These are the words of the Lord God to the prophet Ezekiel, words in which He describes the effect of the prophet's preaching upon the children of his people. Ezekiel had by this time become a successful preacher. He was the great sensation of the day; men thought it must be the proper thing to go and hear him, to sit lowly before him, to listen with rapt attention to the impetuous torrent of his words, and when they went away to discuss his message in the gates or on the housetops. But their heart was not touched, nor was their life affected; it was their imagination that was fascinated, and their understanding that was pleased.
I. This state of things is exactly reproduced in the case of every popular preacher. Men whose lives are cruel or impure, whose hearts are covetous, whose thoughts are bitter, crowd to hear the preacher of the day, because his words are sweet, because his eloquence is full of melody, because they feel themselves for the moment fascinated, captivated carried out of, lifted above, themselves.
II. Ezekiel in his popularity is a type, not only of all lesser preachers, but emphatically of Him who is the great Prophet and Preacher of the world, the Master of all ages, the Incarnate Word of God. A very lovely song it is which the Saviour sings; no poet, no prophet, no bard, ever sung or ever dreamed, or ever even strove (and striving failed) to express anything half so sweet, so full, so soul-subduing as the Gospel of the grace of God. And He that sings it hath a very pleasant voice, for sweeter is the voice of Christ than the voice of any angel or archangel, and of any of the heavenly choirs grander in itself and sweeter far is it to us, because it is a Brother's voice, and we can feel the sympathy, we can understand the finest, softest shades of meaning which are woven through the melody. Therefore does the world love to listen to His message of salvation, to sit at the feet of Christ, to call Him Great Master, to listen to His words with pleased attention. They hearHis words, but dothem not. Never shall His voice sound so pleasant, never His song so lovely, as when He shall lead His own to the eternal bowers, and those who are not His shall be shut out for ever. Yet this last unspeakable woe must be ourportion, if the Gospel be to us but as a very lovely song if our attitude towards Christ be one of admiration, not of imitation if we hear His words but do them not.
R. Winterbotham, Sermons and Expositions,p. 87.
References: Ezekiel 33:33. E. Paxton Hood, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xix., p. 129. Ezekiel 34:4. A. G. Maitland, Ibid.,vol. xi., p. 392.Ezekiel 34:10. S. Cox, Expositions,3rd series, p. 16. Ezekiel 34:12. Preacher's Monthly,vol. vi., p. 204.Ezekiel 34:26. J. Keble, Sermons from Ascension Day to Trinity,p. 27; Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. i., No. 26; Ibid., Morning by Morning,p. 55; F. W. Brown, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xx., p. 75.Ezekiel 34:27. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxv., No. 1462.Ezekiel 34:29. G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons,p. 160; J. Budgen, Parochial Sermons,vol. i., p. 108.