The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 1 — Section 197

<lopcuted. Ewa.Id e.ncl Smend take the words The LXX., following adifferentreading,gives as iudico.tive: "Ye a.re far," etc. "another heart" (as in 1 Sam. x. 9): but the Ver. 16.-Yet will I be unto them as e. Hebrew, represented by the Authorized and little sanctuary; better, with the Revised Revised Versions, is, without any doubt, right. Version, a little while, as marking tho.t the As in the symbolic action of the joining of state described was transientand provisiono.l. the two sticks in eh. xxxvii. 15-22, so here, For o. time, Ezekiel and the exiles were to the hope of the prophet, like that of Isaiah find the presence of Jehovah manifested as and Jeremiah (x:xxii. 37-39), looked forward in the vision of Chebar (eh. i. 1-28), or felt to the unity of the restored people. Judah spiritually, and this would make the spot should no longer vex Ephraim, nor Ephraim where they found themselves as fully a holy Judah (Isa. :xi. 13). The long-standing line place as the temple had been. There also they of cleavage should disappear. Oneness of would have a "house of God." But this we.a purpose and of action would characterize not to be their permanent lot. There was the new Israel of Goel. So, in our Lord's to be a restoration to " the land of Israel " prayer for his Church, there is the prayer (ver. 17; eh. xx.xvii. 21), to the visible that "they may be one"-made perfect in sanctuary, to a second temple no longer dese- one (John :xvii. 21-23). Left to itself, crated by the pollutions that had defiled the Israel tended, as all human communities first. As with all such prophecies, the words have tended, to an ever-subdividing indi- had "springing and germinant e.ccomplish- vidualism, fruitful in sects and parties and mente." In eh. xl.-xlviii. we have Ezekiel'e schisms. Even the highest of those aspira- ideal vision of their fulfilment. A literal but tions has remained as yet without any incomplete fulfilment is formed in the work adequate fulfilment. The ideal unity of ofrestoration achieved by Zerubbabel, Ezra, the Christian Church is as far distant as that and N ehemie.h, and the hopes then cherished of the Chlll'ch of Israel. It remains for us by Haggai and Zechariah. A more com- to welcome any approximate fulfilments as plete but less literal fulfilment appears in pledges and ee.rnests of the future unity of the Church of Christ as the true Israel of the true Israel of God in the heavenly God (Gal. vi. 16), and in the Jerusalem which Jerusalem. In the prophet's thoughts that is above (Gal. iv. 26). In the fact that in unity was to be brought about by the Divine the seer's vision of that heavenly city there gift of e. "new Spirit," loyal, obedient, un- is no temple, but the presence of "the Lord selfish. We note how distinctly, whether God .Almighty and the Lamb" (Rev. xxi. consciously or unconsciously, Ezekiel repro- 22), we find the crowning development of duces the thought, almost the very words, of Ezekiel's thought. Intermediate expansions Jer. xx.xi. 31-33; :xx:xii. 37-39; how his are found (1) in the gradual substitution of wordeare in their tum reproduced in Rev. :xxi. the synagogue for the temple in the religious 3-5. The eternal hope 11.!!serts itself age.in life of Israel; (2) in our Lord's words to and again in spite of all partial failures and the woman of Samarfo (John iv. 21-24); disappointments. I will take the stony heart nud (3) in his promise that where two or out of their flesh. The thought is, as we three are gathered together in his Ne.me, have seen, identical with that of Jer. :xx:xi. there he would be in the midst of them 31-33, but the form in this instance is (Matt. :xviii. 20). The thought that it is eminently characteristic of Ezekiel, o.nd the presence of Jehovah that makes the meets us age.in in eh. :xx:xvi. 26. The" stony sanctuary, not the sanctuary that secures heart" is that whioh is "hardened" (eh. iii. 7) the presence, Ezekiel may have learnt from age.inst all impressions of repentance, to the fate of Shiloh (Pa. lx:xviii. 60). all natll?al. or epirituo.l aspirations of the Ver.17.-I will give you the land ofisre.eL good. So Zech. vii. 12 speoks of those who The marginal references in the Authorized had me.de their he1Lrts "harder than au Version show how entirely Ezekiel was o.de.mant stone." So we may remember, by following in the footsteps of his master way of illustration, that Burns suys of the iTeremie.h, os he had done in those of Isaiah, sin of impurity thut "it ho.rdons a' within," in their prophecies of restoration. Here also that "it petrifies the feeling." Ezekiel had the le.w of" springing and germinant accom- seen enough of that stoniness in others, plishments" finds its application. Ezekiel perhaps had, e.t times, felt it in himself. (xlvii. 13-:xlviii. 35) has his ideal of e. new Ver. 20.-The.t they may walk in my geographical Israel, as of a new local temple, statutes, etc. Out of the new spirit there a land from which idol11trous shrines and was to grow the new life-a life of righteous- high places have disappeared. St. Paul ness and obedience, e.s in worship, so also iu (Rom. ix.-:xi.) clings to the thought of a the acts of mC1n's daily life and his deal- restoration of the literal Israel, even while ings with his neighbours. So, Clnd not other- he strips it of Ezckiel's geogre.phioe.l limitC1- wise, could the actual relu tion of J ehovnh tions. correspond to the ideal, as it had been Ver. 19.-I will give them one heart. decl!Lred of old (Exod. vi. 7; Lev. uvi. 12;  !!12 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. [err. :u.1-25.