Ezekiel 3

Eze 3:1-27.

EZEKIEL

EATS THE

ROLL.

IS

COMMISSIONED TO

GO TO

THEM OF THE

CAPTIVITY AND

GOES TO

TEL-ABIB BY THE

CHEBAR:

AGAIN

BEHOLDS THE

SHEKINAH

GLORY:

IS

TOLD TO

RETIRE TO

HIS

HOUSE, AND

ONLY

SPEAK WHEN

GOD

OPENS

HIS

MOUTH.

1. eat . . . and . . . speak--God's

messenger must first inwardly appropriate God's truth himself, before

he "speaks" it to others (see on

Eze 2:8).

Symbolic actions were, when possible and proper, performed outwardly;

otherwise, internally and in spiritual vision, the action so narrated

making the naked statement more intuitive and impressive by presenting

the subject in a concentrated, embodied form.

3. honey for sweetness--Compare

Ps 19:10; 119:103;

Re 10:9,

where, as here in

Eze 3:14,

the "sweetness" is followed by "bitterness." The former being due to

the painful nature of the message; the latter because it was the Lord's

service which he was engaged in; and his eating the roll and finding it

sweet, implied that, divesting himself of carnal feeling, he made God's

will his will, however painful the message that God might require him

to announce. The fact that God would be glorified was his greatest

pleasure.

5. See Margin, Hebrew, "deep of lip, and heavy of tongue," that

is, men speaking an obscure and unintelligible tongue. Even they would

have listened to the prophet; but the Jews, though addressed in their

own tongue, will not hear him.

6. many people--It would have increased the difficulty had he been

sent, not merely to one, but to "many people" differing in tongues, so

that the missionary would have needed to acquire a new tongue for

addressing each. The after mission of the apostles to many peoples, and

the gift of tongues for that end, are foreshadowed (compare

1Co 14:21

with Isa 28:11).

had I sent thee to them, they would have hearkened--

(Mt 11:21, 23).

7. will not hearken unto thee: for . . . not

. . . me--

(Joh 15:20).

Take patiently their rejection of thee, for I thy Lord

bear it along with thee.

8. Ezekiel means one "strengthened by God." Such he was in godly

firmness, in spite of his people's opposition, according to the divine

command to the priest tribe to which he belonged

(De 33:9).

9. As . . . flint--so Messiah the antitype

(Isa 50:7;

compare

Jer 1:8, 17).

10. receive in . . . heart . . . ears--The transposition from the

natural order, namely, first receiving with the ears, then in the

heart, is designed. The preparation of the heart for God's message

should precede the reception of it with the ears (compare

Pr 16:1;

Ps 10:17).

11. thy people--who ought to be better disposed to hearken to thee,

their fellow countryman, than hadst thou been a foreigner

(Eze 3:5, 6).

12.

(Ac 8:39).

Ezekiel's abode heretofore had not been the most suitable for his work.

He, therefore, is guided by the Spirit to Tel-Abib, the chief town of

the Jewish colony of captives: there he sat on the ground, "the throne

of the miserable"

(Ezr 9:3;

La 1:1-3),

seven days, the usual period for manifesting deep grief

(Job 2:13;

see

Ps 137:1),

thus winning their confidence by sympathy in their sorrow. He is

accompanied by the cherubim which had been manifested at Chebar

(Eze 1:3, 4),

after their departure from Jerusalem. They now are heard moving with

the "voice of a great rushing (compare

Ac 2:2),

saying, Blessed be the glory of the Lord from His place," that

is, moving from the place in which it had been at Chebar, to

accompany Ezekiel to his new destination

(Eze 9:3);

or, "from His place" may rather mean, in His place and manifested

"from" it. Though God may seem to have forsaken His temple, He is

still in it and will restore His people to it. His glory is "blessed,"

in opposition to those Jews who spoke evil of Him, as if He had been

unjustly rigorous towards their nation [CALVIN].

13. touched--literally, "kissed," that is, closely embraced.

noise of a great rushing--typical of great disasters impending over

the Jews.

14. bitterness--sadness on account of the impending calamities of

which I was required to be the unwelcome messenger. But the "hand," or

powerful impulse of Jehovah, urged me forward.

15. Tel-Abib--Tel means an "elevation." It is identified by

MICHAELIS with Thallaba on the Chabor. Perhaps the name expressed

the Jews' hopes of restoration, or else the fertility of the region.

Abib means the green ears of corn which appeared in the month

Nisan, the pledge of the harvest.

I sat, &c.--This is the Hebrew Margin reading. The text is

rather, "I beheld them sitting there"

[GESENIUS]; or, "And those

that were settled there," namely, the older settlers, as distinguished

from the more recent ones alluded to in the previous clause. The ten

tribes had been long since settled on the Chabor or Habor

(2Ki 17:6)

[HAVERNICK].

