Ezekiel 2:3-5 And he said to me, Son of man, I send you to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me… "We may preach and preach," said a great bishop once to his ordinands, "and our words will seem to fall upon a stone, and not upon a man's heart." Under any such trials of patience and hopefulness, Ezekiel's experience will prove helpful. How awful is the reason assigned! They "will not hearken unto thee, for they will not hearken unto Me." As our Lord said long afterwards (John 15:18), the servant could not expect to be welcomed when the Lord had been in effect rejected, The exiles' hearts were not right with God; therefore, of course, they could not appreciate God's envoy. What they said, as he reports it, exhibits human perversity in some very advanced forms, which are by no means obsolete; it is only too easy to translate their objections into language which is anything but dead. Hear some of them complain that the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge. "We are punished because our fathers sinned; is that fair? Can the way of the Lord be called straight: It is not straight, but twisted, contorted, and our sense of justice is shocked": as many nowadays declare that the inequalities of human condition, or other natural facts which "cannot be smoothed over or explained away," have made them incapable of believing that the world is governed by a righteous Providence. Or there are these who openly say, "We will be as the heathen": it is the cry of that wild impatience which would fain get rid of the responsibilities avowedly involved in the profession of religion. Or if the mood is not so distinctly rebellious, it is that of a sullen despair which masks itself under an apparent acknowledgment of sin: "Our hope is lost, we are cut off, we pine away in our transgressions, — how then should we live?" The gloom, we see, is faithless, even if it does not reach the point of revolt. Again, there are others who reject, as we might say, on the grounds of "common sense and common experience," the supernatural character of prophecy; "every vision faileth" predictions are disproved, or, to quote a modern dictum, "miracles do not happen." Ezekiel is, in effect, bluntly told that "facts are against him." Or even, say others, "if there is something in his prophecies, the vision is of times far off": things will last our time. we need not disturb ourselves — as a comfortable selfishness has often persuaded itself before some great "Day of the Son of Man," e.g., in the years that ushered in the French Revolution. Or others have their own prophets, much better worth hearing than Ezekiel, who tell them what is pleasant to think of, with no austere requirements, no rigid prohibitions, no croaking "bodements" of a dismal, intolerable future; the result of which is, that "the hands of the wicked are strengthened to go on in their evil way" by "visions of a peace that is no peace." Or the style and contents of Ezekiel's preaching are cavilled at: the misgivings which it secretly awakens are silenced by critical remarks on its obscurity: "They say of me. Doth he not speak parables?" Practical men, they assume, may web dispense with attending to a voice that cannot put plain meaning into plain words. Or there are others, probably among the younger sort, who at first sight seem more promising; they listen to the prophet with real enjoyment, as they might to one who can sing pleasantly and "play well"; only it is a mere aesthetic pleasure, a gratification of the sense of beauty for its own sake, with no moral movement of the will: "they hear thy words, but they do them not." Or, lastly, there are men grave and "highly respectable," who come with all appearance of seriousness to sit before Ezekiel as pupils, and inquire, through him. of the Lord; but he is bidden to repel them as self-deceivers who have set up, and retain, "their idols in their hearts": favourite sins with them prove stumbling blocks to bar all progress upward; therefore on them shall come the doom of being "answered according to their idols." Ezekiel's ministry was, as we thus see, preeminently a ministry of penetration into character. Its leading feature is a close, severe, persistent dealing with conscience; he has been truly called "the prophet of personal responsibility." He shows that if, to some extent, heredity involves very real disadvantage, if children suffer because parents or ancestors have sinned, yet in the last resort no one soul will be spiritually rejected from the mercies and blessings of the Divine covenant simply on account of the sins of other persons, which he has not personally shared in or made his own. So does Ezekiel prepare the way for that Saviour who, while He built up His Church as a spiritual home for all believers, conferred a new dignity, sacredness, preciousness, on each individual soul for whom He died. What a thought it is, the interest that the Most High God takes in each one of us singly! That fact has a twofold bearing: it imposes on us the obligation of walking in the fear of the Lord, of standing in awe and striving not to sin, of recognising that the revelation of a true God, as culminating in the incarnation of a Son of God who gave Himself up for us all, must needs have a stern side. But the other aspect of our personal relation to God is that in which the Gospel mainly presents Him — that which was illuminated by the Cross and summarised in St. John's assertion that He is Love. (Canon Bright.) Parallel Verses KJV: And he said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed against me, even unto this very day. |
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