Ezekiel 7
1 “Moreover
the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,”
The absence of any fresh date, and the fact that it is
simply
tacked on to the previous chapter by the copulative conjunction,
shows
that what follows belongs to the same group. The use of the phrase, the
word of the Lord came
unto me, shows, however, that there was an
interval of silence, perhaps of meditation, followed by a fresh
influx of
inspiration; and, so far as we may judge from the more lyrical
character of
the
chapter, a more intense emotion.
2 Also,
thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD unto the
land of
Israel; An end,
the end is come upon the four corners of the land.”
An
end, etc. The iteration of the word once more gives
emphasis. The words read like an echo of Amos 8:2. The four corners
(Hebrew, “wings”) were probably, as with us, the north,
east, south, and
west. The phrase had been used before in Isaiah 11:12, and the thought
meets us again, in the form of the “four winds,” in Daniel 11:4;
Zechariah 2:6; Matthew 24:31; Mark 13:27. The “end” in this
case is either that of the siege of
measurable distance.
The End is Come (v. 2)
every period, long or short, has
its certain end. The tale of life is written in
many chapters, each with its own
appropriate conclusion; in some cases the
conclusion is violent, abrupt,
and startling. We are surprised out of an old
settled course. The mill stops
suddenly, and then the silence is alarming.
There are the greater epochs of
life, when a whole volume of experience is
closed, and another must be opened,
till at length we reach Finis. But
every day has its sunset. Every
year runs out to December and dies its
wintry death, in spite of all
the festivities of Christmas. Youth is
fleeting; its
sweet springtime fast melts, its blossoms fade and fall. Life itself runs out
and reaches an end. As each
period goes it vanishes, never to return. Thus
Christina Rossetti
writes:
“Come,
gone, — gone forever;
Gone as an
unreturning river;;
Gone as to
death the merriest liver;
Gone as
the year at the dying fall,
Tomorrow,
today, yesterday, never:
Gone once
for all.”
Ø
There is an end to the day of work. “The night cometh, wherein no man
can work” (John 9:4). The
opportunity will pass. Let us make the most
of our strength
and time while we have them.
Ø
There is an end to the freedom of sin. The orgies of mad
self-indulgence
will not last forever. They burn
themselves out in folly and shame. Then
comes the end, and AFTER
THAT THE RECKONING!
Ø
There is an end to
the discipline of sorrow. The pain will not
last
forever. (“Weeping may endure for a night
but joy comes in the
morning” (Psalm
30:5). The doubt and mystery and
darkness are
not eternal. The Christian
pilgrimage is long and weary, but it is not
an infinite, endless course. The
wilderness is wide, and the goal far off.
But the way will end at last in the
heavenly city, the home of the soul.
should do well to end, yet still
they are with us.
Ø
An end should come to our life of sin. The old
sin has been our
companion for years, a bad
companion, corrupt and corrupting. It is
time we and it parted. It is
time we turned over a new leaf and began
a better way. The old self has
lived too long. Let it die and be buried.
Ø
An end should come to our indecision. “How long halt ye between two
opinions?” (I 18:21) This hesitation has lasted too long. “Choose you
this day whom ye will serve.” (Joshua 24:15)
Ø An end should come to the gloom of doubt, the coldness of half-
hearted service, the lethargy and paralysis of an unspiritual
religion.
“The night is far
spent; the day is at hand;” (Romans 13:12)
“Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and
Christ shall give
thee light!” (Ephesians 5:14)
which we would fain avert, but
which seem to be approaching.
Ø
Some of these endings
are within our power, and should be kept off.
We should guard against an
end to our early faith and zeal. Ephraim’s
goodness, which was like the
morning cloud (Hosea 6:4), was soon
must be said the end has come to their fervent
devotion and self-
sacrificing service. Once they
were bright lights of the Church, but
they have waned, and are
approaching spiritual night.
Ø
Some of these endings
are beyond our control. The home circle may be
broken, the dear countenances of
the loved may smile upon us no more.
For the old fullness of
friendship we may have left only blankness and
vacancy, and a bitter sense of
loss. The very freshness of our soul may
be lost too, and then we look
back to the old sweet years, and wonder
how we could have taken them so
quietly.
Ø
There will never be an
end to the righteous Law of God. Right and
truth are
eternal. We can never outlive their
claims. If we continue
forever in opposition to
them, their pains and penalties must be
always ours.
Ø
The love of God will never end. Modes of Divine operations may
change as circumstances alter,
and new dispensations may succeed
to old dispensations — new
covenants taking the place of old
covenants. But GOD DOES NOT CHANGE! There is no end to
Him. He abideth faithful.
In the wreck of the universe THE ROCK
OF AGES REMAINS
UNSHAKEN! Love in His essence, God
never wearies in helping
and blessing. There is no end
to his
grace. “The mercy of the
Lord endureth forever.” Whenever the
helpless, penitent prodigal
returns, he will find his Father waiting to
welcome him.
Ø
The eternal life can have NO END! The body dies. Happily there
will be an end to that. But
the LIFE IN GOD ABIDES FOR
EVER! In that life many things thought to be ended
here on earth
will be recovered and will
revive. Thus our past experience is not
utterly lost. It lives in
memory and in what it has made us. A German
poet writes:
“Yesterday
I loved;
Today I
suffer;
Tomorrow I
die.
But I
shall gladly,
Today and
tomorrow
Think on
yesterday.”
3 “Now is
the end come upon thee, and I will send mine anger upon
thee, and will judge thee according to thy
ways, and will
recompense upon thee all thine abominations.”
Now is the end upon thee, etc. We note the
repetition of this
and v. 4 in vs. 8-9, as a kind of refrain in the
lamentation. Stress is laid,
and for the time laid exclusively, on the unpitying
character of the Divine
judgments. And this is followed as before, in ch. 6:14, by “Ye shall
know that I am the Lord.” Fear must teach men
the lesson which
love
had failed to teach.
4 “And
mine eye shall not spare thee, neither will I have pity: but I
will recompense thy ways upon thee, and thine abominations shall
be in the midst of thee: and ye shall know
that I am the LORD.”
Thine abominations
shall be in the midst of thee, etc. These
are, of course, primarily the idolatries of
what they have sown. Their sins should be recognized in their punishment.
5 “Thus saith the Lord GOD; An evil, an only evil, behold, is
come.”
An evil, an only
evil, etc. The words imply that the
evil would
be unique in character, attracting men’s notice, not
needing repetition.
Cornill, however, following Luther, gives “evil after evil,”
changing one
letter m the Hebrew for “one,” so as to get the word
“after.” For is come
read, with the Revised Version, it cometh. It is the
nearness, not the actual
arrival, of the end, that is in the prophet’s thoughts. He
writes in B.C. 595-
4.
6 “An end
is come, the end is come: it watcheth for thee;
behold, it is
come.”
It watcheth for thee; better, with the Revised Version, it
awaketh against thee. So the
Septuagint, Vulgate, Luther. The Hebrew presents
a paronomasia between the noun and verb — hakketz, hekitz —
which
cannot be reproduced in English. The DESTINED DOOM is thought of
as
rousing itself to ITS
APPOINTED WORK! The word is cognate
with that
rendered “awaketh” in Psalm 78:65.
7 “The
morning is come unto thee, O thou that dwellest in
the land:
the time is come, the day of trouble is
near, and not the sounding
again of the mountains.” The morning is come unto thee, etc. In the only
other passage
in which the Hebrew noun occurs (Isaiah 28:5), it
is translated
“diadem,” the meaning being strictly a circular ornament. Here the
Septuagint
gives πλοκὴ - plokae- something
twirled, out of which may come the meaning of
the changes of fortune. Possibly, as in the familiar “wheel
of fortune,” that
thought was involved in the circular form by itself. In the
Tahmud it appears
as the name of the goddess of fate at Ascalon
(Furst). On the whole, I
follow the Revised Version, Keil,
and Ewald, in giving “thy doom.” The
“morning” of the Authorized Version probably rises from the
thought that
the dawn is, as it were, the glory and diadem of the day.
The Vulgate gives
contritio. The day of trouble;
better, with the Revised Version, of tumult.
The word is specially used of the noise of war (Isaiah
22:5; Amos 3:9;
Zechariah 14:3). Not
the sounding again upon the mountains.
The first noun is not found in the Old Testament, but a closely
allied form
appears in Isaiah 16:9; Jeremiah 25:30; 48:33, for the song
of the
vintage. Not that, the prophet says, shall be heard on the
mountains, but in
its place the cry of battle and the noise of war. The
Septuagint “not with
travail-pangs,” and the Vulgate non gloriae
montium, show that the word
was in both cases a puzzle to the translators.
8 “Now
will I shortly pour out my fury upon thee, and accomplish
mine anger upon thee: and I will judge thee
according to thy ways,
and will recompense thee for all thine abominations.
9 And mine
eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: I will
recompense thee according to thy ways and thine abominations
that are in the midst of thee; and ye shall
know that I am the LORD
that smiteth.” The verses repeat,
like the burden of a lyric ode, but end
more emphatically, ye
shall know that I am Jehovah that smiteth.
10 “Behold
the day, behold, it is come: the morning is gone forth; the
rod hath blossomed, pride hath
budded.” It is come. Read,
as before,
it cometh; and for morning, doom (see note on v. 7). The rod hath blossomed, etc.
The three verbs imply a
climax. The “doom” springs out of the
earth; the rod
of vengeance blossoms
(the word is the same as that which describes the blooming
of Aaron’s
rod (Numbers 17:8), and the phrase was probably suggested
by the history); pride
(either that of the Chaldean ministers of
vengeance,
or of
and bears fruit. In Isaiah 27:6 the word follows on “blossom,” and
therefore seems applicable to the formation of the fruit
rather than the
flower. (For the image of the rod, compare Psalm 110:2;
Isaiah 10:26;
Micah 6:9.)
The Day is Come (v. 10)
This chapter opened with a prophecy of “an end.” It now proceeds
to the
annunciation of a new beginning. No end is absolutely
final. In the night
which sees the death of one day a new day is born.
length arrives. We are thus forever overtaking the future. However far the
future event may be, it will
surely be reached, if time is the only
impediment to be got over. The
day of death may be far ahead, but most
assuredly it will
come. The dreaded day will come only
too swiftly. The
hoped for day will also dawn,
though we become weary in waiting for it.
God’s great day of
doom will arrive, though the sinner mock at its
tarrying.
Christ’s glorious day of triumph
will also appear, though the Church grow
faint and wonders at its slow
approach.
No prediction can exactly
describe the coming day, for no words can paint
the thing that has not been. We vainly try to anticipate the future, and
we
blunder into the
greatest mistakes. We cannot know what
sorrow is till the
day of sorrow breaks, nor can we
understand the joy of the Lord till a glad
day of heavenly love smiles upon
us. We shall not know death till we are in
the day of death. When the new
day of the life beyond dawns we shall
know its meaning as we can never
guess now.
days are exactly alike. Ezekiel
was announcing a day of doom. The awful
thunders of that
day are to roll over the heads of guilty and
impenitent men
with a
surprise and a horror
NEVER ANTICIPATED IN EASIER TIMES!
Thus it was in the doom of
are brighter days to anticipate.
There is the day of light after the night of doubt;
the day of joy’s sunshine
succeeding the night of sorrow’s weeping; the day of
penitent new beginnings after
the night of sin; the day of busy service after
the night of rest and waiting.
Carlyle writes:
“Lo!
here hath been dawning
Another blue day:
Think,
wilt thou let it
Slip
useless away?
“Out of
eternity
This new
day is born;
Into eternity
At night will return.
“Behold
it aforetime
No eye
ever did;
So soon it
forever
From all
eyes is hid.”
OUR CONDUCT IN THE OLD DAYS. The day of doom is not the day
of fate. It is a day of
judgment, i.e. of examination, discrimination, and
consequent decision. Therefore
it is determined by the character of the old
days it judges. The new day may
come to us as a surprise, but it will not
fall out by chance as one of
storm or one of sunshine. When it arrives
we
shall see that,
in its deepest character, it bears the record of our
OWN PAST!
11 “Violence
is risen up into a rod of wickedness: none of them shall
remain, nor of their multitude, nor of any
of their’s: neither shall
there be wailing for them.” Violence is risen up, etc. The “violence”
admits of the same twofold interpretation as the “pride” of v. 10.
None of them shall remain. The interpolated verb, though grammatically
necessary, weakens the force of the Hebrew. “None of them;
none of their
multitude; none
of their wealth.” Neither shall
there be wailing for them.
The noun is not found elsewhere. Taken, as the Authorized Version takes it,
the thought, like that of ch. 24:16 and
Jeremiah 16:4, is that the usual rites
of burial would be neglected, and that there would be “no widows to make
lamentation”
(Psalm 78:64). The Revised Version “eminency”
implies
the loss of all that constituted greatness. Cornill and the Septuagint
(“beauty” or
“gaiety”) practically agree with this. The Vulgate gives requies, and Furst
“a gathering, or tumult of the people.” Probably the text
is corrupt.
12 “The
time is come, the day draweth near: let not the buyer
rejoice,
nor the seller mourn: for wrath is upon all
the multitude thereof.”
