Ezekiel 3:21

The case of the righteous is even more complex and perilous for the watchman than that of the wicked, though it might not be thought so. The wicked has to be warned to turn from his evil, and so has the righteous if he sins. But the righteous has also to be warned, in ways that are suitable, lest he fall into evil. Only when the righteous is seen maintaining his righteousness unto the end can the watchman feel that he has delivered his own soul in regard to him. Like a ship laden with a precious freight he has to be anxiously piloted into the haven.

This passage, ch. Ezekiel 1:1 to Ezekiel 3:21, is not quite easy to estimate. There are two questions suggested by it, viz., first, how does the prophet represent the occurrences? and secondly, how is his representation to be interpreted? In answer to the first question, it is evident that all narrated from ch. Ezekiel 1:1 to Ezekiel 3:12 or Ezekiel 3:15 belongs to the prophet's trance. The vision of God in ch. 1 and his inspiration under the symbol of eating a book, as also his commission generally, all belong to the sphere of ecstatic experience. This is manifest so far as the great Theophany of ch. 1 is concerned; but all that follows, ch. Ezekiel 2:1 to Ezekiel 3:12, was transacted in the presence of this Theophany, and like it must be regarded as part of the trance or ecstasy. In Ezekiel 3:12, however, it is said that the vision of God went up from him, and if this were to be interpreted as ch. Ezekiel 11:24-25, where the same vision of God departed from him and he reported all he had seen during it to them of the captivity, we might suppose that the ecstasy was over. In ch. Ezekiel 3:15, it is said that he came to them of the captivity. It is added, however, that the spirit took him up and carried him there, that he sat among the captives dumb seven days, and that the hand of the Lord was strong upon him. All these expressions are usual to describe prophetic ecstasy, e.g. Ezekiel 8:3; Ezekiel 37:1; Ezekiel 40:2. In the passage ch. Ezekiel 33:22, "the hand of the Lord" might describe something less than the full ecstasy, though this is not certain. After the prophet's statement that he came to them of the captivity to Tel-abib, we might have expected some account of his ministry among them, but nothing of this is given; what follows is a more precise definition of his office, which is to be that of a watchman. The representation appears to be that the place by the river Chebar where the vision of God was seen by him was at some distance from Tel-abib, and that when the vision went up from him he "came" to the captives at that place. This "coming," however, is described as being taken up and carried by the spirit, terms usual to describe prophetic ecstasy, and it almost seems that the prophet does not strictly distinguish between what he did in the spirit, in vision, and what he did bodily and in reality.

If the last remark be true, it may suggest how the prophet's representation is to be interpreted. On the one hand the extent and variety of the incidents represented as occurring in the trance, the things seen and heard, the prophet's emotions and the like, hardly form any argument against the literal reality of the account. The rapidity of the mind's operation in such conditions is well known. Naturally the thoughts of God and of the people and of himself and all the general ideas described as presenting themselves in the vision are not to be regarded as absolutely new to the prophet's mind. They had many times before occurred to him, at least separately and in fragments. But now in a more exalted frame of mind than usual they are reproduced in connexion with one another and with a power to influence the mind to action which they had not before possessed. This is how the inaugural vision of all the prophets, Isaiah (6) and Jeremiah (1) as well as Ezekiel are to be understood. It is probable that the prophet was subject to trances, for the vision is but a higher form of the mental condition which clothes its thoughts in symbols, and this symbolism is characteristic of the whole Book.

On the other hand the presumption is that the various incidents described did not occur precisely as represented. It is probable that these three Chapter s cover the earliest part of the prophet's ministry, extending over a considerable period. But in the first place he has condensed the events and experiences of this period, the thoughts and feelings which he had in his intercourse with the exiles and the reception he met with at their hands, into the present brief statement. And secondly, he has thrown the experiences of this period into a symbolical form; the thought of God, of the divine majesty and greatness, which filled his mind at first and constantly, is presented under the form of the Theophany (ch. 1) always present with him. The feeling that he was a true prophet of God, commissioned to declare his will, and that the divine presence was always with him is symbolised in the other actions which follow (2, 3). At a later time looking back over this early period, recalling his vivid sense of God, of his presence with him directing all he did and inspiring all his words, he has presented the religious meaning of the period under the symbol of a trance in which he was in the immediate presence of God (cf. 8 11).