Ezekiel 11:11
The city will not be a pot for you, nor will you be the meat within it. I will judge you even to the borders of Israel.
Sermons
A Vision of PriesthoodsUrijah R. Thomas.Ezekiel 11:1-12
Evil in High PlacesJ. Parker, D. D.Ezekiel 11:1-12
The Presumptuous Security of Sinners Exhibited and CondemnedW. Jones Ezekiel 11:1-13
The Summary Punishment of Official GuiltJ.D. Davies Ezekiel 11:1-13














Among the many elements of that superiority which is distinctive of monotheism over polytheism must be noted the perfect knowledge which the one God possesses of all the creatures whom he has made. Men who believe in the "gods many" of the heathen have not, and cannot have, that constant sense of the Divine omniscience which must exercise so signal an influence for good over the worshipper of the Supreme.

I. THE REASONABLENESS OF THIS DOCTRINE. We attribute to the Deity infinite perfection; and this is not consistent with the limitation of his knowledge. It is absurd to suppose that he who has made the mind of man has lost the power of recognizing the thoughts and intents of the heart which he fashioned by his power and wisdom. There is no part of his universe in which God is not present. Much more evidence is it that the Father of the spirits of all flesh is in possession of every secret of the intellectual and spiritual nature of man.

II. THE FORGETFULNESS OF THIS DOCTRINE. It is evident that the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and especially the false teachers and evil counsellors in the city, lost sight of this great truth. God was not in all their thoughts. It may net have occurred to them, as they pursued their selfish plans and lived their irreligious life, that every purpose and hope was known to the Divine Lord and Judge. "All things are naked and opened to the eyes of him with whom we haw to do."

III. THE TERROR WHICH THIS DOCTRINE SHOULD HAVE FOR EVIL DOERS WHO ARE REMINDED OF IT. God knows the wicked things that come into men's minds and are encouraged to abide there - the injustice, the covetousness, the falsehood, the impurity, the cruelty, the hatred, the malevolence, which are distinctive of those who depart from God. Such qualities, even before they find expression in word and act, are repugnant to the nature of the just and holy God. And he is not simply an observer; he is a Judge. He disapproves and condemns thoughts, sentiments, and purposes which are in opposition to his own laws, to his own character. He has revealed his intention to bring men into judgment for all their conduct, and forevery secret thing, good or bad. From this reckoning with the Judge of all there is no escape. The prospect may well strike the impenitent sinner with dismay.

IV. THE DISSUASIVE POWER WHICH THIS DOCTRINE SHOULD EXERCISE OVER THOSE WHO ARE HESITATING WHETHER OR NOT TO YIELD TO TEMPTATION. In order to resist temptation to sin, it is not enough to guard our actions, to order aright our circumstances and associations. It is in the mind that the real battle must be fought. And upon this battlefield, what auxiliary is so potent and effectual as the remembrance of the Lord's omniscience? He is with us to assist us in the regulation of our thoughts and desires; for he knows alike the force of temptation, and the sincerity of our endeavour to check and to overcome it.

V. THE WELCOME GIVEN BY GOD'S PEOPLE TO THIS DOCTRINE. The same truth is a joy and consolation to the Christian, which the ungodly man finds an occasion of distress and dread. Why is this? It is because God has in Christ made himself known to his heart as his Friend and Father. Thus openness and confidence and holy intimacy prevail between the Christian and his God. The faithful servant of God knows his infirmities and his faults, and he is grateful to be assured that those are known to his Father in heaven, who will deal leniently and compassionately with them, and will assist him in overcoming them. God knows the aspirations and endeavours of his own children, is interested in every effort to attain to a fuller knowledge of himself, and a more constant and practical subjection to his will. In Psalm 139, the feelings of the good man, conscious of the Divine omniscience, find a full and most poetical and fervent expression, There is nothing which such a man would wish to hide from such a Friend. - T.

