Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 14:1
Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me.
1 9. Answer to idolaters who inquire of the Lord
1. elders of Israel ] That is, in point of fact, elders of the exiles; but in them the prophet sees representatives of the house of Israel both at home and abroad ( Eze 14:4 ; Eze 14:7), and when addressing them he feels himself speaking to his people in all places. Cf. ch. Eze 8:1, Eze 20:1. These elders came and sat before him. It is scarcely probable that their presence was due to the prophet’s words in ch. 13, denouncing their false prophets. It might no doubt be supposed that they were perplexed by these denunciations, and, not knowing whom to believe, waited on the prophet for some further enlightenment. It is more likely that their thoughts were occupied about Jerusalem and the future of their country, and that they hoped to hear something more from Ezekiel on these subjects.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Elders of Israel – Some of the fellow-exiles of Ezekiel, among whom he ministered.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Eze 14:1-11
These men have set up their idols in their heart.
Heart idols
The Lord is now going to search the heart, to turn out the corners of the inmost recesses of the mind, the idol and favourite sin. He will proceed to do a spiritual work; He will lay aside His hammer with which He has broken the wall, and no more will He tear and rend the garments which cover falsehood: He will enter the heart, He will name the idols one by one which occupy that secret sanctuary; He will name them, He will bring them forth to judgment, and He will conduct that most penetrating of all criticism, the judgment of the thought and motive and purpose of man. Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me,–came to be looked through, weighed, measured, and adjudged. No office can save men from Divine criticism. How comforting is this thought, though terrible in some aspects! It were well that our judges should be judged, else who can tell to what extremes of folly they might go, hounded on by ambition, or stung to further issues by envy and malice? The higher the office, the greater the responsibility; the larger the privileges, the greater the sin if they are outraged; the more brilliant the genius, the more infamous the mischief if that genius be perverted. The able man, the man of faculty and education, can do more sin in one moment than a poor uneducated soul can do in a lifetime. Elevation aggravates sin. The place of the disease indicates its fatal character–in their heart. This is heart disease. Men almost whisper when they indicate that some friend is suffering from disease of the heart; there is hopelessness in the tone: great allowance should be made, they say, for a man who is suffering from heart disease; be must not be startled, or excited, or suddenly pounced upon; his wishes must be gratified, they must as far as possible even be anticipated; and any little impatience he may show must be looked at charitably. The talk is humane, the considerateness is full of affection, the conditions imposed are suggested by reason. Is there not a higher disease of the heart? What is the meaning of this disease of the heart, this idolatry in the inmost soul? When a moral disease is of the heart it means that the disease is liked, enjoyed; it is wine drunk behind the door, it is a feast of fat things eaten in secrecy; every mouthful so sweet, so good, so rich. When a disease is of the heart in a moral and spiritual sense it means that it is consented to; it is voluntary, it is personal, it is desired; there would be a sense of loss without it. Disease of this kind, too, is most difficult of eradication. It is not in the skin, or it might be cut out; it is not in the limb, or it might be amputated, and the knife might anticipate mortification: the evil is in the heart; no knife can touch it, no persuasion can get at it; nothing can be done with it but one thing–only a miracle of the Holy Ghost can overcome that difficulty and turn that disease into health. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. Are we chargeable with heart idolatry? We have no idols of a visible kind, it may be, yet we may be the veriest pagans in our hearts. We say, How distressing that poor human nature should fall down before stock and stone and worship it! and we, inflated pagans, worship a golden calf, a tinsel crown, a sounding name, a crafty policy. Are we chargeable with heart idolatry? Certainly we are. No man can escape this accusation. It is subtle, far reaching, all but ineradicable. If we do not face such difficulties our piety is a stucco that will peel off in the wet weather, and leave the ghastly moral ugliness exposed to public scorn. Doubt may be an idol used to diminish responsibility. Others, again, may have in the heart an idol called Ignorance, kept there for the purpose of diminishing service: we will not go into the dark places of the city, then we need not attend to the cries which are said to be arising there from overborne and hopeless humanity; we will keep on the broad thoroughfare, where the gaslight is plentiful; we shall see the surface and outer shape of things, and then retire to rest, saying that, say what fanatics may, there is really a good deal of solid happiness in the city. Have we not an idol in the heart we call Orthodoxy, which We keep there in order to enlarge moral licence? Is there not an intellectual orthodoxy and a spiritual heterodoxy often united in the same man? Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus Saith the Lord God: Repent. When did the Lord ever conclude a discourse without some evangelical tone in it? The Bible is terrific in denunciation, awful beyond all other books in its denunciation of sin and its threatening of perdition; yet through it, and through it again, and ruling it, is a spirit of clemency and pity and mercy and hope, yea, across hells burning mouth there lies the shadow of the Cross. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Mental idolatry
The father of modern philosophy and science has shown us that there are in the mind of man, as man, natural idols which act as impediments to his acquisition of knowledge and his search after truth. Till these idols are overthrown and broken in pieces and taken away it is simply useless for man to pursue knowledge. His efforts will be neutralised and their results vitiated. Now, if this is so in the matter of human science, it is none the less worthy of our regard in the matter of Divine truth and of the knowledge of God. We cannot know God, whom to know is eternal life, as long as these natural obstacles are not taken out of the way. We cannot serve Him acceptably as long as, instead of being dethroned, they are still set up in our hearts. What, then, is the practical bearing of this truth? First, there must be a single eye to the knowledge of God. If we have not determined with ourselves that God, and the knowledge of God, and the fear of God, is more to be desired, and if we personally do not desire it more than wealth, or ease, or success, or the applause of men, or position in life, or influence, or comfort, or anything else, then we may be never so punctual in our religious duties, never so zealous for the outward honour of God, never so eager for the triumph of particular principles, or a particular party, or a particular cause, but for all that there is still enshrined in some inner recess, some secret corner of our hearts, an idol which disputes with the Most High God the possession and sovereignty of them. Again, not only must there be a clear and undimmed perception of God as the one sole object of our services, but there must also be a readiness to sacrifice anything in order to know and to serve Him. How many there are in the present day, not, thank God, who cannot afford to be religious–for that brings with it no slur in our times, but rather the reverse–but how many there are who dare not follow Truth whithersoever she may lead, who cannot afford to obey their own convictions, and therefore stifle them with the excuses of propriety or usage or convenience. This is a hard thing, and it is so because the claims of truth and the idol in the heart cannot both be acknowledged. And there is no condition of life where this does not apply. It is hard for the man of science, whose name has been identified with certain theories and principles, to sacrifice his name and fair renown to the growing conviction of counter theories and principles which will make the past a blank, or show it to have been a mistake. It is hard for the religious partisan, whose life has been east in a particular mould, and whose sympathies are linked to one form of opinion and practice, to yield to the force of truth when it comes with the authority of conviction to the mind and compels the acknowledgment of previous error and misunderstanding. But more than this, it is hard not to approach the consideration of religious truth with a distinct bias; but it is certain that the existence of any such bias must damage our appreciation of the truth. Unless we can see all round a thing, we can have no true apprehension of the thing. We may view it partially, but shall have no conception of it as a whole. The idol in possession of the mind will prevent the entrance of the true idea. But if this is true, and in proportion as it is, there are certain general principles to which it behoves us all to give heed when we come to the worship of God. First of all, we must empty ourselves of ourselves. We must come as though our present knowledge of God were as nothing, and as if God were still to be known and learnt. The whole of what we have must be sacrificed for the sake of what we are to have and to gain. As long as sin, in one of its innumerable forms, lurks in the heart or on the conscience, the service of God will be a vain thing, because the pursuit of truth is a lie. It is that practised dishonesty, it is that cherished lust, it is that pampered self-love, it is that incurable indolence, it is that willingly defiled imagination, it is that malice and envy which vitiates all your worship and renders all your religion a lie. There is One who searches the heart, and who cleanses it because He searches it. There is One whose blood cleanses us from all sin, if we are willing to walk in the light, as He is in the light. It is in direct personal communion with this heart-searcher, with this sin-bearer, but only so, that we become sinless. But if anything is suffered to interfere with that direct personal intercourse and communion, no matter what it is, even though it should be some sacred word or ordinance of His own, that is an idol which interferes with our worship and service of Him, and therefore an idol which must be broken down. (S. Leathes, D. D.)
Idolaters inquiring of God
I. What is meant by the setting up of idols?
1. It is oppressive to men in their natural state to think of the spiritual, omnipresent, heart-searching God. Accordingly they have brought down their conception of God to something that can be apprehended by sense. They have thus tried to satisfy the religious instinct within them, while at the same time pleasing themselves. It is much easier to have an object of worship that we can see, or touch, or taste. An idol, too, is not so exacting as the incorruptible and sin-hating God. Being material, it cannot require heart worship.
2. We are in no danger of worshipping idols of wood and stone. But the tendency of human nature is always the same, and where there is not renewing grace there is something creaturely that is idolised–it may be some place of power, or wealth, or some sensual pleasure, or child, or creation of the mind.
(1) There is this idolatry when we are intent upon a sin or a course of sinning.
(2) There is this idolatry when we set up particular ideas in our heart from which we do not mean to turn.
II. The inquiring. These Israelites did not mean by setting up their idols utterly to east off Jehovah. They meant still to connect Him with their past history as their national deity. And so we can understand their going to inquire of one of the Lords prophets. There were cross-currents in their life. There was the idolatrous current which led them to do what was forbidden by God, and yet there was the old current which led them to inquire of God. We may find an analogy to this still.
1. There is this inquiring when we ask for light and help in prayer, while at the same time we are determined to follow what pleases ourselves.
2. There is this inquiry when we search the Bible while yet we are resolved to see in it only certain things.
III. The divine treatment.
1. Why it must be futile to inquire of God while bent on our own way.
(1) God requires submission.
(2) God requires sincerity.
2. How God shows the futility of inquiring of Him while we are bent on our own way. I the Lord will answer him.
(1) He allows our dispositions to work out some terrible result to bring us to shame. We are ruined in our estate, or in our health. Some child whom we idolise may prove a grief to us.
(2) He allows us to get into despondency and despair. No one who puts an idol in the place of God is above being unhinged. Especially is the devotee who has his darling sin the likely victim of despondency.
(3) Or He allows us to be hardened so as to be unable to see the difference between right and wrong. (R. Einlayson, B. A.)
Idols in the heart
I. The principle laid down. As a magnet attracts out of rubbish only the bits of iron for which it has an affinity, so the idol-idea in a mans mind will make him fix on whatever will minister to it, and neglect everything else. The very Word of God will be but a mirror in which he sees reflected the thought which possesses his soul.
II. The working of this principle.
1. The apostles, like the rest of the Jews, had a settled conviction that the Messiah would be a great temporal Prince.
2. Another instance is found in those who seek a system of Church government in the New Testament.
3. The controversy as to the ultimate doom of the unbelieving. Restorationist, annihilist, and believer in endless torment–all appeal to same Word, and often to same texts.
III. Practical use. Three common idols–
1. The thought that to repent of sin and turn to Jesus at last hour will be enough.
2. The thought that good works are not essential to salvation.
3. The thought that the new life of faith must be ushered in with some great and overwhelming spasm of feeling. (J. Ogle.)
The idols in the heart a barrier to the truth
I. The idols that are in the heart and the stumbling blocks that are before the face, are the sins with which Gods people are sometimes chargeable.
II. Men professing to inquire after God while their idols are in their hearts, and their stumbling blocks before their faces; or, the gross inconsistency of seeking to mingle the service of God with the pursuit of sin.
1. Men may pray from the influence of custom.
2. From the promptings of conscience.
3. From the desire to stand, well with their fellow men.
4. From a yam desire to set themselves right with God.
III. God taking notice of the idols that are in mens hearts, and the stumbling-blocks that are before their faces, or the faithful warnings which God addresses to those who follow sin while they profess to serve Him.
1. He intimates that He is perfectly acquainted with us.
2. He tells us that He cannot answer the requests of those who indulge in sin.
3. He shows us how unreasonable it is to expect that He will be inquired of by us. (Evangelical Preacher.)
Heart disease the worst disease
Manton says, What would we think of a man who complained of the toothache, or of a cut finger, when all the while he was wounded at the heart? Would it not seem very strange? Yet men will lament anything sooner than the depravity of their hearts. Many will confess their wandering thoughts in prayer, but will not acknowledge the estrangement of their hearts from God. They will be sorry for having spoken angrily, but not for having a passionate heart. They will own to Sabbath breaking, but never lament their want of love to Jesus, which is a heart matter. The evil of their hearts seems nothing to them: their tongues, hands, feet, are all that they notice. What! will they cry over a cut finger, and feel no fear when they have a dagger thrust into their bowels? Oh, madness of sinners, that they trifle most with that disease which is the most dangerous, and lies at the bottom of all other ills. Gods great complaint of men is that they set up in their hearts idols which they themselves think nothing of. Certain in our day are so far gone that they even deny that the human heart is diseased. What then? It does but prove the intimate connection between the heart and the eyes. A perverted heart soon creates a blinded eye. Of course, a depraved heart does not see its own depravity. Oh that we could lead men to think and feel aright about their hearts; but this is the last point to which we can bring them! They beat about the bush, and mourn over any and every evil except the source and fountain of it all. Lord, teach me to look within. May I attend even more to myself than to my acts. Purge Thou the spring, that the stream may no longer be defiled. I would begin where Thou dost begin, and beseech Thee to give me a new heart. Thou sayest, My son, give Me thine heart. Lord, I do give it to Thee, but at the same time I pray, Lord, give me a new heart; for without this my heart is not worth Thy having. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Idolatry in the heart
Travellers tell us that there is a tribe in Africa so given to superstition that they fill their huts and hovels with so many idols that they do not even leave room for their families. How many men there are who fill their hearts with the idols of sin, so that there is no room for the Living God, or for any of His holy principles! (John Bate.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER XIV
Here God threatens those hypocrites who pretended to worship
him, while they loved and practised idolatry, 1-11.
He declares his irreversible purpose of punishing so guilty a
nation, in behalf of which no intercession of the people of God
shall be of any avail. The gross idolaters of Jerusalem and
Judah shall be visited with God’s four sore judgments, famine,
12-14;
wild beasts, 15, 16;
the sword, 17, 18;
and pestilence, 19-21.
A remnant shall be delivered from the wrath coming upon the
whole land, 22, 23.
NOTES ON CHAP. XIV
Verse 1. Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me] These probably came to tempt him, or get him to say something that would embroil him with the government. They were bad men, as we shall see in the third verse.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Then, Heb. And, that we need not inquire the precise time of this prophecy.
Certain of the elders; men of note, that were in office and power among the Jews, called here elders, &c.
Of Israel; who were yet in Jerusalem; not the elders who were now, and had been some time, in Babylon.
Sat before me: see Eze 8:1.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. elderspersons holding thatdignity among the exiles at the Chebar. GROTIUSrefers this to Seraiah and those sent with him from Judea (Jer51:59). The prophet’s reply, first, reflecting on the characterof the inquirers, and, secondly, foretelling the calamities coming onJudea, may furnish an idea of the subject of their inquiry.
sat before menot atonce able to find a beginning of their speech; indicative of anxietyand despondency.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Then came certain, of the elders of Israel unto me,…. The Syriac version adds, “to consult the Lord”; by the prophet. These, according to Kimchi, were the elders of the captivity, the heads of the captives that were now in Babylon with Ezekiel: but there are others that think they were some that came from Jerusalem to Babylon on some business or another; and having heard much of the prophet, came to visit him, and to hear his prophecies, and inquire of the Lord by him:
and sat before me; silent and pensive, as persons in anxiety and distress; or as hearers of him, for sitting is a hearing gesture; they sat and heard with great attention, gravity, and seriousness, with seeming affection and reverence; and all this was not in a visionary way, but was a real fact; see Eze 33:31.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The Lord Gives No Answer to the Idolaters
Eze 14:1 narrates the occasion for this and the following words of God: There came to me men of the elders of Israel, and sat down before me. These men were not deputies from the Israelites in Palestine, as Grotius and others suppose, but elders of the exiles among whom Ezekiel had been labouring. They came to visit the prophet (v. 3), evidently with the intention of obtaining, through him, a word of God concerning the future of Jerusalem, or the fate of the kingdom of Judah. But Hvernick is wrong in supposing that we may infer, from either the first or second word of God in this chapter, that they had addressed to the prophet a distinct inquiry of this nature, to which the answer is given in vv. 12-23. For although their coming to the prophet showed that his prophecies had made an impression upon them, it is not stated in v. 1 that they had come to inquire of God, like the elders in Eze 20:1, and there is no allusion to any definite questions in the words of God themselves. The first (Eze 14:2-11) simply assumes that they have come with the intention of asking, and discloses the state of heart which keeps them from coming to inquire; and the second (Eze 14:12-23) points out the worthlessness of their false confidence in the righteousness of certain godly men.
Eze 14:2-5 And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Eze 14:3. Son of man, these men have let their idols rise up in their heart, and have set the stumbling-block to guilt before their face: shall I allow myself to be inquired of by them? Eze 14:4. Therefore speak to them, and say to them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Every man of the house of Israel who lifteth up his idols in his heart, and setteth the stumbling-block to his sin before his face, and cometh to the prophet, to him do I, Jehovah, show myself, answering according thereto, according to the multitude of his idols; Eze 14:5. To grasp the house of Israel by their heart, because they have turned away from me, all of them through their idols. – We have not to picture these elders to ourselves as given up to gross idolatry. means, to allow anything to come into the mind, to permit it to rise up in the heart, to be mentally busy therewith. “To set before one’s face” is also to be understood, in a spiritual sense, as relating to a thing which a man will not put out of his mind. , stumbling-block to sin and guilt (cf. Eze 7:19), i.e., the idols. Thus the two phrases simply denote the leaning of the heart and spirit towards false gods. God does not suffer those whose heart is attached to idols to seek and find Him. The interrogative clause ‘ contains a strong negation. The emphasis lies in the infinitive absolute et placed before the verb, in which the is softened into , to avoid writing twice. , to allow oneself to be sought, involves the finding of God; hence in Isa 65:1 we have as parallel to . In Eze 14:4, Eze 14:5, there follows a positive declaration of the attitude of God towards those who are devoted to idolatry in their heart. Every such Israelite will be answered by God according to the measure of the multitude of his idols. The Niphal has not the signification of the Kal, and does not mean “to be answerable,” as Ewald supposes, or to converse; but is generally used in a passive sense, “to be answered,” i.e., to find or obtain a hearing (Job 11:2; Job 19:7). It is employed here in a reflective sense, to hold or show oneself answering. , according to the Chetib , for which the Keri suggests the softer gloss , refers to ‘ which follows; the nominative being anticipated, according to an idiom very common in Aramaean, by a previous pronoun. It is written here for the sake of emphasis, to bring the following object into more striking prominence. is used here in the sense of secundum , according to, not because, since this meaning is quite unsuitable for the in Eze 14:7, where it occurs in the same connection ( ). The manner in which God will show Himself answering the idolatry according to their idols, is reserved till Eze 14:8. Here, in Eze 14:5, the design of this procedure on the part of God is given: viz., to grasp Israel by the heart; i.e., not merely to touch and to improve them, but to bring down their heart by judgments (cf. Lev 26:41), and thus move them to give up idolatry and return to the living God. , as in Isa 1:4, to recede, to draw away from God. is an emphatic repetition of the subject belonging to .
Eze 14:6-8 In these verses the divine threat, and the summons to repent, are repeated, expanded, and uttered in the clearest words. – Eze 14:6. Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Repent, and turn away from your idols; and turn away your face from all your abominations. V.7. For every one of the house of Israel, and of the foreigners who sojourn in Israel, if he estrange himself from me, and let his idols rise up in his heart, and set the stumbling-block to his sin before his face, and come to the prophet to seek me for himself; I will show myself to him, answering in my own way. Eze 14:8. I will direct my face against that man, and will destroy him, for a sign and for proverbs, and will cut him off out of my people; and ye shall learn that I am Jehovah. – in Eze 14:6 is co-ordinate with the in Eze 14:4, so far as the thought is concerned, but it is directly attached to Eze 14:5: because they have estranged themselves from God, therefore God requires them to repent and turn. For God will answer with severe judgments every one who would seek God with idols in his heart, whether he be an Israelite, or a foreigner living in the midst of Israel. , turn, be converted, is rendered still more emphatic by the addition of … . This double call to repentance corresponds to the double reproof of their idolatry in Eze 14:3, viz., , to ‘ ; and , to their setting the idols . is not used intransitively, as it apparently is in Eze 18:30, but is to be taken in connection with the object , which follows at the end of the verse; and it is simply repeated before for the sake of clearness and emphasis. The reason for the summons to repent and give up idolatry is explained in Eze 14:7, in the threat that God will destroy every Israelite, and every foreigner in Israel, who draws away from God and attaches himself to idols. The phraseology of Eze 14:7 is adopted almost verbatim from Lev 17:8, Lev 17:10, Lev 17:13. On the obligation of foreigners to avoid idolatry and all moral abominations, vid., Lev 20:2; Lev 18:26; Lev 17:10; Exo 12:19, etc. The before and does not stand for the Vav relat., but simply supposes a case: “should he separate himself from my followers, and let his idols rise up, etc.” does not mean, “to seek counsel of him (the prophet) from me,” for cannot be taken as referring to the prophet, although with does sometimes mean to seek any one, and may therefore indicate the person to whom one goes to make inquiry (cf. 2Ch 15:13; 2Ch 17:4; 2Ch 31:21), because it is Jehovah who is sought in this case; and Hvernick’s remark, that “ with merely indicates the external object sought by a man, and therefore in this instance the medium or organ through whom God speaks,” is proved to be erroneous by the passages just cited. is reflective, or to be taken as a dat. commodi, denoting the inquirer or seeker. The person approached for the purpose of inquiring or seeking, i.e., God, is indicated by the preposition , as in 1Ch 10:14 ( ); and also frequently, in the case of idols, when either an oracle or help is sought from them (1Sa 28:7; 2Ki 1:2.). It is only in this way that and can be made to correspond to the same words in the apodosis: Whosoever seeks counsel of God, to him will God show Himself answering , in Him, i.e., in accordance with His nature, in His own way, – namely, in the manner described in Eze 14:8. The threat is composed of passages in the law: ‘ and ‘ , after Lev 20:3, Lev 20:5-6; and ‘ , though somewhat freely, after Deu 28:37 (‘ ). There is no doubt, therefore, that is to be derived from , and stands for , in accordance with the custom in later writings of resolving the Dagesh forte into a long vowel. The allusion to Deu 28:37, compared with in v. 46 of the same chapter, is sufficient to set aside the assumption that is to be derived from , and pointed accordingly; although the lxx, Targ., Syr., and Vulg. have all renderings of (cf. Psa 44:16). Moreover, in the perfect never takes the Hiphil form; and in Eze 20:26 we have in a similar connection. The expression is a pregnant one: I make him desolate, so that he becomes a sign and proverbs.
Eze 14:9-11 No prophet is to give any other answer. – Eze 14:9. But if a prophet allow himself to be persuaded, and give a word, I have persuaded this prophet, and will stretch out my hand against him, and cut him off out of my people Israel. Eze 14:10. They shall bear their guilt: as the guilt of the inquirer, so shall the guilt of the prophet be; Eze 14:11. In order that the house of Israel may no more stray from me, and may no more defile itself with all its transgressions; but they may be my people, and I their God is the saying of the Lord Jehovah. – The prophet who allows himself to be persuaded is not a prophet (Eze 13:2), but one who really thinks that he has a word of God. , to persuade, to entice by friendly words (in a good sense, Hos 2:16); but generally sensu malo , to lead astray, or seduce to that which is unallowable or evil. “If he allow himself to be persuaded:” not necessarily “with the hope of payment from the hypocrites who consult him” (Michaelis). This weakens the thought. It might sometimes be done from unselfish good-nature. And “the word” itself need not have been a divine oracle of his own invention, or a false prophecy. The allusion is simply to a word of a different character from that contained in Eze 14:6-8, which either demands repentance or denounces judgment upon the impenitent: every word, therefore, which could by any possibility confirm the sinner in his security. – By (Eze 14:9) the apodosis is introduced in an emphatic manner, as in Eze 14:4 and Eze 14:7; but cannot be taken in a future sense (“I will persuade”). It must be a perfect; since the persuading of the prophet would necessarily precede his allowing himself to be persuaded. The Fathers and earlier Lutheran theologians are wrong in their interpretation of , which they understand in a permissive sense, meaning simply that God allowed it, and did not prevent their being seduced. Still more wrong are Storr and Schmieder, the former of whom regards it as simply declaratory, “I will declare him to have gone astray from the worship of Jehovah;” the latter, “I will show him to be a fool, by punishing him for his disobedience.” The words are rather to be understood in accordance with 1Ki 22:20., where the persuading ( pittah ) is done by a lying spirit, which inspires the prophets of Ahab to predict success to the king, in order that he may fall. As Jehovah sent the spirit in that case, and put it into the mouth of the prophets, so is the persuasion in this instance also effected by God: not merely divine permission, but divine ordination and arrangement; though this does not destroy human freedom, but, like all “persuading,” presupposes the possibility of not allowing himself to be persuaded. See the discussion of this question in the commentary on 1Ki 22:20. The remark of Calvin on the verse before us is correct: “it teaches that neither impostures nor frauds take place apart from the will of God” ( nisi Deo volente ). But this willing on the part of God, or the persuading of the prophets to the utterance of self-willed words, which have not been inspired by God, only takes place in persons who admit evil into themselves, and is designed to tempt them and lead them to decide whether they will endeavour to resist and conquer the sinful inclinations of their hearts, or will allow them to shape themselves into outward deeds, in which case they will become ripe for judgment. It is in this sense that God persuades such a prophet, in order that He may then cut him off out of His people. But this punishment will not fall upon the prophet only. It will reach the seeker or inquirer also, in order if possible to bring Israel back from its wandering astray, and make it into a people of God purified from sin (Eze 14:10 and Eze 14:11). It was to this end that, in the last times of the kingdom of Judah, God allowed false prophecy to prevail so mightily, – namely, that it might accelerate the process of distinguishing between the righteous and the wicked; and then, by means of the judgment which destroyed the wicked, purify His nation and lead it on to the great end of its calling.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Elders of Israel Rebuked; The Prophet’s Address to the Elders. | B. C. 593. |
1 Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me. 2 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 3 Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumbling-block of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them? 4 Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumbling-block of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols; 5 That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols. 6 Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Repent, and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations. 7 For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourneth in Israel, which separateth himself from me, and setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumbling-block of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to a prophet to enquire of him concerning me; I the LORD will answer him by myself: 8 And I will set my face against that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of my people; and ye shall know that I am the LORD. 9 And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel. 10 And they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity: the punishment of the prophet shall be even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him; 11 That the house of Israel may go no more astray from me, neither be polluted any more with all their transgressions; but that they may be my people, and I may be their God, saith the Lord GOD.
Here is, I. The address which some of the elders of Israel made to the prophet, as an oracle, to enquire of the Lord by him. They came, and sat before him, v. 1. It is probable that they were not of those who were now his fellow-captives, and constantly attended his ministry (such as those we read of ch. viii. 1), but some occasional hearers, some of the grandees of Jerusalem who had come upon business to Babylon, perhaps public business, on an embassy from the king, and in their way called on the prophet, having heard much of him and being desirous to know if he had any message from God, which might be some guide to them in their negotiation. By the severe answer given them one would suspect they had a design to ensnare the prophet, or to try if they could catch hold of any thing that might look like a contradiction to Jeremiah’s prophecies, and so they might have occasion to reproach them both. However, they feigned themselves just men, complimented the prophet, and sat before him gravely enough, as God’s people used to sit. Note, It is no new thing for bad men to be found employed in the external performances of religion.
II. The account which God gave the prophet privately concerning them. They were strangers to him; he only knew that they were elders of Israel; that was the character they wore, and as such he received them with respect, and, it is likely, was glad to see them so well disposed. But God gives him their real character (v. 3); they were idolaters, and did only consult Ezekiel as they would any oracle of a pretended deity, to gratify their curiosity, and therefore he appeals to the prophet himself whether they deserved to have any countenance or encouragement given them: “Should I be enquired of at all by them? Should I accept their enquiries as an honour to myself, or answer them for satisfaction to them? No; they have no reason to expect it;” for, 1. They have set up their idols in their heart; they not only have idols, but they are in love with them, they dote upon them, are wedded to them, and have laid them so near their hearts, and have given them so great a room in their affections, that there is no parting with them. The idols they have set up in their houses, though they are now at a distance from the chambers of their imagery, yet they have them in their hearts, and they are ever and anon worshipping them in their fancies and imaginations. They have made their idols to ascend upon their hearts (so the word is); they have subjected their hearts to their idols, they are upon the throne there. Or when they came to enquire of the prophet they pretended to put away their idols, but it was in pretence only; they still had a secret reserve for them. They kept them up in their hearts; and, if they left them for a while, it was cum animo revertendi–with an intention to return to them, not a final farewell. Or it may be understood of spiritual idolatry; those whose affections are placed upon the wealth of the world and the pleasures of sense, whose god is their money, whose god is their belly, they set up their idols in their heart. Many who have no idols in their sanctuary have idols in their hearts, which is no less a usurpation of God’s throne and a profanation of his name. Little children, keep yourselves from those idols. 2. They put the stumbling-block of their iniquity before their face. Their silver and gold were called the stumbling-block of their iniquity (ch. vii. 19), their idols of silver and gold, by the beauty of which they were allured to idolatry, and so it was the block at which they stumbled, and fell into that sin; or their iniquity is their stumbling-block, which throws them down, so that they fall into ruin. Note, Sinners are their own tempters (every man is tempted when he is drawn aside of his own lust), and so they are their own destroyers. If thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it; and thus they put the stumbling-block of their iniquity before their own faces, and stumble upon it though they see it before their eyes. It intimates that they are resolved to go on in sin, whatever comes of it. I have loved strangers, and after them I will go; that is the language of their hearts. And should God be enquired of by such wretches? Do they not hereby rather put an affront upon him than do him any honour, as those did who bowed the knee to Christ in mockery? Can those expect an answer of peace from God who thus continue their acts of hostility against him? “Ezekiel, what thinkest thou of it?”
III. The answer which God, in just displeasure, orders Ezekiel to give them, v. 4. Let them know that it is not out of any disrespect to their persons that God refuses to give them an answer, but it is laid down as a rule for every man of the house of Israel, whoever he be, that if he continue in love and league with his idols, and come to enquire of God, God will resent it as an indignity done to him, and will answer him according to his real iniquity, not according to his pretended piety. He comes to the prophet, who, he expects, will be civil to him, but God will give him his answer, by punishing him for his impudence: I the Lord, who speak and it is done, I will answer him that cometh, according to the multitude of his idols. Observe, Those who set up idols in their hearts, and set their hearts upon their idols, commonly have a multitude of them. Humble worshippers God answers according to the multitude of his mercies, but bold intruders he answers according to the multitude of their idols, that is, 1. According to the desire of their idols; he will give them up to their own hearts’ lust, and leave them to themselves to be as bad as they have a mind to be, till they have filled up the measure of their iniquity. Men’s corruptions are idols in their hearts, and they are of their own setting up; their temptations are the stumbling-block of their iniquity, and they are of their own putting, and God will answer them accordingly; let them take their course. 2. According to the desert of their idols; they shall have such an answer as it is just that such idolaters should have. God will punish them as he usually punishes idolaters, that is, when they stand in need of his help he will send them to the gods whom they have chosen,Jdg 10:13; Jdg 10:14. Note, The judgment of God will dwell with men according to what they are really (that is, according to what their hearts are), not according to what they are in show and profession. And what will be the end of this? What will this threatened answer amount to? He tells them (v. 5): That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, may lay them open to the world, that they may be ashamed; nay, lay them open to the curse, that they may be ruined. Note, The sin and shame, and pain and ruin, of sinners, are all from themselves, and their own hearts are the snares in which they are taken; they seduce them, they betray them; their own consciences witness against them, condemn them, and are a terror to them. If God take them, if he discover them, if he convict them, if he bind them over to his judgment, it is all by their own hearts. O Israel! thou hast destroyed thyself. The house of Israel is ruined by its own hands, because they are all estranged from me through their idols. Note, (1.) The ruin of sinners is owing to their estrangement from God. (2.) It is through some idol or other that the hearts of men are estranged from God; some creature has gained that place and dominion in the heart that God should have.
IV. The extent of this answer which God had given them–to all the house of Israel,Eze 14:7; Eze 14:8. The same thing is repeated, which intimates God’s just displeasure against hypocrites, who mock him with the shows and forms of devotion, while their hearts are estranged from him and at war with him. Observe, 1. To whom this declaration belongs. It concerns not only every one of the house of Israel (as before, v. 4), but the stranger that sojourns in Israel; let him not think it will be an excuse for him in his idolatries that he is but a stranger and a sojourner in Israel, and does but worship the gods that his father served and that he himself was bred up in the service of; no, let him not expect any benefit from Israel’s oracles or prophets unless he thoroughly renounce his idolatry. Note, Even proselytes shall not be countenanced if they be not sincere: a dissembled conversion is no conversion. 2. The description here given of hypocrites: They separate themselves from God by their fellowship with idols; they cut themselves off from their relation to God and their interest in him; they break off their acquaintance and intercourse with him, and set themselves at a distance from him. Note, Those that join themselves to idols separate themselves from God; nor shall any be for ever separated from the vision and fruition of God, but such as now separate themselves from his service and wilfully withdraw their allegiance from him. But there are those who thus separate themselves from God, and yet come to the prophets with a seeming respect and deference to their office, to enquire of them concerning God, in order to satisfy a vain curiosity, to stop the mouth of a clamorous conscience, or to get or save a reputation among men, but without any desire to be acquainted with God or any design to be ruled by him. 3. The doom of those who thus trifle with God and think to impose upon him: “I the Lord will answer him by myself; let me alone to deal with him; I will give him an answer that shall fill him with confusion, that shall make him repent of his daring impiety.” He shall have his answer, not by the words of the prophet, but by the judgments of God. And I will set my face against that man, which denotes great displeasure against him and a fixed resolution to ruin him. God can outface the most impenitent sinner. The hypocrite thought to save his credit, nay, and to gain applause, but, on the contrary, God will make him a sign and a proverb, will inflict such judgments upon him as shall make him remarkable and contemptible in the eyes of all about him; his misery shall be made use of to express the greatest misery, as when the worst of sinners are said to have their portion appointed them with hypocrites, Matt. xxiv. 51. God will make him an example; his judgments upon him shall be for warning to others to take heed of mocking God: for thus shall it be done to the man that separates himself from God, and yet pretends to enquire concerning him. The hypocrite thought to pass for one of God’s people, and to crowd into heaven among them; but God will cut him off from the midst of his people, will discover him, and pluck him out from the thickest of them; and by this, says God, you shall know that I am the Lord. By the discovery of hypocrites it appears that God is omniscient: ministers know not how people stand affected when they come to hear the word, by God does. And by the punishment of hypocrites it appears that he is a jealous God, and one that cannot and will not be imposed upon.
