Ezekiel 3:23, commentary and pictures

Ezekiel stands in the opening chapters of the book that follows Jeremiah and Lamentations. Ezekiel was contemporary with Jeremiah, while Jeremiah prophesied in Jerusalem and Ezekiel served as God's mouthpiece among the captives carried away with King Jehoiachin to Babylonia in 597 B.C. and settled near the river Chebar. His name means God strengthens, and he was of the priesthood.

His book contains earnest discourses to the people of God concerning moral conduct, prophecies regarding Judah and Jerusalem and other kingdoms, and a prophecy in chapters 37 to 48 of what the Lord would do for His people if they would yield to Him. The verse records that he arose and went forth into the plain, where the glory of the Lord stood as the glory he had seen by the river Chebar, and he fell on his face. That glory repeats the vision by the river Chebar of living creatures, understood as angels so arranged, typifying might, patience, wisdom, and glory. These four symbols are the same as the four standards under which the camp of Israel was pitched.

The vision belongs to Ezekiel's vision of the heavenly sanctuary, presented as a visible representation of the true tabernacle in heaven. It shows God's overruling providence over the nations, in which the wheels within wheels are all in order to Him and God is ruling. The sight of God's majesty impressed Ezekiel before his prophetic work, preparing him to deliver warnings and reproof to his people without fearing them.

The chapter imposes the duty to warn every person in danger as earnestly as one would warn a neighbor whose house is on fire even if he seems indifferent. That warning calls people to give the heart to Jesus, to see the light of present truth and obey it, and to put away all sins and keep all God's commands. By it those outside the ark of safety may see their true condition and hasten to escape the time of trouble just before us.