Ezekiel 16
The section on which we now enter, with its companion
picture in ch. 23.,
forms the most terrible, one might almost say the most
repellent, part of
Ezekiel’s prophetic utterances. We have, as it were, his story of the harlot’s
progress, his biography of the Messalina
of the nations. We shudder as we
read it, just as we shudder in reading the sixth satire of Juvenal. The
prophet speaks, like the satirist, of things which we have learnt,
mainly
under the teaching of Christian purity, to veil in a reticent
reserve, with a
Lucretian and Dante-like vividness. The nearest parallel, indeed,
which
literature presents to it is found in the ‘Epistola
ad Florentinos’ of the latter
poet. We need to remember, as we read it, that his standard was not ours,
that those for whom he wrote had done or witnessed the things which he
describes, that there was in them no nerve of pudicity
to shock. (Surely in
our
day, we also have reached this shameful level,
based on our television
material, movie and theater plots, our language and our perverted
mores!
CY – 2014) He did not write virginibus
puerisque, but for men to whom the
whole imagery was a familiar thing. It is obvious, however, that
the interpreter
lives under other conditions than the prophet, and cannot always
follow him in
the
minuteness of his descriptions. The
thought that underlies Ezekiel’s parable,
that
wife, was
sufficiently familiar. Isaiah 1:21) speaks of the “faithful
city that had
become a harlot.” Jeremiah 2:2 had represented Jehovah as remembering
“the kindness of her youth, the love of her espousals.” What
is characteristic of Ezekiel’s treatment of that image is
that he does not
recognize any period in which
here he had a forerunner in Hosea, who, in order that his
own life might be
itself a parable, was ordered to take to himself “a
wife of whoredom,” one,
i.e., whose character
was tainted before her marriage (Hosea 1:2).
Ezekiel would seem to have dwelt upon that thought, and to
have
expanded it into the terrible history that follows.
1 “Again
the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, cause
Jerusalem to know her abominations, 3 And say,
Thus saith the Lord GOD
unto
was an Amorite, and thy mother an
Hittite.” Thy birth and thy
nativity, etc.
A prosaic literalism has seen in Ezekiel’s language the assertion of
an ethnological fact.
“The Jebusite city,” the prophet
is supposed
to say,” was never really of pure
Israelite descent. Its people are descended
from Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites,
and are tainted, as by a law of heredity, with the vices of
their forefathers.”
So taken, the passage would remind us of the scorn with which
Dante (ut supra)
speaks of the
cruel and base herd of Fiesole,
who corrupted the once noble stock
of the inhabitants of
believed that Ezekiel’s words imply the very opposite of
this. As Isaiah
(Isaiah 1:10) had spoken of “the
rulers of Sodom, and the people of
Gomorrah;” as
Deuteronomy 32:32 had spoken of the vine of Israel
becoming as “the vine of
time as not being “the
children of Abraham” (John 8:39); so Ezekiel,
using the strongest form of Eastern vituperation, taunts
the people of
Jerusalem with acting as if they were descended, not from
Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, but from the earlier heathen inhabitants of what
was afterwards
the
nations whom he names. Briefly, the Canaanites represented
the dwellers in
the lowland country west of the valley of the
Philistia, Sharon, Esdraelon, and
Phoenicia; and their leading
representatives in Ezekiel’s time were the cities of
Amorites were people of the mountains, at first, west of
the Jordan, on the
heights over the Dead Sea and as far as
Sihon, on the high tablelands east of the
history much light has been thrown by recent Egyptian and
other
discoveries, appear first in the history of the purchase of
the cave of
Macphelab, at Kirjath-arba, or Hebron, and
that history implies commerce
and culture. Esau’s marriage with the daughters of two
Hittite chiefs
implies, perhaps, a recognition of their value as allies
(Genesis 26:34).
They are always numbered with the other six nations, whom
the Israelites
were to conquer or expel (generally in conjunction with the
Canaanites and
Amorites as the three first, though not always in the same
order,
Exodus 3:8; 13:5; 33:2; 34:11-16). And this fact obviously
determined
Ezekiel’s choice. In the later historical books they appear
but seldom. One
Hittite captain, Uriah, occupies
a high position in David’s army (II Samjuel 11:3).
The kings of the Hittites trade with Solomon, and give
their daughters to him in
marriage (I Kings 10:29). They meet us for the last time as
possible allies of the
kings of Judah II Kings 7:6), and in the list of the older
nations in Ezra 9:1 and
Nehemiah 9:8. Then they disappear from the page of history
till the discovery and
decipherment of Egyptian records in our own time shows them
to have been among
the mighty nations that have passed with their rulers into
the Hades of departed
kingdoms.
Leading Sinners to a Knowledge of Their Sins
(v. 2)
“Son of man, cause
of the inhabitants of
David says of the wicked, “They
are corrupt, they have done abominable
works” (Psalm 14:1); “Corrupt
are they, and have done abominable iniquity.”
(Ibid. ch.
53:1). And Jehovah said to the Jews, “Oh,
do not this abominable
thing that I hate!” (Jeremiah 44:4) In its own nature sin “is an evil thing and
a bitter” (Ibid. ch.
2:19). It is a polluting thing, defiling
the soul; it is a
degrading thing, dishonoring the soul. It is an infraction of the
order of God’s
universe, and is inimical to its true interests. Sin
is evil in every respect:
Ø
hateful to God,
Ø
hurtful to man,
Ø
darkening the
heavens, and,
Ø
burdening the earth.
The inhabitants of
were so oblivious to the fact that the prophet is summoned to
bring them to
a knowledge of their abominations. David did not recognize
as his own the
foul crimes which he had committed when they were set before
him
parabolically.
It was not until the Prophet Nathan said unto him, “Thou
art
the man!” that he
saw himself to be the sinner he really was (II Samuel
12:1-14). The Pharisees in the
time of our Lord’s ministry were really great
sinners, but they regarded themselves as the excellent of the
earth. We are
quick to behold the mote that is in our brother’s eye, but we
take no notice
of the beam that is in our own eye. This failure of sinners
to recognize their
own sin may arise:
Ø
From the subtlety of sin. Sin approaches the
soul in dangerous
disguises. Were the vision of
sin seen in a full light, undressed and
unpainted, it were impossible, while it so appeared, that any one
soul could be in love with it, but all would rather flee from
it as
hideous and abominable. Wickedness
veils itself in the garb of what
is harmless, respectable, or excellent. Avarice hides its hard and
hungry features under the name of economy. Harsh censoriousness
wears the cloak of honest plain speaking.
Ø
From the proneness of men to excuse sin in themselves. Until man is
brought to see and feel his sins aright, he is ready to palliate
or to
extenuate them. Men are cruelly indulgent to themselves in this
respect. And in some cases pride and self-flattery blind men to
their own offences.
BRING SINNERS TO A KNOWLEDGE OF
THEIR SINS. To this
Duty Ezekiel was summoned in our
text. And this is incumbent on the
Ministers of
Jesus Christ.
Ø
For the conversion of the sinners. Without the knowledge
of sin,
repentance and conversion are not to be thought of. As a physician,
when he wishes to heal a wound thoroughly, must probe it to the
bottom, so a teacher, when he wishes to convert men thoroughly,
must first seek to bring them to a knowledge of their sins.
Ø
For the deliverance of their own souls. (Compare ch.3:17-21;
33:7-9.)
Ø
For the vindication of the Law and government of God. Sin is an
outrage of God’s holy Law, and it should be exhibited as such.
Persistence in sin
calls down Divine punishment, and the
sin should
be set forth unto men, that they will recognize the
righteousness of
the punishment. If sin be not properly estimated by men, how
shall
the Divine dealings in the punishment of it be justified unto
them?
Therefore the
ministers of Jesus Christ should endeavor to cause
sinners to know their sins.
Evil Parentage (v. 3)
The Jews boasted of their descent from Ahraham,
but Ezekiel told them
that they were children of the Canaanite aborigines of
their land, because it
was from those people that they drew their present
character.
throne of a great king, but if
he has a mean and servile disposition, and
inherits no kingly nature, he is
not a true son of his father. Titles and
estates may pass from men of
high powers to imbeciles. The good name of
a worthy Christian man may be
borne by a worthless descendant. We
cannot entail character. No man
can be certain that his children will follow
his example, however good and
attractive that may be, and when it is not
followed the true man is not
represented by his children. Thus Christ would
not permit his contemporaries to
call themselves Abraham’s children
(John 8:39-41). This does not
mean that He disputed their genealogical
records. Apart from those
prosaic tests of pure blood were the more
serious signs of
APOSTASY and DISINHERITANCE. In like manner,
it is possible to lose the
status of Divine sonship, although by nature we are
all God’s children. It may even
be surmised that Ezekiel had lost the
recollection of the true origin
of the Israelites, and had come to regard
them as descendants of the
Canaanites.
Amorites and Hittites by natural
descent. But though on their entering
inhabitants of
the land and form no league with them,
they lolled in that
enterprise, leaving
many of the original inhabitants in their midst, FROM
WHOM THEY CONTRACTED
HABITS OF IDOLATRY! We are all
more or less influenced by our
surroundings, and it is therefore of great
importance that we should not
choose hurtful companions. But there is a way
of resisting a bad example when
we cannot escape from its physical proximity.
To yield to it is a sign of
weakness and sin. The result is to make us spiritually
The children of those we follow.
The most vital inheritance is that of character.
Though the blood of Abraham
flowed in the veins of THE APOSTATE
JEWS,
the spirit of Amorites and Hittites had
possession of their minds and hearts.
Therefore the chief part of
their lives was derived from the adopted
ancestors. A natural Christian
parentage is of little account if a spiritual
parentage of sin has been
accepted by the degenerate children.
FOR A NEW EVIL PARENTAGE IS AN UNSPEAKABLE
DISGRACE.
To have to own a father and mother among those effete subject races was
a shame for the proud conquerors of
abandonment of the lofty spirit of the patriarchs and the adoption of
the
degraded character of the heathen. It
is a shame when the children of
Christian parents sink into the condition of children of this world. They
know better;
they have seen worthy examples; they have been trained
under good
influences; they have received high privileges. We expect the
sow to wallow in the mire, but when a person of higher origin
follows her
example he degrades himself far below the shameful state of the
unclean
animal.
4 “And as
for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel
was not cut,
neither wast thou
washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted
at all,
nor swaddled at all.” As for thy nativity, etc. We ask, as we interpret the parable,
of what period in the history of Israel Ezekiel speaks.
Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob are ignored by him, and he starts from a time of
misery and shame. It
is obvious that the only period which corresponds to this
is that of the
sojourn of
Goshen. He paints, with a Dantesque
minuteness, the picture of a child just
born, abandoned by its mother and neglected by all others
from the very
moment of its birth. It lies unwashed and foul to look
upon. No woman’s
care does for it the commonest offices of motherhood. For to supple, read,
with the Revised Version, to cleanse. The practice
still met with in the East
of rubbing the newborn child with salt may have rested
partly on sanitary
grounds (Jerome, in loc. Galen, ‘De San.,’ 1:7), partly
on its symbolic
meaning (Numbers 18:19). When this was done, the child was
wrapped in
swaddling clothes (Luke 2:7), but these too were wanting in
the picture
which Ezekiel draws. The whole scene may have been painted
from the life.
