Their messages were simple:
God is infinitely great and good. He loves you with a boundless passion, and pities you with an infinite compassion. But you have trampled on His mercies, you have spurned His approaches, you have jilted Him as a lover, and you show only contempt for His word. You tread down His poor, you rob widows and orphans, you take bribes, you pervert justice, you wallow in vice, you pamper yourselves with stolen delicacies, you mingle freely with the heathen, you copy their vices, you worship their vile gods, and make the land a stench. As a result, Israel languisheth: her poor cry for bread, her young men fall into the vices of their fathers, law and order are forgotten, and a loathsome decay is eating the very heart out of the nation.
Your enemies are quick to see your nakedness and your weakness. Already, they are planning to move against you. And Jehovah is so weary and discouraged with you that He has about decided to use your mighty enemies as a scourge. He loves you so much that He must save you, at least a remnant of you, even if He has to use your cruel enemies to bring you back to your senses. Anyone who looks can see what is about to happen. If he listens he can hear the tramping of horses' feet and the rumbling of chariot wheels.
In true oriental imagery, these majestic prophets appealed to Israel's fear and pride and honor. There was no human passion overlooked, and no fundamental fact forgotten. They scolded, and wooed. They promised abundant good, or abundant evil. Their fund of illustrations was inexhaustible and, for the most part, exceedingly effective with the people of their day; and many of their illustrations are still unsurpassed for beauty and power. Nevertheless, they sometimes allowed their imagination to run riot while devising, or adapting imagery that would attract the attention, and arouse the hopes and the fears of their hearers. A notable instance is that of the captive Ezekiel, when he tries to portray the glory and majesty of Jehovah by means of a monstrous flying machine.
While Ezekiel's motive was good, his method was crude. He pictured a great cloud flashing fire as it rolled out of the north with a stormy wind. In the fiery cloud were living creatures, and each one had four faces and four wings. They also had calves' feet that sparkled like brass. Besides having human hands under their wings these strange objects had a man's face, a lion's face, an eagle's face, and the face of an ox. Their general appearance was that of burning coals and flaming torches. Connected, somehow, with the cloud and these monstrous creatures were wheels resembling precious stones, and wheels within wheels. And the rims of the wheels were covered with eyes. The movement of this startling apparition was direct, and very terrible; the noise of its wings was like great waters and the voice of the Almighty. Above this flying wonder was a canopy, and above the canopy a throne, from whence there proceeded a voice. Then he saw, as it were, glowing metal and the appearance of a rainbow. This appalling chariot of Jehovah, and the awful majesty of God, threw Ezekiel upon his face. Then Jehovah said unto Ezekiel, "Son of man, stand upon thy feet and I will speak with thee."
Now, we may be sure that the majesty of Jehovah is not less, but infinitely greater than this flying wonder. His glory, however, is decidedly different from this vision. Reverence and awe for the Almighty are sorely needed in every generation, and the effort to inspire them is a most worthy aim. There is no denying but this illustration is an awful picture; one that would thoroughly stupefy a child. But what should we think of a minister to-day who began his sermon with a similar description of the majesty and glory of God? However useful such imagery may have been to exiles in Babylonia more than two thousand years ago, it would be positively harmful to a modern congregation.
Though this vision of Ezekiel is crude and very extreme, even for an ancient prophet of Israel, yet we have people to-day who invest these wheels, and eyes, and heads with symbolic meanings to bolster up a monstrous religion that is contrary to pretty much everything that Jesus taught. Out of the books of Ezekiel, Daniel, and Revelation, some well meaning but untaught souls can invent fifty-seven varieties of religion. But they can learn neither the lesson nor the danger of an undisciplined imagination.
3. Jonah
As I am simply giving a bird's-eye view of the Scriptures, and the method of approaching them, possibly a few words should be said concerning Jonah.
As a great missionary book for a people who were very unmissionary in spirit, Jonah is unique. It breathes the spirit of Christian missions in this twentieth century.