HOMILETICS
(1.) REQUISITES FOR EXECUTING THE COMMISSION (Ezekiel 2:1-8)
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?
II. 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, preach 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.
III. A clear defining of the evil to be engaged with. God practises no concealment 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 to 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 leave Him, 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 misfortune, 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 impossible 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’s. 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 teachers 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 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 Exampler, they should be warranted to say, “When I would have gathered you, ye 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.