The prophet in every age has to be himself a sign. It is not so much what he says, not so much what he does, but what he is, that impresses others. In this enterprise character is everything. Ezekiel was a servant of God to the very core. He completely identified himself with the nation. Its misery became his misery. Thus he became a type and symbol of the Saviour; and, in his measure, suffered vicariously for the people.

I. THE SURRENDER OF PERSONAL BEAUTY A SIGN OF NATIONAL DEGRADATION. The hair and beard are man's natural adornments. To be shorn of these, in earlier times, was a signal mark of dishonour. No greater contempt could the King of Ammon have cast upon King David, than to despoil his ambassadors of their beards. But the ornaments of nature may well be sacrificed for moral advantages. It is an act of genuine wisdom to make the body servant to the soul. If bodily mortifications will deepen our sense of sin, sever the roots of pride and worldliness, or impress others with our zeal for righteousness, it is a wise expenditure. To save men from sin, it is worth while to sacrifice much that we hold dear.

II. THE SENSE OF GRIEF WAS DEEPENED BY THE DESTINATION OF HIS HAIR. Every hair had been the workmanship of God, and all the hairs of his head had been numbered by God. They were not lightly to be sacrificed. Every hair was to be a sermon. It declared that God was willing to sacrifice what was of lesser value, if thereby he could save what was incomparably more precious. The various destinations of the prophet's hair were pregnant with moral significance. We cannot too much admire the condescension of God in employing such simple methods for instructing and impressing men. If, to any modern readers, these methods should seem childish, we can only say that other methods would have missed the end. The methods by which God seeks to educate and bless men now may equally seem condescensions to other races of intelligent life. To fire, to the sword, to dispersion, was the bulk of the nation doomed!

III. THE ACCURATE ALLOTMENT OF RIGHTEOUS PENALTY WAS FORESHADOWED. Even amid the hurly-burly of war, there is no miscarriage of Divine justice. With an invisible shield, God covers, in the day of battle, those whom he designs to save. Those who are destined for the flame will not perish by the sword, and those who may escape from Nebuchadnezzar's hand do not escape from the hand of Almighty justice. The eye of man may not be keen enough to detect the exact admeasurements of God's penalties; this matters not. But a clearer eye might discern that there was an accurate weighing out of desert to unrighteousness. In the invisible hand of God there is a balance exquisitely true, absolutely exact; and the day will yet dawn when human intelligence having developed, and human conscience being quickened in its action, men will join in saying, "Just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints."

IV. PRESENT PROTECTION DOES NOT SECURE FINAL SAFETY. The prophet was enjoined to deal in a different manner with a few of these hairs. They were to be bound carefully in the skirt of his robe. This would be understood by all to imply that, in the midst of judgment, God would not forget mercy. A remnant should be spared. Yet this was only a temporary and an external privilege. So long as the hearts of the people remained rebellious and obdurate, deliverance was impossible. Prosperity cannot last that does not spring from the root of righteousness. To be spared in the day of general disaster, and then to be overtaken by a worse calamity, is tenfold more grievous. This is equivalent to being first lifted up and then thrown down. Yet the intention was to bless. God will not neglect any possibility of doing good to men. If there be on our part the least disposition to receive, there is on his part the readiest disposition to give. But take heed! To spare now does not secure, of necessity, final salvation! - D.

1. God goes on by degrees in His wrath against a people. He had in times past corrected them like a father, He would now execute them like a judge; the drops of His wrath had done no good, now they should have the full vials.

2. Wrath let out against a sinful people, ofttimes lies long upon them. "I will cause My fury to rest upon them." They were seventy years under God's displeasure in Babylon.

3. God takes pleasure in executing judgment, in accomplishing His wrath, and causing His fury to rest upon impenitent and incurable sinners, He will be comforted in it (Proverbs 1:26).

4. The Word of God may be preached among a people, and they, through ignorance and malice, not know it, nor entertain it.

5. Wicked men shall be convinced, and left without excuse. "They shall know that I the Lord have spoken"; they eyed men and not Me, they deemed it man's voice, not Heaven's; but they shall find that it was the voice of God amongst them.

6. God will justify His servants in their zealous labours for Him. "They shall know that I have spoken it in My zeal." It is God speaks in the prophets; it is His zeal they express. Let men be zealous against sin, the iniquities of the times, they are counted mad, fiery fellows, troublers of Israel, seditious, factious, etc.

7. The Lord is intense, and will not recall His indignation, when He deals with unfaithful, covenant-breaking persons. As in God's zeal there is intense love towards His Church (when God promises mercy to His people, it is sealed with this, "The zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do it," 2 Kings 19:31), so here is intense hatred, wrath against His enemies.

(W. Greenhill, M. A.).