Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 36:31

Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that [were] not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations.

31. Cf. Eze 6:9, Eze 16:61; Eze 16:63. Omit the words “in your own sight,” ch. Eze 20:43.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Eze 36:31

Then shall ye remember your own evil ways . . . and shall loathe yourselves.

True conversion

Israel had fallen from God, had gone after idols, and had sunk into the grossest moral corruptions. Then came the Chaldeans and crushed the nation, and removed it into captivity. However, God promised restoration to His people.

I. What is the result, the very first result of restoration? What happens directly that Israel is cleansed from past defilements, saved from present misery, assured against future fall? There would be exultation, no doubt, triumphant shouting when restored to the promised land and full privileges of being Gods children; but this is observable, that the first and truest emotion called forth is remembrance of past transgression and therefore self-loathing. It is the sight of Gods mercy enduring forever, the sight of the overflowing of the cup of love from His hand that calls forth this intense sorrow, this bitter loathing. There is a German story of a man, who, for the love of gold, sold his heart to a wood demon, and obtained in its place a heart of stone, and a purse which was never empty. He was now rich, but cold-hearted. He ill-treated his wife and caused her death, he drove his old mother from his door, be oppressed the poor, neglected his children, and went over the world seeking selfish pleasure. After many years he returned discontented, but still rich. He could get no real pleasure anywhere. Then in a fit of spleen, he sought the demon of the forest, and by the aid of the Cross recovered his heart of flesh. And the moment it was again in his breast, all that he had done returned to him. He flung himself, in floods of tears, on the ground weeping for his wife, his mother, his children, his friends, for all the wrong he had done, and all the good he had left undone. So it was with Israel. The heart of stone was taken from them, a heart of flesh was given them back, and instantly they remember their evil ways, and loathe themselves in their own sight for their iniquities.

II. This is the picture of true conversion. (S. Baring Gould, M. A.)

The sense of sin

A true sense of sin implies the consciousness of the fact of our sinfulness. Intellectually speaking, at different periods we estimate ourselves very differently. Whilst still young, we were confident and self-sufficient. But years bring experience to all, and sense to some, and looking back on our earlier selves we are distressed: we see how egregiously vain, stupid, and intolerable we were. The older man knows that his younger self was a fool.

1. A true sense of sin implies the consciousness that our sinfulness is personal. Your own evil ways. Ezekiel is the prophet of individuality, and here he singles out the individual sinner, seeking to bring home to the consciousness of his personal fault.

(1) Before we become truly awake to sin we delude ourselves by identifying it with nature. Just as certain laws of nature work out eclipses, volcanoes, earthquakes, and blizzards, so we imagine that other laws of nature work out in murderous tempers, greedy appetites, wrathful and defiant lusts and disobediences. We are fond of boasting of our ability to control the laws and forces of nature–taming the lightning, harnessing Niagara, and coercing sun, storm, and stream into our service: intellectual pride gloats over these triumphs; but as soon as it becomes a question of responsibility for our moral faults, we are in haste to abase ourselves, and to plead that natural laws and forces ride rough shod over us.

(2) Again we delude ourselves by charging sin back upon our ancestry. Our failings are inherited, and are not therefore properly ours. Men and women never cordially give the credit of their strength and beauty, their wit and virtue to their ancestry, these they coolly and emphatically claim as distinctively their own; but their anger, pride, gluttony, and selfishness are unblushingly debited to their grandfather. It will not do. Much about us is inherited from man, but a little something about us is inherited from God.

(3) We blind ourselves by blaming society. All men are dominated by the spirit of the age, and the community is blamed for the lapses of the individual. Yet how often do men who argue like this in regard to their sordid and soiled character boast of their social independence and proceed proudly to set the community at defiance! If their commercial advantage or political ideals are at stake, they are good against the world; but when society constrains them to vanity and vice, no choice is left them but meekly to succumb! No, no; our sins are our own.

2. A true sense of sin implies the consciousness of its hatefulness. The text speaks of evil with the sense of horror and loathing–detestable things, iniquities, abominations, filthiness, uncleanness. How tenderly and apologetically certain writers speak of ghastly vices! The true thinker must know no anger or contempt in the presence of a crime; he must regard it with the indifference with which the chemist regards a poisonous drug, or the naturalist a poisonous flower. Again Bourget writes: The artist admits that there are virtues which are not lovely, and corruptions which are splendid, or, rather, he cares nothing for virtue or for corruption. He knows that there are beautiful things and things that are ugly, and he knows nothing else. It is altogether another thing when the soul is convinced of sin and judgment. Ye shall loathe your own face, declares the text. As a patient afflicted with a malignant disease shrinks with horror from the sight of his own face when for the first time he looks in the mirror, so does the convicted sinner shrink at the sight of his heart and life as revealed in the light of Gods holiness. Ye that fear the Lord hate evil. I repent and abhor myself in sackcloth and ashes.

