Ezekiel 3:18 Komentář

In this chapter we have the further preparation of the prophet for the work to which God called him. I. His eating the roll that was presented to him in the close of the foregoing chapter (Eze 3:1-3). II. Further instructions and encouragements given him to the same purport with those in the foregoing chapter (Eze 3:4-11). III. The mighty impulse he was under, with which he was carried to those that were to be his hearers (Eze 3:12-15). IV. A further explication of his office and business as a prophet, under the similitude of a watchman (Eze 3:16-21). V. The restraining and restoring of the prophet's liberty of speech, as God pleased (Eze 3:22-27).

INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL 3 This chapter contains a further account of the prophet's call and mission; of his preparation of him for is work; of, the persons to whom he was sent; of what happened to him upon this; of the nature of his office, and the work of it; and of what followed upon the renewal of his call. His further preparation for prophesying is in Eze 3:1; where he is bid to eat the roll showed him, which he did, and found it in his mouth as honey for sweetness; and then he receives fresh orders to go to the people of Israel, and prophesy to them, Eze 3:4; and, that he might not be discouraged, an account is given beforehand of the people to whom he was sent; of their language, behaviour, and disposition; by which he could not expect success, Eze 3:5; and, for his further encouragement, strength, boldness, resolution, firmness, and presence of mind, are promised him, Eze 3:8; also a revelation of mere things to him; all which he should hear, receive, and speak, whether the people would attend to them or not; which ought to be no discouragement to him, since it was not regarded by the Lord, Eze 3:10; then follows an account of his being lifted up by the Spirit from the earth, when he heard a voice, which is described by the manner and matter of it; and a noise, both of the living creature's wings, and of the wheels he had seen in a former vision, Eze 3:12; and next of his being carried away by the same Spirit; and of the condition he was in, in his own spirit, as he went; and of the strength he received from the Lord; and of the place to which he, was carried; and his state and circumstances, and time of continuance there, Eze 3:14; where, after a time mentioned, he has a fresh call to his office, under the character of a watchman, whose business was to hear Christ's words, and warn the house of Israel from him; and who are distinguished into wicked and righteous; and whom the prophet was to warn at his own peril, Eze 3:16; and the chapter is concluded with a narration of various events which befell the prophet; he is bid by the Lord to go into the plain, which he did, and there saw the glory of the Lord, as he had before seen it at the river Chebar; which so affected him, that he fell upon his face, Eze 3:22; the spirit entered into him, let him on his feet, and spake with him; ordered him what he should do himself, that he should shut himself up in his house, Eze 3:24; informed him what the people would do to him; bind him with bands, that he should not come forth, Eze 3:25; and what Christ would do to him; strike him dumb in judgment to the people, that he might not be a reprover of them, Eze 3:26; but he is told that, when the Lord spoke to him; his mouth should be opened, and he should declare what was said to him, Eze 3:27.

When I say unto the wicked, thou shalt surely die,.... Not only a corporeal but an eternal death for this is what the law threatens with, and there the Lord says this; and this is the wages, end, and issue of sin, if grace prevent not: and thou givest him not warning; of the evil nature of sin, and of the danger it exposes to: nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way; to abstain from it, and live another course of life: to save his life; for such warning, caution, exhortation, and doctrine, may be a means of converting a sinner from the evil of his way, and of saving a soul from death, Ti1 4:16; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; with the pollution and guilt of sin upon him, and so be punished for it; see Joh 8:24; but his blood will I require at thine hands; thou shalt be answerable for him; his death shall be laid to thy charge, and thou shalt be chastised for thy negligence; see Act 20:26.

It is of the greatest importance that the superior [in a religious community] be convinced that if he fails to offer his brother the proper guidance, he will draw on himself heavy and inescapable wrath, for his blood will be required at his hands.

A threat is not made against people but against sins, nor is it made against those who are converted from their imperfections but against those who remain in their sin.

