Ezekiel heard the holy spirit speak

EZEKIEL HEARD THE HOLY SPIRIT SPEAK
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Ezekiel 2:2 2 As he spoke, the Spirit came into me and
raisedme to my feet, and I heard him speaking to me.
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
An Arduous Embassage
Ezekiel2:2-5
J.D. Davies
Every prophet is a missionary; every true missionaryis a prophet. In an
inferior sense ofthe word, he is a mediator - a mediator betweenGod and
man.
I. THE MISSIONARYCHARACTER OF THE PROPHET.He is one "sent."
He goes not to this difficult and responsible work by the impulse of his own
reasonor will. He is in the employ and under the direction of another - of One
whom he cannotdisregard. He cannot go or stay, as he pleases, he is a servant.
The Son of God himself has undertaken similar work. He was "sent" into our
world on an errand of kindness. "As thou hast sentme, so have I sent them."
II. THE MISSIONARY'S UNPROMISING FIELD OF ACTION. "I send thee
to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation." The possessionofoutward
advantages, orof specialDivine favours, does not ensure gratitude or

obedience on the part of men. In Eden, man transgressed. In Canaan, the
glory of all lands, the Hebrews rebelled. Righteousnessis not conveyedby
blood relationship. The piety of Abraham did not descendin the line of
natural posterity. But rebellion is a weedthat grows freelyin the degenerate
soil of the human heart. The people of Israel, in Ezekiel's time, were hardened
in sin. The evil had become inveterate by long centuries of vicious habit, sad
all the alternate measures of kindness and severity which God had employed
had failed to reduce the people to submission. Though now in exile and
disgrace, yet"to that very day" the rebellious spirit continued. Nor were they
even ashamedof the past. No blush tinged their cheeks.All right feeling
seemedpetrified within!
III. THE MISSIONARY'S INSTRUMENT.He is armed simply with the
authoritative Word of God. What he hears from God, that, and that alone,
may he speak!He is not allowedto elaborate, from his own judgment,
conditions of reconciliation. He is not to rely for successonthe inventiveness
of reason, nor on beguiling acts of sophistry, nor on the persuasivenessof
subtle rhetoric. He is to proclaim everywhere, "Thus saith the Lord!"
Authority is the weaponon which he is to rely - not human authority, but
Divine. He is to be simply the mouthpiece of Deity. But, being this, he will
become the power of God and the wisdom of God. His business is to speak
Divine truth with all the pathos of Divine love.
IV. THE MISSIONARY'S ENCOURAGEMENT. Whetherthe people would
hear, or whether they would forbear, was still an unsolved problem so far as
the prophet was concerned. Godhad not given to him the promise of visible
and direct success. Butwhether they acceptedor rejectedthe Divine
overtures, the end which God anticipated would be realized. The people
should have this conviction inwrought in their minds, viz. that a messenger
from God had been among them. This was all that Ezekielmight confidently
expect. This was the goalat which he was to aim, viz. to convince them that he
was God's prophet - to commend his mission to the consciencesofthe people.
Hence, if no other end was gained, he was not to feel depressionof soul.
Whether the people relented or further rebelled, he was to continue his simple
work;and rest assuredthat God would defend his own cause, and bring final
goodout of present evil. - D.

And the Spirit entered into me.
Ezekiel2:2
God helping His ministers
Mark the course of a river like the Thames;how it winds and twists according
to its ownsweetwill. Yet there is a reasonfor every bend and curve; the
geologist, studying the soiland marking the conformationof the rock, sees a
reasonwhy the river's bed diverges to the right or to the left; and so, though
the Spirit of God blesses one preachermore than another, and the reason
cannot be such that any man could congratulate himself upon his own
goodness,yetthere are certain things about Christian ministers which God
blesses, andcertain other things which hinder success.
( C. H. Spurgeon.)
The powerbehind the preacher
The Rev. F.B. Meyer has a firewoodfactory in connectionwith his church,
where employment is provided for men and boys. A circular saw is used for
cutting through beams of solid timber. Until recently, this saw was workedby
a crank, turned by twelve or fifteen men. But it was slow, hard, and expensive
work. At last, says Mr. Meyer, we were driven to something more expeditious,
and bought a gas engine. And now, the saw, driven by this engine, does in two
or three hours as much work as it did formerly in a day, and at less than a
tenth of the cost. It is the same saw;but the difference lies in the powerthat
drives it. It used to be driven by hand power, now it is driven by an equivalent
for steam, and the only thing we need to do is to keepthe connecting band
tight. "It is not a question," continues Mr. Meyer, "as to our abilities or
qualifications, but of the powerbehind us. If that is nothing more than
human, it is not surprising that the results are miserably poor. But if we link

ourselves to the eternal powerof God, nothing will be impossible to us. 'All
things are possible to him that believeth.'"
Human Progressa Preparationfor the Fuller Knowledge of God
J. S. Lidgett, M. A.
Ezekiel2:1-2
And he said to me, Sonof man, stand on your feet, and I will speak to you.…
I. THE WILL OF GOD IS THE UPLIFTING OF MAN. Ezekielthought that
he honoured God by falling prostrate on the ground. Be learnt that God was
rather honoured by his standing on his feet. Salvation is the uplifting of man.
It must be so because Godis love. His aim is to lift the objects of His love into
free fellowshipwith Himself. His glory and their exaltationare one. And the
liker to Himself they are, the greaterHis joy. And this is true with reference to
all man's powers. To stand upright is the outward signof self-possessionand
of power in full development and exercise — first of all, the highestpowers of
faith and aspirationand conscience, but then all the powers which go together
to make the man. Every human faculty has its place in the kingdom of God,
and is sought out by the redemption of Christ Jesus.
II. THE TEXT MAKES THIS UPLIFTING NOT ONLY COMPATIBLE
WITH, BUT NECESSARYTO, THE RECEPTION OF DIVINE TRUTH.
"Stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee." Charactercanonly be
understood by corresponding character. If the lesseris to have fellowshipwith
the greater, it must always be because the lessergrows until an answering
faculty apprehends the greater. Take awaythe faculty in the receiver, and you
destroy the power of the revealerto revealhimself. If the musician is to utter

his soul, his instrument must sufficiently combine melodiousness, harmony,
and delicacyto express his conceptionand to call forth all his skill. Had
Mendelssohnknownonly the tom-tom of an African savage, we couldnever
have had the Elijah and the Songs without Words. So we could never have
had the dialogues of Plato had the philosopher had in view no audience more
intellectual than a Sunday schoolclass.And this is no mere human limitation.
God can only revealHimself to man and in man as human nature becomes
lofty and deep and broad enough to apprehend and to express His mind.
Further, eachnew power developedin man is a new point of contactwith
God. The world is so full of God that it is impossible to establishany new
connectionwith it without its becoming a way of approachto some part of the
mind of God, which is waiting to be revealed, when the means of receiving it
are found.
III. WE HAVE IN THE TEXT A SPECIALMESSAGE FROM GOD TO
THE MEN OF OUR TIMES. From every side the call is being heard —
"Stand upon thy feet." Orders have been calledto political and economical
influence, which never exertedit before. Men are pressing forward to claim
their share in the higher life of science, literature, and art, who but a
generationago were not sufficiently awakenedevenmournfully to say, "Such
joys are not for us." What is the true prophet to say to this many-sided
movement? Is he to ban it as secularand worldly? Nay, rather, he must
proclaim that so long as moral earnestnessis behind it, it is the inspiration of
God bidding men stand upon their feet, that He may speak to them.
(J. S. Lidgett, M. A.)
Optimism and Pessimism;Or, the True Dignity of Man
S. Macnaughton, M. A.

Ezekiel2:1-2
(with Psalm 8:4, 5): — It is most important that man should recognise his high
origin, the nobility of his powers, and the glorious destiny that is possible to
him, and that invites his noblest efforts and ambition. The first attitude of the
soul toward Godmust always be that of profound reverence and deep
humility. Still God will not allow His chosenones to crouchat His feet. First,
the lowly penitent pleading for mercy; after that, the servant, obeying the
commandments of God because he must obey or lose his place; but then, the
son and friend, standing up beside his God, listening with rapturous delight to
the voice of the loving Father. God is ever ready to draw near to those who
love Him, and to speak with them as friend speakethwith friend. "Sonof
man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak to thee." I think we may learn from
these words that it is possible for us to miss the voice of God, and to lose much
of the comfort of His presence, by failing to claim the privilege of coming to
God at all times, in the fullest confidence of love and friendship. Man must
recognise his true dignity, and maintain his self-respect, before he can receive
the highestrevelation of God. It is worthy of note that God put dignity and
honour upon man by creating him in His own image. He also showedHis
greatregard for man by giving His Sonto redeemhim, and lift him up from
the low condition into which he had been brought by sin and transgression.
And especiallydoes He assertthe dignity and worth of man, regeneratedand
purified, by making his body the temple of His Holy Spirit, and by providing
for him a glorious, happy home, where no sin, nor sorrow, nor suffering can
ever enter. There are pessimists in our day who boldly proclaim that human
life is a failure — that the world is going from bad to Worse — that there is
nothing in human life to be thankful for, but much to be deplored. The
explanation of pessimism is found in the fact that men are living Without God
and without hope in the world. There are, I think, three different views of
human life. First, the superficial view of life, indulged in by the young and

inexperienced. Life is not lookedat in all its soberreality. Its responsibilities
and trials are not duly weighed. The brightness on the surface is all that is
seen. This is the optimist view. Then comes the secondview of life, held,
perhaps, by disappointed, unsuccessfulmen. Life is a burden and a toil; and
yet the desire to live is strong in them; and they are puzzled and perplexed
beyond measure. This is the view of the pessimist. Then there is the third view
of life, deeper, truer, and more hopeful — bright with a more soberand
abiding light than that of the optimist — and happy with a calm confidence in
God, that cannot be shaken. This is the Christian view of life. The pessimist
and the optimist are both in error. The pessimistopens the windows of the
soul outward, and lets out upon the world the darkness of his own morbid.
melancholy, and darkens the brightness of the world with his own darkness.
That is bad — an evil that ought to be carefully avoided. The optimist opens
the windows of the soulinward, letting in the world's bright sunlight, so that
he sees only the brightness, and thinks nothing of the misery and
wretchedness thatare around; and hence he puts forth no effort to make the
world brighter and better. But the true Christian philosopher opens the
windows of the soul upward, and lets the light of heavenstream in. He sees
everything in the light of God's providence and God's purposes, and has his
mind enlightened by God's Spirit.
(S. Macnaughton, M. A.)
Self-Possession
T. G. Selby.
Ezekiel2:1-2

