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, ch. xiv. 1, 3. 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 ch. i.-iii., the reproofs
and threatenings ch. iv.-xxiv. 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 (ch.
xxv.-xxxv.), to make way for the restoration of God's Israel and the
re-establishment of their city and temple, which are foretold ch. xxxvi.
to the end. Those who would apply the comforts to themselves must apply the
convictions to themselves.
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