Such a birth may well have been witnessed during the march
of the exiles,
when the brutality of their Chaldean
drivers allowed no halt, and the child
was left to perish of neglect, and the thought may then
have flashed across
Ezekiel’s mind that the pity which he felt for the deserted
infant was a faint
shadow of that which Jehovah had felt for
heathen bondage.
5 “None
eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon
thee; but thou wast
cast out in the open field, to the loathing of thy person, in
the day that thou wast
born.” For
to the loathing of thy person, read,
with the
Revised Version, for that thy person was abhorred.
6 “And
when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine
own blood, I said
unto thee when thou wast
in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou
wast in thy blood, Live.” For polluted, read, with the Revised Version, weltering,
the primary meaning of the verb being that of stamping or
treading, and omit
“when thou wast,” as weakening
the condensed force of the original. The
marvel of that unlooked for pity is emphasized by the
iteration of the word
of mercy, Live. The commentary of the Chaldee Targum is sufficiently
curious to be quoted: “And the memory of my covenant with
your fathers
came into my mind, and I was revealed that I might redeem
you, because it
was manifest to me that ye were afflicted in your bondage,
and I said unto
you, ‘I will have compassion on you in the blood of
circumcision,’ and I
said unto you, ‘I will redeem you by the blood of the
Passover.’” The thought
underlying this strange interpretation is that blood might
be the means of life
as well as of pollution, and in that thought there is a
significance at once
poetical and profound, almost, as it were, anticipating the
later thoughts that
the blood of Jesus cleanseth
from all sin (I John 1:7; Revelation
1:5), that we
make our robes white in the blood of the Lamb (Ibid. ch.7:14). There is no reason,
however, for believing that such thoughts were present to the prophet’s
mind.
7 “I have
caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field, and thou hast
increased and waxen great, and thou art
come to excellent ornaments:
thy breasts are fashioned, and thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast
naked and bare.” The tenses
should be in the simple historic past: I
caused;
thou didst increase and wax great;
thou attainedst, and so on
(Revised
Version). In the word “multiply” (Exodus 1:7) the figure
passes into
historical reality. To
excellent ornaments; Hebrew, to
ornament of
ornaments. The word is
commonly used of jewels, trinkets, and the like
(Ibid. ch.33:4; II Samuel 1:24; Isaiah 49:18). So Vulgate, mundus muliebris.
Here, however, the external adorning comes in vs. 10-11,
and instead of the
plural we have the dual. Hitzig
is, perhaps, right in taking the phrase to refer
to the beauty of the cheeks, which are themselves the
ornaments of the golden
prime of youth. The Septuagint following either a different
reading or paraphrasing,
gives, “to cities of cities.” The two clauses that follow
point to the most obvious
signs of female puberty. For whereas, read, with the Revised Version, yet, etc., as
describing, not as the Authorized Version seems to do, a
state which had
passed away, but one which still continued even when
full-grown girlhood
would have demanded clothing.
8 “Now
when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy
time was the time of love; and I spread my
skirt over thee, and
covered thy nakedness: yea, I swear unto
thee, and entered into a
covenant with thee, saith
the Lord GOD, and thou becamest mine.”
The words point to the time of the love of the espousals of
Jeremiah 2:2, interpreting the parable, when
maturity of a nation’s life, and gave promise, in spite of
previous
degradation, of capacities that would render it worthy of
the love of the
Divine Bridegroom. I
spread my skirt over thee. Garments were often
used as coverlets, and the act described was therefore, as
in Ruth 3:9,
the received symbol of a completed marriage (compare
Deuteronomy
22:30; 27:20). The historical fact represented by the
symbol here was
probably the formal covenant between Jehovah and
24:6-7). It was then that He became her God, and that she
became His people.
9 “Then
washed I thee with water; yea, I throughly washed
away thy blood
from thee, and I anointed thee with oil.” The “washing” and “anointing”
were part of the customary preparations for the marriage union
(Ruth 3:3;
Esther 2:12). The mention of blood receives its
explanation, not in the facts of
v.6, but in the ceremonial rules of Leviticus 15:19-24
10 “I
clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with
badgers’ skin, and I girded thee about with
fine linen, and I
covered thee with silk.” Broidered work; the “raiment of
needlework”
Psalm 45:14; Judges 5:30; Exodus 35:35; 38:23. The word meets us
again
in ch..27:24, as among the imports of
enough, the Hebrew verb (rakam)
has passed through Arabic into the
languages of
Spanish recamare, the
French recamer, for “embroidering.” Badgers’
skin. Elsewhere in the Old
Testament the word is found only in the
Pentateuch (Exodus 26:14; 28:5; Numbers 4:6, 8, 10, et
al.). It has
been commonly taken as meaning the skin of some animal —
badger,
dolphin, or porpoise, or, as in the Revised Version, seal,
which was used
for sandals. All the older versions, however, take it as a
word of color, the
Septuagint giving ὑακίνθον – huakinthon - dark red;
and Vulgate, ianthino (“violet”). Possibly the two meanings may
coalesce, one
giving the material, the other the tint which met the eye. Fine linen. The byssus
of Egyptian manufacture (Exodus 25:4; 26:1; 39:3, et al.).
Silk. The
Hebrew word (here and in v. 13) does not occur elsewhere.
The word so
translated in Proverbs 31:22 is that which we find here and
elsewhere
for “fine linen.”
Silk, in the strict sense of the term, had its birthplace in
China, and there is no evidence that even the commerce of Tyre extended
so far; but the context points to some fine texture of the
lawn or muslin
kind, like the Coan vestments of
the Greeks. So the Septuagint gives
τριχαπτόν – trichapton -- as though
it were made of fine hair; the
Vulgate,
subtilia. It is significant
that three out of the four articles specified
are
prominent (as the references show) in the description of the tabernacle
and the priestly dress, in Exodus chapters 28 and 39. The dress of the
bride symbolized the ritual and cultus of Judaism.
11 “I
decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy
hands, and a chain on thy neck.” Ornaments. Same word as in v. 7, but here
taken in its more usual sense. (For bracelets, see ch. 23:42; Genesis 24:22, 30;
Numbers 31:50. For chain, Genesis 41:42).
12 “And I
put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine
ears, and a
beautiful crown upon thine
head.” A jewel on thy
forehead; better, with the
Revised Version, a ring upon thy nose. The word has the same meaning in
Genesis 24:47
(“earring”
in the Authorized Version); Isaiah 3:21 (where the
Authorized Version gives “nose jewels”); Proverbs 11:22. Jerome,
however, notes (in loc.) that the Syrian women of
his time wore pendants
or lockets that hung from the forehead to the nostrils. The
crown, or
diadem (Septuagint, στέφανος καυχήσεως – stepharos kauchaeseos),
the thin circlet of gold confining the hair, completed the
catalogue of
ornaments. The Chaldee Targum continues its
spiritual interpretation:
“I gave the ark of my covenant to be among you, and the cloud of my
glory overshadowed you, and the angel of my presence led you in the way.”
And, if we assume, as we legitimately may assume, that Ezekiel, above all
others, the prophet of symbolism, did not fill up his picture with details which
were only meant to fill it up, this seems a not unfitting interpretation.
13 “Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment was
of fine linen, and silk, and broidered
work; thou didst eat fine flour, and
honey, and oil: and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper
into a kingdom.” Thou didst eat fine
flour, and honey, and oil. From the
dress of the bride we pass to her luxuries in the way of
food. The things
named might, of course, be only chosen as the delicacies
for which the land
of
own time were in demand in the markets of
Cakes of flour and honey were in common use in various
forms of Greek
ritual, and are probably referred to in Jeremiah 44:19, but
in that of the
Jews (Leviticus 2:11) honey takes its place, side by side
with leaven, as
a thing forbidden. Thou
didst grow into a kingdom. History crops out
through the parable, and points to the stage which it has
now reached, i.e.
that of the magnificence of the kingdom under Solomon.
The Glory of Redemption (vs. 9-13)
Under the similitude of a wretched child cast off by its
mother and picked
up by a passer by,
condition and cared for and blessed by Him. This idea may
be carried
further as a symbol of the redemption of the Church by
Christ.
NEGLECT.
pity on His people. But the spiritual state of souls in sin is more wretched
and forlorn.
own sinfulness, and their wretched plight is the direct consequence
of their own moral corruption.
friendless. No kindred Semitic
tribe cared or dared to rescue the nation
of slaves. No being came to save the world before
God made bare
His arm.
GOD. The good
Samaritan is a type of our great Father. There
is no beauty
in sinful man to attract the
attention of God. It is not our claim, but His
pity, that moves God to save the
world. The love of Christ, not the worth
of man, brought our redemption. Pity — commiseration for the wretched
—
lies at the root of
the gospel. GOD IS LOVE and therefore He comes
to the miserable
in supreme compassion.
washed away before the soul can
be received into the privileges of the
family of God. Even this early
process is preceded by God’s adoption of
the wretched castaway, and the
cleansing is done by God Himself. It is as
when a miserable child of the
street has been taken by a charitable person
into his own home. The child
cannot make itself clean. But the first act of
the kind rescuer is to wash it. Christ cleanses from sin with His own blood.
poor wastling
is not treated as a workhouse child or put to low drudgery.
She is clothed in purest apparel
and decked with rarest ornaments. So the
prodigal is to wear the best
robe and to have a ring on his hand (Luke 15:22).
God does not save grudgingly or
by halves. He does not content Himself
with plucking the brand from the
burning. He gives royally of His best to the
miserable sinners whom He has
redeemed. The gospel promises GLORY as
well as GRACE!
RELATION WITH GOD.
According to the richly illustrative picture of
Ezekiel, when the poor abandoned
infant is grown up, her rescuer makes
her his bride. God is often
regarded as the Husband of His people. But here
the picture is not of God
marrying any human soul, but of His marrying the
most abandoned. This illustrates His marvelous condescension. At the
same time, it shows the supreme duty of fidelity to God on the part of the
Church that has been rescued from so dire a fate and then raised
to so great
an honor.
14 “And
thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it
was perfect through my comeliness, which I
had put upon thee,
saith the Lord GOD.” It was perfect, etc. (compare the phrase, “perfection
of
beauty,” in
Psalm 50:2; Lamentations 2:15, as applied to
The prophet, in the words, my comeliness — majesty
(Revised Version)
— lays stress on the fact that that “perfection” was itself
the gift of God.
15 “But
thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot
because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every
one that passed by; his it was.” We enter on the HISTORY OF THE
APOSTASY and the root
evil was that THE BRIDE OF JEHOVAH
HAD BEEN UNFAITHFUL to her
Lord. She looked on
her glory as her own, and did not recognize that everything
in it was the
gift of God (Hosea 2:8). The words obviously point to the
policy which
Solomon had initiated, of alliances with the heathen and
the consequent
adoption of their worship. This, as from the earliest days
of Israel, was the
“whoredom”
(Revised Version) of the unfaithful
with (Exodus 34:15-16;
Leviticus 17:7; Deuteronomy 31:16-18;
Judges 2:17; Isaiah 1:21; Jeremiah 2:20;
Hosea chapters 1 and 2). And it was, so to speak, a promiscuous whoredom.
