Ezekiel 3:10-15

C. Assessment of the Congregation 3:10-15

TRANSLATION

(10) And He said unto me, Son of man, all My words which I shall speak unto you receive into your heart, and with your ears hear. (11) And go unto the captives, unto the children of your people and speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus says the Lord GOD; whether they will hear, or whether they desist. (12) Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me the sound of great shaking Blessed be the glory of the LORD from His place (13) even the sound of the wings of the living creatures touching each other, and the sound of the wheels beside them, even the sound of great shaking. (14) And the Spirit lifted me up, and took me so that I came with bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; and the hand of the LORD was strong upon me. (15) And I came unto the captives at Tel-abib who were dwelling beside the river Chebar, and to where they dwelt.[119] And I sat there seven days astonished in their midst.

[119] Another reading, which involves a change in the Hebrew text, is, and I sat where they were sitting.

COMMENTS

The first priority of any preacher is to be attune to the Word of God, God called upon Ezekiel to hear all the words which He would speak to him. He must not only hear them with the ears, he must also receive them into his heart. He must understand and believe the message he is to preach. All My words that I shall speak (Ezekiel 3:10) suggests that there would be future revelations which the prophet would also have to assimilate and subsequently announce. It is interesting to note that God would communicate to Ezekiel in words, not just in abstract thought and ambiguous visions. Here is verbal revelation.

Once Ezekiel understood the divine word and personally yielded to it, he would be prepared to undertake his mission to the Babylonian captives. He must go to them and speak to them that which God had spoken to him. He was not to be influenced by their reactions to his words. His job was to faithfully proclaim the word. He was to speak authoritatively. A thus says the Lord was to characterize all of his preaching. He was to preach on regardless of whether or not they gave heed. There may be a touch of irony in the expression your people, rather than My (God'S) people (Ezekiel 3:11).

At this point the Holy Spirit lifted Ezekiel up to whisk him from this mountain top of visionary experience to the valley of prophetic service. This is the first of several places in the book where the prophet describes his supernatural transports. Ezekiel was still in the midst of his visionary experience. Neither psychic levitation nor physical transposition is being described here. In his vision Ezekiel experienced a subjective feeling of being airborne, much like the feeling one has in a dream of soaring through the air.

The prophet had been in the presence of the theophany the visionary throne-chariot during all that has been narrated to this point (Ezekiel 1:4 to Ezekiel 3:12). When he was lifted up and carried away it seemed to Ezekiel that he was leaving the theophany behind.

Simultaneous with the Holy Spirit entering Ezekiel, the magnificent throne-chariot departed the scene. As it did so, the sound of a great shaking was heard. A voice pronouncing a blessing on the glory of the Lord accompanied the shaking noise. This voice is unidentified, but it is probably the voice which was heard from above the firmament in Ezekiel 1:24-25. It is also possible that Ezekiel heard the voice of the cherubim praising the Lord.[120] The phrase from His place (Ezekiel 3:12) is problematical. It probably refers to the place where the glory of God revealed itself in the vision.[121] To state the matter differently, the glory of the Lord yet remained in the place from which it was departing because His place is universal.[122]

[120] Blackwood imagines that the throbbing pulsations of the cherubim seemed to chant this doxology.

[121] Currey, BC, p. 28.

[122] Another view is that His place refers to Jerusalem.

The sound of great shaking of Ezekiel 3:12 is identified in Ezekiel 3:13. As the throne-chariot departed Ezekiel heard the whirring of the wings of the living creatures and the rumble of the wheels. When the throne-chariot was stationary, the living creatures did not touch each other. But when they were in flight the cherubim raised their wings so as to touch each other. See on Ezekiel 1:11.

After the departure of the throne-chariot Ezekiel describes what happened to him in these words: the Spirit lifted me up, and took me away (Ezekiel 3:14). This does not mean that Ezekiel was miraculously transported from one spot to another in Mesopotamia. Rather it means that Ezekiel, guided and impelled by the Holy Spirit, went forth among his countrymen. It is implied that the site of the vision was some distance from the exile settlement, for it is to the latter place that Ezekiel now returned.

In Ezekiel 3:14 Ezekiel describes his feelings as he departed the scene of his visionary experience. He went in bitterness,[123] in the heat of my spirit. Anger, then, was the dominant emotion in his heart at this moment. But why did he feel this way? Was he resentful at having been thrust into such a terrifying task? Possibly. But it is more likely that the word of the Lord which had been eaten and digested had created within him a righteous anger against the sin of Israel.[124]

[123] The Hebrew mar (bitter) can express fierce temper, discontentment or wretchedness,

[124] Fisch (SBB, p. 15) thinks the meaning is that Ezekiel was deeply distressed over having to deliver such a calamitous message. The heat of my spirit he explains as descriptive of the state of exaltation which he felt as the result of his vision. This interpretation is rather forced.

Not only was Ezekiel filled with God's indignation, he was conscious of being strengthened and guided by the hand of the Lord (Ezekiel 3:14).[125] Even though the vision was over, he still felt that the unseen hand was very definitely upon him.

[125] The purpose of the hand of God was not, as Fisch (SBB, p. 15) contends, to counteract the reluctance of the prophet.

Following the visionary experience Ezekiel rejoined his fellow captives in Tel-abib, the chief center of the exiles in Babylon. The name Tel-abib means heap of grain ears, and the place probably got its name from the fertility of the area.[126]

[126] Others interpret the name to mean mount of the flood. The name has been resurrected for the name of the largest city in the modern state of Israel Tel Aviv.

For seven days he sat there astonished. Keil understands the term to mean motionless and dumb. This was a time for reflection, meditation and readjustment. Various explanations of the seven days have been given. This was the period of prescribed mourning in certain periods of Old Testament history (Job 2:13). The period for the consecration of a priest was also seven days (Leviticus 8:33). Thus Ezekiel may have regarded this period as his time of personal consecration to the prophetic office. The simplest explanation, however, is that Ezekiel was waiting for further instruction which he subsequently received. There would then be no particular significance in the number seven.