17. watchman--Ezekiel alone, among the prophets, is called a

"watchman," not merely to sympathize, but to give timely warning of

danger to his people where none was suspected. Habakkuk

(Hab 2:1)

speaks of standing upon his "watch," but it was only in order to be on

the lookout for the manifestation of God's power (so

Isa 52:8; 62:6);

not as Ezekiel, to act as a watchman to others.

18. warning . . . speakest to warn--The repetition implies that it

is not enough to warn once in passing, but that the warning is to be

inculcated continually

(2Ti 4:2,

"in season, out of season";

Ac 20:31,

"night and day with tears").

save--Eze 2:5

had seemingly taken away all hope of salvation; but the reference there

was to the mass of the people whose case was hopeless; a few

individuals, however, were reclaimable.

die in . . . iniquity--

(Joh 8:21, 24).

Men are not to flatter themselves that their ignorance, owing to the

negligence of their teachers, will save them

(Ro 2:12,

"As many as have sinned without law, shall also perish without

law").

19. wickedness . . . wicked way--internal wickedness of heart, and external of the life, respectively.

delivered thy soul--

(Isa 49:4, 5;

Ac 20:26).

20. righteous . . . turn from . . . righteousness--not one "righteous"

as to the root and spirit of regeneration

(Ps 89:33; 138:8;

Isa 26:12; 27:3;

Joh 10:28;

Php 1:6),

but as to its outward appearance and performances. So the

"righteous"

(Pr 18:17;

Mt 9:13).

As in

Eze 3:19

the minister is required to lead the wicked to good, so in

Eze 3:20

he is to confirm the well-disposed in their duty.

commit iniquity--that is, give himself up wholly to it

(1Jo 3:8, 9),

for even the best often fall, but not wilfully and

habitually.

I lay a stumbling-block--not that God tempts to sin

(Jas 1:13, 14),

but God gives men over to judicial blindness, and to their own

corruptions

(Ps 9:16, 17; 94:23)

when they "like not to retain God in their knowledge"

(Ro 1:24, 26);

just as, on the contrary, God makes "the way of the righteous plain"

(Pr 4:11, 12; 15:19),

so that they do "not stumble." CALVIN refers

"stumbling-block" not to the guilt, but to its

punishment; "I bring ruin on him." The former is best.

Ahab, after a kind of righteousness

(1Ki 21:27-29),

relapsed and consulted lying spirits in false prophets; so God

permitted one of these to be his "stumbling-block," both to sin and its

corresponding punishment

(1Ki 22:21-23).

his blood will I require--

(Heb 13:17).

22. hand of the Lord--

(Eze 1:3).

go . . . into the plain--in order that he might there, in a place

secluded from unbelieving men, receive a fresh manifestation of the

divine glory, to inspirit him for his trying work.

23. glory of the Lord--

(Eze 1:28).

24. set me upon my feet--having been previously prostrate and unable

to rise until raised by the divine power.

shut thyself within . . . house--implying that in the work he had to

do, he must look for no sympathy from man but must be often alone with

God and draw his strength from Him

[FAIRBAIRN]. "Do not go out of thy

house till I reveal the future to thee by signs and words," which God

does in the following chapters, down to the eleventh. Thus a

representation was given of the city shut up by siege

[GROTIUS]. Thereby

God proved the obedience of His servant, and Ezekiel showed the reality

of His call by proceeding, not through rash impulse, but by the

directions of God [CALVIN].

25. put bands upon thee--not literally, but spiritually, the binding,

depressing influence which their rebellious conduct would exert on his

spirit. Their perversity, like bands, would repress his freedom in

preaching; as in

2Co 6:12,

Paul calls himself "straitened" because his teaching did not find easy

access to them. Or else, it is said to console the prophet for being

shut up; if thou wert now at once to announce God's message, they

would rush on thee and bind them with "bands" [CALVIN].

26. I will make my tongue . . . dumb--Israel had rejected the prophets;

therefore God deprives Israel of the prophets and of His word--God's

sorest judgment

(1Sa 7:2;

Am 8:11, 12).

27. when I speak . . . I will open thy mouth--opposed to the silence

imposed on the prophet, to punish the people

(Eze 3:26).

After the interval of silence has awakened their attention to the cause

of it, namely, their sins, they may then hearken to the prophecies

which they would not do before.

He that heareth, let him hear . . . forbear--that is, thou hast done

thy part, whether they hear or forbear. He who shall forbear to hear, it

shall be at his own peril; he who hears, it shall be to his own eternal

good (compare

Re 22:11).