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Matthew Henry |
E Z E K I E L.
CHAP. VIII.
God, having given the prophet a clear foresight of the people’s
miseries that were hastening on, here gives him a clear insight into
the people’s wickedness, by which God was provoked to bring these
miseries upon them, that he might justify God in all his judgments,
might the more particularly reprove the sins of the people, and with
the more satisfaction foretel their ruin. Here God, in vision, brings
him to Jerusalem, to show him the sins that were committed there,
though God had begun to contend with them
(ver. 1-4),
and there he sees,
I. The image of jealousy set up at the gate of the altar,
II. The elders of Israel worshipping all manner of images in a secret
chamber,
III. The women weeping for Tammuz,
IV. The men worshipping the sun,
And then appeals to him whether such a provoking people should have any
pity shown them,
| The Vision of the Divine Glory. | B. C. 593. |
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1 And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month,
in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in mine house, and
the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Lord GOD
fell there upon me.
2 Then I beheld, and lo a likeness as the appearance of fire:
from the appearance of his loins even downward, fire; and from
his loins even upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the
colour of amber.
3 And he put forth the form of a hand, and took me by a lock
of mine head; and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and
the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to
the door of the inner gate that looketh toward the north; where
was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provoketh to
jealousy.
4 And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there,
according to the vision that I saw in the plain.
5 Then said he unto me, Son of man, lift up thine eyes now the
way toward the north. So I lifted up mine eyes the way toward the
north, and behold northward at the gate of the altar this image
of jealousy in the entry.
6 He said furthermore unto me, Son of man, seest thou what they
do? even the great abominations that the house of Israel
committeth here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? but
turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations.
Ezekiel was now in Babylon; but the messages of wrath he had delivered
in the foregoing chapters related to Jerusalem, for in the peace or
trouble thereof the captives looked upon themselves to have peace or
trouble, and therefore here he has a vision of what was done at
Jerusalem, and this vision is continued to the close of the 11th
chapter.
I. Here is the date of this vision. The first vision he had was in
the fifth year of the captivity, in the fourth month and the
fifth day of the month,
ch. i. 1, 2.
This was just fourteen months after. Perhaps it was after he had lain
390 days on his left side, to bear the iniquity of Israel, and before
he began the forty days on his right side, to bear the iniquity of
Judah; for now he was sitting in the house, not lying. Note, God keeps
a particular account of the messages he sends to us, because he will
shortly call us to account about them.
II. The opportunity is taken notice of, as well as the time.
1. The prophet was himself sitting in his house, in a sedate
composed frame, deep perhaps in contemplation. Note, The more we
retreat from the world, and retire into our own hearts, the better
frame we are in for communion with God: those that sit down to consider
what they have learned shall be taught more. Or, he sat in his
house, ready to preach to the company that resorted to him, but
waiting for instructions what to say. God will communicate more
knowledge to those who are communicative of what they do know.
2. The elders of Judah, that were now in captivity with him,
sat before him. It is probable that it was on the sabbath day,
and that it was usual for them to attend on the prophet every sabbath
day, both to hear the word from him and to join with him and prayer and
praise: and how could they spend the sabbath better, now that they had
neither temple nor synagogue, neither priest nor altar? It was a great
mercy that they had opportunity to spend it so well, as the good people
in Elisha’s time,
But some think it was on some extraordinary occasion that they attended
him, to enquire of the Lord, and sat down at his feet to hear
his word. Observe here,
(1.) When the law had perished from the priests at Jerusalem,
whose lips should keep knowledge
(ch. vii. 26),
those in Babylon had a prophet to consult. God is not tied to places
or persons.
(2.) Now that the elders of Judah were in captivity they paid more
respect to God’s prophets, and his word in their mouth, than they did
when they lived in peace in their own land. When God brings men into
the cords of affliction, then he opens their ears to
discipline,
Job xxxvi. 8, 10; Ps. cxli. 6.
