Page 11 - NOTES ON EZEKIEL

INTRODUCTION. 5
ing Messiah and the new covenant. Ezekiel predicts
some strikingly characteristic changes when Israel are
restored and the theocracy is once more in force, the
details of which will appear as we pass through the
book.
Some have complained of our prophet’s obscurity.
But there is really no just ground, though the com­
plaint be as old at least as Jerome, who designates the
book “ a labyrinth of the mysteries of God.” The
supposed darkness is owing to two things in particular.
First, how could such a subject as depicting the divine
government be simple ? This, if done at all, must
embrace immense height, depth, and breadth; and if
symbol be used, it must require a compass entirely
unexampled for the ordinary demands of the creature.
Secondly, the mass of men in Christendom since
Origen have adopted the vicious system of “ spiritual
alchemy,” jisjlooker terms it. which seeks to change
the Jewish hopes into the predictions of proper Chris­
tian blessings. No wonder such men find a cloudy
mistiness overhanging his pictures. Apply his visions
aright, and they will in general be found remarkably
explicit and full of force. It is absurd to suppose
that details so minute and so circumstantial are mere
literary drapery.
The structure of the book is evident. The first
half consists of prophecies in strict chronological
order before the final destruction of Jerusalem, when
Zedekiah brought on himself the just punishment of
his rebellion and perjury. (Chaps, i.—xxiv.). Ezekiel
shews, under magnificent symbols followed up by the
plainest charges of sin, the hopelessness of every effort