Ezekiel 3:10

"Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, all my words that I shall speak unto thee receive in thy heart, and hear with thine ears. And go, get thee to them of the captivity, unto the children of thy people, and speak unto them, and tell them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear.

"Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me the voice of a great rushing, saying, Blessed be the glory of Jehovah from his place. And I heard the noise of the wings of the living creatures as they touched one another, and the noise of the wheels beside them, even the noise of a great rushing. So the Spirit lifted me up, and took me away; and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; and the hand of Jehovah was strong upon me. Then I came to them of the captivity at Tel-abib, that dwelt by the river Chebar, and to where they dwelt; and I sat there overwhelmed among them seven days."

EZEKIEL COMES TO TEL-ABIB (Ezekiel 3:10-15)

"All my words that I shall speak unto thee ..." (Ezekiel 3:10). The emphasis here should be upon the word "all." Even as the apostle Paul obeyed God in that he declared "the whole counsel of God" to mankind, Ezekiel was commissioned of God to do exactly the same thing. "The prophet was not to pick and choose out of the message, but was to deliver `all the counsel of God' (Acts 22:27)."[8]

"Go, get thee to them of the captivity ..." (Ezekiel 3:11) In Ezekiel 3:4, we noted that Ezekiel's commission was to "the house of Israel"; but here he was commanded to go to the captives. This was in no sense whatever a change in the commission. "For all practical purposes, the exiles were the house of Israel."[9]

Yes, part of the Israelites would return to Egypt, namely, the conspirators who murdered Gedaliah and took Jeremiah there to die; and there was another residue of the once powerful Ephraim in Assyria; but to neither of those groups was any prophet ever sent. The destiny of the whole Chosen People and the entire hope of the ultimate salvation of the human race were centered right there in Babylon in the hearts of the captive "remnant."

However, as Bruce pointed out, not any of the house of Israel was omitted from God's purpose, "Because the writing of the book would make God's message available to the whole nation,"[10] wherever individuals might chance to have lived.

"Go, get thee unto thy people ..." (Ezekiel 3:11). Note that God did not here say, "unto my people," but "unto thy people." The apostasy of Israel was so complete that God no longer recognized them as his people, thus fulfilling the prophecy of Hosea, "I hated them: because of the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of my house; I will love them no more" (Hosea 9:15).

"Blessed be the glory of Jehovah from his place ..." (Ezekiel 3:12). This is one of the most significant lines in Ezekiel. It proves that the glory of Jehovah, symbolized by that rushing mighty sound that accompanied the living creatures, the wings and the wheels, was no longer in the temple at Jerusalem. "The words, `from his place,' are not a reference to the sanctuary in Jerusalem, which Jehovah had forsaken, but to some region here thought of as `in the north' (see note on Ezekiel 1:4, above)."[11]

It seems that from the fact of Ezekiel's hearing all of this tremendous symbol of God's glory "behind him," that he had turned to face Tel-abib, whither the Spirit had commanded him to go.

The New Testament tells us at what time the glory of God returned, not to any kind of a literal temple, but to the true and mystical Temple of God, which is the holy Church of Jesus Christ. It occurred on Pentecost, where once again the forked flames as of fire and the rushing sound of a mighty wind endowed the apostles of Christ the true princes of the Church of God with the baptism of the Holy Spirit and ushered in the Christian dispensation of the grace of God.

"The Spirit lifted me up ..." (Ezekiel 3:12). "We are not to suppose that the prophet was miraculously transported from one place to another; he was here guided by God's Spirit to go to his countrymen."[12]

"I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; and the hand of Jehovah was strong upon me ..." (Ezekiel 3:14). Why this bitterness? Was it the terrible content of the message Ezekiel was ordered to deliver? Was it the sudden realization of the extreme difficulty of his assignment? Was it the poverty and wretchedness of the captives in their Babylonian dwelling place; or was it the drastic change in the life-style for Ezekiel himself? Bunn believed that, "It was the totality of all these things. It was here with Ezekiel as with Jesus in Gethsemane. The awesome cup would not pass from him; it contained all of the world's woe, sin, despair, hopelessness, and shame."[13]

Whatever the cause of Ezekiel's bitterness, he was overwhelmed when he came to Tel-abib; and it appears to have taken a full week for him to get over it.

"Then I came to them of the captivity at Tel-abib ..." (Ezekiel 3:15). Both Plumptre and Keil understand this as the first event of Ezekiel's ministry, rather than as the concluding phase of his commissioning; but we prefer the viewpoint of Dummelow that sees in the remainder of this chapter the concluding part of the commission. See enumeration of these three phases in Ezekiel 2.

"Tel-abib ..." (Ezekiel 3:15). Barnes, Bruce, and other scholars give the meaning of this word as "mound of green ears" or "mound of ears of corn"; but more recent studies on this name indicate that it meant "mound of the storm flood,"[14] or "hill of the deluge"[15] If such meanings are in the name, it would appear that a memory of the Great Deluge itself may be preserved in the name of this mound. It seems also to have been a very fertile and productive place.

"I sat there overwhelmed among them seven days ..." (Ezekiel 3:15). There certainly seems to have been some tragic condition in the captives themselves which produced this reaction by Ezekiel. This period of silence in the presence of grief, suffering, or disaster was universally observed by comforters in ancient times. A good example of this is seen in the case of the friends of Job who came and sat with him, saying nothing at all.

THE WATCHMAN'S RESPONSIBILITY (Ezekiel 3:16-21)