Ezekiel 12:4
Bring out your baggage for exile by day, as they watch. Then in the evening, as they watch, go out like those who go into exile.
Sermons
It Parabolic Appeal to a Rebellious PeopleW. Jones Ezekiel 12:1-16
The Dramatic Form of ProphecyJ.D. Davies Ezekiel 12:1-16
A Drama of ExileUrijah R. Thomas.Ezekiel 12:3-7
The Divine ExpectationJ. C. Gray.Ezekiel 12:3-7














If we bear in mind that this language was employed by the Lord in directing Ezekiel how to deal with the house of Israel, we shall see what light it casts upon human liberty and responsibility. The prophet was to make use of certain symbolical means with the view of wakening his countrymen to a sense of their danger, and of inducing them to repent and to turn unto the Lord. Now, believing in the Divine omniscience and foreknowledge, we cannot but be assured that the Eternal foresaw what would be the result of the appeal which was to be made. Yet lie spoke to the prophet as if that result was uncertain. "It may be they will consider, though they be a rebellious house." Ezekiel did not and could not know what would be the issue of this ministry with which he was entrusted; and he was to do his work in a perfectly natural and human way, to act as believing in the liberty of those to whom he was sent, and as leaving the responsibility entirely with them. He experienced in his mind a conflict of emotions; hope was mingled with fear.

I. A NATURAL EXPECTATION FOUNDED UPON EXPERIENCE. Ezekiel knew that he was sent to "a rebellious house," to "a stiffnecked people;" he could not possibly be blind to the character and disposition of those whom he knew so well. Every herald and messenger of God is sometimes sent to the unbelieving, the hard-hearted, the apparently unimpressible. Such characters have often been brought into contact with the Divine Word, and have as often spurned it. Judging by experience only, how can any servant of God go to such, taking with him a new message, or the old message with new arguments and persuasions to enforce it, without something of discouragement, something of foreboding? It is not possible. Habits are confirmed as days and years pass on; the hard heart is likely to grow harder instead of softer. Only the hammer can break, only the fire can melt it.

II. A CONTRARY HOPE SPRINGING FROM BENEVOLENCE. Divine kindness addresses the rebellious and impenitent yet once again. "It may he they will consider." If this view is possible to God, surely it is possible to God's human messenger. He knows, perhaps, that his own ignorance has been instructed, his own obduracy has been melted; and he hopes that in this the experience of others may resemble his own. If men will but consider, consideration may lead to repentance. And why should they not consider? Is not the message from God a message that deserves serious and patient attention? The good will which the Lord's servant has towards his fellow men forbids him to despair of their salvation, to abandon labour on their behalf.

III. THE APPOINTED MEANS HAVING BEEN USED BY GOD'S MESSENGER, THE RESPONSIBILITY MUST BE LEFT WITH THOSE ADDRESSED IN GOD'S NAME. The herald of God delivers his message, presents the offers and the requirements of Divine authority; he does this with mingled fear and hope; and he can do no more. The record has always been a record resembling that of Paul's ministry at Rome: "Some believed, and some believed not." The minister of Christ preaches the gospel, whether men will hear or forbear. He delivers his soul. He cannot command results. He can simply repeat the admonition of his Master, "Take heed how ye hear!" And it is well that he should not discharge his ministry in a spirit of dejection and despondency. He must indeed face the possibility that those whose welfare he seeks may refuse to consider; they are free agents, and the competing voices of the world are powerful, attractive. Yet he should not forget that they may consider; and if they will only yield so far, he may reasonably hope that consideration may lead to repentance and to life eternal. - T.

Prepare thee stuff for removing.
I. THE VISION IN ITS HISTORICAL FULFILMENT.

II. THE VISION IN ITS PRACTICAL LESSONS FOR THE PRESENT.

1. The consequence of sin is moral exile. All evil, not only in act, but in thought and in wish, involves in greater or less degree a going away from the holy — is a self-exileship, not perhaps, as in the vision, from a holy place, but from the holy God.

