By Rev. D. N. MacLeod, Ullapool
“Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord God; Although I have cast them far off among the heathen, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come.”
—Ezekiel iii: 16.
(1) Introduction.
(2) The past and present condition of those here signified.
(3) The promise of the Lord God to abide “as a little sanctuary to them” in their dispersion and distress.
(1) Ezekiel, the son of Buzi who was of priestly descent and himself also a priest, was carried away captive during Nebuchadnezzar’s second attack on Jerusalem; and settled with a Jewish colony on the banks of the Chebar, to the north of Babylon. As he dwelt there among the captives by the river Chebar, it so happened in the fifth year of the captivity the heavens were opened; the word of the Lord came expressly unto him; the hand of the Lord was upon him, and there was revealed to him a series of remarkable visions of God.
The second of these visions was one of the glory of God, which consisted in the likeness of a throne with the dazzling transparent brilliancy of a sapphire stone; and upon the likeness of the throne the likeness as the appearance of a man upon it above, clothed in the deep yellow beautiful colour of amber, enveloped in glowing fire and surrounded with the vivid brightness of the rainbow. “This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of God,” which when Ezekiel saw he fell upon his face like his renowned fellow servant, John, the Apostle, in the island of Patmos; and like him also he heard a voice of one that spake, and he was made to stand upright to receive divine communications relating to the deepest mysteries of God’s purposes and human destiny; but especially referring to the immediate vicissitudes, future fortunes and misfortunes of his own nation and kindred.
He was told that his mission as a sent messenger of God was to a rebellious nation, impudent and stiff-hearted children. That no smooth path bestrewen with roses was his, but one covered over with thorns and briers; and that his work was by no means easy, pleasant, and always crowned with success, was made known to him by the fact that as they had not hearkened unto God neither would they hearken unto him. Thus he would be no stranger to the scorpion’s sting.
Assured of the presence and the never-failing help of the Almighty God he was commanded to speak the word of God
faithfully, whether they would hear, or whether they would forbear, and exhorted not to be afraid of their words nor dismayed at their looks. He was warned against imbibing, harbouring and cultivating the same spirit of rebellion against God which characterised the people to whom he was sent, and thus become a partaker with them in their sin and guilt. He was next asked to open his mouth and eat that which was given to him, and from a hand stretched out to him he received “a roll of a book” with the command repeated to eat the roll and go and speak to the house of Israel.
Thus called, chosen, equipped and set apart as a watchman on Zion’s walls—by the vision of the glory of God to humble him and show him his need of personal holiness, and that all his actions would need to bear the stamp of justice and equity; and to give him right, exalted, and becoming views of God’s infinite greatness and holiness and the great reverence, holy fear, and gravity which should always characterise him in divine things—by the knowledge received of the wicked and treacherous character of the people among whom his lot was now cast as an ambassador from heaven—by the warnings given of the reception his message was most likely to receive, and the disappointments, difficulties, and hardships of the way and the work, and how much he must suffer for God’s sake—by the eating of the roll symbolical of inspiration, and having the word of God written on his heart, it should be in him “a well of water springing up unto everlasting life” so that out of his belly should flow rivers of living waters—by God’s express command not to fear them, and above all by the promise of life as the reward of faithfulness, and the threatening of death as the wages of unfaithfulness and disobedience he went forth to declare to the impenitent in Israel: “O wicked man thou shalt surely die,” and to the penitent “As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye, from your evil ways, for why will ye die, O house of Israel?”
(2) We have now seen that those here spoken of are first of all the children of Israel, that very generation to whom the prophet Ezekiel was sent, and among whom he lived, laboured and died. As I know you are well acquainted with the history of Israel, I shall not weary you with lengthy details more than what is necessary for my present purpose.
