Ezekiel 12:2

Eze 12:2 Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see, and see not; they have ears to hear, and hear not: for they [are] a rebellious house.

Ver. 2. A rebellious house.] Heb., A house of rebellion, domus perduellis, that hath cast down the gauntlet of defiance against me.

Which have eyes to see, and see not,] sc., To any good purpose. They will not see, {Isa 26:11} and who so blind as such? They wink wilfully, which is no small aggravation of their sin. {Joh 9:4 Eph 4:18}

Which have ears to hear, and hear not,] i.e., Castigatiores non evadunt. They are not a button the better for what they hear. They draw not up the ears of their minds to the ears of their bodies, that one sound might pierce both.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Eze_12:2

Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see and see not.

The disuse of spiritual faculties

Eyes and ears are for many reasons the most important and valuable organs of the human body, the chief gates--to use the language of Bunyan--to the famous town of Mansoul. The one brings us into contact with form, the other with sound; the one has relation to space, the other to time. No part in the human frame is so wonderful in their execution as these. The eye, says one, by its admirable combination of coats and humours and lenses, produces on the retina, or expansion of nerve at the back of the socket or bony cavity, in which it is so securely lodged, a distinct picture of the minutest or largest object; so that, on a space that is less than an inch in diameter, a landscape of miles in extent, with all its variety of scenery, is depicted with perfect exactness of relative proportion in all its parts. Nor is the ear less wonderful. It is a complicated mechanism lying wholly within the body, showing only the wide outer porch through which the sound enters. It conveys the sound through various chambers to the inmost extremities of those nerves which bear the messages to the brain. So delicate is this organ, that it catches the softest whispers, and conveys them to the soul, and so strong that it hears the roll of the loudest thunder in the chamber of its mistress. Now, the text--as well as other parts of Scripture--teaches that mans spiritual nature has organs answering to those organs of the body. The text calls us to notice the spiritual disuse of these faculties.

I. It involves the greatest deprivation.

1. The disuse shuts out the grandest realities of existence. What are the immutable principles of rectitude, what is the great spiritual universe, what is God Himself, to the man who is morally blind and deaf?

2. The disuse shuts out the sublimest joys of existence. What are the charms of physical to moral beauty, the beauty of holiness and God? What are the charms of physical harmony to those of that great moral anthem that fills the spiritual universe with rapture and delights the ear of God Himself? How great then the deprivation of the spiritually blind and deaf! God is with them, His pure, happy heavens lie about them, and they know it not.

3. The disuse deteriorates the faculties themselves. Unused organs often die out.

II. It involves the greatest wickedness.

1. It is an abuse of talent. All the powers we possess, we possess as trustees, not as proprietors; they are entrusted to us for a specific purpose.

2. It is an abuse of the greatest talents. These spiritual faculties are the highest we have--higher than bodily power, higher than intellectual ability, higher than natural genius.

Conclusion--

1. The sad condition of the unregenerate world.

2. The deeply needed mission of Christ. (Homilist.)

Rebelliousness means loss of faculty

You cannot commit sin and be as clear-minded as you were before you committed it. The obscurity of mind may not be immediately evident; but let a man allow one bad thought to pass through his brain, and the brain has lost quality, a tremendous injury has been inflicted on that sensitive organ; by and by, after a succession of such passages, there will be no brain to injure. Sin tears down whatever it touches. Your habit is bringing you to imbecility, if it is a bad habit. You must name it; preachers may not speak distinctly and definitely, but they create a standard by which men may judge themselves, and by which preachers may also judge their own aspirations and purposes. You are losing your eyesight by your sin; you are becoming deaf because you are becoming worse in thought and desire and purpose; you are not the business man you were a quarter of a century ago, when you were a disciplinarian, a Spartan, a self-critic, when you held yourself in a leash, and would not allow yourself to go an inch faster than your judgment approved; since then you have loosened the reins, you have allowed the steeds to go at their own will, and the consequence is that you miss one-half of what is spoken to you, and you fail to see Gods morning and Gods sunset; they are but commonplaces to you, mayhap but broad vulgarities. Men should be good if they wish to keep their genius. The bad man goes down. His descent may not be palpable today or tomorrow, but the process is not the less certain and tremendous because it is sometimes imperceptible. (J. Parker, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