The man who is greatby gift, office, or opportunity, and at the same time of
unfeigned goodness, willshrink back from the idea of incapacitating by
oblique terrorism those who come within the field of his influence. He will
wish them to employ their powers for the common wealto the best possible
advantage, and will therefore seek to put them at their case, to encourage
them to intellectual self-command, to build them up and not to castthem
down. God's dealings with His servants of all ages correspondto our
conceptionof His gentle and gracious character. The vision of His presence
and poweris not meant to permanently depress, overawe, andincapacitate.
His glory is overwhelming, but it is not His will to annihilate reasonand all
that constitutes personalityby the manifestations of His majesty.
I. Self-possessionis necessaryfor the HIGHEST FORMS OF
INTERCOURSEWITHGOD. A man cannot be a recipient of the Divine
revelations till he has made some little progress in the art of collecting and
commanding his own faculties. Now and again Godmakes Himself known in
vivid and stupendous ways which smite mortals with fear and trembling. For
the time being, He strips them of their manliness. The characteristicattributes
of the human personalityare numbed, stifled, half-destroyed, and the man
who is the subjectof these manifestations might well think himself in the
throes of a process intended to dissolve the elements which make up the unity
of his being, and merge him irrecoverablyinto the terrible Infinite. Now this
paralysing sense ofthe supernatural, which appears to threaten the
obliteration of the individual, is only temporary. Goddoes not wish to
subtract anything from the personality, or to make us less than that which He
createdus to be. But, after all, the only thing God wants to drive out of the
personality is the taint of selfishness, affinity for wrong, softcomplaisance
towards transgression. Indeed, it is the sin latent in us which produces
collapse before His presence, and when that is gone serene self-possessionis
recovered. He does not wish to blight, or repress and destroy a single element
in the constituent sum of a man's identity.

1. This lack of quiet self-possessionis sometimes the reasonwhy stricken,
conquered, storm-tossedsouls cannotenter into the quiet of saving faith. A
temptation to keepback the obedient response to God's solicitationof human
confidence may come in two opposite ways. Many a man persuades himself
that his heart is not so profoundly stirred that he can exercise the faith that
will save him. The psychologicalatmosphere,he is tempted to think, is far too
normal and commonplace. And, on the other hand, those most profoundly
wrought upon by a sense oftheir guilt, and the vision of the Divine holiness,
exercisedto the point of distraction by some force which has seizedupon their
emotions, find it difficult to collecttheir minds into an intelligent and
purposeful actof faith. Their natures are almost stupefied by the mighty
supernatural arrest that has come to them. The power of thought and emotion
is for the moment frozen up or has almost passedaway. Theycannot collect
themselves for the transactionwhich is required at their hands. Saul, the
blinded persecutor, must have been in some such condition, as he lay prone at
the gate of Damascus,forhe could not there and then put forth the faith by
which he was healed, built up, sanctified. The nature prostrate and helpless
through a cataclysmof overwhelming conviction must be brought out of its
paralysing amazement. Faith is an act which demands collectednessofmind, a
rational and reflective attitude, modestself-possession. True it is that faith is
God's gift, but the hand that receives is not the hand clutched with terror or
folded in sleep, but the hand which is heedfully and unfalteringly held out.
2. Whilst reverence in God's presence is a duty from which there can be no
release, thatsacredemotion of the soul is not meant to dumfound and transfix
us, howevermighty the revelations to which it is a tribute. Indeed, the
reverence that is allied to helplessnessand maimed perceptionis manifestly a
sentiment of inferior quality. The man who wishes to dazzle the supporters he
is rallying to his side brings some kind of reproach upon himself. He who
seeks to lull his admirers into dreaminess or to fascinate them into stupor, and
so disarm their judgments, confessesthereby the meagrenessofhis own power
to captivate by reasonand by love. If, as God comes forth to conquer us, His

revelations put the larger part of our mental life to sleepor obscure a single
faculty or perception, that would be practically a confessionof weaknesson
His part. It would imply He had not adequate moral and spiritual reserve
forces wherewithto subdue our souls into adorationof His attributes and
homage to His greatbehests. When God sees fit to disclose His majestyand
abase our pride, He does not intend to permanently weaken, discourage,
paralyse. That would be to surround Himself with worshippers of meaner
capacityand servants of inferior fitness for His tasks. He desires to call forth,
train, and perfectthe undivided powers of those whom He seals and sends.
3. The largestand the loftiest service of God is that which is rational in the
best sense ofthe word. Those disclosuresofHis being, character, and
operationwhich God will make both in this life and in that which is to come,
are intended to stimulate and not to depress that group of faculties of which
the brain is the symbol. He has createdus all that which we find ourselves, so
that we may be better able to comprehend Him than beings less richly
endowed, and we cannot think that this specialcapacitywill be overborne and
destroyedas soonas the goalcomes into view. Every mental power must be
healthy, well-mastered, on the alert, so that we lose nothing from His many-
sided revelations. We cannot apprehend God and assimilate His truth and life
in states of feeling which are not far removed from trance conditions. The
highest intercourse with God attainable by a human soul is that in which the
soul is perfectly at ease, competentto command its own powers and apply its
own discernments.
4. Men may pass into mental states in which we describe them as possessed —
possessedeither by the Spirit of God for good, or by an uncleanspirit for evil.
But possessionrepresents only a half-way stage towards a final goatof
holiness or sin. In possession, both for evil and good, the personality becomes
more or less veiled, overborne, suppressed. Manifestations ofthe Divine glory
that confound and disable through their momentary intenseness, unfit for the
truest and most comprehensive communion with God. In our own, as wellas

in earlier times, Christianity has fallen under the spell of Oriental
philosophies which assume that the basis of human personality is evil, and its
duration therefore fleeting; and that reabsorptioninto the infinite and
universal life is the goalof all aspiration and progress. The unexpressedidea
seems to be that the infinite cannot tolerate the finite, that it is always
thirsting to draw every attribute of manhood out of us, and that it will leave at
last the mere husk and shell of an effete personality behind, bleaching into
final invisibility, or perhaps not even so much as that. Such a view credits God
with predatory instincts rather than pays Him the glory due to His absolute
and eternallove. God wishes to take out of our personalities nothing but what
is hateful — selfishness, folly, moral blemish and defect. In Christ's high-
priestly prayer we find the charter which pledges the permanence of all those
elements which constitute personality. His own relation to the Father, which
presupposedthe essentials ofpersonality, was to be the standard lookedto in
the perfecting of the disciples. "As Thou, Father, art in Me and I in Thee, that
they also may be one in us." The branch which is grafted into the stock of a
tree still produces its own specific flowers, in spite of its union with the tree,
and produces them more nobly because ofthe reinforcement of life it receives
from the tree. Our Lord's union with the Father accentuatedrather than
obscuredthe properties of His personality. The Fatherwas ever dwelling in
the Son, but the personality of the Father was not lost in the mystery of
intercommunion; and the Son was everdwelling in the Father, but He
remained a perfectly consciousand clearlydefined Son, and His personality
was neither volatilised nor swallowedup by the mystic relation. The union
which entirely abstracts and absorbs makes communion a fixed impossibility.
And His ownage-long fellowshipwith the Father, Jesus Christ presents as the
type and consummation of all human excellence andblessedness.Ages await,
us in which the revelations of Godwill transcend the grandestdisclosures of
the past; but even then these, revelations will be attempered to our capacityto
receive and assimilate, Man's intellectual grasp, far from being overtaxedand
palsied by the strange secretsofthe future, will only be stimulated and
enlarged. We are not children of the mist, freaks of cloudscape, broken
shadows, iridescentvat, ours, whose destiny it is to confront the sunlight and
be irretrievably dissolved. In the maturity of an all-round, unshrinking,
indefectible personality, we shall be summoned into the presence ofHis glory

to receive, without error or distraction, the nobler teaching of the hereafter.
He will ask us then to be self-possessed, and He is teaching us the alphabet of
that duty now. "Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee."
II. A serene and undisturbed temper is necessarynot only for the man who is
an electrecipient of Divine revelations, but for THE MAN ALSO WHO IS
TO BE A MESSENGER OF THESE REVELATIONS TO OTHERS.
Courage before men is a characteristic ofthe genuine prophet; a timid,
blushing, disconcertedherald from God's throne is an incongruous
compound. The first apostles did much to prove their place in the holy
successionby the firmness with which they spake under circumstances which
would have abashed men with a less convincing religious history behind them.
In the chapters to which the vision of Ezekielis a prelude, the prophetic office
is illustrated by the duty laid upon the sentinel or watchman. Forsuch work
the powerof calm, unerring discernment is indispensable. He must be master
of himself, able to see with his own eyes, to trust the correctnessofhis own
judgments, to hold his own in the world. Unless a man has self-command, or
can at leastacquire it by discipline, he is unfit to be God's watchman. The
nervous prophet, the self-deprecating herald, the apostle who allows himself
to be overborne by the clamour of the world, stultifies his own missionand
does not a little to discredit his message.
1. Self-possessionis often a secretofsuccessin common things. In not a few
pursuits the coolhead and uniform self-command are essentialto life itself. A
man must have confidence in the art he has assumed, and in his own aptitude
for applying the principles of his art, and above all in the truths to the
promulgation of which his art is contributory. He who has a modest faith in
his ownresources, be they natural or spiritual, will inspire some degree of that
same faith into others. The man who cannotcommand his own faculties at the
moment, never inspires confidence, howevervastthe stores ofknowledge and
powerwith which popular rumour may credit him. It is the working capital in
actualview which assures the onlookers ratherthan the unrealisable assets.

