110 lines
7.2 KiB
XML
110 lines
7.2 KiB
XML
<div2 id="Ez.i" n="i" next="Ez.ii" prev="Ez" progress="49.70%" title="Introduction">
|
||
<h2 id="Ez.i-p0.1">Ezekiel</h2>
|
||
<hr/>
|
||
<pb id="Ez.i-Page_745" n="745"/>
|
||
<div class="Center" id="Ez.i-p0.3">
|
||
<p id="Ez.i-p1" shownumber="no"><b>AN</b></p>
|
||
<h3 id="Ez.i-p1.1">EXPOSITION,</h3>
|
||
<h4 id="Ez.i-p1.2">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,</h4>
|
||
<h5 id="Ez.i-p1.3">OF THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET</h5>
|
||
<h2 id="Ez.i-p1.4">E Z E K I E L.</h2>
|
||
<hr style="width:2in"/>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p class="indent" id="Ez.i-p2" shownumber="no"><span class="smallcaps" id="Ez.i-p2.1">When</span> we
|
||
entered upon the writings of the prophets, which speak of the
|
||
<i>things that should be hereafter,</i> we seemed to have the same
|
||
call that St. John had (<scripRef id="Ez.i-p2.2" osisRef="Bible:Rev.4.1" parsed="|Rev|4|1|0|0" passage="Re 4:1">Rev. iv.
|
||
1</scripRef>), <i>Come up hither;</i> but, when we enter upon the
|
||
prophecy of this book, it is as if the voice said, <i>Come up
|
||
higher;</i> 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 <i>make glad
|
||
the city of our God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most
|
||
High.</i> As to this prophecy now before us, we may enquire, I.
|
||
Concerning the penman of it—it was Ezekiel; his name signifies,
|
||
<i>The strength of God,</i> or one <i>girt</i> or <i>strengthened
|
||
of God.</i> 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>I have made thy face strong against their
|
||
faces.</i> The learned Selden, in his book <i>De Diis Syris,</i>
|
||
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, <i>Thesaur. Philol. lib. 2 cap. 1.</i>
|
||
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 <i>house of
|
||
bondage</i> to the <i>Israel of God;</i> 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 <i>show God's people their transgressions,</i> that in
|
||
their captivity they might be repenting and not repining. It should
|
||
seem the prophet was constantly attended (for we read of their
|
||
<i>sitting before him as God's people sat to hear his words,</i>
|
||
<scripRef id="Ez.i-p2.3" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.33.31" parsed="|Ezek|33|31|0|0" passage="Eze 33:31"><i>ch.</i> xxxiii. 31</scripRef>),
|
||
and that he was occasionally consulted, for we read of the elders
|
||
of Israel who came to <i>enquire of the Lord</i> by him, <scripRef id="Ez.i-p2.4" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.14.1 Bible:Ezek.14.3" parsed="|Ezek|14|1|0|0;|Ezek|14|3|0|0" passage="Eze 14:1,3"><i>ch.</i> xiv. 1, 3</scripRef>. 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 <i>terrors of the Lord</i> he prepares
|
||
Christ's way. By the law is the knowledge of sin, and so it becomes
|
||
our <i>school-master to bring us to Christ.</i> The visions which
|
||
were the prophet's credentials we have <scripRef id="Ez.i-p2.5" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.1.1-Ezek.3.27" parsed="|Ezek|1|1|3|27" passage="Eze 1:1-3:27"><i>ch.</i> i.-iii.</scripRef>, the reproofs and
|
||
threatenings <scripRef id="Ez.i-p2.6" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.4.1-Ezek.24.27" parsed="|Ezek|4|1|24|27" passage="Eze 4:1-24:27"><i>ch.</i>
|
||
iv.-xxiv.</scripRef> 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 (<scripRef id="Ez.i-p2.7" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.25.1-Ezek.35.15" parsed="|Ezek|25|1|35|15" passage="Eze 25:1-35:15"><i>ch.</i>
|
||
xxv.-xxxv.</scripRef>), to make way for the restoration of God's
|
||
Israel and the re-establishment of their city and temple, which are
|
||
foretold <scripRef id="Ez.i-p2.8" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.36.1-Ezek.36.38" parsed="|Ezek|36|1|36|38" passage="Eze 36:1-38"><i>ch.</i>
|
||
xxxvi.</scripRef> to the end. Those who would apply the comforts to
|
||
themselves must apply the convictions to themselves.</p>
|
||
</div2> |