But we may here again inquire, Who are they? What were their special privileges? To the first question the answer is, They were the seed of Abraham, and the chosen people of God. To the second, They were the recipients and custodians of divine
revelation in all the stages of its gradual development, not only from Abraham and Moses, but from Adam himself. To them only of all the families of the earth were thus committed the oracles of God. They had circumcision, the Passover types and sacrifices, and were the heirs of all the promises. They had a knowledge of the One Living and True God who was in covenant with them. They received the Moral Law, the Ceremonial Law, divine statutes and precepts of such comprehensiveness and yet minute exactness as embodied and regulated everything in their existence for the Glory of God and the wellbeing of the nation, communities, families and individuals, whether of a national, religious or temporal nature. From the highest problems of the State, to the awesome and majestic ritual of the “Holy” and “Holy of Holies” down to the common and seeming trivialities of meat and drink for them as for us it was “Whether ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”
They also possessed the records of the many severe and lengthened chastisements inflicted upon their forefathers by a righteous God for their sins; and the equally many merciful deliverances the same God vouchsafed to them; and the innumerable instances of His mercy, love and care over them, erring and unworthy though they were, which should have made them more jealous, watchful, and steadfast in their adherence to their covenant obligations. But like their ancestors “They despised the pleasant land, they believed not His word.” They allowed their idolatrous hearts to go after “gods which were no gods,” and “they mingled with the heathen and learned their works,” “And they served their idols which were a snare unto them.” The ox knew his owner, and the ass his master’s crib, but Israel did not know neither did they consider. The whole head had become sick and the whole heart faint, and the children of Israel were once more fallen by their iniquities, needing to be put once again into the furnace of affliction to purely purge away their dross and take away all their tin.
This furnace the Lord found for them in Babylon, where the process of purifying them from their proneness to idolatry occupied the long space of seventy years. It seemed so difficult a task to eradicate their besetting sin of idolatry that was woven into their very being that no less a period of time would suffice.
But in their being thus “cast off among the heathen, and scattered among the countries,” do we not see a replica of that which befell the whole human race in the fall of our first parents. For no sooner did they sin than a feeling of dread, a fear of punishment, and a desire to flee from God, arising from the loud voice of a violated and guilty conscience within, drove them to
covet the scanty and miserable shelter of the trees of the garden, which desire to flee and hide themselves, still characterises their children. In the roaming spirit inherent in every human breast that delights in the width of the broad way of infidelity, and in the windings of every crooked and bypath of vice which converge and end in eternal woe. Loving every filthy stream and stagnant pool of carnal and worldly pleasures which are but for a season. Hating the very thought of returning unto God, the fountain of living waters, of submitting to Him, and of walking in the paths of righteousness. To whom the holy law of God is an unbearable yoke of bondage, fetters of iron which none ever was able to bear, whose cords and bands they break and cast from them to be free to wallow in the mire of sin. But especially in the readiness of fallen humanity to commit crime under the cover of darkness and in solitude which could never be committed in the light of day and in the open. “Choosing darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil,” and flattering themselves with the thought that the thin veil of darkness and solitude is sufficient to hide and cover them from the Omnipresent One, whose eyes as are a flame of fire, and like the lightning which shines from the east even unto the west run to and fro through the whole earth. To Whom darkness and light are alike, and the midnight as the noonday; who searches the heart and tries the reins, and being no respecter of persons will reward every man according to the deeds done in the body whether these were good or evil. But if Adam wished to flee and hide himself from God, he was soon made to know and feel that flee he must, but hide himself he cannot; that sin had fixed a deep and impassable gulf between him and God, which could never be crossed unless God condescended to find a way. And as “He cast off Israel among the heathen, and scattered them among the countries,” so He drove Adam out of the garden of Eden, and setting a flaming sword at the east end of it to prevent his return, ordered him to till the ground from whence he was taken, and in sorrow to eat of it all the days of his life: and having pronounced the sentence of death upon him—”For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return”—scattered his posterity then in his loins, groaning under the weighty load of sin, guilt and death, among all the countries of the world. “The wicked shall be driven away in his wickedness.” But to return to the children of Israel. What was their condition now as captives in Babylon? They were exiles deprived of their personal rights and civil liberties, lying prostrate under a foreign yoke, no more their own, no longer free, but bondslaves and a prey to the caprice of a tyrannical king and the whims of a heathen people. Spoiled of their earthly all, and with the bitter remem-
brance of their beloved Zion in a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation; the holy and beautiful temple wherein their fathers worshipped reduced to ashes, and all their pleasant things laid waste, they were left to hang their harps upon the willows, to endure the taunts and jeers of their captors, and to shed by the rivers of Babylon those tears of sorrow that come too late, and flow copiously at the remembrance of opportunities forever lost, of time misused which should have been well spent, of neglected privileges, and abused mercies, of wilful acts of folly and crimes of crimson hue, and a fear that their latter end may be like Esau who, “when he would have inherited the blessing he was rejected; for he found no place of repentance though he sought it carefully with tears.”