Every passer by was admitted to her embraces, every nation that offered its
alliance had its worship recognized and adopted. In the
closing words of
extremest scorn, the prophet adds, his
it was.
the Messalina of the nations.
Trust in Beauty (v. 15)
SELF-CONFIDENCE.
Ø
It is felt to be a pleasant endowment. The national beauty
of
could not but please the
people. Bodily grace and mental gifts are
naturally valued by those
who own them, for undoubtedly in
themselves they are good.
Ø
It is flattered with admiration. The beautiful bride is renowned (see
v. 14). This implies that
her beauty was much spoken of. Such a fact
could not but be pleasant
to one who loved admiration. But the
pleasure of receiving
flattery is dangerous and deceptive. The
person
admired is likely to attach
too much weight to it.
Ø
It is seen to be a means of influence. There is power in
beauty.
Admiration rules the admirer.
The person who is fawned upon
by flattering neighbors seems to
exercise a certain power over them.
developed through the kind
treatment of her rescuer. The gifts and
possessions of
providence of
God. Christian attainments are all endowments of Divine
grace. To trust these things to the neglect of Him from whom they
come,
and even to claim them as
original resources, is to lean upon a
falsehood.
This must fail.
2. The beauty is
fleeting. Nothing is so fragile. When it is most needed it
may be found to have departed. To trust it is to lose it
(see ver. 39).
3. The beauty is
feeble. Beauty is not strength. A gorgeously clad army
may suffer ignominious defeat in the day of war. Grace and
attractiveness
in speech and bearing do not signify strength of character.
The most
winning people may be the most helpless when energy and
determination
are in requisition.
FROM SELF TO CHRIST.
Ø
It must come from the abandonment of self-trust. Even though we are
flattered into believing great
things of ourselves, taken at the very best,
human strength and goodness fail
before the assaults of sin. We have to
learn that we are “miserable and blind and naked” (Revelation 3:17),
and to give up the Pharisee’s
boast for the publican’s only plea, “God be
merciful to me a
sinner” (Luke 18:13) owning that “all our
righteousness is
as filthy rags.” (Isaiah 64:6)
Ø
The needed security will be found in Christ. He is strong to save.
even
though He appears before us in the
weakness of human suffering, and
with the shame of His cross. At
first we may exclaim, “He hath no form
nor comeliness;
and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we
should desire
Him” (Isaiah 53:2). But in the end we
can believe the
promise, “Thine
eyes shall see the King in His beauty” (Ibid.
ch.33:17).
For if we begin by
trusting Christ’s saving strength in this world of sin
and need, we shall afterwards
behold His beauty and glory in the world
of light.
16 “And of
thy garments thou didst take, and deckedst thy high
places
with divers colors, and playedst
the harlot thereupon: the like
things shall not come, neither shall it be
so.” (For high places, see note on
ch.
6:6.) The words imply that the shrines upon them were decked with
hangings of many
colored tapestry, presenting an appearance like
that of a
Persian carpet, as in II Kings 23:7, of
the image of the Asherah. Those hangings
were, as in Proverbs 7:16, the
ornaments of the adulterous bed. The “high
places” are named first,
as the earliest form of idolatry. The like things
shall not come. The words are
obscure, and the text probably corrupt. As
they stand, they seem to say
that the world would never again witness so
shameful an apostasy. The Vulgate, Sicut non
est factum neque futurum
est; extends the
comparison to the past. Possibly, though it is a strain upon
the grammar, the words may be rendered, “such things should not come,
should not be.”
17 “Thou
hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver,
which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and
didst commit whoredom with them,” Images of men, etc.; Hebrew, as
falling in with the symbolism of the history, “male images.”
The words point
to the teraphim, the penates, or
household gods, of which we read in Genesis 31:19;
Judges 18:14; I Samuel 19:13; Hosea 3:4-5; and which, like the
statues of Baal-peor,
may have exhibited the phallic type of idolatry.
18 “And tookest thy broidered garments, and coveredst
them: and thou
hast set mine oil and mine incense before
them. 19
My meat also which I gave
thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey,
wherewith I fed thee, thou hast even set it
before them for a sweet savor: and thus it
was, saith the Lord GOD.”
Mine oil and mine
incense. This, as afterwards
in ch. 23:41, was the
crowning
aggravation of the guilt. The very gifts of God, designed for
his worship, were
prostituted to that of his rivals. The “oil”
is that of Exodus 30:23-25, perfumed
and set apart for sacred uses. The act of covering the idol was, as in v. 8, the
symbol of the marriage union. In the sweet savor we have the familiar
phrase of
ch.6:13. The scene brought before us is that of a
sacrificial feast, in which cakes
of flour, honey, and oil were eaten whilst incense was offered. So we have
the
“adored liba” of Virgil, ‘AEneid,’ 7:109, or more fully in Tibullus, ‘Eleg.,’ 1:7,53-54,
the “thuria honores,”
the “liba ... dulcia melle.” Thus it was, etc. As in v. 16, the
description seems to rouse an instinctive abhorrence in the prophet’s mind,
which
finds utterance in this form: “Yes, it was even so.”
The words are, however, taken
by the Septuagint, Vulgate, and Luther as opening the
following verse: “And it
came to pass that.”
20 “Moreover
thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou
hast born unto me, and these hast thou
sacrificed unto them to be devoured.
Is this of thy whoredoms
a small matter, 21
That thou hast slain my children,
and delivered them to cause them to pass
through the fire for them?”
The next stage of idolatry is that of Moloch worship, which
never wholly ceased
as long as the monarchy of
Jeremiah 7:32; 19:5; Micah 6:7; Leviticus 18:21; 20:2
[there would be a great
Population decline in the
noticed that the words, “the
fire,” are in italics, i.e. are not in the Hebrew,
the verb “to pass through” having acquired so
technical a meaning that it
was enough without that addition. This, as the closing words indicate, was
the crowning point. As though idolatry in itself
was a small matter, it was
intensified by INFANTICIDE! (
either over the issue of ABORTION! – CY – 2014)
22 “And in
all thine abominations and thy whoredoms
thou hast not
remembered the days of thy youth, when thou
wast naked and bare,
and wast polluted
in thy blood.” Thou hast not
remembered. The words gain
a fuller significance when we recollect those of Ezekiel’s master
(Jeremiah 2:2).
The husband remembered “the
love of her espousals;” the faithless wife forgot
from what a life of shame and misery she had then been
rescued.
23 “And it
came to pass after all thy wickedness, (woe, woe unto thee!
saith the LORD GOD”;) Woe unto thee, etc.! The interjectional parenthesis, half
anathema and half lamentation,
looks forward rather than backward. Up to
this point Ezekiel had dwelt on the forms of idolatry which
were
indigenous to
enters on the later forms of evil which had been adopted
from more distant
nations. We pass from the time of Solomon to that of Ahaz and Manasseh.
24 “That
thou hast also built unto thee an eminent place, and hast made
thee an high place in every street. 25 Thou hast
built thy high place at every
head of the way, and hast made thy beauty to
be abhorred, and hast opened
thy feet to every one that passed by, and
multiplied thy whoredoms.”
An eminent place; lofty (Revised Version); but the word strictly points to the form
of
a vault, with the added meaning, as in the Septuagint, οἵκημα πορνικόν -
oikaema pornikon - and the
Vulgate, lupanar, of its being used for
prostitution. It is, at hast, a curious fact that the Latin fornicari and its
derivatives, take their start from the fornices,
the vaults or cells which were
the haunts of the harlots of
forms of sensual evil came to
“Jampridem in Tiberim Syrus defluxit
(Juv., ‘Sat.’, 3:62)
it seems probable that the practice was a survival of the custom
to
which Ezekiel refers. As in the Mylitta
worship at
Bar., 6:43), and that of Aphrodite at
religious character, and the harlot sat in a small cell, or
chapel, inviting the
passers by, and treating her hire as, in part, an offering
to the goddess
whom she served. Such chapels of prostitution were to be
found naturally
in the “high places”
of
translated), and in the crossways of intersecting roads. To such a harlot
Ezekiel compares the daughter of
a terrible minuteness, even to the very attitude that
invited to sin.
26 “Thou
hast also committed fornication with the Egyptians thy
neighbors, great of flesh; and hast
increased thy whoredoms, to
provoke me to anger.” With the Egyptians. The words point to political and
commercial alliances, in themselves a whoredom (Isaiah
23:17; Nahum 3:4),
such as Zedekiah, like some of his predecessors, had trusted
in, as well as to
the adoption of Egyptian worship, such as we have seen in
ch.8:10, the one
leading naturally to the other. The words, great
of flesh, may point, as we
interpret the parable, to the supposed strength of the
stout and stalwart
soldiers, the chariots and horses of the Egyptians, but
possibly also may be
a euphemism for the mere animal vigor which stimulated
passion.
27
“Behold, therefore I have stretched out my hand over thee, and have
diminished thine
ordinary food, and delivered thee unto the will of
them that hate thee, the daughters of the
Philistines, which are
ashamed of thy lewd way.” Have diminished thine ordinary food. The husband
was bound to provide his wife with food and raiment (Exodus
21:10). Here
his first discipline for the unfaithful wife is to place
her on a short
allowance. Jehovah, to interpret the parable, had placed
Israel under the
discipline of famine and other visitations that involved a
loss of wealth and
power. Hosea 2:9-10 supplies a striking parallel. The daughters of the
Philistines. So in v. 57. The
phrase, like “the daughter of
indicates the Philistine cities. These had been, from the
days of Samuel to
those of Ahaz (II Chronicles
28:18), among the most persistent enemies
of
words, were
ashamed of thy lewd way, the
prophet points, as his master
had done (Jeremiah 2:10-11), to the fact that other nations
had at least
been faithful to their inherited religion, while
28 “Thou
hast played the whore also with the Assyrians, because thou
wast unsatiable; yea,
thou hast played the harlot with them, and yet
couldest not be satisfied.” With the Assyrians. Here also the words include
political alliances like that of Ahaz with Tiglath-Pileser (II Kings 16:7), as well
as the adoption of idolatrous worship. The latter probably
followed under
Ahaz as a consequence of the former, and afterwards spread
through the
influence of the Assyrian colonists — each nation with its
own deities — in
i.e. of the Assyrian Ishtar, may have had this origin. Yet couldest not be satisfied.
One is reminded once more of Juvenal (‘Sat.,’ 6:130).
29 “Thou
hast moreover multiplied thy fornication in the land of
Canaan unto
In the
the nearest and furthest points of the intercourse of
nations. I incline to take
Zephaniah 1:11, for a like use of the Hebrew word). Chaldea thus
comes in its right place as closing the list of the nations
with whom the
harlot city had been unfaithful.