We cannotpersuade others till we are so absorbedby the subject matter of
that persuasionthat all the powers of the mind rise up to emphasise it. The
duty of self-command implies very much more than subjecting our bad
passions to the control of the will; and if we do not learn self-command in the
widest possible sense ofthe term, we inevitably weakenour effectivenessfor
good. By fluttered moods and weak, indeterminate accents, the wisestman is
just as much disqualified from swaying others as the ignorant or the imbecile.
Nervous embarrassment, inability to bring our best gifts into use at the call of
a providential opportunity, palpitations, strikings of spirit, hesitancies, seem
to turn our messageinto farce and dumb show. One faculty which we can
quietly use at will for practicalends is better than a brilliant host of faculties
which are not under perfect control.
2. Self-possessionis a sign of the quietness of faith. When attained by spiritual
processes itbecomes a Voucher for that trust in God which, once learned in
His immediate presence, extends to the daily fulfilment of the tasks He has
fixed. Without this tranquillity which grows from faith we can have no power.
There can be no confusionor embarrassmentwhere this fixed persuasion
exists. The man who is bold at God's command is bold because authority is
behind him, and authority means the mighty grace which will not suffer its
obedient instruments to be confounded or brought to shame. A true faith
should enable us to wield our finest powers for God and His service. Respect
for the opinions of others should never lead us to cancelourselves and the
contents of our own consciences. The strengthand boldness we need in
speaking for God must, in many cases, be built up from their very foundations
on religious principles and experiences. The man whom nature does not help,
and who through superhuman influence alone grows bold and at ease, willfar
surpass the other in effectualservice for God. It may sometimes happen that
in the physical life there is a barrier to their self-possessionwhich is a prime
condition of usefulness, and in one case outof a hundred the barrier may be
insurmountable. Excellentand high-principled men and women assume too
readily that they are the victims of nervous disorder, weak circulation,
faintness. Let God's imperative "Standupon thy feet" help us. It is a Divine
voice which calls us to mental collectedness, to the quiet use and control of all

our hidden gifts. He would fain rescue us from our frail. ties, from proneness
to mental confusion, from undue awe of the face of our fellows, from that
nervous paralysis which so often has its roots in a morbid or a defective
religious life. It is not His will to have servants who lack the note of courage,
competence, effectuality. By contactwith God we shall gain steadiness,
confidence of touch, impressive self-masteryfor our work. "Now whenthey
beheld the boldness of Peterand John...theytook knowledge ofthem that they
had been with Jesus."If we learn presence ofmind before God we shall find
little difficulty in maintaining it before men. "Waiton the Lord, be of good
courage, andHe shall strengthen thine heart; wait, I say, on the Lord."
(T. G. Selby.)
The Assertionof Manhood
J. Millar, B. D.
Ezekiel2:1-2
Ezekielwas overwhelmedby the vastness ofthe universe and the greatrange
of God's sovereignty. He could no longer — like the earlier prophets — limit
his thoughts of Divine providence to the fatherly care and protectionof a
handful of Jews. It was something much vaster. In the government of the
world there was wheelwithin wheel, there were forces at work that seemedto
take little heed of individual or even national interests;there was the terrible
impartiality of a universal Powerdispensing equal laws to all peoples of the
earth. To himself he suddenly appearedof no accountin this universe of law
and force, and in utter abasementhe grovelledon the ground. But he was not

permitted long to abase himself. God had a work for him to do, a messageto
deliver. And before the work could be done or the messagerevealed, the
prophet must rise from his grovelling attitude, and reasserthis manhood and
recoverhis self-respect. He must recoverhis belief in the true position of man;
he must asserthis liberty of action; he must believe in the possibility of
leading a holy, a Divine life, and when he had thus shown his sense of the true
dignity of man and his respectof self, he could be made a prophet and servant
of the MostHigh.
1. The first element in the self-abasementand prostration, the sense of
insignificance in presence ofthe greatforces of nature, and of the vastness of
the universe, is finely describedin the 8th Psalm: "When I considerThy
heavens," etc. Howeverwe explain it, there is a failure to realise the true
dignity of man, to value aright the purpose of life, to understand the issues
that depend upon our thoughts, and words, and actions. We get into the way
of looking on ourselves simply as atoms, inconsiderable parts of a world which
contains much that is more worthy of securing Godand man's attention than
a human soul; and we are content, with the lowestlevelfor our characterand
conduct. But if we are tempted to feelin this way, the voice of God says to us:
"Sonof man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee." It tells us how
the Creator, afterHe had framed the earth and designedthe heavens, made
man in His own image, endowedhim with reason, that he might know and
judge himself; with conscience, thathe might discern betweenright and
wrong; and imagination, that he might purify his affections;with a principle
of life, that he might live forever. It commands us to measure the superiority
thus conferredupon us as children of the living God.
2. The secondelement in Ezekiel's abasementwas a sense ofhelplessness.If
his vision were a first glimpse of the reign of law, his fear may have contained
the first shadow of a feeling that has shed its deepestgloom, on the paths of so
many in these later days. The question, What is man? is answeredby a large
number of the thoughtful and the unthinking alike in the language ofsheer

fatalism. In effect, they say: "I am what I am, and need not be expected to
change;God and man must take me as they find me. Another, with different
parentage, and brought up in different circumstances from mine, may be a
better, a more amiable man than I am. But he need not plume himself upon
that. Had our places been reversed, so would our characters,and I for my
part must be content to remain as I am." The same feeling is shownin
reference to our mission in the world. The same man who blames fate for
what he is, denies, in practice, if not in words, the possibility of his doing any
work for good. He reasons forethers as he reasons for himself — they are,
and will be, what the struggle for existence, the advantages ordisadvantages
of their lot have made them; and as circumstances have neither fitted him to
do anything for them, nor brought him into contactwith them, he must leave
them alone. He and they are fixed alike in this greatwheelof fate, and
although they all move, it is by no conscious efforton their part. All alike are
poor, helpless creatures, whirled round in the greatmachine. I cannotdoubt
that this feeling was in the mind of Ezekielas it was in the mind of his
contemporary Jeremiah. Nor canI doubt that it was to rouse him out of his
helplessnessthat God told him to stand upon his feet. And neither can I doubt
that God calls upon us all to assertour dignity as men by claiming our liberty.
3. The third element in the abasementof Ezekielmust have been a sense of
sinfulness. We need not try to analyse this feeling or show how it actedupon
him. The emotions that flooded the soul of the prophet can hardly be dissected
and tabulated. The knowledge thathe had himself sinned, had been guilty of
transgressing, or, atleast, of failing to carry out with anything like perfection
those laws whose powerhad just been revealedto him, was the lastdrop in his
cup of humiliation. It would have been strange if it had been otherwise. If we
ever obtain a glimpse of the majesty of the law and of the Lawgiver, we can
hardly fail to be humiliated by the recollectionof our own past lives. We have
known the right and the good, and we have not chosenthem; we have seenthe
path of safety for health of body, health of mind, health of soul; and we have
wilfully forsakenit. We are not the men we might have been, we have not
done the goodwe ought to have done; our prospects for time and eternity are
overclouded, and the splendour which ought to have shone around them has

become dim. And when we see the appearance in the likeness ofa man on the
sapphire throne — should I not say on the cross? — we will not fail to fall
prone and abase ourselves if we have retained any of the better feelings God
gave us at our birth. But our text reminds us that it is not goodto remain too
long in this abjectstate. We are not forever to be confessing that we are
miserable sinners. The voice calls to us even when we are abasedunder a
sense ofsin: "Sonof man, stand upon thy feet." Escape atonce from the
humiliation and the sin that has causedit. Look up to the bright heavenof a
new ideal. Setyour affectionon things that are above. Prepare to move in the
service that hitherto has been neglected, and God will teachyou by higher
training for a nobler life.
(J. Millar, B. D.)
The Full Stature of a Man
W. W. Battershall, D. D.
Ezekiel2:1-2
Men often speak, and more frequently act, as if the religion of Christ
paralysedmanhood and cut the sinews of life. This is the reason, I believe,
why so many give a reluctant earto the religion of Christ. Now I concede the
premise that determines this attitude to Christ; the premise that a man is
entitled to the rounded fulfilment and the highestreach of the nature which
God has given him. Our nature is a parchment on which God has written His
will concerning us. The difficulty is that the original writing of God is so
blotted and interlined with the writing of the devil that men misread their

nature, and take it at the devil's interpretation instead of God's interpretation.
In the measurementof ourself, any value below the highest is a mistake. It
defeats God's intention regarding us. It flings us at once on an inferior plane
of life. It produces a manhood mutilated at the top, impoverished in its
deepestcentres of powerand joy. Now let us glance at the religion of Christ. It
is to feed these centres of power and joy in our nature, to enlarge them, to
quicken them to their keenestenergy, that that religion comes to us with its
claim and appeal. So far from paralysing manhood and cutting the sinews of
life, it is something which God has put on this earth to nourish the essential
traits of manhood and thrust life upward to its highest levels of force and
happiness. Christ Himself is the only true measure of His religion. We must
take it in its originalfeatures and accents, with the large, grand truths which
He revealed as its lines of structure, and the institutions which He founded to
shelter those truths and bring them into living touch with men. What did He
tell us of His religion? Nay, what did He tell us of Himself? — for Christ is
Christianity. He said: "The Sonof Man is not come to destroymen's lives, but
to save them." "I have come that they might have life, and that they might
have it more abundantly." "I am the Light of the world. He that followethMe
shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." These are crucial
words. They sweepthe whole horizon of Christ's truth and work. The purpose
of His religion is not to impoverish and mutilate life, but to show us the values
of life as they stand in the light of God; and, in the downwardpull of our
nature and the sharp stress of the world, to help us to realise the highest
values. Thus it comes to us. Thus it addresses us. It says, as God saidto the
prophet: "Sonof man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee." You
must meet it, as a man meets a friend, standing on your feet, looking into his
eyes, grasping his hand. And more than this; as its spirit enters into you, it
will setyou upon your feet. It comes to uplift your nature, enrich your life, to
give it reachand vision, to keepyou on your feet in your fight with sin. But it
makes demands, you say. Yes, but all its demands are needful for the training
of our manhood to its highest fruition; and it helps us to meet its demands.
For instance, it demands faith. But do you expect to go through life without
faith? Then you will miss the bestand richest things of life. It is like a man
drawing the curtains of his windows when the sunshine is making holiday on
the earth. Again, it demands worship. But surely no thoughtful man would

give much for a life that had not the element of worship in it. It is when faith
in unseen things is faint, and worship dies out of life, that men ask, "Is life
worth living?" An empty heaven overarches anempty heart. Lastly, it
demands the curbing of the lowerforces ofour nature. This, after all, is the
demand that excites the most angry and determined revolt. But life itself,
outside of Christ, if it be carriedto any high issue, makes the same demand.
Even to be the shadow of a man, even to be respectable andkeepour place in
the world, we must chain the brute within us. It is a difficult task, and men
who essayit without the aid of God ofttimes find that the wild beast has
escapedhis cage, and is devouring the beauty and dignify of their life. Christ,
it is true, goes beyondthe demands of the world. He asks us to sacrifice, if the
need come, natural appetite and innocent joy in the behoof of our soul. Life
itself finds its meaning only by the soulworking out with pain and battle its
supremacy. To accomplishthis, the world has its methods; but Christ's
method, after all, is the easiestmethod, the only effective method. Starve the
evil in your nature by feeding the goodthat is in it. Conquer the strong man
that has taken possessionof your house by bringing in a strongerthan he. The
Church of Christ, with its revealedtruth, its sacraments and its worships, is
the Divine porch which God has built in the world, through which we may
come to Him, and draw into our life, for help in our struggle and the healing
of our wounds, the forces of His Divine life.
(W. W. Battershall, D. D.)
The Importance of Self-Respect
S. A. Tipple.
Ezekiel2:1-2

