Ezekiel 2:10

Written within and without. Books were anciently written upon skins or papyri sewed together to form long strips that were then rolled up. Normally these rolls were written on one side only. The one that was handed to Ezekiel was written on both sides, doubtless to denote abundance of subject matter. The message was no evangel of peace such as the angels brought to the shepherds of Bethlehem when Christ our Saviour was born (Luke 2:13, 14). Their message was “good tidings of great joy” (Luke 2:10), but this was a prophecy of “lamentations, and mourning, and woe.” Yet the disclosure of the threatened calamity was the means God used to awaken sin-hardened hearts that He might heal them with the gospel balm. As Ezekiel’s work developed, it was often his privilege to temper his discourses of denunciation with appeals of proffered mercy.