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Ezekiel
AN
EXPOSITION,
W I T H P R A C T I C A L O B S E R V A T I O N S,
OF THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET
E Z E K I E L.
WHEN we entered upon the writings of the prophets,
which speak of the things that should be hereafter, we seemed to
have the same call that St. John had
(Rev. iv. 1),
Come up hither; but, when we enter upon the prophecy of this
book, it is as if the voice said, Come up higher; as we go
forward in time (for Ezekiel prophesied in the captivity, as Jeremiah
prophesied just before it), so we soar upward in discoveries yet more
sublime of the divine glory. These waters of the sanctuary still grow
deeper; so far are they from being fordable that in some places they
are scarcely fathomable; yet, deep as they are, out of them flow
streams which make glad the city of our God, the holy place of the
tabernacles of the Most High. As to this prophecy now before us, we
may enquire,
I. Concerning the penman of it–it was Ezekiel; his name signifies,
The strength of God, or one girt or strengthened of
God. He girded up the loins of his mind to the service, and God put
strength into him. Whom God calls to any service he will himself enable
for it; if he give commission, he will give power to execute it.
Ezekiel’s name was answered when God said (and no doubt did as he
said), I have made thy face strong against their faces. The
learned Selden, in his book De Diis Syris, says that it was the
opinion of some of the ancients that the prophet Ezekiel was the same
with that Nazaratus Assyrius whom Pythagoras (as himself relates) had
for his tutor for some time, and whose lectures he attended. It is
agreed that they lived much about the same time; and we have reason to
think that many of the Greek philosophers were acquainted with the
sacred writings and borrowed some of the best of their notions from
them. If we may give credit to the tradition of the Jews, he was put to
death by the captives in Babylon, for his faithfulness and boldness in
reproving them; it is stated that they dragged him upon the stones till
his brains were dashed out. An Arabic historian says that he was put to
death and was buried in the sepulchre of Shem the son of Noah. So
Hottinger relates, Thesaur. Philol. lib. 2 cap. 1.
II. Concerning the date of it–the place whence it is dated and the
time when. The scene is laid in Babylon, when it was a house of
bondage to the Israel of God; there the prophecies of this
book were preached, there they were written, when the prophet himself,
and the people to whom he prophesied, were captives there. Ezekiel and
Daniel are the only writing prophets of the Old Testament who lived and
prophesied any where but in the land of Israel, except we add Jonah,
who was sent to Nineveh to prophesy. Ezekiel prophesied in the
beginning of the captivity, Daniel in the latter end of it. It was an
indication of God’s good-will to them, and his gracious designs
concerning them in their affliction, that he raised up prophets among
them, both to convince them when, in the beginning of their troubles,
they were secure and unhumbled, which was Ezekiel’s business, and to
comfort them when, in the latter end of their troubles, they were
dejected and discouraged. If the Lord had been pleased to kill them, he
would not have used such apt and proper means to cure them.
III. Concerning the matter and scope of it.
1. There is much in it that is very mysterious, dark, and hard to be
understood, especially in the beginning and the latter end of it, which
therefore the Jewish rabbin forbade the reading of to their young men,
till they came to be thirty years of age, lest by the difficulties they
met with there they should be prejudiced against the scriptures; but if
we read these difficult parts of scripture with humility and reverence,
and search them diligently, though we may not be able to untie all the
knots we meet with, any more than we can solve all the phenomena in the
book of nature, yet we may from them, as from the book of nature,
gather a great deal for the confirming of our faith and the encouraging
of our hope in the God we worship.
2. Though the visions here be intricate, such as an elephant may swim
in, yet the sermons are mostly plain, such as a lamb may wade in; and
the chief design of them is to show God’s people their
transgressions, that in their captivity they might be repenting and
not repining. It should seem the prophet was constantly attended (for
we read of their sitting before him as God’s people sat to hear his
words,
ch. xxxiii. 31),
and that he was occasionally consulted, for we read of the elders of
Israel who came to enquire of the Lord by him,
And as it was of great use to the oppressed captives themselves to have
a prophet with them, so it was a testimony to their holy religion
against their oppressors who ridiculed it and them.
3. Though the reproofs and the threatenings here are very sharp and
bold, yet towards the close of the book very comfortable assurances are
given of great mercy God had in store for them; and there, at length,
we shall meet with something that has reference to gospel times, and
which was to have its accomplishment in the kingdom of the Messiah, of
whom indeed this prophet speaks less than almost any of the prophets.
But by opening the terrors of the Lord he prepares Christ’s way.
By the law is the knowledge of sin, and so it becomes our
school-master to bring us to Christ. The visions which were the
prophet’s credentials we have
the reproofs and threatenings
betwixt which and the comforts which we have in the latter part of the
book we have messages sent to the nations that bordered upon the land
of Israel, whose destruction is foretold
to make way for the restoration of God’s Israel and the
re-establishment of their city and temple, which are foretold
to the end. Those who would apply the comforts to themselves must apply
the convictions to themselves.
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