3. A true sense of sin implies the consciousness of its guilt. And shall judge yourselves unworthy to live. We judge ourselves, condemn ourselves, pass the sentence of death upon ourselves. We instinctively feel that the difference is simply immeasurable between a mistake and a sin. A man may be liable to punishment for a mistake, as it involves culpable carelessness; but a simple error of judgment, a lapse of memory, an oversight, belongs to a mild category compared with the deliberate breach of the moral law. We feel that the difference is infinite between a misfortune and a sin. When one is overtaken by blindness, crippled by rheumatism, smitten by fever, or shattered by an accident, we do not blame and punish, we pity and help; but a transgression of Gods law awakens quite another order of ideas and sentiments. The penitent stands face to face with the righteous and loving God, and is filled with surprise, grief, and shame. He has done what deserves utterest reprobation, and is worthy of death. The sense of sin is first created by the Divine Spirit causing us to see and feel the purity and love of God, especially as these attributes are revealed in Jesus Christ. This is the golden ground against which sin stands out in terrible relief. And the sense of the folly, shame, and peril of sin becomes more acute all through the regenerate life. (W. L. Watkinson.)

Mistaken notions about repentance

The day of manifested mercy is to be the day of hearty repentance. Then. When God loads you with benefits you shall loathe yourselves. Repentance is wrought in the heart by a sense of love Divine. Many are kept from Christ and hope by misapprehensions of this matter. They have–

I. Mistaken ideas of what repentance is.

1. They confound it with–

(1) Morbid self-accusation, which is the fruit of dyspepsia, or melancholy, or insanity. This is an infirmity of mind, and not a grace of the Spirit. A physician may here do more than a divine.

(2) Unbelief, despondency, despair: which are not even a help to repentance, but tend rather to harden the heart.

(3) Dread of hell, and sense of wrath: which might occur even to devils, and yet would not cause them to repent. A measure of this may go with repentance, but it is no part of it.

(4) Satanic temptations. These are by no means like to repentance, which is the fruit of the Spirit.

(5) A complete knowledge of the guilt of sin; which even advanced saints have not yet obtained.

(6) Entire abstinence from all sin,–a consummation devoutly to be wished, but by no means included in repentance.

2. It is–

(1) A hatred of evil.

(2) A sense of shame.

(3) A longing to avoid sin.

3. It is all wrought by a sense of Divine love.

II. Mistaken ideas of the place which repentance occupies.

1. It is looked upon by some as a procuring cause of grace, as if repentance merited remission: a grave error.

2. It is wrongly viewed by others as a preparation for grace; a human goodness laying the foundation for mercy, a meeting of God half way; this is a deadly error.

3. It is treated as a sort of qualification for believing, and even as the ground for believing: all which is legality, and contrary to pure Gospel truth.

4. Others treat it as the argument for peace of mind. They have repented so much, and it must be all right. This is to build our confidence upon a false foundation.

III. Mistaken ideas of the way in which it is produced in the heart.

1. It is not produced by a distinct and immediate attempt to repent.

2. Nor by strong excitement at revival meetings.

3. Nor by meditating upon sin, and death, and hell, etc.

4. But the God of all grace produces it–

(1) By His free grace, which by its action renews the heart (verse 26).

(2) By bringing His great mercy to our mind.

(3) By making us receive new mercy (verses 28-30).

(4) By revealing Himself and His methods of grace (verse 32).

5. Every Gospel truth urges repentance upon the regenerate. Election, redemption, justification, adoption, eternal love, etc., are all arguments for loathing every evil way.

6. Every Gospel privilege makes us loathe sin: prayer, praise, the reading of Scripture, the fellowship of saints, the table of the Lord, etc.

7. Every Gospel hope purifies us from sin, whether it be a hope for more grace in this world, or for glory in the next. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

True repentance

I. The nature of true repentance.

1. True repentance is the gift of God, and the peculiar effect of His Holy Spirit.

2. The grief and self-loathing of true penitents do not flow so much from their feeling that sin is hurtful to themselves, as from the consideration of its own base nature; and especially of the ingratitude which it carries in it towards a kind and merciful God.

3. The souls conversion to God is the great introductory blessing which renders all other blessings valuable.

4. As this great and valuable blessing cometh down from the Father of lights, who is the Author of every good and perfect gift, it is therefore to be sought by our humble supplications and prayers (verse 37).