V. The doom of those pretenders to prophecy who give countenance to these pretenders to piety, Eze 14:9; Eze 14:10. These hypocritical enquirers, though Ezekiel will not give them a comfortable answer, yet hope to meet with some other prophets that will; and if they do, as perhaps they may, let them know that God permits those lying prophets to deceive them in part of punishment: “If the prophet that flatters them be deceived, and gives them hopes which there is no ground for, I the Lord have deceived that prophet, have suffered the temptation to be laid before him, and suffered him to yield to it, and overruled it for the hardening of those in their wicked courses who were resolved to go on in them.” We are sure that God is not the author of sin, but we are sure that he is the Lord of all and the Judge of sinners, and that he often makes use of one wicked man to destroy another, and so of one wicked man to deceive another. Both are sins in him who does them, and so they are not from God; both are punishments to him to whom they are done, and so they are from God. We have a full instance of this in the story of Ahab’s prophets, who were deceived by a lying spirit, which God put into their mouths (1 Kings xxii. 23), and another in those whom God gives up to strong delusions, to believe a lie, because they received not the love of the truth,2Th 2:10; 2Th 2:11. But read the fearful doom of the lying prophet: I will stretch out my hand upon him and will destroy him. When God has served his own righteous purposes by him he shall be reckoned with for his unrighteous purposes. As, when God had made use of the Chaldeans for the wasting of a sinful people, he justly punished them for their rage, so when he had made use of false prophets, and afterwards of false Christs, for the deceiving of a sinful people, he justly punished them for their falsehood. But herein we must acknowledge (as Calvin upon this place reminds us) that God’s judgments are a great deep, that we are incompetent judges of them, and that, though we cannot account for the equity of God’s proceedings to the satisfying and silencing of every caviller, yet there is a day coming when he will be justified before all the world, and particularly in this instance, when the punishment of the prophet that flattereth the hypocrite in his evil way shall be as the punishment of the hypocrite that seeketh to him and bespeaks smooth things only, Isa. xxx. 10. The ditch shall be the same to the blind leader and the blind followers.
VI. The good counsel that is given them for the preventing of this fearful doom (v. 6): “Therefore repent, and turn yourselves from your idols. Let this separate between you and them, that they separate between you and God; because they set God’s face against you, do you turn away your faces from them,” which denotes, not only forsaking them, but forsaking them with loathing and detestation: “Turn from them as from abominations that you are sick of; and then you will be welcome to enquire of the Lord. Come now, and let us reason together.“
VII. The good issue of all this as to the house of Israel; therefore the pretending prophets, and the pretending saints, shall perish together by the judgments of God, that, some being made examples, the body of the people may be reformed, that the house of Israel may go no more astray from me, v. 11. Note, The punishments of some are designed for the prevention of sin, that others may hear, and fear, and take warning. When we see what becomes of those that go astray from God we should thereby be engaged to keep close to him. And, if the house of Israel go not astray, they will not be polluted any more. Note, Sin is a polluting thing; it renders the sinner odious in the eyes of the pure and holy God, and in his own eyes too whenever conscience is awakened; and therefore they shall no more be polluted, that they may be my people and I may be their God. Note, Those whom God takes into covenant with himself must first be cleansed from the pollutions of sin; and those who are so cleansed shall not only be saved from ruin, but be entitled to all the privileges of God’s people.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
EZEKIEL – CHAPTER 14
GOD (JEHOVAH) REFUSES TO CONVERSE WITH IDOLATERS
Verses 1-11:
THE VISION OF THE ELDERS OF ISRAEL
Verse 1 reports that there came certain ones of the elders of Israel to Ezekiel and sat down before him; Evidently it was to hear words of counsel from him. They were alarmed at this threatenings of judgments and hoped to receive more favorable reports from him, Eze 8:1; Eze 10:1; Eze 22:21. They were not deputies from the Israelites in Palestine, but elders among the exiles in Babylon, among whom Ezekiel had been laboring. Apparently they wanted to know more about the time their captivity would last, or the fate of Jerusalem. They did not come to inquire of the Lord, but to get Ezekiel’s judgment.
Verse 2 recertifies that the message to follow is of the Lord, not of his own devising, 2Pe 1:20-21.
Verse 3 advises Ezekiel as the “son of man,” God’s redemptive representative, that these men (the elders in Israel) had set up idols in their hearts, their own chosen idols, whether physical ones or mere opinions without Divine sanction, Eze 7:19; Pro 3:21; Pro 3:23. Such had become stumblingblocks of their own iniquity to confront them, as one who digs a ditch then himself falls into it, Psa 7:14-15. They had isolated themselves and become strangers to the true worship of God, worshipping their own self-created or self-chosen idols. Rhetorically the Lord says, “I should not be inquired at all of them, should I?” 2Ki 3:13; Psa 66:18; Pro 15:29; Pro 28:9.
Verse 4 directs Ezekiel to speak directly to these inquiring elders, in the name of the Lord God. He was to tell them, and tell them straight, that God would answer or respond to him, not just the prophet, according to the idols as stumblingblocks, that they had set up in their hearts. And his response was to be in harmony with His law, Exo 20:1-5, as also set forth v. 8; Rom 1:28.
Verse 5 continues to explain that the Lord God will Himself take the house of Israel, who are rebellious in their own idolatrous hearts, Zec 11:8; Rom 8:7; Heb 3:12-19; Eph 4:18. Because they have become estranged or separated from him through their chosen paths of heathen idolatry; He will not hear their cries until they have been judged for their sins, Isa 59:1-3; Act 13:46. He gave them to a reprobate mind, according to their own choice of direction, 2Th 2:11.
Verse 6 further directs Ezekiel to say to the house of Israel that they must repent, and turn themselves, of their own conscience, will, or accord from their idols, and turn their faces or sanction (approval) from all their abominations before mercy may be found, Isa 55:6-7; Luk 13:3; 2Co 7:11.
Verse 7 asserts that every individual, either of the house of Israel or sojourning strangers or heathen in the land that separated himself from God by his own chosen idolatry, with its obstruction or stumblingblock in his face, then came to the prophet to inquire, would be answered, not by the prophet, but by the God of the prophet in person, Lev 20:2; Lev 18:26; Lev 27:10; Exo 12:19; Jer 2:13; Mat 6:24; Jud 1:19.
Verse 8 explains that God Himself will set or fix His face against that idolatrous one to make him a sign, object of warning, and a proverb (a byword), Num 16:10; Deu 28:37. He asserted that He would cut such an one off from the midst of His people, until they who remained should come to know or recognize Him as the Lord, Eze 15:7; Lev 17:10; Lev 20:3; Lev 20:5-6; Jer 44:11. See also Eze 5:15; Num 26:10; Deu 28:37.
Verse 9 attributes deceptive prophecies, by false prophets, to the Lord, to the extent that He will sustain that false prophet to rebel against Him, though He forbids the very rebellion and idolatry, Deu 13:3; Job 12:16; Jas 1:13. God sends lying spirits into false prophets, to the extent that He uses their self-willed rebellion to punish those who, following them, rebel against Him, even as in the case of Ahab, 1Ki 22:20; 1Ki 22:23; Job 12:16; Jer 4:10; 2Th 2:11.
Verse 10 declares that “they”, the deceiving prophets, and those who resort to and follow them, shall bear the punishment or wrath of God, for their own chosen ways and deeds of iniquity, Rom 1:18; Rom 14:11-12; 1Sa 16:14; 1Sa 28:6-7.
Verse 11 indicates that the purpose of their punishment was that the house of Israel might go no more astray from the Lord, nor become polluted any more with all their iniquities of the past, in breaking His very first, priority commandment that had been given with very clear warnings, Exo 20:1-5. See also 2Pe 2:15; Eze 11:20; Eze 37:27.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
Here Ezekiel relates an event worthy of notice. For this was not a mere vision, but a real transaction, since some of the elders of Israel came to him for the sake of consultation. He says that he sat, as men who are perplexed and astonished by evils are accustomed to do, when they see no remedy. The gesture then which the Prophet describes was a sign of anxiety and despair. A person wishing for an answer is said to sit before another; but since it is probable that they disputed among themselves about beginning, and did not immediately discover how they should commence, hence they became anxious to consult the Prophet. Ezekiel, indeed, might be touched and softened by pity when he saw them seeking God in this way. For this was a sign of repentance when they turned to the true and faithful servant of God. But since they had no sincerity, the Prophet is warned in time against supposing them to come with cordiality. Hence God instructs his servant not to give way with too much facility when he sees old men coming to be disciples. But he shows their hypocrisy, because superstition still reigned in their hearts; nay, they desired openly to violate God’s law, and they did not disguise this feeling whenever occasion offered. First, he says they have set up idols in their hearts; by which words he means that they were addicted to superstition, so that idols obtained a high rank in their hearts; as Paul exhorts the faithful, that the peace of God which passes all understanding may obtain the rule in their hearts (Phi 4:7; Col 3:15); so on the other hand the Prophet says that these men had given supreme sway to idols. And again an implied comparison must be remarked between God and idols. For God has erected the seat of his empire in our hearts: but when we set up idols, we necessarily endeavor to overthrow God’s throne, and to reduce his power to nothing. Hence the most heinous crime of sacrilege is here shown in those old men who caused idols to rise above their hearts. For hence it follows that all their senses were drowned in their superstitions.
He adds, they placed the stumblingblock of their iniquity before his face. By this second clause he signifies their hardness and perverseness; as if he had said, although the doctrine of the law was put before their eyes, yet they had no regard for piety, and despised even God’s threats, as if he were not going to be their judge. When, therefore, the sinner is not moved by any admonitions, and is more than convicted of his impiety, and is compelled, whether he will or not, to suffer God’s anger, and yet afterwards despises it, he is said to put the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face. For many slide away by error and thoughtlessness, because they do not think they can attempt anything against God. But here Ezekiel expresses that there was a gross contempt of God in these old men, and even a professed rebellion against him. Now he asks, Shall I by inquiring be inquired of by them? Some translate, Shall I, when consulted or asked, answer them? But this comment seems to me too remote from the mind of the Prophet; and it is probable that they thought this to be the sense, because they could not understand what else the Prophet meant. But God shows that this was like a wonder, since these old men dared to break forth, and to pretend to have some desire to inquire the truth. Hence their impudence is shown here, because they did not hesitate to place themselves before God’s servant, and to pretend a regard for piety when they had none. God says, therefore, can it be done? For this question expresses the absurdity of the thing, and that for the above mentioned purpose, that their wickedness may be the more apparent in their daring to insult the face of God. For what else is it than openly to reproach God when impure men approach him, and wish to become partakers of his counsel? Meanwhile they show by their whole life that they are most inveterate enemies of the whole heavenly doctrine. Afterwards it follows —
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
JEHOVAHS REFUSAL TO ALLOW IDOLATERS TO ENQUIRE OF HIM: THE CERTAINTY OF THE JUDGMENTS DENOUNCED AGAINST THEM (Chap. 14)
EXEGETICAL NOTES.The visit of the elders of the people to the prophet was the occasion of this word of God. They were alarmed by the threatenings which the prophet uttered, but they yet hoped to obtain from him a more favourable answer. They make an appeal to Gods mercy, but are silent concerning the greatness of their sin or any purpose of repentance. These elders were not the representatives of the majority of the exiles who practised the most open and the boldest forms of idolatry; but rather of those who, though they outwardly feared God, yet inwardly served the world and the spirit of the age. These men have set up idols in their heart (Eze. 14:3). The prophets answer to their inquiry extends to Eze. 14:11. The latter part of the chapter declares that the coming judgments on Jerusalem will not be averted even for the sake of the righteous few therein.
THE LORD GIVES NO ANSWER TO THE IDOLATERS (Eze. 14:1-11)
Eze. 14:1. The elders of Israel.These men were not deputies from the Israelites in Palestine, but elders of the exiles among whom Ezekiel had been labouring (Keil). Their object in this visit is not distinctly stated, but probably it was that they might know something further concerning the duration of the captivity, or the fate of Jerusalem. Unlike the elders in chap. Eze. 20:1, they had not come with the definite purpose of inquiring of the Lord.
Eze. 14:2-3. These men have set up their idols in their heart. They were not given to the grosser forms of idolatry, but they were strangers to the true worship of God. They had set up some object of their own creation, which they put in the place of God. They allowed their minds to be deluded by phantoms. In heart and spirit they were one with the worst idolaters around them. And put the stumbling-block of their iniquity before their face. They even refused to put away idols from their presence. They sought not to flee from temptation by removing what would be an occasion and reminder of sin. Should I be enquired of at all by them? This question implies a strong negation.
Eze. 14:4. I the Lord will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols. The form of the verb to answer gives the meaning, I the Lord will answer him by myself, instead of by the prophet. The manner in which the Lord will answer the idolatry is set forth in Eze. 14:8. They are to be treated as all idols should be treated.
Eze. 14:5. That I may take the house of Israel in their heart. The Lord will reach the very seat of idolatry, touch their conscience, and bring down their heart by judgments.
Eze. 14:6-8. Repetition of the threat already uttered, and also of the summons to repentance. Repent, and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations. We have here a combination of the Kal and Hiphil conjugations for the sake of emphasis. Return unreservedly from your abominable idolatries. Be NO longer estranged from me, either in heart or practice. They were neither to hanker after in desire, nor look towards the accursed thing (Henderson). Every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourneth in Israel. All who hypocritically applied to the prophet, whether proselytes or native Jews, were liable to the same judgments. Strangers were only permitted to dwell in the land of Israel on condition of forsaking all idolatry and all moral abominations, and worshipping Jehovah alone (Lev. 20:2; Lev. 18:26; Lev. 17:10; Exo. 12:19). And will make him a sign and a proverb. The expression is a pregnant one; I make him desolate, so that he becomes a sign and proverb (Keil). An exemplary punishment (Heng.)
Eze. 14:9-11. No prophet is to give any other answer. And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that prophet. He who delivers any other message, though he may think that he speaks the word of the Lord, is not a true prophet. When God is represented as deceiving such a prophet, we are to understand something more than merely a permissive sense, as if God allowed it and did not interfere to prevent the deception. It was Jehovah who sent the lying spirit into the prophets of Ahab, and for this very purpose, that by predicting success to the king they might secure his fall (1Ki. 22:20, &c.) This persuading of the prophets to the utterance of self-willed words, which have not been inspired by God, only takes place in persons who admit evil into themselves, and is designed to tempt them and lead them to decide whether they will endeavour to resist and conquer the sinful inclinations of their hearts, or will allow them to shape themselves into outward deeds, in which case they will become ripe for judgment. It is in this sense that God persuades such a prophet, in order that He may then cut him off out of His people (Keil). If matters should turn out differently from what the prophet expected and foretold, I have so ordered them in the course of my providence as to issue in such a result. It is the prerogative of Deity to control the sinful operations of created minds, without interfering with free agency (Henderson). The punishment of the prophet shall he even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him. The false prophets and those who inquire of them are both alike guilty, and come into the same condemnation. Neither in one nor in the other was there any desire to learn the truth, but rather to seek excuse for their sins and errors even by the daring impiety of demanding for them the sanctions of religion. That the house of Israel may no more go astray from me, neither be polluted any more with all their transgressions. It serves to purify the people of God. For the particular sinful generation it flows from the principle of retribution; but for the whole community of God a purpose of mercy lies at the ground of the exercise of this retribution. The prophet here clearly opens up the view to the light which shines behind the darkness. (Heng.) It was to this end that, in the last times of the kingdom of Judah, God allowed false prophecy to prevail so mightily,namely, that it might accelerate the process of distinguishing between the righteous and the wicked; and then, by means of the judgment which destroyed the wicked, purify His nation and lead it on to the great end of its calling (Keil).
HOMILETICS
HYPOCRITICAL INQUIRERS AFTER GOD
These elders had come as a deputation from among the exiles in order to consult Ezekiel as a prophet of the Lord. They had come from a distance, and are to be distinguished from those mentioned in chap. Eze. 8:1 who were already with the prophet. We are not told expressly what their purpose was. They may have sought guidance concerning some question which they felt to be a difficulty. They may have simply waited to hear what seasonable truth the prophet had still to utter. But from Eze. 14:3 we learn that they certainly did come in the character of inquirers. And the answer which the Lord gives through theprophet shows that they were not sincere, but hypocritical inquirers. We have here the great features of all such.
I. They closely imitate the conduct of real inquirers. Hypocrites are generally described as those who deceive others by making an outward show of piety. But the sacred writers call those hypocrites not only who deceived others, but deceived even themselves. These closely imitate the religious actions of the pious, but they are ignorant of those deep spiritual principles upon which such conduct is founded. These have no true knowledge of God. They only know Him by tradition and the customs of religious service and worship. These elders had some of the qualities of real inquirers after the mind and will of God.
1. They were already stirred by the message of the prophet. They took alarm at his threatenings. They were afraid at Gods judgments.
2. They tome to the prophet, as an inspired messenger of God, for further counsel. They were the subjects of religious awakening, and professed themselves ready to learn all the will of God. Men may go as far as this without any true and essential knowledge of the realities of religion.
II. They lack the proper characteristics of real inquirers.
1. They apply to religious teachers, not to be instructed in Gods will, but to be confirmed in their own superstitions and errors. They were ready to hear and obey the prophet so long as he prophesied after their own heart. While religion did not interfere with their cherished convictions and prospects they were ready to obey its precepts and ordinances. They did not really believe that the threatened judgments would come to pass, and they desired a prophet who would confirm them in their false hopes. Such men feel a certain satisfaction in heaping to themselves teachers. In some way they feel the necessity of obtaining the sanctions of religion. But they come to the prophet not to learn, but to be confirmed in the purpose of their evil heart. They have not learned what it is to surrender the mind as well as the heart and will to God.
2. They retain sin in their heart, though they avoid the outward manifestation of it. They abstained from the gross forms of idolatry which were practised by their countrymen, but they set up their idols in their heart (Eze. 14:3). The real root-principle of idolatry was still in them.
3. They take no steps to remove the occasions of sin. They put the stumbling-block of their iniquity before their face (Eze. 14:3). While these outward temptations and means of sin are suffered to remain, it is of no use to seek first to cleanse the heart. Images must first be destroyed, else there is little prospect of rooting out idolatry from the land. Religious teachers should testify against both outward and inward idolatry. If idols are not removed from the eyes of men the temptation to worship them will remain, however faithful the teaching may be against the sin of it. The outward forms of superstition should first be destroyed, else there is little hope of promoting the pure worship of the heart.
III. They are exposed to terrible judgments. Even though they inquire of a true prophet and cannot be charged with open transgression.
1. They cannot hope to deceive God, who sees and knows the heart. God can see into the depths of the heart, which is the real man. It is the sinful heart within which makes the outward temptations of the world dangerous.
2. They are left to the action of the law of retribution. Retribution in kind, according to the multitude of his idols (Eze. 14:4). They trusted in idols; let them have them now. Let them see what their own refuges can do for them. God refuses to be inquired of them. He heareth not sinners (Joh. 9:31). The Word of God is taken away from the despisers of the truth (Act. 13:46). There is a time when God gives an answer, but not as men desire, and there is also a time when He refuses to answer. In both these modes of treatment He shows His righteous indignation, Sinners are left without answer or help in order that they might come to the true knowledge of their sin.
IV. Their only hope for escape is by a thorough repentance.
1. The heart must be turned to God. Repent and turn yourselves from your idols (Eze. 14:6) The Lord will not share His glory with another. The heart must be entirely given up to the service and worship of the only God.
2. The outward occasion of sin must be removed. Turn your faces from all your abominations (Eze. 14:6) They must avoid the outward forms of idolatry lest they should become again a temptation and a snare. Their repentance must be a complete reformation both of the outer and of the inner life.
IDOLATRY IN THE HEART (Eze. 14:3)
Idolatry is an old sin. The worship of the true God is older; but it was soon corrupted, for men did not like to retain God in their knowledge (Rom. 1:28). There may be idolatry in the heart even when idols are abolished from external worship. Gods commandment is exceeding broad. Idols have long been banished from our land, and therefore the second commandment has in one sense become obsolete. But all that is essential to the sin of worshipping them may still be found even in Christian lands. Everything that stands between a mans soul and heaven is an idol,it is that which he trusts in with his whole heart. For the root-principle of idolatry is the tendency to put something in the place of God, to allow the mind to be deluded by phantoms. Idols of all kinds are mere phantoms, they are (as St. Paul tells us) nothing in the world; there is no reality in them. When God is not truly known to the soul within, the man of necessity becomes an idolater. Whatever hinders the true knowledge of God is idolatry. Bacon, the father of modern science, has distinguished certain idols or phantoms which interfere with human knowledge. These idols he represents as certain false notions which possess the mind, and which must be dislodged if men would attain to the truth concerning the knowledge of man and nature. There are idols of the tribe, of the cave, of the market-place, of the theatre. It will be found that idolatries in religion spring from similar sources.
I. Idols of the tribe. By which Bacon means, those errors and false conceptions which have their origin in human nature itself. He says that the human mind is like a false mirror, which, receiving rays irregularly, distorts and discolours the nature of things by mingling its own nature with it. Does not this speak to us of our natural ignorance of God, which distorts all the indications He has given us of His character and will? It may assume the form of gross idolatry, of atheism, of indifference, or of the various forms of superstition where ignorant fear is substituted for the worship of Him who alone is to be feared.
II. Idols of the cave. Bacon describes these as the sources of error which belong to individual men. These may arise from the peculiar constitution of our mind, from our early habits and education, from all those influences which form our individual characters. Each man, says Bacon, has a den or cave of his own. Sometimes it is dark and comfortless, shutting out the light of heaven, full of doleful things and gloomy fears. Each man has some infirmity of mind or temper which leads him to judge wrongly of God and of duty. Each man has his besetting sin, and must bear his own burden, fight against his own enemies, and seek peace for his own soul.
III. Idols of the market-place. These are described as false notions or conceptions, which arise from the intercourse of men with each other. It may be that each man in his own cavein himself as an individualis ashamed of the customs and notions of which men as communities approve. But these are often deemed respectable and right if only they are adopted by good society, or by common usage, or by the laws and customs of that particular business or profession to which the man belongs.
IV. Idols of the theatre. By which are meant those hindrances to the knowledge of the truth which have been imported into mens minds from the various dogmas of human philosophies: It is certainly a hindrance in all intellectual pursuits that many ingenious men have gone wrong before us. Hence knowledge is retarded. Mental power is wasted, for some wiser man must arise to clear away those errors to which great men of former times have given currency. We have such idols of the theatre in religion,each successive system of infidel philosophy, rationalism, every device for setting aside the revelation which God has given of Himself to man in Jesus Christ, every attempt to get rid of the supernatural and divine element in the Scriptures of God. All these have hidden God from many human souls. They are the peculiar temptations of intellectual men, of speculative minds. Such are often free from vulgar temptations, and it would seem as if in this way their proper measure of the difficulties of probation is filled up to them. And all idols, whether they spring from that nature which is common to mankind, or from each mans peculiarities of temper and disposition, or from the customs of human business and conventional moralities, or from those ingenious speculations which we find in books,all these are only to be overcome by the recognition of God in Christ. They are all mere phantoms, they hide God from the soul, they lead us astray, they have no power to teach us, they cannot bring us nearer heaven. But God has not left us to wander in uncertainty. He has given us the true Light. Our blessed Lord said, He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father, I am the way, the truth, and the life. He gives the invitation, Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He will give us rest from the pursuit of vanities of all kinds, from empty speculations which weary the soul for no profit. If we have found the true we cannot worship the false. If we are true worshippers of Christ we must put away all our idols, for He will not share His love and worship with another. Christ gives us the true idea of God. The sin of idolatry is not now impossible though idols are removed from the eyes of men. The Second Commandment may be dead as concerns the letter of it, but the spirit of it is as potent as ever to convince men of sin. How many professed worshippers in the Christian Church set up their idols in their heart and then come to inquire of God! There is a tendency to worship something which is not God, to deny Him the full devotion of our hearts. Even when men will scarcely dare entirely to leave His service, they still strive to serve two masters. All who love pleasure, earthly honours and distinctions, more than they love God, are idolaters. In short, all are involved in this sin who seek the world first before the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
THE INQUIRERS OF FALSE PROPHETS (Eze. 14:9-11)
I. They hope to obtain a more favourable answer. The true prophets do not speak that which they would like to hear, so they seek teachers after their own minds. They will undertake to decide for themselves what prophets are true or false by the correspondence of the message with their own corrupt wishes. They are willingly deceived.
II. They do not thereby escape Gods judgments.
1. Even false prophets are by the will of God. I the Lord have deceived that prophet (Eze. 14:9). God permits such men to preach error, as He permits all other evils to prevail in the world. He does not suppress them by an act of power. He allows the tares and the wheat to grow together until the appointed time of judgment. And we must learn from Gods dealings with mankind the lesson of toleration. If we attempt to pluck up the tares we run the risk of rooting out the wheat also. No man has knowledge or skill enough which will serve him to anticipate Gods final judgment. He who attempts this may, indeed, do some good, but he will certainly do much harm.
2. God uses and controls evil for the working out of His purposes. It is true that God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man (Jas. 1:13). But God makes use of the sins of men in working out His great designs. Thus He allows men to fall into one sin as a punishment for another. These exiles loved to be deceived, and they were deceived. They loved darkness, and they were allowed to wander into greater darkness. A man must either repent, or he must continue in the sinful path towards his punishment. It is by Gods law that even the germs of sin are permitted to be planted, to be fostered, and to grow, so that sin shall attain to its full maturity and bring on its own punishment. Gods Providence so orders the course of events that men who will not have the truth shall be brought to ruin by a lie.
III. These judgments are intended for the benefit of Gods people.
1. To preserve them from transgression (Eze. 14:11).
2. To test their faith. By the flourishing of false prophets their own fidelity and steadfastness would be tried. The prevalence of error makes manifest the tried and approved children of truth (1Co. 11:19).
3. To confirm their faith. By witnessing the judgments of God fulfilled upon others.
4. To teach them to realise their relationship to God. That they may be my people, and I may be their God (Eze. 14:11). We can have no true peace until we know that the Lord is our God. The essence of religion consists in the appropriation of God by the soul.
5. To separate between the righteous and the ungodly. God may use even sin and error to contribute to this final purpose of His judgment (2Th. 2:10-11).
(Eze. 14:9.)
False prophets were both in Judea and in Babylon, and the people had often recourse unto them. They spake pleasing things. They told them who were in Judea that Nebuchadnezzar should never subdue and carry them captives; yea, they told them that those in Babylon should shortly return. These were vain, false, and deceitful prophecies, and Divine Providence ordered it so. We have here
I. A supposition. If the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing. The false prophets were deceived in what they spake to the people. Zedekiah and the rest of the prophets which bade Ahab to go up to Ramoth-Gilead and prosper, were deceived (1 Kings 22). Hananiah and Shelemiah made that people trust in a lie (Jer. 28:15; Jer. 32:31). They were deceived in their prophets, and deceive others.
II. An assertion. I the Lord have deceived that prophet. These words sound very harsh, and no man durst have attributed them unto the Lord, had not He Himself said so. The words, I have deceived are to be taken as a judicial act of God, who, dealing with them as delinquents, punisheth them with this special judgment of seduction; they were idolatrous and hypocritical, and God punished those sins with others, and so accidentally was the efficient cause of their deception. God finding those men false and forward to deceive, hearkening to their own hearts, and following their own spirits (Eze. 13:2-3), He gave them up and over to vain visions and lying divinations, which was one punishment, and to perdition, which was another punishment following thereupon. Have you a mind to be prophets, to prophesy lies? Ye shall be so. In Isa. 63:17, we read, O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? God did this in judgment to the people who affected false prophets, and chose their own ways (Isa. 66:3), and delighted in their abominations. He in judgment gave them up to their own ways, and to hardness of heart (Psa. 71:11-12).
III. A threatening. I will stretch out my hand upon him. God would put forth His power to punish such a prophet. But if God deceived him, how can He in justice punish or destroy that prophet? We answer,
1. The false prophet did whatever he did freely. He was not forced by any power or act of God. His seduction was principally from himself; and it was his own fault that he was deceived, that he deceived others.
2. A man may serve Providence, and yet sin against the law of God. The secret Providence had ordered it that this people should be seduced by false prophets, yet God in His word had forbidden such (Deuteronomy 13). And because men are to look at what is written, not what is secret and hidden, therefore if they violate the law, God may justly punish thereupon (Act. 4:27-28). Herod, Pilate, Judas, and the Jews, they did to Christ whatsoever God had determined to be done, yet they were not without sin, nor without punishment, because they transgressed the rule given them. We make two observations,
(1.) The Lord, in His infinite wisdom and justice, doth make a punishment of sin, and punish one sin with another. Besides corporal judgments He hath spiritual; if the prophet be deceived, I the Lord have deceived him, I have laid this judgment upon him, that he should be deceived, led into errors, and deceive others; this he hath deserved at my hands, and this punishment in just judgment I inflict upon him. The Scriptures hold out frequently this way of Gods proceedings with sinners, His punishment of one sin with another; (2Ch. 25:17-20; Jer. 4:10; Rom. 1:25-26; 2Th. 2:10-11).
(2.) God will deal severely with false prophets. I will stretch out my hand upon him. He would be made an example to all, as were Hananiah and Shemaiah (Jer. 28:15-16; Jer. 29:31-32.Greenhill).
The great sophister and prince of darkness (God permitting him) can strangely blindfold our reason and muffle our understanding; and, no doubt, the chiefest cause that most of the obstinate, besotted sinners of the world are not sensible that the devil blinds and abuses them is, that he has indeed actually done so already. For how dreadfully did God consign over the heathen world to a perpetual slavery to Satans deceits? They worshipped him, they consulted with him, and so absolutely were they sealed up under the ruling cheat, that they took all his tricks and impostures for Oracle and Instruction. And the truth is, when men under the powerful preaching of the Gospel will grow heathens in the viciousness of their practices, it is but just with God to suffer them (by a very natural transition) to grow heathens, too, in the grossness of their delusions.South.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
IV. TWO OBJECTIONS ANSWERED 14:123
In chapter 14 Ezekiel deals with two theoretical objections which might be raised against his announcement of Jerusalems judgment. The first is this How can God punish His people for sins into which they have been led by men claiming to be prophets? (Eze. 14:1-11). The second objection raises the question of how God could destroy the Holy City when there were still some righteous men within (Eze. 14:12-23).
A. Deception by the False Prophets 14:111
TRANSLATION
(1) And certain men of the elders of Israel came unto me, and sat before me. (2) And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, (3) Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and the stumblingblock of their iniquity they have placed before their face. Should I ever permit them to make inquiry of Me? (4) Therefore, speak unto them, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Every man of the house of Israel who sets up his idols in his heart, and places the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and comes unto the prophet I the LORD will respond to him that comes according to the multitude of his idols; (5) in order that I may take the house of Israel in their heart because all of them have been turned aside from Me through their idols. (6) Therefore, say unto the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: Return and turn yourselves[298] from your idols and from all your abominations turn away your face; (7) because every man of the house of Israel and of the stranger who dwells in Israel who has turned aside from Me, and erected his idols in his heart, and has set the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and comes unto the prophet to inquire by him of Me I the LORD will respond to him by Myself. (8) And I will set My face against that man, and I will make him a sign and proverb; and I will cut him off from the midst of My people, that you may know that I am the LORD, (9) And as for the prophet, when he is enticed and speaks a word, I the LORD have enticed that prophet, and I will stretch out My hand against him, and I will destroy him from the midst of My people Israel. (10) And they shall bear their iniquity, the iniquity of the prophet shall be like that of the one who inquires; (11) that the house of Israel might not again go astray from Me, nor defile themselves with all their transgressions; but they shall be My people, and I shall be their God (oracle of the Lord GOD).
[298] Lit., turn them, i.e., your faces referred to in the next clause
COMMENTS
False prophets could not and would not exist without people willing to patronize them. Ezekiel now turns his attention to the masses who had ears itching to hear pious platitudes and flattery. In an alien land and far from the Jerusalem Temple the exiles faced the temptation to engage in idolatry while at the same time not abandoning Yahwism. To this situation Ezekiel addresses himself in chapter 14.
During the period of the exile the elders were supposed to be the spiritual leaders of the nation. The elders of Israel[299] now came to Ezekiel to seek a message from the Lord. They were probably anxious to be enlightened about the future of their homeland. In sitting before the prophet the elders were acknowledging him as a genuine teacher from God (Eze. 14:1).
[299] Blackwood (EPH, p. 99) thinks these elders of Israel are the same as the elders of Judah mentioned in Eze. 8:1. Plumptre (PC, p. 247) thinks there may have been two groups of elders, These elders would then be a deputation from the earlier group of exiles taken captive by the Assyrians.
