I. THE OCCASION OF THESE TREMBLING FOREBODINGS. It was the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the land of Israel who were about to suffer. And their sufferings were the just reward of their unfaithfulness and rebelliousness. Threats and warnings had not been spared. The prophet at least believed that these threats were not empty and vain, that the day was approaching when they should be fulfilled. The siege of the rebellious city was at hand. II. THE SYMPATHETIC CHARACTER OF THESE TREMBLING FOREBODINGS. lake a true minister of God, Ezekiel thought and felt less for himself than for his people. He had personally no special reason for alarm. So far as his own safety was concerned, there was no reason why he should cherish anticipations of evil. But in his own mind he identified himself with Jerusalem, with Israel. He could not separate and isolate himself from those to whom he was bound by ties of kindred and of common indebtedness to the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. If his people suffered, he would suffer with them. Even if they showed a sinful indifference to their state and prospects, he would cherish a just sensitiveness. If disaster were approaching, he would not be content to secure his own safety and to regard their fate with heartless unconcern. III. THE INTENTION OF THESE TREMBLING FOREBODINGS. Ezekiel was no mere prophet of evil. He did not conceive himself to have accomplished his mission in predicting the coming evil, and then abandoning the people to the consequences of their sin. He warned them in the hope that they would profit by his warning, turn from their evil ways, and seek that national disaster might be averted, or, at all events, in the hope that individuals might repent and flee from the wrath to come. His mission was one of benevolence. IV. THE JUSTIFICATION FOR THESE TREMBLING FOREBODINGS. The siege which Ezekiel foretold came to pass; the people, in the famine which ensued, ate their bread with carefulness, and drank their water with astonishment; the cities were laid waste, and the land became a desolation. All the predictions of the Lord's prophet were verified. The false security of the people was proved to be false and baseless; their hope of immunity from judgment was frustrated. The righteous judgment of God was vindicated, and that in a most awful manner. V. THE ULTIMATE ISSUE OF THESE TREMBLING FOREBODINGS. The fear of the prophet, the calamity and terror which overtook the people, had a moral, a religious end, which in large measure was secured. The authority of the God of Israel was asserted. The vanity of rebellion against him was demonstrate. The attention of all concerned was directed to the principles of true religion as the foundation alike of national and of individual well being. "Ye shall know that I am the Lord." - T.
Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see and see not. Homilist. Eyes and ears are for many reasons the most important and valuable organs of the human body, the chief "gates" — to use the language of Bunyan — to the famous town of Mansoul. The one brings us into contact with form, the other with sound; the one has relation to space, the other to time. No part in the human frame is so wonderful in their execution as these. "The eye," says one, "by its admirable combination of coats and humours and lenses, produces on the retina, or expansion of nerve at the back of the socket or bony cavity, in which it is so securely lodged, a distinct picture of the minutest or largest object; so that, on a space that is less than an inch in diameter, a landscape of miles in extent, with all its variety of scenery, is depicted with perfect exactness of relative proportion in all its parts." Nor is the ear less wonderful. "It is a complicated mechanism lying wholly within the body, showing only the wide outer porch through which the sound enters. It conveys the sound through various chambers to the inmost extremities of those nerves which bear the messages to the brain. So delicate is this organ, that it catches the softest whispers, and conveys them to the soul, and so strong that it hears the roll of the loudest thunder in the chamber of its mistress." Now, the text — as well as other parts of Scripture — teaches that man's spiritual nature has organs answering to those organs of the body. The text calls us to notice the spiritual disuse of these faculties.I. It involves the greatest DEPRIVATION. 1. The disuse shuts out the grandest realities of existence. What are the immutable principles of rectitude, what is the great spiritual universe, what is God Himself, to the man who is morally blind and deaf? 2. The disuse shuts out the sublimest joys of existence. What are the charms of physical to moral beauty, the beauty of holiness and God? What are the charms of physical harmony to those of that great moral anthem that fills the spiritual universe with rapture and delights the ear of God Himself? How great then the deprivation of the spiritually blind and deaf! God is with them, His pure, happy heavens lie about them, and they know it not. 3. The disuse deteriorates the faculties themselves. Unused organs often die out. II. It involves the greatest WICKEDNESS. 1. It is an abuse of talent. All the powers we possess, we possess as trustees, not as proprietors; they are entrusted to us for a specific purpose. 2. It is an abuse of the greatest talents. These spiritual faculties are the highest we have — higher than bodily power, higher than intellectual ability, higher than natural genius.Conclusion — 1. The sad condition of the unregenerate world. 2. The deeply needed mission of Christ. (Homilist.) (J. Parker, D. D.) People EzekielPlaces Babylon, Chaldea, JerusalemTopics Cities, Desolate, Desolation, Inhabited, Laid, Peopled, Towns, Waste, WonderOutline 1. Under the type of Ezekiel's removing8. is shown the captivity of Zedekiah 17. Ezekiel's trembling shows the Jews' desolation 21. The Jews' presumptuous proverb is reproved 26. The speediness of the vision Dictionary of Bible Themes Ezekiel 12:19Library A Common Mistake and Lame Excuse'... He prophesieth of the times that are far off.'--EZEKIEL xii. 27. Human nature was very much the same in the exiles that listened to Ezekiel on the banks of the Chebar and in Manchester to-day. The same neglect of God's message was grounded then on the same misapprehension of its bearings which profoundly operates in the case of many people now. Ezekiel had been proclaiming the fall of Jerusalem to the exiles whose captivity preceded it by a few years; and he was confronted by the incredulity … Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture The End The Last Agony The Purpose in the Coming of Jesus. 'As Sodom' A Believer's Privilege at Death Ezekiel Links Ezekiel 12:20 NIVEzekiel 12:20 NLT Ezekiel 12:20 ESV Ezekiel 12:20 NASB Ezekiel 12:20 KJV Ezekiel 12:20 Bible Apps Ezekiel 12:20 Parallel Ezekiel 12:20 Biblia Paralela Ezekiel 12:20 Chinese Bible Ezekiel 12:20 French Bible Ezekiel 12:20 German Bible Ezekiel 12:20 Commentaries Bible Hub |