(3.) RATIFICATIONS OF THE COMMISSION (Chap. Ezekiel 3:4-15)
EXEGETICAL NOTES.— Ezekiel 3:5-6. “Of a strange speech and of an hard language.” The marginal reading, deep of lip and heavy of tongue, indicates that nothing is referred to here about the characteristics of national languages. It is the obscurity and embarrassment of a foreign speech, to a man who cannot employ them, which are brought to view. Ezekiel is to speak no tongue but that of Israel. His sphere is definite and contracted. He will be able to give his whole attention to the meaning rather than to the vocal sounds of the words in which he declares the messages of the Lord, and must aim that his people thoroughly understand the words he uses. “They would have hearkened to thee.” The obstacle meeting the prophet, if he spoke in the words of the Lord to the heathen, would be their language. When he speaks to the Israelites, it is their hardness of heart. Familiarity with religious words often counteracts their power.
Ezekiel 3:9. “As an adamant.” A very hard stone of some kind. We may doubt if it be a diamond, as in Jeremiah 17:1; but it signified to Ezekiel that he would be made more than a match for the contumacy of Israel. He would be neither shamed, nor terrified, nor put down before his rebellious people.
Ezekiel 3:12. “The Spirit,” the same which moved in the living creatures, “took me up,” or, as in Ezekiel 3:14, “lifted me up.” He had been standing on his feet, but now there came a feeling as if he were raised from the ground and about to be removed from the spot at which he had seen “visions of God.” Just as he was turned, “I heard behind me a voice of a great rushing”—a sound of loud and commingled noises, but not that, as in our Bible, they only conveyed the cry, “Blessed be the glory of the Lord from his place.” The appearance of the glory of the Lord was to be withdrawn for a season from the sight of Ezekiel, but wherever it might be, resting or moving, he was to know that matter for praise and honour must belong to it. It is not said who gave forth this doxology; but as the only articulate voice mentioned is (chap. Ezekiel 1:28) that of Him who is on the sapphire throne, the voice would appear to have proceeded from thence, and so clearly that it could be distinguished from the other accompanying sounds, which Ezekiel goes on to specify. Ezekiel 3:13. The sound of great rushing was caused also by “the noise of the wings of the living creatures”—when flying, the wings touched one the other, as was intimated chap. Ezekiel 1:24—“and the noise of the wheels.”
Ezekiel 3:14. “I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit.” He was depressed and also excited. He felt his own insufficiency, and in a glow of indignation regarding the work he had to do. He went straight to it, for he was mastered by the mighty hand. His state was akin to that of Paul (1 Corinthians 2:3-4), “I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling; and my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” Under the hand of the Lord Ezekiel went into society.
Ezekiel 3:15. Tel-abib, the place near which, probably, Ezekiel’s home was; but instead of living in comparative seclusion, he was required to lay himself open to his fellow-exiles. “And I sat where they sat.” There is a difficulty in the Hebrew of this clause. The way of solving it which is taken by the English Bible is that suggested by ancient Jewish critics. The Septuagint has an other way, by leaving out “and,” and rendering the other words, “those who were there.” Some later commentators prefer a slightly different Hebrew punctuation, and translate, “and I saw them dwelling there;” while others give this version, “and where they were dwelling there”—a version perhaps the least open to objections—“I remained astonished”—stunned. Ezra 9:3-4, indicates that Ezekiel’s posture was that of a man who does not move by reason of his emotion and infirmity. There follows continuous silence for “seven days,” not as a fixed time for mourning, but as a period of purification and probation for appointed services (Leviticus 8:33).
This paragraph conveys to Ezekiel the purport of the order he had carried out in eating the roll. There are repetitions of matters which had already been communicated to him, but they are applied to a somewhat altered condition. The sight of the glory of the Lord, the summons to serve this God of Glory, the consent to do as he was instructed, are followed up by the command to go and do the service in the allotted sphere. Thus in later days Andrew, Peter, Philip followed Jesus of Nazareth before they were called by Him to become fishers of men. And in our days it is not enough to look to Christ and feel inclination to take up a portion of work for Him; men and women need to get the opportunity which is furnished by the Lord opening a door. By this He ratifies His own call.
HOMILETICS
I. The adaptedness of God’s messages (Ezekiel 3:4-6).
1. They are transmissible by means of words. Man’s language and thought are bound to each other by coherent links. Given words will suggest ideas correspondent to them, and so men can understand what the purport of a message is. The fact that God is on another plane than His creatures is not an obstacle to His communicating with them, if He choose to do so. But it is impossible for them to perceive His method of doing so. Yet it carries a self-evidencing power, and true men can unhesitatingly say, “Thus saith the Lord.” Mysteriousness does not invalidate consciousness. We may eat the fruit though we cannot tell how the tree produced it from soil and atmosphere.
