Ezekiel 3:10

Son of man, take all my words that I speak to you, and assume them in your heart, and listen with your ears. This is the food of the book, and these are the words by which it speaks to different listeners, either with lamentations, or with a song, or with a woe to mankind. And yet it should be noted that before the words of God are to be composed, heard, and understood in our hearts more diligently, and thus proclaimed to the people.

"And he said to me: Son of man, receive in your heart all my words that I speak to you, and hear with your ears." We must carefully observe that by the voice of the Lord it is said to the Prophet that he should first hear His words, and afterward speak. For we hear the words of God if we do them. And then we rightly speak them to our neighbors when we ourselves have first done them. This Mark the Evangelist confirms well when he narrates a miracle performed by the Lord, saying: "They bring to Him one deaf and mute, and they besought Him to lay His hand upon him." He indicates the order of the healing, adding: "He put His fingers into his ears, and spitting, He touched his tongue, and looking up to heaven, He sighed and said to him: Ephphetha, that is, be opened. And immediately his ears were opened, and the bond of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke rightly." For what does it mean that God, the Creator of all things, when He wished to heal the deaf and mute man, put His fingers into his ears and, spitting, touched his tongue? What is designated by the fingers of the Redeemer except the gifts of the Holy Spirit? Hence, when in another place He had cast out a demon, He said: "If I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has surely come upon you." Concerning which matter He is described by another Evangelist as having said: "If I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you." From both these passages it is gathered that the finger of God is called the Spirit. Therefore to put fingers into the ears is to open the mind of the deaf person to obedience through the gifts of the Holy Spirit. But what does it mean that spitting He touched his tongue? The saliva received from the mouth of the Redeemer is for us wisdom in divine eloquence. For saliva flows down from the head into the mouth. […]

Moreover he said unto me, son of man,....

Christ demands the prophet's attention not only to what he now says, but to all that he shall at any time hereafter speak: Receive it all in thy heart; meditate on these things and give thyself wholly to them, 1 Tim. iv. How this command was obeyed in vision. He opened his mouth and Christ caused him to eat the roll,

receive in . . . heart . . . ears--The transposition from the natural order, namely, first receiving with the ears, then in the heart, is designed. The preparation of the heart for God's message should precede the reception of it with the ears (compare Pr 16:1;

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