Ezekielwas to be the bearerof a Divine messagefor the correctionand moral
rousing of his countrymen, and in order that Heavenmay impart to him its
secret, and inspire and instruct him for the work to which he has been chosen,
he is called to rise and stand upon his feet. Here, then, in the very Book in
which we are always meeting with injunctions to bend and bow, if we would
be Divinely visited, are instances of men summoned to getup from the dust of
conscious littleness andunworthiness, that they might be Divinely spokenwith
— of men, prone upon their faces in the presence ofGod, who were required
to place themselves upon their feet before He could say anything to them, or
make any use of them. Yet we may be quite sure, at the same time, that their
prior prostration was equally indispensable. When Jehovahwould charge
Moses withthe task of delivering Israel, the word to him was not, "Stand
upon thy feet, that thou mayest hear and be invested from above," but, "Fall
upon thy face." When, however, he had been deeply awedand humbled, to
begin with, then he was bidden to uplift his head and believe in himself. It was
needful, that as Saul and Daniel and Ezekielwere, he should first be deeply
awedand humbled; but like them also, he neededto become erectafter
depressionfor the Heavens to be intimate with him, and to make him their
mouthpiece and organ. And for healthy living, for beautiful actionand
endurance in our place, whateverit may be, we all require to have these two
united in us — awe and assurance — prostration and erectness — the
recognitionof our insignificance — our dependence — and the recognitionof
our worth and dignity. We need to be both lying down in felt emptiness and
helplessness, and rising up in brave self-sufficiency;and while it may be the
fact that Heavenwill reveal nothing to those who are not humble and lowly, it
is equally the fact that Heaven never has anything to reveal to those who are
not duly reverencing, and manfully leaning upon themselves. Coming to the
New Testament, we meet continually in its pages with the same recognitionof
the importance of self-respect. Jesus Christwas always saying something in
aid of it — something to encourage andsupport it. When He would strengthen
His apostles forcleaving to their convictions againstthe oppositionof the
world, for brave and fearless prosecutionof the work to which they were
called, He talkedto them of their worth in the eyes of the Almighty Father,

telling them that the hairs of their head were all numbered, and that they
were of more value than many sparrows. WhenSimon Peter, overwhelmed
for a moment with the feeling of his manifold imperfections, fell down at the
Master's feet, crying, "Departfrom me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord," how
was he treated? The Masterdropped at once a hint of the greatcapacity
which He saw latent in him, and waiting to be developed, of the greatuse
which he was destined to be in the service of the kingdom — "Fearnot,
Simon; from henceforth thou shalt catchmen." When, again, Christ mingled
with the degradedoutcasts ofJudea, of what did He speak to them? of their
worth, of how Heaven missed them and wantedthem. They heard from His
blessedlips of the shepherd's concernfor the lost sheep, of the housewife's
eagersearchforthe lost piece of silver. There is nothing more conducive to
healthy self-reverence againstthe influence of felt poor quality and low desert,
than the assurancethat we are dear to someone who is superior — that
someone who is superior cares for us, and clings to us, and considers us
capable of much better and greaterthings. And this was the strength which
Christ brought to the weak — the Gospelwith which He raisedthe self-
despairing. You are the child of a God who thinks on you, and yearns over
you, and to whom, in your worstvileness, you are a prince in bondage, worthy
of being sought after and redeemed. Then look at the Epistles — the Pauline
epistles especially:in them, how constantly are the readers reminded of their
high estate, orof the greatthings that were imputed to them, of the great
things that were assumedwith regard to them; of the lofty idea of their
condition and character, which His perfect manhood involved, whose
members and brethren they were. "Ye are bought with a price" - "Ye are all
children of the light, and of the day" — "Know ye not that your body is the
temple of the Holy Ghost?" — "Reckonye yourselves to be dead indeed unto
sin, but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord." But you will say,
"When are we not self-respecting?"Well, he is not, for one, who craves and
courts the approbation of others, and sets himself to gain it — who wants it,
wants it to comfort and uphold him — who can be strong and happy enough
while others are praising or smiling on him, but when they are not, waxes
feeble and melancholy. Again, he is wanting in self-reverencewho gives
himself at all to imitate another, who, in any work which may be laid upon
him, tries to repeatthe greatnessofanother, to copy his distinctions rather

than to evoke and cultivate his own, to strain after his dimensions, rather than
to be as perfectas he can within his own. Then, again, he is not self-respecting
who hesitates atall to go with his convictions, who fears to trust and follow the
light within him, when the many are moving in the opposite direction; who,
when careful and honestinquiry seems to be carrying him to conclusions that
will separate him from the multitude, and perchance from those who are
deemed greatand wise, becomes afraid — afraid to abide with what
commends itself to him as goodand true. Beware oflosing self-respect
through living dramatically — with a daily appearance put on, which is not
true to the reality — with the frequent assumption before spectators ofthat
which does not belong to you. Beware oflosing it through leading an idle,
aimless, uselesslife, a life without any high or worthy purpose. Beware of
losing it, especially, through forever failing to obey your higher promptings,
and forever regretting and bemoaning the failure, while never seriously
endeavouring to improve.
(S. A. Tipple.)
The Interlacing of Divine Command and Divine Strength
J.D. Davies
Ezekiel2:1, 2
The commands of God are acts of kindness. If he had abandonedus, he would
give us no indications of his will. He is not so unreasonable as to give
commands without also proffering help. If he says "This is the way," he also

says, "I will be with thee." Hence, with Augustine, we may say to God, "Give
what thou requirest, and require what thou pleasest."
I. COMMAND. "Standupon thy feet." The form of address, "sonof man,"
was intended to encourage the prophet. The vision of God's kingdom, and of
his royal state, bad oppressedthe mind of Ezekiel, and he had prostrated
himself before such majestic splendour. But now the voice of the supreme
Monarchassures him that he may also find a place among the honoured
servants of Jehovah. Though but a frail man, a descendantof erring
progenitors, he was yet a man, and therefore capable of high attainment and
noble service. There was no hardship implied in this command to stand upon
his feet. It chimed in with his own predisposition. Duty takenstep by step, in
easygradations, becomes a delight. The requirement was honourable. There
had been occasionforprostrate humility in the presence ofthe holy God. But
humility is the way to honour. Now he is required to lift himself up to the full
stature of his manhood, and to be ready for active and willing service. Use thy
feet! Look heavenward! Be a man! Equip thyself for service!
II. PROMISE. "Iwill speak unto thee." This is a stupendous actof Divine
condescensionto hold intercourse with fallen, fickle men. It is a mark of
specialfavour if an earthly monarch calls a commonerinto his presence,
disclosesto him royal counsels, and engageshis services for the throne. Much
greatertokenof goodwill is it, if that commoner had been heretofore a
detectedcriminal, a dangerous rebel. But the similitude serves very poorly to
illustrate the immeasurable grace ofthe heavenly King, who stoops to
converse with the children of men. Human monarchs have settimes, which
they setapart to give audience to the noblestof their subjects. But God
permits us to approach him at all times, and, if we will but speak to him, he
will also speak unto us. "His delights are with the sons of men." He loves to
employ men in his service. Yea! he has determined to employ none but men in
proclaiming to their brethren the royal purposes of redemption.

III. INDWELLING POWER While Jehovahspake to his servant, "the Spirit
entered into him." Finding in Ezekiela readiness to obey, God immediately
imparted to him the needed strength. If the will be present with us, the power
to perform will not long be absent. When humility opens the door of the
human heart, God will enter and abide there. It was not so much Ezekielwho
put forth his strength and rose erect, as the indwelling Spirit, "who set him on
his feet." Verily, "in God we live, and move, and exist." "I live; yet not I, but
Christ liveth in me." Ezekiel's name was no misnomer. In very deed, God was
his Strength. And the result of the Spirit's entrance, further, was "that I
heard him that spake unto me." The very powerto hear, whether by the
organof sense, orby the finer aptitude of the spirit, comes alone from God.
"He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." - D.
The Prophet's Commission
J. C. Shanks.
Ezekiel2:1-2
And he said to me, Sonof man, stand on your feet, and I will speak to you.
I. The attitude of the prophet IN THE PRESENCEOF GOD. Jonathan
Edwards, who has been calledthe Isaiah of the Christian Dispensation;was
often carried in the chariotof his imagination into the very highestheaven of
ecstasyto behold the greatness andthe glory of the Lord. And during those
seasonsofseraphic communion he realisedhis utter weakness,and his very
body seemedto faint and fail. Pascal, too, hadno less exaltedexperience when
he was visited with the presence and power of God, and saw visions so
unutterable that he could only fall on his face and weep tears of joy. But God
does not mean that His servants should be overmasteredwith the majesty of
its glory. God is not like an Easternsovereignwho wishes his subjects to be

impressed with his distant greatness, and would extinguish the sense of noble
manhood within their breast. The relation which God sustains to His people is
that of a father to his children, who would impress them with the convictionof
his absolute authority, and yet, at the same time, would endeavourto awaken
within them the sense of their nobility and dignity as his children.
II. The attitude of the prophet IN THE PRESENCE OF MAN. We may bend
our knees in the presence ofGod, but we must stand upon our feet in the
presence ofman. It is in this attitude that we receive strength. Bunyan's
picture of the prophet is the ideal for all time. "He had eyes lifted up to
heaven, the best of books was in his hand, the law of truth was written upon
his lips, the world was behind his back. He stoodas if he pleaded with men;
and a crownof glory did hang over his head."
1. The first quality or attribute of the true prophet is that of conviction. The
prophets of science have emergedout of their caves of prejudice, of tradition,
of authority, and have gazedat nature with the cleareye of truth, and under
the open canopyof heaven. And so it must be with the prophets of Scripture;
they must be prepared to dismiss all the idols of prejudice and passion, and
study the Bible in the light of open day, and thus arrive at a firm, immovable
conviction of its truth. We have no business to preach our doubts; it is the
grand realities that we are to proclaim in the presence of an unbelieving
world. A lady once, examining Turner's pictures, said, "But, Mr. Turner, I
don't see these things in nature." "Madam," replied the artist, with
pardonable pride, "don't you wish you could?" Thus the true prophet must be
a seer, and being a seer, the whole breadth of nature and Scripture will be
open to him, and he will see things that others wot not of.
2. The secondquality which distinguishes the true prophet is that of courage.
The apostles afterthe day of Pentecost. were full of courage. The fearof man
was completely takenaway, so that they testified with boldness the truths of

the Gospelconcerning the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. So it was
with Luther, with Knox, with Savonarola, and all the great prophets of old;
they were bold and uncompromising in their utterance of the truth.
3. The third quality of the faithful prophet is character. The staff of the
prophet must be in the hands of a pure and upright man. Gehazi was a bad
man; and hence, although he had the wand of Elisha in his hand, it failed to
work enchantment. He passedthe staff over the face of the dead child, the son
of the Shunamite woman, but there was no voice, nor any that answered. But
when Elisha took the staff in his hand, then the boy was raisedto life again.
Thus will it always be.
(J. C. Shanks.)
An Arduous Embassage
J.D. Davies
Ezekiel2:2-5
And the spirit entered into me when he spoke to me, and setme on my feet,
that I heard him that spoke to me.…
Every prophet is a missionary; every true missionaryis a prophet. In an
inferior sense ofthe word, he is a mediator - a mediator betweenGod and
man.