Let not the buyer
rejoice, etc. We have to read, between the
lines, the story of Ezekiel’s companions in exile. They
belonged, it will be
remembered, to the nobler and wealthier class (II Kings
25:19). They, it
would seem, had been compelled to sell their estates at a
price which made
the “buyer rejoice
and the seller mourn.” In each case the joy and the
sorrow would be but transient. Wrath had gone out against
the whole
multitude. In Micah 2:2 and Isaiah 5:8 we have parallel
instances of
the advantage taken by the rich of the distress of the old
free holders. In
the story of Jeremiah 32:6-16 we have, though from a very
different
point of view, the history of a like purchase, while the
city was actually
surrounded by the Chaldeans. The
neglect of the sabbatic year
(Jeremiah 34:8-17) makes it probable that the jubilee year
also (if,
indeed, it had ever been more than an ideal) had fallen
into desuetude, and
that the buyers comforted themselves with the thought that
the land they
had got, on cheap terms, would belong to them and their
children forever.
Buyer and Seller (v. 12)
COMMERCE. Religion
is spiritual, but it aims at filling the secular sphere,
as the soul fills the body. The
Church may be its center, as the brain is the
center of the soul’s
consciousness; but every region of life is a scene for its
operation, as every limb of the
body is for the action of the soul. Religion
claims a place in the shop, in
the factory, in the mine, on the highway of the
sea, in the noisy streets and
markets of the city. She does not
claim this
place as a mere
spectator or guest, to be respected in
name, but not
followed with obedience, like
the statue of a deceased citizen set up in a
public place to honor his
memory, although his principles are derided and
travestied by the throng of
present day men who crowd about it. Religion
claims to be a
living presence, guiding and controlling commerce. The
relations of buyer and seller
are too often treated on the ground of pure
self-interest — self-interest of
the lowest kind, mere money profit.
Religion should
inspire higher motives.
Ø
A respect for truth and justice. A Christian
merchant’s word should be
as good as his bond in his
counting house as well as in his home. It is
scandalous that “trust” can only
go with “security.” Christian honor
should pay the debt that cannot
be exacted by law. The bankrupt who
listens to the teachings of
Christ will not be content to scrape through
the courts by the aid of
technicalities which only enable
him to cheat
his creditors. The Christian seller will not deceive the buyer, nor the
Christian buyer take advantage
of the difficulties of the seller to drive
an unfair bargain. Justice means
more than keeping the law — it means
fair dealing and equal treatment.
Ø
A recognition of human brotherhood. If I recognize my
neighbor as a
brother when at church, can I
pounce upon him as my prey in the
world? The “golden rule”
belongs to commerce as much as to any
other part of life. But it will
not be effective till a spirit of
cooperation takes the place of
one of cruel, hard, selfish competition.
Ø
A reverence for the rights of God in the fruits of
commerce. Over the
Royal Exchange, in
legend, “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness
thereof.” (Something
that the
far is that the text of the
words and deeds of the men who throng the
streets round this public
building? If all in the earth belongs to God,
we shall have to
give Him an account of our trade transactions.
WELFARE OF A PEOPLE.
People who prefer Mammon to God will
find they have chosen a hard master.
Ø When
commerce is prosperous, it will not satisfy the greatest needs of
men. Man does not live by bread alone, and certainly he cannot subsist
on bankers’ accounts. In
rejoice over their bargains,
would even not care for loss or gain, glad
if only they escaped with their
lives. The best things cannot be bought
with money; but, happily, they can be
had “without
money and without
price.” (Isaiah 55:1)
Ø
When national calamity comes, commerce fails. The commercial
barometer is a most sensitive
test of approaching political storms.
Wickedness in
business is deservedly punished in the general
calamity of a nation by the
collapse of trade that is certain to be
one of the first
results of the adversity.
Ø
COMMERCIAL SIN will be
justly punished with COMMERCIAL
RUIN! This does not necessarily happen to the individual trader
who may die rich with
ill-gotten gains; but history proves it to be
true in the long run with
nations.
13 “For
the seller shall not return to that which is sold, although they
were yet alive: for the vision is touching
the whole multitude
thereof, which shall not return; neither
shall any strengthen himself
in the iniquity of his life.” For the seller shall not return, etc. At first the thought
seems only to add to the sorrow of the seller. He is told that
he, at least, shall not
return to his old estate. Even though they should be alive
at the year of
jubilee, their exile had to last its appointed time,
Ezekiel’s forty
(ch.4:6) and Jeremiah’s seventy years (Jeremiah 25:11).
This,
however, did not exclude the return of their children
(Jeremiah 32:44),
and in the mean time all private sorrow would fall into the
background as
compared with the great public woe of the destruction of
the holy city. The
vision is
touching, etc. The noun is used as a
synonym for prophecy, as
elsewhere (Isaiah 1:1; Nahum 1:1; Habakkuk 2:1). It may be
noted that it is specially characteristic of Ezekiel (seven
times) and Daniel
(eleven times). For the Authorized Version read with the
Revised Version,
none shall
return, or better (with the Vulgate and Keil),
the vision
touching the whole multitude shall not return, i.e. shall go straight onward
to do its work (compare Isaiah 55:11). So taken, there is a
kind of play
upon the iterated word: “The seller shall not turn his
footsteps back,
neither shall the prophecy.” Vestigia
nulla retrorsum shall
be true of both.
I take the other words, with the Revised Version, no man in the iniquity of
his life
shall strengthen himself, noting the fact that the word for
“strengthen” is that which enters into Ezekiel’s name. It is as though
he
said, “God is the only true
source of strength to thee, as thy very name
bears witness.”
The Impossibility of Becoming Truly Strong
in a Life of Sin (v. 13)
“Neither shall any strengthen himself in the iniquity of
his life.” This clause
has been variously rendered and interpreted. The meaning
seems to be — Let no
one think that in these impending judgments he can
invigorate himself in “his iniquity;
from such a source no such strengthening or invigoration of
life can be derived; on
the contrary, it is this very
iniquity which is bringing all to desolation and ruin.”
Two observations are authorized by the text.
STRENGTHEN THEMSELVES IN THEIR INIQUITY. This is
frequently and variously done.
Take a few common examples of it. The
dishonest bank manager or
bookkeeper attempts to hide his defalcations by
manipulating the accounts,
making false entries in them, etc. Many try to
conceal vice or crime by
falsehood, as did Gehazi the servant of Elisha
(II Kings 5:20-27). A man who has
got into monetary difficulties
through betting or gambling
seeks to escape from them by theft or forgery.
Or a man has been in a position
of privilege or power, and by reason of his
own misdoing he is losing that
position, but he seeks to retain it by further
wrong doing. When Saul, the King
of Israel, realized that the kingdom
would not descend to his heirs,
and saw his own popularity waning and
David’s growing, he endeavored
to secure the kingdom to his family by
repeated attempts to kill David.
Or when a person has obtained riches or
power by fraud, oppression, or
cruelty, and finding that possession failing
him, he seeks to retain it
firmly by perpetrating other crimes. The Macbeth
of Shakespeare is a striking
illustration of this. When he feels himself
insecure on the throne which he
had committed murder to obtain, he says
to Lady Macbeth,
the daring partner of his dread guilt —
“Things
bad begun, make strong themselves by ill.”
And later, when he had incurred
the guilt of another murder, and was
tormented by terrible fears, he
says to her —
“For
mine own good.
All causes
shall give way; I am in blood
Stepp’d in so far, that, should I wade no more,
Returning
were as tedious as go o’er.”
And thus he endeavoured to
strengthen himself in the iniquity of his life.
INIQUITY MUST INEVITABLY END IN FAILURE. Let us try to show
this. We have seen that men try
to strengthen themselves in iniquity by
means of falsehood. But
falsehood is opposed to the reality of things, and
by its very nature cannot give
lasting strength or security to any one.
Carlyle says forcibly, “No lie
you can speak or act, but it will come, after
longer or shorter circulation,
like a bill drawn on nature’s reality, and be
presented then for payment, with
the answer — No effects.” Again, “For if
there be a Faith from of old, it
is this, as we often repeat, that no Lie can
live forever .... All Lies have sentence of death written down against them
in Heaven’s
chancery itself; and, slowly or fast,
advance incessantly
towards their hour.” “The
lip of truth shall be established forever; but a
lying tongue is
but for a moment” (Proverbs 12:19). “He that speaketh
lies shall perish” (Ibid. ch. 19:9). And
turning from falsehood in particular
to sin in general, iniquity, so
far from invigorating man, by its essential
nature
strips him of
strength and courage. Thus the guilty
and aforetime brave
Macbeth cries —
“How is’t with me when every noise appals
me?”
And elsewhere, Shakespeare says
truly —
“Suspicion
always haunts the guilty mind;
The thief
doth fear each bush an officer.”
To the same effect writes
Wordsworth —
“From the
body of one guilty deed
A thousand
ghostly fears and haunting thoughts proceed?
And our prophet, “How weak is thine heart, saith the Lord God, seeing
thou doest all
these things!” (ch.
16:30). “The wicked flee when no
man pursueth; but the righteous are bold as a lion” (Proverbs 28:1).
The consciousness of truth and
uprightness inspires the heart with
courage and nerves the arm with
power.
“What
stronger breastplate than a heart untainted?
Thrice is
he arm’d that hath his quarrel just;
And he but
naked, though locked up in steel,
Whose
conscience with injustice is corrupted.”
(Shakespeare.)
And the throne which is based on
injustice, cruelty, or blood, and
maintained by oppression and
tyranny, is founded upon sand and
supported by feebleness.
Wickedness is weakness. “it is an
abomination for kings
to commit wickedness; for the throne is
established by
righteousness” (Proverbs 16:12). “The king that
faithfully judgeth the poor, his throne shall be established
forever” (Ibid. ch. 29:14). No man can ever truly strengthen himself
in iniquity;
neither can any number of men do so. The only way by
which
the wicked may become truly strong is by resolutely
turning from sin and
trusting in the Saviour. “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the
unrighteous man
his thoughts: and let him return unto
the Lord,
and He will have
mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will
abundantly
pardon!” (Isaiah 55:7)
14 “They
have blown the trumpet, even to make all ready; but none
goeth to the battle: for my wrath is upon all
the multitude thereof.”
They have blown
the trumpet. The word for “trumpet”
is
not found elsewhere, but the corresponding verb is used
continually in
connection with the trumpet of war, and Ezekiel seems to
have coined the
corresponding substantive, not, perhaps, without a
reminiscence of
Jeremiah 6:1. There may possibly be an allusion to the
trumpet blowing
with which the jubilee year (see v. 13) was ushered in. The trumpet
should sound, not for each man’s return to his own estate, but for the
alarm of war and even then the consciousness of guilt will
hinder men
from arming themselves for battle (compare Leviticus 26:36;
Deuteronomy 28:25; 32:30).
15 “The
sword is without, and the pestilence and the famine within: he
that is in the field shall die with the sword;
and he that is in the
city, famine and pestilence shall devour
him.” The sword is
without (see ch.5:12;
6:12). Here there seems a more traceable fitness in
assigning the pestilence as well
as the famine to those who are shut up in the besieged city.
The Hand of the Clock on the Hour of Doom
(vs. 1-15)
The bulk of men persist in thinking of God as if He were
such a One as
themselves (Psalm 50:21).
Rejecting the revelation of God’s nature
contained in
Scripture, they
conceive of Him as a man greatly magnified
- the infirmities
of man magnified, as well as his virtues. They know the proneness of man
to threaten and not to perform; hence they conclude that the judgments of
God, because delayed, will evaporate in empty words. God will not be
hastened. Proportionate to His immeasurable power is His
immeasurable
patience. Nevertheless,
EQUITABLE JUSTICE WILL BE METED OUT!
The wrath accumulates as in a thundercloud, until it is
overburdened, and the
storm all the more violently breaks forth. Never yet in the history of men
HAS GOD FAILED TO VINDICATE HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS!
Never yet has the transgressor escaped, AND NEVER WILL HE!
As surely as the sun shines, vengeance will come.
SET TIME. For the most
part it is not according to human expectation.
“God seeth not as man seeth” (I Samuel
16:7). A thousand things enter
into God’s calculation which do
not enter into man’s reckoning. The clock
of heaven does not measure days
and years; it measures events and necessities.
The well being of other races
has to be pondered beside the race of men. Very
often the doom of
the ungodly is a fixed and irreversible fact long before
that doom is felt
and endured (Genesis 15:13-16). From that
moment
gracious help is withdrawn, and the
doomed man becomes the victim of
his folly. To God’s eye, the end is seen long before it is seen by
man.
While he is yet promising
himself much delight, lo! by an invisible
thread the sword is suspended
over his head.
outcome of infallible wisdom and
righteous deliberation. The Supreme
Ruler of heaven says, “I send.” As
nothing is too great for His management,
so nothing is too minute to
engage His notice. He who nourishes myriads
of
myriads of blades of grass, and
clothes the hills with majestic forests,
counts every hair
of our heads (Luke 12:7). Too often men are so stunned
with the blow of retribution
that they count themselves only the victims of
a great catastrophe, and look on
every side for sympathy. But when
conscience awakes, and
connects the calamity with previous sin, then at
length — too late to avert the crushing evil — they confess that it is “the
Lord that smiteth” (v. 9). “God is not
mocked.” The seed we sow today
will bear its proper fruit
tomorrow. (Galatians 6:7)
scales so
delicately true as those in the hands of God. The judgment is
precisely” according to thy ways.”