30 “How
weak is thine heart, saith
the LORD GOD, seeing thou doest
all these things, the work of an imperious
whorish woman;”
The weakness is that expressed in the Latin impotens libidinis, with
no
strength to resist the impulses of desire. The word imperious (perhaps masterful
would be better) is that of one
who is subject to no outward control.
One is
reminded of Dante on Semimlnis (‘Inf.,’
5:56). The strange renderings of the
Septuagint (τὶ διαθῶ τὴυ θυγατέρα
σου – ti diatho taen thugatera
sou –
how weak is your heart) and the Vulgate (in quo mundabo
cor tuum) are
difficult to account for, but probably indicate that the
present text is corrupt.
A Weak Heart (v. 30)
Ø
Coldness of affection. The first ardor of
love is forgotten, and has given
place to a Laodicean
indifference (Revelation 3:14-22). It
cannot be said
that the soul has lost all
interest in God. But the old passion has faded
and left only the dull embers of a listless devotion.
Ø
Lack of energy.
The weak heart beats feebly, and the
person who is
afflicted with it does not feel equal
to any great exertions. There are
souls in this condition of
torpor.
Ø
Readiness to give way. The weak heart may be overstrained; its
action may be depressed; or
it may be excited to unhealthy
palpitation. The soul that
is similarly affected lacks stability.
Ø
Yielding to evil influences. If the heart were
true to God, temptation
would be harmless. It is the
feeble soul that first falls. When a little fear
depresses us, and a little
worldly joy distracts from the love of God, the
heart cannot be strong in its
affection. The stout heart will stand out
bravely against the agonies of
martyrdom. Thus with the Christian, sin
is always a sign of weakness in
the first instance.
Ø
Failure in service. Apparent failure may indicate
no weakness in God’s
true servant. The best seed sown
by the best sower will fail of fruitfulness
if it fall by the wayside or on
stony ground. Real failure is in ourselves —
it is the giving
up of earnest, faithful endeavor. This
only comes from a
weakness of love. When the heart
beats strong and true to God, the
service of the life does not
flag.
Ø
Inability to repent. The true servant of
God is sometimes found in sin.
But he grieves over it, and
seeks forgiveness with tears of anguish.
When he despairs of recovery or
will not exert himself to repent,
he proves that his love is cold
and his heart feeble.
love God with all our heart, and
with a warmth and decision of character
that nothing can shake, for we
are embraced by his infinite love. The strong
heart of God has cared for us in
trouble and redeemed us in sin, and we can
only measure his love by the
preciousness of the gift of his Son. In view of
the great love of Christ, proved
to us by his death and Passion, any love
short of the warmest and
strongest sinews ingratitude on our part. Note,
further, that weakness of heart
is sinful on certain definite grounds.
Ø
God expects love in the heart, not merely obedience
in the life.
Ø
God is not satisfied with measured devotion; He seeks a
whole-hearted love.
Ø
Sin in the heart leads to sin in the life; for “out of it are the issues of
life.” (Proverbs 4:23)
Ø
It provokes the wrath of God. It is an insult to
the wonderful love of
God that we should receive it
with a half-hearted response. Christ says to
all Laodiceans,
“I
would thou wert either cold or hot” (Revelation 3:15).
In some respects weak-hearted
devotion is worse than ardent enmity;
for it confesses an obligation
it does not satisfy.
Ø
It leads to death. The weak heart will become the
heart of stone
(ch.11:19). This degeneracy
cannot stay in its present stage. When
love to Christ cools, it is on its way to
EXTINCTION!
31 “In
that thou buildest thine
eminent place in the head of every way,
and makest thine high place in every street; and hast not been as an
harlot, in that thou scornest
hire; 32 But as a wife that committeth adultery,
which taketh
strangers instead of her husband! 33 They give gifts to all whores:
but thou givest
thy gifts to all thy lovers, and hirest them, that
they may come
unto thee on every side for thy
whoredom. 34
And the contrary is in thee from
other women in thy whoredoms,
whereas none followeth thee to commit
whoredoms: and in that thou givest
a reward, and no reward is given unto thee,
therefore thou art contrary.” In that, etc. It is better to take the words as
beginning
a fresh sentence: “when thou didst build,” etc. The
historical survey of the harlot’s
progress is brought to a close, and the prophet points with
bitter scorn to
what aggravated its degradation. Other nations, like Tyre and Zidon, had
risen to prosperity and eminence through their intercourse
with foreigners.
To Judah it had brought only subjection and the payment of
tribute. She
had given gifts to all her lovers, instead of receiving
from them the rewards
of her shame. She was as the
adulterous wife who forsakes her husband,
and gives what
belonged to him to strangers. The conduct of Ahaz in
stripping the
gives an apt illustration of what the prophet means
(compare Hosea 12:1; Isaiah 30:6).
The Shameful Sin of Apostasy (v. 32)
Apostasy is repeatedly compared to adultery by the Old
Testament prophets, but the
comparison is nowhere so full and powerful and even
appalling as in this long chapter
of Ezekiel, which consists in an
elaborate indictment of
A mealy mouthed modern fastidiousness resents this style
of describing sin as though
to name it were more shameful than to commit it, for the fact of apostasy from God
is by no means excluded when the old name for it is
condemned as too coarse for
polite society. It may be well for
us to brace up our nerves to endure the strong
words on the sin
of unfaithfulness to God which the inspired messengers of Jehovah
felt themselves impelled to utter. In what respects, then,
may apostasy be compared
to THAT SHAMEFUL
THING, ADULTERY!
AND HIS PEOPLE. That
relation has been described with graphic pictures
in the preceding verses. God had
chosen
miserable castaway child, reared
her in kindness, and then adorned her
with splendor and taken her home
to Himself as his bride. In like manner,
all God’s people have been first found by Him, and then brought into the
closest bonds of
union with Himself. Such a union with God is like
marriage, because it implies
Ø
love;
Ø
close fellowship;
Ø
a sacred and indissoluble tie.
are not at liberty to leave Him
whenever they choose.
Ø
Love should bind them.
There is no such thing as innocent
“free love”under
any circumstances; for love always
implies
obligations. Its bonds may be
soft and silken, but they are strong
and sacred. God’s love to us, accepted by us, carries with it a duty
of GRATITUDE and LOYALTY!
Ø
The pledges of faith must ever bind God’s
people to the duty of
cleaving to Him
(Deuteronomy 10:20). When we accept the
blessings of the gospel we
enter into a covenant relation like
that of marriage vows.
people do not forsake Him from
weariness or without motive. But some
fatal fascination lures the
heart of the foolish wife from her true husband.
In the case of
Canaanites, with its coarse, cruel, lustful charms. Anything that
draws us
from God by counter attractions
is an “idol of the heart.” Money, pleasure,
power, success, may thus deceive
and destroy. Yet a prior condition of
unfaithfulness
is the failing of love to God. “How
weak is thine heart!”
standing side by side with
murder, as a horror of great wickedness. SO
according to the Hebrew
prophets, IS UNFAITHFULNESS TO GOD!
As we are not free to forsake Him who has purchased us at the great cost
of His own Son, and to whom we are doubly bound by the ties of our own
vows, to “change our mind” in this matter and fling
up our religion is not a
light affair of private
convenience. (“For pass over the isles of Chittim,
and see; and send unto Kedar,
and consider diligently, and see if there
be such a thing. Hath a nation changed her gods, which are yet
no gods?
But my people have changed their glory for
that which doth not profit.”
(Jeremiah 2:10-11).
In the sight of God it is adultery.
so shameful as that of adultery,
and none brings in its train such heartrending
sorrow.
Ø
It is shameful to be unfaithful to God; for it outrages the deepest
instincts of the soul and
violates the secret sanctuary of life.
Ø
It is certainly a
source of bitter sorrow, if not now, YET
HEREAFTER, for it means BANISHMENT from
THE HOME OF HEAVEN,
with the pangs of remorse to
gnaw like a worm, long after the
short pleasures of sin have sunk
to ashes.
35 “Wherefore,
O harlot, hear the word of the LORD:” From the task of painting
the guilt of Judah the prophet proceeds to that of denouncing its
punishment.
36 “Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thy filthiness was poured out,
and thy nakedness discovered through thy whoredoms with thy
lovers, and with all the idols of thy
abominations, and by the blood
of thy children, which thou didst give unto
them;” Thy filthiness;
literally,
thy brass; probably as
alluding to the tribute referred to in the previous verses,
“brass” being taken as used scornfully for money generally.
Possibly, however,
as in Jeremiah 6:28, the word stands for the symbol of shame
and vileness
(compare our brazen faced), and so justifies the rendering
of the Authorized Version
And Revised Version. Thy
nakedness discovered; i.e.
interpreting the parable,
the intercourse of
that were moot open to attack (Genesis 42:9). By the blood of thy
children. The words may refer
specially to the Moloch sacrifices of v. 21,
but may also include the
lavish waste of life as well as treasure
which
had been the consequence of the foreign alliances. The harlot city is
indicated as being also a murderess.
37 “Behold,
therefore I will gather all thy lovers, with whom thou hast
taken pleasure, and all them that thou hast
loved, with all them that
thou hast hated; I will even gather them
round about against thee,
and will discover thy nakedness unto them,
that they may see all
thy nakedness.” I will gather all
thy lovers, etc. Interpreting the parable, the
“lovers” are the nations with which
religion she had adopted. In that confederacy of Moabites,
Ammonites,
Syrians, Philistines, Edomites
and Chaldeans there should be small
difference between those whom she had loved and those whom
she had
hated. All alike would exult in her shame and her fall
(compare Psalm
137:7; II Kings 24:2).
38 “And I will
judge thee, as women that break wedlock and shed
blood are judged; and I will give thee
blood in fury and jealousy.”
The bloodshed may refer, as in v.
36, to the Moloch sacrifices, or may include
also other crimes, assassinations and judicial murders
(Jeremiah 2:34). Strictly
speaking, the punishment of the adulteress was death by
stoning (Leviticus 20:2,10;
Deuteronomy 21:21; 22:21; John 8:5). Did Ezekiel think of
the stones cast against
The city from the catapult engines of the Chahleans as a literal counterpart of
that punishment? In the last clause read, with the Revised
Version, I will
bring upon thee the blood of fury and jealousy; sc. the death which
was
inflicted by the indignation of Jehovah as the Husband
against whom
had sinned.
39 “And I
will also give thee into their hand, and they shall throw
down thine
eminent place, and shall break down thy high places:
they shall strip thee also of thy clothes,
and shall take thy fair
jewels, and leave thee naked and
bare.” (For
eminent place and high place,
see notes on v. 24.) These
the Chaldean conqueror treated as local sanctuaries,
and laid them
waste. The clothes and the jewels are, of course,
all outward tokens
of stateliness and prosperity. The (or a) holy city, the
perfection of beauty,
should be as “some forlorn and desperate castaway” (compare
Lamentations
1:1-10 for a companion picture).
40 “They
shall also bring up a company against thee, and they shall
stone thee with stones, and thrust thee
through with their swords.”