2. They are translatable into every tongue of men. It may be rude or cultivated, that of Israel or of a heathen nation, no matter which, all men are His offspring and capable of receiving what God wishes to let them know. His children, scattered abroad over the earth—Cretans and Arabs, Indians and Negroes—hear in their own tongues wherein they were born the wonderful works of God. “He will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
3. They suppose competent messengers. A fit messenger will speak in the language of the people to whom he conveys the words of God. To repeat them in a dead language, or in a foreign language, or in the hard, unusual terms of a vernacular, is to go against the desire of God that all people should understand His will. Preachers and teachers should aim to employ language which will produce the clearest and most widespread impression of what God has given for their hearers. It was a characteristic of our perfect Exampler that “the common people heard Him gladly.” He should be copied in this, if possible, by all who would speak for the Father.
4. They do not compel acceptance. It may be no discredit to one who is endeavouring to do spiritual good to men that he is not attended to. He may speak precious truths in vain, and that not because of the unsuitableness of his message, but because of the state of those who hear. Like his Lord, he may feel grieved because of the hardness of their hearts. He makes his appeal to those whose eyes the god of this world has blinded—“who love the darkness rather than the light”—who are as free to reject as to accept the words of the Lord. But while believing this, let all who speak His words be sure that they state them as they ought, and then, if they are not hearkened to, they will be free from blame for their unsuccess—they will sorrow over the sad fact that it is God who is not hearkened to.
5. They are partial in their diffusion. There are tribes and nations which have not received any special messages regarding the glory and grace of the God and Father of their spirits. “His ways are past finding out.” It is sometimes said that if the servants of God had been more devout and enterprising, such a condition of ignorance as to the true God would not have remained. There is a certain amount of truth in this representation; but it would be an error if we let that aspect alone be regarded. We have this also to notice, that behind it there is the mightier and more mysterious fact that God has not commissioned messengers to go to certain peoples, who yet, if He had done so, would have embraced His messages! “Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight.” We are dumb with silence. We can only wait, believing that “He doeth all things well.”
II. Sufficient grace proffered (Ezekiel 3:7-11).
1. To meet foreshadowed difficulties. The Lord is wishful that His servants should not be surprised at hindrances. Their first impression generally is, that, having become obedient to the Almighty One, He will make a clear way for them to walk in. That impression is not caused by anything He has said or omitted to say. He knows how the consciences of men will deal with His righteous claims and turn themselves away from hearing the law; so He urges His people to count the cost of serving Him, to expect rebuffs and disappointments. Then, if they fail to win men, God will have prepared them for just such an event. They need not be cast down, however painful their trials; they must act on His authority, though they have to make a hard, determined advance.
2. To enable to stand firm. For all such failures God will bestow surpassing strength. If the rejecters are obstinate, He will make His servants more tenacious than they. He will “give a mouth and wisdom, that all their adversaries will not be able to gainsay or resist.” They go forth with precious promises from “a faithful Creator.” He does not pledge Himself to give them comforts or converts—He does pledge Himself to give “mercy to the faithful.” Jeremiah heard Him say, “They shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee, for I am with thee to deliver thee.” Suspicious and angry looks may confront us, but they will not dismay us, for the Lord is at our right hand. “God so wishes sometimes His servants to acquiesce in His government that they should labour even without any hope of fruit. Therefore let us learn to leave the event in the hand of God when He enjoins anything upon us. It ought to suffice us that our obedience is pleasing to Him.”—Calvin.
3. To maintain unbroken communion. His words remain with His people. His Spirit is ever bringing to their remembrance the things He hath spoken. Ready to receive Him, they find a spring opened on every parched pathway—something fitted to sustain them in all duties and discouragements. It will be from their own negligence, or fear, or unbelief, that they will lose the light of His countenance. “The same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth and is no lie; and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him.”
4. To promote conduct correspondent to His assurances. “He giveth grace upon grace.” “To him that hath shall be given;” and intimation is made to Ezekiel that He expects:
(1.) Acknowledgment of His authority. From Him alone is it derived. No man, no ordinance, no institution can convey the power to receive God’s words to any person. Every claim to possessing such power is baseless, since He claims that it belongs to His own in working, and is communicated to whomsoever He chooses. Men can truly speak with a “Thus saith the Lord,” but it is because they have been “called” of God, and have bowed to that call. Such men may preach boldly, for they will be warranted to believe that they do so through the power of Christ speaking in them.