How shocked those elders must have been when the prophet through revelation from God disclosed the spiritual condition of their hearts. They were guilty of setting Up their idols in their hearts. This does not necessarily mean that these elders were actually worshiping idols, but that they were longing after the old pagan practices which they had observed prior to the exile. Their thoughts were influenced by magic spells, divination and the like. This internalized idolatry was a stumblingblock which these elders had willfully set before themselves.[300] No special divine direction would be forthcoming for men who do not exclusively devote their heart to the Lord. To express this fact, God used a rhetorical question couched in the most emphatic terms. Should God allow Himself to be inquired of by hypocrites? A strong negation is implied (Eze. 14:3).
[300] The phrase, the stumblingblock of their iniquity, is peculiar to Eze. 7:19; Eze. 14:3-4, Eze. 7:18; Ezekiel 30; Eze. 44:12) and usually refers to idols. For Gods people at this stage of history idols were the chief occasion of sin.
Because idolatry was so firmly rooted in their hearts, these elders need not expect an oral answer from the Lord through His prophet. Rather, the Lord Himself will bring Himself to answer,[301] i.e., He will answer personally, not through an intermediary. He will answer them by deeds by acts of judgment. Furthermore, the judgment which He metes out to each individual will be according to the multitude of his idols (Eze. 14:4).
[301] The verb is Niphal or reflexive.
Gods great priority was to take the house of Israel in their heart, i.e., to win complete allegiance from His people. All of them, like the hypocritical elders, had divided hearts hearts still estranged from God because of idolatry (Eze. 14:5). By exposing the paganistic inclinations of the elders, and by bringing judgment upon them for their lack of full commitment to Him, the Lord would force all members of the house of Israel to acknowledge Him alone as God.[302]
[302] Others interpret the verb take in Eze. 14:5 to be equivalent to expose or hold responsible. Still others see Eze. 14:5 simply as a threat that the hypocrites of the nation would be caught Up in a snare of their own making.
As always in the economy of God, a call for repentance precedes the execution of judgment. They must completely abandon their idols which are abominations in the sight of God (Eze. 14:6). God now says to the visitors what He previously said to Ezekiel. Those who play the role of the hypocrite, who harbor idolatrous inclinations in their heart, will receive a message from God when they appear before a prophet; but it will not be the kind of message they expect. Instead of a spoken answer by the mouth of the prophet, there will be an answer in the discipline of life. This applies to the stranger that sojourns in Israel Gentile converts carried away by Nebuchadnezzar as well as to native born Israelites (Eze. 14:7). Foreigners who lived in the Israelite theocracy were as much bound by the laws against idolatry as native born citizens.[303]
[303] Cf. Lev. 17:10; Lev. 20:1-2.
Eze. 14:8 sets forth four things which God will do to show His rejection of those whose heart is divided regarding Him:
1. He would set His face against that man, i.e., He would assume a posture of hostility toward that hypocrite.
2. God would make that man a sign and proverb, i.e., He would inflict upon that man an exemplary punishment which would become proverbial and act as a deterrent to others inclined toward idolatry (cf. Deu. 28:37).
3. God would cut off that man from the midst of His people, i.e., excommunicate him from the people of God.[304]
[304] The Law of Moses also set forth the first and third penalties which are threatened here. See Lev. 17:10; Lev. 20:3; Lev. 20:5-6,
4. When men witnessed this righteous judgment they would recognize that Yahweh had intervened in the affairs of men.
Some so-called prophets did give responsive oracles to hypocritical inquirers. But such men were false prophets. It must have been hard for people in the closing decades of Old Testament kingdom history to distinguish between true and false prophets. Several tests are suggested here and there in the Scriptures, and here is yet another such test. These hypocrites sitting before Ezekiel knew their own hearts. They knew that inwardly they had not surrendered their idols. Since God would not give guiding counsel to such people, the prophet who pretended to do so was not inspired of God.
The prophets who were causing such confusion in Jerusalem and Babylon had been enticed. God declares here that He had enticed that prophet, i.e., He had permitted the enticement to take place. This does not mean that the prophet who spoke falsely was not a free moral agent. He bore complete responsibility for his actions. The idea here is that men who reject the truth of God have opened their mind for such judicial enticement to false thinking.[305] One must distinguish here between the permissive and active will of God. Pharaoh hardened his own heart, and yet the Scripture declares that God hardened his heart as well. Part of the punishment which God metes out to sinners is that He permits them to be led into ever greater sin. When men obstinately refuse the truth, God gives them over to falsehood. These prophets had been enticed to falsehood, and shortly they would experience divine judgment. God would stretch out His hand against them, and they would be destroyed from the midst of Israel (Eze. 14:9).[306]
[305] For Yahweh as a deceiver of prophets see 1Ki. 22:19-23 and Deu. 13:1-5; Cf. 2Th. 2:11. Secondary causation has here been eliminated as in Isa. 45:7 and Amo. 3:6.
[306] Some think that destroyed from the midst of My people (Eze. 14:9) is synonymous with cut off from the midst of My people (Eze. 14:8). It seems, however, that the former refers to death and the latter to excommunication
God is no respecter of persons when it comes to judgment. Both the prophet and the citizen who came to seek the counsel of these charlatans would have to bear their iniquity, i.e., suffer the same punishment (Eze. 14:10). The deceivers and those who cried out to be deceived would alike experience the judgment of God. The purpose of this divine judgment was not so much revenge as it was correction. The punishment was to serve as a deterrent so that Gods people would no longer go astray from Him to serve idols and thus defile themselves by such transgressions.[307] By thus discouraging defilement by idolatry, God is doing what is necessary to promote His relationship with His people. Free from the taint of idolatry they could be His people and He could be their God (Eze. 14:11). At this point hope clear and radiant shines through the otherwise gloomy discourse of Ezekiel. The prophet is a realistic optimist. He cannot deny the divine forecast of stormy judgment. But he sees a silver lining in those dark clouds. Some ultimate good would come of it. Gods eternal purpose would not be frustrated by the collapse of earthly Jerusalem.
[307] The priestly interest of Ezekiel is evident from the statement that transgressions (conscious rebellion against divine law) render one unclean, i.e., defile one.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(1) Certain of the elders of Israel.There is no distinction intended here between the elders of Israel and the elders of Judah mentioned in 8:1, and therefore there is no occasion to suppose a deputation sent to the prophet from Jerusalem. Israel is now becoming the ordinary name of the existing nation, except where it is used with some special mark of distinction. The object of their enquiry is not mentioned, nor is it even expressly said that they made any enquiry; but the message to them implies this, and from what is said to them we may probably gather what was uppermost in their minds. Already told by the previous prophecies that God would not spare Jerusalem for its own sake, and that His long forbearance hitherto was no warrant for its continuance, they still evidently cherished the hope that, however sinful they might be in themselves, their city would yet be delivered for the sake of the holy men who lived therein. With such thoughts in their minds the elders came and sat before the prophet, in whose fearless words they had already learned to have confidence, and waited what he might have to say to them.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
THE IDOLATROUS ELDERS INQUIRE IN VAIN OF JEHOVAH CONCERNING THE FUTURE, Eze 14:1-5.
1. Then came certain of the elders of Israel Ezekiel’s sermons have at last aroused deep interest, and the chief men among the exiles, notwithstanding his fearful arraignment of the most popular prophets, come to him to inquire of the future. Ezekiel’s word to them is very different from the soft, smooth messages which he has been condemning (chap. 13). He openly exposes the iniquity of their hearts, and declares that Jehovah will have no speech with such as they (Eze 14:3).
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Then certain of the elders of Israel came to me and sat before me, and the word of Yahweh came to me saying, “Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face. Should I be enquired of at all by them?” ’
The elders of the Israelites in captivity now came to Ezekiel. He had clearly made an impression on them and they were seeking Yahweh’s words through him. But they had not come as true believers, men firmly committed to the covenant with Yahweh, but as those who sought Yahweh’s advice as One among others. They were compromisers. They believed in Yahweh to a certain extent, but they served other gods too, the gods of their captors. However, they were probably hoping to receive some word of comfort and hope in their predicament. Yahweh was the specialist on Jerusalem.
But God knew the truth about them. He knew their hearts. They were still involved in similar idol worship to that which had called down God’s judgment on Jerusalem, and their hearts were with them and not with Yahweh. Thus Yahweh called them ‘these men’ in contempt.
‘The stumblingblock of their iniquity.’ Another way of speaking of idolatry. It either referred to their idols which caused them to stumble and fall into iniquity (compare Eze 7:19 where it was their gold and silver; Eze 14:4; Eze 14:7 where it was seemingly the idols themselves; Eze 18:30 where it was their transgressions which included idolatry), or to the fact that they had encouraged and participated in idolatrous rites, thus leading the people astray, encouraging them in idolatry and putting a stumblingblock before them, causing them also to stumble (compare Eze 44:12). It basically referred to what caused men to stumble. It is a phrase unique to Ezekiel.
‘Should I be enquired of at all by them?’ They had no right to seek His face, for they sought the face of idols. He would not hear those who simply treated Him as one of a pantheon of gods. He would not listen to any but those who were totally true to Him (compare Psa 66:18; 1Ki 18:21).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Eze 14:14 Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord GOD.
Eze 14:14
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Jehovah Refuses to Answer the Idolaters
v. 1. Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, v. 2. And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, v. 3. Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, v. 4. Therefore speak unto them and say unto them, v. 5. that I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, v. 6. Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God, Repent and turn yourselves from your idols, v. 7. For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourneth in Israel, v. 8. and I will set My face against that man, v. 9. And if the prophet, v. 10. And they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity, v. 11. that the house of Israel may go no more astray from Me, neither be polluted any more with all their transgressions,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Eze 14:1
As the result, probably, of the previous utterances, certain elders of Israel, i.e. of the exiles in Tel-Abib, came to consult Ezekiel, wishing to know what counsels or what predictions he had for them. In Eze 8:1 we have “the elders of Judah,” and it is possible that there were two groups in the Population of the town, and that these represented Israel as distinct from Judaha deputation, as it were, from the earlier exiles. The term appears again in Eze 20:1. More probably, however, the terms are used interchangeably.
Eze 14:3
These men, etc. The prophet, taught by the word of the Lord, reads the hearts of those who came to him. The words do not imply, rather they exclude, the open practice of idolatry. The sin of the inquirers was that they had set up idols (gillulim, Ezekiel’s favourite word; see note on Eze 6:4) in their hearts. The LXX. gives ,”thoughts of their hearts,” as if to express this. They were hankering after the old false worships in which they had once, taken part. The stumbling block (see Eze 3:20) of their iniquity was set up there. That divided heart, the “double mind” of Jas 1:8, made true inquiry, as it made true prayer for guidance, impossible. Shall I be inquired of at all, etc.? The “at all” represents the emphatic iteration of the verb in the Hebrew. The Vulgate, Numquid interrogatus respondebo eis? gives a fair paraphrase.
Eze 14:4
I will answer him that cometh, etc. The two last words represent the K’ri, or marginal reading of the Hebrew; the “therein” of the Revised Version, the Kh’-tib, or written text. Probably we should read, as in Eze 14:7, “I will answer him by myself“ (Hitzig).
Eze 14:5
That I may take the house of Israel, etc. The words me a threat rather than a promise. The “double-hearted” shall be taken in the snare which they have made for themselves.
Eze 14:6
Turn yourselves, etc.; literally, turn them. But there is no sufficient ground for the margin, “Turn others,” the objective suffix being the “faces” of the following clause. In Eze 18:30, Eze 18:32 the verb is used by itself. The prophet’s call is to a direct personal repentance, not to the work of preaching that repentance to others.
Eze 14:7
The stranger that sojourneth among you. It is noticeable that Ezekiel uses here and elsewhere (Eze 47:22, Eze 47:23) the familiar phrase of the books which most influenced his teaching (Leviticus 16-25.; Num 9:1-23; Num 15:1-41; Deuteronomy passim). It is probable that some such proselytes were found among the exiles of Tel Abib. I the Lord will answer him by myself, etc. This, as has been seen, was probably the right reading in verse 4. What it means is that, instead of a spoken answer by the mouth of the prophet, there should be an answer in the discipline of life, in the immediate utterance through the conscience, which was the voice of God. The inquirer who came with unconfessed and unrepented hankerings after the worship of other gods deserved and would receive no other answer.
Eze 14:8
To make him, add, with Revised Version, an astonishment; or better, I will make him amazed, as in Eze 32:10. The words are an echo of Deu 28:37. The man’s punishment shall be open and notorious, so as to strike terror into others.
Eze 14:9
I the Lord have deceived that prophet, etc. The teaching of modern thought is to soften language like this into “I have permitted him to be deceived.” The distinction was seldom, if ever, present to the mind of the Old Testament, or indeed of the New Testament, writers. It is Jehovah who sends the “lying spirit” in 1Ki 22:20-23. It is he who in the latter days shall send men “strong delusions” that they shall believe a lie (2Th 2:11). In both cases it is implied that the delusion is a righteous punishment, is indeed the natural, because the divinely appointed, punishment of the sin. Populus vult decipi et decipiatur, but the very deception is a means for undeceiving them. At last their eyes shall be opened. The punishment of the false prophet and of those who trust him is at once retributive, and a discipline, and, if the discipline fails for them, at least a warning for others.
Eze 14:11
The words come as a gleam of light through the darkness. A restored nation, walking in the truth, the true people of God,this lies beyond the mystery of the evil which is allowed, or even made, to work itself out to the bitter end.
Eze 14:12-14
A new section begins, implying as before an interval of silence. What follows presents a striking parallelism to Jer 15:1, Jer 15:2. There also we have the “four sore judgments,” the declaration that not even the presence of Moses and Samuel would avail to save the people. They were obviously selected by Jeremiah as examples of the power of intercession (Exo 32:11, Exo 32:12; 1Sa 7:9; 1Sa 12:23). Ezekiel’s selection of names proceeds on a different footing. He chooses exceptional instances of saintliness that had been powerless to save the generation in which they lived; perhaps, also, such as were well known, not only in the records of Israel, but among other nations. Noah had not saved the evil race before the Flood; Job had not saved his sons (Job 1:18); Daniel, though high in the king’s favour, had not been able to influence Nebuchadnezzar to spare the people of Judah and Jerusalem. The mention of this last name is significant, as showing the reputation which even then Daniel had acquired. There is no shadow of evidence for the view of some commentators that an older Daniel is referred to. Had there been such a person, eminent enough to be grouped with Noah and Job, there would surely have been some mention of him in the Old Testament. In verse 13, for the land, read “a land.” For staff of bread, see Eze 4:16. The phrase comes from Le 26:26.
Eze 14:15
Noisome beasts (see note on Eze 5:17).
Eze 14:19
Pestilence is joined with blood, as in Eze 5:17; Eze 38:22, as indicating its death-bearing character.
Eze 14:22
The words end with a gleam of hope shining through the judgments. For Ezekiel, as for Isaiah, there is the thought of a “remnant that shall return” (Isa 10:20-22). It has been questioned whether “the ways and the doings” which are to bring comfort to men’s minds are those of the evil past or of the subsequent repentance. I incline to the view that they include both. Men should see at once the severity and the goodness of Jehovah. His punishments had not been arbitrary nor excessive. They had also been as a discipline leading men to repentance. In each of those facts there was a ground of comfort for men who asked the question, which Abraham asked of old, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Gen 18:25). In either aspect men will recognize that God has not done without cause all that he has done. In this way the prophet seeks, as others have done since, to justify the ways of God to man. Ezekiel’s word for “remnant” is, it may be noted, not the same as Isaiah’s, its primary significance being “these that escape.” Ezekiel does not quote the earlier prophet, though his thoughts are in harmony with him.
HOMILETICS.
Eze 14:3
Idols in the heart.
I. THE HEART IS THE SEAT OF IDOLATRY. There may be splendid temples in a city, containing innumerable idolshorrible monsters or beautiful statues, works of marble, ivory, or gold. Yet if the people do not worship them no sin is committed. We have many idols in our museums. The idols in a missionary society’s museum do no harm to its custodians. On the ether hand, though no idol temple stands in our land, and the last vestige of the old heathenism has been swept away centuries ago, and the very notion of worshipping stocks and stones seems to us ridiculous, yet in our hearts there may be things which alienate us from God. The essential question is as to what is there enthroned as in the citadel of the soul.
II. EVERYTHING THAT TAKES THE PLACE OF GOD IN THE HEART IS AN IDOL. It is not everything loved that we are to regard as an idol. God does not claim the only affection of our hearts. We may love God through the love we bear to those earthly friends who are dear to us. But God claims the first place, the throne within. Whatever stands first in our estimation is our god. If some human affection, pleasure, or sin takes this pre-eminent position, and refuses to yield, when required, to the supreme will of God, that is our god, our idol.
III. IDOLS IN THE HEART EXCLUDE COMMUNION WITH GOD. It is in reference to people who cherish such idols that God asks, “Should I be inquired of at all by them?” it is not likely that such people would be disposed to seek counsel from the true spiritual God. The idols would seem to be sufficient. But if they should think to add the worship of the supreme God to that of their idols, they would find that this is impossible. There are men for whom all access to God is cut off. They who cherish evil things or any rival affections, made evil by rivalry with the true love of the soul for God, find that they cannot reach to God. “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” Observe, however, this only applies to idolatry in the heart. Heathen people who follow the instincts of natural religion and feel after the unseen spiritual God may find him, though they have scores of idols in their houses, because such a genuine search for God implies the expulsion of idols from the heart.
IV. IDOLATRY IN THE HEART WILL NOT BE NEGLECTED BY GOD. We may disown God and substitute our idols. But he will not, cannot, give us up. He is still our Lord, and he must take note of the rebellion of his people. But he is also still our Father, and, though we may not care for him, he has not ceased to love us. Therefore he will seek his idolatrous children and plague them with many a trouble, until he has induced them to see their folly, cast their idols out of their hearts, and welcome back their Lord to his rightful throne.
Eze 14:6
Repentance.
I. THE FIRST STEP TOWARDS SALVATION IS REPENTANCE. It is true that God has moved towards us before we have thought of turning to him. It is his goodness that leads us to repentance (Rom 2:4). “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). But all this precedes our action. When we begin to see salvation, the first step must lead us to the wicket gate of repentance, and until that has been passed through there is no hope fur us. John the Baptist prepares the way for Christ. “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” We may try the short cut of pride, and think to begin the happy Christian life without owning our sins and turning from them. It is impossible. The result will only be a miserable hypocrisy.
II. REPENTANCE CONSISTS IN TURNING FROM THE EVIL WAY. “Repent, and turn yourselves,” etc. It is an action, not merely a feeling. It cannot be without deep grief of soul, yet it does not consist in the grief; that is but an accompaniment, though undoubtedly an inevitable accompaniment. We cannot measure our repentance by the number of tears shed, but by the thoroughness of our revolt against our past. Neither is there any value in the amount of time spent in abject contrition. We are not in this way to consider whether we have repented sufficiently. The sole question is as to the reality and thoroughness of the change by which we turn from the old way and seek a better way.
III. REPENTANCE IS CONFIRMED BY THE ABANDONMENT OF THE EVIL ONCE LOVED. The penitents are to turn from their “idols.” Insincere repentance weeps for the sins it still clings to. The action of repentance is inward. But its consequences are seen in outward conduct. Savonarola, when called to the dying bed of Lorenzo di Medici, refused to offer any hope of pardon to the great Florentine, because, though he professed great concern for his soul, and deep grief for his sins, he refused to give back their liberties to the citizens. He would not act according to the profession of repentance, and therefore the stern reformer justly judged that the penitence could not be true and thorough.
IV. REPENTANCE IS MET BY THE SAVING GRACE OF GOD. He calls upon us to repent, hut he des not require us to create new hearts in ourselves. He expects a sincere desire fur a better way. We must show our loathing for our old past by doing all in our power to relinquish it. Then God gives that redeeming grace which is the new birth, and whence springs the power for better living. Still, after receiving the grace, we need to preserve the lowliness of the penitent, although all tears are wiped away by the pardon of God. For we are always in danger of being dragged back into out old selves. “Illusion is briefs” says Schiller, “but repentance is long.”
Eze 14:7
God’s answer.
“I the Lord will answer him by myself.” The people inquire of the false prophets, but God himself will answer them. The question concerning the coming danger will be settled by the event. That will be God’s answer, and it will put an end to all doubt on the one side, and to all deception on the other.
I. THE PROMISE OF GOD‘S ANSWER. There are questions which grievously perplex us, and to which, as yet, we can get no reply. Those that are frivolous may never be answered; e.g. Clement’s illustration, “Whether the number of the stars be odd or even?” It can be of no use for us to know the answer to such a question. No doubt there are also greater problems which still do not concern us personally, and of these we may never lave the solution. There is no reason to suppose that we shall ever become omniscient. But, on the other hand, there are deep, heart-searching questions, which bear directly upon Our life. We crave an answer to such questions, and God will not leave us forever in the dark concerning them. We may have our patience tried for a season, but at length the light will dawn.
II. THE SOURCE OF GOD‘S ANSWER. It will come direct from himself. The foolish Jews inquired of false prophets. But not even a true prophet such as Ezekiel would be entrusted with the reply. God himself is to answer them. God does not act by proxy. He has servants and agents. But he is in them, and he can dispense with them altogether whenever he chooses. He has direct dealings with souls. If the answer comes from God, it must be true and sufficient. In momentous questions concerning the soul and its eternal life we cannot be satisfied with a reply from any delegated authority, not from the greatest prophet, apostle, or archangel. We want to hear the voice of God himself.
III. THE CHARACTER OF GOD‘S ANSWER. In the present case it was to be given by events. The destruction of Jerusalem was to be God’s answer to the disputing Jews. That was as truly a Divine answer as a voice from heaven would have been, for the voice would have been a shaping of air waves, a work of God in nature. This event was God’s working in providence. God speaks to us through his providence. History is a record of God’s answers to man’s questions. Such an answer has many merits.
1. It is perceptible to all. The fall of Jerusalem sent a shock through the Jewish world.
2. It is clear and unmistakable. God had threatened judgment. Would his threat prove true? Who could doubt the meaning of the terrible response?
3. It is irreversible. An event which has once occurred can never be undone. The lessons of history are eternal.
IV. THE ADVENT OF GOD‘S ANSWER.
1. It may come unsought. The faithless Jews neglected their God, and inquired for oracles from the false prophets. Yet he of whom they sought no word spoke by the awful thunders of judgment.
2. It may come from an unexpected quarter. These unbelieving Jews were not expecting to hear the voice of God. Therefore they were made to hear it in most terrible tones. It is better not to wait for such a startling reply. God has spoken in the great events of Bethlehem and Calvary, and there his voice is one of grace and benediction.
Eze 14:10
The prophet’s punishment.
The prophet is to be punished equally with the rest of the people, because his guilt is equal to theirs. The pleas and excuses which he might suggest are all swept away as so many refuges or lies.
I. ECCLESIASTICAL RANK. There was a recognized professional distinction between the prophets and the people; the prophets belonged to a separate order. But “orders” have no saving efficacy. The status of the Christian ministry affords certain earthly privileges, while it confers certain spiritual obligations. But it is only economic, temporary, and for this world’s service. Before God the distraction between cleric and laic vanishes, and each soul stands in its simple human character. God judges an archbishop as a man, not as a dignitary. His office appertains to his powers and dudes, the talents for which he will have to account. But in this respect it is like the office of any other persona measure for his service, not a shelter for his sinfulness. In the world beyond the grave each soul is but a soul; rank and office are left behind like castoff vestments. Therefore the sinful ecclesiastic will be treated as any other sinner.
II. DIVINE GIFTS. The false prophets of Ezekiel’s day do not appear to have had any peculiar Divine gifts. They were mere pretenders. But even those men who are especially endowed are not to consider themselves as thereby lifted above common standards of judgment. The prophet of Bethel was a true messenger from God, yet a lion met him in the way and slew him for his disobedience (1Ki 13:26). The apostle may “have the gift of prophecy,” yet if he “have not charity” he is “nothing” (1Co 13:2).
III. KNOWLEDGE. If the prophets did not know the right way, they should have made themselves acquainted with it, for they were supposed to hold the keys of revelation. But as the signpost never reaches the city to which it is constantly pointing, the man who knows the way, and who is capable of showing it to others, may yet be never treading it himself. Then his knowledge will not save him. It is the same in respect to those who are enlightened by Divine teaching, though they are not called upon to teach others. A clear conception of “the plan of salvation” will not save a man. If a prophet will be punished like any other man, surely the merely orthodox believer in the dogmas of the Church will stand in a similar position of peril if he does not add practice to creed.
IV. POPULARITY. Those guilty prophets of Israel were popular men. Their doom was to suffer the fate of the people they fawned upon. A moment’s reflection must make it apparent that the favour of the world, and even the favour of the Church, are no guarantees for the favour of Heaven; for men may be deceived or may judge by low, unworthy standards. But appearances are so flattering that people fall into the snare, and take comfort from the thought that all is going well with them among men. The one vital question is, “How do we stand before God?”
Eze 14:11
Religious reciprocity.
The relations of the soul with God are reciprocal. There is first of all a mutual approach, and there will be a communion so long as the religion is a living fact. The mutual relationship may be looked at from either of its centres. But first its common character must be considered.
I. RELIGION CONSISTS IN SPIRITUAL OWNERSHIP. There is an appropriation on both sides. This involves certain important facts.
1. Close connection. We hold what we own. It is true a man in England may be the proprietor of an estate in New Zealand, but even then he is connected with it by immediate agency. Religion implies a close relation between the soul and God.
2. Powers of use. We have rights over what we own. The inheritance which is so tied up that the heir cannot touch it or do anything with it, is scarcely to be called property; the rights of ownership are shadowy indeed in such a case. Real ownership confers rights and powers. So it is in religion. The mutual ownership here confers mutual rights and powers.
3. Value. A man may own what is worthlessleagues of Siberia or tons of desert sand. Still, as a rule, he makes the most of his property, and if he is proud of owning anything, we may be sure that he values it. Now, the mutual religious ownership of God and the soul is referred to in a way to show that it is prized.
II. THE SPIRITUAL OWNERSHIP OF THE BIBLE IS RECIPROCAL.
1. God owns the souls of his people. “That they may be my people” is the expression in regard to God’s design in the discipline of Israel. God regards his people as his “inheritance” (Psa 28:9).
(1) He has close relations with them. Truly connected with all his children, he draws more near to his own people, and communicates himself especially to them.
(2) He exercises special powers over them. God has a double right to command his confessed servants.
(3) He values them, as his jewels (Mal 3:17), as the “apple of his eye” (Psa 17:8).
2. God‘s people own God. They do not only confess his Name.
(1) They realize a close fellowship with him.
(2) They have rights of access and privileges of reconciled children in the home which do not as yet belong to the poor, wandering prodigals.
(3) They value these privileges, or, if they do not, they are like the elder son of the parable, and do not truly realize their ownership in God. It is indeed a great joy to be able to say, “My God.”
III. THE ESTABLISHING AND CONFIRMING OF THIS RECIPROCAL RELATIONSHIP IS THE GREAT END OF THE DISCIPLINE OF LIFE. It is the re-establishing of an old broken connection. Israel had once stood in this happy relation with God; she had lost it by sin. We are all God’s children by birth; but by sin we too have lost the privileges of sonship. The great hindrance lies in our rebellion against God. Israel could not boast of her descent from Abraham, nor of her covenant relationship with God, for the covenant was broken by sin, and the family claim disowned. The only way to secure this happy condition again is to give up the newer connection with sin. Now, God sends severe discipline to lead to that result (Eze 14:10). He uses his rod to drive the wanderer home.
Eze 14:14
Noah, Daniel, and Job.
I. THE SPLENDID PRE–EMINENCE OF NOAH, DANIEL, AND JOB. These three men are selected from ages far apart, and from the greatest diversity of circumstances. In temperament and external history there is little resemblance between them. Noah the patriarch, looms on the horizon of history in epic grandeur; Daniel is the brave hero in a tyrant’s court, and the man of skill and science in a civilized society; Job belongs to the region of pastoral life, and his tragic story carries us out among the Bedouin. So wide is the range of excellence! Good men are not confined to one age, nor to one set of circumstances, nor to one school of thought, nor to one style of life. They are not found exclusively in antiquity, in modern times, in town, in the country, among the great, among the simple. There is a breadth and a variety in the possibilities of saintliness. We need not all copy one type. He who cannot emulate the knowledge of Daniel may follow the patience of Job. Nevertheless, in spite of these diversities, there are certain great common features that belong to the three Old Testament saints, and account for the present association of their names.
1. All three were holy men, true to God and upright in life. His goodness is the greatest fact in a good man’s character, and it constitutes a bond of union between all the true people of God.
2. All three were faithful in circumstances of isolation. They all had to break from prevalent habits, and dare to stand aloneNoah against the world’s sin and impenitence, Daniel against heathenism, Job against a false orthodoxy.
3. All three were sorely tried. The faith of each was assailed in a severe and most exceptional manner.
4. All three were victorious by means of firm fidelity. They conquered, and they conquered in quiet waysby obedience, patience, faith, and steadfastness.
II. THE USELESSNESS OF THE INTERCESSION OF THESE THREE GREAT SAINTS. Though Noah, Daniel, and Job united to plead for Jerusalem, their intercession would be all in vain.
1. This was contrary to expectation. There is power in intercession; there is an especial power in the intercession of a “righteous man” (Jas 5:16); there is a still greater power in united prayer (Mat 18:20). Yet here the union of three of the very best men, selected from all ages, could not secure the safety of Jerusalem.
2. The cause of the predicted failure of such an intercession was hardened impenitence. God is not inexorable. He is ready to listen to prayer; nay, he is more anxious to save than we are to plead for salvation. He sent his Son to save the world, an infinitely greater act than the most impassioned pleading of the best men. Therefore the failure cannot be attributed to his hardness. But it would be unjust and injurious to spare the impenitent on any plea.
3. The intercession of Christ succeeds where that of the best. men fails. His prayers are worth those of ten thousand Noahs and Daniels and Jobs. “He ever liveth to make intercession for us;” and he alone, bearing the weight of the whole world’s guilt, makes atonement for the sins of all men with ample sufficiency. We could not trust to the intercession of the saints, even if we were sure of obtaining it; and the words of Ezekiel are only hypothetical, merely by way of illustration. Christ is our one Advocate with the Father. Nevertheless, for the impenitent even his mighty intercession, which shakes the very gates of hell, is ineffectual. Christ shed tears over Jerusalem, yet Jerusalem perished.
Eze 14:23
Purpose in providence.
I. GOD MAY APPEAR TO ACT WITHOUT CAUSE. We cannot discover design in all the movements of nature so easily as we may detect this in its structure. Though we may be startled at times by the aptness of the providential overruling of history, too often we are perplexed, dismayed, confounded. The wicked man flourishes like a green bay tree, and the good man is persecuted or perishes in a vain conflict with adverse circumstances. Psalmists of old noticed this familiar fact, and grieved over it (e.g. Psa 17:10). We must be prepared to expect mystery in nature and providence, since the experience of the past pellets to the very same difficulties which puzzle and perplex us when they suddenly confront us. “Lo, these are but the outskirts of his ways: and how small a whisper do we hear of him! But the thunder of his power who can understand?” (Job 26:14).
II. GOD DOES NOT ACT WITHOUT CAUSE.
1. The failure to discover a cause is no proof that it does not exist. We cannot limit the range of existence to the scope of our knowledge. There are hidden physical causes which the most searching scientific analysis has failed to trace: why may there not be also hidden final causes, deep purposes of God, which no mind of man can reach?
2. The proved purpose of God in known regions suggests the existence of a like purpose in unknown regions. We can trace more purpose in creation than in providence; but since the same God rules over both, it is to be presumed that the spirit of design which pervades the one runs through the other. We know that God has mind, and that he exercises what with us would be called forethought. Moreover, it is impossible to suppose that his principal dealings with his own children will be aimless when his less momentous works are instinct with purpose.
3. The righteousness and love of God make it certain that he does not act without a cause. Reckless action is morally defective. Ethics bears directly on motive and purpose. A just God must have a righteous object with which to act. The love of God emphasizes the assurance of purpose in providence, for no one would treat those dear to him with heedless indifference. This is especially applicable to the infliction of chastisement. A just and merciful God cannot send chastisement without adequate cause.
III. THE CAUSE OF GOD‘S ACTION WILL RE ULTIMATELY DECLARED. It is impossible for us to see it yet, for we cannot look beyond the grave, nor can we scale the heights of Divine thought in the infancy of our spiritual experience. The schoolboy cannot see the utility of all his lessons. But if he has been well taught in boyhood, when he is a man he will look back on the hard training with appreciative satisfaction, and will therefore order a similar process for his children. It would not be well for us to see the end yet, for we must be trained by faith. But earthly experience often throws back light on dark passages of life, and they then flash into a new meaning which calls forth gratitude as well as wonder. Beyond this world the fuller explanation will come. With the discovery of the hidden cause there will be ample consolation. The revelation of a good purpose in chastisement is its appropriate consolation (2Co 4:17).
HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON
Eze 14:1-5
Idolatry.
It certainly seems strange that, at this period of their national history, the Israelites should be chargeable with the folly and sin of idolatry. The admonitions against this offence had been so numerous, and the chastisements following its commission had been so severe, that the reader of Old Testament history is surprised to find that at so late a period the temptation had not been outgrown.
I. THE MULTITUDE AND VARIETY OF THE IDOLATRIES OF ISRAEL. The chosen people were exposed to corruption from neighbouring peoplesfrom the Phoenicians upon the north, the Syrians and Chaldeans upon the east, and the Egyptians upon the south. Each of these idolatries had its own characteristics, and in some way sprang from, and ministered to, the evil passions of human nature. It would almost seem as if the kings, the great men of the land, and the common people generally, chose such idols as harmonized with their own tastes or suited their own convenience. At all events, the prophet speaks of idols, in the plural, of the multitude of the idols, and of every idolater’s own special and peculiar divinities.
