CHAPTER III.

This chapter continues and completes what pertains properly to Ezekiel's introduction to his prophetic work. The Lord explains and defines his commission; warns him of the opposition he has to encounter, and girds him with the requisite firmness and energy to meet it; discloses the great responsibilities of his work as bearing on the life or death of souls; and finally signifies to him that he is not to speak on his own motion, but only as the Lord shall give him a message from himself for the people.

1. Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou findest; eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel. 2. So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat that roll.

3. And he said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for

sweetness.

As already indicated in the notes on chap. 2: 8, the eating of this roll, done only in vision, signified that he should take the messages of God home to his very heart, give them his most solemn attention, make himself thoroughly master of their contents, and hold himself at God's command to deliver them faithfully as directed.- -That they were in his mouth as honey for sweetness, implied his joy in accepting his prophetic mission, showing that at least his first impressions in receiving this honor were those of willing and cheerful obedience, and the consequent joy of yielding to the will of God. He does not say here in explicit terms as John does (Rev. 10: 9, 10), “As soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter;" yet v. 14 seems to imply this: "I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit." There would be sore trials to the flesh, trials to his human sensibilities, in the painful service of bearing such messages to a people so dear to him and yet so guilty and refractory toward God.- -So evermore the faithful Christian life on earth will blend the joy of pleasing God with the pain of coming in contact with sin in the case of those who stand in relations near and dear to our hearts.

4. And he said unto me, Son of man, go, get thee unto the house of Israel, and speak with my words unto them. 5. For thou art not sent to a people of a strange speech and of an hard language, but to the house of Israel;

6. Not to many people of a strange speech and of an hard language, whose words thou canst not understand. Surely, had I sent thee to them, they would have hearkened unto thee.

7. But the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee; for they will not hearken unto me: for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted.

"Strange," as usual, means foreign. The Lord says to his prophet, I send thee only to the house of Israel; not to a foreign nation of an unknown language; not to many tribes or people of unknown tongue. If I had sent thee to such a people, they would have hearkened to thee, for such perverseness and obduracy of heart could be found nowhere among the heathen.- -Underneath this statement lies a great law of human sinning. It is only by the long abuse of great light and of rich mercies that men reach such a degree of moral hardihood and such depths of intense depravity. It is appalling to think of the influence of resisted light, of mercies abused, of obligations seen yet repelled and finally scorned! With what fearful rapidity, especially in the later stages, do such sinners become seven-fold more the children of hell than before !- -Our Savior met and fully recognized this law of human sinning in his intercourse with the Jews of his time. See Mat. 11: 20-24, John 9: 39, 41, and 15: 22, 24.

8. Behold, I have made thy face strong against their faces, and thy forehead strong against their foreheads.

9. As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house.

These are bold figures, but are readily understood. The Lord was preparing his servant to confront the most brazen-faced sinners with firm unflinching heart. This is said with a double purposeto forewarn and to forearm; to signify to him what he must expect, and to gird his soul to meet it.

10. Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, all my words that I shall speak unto thee receive in thine heart, and hear with thine ears.

11. And go, get thee to them of the captivity, unto the children of thy people, and speak unto them, and tell them, Thus saith the Lord God; whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear.

V. 10 seems to express without a figure what the act of eating

the roll implies.- The expressive clause, "whether they will hear or not hear" ("will forbear"), seems to be not merely a part of the Lord's instructions to his prophet, but a part also of his message to the people. The prophet must give them to understand that God lays on them the fearful responsibility of deciding whether they would hear or would not. They must determine this question for themselves and bear its consequences.

12. Then the spirit took me up, and I heard behind me a voice of a great rushing, saying, Blessed be the glory of the Lord from his place.

This being "taken up by the Spirit" was done in vision only. It seems to be bearing him away from the scenes described in the first chapter. Hence he receives his last impressions from these sounds behind him as he is leaving. The great rush corresponds to the account in chap. 1: 24, the sound of the wings of flying cherubim and of their voices, here praising God and celebrating his glories as revealed from the place of these manifestations.

13. I heard also the noise of the wings of the living creatures that touched one another, and the noise of the wheels over against them, and a noise of a great rushing.

In the phrase, "the wings that touched one another," the Hebrew has the beautiful figure, "wings' that kissed each that of her sister."

14. So the spirit lifted me up, and took me away, and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; but the hand of the Lord was strong upon me.

