Page 59 - NOTES ON EZEKIEL

CHAPTER XII. 53
i t though he died there. The covering of the prophet’s
face so that he should not see the ground was but a
shadow of the stern reality. How solemn and humi­
liating for Jehovah’s people to know that He is Jehovah
by His desolating and dispersing judgments! Yet even
this would He turn to account, leaving a few from this
judgment to declare all their abominations among the
heathen; for who could so gravely bear witness against
idolatry as those that had thus suffered through yield­
ing to the snare?
Next, Ezekiel was to be a representative man to the
people of the land in partaking of bread and water with
every token of alarm. “ And the word of Jehovah
came unto me, saying, Son of man, eat thy bread with
quaking, and drink thy water with trembling and with
carefulness; and say unto the people of the land, Thus
saith the Lord Jehovah of the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
and of the land of Israel; They shall eat their bread
with carefulness, and drink their water with astonish­
ment, that her land may be desolate from all that is
therein, because of the violence of all them that dwell
therein. And the cities that are inhabited shall be laid
waste, and the land shall be desolate; and ye shall
know that I am Jehovah/’ (Ver. 17—20.)
The chapter closes with messages which rebuke the
Incredulity of the people in the prophetic word, so
•common as to become proverbial. " And the word of
Jehovah came unto me, saying, Son of man, what is
that proverb that ye have in the land of Israel, saying,
The days are prolonged, and every vision faileth ? Tell
"them therefore, thus saith the Lord Jehovah; I will
make this proverb to cease, and they shall no more use