2. PROPHETIC THRALDOM (Ezekiel 3:22-27)
EXEGETICAL NOTES.—A fresh impulse from the Lord impresses upon Ezekiel another characteristic of his mission. By eating the roll he was taught that his words should be those of the Spirit of God; by being a watchman, that he must speak boldly and without fear of consequences. Now he is to learn that there is a time to be silent as well as a time to speak, and that both are appointed by God.—Speaker’s Com.
Ezekiel 3:22. “The hand of the Lord was there upon me.” The people amongst whom Ezekiel sat had not been altered by seeing his strange condition, and the divine power, which had impelled him to go to them, now impels him to go from them, “into the plain,” or, better, valley, as in chap. Ezekiel 37:1—probably the same depression of ground as this near Tel-abib.
Ezekiel 3:23. “And behold the glory of the Lord stood there.” The same manifestation of majesty, which had commissioned him, again appears to warrant him to hear, speak, act as His messenger.
Ezekiel 3:24. “Then the Spirit entered into me,” as the power which enables men to accept communications from the Lord, and which fulfilled the pledge of Ezekiel 3:22. “And he spake with me, and said unto me, Go, shut thyself within thine house.” Ezekiel was to be a sign unto the people, and here is commanded to do that which would be a symbol to teach them. In Ezekiel 3:15 he had sat “astonished among them seven days,” but he is not to do so again. They are to be taught by the fact that he had withdrawn into the privacy of his own house. Thus isolated he preaches to them through their eyes at any rate.
Ezekiel 3:25. “They shall put bands upon thee.” This shows that the people had access to the prophet within his house; but it is not to be taken literally. If the “they” refer to the captives, the phrase will express the idea that their rebelliousness would interfere with the prophet’s mission and hinder its development—as was illustrated in after-times with respect to the mission of One greater than Ezekiel: “He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.” But the reference is probably to the procedure of the Lord Himself, since in chap. Ezekiel 4:8 it is said, “I will lay bands upon thee.” Of what efficacy they will be is indicated in the words, “and thou shalt not go out among them.” This is not merely a result from the binding, it is rather a command of the Lord. Ezekiel is not to consider himself free to do as he likes. He must confine himself strictly to his house; on no account to sit where his people sit, for to do so would be to obliterate the lesson given by his isolation.
Ezekiel 3:26. This lesson is further inculcated by enforced silence. “Thou shalt not be to them a reprover,” a man who will endeavour to convict them of their sins, except so far as and how I direct thee. They are not always in a state fit to hear rebukes, “for they are a rebellious house,” and nothing effective can be accomplished as yet.
Ezekiel 3:27. “When I speak with thee I will open thy mouth.” The time to declare the Lord’s mind will come, and then Ezekiel must openly and boldly announce what he receives from Him to communicate. It does not seem that this temporary restraint hindered verbal statements about ordinary matters, but only those which came to him in the word of the Lord. His silence or his utterance of the divine message was to be dependent on the express sanction of his Lord. Thus when his tongue cleaves to the roof of his mouth, when he cannot speak the words given him by God, if his mouth is opened the words he utters will appear the more distinctly divine. “The divine injunction extends over the whole period which ends in the fulfilment of the prophecies of threatening by the destruction of Jerusalem. This appears especially from this, that in Ezekiel 24:27 and Ezekiel 33:22 there is an undeniable reference to the silence imposed upon him in our verse, and with reference to which it is said, that when the messenger should bring back the news of the fall of Jerusalem, his mouth should be opened and he should be no longer dumb.”—Keil.
HOMILETICS
RESTRAINTS IN SERVING THE LORD
I. They are often experienced. The whole course of the history of the kingdom of God, as traced in the Old Testament, may be pointed to as showing that the godly, whose service is outlined therein, met with recurring impediments to their efforts. The like feature is observed in the New Testament. Every true life for Christ, at one step or another, verifies the expression of Paul, “Without are fightings, within are fears.”
1. The restraints may be in the servants. They may be ready to spread the gospel, but are forbidden to enter the door which is apparently opened, or are afflicted with disease and unable to enter, or are prostrated in their energies by some domestic event and unfit to enter. In such and similar cases they must not conclude that they have offended the Lord because silence is imposed on them; they are not to write bitter things against themselves; they are to bow in acquiescence and wait till God open their lips.
2. The restraints may be from those for whom the service is required.
(1.) They may become violent against the persons who stand up for the rights of God. A prophet like Jeremiah was “cursed” by every one, and cast into a miry dungeon; an apostle like Paul was mobbed, beaten and imprisoned, and unnumbered injuries have been committed against less-known followers of Him who was crucified by wicked hands.
(2.) Or the people may be rebellious in heart. It was because of this their state that Ezekiel was shut up and trammelled. The soil, into which the seed of the kingdom was to be cast, had not those elements in it which would act upon and vitalise the germs. The gospel is unproductive in many a sphere, not because it is not plainly and faithfully set forth, but because men are irresponsive and unimpressed. They reject the medicine which would bring them health and cure. Such sad conditions should not prevent further efforts for the redemption of souls, though former ones have been made apparently in vain. We must not repress our longings for a change. We must watch as servants who wait for the Lord.
II. The restraints are under the direction of the Lord. He concerns Himself with every matter relating to His kingdom amongst men. The enforced silence and disablement of the prophet and the “gross” heart of the people are controlled for His righteous and good ends.
1. Traces of His working are perceptible. Restraints are felt teaching His suffering servants to be patient, vigilant for Him, and so qualifying for future action and future reward. “If we suffer with Him we are glorified together.” Also by those restraints the evil which lies in hearts is disclosed. Their enmity to God is elicited. Their hardness becomes more intense. Blinded thus, they lead the blind and “provoke” God to send a famine of His Word. What more deplorable state can a lost traveller be in than that in which he can be no longer tracked by the guides who go in search of him? What more painful illustration of their state can there be than when the wicked and the righteous hear warnings no more?
2. Hopes of His working may be entertained. When men make void His law, that is a time to ask God to do special work. The restraints which lie in the prophet’s disablement or the people’s sin will not always continue to press. God will not be served only by silence. He will open a door of utterance, and again send forth His words to the people that He may prove whether there is yet a heart in them which will take heed how they hear.
III. Restraints may be associated with communion between the Lord and His servants.
This fact is brought to pass—
1. By a fresh consciousness of God in His service. When His faithful followers are “troubled on every side,” they often realise the power of God and the preciousness of Christ; when they are weak, then are they strong through His grace. He seems to come nearer to them, and they say, “Thou holdest me by my right hand.”
2. By a deepened conviction that He who has led them is the same for ever. Ezekiel is not left to remember that he had seen the glory of the Lord; it is shown to him again. He learns that God is all that He was. The glory of Christ which we see when He is first revealed in us, the glory which moved us to consecrate our lives to Him and His work on earth, that glory will be shown again and again, if we wait for Him. It is not the memory of a first love which is to sustain us in suffering and duty; it is a renewed sight, “day by day.” We are prostrated before His glory, but we, beholding that glory, shall be changed into the same image, from glory to glory—from the glory of suffering for Christ to the glory of reigning with Christ.
3. By the power of the Holy Spirit. He is given to dwell in our body as His temple. He takes the things that are Christ’s and shows them to us. He teaches to profit, and we receive power, love, and a sound mind. The efficacy of all true ministry depends on His energy. It is as the servants of the Lord live in the 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? Are these His doings?”