I. THE MISSIONARYCHARACTER OF THE PROPHET.He is one "sent."
He goes not to this difficult and responsible work by the impulse of his own
reasonor will. He is in the employ and under the direction of another - of One
whom he cannotdisregard. He cannot go or stay, as he pleases, he is a servant.
The Son of God himself has undertaken similar work. He was "sent" into our
world on an errand of kindness. "As thou hast sentme, so have I sent them."
II. THE MISSIONARY'S UNPROMISING FIELD OF ACTION. "I send thee
to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation." The possessionofoutward
advantages, orof specialDivine favours, does not ensure gratitude or
obedience on the part of men. In Eden, man transgressed. In Canaan, the
glory of all lands, the Hebrews rebelled. Righteousnessis not conveyedby
blood relationship. The piety of Abraham did not descendin the line of
natural posterity. But rebellion is a weedthat grows freelyin the degenerate
soil of the human heart. The people of Israel, in Ezekiel's time, were hardened
in sin. The evil had become inveterate by long centuries of vicious habit, sad
all the alternate measures of kindness and severity which God had employed
had failed to reduce the people to submission. Though now in exile and
disgrace, yet"to that very day" the rebellious spirit continued. Nor were they
even ashamedof the past. No blush tinged their cheeks.All right feeling
seemedpetrified within!
III. THE MISSIONARY'S INSTRUMENT.He is armed simply with the
authoritative Word of God. What he hears from God, that, and that alone,
may he speak!He is not allowedto elaborate, from his own judgment,
conditions of reconciliation. He is not to rely for successonthe inventiveness
of reason, nor on beguiling acts of sophistry, nor on the persuasivenessof
subtle rhetoric. He is to proclaim everywhere, "Thus saith the Lord!"
Authority is the weaponon which he is to rely - not human authority, but
Divine. He is to be simply the mouthpiece of Deity. But, being this, he will
become the power of God and the wisdom of God. His business is to speak
Divine truth with all the pathos of Divine love.

IV. THE MISSIONARY'S ENCOURAGEMENT. Whetherthe people would
hear, or whether they would forbear, was still an unsolved problem so far as
the prophet was concerned. Godhad not given to him the promise of visible
and direct success. Butwhether they acceptedor rejectedthe Divine
overtures, the end which God anticipated would be realized. The people
should have this conviction inwrought in their minds, viz. that a messenger
from God had been among them. This was all that Ezekielmight confidently
expect. This was the goalat which he was to aim, viz. to convince them that he
was God's prophet - to commend his mission to the consciencesofthe people.
Hence, if no other end was gained, he was not to feel depressionof soul.
Whether the people relented or further rebelled, he was to continue his simple
work;and rest assuredthat God would defend his own cause, and bring final
goodout of present evil. - D
STUDYLIGHT RESOURCES
Adam Clarke Commentary
And the spirit entered into me - This spirit was different to that mentioned
above, by which the wheels, etc., were moved. The spirit of prophecy is here
intended; whose office was not merely to enable him to foresee andforetell
future events, but to purify and refine his heart, and qualify him to be a
successfulpreacherof the word of life.
He who is sent by the God of all grace to convert sinners must be influenced
by the Holy Ghost; otherwise he can neither be savedhimself, nor become the
instrument of salvationto others.
And setme upon my feet - That he might stand as a servantbefore his master,
to receive his orders.

Copyright Statement
These files are public domain.
Bibliography
Clarke, Adam. "Commentary on Ezekiel2:2". "The Adam Clarke
Commentary". https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/acc/ezekiel-
2.html. 1832.
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Albert Barnes'Notes onthe Whole Bible
The spirit - i. e. “the Spirit of God.”
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Barnes, Albert. "Commentaryon Ezekiel2:2". "Barnes'Notes onthe New
Testament". https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/bnb/ezekiel-
2.html. 1870.
The Biblical Illustrator
Ezekiel2:2
And the Spirit entered into me.
God helping His ministers

Mark the course of a river like the Thames;how it winds and twists according
to its ownsweetwill. Yet there is a reasonfor every bend and curve; the
geologist, studying the soiland marking the conformationof the rock, sees a
reasonwhy the river’s bed diverges to the right or to the left; and so, though
the Spirit of God blesses one preachermore than another, and the reason
cannot be such that any man could congratulate himself upon his own
goodness,yetthere are certain things about Christian ministers which God
blesses, andcertain other things which hinder success. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The powerbehind the preacher
The Rev. F.B. Meyer has a firewoodfactory in connectionwith his church,
where employment is provided for men and boys. A circular saw is used for
cutting through beams of solid timber. Until recently, this saw was workedby
a crank, turned by twelve or fifteen men. But it was slow, hard, and expensive
work. At last, says Mr. Meyer, we were driven to something more expeditious,
and bought a gas engine. And now, the saw, driven by this engine, does in two
or three hours as much work as it did formerly in a day, and at less than a
tenth of the cost. It is the same saw;but the difference lies in the powerthat
drives it. It used to be driven by hand power, now it is driven by an equivalent
for steam, and the only thing we need to do is to keepthe connecting band
tight. “It is not a question,” continues Mr. Meyer, “as to our abilities or
qualifications, but of the powerbehind us. If that is nothing more than
human, it is not surprising that the results are miserably poor. But if we link
ourselves to the eternal powerof God, nothing will be impossible to us. ‘All
things are possible to him that believeth.’”
Copyright Statement
Text Courtesyof BibleSupport.com. Used by Permission.

Bibliography
Exell, JosephS. "Commentary on "Ezekiel2:2". The Biblical Illustrator.
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/tbi/ezekiel-2.html. 1905-1909.
New York.
Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible
"And the spirit entered into me when he spake unto me, and set me upon my
feet; and I heard him that spake unto me. And he said unto me, Son of man, I
send thee to the children of Israel, to nations that are rebellious, which have
rebelled againstme: they and their fathers have transgressedagainstme even
unto this very day."
"To nations that are rebellious ..." (Ezekiel2:3). These were the two nations of
northern Israel and southern Israel, here referred to collectivelyas "the
children of Israel."
"And the spirit entered into me ..." (Ezekiel2:2). We agree with Pearsonthat
the spirit mentioned here can be none other than the blessedHoly Spirit
himself.[6]
Copyright Statement
James Burton Coffman Commentaries reproduced by permission of Abilene
Christian University Press, Abilene, Texas, USA. All other rights reserved.
Bibliography
Coffman, James Burton. "Commentary on Ezekiel2:2". "Coffman
Commentaries on the Old and New Testament".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/bcc/ezekiel-2.html. Abilene
Christian University Press, Abilene, Texas, USA. 1983-1999.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

And the spirit entered into me,.... Not his own spirit or soul; for it does not
appear that that went out of him upon the sight of the vision; nor any of the
ministering spirits, the angels, who are never saidto enter into the prophets or
people of God; but the Holy Spirit of God; the same Spirit that was in the
living creatures, and in the wheels;in the ministers, and in the churches; who
entered with his gifts to qualify him for his office as a prophet; and who enters
with his graces into the hearts of all the saints, to quicken, renew, comfort,
and sanctify them:
when he spake unto me; at the same time the Spirit went along with the word;
and when the word of Christ is attended with the demonstration of the Spirit
and of power, it is effectual:
and he set me upon my feet; not he that spake with him, and bid him stand on
his feet;but the Spirit; for the word, though it is the word of God, and of
Christ, yet is ineffectualwithout the Spirit; when he enters, he gives the word
a place, and it works effectually;when he enters, as the Spirit of life from
Christ, the soul is quickenedand strengthened; and such that are fallen down
stand up; yea, such as are dead arise and stand upon their feet:
that I heard him that spake unto me; so as to understand; for the Spirit, who
searchesthe deep things of God, reveals them to his ministers, and causes
them to understand the word of Christ, that they may be able to instruct
others in it.
Copyright Statement
The New John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible Modernisedand adapted
for the computer by Larry Pierce of Online Bible. All Rightes Reserved,
Larry Pierce, Winterbourne, Ontario.
A printed copy of this work can be ordered from: The Baptist Standard
Bearer, 1 Iron Oaks Dr, Paris, AR, 72855
Bibliography

Gill, John. "Commentary on Ezekiel2:2". "The New John Gill Exposition of
the Entire Bible". https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/geb/ezekiel-
2.html. 1999.
Geneva Study Bible
c And the spirit enteredinto me when he spoke to me, and setme upon my
feet, that I heard him that spoke to me.
(c) So that he could not abide God's presence, till God's Spirit entered into
him.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Beza, Theodore. "Commentaryon Ezekiel2:2". "The 1599 Geneva Study
Bible". https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/gsb/ezekiel-2.html.
1599-1645.
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
when he spake — The divine word is ever accompaniedby the Spirit (Genesis
1:2, Genesis 1:3).
set… upon … feet — He had been “upon his face” (Ezekiel1:28). Humiliation
on our part is followedby exaltationon God‘s part (Ezekiel3:23, Ezekiel
3:24; Job 22:29;James 4:6; 1 Peter5:5). “On the feet” was the fitting attitude

when he was calledon to walk and work for God (Ephesians 5:8; Ephesians
6:15).
that I heard — rather, “then I heard.”
Copyright Statement
These files are a derivative of an electronic edition prepared from text
scannedby Woodside Bible Fellowship.
This expanded edition of the Jameison-Faussett-BrownCommentary is in the
public domain and may be freely used and distributed.
Bibliography
Jamieson, Robert, D.D.;Fausset,A. R.; Brown, David. "Commentary on
Ezekiel2:2". "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/jfb/ezekiel-2.html. 1871-8.
Wesley's ExplanatoryNotes
And the spirit entered into me when he spake unto me, and setme upon my
feet, that I heard him that spake unto me.
The spirit — The same spirit which actuatedthe living creatures.
Copyright Statement
These files are public domain and are a derivative of an electronic edition that
is available on the Christian ClassicsEtherealLibrary Website.
Bibliography