This scene must have been immensely exciting to the youthful prophet. Probably he begins to appreciate the responsibilities and trials of the work now devolved upon him, and hence feels pangs of bitterness in his soul, and a sense as of intense heat in his spirit. But the hand of the Lord is strong upon him, and he can not withstand the summons to painful duty, and would not if he could. The experiences of Jeremiah were much the same. See notes on Jer. 20: 7-9.

15. Then I came to them of the captivity at Tel-abib, that dwelt by the river of Chebar, and I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished among them seven days. Here we pass from scenes of prophetic vision to scenes not visional but purely in the actual world. He comes to the exiles, and soon begins to speak to them from the Lord his God. As they were in the real world only, and not at all in prophetic vision, so must his words and acts, relating to them, be understood as in the actual and not the ideal world.- -Tel-abib (corn-hill) was the residence of a large body of these exiles, and probably of the prophet himself- The first Hebrew verb of the phrase, "I sat where they sat," is variously read and translated by the best critics. English translation follows the vowel points of the Hebrew text and not the consonants, and is not generally approved as the most reliable reading. Gesenius prefers a reading of the original, which means, "I saw them sitting there, and I sat down with them astonished seven days." Maurer, preferring another root,

Our

renders, "I turned aside where they were sitting, and sat down with them."- -As the verb rendered "remained," is precisely the usual Hebrew verb to sit, our received translation repeats itself; "I sat where they sat, and sat astonished;" which is scarcely admissible. -But no important sentiment is involved in these diversities of reading. -"Seven days," a round indefinite number, meaning a considerable time. See the same usage under somewhat similar circumstances in the case of Job's three friends (Job 2: 13).

16. And it came to pass at the end of seven days, that the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

17. Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.

18. When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thy hand.

19. Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.

20. Again, When a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumblingblock before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thy hand.

21. Nevertheless if thou warn the righteous man, that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned; also thou hast delivered thy soul.

These words were specially addressed by the Lord to his prophet. They may or may not have been announced by the prophet to the people. Essentially the same ideas are drawn out somewhat more fully in chap. 33. There, they are rehearsed to the people. Their intensely solemn import is plain. The watchman or sentinel stands guard in war to give notice of impending danger. If he does his duty faithfully, and the people disregard his warnings, his hands are clear of their blood: they perish in their own folly. If he neglects his duty and the people perish unwarned, they perish indeed, but their blood is required at his hand.- -So of the prophet. So of all Christian ministers, and indeed of all Christians in every sphere in their relations to the people among whom the Lord in his providence may place them. They must admonish those who are in their sins of their danger, as they would free themselves from

blood-guiltiness in the death of unwarned souls. The case of a righteous man apostatizing from a pious life falls under the same law. Every good and true servant of God is bound to admonish him of his peril, else his blood may be required of those who have neglected to give him such warning. The "stumbling-block' spoken of here (v. 20) is not a temptation to sin, but a means of destruction, an agency employed of God to destroy the sinner.

22. And the hand of the Lord was there upon me; and he said unto me, Arise, go forth into the plain, and I will there talk with thee.

23. Then I arose, and went forth into the plain: and, behold, the glory of the Lord stood there, as the glory which I saw by the river of Chebar: and I fell on my face.

This "plain" or valley stands contrasted with the hill (Tell Abib) where the people resided. The spirit of the call is, Go down to a retired place; I have another personal charge to give thee in private. The prophet obeyed; and there he saw again the same manifestation of the glory of the Lord which he had seen by the river Chebar. Here also, as there, he falls prostrate on his face. This going to the valley seems to have been done in the external world. What followed there was said and shown to him in prophetic vision.

24. Then the spirit entered into me, and set me upon my feet, and spake with me, and said unto me, Go, shut thyself within thy house.

25. But thou, O son of man, behold, they shall put bands upon thee, and shall bind thee with them, and thou shalt not go out among them:

26. And I will make thy tongue cleave to the roof of thy mouth, that thou shalt be dumb, and shalt not be to them a reprover: for they are a rebellious house.

27. But when I speak with thee, I will open thy mouth, and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; He that heareth, let him hear: and he that forbeareth, let him forbear: for they are a rebellious house.

I take the general import of these instructions to be this: Thy mission, Ezekiel, is simply and only to speak the words of God; not thine own words. Shut up thyself, therefore, in thine own house, and remain there till the Spirit of God shall lead thee forth. The people will withstand thee; but let not their opposition instigate thee to any rash words of thine own. Wait in silence till the Lord shall give thee his own message to deliver to them. However much the greatness or the guilt of their sins may fire thy