(Verse 18, 19.) If I say to the wicked, 'You will surely die,' and you do not warn him or speak out to warn him from his wicked way that he may live, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die for his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul. There are two wicked or iniquitous persons, as the Septuagint has translated. One who hears nothing as a viewer, and dies in his impiety; whose blood is sought by the hands of the viewer. Another, to whom the viewer announces, and he, despising to hear, dies due to his own fault: in such a way that the viewer is innocent of the fault. From which we understand that the Lord threatens the impious one, and says: 'You will die by death', so that he may turn away from his impious way, and live. For the threat is not against humans, but against sins, and not against those who turn away from vices, but against those who persist in sin. And there is a great danger in keeping silent on the words of God for three reasons: either out of fear, or out of laziness, or out of flattery. Hence Isaiah says: Woe is me, for I have kept silent (Isaiah 6:5). And what follows, You have freed your soul, signifies the same as the saying of the Apostle: If anyone's work burns, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, but as through fire (1 Corinthians 3:14), so as to prove whether an external observer was the cause of his death or whether he was guilty. For the work of the master is the well-being of the disciple.

You have frequently heard in the holy Scriptures in what great danger bishops are placed, if they are unwilling to carry out what the apostle urges on them.… But when we reprove someone, if the person we reprove is bad, he fixes his attention on the one he is being reproved by and happily and more readily acknowledges what has to be put right in his reprover than in himself. And if he can find something true to say against the one who is reproving him, he is delighted. How much better to rejoice about his own healthy condition when he has been put right than about another person’s illness when he is rebuked!

In these words, what should we note, what should we carefully consider, except that the subject does not die because of the fault of the superior, nor is the superior without fault when, not hearing the words of life, the subject dies by his own fault? For death is owed to the impious, but the way of life must be announced to him by the watchman, and his impiety must be rebuked. But if the watchman is silent, the impious man himself will die in his iniquity, because it was the merit of his impiety that he was not worthy for the watchman's word to reach him. But the Lord requires his blood from the hand of the watchman, because he himself killed him, because by remaining silent he betrayed him to death. In both of these cases, we must weigh how closely connected are the sins of subjects and superiors, because where the subject dies by his own fault, there the one who is in charge, because he was silent, is held guilty of death. Consider therefore, dearest brothers, consider, because the fact that we are not worthy pastors is also due to your fault, over whom we have been placed as prelates. And if at times you slide into iniquity, this is also due to our guilt, since you do not have us resisting and crying out against your wicked desires. Therefore you spare both yourselves and us if you cease from wicked work. We spare both you and ourselves when we do not keep silent about what displeases. Oh how free from the blood of those committed to him was that excellent preacher who said: I am clean from the blood of all; for I did not shrink from announcing to you the whole counsel of God. For if he had not announced it, he would not be clean from blood. But because he strove to announce the whole counsel of God to them, he was clean from their blood. By this voice we are summoned, we are bound, we are shown to be guilty, we who are called priests, who on top of the evils that are our own also add the deaths of others, because we kill as many as we see going to death daily while we remain lukewarm and silent. But when it is said: "His blood I will require at your hand," if by the name of blood in this passage the death of the body is designated, our fear regarding our silence is greatly increased, because if he who is set over others as a watchman is held so gravely guilty even for the bodily death of those who will someday die anyway, by what guilt is he bound for the death of the soul of his subjects, which could have lived forever if it had heard words of correction? But sins can better be signified by the name of blood. Whence a certain one, when he was lamenting the sins of the flesh, said: "Deliver me from bloodguilt, O God, God of my salvation." Therefore the blood of the dying is required at the hand of the watchman, because the sin of the subject is imputed to the fault of the superior if he has remained silent. There is therefore something he can do, so that even when his subject dies he may render himself free. Let him rise up, keep watch, oppose evil deeds, as it is written: "Run about, make haste, rouse your friend; give no sleep to your eyes, nor let your eyelids slumber."

Whenever we preach something hard, we do not do so because we believe that you have done something of the sort, but we denounce things that you have not done, in order to be able to cure those matters in which you may have been overcome. It often happens that we fear to do great wrongs but more quickly fail to guard against slight ones.

It is necessary for us to rebuke, either in secret or in public, those who are careless. Now if the one whom we reprove is wicked, when we do so he will notice by whom he is rebuked, and he will more readily recognize what is being corrected in the one who is reproving him than in himself.

