Heng.)
HOMILETICS
UNESTIMATED INFLUENCES ON HUMAN LIFE
A new departure in the development of God’s people was taking effect. Their exile and slaughter, with the desecration of the most holy place, were events which did not result merely from Chaldean forces or natural elements, but really from Him who directs all living and inanimate things. To bring the Israelites out of the notion that they were secured against evil because of past favours received on past obedience rendered; to impress on them the latent truth that the Lord did not rule His procedure by the external words or acts of men, but by the spirit which breathed in them; to give indications of a time when He would be to all people that which He had been to one, these seem to be the grounds for the manifestations of this section. In reference to them there is signified—
I. An invisible governor. The spirit of Ezekiel sees tints of the Eternal Majesty, and becomes aware of words spoken by Him whom he does not name. In his state is a representation of that which has been experienced by multitudes. They know that God is within range of their susceptibilities, that He coins impressions from which thought and feeling proceed. They are sure that, whatever be the persons or things by which they are affected, He is King over each and all. If any wonder or even mock at the confidence they profess to have in an unseen Ruler, they reply, “I know whom I have believed;” for beneath all that is palpable they believe in God who is a Spirit, and who is King for ever and ever. “They walk by faith, not by sight.”
II. Manifold agents. In their diversity. A half-unconscious tendency disposes us to refer every good thing to the action of God, every hard, ruinous thing to the action of some law. It is a trick of our minds. If painful and disastrous things come out of broken laws, pleasant and helpful things come out of obeyed laws. And the truth symbolised in man, in cherubim, and in fire, is, that all effects, brought about by multitudinous agencies, are but the phenomenal forms of the purposes of the perfect will. The Son of God, the angels of God, men who hurt, men who suffer, coals of fire, hailstones and frost, execute a commission given by the Creator of the ends of the earth. Whatever the variety of influences which affect us, we are still with God.
In their versatility. The fire that comforts can destroy: living beings may fulfil their ends by running, flying, standing, making sounds, or carrying from place to place: the Lord Jesus says, “I will draw all men unto me,” and He also says, “Depart from me; I never knew you.” All changed conditions, in the action of natural and spiritual agencies, depend upon changes in the objects acted upon. The ministry of wrath follows the movements of wrong. They shall dwell with the devouring fire who sin and do not repent of their ungodliness. They “shall be salted with fire” who walk righteously and speak uprightly.
In their concurrence. In the order of nature forces are correlated, and in the moral order joy and ease may be transmuted into sorrow and pains, privileges into penalties, the honour of God’s dwelling-place into the uncleanness of foul orgies. Pray, wait, obey, and you will become an organ of the Lord where He will and how He will; do evil, and His face will be set against you—the light which is in you will become darkness.
III. Repeated warnings of danger. The glory moving to the threshold told of the rupture of the ties which had bound God to His people, while the sound of the wings and the taking of fire intimated that the doom of Jerusalem was on the point of being inflicted. Penalty is preceded by witness-bearing and sentences. If men neglect the immutable principles of right, if they find in their own ways the pleasure and service which they ought to find in His, He does not go on at once to destroy them. He has given them faculties by which they may discern the signs of the sky that portend a storm, so has He qualified them to notice coming evils in appearances which are passing before their eyes. He lingers that He may correct them with the words of His mouth and the events of their lives. Thus does He warn them, and from the manner in which the Bible, prayer, sanctuaries are regarded, a Christian people can conclude whether the glory has gone from their midst, and the light and truth are about to consume all despisers. He does not always force those coming tribulations upon our notice. “The works of God are done by hidden and secret means, by ways unthought of, by hands under wings. Invisible virtue hath done more than all visible instruments.” Yet, latent as they are, it is demanded from us that we watch and be sober under influences which seem to threaten our welfare, that so we may escape all those things that shall come to pass, and stand before the Son of Man.