II. THE SEAT OF THESE IDOLATRIES. The people are said to have set them up “in their heart.” Hills, valleys, groves, high places, and altars and temples, were indeed consecrated, or rather desecrated, by idol worship. But all this was external. There was something much worse; the idols were set up in the inner nature of the worshippers, and there were honoured and served. That is to say, the belief in the government of a righteous and holy God having been abandoned, many of the Israelites exalted the vices and crimes which the deities of the heathen embodied, sanctioned, and encouraged, and came in their hearts to love the evils against which, as a nation, they were called to witness.
III. THE ESTRANGEMENT FROM GOD WHICH IDOLATRY PRODUCED. In setting up the idols in their hearts the people had been patting “a stumbling block of iniquity” before their face. The idols came between them and their God. The house of Israel, Jehovah exclaims, “are all estranged from me through their idols.” There can be no rivalry between the false gods and the true. The choice has ever to be made. To exalt an idol, a passion, a taste, a habit, an association, to a position above that occupied by the supreme Lord of all, is to dethrone him from his rightful place, to forfeit his regard, to ensure his displeasure.
IV. THE INDIGNANT RESPONSE OF GOD TO THE DISHONOUR DONE TO HIM. It was presumed that, with wicked inconsistency, some of the Israelites who had been seduced into idolatrous practices would nevertheless in some time of perplexity or affliction resort to the prophets of Jehovah to seek counsel, guidance, and comfort. In such circumstances, how would their conduct be regarded by the Lord? The word of the Lord to the prophet should be attentively considered, “Should I be inquired of at all by them? I the Lord will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols.” We are not to believe that any sincere, lowly, penitent, and believing suppliant would be rejected. But those who in their hearts cherished the idolatry which was their shame, and yet for some selfish purposes had the effrontery to approach the Lord for counsel and for help, were assured that their application should meet with no favorable response. They were double-hearted and insincere; and for such there is no blessing, and indeed no tolerance.
APPLICATION. It is the same today. If with all your hearts ye truly seek him, the request shall not be offered in vain. But it is useless to draw near to God with the lips while the heart is far from him.T.
Eze 14:6
Repent!
This was the admonition of every herald of God, whether under the old covenant or the new. It was the burden of Isaiah and Ezekiel, and it was also the burden of John the forerunner and of Jesus the Messiah. From this it may be inferred that human nature and life, on the one hand, and the character and government of God on the other hand, are such that repentance is an indispensable condition of the establishment of right relations between God and man.
I. THE NEED OF REPENTANCE. If we are upon Divine authority summoned to change, this must be because there is something wrong and reprehensible and dangerous in man’s heart and condition; if called upon to turn, we must be going the wrong way. The admonition of the text follows upon a picture of Israel’s idolatry and rebellion against a righteous God. The form of the sin may vary, but the principle of sin is ever the same. Whether in ancient or in modern times, in barbarous or in civilized states of society, men are universally prone to sin and guilty of sin. Where there is no sin, repentance is needless. It is in the departure of the heart’s affection and the life’s loyalty from the righteous God that man’s error lies. Israel’s idolatry symbolizes human iniquity.
II. THE NATURE or REPENTANCE. As more fully explained in New Testament Scripture, this is a change of heart, of disposition, leading to a change of character and of life. Mere sorrow for sin is not repentance, inasmuch as emotion of every kind is to some extent matter of temperament, and sorrow does not always lead to reformation. True repentance goes much deeper, and prepares the way forevery spiritual blessing. He who repents looks at things otherwise than before, tutus his thoughts into another channel, his steps into another path.
III. THE CALL TO REPENTANCE.
1. It is a gracious call. The justly offended sovereign may leave the rebel to the consequences of his acts. It is not thus that God deals with us. It is not his wish that any should perish. He sends his messengers to the offending race, with a summons to submission, with proffers of mercy.
2. It is an authoritative call. He commandeth men everywhere to repent. It is true that our Creator and Judge does not interfere with our liberty. Yet he publishes his will as binding upon every moral agent. He has a right to our repentance. It is our place to obey his summons, to offer the repentance which he demands and requires at our hands.
IV. THE DIFFICULTY OF REPENTANCE. This lies in the very character itself of the change. If verbal submission or outward conformity only were required, this would be comparatively easy. But God, who searcheth the heart, will not be satisfied save with the heart’s subjection and conversion. Old habits of unspirituality, worldliness, and selfishness are not readily abandoned. Especially in advanced life a radical and inward change is effected, for the most part, only with effort and difficulty. It needs a supernatural motive and a supernatural power to cause old things to pass away and all things to become new, to exchange darkness for light, and the service of Satan for God. Such a supernatural motive we have in the gospel; such a supernatural power and agency in the Holy Spirit.
V. THE FRUITS OF REPENTANCE.
1. These are exactly opposed in character to the fruits of self-indulgence. Other seed in other soil yields other harvest.
2. Reconciliation with God replaces enmity towards God. The conditions of salvation, as laid down in the New Testament, are “repentance towards God, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.”
3. Repentance works a change in a man’s own character; the principles and motives and ends of life are all new.
4. Through the power of repentance a man’s relations to his fellow men are changedjustice takes the place of wrong, and love that of hatred and uncharitabieness.T.
Eze 14:10
The misleader and the misled.
One of the features of Israelitish life at this epoch of the Captivity was the evident number and power of false prophets. General excitement and change are, of course, favourable to imposture. Men sought everywhere for guidance, comfort, hope; but, instead of having recourse to the authorized prophets of the Lord, they went to the pretentious and deceptive religious guides who seem to have traded upon the misfortunes of their country. These men were in the habit of saying what was expected and desired, of uttering smooth things, of buoying up the people with the hope that threatening calamities might be averted. Thus the effect of these men’s counsels was to prevent the people from true repentance and to hasten the country’s ruin. Ezekiel was directed to denounce these misleaders of the nation, and to declare that they should participate in the approaching calamities. “The punishment of the prophet shall be even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him.”
I. PROPHET AND PEOPLE WERE PARTAKERS IN SIN. The sin in essence was departure from God. Those who should have repaired to the Source of all wisdom and authority turned aside, and “sought unto” ignorant, self-seeking impostors. In this they sinned; and the sin was shared by those to whom they had recourse. These pretended prophets knowingly misled the people; for they saw no vision and heard no voice, and their utterances were dictated, not by the law of Divine righteousness, but by the aims of human policy. People and prophets sinned together, and sinned alike.
II. PROPHET AND PEOPLE WERE PARTAKERS IN CONSEQUENT ERROR. The counsel which was thus given and accepted, and consequently acted upon, led the people astray. The only hope for Jerusalem and for the Jews was a general humiliation, confession, and repentance, a turning unto the Lord. From such a course they were deterred by the deception which they practised upon one another, and the delusion which they mutually encouraged. Hence the error into which they were misled, the error of continued idolatry, unbelief, and rebellion.
III. PROPHET AND PEOPLE WERE PARTAKERS IN COMMON PUNISHMENT. It would have been unjust to punish only those who were led astray, for their false guides and evil counsellors were to blame for misleading them. It would have been unjust to punish only the false prophets; for these men were induced and encouraged to practise their deceiving arts by the readiness of their dupes to receive and to act upon their advice. Hence a common guilt entailed a common penalty. There was little distinction in crime; there was little distinction in punishment. Retribution is a fact in the government of the Supreme, who can never look upon iniquity. “Though Land join in hand, the wicked shall not go unpunished.”T.
Eze 14:11
The purposes of punishment.
No thoughtful person can believe that the supreme Lord of all inflicts punishments upon men because he delights in the sufferings of his creatures, or is indifferent to those sufferings. This passage of Scripture, like other passages, teaches us that, when God punishes, it is with a view to the good of those who are punished, or of others, or of both.
I. THE IMMEDIATE AND REMEDIAL PURPOSE OF PUNISHMENT. It is a question how far punishment should aim at the correction of the individual offender, how far at the production of a wholesome impression upon society. Whether the false prophets and those who resorted to them were spared to profit by the chastisement which befell them, we have not the means of judging. But in any case the punitive afflictions were intended for the general good of the house of Israel.
1. Radical error is corrected. “That the house of Israel may go no more astray from me.”
2. The habits of transgressors are reformed. “Neither defile themselves any more with all their transgressions.”
II. THE ULTIMATE AND POSITIVE PURPOSE OF PUNISHMENT. The remedy for disease must first be applied, then health will follow. So it is in spiritual things. Forgiveness is a means to sanctification. Salvation is both from sin and unto obedience and holiness. Accordingly, the prophet represents the re-establishment, the fresh ratification, of the covenant between God and Israel as the final purpose of all the chastening inflicted. The two sides of this covenant are presented as in their harmony and completeness justifying the discipline appointed by Divine wisdom and beneficence.
1. “That they may be my people.” That is, not only in name, but in reality; not only de jure, but de facto.
2. “That I maybe their God.” That is, theirs to acknowledge with sincere reverence, to love with devotion and fervour, and to serve with diligence and fidelity.T.
Eze 14:14
Illustrious piety.
Ezekiel was especially commissioned to set forth and to impress upon the people the individual, the personal, aspect of religion. In many places, as here, he lays stress upon the accountability of each several man to God. One cannot deliver another from deserved punishment. Each must answer for himself, must reap the reward of his deeds, whether good or evil. A man’s piety cannot save his ungodly neighbour when the time of reckoning and judgment arrives. No matter bow good our friends may be, their goodness does not excuse our irreligion. If the city has sinned, the city must suffer. Even if the wisest and the best of men are in it and plead for it, the city cannot be justified or spared for their sake. Men so conspicuous for virtue and piety as Noah, Daniel, and Job have not power to save the land from famine, from the sword, from noisome beasts, from the pestilence, when these are sent as chastisements from the Lord of all.
I. THE VIRTUES FOR WHICH THESE THREE MEN WERE CELEBRATED. Why these, rather than other illustrious instances of human goodness, were selected is a question which cannot be answered with certainty. But the context disposes the student of This passage of prophecy to consider these men as instances of remarkable piety in the midst of surrounding ungodliness. Thus Noah stands in contrast with the self-indulgent and irreligious population of the world immediately before the Flood; as a preacher of righteousness, he protested against the sins and the secularism and unbelief of his time. Daniel also was “faithful among the faithless;” he and a selected few were called upon to witness against the idolatry of their heathen rulers and masters, and against much unfaithfulness on the part of their companions in captivity. Job was a true servant of Jehovah, who was encompassed by idolatries to which he did not yield, and who alone of his own kindred was faithful to his God in all his ways. These three men all saw disasters come upon those with whom they were associated. If they could not deliver their neighbours in the day of judgment, if their virtues and piety availed only for themselves, was it credible that their presence in Jerusalem would save the city and the land from destruction? It is observable that the “righteousness” of these three men is admitted, and with commendation, by the Lord God himself. There may be danger in praising and flattering the good because of their goodness. But there are occasions when it is just and right to acknowledge the moral excellence, the human merit, of men, always with a clear understanding that all goodness is from God, that in his view all human character is imperfect, and that nothing can be claimed from him as a just reward even by the purest and the most useful among mankind.
II. THE FAVOUR WITH WHICH THESE THREE MEN WERE REGARDED. It was an honour to be selected by a good man and a prophet like Ezekiel for special approval and commendation. But it was a higher honour to be mentioned thus by the direction of the Lord God himself. It is not erroneous to attribute to the Eternal a personal interest in the sons of time, a regard of that nature with which one who judges with justice and appreciation esteems the excellent among his fellow beings. On the contrary, Scripture justifies us in taking such a view of our Father God, who is never represented as indifferent and heartless, but rather as looking with satisfaction and favour upon those who delight in his Law and do his will. There have been occasions upon which the intercessory prayers offered by such have been received with favour, and have been graciously answered, to the relic and comfort of those for whom they have been presented.
III. THE POWERLESSNESS OF EVEN SUCH RIGHTEOUS AND BELOVED SERVANTS OF GOD TO DELIVER THE REBELLIOUS FROM PUNISHMENT. It is evidently intended to convey the impression that God was willing to do great things at the intercession of men so gnarl and so favoured as those named; but that he would not for their sake contradict his own declarations, reverse his own laws, and abandon his own moral government. Hence the lesson may be learnt that “every man shall bear his own burden,” that in the day of account no man shall deliver his brother. No hope can be vainer than that of those who rely for their salvation upon the merits and influence of their family, their friends, their Church, however dear to God. It is plain that, as religion is a personal matter, as its claims come home to the individual, every hearer of God’s Word is bound to use for himself those means by which he may, by God’s grace, be delivered from the chain of sin and the doom of death.T.
Eze 14:22, Eze 14:23
The reasonableness of God’s action.
There is that in human nature to which religion appeals, and by which religion asks to be judged. Religion does indeed speak with authority, but the authority is that of wisdom and righteousness. Man’s judgment and conscience approve the order of Divine providence, and the tenor of Divine revelation. More particularly, upon the suggestion of this passage, it should be remarked that
I. THE DEALINGS OF GOD INCLUDE BOTH JUDGMENT AND SPARING MERCY. The prophet speaks both of “the sore judgments upon Jerusalem,” and also of “the remnant that shall be brought forth, both sons and daughters.” God is ever a God of justice and a God of mercy.
II. GOD‘S DEALINGS OFTEN PERPLEX OBSERVERS. “His ways are in the great waters.” “Who can by searching find out God?” The firmest believer in Divine providence has frequent occasion to confess his utter inability to explain the events which happen around him. Why are some men prosperous, whilst others pass through affliction and calamity? Why do some escape in seasons of disaster, whilst others are overwhelmed? Why are God’s ways often to all appearance inconsistent with a regard to the equitable treatment of the wicked and the good? Such questions ever recur. They may, indeed, in the case of some observers, never be put; but when put they cannot be answered.
III. YET TO REFLECTING MINDS GOD‘S DEALINGS DO, ON THE WHOLE, APPEAR CONSISTENT WITH REASON AND RIGHTEOUSNESS. Individual facts may be difficult to reconcile with our religious beliefs, but general principles and laws, when we rise to them, are recognized as just and good. And the higher the view we take of human nature and human life, the more do anomalies disappear. If we clearly perceive that man is made for goodness, and not for enjoyment, that the earthly life is a discipline and a preparation, that the great end of all is that man may share the Divine nature and the Divine life,such convictions will help us to see and feel the wisdom and the goodness that distinguish God’s government of men. There is in God’s ways no error and no caprice.
IV. GOD‘S DEALINGS WITH NATIONS, AS WITH INDIVIDUALS, ARE INTENDED TO PROMOTE MORAL IMPROVEMENT. The expression used is very remarkable. The Lord assures those who observe his treatment of Israel that upon reflection they shall be “comforted” concerning the evil brought upon Jerusalem. The wisdom, and even the true benevolence, of the Divine ways shall in due time be made apparent. The cause for which what has been done has been ordered by providence shall be recognized and shall be approved as justifying the great Ruler and his government. Thus shall his Name be glorified.T.
HOMILIES BY J.D. DAVIES
Eze 14:1-11
Disastrous answers to prayer.
Ezekiel’s predictions had been so gloomy and adverse, that the ciders of Israel in Babylon were staggered. They could not acquiesce in their nation’s ruin. Hopeful that some message more favourable might come from God, they sought the prophet’s presence. We must not place these elders in the same category with those in Jerusalem who preferred the flattering speeches of the false prophets. Nevertheless, they were not right at heart. The taint of idolatry was upon these also. Good and evil may be mingled in men’s hearts in different degrees.
I. OUTWARD TROUBLE OFTEN DRIVES MEN TO GOD. It is not always so. It sometimes chafes and exasperates men. In their pain they sometimes curse God and blaspheme him yet the more. Perhaps affliction, in itself, has no softening, subduing influence. But the Spirit of God frequently uses affliction as his instrument, his pruning knife, in order to make the soul fruitful. This much is certain, that many have found a season of affliction a season of salvation. Certain it is that “whom the Lord loveth he correcteth;” and not a few of the redeemed adopt David’s language as their own, “Before I was afflicted, I went astray; but now have I kept thy Word.”
II. YET THE RETURN IS SOMETIMES OUTWARD, NOT COMPLETE. In human nature there is a strong bias to be satisfied with what is merely outward in religion. To utter words of prayer, we imagine, must be successful To come into God’s house, no matter what may be our motives or intentions, we think, must please God. Do we not confer a favour on him? Has he not engaged to do us good? Yet how often is the heart away when the body is present? How often do We bring our idols with us into that sacred place? How often do we worship mammon, or pleasure, or fashion, under pretence of worshipping God? How often do our words far exceed our desires? Hypocrisy and idolatry are as common in sanctuaries now as in the days of ancient Israel. Frequently the heart is preoccupied with its own wishes and plans and ambitions, while we are using the words, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” We want our own ends, while we profess to yield unto God.
III. GOD REPLIES, NOT TO OUR WORDS, BUT TO OUR TEMPER OF MIND. “I the Lord will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols.” Men often think that they lay a trap for God, but God takes them in their own snare. We try to use God for the attainment of some worldly end, and we think sometimes that we succeed, but we are always outwitted. Men’s words are often veils to hide the facts, and we may deceive others; we cannot deceive God. To give to such men blessing would be to do them harm. For such the only real blessing is self-humiliation, inward contrition. True faith in God is the only measure of success, and faith is loyal, candid, self-submissive. Four sympathetic men brought a paralytic to Jesus; but Jesus first read the yearning desire of the sufferer’s heart, and said, “Man, thy sins are forgiven thee.” For God is a Spirit, and deals with the human spirit. Therefore in prayer we should always imitate David, “I lift up my soul unto thee.”
IV. GOD‘S AIM IS LOFTIER THAN THE AIM OF THE SUPPLIANT. The aim of the suppliant is usually temporary reliefdeliverance from some present evil. But God sees that present trouble is the best blessingthe rough husk that contains nourishing meat. Our object is enjoyment; God’s object is soul profit. He yearns to see repentancethe first cry of the new life. “Thus saith the Lord God; Repent.” God’s aim is remote, but right noble. His design is that “the house of Israel may go no more astray.” His purpose is that “they may be my people, and I may be their God.” If we will not allow God’s purpose to prevail, he will not allow our low and vain purposes to succeed. If we set ourselves in hostility against God, only ruin can result. If God sends us to Nineveh, and we sail away to Tarshish, we may expect to meet an overwhelming storm. God’s will must become our will; then only shall we have rest.
V. GOD TURNS UNSUCCESSFUL SUPPLIANTS INTO BEACONS. “I will set my face against that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb.” As battlefields, saturated with human gore, yield larger crops of grain, so out of all evil God will bring ultimate good. Cain’s published sin served as a restraint upon others. Lot’s wife became a standing witness for God and for righteousness. In the long run, everything contributes to the good of mankind. The wrath of man shall bring praise to God. Man’s crime at Calvary has become the fount of greatest blessing. Even human sin shall serve as a dark background, the better to set forth the brilliant hues of Divine mercy. Yet how slow men are to note the various winnings which God sets up! Self-examination is a rare virtue,
VI. ANSWERED PRAYER MAY BE HEAVIEST DISASTER. The Gadarenes prayed that Jesus would depart out of their coasts, and he departed. The man who has practised deceit shall be himself deceived. Pharaoh hardened his heart against God until at length God joined in the process: “The Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart.” He who will not accept any answer from God except that which chimes in with his own wishes shall have his wish gratified, but it will prove his ruin. To Ephraim God at last said, “He is joined to his idols: let him alone.” He who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit is “in danger of eternal sin.” And this is the heaviest punishment a man cart receive. “He that is filthy, let him be filthy still.” The most notable example of this principle in God’s government is seen in the case of Ahab. He had set his heart upon war against Ramoth-Gilead. He would not be dissuaded. Yet he wished to have the appearance of God’s approval, in order to gain allies. At length the Lord said, “Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-Gilead?” “And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, I will persuade him. And the Lord said, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and shalt prevail also.” If foolish men prefer flattering delusions to the naked truth, God will at length abandon them to this fatal influence. He punishes sin with sin.
VII. THE LAW OF RIGHTEOUSNESS ALLOWS OF NO EXEMPTION. Pauper and prince are amenable to the same law in the kingdom of God. “The punishment of the prophet shall be even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him.” No office, however honourable, will serve as a cloak for sin, nor alleviate the weight of punishment. Righteousness deals with man as man, and takes no note of names or titles. If a king drinks poison, it produces the selfsame effect as if a ploughboy drank it. It will avail us nothing to say to the white-robed Judge, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name?” Office may increase our responsibility; it does not add to our purity; it gives no passport to heaven. Not genius, nor power, commends men to God; only moral goodness. “In this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject to you; but rather rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”D.
Eze 14:12-23
Human atonement valueless.
The hopeful among the Jews probably remembered that in times of former correction God had yielded, in some measure, to the intercessions of the saints. If they had not gained all that they asked, they had gained some advantage. Why might that not occur again? Might not God concede some of his demand? This was impossible, for the first necessity was that righteous government be maintained. No good can ever come to men by tampering with righteousness.
I. SIN AGAINST GOD IS AN IMMEASURABLE EVIL. It is a common thing for men to affect surprise at the severity of God’s chastisement. Yet this is only an outcome of their ignorance. They have no conception of the tremendous evil of sin. Its magnitude defies all human measurement. We cannot follow it into all its ramifications of mischief. We see the beginning of the vicious stream; the ending is beyond our sight. It is an injury to the moral universe, and we cannot estimate it. Had Eve foreseen all the painful results of taking the forbidden fruit, surely she would have resisted the tempter.
II. FLAGRANT SIN DEMANDS EVERY SORT OF PENALTY. It is not always possible for men to discriminate between great sins and small; yet even men can discover when sin becomes rapidly contagious, and when it is largely influential for evil When a man, by a plausible embellishment of vice, entraps ten thousand others into the snare, and makes his vice fashionable, popular, universal,his sin is heinous. As for a disease that has become epidemic the severest remedies are employed, so when a sin becomes national, terrible chastisement is demanded. To vindicate his righteous law, God sometimes employs the scourge of pestilence; sometimes famine; sometimes war; sometimes a plague of locusts. But when iniquity breaks out with virulence, or becomes aggravated and stubborn, he will combine all his methods of chastisement, in order to cleanse the land. Always his punishments are well apportioned, never excessive. The balance is in the hand of Infinite Wisdom.
III. MEN ARE INFLUENTIAL FOR GOOD ACCORDING TO THEIR RIGHTEOUSNESS. The messenger of Jehovah singles out for mention three men who were eminent for piety and faith. His language implies that if any men could prevail with God to abate his penalties, these were the men. It was useless for him to make mention of men of inferior piety. Any righteous man would not suffice. To have any hope of success, he must be a man of transcendent purity. This conviction was universal in the minds of the people. It was founded on reason, on experience, on the records of past history. Had not Moses gained a respite for the nation by his righteous intercession? Had not Samuel averted the stroke of Divine anger from Israel? Had not Noah’s righteousness secured the safety of seven persons beside himself? Why should it not be so again? Daniel was living among thema man eminent for loyalty to Jehovah. Were not Jeremiah and Ezekiel interceding for the people? If anything could save the nation from utter destruction, surely it was the righteous zeal of these godly men!
IV. YET HUMAN RIGHTEOUSNESS IS INCOMPETENT TO ABATE A SINGLE PENALTY FROM OTHERS. A man’s personal righteousness will always serve as a screen for himself, never as a shield for others. Far be it from God to destroy the righteous with the wicked! This would he to obliterate eternal distinctions. This would be for God to act against himself The righteous are safe when dangers are thickest. They have an invulnerable panoply. And the prayers of the righteous have often gained temporary advantages for the unrighteous. Such intercession has obtained a brief respite for repentancehas obtained a postponement of the catastrophe. Yet as a righteous man, however zealous, has no power to transform the moral nature of another man, he cannot deliver him when God appeareth for judgment. Eternal justice is the main pillar of the universe, and, if justice fails, the universe wilt be shivered.
V. MUCH LESS CAN HUMAN RIGHTEOUSNESS AVERT FROM MEN ALL DIVINE PENALTIES. This is an argument ad hominem. If the righteousness of the best men that ever lived cannot quench one fiery dart of God’s vengeance, much less can it quench all the darts in God’s quiver. There was a propriety in every particular form of chastisement which God employed; it would therefore be unbecoming every attribute of his nature to suspend that chastisement, while the causal sin yet remained. Men little surmise the terrible necessity there is for retribution, because they do not perceive the magnitude of sin. It is a fearful thing to provoke the anger of the living God.
VI. GOD WILL ULTIMATELY MAKE HIS WISDOM AND RIGHTEOUSNESS CLEAR TO MEN. It is possible that the elders of Israel did not immediately acquiesce in the first necessity for this severe course. They did not know the full extent of Israel’s sin. Ignorance is often the root of discord. But God would spare a fewmost probably the bestof the inhabitants of Jerusalem. These should in due time be conveyed to Tel-Abib, and join the older members of the Captivity. But so base and intolerable will the characters of this remnant appear, that the elders themselves will confess that God’s judgments were not a whit too severethat a less chastisement would be inadequate. This act of God exhibits the graciousness of his character. He deigns to explain and to justify his ways unto his trustful children. “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him.” He takes them into his fullest confidence.D.
HOMILIES BY W. JONES
Eze 14:1-11
Hypocritical inquirers of God.
“Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me,” etc. In the former chapter false prophets and prophetesses were severely rebuked by the Lord God through his true prophet. In this one certain elders who came to Ezekiel to inquire of the Lord through him, while their hearts were given up to idols, are reproved, exhorted, and warned. The paragraph before us presents the following connected topics for consideration, which we will notice in the order in which they are presented by the prophet.
I. MEN HYPOCRITICALLY INQUIRING OF THE LORD GOD. “Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me. And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,” etc. (verses 1-3). These elders who came to inquire of God through his prophet were probably of the number of his fellow exiles. They came to consult the prophet of Jehovah, yet they were idolaters at heart. They had “set up their idols in their heart,” etc. (verse 3). Their idolatry involved practical atheism. Genuine belief in the existence of the Lord Jehovah would have effectually precluded idolatry. Men of such character could not sincerely inquire of God. There can be no real approach unto him without faith in the reality of his being. “He that cometh to God must believe that he is,” etc. (Heb 11:7). Their seeking information or counsel of the Lord was not true; they were not whole-hearted in so doing, but hypocritical. They are, says Hengstenherg, the “representatives of those who only outwardly fear God, but inwardly serve the spirit of the world and the age.” How many meet in God’s house, unite in his worship, and listen to the ministry of his holy Word, as though they were genuine inquirers of his will, who yet have idols in their hearts! Seeming to sincerely “inquire in his temple,” yet they are devoted to the pursuit of rank or riches, power or pleasure, etc.
II. HYPOCRITICAL INQUIRERS OF GOD ANSWERED ACCORDING TO THEIR OWN HEART. “Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart,” etc. (verses 4, 5). Different interpretations are given of these two verses. Thus Hengstenberg: “The question in verse 4” (he places a note of interrogation at the end of that verse; so also does Schroder) “is in the sense of a negative, ‘I will not answer;’ and this negative has its ground in verse 5. God leaves sinners without answer or help, that they may come to a knowledge of their sin. ‘To take in the heart’ (verse 5) is to touch the conscience.” Another interpretation is that he would give them an answer as delusive as the idols which they had taken into their hearts. The case presents itself to us thus: The spiritual state of these elders prevented them from truly hearing the word of the Lord. They were not sincere in their inquiries of him. They would not receive the truth which his servants Jeremiah and Ezekiel proclaimed. Nay, more, in their then moral condition they could not receive the truth of God. With their hearts devoted to idols, how could they apprehend and held fast the pure words of the Lord? So he would send them a message answerable to their own character. These “idolatrous oracle seekers have to expect what corresponds to their state.” Hence their own hearts were their seducers. God deals with men according to their character. “With the merciful thou wilt show thyself merciful,” etc. (Psa 18:25, Psa 18:26). “The sin and shame, the pain and ruin, of sinners are all from themselves, and their own hearts are the snares in which they are taken; they seduce them, they betray them; their own consciences witness against them, condemn them, and are a terror to them. If God take them, if he discover them, if he convict them, if he bind them over to his judgment, it is all by ‘their own heart.’ ‘O Israeli thou hast destroyed thyself.’ The house of Israel is ruined by its own hands, ‘because they are all estranged from me through their idols'” (Matthew Henry).
III. HYPOCRITICAL INQUIRERS OF GOD EXHORTED TO COMPLY WITH THE CONDITIONS OF ACCEPTABLE APPROACH UNTO HIM. “Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God; Repent, and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations.” Here is a true message from God for them if they will accept it. Repentance towards God was their present and imperative duty. From the Lord the house of Israel had grievously departed, and their true repentance would be a returning to him, and renunciation of their abominable idolatries. Repentance is not mere regret, or self-reproach, or sorrow, or tears. It is that grief for sin which leads to reformation of life. “Repentance,” says Shakespeare, “is heart’s sorrow, and a clear life ensuing.” Now, this was necessary as a condition of approaching God acceptably. “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me” (Psa 66:18). Men should “pray in every place, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting” (1Ti 2:8). “Let us draw near with a true heart in fulness of faith,” etc. (Heb 10:22). When men inquire of God in this spirit, he will grant unto them gracious answers.
IV. HYPOCRITICAL INQUIRERS OF GOD WARNED OF THE CONSEQUENCES OF PERSISTENCE IN SIN. “For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourneth in Israel, which separateth himself from me,” etc. (verses 7-11). Here they are solemnly warned that, if they would not turn from sin unto God:
1. They should encounter the Divine displeasure. “I will set my face against that man,” etc. (verse 8). God cannot look upon sin with indifference. He hates it. And if sinners persist in it, he will set his face against them, and visit them because of their transgressions He did this in the case of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Siege and famine, pestilence, slaughter, and captivity were the consequences of their aggravated and long continued. sins and crimes.
2. They should become the victims of their chosen delusions. “If the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that prophet,” etc. (verses 9, 10). They had chosen idols for their gods; they believed the false prophets rather than the true ones; and if they persisted in their choice they must take the consequences thereof. This was God’s answer to their inquiries. He had shown them that by true repentance they would put themselves into right relations with him. But if they would not repent, he would no more speak to them by his prophets, but by his judgments in the just consequences of their sins. Their chosen prophets would he deceived, and would deceive those who inquired of them, and both the prophets and the inquirers should “bear the punishment of their iniquity.” But in what sense can the Lord be said to deceive the false prophet, and then to punish him? It is certain that he cannot sin, and that he is not the nuttier of sin. “The deception proceeds originally from indwelling sin (Jas 1:14), otherwise it could not be the object of punishment.” But it was both permitted and regulated by God. He controls both sin and the consequences thereof for the accomplishment of his own glorious purposes (cf. Psa 76:10). When Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem, he did so of his own accord, with no thought of doing the will of the Lord Jehovah, yet unconsciously he was doing that will; and frequently the Lord says that he would do those things which the army of the Chaldean monarch did (cf. Eze 4:16; Eze 5:8-17). God employed the Chaldeans, and regulated and controlled their movements, for the working out of his own plans; yet they were free in those movements, and had no idea that in them they were the agents of the Lord God of Israel. So these false prophets were used by him in the way of judgment, and were controlled by him; but they acted voluntarily in the course which they pursued, and they who consulted them did so of their own will; and both of them should become the victims of their cherished delusions, and “bear the punishment of their iniquity.”
3. They should become the means, under God, of leading his people to fidelity unto him. “That the house of Israel may go no more astray from me,” etc. (verse 11). This was the Divine design in the punishment of the sinful people. “‘God punishes sins by means of sins,’ but the end is the re-establishment of righteousness. His people, purified by trials, will cleave to him whom they have forsaken, and become a converted, sanctified people, joined unto their God by a covenant which they will not break” (‘Speaker’s Commentary’). The judgments of God aim at the promotion of the well being of man.
CONCLUSION.
1. Here is solemn warning against insincere approach unto God.
2. Here is encouragement to approach God sincerely and humbly. (Verses 6, 11.)W.J.
Eze 14:20
The privilege and power of the godly, their nature and limitation.
“Though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, saith the Lord God,” etc. Three very distinguished men are here mentioned, two of whom had long passed away from this world and all its scenes, the other was yet amongst men upon earth. Yet Noah and Job are spoken of as still in being. Absent from this world, they were yet living and present in the great universe of God. These undesigned testimonies to man’s immortality, to be met with frequently in the Scriptures, afford the basin for a strong argument in support of that fact.
“The dead are like the stars by day,
Withdrawn from mortal eye;
But not extinct, they hold their way
In glory through the sky.
Spirits from bondage thus set free
Vanish amidst immensity,
Where human thought, like human sight,
Fails to pursue their trackless flight.”
Daniel at this time, like Ezekiel, was an exile in Babylon, and was eminent both for his piety and his position. Noah, Daniel, and Job were all good men and great men; they are enrolled amongst the most illustrious of our race. The prophet in this paragraph predicts “four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence,” by reason of their idolatry and other sins. eze-4 And in the text he declares that, when the hour of judgment arrives, even the presence of such men as Noah, Daniel, and Job in the doomed city would not avail to save any but their own souls.
I. THE PRIVILEGES OF GOOD MEN. Our text announces the safety of good men even in the extremest dangers and the most irresistible judgments. “They shall deliver their own souls by their righteousness.” History affords remarkable examples of the deliverance of the good in times of sore peril (cf. Gen 7:23; Gen 18:32; Gen 19:15-25). But it is not often that the godly are exempted from the calamities and judgments which befall the wicked. Thus Daniel, Ezekiel, and other holy men were carried into Chaldea with those to whom the exile was the punishment of idolatry, and were now suffering that exile with them. But invariably “they deliver their own souls by their righteousness.” “If their bodies be not delivered, yet their souls are.” Amid the overthrow of cities, the ruin of countries, or even the wreck of the world, their spiritual interests are secure. Moreover, though they are not exempt from general calamities, yet to them the calamities wear a different aspect from that which they present to the wicked. They are sustained under them, and enabled to hear them with heroic patience. The suffering which comes to the wicked as the judgment of a stern Ruler comes to the righteous as the chastisement of a loving Father. And, by his grace, out of the scars of suffering, God will evolve the beauties of holiness. The darkness and anguish which embitter and harden the heart of the wicked will increase the trust and tenderness and refine the graces of the righteous.
