The commandment of the Mosaic Law is here renewed against eating the flesh of any fowl or beast that had either died a natural death or been mangled in the killing (comp. Le Ezekiel 17:15; Ezekiel 22:8)—a commandment which, while enjoined specially upon the priests (Le Ezekiel 22:8), was equally binding upon all (Exodus 20:1-26:31; Deuteronomy 14:21).
HOMILETICS
The shut gate.
The "Golden Gate" at Jerusalem, on the eastern side of the temple area, looking towards the Mount of Olives, is now built up, so that it can only be traced by means of the form of the arches and carved work embedded in a line of wall. Tradition associates this now inaccessible archway with the gate which Ezekiel said should be shut till the Prince passed through it. There is a striking symbolism in Ezekiel's description of the shut gate.
I. THE GATE WAS SHUT.
1. The way to God was closed. Man once had free access to his Father. Sin barred the door and shut him out in the waste.
2. The way to life was closed. Cherubim with flaming swords, stood between Adam and the tree of life (Genesis 3:24). Fallen man cannot recover his spiritual life; he has forfeited eternal life, and it is beyond his power to regain it.
3. The way to happiness was closed. The tree of life stood in Eden, and Eden was shut against fallen man.
4. The way to heaven was closed. The door was shut against the foolish virgins. The bliss of futurity is denied to man in his sin.
II. THE HOLINESS OF GOD BARS THE GATE. God had passed through the gate; therefore it was to be closed against man. This suggests a painful thought; where God is man may not be. The same idea was prominent at Horeb, when no man or beast was to come near the mount while God descended upon it (Hebrews 12:20). There is a natural feeling of the supreme majesty of God that leads to a thought of utter separateness. No being approaches him in greatness or rank. The Sovereign of all is alone in his awful majesty. Yet we must not associate vulgar ideas of pomp and ceremony with God. He does not need the artificial dignity of separateness. He is necessarily apart from us in sheer greatness. But he desires to be near to his children. The real secret of the separateness is sin. Man cannot come where God is because man is sinful and God is holy.
III. THE GATE IS OPENED FOR THE PRINCE. Christ, and Christ alone, realizes the Messianic vision of Hebrew prophecy. He is the Prince par excellence. Christ has a right of access to God by reason of his sinlessness, and by reason of his nature as "the Only Begotten of the Father." He has made a way to God by his intercession and his sacrifice. The door, long barred by sin, is now opened by grace. First our Prince goes through it, and himself realizes communion with God. But he does not keep this as a rare privilege for himself alone. He is the "Firstborn among many brethren," and he opens the door of access to God for all men. He leads all his people to the tree of life, for "he that hath the Son hath life" (1 John 5:12). He gives true blessedness to his people. He unbars the golden gate of heaven. All who sleep in Jesus will awake in the glorious resurrection-life of which he is the Source and Center who could say, "I am the Resurrection and the Life" (John 11:25).