2. This moral exile is awfully sad.(1) This exile is burdensome. The man goes with the baggage of an emigrant. He carries as much as he can. And he who goes away from God into any sin goes burdened. Responsibility, an accusing conscience, a growing fear; these, as with Cain, load guilty souls.(2) The exile was severed from social ties. With what solitariness of soul, as though he were utterly alone and in the dark, does each man have to say, "I have sinned"!(3) The exile went out into wild uncertainties. Whither he should hurry when once beyond the city walls he could not tell. And into what unexplored regions of wrong-doing, or what abysses of consequent remorse a sinner may wander, who can tell?

3. This moral exile is stealthy. Not through a gate, but by a hole dug through the wall; not at noon, but at night, the exile gets away from the holy city. So with the beginnings of all sin. The excuses, the concealments, the artifices of the selfish, the impure, the mean, breathe the stealthy spirit of the father of lies. Evil chooses the dark first, and then gets blinded.

4. This moral exile is shameful. The exile, ashamed to look on the ground, is a true type of those who, first with blush of shame, and whitened lip, and trembling voice or hand, do wrong; and who at last "will wake to shame and everlasting contempt."

(Urijah R. Thomas.)

It may be they will consider.
I. THE SUBJECT TO WHICH THIS EXPECTATION REFERS.

1. Men do not consider that they are sinful creatures.

2. Nor that they are dying creatures.

3. Nor that they are immortal creatures.

II. THE MEANS EMPLOYED FOR BRINGING ABOUT THE EXPECTATION WHICH IS HERE EXPRESSED.

1. The Divine forbearance.

2. The afflictive dispensations of Divine Providence.

3. The ministry of the Gospel.

(J. C. Gray.)

People
Ezekiel
Places
Babylon, Chaldea, Jerusalem
Topics
Baggage, Belongings, Bring, Captive's, Captivity, Daytime, Evening, Exile, Forth, Goings, Hast, Moving, Packed, Prisoners, Removal, Removing, Sight, Stuff, Thyself, Vessels, Watch, Watching
Outline
1. Under the type of Ezekiel's removing
8. 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 12:3-4

     4921   day

Ezekiel 12:3-6

     1449   signs, purposes

Ezekiel 12:3-11

     1431   prophecy, OT methods

Library
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
'1. And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he, and all his host, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it; and they built forts against it round about. 2. And the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. 3. And on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land. 4. And the city was broken up, and all the
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Last Agony
'In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army against Jerusalem, and they besieged it. 2. And in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, the city was broken up. 3. And all the princes of the king of Babylon came in, and sat in the middle gate, even Nergal-sharezer, Samgar-nebo, Sarse-chim, Rab-saris, Nergal-sharezer, Rab-mag, with all the residue of the princes of the king of Babylon.
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Purpose in the Coming of Jesus.
God Spelling Himself out in Jesus: change in the original language--bother in spelling Jesus out--sticklers for the old forms--Jesus' new spelling of old words. Jesus is God following us up: God heart-broken--man's native air--bad choice affected man's will--the wrong lane--God following us up. The Early Eden Picture, Genesis 1:26-31. 2:7-25: unfallen man--like God--the breath of God in man--a spirit, infinite, eternal--love--holy--wise--sovereign over creation, Psalm 8:5-8--in his own will--summary--God's
S. D. Gordon—Quiet Talks about Jesus

'As Sodom'
'Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 2. And he did that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. 3. For through the anger of the Lord it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah, till he had cast them out from his presence, that Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. 4. And it came to pass, in the ninth year of his reign,
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

A Believer's Privilege at Death
'For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.' Phil 1:1I. Hope is a Christian's anchor, which he casts within the veil. Rejoicing in hope.' Rom 12:12. A Christian's hope is not in this life, but he hash hope in his death.' Prov 14:42. The best of a saint's comfort begins when his life ends; but the wicked have all their heaven here. Woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation.' Luke 6:64. You may make your acquittance, and write Received in full payment.' Son, remember that
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

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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