It is exact “recompense for all thine
abominations.” Often men are so blinded by the deceitfulness of sin that
they do not
perceive this. But when the transient
pleasure of sin has
ceased, men awake to the fact
that the retribution is well deserved. This
will be the keenest sting of the suffering — that it is a just desert. If men
could only persuade themselves
that they were unjustly treated, it would be
an alleviation of the woe — it
would be a sweet consolation in their misery.
But such alleviation is denied
them. Their own consciences will confirm the
sentence, an out of the dark abyss the cry will rise, “Just and true are thy
ways, thou King of saints.” (Revelation 15:3)
RIGHTEOUS. The
unbeliever has no eye with which to see the kingdom
of God. The organ of vision he
has first blinded, then destroyed.
“If I willfully
keep my conscience in darkness and continue
in errors which I might easily know to be such
by a little
thought and searching of God’s Word,
then my conscience
conscience can offer me no excuse
for I am guilty of
blindfolding the guide which I have
chosen and then
knowing him to be blindfolded, I am
guilty of the folly
of letting him lead me into rebellion against God.
So, too, he is blind to the
significance of passing events. He does not
perceive
The moral aspect of
things — does not see that God’s hand
is behind the
Smoke and din of war. But the
man of God has learnt to see God in everything.
In all the sunshine of life he
sees God, whose presence gives a brighter luster
to all earthly
joy. And in all the adversities of
life he learns to see the rod
and the hand that wields it.
Standing by the side of God, and in full
sympathy with Him, Ezekiel saw
clearly every minute detail of the
retribution that was preparing,
and, until the latest moment, implored them
to escape. But he foresaw also
that they would delude themselves to the
very last — would buoy
themselves with false hopes.
every side there is bitter
disappointment. The earthly props on which men
were wont to rely, fail them.
All the bonds of society relax and dissolve. To
resist invasion the summoning
trumpet is blown; but, alas! none respond.
ANARCHY IS
EVERYWHERE! The day itself
becomes night, and every
fount of joy is poisoned. Amid
previous corrections and afflictions there
were many forms of gracious
compensation — silver linings on the black
cloud. But NO RELIEF COMES NOW! There is defeat and
disaster on
every side. Weeping endures
through a long night, without any prospect of
joy in the morning. It is darkness without a beam of light,
despair without
a vestige of hope. Not even shall there be the sweet relief of
tears; for the
hearts of men
have been rendered insensible by the cursed power of sin.
They are at length “past
feeling” (Ephesians 4:19) — incapable of
repentance. “Neither shall there be any wailing for
them” (v. 11) –
it is abasement the most
profound. The first has become the last.
Our wise and gracious God has
constructed His universe on this principle,
that every form of
rebellion shall bear in itself the seed of penalty. The
pivot on which
everything turns is RIGHTEOUSNESS! There is no
occasion for God to issue any
code of penalties commensurate with acts
of transgression. Sin
and punishment are one and the selfsame thing.
Retribution is
simply full-grown sin. It is often
sweet in the bud, but the
ripened fruit is bitterness absolute.
As gunpowder is, in its nature,
explosive, so that it is madness
to set a light to it and expect it not to
explode; so sin is, in its very
nature, destructive, and can lead to nothing
else than
DESTRUCTION! Love cements and
unites; transgression
dissolves and separates. And SEPARATION FROM GOD IS RUIN!
Where God is, THERE IS LIFE; where God is
not, THERE IS DEATH!
Where God is, THERE IS HEAVEN! Where God is not, THERE
IS BLACKEST HELL!
16 “But
they that escape of them shall escape, and shall be on the
mountains like doves of the valleys, all of
them mourning, every
one for his iniquity.” They that escape, etc. The sentence is virtually conditional.
They that escape shall, it is true, in one sense, escape
the immediate doom;
but if so, it shall only be to the mountains. These were,
in all times
(Genesis 19:17; Judges 6:2; I Samuel 13:6; Psalm 11:1; I Maccabees 2:28;
Matthew 24:16; Mark 13:14), the natural refuge for those
who fled from danger,
but even this should fail those of whom the prophet speaks.
They should be like
the doves of the mountain gorges, that are fluttered at the
appearance of the eagle
or the fowler, and seem by note (Isaiah 38:14; 59:11) and
gesture (Nahum 2:7),
to be mourning forevermore. There also they shall lie, every
man in his iniquity, and
wailing for its punishment. We are reminded of Dante’s similitudes in ‘Inferno,’
5:40, 46, 82.
Mourning (v. 16)
This chapter has justly been termed rather a dirge than a
prophecy. Whilst
its language is in some respects special to the experience
of the children of
have forsaken God, and have turned every man to his own way.
PART OF THOSE WHO HAVE SINNED AND WHO ENDURE THE
CONSEQUENCES OF SIN.
SUSCEPTIBLE OF BETTER FEELING WHICH IS CAPABLE OF
MOURNING. How truly
has it been said that “the worst of
feeling is to
feel all feeling
die”! “They
that lack time to mourn lack time to mend.”
AND HORROR. They who mourn because they have lost what was
precious to them,
especially because they have been bereaved of such as
they held dear,
may mourn tranquilly and holily, and with a patient
submission to the
will of God. but they who “mourn, every
one for his
iniquity,” cannot
but feel conscience stricken because of their personal
participation in
sin, and their personal guilt for sin; they cannot but accuse
themselves, and pass
judgment, as it were, upon their own wrong doing
and folly.
THOSE PARTICIPATING IN IT. The prophet compares the conscience
stricken remnant, distressed and
weeping because of their own and their
nation’s iniquities, to a flight of doves uttering their doleful lamentations. It
is no exceptional, singular
case; multitudes are involved in the common
fate, the common
trouble. The feeling is heightened by
sympathy. When all
heads are bowed in confession,
when the utterance of contrition rises from
many afflicted hearts, when a
contagion of sorrow and distress passes
through a vast congregation of
humble and penitent worshippers, each is
the better able to realize his
own and the common distress, and to
unburden the over-laden heart.
AND MAY ISSUE IN NEWNESS OF LIFE. There is a
“godly sorrow
which worketh repentance”
(II Corinthians 7:10) — a sorrow which is
not only or chiefly because of
the painful results of sin, but because of the
very evil itself which is in
sin, and because it is an offence against a
forbearing and gracious God. Where such sorrow is, there can be no
despair. The
rainbow of hope spans the cloud, dark and heavy though
it be.
Mourning as Doves (v. 16)
The fugitives from
there, like the doves in the valleys below, whose
melancholy notes seem to
be a suitable echo to their own sad feelings.
interpretation of nature by man;
there is also an interpretation of man by
nature. The glad sights and
sounds of spring are commentaries on the fresh
joyousness of youth. We should not know the hope and beauty of life so
well if May never
came. So, also, storm, night, winter,
desert, mountain,
and raging torrent open the
heart of man’s grief and despair, and reveal its
desolation. The key to human
passion is there. Wordsworth, the prophet of
nature, who saw deepest into her
secret, discerned among the woods and
hills “the still, sad music of humanity.”
The mourning exiles will note
the melancholy tones of the doves of the
valley. To the happy these
sounds come as a touching variation from the
generally pleasing aspect of
nature; but to the sorrowful fugitives among
the mountains they express the
sympathy of nature. It is well to cultivate
this sympathy, which is not all
imaginative; “for there is a spirit in the
woods.” and hills and valleys
are filled with a Divine presence.
(I hear the mourning of the
doves from the deck on which I am
studying. CY - July 5, 1995)
THE SOUL FIND VENT.
While among the mountains the exiles utter
their lamentations. In the city,
scenes of warfare, bloodshed, fury, and
terror absorb all attention.
These are the immediate and the coarser
experiences in a season of great
calamity. (Within the last month there
have been numerous shooting to
disturb our fair city! – CY – 2014)
For the time they destroy the
power of reflection. But in solitude and
silence men have
leisure to think. Then the sadness of
the soul wakes
up, and takes
the place of the agitation and distress of external
circumstances.
MELANCHOLY OF NATURE, While
the doves coo in plaintive notes
that suggest to the hearer a
feeling of grief, though they are not really
mourning, the exiles from
doves with utterances of true sorrow. Man is greater than nature. He has
self-consciousness and
conscience. He knows his trouble and he knows his
sin. He pays the penalty of his
higher endowments in the greater depth of
his fall and shame and sorrow.
The whole range of nature’s experiences is
slight by the side of the lofty
aspirations and profound griefs of man. Going
from the one to the other is
like leaving the soft, undulating landscape of
peaks of
conscience; he only can mourn for sin.
This grief for sin — and not merely
grief on account of its
penalties — is one of the deepest experiences of the
human heart. It puts leagues of
space between the men who mourn like
doves, and the innocent, simple
birds whose notes suggest a grief they can
never feel. But in this deeper
grief is man’s hope. Mourning for sin
is a part
of repentance, and it points to the day of better things, when God has
forgiven His guilty children,
and when the mourning doves will be
forgotten, and the singing of
the lark at heaven’s gate will be the key to a
new experience of
heavenly gladness.
17 “All
hands shall be feeble, and all knees shall be weak as water.”
All knees shall be
weak as water; literally, shall
flow with
water. So the Vulgate.
The Septuagint is yet stronger, shall be defiled, etc. The
words may point to the cold sweat of terror which paralyzes
men’s power
to act. The phrase is peculiar to Ezekiel, and meets us
again in ch. 21:7.
The thought finds a parallel in Isaiah 13:7; Jeremiah 6:24.
18 “They
shall also gird themselves with sackcloth, and horror shall
cover them; and shame shall be upon all
faces, and baldness upon
all their heads.” They shall also gird, etc. The words become more general,
and include those who should remain in the city as well as
the fugitives.
For both there should be the
inward feelings of horror and shame,
and their
outward symbols of sackcloth (Genesis 37:34; II Samuel
3:31-32;
II Kings 6:30; Isaiah 15:3; Jeremiah 4:8, et al.)
and baldness
(Isaiah 3:24; 15:2; 22:12; Amos 8:10).
19 “They
shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be
removed: their silver and their gold shall
not be able to deliver
them in the day of the wrath of the LORD:
they shall not satisfy
their souls, neither fill their bowels:
because it is the
stumblingblock of their iniquity.” They shall cast their silver, etc. The words
remind us of Isaiah 2:20 and 30:22, with the difference that here it is
the silver and
gold as such, and not the idols made of them, that are to
be flung away.
They had made the actual metal their idol, and their
confidence in it should
be powerless to deliver them (Zephaniah 1:18). Their
gold shall be
removed; better, with the
Revised Version, as an unclean thing. The word
implies the kind of impurity of ch.18:6; 22:10; 36:17;
Isaiah 30:22.
Instead of gloating, as they had done, over their money,
men should
shrink from it, as though its very touch brought pollution.
The Vulgate
gives in sterquilinium, “to the dunghill.” They shall not satisfy their
souls. In the horrors of the siege, with everything at famine
prices (II
Kings 6:25), and little or nothing to be had for them, their money would
not stop the cravings of hunger. It is characteristic that he applies to riches
as such the very same epithet, stumbling block of their iniquity, as he
had
applied before (ch. 3:20) to actual idolatry (compare
Colossians 3:5).
Gold
and Silver (v. 19)
Gold and silver are here referred to as precious things that have become
worthless in the confusion
consequent on the sack of
as
they are usually regarded as of great value and guarded with especial
care, kept in purses and safe places, to throw them in the streets is to
reverse the normal treatment of them.
·
THE VALUE OF GOLD AND SILVER IS NOT STABLE. Financially,
this fact is recognized in the Money Market, but it goes
further than men of
business generally admit. The precious metals have a certain
utility and
beauty of their own; but there are
circumstances under which they become
mere incumbrances; e.g:
Ø
. on board a sinking ship,
Ø
in a besieged city,
Ø
on a desert island,
Ø
in great sickness,
Ø
at death.
They are chiefly valued as
money, i.e. as a medium of exchange. But when
there is nothing to exchange them for, their
money value is lost. This must
be the case in a state of social insecurity,
when no one can depend upon
holding his property from one day
to another. Then the purchasing power
of money will fall, even though there
be plenty of articles for sale, because
the purchase of goods may be nullified
by the loss of them. In a famine at
first the rich man may buy dear food which the poor man can not
afford to get; but when all the food is exhausted, he
cannot feed on his gold
and silver. In times
of great sorrow the value of gold and silver falls almost to
nil. It will not supply the vacant place of the dead, nor will it
heal the smart of
unkindness or ingratitude. He is poor indeed whose wealth consists in nothing
better than gold and silver. The
worship of Mammon is a miserable idolatry,
certain to be most fatal to the most devoted worshipper — and, alas! how many
such our money
loving age produces! What Wordsworth wrote
of the
plutocracy of his day is little less true now.
