Ezekiel 3:7

But the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee; for they will not hearken unto me: for all the house of Israel are impudent and hardhearted. THEY WILL NOT HEARKEN UNTO THEE; FOR THEY WILL NOT HEARKEN UNTO ME - (). Take patiently their rejection of thee, because I thy Lord bear it along with thee....

Now, therefore, we clearly see the sloth of the people assigned as a reason why they purposely rejected the Word of God, and hardened themselves in obstinacy. He also ascends higher, and says, that the people were not only disobedient to the Prophet but to God himself, as Christ also when he exhorts his disciples to perseverance in teaching. Therefore, says he, they will not hear you, because they will not hear me, and why am I and my teaching hated by them, unless because they do not receive my Father? (John 15:18.) For this stumblingblock is likely to break the spirits of the pious, when they see their teaching so proudly rejected. This reproach alone, therefore, is often accustomed to recall the servants of God from their course: but this admonition is proposed to them in the midst, that God himself is despised. Why then should they take it ill, that they are held in the same estimati...

1-11 Ezekiel was to receive the truths of God as the food for his soul, and to feed upon them by faith, and he would be strengthened. Gracious souls can receive those truths of God with delight, which speak terror to the wicked. He must speak all that, and that only, which God spake to him. How can we better speak God's mind than with his words? If disappointed as to his people, he must not be offended. The Ninevites were wrought upon by Jonah's preaching, when Israel was unhumbled and unreformed. We must leave this unto the Divine sovereignty, and say, Lord, thy judgments are a great deep. They will not regard the word of the prophet, for they will not regard the rod of God. Christ promises to strengthen him. He must continue earnest in preaching, whatever the success might be....

Verse Ezekiel 3:7. _IMPUDENT AND HARD-HEARTED._] "Stiff of forehead, and hard of heart." - _Margin_. The marginal readings on several verses here are very nervous and very correct....

EXPOSITION EZEKIEL 3:1 EAT THAT THOU FINDEST, etc. The iteration of the command of Ezekiel 2:8 seems to imply, like the words, "be not thou rebellious," in that verse, some reluctance on the prophet's part. In substance the command was equivalent to that of Revelation 22:18, Revelation 22:19. The true prophet does not choose his message (Acts 4:20); his "meat" is to do his Lord's will (John 4:34), and he takes what he "f

BUT THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL WOULD NOT HEARKEN UNTO THEE,.... "They are not willing" l; they have no desire, no inclination, to hear and hearken; but the reverse; they were capable of hearing and understanding his speech and language, and though he was sent unto them by the Lord: and indeed the reason why they did not hearken to him was not because they rejected him and his words, but because they rejected the Lord and his words; they were the words of the Lord, and his reproofs; and therefore they would not hearken to them as follows: FOR THEY WILL NOT HEARKEN UNTO ME; and which is an argument why the prophet should bear with patience their disregard to him and his words, and their neglect and contempt of them; for, seeing they would not hear the Lord, how could he exact they should hear him? and therefore he should not be uneasy at it; see John 15:20; for all the

ANALYSIS AND ANNOTATIONS I. PREDICTIONS BEFORE THE FALL OF JERUSALEM A. judgment Predictions Concerning Jerusalem (1-24) Chapter S 1:1-3:14 The Vision of Glory and the Call of the Prophet _ 1. The introduction (Ezekiel 1:1) _ 2. The vision of glory (Ezekiel 1:4) 3. Ezekiel's call and commission (Ezekiel 2:1) 4. The roll eaten and the repeated commission (Ezekiel 2:9; Ezekiel 3:1) Ezekiel 1:1. The introductory words give

EZEKIEL 2:8 TO EZEKIEL 3:15. His inspiration is suggestively described by the symbolical swallowing of a book-roll. In Jer. (Jeremiah 1:9) it is more immediately conceived as due to the touch of the Divine Hand upon the prophet's lips: but by the publication of Dt. thirty years before (621 B.C.) the book had begun to hold a place in the religion of Israel which it had never held before (p. 90), and it is significant, not to say ominous, that Ezekiel is represented as owing his message and his inspiration to a book. The lamentations, mourning, and woe (Ezekiel 2:10) inscribed in the visionary book do, in point of fact, faithfully describe the gene

HEARKEN. be willing to hearken. WILL NOT HEARKEN. are not willing to hearken. ARE. they are. IMPUDENT, &c. Reference to Pentateuch. See note on Ezekiel 2:4....

The prophet shall be strengthened to perform his hard task Having taken in the "words" of the Lord (Ezekiel 3:4) there opens up before the prophet a general view of the mission he is sent upon. It is an arduous one. The difficulties are not of a superficial kind. He is not sent to foreign nations, who would not understand his words, but to Israel. They can well understand, but they will not listen. Their refusal to listen unto him is but an example of their life-long refusal to listen unto God. They are resolute and obstinate in their disobedience, but the prophet shall be made more resolute than they....