Bible Commentaries
Ezekiel 33

Verses 1-33

Ezekiel 33:8

'My own notion is,' said Keble once, 'that clergymen generally have more to blame themselves for as to neglect in the way of example and the way of intercession than in the way of direct warning.'

Ezekiel 33:11

This is the motto and text of Richard Baxter's Appeal to the Unconverted, at one part of which he breaks out thus: 'Turn ye... . It is the voice of every affliction to call thee to make haste and turn. Sickness and pain cry, Turn; and poverty, and loss of friends, and every twig of the chastizing rod cry, Turn; and yet wilt thou not hearken to the call? These have come near thee and made thee feel; they have made thee groan, and can they not make thee turn?

'The very frame and nature of thy being itself be-speaketh thy return. Why hast thou reason, but to rule thy flesh and serve thy Lord? Why hast thou an understanding soul, but to learn and know His will, and do it? Why hast thou a heart within thee, that can love, and fear, and desire, but that thou shouldst fear Him, and love Him, and desire after Him'?

References. XXXIII. 11. Bishop E. C. S. Gibson, Messages from the Old Testament, p. 194., J. Oswald Dykes, Outlines of Sermons on the Old Testament, p. 253. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxx. No. 1795. XXXIII. 14. J. Baldwin Brown, The Soul's Exodus and Pilgrimage, p. 255. XXXIII. 30-33. W. M. Punshon, Outlines of Sermons on the Old Testament, p. 259.

Ezekiel 33:31

It is almost incredible how the soul of these Semites is bound up with the prey of pennies.

C. M. Doughty, Arabia Deserta, I. p. 55.

Ezekiel 33:32

To seek no more than a present delight, that evanisheth with the sound of the words that die in the air, is not to desire the word as meat but as music, as God tells the Prophet Ezekiel. And, lo, Thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well upon an instrument: for they hear Thy words and they do them not. ... If anyone's head or tongue should grow apace, and all the rest stand at a stay, it would certainly make him a monster; and they are no other, who are knowing and discoursing Christians, and grow daily in that respect, but not at all in holiness of heart and life, which is the proper growth of the children of God.

From Coleridge's Aids to Reflection.

'Dr. Dove preach'd before the King,' is an entry in Evelyn's Diary for the reign of Charles II., immediately followed by the further comment: 'I saw this evening such a scene of profuse gaming, and the King in the midst of his three concubines, as I had never before seen. Luxurious dallying and profane-ness.'

References. XXXIII. 32. J. H. Thom, Laws of Life (2nd Series), p. 196. XXXIII. 32, 33. R. Winterbotham, Sermons and Expositions, p. 87.

Ezekiel 33:33

It seems hard to be generous, not easy even to be just to the times upon which our lot is cast. The very expression 'our present day' conveys with it something of disparagement, implying a contrast with other ages in whose very silence we find an eloquence rebuking the clamour that surrounds us. Yet much that we now look on as prosaic, and perhaps decry as unreal, if read as history would enchain our imaginations; if spoken as prophecy would stir our very souls. Future chroniclers will make it their wisdom to decipher the Runes we are now dinting, and will understand their import better than we who leave them on the rocks.

Dora Greenwell.

As a rule, people discover a man to be worth listening to only after he is gone; their hear, hear! resounds when the orator has left the platform.

Schopenhauer.

The voice comes deepest from the sepulchre, and a great name hath its root in the dead body. If you invited a company to a feast, you might as well place round the table live sheep and oxen and vases of fish and cages of quails, as you would invite a company of friendly hearers to the philosopher who is yet living. One would imagine that the iris of our intellectual eye were lessened by the glory of his presence, and that, like eastern kings, he could be looked at near only when his limbs are stiff, by wax-light, in close curtains.

Landor.