Prophesy against them.
The spirit told Ezekiel that the princes were the men that devised mischief and gave wicked counsels to the city. How often have we seen this prostitution of great mental power and great official authority through the service of evil! Imagine the picture of five-and-twenty men, the princes of Israel, all given over to the conception of evil policies and the execution of selfish designs! We shall miss the whole purpose of Divine revelation if we suppose that evil is local, or that it is confined to the ignorant and the poor. Evil is universal: it is in the thrones of the nations, as well as in the hovels and huts of poverty; the king has wandered as far from the standard of righteousness as has the meanest subject of his crown. Education when not sanctified is simply an instrument of evil. Great social station, when it is divorced from the action of a healthy conscience, only gives a man leverage, by the working of which he can do infinite social mischief. Moral security, therefore, is not in circumstances, but in character. When princes are right and just, wise and patriotic, it does not follow that the people will follow their example, or reproduce their excellences; but when the princes are of a contrary mind it is easy to imagine how their great influence may contribute vastly to the spread of wrong thinking and mischievous action. Religious apostasy means social anarchy. When the princes ceased to pray they ceased to regard human nature as of any value: slaughter became a pastime; heaps of slain men were passed by as mere commonplaces, and the whole city became as but a cauldron in which the flesh of men might be boiled. But God Himself says He will make this use of the city; He will make it a cauldron, and they who supposed it was a place of security shall find what uses providence can make of human arrangements. The Lord says that He is proceeding on account of the sins of the people, saying, "I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them." The empire of the mind is supposed to be the exclusive property of the individual: what brother can take out of his brother's heart all the thoughts that live there? What man can read the mind of his dearest friend, and be as familiar with that friend's motives as he is with that friend's conduct? The mind can shut out the closest observer, yet the one observer that it cannot exclude is the living God. The things that come into the mind determine the real character of the mind of man, Conduct is but a short measure by which to estimate a man's character.

(J. Parker, D. D.)

I. THE DESTRUCTION OF A CORRUPT PRIESTHOOD. The evil of the priesthood of that city and day is seen in this vision to consist in —

1. Their unhallowed designs and influence. The inventions of the genius of evil are, as they were then, often manifold and deep.

2. Their contempt of sacred things. They actually play about "the cauldron" that Jeremiah had seen in a vision of retribution. Familiarity with sacred things is perilous to men who lose true sacredness of living, for they are tempted to use their wit to cover their shallowness, with regard to themes wherein they should "stand in awe and sin not."

3. Their false security. Their assertion about the Chaldean invasion, "It is not near," illustrates the presumptuousness that ever marks mere professors of piety.

4. Their conformity to evil associations. Whereas the one consecrating cry of all true priesthoods is, "Be ye separate," the histories of all corrupt priesthoods reveal a conformity to the world with which they have to do, that may well be charged against them in the words heard in the vision, "Ye have done after the manner of the heathen."

5. Their liability to terrible retribution. The death of Pelatiah, at the very time when Ezekiel was pronouncing the doom of this priesthood, is an emblem of retribution history records, and prophecy predicts on all the false.

II. THE INDICATIONS OF A MAN BELONGING TO THE TRUE PRIESTHOOD.

1. Open to Divine illumination. As Ezekiel was "lifted up" by the Spirit, and afterwards had that Spirit "fall upon him" — indicating, surely, special contact with the Divine; so there is the promise to every regenerate man "that he shall see heavens opened."

2. Sensitive to impressions from human life. To be Divinely enlightened does not indicate that there will be any functionalism, any stoicism in the man.

3. A wide conscious brotherliness. The cry to the exile, "thy brethren, thy brethren," indicated that not alone in the twenty-five who had fallen, but in the scattered throngs that would be gathered again, he recognised a brotherhood. So our Master has taught us, "all ye are brethren."

4. Commissioned to proclaim inspiring promises. The priestly prophet was to utter as surely as was Isaiah, and every God-sent messenger, a "comfort ye."

III. THE FORMATION OF A TRUE PRIESTHOOD.

I. Divinely collected. God knew where the scattered were, and would gather them again. The eye of God resting alike on all classes and castes, churches and countries, discovers the genuine men. He has been a "sanctuary for a little time" to them in the midst of uncongenial pursuits, hostile circumstances, adverse experiences; but from every such Babylon of evil He will gather them for His sacred work.

2. Divinely regenerated. No words could more forcibly express a complete moral and spiritual reformation than "the words in which the eternal Spirit of Goodness declares, "I will put a new spirit within you, and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh."

