Charles Spurgeon

With a strong hand, an outstretched arm, and outpoured wrath I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands to which you have been scattered.

“THIS striking utterance was given forth by that renowned Seer, Ezekiel, at the time when the Israelites, scattered in every country, had begun to forget their nationality.”

When I bring you from the peoples and gather you from the lands to which you have been scattered, I will accept you as a pleasing aroma.

“GOD does not cease to observe the sins of His people. As the eyes of Moses never waxed dim, so the eyes of God do not grow dim with regard to the sins of His chosen.”

Then the people asked me, “Won’t you tell us what these things you are doing mean to us?”

“EZEKIEL'S wife died. His heart was bleeding, but he received orders from his Divine Master that he should not mourn, nor weep, nor make any sign of mourning whatever. It was a strange command, but he obeyed it.”

Say to them: ‘As surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked should turn from…

“IT is a token of the great mercy of God that He is very earnest in His pleading with men to turn from their sins that He may not be compelled to punish them, as He must do if they go on in their iniquities.”

I will tend My flock and make them lie down, declares the Lord GOD.

“BEFORE this can be done there are certain preliminaries. A flock cannot be fed until it is in existence. It cannot be fed, as a flock, until all the scattered sheep shall have been brought together. Hence, in the context, other promises supply this deficiency!”

I will seek the lost, bring back the strays, bind up the broken, and strengthen the weak; but the sleek and strong I will destroy.

“IT is a great mercy that God never leaves His Church. He has not made a Church as a watchmaker constructs a watch, which, after being wound up, is left to depend upon the strength and fitness of the machinery, but He has made a…”

The trees of the field will give their fruit, and the land will yield its produce; My flock will be secure in their land.

“BUT do not all men know that God is the Lord? They should know it, for He is clearly to be seen in the works of Nature.”

Because you have said, ‘These two nations and countries will be ours, and we will possess them,’ even though the LORD was there,

“HEREIN lay the special security of the chosen land. The Edomites saw the whole country of Israel and Judah left desolate.”

I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols.

“THIS is one of the opening words of the glorious Covenant of Grace. Ezekiel's copy of the Covenant is full and clear and deserves to be written in letters of gold and hung up in the best chamber of every Believer's dwelling This is the…”

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

“IT is a peculiar feature in our holy religion that it begins its work within and acts first upon the heart. Other religions, like that of the Pharisees, begin with outward forms and ceremonies, perhaps hoping to work inwardly from without, although the process never…”

Then you will remember your evil ways and wicked deeds, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and abominations.

“We noticed, in our reading, in what a kingly style the Lord speaks all through this chapter. He does not say "if or "but," but He says, "you will"and "you shall"and this teaches us that God is Omnipotent even in the regions of free agency.”

It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord GOD—let it be known to you. Be ashamed and disgraced for your ways, O house of Israel!

“There are two sins of man that are bred in the bone, and that continually come out in the flesh. One is self-dependence and the other is self-exaltation. It is very hard, even for the best of men, to keep themselves from the first error.”

This is what the Lord GOD says: Once again I will hear the plea of the house of Israel and do for them this: I will multiply their people like…

“MULTIPLICATION is a very ancient form of blessing. The first benediction pronounced upon man was of this sort, for we read in the first chapter of Genesis, "And God blessed them, and God said unto them: Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth."”

The hand of the LORD was upon me, and He brought me out by His Spirit and set me down in the middle of the valley, and it was full…

“THIS vision has been used, from the time of Jerome onwards, as a description of the resurrection and certainly it may be so accommodated with much effect. What a vision of the great day the words picture before the mind's eye!”

Then He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and tell the breath that this is what the Lord GOD says: Come from the four winds…

“ACCORDING to some commentators, this vision in the valley of dry bones may refer to three forms of resurrection. Holy Scripture is so marvelously full of meaning that one interpretation seldom exhausts its message to us.”

This is the law of the temple: All its surrounding territory on top of the mountain will be most holy. Yes, this is the law of the temple.

“I SHALL not enter into the immediate meaning of Ezekiel's vision. I believe that the house of which Ezekiel speaks is typical of the Church of the Living God.”

The perimeter of the city will be 18,000 cubits, and from that day on the name of the city will be: THE LORD IS THERE.”

“THESE words may be used as a test as well as a text. They may serve for examination as well as consolation and, at the beginning of a year, they may fulfill this useful double purpose.”