Wesley, John. "Commentary on Ezekiel2:2". "JohnWesley's Explanatory
Notes on the Whole Bible".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/wen/ezekiel-2.html. 1765.
Hawker's PoorMan's Commentary
Let the Reader, while observing the Prophet's sacredordination, fail not to
observe with it, what is here said: that the Spirit enteredinto him, and set him
on his feet; so that he heard him that spake. How truly blessedis that
ordination, (and none else can be blessed), which hath the Lord Jesus, as the
GreatBishop of souls to ordain, and the Holy Ghost inwardly to move, and to
qualify for the arduous work of the ministry! Reader!pray that the Lord will
suffer none to go, but such as are thus ordained!
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Hawker, Robert, D.D. "Commentary on Ezekiel2:2". "Hawker's PoorMan's
Commentary". https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/pmc/ezekiel-
2.html. 1828.
John Trapp Complete Commentary
Ezekiel2:2 And the spirit entered into me when he spake unto me, and setme
upon my feet, that I heard him that spake unto me.
Ver. 2. And the Spirit entered into me.] This was right, when word and Spirit
went together. See Isaiah59:21. {See Trapp on "Isaiah59:21"}

And setme upon my feet.]Called me off from earthly cares, and made me
hear savingly. In the Scriptures the Holy Ghostspeakethρητως, [1 Timothy
4:1] "Let him that hath ears to hear, hear," &c. Let him draw up the ears of
his mind to those of his body, that one and the same sound may pierce both.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Trapp, John. "Commentary on Ezekiel2:2". John Trapp Complete
Commentary. https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/jtc/ezekiel-
2.html. 1865-1868.
Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible
Ezekiel2:2. And the Spirit entered into me, &c.— That is, say some, the same
Spirit which influenced and animated the living creatures. Calmetinterprets
it, the prophetic spirit; which, from ch. Ezekiel3:24 seems the most probable.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Coke, Thomas. "Commentaryon Ezekiel2:2". Thomas Coke Commentary on
the Holy Bible. https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/tcc/ezekiel-
2.html. 1801-1803.

Matthew Poole's EnglishAnnotations on the Holy Bible
And; so soonas the encouraging command went forth, immediately.
The spirit; the vital spirit or soul of the prophet, saysome;but these suppose
the vision had struck Ezekieldead, which neither can be supposed, other
prophetic visions did not prove deadly, nor did this; others will have it the
spirit of courage, some an angel;but it is indeed the Spirit of God, the Holy
Ghost, Ezekiel3:24. The same Spirit which actuatedthe living creatures and
wheels enters the heart of the prophet.
Entered into me; gave the prophet specialand suitable qualifications for his
office. The Spirit entered that he might abide with the prophet as a constant
assisterand guide to him.
When he spake unto me; while the words were speaking, orso soonas they
were spoken. The efficacyof the Spirit, and his accompanying the word of
Christ, here appears.
He; either Christ, who from the throne spake to the prophet, or the Holy
Spirit, newly entered into the prophet.
And setme upon my feet, that I heard him; opened his ear, that he heard
what was spoken. It is the Spirit which is the fountain of all our abilities, and
which also actuates them; without it there is neither life, strength, or motion.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Poole, Matthew, "Commentaryon Ezekiel2:2". Matthew Poole's English
Annotations on the Holy Bible.
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/mpc/ezekiel-2.html. 1685.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible
2. And the spirit — Literally, a spirit. This was probably the spirit that
controlled the living creatures (Ezekiel1:20), though Ezekieldoes not yet
seemto recognize this.
Set me upon my feet — God’s majesty may smite the beholder with weakness,
but when one is weakesthe finds working within him a “spirit” making him
strongest. This spirit only comes to the humble soul. It is only after one has
fallen upon his face before God that he becomes able to stand before him and
hear him speak. The inner strength comes to the man who does not dare even
to lift up his face to heaven.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Whedon, Daniel. "Commentary on Ezekiel2:2". "Whedon's Commentary on
the Bible". https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/whe/ezekiel-
2.html. 1874-1909.
Expository Notes ofDr. Thomas Constable
The Holy Spirit, or perhaps a wind sent from God, [Note:Robert B. Chisholm
Jeremiah, Handbook on the Prophets, p233.]entered Ezekielas the Lord
spoke to him and enabled him to stand up and hear what the Lord was saying
(cf. Ezekiel3:24; Exodus 4:10-15;Exodus 31:1-11;1 Samuel10:9-11;Psalm
51:11;Jeremiah 1:4-19;Daniel 8:18; Acts 2:4; Ephesians 5:18; et al.).

Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Constable, Thomas. DD. "Commentary on Ezekiel2:2". "ExpositoryNotes of
Dr. Thomas Constable".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/dcc/ezekiel-2.html. 2012.
George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary
Spirit of prophecy; (St. Jerome;Tirinus) or, I revived, and took courage.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Haydock, George Leo. "Commentaryon Ezekiel2:2". "GeorgeHaydock's
Catholic Bible Commentary".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/hcc/ezekiel-2.html. 1859.
E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes
the spirit entered .

He spoke. Enteredwith the word. Compare Genesis 1:2, Genesis 1:3. The
Divine summons is accompaniedby Divine preparation. Compare Ezekiel
3:24. Revelation1:17.
spirit. Hebrew. ruach App-9.
I heard. This is ever the Divine qualification.
Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Bullinger, Ethelbert William. "Commentary on Ezekiel2:2". "E.W.
Bullinger's Companion bible Notes".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/bul/ezekiel-2.html. 1909-1922.
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Unabridged
And the spirit entered into me when he spake unto me, and setme upon my
feet, that I heard him that And the spirit entered into me when he spake unto
me, and setme upon my feet, that I heard him that spake unto me.
The spirit entered into me when he spake. The Divine WORD is ever
accompaniedby the SPIRIT (Genesis 1:2-3).
Set me upon my feet. He had been "upon his face" (Ezekiel1:28). Humiliation
on our part is followedby exaltationon God's (Ezekiel3:23-24;Job 22:29;
James 4:6; 1 Peter5:5). 'On the feet' was the fitting attitude, when he was
calledon to walk and work for God(Ephesians 5:8, "Walk as children of
light;" Ephesians 6:15).
That I heard - rather, 'then I heard.'

Copyright Statement
Bibliography
Jamieson, Robert, D.D.;Fausset,A. R.; Brown, David. "Commentary on
Ezekiel2:2". "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible -
Unabridged". https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/jfu/ezekiel-
2.html. 1871-8.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
(2) And the spirit entered into me.—Always Divine strength is vouchsafedto
the prophets when thus overcome by the glory of their visions. (Comp. Isaiah
6:5-7; Daniel 8:18; Daniel 10:15-19;Revelation1:17.)There canbe no doubt,
therefore, that the spirit is here the Spirit of God, and not merely the
prophet’s own human vigour and courage;and this is made still more plain in
Ezekiel3:24. It was this which “sethim upon his feet,” and enabled him amid
such surroundings of awe to receive the word spokento him; for while the
revelation by vision still remained before him (see Ezekiel3:12-13), he was
now to be instructed also by the clearerrevelationof the direct voice from
heaven. We are not to think of any physical force exerted upon the prophet,
but of all these things as still taking place in vision.
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Ezekiel2:1-10 Commentary
Updated: Sat, 02/21/2015 -00:00 By admin
Ezekiel2:1 Then He said to me, "Sonof man, stand on your feet that I may
speak with you!"
KJV: And he saidunto me, Sonof man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak
unto thee.
YLT: It is the appearance ofthe likeness ofthe honour of Jehovah, and I see,
and fall on my face, and I hear a voice speaking, andHe saith unto me, 'Son of
man, stand on thy feet, and I speak with thee.'

Ezekielhad receivedhis initial "job training", a vision of the glory of God, the
single most important aspectof his preparation for his difficult task. Speaking
truth to rebellious people is not an easytask but the keyis doing so not in our
powerbut God's power. In Acts we see the early church facing intense
opposition and yet Luke records that as the Jewishleaders
"observedthe confidence of Peterand John, and understood that they were
uneducated and untrained men, they were marveling, and beganto recognize
them as having been with Jesus." (Acts 4:13) Would they say the same about
me?
Son of man: (Ezek 2:3,6,8;3:1,4,10,17;4:1; 5:1; 7:2; 12:3; 13:2; 14:3,13;15:2;
16:2; 17:2; 20:3; 37:3; Ps 8:4; Da 8:17; Mt 16:13, 14, 15, 16;Jn 3:13,16)It is
noticeable that the phrase (ben adam), as addressedto a prophet, occurs only
in Ezekiel, in whom we find it not less than eighty times, and in Daniel 8:17.
As used elsewhere, e.g. inNu 23:19;Psalm 8:4; Job25:6; Isaiah 51:12;
56:2,and in Ezekiel's use of it, it is probably connectedwith the history of
Adam, as createdfrom the ground (adamah) in Genesis 2:7; 3:19.
In the Gospels "Sonofman" refers to Jesus over80 times where it most often
emphasizes His humanity and His dependence on God’s Holy Spirit.
Son of Man (Jesus) - Matt 8:20; 9:6; 10:23;11:19;12:8, 32, 40; 13:37, 41;
16:13, 27f; 17:9, 12, 22; 18:11;19:28; 20:18, 28;24:27, 30, 37, 39, 44; 25:31;
26:2, 24, 45, 64;Mark 2:10, 28; 8:31, 38; 9:9, 12, 31; 10:33, 45;13:26;14:21,
41, 62; Luke 5:24; 6:5, 22; 7:34; 9:22, 26, 44, 56, 58; 11:30;12:8, 10, 40; 17:22,
24, 26, 30; 18:8, 31; 19:10;21:27, 36; 22:22, 48, 69; 24:7; John 1:51; 3:13f;
5:27; 6:27, 53, 62;8:28; 9:35; 12:23, 34;13:31;Acts 7:56; Heb 2:6; Rev 1:13;
14:14
JFB adds that "sonof man"
"as applied to Messiah, implies… His lowliness (Ps 8:4-8; Mt 16:13; 20:18)
and His exaltation (Da 7:13, 14, Mt 26:64; Jn 5:27)… at His first and second
comings respectively."
This designation"sonof man" emphasizes Ezekiel's human frailty and
ultimately his need to depend on God's vision, Spirit and messagefor the