That is, they receive not the fruit of that which they see and hear.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 2. Which have eyes to see, and see not] It is not want of grace that brings them to destruction. They have eyes to see, but they will not use them. No man is lost because he had not sufficient grace to save him, but because he abused that grace.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(2) A rebellious house.—Comp. Deu_1:26; Rom_10:21. The seeing not and hearing not is that perverse refusing to see and to hear so often spoken of in Scripture. (See Deu_29:4; Isa_6:9; Jer_5:21; Mat_13:14-15.) It was because of this disposition that the prophet was to give them a sign to which they could not shut their eyes.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. The people of Israel among whom the prophet dwells is a rebellious house (ch. Eze_2:3; Eze_2:6-8, Eze_3:26-27). His former signs meet with no belief from them. They have eyes but see not: they behold events and history with their bodily eyes, but fail to discern the moral meaning in them. Events are just events to them, the nature of the God who animates the events remains undiscovered by them (Isa_6:9; Isa_42:20; Jer_5:21; Mar_8:18). And the signs and words of the prophet make no impression on them; they say, “Doth he not speak parables?” (ch. Eze_20:49). Therefore new signs must be given them (Eze_12:4).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Therefore, thou son of man, prepare thee stuff for removing,.... Or, "vessels of captivity" (s), such as persons take along with them when they go a journey, or into a far country; such as a staff, scrip, purse, shoes, &c. or household goods; such as tables, chairs, and the like, which are removed when a person goes from one house to another; by which sign they of the captivity were to be taught that Zedekiah and the people of the Jews should in like manner be carried captive into Babylon; which they were not willing to believe, and the false prophets had told them the contrary:

and remove by day in their sight; be carrying the stuff out, day by day, several days running, as Jarchi from Menachem interprets it; that they may see and take notice of it, and ask the reason of it; which, when known, they might send to their correspondents at Jerusalem, and acquaint them with it:

and thou shall remove from thy place to another place in their sight; from the house in which he dwelt, to another house at some distance; yet so as to be seen by them, both from whence and whither he moved:

it may be they will consider; or "see" (t); make use of their eyes, and of their understandings, and think better of things. The Targum is,

"perhaps they will fear;''

the Lord, and regard his prophets, and be afraid of his judgments:

though they be a rebellious house; such who are the most obstinate may be reclaimed.

(s) "vasa transmigrationis", Pagninus, Montanus, Starckius; "instrumenta migrationis", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Polanus. (t) "fortasse visuri sunt", Junius & Tremellius, Polanus; "fortasse videbunt", Piscator, Starckius.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Compare Deu 1:26; margin reference; Rom 10:21. The repetition of such words from age to age, shows that the prophet’s words are intended to reach beyond the generation in which he lived.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Thou dwellest; the prophet knowing the captivity would be long, had settled his habitation, and probably found some favour with the enemy, that he might be accommodated for his abode. The Jews who gave up to the Chaldeans found that kindness mentioned Jer 29:4-7, with Eze 24:5,6, and so were indifferently well placed together, and the prophet dwells among them, in the land of Chaldea.

A rebellious house; in their captivity too many of them retained their stubborn murmuring and rebellious humour, and blamed, quarrelled, and condemned them who gave them counsel to yield, and themselves for yielding, and it is likely stirred up them at Jerusalem to hold out, and save themselves, and rescue their brethren. These will ridicule thy words, yet speak them; for they are mine, and shall be accomplished.

Eyes to see; they have wit enough, they are of a capacity well enough fitted, if they would, to understand and consider what thou speakest; expressed by a double phrase, which signifies one and the same thing; eyes and ears.