“The
wealthiest man among us is the best:
No
grandeur now in nature or in book
Delights us. Rapine, avarice, expense,
This is
idolatry: and these we adore:
Plain
living and high thinking are no more:
The
homely beauty of the good old cause
Is
gone; our peace, our fearful innocence,
And pure religion breathing household laws.”
·
THERE ARE CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH LEAD TO THE
ABANDONMENT OF GOLD AND SILVER.
Ø
Necessity. There are circumstances which lead to the abandonment of
gold and silver. “All
that a man hath will he give for his life.” (Job 2:4)
The drowning man will drop his
money bags rather than be dragged
down to death with them. Yet there are
men who behave as slaves to
their money, consenting to a slow death of exhaustion from devotion
to business rather
than preserve health and life at the cost of pecuniary
loss.
Ø
Folly. Extravagant people “cast their silver in the streets.” Money spent
in sin is worse than lost; it is invested in funds from
which the dividends
will be PAIN and DEATH! Therefore, let us “.....lay
up for yourselves
treasures in heaven, where neither moth
nor rust doth corrupt, and
where thieves do not break through nor steal.” (Matthew 6:20)
Ø
Charity. There are the poor of the streets, and the rich and well
clad
man who sees his brethren shivering and hungry has a good call
to
cast his silver in the streets — not, indeed, for a loose
scramble in which
the most worthless will seize most, not in indiscriminate
charity which
breeds idle paupers and neglects modest poverty, but in wise and
thoughtful alleviation of misery. The young man whom Jesus loved
was bidden to sell all and give to the poor (Matthew 19:21).
St. Francis
of Assissi and many another did so.
Those who do not practice this
“counsel
of perfection” should see the duty of making real sacrifices
for their brethren as for Christ. “.....Inasmuch as ye have done it
unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it
unto me.”
(Matthew 25:40).
Ø
Consecration.
Men may cast aside their care of wealth,
and even let the
proceeds lie in neglect while they devote themselves to a higher
ministry;
or they may bring their wealth and lay it at the feet of
Christ, to be spent
on His work in the streets of earth.
20 “As for
the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty: but they
made the images of their abominations and
of their detestable
things therein: therefore have I set it far
from them.”
As for the beauty
of his ornament. The latter word is
commonly used of the necklaces, armlets, etc., of women
(Exodus
33:4-6; Isaiah 49:18; Jeremiah 2:32; 4:30). So again in ch. 16:7, 11; 23:40.
The singular is used of the people collectively, or of each
man individually, like German man or French on.
He set it in majesty;
better, he — or to give the sense they — turned
it to pride. Wealth and art
had ministered, as in Isaiah 2:16, first to mere pride and
pomp; then they made out
of their ornaments the idols which they worshipped, and
which were now,
the same emphatic word being repeated, as a pollution to
them.
21 “And I
will give it into the hands of the strangers for a prey, and to
the wicked of the earth for a spoil; and
they shall pollute it.”
I will give it. The “it” refers to the silver and gold, the “beauty
of the ornaments” thus desecrated in their use. The strangers, i.e. the
Chaldean invaders, should in their turn pollute (better, with the Revised
Version, profane it)
by making it their prey. For them the idols which
22 “My
face will I turn also from them, and they shall pollute my secret
place: for the robbers shall enter into it,
and defile it.”
My secret place. The work of the
spoiler would not stop at
the idols of silver and gold. Jehovah would surrender His
own “secret
place” (secret treasure in margin of Revised Version),
that over which He
had watched, sc. the sanctuary of His temple, to the
hands of the spoiler. In
Psalm 83:4 the same adjective is used of persons, the “hidden” or
protected ones of God. In the name of Baal-zephon, “Lord of the
secret
place,” we have possibly a kindred thought. In Psalm 17:14 we have
“hid treasure.”
The Averted Face (v. 22)
In the figurative but natural and expressive language of
the Hebrews, the
shining of God’s
countenance means His good pleasure and good
will
towards those whom He favors, and the hiding
or averting of His
countenance means His
displeasure. Prayer often shaped
itself into the
familiar expression, “The Lord cause His face to shine upon us;” and the
displeasure of Heaven was deprecated in such terms as
these: “Turn not
thy face from thy servants.” The child distinguishes at once between the
smile and the frown of the parent; the courtier is at no
loss to discriminate
between the welcome and favor and the displeasure apparent
upon the
monarch’s face. To the mind at all sensitive to the moral
beauty and glory
of God, no sentence can be
so dreadful as that uttered in the simple but
terrible language of the text,
“My
face will I turn also from them.”
“In thy presence is
fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures
for evermore.” (Psalm 16:11) When the sun arises
in his strength, and
floods the hills and the
valleys, the rivers and the forests, the
cornfields
and the meadows, with his
glorious rays, nature returns the smiles,
glows
in the sunbeams, rejoices in the
warmth and the illumination. Where the
sun shines brightly, there the
colors are radiant, the odor delicious, there
the music of the grove is
sweet and the harvest of the plain is golden,
there life is luxuriant and
gladness breaks forth into laughter and song.
And in the moral, the spiritual
realm, it is the
sunlight of God’s
countenance, the
manifestation of God’s favor, which calls forth
and sustains all
spiritual life, health, peace, and joy. “In thy favor is
life.” (Psalm
30:5)
WITHDRAWING OF GOD’S COUNTENANCE. The change is not in
Him; it is in us. When the sun
is not seen in the sky, it is not because he no
longer shines, but because
clouds, mists, or smoke, ascending from the
earth, come between the orb of
day and the globe which he illumines. So if
God turns His face from an
individual, a city, a people, it is because their
sins have risen up
as a dense, foul fog, intervening between them and a
holy, righteous
God. “Your iniquities have separated
between you and
your God” (Isaiah 59:2). So
it was with those against whom the Prophet
Ezekiel was called upon to
testify. So it is with multitudes whom the
ministers of Christ are required
to address in language of tender sympathy,
yet of expostulation and
reproach.
OF ALL CALAMITIES. It is
not to be wondered at that men with their
composite nature, absorbed as
they are in things which affect the body and
the earthly life, should think
chiefly of the sufferings and privations in
which the moral laws of the
universe INVOLVE THEM! And these
sufferings and privations are
realities which no thoughtful man can fail
to perceive and to estimate with
something like correctness. Yet he
who is enlightened and in any
measure spiritually sensitive cannot fail to
see that it is the regard of God
Himself which is of chief import. It is
better to enjoy the Divine
loving kindness (“which is better than life”
- Psalm 63:3), even in poverty,
privation, spoliation, and
weakness, than to possess
luxury, honor, and the delights of sense,
and to know that God’s
countenance is turned away, is hidden.
CAUSE IT TO SHINE UPON PENITENT AND BELIEVING
SUPPLIANTS. It is
sin which conceals the Divine countenance; it is
repentance which
seeks the shining anew of that countenance; and
salvation consists in the
response of God to the prayer of man. Yet the
turning of His
face towards us is the work of His own mercy, the
revelation of His
own nature — COMPASSIONATE, GRACIOUS
AND FORGIVING!
23 “Make a
chain: for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is
full of violence.” Make a chain; better, the chain. The word is not found
elsewhere, but a kindred form is thus translated in I Kings
6:21.
Looking to the force of the verbs from which it is formed,
its special
meaning is that of a coupling chain, such as would be used
in the case of
captives marched off to their place of exile (Nahum 3:10).
All previous
sufferings were to culminate in this. The φυρμόν – phurmon - of the Septuagint
and the fac
conclusionem of the Vulgate show that the word
perplexed them.
Full of bloody crimes. The only passage in
the Authorized Version of the Old
Testament in which the English noun occurs. Literally, judgments
of blood.
The words may be equivalent either:
·
to “blood guiltiness”
(compare the “judgment” in Jeremiah 51:9), or
·
to judgment perverted into
judicial murder. The latter finds support in
ch. 9:9. In either case it is noticeable that Ezekiel points
not only to
idolatry, but to violence and
wrong, as the sins that had cried for
punishment (compare Jeremiah
22:17 as a contemporary witness).
24 “Wherefore
I will bring the worst of the heathen, and they shall
possess their houses: I will also make the
pomp of the strong to
cease; and their holy places shall be
defiled.” The worst of the
heathen;
literally, evil ones of the nations — with the superlative
implied rather than
expressed. For the thought, compare Deuteronomy 28:50; Lamentations
5:11-13;
Jeremiah 6:23. The Chaldeans were probably
most prominent in the prophet’s
thoughts, but ch. 35:5 and Psalm
137:7 suggest that there was a side
glance at the Edomites. The pomp of the strong, etc. Another echo of
Leviticus 26:31). The “pomp”
is that of
strength. The “holy
places” find their chief representative in the temple,
but, as the word is used also of a non-Jehovistic
worship (ch.28:18; Amos 7:9),
may include whatever the people looked on as sanctuaries —
the “high places”
and the like. The Vulgate gives possidebuut
sanctuaria; the Revised Version
margin, they that sanctify them; but the
Authorized Version is probably right
in both cases. Luther renders ihre
kirchen, which reminds us of Acts 19:37.
25 “Destruction
cometh; and they shall seek peace, and there shall be
none.”
They shall seek peace, etc. The noun is probably to be taken
in its wider sense as including safety and prosperity, but
may also include
specific overtures for peace made to the Chaldean generals.
Peace Sought in Vain (v. 25)
No feature of distress and horror is omitted in this
prophetic description of
the effects of God’s
displeasure manifested towards the Jewish people. The
burden of predicting such judgments must have been too
heavy to bear:
what can be said of the state of those upon whom the
judgments came?
They might well ask, “Who can abide the day of His coming?”
(Malachi
3:2) What more
appalling than the account given in these few words of the
state of the people in the time of their disasters: “They shall seek peace,
and there shall be none”?
Warfare with
ignorance, error, and iniquity, is
characteristic of the
condition of the good man here
upon earth. Our Lord Jesus saw this, and
declared, “I am not come to send peace, but a sword” (Matthew 10:34).
The presence of evil requires
that the attitude of the righteous should be one
of antagonism. But this is for a
season and for a purpose. A state of
controversy and hostility is not
a state in itself perfectly desirable and good.
Peace of conscience, peace
with God, peace with Christian brethren, as far
as possible peace with all
men, — these are blessings devoutly to be desired
and sought.
from the harmony of the several
parts of a man’s nature among themselves,
and from harmony between man as
a moral being and his God, it is not to
be expected that, when the
passions are arrayed against the reason, interest
against conscience, the subject
against the rightful and Divine Ruler, there
can be peace. It is mercifully
ordered that peace should flee when iniquity
prevails. “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.” (Isaiah 57:21)
A DESIRE FOR THE BLESSINGS OF PEACE. Men seek peace, and
there is none. Thus they are led
to reflect upon the unreasonableness of
their expectation that the moral
laws of the universe should be changed for
their pleasure. Tossed to and
fro upon the stormy waters, they long for the
haven of repose.
TERMS OF COMPLETE
SURRENDER AND SUBMISSION. It is not
to be found either by
endeavoring to stifle the voice of conscience within,
or by withdrawing from a world
of outward strife to some seclusion and
isolation. Both these methods
have often been tried, but in vain. The
conciliation must
take place within. The heart must find rest and
satisfaction in the gospel of Jesus Christ, “our Peace.” The
whole nature
must, by the power of the
Spirit, be brought into subjection to God. The
fountain of peace must thus be divinely opened, and “peace
will flow as a
river.”
26 “Mischief
shall come upon mischief, and rumor shall be upon
rumor; then shall they seek a vision of the
prophet; but the law
shall perish from the priest, and counsel
from the ancients.”
Mischief… rumor. The combination
reminds us of the “wars
and rumours of wars” of Matthew 24:6. The floating uncertain reports
of a time of invasion aggravate the actual misery (compare
Isaiah 37:7;
Jeremiah 51:46; Obadiah 1:1). They shall seek a vision of the
prophet, etc. The words paint a picture of POLITICAL CHAOS and
CONFUSION. The people turn in their distress to the three representativtes
of wisdom — the prophet as the bearer of an
immediate message from Jehovah,
the priest as the interpreter of His Law
(Malachi 2:7), the “ancients” or “elders”
as those who had learned the lessons of experience, — and all alike in vain.
(For illustrative facts, see Jeremiah 5:31; 6:13; 21:2;
23:21-40; 27:9-18; 28:1-9,
and generally Micah 3:6; Amos 8:11; I Samuel 28:6;
Lamentations 2:9.)
A Vain Search (v. 26)
“Then they shall seek a vision,” etc. Ezekiel describes the vain search for the
assistance of a prophet’s vision in the dark days of
utter failure of that search, as one of the features of the
dreadful time.
the careless people in their
hours of ease; but when
trouble came natural
anxiety and
superstitious terror combined to drive them to the sacred
oracles. The question arises — What did they wish to learn from the
prophets? There is no indication that they desired to know the will of
God
and to be directed
back into his way. More probably they
were simply
consumed with a morbid curiosity
as to their approaching doom. Was it
certain that the nation must be
scattered? Now, little good can come
from
such inquiries. A search into the deep mysteries of the future is not
likely to
give us any very helpful
results. It is in God’s most merciful method of
educating his children, to keep
the future hidden, for the most part, and to
give just so much light as is
needed for the day. There is, however, a better
side to this search. Trouble
breaks through the thin crust of worldliness,
and reveals the
essentially spiritual character of man and his needs. Then it
is not possible to
be satisfied with things seen and temporal. The unseen
world that has been slighted in
prosperous times is felt to be supremely real
and of profoundest interest. So
the sorrow-stricken soul searches for some
voice out of the darkness
beyond.
dumb; the prophet sees no
vision; the Law perishes; counsel ceases. This is
a disappointment for the
boasting confidence of the people (Jeremiah 18:18).