Those that despised vision in the valley of vision prized it now
that the word of the Lord precious and there was no open vision.
(3.) When our teachers are driven into corners, and are forced to
preach in private houses, we must diligently attend them there. A
minister’s house should be a church for all his neighbours. Paul
preached in his own hired house at Rome, and God owned him there, and
no man forbad him.
III. The divine influence and impression that the prophet was now
under: The hand of the Lord fell there upon me. God’s hand took
hold of him, and arrested him, as it were, to employ him in this
vision, but at the same time supported him to bear it.
IV. The vision that the prophet saw,
v. 2.
He beheld a likeness, of a man we may suppose, for that was the
likeness he saw before, but it was all brightness above the
girdle and all fire below, fire and flame. This agrees with the
description we had before of the apparition he saw,
It is probably that it was the same person, the man Christ Jesus. It is
probable that the elders that sat with him (as the men that
journeyed with Paul) saw a light and were afraid, and this happy sight
they gained by attending the prophet in a private meeting, but they had
no distinct view of him that spoke to him,
V. The prophet’s remove, in vision, to Jerusalem. The apparition he saw
put forth the form of a hand, which took him by a lock of his
head, and the Spirit was that hand which was put forth, for the
Spirit of God is called the finger of God. Or, The spirit within
him lifted him up, so that he was borne up and carried on by an
internal principle, not an external violence. A faithful ready servant
of God will be drawn by a hair, by the least intimation of the divine
will, to his duty; for he has that within him which inclines him to a
compliance with it,
He was miraculously lifted up between heaven and earth, as if he
were to fly away upon eagles’ wings. This, it is probable (so Grotius
thinks), the elders that sat with him saw; they were witnesses of
the hand taking him by the lock of hair, and lifting him
up, and then perhaps laying him down again in a trance of ecstasy,
while he had the following visions, whether in the body or out of
the body, we may suppose, he could not tell, any more than
Paul in a like case, much less can we. Note, Those are best prepared
for communion with God and the communications of divine light that by
divine grace are raised up above the earth and the things of it, to be
out of their attractive force. But, being lifted up towards heaven, he
was carried in vision to Jerusalem, and to God’s sanctuary there; for
those that would go to heaven must take that in their way. The Spirit
represented to his mind the city and temple as plainly as if he had
been there in person. O that by faith we could thus enter into the
Jerusalem, the holy city, above, and see the things that are
invisible!
VI. The discoveries that were made to him there.
1. There he saw the glory of God
(v. 4):
Behold, the glory of the god of Israel was there, the same
appearance of the living creatures, and the wheels, and the throne,
that he had seen,
Note, God’s servants, wherever they are and whithersoever they go,
ought to carry about with them a believing regard to the glory of God
and to set that always before them; and those that have seen God’s
power and glory in the sanctuary should desire to see them again, so as
they have seen them,
Ezekiel has this repeated vision of the glory of God both to give
credit to and to put honour upon the following discoveries. But it
seems to have a further intention here; it was to aggravate this sin of
Israel, in changing their own God, the God of Israel (who is a God of
so much glory as here he appears to be), for dunghill gods, scandalous
gods, false gods, and indeed no gods. Note, The more glorious we see
God to be the more odious we shall see sin to be, especially idolatry,
which turns his truth in to a lie, his glory into shame. It was also to
aggravate their approaching misery, when this glory of the Lord should
remove from them
and leave the house and city desolate.
2. There he saw the reproach of Israel–and that was the image of
jealousy, set northward, at the gate of the altar,
v. 3, 5.
What image this was is uncertain, probably an image of Baal, or of the
grove, which Manasseh made and set in the temple
(2 Kings xxi. 7, 2 Chron. xxxiii. 3),
which Josiah removed, but his successors, it seems, replace there, as
probably they did the chariots of the sun which he found at
the entering in of the house of the Lord
and this is here said to be in the entry. But the prophet,
instead of telling us what image it was, which might gratify our
curiosity, tells us that it was the image of jealousy, to
convince our consciences that, whatever image it was, it was in the
highest degree offensive to God and provoked him to jealousy. he
resented it as a husband would resent the whoredoms of his wife, and
would certainly revenge it; for God is jealous, and the Lord
revenges,
Nah. i. 2.
