(2.) CONSCIOUS ACCEPTANCE OF THE COMMISSION (Chaps. Ezekiel 2:8 to Ezekiel 3:3)
EXEGETICAL NOTES.— Ezekiel 2:9. “Sent unto me;” rather, put forth unto me (as in chap. Ezekiel 8:3). Ezekiel 2:10. “Written within and without,” as indicating the number of overwhelming afflictions which were to fall upon the rebellious.
Chap. 3 Ezekiel 2:3. “Cause thy belly to eat and fill thy bowels with this roll.” So the eating could not be corporeal; it, too, was happening in the visions, and enjoined Ezekiel to take whatever would be spoken to him into his inner man, there to be assimilated with his own feelings, thoughts, will, and then to be declared to the people.
HOMILETICS
DUTY ACCEPTED FOR REASONS
I. As the commission issues from a divine source. This is signified—
1. By its 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, Isaiah 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 is not vision but faith. “We walk by faith, not by sight.”
2. By its plainness to the understanding. Ezekiel could not have made anything 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 punishment 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 predictions 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 rule 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 presence of novel conditions of science, politics, ecclesiastical developments, we should be on the outlook for further manifestations of Christ, “who is the power of God and the wisdom of God.” If it be said that the Book of Revelation is closed now, it should not be said that wider and distincter views of Revelation 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 presented 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 not 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 near 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 give, but which He can.
3. That this knowledge would be assimilated to his thoughts and ways. 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 they 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 believeth, 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 submission 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.”