3. Divinely adopted. "They shall be My people," etc.

(Urijah R. Thomas.)

People
Azur, Azzur, Benaiah, Ezekiel, Jaazaniah, Pelatiah
Places
Chaldea, Chebar, Jerusalem
Topics
Border, Borders, Caldron, Cauldron, Cooking-pot, Execute, Flesh, Inside, Judge, Judgment, Limit, Meat, Midst, Pot, Thereof, Though, Town
Outline
1. The presumption of the princes
4. Their sin and judgment
13. Ezekiel complaining, God shows him his purpose in saving a remnant
22. The glory of God leaves the city
24. Ezekiel is returned to the captivity

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Ezekiel 11:1-12

     4478   meat

Ezekiel 11:10-12

     5029   knowledge, of God

Library
A Little Sanctuary
The Lord hears the unkind speeches of the prosperous when they speak bitterly of those who are plunged in adversity. Read the context--"Son of man, thy brethren, even thy brethren, the men of thy kindred, and all the house of Israel wholly, are they unto whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, Get you far from the Lord: unto us is this land given in possession." This unbrotherly language moved the Lord to send the prophet Ezekiel with good and profitable words to the children of the captivity.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 34: 1888

A Mystery! Saints Sorrowing and Jesus Glad!
Jesus is talking of the death of His friend, let us listen to His words; perhaps we may find the key to His actions in the words of His lips. How surprising! He does not say, "I regret that I have tarried so long." He does not say, "I ought to have hastened, but even now it is not too late." Hear, and marvel! Wonder of wonders, He says, "I am glad that I was not there." Glad! the word is out of place? Lazarus, by this time, stinketh in his tomb,and here is the Saviour glad! Martha and Mary are weeping
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 10: 1864

The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
"The Holy Spirit was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified."--John vii. 39. We have come to the most difficult part in the discussion of the work of the Holy Spirit, viz., the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the tenth day after the ascension. In the treatment of this subject it is not our aim to create a new interest in the celebration of Pentecost. We consider this almost impossible. Man's nature is too unspiritual for this. But we shall reverently endeavor to give a clearer insight
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

Covenanting Enforced by the Grant of Covenant Signs and Seals.
To declare emphatically that the people of God are a covenant people, various signs were in sovereignty vouchsafed. The lights in the firmament of heaven were appointed to be for signs, affording direction to the mariner, the husbandman, and others. Miracles wrought on memorable occasions, were constituted signs or tokens of God's universal government. The gracious grant of covenant signs was made in order to proclaim the truth of the existence of God's covenant with his people, to urge the performance
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

An Appendix to the Beatitudes
His commandments are not grievous 1 John 5:3 You have seen what Christ calls for poverty of spirit, pureness of heart, meekness, mercifulness, cheerfulness in suffering persecution, etc. Now that none may hesitate or be troubled at these commands of Christ, I thought good (as a closure to the former discourse) to take off the surmises and prejudices in men's spirits by this sweet, mollifying Scripture, His commandments are not grievous.' The censuring world objects against religion that it is difficult
Thomas Watson—The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12

Blasphemous Accusations of the Jews.
(Galilee.) ^A Matt. XII. 22-37; ^B Mark III. 19-30; ^C Luke XI. 14-23. ^b 19 And he cometh into a house. [Whose house is not stated.] 20 And the multitude cometh together again [as on a previous occasion--Mark ii. 1], so that they could not so much as eat bread. [They could not sit down to a regular meal. A wonderful picture of the intense importunity of people and the corresponding eagerness of Jesus, who was as willing to do as they were to have done.] 21 And when his friends heard it, they went
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Ezekiel
To a modern taste, Ezekiel does not appeal anything like so powerfully as Isaiah or Jeremiah. He has neither the majesty of the one nor the tenderness and passion of the other. There is much in him that is fantastic, and much that is ritualistic. His imaginations border sometimes on the grotesque and sometimes on the mechanical. Yet he is a historical figure of the first importance; it was very largely from him that Judaism received the ecclesiastical impulse by which for centuries it was powerfully
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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