But is not this a mirror into which we would do well to look, and not forget the true likeness it presents to us of ourselves as ruined by the fall, and our actual transgressions: deprived of all that was really worth having, knowledge, righteousness and true holiness, and brought into the captivity of sin and death, and the tyranny of Satan, which I cannot hope to present to you in better form than by here repeating the words of our Shorter Catechism: “All mankind by their fall, lost communion with God, are under His wrath and curse, and so made liable to all the miseries of this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell for ever.”
But woful as this condition was in itself, its misery was increased tenfold by our having put to death the Holy and Just One, and having raised our voices against Him, loudly exclaiming “Away with Him, away with Him, Crucify Him, Crucify Him,” and release unto us that thief and murderer Barabbas, for being murderers already at heart, and soon in practice, he is better fitted and a more amiable companion for us than this fellow, who according to our judgment ought to die because He being a man maketh Himself God.
But this deplorable condition is still more intensified by our wilful neglect and rejection of God’s infinite remedy in the gift of eternal life freely offered to us in the Gospel of grace in the Name and for the sake of God’s Only Begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who died the just for the unjust that He might bring sinners unto God. By our utter disregard of the claims and threatenings of God’s word, and our vain conceits and airy bubbles that the Lord will not do good neither will He do evil—that since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were—that tomorrow will be as today and much more abundant, and therefore let us eat, drink and be merry. But if Esau was punished sevenfold because he despised his birthright, truly we seventy and seven fold if we neglect so great salvation. “It
shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for us.” “There shall remain to us no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries.” “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
(3) The promise of the Lord God to abide “as a little sanctuary to them” in their dispersion and distress.
Ezekiel, alarmed at the dire calamity which threatened to sweep them from off the face of the earth as with a besom of destruction, hastened to inquire of the Lord, and falling on his face cried with a loud voice, “Ah Lord God, wilt thou make a full end of the remnant of Israel?” It was an evil, cloudy and dark day in truth wherein Ezekiel’s vision could not penetrate beyond the apparent inevitable doom of Israel’s last remnant. But he took the only course likely to furnish him with a true knowledge of the real facts of their case, and adopted the only means likely to avert the impending and dreadful disaster when he carried their whole case, hopeless though it seemed, and laid it all before the Lord. And Ezekiel himself, lying on his face before the Lord and with loud cries beseeching Him to spare and not make an end, was the bow in that thick cloud which hid the firmament of Israel.
God informed him that His purpose was not to destroy but to save them; that those who sought evil among them, and provoked Him to threaten the withdrawal of His presence, and the removal of His protection would have no better reward for their scheming, plotting and labour than to fall and be engulfed in the pits which they themselves had dug. “For the Lord will not cast off for ever. But though he cause grief yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. For he does not afflict willingly or grieve the children of men.” So He commanded Ezekiel to tell the remnant of Israel in His name that though He cast them far off among the heathen, and scattered them among the countries yet He was to abide as a little sanctuary to them in all their habitations. The sanctuary, strictly speaking, was the Holy of Holies, but in a general sense it was sometimes applied to the whole Temple, so in that general sense I understand and use it here with its kindred meanings of refuge and rest as Moses says of God in the 90th Psalm, “Lord thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.”
Although Solomon’s Temple with all its glory had passed away, and the peculiar joy felt by every true heart in Israel when gathering to Jerusalem to worship God and sacrifice to Him was no longer theirs, and that now in captivity their laughter was turned to mourning and their joy to heaviness, yet to know and
be assured that God was not to utterly forsake them, but that He was to abide with them, as He afterwards proved and manifested in His loving care over the three children in the fiery furnace, and Daniel in the den of lions—that He had a purpose of mercy to them—that He was to maintain a knowledge of His name and the true worship among them, and was not to leave Himself without a witness even in Babylon—that He gave distinct intimations regarding a time to come when He purposed to restore to them largely what they had forfeited and lost, and was to bring them back again to their own land to build the old wastes, raise up the former desolations, and repair the waste cities where, with the winter passed the rain over and gone, they with raptures of joy would listen to the voice of the turtle as in the days of old and as in former years, was indeed a little reviving in their bondage, and a sweetening and alleviating of their sufferings by which their hopes were revived and patience confirmed, making it easier for them to bear the hardships of their lot.