(1.) The very setting up of this image in the house of the Lord
was enough to provoke him to jealousy; for it is in the matters
of his worship that we are particularly told, I the Lord thy God am
a jealous God. Those that placed this image at the door of the
inner gate, where the people assembled, called the gate of the
altar
(v. 5),
thereby plainly intended,
[1.] To affront God, to provoke him to his face, by advancing an idol
to be a rival with him for the adoration of his people, in contempt of
his law and in defiance of his justice.
[2.] To debauch the people, and pick them up as they were entering into
the courts of the Lord’s house to bring their offerings to him, and to
tempt them to offer them to this image; like the adulteress Solomon
describes, that sits at the door of her house, to call passengers
who go right on their ways, Whoso is simple, let him turn in
hither,
Prov. ix. 14-16.
With good reason therefore is this called the image of
jealousy.
(2.) We may well imagine what a surprise and what a grief it was to
Ezekiel to see this image in the house of God, when he was in hopes
that the judgments they were under had, by this time, wrought some
reformation among them; but there is more wickedness in the world, in
the church, than good men think there is. And now,
[1.] God appeals to him whether this was not bad enough, and a
sufficient ground for God to go upon in casting off this people and
abandoning them to ruin. Could he, or any one else, expect any other
than that God should go far from his sanctuary, when there were
such abominations committed there, in that very place; nay, was he not
perfectly driven thence? They did these things designedly, and on
purpose that he should leave his sanctuary, and so shall their doom be;
they have hereby, in effect, like the Gadarenes, desired him to
depart out of their coasts, and therefore he will depart; he will
no more dignify and protect his sanctuary, as he has done, but will
give it up to reproach and ruin. But,
[2.] Though this is bad enough, and serves abundantly to justify God in
all that he brings upon them, yet the matter will appear to be much
worse: But turn thyself yet again, and thou wilt be amazed to
see greater abominations than these. Where there is one
abomination it will be found that there are many more. Sins do not go
alone.
| Secret Abominations Discovered; The Chambers of Imagery. | B. C. 593. |
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7 And he brought me to the door of the court; and when I
looked, behold a hole in the wall.
8 Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in the wall: and
when I had digged in the wall, behold a door.
9 And he said unto me, Go in, and behold the wicked
abominations that they do here.
10 So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping
things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of
Israel, portrayed upon the wall round about.
11 And there stood before them seventy men of the ancients of
the house of Israel, and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the
son of Shaphan, with every man his censer in his hand; and a
thick cloud of incense went up.
12 Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the
ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the
chambers of his imagery? for they say, The LORD seeth us not; the
LORD hath forsaken the earth.
We have here a further discovery of the abominations that were
committed at Jerusalem, and within the confines of the temple, too. Now
observe,
I. How this discovery is made. God, in vision, brought Ezekiel to the
door of the court, the outer court, along the sides of which the
priests’ lodgings were. God could have introduced him at first into
the chambers of imagery, but he brings him to them by degrees,
partly to employ his own industry in searching out these mysteries of
iniquity, and partly to make him sensible with what care and caution
those idolaters concealed their idolatries. Before the priests’
apartments they had run up a wall, to make them the more private, that
they might not lie open to the observation of those who passed by–a
shrewd sign that they did something which they had reason to be ashamed
of. He that doth evil hates the light. They were not willing
that those who saw them in God’s house should see them in their own,
lest they should see them contradict themselves and undo in private
what they did in public. But, behold, a hole in the wall,
(v. 7),
a spy-hole, by which you might see that which would give cause to
suspect them. When hypocrites screen themselves behind the wall of an
external profession, and with it think to conceal their wickedness from
the eye of the world and carry on their designs the more successfully,
it is hard for them to manage it with so much art by that there is some
hole or other left in the wall, something that betrays them, to those
who look diligently, not to be what they pretend to be. The ass’s ears
in the fable appeared from under the lion’s skin. This hole in the
wall Ezekiel made wider, and behold a door,
v. 8.
