Verse 1

CONTENTS

The Prophet is here ordained, and a most blessed ordination it was The Lord showeth him what is to be the nature of his ministry, and aids him to be armed for the service.

Ezekiel 2:1

We have here the divine ordination of the Prophet to his ministry. The Lord having prepared his mind by the solemn vision in the foregoing Chapter; and that vision having caused the Prophet to fall upon his face before the Lord! The Ordination now begins. Oh! how devoutly to be prayed for is it, that the ministers of God's sanctuary, were all thus prepared under impressions of grace, and humbled to the dust of the earth before the Lord, in a consciousness of their own nothingness, when expecting ordination, to go forth to tell others of their nothingness, and the Lord Jesus's all-sufficiency. I detain the Reader at this verse just to remark the peculiarity of expression by which the Prophet is called, Son of Man! None of the Prophet's but Ezekiel, as far as I recollect, was ever called by this name; and he no less than ninety times in his prophecy. Was it as a type of Jesus? I ask the question, but determine it not. Certainly it is remarkable. For it is a phrase peculiarly made use of for the Lord Jesus Christ. And of Him it is used in the Gospels more than threescore times.

Verse 2

Let the Reader, while observing the Prophet's sacred ordination, fail not to observe with it, what is here said: that the Spirit entered into him, and set him on his feet; so that he heard him that spake. How truly blessed is that ordination, (and none else can be blessed), which hath the Lord Jesus, as the Great Bishop 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!

Verses 3-5

Observe the characters to whom the Prophet is sent. The house of Israel. So the Lord Jesus declared. Matthew 15:24. But then observe, Israel included the whole Church of Christ. Nor so the Holy Ghost, in after ages, taught by Paul. If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise, Galatians 3:29. And so God the Father before had declared: Isaiah 49:6; John 17:2. Observe farther, the character of Israel, stiff-necked, rebellious, impudent children. But still children. Never lose sight of this neither. Though as the Prophet saith, they were all this and more, and had a whore's forehead, Jeremiah 3:3. yet were never they otherwise than children. Rebellious children, but not rebels. The Holy Ghost makes a nice distinction in the two terms all over the Bible. And I believe, that the Lord hath never once called his children rebels! yea, the Lord appears to have been angry with Moses for calling them so. Numbers 20:10. But the Lord expressly called those rebels among them, which were not in the Covenant. For all are not Israel which are of Israel. Neither because they are the seed of Abraham, (for such were the children of the bond-maid Hagar and of Keturah,) are they all children, that is, children of promise. Romans 9:6-7. If the Reader wishes a clear apprehension of this subject, (and it is a blessed subject to the Church of the living God,) let him see if he can find in all the Bible a child of God called a rebel. But on the contrary, he will find the reprobate expressly called by this name. Hence in the instance of Korah and his company, so are they called. Numbers 17:10. Again in Ezekiel 20:38 the Lord saith, he will purge out from among his people the rebels. But when at anytime, as in this Chapter, the Lord speaks of his children, his chosen, he calls them still children, though rebellious children: and pronounceth a woe upon them, (that is, great sorrow of heart, when recovered by grace to a sense of sin), but not everlasting woe for their rebellion. See Isaiah 30:1; Isa_30:8-9; Isaiah 65:2; Psalms 78:8. And that this woe is only meant temporary, the Lord speaks of those rebellious children, which he had before described, that he waited to be gracious to them. Isaiah 30:18. See Ezekiel 20:29-37.

Verses 6-8

Observe, how the Lord arms his faithful servants to a boldness in his cause: and what assurance he gives them of his support. So he did Jeremiah. Jeremiah 1:7-8; Jer_1:17-18. So did the three worthies. Daniel 3:16-18. So Christ his disciples. Mark 16:18; Luke 10:3; Acts 5:19-20.

Verse 9-10

Here by type the Prophet is shown the illustration of the Lord's charge to him, and the tokens of the Lord's anointing him to his ministry. It is worthy remark, that Isaiah had a similar open manifestation given him at his ordination: and John the beloved Apostle, in the visions he saw. Isa 6; Revelation 10:8-10. Perhaps, by these outward tokens, it was intended to teach the Church, both ministers and people, that the words of the Lord are not to be heard or read only, but eaten and lived upon. So the Prophet Jeremiah expressed himself, Jeremiah 15:16 and Jeremiah 20:9. And if the written word be so blessed, what must be the Uncreated Word, even Christ the living bread? John 6:33, etc.

Verse 10

REFLECTIONS

IF my humble commentary could be supposed to fall under the eye of any of the ministers of God's sanctuary, I would venture to say to such an one, behold, my brother! the solemnity of Ezekiel's ordination; and then enquire, whether it can be supposed, that in the Church of Jesus now, the ordination of any can be less solemn, or less important? Did One like the Son of man, ordain Ezekiel? And did the Spirit enter into the Prophet, as the Lord spake to him? And can there be any real ordination now, but under the same Almighty authority? Did I say at mine ordination, that I believed myself to be inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost to take upon me that holy office? And have I never enquired since, whether that Almighty Spirit hath spoken in me to my own soul, and by me to the souls of others? Oh! what an awful thing it must be, in any, to rush into the ministry unsent, uncalled, unauthorized, unanointed. Oh! for grace to be given to the ministers of my God, to be faithful to God and to souls! Lord Jesus! do thou fulfil thy gracious promise, and give to thy Church, Pastors according to thine own heart, which shall feed thy people with understanding and knowledge. Lord Jesus! impress it upon the minds of unfaithful Pastors, how truly awful must it be, When the sins of the priests make the offerings of the Lord to be abhorred by the people. 1혻Samuel 2:17. Reader! join my soul in prayer to God, that none may go forth to the Lord's ministry, but such as are of the Lord's ordination. And then like Ezekiel, whether men will hear, or whether they will forbear, they shall know that there hath been a Prophet among them!