(2.) Unwavering adherence to His word of truth. There must be no compromises with selfish and worldly thoughts. Whether the truth is listened to approvingly or carelessly, whether it is acquiesced in or utterly rejected, no part of it is to be concealed—“all my words”—no part is to be mutilated, for He who speaks is “the Lord God.” The rain cometh down from heaven and falls on soil which absorbs it, or on flinty rocks which throw it off, so is the word which proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord. “We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord.”
III. Appointment to labour for God (Ezekiel 3:12-15).
1. By the energy of the Spirit. He knoweth the deep things of God, and is able to show where, when, and how His servants must go to speak from His mouth. It cannot be an impossible duty to be “filled with the Spirit:” it cannot be a special duty for a few amongst those who obey the Lord: one in the lowliest sphere may receive this “unspeakable gift” as assuredly as one in the most conspicuous sphere; and, supplied with the Spirit, all believers in Jesus will hear His voice calling them into His footprints, and act for His glory in all ways. They will learn to prosecute His interests, and not their own, wherever He leads them. Not by desire for a position amongst men, not for “filthy lucre,” not for success will they be led amongst acquaintances or strangers. They will go to be “a sweet savour of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish.” Sanctified by the Holy Spirit, they will speak in His mighty power.
2. In the face of soul-reluctances. The circumstances into which the Spirit lifts the children of God are not always agreeable to them. Nothing promising may appear, their opportunities may be few and contracted, or the people may be apathetic and scornful. Not despondency only, but chagrin may infest the hearts of those whom He has “chosen for Himself, that they might show forth His praise.” They are disposed to murmur that they are not kindly treated by being appointed to such a work, or are not qualified to face the difficulties, and, with more pity for themselves than trust in the Lord, to exclaim, “Who is sufficient for these things?” Alas! in such “bitterness of spirit” there may be the result of misapprehension of the ways of God and irritation against them. Our only security against mistakes and disobedience is in obtaining the gift of power—in the hand of the Lord being strong upon us. Under it we may have a masterful experience like that of Paul, “I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ, for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” We shall bear the strain, however we may feel as if we could cry, “Send by whom Thou wilt send, but not by me.”
3. With sufficient upholding. “All the need” of those who have given themselves up to the rule of God has a guaranteed supply. Their weakness, fear, and much trembling do not exhaust it. They will not long falter, and will not retreat, because they “go in the strength of the Lord God.” They will bear the heat and burden of their day of labour, because “greater is He that is for them than all that can be against them.”
4. Affected by strange hindrances. A wide door and effectual was opened before Ezekiel, but disablement and silence formed his first experiences upon entrance thereunto. Peter is to be converted before he can strengthen his brethren. Paul has to go into Arabia before he is fit to be a chosen vessel unto the Lord. Many a later Christian has found unexpected obstacles interfering with the service to which he believed himself called by his Master. Weak health, uncertainty what first to do, severe temptations and doubts have appeared obstructing his devotedness. Sometimes he is inclined to give up or let despondency unman him. But no: he has to hope in God, for he will yet praise Him for the help of His countenance. He must sow the good seed of the kingdom, if he can; if he cannot, he must wait till God tells him to go and work in the field. All delay, all pain, all inability to do what we hoped to do have purposes which will not really hinder “the end of the Lord.” “All things work together for good to them that love God” and to the interests of His righteousness and salvation amongst men.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Communication from God.—He can have His infinite and, at the same time, His finite side of being. He has His own eternal thought, and can also think, and does constantly think, the thoughts of time. He is all-knowing, and, therefore, more intimately present in our souls, yea, spiritually nearer to us, we may say, than we are to ourselves. He knows us not by media, by signals outward or interior, not by induction from effects or by foreknowledge from causes, but by direct and immediate presence, even by spirit-pervading, interpenetrating spirit. He can think our thoughts as we think them, feel our feelings as we feel them, know our knowledge as we know it; if He cannot do this, then are there deep places in His universe of soul unknown to Him as they truly are. If He can do this, then he can make a revelation in language, in any language, in any actions, signals, symbols, in any outward representations, in any inward affections of the soul, in any finite way. If God thus comes down to us, we see reason why He should adopt that style of speech which is the most outward, the most phenomenal, and, therefore, the most universal. It is the language of the Infinite speaking through media to the human mind, even as one unseen human soul speaks to another human soul through the outward undulations of the air. The words and images are specially selected and specially arranged with reference to the wants of our human race in their peculiar moral history. The words are not outwardly spoken to the prophet’s ears or telegraphically signalled to his imagining sensorium. They are, psychologically, the prophet’s words, the prophet’s images, yet still none the less specially designed through the linked media of revelation, as the very best possible words, the best possible imagery through which such an approximate communication of the ineffable could be made to human minds. Let us be thankful for every type, for every metaphor, for every impassioned appeal, for every instance of the divine condescension in coming down to us, taking the scale of our thoughts, and speaking to us in our own human emotions, our own human conceptions, as well as in our own human words.—Lewis. No man by searching could ever comprehend the glories of a sunrise. Only as the sun, coming up from behind the hills of the morning, reveals himself, could we know what morning is. And so only as God, moving up by a law of motion inherent and undiscoverable, lifts Himself into the horizon of man’s observation, can man know what God is. All we know of God, therefore, we know because of revelation made of Himself by Himself.—Murray. Nearer than “the next street,” even nigh to our spirits within, and yet above us high as heaven is above the earth, is God felt to be when the words of [prophets and] apostles address themselves “to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.” While not rejecting the thought of exceptional dealings amounting to the miraculous, my faith acknowledges as normal, and underlying all hope in preaching as all responsibility in hearing, a true inward divine teaching in the Spirit, enabling him who is yielded to is, and in the measure in which he is yielded to it, to understand and welcome revelation.—Macleod Campbell.