The punishment of stoning was, as a rule, inflicted by the
“congregation” (Numbers 15:36), or by the men of the city
(Leviticus 20:2). Other forms of punishement
for impurity were those
of the sword and burning, as in Leviticus 20:14; 21:9. The thrusting
through (better, hewing; the
word is not found elsewhere) probably points
to mutilation after death, as in the case of Agog (I Samuel
15:33:
compare Judges 19:29; Daniel 2:5; 3:29). in this case the “congregation” or
“company” is the army of the Chaldeans,
and each form of punishment has
its counterpart in the various agencies which they employed
for the punishment
of the city.
41 “And
they shall burn thine houses with fire, and execute
judgments
upon thee in the sight of many women: and I
will cause thee to
cease from playing the harlot, and thou
also shalt give no hire any
more.” They shall burn thine houses with fire, etc. (compare
II Kings 25:9
and Jeremiah 52:13, for the fulfillment of the prediction). The women stand
for
the “cities” which looked on, with awe or exultation, at the
destruction of the guilty.
Possibly, however, the words may include a literal
sense, as in Lamentations 2:10.
42 “So
will I make my fury toward thee to rest, and my jealousy shall
depart from thee, and I will be quiet, and
will be no more angry.”
So will I make my
fury, etc.;
read, with the Revised Version,
will satisfy. The
words are not primarily words of comfort. They speak of
the satisfaction of the jealous husband’s righteous anger,
and therefore of a
completed punishment. And yet that thought was, as the
sequel shows
(vs. 53, 60-63), the beginning of hope for the future, as
the prophet
thought of his people. For here the forms of punishment
were not final The
daughter of
when wrath had done its work of retribution, it might
become corrective
and purgatorial. The injured husband, in the bold
anthropomorphic
language of the parable, would be no more angry. The Lord God of
would remember His covenant, and forgive.
How God’s Anger Ceases (v. 42)
irascible person is provoked to
wrath by slight causes; but inasmuch as his
anger springs chiefly from his own
fiery disposition, the cooling of passion
allays the rage of wrath, even
though circumstances remain unchanged. But
God is “slow to
anger” (Psalm 103:8); He is not
wrathful by nature,
because IN ESSENCE, HE IS LOVE!
But the anger which is slow to begin
is the more deep and terrible,
as it does not arise without adequate reason.
Further, a weak person may tire
of his anger, even though the cause of it
remains unchanged. An explosion
of wrath exhausts him. He has not the
energy for sustained anger. The
fire simply burns out. But this cannot be
the case with the great, the unexhaustible nature of God. God is
ever the
same, always
true, just, active. Therefore so long
as the cause for anger is
unchanged, the anger too must
remain. “God is angry with the wicked
every day” (Psalm 7:11).
As long as men continue in sin, so long must
God abide in wrath. An
eternity of sin must, be accompanied by an
eternity of Divine
anger.
This appears to be the terrible
goal of the text. Gracious as it reads in
word, the purport of it is most
fearful. It stands between passages of
denunciation and condemnation;
it cannot describe a kindly cessation of
wrath. The anger of God will
burn till it has nothing further to consume.
Then His fury will rest. Thus it
was with
swept away, consumed off the
land. Only a “remnant” was spared, a mere
stump of the old tree, from
which new growths could sprout. We see no
more of God’s anger against a man
when he has been killed. If nothing
were interposed for the saving
of his soul, the natural consequence of sin
run out to its
extremity would be DESTRUCTION! Then God would cease
to be angry with the sinner, for
the plain reason that there would be no sinner
left against whom His wrath
would be called forth.
another way by which the anger
of God may be allayed. He is not desirous
to see His children destroyed,
for He is merciful and gracious. When sin is
pardoned, God’s
fury towards the sinner rests and His jealousy departs.
But this pardon does not depend
only on the will of God, or He would
forgive all His children.
Ø
It is dependent on repentance. So long as the soul
persists in
impenitence, God’s anger cannot
cease to burn. It is not simply a
question of the amount and guilt
of the sin which first provoked
God’s wrath. The continued
impenitence is virtually a prolongation
of the guilt. But when the sinner truly repents, God’s anger
abates.
Ø
It is also
dependent on CHRIST’S ATONEMENT! We are able
to read the words of
Ezekiel with a more hopeful meaning than that
which the prophet seems to
have put upon them, because “we have
an Advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He is
the Propitiation
for our sins: and not for ours only, but also
for the
sins of the whole
world” (I John 2:1-2). We read
that “the mercy of
the Lord eudureth forever,”
but never that the anger of the Lord
endureth forever. On the contrary, “He will not always chide, neither
will He keep His
anger forever” (Psalm 103:9). Still, God only ceases
to be angry either because
sin destroys the sinner or because God
destroys the sin.
43
“Because thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, but hast
fretted me in all these things; behold,
therefore I also will recompense thy
way upon thine
head, saith the Lord GOD: and thou shalt not commit this
lewdness above all thine
abominations.” Because thou hast not remembered
(compare Jeremiah 2:2). There is, so to speak, a certain
dawn of tenderness in the
new form of reproach, as compared with the sternness of what had gone
before,
and this in itself implies the pity which is the ground of hope. Fretted. Ezra
(Ezra 5:12) uses the same word, there rendered “provoke.” Had
Ezekiel’s use of it stamped it as the right word for
confession? Thou shalt
not commit, etc. The Vulgate
follows a reading which gives, “I have
not
done according to
thy lewdness,” etc.; i.e. the guilt
had deserved a greater
punishment. The Revised Version margin gives, “Hast then not
committed,” etc.? The word for “lewdness” (“lewd way” in v. 27)
is
specially characteristic of Ezekiel, who uses it eleven
times. Elsewhere it is
translated “wickedness”
(Leviticus 18:17, et al.), “lewdness” in Judges 20:6;
Jeremiah 13:27. It conveys always the sense of a guilt that
revolts and shocks us.
Remembering the Days of Youth (v. 43)
that
unbecoming. Memory is a
marvelous possession at which the materialist
stumbles, for it involves that mystery, personal identity. We can not
merely
recall the scenes of bygone
years, but, what is more wonderful, we can
detect the connecting link of
personality that runs through those scenes.
Each one of us can say, “I was
there in that dreamlike past.” Now, while all
memory thus recalls the personal
past, the memory of our early days does
this with peculiar vividness. As
time runs out while intermediate scenes are
but faintly impressed on the
mind and tend to fade off rapidly, the early
days remain
stamped upon the memory with indelible portraiture. Thus the
old man looking across the near
past with growing forgetfulness, is able to
call up the most vivid
recollections of his childhood, as one may look
across a valley that lies
wrapped in mist, and see the mountains in the far
distance rising beyond it sharp
and clear. Whatever else we forget, it is
most unnatural not to remember
the days of our youth. (Thus we should,
“Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy
youth while the evil
days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when
thou shalt say, I have
no pleasure in them.” - Ecclesiastes 12:1 – At 70 years of age, I am
very thankful to have that memory! – CY – 2014)
“Sweet
memory, wafted by thy gentle gale,
Oft up the
stream of time I turn my sail
To view
the fairy haunts of long lost hours,
Blest with
far greener shades, far fresher flowers.”
(
use in simply lamenting lost
happy days, especially as we are likely to view
them in the delusive glamour of
a fond affection. There can be little good in
exclaiming, with Coleridge —
“When
I was young!
When I was
young! Ah, woeful when!”
But there is a
wise and helpful use of the memories of youth.
Ø
In thankfulness. It was the sin and shame of
her Deliverer, not
remembering those days of her youth when He
had found her forlorn and
destitute, and had saved her from
destruction. She forgot the deliverance from
6:12). We have had many mercies from our youth up. It
is right to
remember them with thankfulness.
Ø
In warning. Remembering
danger of
encounter with the new
captivity. It is well to remember the sad scenes
of youth. Some of these may be burnt into the memory beyond hope of
forgetfulness. “If cutting off this hand,” said a great speaker, holding
out
his right hand, “would blot out
all memories of my misspent youth, I
would gladly lose it.” But He
who orders our lives knows that even these
terrible memories may be
converted into helpful warnings for the future.
Certainly it would be far better
if we had not done the deeds which
created such memories and
necessitated such warnings. (I certainly
remember them in my life and I
too pray “Remember not the sins
of my youth” – CY – 2014)
Ø
In humility.
humble her. Proud in her later
prosperity, she scorned to remember the
pit from which she was digged (Isaiah 51:1). People
who have risen in
society do not like to be reminded of their lowly youth. Yet the humility
that comes from knowing how feeble we once
were is
wholesome.
Ø
In encouragement. When in the most abject wretchedness
saved by God. That was a glorious
fact to be ever treasured up in the
memories of youth. The recollection of such a deliverance should
cheer with hope
of similar mercy IN FUTURE TIMES OF NEED!
44
“Behold, every one that useth proverbs shall use this
proverb against
thee, saying, As is the mother, so is her
daughter.” Every one that speaketh
proverbs, etc. As in 18:2, we
have an example of the tendency of the Eastern
mind to condense
the experience of life into the form of
proverbial sayings. Here
the proverb expresses what we call the doctrine of heredity. We
say, in such cases,
“Like father, like son;”
but the feeling of the East recognized, especially in
the case of daughters, that the mother’s influence was
predominant.
45 “Thou
art thy mother’s daughter, that loatheth her husband
and her
children; and thou art the sister of thy
sisters, which loathed their
husbands and their children: your mother
was an Hittite, and your
father an Amorite.” Ezekiel returns
to the thought of the spiritual parentage
of
something like an anticipation of Paul’s thought that
Jehovah was the
God of the Gentiles as well as of the Jews (Romans 3:29).
The Hittites
and
guilty of unfaithfulness to their husbands. Their idolatry
was therefore, like
hers, an act of apostasy. Jehovah was their husband also,
their children
were his children (v. 21). He claimed them as His own, had
entered with
them also into a relation which, though less close than
that with
as that of the husband to the wife. The thought expands, as
we shall see, in
the
sequel of the chapter.
Judicial Verdict (vs. 35-45)
It is a great kindness done by any one if he disclose to us the real nature of
our
sin. Light from any quarter should be welcomed. To demonstrate to the
Hebrews that their idolatry was the worst form of adultery
was an act of
condescension on the part of God. By their own state law they knew that
this sin incurred the penalty of death. With all the circumstance of
judicial
solemnity, the Supreme Judge summons the attention of the culprit: “O
harlot, hear the word of the Lord!”
twofold.
Ø
Conjugal infidelity. The covenant made between
Jehovah and Israel —
the covenant more sacred than between bridegroom and bride —
had been wantonly broken. Of this proof was furnished in
abundance.
It was openly displayed.
Shameless publicity marked the dead.
Ø
Murder of children.
The children created by God, and on whom
He had
set peculiar affection, were cruelly sacrificed unto the
insatiable idols. It
was murder of the worst sort — murder of innocent and helpless
victims.
No language of man could
exaggerate or over color the crime. (Yet
Abortion on Demand repeats the
same scenario that
played out 2500 years ago!!! – CY – 2014)
break wedlock and that shed blood are judged.”
Ø
The criminal is condemned to public shame. She had openly boasted of
her sin; she shall be openly exposed. She shall be made a spectacle to the
world. Care shall be
taken to bring her companions and paramours to the
sight. The most secret intrigue shall be set in the clear light
of day.
