Project Gutenberg's Expositions of Holy Scripture, by Alexander Maclaren

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: Expositions of Holy Scripture Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Minor Prophets. St Matthew Chapters I to VIII

Author: Alexander Maclaren

Release Date: May 16, 2005 [EBook #15836]

Language: English

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE ***

Produced by Charles Franks, Don Kretz and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE
ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D.D., Litt.D.

EZEKIEL, DANIEL, AND THE MINOR PROPHETS

ST. MATTHEW
CHAPTERS I to VIII

NEW YORK GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY

* * * * *

EZEKIEL, DANIEL, AND THE MINOR PROPHETS

CONTENTS

THE BOOK OF EZEKIEL

    CHAMBERS OF IMAGERY (Ezekiel viii. 12)
    A COMMON MISTAKE AND LAME EXCUSE (Ezekiel xii. 27)
    THE HOLY NATION (Ezekiel xxxvi. 25-38)
    THE DRY BONES AND THE SPIRIT OF LIFE (Ezekiel xxxvii. 1-14)
    THE RIVER OF LIFE (Ezekiel xlvii. 1)

THE BOOK OF DANIEL

    YOUTHFUL CONFESSORS (Daniel i. 8-21)
    THE IMAGE AND THE STONE (Daniel ii. 36-49)
    HARMLESS FIRES (Daniel iii. 13-25)
    MENE, TEKEL, PERES (Daniel v. 17-31)
    A TRIBUTE FROM ENEMIES (Daniel vi. 5)
    FAITH STOPPING THE MOUTHS OF LIONS (Daniel vi. 16-28)
    A NEW YEAR'S MESSAGE (Daniel xii. 13)

HOSEA

    THE VALLEY OF ACHOR (Hosea ii. 15)
    'LET HIM ALONE' (Hosea iv. 17)
    'PHYSICIANS OF NO VALUE' (Hosea v. 13, R.V.)
    'FRUIT WHICH IS DEATH' (Hosea x. 1-15)
    DESTRUCTION AND HELP (Hosea xiii. 9)
    ISRAEL RETURNING (Hosea xiv. 1-9)
    THE DEW AND THE PLANTS (Hosea xiv. 5, 6)

AMOS

    A PAIR OF FRIENDS (Amos iii. 3)
    SMITTEN IN VAIN (Amos iv. 4-13)
    THE SINS OF SOCIETY (Amos v. 4-15)
    THE CARCASS AND THE EAGLES (Amos vi. 1-8)
    RIPE FOR GATHERING (Amos viii. 1-14)

JONAH

    GUILTY SILENCE AND ITS REWARD (Jonah i. 1-17)
    'LYING VANITIES' (Jonah ii. 8)
    THREEFOLD REPENTANCE (Jonah iii. 1-10)

MICAH

    IS THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD STRAITENED? (Micah ii. 7)
    CHRIST THE BREAKER (Micah ii. 13)
    AS GOD, SO WORSHIPPER (Micah iv. 5, R.V.)
    'A DEW FROM THE LORD' (Micah v. 7)
    GOD'S REQUIREMENTS AND GOD'S GIFT (Micah vi. 8)

HABAKKUK

THE IDEAL DEVOUT LIFE (Habakkuk iii. 19)

ZEPHANIAH

ZION'S JOY AND GOD'S (Zephaniah iii. 14, 17)

HAGGAI

    VAIN TOIL (Haggai i. 6)
    BRAVE ENCOURAGEMENTS (Haggai ii. 1-9)

ZECHARIAH

    DYING MEN AND THE UNDYING WORD (Zechariah i. 5, 6)
    THE CITY WITHOUT WALLS (Zechariah ii. 4, 5)
    A VISION OF JUDGMENT AND CLEANSING (Zechariah iii. 1-10)
    THE RIGHT OF ENTRY (Zechariah iii. 7)
    THE SOURCE OF POWER (Zechariah iv. 1-10)
    THE FOUNDER AND FINISHER OF THE TEMPLE (Zechariah iv. 9)
    THE PRIEST OF THE WORLD AND KING OF MEN (Zechariah vi. 13)

MALACHI

    A DIALOGUE WITH GOD (Malachi i. 6, 7)
    BLEMISHED OFFERINGS (Malachi i. 8)
    A DIALOGUE WITH GOD (Malachi ii. 12, 14, R.V.)
    THE LAST WORD OF PROPHECY (Malachi iii. 1-12)
    THE UNCHANGING LORD (Malachi iii. 6)
    A DIALOGUE WITH GOD (Malachi iii. 7, R.V.)
    'STOUT WORDS,' AND THEIR CONFUTATION
        (Malachi iii. 13-18; iv. 1-6)
    THE LAST WORDS OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS
        (Malachi iv. 6; Revelation xxii. 21)

* * * * *

THE BOOK OF EZEKIEL

CHAMBERS OF IMAGERY

'Then said He unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery!'—EZEKIEL viii. 12.

This is part of a vision which came to the prophet in his captivity. He is carried away in imagination from his home amongst the exiles in the East to the Temple of Jerusalem. There he sees in one dreadful series representations of all the forms of idolatry to which the handful that were left in the land were cleaving. There meets him on the threshold of the court 'the image of jealousy,' the generalised expression for the aggregate of idolatries which had stirred the anger of the divine husband of the nation. Then he sees within the Temple three groups representing the idolatries of three different lands. First, those with whom my text is concerned, who, in some underground room, vaulted and windowless, were bowing down before painted animal forms upon the walls. Probably they were the representatives of Egyptian worship, for the description of their temple might have been taken out of any book of travels in Egypt in the present day. It is only an ideal picture that is represented to Ezekiel, and not a real fact. It is not at all probable that all these various forms of idolatry were found at any time within the Temple itself. And the whole cast of the vision suggests that it is an ideal picture, and not reality, with which we have to do. Hence the number of these idolaters was seventy—the successors of the seventy whom Moses led up to Sinai to see the God of Israel! And now here they are grovelling before brute forms painted on the walls in a hole in the dark. Their leader bears a name which might have startled them in their apostasy, and choked their prayers in their throats, for Jaazan-iah means 'the Lord hears.' Each man has a censer in his hand—self-consecrated priests of self-chosen deities. Shrouded in obscurity, they pleased themselves with the ancient lie, 'The Lord sees not; He hath forsaken the earth.' And then, into that Sanhedrim of apostates there comes, all unknown to them, the light of God's presence; and the eye of the prophet marks their evil.

I have nothing to do here with the other groups which Ezekiel saw in his vision. The next set were the representatives of the women of Israel, who, false at once to their womanhood and to their God, were taking part in the nameless obscenities and abominations of the worship of the Syrian Adonis. And the next, who from their numbers seem to be intended to stand for the representatives of the priesthood, as the former were of the whole