Ø
There is no new inspiration. Revelation did not continue to come
in an
unbroken stream of light. There
were periods of darkness in the history
of
Bible has put an and to this
kind of revelation. Yet there is the
inspiring
guidance of
God’s eternal Spirit and the opening of the eyes of
spiritually
minded men to a personal knowledge and to new aspects
of truth. If this ceases, though the letter of revelation remains,
the
quickening spirit is lost.
Ø
The old written word is lost. Not only is there no prophet’s vision; even
the ancient Law perishes from
the priest. The ceremonial of the temple
was stopped by Nebuchadnezzar’s destruction of
very different from the final
cessation of it when the Jewish economy
had passed away. Now the loss of
the Law was premature. It would be
paralleled by our loss of the
whole Bible and its guidance — a thing
that happened practically in the
Middle Ages. (For a feel of this
condition I highly recommend Amos 8 – The Blank
Bible by
Henry Rogers – this web site -CY – 2014)
Ø
Tradition fails.
This counsel of the ancients is lost in
the confusion of
the scattered people. There are
floating beliefs and customs of religion
that help and influence us
unconsciously. In a broken, disordered
condition even these advantages
may be lost.
had been followed as a mere
form, and trusted without moral obedience
(Isaiah 1:10-15). Such a desecration of religion may be justly punished
by the loss of its
aid. Perhaps this would be the most
merciful way to bring
people to appreciate eternal verities,
if all our Bibles were lost, should we
value them more, and crave the
recovery of them with a new relish? With
mere echoes of
popular, opinions, THE POLITICALLY CORRECT!
-
CY – 2014). Then they were
deceivers of the people (who not so
innocently “loved
to have it so” – Jeremiah 5:31 – CY – 2014) and
not only did they
deserve to be swept away, but the loss of them was a
merciful
deliverance to the deluded nation,
There is a teaching which
can be well spared, especially
in view of a higher gospel.
“Ring out
the old,
Ring in
the new;
Ring out
the false,
Ring in
the true.”
Rumor (v. 26)
“And rumor shall be upon rumor.” One element of the dark times of the
destruction of
rumors — one contradicting another, yet all presaging fearful
events. This
is
always an accompaniment of times of unrest, and Christ referred to it in
His picture of coming evils (Matthew
24:6). We may have seen some
such thing in our own happier days; but the telegraph and the newspaper
have done immense service in substituting authentic news for vague and
floating rumor, so that it is difficult for us to understand the
distress of
less rapidly informed ages, which must have been far more the prey to
uncorroborated reports and chance rumors.
Ø
Rumor distresses by its prophecy of coming evil. There may be
rumors of good, to cheer. But in the present instance we have
only
rumors of evil brought to our attention. Such reports cloud the
present
with dim visions of a possible dark future. It is hard enough
to face the
difficulties of today; add to these the portents of tomorrow, and the
load
may be crushing. “Sufficient unto the day is the evil
thereof.”
Ø
Rumor alarms by its vagueness. Rumor is not news,
not the picture of
the distant, but only its shadow. If we knew the worst, we
might know
how to prepare for it; but rumor comes with large, general
adumbrations
(the act of giving the main facts and not the details about something0
leaving us to fill in the details with imaginary horrors.
Ø
Rumor confuses us by its contradictoriness. Rumor is to follow “upon
rumor.” There is to be
a succession of reports. Possibly these might
confirm one another. But general experience would suggest that
they are
more likely to conflict one with another. The result is a chaos
of
impressions and a paralysis of energy.
Ø
Rumor exaggerates evil. It is rarely, if
ever, true to fact. It is like the
snowball, that grows as it rolls.
Ø
We should be careful how we spread a rumor. First, it is
necessary to
ascertain that we receive it on good authority. Then it is important
to
guard against adding our reflections and impressions as parts of
the
originalreport.
If the rumor be one calculated to do harm it may be well
to keep it to ourselves. No good comes of scandalmongery.
A vulgar
sense of
self-importance delights in telling shocking news; but the
motive is a low one, and the action may be most unkind. Panics
spring
from rumor. When a thoughtless person cries “Fire!” in a public
place,
he cannot answer for the consequences of his rash and perhaps
fatal
folly. We need self-restraint to prevent the mischievous spread
of
rumor.
“Rumour is a pipe
Blown by
surmises, jealousies, conjectures,
And of so
easy and so plain a stop,
That the
blunt monster with uncounted heads,
The
still-discordant wavering multitude,
Can play upon it.”
Ø
We should be on our guard against yielding to rumor. It wants
courage and strength to resist this influence, especially when our
neighbors are carried away by it. But past experience should teach
caution. We have better than rumor to follow in seeking our
highest
interest. “We have not followed cunningly devised
fables.” We have
“the more sure word of prophecy,” and the inward personal experience
of the soul with God. Christianity is not based on a rumor of
ghost
stories; it sends on the historical facts of gospel history and on
Christian
experience,
27 “The
king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with
desolation, and the hands of the people of
the land shall be
troubled: I will do unto them after their
way, and according to their
deserts will I judge
them; and they shall know that I am the LORD.”
The king shall
mourn, etc.
The picture reminds us of
Jehoram in II Kings 6:30. The action of Zedekiah in Jeremiah 21:1
and 34:8 makes it probable enough that it was actually
reproduced. A
solemn litany procession like that of Joel 1:13-14 and
2:15-17 would
have been quite in keeping with his character. The prince shall clothe
himself, etc. The noun is
specially characteristic of Ezekiel, who uses it
thirty-four times. In ch. 12:12
the “prince” seems identified with
the
“king.” Here it may mean either the heir to the throne, or the
chief ruler
under the king. The
people of the land, etc. The phrase is perhaps used,
as the Jewish rabbis afterwards used it, with a certain
touch of scorn, for
the laboring class. All the upper class had been carried
away captive with
Jehoiachin (II Kings 24:14). Compare Ezekiel’s use of it in ch.33:2;
46:3, 9.
I will do unto them,
etc. The chapter, or rather the whole
section from ch. 1:1 onwards,
ends with an iterated assertion of the
EQUITY OF THE DIVINE JUDGMENTS. Then also they
shall know
that I am the Lord,
Almighty and all-righteous.
The Even Balances of
Jehovah (vs. 23-27)
The penal judgments of God are not haphazard events. The
minds of
thoughtful men discover in them a marked feature of retribution.
Striking
correspondences occur between the transgression and the punishment. “I
will do unto them after their way.”
·
VIOLENCE IS MET BY VIOLENCE. The Law of God had been
despised; and, instead of a just administration of Law, the
rule of violence
had prevailed. Therefore by
violence they shall be mastered. “Make
a
chain.” The arm of power had
dominated over the hand of justice;
therefore a mightier arm
shall master it. Often has it been
seen that they
who ruthlessly use the sword themselves perish by the sword.
Men are
often “hoisted on their own petard.” The gallows which Haman had
prepared for another served for himself.
·
IDOLATRY ASSIMILATES MEN IN LIKENESS TO THE IDOLS.
“I will bring the worst of the heathen upon them.” The objects of their
worship had reputed attributes of
lust, cruelty, oppression, violence; these
attributes shall appear in the worshippers. It is a law of nature, as well as a
law of Scripture, that “they
who make them are like unto them; so is every
one that bows down to them” (Psalm 115:8). As the stream cannot rise
above its fount, so man cannot rise above the object of his adoration.
Worshippers of idols rapidly deteriorate in CHARACTER and in MORAL
QUALITY!
If God is driven out of the heart, demons will speedily come in.
(See Matthew 12:43-45).
“Nature
abhors a vacuum.”
·
OPPORTUNITIES ABUSED ARE AT LENGTH CLOSED. “They
shall seek peace, and there shall be none.” (v. 25) “They shall seek a vision
from the prophet; but the Law shall perish from the priest.” (v. 23) Had they
sought earlier, they
would have found; now probation has ceased, the Judge has
ascended His throne. All forbearance has its limits. and men are always one
day behind.
Ø
The tide has ceased to
flow. Ebb has begun.
Ø
In middle life they
are weeping over a wasted youth.
Ø
In old age they are
lamenting the decay of vigorous manhood.
Ø
On a death bed they
regret the neglect of yesterday’s opportunity.
When the last shilling (dollar)
is spent men learn the value of money. Today
there is the sunlight of hope; tomorrow there will be black
despair.
·
THE LEADERS IN REBELLION INCUR THE HEAVIEST
CHASTISEMENTS.
“The
king shall mourn, and the prince shall be
clothed with desolation.”
In proportion to the station any man occupies in
society, in proportion to his talents and strength of character,
is the
influence he exerts, whether for good or for evil. The king will always have
a crowd of servile imitators. Princes, by virtue of their exalted rank, wield
an extensive influence.
For the right employment of influence every man is
responsible. He is
daily sowing now; and, as the sowing is, so will be the
harvest. The mourning of a king will have an intensity of
bitterness that
never irritates the tears of a peasant.
·
JUSTICE
SHALL FINALLY BE
I am the Lord.” Although they would not know Him as Friend and Benefactor,
they shall know Him and acknowledge Him as the Vindicator of right. The
spirits in hell confess him, while blind and ungrateful men ignore Him.
“We know thee who thou art” (Luke 4:34). Righteousness is endowed with
a deathless life; and out of all present confusion and strife it shall come to the
surface and be by all honored. The lesson which men will not learn in the
days of prosperity THEY SHALL LEARN IN THE DARK HOURS
OF
ADVERSITY!
They shall know that JEHOVAH IS
SUPREME!
Yet such knowledge does not save; it leads only to deeper despair. It had
been a long fight between self-will and God’s will; and men often flatter
themselves they are going to conquer.
But the termination is always the
same: GOD
OVER ALL!
The Dread Development of Moral Evil (vs.
23-27)
“Make a chain: for the land is full of bloody crimes,” etc. This paragraph
suggests the following observations.
“Make a chain: for
the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of
violence.” The wickedness of the people had grown to such an extent
that
the darkest crimes were
everywhere prevalent and predominant. The city
was filled with outrage, and the
country with blood guiltiness. Sin, unless it
be striven against and resisted,
increases both in measure and in power,
until it attains unto terrible
fullness and maturity. As in holiness, so also in
wickedness, full development is
reached gradually. Peoples and
nations
arrive at
thorough moral corruption not with a bound, but
step by step. But
unless checked, wickedness ever
tends to that dreadful goal (compare
Genesis 15:16; Daniel 8:23;
Matthew 23:32; I Thessalonians 2:16).
JUDGMENTS OF GOD. Because
of the fullness of wickedness, the
calamities announced by the
prophet were coming upon the people. This is
explicitly stated in vs. 23-24.
The prevalent iniquities of
meritorious cause of the stern
judgments of the Lord. Several features of
these require notice.
Ø
They were of dread severity. They were to be carried into captivity. To
set forth this truth Ezekiel is
summoned to “make a chain.” And, as a
matter of fact, Zedekiah the
king was bound with fetters of brass, and
carried to
the miserable captivity of the
people (Psalm 107:10-12). Their homes
were to be seized and held by
their enemies. “I will bring the worst of the
heathen, and they
shall possess their houses.” Their
sanctuary was to be
profaned. “Their holy places shall be
defiled.” The reference is to the
temple, their “holy and
beautiful house.” The prophet speaks of it as
theirs, not God’s, probably to indicate that God had already forsaken
the sanctuary which they
had defiled. “Woe be to us when our
sanctuaries are nothing
but our sanctuaries!” Anguish was to take hold
upon hem. “Destruction
cometh;” literally, “standing up of the hair
cometh.” If we accept this view
of the word, it denotes extreme
anguish or horror by one of the
physical manifestations thereof, as in
‘Hamlet’ (act 1. sc. 5) —
“I could a
tale unfold, whose lightest word
Would
harrow up thy soul; freeze thy young blood;
Make thy
two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres;
Thy knotted
and combined locks to part,
And each
particular hair to stand on end,
Like
quills upon the fretful porpentine.”
(Shakespeare.)
Ø
They were to come in terrible succession. “Mischief shall come upon
mischief, and rumor
shall be upon rumor.” “Mischief”
fails to fully
express the force of the
original word. Fairbairn renders it “woe;”
Cheyne,
“ruin;” Schroder, “destruction.” Woe upon
woe, misery upon misery,
would befall them. Calamities
would rush upon them in troops. As the
king of
the Divine judgments are
sometimes sternly repeated, each stroke for
a time being the harbinger of
others.