Friends and foes
alike shall WITNESS THIS DISGRACE!
Ø
Forfeiture of all possessions. “They shall take
thy fair jewels.” All the
instruments of sin shall be sequestered. The illicit gains of iniquity
soon
turn to loss. “The wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23)
Ø
Summary death. “They shall stone thee with stones.” This was the
penalty assigned to adultery in the Jewish code. This was the
penalty
for an individual culprit. But for
a community, the punishment
ordained was the sword. Therefore it is added, “They shall
thrust
thee through with their swords.” In God’s world neither adultery
nor idolatry shall long be tolerated.
Ø
It was an equitable recompense. “I will recompense
thy way upon thy
head.” The entire
punishment proceeded in the most natural way; ay, it
proceeded in the way of nature. No strange portent appeared in
heaven
or earth. To the carnal
eye no hand nor sword of God was manifest;
YET FULL EXECUTION
OF THE SENTENCE WAS DONE!
As at the creation every plant had the latent
power to propagate itself,
equally every sin carries in itself suitable and adequate
punishment.
DEATH IS ONLY RIPE SIN!
Ø
It was a satisfaction to eternal righteousness. “I will be quiet,
and will
be no more angry.” The
righteousness of God is a force of tremendous
energy, and can only be quieted by adequate repentance or
adequate
retribution. As the sea cannot be calm while a tempest of wind sweeps
over its surface, no more can the justice of God be complacent
while
sin is rampant. But when sin is atoned for, there is
profoundest peace —
AN ETERNAL CALM!
46 “And thine elder sister is
at thy left hand: and thy younger sister,
that dwelleth at thy right
hand, is
the assignment of the respective ages of the two sisters.
Historically,
as the oldest representative of evil, would have seemed to claim precedence.
Judah. The left and right hands indicate respectively a
position to the north
and south of
may note, the temple did (ch.
8:16). The comparison with Samaria
is developed more fully in ch.
23. The daughters are, as elsewhere,
the
cities dependent on
47 “Yet
hast thou not walked after their ways, nor done after their
abominations: but, as if that were a very
little thing, thou wast
corrupted more than they in all thy
ways.” 48
As I live, saith the
Lord GOD, Sodom thy sister hath not done,
she nor her daughters,
as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters.”
The words in italics indicate, as usual, a difficulty. A
better
construction gives, Thou hast not… done after a
small measure only. So
the Vulgate, Neque secundum scelera earum fecisti pauxillum
minus. The
Septuagint connects the words with the clause that follows:
“Thou wast all
but
(παρὰ μικρὸν – para micron – a very little thing) corrupted more than
they.”
49
“Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister
bread, and abundance of idleness was in her
and in her daughters,
neither did she strengthen the hand of the
poor and needy.
50 And
they were haughty, and committed abomination before me:
therefore I took them away as I saw
good.” It
is noticeable that what we
commonly speak of as the specific sin of the cities of the
plain is not mentioned
here. The prophet fixes on the point which made
city, the graver evil being just hinted at in the word abominations, and as the
outcome of the evil tendencies. So in like manner the
special sin of
Samaria, the worship of the calves, is not named, but taken
for granted.
(For fullness of
bread, see Proverbs 30:9: Hosea 13:6; Deuteronomy 8:12.)
Prosperity and luxury in her case, as in that of other
wealthy cities,
hardened the hearts of men against the poor and needy. There was probably
a sufficient reason for the omission which has been pointed out.
It was wiser
to dwell on the sins which were common to the two cities
rather than on the
vice which, though it existed in
prevalent there. As
I saw good; better, according
to what I saw. The word
“good” is not in the Hebrew, and the words apparently refer to Genesis 18:21.
51
“Neither hath
multiplied thine
abominations more than they, and hast justified
thy sisters in all thine
abominations which thou hast done.
52 Thou
also, which hast judged thy sisters, bear thine own
shame for
thy sins that thou hast committed more
abominable than they: they
are more righteous than thou: yea, be thou
confounded also, and
bear thy shame, in that thou hast justified
thy sisters.”
Thou hast justified, etc. The word has a
touch of sarcasm.
as compared with
confluence of all the worst idolatries. The words find
something like an echo
in our Lord’s teaching Matthew 10:15; 11:24. And, as is common m such cases,
“she had judged,” i.e. had passed sentence of
condemnation on those who were
more righteous than herself. The Revised Version changes both meaning and
punctuation: Bear thine own
shame, in that thou hast given judgment for thy
sisters; through thy sins
that thou hast committed more abominable than they,
they are more righteous
than thou; but the Authorized Version seems preferable.
It may be questioned whether the word for judged is ever used of an acquittal.
The point of the sentence is that Judah condemned those who
were less
guilty than herself (compare Romans 2:17-23).
53 “When I
shall bring again their captivity, the captivity of
her daughters, and the captivity of
will I bring again the captivity of thy
captives in the midst of them:”
(I can only imagine what type of people, who lived in other ages, with
whom the guilty will share eternal separation from God! – CY – 2014)
When I shall bring
again; better, with the
Revised Version,
both here and in v. 55, and I will turn again. The
Authorized Version
reads like a sentence of hopeless and perpetual condemnation,
as per
impossible. When Sodom
and Samaria should be pardoned, then, and not
till then, should there be hope for
shows that what is meant is a promise of restoration, not
for
but also for her less guilty sisters. Ezekiel sees a far
off hope for his own
nation, and he cannot limit the mercy of God in bringing
them also, as she
was to be brought, to repentance. For them also punishment
was a means
to an end beyond itself, corrective, and not merely retributive.
The
language of Isaiah (Isaiah 19:23-25) as to
striking parallel, and may have been in Ezekiel’s thoughts.
The Salvation of
That the notoriously wicked cities of the plain should come
under the
saving grace of God would seem to be one of the greatest
paradoxes of
redemption, and the more so as those cities had been
utterly destroyed and
the very sites of them obliterated. A reference to such an
event opens up to
us a marvelous vista in the deep possibilities of the
future.
REDEMPTION. There is
even some comfort to us in the sight of the great
wickedness of the Jews, or
rather in what is based upon it. We read of
repealed promises of restoration
for
been exceptionally virtuous, or
but mildly culpable in comparison with the
rest of the world, it might well
have been surmised that the salvation which
was possible for
wickedness. But if the “
world’s wicked people, if
the salvation which touches the
one class of sinners may extend to the
other. God is no respecter of
persons. He has no favoritism. Redemption
is as wide as sin.
SINNERS. His
redemption is universal in two respects.
Ø
In extent. As the Lamb of God, He came to take away the sin of the
world (John
1:29), not the sins of a certain nation, or those of one
section of society. He commanded that “repentance and remission
of sins should be
preached in His Name among all nations”
(Luke
24:47). If the gospel is to be
offered to all, it must be that the salvation
is effective for all. Nothing less could satisfy the heart of Jesus, and
“He shall see of
the travail of Hs soul, and shall be satisfied”
(Isaiah 53:11).
Ø
In intensity. Not only are sinners of all nations and of all sections of
society included in the redeeming
love of Christ; sinners of blackest
guilt are also within its
merciful and mighty embrace.
uttermost all that come unto God by Him” (Hebrews 7:25).
To doubt that the worst can
be saved is either to malign
His love
or to insult His power.
SINNERS. It is not
sufficient that He has died for the sins of the whole
world, nor that He is willing to
save all —
very worst. For only they are effectually saved WHO PERSONALLY
HAVE PARTAKEN OF
THE GRACE OF CHRIST!
Ø
It must be offered to all. Herein lies the duty
of universal missionary
agency. The gospel should be
preached to the most remote nations,
to the most degraded savages, to
the most abandoned sinners. It is not
for us to say that any are
beyond its saving grace. But how of the
heathen dead? how of
can
contemporary sinners. Yet the truth of the text will be most
completely
satisfied if we deem it possible
that Christ’s preaching to the spirits in
prison extended to the men of
Ø
It needs to be taken by all. Christ died to redeem
all, even the worst
sinners, yet none share in His redemption save through penitence
and faith.
54 “That
thou mayest bear thine own
shame, and mayest be
confounded in all that thou hast done, in
that thou art a comfort
unto them.”
Even in that restoration, however, there
should be a further
element of humiliation.
to those who should see her placed lower than themselves,
content, at last,
to lake the lowest place, humbling herself that she might
be (v. 61)
afterwards exalted.
55 “When
thy sisters,
former estate, and
former estate, then thou and thy daughters
shall return to your
former estate.” Read and for when,
as in v. 53.
56 “For
thy sister
thy pride,” Thy sister Sodom, etc. The words are obscure. The most
tenable interpretation may be expressed by a paraphrase.
The name of
Sodom was not in the lips of Judah in the days of her
prosperity. It was too
vile for utterance, except as a byword of reproach. Isaiah
(Isaiah 1:9-10)
had in vain reminded her that she had made herself like
them. Her fate
could never be like theirs. Now,
in the day of the discovery (the
uncovering, or laying bare) of
her wickedness (v. 57), she had learnt the
lesson.
57 “Before
thy wickedness was discovered, as at the time of thy
reproach of the daughters of
the daughters of the Philistines, which
despise thee round about.”
For thy reproach, read, with the Revised Version, the
reproach. The words
point primarily to the disasters, not of Judah, but to
those that fell on the cities of
Chaldean invasions. (For the grouping of the two nations as enemies
of
and II Chronicles 28:18-19.)
58 “Thou
hast borne thy lewdness and thine abominations, saith the
LORD.” Thou hast borne, etc. Judah, i.e., had received the full
measure of its punishments. The righteousness of God had
been adequately
vindicated. And so, if the punishment led to repentances,
there was room
for pardon (compare for the thought, Isaiah 40:2).
59 “For
thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even deal with thee
as thou
hast done, which hast despised the oath in
breaking the covenant.
60 Nevertheless
I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of
thy youth, and I will establish unto thee
an everlasting covenant.”
I will even deal
with thee, etc. The law of retribution is
stated in all its fullness. Falling back upon the idea of
the espousals of Israel
in the covenant made at Sinai (Leviticus 26:42, 45;
Deuteronomy 29:11-12),
Ezekiel presses home on
that covenant. She must suffer as though it no longer
existed. She must
“dree her weird” and “accept her
punishment” (Leviticus 26:41). And
then Jehovah would show that He had not really been
unmindful of His part
in it. He had remained faithful in
spite of her unfaithfulness. And so in the
day of her repentance He
will not only renew it, but will give it a higher and
more permanent character. The “new covenant” of which Ezekiel’s master
had spoken (Jeremiah 31:31) should not be as the old,
decaying and
vanishing away, but should be EVERLASTING!
Inexcusable Infidelity (vs. 15-59)
Universal consent accounts that woman vile who, married to
a kind and
honorable husband, in order to gratify her own unchastened desires,
commits adultery with her neighbors and acquaintances, and
expends her
husband’s substance in rewarding her numerous and
profligate admirers.