See not; they contemptuously refuse to see and hear, they will not consider, lay to heart, repent, and reform. They are a rebellious house; they have conspired together, and all they will resolve or design is to do whatever is good in their own eyes, and whatever their wild imaginations, raised by false prophets, suggest.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

2. Which have eyes to see, and see not — This rebellious nation (Eze_2:3; Eze_2:8; Eze_3:26-27) have had their eyes blinded and their ears deafened by their rebellion (Isa_6:9; Isa_42:20; Jer_5:21; Mat_13:14-15). They have seared their consciences and deadened their moral perception until even the prophecies just uttered have not moved them to faith and reformation. This is true not only of the hopeless Israelites in Jerusalem now, forsaken by Jehovah, but of many even of the true Israel who are in exile. (See notes Eze_11:16-21.) They need simpler and more impressive picture-sermons to bring them to a conscious recognition of their spiritual condition and the fate which awaits impenitence — even the destruction of the holy city.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Which have eyes to see, etc. We note the words in their relation both to like utterances in the past, (Isa_6:9 Isa_42:20) and byEzekiel"s contemporary, (Jer_5:21) and in the future by our Lord, (Mat_13:13) by St. John, (Joh_12:40) and lastly by St. Paul. (Act_28:27) The thought and phrase were naturally as ever-recurring as the fact.

Ver. 2. Blind eyes and deaf ears.

I ALL MEN HAVE ORGANS FOR PERCEIVING SPIRITUAL TRUTH. These blind Jews have eyes and the deaf have ears. Neither class is deformed or mutilated in respect of their organs of sense. Here is the paradox, the surprising situation. It is men with eyes and ears who are blind and deaf. It is no wonder that the lower animals should live without man"s religion in a life of brutish appetite. But it is surprising that beings endowed with higher faculties should degrade themselves to such a life. That this is the case with the most hardened and ignorant may be proved by the experience of life.

1. The most brutalized sinner was once a child. Then he had the child"swondering, open-eyed vision of truth.

2. The most degraded have been restored. Then the faculty of spiritualperception has been reawakened. This proves that it was only dormant, not absent.

3. Even in a condition of indifference a degraded, deadened soul may bearoused. The bow drawn at a venture may send an arrow into a joint of the armour of worldly thought and find the natural sensitiveness beneath.

II SOME MEN HAVE LOST THE POWER. OF PERCEIVING SPIRITUAL TRUTH. Their eyes are blind and their ears deaf. This does not mean merely that they have not the gifts Joel referred to. (Joe_2:28) It means that they do not perceive the truth which is declared to them by the messengers of God.

1. The words spoken are not heeded. They are mere sound. Immediatelythey are spoken in the ear a rush of unsympathetic thoughts sweeps them away. It is like sowing by the wayside. The seed is trampled underfoot.

2. If the words are attended to, the personal significance of them is notgrasped. They are mere ideas unrealized. They are not felt to have any relation to life. Thus a biblical scholar may be blind to the truth of God.

III THIS STATE OF SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS AND DEAFNESS IS CAUSED BY SIN. The people are "a rebellious house," and therefore they cannot perceive the Divine message. We have come upon one of the worst consequences of sin. It deadens the soul against its own guilt and against the messages from God to the sinner. This is very different from intellectual dulness. The will of God is so revealed that "the wayfaring man, though a fool, may not err therein." Indeed, mere intellectual acumen does very little in helping us to perceive spiritual and moral truth. God has hidden from the "wise and prudent" what he has revealed to "babes and sucklings." The preaching of the cross of Christ is foolishness to many of the world"s wise, (1Co_1:18, 1Co_1:19) because they have not spiritual sympathy with it. (1Co_2:14) Note the blinding and deafening which are sometimes ascribed to God (e.g. Isa_6:9, Isa_6:10) because it is the abuse of God"s action that leads to such a condition, and because it is a condition of Divine judgment are here brought back to man"s guilt.

IV GOD DOES NOT NEGLECT THE BLIND AND DEAF. Their state is one of guilt for they brought it on themselves and also one of danger. But they are not left alone in it. Ezekiel is to proceed to more simple and striking action, in order to extort attention from the indifferent. We must shake the sleeper when his house is on fire. We want more rousing preaching. God has pity on the blind and deaf, and it is according to his mercy that every effort should be made to reach them. Christ gives new sight and hearing. (Luk_4:18)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Eyes to see - They have capacity, if they would, to understand, but they will not understand, what thou speakest.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.