This chapter contains more particular instructions to the prophet. It begins with repeating his appointment to his office, Eze 3:1-3. Ezekiel is then informed that his commission is, at this time, to the house of Israel exclusively, Eze 3:4-6; that his countrymen would pay little regard to him, Eze 3:7; that he must persevere in his duty notwithstanding such great discouragement; and he is endued with extraordinary courage and intrepidity to enable him fearlessly to declare to a disobedient and gainsaying people the whole counsel of God, Eze 3:8-11. The prophet is afterwards carried by the spirit that animated the cherubim and wheels, and by which he received the gift of prophecy, to a colony of his brethren in the neighborhood, where he remained seven days overwhelmed with astonishment, Eze 3:12-15. He is then warned of the awful importance of being faithful in his office, Eze 3:16-21; commanded to go forth into the plain that he may have a visible manifestation of the Divine Presence, Eze 3:22; and is again favored with a vision of that most magnificent set of symbols described in the first chapter, by which the glorious majesty of the God of Israel was in some measure represented, Eze 3:23. See also Isa 6:1-13; Dan 10:5-19; and Rev 1:10-16; Rev 4:1-11, for other manifestations of the Divine glory, in all of which some of the imagery is very similar. The prophet receives directions relative to his future conduct, Eze 3:24-27.

Thou shalt surely die - That is, If he turn not from his wickedness, and thou givest him not warning, as above, he shalt die in his iniquity, which he should not have committed; but his blood will I require at thy hand - I will visit thy soul for the loss of his. O how awful is this! Hear it, ye priests, ye preachers, ye ministers of the Gospel; ye, especially, who have entered into the ministry for a living, ye who gather a congregation to yourselves that ye may feed upon their fat, and clothe yourselves with their wool; in whose parishes and in whose congregations souls are dying unconverted from day to day, who have never been solemnly warned by you, and to whom you have never shown the way of salvation, probably because ye know nothing of it yourselves! O what a perdition awaits you! To have the blood of every soul that has died in your parishes or in your congregations unconverted laid at your door! To suffer a common damnation for every soul that perishes through your neglect! How many loads of endless wo must such have to bear! Ye take your tithes, your stipends, or your rents, to the last grain, and the last penny; while the souls over whom you made yourselves watchmen have perished, and are perishing, through your neglect. O worthless and hapless men! better for you had ye never been born! Vain is your boast of apostolical authority, while ye do not the work of apostles! Vain your boast of orthodoxy, while ye neither show nor know the way of salvation! Vain your pretensions to a Divine call, when ye do not the work of evangelists! The state of the most wretched of the human race is enviable to that of such ministers, pastors, teachers, and preachers. But let not this discourage the faithful minister who teaches every man, and warns every man, in all wisdom, that he may present every man perfect to Christ Jesus. If after such teaching and warning they will sin on, and die in their sins, their blood will be upon themselves; but thou, O man of God, hast delivered thine own soul.

EZEKIEL EATS THE ROLL. IS COMMISSIONED TO GO TO THEM OF THE CAPTIVITY AND GOES TO TEL-ABIB BY THE CHEBAR: AGAIN BEHOLDS THE SHEKINAH GLORY: IS TOLD TO RETIRE TO HIS HOUSE, AND ONLY SPEAK WHEN GOD OPENS HIS MOUTH. (Eze. 3:1-27) eat . . . and . . . speak--God's messenger must first inwardly appropriate God's truth himself, before he "speaks" it to others (see on Eze 2:8). Symbolic actions were, when possible and proper, performed outwardly; otherwise, internally and in spiritual vision, the action so narrated making the naked statement more intuitive and impressive by presenting the subject in a concentrated, embodied form.

warning . . . speakest to warn--The repetition implies that it is not enough to warn once in passing, but that the warning is to be inculcated continually (Ti2 4:2, "in season, out of season"; Act 20:31, "night and day with tears"). save--Eze 2:5 had seemingly taken away all hope of salvation; but the reference there was to the mass of the people whose case was hopeless; a few individuals, however, were reclaimable. die in . . . iniquity-- (Joh 8:21, Joh 8:24). Men are not to flatter themselves that their ignorance, owing to the negligence of their teachers, will save them (Rom 2:12, "As many as have sinned without law, shall also perish without law").