II. To recommend the example of these penitents described in the text to your imitation.

1. Let me call upon you to remember your ways. The neglect of serious consideration is the ruin of almost every soul that perisheth eternally. Consider the various relations in which you have been placed, the special duties which arose from those relations, and the manner in which you have performed them. When by such means you have discovered your own evil ways, then proceed to consider attentively the nature and degree of that evil which is in them. Let it not suffice to know that you have been sinners, without pondering the dreadful malignity and demerit of sin.

2. Loathe yourselves in your own sight, for your iniquities, and for your abominations. Thou art displeased with thine enemies who seek to injure thee; but where is there such an enemy as thou art to thyself? Thou abhorrest him who hath killed thy dearest friend; but where hadst thou ever such a friend as the Lord Jesus Christ, whom, by thy sins, thou hast crucified and slain?

3. Let me conclude with exhorting you to repair to that fountain which is opened for sin and for uncleanness, to that blood which can cleanse you from all sin. (H. Blair, D. D.)

Self-abasement, the sign of a Christian

Bradford, a martyr, yet subscribes himself A sinner. If I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head; like the violet, a sweet flower, but hangs down the head. (Thomas Watson.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 31. Then shall ye remember your own evil ways] Ye shall never forget that ye were once slaves of sin, and sold under sin; children of the wicked one; heirs to all God’s curses, with no hope beyond hell. Such cleansed people never forget the horrible pit and the miry clay out of which they have been brought. And can they then be proud? No; they loathe themselves in their own sight. They never forgive themselves for having sinned against so good a God, and so loving a Saviour. And can they undervalue HIM by whose blood they were bought, and by whose blood they were cleansed? No! That is impossible: they now see Jesus as they ought to see him; they see him in his splendour, because they feel him in his victory and triumph over sin. To them that thus believe he is precious, and he was never so precious as now. As to their not needing him when thus saved from their sins, we may as well say, as soon may the creation not need the sustaining hand of God, because the works are finished! Learn this, that as it requires the same power to sustain creation as to produce it, so it requires the same Jesus who cleansed to keep clean. They feel that it is only through his continued indwelling, that they are kept holy, and happy, and useful. Were he to leave them the original darkness and kingdom of death would soon be restored.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Then, when I have given you my Spirit, renewed your hearts, brought you by miraculous mercy out of captivity in a strange land unto liberty in your own, ye shall call to mind, review, and examine all your past life, your ways opposite to Gods; therefore both their own by choice, and also evil in their very nature, the ways the prophets condemned and threatened, as Eze 22; Jer 3:5, &c.

Not good; it is a meiosis; not good, i.e. exceeding evil, like, yea worse than, other nations, Eze 5:6, than Sodom, Eze 16:46.

Loathe yourselves: see Eze 6:9. Your mind shall abhor what you loved, and deeply grieve at what you rejoiced in; when swine, ye wallowed in mire; when made sheep, you shall as much fear and flee from it.

In your own right; not in sight of others, but repentance in the chief parts lieth more retired and inward, and loathes sins that are in the heart, though none ever knew them beside God and his own soul. This fruit is the first and most sure sign of true repentance.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

31. remember your . . . evilwayswith shame and loathing. The unexpected grace and love ofGod, manifested in Christ to Israel, shall melt the people into truerepentance, which mere legal fear could not (Eze 16:61;Eze 16:63; Psa 130:4;Zec 12:10; compare Jer 33:8;Jer 33:9).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Then shall ye remember your own evil ways,…. That were of their own choosing; in which they walked, and delighted to walk: and very evil ones they were; opposite to the ways of God; such as open violation of the law of God; neglect of his worship; idolatry, and many other sins, before the captivity; adhering to the traditions of their elders; and setting up their own righteousness as a justifying one afterwards; also their disbelief and rejection of the Messiah; their blasphemy against him, and persecution of his interest and people: now these will all be remembered with shame and confusion when the Lord shall bestow upon them the above blessings, spiritual and temporal; especially when a new heart and spirit shall be given them; the goodness of God will have such an influence upon them as to refresh their memories with former sins, and bring them to repentance for them; as well as to affect their minds, and make them thankful for present mercies: sins, which were before forgotten, or were not thought to be sins, shall now come fresh in their minds, with all their aggravated guilt:

and your doings that were not good: far from being so, they were very evil, contrary to the law of God and Gospel of Christ; as they will at this time appear to themselves to be:

and shall loath yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations; their sins will be abominable to them, as they are in themselves, and to the Lord; and they will not only loath them, but themselves for them, when they shall come to have a true sight of them in their own colours, and a true sense of the evil nature of them; and this shall not be expressed only in the sight of men, and so as to be observed by them; but in their own sight, secretly and within themselves, under a clear and full conviction of their sins. The Syriac version is, “your faces shall be wrinkled”; as men’s are when they are displeased with themselves for what they have done. The Targum is,

