The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 1 — Section 24

sorrowful men-" a,mong the captives." The atmosphere was depressing. Yet the light of heaven broke through it. God is not the less good and great because men are fallen and human life is too often a sad wreck. (3) He was himself a captive. Those very waters of Babylon by which others hung their harps in despair heard the first notes of the lyre of a braver soul. Trouble revealed the need of God, and invited his gmcious help. If Ezekiel had not been a captive he might never have beheld his glorious visions. 'l'he visions were worth the captivity. If poets learn in sorrow what they teach in song, may not the glory of the song justify the experience of the sorrow, and so explain some of the mystery of it? 2. Ezekiel was by the river Ohebar. He was in no city confines, but out in the open, in a quiet scene of nature. Isaiah saw his vision in the temple of Solomon (Isa. vi.). Ezekiel saw his in the more glorious temple of nature. God is on th~ hroad earth as surely as he is in any sacred place. IV. THE SOURCE OF THE VISIONS. 1. It was/rom heaven. Then the prophet must look up to see it. 'The heavens declare the glory of God, and yet many men never heed the message because earth enchains their attention. We need to know that there are transactions in heaven which deserve our notice. The physicist holds astronomy to be as true a science as geology. There is a spiritual astronomy which claims our study as much as the facts of man and earth. 2. It was through the opening of heaven. To many heaven is sealed. The firmament is like brass. No glory of God breaks through its awful expanse. God has to reveal himself before any man can see his glory. But revelation is not the creation of new truth. It is only rolling back the curtain, opening the gates of the unseen. The heavenly world is present, but too often it is veiled from sight, or perhaps our "eyes are holden." V. THE NATURE OF THE VISION. It was a vision of God. The prophet is to see some rays of the Divine glory, some fringe of the robe of the .Almighty. This is the highest of all visions. It is much more important that the prophet should behold the eternal glory of God than that he should foresee future earthly events. No doubt the secondary vision-the prevision of what is to happen on earth-is got through the higher vision; it is seen in the mirror of Divine truth, For us this vision of God comes in a new form. Heaven was open when Christ was manifested. In the human countenance of Jesus we may see that once rare sight of the glory of God, which is as a very vision of angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man (John i. 31).