ability to carry out his commission. The prophet is reminded, in the very
moment of his highestinspiration, of his Adam nature with all its infirmity
and limitations. In the use of a like phrase (bar enosh, instead of ben adam) in
Daniel 7:13 we have the same truth implied. There one like unto man in all
things is calledto share the sovereigntyof the "Ancient of Days," the Eternal
One. Here the prophet Ezekiel, nothing in himself, is called to be the
messengerofGod to other sons of men. It is in many ways suggestive thatour
Lord should have chosenthe same formula for constantuse when speaking of
himself.
Matthew Henry adds that
"though God had here a splendid retinue of holy angles about His throne, who
were ready to go on His errands, yet He passesthem all by, and pitches on
Ezekiel, a son of man, to be His messengerto the house of Israel"
MacDonaldhas an interesting note on "sonof man" on the translationof this
phrase in the New RSV noting that this version
"paraphrases “sonofman” as “mortal” to avoid the “masculine-oriented”
words son and man; this obscures the link with Daniel and our Lord’s usage."
He goes on to quote Taylor's comment that
"The first words that God addresses to Ezekielappropriately put the prophet
in his rightful place before the majesty which he has been seeing in his vision.
The phrase son of man is a Hebraism which emphasizes Ezekiel’s
insignificance or mere humanity. “Sonof” indicates “partaking of the nature
of” and so when combined with ’adãm, “man,” it means nothing more than
“human being.” In the plural it is a common phrase for “mankind”.
The Bible knowledge Commentaryadds that "sonof man"
"seems to stress the distance that separatesman from God. The word ”son“
expresses family and hereditary relationships, but often moves beyond the
mere biologicalto denote associationoridentification with someone or
something (cf ”sons of God,“ Ge 6:2, 6:4 ”sonof the dawn,“ Isa 14:12). By this
title God was stressing Ezekiel’sassociationwith the human race."

Stand upon thy feet: (Ezek 1:28; Da10:11,19;Mt 17:7; Acts 9:6; 26:16) The
attitude of adoration is changed, by the Divine command, into that of
expectantservice, that of awe and dread for the courage ofa soldier of the
Lord of hosts (compare the parallels of Ezekiel3:24; 43:3, 5; Daniel 8:18).
JFB adds that
"Humiliation on our part is followedby exaltation on God's part (Ezek 3:23,
24; Job22:29; Jas 4:6; 1Pe 5:5)" and that "On thy feet" "was the fitting
attitude when he was called on to walk and work for God" (Eph 5:8; 6:15).
Calvin comments that
"Godnever prostrates his people so as to leave them lying upon the earth, but
continually raises them afterwards… This work of the Spirit, then, is joined
with the word of God. But a distinction is made, that we may know that the
external word is of no avail by itself, unless animated by the powerof the
Spirit."
Compare Ezekiel's experience with that of Paul Who fell to the ground upon
seeing "the glory of the LORD" Who then commanded him to
"arise, and stand on your feet;for this purpose I have appearedto you, to
appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have
seen, but also to the things in which I will appearto you; delivering you from
the Jewishpeople and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, to open
their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion
of Satan to God, in order that they may receive forgivenessofsins and an
inheritance among those who have been sanctifiedby faith in Me." ( Acts
26:16-18)
Ezekiel2:2 As He spoke to me the Spirit entered me and set me on my feet;
and I heard Him speaking to me.
KJV: And the spirit entered into me when he spake unto me, and setme upon
my feet, that I heard him that spake unto me.

YLT: And there doth come into me a spirit, when He hath spokenunto me,
and it causethme to stand on my feet, and I hear Him who is speaking unto
me.
"the Spirit entered me" (Ezek 3:12, 3:14 3:24; 36:27;Nu11:25, 11:26; Jdg
13:25;1Sa16:13;Neh 9:30; Joel2:28, 2:29; Rev11:11). Did you notice the
sequence? First, Godtold Ezekielto stand, but then He Himself provided the
enablement to stand by the power of His Spirit. God's commands always
include His enablement to carry out the command. (cf Php 2:12, 2:13) This is
undoubtedly the same Spirit Who directed the movement of the living
creatures in Ezek 1:12, 20, 21.
I love JFB's commentthat
"The divine Word is ever accompaniedby the Spirit." (Ge 1:2, 3).
The Lxx has "the Spirit came upon me" rather than "enteredme" but the
idea is still the same. "The Spirit" that came upon Ezekielwas to equip and
empowerhim to address the people. Whatever task Godcalls you to, He will
also enable you to complete it.
In Old Testamenttimes the Holy Spirit did not indwell all believers but
indwelt selectedpersons temporarily for divine service. David's prayer of
contrition "do not take Thy Holy Spirit from me" (Ps 51:11)reflects the
temporary indwelling by the Spirit in the Old Covenant. Obviously in the New
Covenantbeliever's "body is a temple of the Holy Spirit Who is in you Whom
you have from God" (1Cor6:19) and have therefore been "sealedin (Christ)
with the Holy Spirit of promise Who is given as a pledge of our inheritance"
(Eph 1:13, 14)but we can still "quench the Spirit" (1Th 5:19) or "grieve the
Holy Spirit of God, by Whom (we) were sealedfor the day of redemption."
(Eph 4:30)
Samuel speaking to Saul who is to be Israel's first king tells him
"the Spirit of the LORD will come upon you mightily, and you shall prophesy
with them (a group of prophets) and be changedinto another man." (1Sa
10:6)

"It’s ironic, when you compare Ezekiel’s experience with what happens in a
charismatic service today. In a Benny Hinn meeting supposedlyit’s the Holy
Spirit who knocks you down - while it’s man who helps you up. But that’s not
what happens to Ezekiel. The Spirit doesn’t knock him down, but helps him
up. Ezekielhumbles himself and falls on his face, then the Spirit lifts him up!
Guys, don’t be mistaken, the Holy Spirit doesn’t slay us - He stands us up
again, after we’ve humbled ourselves." (Ref)
Ezekiel2:3 Then He said to me, "Sonof man, I am sending you to the sons of
Israel, to a rebellious people who have rebelled againstMe; they and their
fathers have transgressedagainstMe to this very day.
KJV: And he saidunto me, Sonof man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to
a rebellious nation that hath rebelled againstme: they and their fathers have
transgressedagainstme, even unto this very day.
YLT: And He saith unto Me, 'Son of man, I am sending thee unto the sons of
Israel, unto nations who are rebels, who have rebelled againstMe; they and
their fathers have transgressedagainstMe, unto this self-same day.
"I am sending you" (Ezek 3:4, 5, 6, 7, 8; 2Chr 36:15,16;Is 6:8, 9, 10;Jer 1:7;
7:2; 25:3, 4, 5, 6, 7; 26:2, 3, 4, 5, 6; 36:2; Mk 12:2, 3, 4, 5; Lk 24:47,48;Jn
20:21,22;Ro 10:15) The LORD now explains the purpose of the vision and the
Spirit's enablement, namely, that being armed with authority he might more
freely discharge his duty as Prophetamong the rebellious people.
"Rebellious… rebelled" (Hebrew marad) (Ezek 16:1-63;20:1-49;23:1-49)
(Ezek 20:18-30;Nu 20:10; 32:13,14;Dt 9:24,27;1Sa 8:7,8; 2Ki 17:17-20;Ezra
9:7; Neh 9:16-18,26,33-35;Ps 106:16-21,28,32-40;Jer3:25; Jer16:11,12;
44:21;Da 9:5-13; Acts 7:51)
See Torrey's Topic RebellionAgainst God NationalSins
God's chosenpeople were rebels from their "birth" and had repeatedly
demonstrated oppositionto the God's authority.
Websteradds that "rebellion" implies an "openformidable resistance that is
often unsuccessful"!

"People" in the phrase "Rebellious people" is the Hebrew word "goyim"
which elsewhere refers to the Gentile heathen and that may be Ezekiel's sense
here.
JFB comments that
"the word (goyim) is usually applied to the heathen or Gentiles (but) here to
the Jews, as being altogetherheathenizedwith idolatries. So in Isa 1:10, they
are named "Sodom" and "Gomorrah." They were now become "Lo-ammi,"
not the people of God (Ho 1:9)."
Calvin agreescommenting that
"among the Jews (goyim)is a word of reproach;for they often call “Gentiles”
"goyim" as if… “profane,” “rejected,”and altogetheralienatedfrom God.
Lastly… "goyim" means with them “pollution” and “abomination”. In
ancient days Gentiles were "to the Jews like dung, and the off-scouring of the
world" because they were "goyim". And there is no doubt that this pride
filled the minds of the people in the days of the Prophet. God therefore calls
them" rebellious "goyim" which would be the ultimate affront.
The Hebrew word for rebel is used in the following passages:For example in
Nu 14:9, 10 God had clearly warned "Only do not rebel againstthe LORD;
and do not fear the people of the land, for they shall be our prey. Their
protection has been removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear
them. But all the congregationsaidto stone them (Moses and Aaron) with
stones. Thenthe glory of the LORD appeared in the tent of meeting to all the
sons of Israel."
Their rebellion was not againstMoses'leadershipbut ultimately was against
the LORD. Later God says that they had
"rebelledagainstMy command at the waters of Meribah."
Later after having entering the PromisedLand under the leadership of
Joshua, the congregationmakes whatwould prove to be a shallow declaration
"Farbe it from us that we should rebel againstthe LORD and turn away
from following the LORD this day, by building an altar for burnt offering, for

grain offering or for sacrifice, besides the altar of the LORD our God which is
before His tabernacle." (Josh22:29)
In Daniel's prayer in chapter 9 he specificallyaddresses the rebellion of Israel,
even including himself in his confession:
"And I prayed to the LORD my God and confessedand said, "Alas, O Lord,
the greatand awesome God, who keeps His covenantand lovingkindness for
those who love Him and keepHis commandments,5 we have sinned,
committed iniquity, acted wickedly, and rebelled, even turning aside from Thy
commandments and ordinances.6 "Moreover, we have not listened to Thy
servants the prophets, who spoke in Thy name to our kings, our princes, our
fathers, and all the people of the land… 9 "To the Lord our God belong
compassionand forgiveness, forwe have rebelled againstHim;10 nor have we
obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in His teachings which He set
before us through His servants the prophets."
Thus we see that Israelhad been a "rebellious people" from before they
entered the Promised Land after being freed from Egyptian bondage to the
time of Daniel takencaptive in 605BC ("to this very day")
Could Israel blame their fate on the transgressions oftheir fathers? God says
both they and "their fathers have transgressed" againstMe. This statement
clearly teaches (they… their fathers) that eachindividual is responsible for his
or her own sin. This sin problem is not something that has just developed but
has been "festering" andnecessitates a holy God's righteous judgment. Like
father like son --The "children" are walking in their "father's'" footsteps.
"Transgressed" is the Hebrew word "pasha" which is the strongestword
available for expressing a covenant violation or one who breaks awayfrom
authority. The word is used in the diplomatic arena to express treaty violation
(2Ki 1:1; 3:5, 7).
Pasha conveys the fundamental idea of a breach of relationships (civil or
religious)betweentwo parties. It means to be in open defiance of an authority
or standard of an agreement. Israelstoodcondemned of rebelling againsther
King and His covenant(cf Isa1:28;48:8; Hos 8:1). Websteradds that