But these words had a wider range of comfort than the boundaries of Babylon, and may be taken as applying to all the Israel of God in every age and in every clime. They are re-echoed in the words of Jesus of Nazareth “That where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them.” “Fear not little flock for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” “And lo I am with you alway even unto the end of the world.” “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”
Our eyes are directed towards a more glorious, more permanent and true sanctuary not made with hands, the Lord Jesus Christ who in two distinct natures one person for ever is the only and true sanctuary of His people. As approach to God was by the sanctuary, so Christ is the new and living way unto the Father by which all afar off must come unto God the Father. “No man can come unto the Father but by me.” “Look unto me and be ye saved all ye ends of the earth for I am God and there is none else.” “Besides me there is no Saviour.” “For there is no other name given under heaven among men whereby sinners must be saved.”
As worshipping God acceptably was by the sanctuary so Christ in His three-fold offices of Prophet, Priest and King and as the Mediator between God and man is the only way by which our worship can be glorifying and acceptable unto God the Father, and that we can worship Him in spirit and in truth.
As the sanctuary was the place where sacrifices were offered up and an atonement made for sin; so Christ in our nature offered up Himself once for all as a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour
As the sanctuary was the place where incense was burned, in the smoke of which the High Priest entered into the Holiest of all so Christ’s intercession is our incense by which we can enter within the veil into the very Presence of God Himself.
unto God, by which He magnified the law of God, satisfied the holy justice of God and perfected for ever all them that believe.
As the sanctuary was the place where incense was burned, in the smoke of which the High Priest entered into the Holiest of all so Christ’s intercession is our incense by which we can enter within the vail into the very Presence of God Himself.
As the sanctuary was the place where the glory of God was seen on the mercy seat between the two cherubims, so in Christ alone can the true glory of God be seen; for He is the brightness of the Father’s glory and the express image of His person. “And we beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth.”
As in the sanctuary the blood of the beasts slain was sprinkled on the book, the people, the vessels of the ministry, and almost all things were by the law purged with blood, and without the shedding of blood there was no remission, so Christ shed His Blood for the remission of the sins of many and His Blood which speaketh better things than that of Abel, and affords greater safety than the blood of the paschal lamb sprinkled on the lintel and the two side posts of the houses of Israel in Egypt (for the blood of the paschal lamb saved only from temporal death, but this Blood from eternal death) cleanseth us from all sins, and is the only means by which those afar off are brought nigh, and the prisoners of hope set free out of the pit in which there is no water.
As in the sanctuary was the ark, containing the two tables of the law, and having for its covering the mercy seat, a solid plate of pure gold, which formed the lid of the ark, so Christ is the ark of the covenant who had the law of God within His heart, and is Himself the throne of mercy. This ark affords greater safety than Noah’s, for Noah’s ark saved only from a flood of waters, but this ark, from a flood of divine eternal wrath.
As in the sanctuary was the golden pot that had manna which signified the inexhaustible fullness of grace, so in Christ all the fullness of the godhead dwells bodily, and He is the living Bread of Life which came down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die. “Who so eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed.”
As in the sanctuary was Aaron’s rod that budded, which although it more particularly typified the choice of Christ by the Father to the office of priesthood, for He was called of God as was Aaron, yet I think we may understand it of Christ cut off from the land of the living, and lying under the power of death for a time and arising again on the third day; but especially it
may be applied to His Cause in the world, for though Christ’s Cause become so low as that it is as dry and sapless as that rod, once the tender twig on the trunk of some lofty tree, but now carried for so many years in Aaron’s hand and yet made to bud, so Christ’s Cause will yet bud, blossom, flourish, and triumph until it will fill with its fragrance all lands from sea to sea and from the river unto the ends of the earth. And if the children of Israel looked forward to the end of their captivity and their return to Zion as the ransomed of the Lord, with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads, obtaining joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing fleeing away; so likewise the whole true Israel of God look forward to the heavenly Zion where they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, or any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”
“God doth build up Jerusalem and he it is alone that the dispersed of Israel doth gather into one.”