Ezekiel 3

Ezekiel 3:12-27

Section 3 (Ezekiel 3:12-27).Set apart to be Israel’s watchman, the voice of God to the people. The prophet has been now qualified and energized for his work. He is accordingly inducted into it: “The Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me the sound of a great rushing, Blessed be the glory of Jehovah from its place and the sound of the wings of the living creatures that kissed one another, and the sound of the wheels beside them was even the sound of a great rushing.” This sound is heard behind him, at his back, because in the path in which God leads, the movement of the living creatures, the whole machinery of government, as it were, follows him who is in it, and thus becomes articulate in praise of the outshining glory, whatever the place from which it shines. It was seen, in fact, now, not in what had been its dwelling place upon earth, not in Israel’s temple consecrated to it for so many generations, neither yet in its own proper home in heaven, but in an activity to which not simply its own nature calls it, but the needs of man, of the creature, and thus of creation everywhere, which if touched in one point is touched in all. It is everywhere the creation of God, and He is manifested in it. Thus it can take no place, but its glory shines from it so as to awaken (not, alas, the praise of man now fallen, but) the praise of all that is symbolized here by the living creatures and the moving wheels upon the earth, which will at last utter His praise so that it shall be re-echoed throughout the universe. Here is again another connecting link with the book of Revelation, where it is said of these same living creatures that “they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come” (Revelation 4:8). Beautiful it is to see the perfect harmony here as their wings, in the emphatic language of the prophet, “kiss” one another. On earth the pall of night may be hanging, and the lightnings quiver from the threatening storm nevertheless here there is no storm, no conflict, but emphatically peace the wings taking on, according to the Hebrew here, even a tender feminine character, as that of “a woman with her sister” -harmony and subjection united in one, or, in fact, but one and the same thing. So, impelled by the same energy, the prophet says: “The Spirit lifted me up and took me away and I went in the bitterness of my spirit, and the hand of Jehovah was strong upon me.” The bitterness of God’s judgment upon His people is still felt and this is no discord, when we know the heart that is behind the judgment -not slackened by it, but rather impelled; the anger against the rebellion of the people of God burning all the more within him who realizes that these are the people of God, and that God is robbed of His glory in them. The hand of Jehovah, of the unchangeable One, known as the Unchangeable in His very covenant name, this hand is strong upon him to enable him for the execution of the commission which has been given him. Thus he goes to those of the captivity at Tel-abib, who dwelt by the river Chebar. Tel-abib means “the mound of green corn.” How vividly is pictured in this name the hopes springing up afresh, as it were, in this land of captivity -a mere green mound though it be by the waters of the desolating river. Here they have come into a land of vagabondage like Cain of old, to build their city and rest, if they may rest. The sight smites upon the prophet’s heart and overwhelms him with astonishment seven days. How complete is the ignorance, how puerile the self-confidence of this hope against hope, but which has no faith for its support! Tel-abib by the river Chebar is the very sign of their condition, around which the circling storm of the divine wrath is moving for its overthrow. The prophet is allowed full time for the realization of these true human feelings the weight of his charge not pressing him unduly, but permitting the perfect realization of it all in his soul before, at last, he takes it up. Only at the end of the seven days does the word of Jehovah come to him, saying: “Son of man, I have given thee as a watchman to the house of Israel, and thou shalt hear the word from my mouth, and warn them from Me.” But we see in what follows that as a nation there is no hope at all. The case as to them is closed. His mission, for the mass, is only to declare the certainty of the judgment coming but which is, because God is in it, a discriminative judgment, which separates a remnant of those who do hear from the unheeding mass. The divine words are now, however, first of all to himself, set in charge as God’s watchman for the people to put every individual soul upon his responsibility before God, his own responsibility remaining unaffected, whatever the result or apparent want of result. Warned or unwarned, the wicked, obstinate in his wickedness, will die; he also who turns from his righteousness to commit iniquity, whether or not the warnings were uttered which should have preserved him in the path of righteousness. This is an important point for us at all times: so apt as we are to argue from mere results which can never rightly be our guide, as results cannot precede but follow, and cannot affect the question of duty for those who are to walk by faith and not by sight, who are to be in the divine Hand for the execution of His purposes with whom the result is. Let us notice here that, in all that which is now before us, we are upon the plane of God’s outward, manifest government, so conspicuous and fitting in the prophecy of Ezekiel. Thus the death threatened to the wicked is not simply that under which we all are; nor, is it, as commonly supposed, eternal death as the doom of every unrepentant soul; but it is a removal from earth, under the government of God, which even for the present makes for blessing to the upright with Him, as the apostle also tells us, that “godliness hath the promise of the life that now is,” as well as “of that which is to come.” The deeper question is not raised here -it is not what is put before us; not even as the law raised it, appealing to the outward government of God which levels all pretension to righteousness on the part of any, and shuts up to grace alone, of which the law is everywhere the handmaid. This charge being given him, the prophet is now summoned into the valley that Jehovah may speak with him. The word used here is “cleft,” though it is sometimes used for a plain, as in Genesis 11:2, “plain of Shinar;” yet even there seems to have reference to what is its strict meaning, as a cleft between the mountains. It is used for the valley of Jericho, the deep Jordan-cleft through which it enters the Dead Sea. Its significance here should be plain. In all that we have seen, God is cleaving indeed the mountains of man’s pride, bringing in a breach upon all that seems most stable, wherein those who are really His own are made to recognize a judgment which abases them before Him, but where the glory of God can appear to them, as now it does to the prophet. One must ever be abased in order to be exalted; and because of what we are, we must abide in that abasement in order to abide in the exaltation itself. God thus abides for us in all that He is, as the apostle realized after his being taken into the blessedness of the paradise of God, the third heaven; yet, because of the flesh in him, needing the thorn for the flesh, which love itself could not remove, while it could enable him to glory in it. Prostrate the prophet falls again; for who can stand before this holy, holy, holy God? But again the Spirit raises and sets him upon his feet, and with an injunction now, which at first seems almost in contradiction to the call he has received, but which is in fact to guide him in obedience to it. He is to shut himself in his house. There is no readiness on the people’s part to receive the divine communication. Thus their condition will, as he is told, put bands upon him, and he can only speak amongst these obdurate people as the way is opened for him irresistibly, the Spirit of God refusing to be hindered. We cannot but realize that what was true of Israel in that day is true now of the world at large; and that is why the apostle says that we must “redeem the time,” (Ephesians 5:16) -“the opportunity,” as it really is -take the opening or opportunities which God makes in speaking His message amongst men, “because the days are evil.” For it is He who “openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man openeth.” And while the commission of His grace is world-wide, yet he who would be fruitful in it must realize entire dependence, and watch for the doors that open under the Hand that guides.