Ø
Even the mightiest would be unable to stand against them. “I will also
make the pomp of
the strong to cease.” Jehovah by His
servant Moses
had threatened the Israelites
with a dreadful series of punishments if
they persisted in rebelling
against Him, including this, “I will break
the pride of your power” (Leviticus 26:19). When the Omnipotent
arises for judgment, the most
powerful creature is impotent to
withstand Him. “Hast thou an arm like God?”
HELP OF THE LORD OR OF HIS SERVANTS. “They shall seek
peace, and there
shall be none;… they shall seek a vision of the prophet.”
“Peace” is not an
adequate rendering of the Hebrew here.. Professor Cheyne
translates, “safety;” and Schroder, “salvation.” In their overwhelming
calamities the
Israelites would seek the help which they had
despised in the
time of their
prosperity. So the proud Pharaoh, when
the plagues were
upon him and his subjects,
repeatedly called for Moses and Aaron, and
besought them to entreat the
Lord. on his behalf. So also the perverse and
rebellious Israelites applied
unto Moses when they were smarting under the
Divine chastisements (Numbers
11:2; 21:7; compare Psalm 78:34-37).
And the presumptuous Jeroboam,
soon as his hand was smitten with
paralysis, entreated the prayers
of the prophet whom a moment before he
was about to treat with violence
(I Kings 13:6). By thus seeking
deliverance from God in the time
of their distress, the wicked bear witness
to their sense of the reality of
His Being, and of their need of Him. And by
seeking the intercession of His
faithful servants they unwittingly testify to
the worth of
genuine religion.
PEACE MAY SEEK
HELP FROM HIM IN SEASONS OF DISTRESS,
YET NOT OBTAIN IT. “They shall seek
peace, and there shall be none;…
then shall they seek
a vision of the prophet; but the Law shall perish from
the priest, and
counsel from the ancients. The king shall mourn,” etc. The
following points require brief
notice.
Ø
Deliverance from trouble, and direction in trouble, sought
in vain.
The Israelites seek for
safety, but find it not; for prophetic guidance,
but it fails them. The
prophet or seer has no vision for them; the
priest has no instruction
in the Law or in religion; the ancients or
wise men have no counsel
for their life and conduct. Saul, the King
of
“Because I have
called, and ye refused,” etc. (Proverbs 1:24-31).
Ø
Failure to obtain help in trouble producing great distress. “The king
shall mourn, and the
prince shall be clothed with desolation,” etc. The
distress is general. The
king, the prince, and the people all feel it. The
calamities are not partial or
sectional, BUT NATIONAL!
The distress
is very great. The king mourns in
deep inward grief; the prince clothes
himself with horror, is as it
were wrapped up in terror; and the hands
of the common people tremble.
Ø
The righteousness of these judgments. “I will do unto
them after their
way, and
according to their deserts will I judge them.” The dealings
of the Lord with them would be
regulated by their conduct. His
judgments would correspond with
their lives and works. THEY
WOULD REAP THE FRUIT
OF THEIR DOINGS!
Ø The righteous
judgments of God leading to the recognition of Him.
“And they shall
know that I am the Lord.” In this day
of their
calamity they will feel and
acknowledge the supremacy of Jehovah.
(See our remarks on v. 4, and on
ch. 6:7, 10.) Let
us seek to know Him,
not in His
judgments, but in His mercies; not in
wrath, but in love.
“And this is life
eternal, that they should know thee THE ONLY
TRUE GOD, and Him
whom thou didst
send, even JEUS
CHRIST!” (John 17:3)
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Recompense (v. 4)
All earthly government presumes the ideas of responsibility
and retribution.
Human nature itself contains what may be regarded as their
conditions and
elements. The welfare, and indeed in certain stages the
very existence, of
society renders recompense a necessity. What is true of
human relations
has truth also in reference to those that are Divine. The
parallel, indeed, is
not complete, but it is real.
ON THE PART OF MAN. There can be no recompense where there is no
accountability; and there can be
no accountability where there is no
intelligence, no freedom.
Natural objects, Kant tells us, act according to
laws; spiritual beings,
according to representation of laws. Man is capable
of apprehending and approving
moral ordinances prescribed for his
guidance and control; he can
recognize moral authority. And he is
distinguished from unintelligent
and involuntary natures in that he can obey
or disobey the laws which he
apprehends. If this were not so, consequences
might indeed ensue from action; but recompense would be an
impossibility.
GOD NO INDIFFERENCE, BUT DEEP CONCERN, WITH REGARD
TO MAN’S MORAL CHARACTER AND CONDUCT. If We think
chiefly of law, or uniformity of
action, we cannot but remember that law
does not account for itself; if
we think of the Lawgiver, we are constrained
to recognize purpose in all his
proceedings and provisions. It cannot be
imagined that the great Ruler of
all inflicts suffering for any delight in
seeing his creatures suffer, or
even that he regards their sufferings with
perfect indifference. There must
be a governmental, a moral end to be
secured. The Lawgiver and Judge
has what, in the case of a man, we
should call a deep interest in
the condition and action of the children of
men.
GOVERNOR OF THE ATTRIBUTES WHICH QUALIFY FOR THE
EXERCISE OF JUDICIAL FUNCTIONS. None but an omniscient Ruler
can be acquainted with all the
secret springs of action, as well as with all
the varied circumstances of
life; yet without such knowledge, how can
recompense be other than
imperfect and uncertain? None but a perfectly
impartial Ruler can administer
justice which shall be undisputed and
indisputable: who but God is stainlessly and conspicuously just? All earthly
retribution is open to
suspicion, for the simple reason that every human
judge acts upon partial
knowledge, and is liable to be influenced by
prejudice. But as from the
Divine tribunal there is no appeal, so with the
Divine decisions can no fault be
found. The Judge of all the earth will
surely and in every case do right.
HIS LIFE WAS EXEMPLIFIED IN THE HISTORY OF THE
PEOPLE. The Old
Testament has been written to little purpose for those
who do not recognize the action
of retributive Providence; the narrative
would be meaningless apart from
this moral significance. The position of
Ezekiel compelled him to trace
the hand of God in the life and fortunes of
his nation. For the Captivity in
the East was an unmistakable instance of
God’s judicial interposition.
And if this was the most striking instance,
others occur in abundance, witnessing
to the fact that this earthly state is a
scene of moral government,
incomplete, indeed, yet not to be denied as
real.
IN GOD’S ADMINISTRATION OF THE AFFAIRS OF MANKIND.
Doubtless the history of the
children of
other lessons, in a very
especial manner, the lesson of Divine government
and human responsibility. Not
only is the story told, but its moral
significance is expressly.set forth. Yet the great principles which are
explicit in Old Testament
history are Implied in all history — in the history
of every nation which exists
upon earth. Go where we may, we do not and
cannot go beyond the sphere of
Divine retribution. Everywhere “the way of
transgressors is hard,” and “the wages of sin is death.”
GOVERNMENT WHICH, WHEN ITS ENDS ARE ANSWERED,
ADMITS OF BEING TEMPERED WITH MERCY. It is observable that,
in the prophetic writings, we
find no unqualified denunciation. Threats of
severe punishment are met with;
but they are followed by offers of mercy
and promises of pardon to the
penitent. The gates of hope are not closed
upon the sinner. And if the most
complete and glorious manifestation of
God’s character is to be found
in the gospel of Christ, it must be
remembered that, whilst that
gospel was occasioned by man’s ruin by sin
and his liability to punishment,
it was intended to secure man’s salvation
and deliverance “from the wrath to come.”
The Limitations to the Power of Wealth (v.
19)
The description of the text is remarkably picturesque. We
seem to behold
the panic-stricken remnant escaping from the city with
trembling forms and
anxious countenances. Horror and shame impel their flight,
as, girded in
coarse sackcloth, they hurry away, barely hoping that they
may save their
lives. As they go, in their terror they cast away their
silver and gold, the
burden of which may impede their fight, and which have lost
their interest
in the all-absorbing endeavour to
escape from the hands of the foe. The
action thus graphically described is suggestive of a great
principle.
RELIANCE UPON THEIR RICHES. Money can purchase many things,
and it is not surprising that
the rich should have a latent belief that it can
procure for them everything that they may need.
EVEN IN ORDINARY EARTHLY CALAMITIES. In sickness, in sorrow
of heart, in many calamities,
especially in distressing bereavement, the
powerlessness of wealth to
deliver or to aid is made painfully apparent. In
how many circumstances are the
rich and the poor almost upon a level!
How often would the wealthy be
glad to exchange their riches for the poor
man’s poverty, might they enjoy the poor man’s health!
PRESENCE OF SUCH CALAMITIES AS ARE THE SIGN OF DIVINE
DISPLEASURE. Judah
was fated to experience the catastrophe designated
by the prophet as “the day of
the wrath of the Lord.” This awful expression
conveys a distinct declaration
concerning the Divine government,
concerning human responsibility
for rebellion and defection. From this
wrath no worldly agency could
possibly deliver. In the day when the
Eternal enters into judgment
with the sons of men, earth can offer no
immunity, no protection.
Release, exemption from righteous judgment can
be purchased by no treasures, no gifts, no sacrifice.
DISADVANTAGE AND HINDRANCE TO ITS POSSESSOR. In a
shipwreck, in a fire, in flight
from a besieged or captured city, men have
been known, by clutching their
gold and burdening themselves with its
weight, to lose their chance of
escape, and consequently miserably to
perish. Their wealth has been
their stumbling block. Such action and such a
fate are a picture, a figure, of
the conduct and the doom of not a few. They
trust in uncertain riches
instead of trusting in the living God. They make an
idol of their possessions. That
which they might have used for good ends
they misuse to their own destruction.
SEEKING BETTER RESOURCES AND MAKING BETTER
PROVISION FOR THE DAY OF TRIAL. Silver and gold must fail their
possessor; the time must come when
they will be cast aside. But there are
true riches; there is a
steadfast and unfailing prop; there are riches of
Divine mercy and compassion. It
is not what a man has, it is what a man is,
which is of supreme concern. He
who has repented of sin and forsaken sin,
who has sought and obtained
through Christ acceptance with God, whose
attitude towards the great King
is no longer an attitude of opposition and
rebellion, but one of subjection
and obedience, he only can look forward
with calm confidence to the day
of trial; for he knows whom he has
trusted, and is persuaded that
the Lord will keep that which he has
committed to Him against that day.
.
The Prophetic Vision Dimmed, and the
Prophetic Voice Silenced
(v. 26)
In seasons of national calamity and disaster, evils abound
which are
apparent to every observer. Famine, pestilence, and
slaughter, the ruin of
industry and the cessation of trade, the breaking up of
homes and the
departure of national glory, — such ills as these none can
fail to notice and
to appreciate. But the worst is not always what meets the
eye. Beneath the
surface, harm is wrought, and the very springs of the
national life may
perhaps be poisoned. Ezekiel, in predicting the disasters
that shall come
upon his countrymen, mentions as among them bonds, death,
the
destruction of city and temple, the overthrow of king and
prince. But he
does not fail to refer to what may perhaps strike the
imagination less, but
what may upon reflection appear to be an evil more
lamentable and
injurious. The time shall come when, in their distress, The
smitten people
shall turn for counsel and guidance, comfort and succour, to the priest, the
prophet, the ancient, of the Lord. And then, to crown their
sorrow, to
deepen it into despondency, they shall find that the vision
has perished, that
“the oracle is dumb.”
COMMISSIONED TO BE THE GUIDES OF THE PEOPLE, AND TO
INSPIRE THEM TO A LIFE OF VIRTUE AND RELIGION. Among the
Jews, the priests performed the
sacrifices, and in this represented the nation
before God; whilst the seers and
prophets spake to the people of
righteousness, temperance, and
judgment to come, and in this represented
God to the nations. Others, too,
there were who lived and taught among
their fellow countrymen as
witnesses of God. In every community there are
raised up by Divine Providence
just and fearless servants of God, who
testify to the law which a
nation ought to obey, and who summon their
fellow countrymen to obedience.
There was doubtless what was special in
the case of the religious
leaders of the Jews, but the principle is the same
wherever there exist soldiers of
righteousness whose endeavour it is to lead
the people in the holy war.
THAT THE PEOPLE SHOULD HAVE RECOURSE TO THEIR
RELIGIOUS AND MORAL TEACHERS AND LEADERS. It is with
nations as with individuals; in
time of prosperity and of that distraction
which is produced by absorption
in things of earth and sense, the soul’s
interests are often neglected,
and God himself is often forgotten. But let
affliction befall either a man
or a people, let earthly success come to an
end, let earthly props be
removed, let earthly visions be shattered, — then
it is seen that consolation and succour are sought in directions long
forsaken and despised. The counsellor, whose warnings were formerly
ridiculed, is now besought to
guide and to help. The neglected oracle is
sought unto. Unwonted petitions
are presented for help. “Is there,” is the
cry, “is there a word from the Lord?”
MAY BE FOUND THAT APPLICATION FOR COUNSEL AND FOR
SUCCOR IS MADE TOO LATE.
The prophet may be dead; he may be
slain, the innocent with the
guilty; he may share the fate of those whom he
warned in vain. Or his voice may
be judicially silenced; no word may be
given him whereby to relieve
anxiety or to encourage hope. And recourse
may be had even to the proper
quarter when it is too late to be of any
service.