"transgress" means to go beyond set or prescribed limits (in this case the
"limits" setby the Mosaic covenant).
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia explains that transgression
(pasha/pesha)is
"An actof “going beyond” or violating a duty, command, or law. Thus the
term connotes lawlessness, iniquity, fault, ungodliness, unrighteousness, and
wrongdoing...ithas to do with the violation of a relationship… The Bible
warns that the personwho transgresses is under the powerof that act. Bildad
the Shuhite wondered aloud whether Job’s children had been destroyed
because Godhad delivered them into the power of their transgression(Job
8:4). More commonly expressedis the warning that repeated transgression
ensnares those who engage in it (Pr 12:13;29:6) and (figuratively) weighs
them down (Isa 24:20). Repeatedtransgressionreinforces anattitude of
defiance toward God, for there is no longerany fear in the heart of the
transgressor(Ps. 36:1)… .Isaiahprophesied that the Servant of Yahweh
would be strickenfor the transgressionof Yahweh’s people (Isa. 53:8), and he
promised redemption for those of Jacobwho turned from their transgression
(Isa 59:20)."
In conclusion, could individual Jews eventhough in exile in Babylon be
forgiven? David answers
"How blessedis he whose transgressionis forgiven, whose sin is covered!How
blessedis the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, and in whose
spirit there is no deceit!" (Ps 32:1, 2)
Irving Jensen…
"The idolatry which Ezekielsaw as Judah's blight before he left Jerusalem
was the same condition he facedinn the settlements of Jewishexiles in
Babylonia. The judgment of captivity did not stir the first contingents of exiles
to repentance. In fact, they found it very hard to believe, as Ezekielwas
prophesying, that Jerusalemwould actually be destroyed by the Babylonians.
They were loath to believe that Jehovahhad given world dominion to
Babylon, and that His will was for Judah to submit to this enemy. Hence, it

was necessaryfor Ezekielin Babylon -- and Jeremiahin Jerusalem-- to show
the people how unfounded were any expectations ofimmediate deliverance."
(Irving Jensen, Jensen'sSurvey of the Old Testament, 360).
Calvin draws attention to the principle that
"when God wishes to stir us up to obedience, He does not always promise a
happy result of our labor: but sometimes He so puts our obedience to the test,
that He wishes us to be content with His command, even if our labor should be
deemed ridiculous before men… .He sometimes proves His people…
providing that whatever be the result of their labors, it is sufficient for them to
obey His command."
Even as the LORD was giving Ezekiela difficult charge, In a similar way the
LORD also warnedIsaiah of the futility of much of his preaching, a telling
him to
"Go, and tell this people:'Keep on listening, but do not perceive. Keepon
looking, but do not understand.' "Renderthe hearts of this people insensitive,
their ears dull, and their eyes dim, lestthey see with their eyes, hearwith their
ears, understand with their hearts, and return and be healed. Then I said,
"Lord, how long?" And He answered, "Until cities are devastatedand
without inhabitant, houses are without people, and the land is utterly
desolate… " (Isa 6:9-11)
And so the Lord told Isaiah(and later Ezekiel)that his message wouldnot
result in national revival for the people had not listened before and they would
not listen now and that in factupon hearing Isaiah’s message,Israelwould
become even more hardened againstthe Lord. How would you respond if God
told you the ministry you are doing today would be viewed as a failure in
men's eyes!This is a difficult word, but the point is not to seek to be fruitful
but to submit and be faithful! How are you doing? Has Godcalled you into a
difficult field where you are seeing little if any fruit? If God has calledyou and
you are certain of that, as the 1956 Greyhound bus commercialused to say
"It's such a comfort to travel by bus and leave the driving to us!" Leave the
"driving" to God. You can be

"confident of this very thing, that He who begana goodwork in you will
perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus."(Phil 1:6)
Calvin goes onto conclude
"Forsome who seemto be sufficiently ready to obey, yet when difficulties and
obstacles occur, desistin the middle of their course, and many recede
altogether;and some we see who have renouncedtheir vocation, because they
had conceivedgreatand excessive hopes ofsuccess, but when the event does
not answertheir expectations, they think themselves dischargedfrom duty,
and even murmur againstGod, and rejectthe burden, or rather shake off
what had been imposed upon them. Because, then, many retreatfrom the
course they had undertaken, because they do not experience the successthey
had imagined, or had presumed upon in their minds, therefore before Ezekiel
begins to speak, Godsets before him trials of this kind, and informs him that
he would have to deal with a rebellious people. "
END OF PRECEPT AUSTIN RESOURCES
Hear, Stand and Receive
Eze 2:1 And he saidunto me, Sonof man, stand upon thy feet, and I will
speak unto thee.
Angels do not like us to bow to them. It was the message ofthe Spirit of God
delivered by angels. Ezekielwas called"Son ofman", 93 times, calling
attention to his humanity. Jesus referredto himself as the Son of man showing
his human connectionto the throne of David, but he also was the only
begottenSon of God.
Heb 2:1 Therefore we ought to give the more earnestheed to the things which
we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.
Heb 2:2 For if the word spokenby angels was stedfast, and every
transgressionand disobedience receiveda just recompence of reward;

Heb 2:3 How shall we escape,if we neglectso greatsalvation;which at the
first beganto be spokenby the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that
heard him;
Heb 2:4 God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and
with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?
Angels come with messages. Usually some actionis required so let us stand up
and be ready to serve when we hear from the LORD. Was it an angelthat
spoke to me that day in the hospital following radicalcancersurgery as I lay
in a bed connectedto tubes, unable to swallow,unable to sit up? A voice spoke
to me "if you do not drink water, you will die". Immediately I set up in bed
and drank a glass of water. I had heard from God Notonly that, but
something changedinside. I beganwitnessing with boldness in the hospital to
others to trust in God . God will be your help and your strength. I knew the
name of Jesus and little else about that name, but God touched me. Later I
was savedin a Christian church and baptized and filled with the spirit. Like
EzekielI believe I was given the Holy Spirit when God spoke to me and called
me.
Eze 2:2 And the spirit entered into me when he spake unto me, and setme
upon my feet, that I heard him that spake unto me.
Ezekielwas filled with the Holy Spirit so that he could hear from and speak
from the voice of God. The Holy Spirit is our connectionand source of power
from God.
Joh 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Fatherwill
send in my name, he shall teachyou all things, and bring all things to your
remembrance, whatsoeverI have said unto you.
We must "drink the water" of his word, so that it may be springs of living
waterflowing from us by the power of the Holy Spirit.
David had seenthe Spirit removed from Saul
Psa 51:11 Castme not awayfrom thy presence;and take not thy holy spirit
from me.

The woman at the well
Jonh 4:10 Jesus answeredandsaid unto her, If thou knewestthe gift of God,
and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldesthave askedof
him, and he would have given thee living water.
The Spirit of God helps the workmen
Exo 31:2 See, I have calledby name Bezaleelthe sonof Uri, the son of Hur, of
the tribe of Judah:
Exo 31:3 And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in
understanding, and in knowledge,and in all manner of workmanship,
Exo 31:4 To devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass,
Exo 31:5 And in cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of timber, to
work in all manner of workmanship.
The Holy Spirit will give us power and abilities from God to serve him in all
ways of our life. We will be better workmen, anointed artists and craftsmen,
because ofhis presence. We are to be living testimonies of God as he is seenin
us and through us. Ezekielseeing the visions was told to stand up and to hear
the voice of God. He was filled with the Holy Spirit and was about to receive
his calling from God. Do you know your calling and your gifts? We are to be
servants and witnesses to bring others to God through his Son Jesus Christ
who has paid the price for our reconciliation. Believe the messageofGod and
do what he says. Stand up for Jesus.
EzekielReceivesHis Calling
Eze 2:3 And he saidunto me, Sonof man, I send thee to the children of Israel,
to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled againstme: they and their fathers
have transgressedagainstme, even unto this very day.
Eze 2:4 For they are impudent children and stiffhearted. I do send thee unto
them; and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD.

Eze 2:5 And they, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, (for
they are a rebellious house,) yet shall know that there hath been a prophet
among them.
Thus sayeth the Lord God; Lord: Adonay, God; Yehovih, Jehovahor
Yahweh. Ezekielheard from Adonay Jehovah. In the book of Ezekielhis
name is spoken217 times. Ezekielwas sentas a priest and a prophet to the
children of Israel and Judah to warn them and to call them to repentance, but
they were impudent children. Impudent; qasheh, hard hearted, stubborn,
stiff-necked, and paniym ; face. They were hard in face, stubborn and defiant
children. They were also stiffhearted, chazaq, hard and leb, inner man, the
will, the heart, in understanding. They were hard in face, stiff-neckedand
hard of heart. Now how would you like to be called to preach to these people?
We have seenpeople like this, strong willed, arrogant, full of evil, rebellious
and often they aggressivelyoppose the word from God and yet we warn them
with God's word. Israelhad a history of rebellion againstGod.
Moses spokeoftheir rebellion
Deu 31:27 For I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck:behold, while I am yet
alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious againstthe LORD; and how
much more after my death?
The prophet Isaiahspoke of them
Isa 65:2 I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people,
which walkethin a waythat was not good, aftertheir own thoughts;
Why was Ezekielsentto such a hard hearted people? I suppose because God
is long suffering.
2Pe 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count
slackness;but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance.
Another reasonfor sending Ezekielis that God does nothing without first
telling his people. They may not respond and repent "yet shall know that
there hath been a prophet among them." Learn from this when you go to

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