II. THE POWER OF GOOD MEN. Our text implies that Noah, Daniel, and Job had power to do much for their fellow men; that they could do much in averting destruction and saving man. The warning that these three saints would not be able to screen them from this judgment implies the belief on the part of the people of Jerusalem that the good men amongst them, by their lives and prayers, would turn aside the threatening storm. If any can turn away the judgments of Heaven from a nation of evil doers, good men can do it. God may spare the wicked because of the righteous. The power of good men to avert Divine wrath from a people has at least two branches.
1. The power of moral influence with men. They are “the salt of the earth.” Were it not for their influence society would become hopelessly corrupt, and the storm of God’s judgment would sweep the guilty race from the earth.
2. The power of intercession with God. We have illustrious examples of this (cf. Gen 18:23-32; Exo 32:11-14, Exo 32:30-34; Num 11:1-3; Num 14:13-20; Num 16:44-50). Who can estimate the power of the intercession of good men?
III. THE LIMITATION OF THE POWER OF GOOD MEN. “Though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter.” “When the sin of a people has come to its height, and the decree has gone forth for their ruin, the piety and prayers of the best men shall not prevail to finish the controversy. This is here asserted again and again, that, though these three men were in Jerusalem at this time, yet they should deliver neither son nor daughter, not so much as the little ones should be spared for their sakes.” This shows how dark and terrible the guilt of the inhabitants of Jerusalem must have been (cf. Jer 15:1; Jer 7:16; Jer 11:14). When the forbearance of God is exhausted, any number of the holiest of men cannot ward off the stroke of doom. Character may become so utterly depraved that reformation is impossible, and then nothing but judgment remains. Moral disease may become so deeply rooted and strong that no influence can overcome it, no power eradicate it, and then destruction is inevitable. When the Divine means of reformation have all been tiled, and all have failed, what remains but utter ruin? “Abused patience will turn at last into inexorable wrath.”
CONCLUSION.
1. Our subject speaks earnestly to parents concerning the salvation of their children. If you would save your children you must begin to work early and wisely. While the chains of evil habits are unforged, and the heart is susceptible of sacred impressions, and the conscience sensitive, and the sympathies tender, we must seek the salvation of our children if we would secure it. Oh, the time may come when the holiest of men “shall deliver neither son nor daughter” from the storms of God’s judgment!
2. Our text reminds us all that salvation is a personal concern. Our kinsfolk and friends may be pious in life and powerful in prayer; but their piety will not avail for them and for us. No man possesses superfluous grace. Continuance in sin may lead, nay, must lead, to a moral condition in which the prayers of the most loving and sainted parents may avail nothing for their own son or daughter. You must believe on Jesus Christ for yourself, repent of your sins yourself. You must “work out your own salvation.” There is no working by proxy here. “Each man shall bear his own burden.” “Each one of us shall give account of himself to God.” Therefore “strive to enter in by the narrow door,” etc. “Give the more diligence to make your calling and election sure.”W.J.
Eze 14:22, Eze 14:23
The righteousness of God doubted and vindicated.
“Yet, behold, therein shall be left a remnant that shall be brought forth,” etc. Our text, as Fairbairn points out, “is addressed to the people already in exile, who are regarded as viewing the destruction about to be executed on Jerusalem with astonishment and some degree of dissatisfaction. The prophet tells such there would certainly be a remnantnot, however, in the proper sense, as if they were themselves deserving persons, or spared for blessing for the sake of the pious among thembut a remnant still so wedded to sin, and so manifestly deserving of severe chastisement, that every one would recognize the justice of God’s dealings toward them. ‘Ye shall see,’ to use the language of Calvin, ‘the men to be so wicked, that ye shall be forced to confess the city was deserving of destruction, and the men themselves worthy of death. And instead of murmuring and fretting against God, ye shall be satisfied it could not have been otherwise ordered, their wickedness was of so desperate a nature; so that with soothed and tranquil minds, ye shall henceforth proclaim my righteousness, and cease any more to utter the complaints which now disturb your minds!'” Let us consider
I. THE CONCERN OF THE GOOD FOR THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN HIS JUDGMENTS. Ezekiel foresaw that his fellow exiles would be amazed at the sternness of the judgments of God upon Jerusalem. Those judgments would be of great severity. And amongst the exiles there were some pious persons who would be troubled with doubts as to whether the Lord had sufficient cause for what he had done there. They would be distressed with the suspicion that perhaps the visitation of God had been disproportionate in its severitythat the sins of the people had not merited such punishment. And they would be distressed with misgivings as to the righteousness of God in the matter. “So long as we do not understand that God on just grounds acts sternly, so long are our souls distressed and tormented.” Somewhat thus Abraham felt respecting the doom pronounced on Sodom and Gomorrah. “That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked, that so the righteous should be as the wicked; that be far from thee: shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” We have here, as Robertson, in fragmentary hut striking and suggestive notes, remarks, “a suspicion of the Divine justice: the most horrible with which the mind of man can be tempted. Dreadful to doubt one’s own salvation, and feel suspended over the gulf! But a more terrible gulf when we doubt whether all is right here. ‘Oh, to sue the misery of this bleeding world!’ Consider for a moment the misconception of these words, ‘Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?’ They have been used to prove the sovereignty of God. God is Judge, therefore what he does is right. He has a right, and therefore it is right. But Abraham does not say that. So far from acquiescing in the predestinarian feelingit is to be, and therefore it is right; God is a sovereign, and may do what he pleaseshe is precisely doubting this, whether, though God be Judge, his deeds are right, taking the moral sense of Abraham as a text, and considering it horrible if God’s acts do not agree with it. It is a perilous way of speaking, ‘God has a right to decree what he will; my salvation, your damnation.’ It is not so the Bible speaks. It appeals to the sense of justice, ‘Are not my ways equal?’ etc. God never says, ‘I create a thing right, therefore I do it.’ God’s will does not make a thing right. It is God’s character which determines his will. For else, if the devil had created this world, wrong would be right, because his will, and we should have the terrible doctrinemight makes right” (‘Life and Letters,’ Appendix 3.) This is as applicable to the doubts and fears of the exiles as to the righteousness of God in his judgments upon Jerusalem, as to the doubts of Abraham as to the doom of the cities of the plain. This concern of godly men for the righteousness of God’s dealings implies:
1. An inward sense of righteousness. It is a testimony to the existence and exercise and majesty of the moral sense in man. It is an outcome of the working of conscience.
2. Deep solicitude for the honour of God. Any doubt of his holiness, or of the rectitude of his doings, causes sore pain to his people, and it does so because the glory of his character is unspeakably dear to them.
II. THE CONVICTION OF THE GOOD OF THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN HIS JUDGMENTS. The Lord, by the prophet, assures the troubled exiles that they should know treat he had not done without cause all that he had done in Jerusalem.
1. This conviction would be wrought by the manifestation of the wickedness of the people. “Therein shall be left a remnant that shall be carried forth, both sons and daughters: behold, they shall come forth unto you, and ye shall see their way and their doings,” etc. The remnant that should be carried into captivity would make it clear, from their degradation and sin, that the judgments inflicted upon Jerusalem were deserved by the guilty inhabitants thereof. The exhibition of their wickedness would manifest the justice of God in their punishment. The pious exiles in Chaldea would perceive “that such corruption had deserved such destruction.” “God’s righteousness is clearly manifest in those that perish, as well as by means of those that escape.”
2. This conviction would bring peace to the good. “Ye shall be comforted concerning the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem,” etc. “The comfort lies in the justification of the ways of God.” Their painful doubts as to his righteousness would be destroyed. Their faith in him would be established. And faith brings peace and rest to the soul.
3. The production of this conviction was ordered by God. He did not chide or condemn them for their painful doubts; but promised them evidence for the invigoration and confirmation of their faith. And he so controlled events as to bring about this result. It appears from this that he is concerned
(1) for the vindication of his own righteousness, and
(2) for the peace of his people.
Wherefore in his own time he will remove every cloud that veils the rectitude of his works and ways, and make it apparent to the whole intelligent universe that all his purposes and operations are just and true.
CONCLUSION.
1. Let us cherish a strong assurance of the righteousness of God in all his designs and deeds.
2. If in anything his righteousness seems hidden from us, let us wait patiently for his own vindication thereof.W.J.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Eze 14:1. Then came certain of the elders The prophet tells us neither the names nor the intention of these elders of Israel, nor the time when they came to him. But the manner wherein God speaks, gives us to understand, that they came only to tempt him, as the Pharisees came to Christ, and with no design to profit by what they heard, or to correct their faults. See Calmet.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
3. The Testimony against the Idolatrous Seekers after Oracles (Ch. 14.)
1And there came unto me men from the elders of Israel, and sat before me. 2And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, 3Son of man, these men have caused their filthy idols to go up upon their heart, and the stumbling-block of their iniquity have they given before their face; shall I indeed 4allow Myself to be inquired at by them? Therefore speak with them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Every man of the house of Israel that shall cause his filthy idols to go up to his heart, and shall put the stumbling-block of his iniquity before his face, and comes to the prophet, I 5Jehovah, do I answer him in that,in the multitude of his filthy idols? In order to take the house of Israel in their own heart, who have departed from Me in all their filthy idols: 6Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah; Repent, and turn from your filthy idols, and from all your abominations turn away your face. 7For every one of the house of Israel, and of the stranger that sojourneth in Israel, if he shall separate himself from Me, and shall cause his filthy idols to go up to his heart, and shall put the stumbling-block of his iniquity before his face, and comes to the prophet 8to inquire in Me, I Jehovah answer him in Myself, And set My face against this man, and make him desolate, for a sign, and for proverbs, and cut him off from the midst of My people; and ye know that I am Jehovah. 9And the prophet, if he shall let himself be enticed, and speaks a word, I Jehovah have enticed that prophet, and stretch out My hand upon him, and 10destroy him from the midst of My people Israel. And they bear their iniquity; as the iniquity of him that inquires, so shall the iniquity of theprophet be; 11That the house of Israel may go no more astray from Me, and may no more be polluted [defile themselves] in all their transgressions; and that they may be to Me a people, and I may be to them a God,sentence of 12the Lord Jehovah. And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, 13Son of man, if a land shall sin against Me, so that it acts very treacherously, and I stretch out mine hand upon it, and break for it the staff of bread, and 14send upon it famine, and cut off from it man and beast; And there are in the midst of it these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job,they shall deliver their own soul [life] by their righteousness,sentence of the Lord Jehovah. 15If I shall cause evil beasts to pass through the land, and they bereave it, and it becomes a desolation, because no one passes through because of the beasts; 16These three men in the midst of itas I live, sentence of the Lord Jehovahthey shall deliver neither sons nor daughters; they alone shall be delivered, and the land shall be a desolation. 17Or if I shall bring a sword upon this land, and I say, A sword shall go through the land, and I cut off from it man 18and beast; And these three men are in the midst of itas I live, sentence of the Lord Jehovahthey shall deliver neither sons nor daughters; for they alone shall be delivered. 19Or if I shall send a pestilence on that land, and 20pour out My fury upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast; And Noah, Daniel, and Job are in the midst of itas I live, sentence of the Lord Jehovahthey shall deliver neither sons nor daughters; they shall deliver their own soul [life] by their righteousness. 21For thus saith the Lord Jehovah; How much more when I send My four sore judgmentssword, and famine, and evil beasts, and pestilenceupon Jerusalem, to out off from it man and 22beast! And [yet], behold, therein is left an escaped portion, who are brought forth, sons and daughters; behold, they come forth unto you, and ye see their way and their doings, and ye are comforted concerning the evil that I 23have brought upon Jerusalem, all that I have brought upon it. And they comfort you, when ye shall see their way and their doings; and ye know that not without cause have I done all that I have done in [upon] it,sentence of the Lord Jehovah.
Eze 14:1. Another read.: .
Eze 14:3. Sept.: … . . . . . .
Eze 14:4. Other read.: , ? Sept.: … ,
Eze 14:5. . . . .
Eze 14:7. ,
Eze 14:15. Sept. read.: , et orbavero illam.
Eze 14:21. Sept.: Vulg.: quod et si.
Eze 14:22. ;
Eze 14:23. Some add: ; there is a reading: .
EXEGETICAL REMARKS
Eze 14:1-3. The Occasion. The outward occasion for the divine testimony in this chapter is first mentioned, and then the inward occasion is Bet forth plainly.
Eze 14:1. The outward occasion is furnished by a deputationin this way we explain the singular of the verb (), which surprised the old commentators. More certainly is meant than il vient des hommes. Grotius supposes ambassadors from Palestine, on occasion of the embassy of Zedekiah to Babylon (Jeremiah 51). They were certainly from the exiles (Keil); to be distinguished, however, from those of Eze 8:1. Those latter are already with the prophet; the former first come to him. It is not, however, merely because of the different expressions used,elders of Judah, in Eze 8:1, while here we have: men from the elders of Israel,but rather because of the keeping apart as well as putting together which follows in Ezekiel 16, that we shall have to think of ambassadors from the exiles of the kingdom of the ten tribes (comp. Introd. pp. 7, 8); whether they were themselves elders is not exactly said, but simply that they came from the elders of Israel, out of their midst. Comp. Ezekiel 20.That they sat down before the prophet, seems to show that they were waiting to see whether they might not hear something from him, of course concerning Judah, concerning Jerusalem, for in this direction was the interest of all who were in exile turned (Introd. pp. 8, 9).
[For what purpose they camewhether to ask counsel from the prophet regarding some point of difficulty that had occurred to themselves, or to hear what he might be prompted by the Spirit to communicate of seasonable instructionwe are not expressly told. But that they came in the character of inquirers may be almost certainly inferred from Eze 14:3, where the Lord at once proceeds, through His servant, to repudiate the idea of His being inquired at by persons of such a characterpersons who had set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumbling-block of their iniquity before their face. After this it is scarcely possible to doubt that they came in the character of inquirers: though what might be the precise object of their inquiry is nowhere indicated in what follows, unless we can suppose (what is in the highest degree probable) that the message of the prophet was so framed as in some part to meet the proposed subject of inquiry, and thus incidentally to discover what the subject itself really was. This supposition is confirmed by the fact, which strikes us the moment we glance over the contents of the chapter, that it falls into two parts,the first (Eze 14:3-11) referring to the preliminary point respecting the character of the inquirers, and the remaining portion addressing itself to a subject entirely distinctGods method of dealing with a land and people when they have reached a state of hopeless corruption and depravity. It is more than probable, therefore, that while God refused to give any formal answer to such inquirers as those who now sat before the prophet, He yet, in this latter portion of the message, gave a substantial deliverance on the question about which their anxiety had been raised.Fairbairns Ezekiel, pp. 143, 144.W. F.]
He was able certainly to anticipate their questionas is actually done in Eze 14:2 sq.inasmuch as, by means of divine revelation, the still unexpressed design of their coming is made known to him, and in this way they are made manifest before him. They wish, according to Hengst., to make an experiment, whether they cannot obtain a more favourable answer through the prophet, whose fearfully threatening announcement they have heard not without shuddering (grace without repentance); but from the text we can only learn that the older portion of the exiles put themselves in an exactly similar position toward Ezekiel as that which, alike in the exile and at Jerusalem, the people assumed toward the false prophets. Hence, Ezekiel treated like the false prophets,that is the immediate connection, the connection with what precedes. The meaning is not (as Hv., and also Cocc.), that the guilt of the people in general, who so willingly hearken to the lie (Eze 13:19), is to be brought out in detail, by way of supplement to the guilt of the false prophets already handled; nor does Ezekiel intend by his own example to make clear and prominent the contrast between true and false prophets. But by the example of these men from Israel, while he speaks to their conscience, he predicts the impending divine judgment upon Judah and Jerusalem. The internal necessity of it, from the connection of sin and punishment, is justified to their consciousness. This is the more remote connection, the connection with what follows. Hence Eze 14:3, giving what forms the inner reason for the divine testimony.On , see at Eze 6:4.The statement: these men have caused their filthy gods to go up, etc., as bearing on the object of the discourse we have just indicated, is expressed more exactly by what follows: and the stumbling-block of their iniquity, etc. (see on Eze 7:19); inasmuch as their idols are up upon their heart (Eze 11:5), the occasion taken therefrom (to fall into sin) is given or put before their face (Eze 14:4). [Anything which, in consequence of the inward disposition of mind and will, is conceived of also as an object of attention outwardly, and as the immediate occasion of corresponding actions, is spoken of as coming up or put upon the heart, Isa 65:17; Jer 3:16; Jer 51:50; 1Co 2:9; Jer 7:31; Jer 19:5; Jer 32:35; 2Ki 12:5 [4]; 2Ch 7:11; Act 7:23.Dan 1:8; 2Sa 7:3; 1Ch 17:2; Act 5:3.Beck.] They are portrayed accordingly as persons whose spirit cleaves to the old idolatrous memories; they are sinners against Jehovah, they have already even been punished by Him, but in heart, just as before, they are not freed from their idols. This, of course, is the explanation of the strongly negative character of the question. , inf. abs. Niphal, for , being changed into , according to Kimchi, because of the doubling of the . In there lies an element of urgency or zeal, with which one seeks in order to findin the case before us, asks in order to get an answer.
Eze 14:4-11. A further Disclosure of the Divine Mind, with a more, general reference, and in Eze 14:9 sq. a special application to the prophet.
Idolatrous oracle-seekers, as Eze 14:4 a second time portrays them, generalizing the case before us (, although merely to the heart; , without exception), have therefore (, see Eze 14:4 at the end) to expect what corresponds to their state. For , comp. on Eze 2:1. I Jehovah, in emphatic antithesis to the filthy idols. Hence, as well as because of Eze 14:3, where an answer is absolutely refused, is a question without any particle of interrogation, which after Eze 14:3 is unnecessary (Hengst.). The Niphal of means: to be inclined, to show oneself willing to answer. [Ewald: I am become bound to answer him in Myself, for, etc., i.e. I can no longer remain in a mere state of indifference toward him, but must treat him at the right time as he deserves (!). Castel also, without the form of a question: I answer him, as is becoming in the case of such idols. Cocc. refers to this category such an answer on the part of the prophet, that the inquirer remains fixed in the multitude of his idols, does not repent, 1Ki 22:23.] (Qeri, ), because of the antithesis to Jehovah, a pregnant announcement beforehand of what follows: , indicates the condition in which the inquirer is. [Others: according to it. The fem. instead of the plural; while others have taken it as , referring to , or as a neuter: for it, for this coming to the seer, or (like Hitz.) read (Jehovah will answer in actual fact).]
Eze 14:5 is understood by most of a good intention on the part of God in such answering, which is to correspond to their idolatry, and is to be given first in Eze 14:8. Keil:not merely to move and to benefit them, but to bend their heart by means of judgments, etc. Hitz. on the other hand: in order to take them in their state of mind, as their acting is perhaps legal. According to Hengst., giving the reason for refusing an answer: in order that they may attain to a knowledge of sin, to touch their conscience. Rather does place in the foreground the ruling purpose in the call which follows. It is their heart God means to reach, just as it is there their idols live (Eze 14:3-4). , a pronoun, not a conjunction., as in Isa 1:4, Niph. reflexive of , expressing deliberation; where we have in that case for , here we have , corresponding to what follows: . is t.hers as a repetition of the subject: all of them together.
Eze 14:6. , namely: ; not: your heart, as Hengst., Rashi. (Others: your wives, children, etc.)
Eze 14:7. Comp. Lev 17:8; Lev 17:10; Lev 17:13; Lev 18:26; Lev 20:2. If it is the rule for the stranger, much more for every one of Israel. , Hv.: to apply to the prophet (as organ) for counsel from Me (so that at bottom he inquires of Me). Similarly Hengst.: to inquire of him in Me = to inquire of Me through him. Rosenm.: inasmuch as he pretends faith in Me. Keil: to seek Me for himself ( reflexively, or dat. commodi of him who inquires). forms the antithesis to (Eze 14:4) or (Eze 14:5). The case isafter the demand being made by the prophet (Eze 14:6), as is presupposedone of aggravated hypocrisy, that is, no longer mere coming to the prophet with idolatrous hearts (Eze 14:3-4), but an express appeal to the Lord in spite of inward cleaving to idolatry; hence, a putting of trust in Him, although one is away from Him (Eze 14:7). Hence is no longer (as Hengst.) a question, a refusing to answer, but in this case Jehovah reveals Himself as giving an answer. But how?
Eze 14:8. The divine answer demanded turns out to be one in actual fact; the word of God is Gods judgment. Comp. Lev 17:10; Lev 20:3; Lev 20:5-6; Deu 28:37. In the face we have the revelation of wrath. In the individual the land is already personified (Eze 14:13 sq.). from , to be desolate (Eze 20:26); according to others in the meaning: to put in a state of dumb terror. Ew.: from , as also the ancient translators [and Eng. Vers.] (Psa 44:15 [14]). , so that he becomes a sign, etc.Comp. on Eze 12:22.
With a special application to the prophet, Eze 14:9 sets forth the case of one to whom one has come to inquire in the name of the Lord (Eze 14:7). That a prophet like Ezekiel was thought of, is not to be inferred from the occasion (Eze 14:1); at most we may say with Hengst.: Let not one make demands on the true prophets which they are not able to fulfil, appealing to the utterances of the false prophets. Hitzig certainly maintains that the case of a prophet is supposed in the future who really has, or in good faith imagines that he has, a word of God. But that the prophet supposed is a false prophet is shown by the result. First of all, itself means: to talk over a credulous person; and hence the person meant here is one who, from his own want of true faith, is not himself acting rightly in a religious point of view, and therefore cannot judge rightly what such acting is, and what is not. Of a desire for gain, honour, or such like, nothing is said; we are not o think of Balaam. Then, farther, there is the expression: , being talked over he gives himself to talk, speaks where he ought to have been silent (Eze 3:27), or was at least bound to demand repentance (Eze 14:6), or else to announce judgmentconsequently, speaks in a way to flatter the sinner. The case is made quite evident by the explanatory apodosis; what has already happened is Gods judgment on the prophet, punishment, since Jehovah rather speaks to His prophets, gives them His word; and the result which follows in the case of this prophet is therefore merely the completion of the divine judgment. Comp. Eze 6:14. (1 Kings 22, where we have demoniac elements, does not properly belong to the category before us). From fear of man, or from desire to please man, the prophet suffers himself to be persuaded to speak. Because he so depends on men, men get the mastery over him, but in these men the hand of God shows itself against him. His leaning to men is his divine judgment; the conjuncture brought about by God, the prophet in this conjuncture left to himself and to men. According to J. H. Michaelis, Hengst., it is intended in this way to obviate the objection drawn from the solitary position of Jeremiah and Ezekiel.
Eze 14:10 combines Eze 14:8-9. By the equality of punishment, the equality of the offence is proved. The oracle-seeker and the oracle-giver thus, by means of their punishment, expiate their guilt, with which they have burdened themselves in consequence of their sin; and as the punishment of the one offence corresponds to that of the other, it is thus clear that the guilt in both cases is alike in Gods sight. The divine intention therein
Eze 14:11is, in respect to all Israel, to prevent their going astray, their defilement or polluting of themselves, on such devious paths (in all sorts of transgressions); for Israels destination continues to be the holy one of being Jehovahs people, even as Jehovahs promise continues to be the glorious one of being their God. Comp. Eze 11:20. With this reference, so general in its character, the special case of the prophet comes to an end.
Eze 14:12-23. The Application to Jerusalem (Eze 14:21), and the Justification thereof (Eze 14:22-23).In accordance with what, from the outset, has formed the expectation of those who had come to Ezekiel, viz.: that they should know the fate of Judah (of Jerusalem), and in accordance farther with what has been expressed, in a general way, by the divine discourse of the prophet in the shape of judgment on false oracle-seeking and false oracle-giving,in accordance therewith the section (Eze 14:12 sq.) closes, inasmuch as there is an application of the judgment pronounced, first to an unfaithful land, and then to Jerusalem expressly; an application which is seen to be the more justifiable, as the going astray and the pollution, which God designs to put away for the future by means of the judgment, still characterize the miserable remnant (Eze 14:22-23).
Eze 14:13. A land, indefinitely; not, however, for the purpose of giving utterance to a general proposition as a rule (Keil), but because the nearer definition is expressed by means of the character of the land, and that as a character attaching to it as a whole. The sinning in general is specialized as: , which is to be understood therefore in the strict sense which it everywhere has when it is a special expression. Comp. Lev. 5:21 [Lev 6:2]; Num 5:12; Deu 32:51; Jos 22:20; 1Ch 10:13. There cleaves to the word a contrast between the inward and the outward; it speaks of secret unfaithfulness, of concealed acting, and the like. And so it stands here also, quite in accordance with Eze 14:3 sq., where the subject in hand was the duplicity of oracle-seekers, false prophets, and at the same time paving the way for Eze 15:8. (Ewald sees in the treachery of Zedekiah, as a vassal bound by oath to his liege-lord of Babylon, by his leaning toward Egypt.) After such definiteness in the description of the sin of the land, the indefiniteness of the land itself can occasion no difficulty. What is thus kept indefinite rouses the hearers the more to think for themselves what land it will be. The indefinite expression presupposes, in particular, that those men (Eze 14:1), from their own conscience, might easily supply what was wanting. There is also an element of retributiona certain measure of secrecy on the part of God, in return for their secret state of heart. Would that they would only ask! We find ourselves in the act of applying what has gone before to that land for which Jerusalem is the title (Eze 14:21). Hence the expression: and I stretch out, etc., literally the same as in Eze 14:9. As to the rest, there is a retrospective reference to Eze 4:16; Eze 5:16-17. Cut off, as in Eze 14:8.
Eze 14:14. As the description up to this point is an appeal ad hominem, to reflect and to determine the land for themselves, so this number: three, might perhaps draw attention to the difference at Gen 18:32. There it is promised that there will be no destruction if there are ten righteous. Here it is only three that are supposed, belonging to quite different periods, nay, not even mentioned in chronological order. The case supposed is therefore, after all, an inconceivable one, to show at once the impossibility of the land being delivered; or, if the thought were admitted that three men like these were in it, yet the deliverance of the land is meant to be denied, since the three would save their own life merely. The judgment on the land, and that as a judgment that is all-embracing, corresponding with the character belonging to each and all, is to be set forth in all four directions (comp. Eze 5:17) in which it is pronounced, as one that is unalterable, that stands fast for that land. That is the thought. That the elders who had come to the prophet, as well as the people, had cherished the hope (Keil) that God will, for the sake of the righteous, avert the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem, is certainly nowhere even hinted. [True, indeed, there is no express statement to that effect. But why is the prophets message thrown into this particular form? Why should he so emphatically declareonce and again, and again, and even a fourth timethat the presence of these three righteous men in the land could not avert its destruction, if no such thought was lurking in the minds of the elders and of the people generally? Keils view, which is also that of Fairbairn, is of course a conjecture, but a conjecture that has not a little probability.W.F.] As the diminution in number from ten in the fall of Sodom to three here is noticeable, so as regards Noah, Daniel, and Job personally, a lowering in the thing itself is to be observed. For these parties come into consideration here neither as regards their righteousness, as being patterns of it, nor even as examples of those who had been themselves spared, as is commonly supposed. (also in Eze 14:20) gives the reason for their deliverance merely, and , in Eze 14:16; Eze 14:18, isolates them merely for the case in hand. According to their history, which is related to us along with their names, all three, in fact, not merely saved their own lives, but exercised influence in the direction of saving others along with themselves. In addition to Noah himself (Gen 7:13 sq.), his family was saved in the ark, and even a selection of the creatures. Daniel not only saved himself and his companions, but also arrested the execution of the wise men of Babylon (Dan 2:18). The representation of Hvernick, and of those who follow him, is in this matter as incorrect as in respect to Job, to whose intercession for his friends Jehovah certainly has respect (Eze 42:8 sq.). The climax, also, which Klief. and Keil still concede to Hvernick, has therefore no existence. In the parallel passage in Jer 15:1, Moses and Samuel are not supposed to be inhabitants of the land, like those here named; who are also not so specially Israelitish personages, but of a more general historical character, in harmony with the indefinite mode of conceiving the land. (But comp. also for the connection with what precedes, Jeremiah 14.) Daniel figures between Noah and Job, not certainly in order to his being canonized by means of the two primeval personages (Hengst.), butif this lifting into prominence of a still youthful contemporary by the insertion of his name between theirs is not to be reckoned mere flatterybecause of his universally (and especially by the exiles) recognised real and high importance for the faith of Israel at the royal court. Comp. also Eze 28:3. According to Eze 8:1 (comp. with Eze 20:1), we are in the sixth year of Jehoiachins captivity. Thirteen or fourteen years earlier, in the reign of Jehoiakim, Daniel was carried into exile in his youth. The divine discourse, therefore, makes rhetorical use of them as three personages universally known for preservation against destruction, in order to represent the state of affairs here in question as the more hopeless; for Noah, Daniel, and Job will save nothing but their own life, i.e. as the repeated assurance in the three following cases expresses it with pathetic emphasis, neither son nor daughter, not to speak of others, or even friends; whereas Noah was able to save beasts even, Daniel Chaldean magi, Job such as were actually outside the community of Israel. The apodosis begins with .
[Fairbairn: The two most powerful and honoured intercessors, Moses and Samuel, could not prevent or rectify the evil by their intercession, Jeremiah had said. No, responds Ezekiel from the banks of the Chebar; nor could three of the most righteous men that have ever lived, either in past or present times, do it by their righteousness. Though Noah, Daniel, and Job were all at this moment in the land, they could not stay the judgment of God from proceeding.W. F.]
Eze 14:15. , with the imperf., used of things not now actually existing, but perhaps possible.The wild beasts of prey conceivable in connection with every kind of devastation (comp. Eze 14:21), here placed between famine and war. (Hengst.: In the usual sense or in human form.) Comp. Eze 5:17; Lev 26:22; 2Ki 17:25.Eze 12:20., because of the want of, because there is not, or: so that there is not = Eze 14:16 : , they shall not do so, quite certainly.
Eze 14:17. Eze 6:3; Eze 11:8.
Eze 14:19. Eze 5:17; Eze 9:8. , not: because of blood shed, blood-guiltiness, but: so that the outpouring of divine wrath manifests itself in the shedding of human blood, i.e. either generally: through dying, or more specially: through violent death, hence: as in war, or that (Hengst.) the epidemic is represented as an execution as it were with the sword, or (Hitz.) that a peculiar epidemic, which should make itself known by a vomiting of blood or the like, would be meant.
Eze 14:20. A winding up, and therefore a repetition of the three in the form of Eze 14:14.
Eze 14:21. does not introduce the application, for all that precedes was already that; but gives the reason why for the whole deliverance is not to be thought of, only destruction, Jerusalem being now named, as we shall see, in order to justify such procedure with it. , a climax, inasmuch as the separate judgments given above as examples are now all four together, and with definite certainty (, perf.) pronounced upon Jerusalem. (Hengst.: How much more must it manifest itself in the servant who knew his masters will, and did it not!) The number four may possibly symbolize the completeness of the judgment, as one on all sides (Klief.). Formerly famine was first; here it is the sword, because the calamity of war lay immediately before them. In consequence of it the other three judgments came after one another, and side by side with one another. War brings famine into the cities, corpses outside, which attract the beasts; and from all there follows the pestilence. It is superfluous in Hengst. to point to Eze 19:2 for figurative beasts. Jerusalem is thus the land formerly spoken of, represents it.
Eze 14:22. It is exceedingly striking (), that after all a number escape the judgment, who are carried captive to Babylon (to you); but they are not those who save their life by their righteousness, but those who are to justify Jehovahs righteousness ad oculos (), and that by means of their way; not in the sense of lot, or what happens to them, but in the connection here, where gives the more exact explanation, as designating their walk, just as itself indicates their habitual actings, and, indeed, their bad way of acting. Ye shall convince yourself with your own eyes that these escaped ones might rather be regarded as an irony, a caricature of these three men. : as respects all that. Still more clear is it in Eze 14:23 that it will be a comfort through the persons themselves, and that it will consist in the knowledge that such corruption had deserved such destruction. , comp. Eze 6:10. There of speaking, here of acting. Hence, as it is there said in reference to the consequence, the result, so here in reference to the causenot without being deserved. Chap. 6 of the remnant themselves; in our passage of those to whom they are added as exiles. We see that there is not much hope of conversion for the former as a whole. That, even in the case of a relentless extermination of the bad, there should yet be left a remnant of good (Neteler), is certain, but is not said here. It is thus opposed to the context when Hitzig, appealing in a singular way to Num 14:31, understands by the younger race who had not grown old in sin, who shall conduct themselves in an irreproachable way, just as they have by their blamelessness saved themselves merely, not their parents also; whereby, however, compassion will be only the more stirred; they will be a pleasing spectacle in their inoffensive and God-pleasing life. The right knowledge is therefore to be this, that God has exterminated the wicked, has saved the innocent, consequently has judged righteously (with good cause). Just as little have we here an asseveration (really, truly), as Hvernick understands , announcing a new, unusual judgment besides the four.