The evil religious condition.—In the national spirit and character prevalent in any age, every member of the nation without exception has a share. Every one contributes to this spirit, not only when as a child of the age he is infected, if not by all, yet by one or other of the sins universally diffused; but also when, through neglect of energetic protest, admonition, correction, and punishment, he does not meet it with opposition sufficiently decided. But sinful acts, manifold and widely ramified, point back to sinful tendencies, of which they are manifestations. There is nothing external without an internal counterpart. At the root of illegal acts lies the illegal condition.… God’s eye pierces to the heart, and His lips of truth describe the sinful tendency as already a sinful act, a transgression of that law of His which requires obedience of heart and inclination.—Philippi.
Submission.—What we can help and what we cannot help are on two sides of a line which separates the sphere of human responsibility from that of the Being who has arranged and controlled the order of things. The divine foreknowledge is no more in the way of delegated choice than the divine omnipotence is in the way of delegated power. The Infinite can surely slip the cable of the finite if it choose to do so.—Holmes. It is absolutely necessary that, in activity as in rest, you should not only support the idea of God, but that it should be welcome to you; that you should feel the need to blend it with everything; that it should not disturb but complete your life. If it were not so, God would not be to you what He ought to be, nor would you be to Him what you ought; in both cases your life would be mutilated, false, absurd.—Vinet. Every time Jesus had to act or speak He first effaced Himself, then left it to the Father to will, to think, to act, to be everything in Him. Similarly, when we act or speak, we must first efface ourselves in presence of Jesus; and after having suppressed in ourselves, by an act of will, every wish, every thought, every act of our own self, we are to leave it to Jesus to manifest in us His will, His wisdom, His power. With Jesus the believer holds direct communication, and through Him alone we find and can possess the living Father.—Godet.
Receptiveness to truth.—I must have my spirit brought into contact with the quality and character and reality of truth, so as to be affected by it in accordance with its proper nature. All spiritual truth is addressed to the conscience in man, and is understood only by the conscience; and if the conscience is not in action, the truth is to him like light grasped by the hand instead of received by the eye. A grammarian or logician is apt to forget that there may be meaning in the words or reasonings which require the co-operation of another faculty. All spiritual truth is of inspiration, and speaks to what is of the nature of inspiration within man. All that God speaks to us through others, or from without, is intended to make us better apprehend what He is speaking to each in the secret of His being.—Erskine.
Prescience of God.—It cannot but seem to us a higher perfection to know all things at once than gradually to arrive to the knowledge of one thing after another, and so proceed from the ignorance of some things to the knowledge of them; and that nothing is more certain than that all possible perfection must agree to God: so we find His own word asserting to Him that most perfect knowledge which seems to exclude the possibility of increase. It is not impossible to assign particular instances of some or other most confessedly wicked actions, against which God had directed those ordinary means of counselling and dehorting men, and which yet it is most certain He did foreknow they would do; as Ezekiel was directed to speak to the revolted Israelites with God’s own words to warn and dehort them from their wicked ways.—Howe.
Differing results from truth.—It is from no fault inherent in the earth that it enables the upas-tree poison to be eliminated from the same soil that gives us the bread of life. The tree elaborates deadly essences through an organism and chemistry of its own—a devil in the tree—so the heart of man misuses the good things of God.—W. M. W.
