Allan MacRae – Ezekiel: Lecture 6 Now we were speaking last time about section D, under our discussion of "The Trip of Ezekiel." We called D, "Another Description of the Divine Representation" and inthat we noticed the fact that it is three times stated that this is the vision he saw at Kebar River. Once it is stated, these were the faces he saw there. Yet, we have the face of an ox in the first description in chapter 1 and here we have the mention of the cherub. There we have a problem of course. Anything written in human language you’re going to have problems. We believe that God’s word is infallible. But we believe that in the course of the ages there have been errors that have come in, in the course of the copying process. Now in this case the word "shor" which means "ox" and the word "kerub" which we translate "cherub" are so different that it’s practically impossible to confuse them. I wouldsay, you can rule out a scribe having made a mistake in copying. Now, of course, it is truethat sometimes in copying, you have an idea in your mind and you put something down different than you meant to put. Seeing the word "cherubim" just ahead, the scribe might have made a mistake and written cherub when he meant to have written ox. That’s a possibility, but I don’t think much of it. So it seems to me that we probably have to draw the conclusion that the face of a cherub and the face of an ox described are two terms that describe the same thing. We really have no description anywhere of what a cherub actually looks like. We know very little about cherubs for it’s rarely named in Scripture. I think we can safely say they are not little boys with wings. We can safely say that. But, as it is, we are left with uncertainty whether cherub and ox appear identical. Whether they appear identical or whether there could have been a mistake in the course of copying. I always say that if you take any verse in the Scripture, you take one verse of Scripture and you say to me, "Is this verse exactly what was in the original Scripture?" I'dsay, "Let’s see whether there’s any textual evidence of variation in the manuscripts. Let’s see whether the ancient translations differ much from what we find here. Let’s see if thereis evidence of the possibility of an error having crept in. If there is no such evidence, I 1say the probabilities are extremely great that this represents the exact original Scripture. But there is always a very, very slight possibility. Thus, in this case, all our manuscripts say "cherub" here, they all say "ox" in the earlier section (chapter 1), so that there is no evidence that either one is in error at all. Yet there is in any case in one verse a possibility that some error crept in in very early days, but that we have no evidence of it. So I say compare Scripture with Scripture. When you find the same thing said in two verses of Scripture or two passages of Scripture, the chance of an error having entered in both in which we have no evidence in manuscript variation is so small as to be practically non-existent. But we must compare Scripture with Scripture to know what it says. So that’s our situation on the "cherub" and the "ox."Then we mentioned capital E, "Ezekiel Prophesized to the False Counselors and then Pelatiah Dies," and I rushed on a little bit there last time to get to the end of the vision and we did not pay attention to what he prophesized to them, what he said to them.What he said was mostly related to a statement that they were making. I don’t think that that statement is easy for most of us to understand immediately. They said, "This city is a cooking pot and we are the meat" (Ezek. 11:3). The King James Version says, "This city is a cauldron and we are the flesh." I used to wonder what does that mean? But if you take it as "cauldron," I don’t know that we use that word anymore other than when we read Macbeth, but it doubtless means in a large cooking pot. The meat is put in the pot so it doesn’t get burned; it gets changed into what you want; it gets cooked without being burned. So this would be a good figure to represent the situation of a Christian going through suffering, going through trouble, you might say, "You are in the pot, God has the heat under it because He wants to make the meat be as He wants it to be, but it is protected by the pot so that it does not get injured. It gets changed as He wants it to be, and not injured." All of us, if we truly belong to the Lord, we have difficulties to go through in life that God allows us to have in order that He may accomplish His good purpose in us. But while this is a good figure for something in the lives of many Christians, Ezekiel says, "This does not apply to you people in Jerusalem here, because you’re saying Jerusalem with its big walls around it, we are safe in here. We are the good 2meat, and the enemy can come around outside, they can destroy our fields, we can go through a period of difficulty, before they give up and go away. But we are protected. We are safe. We are the meat in the cauldron." He says, "No, that is not true in your case." He says in chapter 11 verse 7, "Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says, ‘The bodies you have thrown there are the meat. And this city is the pot, but I will drive you out of it. You fear the sword, and the sword is what I will bring against you. You will fall by the sword. This city will not be a pot for you nor will you be the meat in it. I will execute judgment on you at the borders of Israel.’" So he is taking their statement and turning it against them and saying, "This is not true in your case," though it is a figure which can be true in the lives of Christians on various occasions. That’s the principle thing that he deals with here in the first part of his prophesying to them. Then we read in chapter 11 verse 13, while he was prophesying, Pelatiah, son of Benaiah, died. We spoke about that last time, that doubtless God enabled Ezekiel in his vision to see the fact that Pelatiah did die right at that time. He enabled him to see that fact as a further proof that when word reached him, perhaps six weeks later, because they didn’t have any telegram or radio in those days, they would hear Pelatiah died, and they would ask when, and find it was the very time when Ezekiel was having his vision. …