The guilt of
adequately set forth under the similitude of guilt so
flagrant and abominable
as that described in this most appalling chapter. Passing away from the
figure to the reality, we have to trace the unfaithfulness
of
who had saved her from death, distinguished her by favor,
and exalted her
to honor.
AS HER OWN WHAT WAS REALLY THE GIFT AND GRACE OF
GOD. What a lesson is
there in the striking expression, “Thou didst
trust in
thine own beauty”! — thine own, as if for that beauty thou hadst
to thank
thyself; as if it were aught
else than the gift of Divine bounty and the token
of Divine favor! We are far less
likely to abuse our position and our
possessions if we do but
remember that they are not ours, save by God’s
kindness, and that we are not
our own, “that we are bought by a price.”
(I Corinthians 6:20)
GRACE AND COMPASSION. Very touching is that expression in v.22,
“Thou hast not
remembered the days of thy youth.”
Here is the radical
error. It is pride and
self-confidence that leads men astray. They who are
forgetful of God are in danger
of being unfaithful to Him.
“I sit a queen!” And saying so, she fell. It is a too common experience.
The
Christian may learn to cultivate
the spirit of complete dependence upon
God; for the consciousness that he owes all to God will help to
bind him to
loyal allegiance
and constant service.
IDOLATRY OF SURROUNDING NATIONS. In
neighborhood the deities of the
several peoples to the east, north, and
south of
openly practiced. With spiritual
wantonness the citizens of the great and
glorious city admitted and
embraced every form of idolatry, and that even
within sight, if not within the
precincts, of the very
PRACTICES WHICH ARE CONNECTED WITH IDOLATRY. Cruel
and lustful
rites, it
is well known, were associated with heathen worship. In
vs. 20 and 21 reference is made
to the practice, connected with the
worship of Moloch, of causing
sons and daughters to pass through the fire.
(Sex was associated with Moloch
worship and sex is the “choice freedom
of expression held
to by proponents of the heresy of “PRO-CHOICE”
of the abortion
industry in the last half-century! – CY – 2014). This
was but one of the abominable
and reprehensible practices encouraged
by heathen priests. When these
practices are compared with the
observances of the Law of Moses,
who can avoid the conclusion that,
whereas the former were the
invention of sinful men, the latter bear marks
of appointment by a pure and
merciful God? Once let men abandon
the true
religion, and “go
after false gods,” and none can tell
into what excesses of
iniquity they may be led.
AND MONSTROUS.
Indeed, had not the abominations
wrought in
language of this chapter would
not have been justified. The abuse of the
best is ever the worst. The
greater the height from which the fall, the
severer is the hurt received. The Lord was aggrieved by the lengths to
which the disobedient proceeded,
THE RIOT OF INIQUITY into
which they ran.
DIVINE DISPLEASURE, INDIGNATION, AND WRATH. The
conduct of
has been defied, and just
authority has been set at naught. It is not
possible that infidelity so
flagrant can be overlooked. Severe and righteous
is the
resolution of the almighty King, “I WILL JUDGE THEE;” “I will
even deal with
thee as thou hast done” (v. 59).
Not only has
to reckon with justice that cannot be perverted (men and women may
pervert God’s commandments and
they have but GOD WILL NOT
PERVERT JUDGMENT – CY
– 2014) and with wisdom that cannot
be eluded; it has
to reckon with power that cannot be resisted. When
God arises to judgment and calls the
nations before Him, a righteous
sentence is
pronounced, to which all must submit, and which NONE
CAN QUESTION OR
APPEAL!
WERE MADE INSTRUMENTS IN
The lovers are called in to
minister punishment to the adulteress; the
surrounding nations, especially
the Assyrians and Chaldeans and the
Egyptians, were made
instrumental in chastising the people that
had
permitted
themselves to be deluded and seduced by their vile idolatries.
(“my people love to have it so” –
Jeremiah 5:31).
great in proportion to her
privileges, and her affliction was as her sin.
And there was an awful
appropriateness in the employment of the
heathen people to chastise those
who should have witnessed against
their follies instead of being
partakers of their sins. (Deuteronomy
32:21-22)
The Everlasting Covenant (v. 60)
God’s relations with His people are repeatedly described as
determined by
covenants. Adam, Noah, Abraham, and the nation of
covenants with God, and Christ
established a new covenant.
Ø
It originates in God. The covenant is not
an agreement made by two
parties who meet on equal terms.
It cannot be compared to the bond
which seals a bargain after mutual
concessions. It is rather an institution
of God which man
accepts. We cannot determine or in any
way modify
the conditions of God’s covenant. As the Giver of blessing and
the Lord
of service, God offers us His settled covenant.
Ø
It must be accepted by man. The covenant relation
has two sides. When
we desire to share its
privileges we must ourselves enter into it. We must
freely accept it. (“Ye must be born again” – John 3:7)
Ø It involves
mutual obligations.
ü God graciously undertakes to do certain things for man,
even
condescending to bind
Himself with promises.
ü
We are bound to loyal
obedience, and the seal of the covenant
ratifies those obligations.
Thus it gives man a right to
“covenant mercies,” and God a right to “covenant
service.”
ancient days. The sinful people
had violated the conditions of the covenant,
and so, while excluding
themselves from its privileges, they had brought its
penalties down upon their heads
(v. 59). God might therefore only
remember His covenant in order
to carry out its penal clauses. But He is
seen to remember it on its
gracious side. This could not be because He held
Himself bound to its promises,
for the Jews had forfeited all rights in those
promises. Therefore God’s
remembrance of the covenant is His merciful
calling to mind of previous
happy relations. God is not ready
to forsake His
people with whom
He made a covenant in the olden times. It may be the
same with the individual souls.
There are men who followed God in their
childhood, perhaps learning to
love Him from a mother’s teaching, and
entering into solemn promises to
live for Him in the hopeful days of youth.
They may have forgotten those
fair times of the long-deal past. But God
remembers them,
and in His wonderful, enduring love He delights to revive
them, and
therefore He calls his erring children back to the forsaken paths.
Ø Its necessity.
ü
On account of the failure of the former covenant.
The old
covenant being broken and
having proved ineffectual, a
new one must be instituted.
ü
On account of the new needs
of new times. The new wine
must not be put into the
old bottles. The Jewish Law which
suited ancient
Ø
Its origin. It is based on the old covenant. God remembers that old
covenant in granting a new one.
The New Testament rests on the
foundation of the Old Testament.
Christ came to fulfill the Law by
establishing the gospel (Matthew
5:17). The same Divine grace, which
in its dawn shone through the
earlier dispensation, in its noon glorifies
the later one.
Ø
Its stability. It is to be an EVERLASTING COVENANT! The old
covenant was local,
temporary, and fragile on the human side, though
firm as adamant on God’s
side. The new covenant must have other
characteristics to make it
more enduring.
ü
It is an inward, spiritual principle (Jeremiah 31:33).
ü
It is sealed by the blood of Christ (I Corinthians
11:25),
is bound to the cross by His sacrifice and our love.
61 “Then
thou shalt remember thy ways, and be ashamed, when
thou
shalt receive thy sisters, thine
elder and thy younger: and I will
give them unto thee for daughters, but not
by thy covenant.
62 And I
will establish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt
know
that I am the LORD:” Then thou shalt
remember thy ways, etc. THE
PARDON WHICH GOD GIVES is not, as men
sometimes dream, a water
of Lethe, blotting out the memory of the evil past. Ezekiel
represents that
memory as quickened to a new intensity in the very hour of
restoration. The
shame which it
brings with it is necessary as the safeguard of
the new
blessedness. Thy sisters, thine
elder and thy younger. It is significant that, as
in the Revised
Version, both the adjectives are now in the plural. What was
possible for
immediately connected with them, so also for other nations
of the heathen
world. They too should be admitted into fellowship, not now
as sisters, but
as daughters, acknowledging, i.e., her
superiority. The limitation which
follows, not by
thy covenant, asserts, as it were, the restored prerogative
of
the covenant of
faith of Abraham as well as his children according to the
flesh, are in a
closer relation to Him than others who share in what have
been called (the
phrase, perhaps, taking its origin from these very words)
the “uncovenanted
mercies” of God.
A Picture of Renewed Favor (vs. 60-62)
This passage points to the gospel covenant and its
spiritual blessings. This new
covenant is more fully described by Jeremiah (31:31-34); and is
directly applied
to
the Christian covenant in the Hebrews 8:8-12.
ORIGINATED WITH HIMSELF. “Nevertheless I will remember my
covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish
unto thee
an everlasting covenant.” Notwithstanding
their breach of the covenant,
and their countless and enormous sins, God will return to them
in blessing.
And He will do so of His own
unmerited and unsought grace. When Jesus
Christ came into our world He
came without any solicitation from man.
“He came unto His
own possessions, and his own people received Him not.”
(John 1:12). “God commendeth
His own love toward us, in that, while we
were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). The contrast
between
God and the Jews in respect to the
covenants shows that the existence of
the new one was entirely owing to His grace.
Ø
They forgot Him and
the covenant into which they entered with Him.
But He says, “I will remember my covenant with thee in the days
of thy youth.” He does not forget
the engagements into which He
enters, or the promises which He makes. “If
we are faithless,
He abideth faithful; for He cannot deny Himself.” (II Timothy
2:13)
Ø
They outrageously
broke the covenant. “Thou hast despised the
oath in breaking the covenant” (v. 59). But the Lord says, “I
will
establish unto thee an everlasting covenant.” Clearly this was not
of their merit, but of His mercy. “By grace have ye
been saved
through faith; and
that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
not of works, that no man should glory.” (Ephesians 2:8-10)
WITHIN THEM PENITENT
RECOLLECTIONS. “Then shalt thou
remember thy ways, and be ashamed.” This remembrance is not mere
recollection, but recollection and reflection upon the things
remembered.
Moved by the grace of God, the
Jews would recall to mind their sinful
ways, and consider them, and take to themselves shame because
of them.
Like the psalmist —
“I
thought on my ways,
And
turned my feet unto thy testimonies,” (Psalm 119:59)
Like the prodigal also: “When
he came to himself he said, How many hired
servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare!” etc. (Luke
15:17-12). There is no real
repentance without this remembrance and
consideration of our ways; again, there is no real repentance except
when
such remembrance and consideration lead to shame and
self-reproach.
Now. according to our text, it is the grace of God which produces this
desirable condition of mind and heart. “Law and terrors do but harden.”
“The goodness of
God leadeth thee to repentance” (Romans 2:4).
Unmerited kindness is like coals
of fire melting the hearts of sinners. When
the mercy of God is realized by man it leads to LOATHING
OF SIN and
SINCERE SORROW because we have been guilty thereof, and lowly love
towards Him.
BESTOWMENT OF RICH BLESSINGS. The blessings mentioned and
referred to in the text are those of the new covenant which God
would
make with man. “I will establish
unto thee an everlasting covenant And I
will establish my covenant with thee” (vs. 60, 62; and compare Jeremiah
31:31-34).
Ø
These blessings are spiritual. The knowledge of God
is one of them.