DOCTRINAL REFLECTIONS
1. Not merely in view of the dangerous position of Israel in the midst of the heathen nations, but as flowing from the peculiar relation of Jehovah to His people as chosen from mankind, there is a prophecy under the Old Covenant mediating that covenant. For the Holy Ghost was not yet present, Joh 7:39. God speaks and manifests Himself in demonstration of the Spirit and of power by the mouth of His holy prophets. Extraordinary gifts of the Spirit assert a place for themselves; things perceived in vision, disclosures by means of the dream, profoundly significant utterances and signs occur even in the service of individual needs. But prophecy becomes a prophetic office and formally an order of prophets, and that especially the more the priesthood sinks, and the commonwealth of Israel is secularized by means of the kingdom. Ever stedfast to Jehovah, and regulating itself by His law, this prophecy preserved its genuine character and proved its genuineness; just as it continued to uphold, with the force of constitutional law and with a reformers energy, the sovereignty of Jehovah against every power which rose up against it. As, however, in spite of this, the national life sank to the verge of dissolution, there appeared, in opposition to the divine ordinance of true prophecy, an order of false prophets, devoted to idols and to the court, which enjoyed the sympathies of high and low. It cultivated the rhetoric of a phraseology at once yielding and heroic, in other respects having manifold affinities with the journalism of the present day as it is exhibited by the French press. In itself thoroughly ungodly, it affects outwardly the appearance of a species of religiosity, which certainly desires to know nothing of sin, and consequently also nothing of punishment. It brands with the suspicion of fanaticism and hypocrisy the zealous prophecy of the law, which, in opposition to the ridicule as well as blandishments of the spirit of the age, has to proclaim the reformers call to repentance, and along with that, in ever louder tones, the prophecy of judgment.
2. As Jer 29:13 explains the zealous seeking () with the whole heart, the seeking () which finds, it is a standing requirement from all who would draw nigh to God that they believe that He is (Heb 11:6). The idolatrous practical atheism corresponds neither to the one nor the other. Thus there can be no talk of finding or letting oneself be found. The answer of God, which is therefore no answer, as the parties in question also have not yet inquired, is consequently a declinature; and that of a special kind, to allow of its being got by inquiry. But it is the nature of idols to be able neither to hear nor to answer. Accordingly, if Jehovah is not to wear the semblance of an idol, He must not only show Himself as one that hears, but as one who tries the heart and reins, and understands the thoughts afar off; and His silence will have to be regarded as speaking, in the same way as His speaking as it passes over into the virtual answer of punishment, of judgment.
3. In the heart the stream of our life is gathered up, alike in its outflow and inflow. To it the Bible assigns the central place, both in a corporeal and spiritual point of view. Comp. Beck, Umriss der bibl. Seelenlehre, 3 Aufl. p. 74 sq. Its hidden depths are known to God alone, who at the same time takes hold of man in his conscience, when He takes him in his heart. In this way He makes the unanswerable witness speak of guilt and punishableness; and alike for faith and for love, the whole heart, the full activity of mans reason and emotional nature, as it has its sphere in the moral self-determination of the personal consciousness, is claimed. In accordance with such a meaning of the heart must the call to turn from their idols be understood as a taking hold on Gods part of the heart of Israel.
4. The case of the prophet who allows himself to be persuaded, to be enticed, illustrates to us the course of punishment. It is not merely that God permits the temptation, the misleading,although it proceeds originally from the indwelling sin (Jam 1:14),for every following sin is at the same time a punishment of that which goes before. In virtue of a divine law, the man is compelled either to take back the sin with regret, repentance, conversion, to its commencement and its principle, or to continue in its path towards his punishment (Nitzsch). God has no inactive part in the development of sin; He knows how to guide the matter throughout, so that sin attains its full maturity, and brings on punishment. He takes care that there can be no standing still, no halting at an intermediate stage; He makes the occasions and removes the hindrances (Hengst.). Thus God gives up the sinner to his sin, but reveals Himself at the same time in His power, whereby there is always given along with the sin corruption, and that as punishment; and in this way He causes the righteous reward to come upon him.
5. As the false prophets appear in connection with national corruption as a definite stage in the development, so likewise they are put in relation to Jehovah, and in this relation are recognised as a dispensation of God, as a divine judgment, although at the same time meant for separation and decision in Israel. To this we must refer the testing, for which provision is made in Deuteronomy 13. The fact that false prophecy sprang up with quite peculiar energy about the period of the exile, appears accordingly not to be accidental and devoid of significance. The process of separation between the pious and the ungodly was thereby accelerated. But that period is only the bringing to light of a truth which retains its import onwards to the end of the world, 2Th 2:9 sq. (Hv.) [The point chiefly to be noticed in this deliverance of the mind of God is the connection between the self-deceived people and the deceiving prophet; regarding whom it is said, in peculiarly strong language, I the Lord have enticed (or deceived) that prophet. It is an example in the highest sphere of the lex talionis. If the people were sincere in their desire to know the mind of God, for the purpose of obeying His will, the path was plain. They had but to forsake their idolatries, and the Lord was ready to meet them with direction and blessing. But if, on the other hand, they were bent on playing the hypocrite, professing to inquire concerning Him, while their hearts in reality were cleaving to corruption, punishment was sure to overtake them, and that, too, in the first instance, after the form of their own iniquity. God would chastise their sin with a corresponding sin; and as they had rejected the safe direction of the true light, he would send the pernicious delusion of a false one. Prophets would be given them, who should reecho the deceitfulness that already wrought in their own bosom, so that their iniquity should prove their ruin.Fairbairns Ezekiel, p. 147.W. F.]
6. In the juxtaposition of Daniel with the exalted figures of Noah and Job, we have a solid support for the historical character of the book of Daniel. Besides, the connection with eminent wisdom in Ezekiel 28. is exactly the characteristic feature in the personality of Daniel, as it is represented in his book (Hengst.).
HOMILETIC HINTS
Eze 14:1 sq.: Hypocrites may indeed deceive men, but not God, Psa 12:2-3 (Cr.). Acts 5.So also the scribes and Pharisees came to Christ in the gospel: not that they wished to learn of Him, but for the purpose of tempting Him (Luther).As the prophet is here warned of God, set right through the Spirit, so Jesus knew what was in man (Joh 2:24-25).We learn from this how false men are; for who could have supposed this of old men, who were near the grave? (Luther.)To listen to God is to get clear insight as to men.It is not wrong for one to ask counsel of teachers in doubtful cases; but those teachers are to give it not according to the imaginations of their own heart, but according to the leading of Gods word (Starke).Those parties do not judge rightly who do not wish to put the images out of the temples until the idols are away out of mens hearts. We ought rather to give testimony against both, because God in His word rejects images and idols alike. For if the former are not removed from the eyes of men, there remains the danger that one may again worship them. From the adulterous woman, the clothes, rings, letters of her paramours must be taken away, that she may not again be reminded of her lovers. This holds good also of the spiritual adultery of superstition (Luther).Such a filthy idol is ones own righteousness, the high opinion which a man has of his own works, Php 3:7-8 (Cocc).Most men have something on which their hearts dependence is placed, and in this way are chargeable with a refined species of idolatry. Hence it is no wonder if God does not hear their prayer, Joh 9:31 (Starke).From the despisers of the truth the word of God is taken away, Act 13:46 (O.).The speaking and silence of God here, as in the case of Jesus before the Sanhedrim and before Pilate.Answering as well as greeting is a sign of good-will and friendliness; and so God shows His indignation when He does not answer, or does not answer as one desires. As e. g. happened to Saul (Luther).
Eze 14:4. God leaves sinners without answer and help, in order that they may come to the knowledge of their sin (Hengst.).
Eze 14:5. God aims at the heart of man.
Eze 14:6. Conversion is a step backward, but one which is also a step forward, and that from idols to the living God.
Eze 14:7-8. As with respect to whole lands, so with respect to the individual man, visitation ends at last in utter destruction. He that wooed to repentance adjudges to perdition. The heart which has become stone is rejected.Lots wife, for example, is a sign; proverbs are such as Sodom and Gomorrha, Dathan and Abiram, Judas, etc.The cutting off from Israel often takes place inwardly, so that only the individual himself knows about it.Although God does not always cause hypocrites to be publicly put to shame, yet the testimony of their own conscience is often punishment enough (Cr.).Because God sees, hears, knows all, He will one day also give an answer as respects all, not only to pious hearts, but also to the ungodly, although such an answer is long delayed (W.).
Eze 14:9-10. When the men of the world do not hear from the true prophets what they would like to hear, they are wont to seek out the false prophets. In this way they have already fallen into the judgment of God, for there are no false prophets without Gods will. But now they are expressly said to share also the judgment on the false prophets (Luther).Such miserable men, who themselves lie under the destiny of God, are led by Him whither they will not, and are hastening to meet the judgment, cannot possibly furnish a staff for others (Hengst.).He who does not wish the truthand truth for man consists first of all in the knowledge of sinis brought to ruin at last by the lie, notwithstanding all his asking after truth and speaking of truth.God manifests Himself therefore to hypocrites also, but as righteousness.God plants the pious, but roots out the ungodly, hearers and teachers alike (Starck).
Eze 14:11. And yet all at last turns out for the good of His children.If the flourishing of the false prophets serves to test the faith of the pious, their fidelity in confession, their stedfastness, the judgment on them and on those who follow them confirms the pious in their piety (Luther).Even the burning houses of the wicked are a light on the way of the pious.The universal approbation which apostasy from God enjoys in the world would lead, if it were possible, to the very elect being seduced in such days as ours. And therefore not only must the world pass away with the lust thereof daily before the eyes of those who, blessed be God, can see, but striking judgments of God as well must confirm to those that hear Gods word the fact that it alone abideth for ever.How merciful is God, who reclaims the wanderers, and cleanses the polluted, and in His judgments still fulfils His promises! (Luther.)
Eze 14:13. Land and people,the former suffering for the sake of the latter, the latter through the former.Sin the destruction of the people.Although public calamities have their natural causes, they stand under Gods government (Starke).
Eze 14:14. The Jews in all likelihood placed much reliance on the commandments and the intercession of the saints, and supposed that on this account they need not be afraid of the threatenings of the prophets. But such empty hope Ezekiel dismisses (Luther).
Eze 14:15 sq. If the godly in such judgment cannot be heard when they pray for the ungodly, how much less will the latter find audience for their own persons! (Luther.)Godliness has the promise of this life also.The cause of wars is sin, which God means to punish; but He means to test the godly also in their patience, and to visit them (Luther).
Eze 14:21-23. In a similar relation with the people of the Old Covenant stand the Christian nations, only that in their case the responsibility appears enhanced (Hengst.).Gods righteousness is clearly manifested in those that perish, as well as by means of those that escape.The ungodly man, so long as he remains unconverted, at most keeps in check, but never changes, his disposition (Luther).Comfort lies in the justification of the ways of God. Knowledge of the greatness and depth of sinthis is in all cases the chief foundation of the theodicy (Hengst.).Even these miserable ones may be an apologetic.So long as we do not understand that God on just grounds acts sternly, so long are our souls distressed and tormented (Calv.).
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
We have here the Prophet Ezekiel surrounded with certain of the Elders of Israel, to hear him preach. The Lord himself answers them.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
What a striking representation is here of the Church in all ages! As it was with Ezekiel in Babylon; so is it now in the Egypt of the present world. In our congregations we know not who they are that sit before us. But the Lord knows who they are, and all the motives of their coming. And, oh! that all hypocritical followers of the Church of God would listen to what the Lord here saith, the Lord will not be enquired of such, but will give them his own tremendous answers!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Eze 14:3
‘Sin,’says Baxter ( Saints’ Rest, chap. viii.), ‘obscures that which it destroys not; for it bears such sway, that grace is not in action. It puts out or dims the eye of the soul, and stupefies it, that it can neither see nor feel its own condition. But especially it provokes God to withdraw Himself, His comforts, and the assistance of His spirit. As long as thou dost cherish thy pride, thy love of the world, the desires of the flesh, or any unchristian practice, thou expectest comfort in vain.’
References. XIV. 4. E. Browne, Some Moral Proofs of the Resurrection, p. 93. XIV. 4, 5. C. W. Furse, Sermons at Richmond, p. 12. XIV. 6. H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Common Life Religion, p. 45.
Eze 14:7-8
It is but vaine to implore His power in a bad cause. Man must have an unpolluted soul when he praiseth (at least in that moment he addresseth himselfe to praye) and absolutely free from all vicious passions; otherwise we ourselves present Him the rods to scourge us withal. In lieu of redressing our fault, we redouble the same by presenting Him with an affection fraught with irreverence, sinne, and hatred, to whom only we should sue for grace and forgivenesse…. And the state of a man that commixeth devotion unto an excessible life, seemeth in some sort to be more condemnable than that of one that is conformable unto himselfe, and every way dissolute.
Montaigne (Florio), Essays, chap. lvi.
References. XIV. 7, 8. J. Warschauer, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxii. 1902, p. 29. XIV. 8. Henry Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. ii. p. 120.
Eze 14:14
‘Justus Jonas asked Luther,’ it is related in the latter’s Table-Talk, ‘if these sentences in Scripture did not contradict one another; where God says to Abraham, If I find ten in Sodom, I will not destroy it; and where Ezekiel says, Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, yet would not I hear, etc. ; and where Jeremiah says, Therefore pray not thou for this people. Luther answered: No, they are not against one another; for in Ezekiel it was forbidden them to pray, but it was not so with Abraham. Therefore we must have regard to the word: when God says, thou shalt not pray, then we may well cease.’
References. XIV. 14. G. A. Denison, Third Sermon on “Lux Mundi,” Sermons, 1828-93. XIV. 19, 20. E. W. Attwood, Sermons for Clergy and Laity, p. 474. XIV. 20. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxviii. No. 1651. A. G. Mortimer, The Church’s Lessons for the Christian Year, part iv. p. 265. XV. 1, 2. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iii. No. 125. XV. 22, 23. J. B. Brown, The Soul’s Exodus and Pilgrimage, p. 81. XV. 27. Ibid. p. 104. XVI. 1, 2. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vi. No. 323. XVI. 1-3. Ibid. vol. xli. No. 2438. XVI. 5, 6. Ibid. vol. viii. No. 468.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Heart Idols
Eze 14:1-11
“Then came ” So some event had taken place before, and the incident now about to be related is to be read in connection with preceding circumstances. A wall had been built of which the Lord God disapproved. It was a wrong wall altogether wrong in the foundations, wrong in the structure, wrong because it was daubed with untempered mortar: the Lord therefore sent a strong wind to rend it, and he caused an overflowing shower to fall upon it in his anger, and great hailstones expressed the fury divine against this unholy and unstable erection. The Lord having accomplished his wrath upon the wall, and upon them that daubed it with untempered mortar, proceeded to address the false prophetesses, women that sewed pillows to all armholes, and made kerchiefs upon the head of every statue to hunt souls. They sought to live by lying to the people of Israel; so the Lord said he was against the women and against their pillows, wherewith they hunted souls to make them fly; and he said he would tear the pillows from their arms, and let the souls go through; their kerchiefs also would he tear, and he would deliver his people out of their hand, that they should be no more in the hand of the false prophetesses to be hunted: and by this deliverance would God make himself known once more to be the only living and true God. Such were the preceding events. These events were open, concrete, palpable; every one who passed by could see what was being done, every ear could hear the furious hailstones as they came down in judgment, and every one could see pillow and kerchief torn from the base women who had undertaken to hunt human souls. But that was not enough God does not content himself with outer judgment; then would his daily providence be enough to instruct the sons of men and turn them to considerateness and to piety. But the Lord cannot succeed thus. Judgment can do but little. Hell has played but a poor part in the conversion of men; it has always been burning there, and the smoke of its torment has ascended for ever and ever; yet in the midst of that hot smoke have men done their evil deeds and defied the God of judgment. Punishment is hardly ever reformative; it is simple penalty, pain for offence, loss for trespass, shame because of violence: now a higher judgment seat is erected, another process of criticism is about to be conducted. The Lord is now going to search the heart, to turn out the corners of the inmost recesses of the mind, the idol and favourite sin. He will proceed to do a spiritual work; he will lay aside his hammer with which he has broken the wall, and no more will he tear and rend the garments which cover falsehood: he will enter the heart, he will name the idols one by one which occupy that secret sanctuary; he will name them, he will bring them forth to judgment, and he will conduct that most penetrating of all criticism, the judgment of the thought and motive and purpose of man. It is well it should be so. We expected fury about an ill-built wall; men themselves cannot tolerate any edifice that is tottering; when a pillar leans men go to the other side of the way, for it may fall: we want in our God eyesight from which nothing can be hidden, judgment that looks the soul through and through, from the burning of whose vision no secret can be successfully and permanently withheld.
What we want we find here. Who are these men? “Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me” came to be judged, came to sit down to be looked over, looked through, weighed, measured, and adjudged. No office can save men from divine criticism. The Lord takes nothing for granted. He does not say, This man clothed in official pomp must be good because his robes are good. No robe is good that covers a traitor’s heart; the heart spoils the pomp. How unsparing the criticism! Even elders must be judged. How comforting is this thought, though terrible in some aspects! It were well that our judges should be judged, else who can tell to what extremes of folly they might go, hounded on by ambition, or stung to further issues by envy and malice? The judge is nobody in the sight of God; he is a man who is himself to be judged: he must hold himself with the loftiness of modesty it he would be truly dignified; he must remember that he has a Judge in heaven if he would read the law aright, and distribute sentences with righteousness. The pastor cannot escape, or the teacher, or the head of the house, or the senior member of the firm, or the magistrate, or the prime minister, or the king crowned and throned: judgment shall begin at the house of God, and no man there shall live upon his certificates. Life shall only be guaranteed to the pure in heart How impossible it is to escape! If it had been a matter of the wall we should have expected judgment; if the penalty had been confined to pillow and kerchief, used by Israelitish women after the fashion of pagan sorceresses, we should have had large liberty to serve the devil in: but now the Judge thunders at the heart-door, and says from without that he is coming in. Nor can we hinder him; he will burn down the portal if we will not open it; into the heart he must come; the heart is the man!
How improbable are some defections. Who would not say that the elders would be good men, simply because they are elders? If they had not been good they would not have been promoted to office; the very fact that they are in the pulpit, in the presidential chair, in the seat of honour, that they wear the purple of authority, is proof enough of their excellence. No: the Lord will not have it thus. The higher the office the greater the responsibility; the larger the privileges the greater the sin if they are outraged; the more brilliant the genius the more infamous the mischief if that genius be perverted. The able man, the man of faculty and education, can do more sin in one moment than a poor uneducated soul can do in a lifetime. Elevation aggravates sin. Expectations founded on reason will turn into burning fires when they are disappointed by the men whose office has excited them. How strong the Bible is in reason and justice! It is no respecter of persons. It will behead a king as soon as a peasant if the king be evil-minded, and there will be a ring in the hatchet that takes off his head that will indicate an accent of peculiar disapprobation. Kings ought to be better than their subjects: consider their advantages, their education, their elevation; they should live in an atmosphere of self-restraint and spiritual thoughtfulness. Who would not have faith in a book thus marked by broadest justice? This Book favours none. It is a standard which never lowers; its balances are made of fine gold, and never vary; the hand that holds them never tilts the scale one way or the other. We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. That being so, let us be quiet, strong in confidence, bright in hope; for the Judge of all the earth will do right. Let not the poor man envy the rich, as if God favoured him. Better not read life from the outside and make rough criticism and judgment upon it, for in reality we know nothing about its secret, and its expansion, and its issue: at best we can read but accidents and surfaces, and ill-spelling it is and bad reading, full of stumbling and hesitation and lack of music. Let God read the account and demand the balance.
The place of the disease indicates its fatal character “in their heart.” This is heart-disease. Men almost whisper when they indicate that some friend is suffering from disease of the heart; there is hopelessness in the tone: great allowance should be made, they say, for a man who is suffering from heart-disease; he must not be startled or excited or suddenly pounced upon; his wishes must be gratified, they must as far as possible even be anticipated; and any little impatience he may show must be looked at charitably, because he is suffering from heart-disease. The talk is humane, the considerateness is full of affection, the conditions imposed are suggested by reason. Is there not a higher disease of the heart? Is it true that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked? Is it true that the heart delights in concealment? Is it true that the heart has offered a bribe to secrecy to hold its lips for ever? Is not every man, did he but know it, suffering from heart-disease? What is the meaning of this disease of the heart, this idolatry in the inmost soul? When a moral disease is of the heart it means that the disease is liked, enjoyed, gloated over; it is wine drunk behind the door, it is a feast of fat things eaten in secrecy; every mouthful so sweet, so good, so rich. When a disease is of the heart in a moral and spiritual sense it means that it is consented to; it is voluntary, it is personal, it is desired; there would be a sense of loss without it. Sometimes men are forced into uncongenial circumstances, and they express their reluctance and their annoyance by many a gesture and many a tone; but when the disease is of the heart it has secured the consent of the will, and the judgment has been bribed to nod a kind of tacit approval: the whole conscience has been put under narcotic or opiate, and is no longer the sharp, pungent, unsparing, wakeful critic that God meant it to be when he set it in the centre of human thought and human action. Disease of this kind, too, is most difficult of eradication. It is not in the skin, or it might be cut out; it is not in the limb, or it might be amputated, and the knife might anticipate mortification: the evil is in the heart; no knife can touch it, no persuasion can get at it; nothing can be done with it but one thing only a miracle of the Holy Ghost can overcome that difficulty and turn that disease into health. “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.” If a man does not know his own heart he cannot be religious; he cannot begin to understand what is meant by the demands of Christ; the Cross will be a foolishness and a mockery and nothing but a sham in his estimation. Let him once know his own heart, how much of the serpent there is in him and of the beast of prey, and how thinly skinned over he is, and that sometimes he is only the bent and crooked and twisted shape of a man, that in reality he has the heart or an evil beast within him; let him see what a murderer he is, and a liar and a thief, then you can make upon him some spiritual impression. The respectable man can never receive the gospel. How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of heaven! riches of any kind, not of money only, but of self-conceit, and self-respect, and self-idolatry, and self-confidence, how hardly shall they press into a gate so strait as that which is set in front of the kingdom of heaven.
Are we chargeable with heart-idolatry? We have no idols of a visible kind it may be, yet we may be the veriest pagans in our hearts. Is there aught of irony so piteous, in some aspects so comical, in every aspect so detestable, as the irony of Christian England when in annual piety it listens deprecatingly to the stories of idols worshipped by savage men in faraway climes? The ill-shaped idols are held up, and excite the laughter, the pity, or the scorn of Christian England. Christian England is full of idols; but Christian England has not courage in all cases to shake them and display them. We pity the man who would sell his little idol-god for a rupee, and all the time we are selling our convictions for a handful of barter. We say, How distressing that poor human nature should fall down before stock or stone and worship it! and we, inflated pagans, worship a golden calf, a tinsel crown, a sounding name, a crafty policy. The man who would sell his convictions is a more consummate idolater than all the poor thick-lipped savages that ever lifted up their expectant eyes to some little god of their own formation. This is heart-disease! The man who will keep silence in the presence of wrong is an idolater, is a pagan; he worships self-ease, self-indulgence. The man who will stand by and see the weak struck down without at least protesting against the tyranny, or who will accept a bribe for his silence, has sold, not an ivory god, but a living, bleeding Christ.
Are we chargeable with heart-idolatry? Certainly we are. No man can escape this accusation. It is subtle, far-reaching, all but ineradicable. If we do not face such difficulties our piety is a stucco that will peel off in the wet weather, and leave the ghastly moral ugliness exposed to public scorn. Doubt may be an idol used to diminish responsibility. We can become intellectual doubters on occasion; we begin to wonder if the Bible is really inspired: as who should say dear souls! that if we could only be convinced intellectually of the inspiration of the Bible we should be the whitest babes ever nursed by the mother-creation. What liars we are! We are only standing back because we wonder if the Hebrew text is not exceedingly corrupt, in some of the minor prophets. We do not care one iota about the prophets, minor or major; only we wish to hide ourselves behind a doubt that we may shirk a responsibility. We had better tell the truth to ourselves sometimes; mayhap we can only tell it in the dark, but we should not let the dark night pass without the soul issuing from itself some dark messages of impeachment and accusation. Others, again, may have in the heart an idol called Ignorance, kept there for the purpose of diminishing service: we will not go into the dark places of the city, then we need not attend to the cries which are said to be arising there from overborne and hopeless humanity; we will keep on the broad thoroughfare, where the gaslight is plentiful; we shall see the surface and outer shape of things, and then retire to rest, saying that, say what fanatics may, there is really a good deal of solid happiness in the city. The ghost is three steps down the side street; turn to the left, take the first turning to the right, climb up the stairs that will hardly bear you, and there you will see how much happiness there is in the city. “If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain; if thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it?” Canst thou escape his criticism? Can you eat your fat dinner and know that gaunt hunger is not half a league off, but is behind a wall? You owe your appetite to that wall, to that concealment. Keep your money, multiply it tenfold, put it out at exorbitant usury, pile it up; but think not you have postponed the day of criticism: the poor will do without us as they always have done until they come up a thousand strong as witnesses and accusers.
Have we not an idol in the heart we call Orthodoxy, which we keep there in order to enlarge moral licence? Is there not an intellectual orthodoxy and a spiritual heterodoxy often united in the same man? Are we not the victims of phrases? Who can bear to be called heterodox? Even a man who does not understand the word thinks there must be something wrong about it. How possible it is to be orthodox in words, and heterodox in spirit; how possible to preach the gospel without feeling it: alas, then, we do not preach the gospel, we preach about it. There is an infinite difference between preaching the gospel and preaching about the gospel. No man can preach the gospel whose heart is hard: his genius is in his sympathy; the splendour of his gift is in the richness of his kindness and pity for the souls of men. It is intolerable that some persons should set themselves up as the custodians of orthodoxy: blessed be God, there is a hell for them! The men who are hindering the truth, and crucifying the Son of God afresh, are the men who are boasting orthodoxy without being orthodox in heart, soul, spirit, motive. For them let torment be eternal! Poor sinners, wayfarers, wanderers, who never heard about orthodoxy and heterodoxy, but who want forgiveness and hope and a new life, they shall come in thousand upon thousand; the scribe and the Pharisee, and the man who lives on the sale of his orthodoxy, shall be thrust out into darkness utter.
Is there nothing but judgment in this passage? Does the paragraph include nothing besides penalty, threatening, denunciation? Even in this paragraph there is an evangelical word. “Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God; Repent.” When did the Lord ever conclude a discourse without some evangelical tone in it? We have seen him step from his chariot of thunder that he might put his arms around some poor sinner and say, Come home ere the sun set, for we will wait for thee in night’s darkest hour, and receive thee when they who would be ashamed of thee are lost in slumber. The Bible is terrific in denunciation, awful beyond all other books in its denunciation of sin and its threatening of perdition; yet through it, and through it again, and ruling it, is a spirit of clemency and pity and mercy and hope, yea, across hell’s burning mouth there lies the shadow of the Cross.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
XV
PROPHECIES ON THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM
Ezekiel 4-14
Jeremiah was preaching in Jerusalem while Ezekiel was preaching in a similar strain to the exiles in Babylon. Jeremiah found that the people thought that Jerusalem, the center of Jehovah worship, could not and would not be destroyed. Ezekiel found the same conditions in Babylon. In the time of Isaiah, when the Assyrians were close at hand, God protected them and swept away 185,000 of their army and saved Jerusalem with the Temple. Their confidence in the perpetuity of their city seemed to be fixed. So they did not believe their city, their Temple, and their country would be destroyed. “It is God’s nation, God’s people, and God’s Temple,” they said. Moreover, they had false prophets in Jerusalem, prophets who were preaching the safety of the city, also false prophets in Babylon among the exiles, preaching the same thing. They preached that the exiles should speedily return; that the power of Babylon would be destroyed. There was one lone man in Judah, and one lone man in Babylon, preaching the destruction of the nation. This gives us some idea of Ezekiel’s task, the tremendous task that he had, to make those people believe that their nation, their city and their Temple were going to be destroyed. In order to get them to believe that, he made use of all these symbols, metaphors, and other figures which we have in this great section. He made use of these symbols, or symbolic actions, to make his preaching more vivid and more impressive, and he began this series of symbolic actions about four and a half years before the city was surrounded by Nebuchadnezzar, about six years before it fell, for the siege lasted one and a half years.
The symbol of the siege of Jerusalem and its interpretation are found in Eze 4:1-3 . The great truth he wanted to impress upon them was that Jerusalem would be besieged and would be taken and destroyed; so he was commanded by Jehovah to take a tile, or a brick, a tablet in a plastic condition, and to draw thereon a picture of a city, representing mounds cast up against the city on every side, from which the enemy could shoot their arrows down into the city and at the defenders on the walls. He was also told to set a camp round about it representing the soldiers encamped; he was to place battering rams there. These were huge beams of wood with iron heads which were pushed with great force by a large number of men, and thus driven against the walls and would soon make great holes in them. Then he was told to take an iron pan and put that between himself and this miniature city to represent the force that was surrounding it, and as that iron pan was impenetrable, so this besieging force was impenetrable, hard, and relentless, and would inevitably take and destroy the city without mercy.
Then he was told to lie upon his left side as if a burden was upon him. He was to do this according to the number of the years of the iniquity of Israel. He was to be bound while lying thus on his left side and he was to remain in that position 390 days. Then he was to lie upon his right side and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days, representing the forty years of their iniquity; these, of course, are symbolic numbers in both cases. The commentators have been greatly baffled to figure out these periods which apply to Israel and Judah. The best explanation seems to be that of Hengstenberg who makes the 390 years refer to Israel’s sin of idolatry beginning with Jeroboam and going down to the final captivity; likewise, the forty years, to Judah’s iniquity beginning forty years prior to the same captivity. According to this reckoning Israel’s period of iniquity was much longer than that of Judah and this accords with the facts of their history.
The scarcity and pollution of their food during the siege and after is symbolized in Eze 4:9-17 . Ezekiel was to take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt, various kinds of cheap grains that the very poorest of the people ate, mix them together and cook them on a fire made with the most disgusting and loathsome kind of fuel possible, and eat about twenty shekels per day and drink a little more than a pint of water. Twenty shekels would be probably about a pound of our bread, one pound of this cheap, coarse bread, and a little over a pint of water a day. His soul revolted at such loathsome fuel and he was promised a better kind of fuel used by very poor people at that time. This again is a literary symbolism, the idea being to bring before those people the fact that terrible scarcity was before them, great depredation, and almost starvation, and when they were carried into the various nations their food would be unclean and polluted and they would be compelled to eat this unclean food.
The fate of the population by the siege and their dispersion is symbolized in Eze 5:1-4 . Ezekiel was told to take a sword, make it as sharp as a barber’s razor, cut off the hair upon his head, take balances and divide it into three equal portions. Evidently Ezekiel must have resembled Elijah more than he did Elisha. A third part of it was to be put in the fire in the midst of the city; a third part, to be smitten with the sword round about, evidently hacking it to pieces; and a third part, to be scattered to the winds, and the sword was to go after it and hack it to pieces.
What is the meaning? One-third of the inhabitants of their beloved city should perish with famine and pestilence; one-third should be slain in the siege; the other third should be scattered among all the nations of the earth, and even this third the sword should pursue and nearly all of them should be cut off. These arc striking symbols, full of meaning. They must have had some effect upon the hearers.
The interpretation of the foregoing symbols, as given by the prophet in Eze 5:5-17 , is that this is Jerusalem. Eze 5:5 says: “I have set her in the midst of the nations, and countries are round about her.” The remainder of this section goes on to show how Judah had sinned, how she had revolted, how she had forsaken God, and Eze 5:8 says, “Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I, even I, am against thee; and I will execute judgments in the midst of thee in the sight of the nations.” Verse Eze 5:10 : “Therefore the father shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments on thee; and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter unto all the winds . . . and will draw out a sword after them.” Verse Eze 5:13 : “Thus shall mine anger be accomplished . . . and I shall satisfy my fury upon them.”
The prophecies of Eze 6:1-7 ; Eze 6:11-14 are prophecies against the mountains of Israel, that is, the seats of idolatry. All the kings that sought to create a reformation among the people had to deal with the high places. Hezekiah removed many of them, and at last Josiah removed all of them. They were renewed in the reign of Jehoiachim and doubtless in the reign of Zedekiah. It was against these high places that the prophets had been uttering their denunciations for centuries. Ezekiel, from the plains of Babylon, looks across the vast distance and sees the mountaintops and the hills with their shrines and altars and idols and he utters his prophecies against them. In the latter part of Eze 6:3 he says, “I will destroy her high places,” and in Eze 6:5 he gives a terrible picture: “I will lay the dead bodies of the children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones around about your altars,” and then he pictures the destruction of the idolatrous symbols of worship.
But hope is held out to Israel. In Eze 6:8 is the gleam of hope through this awful picture of destruction: “Yet will I leave a remnant, in that ye shall have some that escape the sword among the nations, when ye shall be scattered through the countries.” And then he says that many of those scattered through the countries shall remember God and regent, verse Eze 6:9 : “And those of you that escape shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be carried captive,” and the last part of Eze 6:9 says, “And they shall loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.” There was hope for the people throughout the countries that some of them would survive. There was scarcely a ray of hope for the city that any should escape. So Ezekiel preaches the doctrine of the remnant as does Isaiah, Amos, Hosea, Jeremiah, and all the other prophets of this period.
Eze 7 is a lament, or dirge, over the downfall of the kingdom of Judah, and it is divided into four parts, thus:
1. The end is come upon the four corners of the land (Eze 7:1-4 )
2. The end is come upon the inhabitants of the land (Eze 7:5-9 )
3. The ruin is come unto all classes and is universal (Eze 7:10-13 )
4. The picture of the dissolution of the state (Eze 7:14-27 ) The theme of Eze 8 is, Israel’s many idolatries, which have profaned the Lord’s house and have caused him to withdraw from it. The date of this prophecy is fourteen months after the previous sections we have studied, in the sixth month, 591 B.C., which corresponds to our October.
Then the prophet sees what he calls the image of jealousy in the Temple (Eze 8:1-6 ). He sees a new vision of the Lord, and the one who sat above that firmament whose appearance was like unto fire, appears to Ezekiel again and, strange to say (we have to interpret this as a vision in symbol), took him by a lock of the hair of his head and carried him all the way from Babylon to Jerusalem. The Spirit took him thus and set him down at the door of the gate of the inner court and there he saw what he calls an “image of jealousy.” It was not jealousy pictured, but an image of some of their deities, some form of Baal set up in the very Temple of Jehovah, which provoked him to jealousy. Thus, he pictures the idolatry of the people as existing in the very Temple and its sacred precincts made place for their idols.