This door he goes in by into the treasury, or some of the
apartments of the priests, and sees the wicked abominations that
they do there,
v. 9.
Note, Those that would discover the mystery of iniquity in others, or
in themselves, must accomplish a diligent search; for Satan has his
wiles, and depths, and devices, which we should not be ignorant of, and
the heart is deceitful above all things; in the examining of it
therefore we are concerned to be very strict.
II. What the discovery is. It is a very melancholy one.
1. He sees a chamber set round with idolatrous pictures
(v. 10):
All the idols of the house of Israel, which they had borrowed
from the neighbouring nations, were portrayed upon the wall round
about, even the vilest of them, the forms of creeping
things, which they worshipped, and beasts, even
abominable ones, which are poisonous and venomous; at least they
were abominable when they were worshipped. This was a sort of
pantheon, a collection of all the idols together which they paid their
devotions to. Though the second commandment, in the letter of it,
forbids only graven images, yet painted ones are as bad and as
dangerous.
2. He sees this chamber filled with idolatrous worshippers
(v. 11):
There were seventy men of the elders of Israel offering incense
to these painted idols. Here was a great number of idolaters
strengthening one another’s hands in this wickedness; though it was in
a private chamber, and the meeting industriously concealed, yet here
were seventy men engaged in it. I doubt these elders were many more
than those in Babylon that sat before the prophet in his house,
v. 1.
They were seventy men, the number of the great Sanhedrim, or
chief council of the nation, and, we have reason to fear, the same men;
for they were the ancients of the house of Israel, not only in
age, but in office, who were bound, by the duty of their place, to
restrain and punish idolatry and to destroy and abolish all
superstitious images wherever they found them; yet these were those
that did themselves worship them in private, so undermining that
religion which in public they professed to own and promote only because
by it they held their preferments. They had every man his censer in
his hand; so fond were they of the idolatrous service that they
would all be their own priests, and very prodigal they were of their
perfumes in honour of these images, for a thick cloud of incense
went up, that filled the room. O that the zeal of these idolaters
might shame the worshippers of the true God out of their indifference
to his service! The prophet took particular notice of one whom he knew,
who stood in the midst of these idolaters, as chief among them,
being perhaps president of the great council at this time or most
forward in this wickedness. No wonder the people were corrupt when the
elders were so. The sins of leaders are leading sins.
III. What the remark is that made upon it
(v. 12):
“Son of man, hast thou seen this? Couldst thou have imagined
that there was such wickedness committed?” It is here observed
concerning it,
1. That it was done in the dark; for sinful works are works
of darkness. They concealed it, lest they should lose their places,
or at least their credit. There is a great deal of secret wickedness in
the world, which the day will declare, the day of the revelation of
the righteous judgment of God.
2. That this one idolatrous chapel was but a specimen of many the like.
Here they met together, to worship their images in concert, but, it
should seem, they had every man the chamber of his imagery
besides, a room in his own house for this purpose, in which every man
gratified his own fancy with such pictures as he liked best. Idolaters
had their household gods, and their family worship of them in private,
which is a shame to those who call themselves Christians and yet have
no church in their house, no worship of God in their family. Had they
chambers of imagery, and shall not we have chambers of devotion?
3. That atheism was at the bottom of their idolatry. They worship
images in the dark, the images of the gods of other nations, and
they say, “Jehovah, the God of Israel, whom we should serve,
seeth us not. Jehovah hath forsaken the earth, and we may
worship what God we will; he regards us not.”