HIM WHO IS THE SOURCE OF ALL LIGHT AND CONSOLATION.
God has not forgotten to be
gracious. Certain opportunities which have
been neglected may never recur; certain
ministers of wisdom and sympathy,
whose ministrations have been
despised, may no more be available. But the
Lord’s ear is not heavy that it
cannot hear, nor his hand shortened that it
cannot save.
False Deliverance (vs. 16-22)
Flight is not deliverance. If the invading army is God’s
army, no escape is
possible, save in submission. We cannot elude God’s
detectives. Lonely
mountains, no more than crowded cities, serve as an asylum,
if God be our
Foe. As we cannot get beyond the limits of his world,
neither can we get
beyond the reach of his sword.
bodily captivity; yet they have not escaped from inward distress
and
wretchedness. Exposure to hunger
and cold and nakedness on the
mountains is scarcely to be
preferred to violent death. God, the real
Avenger, has smitten them in
their flight. Their senseless cowardice has
added to their pain. Even though
they live, they are dishonoured among
men. The heathen nations will
point at them with a finger of scorn. The
common moralities of men
reflect, though it be feebly, the just displeasure
of God. Honour
is lost, though life is yet continued.
of every breast. Yet it is a selfish sorrow, which bears the
fruit of death. It
is not repentance, it is only
remorse. Had this sorrow earlier come, and had
it sprung from a better motive,
it would have availed to deliver them. They
mourn, not because they have
sinned, but because their sin has been found
out. When retribution comes,
repentance is impossible.
they had made their riches their trust. They reposed their
faith in idols of
silver instead of the living
God. For gold they imagined they could hire
mercenaries or buy the favour of kings. Such wealth as theirs seemed to
them an impregnable security.
They could make gates of brass and towers
of iron. Yet how sudden and how
complete was the collapse of their proud
hope! Their gold, instead of a
protection, became a snare. It attracted the
cupidity of their foes. As
hounds scent the prey, so foreign soldiers scented
from afar Israel’s riches. The
gold and silver lavished on Jehovah’s temple
drew, like a magnet, the avarice
of the Babylonian king! To rely on
material possessions is to rely
on a broken reed — is to slumber on the
edge of a volcano.
pride; now it shall be their shame. They had gloried in
its external beauty,
and had forgotten that the Lord
of the temple is greater than the building.
They had neglected the spirituality
of worship, and had profaned the holy
place with human inventions and with
idolatrous symbols. In their folly
they had deemed it politic to
set up, side by side with Jehovah, the shrines
of other deities. But their
policy was rotten. It was based on atheistic
selfishness. And new the
profanation they had commenced shall be
completed by their foes. They
had admitted a trickling stream of idolatry
into the temple; now it shall
become a flood. Thus God makes our sins to
become our punishments; at
length they sting like hornets, they bite like
adders. Once our sin lasted like
a sweet morsel; when once in the veins it
works like poison. Rebellion is
but a seed, of which retribution is the rife
fruit.
will I turn also from them.” This is the crowning disaster, the
bitter dregs
of misery, the knell of doom.
If, in our hour of crushing affliction, God
would turn towards us as a
Friend, the wheel of ill fortune would be
reversed; all loss would be
recovered. If he would only move upon our
hearts with his mighty grace,
and reduce our self-will and pride, disaster
would be changed into dowry,
night into day. The hurtling clouds would
burst into showers of blessing.
But when God departs, the last ray of hope
departs, and man’s prospects set in blackest night.
The Punishment of the Wicked (vs. 1-4)
“Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Also,
thou son of
man, thus saith the Lord God unto
the land of Israel; An end, the end is
come,” etc. “This chapter,” says Dr. Currey,
“is a dirge rather than a
prophecy. The prophet laments over the near approach of the
day wherein
the final blow shall be struck, and the city be made the
prey of the
Chaldean invader. Supposing the date of the prophecy to be the same
as
that of the preceding, there were now but four, or perhaps
Three, years to
the final overthrow of the kingdom of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar”
(‘Speaker’s Commentary’). Our text leads us to observe —
DELAYED, IS CERTAIN, UNLESS
IT BE AVERTED BY THEIR
REPENTANCE.
“Thus saith the Lord God unto the land of Israel; An
end,
the end is come upon the four
corners of the land. Now is the end come
upon thee.” The land is looked
upon as a garment, and by the end coming
upon the four corners thereof
the prophet indicates the fact that the
approaching judgment will cover
the entire country. The punishment of
their sins had been repeatedly
and solemnly announced to the Israelites;
and they had disregarded the
announcement, and persisted in their sinful
ways; and now “the end” was at
hand. They would not consider that end
while there was hope for them;
and now the execution of the Divine
judgment cast its dark shadow across their path (compare
Lamentations 1:9).
The delay in the infliction of
the punishment of sin is sometimes construed
as an assurance that it will
never be inflicted. “Because sentence against an
evil work is not executed
speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is
fully set in them to do evil.”
Perilous and, if persisted in, fatal mistake! If in
the time during which punishment
is held back the wicked do not truly
repent, that punishment will be all the more terrible when it
comes (compare
Romans 2:4-11). The holiness of
God arrays him in resolute
antagonism against sin.
THE LORD GOD.
“I will send mine anger upon thee, and will judge thee
according to thy ways,” etc. The
Chaldeans were as a weapon in the hand
of the Almighty for inflicting
deserved punishment upon Israel. (We have
noticed this point in our homily on ch.
5:5-17.) When the stroke
had fallen it was looked upon as
having come from the hand of the Most
High (compare Lamentations 1:14,
15; 2:1-9, 17). All persons and all powers
are at God’s disposal, and can
be employed by him for the execution of his
judgments. Very impressively is
this illustrated in the plagues and
calamities with which he visited
RELATIONS TO THEIR SINS.
Ø
Their sins are the
cause of their punishment. “I will judge
thee
according to thy ways.” They had brought upon themselves the severe
impending judgments. They could
not truthfully charge the Lord with
injustice or harshness in thus
visiting them, for their punishment was the
just consequence of their sins.
“Wherefore doth a living man complain, a
man for the punishment of his
sins?” With frequent reiteration Ezekiel
declares that their sins have
evoked their sufferings. With pathetic sorrow
Jeremiah acknowledges the same truth
(Lamentations 1:8, 9, 18; 3:42;
4:13-14). And
it is ever true that the sins of men are the reasons of the
judgments of God.
Ø
Their sins are the
measure of their punishment. “I will judge
thee
according to thy ways, and will recompense upon thee all thine
abominations.” Their sins were
persistent, and were aggravated by many
advantages and privileges conferred upon them; therefore their
punishment was terrible in its severity. In the distribution of the
Divine
judgments a strict proportion is observed between the guilt and the
penalty of sin. God inflicts his judgments equitably (compare Luke
12:47-48).
Ø
Their sins
determine the character of their punishment. “I will
recompense thy ways upon thee, and thine
abominations shall be in the
midst of thee,” i.e. in their dire consequences.
According to the order
which God has established, the punishment grows out of the sin.
Punishment is “ripened sin.”
“Whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap,” etc.
Sin, says Hengstenberg, “has an active and a
passive history. When the latter
begins, that which was before the object
of gratification becomes the object of terror.” “Let the
sinner know that he
binds for himself the rod which
will smite him.” “His own iniquities shall
take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden
with the cords of his sins.”
INFLEXIBLY EXECUTED. “And mine eye shall not spare thee, neither
will I have pity.” The holy
Scriptures magnify the mercy of God — its
infinity, its perpetuity, its tenderness,
and his delight in it. And sometimes
the wicked have drawn from these
representations the unwarrantable
conclusion that he is so
merciful as to be devoid of justice, so gentle as to
be incapable of anger. But “our
God is a consuming Fire.” He will be as
firm in the punishment of the
persistently wicked as he is gracious in
pardoning the penitent.. He who
mercifully spared repentant Nineveh
ruthlessly destroyed incorrigible
THE DIVINE EXISTENCE AND SUPREMACY. “And ye shall know
that I am the Lord.” (We have
dealt with these words as they occur in ch.
6:7, 10.) “Every one must know
the Lord in the end, if not as One that
calls, allures, blesses, then as
One that smites, is angry, punishes”
(Schroder).
Be it ours to know him as the God of all grace, and to obey
and serve him with loyal hearts and devoted lives.
Aspects of the Execution of the Divine
Judgments
(vs. 5-11)
“Thus saith the Lord God; An
evil, an only evil, behold, is come. An end is
come,” etc. Nearly
everything contained in these verses we have already
noticed in previous paragraphs. Vers.
8 and 9 are almost a literal repetition
of
vs. 3 and 4, which came under consideration in our preceding homily.
But certain aspects of the execution of the Divine judgment
are here set
forth which we have not hitherto contemplated. We shall
confine our
attention to a brief consideration of these.
DIVINE JUDGMENTS IS PREPARED. “The rod hath blossomed, pride
hath budded. Violence is risen
up into a rod of wickedness.” The rod is the
emblem of power to execute the
judgment; and pride, of disposition to
execute it. Nebuchadnezzar
the Chaldean monarch is thus indicated. And
the text suggests that his power
had long been in preparation for the stern
work which he was about to do,
and that now it was in readiness for it, like
a rod which has been planted,
taken root, and grown into vigorous
development. “It illustrates,”
says Kitto, “the Lord’s deliberateness in
executing his judgments, as
contrasted with man’s haste, impatience, and
precipitancy. Man, so liable to
err in judgment and action and to whom,
slow deliberation in inflicting
punishment upon transgressors might seem
naturally to result from his own
consciousness of weakness, is in haste to
judge and prompt to act; whereas
he who cannot err, and whose immediate
action must be as true and right
as his most delayed procedure, works not
after the common manner of men,
but after the manner of a husbandman in
sowing and planting. When the
sin comes to that state, which must in the
end render judgment needful for
the maintenance of righteousness upon the
earth, and for the vindication
of the Lord’s justice and honour, the rod of
punishment is planted; it grows
as the sin grows; and it attains its maturity
for action at the exact time
that the iniquity reaches maturity for
punishment. When Israel entered
upon that course of sin which ended in
ruin, the rod of the Babylonian
power was planted; and as the iniquities of
Israel increased, the rod went
on growing, until, under Nebuchadnezzar, it
became a great tree,
overshadowing the nations; and when the full term
was come, it was ripe and ready
for the infliction upon Israel of the
judgments which had so often
been denounced, and were so greatly
needed” (‘Daily Bible
Illustrations’). This principle of the Divine action in
human history may be traced in
the relation of the Israelites to the ancient
Canaanites. And in the
Babylonian power it receives twofold illustration.
One of these we have in the
text, where Babylon is the rod of judgment for
Israel. And afterwards Babylon
itself was smitten by the rod of the Medo-
Persian power, which had been
gradually growing into maturity and
strength. And the same principle
is in operation today in relation both to
nations and to individuals. If
by either sin be persisted in, the rod of God’s
judgment for that sin will be planted, and when it has grown into
power,
God will sorely smite the nation
or the individual with it. What the poet says of
nature we may say of God.
“Nature
has her laws
That will
not brook infringement; in all time,
All
circumstance, all state, in every clime,
She holds
aloft the same avenging sword,
And, sitting
on her boundless throne sublime,
The vials
of her wrath, with justice stored,
Shall, in
her own good hour, on all that’s ill be poured”
(J.G. Percival.)
DIVINE JUDGMENTS
come: it watcheth
for thee; behold, it is come.” Instead of “it watcheth
for
thee,” the Hebrew is, as in the
margin, “it awaketh against thee.” The end
which had long seemed to sleep,
now awakes and comes; it comes in sharp
judgments. “The repetition
indicates the certainty, the greatness, and the
swiftness” of the approaching
end. The judgment which had so long and
frequently been announced to
Israel, would come upon them at last
suddenly and unexpectedly. That
which seemed to sleep, awakes, arises,
and draws near, to their
confusion and dismay. How often do the
judgments of God come
unexpectedly, and with a great shock of surprise!
Thus came the Deluge upon the
old world, and the fiery flood upon the
cities of the plain (Matthew 24:38=39; Luke 17:26-29). Thus came
the awful summons to the fool in
the midst of his temporal prosperity and
spiritual destitution (Luke 12:16-20). And so will come the last,
the
great day of judgment. “The day
of the Lord will come as a thief in the
night,” etc. (II Peter 3:10). Although the wicked may persuade
themselves that the Divine
retribution lingers and slumbers, it is ever awake
and active, and, unless they
repent, it shall come upon them in “swift
destruction.”
DIVINE JUDGMENTS PRODUCES. “The time is come, the day of
trouble is near, and not the
sounding again of the mountains.” Schroder
translates more correctly, “The
day is near, tumult, and not joyous shouting
upon the mountains.” Upon some
of their hills the Israelites planted vines,
and in the time of the gathering
of the vintage the labourers made the hills
to echo with shouts and songs of gladness (compare Isaiah
16:10). Perhaps
the prophet refers to this in
the text. Or the reference may be to the altars
which were upon the mountains (ch.