Independence.—Warm your body by healthful exercise, not by cowering over a stove. Warm your spirit by performing independently noble deeds, not by ignobly seeking the sympathy of your fellows.—Thoreau.
To feel, to think, to do only the holy right,
To yield no step in the awful race, no blow in the fearful fight.—Anon.
There is tonic in the things that men do not love to hear, and there is damnation in the things that wicked men love to hear. Free speech is to a great people what winds are to oceans and malarial regions, which waft away the elements of disease and bring new elements of health; and where free speech is stopped, miasma is bred and death comes fast.—Beecher. Find, in every stress of spiritual fortune, in every hour of supreme exposure to evil, in every time of assault from wickedness, find your resources within yourselves; not of yourselves, but within yourselves. Too many people have an outside God. What they need, what the world needs, is, as Paul said, “Christ in you the hope of glory.”—Murray.
Inspiration.—As the water with which we water the seed sown in the ground does not create the plant which grows out of it, but stimulates the development of the organs which had previously been formed in the germ and sets their power in action, so the Holy Spirit does not substitute Himself for the individuality of the sacred author. He awakens his faculties, He groups his experiences, He places him in immediate contact with salvation, and by that means confers upon him a special gift—the distinct intuition of that aspect of gospel truth which answers most specially to his own character and needs. The pole which attracted the sentiment or intelligence of each writer was not situated for all at the same point on the sphere of revelation.—Godet.
Moral government.—Who shall not aim at the same end at which God aims in revealing the gospel—that end to which creation, providence, laws, precepts, ordinances, grace, reason, conscience, revelation, everything else is subservient—right moral action in principle and practice? Who shall not use the same means for this end which God uses—that truth or system of truth which is imbedded in His perfect moral government—which ever places man in the attitude of an agent, teaching his dependence on God only as a reason for acting and doing? Who shall not aim to make the same impression on the human mind which God aims to make by His commands to act, His exhortations to act, His invitations, His entreaties to act, thus throwing every iota of responsibility for the issues of eternity on man as an agent—for what he does, for the deeds done in the body? God’s revealed moral government, the glorious gospel of the blessed God, is by Him designed and fitted, not to hold a world of moral beings like this in the slumbers of spiritual death, but to rouse and move and stir them to the instant, the ceaseless, the joyous activities of that spiritual life which is the only and absolute perfection of a spiritual being.—Taylor.
Spirit and matter.—All life, individual as well as universal, has, as its ground of origination and subsistence, as its root and its link, God’s λογος and God’s πνευμα. Everything lives and moves and subsists, closely united and reciprocally attracted in one element—in Him. “As an army is organised by its general, and is arranged according to his plan of battle, even so are banded together the starry hosts and the groups of atoms according to the will of one Eternal Spirit. This creating and ordaining Spirit pervades every cell, generates and regulates the flight of every working bee, according to the eternal purpose of the whole.… That which generates the galvanic current in the most opposed elements of the voltaic pile; that which gives the living weapon of defence to the electric eel, by the contact of moist heterogeneous parts; that which inclines the magnetic needle to the north—precisely the same creative principle orders and controls the whole fabric of the world, creates and vitalises the organic cell, arranges the intercourse between spirit and matter.” Above the material stands the power as the material of materials; above the power stands life as the power of powers; above life stands the spirit as the life of life; above all spirits stands God as the Spirit of spirits, and there is no solution for the enigma of the reciprocal action of all things but this all-effecting and pervading chief monad, which unites all contraries in itself and through itself.—Delitzsch.
Self-sacrifice.—The completest self-sacrifice gives the completes self-possession; only the captive soul which has flung her rights away has all her powers free; simply to serve, under instant orders of the living God, is the highest qualification for command. This is the meaning of that great saying of Cromwell’s, “One never mounts so high as when one knows not whither one is going”—a saying which the wise and prudent scorned as a confession of blindness, but which reveals to simpler minds the deepest truth.—Martineau.
Waiting.—God has so arranged the chronometry of our spirits that there shall be thousands of silent moments between the striking hours.—Martineau. She accepted it all absolutely, unconditionally. The past never confused the present: her life went on from moment to moment, from step to step, as naturally as plants grow and flower. She said, “I think there are lighthouses all along our lives, and God knows when it is time to light the lamps.”—Anon.
Let tongue rest and quiet thy quill be!
Earth is earth and not heaven, and never will be.
Man’s work is to labour and leaven—
As best he may—earth here with heaven.
’Tis work for work’s sake that he is needing;
Let him work on and on as if speeding
Work’s end, but not dream of succeeding;
Because if success were intended,
Why, heaven would begin ere earth ended.—Browning.