“And thou shalt know that I am the Lord.” We have frequently read of
their knowing Him as a consequence of His judgments. Now we come
to
their knowing Him as a result of His grace. This knowledge is more true
and tender, more intimate and influential, than that. This is
a saving
acquaintance with Him. “This is life eternal, that they should know
thee the only true God, and him whom thou didst send, even
Jesus Christ” (John 17:3). The forgiveness of sin
is another of the
blessings mentioned in the text. “When
I am pacified towards thee
for all that thou hast done” (v. 63), should be, as in the Revised Version,
“When I have forgiven thee all that thou hast done.” “I will forgive their
iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more” (Jeremiah 31:34).
As the covenant springs from pure mercy and faithfulness, so in its
inmost essence it consists in forgiveness
of sins. What a blessing this is!
But the chief blessing of the
covenant is not expressly mentioned by
Ezekiel. GOD GIVES HIMSELF
AS THE CROWNING BLESSING
OF THE COVENANT. “I will be their
God, and they shall be my
people” (Jeremiah 31:33).
(As to Abram, God said “I AM THY
SHIELD, AND THY EXCEEDING GREAT REWARD.”
(Genesis 15:1) Having Him for our Portion, we have all good in Him.
Ø
These blessings are universal. “Thou shalt receive thy sisters, thine
elder
and thy younger.” By
these sisters probably
meant (v.. 46). But they must be taken, in connection with
Jerusalem, as
representing the world wide extent of the blessings of the new covenant.
The gospel is not for one nation
or people, BUT FOR HUMANITY!
“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (I Timothy 1:15);
“He died for all” (II
Corinthians 5:15); “Who gave Himself
a ransom for all” (I
Timothy 2:6); “The living God is the Saviour
of
all men, specially of them that believe” (Ibid. ch. 4:10). And our
Lord
sent forth His servants into all the world to preach the
gospel to the
whole creation. Judah is said to receive these sisters, and
they are said
to be given to her for daughters, because through her they should
attain
to the inheritance of blessing. “Salvation is of the Jews” (John 4:22);
“Of whom is Christ
as concerning the flesh” (Romans 9:5). The
first
Christians were Jews. The apostles
who offered the blessings of the
new covenant unto the Gentiles, and received those of them who
believed into the Church, were Jews.
Ø
These blessings are
perpetual. “I will establish unto thee an
everlasting
covenant.” The first covenant
was said to be “everlasting” (Genesis
17:7); and it was so in the
sense that it led the way to and was fulfilled in
this one. And THIS COVENANT SHALL
NEVER BE ABOLISHED!
With all its wealth of blessings it abides
perpetually. God, the
Supreme Blessing
of it, is the soul’s unchangeable and eternal Portion.
“God is the Rock of my heart and my Portion forever.” (Psalm 73:26)
DESIRABLE EFFECTS.
Ø
Sincere repentance for sin. “That
thou mayest remember, and be
confounded.” The repentance
which consists in abhorrence of sin,
and grief because we have sinned against so gracious a God and
Father, and in love to Him and
to all goodness, is not decreased by
the reception of His forgiveness and favor, but rather increased.
The more we know of God and the more we enjoy of His
grace,
the more base and wicked will sin appear unto us. Sanctified
knowledge will produce sanctified shame, sorrow, and tears.
When we apprehend God to have
taken us into covenant
with Him, to be our God, to have done great things for us, to
have
promised great things to us, and to have been very good to us, then
the remembrance of our wretched ways causes a holy shame and
a holy sorrow!
Ø
Devout submission to His will. “And never open thy
mouth any
more” in murmuring, or
complaint, or rebellion against Him. It is
the silence of trustful acquiescence in His will. “I
was dumb,
I opened not my
mouth; because thou didst it” (Psalm 39:9).
Thus Divine
grace received into the heart produces
gracious results in the lives of THOSE WHO RECEIVE IT!
63 “That
thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never
open
thy mouth any more because of thy shame,
when I am pacified
toward thee for all
that thou hast done, saith the Lord GOD.”
That thou mayest remember. The words paint vividly the
attitude of the penitent adulteress, humble, contrite,
silent, ashamed
(Hosea 3:3-5), and yet with a sense that she is pardoned,
and that the
husband against whom she has sinned is at last pacified.
Revised Version,
when I have
forgiven thee. The Hebrew verb so rendered is that which
expresses the fullest idea of forgiveness, and which marked
both the “day”
and the “sacrifice” of
atonement (Numbers 8:12; Leviticus
23:27, et
al.). This,
according to the received etymology, was represented in the
ἱλαστήριον – hilastaerion - mercy seat, of the
ark of the covenant
(cophereth, as from
caphar). So the prophet closes with the words of an
eternal hope what had at first seemed to lead up to nothing but eternal
condemnation. How far the prophet expected a literal fulfillment in the
restoration of
the ideal picture of
the purification of the waters of the
ch.
47:8 suggests that it entered into his
vision of the future. For us, at least,
it is enough to pass from
the temporal to the eternal, from the historical to
the spiritual, and to see
in his words the noblest utterance of MERCY
PREVAILING OVER JUDGMENT — a theodikea, a
“vindication of
the
ways of God to man,” like that of Romans 11:33-36.
Reconciliation (vs. 60-63)
It is not possible to conceive a more sudden and
extraordinary change than
that which occurs in passing from the fifty-ninth to the sixtieth verse of
this
chapter. From an exposure of the vilest treachery and threats of
condign
and
awful punishment, the Lord, speaking by the mouth of His prophet,
passes to promises of the most gracious and tender character. It
is a
wonderful revelation of the Divine heart. As the moral Governor, the
Administrator of the affairs of nations, the Lord protests
against His
people’s defection, and denounces upon them the just punishment of
their
sins. But He does not forget that they are His people. He foresees that the
discipline through which they are to pass will not be lost upon them,
that
their heart will be wrung by contrition, and that their life
will witness to
their repentance. He promises that He will be pacified towards
them, and
that reconciliation shall take the place of rebellion and of punishment.
WRATH. The
King pities his subjects even when they are in insurrection
against him. It is their own interests that they are jeopardizing,
their own
sentence of condemnation that they are writing. The Lord of all,
whilst He
is displeased with the ingratitude and disobedience of His
subjects, still
retains His own character; there is no vindictiveness in His
government;
He ever delights
in mercy.
REPENTANCE AND SHAME. While God remembers His covenant,
confusion. The poignant appeal has not been made in vain. The mirror
has
been held up before the face of the sinful and abandoned, and
the guilty
heart has been conscious of its sin. Conduct, which has been the
outcome
of unrestrained passion or of an unreflecting yielding to
external influence,
is now seen in its true light. Deliberate wickedness is
deliberately regretted
and deliberately loathed. “To us
belong shame and confusion of face.”
(Daniel 9:8)
COVENANT. This
covenant dates back from the time of
youth; her infidelity has indeed cancelled it; but God, in His
grace, is willing
to overlook and forgive all that is past, and to renew the
sweet and happy
relations of other times. It is a miracle of mercy. God’s ways are
not as our
ways. Human magnanimity, in its noblest exercise, falls short
of this action
of the holy God. Here is a revelation of the Divine character
which may
well bring comfort and hope to the sinner who has forsaken and
defied his
God, but who
sees and repents his folly and his guilt.
In the light of the
gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ the language is infinitely
encouraging. There is a
covenant of grace into which the righteous God
admits, not
the giving is on God’s side, and all the receiving is on
ours.
PACIFICATION.
The false prophets had proclaimed a false peace; a true
peace comes only from Him who is the God alike of righteousness
and of
mercy. When He declares, in the language of the text, “I am pacified toward
thee,” then it is well.
When he giveth peace, who can give trouble? The
transgressions of other days are forgotten; the estrangement of other
days
has given place to concord and harmony. Reverence and love are
offered
by those who were once in rebellion. And favor and everlasting
love are
revealed by Him who but lately uttered words of reproach, and
inflicted
chastisement and punishment. It is the happy experience of the
justified and
accepted believer in Christ which breaks forth into the joyful
exclamation,
“Therefore, being
justified by faith, WE HAVE PEACE WITH GOD
THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST! (Romans 5:1)
‘
Confounded by Memory (v. 63)
Ø
Memory of sin. We desire to forget our sin; but even if no recording
angel wrote it down in the books
of Divine judgment, the tooth of
conscience would bite the memory
of it into the very fiber of our hearts.
We may succeed in drowning the
hideous recollection for a time, but it
seems to be proved that the
forgotten past may be revived, and that all
our life may be brought to mind
in an awful flash of recollection, as in
the experience of drowning men,
or as we all find in the unexpected
reminders of old associations
suddenly encountered. When our
hideous old sins
thus glare upon our startled gaze, surely we must
be confounded!
Ø
Memory of mercy. We may not note the favors of providence with
which we are
daily visited, and we may be accepting them with
ingratitude and even
abusing them with disobedience. But
some
day the goodness of God in our
past will rise up in memory and
accuse our ill
reception of it.
Ø
Memory of opportunity. When the day of
service is past and the night
wherein no man can work has
fallen upon us, it will be useless to plead
our lack of opportunity for
following God.
ü
Many a warning
voice,
ü
many an appealing
invitation,
ü
many an open
door,
ü
many a day of
grace,
will confront our
guilty souls.
Ø
Memory of the lost. If we have not been
true or kind to those near to us,
we shall remember the
wrong, when, alas! it is too late to make amends,
and the recollection
will be confounding.
PUNISHMENT,
Ø
It will be a punishment. Many consequences of
sin may be met with a
brazen face, but not this. We may
even cherish the memory of our evil
past with a bad
affectionateness, but when it meets us to confound us,
all our bravado
will be killed, and nothing will remain but SHAME
and ANGUISH and
REMORSE. To be confounded means to have
our career arrested, to be put
to
confusion, to be cast down in dismay,
to make
shipwreck of life. When we fully face the
memory of our
evil past,
impenitent and unpardoned, no less a result can follow.
This sin is its own
chastisement. The serpent of evil inflicts a deadly
wound with its own fangs. There
is no necessity for heavenly
thunderbolts to dash the sinner
to destruction. No demon
tormentors need be summoned from
Tartarus to torture his guilty
soul. His own memory will strike
him, his own thoughts will burn and
tear and rack his miserable
conscience. (What a wonderful condition
to have our sins forgiven and to
experience the state “once purged
should have no more conscience of sins.” - Hebrews 10:2 – CY –
2014)
Ø
This punishment will be just. It will be the direct
consequence of sin.
There can be no pretence that
the accusation is false. No man can set up
the plea of an alibi against
the charges of his own memory. Here is a
witness who cannot be upset by
the most rigorous cross-examination, nor
discredited by the bitterest
opprobrium. Accused by his own memory, the
sinner cannot but be
speechless. There is no conceivable
escape when the
court of justice is a man’s own
breast and when witnesses, judge, jury, and
executioner are all found in his
own thoughts.
“To
be left alone
And face
to face with my own crime, had been
Just
retribution.”
(Longfellow.)
These terrible thoughts are not written to drive us mad, but
to urge us to amendment.
When there is no door of escape from the awful chamber of
self-judgment the great
necessity is to seek A NEW HEART AND A DIVINE PARDON that we may
never be “confounded by memory.”
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