The prophet now sees another vision, the secret idolatry of the elders in the chambers of the gateway (Eze 8:7-13 ). The images there were worshiped by the people at large. Now the elders, the leaders, are engaged in it, and he says in Eze 8:10 , “So I went in and saw; and behold, every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed upon the wall round about.” Eze 8:11 : “And there stood before them seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel; and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, every man with his censor in his hand; and the odor of the cloud of incense went up.” All this is used to represent the elders, the leaders of the people of Jerusalem, who were idolaters in secret, if not openly.
The women were lamenting and weeping for Tammuz, or Adonis, a heathen solar mythical being, nature personified and represented in winter as perishing or languishing, and in spring, reviving. Some writers think it represents the hot season of the year, as nature is all dead and withered, and is revived later on. Here the women are described, the ladies, the society ladies of Jerusalem, weeping as the heathen women did, because the force of nature, represented in this physical being, was apparently dead. It was a strange sort of worship indeed. It is not known as to just what the nature of this worship was, but it was something like that.
Then Ezekiel was shown the sun worship (Eze 8:10-18 ). The latter part of Eze 8:16 says: “about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of Jehovah, and their faces toward the east; and they were worshiping the sun toward the east.” This gives us some idea as to the depths to which the people had gone in their idolatrous worship, even in Jerusalem and the Temple.
The first act of divine judgment, the slaughter of the inhabitants, is presented in Eze 9 . Jehovah is represented as crying out and calling seven men, supernatural beings, six of them armed with a sword, and the seventh one armed with an inkhorn. These come forth into the Temple area and from there into the streets of the city. The man with the inkhorn set his mark upon all that should not be slain. Thus they entered the Temple; Ezekiel sat still in the vision and in a short while six supernatural men cut down a vast number. When they cut down all the Temple force they went out into the city and the slaughter went on. Eze 9:8 says, “And it came to pass, while they were smiting, and I was left, that I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah Lord Jehovah! wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel in thy pouring out of thy wrath upon Jerusalem?” Ezekiel saw that if these six angelic beings went through the city, not many would be left. He cried out but it was of no avail. The second act of divine judgment is symbolized in Eze 10 . Here Ezekiel sees the same glorious vision of God that he saw at first, and the voice came from him above the firmament saying to a man clothed in linen, “Take some fire” from that central place among the cherubim “take some of that divine fire and scatter it over the city.” Then we have the description of how one of the cherubim, with one of those arms, took some of the fire and handed it out to this other being and he went abroad and scattered that fire over the inhabitants of the city. That is a symbol also. The latter part of Eze 10 is simply an extended description of the same vision recorded in Eze 1 . We have a threat of destruction and a promise of restoration in Eze 2 . The occasion of the destruction of Jerusalem was virtually the revolt on the part of the princes against Nebuchadnezzar. It was the princes of Judah that led Zedekiah into revolt, the princes that were so obnoxious to Jeremiah, the princes of Judah that caused the downfall of the city and tried to put Jeremiah out of the way. Ezekiel, in vision, sees those princes and he sees them counseling and planning to make a league with Egypt and revolt against Nebuchadnezzar. He denounced them. Eze 10:2 says, “And he said unto me, Son of man, these are the men that devise iniquity and that give wicked counsel in this city; that say, The time is not near to build houses.” If we are going to fight, this city will be a caldron and we will be the flesh, and it is better to be in the frying pan than in the fire. This city, the capital, may be destroyed; the time of war has come; let us fight and stay inside.” They did so, and in the remainder of the chapter we have the denunciation of Ezekiel. He says, “I will bring you forth out of the midst thereof, and deliver you into the hands of strangers.” And that actually happened, for Nebuchadnezzar captured all these princes with Zedekiah; they were brought before him at Riblah and every one slain with the sword.
The latter part of the chapter states that there will be some left; a remnant will be saved among the exiles. There shall be a few found faithful, and in Eze 10:17-19 is a marvelous promise: “I will gather you out of all the countries where you have been scattered,” and in Eze 10:19 , he anticipates Christianity, saying, “I will give them a new heart, and put a new spirit within them, and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep mine ordinances, and do them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.” The hope of the nation was in the exiles, not in the people that were left in Jerusalem. Immediately following that, the cherubim that had appeared near the house of Jehovah, were removed east on the Mount of Olives and departed thus from the city, signifying that Jehovah had abandoned Jerusalem.
There are two symbolic actions described in Eze 12 . Ezekiel is told to gather up such things as be would require to take with him if he were going into exile, just as one would pack his trunk or grip to go to another place. So Ezekiel packs up his goods in the sight of the people in the daytime, and has them all ready. That night he goes to the wall of the city and digs a hole through, and with his goods upon his shoulder makes his way through that hole of the wall to go out. It was a symbolic action, performed to impress the people. He interprets his action thus: The people of Jerusalem shall take their belongings and go into exile, and Zedekiah, the prince of Jerusalem, will dig a hole through the wall of the city and with his goods upon his shoulders will try to escape. He actually tried to do that, but was taken. Eze 12:11 says, “Say, I am your sign: like as I have done, so shall it be done unto them; they shall go into captivity.” Verse Eze 12:12 : “And the prince that is among them shall bear upon his shoulder in the dark and shall go forth: they shall dig through the wall to carry out thereby: he shall cover his face, because he shall not see the land with his eyes.” This is a mild way of expressing the truth that Zedekiah tramped all the way to Babylon with his eyes having been bored out by Chaldean spears.
Another symbolic action is recorded in Eze 12:18-19 , as to the eating of bread and drinking of water, and then Ezekiel quotes a proverb, “The days are prolonged, and every vision faileth.” They were saying that the visions and prophecies did not come true. He answers, “Thus saith the Lord God: I will make this proverb to cease, and they shall no more use it as a proverb in Israel; but say unto them, The days are at hand, and the fulfilment of every vision.”
The false prophets and prophetesses are characterized in Eze 13 . Jeremiah had to contend with the false prophets, but Ezekiel had to contend with the false prophets and prophetesses. They are described thus:
1. The false prophets are described as jackals burrowing in the ground, and making things worse instead of better (Eze 13:1-7 ).
2. They whitewash the tottering walls that the people built and they daub them with untempered mortar (Eze 13:8-16 ). The people built up walls of defense by their foolish plans and the false prophets agreed with them. They tried to smooth the danger over, saying, “Peace for her.”
3. The denunciation of the false prophetesses (Eze 13:17-23 ). These women deceived the people. Verse Eze 13:18 : “Thus saith the Lord God: Woe to the women that sew pillows upon all elbows, and make kerchiefs for the head of persons of every stature to hunt souls!” These pillows were little cushions fastened on the joints of their hands and arms to act as charms. The custom exists today in the East. Ezekiel denounces them in verse Eze 13:20 : “Wherefore, thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I am against your pillows, wherewith ye there hunt the souls to make them fly, and I will tear them from your arms; and I will let the souls go, even the souls that ye hunt to make them fly.” These were the spiritualists of that day. They are with us yet, only their methods are different.
The answer of Jehovah to idolaters who inquire of him is found in Eze 14 :
1. The answer is this, Put away your idols or look out for the judgment of God. There is no use in coming to inquire of Jehovah through me if you are idolaters in heart (Eze 14:1-11 ).
2. The principle of divine judgment is found in Eze 14:12-23 . It is this: Righteous men shall not save sinners, only their own souls. Notice verse Eze 14:14 : “Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness.” Verse Eze 14:16 : “Though these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord God, they should deliver neither sons nor daughters; they only should be delivered, but the land should be desolate.” So no matter how many righteous men there may be, and how righteous they may be, only they themselves shall be saved in the terrible sack of the city. Thus, the righteous could not save Jerusalem, any more than Lot could save Sodom.
QUESTIONS
1. What the problem of Ezekiel in Babylon and what prophet with
2. What encouragement did the people have both in Jerusalem and in Babylon to believe in the safety of their holy city and nation, and what Ezekiel’s method of impressing upon the exiles the fallacy of such an argument?
3. What the symbol of the siege of Jerusalem and what its interpretation? (Eze 4:1-3 .)
4. How are the people bearing their sins here symbolized and what the interpretation? (Eze 4:4-8 .)
5. How is the scarcity and pollution of their food, during the siege and after, symbolized in Eze 4:9-17 ?
6. How is the fate of the population by the siege and their dispersion symbolized? (Eze 5:1-4 .)
7. What is the interpretation of the foregoing symbols, as given by the prophet in Eze 5:5-17 ?
8. What are the prophecies of Eze 6:1-7 ; Eze 6:11-14 and what is the history of these high places?
9. What hope is held out to Israel amid this awful picture?
10. What the theme of Eze 7 and what its parts?
11. What was the theme and date of Eze 8 ?
12. What was the “Image of Jealousy” seen by Ezekiel (Eze 8:1-6 ), and what the particulars of this vision?
13. What is the prophet’s vision of the elders and what its interpretation (Eze 8:7-13 )?
14. What was the abomination of Tammuz? (Eze 8:14-15 .)
15. What of the sun worship? (Eze 8:16-18 .)
16. How is the first act of divine judgment and slaughter of the inhabitants represented? (Eze 9 .)
17. How was the second act of divine judgment symbolized? (Eze 10 .)
18. Explain the threat of destruction and the promise of restoration in Eze 11 .
19. What two symbolic actions described in Eze 12 , and what their interpretation?
20. How are the false prophets and prophetesses characterized in Eze 13 ?
21. What is the answer of Jehovah to idolaters who inquire of him and what the divine principle of judgment? (Eze 14 .)
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Eze 14:1 Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me.
Ver. 1. Then came certain of the elders unto me. ] Rulers and chieftains of the captives in Babylon, pretending to be far better than those elders at Jerusalem, complained about in Eze 8:11-12 , but indeed no better; nay, so much the worse, because they had lost the fruit of all their afflictions, and were as arrant hypocrites as those veteratores old hands, the scribes and Pharisees, that came to John’s baptism and to our Saviour’s sermons, with evil and exulcerate minds.
“ Non omnes sancti qui calcant limina Templi. ”
A Doeg may set his foot as far within the sanctuary as a David.
And sat before me.
a De Vita Const.
Ezekiel Chapter 14
The visit of the elders to the prophet becomes the occasion of a fresh revelation, though not in the form of a vision. As God was not deceived by their attitude of waiting to hear His word, so must not the prophet be moved from the stern and solemn duty imposed on him.
“Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me. And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumbling-block of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them? Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumbling-block of his iniquity before his face and cometh to the prophet; I Jehovah will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols; that I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols.” (Ver. 1-5) The holy seed had defiled themselves, and their guides were more’ worthy of censure than any misled by their example. Whatever their appearance or pretension, they had “set up their idols in their heart.” It was no question of outward force or influence. The elders liked these abominations; they ran after idols with secret greediness, and they gratified their lust after false gods by placing the stumbling-block of their iniquity before their face, in bold, open, deliberate rebellion against Jehovah. To come, then, under such circumstances, and professedly inquire into the mind of Jehovah, was but the shamelessness of the unjust. “Should I be enquired of at all by them?” To insult God by worshipping idols, and yet thus to come before His prophet, was too gross and obdurate, instead of any hopeful sign of repentance. The word for such is that Jehovah would answer him that comes according to the multitude of his idols. He is mighty and despises not any; but He will be no party to His own dishonour; and His judgments He makes salutary to those that fear Him. How else could He answer the rebellious elders but in a way to make His majesty felt? They sought an answer in curiosity; He would prove the worthlessness of their many idols, “that I may catch the house of Israel by their heart because they have become all of them estranged from me by their idols.” Elders and people they were gone from God who would deal with their heart – above them wherein they dealt proudly.
Then comes a still more explicit message to the house of Israel in verses 6-11, that they should repent and turn from their idols: otherwise Jehovah should answer such inquirers by Himself, and this by cutting them off, whether a deceived prophet or such as might seek to them. “Therefore say unto the House of Israel, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Repent, and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations. For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourneth in Israel, which separateth himself from me, and setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumbling-block of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to a prophet to enquire of him concerning me: I Jehovah will answer him by myself: and I will set my face against that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of my people; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah. And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I Jehovah have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel. And they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity: the punishment of the prophet shall be even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him; that the house of Israel may go no more astray from me, neither be polluted any more with all their transgressions; but that they may be my people, and I may be their God, saith the Lord Jehovah.” (Ver. 6-11) Thus does God act judicially, showing Himself froward to a froward people, and sending those who lie to such as love a lie; that both may be punished together, and Israel may learn the needed lesson, and be His people as He their God.
In verse 12 begins another word of Jehovah to Ezekiel. “Son of man, if a land sinneth against me by trespassing grievously, then will I stretch out mine hand upon it, and will break the staff of the bread thereof, and will send famine upon it, and will cut off man and beast from it: though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord Jehovah.
“If I cause noisome beasts to pass through the land, and they spoil it, so that it be desolate, that no man may pass through because of the beasts: though these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters; they only shall be delivered, but the land shall be desolate.
“Or if I bring a sword upon that land and say, Sword, go through the land; so that I cut off man and beast from it: though these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they only shall be delivered themselves.
“Or if I send a pestilence into that land, and pour out my fury upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast: though Noah, Daniel and Job, were in it, as I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness.” (Ver. 13-20)
The prophet hears the awful sentence that, when the last excess of evil brings any one of God’s strokes of judgment on a land, the three saints, whose intercession appears at critical points of the divine history of man, could not avail to deliver save their own souls by their righteousness (for it is a question here of government in this world, not of grace for eternal life). If famine were inflicted, if wild beasts, if a sword, if a pestilence, not even Noah nor Daniel nor Job should save son or daughter beyond themselves. But what should it be when all four sore plagues are sent by God on Jerusalem? Who could screen the guilty people? “For thus saith the Lord Jehovah, How much more when I send my four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast? Yet, behold, therein shall be left a remnant that shall be brought forth, both sons and daughters: behold, they shall come forth unto you, and ye shall see their way and their doings: and ye shall be comforted concerning the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, even concerning all that I have brought upon it. And they shall comfort you, when ye see their ways and their doings: and ye shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, saith the Lord Jehovah.” (Ver. 21-23)
Thus, whatever the love the prophet bore the people, whatever the sorrow with which he contemplated blow after blow that fell on them, he is brought at length heartily to acquiesce in the dealings of Jehovah, however sorely He judged; who never causes a needless tear, and causes mercy to rejoice over judgment.
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Eze 14:1-5
1Then some elders of Israel came to me and sat down before me. 2And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 3Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts and have put right before their faces the stumbling block of their iniquity. Should I be consulted by them at all? 4Therefore speak to them and tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, Any man of the house of Israel who sets up his idols in his heart, puts right before his face the stumbling block of his iniquity, and then comes to the prophet, I the LORD will be brought to give him an answer in the matter in view of the multitude of his idols, 5in order to lay hold of the hearts of the house of Israel who are estranged from Me through all their idols.’
Eze 14:1 elders of Israel This must refer to tribal leaders already in exile in Babylon (cf. Eze 8:1, where a group of faithful elders were called elders of Judah). These particular ones are idolaters (cf. Eze 20:1). This is Judah’s problem, her leaders are not faithful YHWHists!
1. kings, princes
2. priests
3. prophets
4. elders
Eze 14:3 these men have set up idols in their hearts Apparently the idolatry of Jerusalem described in chapter 8 had already spread to the leaders in exile in Babylon (cf. Eze 14:4; Eze 14:6; Eze 14:11; Eze 7:19; Eze 20:7-8). These elders looked like YHWHists, but in the secret place of their hearts (God knows the heart), they were corrupted by pagan worship and theology.
For the term idols (BDB 165, NIDOTTE, vol. 1, pp. 864-865) see note at Eze 6:4. The term is used almost exclusively in Ezekiel (39 times) and only once in Jeremiah (i.e., Jer 50:2) and never in Isaiah. It originally occurred in the key covenant passages of Lev 26:30 and Deu 29:17.
stumbling block This term (BDB 506) is used often in Ezekiel (cf. Eze 3:20; Eze 14:3-4; Eze 14:7; Eze 18:30; Eze 21:15; Eze 44:12). Its basic meaning is to stumble or the means by which one stumbles. The origin of its idiomatic usage comes from
1. God’s word or covenant was characterized as a clearly marked path
2. faith originally meant to be stable, walking easily in the path
3. therefore, to stumble is parallel to leaving the path, to stumbling in the path
This term came to have a Messianic aspect in Isaiah (cf. Eze 8:14; Rom 9:33; 1Pe 2:8). The Messiah (the Cornerstone, Gen 49:24; Psa 118:22; Isa 28:16) will become a stumbling block to some.
Should I be consulted by them at all This is a grammatically emphatic sentence (an INFINITIVE ABSOLUTE and an IMPERFECT VERB of the same root [BDB 205, KB 233, Niphal, cf. Eze 20:3; Eze 20:31]). The covenant leaders were consulting idols and false prophets, not YHWH (cf. Eze 20:3; Eze 20:21). So why should YHWH now allow them to consult Him?
Eze 14:4 speak to them and tell them, Thus says the Lord GOD’ This is an emphatic construction.
1. a Piel IMPERATIVE, speak, BDB 180, KB 201
2-3. two Qal PERFECTS, says, BDB 55, KB 65
God’s prophet must address this situation of apparent faith!
I the LORD will be brought to give him an answer See note at Eze 14:7.
Eze 14:5 who are estranged from Me The VERB estranged (BDB 266, KB 267, Niphal PERFECT) describes the alienation of YHWH’s people from Him because of idolatry. YHWH’s people are now strangers/foreigners (cf. Eze 7:21; Eze 11:9; Eze 16:22; Eze 28:7; Eze 28:10; Eze 30:12; Eze 31:12) and thus enemies (cf. Isa 1:4; Psa 69:8).
Then came certain of the elders of Israel. These are to be distinguished from the elders of Judah (Eze 8:1). They had no knowledge (probably) of what was transpiring in Judaea. They had travelled from Tel = abib.
the elders. See the Structure (p. 1097).
Israel. See Eze 8:11, Eze 8:12; Eze 8:6, Eze 9:6. in Eze 8:1 we have Judah’s elders.
Chapter 14
Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me. And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be inquired of at all by them? ( Eze 14:1-3 )
Why should I talk to them? Why should I deal with them? These guys that are sitting here in front of you, they’ve got idols that they have set up in their hearts.
Idolatry begins in the heart. There’s where you first turn against God. There’s where you really turn to God. “Believe in thine heart that God has raised Him from the dead” ( Rom 10:9 ). “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life” ( Pro 4:23 ). “Out of the heart proceeds the evil speakings, the murders, the adulteries, the fornications, the lies, the heart” ( Mat 15:19 ). And here were these men coming to inquire of God, to hear the word of the Lord from the prophet. And God says to Ezekiel, “Hey these guys that are sitting here, Ezekiel, why should I speak to them? Why should I be inquired of by them? Because they all have their little idols all set up in their hearts.” Now, usually they would set up an idol on an altar, on a table, or some place in their home, that’s bad enough. But it’s even worse to set up an idol in your heart, because then you begin to deceive yourself, you say, “Well I don’t have… I’m not guilty of idolatry. I don’t have any idols. I don’t have any little shrines in my home.” But you’ve got it right here in your heart, that’s worse.
Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that sets up his idols in his heart, and puts the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and comes to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh, according to the multitude of his idols; That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols ( Eze 14:4-5 ).
I’ll answer them, “They’ve all become a stranger to me because of their idols, idolatry, worshipping an idol, a principle, an ideal, a philosophy.” Having a master passion governing your life other than God always estranges a person from God.
Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Repent, [turn, change, don’t just be sorry, repent, have a change of action] and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all of your abominations. For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourns in Israel, which separates himself from me and sets up his idols in his heart, and puts the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and comes to a prophet to inquire of him concerning me; I the LORD will answer him by myself: And I will set my face against that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off out of the midst of my people; and ye shall know that I am the LORD ( Eze 14:6-8 ).
God says, “I’m going to be fierce in My judgment of that person; I’ll cut him off. Come to inquire of Me with idols in your heart? Hey, that’s dangerous business.” Ananias and Sapphira sought to do so. They came to God, but they had idols in their hearts. Mammon was sitting there. A desire, oh there were other idols too; it was desire to be acknowledged and recognized by the church as generous givers. “Oh my, isn’t that marvelous? They sold their property and are turning all their money in. Ooh great, fantastic.” But they weren’t; they were only pretending to do so. They were holding back part of the profit for themselves. Now, there’s nothing wrong with that. They didn’t have to sell their house. They didn’t have to bring anything in. God didn’t require that. But they were making a pretense, it was a hoax, it was a sham. They were coming before God, but there were idols in their hearts. “Why have you conspired in your heart,” Peter said, “to do this evil and to sin against God and to lie to the Holy Ghost? You haven’t lied unto man; you’ve lied unto God.” And of course, they fell over dead and were carried out. God said, “I will wipe them out from among My people.” Be thankful God isn’t so severe today as He was in the early church. We wouldn’t have a church the size that we do. God’s heavy hand.
And if the prophet be deceived when he has spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet, and will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of the people of Israel. And they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity: the punishment of the prophet shall be even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him; That the house of Israel may go no more astray from me, nor be polluted any more with all their transgressions; but that they may be my people, and I may be their God, saith the Lord GOD ( Eze 14:9-11 ).
Oh, how He longed to be their God and for them to be His people and that they walk before Him in holiness and in righteousness, not polluted by their transgressions.
Now, the word of the LORD came unto me saying, Son of man, when the land sins against me by trespassing grievously, then will I stretch out my hand upon it, and I will break the staff of the bread thereof, and will send famine upon it, and will cut off man and beast from it: Now though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord GOD ( Eze 14:12-14 ).
In other words, God says, “When I bring judgment upon the land, even though there are righteous men in it, those righteous men will only deliver themselves. They can’t deliver anybody else by their righteousness. They’ll only deliver themselves.”
Now, it is interesting the three men that God spoke of: Noah, whom God delivered when He brought His judgment upon the earth; Daniel. Now Daniel was at this time alive and one of the counselors to Nebuchadnezzar. Already, he was a very young man, at this point probably in his early twenties, but yet he had already developed a tremendous reputation as a spiritual giant and as a spiritual leader, a spiritual man. And, of course, that was evidenced when first he was brought into captivity in Babylon. And he purposed in his heart not to defile himself with the king’s meats and requested that he be allowed a vegetarian diet. He didn’t want the meat that had been sacrificed to pagan idols, the meat that wasn’t killed according to the kosher laws. And he said, “Just let us eat vegetables.” And the guard says, “Hey, you know, if you guys are just eating vegetables, you’ll begin to look skinny and sick, you know, then they’ll have my head, man.” Daniel said, “Well, give us ten days and take a look after ten days and if we look skinny and malnourished then we’ll eat your meat.” The guy said, “Fair enough.” And after ten days ole Daniel and his buddies were healthier, ruddier looking and all than all the others who were eating this polluted meat of the king, so they were able to go on. Then he had begun to be known for his interpreting of the king’s dreams and all. And so Daniel already was coming into prominence in the minds of the people, and though he was a young man, still he is named with Noah, Daniel, and Job. Righteous men, examples of righteous men.
Now if I cause noisome beasts to pass through the land, and they spoil it, so that it is desolate, that no man may pass through it because of the beasts: Though these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters; they shall only be delivered, but the land shall be desolate ( Eze 14:15-16 ).
These men, if they were dwelling there, they could only deliver themselves. They can’t even deliver their families. Every man must have his own personal relationship with God. God has no grandchildren, only sons. You cannot have a relationship with God through your mother, through your father, through your family. You’ve got to have your own personal relationship with God. And these men, as righteous as they were, Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord for he was righteous in all of his generation. And yet, he could only deliver himself and his sons who came into the ark with him.
Now, this of course, to me is a…God it says, “If I’m bringing these terrible things upon the land, the noisome beasts and the famines and so forth, the righteous can only deliver themselves.” In other words, the righteous will be delivered even as we will be delivered before God brings His judgment upon this earth. And any man who says otherwise is denying the righteous principles of God.
Or if I bring a sword upon that land, and I say, Sword, go through the land; so that I cut off man and beast from it: Though these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they only shall be delivered themselves. Or if I send a pestilence into the land, and pour out my fury upon it in blood, to cut it off from man and beast: Though Noah and Daniel and Job, were in it, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness. For thus saith the Lord GOD; How much more when I send my four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, famine, noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut it off from man and beast? Yet, behold, therein shall be left a remnant that shall be brought forth, both sons and daughters: behold, they shall come forth unto you, and ye shall see their way and their doings: and ye shall be comforted concerning the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, even concerning all that I have brought upon it. And they shall comfort you, when ye see their ways and their doings; and ye shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, saith the Lord GOD ( Eze 14:17-23 ).
Now, soon these captives will be coming from Jerusalem, that remnant that will escape, and when they tell you the things that happen and when you see these people, you’ll know that what I did was righteous in My judgment when you hear the abominations and things that were going on. You’ll know that I was righteous when I brought My judgment against Jerusalem. “
Eze 14:1-3
PROPHECIES AGAINST IDOLATROUS INQUIRERS
Keil divided this chapter into two parts. “God will not allow idolaters to inquire of him (Eze 14:1-13), and the righteousness of the godly will not avert the judgment (Eze 14:14-23).
Eze 14:1-3
“Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me. And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be inquired of at all by them?”
“Certain of the elders …” (Eze 13:1) The prophecies here, although directed to this group of elders actually concerned all of Israel. Their having taken their idols into their heart was no slight violation but a fundamental crime against God.
“These men …” (Eze 14:3). According to Taylor, this expression, in context, “designates them as contemptible.
“Should I be inquired of at all by them …” (Eze 14:3)? In the Hebrew language, a question like this, “requires a negative answer”; and therefore the meaning here is simply that men with idols in their hearts have no right whatever to seek any information from God.
Certain of the elders of Israel now came to Ezekiel, evidently to hear what message he had to deliver to them. The word of the Lord revealed to him that whatever their outward attitude might be, they were at heart idolaters, and he was charged to declare to them that while idolatry remained in their heart they were necessarily estranged from Jehovah. He was to appeal to them to return to Jehovah, and to make perfectly clear that so long as they retained idolatry in their heart the only answer of Jehovah to them must be punishment, warning them that if they listened to the messages of false prophets, they and the prophets would be destroyed together.
This determined attitude of judgment was then explained to Ezekiel, first by a statement of principle. That statement was that in days of willful and persistent corruption men as righteous as Noah, Daniel, and Job could not prevent the operation of vengeance, but only save their own souls by their righteousness. This statement of principle, while insisting on the inevitableness of judgment. did, nevertheless, also clearly reveal the justice and discrimination of the divine method. If Noah, Daniel, and Job were unable to prevent the judgment, they themselves would be saved by their righteousness. The twofold truth was then even more clearly brought forth in the direct application of the principle to Jerusalem. Four sore judgments were determined against the city, but a remnant would be delivered, and escaping to Ezekiel would comfort him, as they proved that all that the Lord had done had been not without cause.
12-23, Reaping as We Sow
Eze 14:1-6
It is useless to approach God with prayers and inquiries for guidance, as long as our hearts are filled with secret sins and cherished idols. If we regard iniquity in our hearts God cannot hear us. It often happens when men purpose a certain evil course, that everything seems to favor them. For a striking example of this, see 1Ki 22:6; 1Ki 22:15. The second paragraph describes the inveteracy of their sin. Jeremiah had affirmed that Judahs guilt was too great to be pardoned upon the intercession of Moses or of Samuel, Jer 14:2; Jer 15:1. Ezekiel adds three other revered names. In the four hypothetical cases of famine, noisome beasts, the sword, and pestilence, such men would succeed only in saving their own lives; but even in such cases there would be an elect remnant, who would be comforted as they recognized the evidences of the divine rectitude. Yes, as we look back on the history of our race we shall be comforted; we shall feel that God could have done no other; we shall reap the blessing which has been evolved out of events and movements that we had misunderstood or feared.
Chapter Fourteen
Too Late For Intercession
We are told in the book of Proverbs that if men refuse to heed the voice of God when He speaks in grace, calling to repentance, the day will come when they shall call on Him for mercy and He will refuse to heed their cry. This is what we have emphasized in the present chapter.
It was very evident that the Jews case had become extremely critical. Those who had counted on the withdrawal of the Chaldean armies and the fulfilment of the predictions of peace made by their false prophets, were beginning to feel that, after all, they were in a far worse case than they had supposed; and so a deputation of the leaders called on Ezekiel to confer with him as to whether there might be any hope of Jehovahs intervention on their behalf.
Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me. And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be inquired of at all by them? Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Every man of the house of Israel that taketh his idols into his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I Jehovah will answer him therein according to the multitude of his idols; that I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from Me through their idols-vers. 1-5.
Before any of these elders uttered a word, God Himself spoke to Ezekiel, declaring that He who seeth not as man seeth but discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart, had already judged these men as those who had set up their idols in their own hearts and put the stumblingblock of their iniquities before their faces. Why, then, should they come to a prophet of God to inquire of him? They had no desire to do the will of God; therefore they had no title to seek relief from Him. As long as conditions continued as they were, there could be no answer of peace. Jehovah declared that all those of the house of Israel who had set up idols in their hearts and who persisted in their iniquities, which had thus become a national stumbling-block, deserved no answer, save an answer in judgment in accordance with the idolatry that they had pursued. God would deal with them as He saw them to be inwardly, not in accordance with their lip profession as they pretended to reverence Him.
He commanded that Ezekiel simply confirm the prophecies of judgment that had already gone forth.
Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Return ye, and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations. For every one of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that separateth himself from Me, and taketh his idols into his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet to inquire for himself of Me; I Jehovah will answer him by Myself: and I will set My face against that man, and will make him an astonishment, for a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of My people; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah. And if the prophet be deceived and speak a word, I, Jehovah, have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out My hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of My people Israel. And they shall bear their iniquity:, the iniquity of the prophet shall be even as the iniquity of him that seeketh unto him; that the house of Israel may go no more astray from Me, neither defile themselves any more with all their transgressions; but that they may be My people, and I may be their God, saith the Lord Jehovah-vers. 6-11.
In his mercy He called upon the people to turn again to Him, to put away their idols, to judge all these abominations after which they had gone for so long. If they were prepared to do this, He would still heed their cry. In fact, wherever there was an individual of the house of Israel or of the strangers who were dwelling among the people of Israel, God would hear in mercy if they turned to Him in truth, but where they persisted in their idolatry He could only set His face against them and pour out His wrath upon them.
He declared that those who went on in their sins would become an astonishment, a sign, and a proverb to the nations, and would be cut off from She midst of Israel. Thus by His judgments they should know it was Jehovah with whom they had to do.
As for the false prophets who were misleading them, the Lord Himself took the responsibility for having permitted this; for it is a principle in Scripture that when men refuse the truth, God Himself often gives them up to falsehood. Even as in the last days of the great tribulation, those who receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved, will be given up to strong delusion that they might believe the lie of the Antichrist, and so all be judged which obey not the truth but have pleasure in unrighteousness.
We may think it is just a matter of chance when one man receives the testimony of the Lord and turns to Him in repentance and faith and seeks to walk in His truth, while others are carried away by false systems, many of which have become most popular in our own days. In the first instance it is the Spirit of God Himself who reveals to man his need, and then shows how Christ has met that need; whereas, in the other case, when people have refused the truth of God and resisted the Holy Spirit, He allows their minds to be blinded and permits them to be deluded by false teachings which, if followed to the end, result in their everlasting doom.
Our Lord Jesus warned against blind leaders of the blind, both of whom fall into the ditch at last. To Ezekiel God declared that the people who followed after that which was false should bear their iniquities, and the punishment of the pretended prophet should be even as that of those who trusted in his messages.
In order that the house of Israel might realize the folly of turning away from Jehovah, and might learn from His judgments the importance of walking in His truth, and so might not go farther astray nor be defiled any more with the things that had rendered them so unclean in His sight, there is more than a suggestion in verse 11, that there was still hope if they would turn to God. In that case He would again acknowledge them as His people, and He would manifest Himself as their God. But alas, there was no response! They persisted in their evil way; therefore God declared that they must be given up to judgment.
And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Son of man, when a land sinneth against Me by committing a trespass, and I stretch out My hand upon it, and break the staff of the bread thereof, and send famine upon it, and cut off from it man and beast; though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord Jehovah. If I cause evil beasts to pass through the land, and they ravage it, and it be made desolate, so that no man may pass through because of the beasts; though these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, they should deliver neither sons nor daughters; they only should be delivered, but the land should be desolate. Or if I bring a sword upon that land, and say, Sword, go through the land; so that I cut off from it man and beast; though these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, they should deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they only should be delivered themselves. Or if I send a pestilence into that land, and pour out My wrath upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast; though Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, as I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, they should deliver neither son nor daughter; they should but deliver their own souls by their righteousness-vers. 12-20.
While the hypocritical elders waited, hoping for an answer that might promise deliverance from their present awful plight, God commanded Ezekiel to tell them that they had gone beyond the place where He would listen to intercession on their behalf. The people of the land had so thoroughly committed themselves to iniquity and had been so unfaithful to the covenant which God had made with them that He was now stretching out His hand against them and would give them over to famine in addition to the other troubles that had come upon them. Even though such godly and devoted men as Noah, the outstanding witness for God before the flood; Daniel, who at this very time was in Babylon being prepared of God for a remarkable ministry in future days; or Job the patriarch who had been so severely tested and come through so triumphantly, should all be together in the land and should make intercession on its behalf, still they would deliver but their own souls by their righteousness. Their pleadings could not avail for the apostate nation.