“and ye shall groan when ye shall see, because of your sins, and because of your abominations;”

which is the case of sensible sinners, 2Co 5:4.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

(31) Shall lothe yourselves.Comp. Note on Eze. 20:43.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

“Then you will remember your evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and your abominations. Not for your sakes do I do this,” says the Lord Yahweh, “be it known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel.”

That there were such periods of repentance after the exile we need not doubt (e.g. Ezr 10:1; Nehemiah 9). By the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile a deep lesson was learned by Israel, especially the true Israel. So His true people mourned over their past sins, and loathed themselves for what they had been. They really were ashamed and confounded to think of what had been. The same should be true for true Christians today. They rejoice in their forgiveness, but they loathe what they were and wonder how they could ever have been like it.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

DISCOURSE: 1118
THE DUTY OF SELF-LOTHING

Eze 36:31. Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall lathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations.

IT should seem, that the more excellent any man became, the higher thoughts he would have of his own excellence: and the more he was conformed to the will of God, the more he would be filled with self-complacency. But the very reverse of this is the truth. Mens humiliation will always increase in proportion as they know the extent of their duty, and are made sensible of their defects; and consequently, the more they advance in holiness, the more they will lament their past, and remaining, iniquities. The words of our text confirm this. They are addressed, not to persons living in wilful and deliberate sin, but to persons cleansed from their filthiness, and possessed of a new spirit, whereby they are enabled to walk in Gods statutes: even to them is the injunction given, to lothe themselves for their abominations.
We shall consider,

I.

The duty enjoined

Repentance, though an universally acknowledged duty, is but little understood. It implies,

1.

A calling of our evil ways to remembrance

[However tenacious our memory may be of evils committed by others against us, we are very forgetful of the evils which we ourselves commit against God. But we should go back to the earliest periods of our life, and review the transactions which then took place: we should then prosecute our inquiries through each successive year, till our reason was expanded, and our judgment informed with respect to the nature and consequences of sin: we should advance in this way through the different stages of our existence, till we arrive at the present time. Much evil will doubtless have passed away, and left no trace behind: but much may be recalled to our minds, sufficient to shew, that the whole bias of our souls has been towards wickedness, and that, in proportion as our faculties of body and mind have been enlarged, we have devoted them to the service of sin and Satan.
Having brought our examination down to the present time, we should enter more deeply into the qualities even of our best actions: we should search into the motives from which they sprang; the manner in which they were performed; and the end at which we aimed in the performance of them: we should do this, not with a view to find our good deeds, but our doings that were not good: not to furnish ourselves with grounds of self-approbation and self-complacency, but rather of humiliation and contrition.]

2.

A lothing of ourselves on account of them

[The calling of our ways to remembrance is only preparatory to that more essential part of true penitence, the lothing of ourselves on account of them. To this it must lead: if it stop short of this, it is of no avail. It is in vain that we are alarmed and terrified with a sense of our guilt; for Pharaoh [Note: Exo 10:16-17.], and Judas [Note: Mat 27:3-5.], confessed their sins under a sudden impression of fear and remorse: nor will it suffice to express a considerable degree of sorrow on account of our state; for even in Ahabs humiliation this was found [Note: 1Ki 21:27.]: we must be brought to self-lothing and self-abhorrence.

The Scriptures illustrate sin by a dog returning to his own vomit, and a sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire [Note: 2Pe 2:22.]. It must be confessed that the former of these metaphors is most disgusting: but the more disgusting it is, the more suited is it to the occasion; since the conduct of the sinner, like that of the dog, argues an unspeakably filthy and depraved appetite. Let us apply this metaphor, not to gross sins only, but to sin in general; and then consider, that sin has been, not merely a morsel swallowed under some violent temptation, but our daily food, yea, the only thing towards which he had any real appetite: and what filthy creatures shall we then appear! What disgusting objects must we be in the sight of God; and how ought we to lothe and abhor ourselves! The latter metaphor also is a just representation of our conduct; and shews, that no terms are too degrading, no images too disgusting, to represent the filthiness of our habits, and the depravity of our hearts.