(1.) They think themselves out of God’s sight: They say, The Lord
seeth us not. They imagined, because the matter was carried on so
closely that men could not discover it, nor did any of their neighbours
suspect them to be idolaters, that therefore it was hidden from the eye
of God; as if there were any darkness, or shadow of death, where the
workers of iniquity may hide themselves. Note, A practical
disbelief of God’s omniscience is at the bottom of our treacherous
departures from him; but the church argues justly, as to this very sin
of idolatry
If we have forgotten the name of our God, and stretched forth our
hand to a strange god, will not God search this out? No doubt he
will.
(2.) They think themselves out of God’s care: “The Lord has forsaken
the earth, and looks not after the affairs of it; and then we may
as well worship any other god as him.” Or, “He has forsaken our land,
and left it to be a prey to its enemies; and therefore it is time for
us to look out for some other god, to whom to commit the protection of
it. Our one God cannot, or will not, deliver us; and therefore let us
have many.” This was a blasphemous reflection upon God, as if he had
forsaken them first, else they would not have forsaken him. Note, Those
are ripe indeed for ruin who have arrived at such a pitch of impudence
as to lay the blame of their sins upon God himself.
| The Chambers of Imagery. | B. C. 593. |
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13 He said also unto me, Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt
see greater abominations that they do.
14 Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD‘s
house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women
weeping for Tammuz.
15 Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man?
turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations
than these.
16 And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD‘s house,
and, behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the
porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their
backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the
east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.
17 Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man?
Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the
abominations which they commit here? for they have filled the
land with violence, and have returned to provoke me to anger:
and, lo, they put the branch to their nose.
18 Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not
spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in mine ears
with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.
Here we have,
I. More and greater abominations discovered to the prophet. He thought
that what he had seen was bad enough and yet
(v. 13):
Turn thyself again, and thou shalt see yet greater abominations,
and greater still,
as before,
v. 6.
There are those who live in retirement who do no think what wickedness
there is in this world; and the more we converse with it, and the
further we go abroad into it, the more corrupt we see it. When we have
seen that which is bad we may have our wonder at it made to cease by
the discovery of that which, upon some account or other, is a great
deal worse. We shall find it so in examining our own hearts and
searching into them; there is a world of iniquity in them, a great
abundance and variety of abominations, and, when we have found out much
amiss, still we shall find more; for the heart is desperately
wicked, who can know it perfectly? Now the abominations here
discovered were,
1. Women weeping for Tammuz,
v. 14.
An abominable thing indeed, that any should choose rather to serve an
idol in tears than to serve the true God with joyfulness and
gladness of heart! Yet such absurdities as these are those guilty
of who follow after lying vanities and forsake their own
mercies. Some think it was for Adonis, an idol among the Greeks,
other for Osiris, an idol of the Egyptians, that they shed these tears.
The image, they say, was made to weep, and then the worshippers wept
with it. They bewailed the death of this Tammuz, and anon rejoiced in
its returning to life again. These mourning women sat at the door of
the gate of the Lord’s house, and there shed their idolatrous
tears, as it were in defiance of God and the sacred rites of his
worship, and some think, with their idolatry, prostrating themselves
also to corporeal whoredom; for these two commonly went together, and
those that dishonoured the divine nature by the one were justly
given up to vile affections and a reprobate sense to dishonour
the human nature, which nowhere ever sunk so far below itself as in
these idolatrous rites.
2. Men worshipping the sun,
v. 16.
And this was so much the greater an abomination that it was practised
in the inner court of the Lord’s house at the door of the temple of
the lord, between the porch and the altar. There, where the most
sacred rites of their holy religion used to be performed, was this
abominable wickedness committed. Justly might God in jealousy say to
those who thus affronted him at his own door, as the king to Haman,
Will he force the queen also before me in the house? Here
were about twenty-five men giving that honour to the sun which
is due to God only. Some think they were the king and his princes; it
should rather seem that they were priests, for this was the court of
the priests, and the proper place to find them in. Those that were
entrusted with the true religion, had it committed to their care and
were charged with the custody of it, they were the men that betrayed
it.