6:3, 13; Jeremiah 3:21, 23), and from
which the shouts and songs of
revelling worshippers echoed
far and wide. And instead of
these shouts of joy there should arise the wild
tumult of war, and the
lamentable cries of the distressed, imploring succour
or seeking deliverance. Terrible
are the transformations wrought by the
judgments of the Most High. The
selfish rich man passed from his
luxurious home, his purple and
fine linen, and his sumptuous fare, “and in
Hades he lifted up his eyes,
being in torments,” and was unable to obtain
even a drop of water to cool his
patched tongue. Blessed are they who,
through repentance and faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ, are delivered from
condemnation, and made heirs of eternal life.
The Limitation
of the Power of Riches
(vs. 12-13, 19)
“The time is come, the day draweth
near: let not the buyer rejoice, nor the
seller mourn,” etc. It is not wise to despise riches, or to
affect to do so, or
to depreciate them. They have many uses; they may be made
the means of
promoting the physical well being and the mental progress
of their
possessor, of enabling him to do much good to others, and
of furthering
the highest and best interests of the human race. When
wisely employed,
they produce most excellent results. On the other hand, it
is foolish and
wrong to over estimate them: to make their attainment the
object of our
supreme concern and effort, to trust in them, to make a god
of them. The
verses chosen as our text suggest the following observations.
·
THAT CIRCUMSTANCES MAY ARISE REDUCING THE VALUE
OF RICHES UNTIL THEY ARE ALMOST WORTHLESS. “Let not the
buyer rejoice, nor the seller
mourn: for wrath is upon all the multitude
thereof. For the seller shall
not return to that which is sold, although they
were yet alive: for the vision
is touching the whole multitude thereof; he
shall not return.” The reference
seems to be to a compulsory sale of their
estates by the Jews at the time
of the troubles now impending. As the
‘Speaker’s Commentary’ points
out, “it was grievous for an Israelite to
part with his land. But now the
seller need not mourn his loss, nor the
buyer exult in his gain. A
common ruin should carry both away; the buyer
should not take possession, nor
should the seller return to profit by the
buyer’s absence. Should he live,
it will be in exile. All should live the pitiful
lives of strangers in another
country.” The sad changes about to transpire
would so depreciate the value of
the commodity sold, that the seller need
not mourn over a bad bargain, or
the buyer rejoice over a good one.
Circumstances and events
producing similar effects frequently arise, and
will readily occur to every one
upon reflection. The commercial value of
properties and possessions
fluctuates; and that to which a man may be
looking confidently for the
means of subsistence may become almost or
altogether worthless. There is
no absolute and permanent value in the
riches of this world.
·
THAT THERE ARE EVILS IN LIFE FROM WHICH RICHES ARE
UTTERLY POWERLESS TO DELIVER THEIR POSSESSORS. (v. 19)
Notice:
Ø Their inability to satisfy their souls. “They shall not satisfy their souls.”
Schroder
interprets this that their silver and gold were aesthetically
worthless
to the Israelites in the day of their calamity; they were not able to
minister
to their taste or promote their enjoyment in their season of hitter
woe. It
is true that in the day of sore distress all that can be bought with
money
will not afford relief. Aesthetic gratifications — pictures and
statues,
poetry and music — cannot adequately minister to the soul in its
deepest
sorrows. But may we not discover in the words a deeper meaning?
Gold and silver
cannot supply the soul’s greatest needs, or satisfy its most
importunate
cravings. The gifts of God cannot be purchased with money.
Ø
Their inability, in certain
circumstances, to procure even the
necessaries of bodily life. “They
shall… neither fill their bowels.” When no
food was
left in the beleaguered city, the Israelites could not appease, or
even
mitigate, their hunger with their riches. I have read of an Arab who
lost his
way in the desert, and was in danger of dying from hunger. At last
he found
one of the cisterns out of which the camels drink, and a little
leathern
bag near it. “God be thanked!” he exclaimed. “Here are some
dates or
nuts; let me refresh myself.” He opened the bag, but only to turn
away in
sad disappointment. The bag contained pearls. And of what value
were they
to one who, like Esau, was “at the point to die”?
Ø
Their inability to deliver from the
retributions of the Divine
government. “Their silver and their gold shall not be
able to deliver them in
the day
of the wrath of the Lord” (compare Zephaniah 1:18). Riches can
neither
set a man so high that God’s judgments cannot reach him. nor
surround
him with such panoply that God’s arrows cannot pierce through
it. We
have striking illustrations of this in the cases of two rich men of
whom our
Lord spake (Luke 12:16-20; 16:19-31). And there are
some
of the
ordinary afflictions and sorrows of this life from which we can
secure
neither immunity nor deliverance by means of riches. “A golden
crown
cannot cure the headache, nor a velvet slipper give ease of the gout,
nor a
purple robe flay away a burning fever.” All the royal wealth of King
David could not
ward off death from one of his children (II Samuel
12:15-18), or
exempt him from the heartbreaking treachery and rebellion of
another (ibid. ch. 15).
·
THAT CERTAIN EVILS OF LIFE ARE AGGRAVATED BY THE
POSSESSION OF RICHES. In circumstances like those indicated by the
prophet riches are calculated to
increase the evils in two ways.
Ø
They may endanger life by enkindling the greed of enemies. Greedy
of booty, the invaders of
unwelcome attentions to the
rich, and not to the poor. As Matthew Henry
quaintly observes, “It would be
a temptation to the enemy to cut their
throats for their money.” Hence
Ezekiel says, “They shall cast their silver
in the streets, and their gold shall be removed,” or “shall
be as filth.” They
would cast it away as an unclean thing, because their life was imperilled
by it.
Ø
They may endanger life by hindering flight from enemies. Riches would
be an encumbrance to those Israelites who sought to escape
from the
Chaldean soldiery by flight, and would retard their progress.
Therefore, to
be more free and swift in their
movements, “they shall cast their silver in
the streets, and their gold shall
be as filth.” How many human lives have
been lost in the attempt to save
riches! When the steamer Washington was
burnt, one of the passengers, on the first alarm of fire, ran to
his trunk,
and took from it a large amount of gold and silver coin, and,
loading his
pockets, ran to the deck and
jumped overboard. As a necessary
consequence, he went down
immediately. His riches were his ruin.
·
THAT RICHES MAY BE THE OCCASION OF SIN. “Because it is
the stumbling block of their iniquity.” Their silver and gold
had been the
occasion of sin to the
Israelites, especially in the manufacture of idols. “Of
their silver and their gold have they made them idols” (Hosea
8:4). And
there are many in our age and
country to whom riches are an occasion of
sin; they set their affections
upon them, they repose their confidence in
them. “How hardly shall they
that have riches enter into the kingdom of
God!” etc. (Luke
18:24-25). “The deceitfulness of riches
chokes the
word” of the kingdom. “They that
will be rich tall into temptation and a
snare,” etc. (1 Timothy 6:9-10, 17-19).
·
CONCLUSION.
1. Let us
endeavor to form a true estimate of riches.
2. If we possess them, let us use our riches, not as the
proprietors, but as
the stewards
thereof, who will one day be called by the great Owner to
render the account
of oar stewardship.
The Perversion of Desirable
Possessions Punished
by
the Deprivation of
Them
(vs. 20-22)
“As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it, in majesty,”
etc. In these
words we discover:
·
DESIRABLE POSSESSIONS SINFULLY
PERVERTED. (v. 22.)
This verse has been differently
translated and interpreted. Hengstenberg
renders it, “And his glorious
ornament he has set for pride; and they made
the images of their abominations
and detestable idols of it: therefore have I
laid it on them for
uncleanness.” Some refer this to the temple, which “by
way of eminence was the glory
and ornament of the nation.” Others,
connecting it with the preceding
verse, refer it to the riches, or to the
elegant ornaments made of gold
and silver, which the Israelites possessed.
Without presuming to speak
dogmatically on the point, we incline to the
latter view. The Israelites were
an opulent people. The Prophet Isaiah said,
“Their land is full of silver
and gold, neither is there any end of their
treasures.” God had enabled them
to accumulate riches (compare
Deuteronomy 8:18). And now they
misused their wealth against Him.
Ø
Their desirable possessions they turned into an occasion
of pride. “His
glorious ornament he has set for pride.” The “he” signifies the
people,
who are called either he or they. They perverted
their riches into a parade
of their own self-sufficient, power; they misused them for
their self-
glorification. The prosperity, which should have enkindled their
gratitude
to the Lord their God, led to their presumption and
self-exaltation
(compare
Isaiah 2:11, 17). This is not a solitary case, but a representative
one, of the way in which the gifts of God are perverted by the
sin of
man. When spiritual privileges lead to supercilious pharisaism (compare
Luke 18:11); when the possession
of personal gifts and abilities generate
self-conceit; or when the possession of riches is made the occasion of
self-laudation (compare Deuteronomy 7:17; Daniel 4:30); — when
these things occur, we have a similar abuse of the gifts of God.
“Thus saith
the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,”
etc. (Jeremiah
9:23-24).
Ø
Their desirable possessions they turned into detestable
idols. “They
made the images of their abominations and detestable idols of
it.” In
Isaiah 2:7-8 the abundance of
riches and the prevalence of idolatry
stand in close connection. To a
great extent the idolatry proceeded from
the self-exaltation. Pride would
choose even its own god, rather than
accept and serve the true God as he has revealed himself and his
will.
“All idolatry,” says Hengstenberg, “is at bottom egoism, the apotheosis
of self, that sets up its god out of itself — first
makes and then adores.”
The gold and silver, which the
Lord had enabled them to acquire, they
abused against His express commands, and to His dishonour. Nor is
this sin of perverting God’s gifts to sinful and base uses
without its
modern illustrations. When the poet employs his glorious gift of
song
for the pollution of the imagination; or the philosopher his
powers
for the propagation of skepticism and the destruction of
faith; when
riches are expended for the gratification of pride, the love of
vain show,
or for any sinful object; when a nation uses its power
oppressively,
tyrannically, or to the injury of others; — when these things are done,
the principle of the sin dealt with in our text receives fresh
illustration.
·
PERVERTED POSSESSIONS TAKEN FROM THEIR
PERVERTORS AND GIVEN TO THEIR ENEMIES. “And I will give it
into the hands of the strangers
for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for
a spoil; and they shall pollute
it.” Notice:
Ø The true Proprietor of man’s possessions. “I will give it into the hands
of the
strangers.” In these words, by implication, the Most High asserts his
claim to
dispose of the riches of the Israelites according to his own
pleasure.
The richest man is but the steward or trustee of the riches. God
alone is
absolute Proprietor. The ablest man is indebted to God for his
abilities,
and is solemnly accountable to him for the use of them. “For who
maketh thee to differ? and
what hast thou that thou didst not receive?” etc.
(1 Corinthians
4:7). God has the right to do with our gifts and goods
how and
what He will.
Ø
Man deprived
of the possessions which he has abused by
the true
Proprietor of
them. God was about to give the riches of the
Israelites to
the Chaldeans, who are here spoken of as “strangers, and the
wicked of the
earth.”
They could not have conquered and spoiled the Israelites but for
the
permission of the Lord Jehovah. The victory of the Chaldeans
was his
penal
victory over his sinful people. Is it not reasonable and righteous that
the gifts
which have been perverted should be withdrawn from their
pervertors? that the
possessions which have been abused should be taken
away from
their abusers? (compare Matthew 21:33-43).
·
THE PERVERSION OF DESIRABLE POSSESSIONS LEADING
TO THE AVERSION OF THE DIVINE FAVOUR. “My face will I turn
also from them, and they shall
pollute my secret: for the robbers shall enter
into it, and defile it.”
Ø Persistence in sin leads to the withdrawal of the favor of God. Turning
the
Divine face to any one is an expression denoting the favourable
regards
of God (compare
Numbers 6:25-26; Psalm 25:16; 67:1; 69:16; 80:3, 7,
19; 86:16).
“The face of God,” says Schroder suggestively, “is
the
consecration of our life: our free upward look to it, its gracious look on
us.” In
his favour there is life and peace, prosperity and
joy. The turning of
his face
from any one is a token of his displeasure. He was about to turn it
away thus
from
Ø
The withdrawal of the favour
of God leaves man without adequate
defence. “They shall pollute my secret: for the
robbers shall enter into it,
and
defile it.” Very different meanings are given to the words, “my secret.”
Some would translate
it, “my treasure,” and apply it to
the holy
land in general. Ewald interprets it, “the treasure
of my
guardianship, i.e. of my country or my people.” It seems to us probable
that
of
calamity and destruction is towards them, nay, destruction is upon them.
No sooner doth
God turn away from a nation, but destruction steps into
that
nation.” He is both the Sun and the Shield of his people; and if he turn
his face
away from them, they are in darkness, and defenseless before their
enemies
and dangers. And this was the punishment of idolatry most
solemnly
announced by Jehovah through his servant Moses: “I will hide my
face from
them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles
shall
befall them; so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come
upon us,
because our God is not among us?” (Deuteronomy 31:16-18).
·
CONCLUSION. Here are solemn admonitions as to our use of the
privileges and possessions, the gifts and goods, which God has
bestowed
upon us.