Nor let it be thought that this representation is too strong; for it accords, not only with the text, which is frequently repeated [Note: Eze 6:9; Eze 20:43.], but with the confessions of the most eminent saint [Note: Gen 18:27. Isa 6:5.], and justifies fully that declaration of Job, Behold, I am vile! I repent, therefore, and abhor myself in dust and ashes [Note: Job 40:4; Job 42:6.].]

That this is the duty of all, without exception, will appear by considering,

II.

When it is to be performed

We must not limit this repentance to the time of conversion merely; we must, as the context shews us [Note: Then. See ver. 2527.], continue it after our conversion: indeed the period subsequent to our conversion is that wherein this duty is more particularly required. For,

1.

Conversion qualifies us for it

[Till we are converted, we see but very few of our sins; because we have very defective views of the law of God. Being ignorant of the demands of the law, we must of necessity be ignorant of the multitude of our transgressions against it. Moreover we see but little of the malignity of sin; because we are unacquainted with the immense obligations which we owe to God, against whom our sins are committed. An act of unkindness in a fellow-creature, though trifling in itself, may be an exceedingly heinous offence, if done in return for many and great favours. What then must sin be, when committed against God, who has not only loaded us with temporal blessings, but has given his only dear Son to die for us, and his Holy Spirit to instruct us; yea, and has followed us all our days with intreaties, expostulations, promises, seeking nothing so much as our eternal welfare! This is the view of sin which conversion gives us; and it is this alone which can ever dispose and induce us to lothe ourselves.]

2.

We need it as much after conversion as before

[A converted person will certainly not indulge sin: but he still carries about him a sinful nature, that is bent to backslide from God, and that still operates to the wounding of his conscience, and the offending of his Maker. Now every sin committed in this state is incomparably more heinous than it would have been in his unrenewed state, because it is committed against more light and knowledge, more mercies and obligations, more vows and professions. Even smaller sins involve him now in deeper guilt than his more heinous trespasses before; and therefore they demand a suitable humiliation and contrition. Hence then it is evident, that, while we carry about with us a body of sin and death, we ought incessantly to lothe ourselves, and to be crying with St. Paul, O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me [Note: Rom 7:24.]? Indeed this is the very frame to which Gods pardoning mercy is designed to bring us. And the more we abase ourselves before him, the more evidence we have of our acceptance with him [Note: Psa 51:17.].]

Infer
1.

How opposite to a Christian state is self-righteousness!

[If contrition be a state pleasing to God, and self-lothing be a necessary constituent of it, then self-righteousness must be most hateful to God, and most injurious to our souls; because it necessarily leads to self-approbation and self-complacency, which are as opposite to self-lothing as darkness is to light. Would to God that this were duly considered! Men profess to repent, and yet make a righteousness of their repentance! a manifest proof that they know not what repentance is! Know, my Brethren, that all our own righteousnesses are as filthy rags [Note: Isa 64:6.]: that our very tears need to be washed, and our repentances to be repented of; and, that we must disclaim our best deeds in point of dependence, as much as the vilest sins we ever committed. We may indeed rejoice in the testimony of a good conscience: but we shall find cause for self-abhorrence, even in our best frames, and our holiest actions.]

2.

How dear must Christ be to every true penitent!

[A certain kind and degree of repentance may arise from fear: but that which is spiritual and saving, partakes richly of love. Nothing advances it so much as a sight of the love of Christ in dying for us [Note: Zec 12:10.]. Now exactly as a sense of the Saviours love causes us to lothe ourselves, so does a sense of our own vileness cause us to admire him. Let not any imagine that self-lothing will lead us to despondency: the viler we see ourselves to be, the more will Christ be exalted and magnified in our eyes. Our vileness, as well as our weakness, will only illustrate the riches of his grace, and render him unspeakably precious to our souls.]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

Eze 36:31 Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that [were] not good, and shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations.

Ver. 31. Then shall ye remember. ] The goodness of God shall lead you to repentance; so many mercies heaped upon so undeserving, nay, so illdeserving creatures, shall bring you to a deep detestation of your iniquities.

Your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good. ] There are some things, saith one, that we can hardly forget, viz., our sorrows and our pleasures, as Esau; some things we can hardly remember, as our faults and our friends, as Joseph’s butler. Augustine was famous, saith another for two of his works: his Retractions, which are the confessions of his errors; and his Confessions, which are the retractions of his life. See Eze 20:43 .

And shall loathe yourselves. ] Or, Ye shall look upon yourselves as worthy to be destroyed. Or, Ye shall scold within yourselves against your iniquities. Litigabitis intra vos contra flagitia vestra.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)