(1.) They turned their backs towards the temple of the Lord,
resolvedly forgetting it and designedly slighting it and putting
contempt upon it. Note, When men turn their backs upon God’s
institutions, and despise them, it is no marvel if they wander
endlessly after their own inventions. Impiety is the beginning of
idolatry and all iniquity.
(2.) They turned their faces towards the east, and worshipped the
sun, the rising sun. This was an ancient instance of idolatry; it
is mentioned in Job’s time
(Job xxxi. 26),
and had been generally practised among the nations, some worshipping
the sun under one name, others under another. These priests, finding it
had antiquity and general consent and usage on its side (the two pleas
which the papists use at this day in defence of their superstitious
rites, and particularly this of worshipping towards the east),
practised it in the court of the temple, thinking it an omission that
it was not inserted in their ritual. See the folly of idolaters in
worshipping that as a god, and calling it Baal–a lord, which
God made to be a servant to the universe (for such the sun is, and so
his name Shemesh signified,
and in adoring the borrowed light and despising the Father of
lights.
II. The inference drawn from these discoveries
(v. 17):
“Hast thou seen this, O son of man! and couldst thou have
thought ever to see such things done in the temple of the Lord?” Now,
1. He appeals to the prophet himself concerning the heinousness of the
crime. Can he think it is a light thing to the house of Judah,
who know and profess better things, and are dignified with so many
privileges above other nations? Is it an excusable thing in those that
have God’s oracles and ordinances that they commit the abominations
which they commit here? Do not those deserve to suffer that thus
sin? Should not such abominations as these make desolate?
Dan. ix. 27.
2. He aggravates it from the fraud and oppression that were to be found
in all parts of the nations: They have filled the land with
violence. It is not strange if those that wrong God thus make no
conscience of wronging one another, and with all that is sacred trample
likewise upon all that is just. And their wickedness in their
conversations made even the worship they paid to their own God an
abomination
&c.): “They fill the land with violence, and then they return to
the temple to provoke me to anger there; for even their
sacrifices, instead of making an atonement, do but add to their guilt.
They return to provoke me (they repeat the provocation, do it,
and do it again), and, lo, they put the branch to their nose”
–a proverbial expression denoting perhaps their scoffing at God and
having him in derision; they snuffed at his service, as men do when
they put a branch to their nose. Or it was some custom used by
idolaters in honour of the idols they served. We read of garlands used
in their idolatrous worships
(Acts xiv. 13),
out of which every zealot took a branch which they smelled to as a
nosegay. Dr. Lightfoot (Hor. Heb. in John 15.6) gives another
sense of this place: They put the branch to their wrath, or
to his wrath, as the Masorites read it; that is, they are still
bringing more fuel (such as the withered branches of the vine) to the
fire of divine wrath, which they have already kindled, as if that wrath
did not burn hot enough already. Or putting the branch to the nose may
signify the giving of a very great affront and provocation either to
God or man; they are an abusive generation of men.
3. He passes sentence upon them that they shall be utterly cut off:
Therefore, because they are thus furiously bent upon sin, I
will also deal in fury with them,
They filled the land with their violence, and God will fill it
with the violence of their enemies; and he will not lend a favourable
ear to the suggestions either,
(1.) Of his own pity: My eye shall not spare, neither will I have
pity; repentance shall be hidden from his eyes; or,
(2.) Of their prayers: Though they cry in my ears with a loud voice,
yet will I not hear them; for still their sins cry more loudly for
vengeance than their prayers cry for mercy. God will now be as deaf to
their prayers as their own idols were, on whom they cried aloud, but in
vain,
Time was when God was ready to hear even before they cried and
to answer while they were yet speaking; but now they shall
seek me early and not find me,
Prov. i. 28.
It is not the loud voice, but the upright heart, that God will
regard.
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