If conditions in the land became so evil that wild and savage beasts increased to such an extent as to endanger the lives of the few who were left in it so that no one dared appear on the highway because of these beasts, even then, though these three men should be among the remnant and should plead on their behalf, still God declared they should deliver neither sons nor daughters but only themselves, and the land should be left to desolation. Or if the sword of the en- emy were allowed to prevail, as it would very soon, when God Himself should command the sword to go through the land to cut off man and beast from it, if these three men should be in it and should stand before Jehovah and plead for the people, still He would not answer. He would recognize their own righteousness, but their prayer would avail for no one else. Or if pestilence, which so often follows bloody warfare, should take its terrible toll of those who remained, cutting off man and beast, Noah, Daniel, and Job would be unable to avert the judgment, let them plead as they might.
For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: How much more when I send My four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the evil beasts, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast! Yet, behold, therein shall be left a remnant that shall be carried forth, both sons and daughters: behold, they shall come forth unto you, and ye shall see their way and their doings; and ye shall be comforted concerning the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, even concerning all that I have brought upon it. And they shall comfort you, when ye see their way and their doings; and ye shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, saith the Lord Jehovah-vers. 21-23.
We may notice a very close connection between the threatened evils mentioned here and the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. In Ezekiel we read of warfare, famine, evil beasts, and pestilence. These are called Jehovahs four sore judgments. In the Apocalypse we have, first, the white horse of peace, then the red horse of war, followed by the black horse of famine, and the corpse-colored horse of pestilence. These are all providential judgments which God sends upon the nations when they turn away from Him.
But there is a rainbow of hope seen even in the dark clouds of judgment, as we notice in verses 22 and 23, wherein God speaks of a remnant that shall be carried forth and shall learn from what has come upon them and the rest, and as a result, will turn to the Lord and be comforted concerning the evil that He was bringing upon Jerusalem. These were to be the witnesses of Gods loving care over all who, in their hearts, turned back to Him, and so made it possible for Him in righteousness to act for their blessing. Realizing the sinfulness of the nation to which they belonged they would recognize the fact that God had not acted arbitrarily, but had good reasons for dealing with them in the manner in which He did.
Eze 14:3
I. What is the sin and the voice of which the prophet speaks, and how may we ourselves be guilty of it? The father of modern philosophy and science has shown us that there are in the mind of man, as man, natural idols, which act as impediments to his acquisition of knowledge, and his search after truth. Till these idols are overthrown and broken in pieces and taken away, it is simply useless for man to pursue knowledge. His efforts will be neutralised, and their results vitiated. He will not arrive at truth. Now if this be true in the matter of human science it is not less worthy of our regard in the matter of Divine truth, and of the knowledge of God. We cannot know God, whom to know is eternal life, as long as these natural obstacles are not taken out of the way. What, then, is the practical bearing of this truth? (1) First there must be a single eye to the knowledge of God. If we have not made up our minds that the one only object worth living for is God, and the knowledge of God, we have set up idols in our hearts no less than the men in Ezekiel’s time, who came and sat before him. (2) Not only must there be a clear perception of God as the one sole object of our services, but there must also be a readiness to sacrifice anything in order to know and to serve Him. The man who is not prepared at any cost to himself to know and to serve God, is not prepared to serve Him at all.
II. There are certain general principles to which it behoves us to give heed when we come to the worship of God. (1) First of all we must empty ourselves of ourselves. We must come as though our present knowledge of God were as nothing, and as if God were still to be known and learnt. (2) There is nothing which so infallibly prevents us from seeing the truth of God as secret sin. As long as sin, in one of its innumerable forms, lurks in the heart or on the conscience, the service of God will be a vain thing, because the pursuit of truth is a lie. It is that practised dishonesty, it is that cherished lust, it is that pampered self-love, it is that incurable indolence, which vitiates all your worship and renders your religion a lie.
S. Leathes, Church of England Pulpit, vol. viii., p. 209.
Eze 14:4-5
I. The word estranged implies a former condition of close relationship and affection, from which they have since fallen. You would not say of a mere acquaintance, if you ceased to see him, that he was estranged from you; but if the love of an old friend grow cold, if a child become indifferent to his home, or a husband fail in his devotion to his wife, you describe such a falling off as estrangement. In this temper certain elders of Israel presented themselves before the prophet of God. God’s eye marked them as they came, and He warned His prophet instantly. God will not hear their prayer, nor answer them. Why? “Because they are all estranged from Me through their idols.”
II. The question which God puts “Should I be enquired of at all by them?” expects the answer “No,” and yet it is not the answer which He gives it. His answer admits us to a nearer view of His mysterious dealings with men. When men thus estranged and alienated from Him in heart present themselves in person before Him, He does not refuse them an audience. They pray, He hears-their prayer is answered; but how fatal is the gift which He grants! “I the Lord will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols.”
III. “That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart.” This is God’s purpose in answering the evil desires of hearts alienated from His love. Their heart is to become the snare, the net in which they shall be caught, the pitfall in which they shall be entrapped. Could we look back on our years past we should see how many wishes, cherished while we professed to give them up for God, how many talents used in vanity, how many selfish prayers persisted in and gratified, had become like the meshes of a net to take our souls withal. Look back in time, turn your face towards God in real prayer, pray that He may not fulfil His threats, nor answer any other of your prayers, except you say, “Not my will, but Thine, be done.”
C. W. Furse, Sermons preached at Richmond, p. 12.
Eze 14:8; Eze 20:38
Such is the solemn burden with which the prophet Ezekiel closes almost every paragraph of his prophecy: the proposed result of all the judgments denounced and all the mercies promised by God through his ministration. A result so announced, so repeated, cannot be unimportant.
I. When we come seriously to consider the matter, shall we not find that it is a lesson worth knowing at any price-at the price of home and comfort, of wealth and vigour, yea, of life itself, if need be? For let us think on the importance of this knowledge-to know that God is the Lord. On this, in a rational and responsible being, all real and enduring happiness depends. God is the Author of his life, the only satisfying object of his soul’s desire. On communion with Him, on grace derived from Him, on growing in likeness to Him, depend both his present and his advancing power for good. To know Him, not only leads on to eternal life, but it is eternal life itself.
II. Let us endeavour to sketch the boundaries of this knowledge, and give some idea of its nature, and how it is brought about. Man of himself has it not, he requires teaching it. Moreover, it is not a knowledge which any education, however complete, could confer upon us. Education may teach the knowledge of God’s works, may make a man conversant with the interesting and glorious details of creation, but it cannot teach the knowledge of God Himself. You may, and often do, find the accomplished natural philosopher, the accurate and experienced historian, the minute Biblical scholar, yet in total ignorance of the knowledge implied in those words, “Ye shall know that I am the Lord.”
III. “Ye shall know that I am Jehovah.” It is God’s promise to His people. And it is a crowning promise-one that includes all others in itself. For the more knowledge there is of God, the more love will there be towards Him; and the more love there is towards Him the more enjoyment there will be of Him; so that they who know Him best shall stand highest in the ranks of the blessed.
H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. ii., p. 120.
Reference: Eze 14:11.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xv., p. 146.
Eze 14:12-14
The language of the text is worthy of remark, because it speaks of Noah, Daniel, and Job saving their own souls by their righteousness; a form of expression to which undoubtedly many persons would object if it were used at the present day; it would be said to savour of the notion of salvation by works, and to be opposed to the doctrine of justification by faith.
I. In order to illustrate the subject, let us notice first that if we look at the history of the three holy men mentioned in the text, we shall find that they did save their souls or their lives by their righteousness. It is impossible to deny that certain great blessings did come to them because they were righteous, and if we had no religious theory at stake which we were afraid of injuring, we could not fear to say that their righteousness saved them. And it is manifestly in accordance with our own deepest sense of right and justice that this should be so; the notion that good deeds will bring a reward, and that evil deeds will bring punishment, is too deep to be rooted out.
II. Who shall say with our Lord’s description of the judgment before him, that the last judgment will not be a judgment according to works, that righteousness will not save souls alive? If we have a real deep view of our redemption through the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall not be afraid to speak freely as the Scriptures speak concerning the mode of our salvation. On the one hand the Scriptures say the Lord Jesus Christ has said, our own consciences say, that the man who turns away from his wickedness and does that which is lawful and right shall save his soul alive; nothing can interfere with this great principle. At the same time, when a human being conscious of sin presents himself before God, he will feel in his inmost heart that his righteousness is as filthy rags; he will feel that he can by no manner of means save himself, but he knows that he does not depend upon himself, he comes before God as one redeemed by Christ, he claims God’s mercy-not because he has done his duty, but because Christ has died.
Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons, 3rd series, p. 33.
References: Eze 14:13.-W. McAll, Penny Pulpit, No. 104. Eze 14:14.-H. Griffith, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiii., p. 401; Parker, Christian Commonwealth, Sept. 2nd, 1886. Eze 14:19, Eze 14:20.-J. W. Burgon, Ninety-one Short Sermons, No. 81. Eze 14:20.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxviii., No. 1651; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xvii., p. 151. Eze 15:1, Eze 15:2.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iii., No. 125. Eze 15:2.-Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 22. Eze 16:1, Eze 16:2.-Ibid., Sermons, vol. vi., No. 323. Eze 16:5, Eze 16:6.-Ibid., vol. viii., No. 468.
Eze 14:1-23. These inquiring elders, with wickedness in their hearts, give another illustration of the depth of degradation in which the people had sunk. He who searches the hearts knew what was in them. They came with pious, religious pretensions. It sounded well to inquire of the Lord and seek the prophet-priest for that purpose. Their hearts were full of evil. While their lips spoke of asking the Lord, their hearts were full of idolatry. They liked idolatry. Their hearts were in it and this stumbling-block of their iniquity they had put before their faces, which means they openly defied the Lord God of Israel by their doings. Should I be inquired of at all by them? To seek the Lord and inquire of Him in such a condition reveals a brazen spirit and the deepest depravity. Yet this also belongs to the conditions in which the professing people of God are when judgment overtakes them.
Eze 14:12-23 contain an additional judgment message. The threatened judgment cannot be averted; it is unavoidable. Famine is to come and the noisome beasts, symbolical of Gentile world powers, as Daniel beheld them in his vision Dan 7:1-28. The judgment message closes again with a message of mercy and comfort for the remnant.
certain: Eze 8:1, Eze 20:1, 2Ki 6:32, Act 4:5, Act 4:8
and sat: Eze 33:31, Isa 29:13, Luk 10:39, Act 22:3
Reciprocal: 2Ch 34:21 – inquire Isa 21:12 – if Eze 7:26 – then Eze 8:12 – ancients
Eze 14:1. This action was done before and is explained at Eze 8: 1.
Eze 14:1. Then came certain of the elders of Israel Men of note, that were in office and power among the Jews. The prophet neither tells us the name nor the intention of these elders of Israel, nor the time when they came to him. But the manner wherein God speaks, gives us to understand that they came only to tempt him, as the Pharisees came to Christ, and with no design to profit by what they heard, or to correct their faults: see Calmet. And sat before me As was the usual posture of those that came to hear the instructions of any prophet or teacher: see Eze 8:1. In after times the teachers sat in a chair or eminent seat, and the hearers on lower forms at the feet of their masters: see Luk 10:39; Act 22:3.
Eze 14:1. Then came certain of the elders of Israel, ex-judges and magistrates in Judea. They were all idolaters, yet they wished to know whether there were any hope of their return to Jerusalem, and of restoration to their lands and their honours. They sat and waited for the Word of the Lord to speak by his prophet.
Eze 14:3. These men have set up their idols in their heart. Viri hi fecerunt ascendere stercora sua in cor suum. These men have caused the dung, or as the Munster version reads, stercoreos Deos suos, the dung of their gods to ascend before me. Delicacy induced our version to omit a part of the text; yet it has not omitted the same offensive word in Mal 2:3.
Eze 14:14. Noah, Daniel, and Job. God may be so provoked with the sins of a nation, and so determined to destroy them, that he will hear no intercession for them. Even though Noah were to intersede, who was himself delivered because he was righteous, and delivered his children, though they were not all good: or Job, who interseded for his friends, and prevailed. To these Daniel is added, who was now alive, and but a young man. This honour God conferred upon him, as he intended to make him a great blessing to the public, and to animate him in all his services, and comfort him under all his sufferings. The jews at Jerusalem might hear of the growing fame of Daniel, and think that if he had been with them they should have been delivered; but God assures them of the contrary.
Eze 14:15. If I cause noisome beasts to pass through the land, to range abroad unexpectedly; if the lion roar against the shepherds; if the lurking leopard make his leap, and the powerful bear gripe them in his jaws; the holy triumvirate mentioned in the former verse shall not deliver them, for the land shall be waste and desolate. Such is the decision of offended Deity.
REFLECTIONS.
We have before us a striking case which developes the mind of God, and his providential dealings with incorrigible sinners. Elders who despised Ezekiel came to consult him. They sat waiting till the Spirit should move the prophet to speak. Zedekiah also, who imprisoned Jeremiah, came at last to consult him. But were not those elders afraid of offending their idols by coming to ask counsel of the Lord; or had they some doubts or distrust of the idols, ever dumb in the times of extremity.
The elders came for a new revelation, but the prophet preached to them an old sermon, and a very specific one it was. He assured them that God would not receive their worship, perfumed with all the ordures of their uncleanness. No, no; when the wild beasts shall desolate both them and their flocks in the fields; when the sword shall defeat their armies, when the famine, succeeded by the pestilence, shall prey upon the cities,then no prayers should save them. Even though Job, who shone as a morning star in the ancient church; though Noah, who preached righteousness, and withstood the scoffing of the antediluvian rebels; though Daniel whose virtues, though a captive, raised him to the presidency of Chaldea, stood before me, even as Moses stood in the gap when their fathers danced to the calf, I would turn away my face from their intercessions. I would not hear them for a temple desecrated with idols, and profaned with blood. They should only by their righteousness, which abounds to man through the new covenant, deliver their own souls. Nay, I will add more: I would not hear them for any mitigation of the calamities occasioned by the sword, the pestilence, and the famine. When God becomes inexorable, what shall sinners do?
How vain then is it for man, how obtrusive, how offensive to appear before the Lord in his sins. What, is the adulterer at confession? Is the learned seducer swearing faith to heaven? Is the swindler and the robber at the bar of equity, before he has made restitution? The Lord declares, as with an oath, I will not be enquired of by them. I will answer them according to their , according to all the crafts, twists, turns, and purposes of their deceitful hearts.
Oh my soul, what a dread tribunal is that of the Lord. How shall I appear? Have I repented of all my sins, and brought forth fruits meet for repentance? Have I sought the opposite virtue of every vice, and followed after every habitude of faith and piety? Lord help me, according to the multitude of thy tender mercies!
Eze 14:1-11. Insincerity of those who Consult the Prophets.Like prophet, like people. The prophets, as we have just seen (Ezekiel 13), were greatly to blame; but no less were the peoplepartly because of their scepticism (Eze 12:21-28), and partly, as we now see, because of their insincerity. This is illustrated by a question put by certain elders on the occasion of a visit to Ezekiela question which neither deserved nor received an answer; for they are idolaters, certainly at heart and probably in fact; they worship Yahweh with divided heart, and are therefore inevitably excluded from a knowledge of His purpose and will. No answer can be given to such, but the answer of the Divine judgment; and if they continue their policy of impenitent compromise, their fate will be nothing less than terrible (Eze 14:1-8). And not only their fate, but the fate of any prophet that gives them an answer. The only prophet who could accommodate himself to men like these would be one who was himself infatuatedperhaps as the result of some moral obliquity; and such prophets, like those who consult them, must bear their punishment. Only through true prophets and a true people can the better day come (Eze 14:9-11).
14:1 Then came certain of the elders of Israel to me, and {a} sat before me.
(a) He shows the hypocrisy of the idolaters, who will pretend to hear the prophets of God, though in their hearts they follow nothing less than their admonitions and also how by one means or another God discovers them.
4. The effect of false prophets on Israel’s leaders 14:1-11
This prophecy carries on the thought of the one in chapter 13 about false prophets. Those who resorted to false prophets would share their fate, namely, judgment by God.
"Idolatry was the standard method of religion in ancient times. Ancient peoples believed that any depiction of a thing somehow partook of the essence of that thing, no matter how crude or artificial the depiction might be. A picture of a tree contained part of the essence of the tree; a statue of a god contained part of the essence of that god. Where that statue was, the god was of necessity at least partly present. Anything offered to a god’s statue was offered directly to the god." [Note: Ibid., p. 126.]
This attitude persists even today in some parts of the world as seen, for example, in some people’s unwillingness to allow someone else to photograph them. They believe that the image of themselves on the photograph is a part of their essence that the taking of a photo removes from them.
A warning to the elders of God’s people 14:1-5
Some of the elders of the Jewish community in exile came to visit Ezekiel. While these men sat with the prophet, a word from the Lord came to him.
8
PROPHECY AND ITS ABUSES
Eze 12:21 – Eze 14:11
THERE is perhaps nothing more perplexing to the student of Old Testament history than the complicated phenomena which may be classed under the general name of “prophecy.” In Israel, as in every ancient state, there was a body of men who sought to influence public opinion by prognostications of the future. As a rule the repute of all kinds of divination declined with the advance of civilisation and general intelligence, so that in the more enlightened communities matters of importance came to be decided on broad grounds of reason and political expediency. The peculiarity in the case of Israel was that the very highest direction in politics, as well as religion and morals, was given in a form capable of being confounded with superstitious practices which flourished alongside of it. The true prophets were not merely profound moral thinkers, who announced a certain issue as the probable result of a certain line of conduct. In many cases their predictions are absolute, and their political programme is an appeal to the nation to accept the situation which they foresee, as the basis of its public action. For this reason prophecy was readily brought into competition with practices with which it had really nothing in common. The ordinary individual who cared little for principles and only wished to know what was likely to happen might readily think that one way of arriving at knowledge of the future was as, good as another, and when the spiritual prophets anticipations displeased him he was apt to try his luck with the sorcerer. It is not improbable that in the last days of the monarchy spurious prophecy of various kinds gained an additional vitality from its rivalry with the great spiritual teachers who in the name of Jehovah foretold the ruin of the state.
This is not the place for an exhaustive account of the varied developments in Israel of what may be broadly termed prophetic manifestations. For the understanding of the section of Ezekiel now before us it will be enough to distinguish three classes of phenomena. At the lowest end of the scale there was a rank growth of pure magic or sorcery, the ruling idea of which is the attempt to control or forecast the future by occult arts which are believed to influence the supernatural powers which govern human destiny. In the second place we have prophecy in a stricter sense-that is, the supposed revelation of the will of the deity in dreams or “visions” or half-articulate words uttered in a state of frenzy. Last of all there is the true prophet, who, though subject to extraordinary mental experiences, yet had always a clear and conscious grasp of moral principles, and possessed an incommunicable certainty that what he spoke was not his own word but the word of Jehovah.
It is obvious that a people subjected to such influences as these was exposed to temptations both intellectual and moral from which modern life is exempt. One thing is certain-the existence of prophecy did not tend to simplify the problems of national life or individual conduct. We are apt to think of the great prophets as men so signally marked out by God as His witnesses that it must have been impossible for any one with a shred of sincerity to question their authority. In reality it was quite otherwise. It was no more an easy thing then than now to distinguish between truth and error, between the voice of God and the speculations of men. Then, as now, divine truth had no available credentials at the moment of its utterance except its self-evidencing power on hearts that were sincere in their desire to know it. The fact that truth came in the guise of prophecy only stimulated the growth of counterfeit prophecy, so that only those who were “of the truth” could discern the spirits whether they were of God.
The passage which forms the subject of this chapter is one of the most important passages of the Old Testament in its treatment of the errors and abuses incident to a dispensation of prophecy. It consists of three parts: the first deals with difficulties occasioned by the apparent failure of prophecy; {Eze 12:21-28} the second with the character and doom of the false prophets (chapter 13); and the third with the state of mind which made a right use of prophecy impossible. {Eze 14:1-11}
I.
It is one of Ezekiels peculiarities that he pays close attention to the proverbial sayings which indicated the drift of the national mind. Such sayings were like straws, showing how the stream flowed, and had a special significance for Ezekiel, inasmuch as he was not in the stream himself, but only observed its motions from a distance. Here he quotes a current proverb, giving expression to a sense of the futility of all prophetic warnings: “The days are drawn out, and every vision faileth”. {Eze 12:22} It is difficult to say what the feeling is that lies behind it, whether it is one of disappointment or of relief. If, as seems probable, Eze 12:27 is the application of the general principle to the particular case of Ezekiel, the proverb need not indicate absolute disbelief in the truth of prophecy. “The vision which he sees is for many days, and remote times does he prophesy”-that is to say, The prophets words are no doubt perfectly true, and come from God; but no man can ever tell when they are to be fulfilled: all experience shows that they relate to a remote future which we are not likely to see. For men whose concern was to find direction in the present emergency, that was no doubt equivalent to a renunciation of the guidance of prophecy.
There are several things which may have tended to give currency to this view and make it plausible. First of all, of course, the fact that many of the “visions” that were published had nothing in them; they were false in their origin, and were bound to fail. Accordingly one thing necessary to rescue prophecy from the discredit into which it had fallen was the removal of those who uttered false predictions in the name of Jehovah: “There shall no more be any false vision or flattering divination in the midst of the house of Israel” (Eze 12:24). But besides the prevalence of false prophecy there were features of true prophecy which partly explained the common misgiving as to its trustworthiness. Even in true prophecy there is an element of idealism, the future being depicted in forms derived from the prophets circumstances, and represented as the immediate continuation of the events of his own time. In support of the proverb it might have been equally apt to instance the Messianic oracles of Isaiah, or the confident predictions of Hananiah, the opponent of Jeremiah. Further, there is a contingent element in prophecy: the fulfilment of a threat or promise is conditional on the moral effect of the prophecy itself on the people. These things were perfectly understood by thoughtful men in Israel. The principle of contingency is clearly expounded in the eighteenth chapter of Jeremiah, and it was acted on by the princes who on a memorable occasion saved him from the doom of a false prophet. {Jer 26:1-24} Those who used prophecy to determine their practical attitude towards Jehovahs purposes found it to be an unerring guide to right thinking and action. But those who only took a curious interest in questions of external fulfilment found much to disconcert them; and it is hardly surprising that many of them became utterly sceptical of its divine origin. It must have been to this turn of mind that the proverb with which Ezekiel is dealing owed its origin.
It is not on these lines, however, that Ezekiel vindicates the truth of the prophetic word, but on lines adapted to the needs of his own generation. After all prophecy is not wholly contingent. The bent of the popular character is one of the elements which it takes into account, and it foresees an issue which is not dependent on anything that Israel might do. The prophets rise to a point of view from which the destruction of the sinful people and the establishment of a perfect kingdom of God are seen to be facts unalterably decreed by Jehovah. And the point of Ezekiels answer to his contemporaries seems to be that a final demonstration of the truth of prophecy was at hand. As the fulfilment drew near prophecy would increase in distinctness and precision, so that when the catastrophe came it would be impossible for any man to deny the inspiration of those who had announced it: “Thus saith Jehovah, I will suppress this proverb, and it shall no more circulate in Israel; but say unto them, The days are near, and the content [literally word or matter] of every vision” (Eze 12:23). After the extinction of every form of lying prophecy, Jehovahs words shall still be heard, and the proclamation of them shall be immediately followed by their accomplishment: “For I Jehovah will speak My words; I will speak and perform, it shall not be deferred any more: in your days, O house of rebellion, I will speak a word and perform it, saith Jehovah” (Eze 12:25). The immediate reference is to. the destruction of Jerusalem which the prophet saw to be one of those events which were unconditionally decreed, and an event which must bulk more and more largely in the vision of the. true prophet until it was accomplished.
II.
The thirteenth chapter deals with what was undoubtedly the greatest obstacle to the influence of prophecy-viz., the existence of a division in the ranks of the prophets themselves. That division had been of long standing. The earliest indication of it is the story of the contest between Micaiah and four hundred prophets of Jehovah, in presence of Ahab and Jehoshaphat. {1Ki 22:5-28} All the canonical prophets show in their writings that they had to contend against the mass of the prophetic order-men who claimed an authority equal to theirs, but used it for diametrically opposite interests. It is not, however, till we come to Jeremiah and Ezekiel that we find a formal apologetic of true prophecy against false. The problem was serious: where two sets of prophets systematically and fundamentally contradicted each other, both might be false, but both could not be true. The prophet who was convinced of the truth of his own visions must be prepared to account for the rise of false visions, and to lay down some criterion by which men might discriminate between the one and the other. Jeremiahs treatment of the question is of the two perhaps the more profound and interesting. It is thus summarised by Professor Davidson:
“In his encounters with the prophets of his day Jeremiah opposes them in three spheres-that of policy, that of morals, and that of personal experience. In policy the genuine prophets had some fixed principles, all arising out of the idea that the. kingdom of the Lord was not a kingdom of this world. Hence they opposed military preparation, riding on horses, and building of fenced cities, and counselled trust in Jehovah. The false prophets, on the other hand, desired their country to be a military power among the powers around, they advocated alliance with the eastern empires and with Egypt, and relied on their national strength. Again, the true prophets, had a stringent personal and state morality. In their view the true cause of the destruction of the state was its immoralities. But the false prophets had no such deep moral convictions, and seeing nothing unwonted or alarming in the condition of things prophesied of peace. They were not necessarily irreligious men; but their religion had no truer insight into the nature of the God of Israel than that of the common people And finally Jeremiah expresses his conviction that the prophets whom he opposed did not stand in the same relation to the Lord as he did: they had not “his experiences, of the word of the Lord, into whose counsel they had not been admitted; and they were without that fellowship of mind with the mind of Jehovah which was the true source of prophecy. Hence he satirises their pretended supernatural dreams, and charges them from conscious want of any true prophetic word with stealing words from one another.” (“Ezekiel,” p. 85.)
The passages in Jeremiah on which this statement is mainly founded may have been known to Ezekiel, who in this matter, as in so many others, follows the lines laid down by the elder prophet.
The first thing, then, that deserves attention in Ezekiels judgment on false prophecy is his assertion of its purely subjective or human origin. In the opening sentence he pronounces a woe upon the prophets “who prophesy from their own mind without having seen” (Eze 13:3). The words put in italics sum up Ezekiels theory of the genesis of false prophecy. The visions these men see and the oracles they utter simply reproduce the thoughts, the emotions, the aspirations, natural to their own minds. That the ideas came to them in a peculiar form which was mistaken for the direct action of Jehovah, Ezekiel does not deny. He admits that the men were sincere in their professions, for he describes them as “waiting for the fulfillment of the word” (Eze 13:6). But in this belief they were the victims of a delusion. Whatever there might be in their prophetic experiences that resembled those of a true prophet, there was nothing in their oracles that did not belong to the sphere of worldly interests and human speculation.
If we ask how Ezekiel knew this. the only possible answer is that he knew it because he was sure of the source of his own inspiration. He possessed an inward experience which certified to him the genuineness of the communications which came to him, and he necessarily inferred that those who held different beliefs about God must lack that experience. Thus far his criticism of false prophecy is purely subjective. The true prophet knew that he had that within him which authenticated his inspiration, but the false prophet could not know that he wanted it. The difficulty is not peculiar to prophecy, but arises in connection with religious belief as a whole. It is an interesting question whether the assent to a truth is accompanied by a feeling of certitude differing in quality from the confidence which a man may have in giving assent to a delusion. But it is not possible to elevate this internal criterion to an objective test of truth. A man who is awake may be quite sure he is not dreaming, but a man in a dream may readily enough fancy himself awake.
But there were other and more obvious tests which could be applied to the professional prophets, and which at least showed them to be men of a different spirit from the few who were “full of power by the spirit of the Lord, and of judgment, and of might, to declare to Israel his sin.” {Mic 3:8} In two graphic figures Ezekiel sums up the character and policy of these parasites who disgraced the order to which they belonged. In the first place he compares them to jackals burrowing in ruins and undermining the fabric which it was their professed function to uphold (Eze 13:4-5). The existence of such a class of men is at once a symptom of advanced social degeneration and a cause of greater ruin to follow. A true prophet fearlessly speaking the Words of God is a defence to the state; he is like a man who stands in the breach or builds a wall to ward off the danger which he foresees. Such were all genuine prophets whose names were held in honour in Israel-men of moral courage, never hesitating to incur personal risk for the welfare of the nation they loved. If Israel now was like a heap of ruins, the fault lay with the selfish crowd of hireling prophets who had cared more to find a hole in which they could shelter themselves than to build up a stable and righteous polity.
The prophets simile calls to mind the type of churchman represented by Bishop Blougram in Brownings powerful satire. He is one who is content if the corporation to which he belongs can provide him with a comfortable and dignified position in which he can spend good days; he is triumphant if, in addition to this, he can defy any one to prove him more of a fool or a hypocrite than an average man of the world. Such utter abnegation of intellectual sincerity may not be common in any Church; but the temptation which leads to it is one to which ecclesiastics are exposed in every age and every communion. The tendency to shirk difficult problems, to shut ones eyes to grave evils, to acquiesce in things as they are, and calculate that the ruin will last ones own time, is what Ezekiel calls playing the jackal; and it hardly needs a prophet to tell us that there could not be a more fatal symptom of the decay of religion than the prevalence of such a spirit in its official representatives.
The second image is equally suggestive. It exhibits the false prophets as following where they pretended to lead. as aiding and abetting the men into whose hands the reins of government had fallen. The people build a wall and the prophets cover it with plaster (Eze 13:10)-that is to say, when any project or scheme of policy is being promoted they stand by, glozing it over with fine words, flattering its promoters, and uttering profuse assurances of its success. The uselessness of the whole activity of these prophets could not be more vividly described. The white-washing of the wall may hide its defects, but will not prevent its destruction: and when the wall of Jerusalems shaky prosperity tumbles down, those who did so little to build and so much to deceive shall be overwhelmed with confusion. “Behold, when the wall is fallen, shall it not be said to them, Where is the plaster which ye plastered?” (Eze 13:12).
This will be the beginning of the judgment on false prophets in Israel. The overthrow of their vaticinations, the collapse of the hopes they fostered, and the demolition of the edifice in which they found a refuge shall leave them no more a name or a place in the people of God. “I will stretch out My hand against the prophets that see vanity and divine falsely: in the council of My people they shall not be, and in the register of the house of Israel they shall not be written, and into the land of Israel they shall not come” (Eze 13:9).
There was, however, a still more degraded type of prophecy, practised chiefly by women, which must have been exceedingly prevalent in Ezekiels time. The prophets spoken of in the first sixteen verses were public functionaries who exerted their evil influence in the arena of polities. The prophetesses spoken of in the latter part of the chapter are private fortune-tellers who practised on the credulity of individuals who consulted them. Their art was evidently magical in the strict sense, a trafficking with the dark powers which were supposed to enter into alliance with men irrespective of moral considerations. Then, as now, such courses were followed for gain, and doubtless proved a lucrative means of livelihood. The “fillets” and “veils” mentioned in Eze 13:18 are either a professional garb worn by the women, or else implements of divination whose precise significance cannot now be ascertained. To the imagination of the prophet they appear as the snares and weapons with which these wretched creatures “hunted souls”; and the extent of the evil which he attacks is indicated by his speaking of the whole people as being entangled in their meshes. Ezekiel naturally bestows special attention on a class of practitioners whose whole influence tended to efface moral landmarks and to deal out to men weal or woe without regard to character. “They slew souls that should not die, and saved alive souls that should not live; they made sad the heart of the righteous, and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way and be saved alive” (Eze 13:22). That is to say, while Ezekiel and all true prophets were exhorting men to live resolutely in the light of clear ethical conceptions of providence, the votaries of occult superstitions seduced the ignorant into making private compacts with the powers of darkness in order to secure their personal safety. If the prevalence of sorcery and witchcraft was at all times dangerous to the religion and public order of the state, it was doubly so at a time when, as Ezekiel perceived, everything depended on maintaining the strict rectitude of God in His dealings with individual men.
III.
Having thus disposed of the external manifestations of false prophecy, Ezekiel proceeds in the fourteenth chapter to deal with the state of mind amongst the people at large which rendered such a condition of things possible. The general import of the passage is clear, although the precise connection of ideas is somewhat difficult to explain. The following observations may suffice to bring out all that is essential to the understanding of the section.
The oracle was occasioned by a particular incident, undoubtedly historical-namely, a visit, such as was perhaps now common, from the elders to inquire of the Lord through Ezekiel. As they sit before him it is revealed to the prophet that the minds of these men are preoccupied with idolatry, and therefore it is not fitting that any answer should be given to them by a prophet of Jehovah. Apparently no answer was given by Ezekiel to the particular question they had asked, whatever it may have been. Generalising from the incident, however, he is led to enunciate a principle regulating the intercourse between Jehovah and Israel through the medium of a prophet: “Whatever man of the house of Israel sets his thoughts upon his idols, and puts his guilty stumbling-block before him, and comes to the prophet, I Jehovah will make Myself intelligible to him: that I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from Me by their idols” (Eze 14:4-5). It seems clear that one part of the threat here uttered is that the very withholding of the answer will unmask the hypocrisy of men who pretend to be worshippers of Jehovah, but in heart are unfaithful to Him and servants of false gods. The moral principle involved in the prophets dictum is clear and of lasting value. It is that for a false heart there can be no fellowship with Jehovah, and therefore no true and sure knowledge of His will. The prophet occupies the point of view of Jehovah, and when consulted by an idolater he finds it impossible to enter into the point of view from which the question is put, and therefore cannot answer it. Ezekiel assumes for the most part that the prophet consulted is a true prophet of Jehovah like himself, who will give no answer to such questions as he has before him. He must, however, allow for the possibility that men of this stamp may receive answers in the name of Jehovah from those reputed to be His true prophets. In that case, says Ezekiel, the prophet is “deceived” by God; he is allowed to give a response which is not a true response at all, but only confirms the people in their delusions and unbelief. But this deception does not take place until the prophet has incurred the guilt of deceiving himself in the first instance. It is his fault that he has not perceived the bent of his questioners minds, that he has accommodated himself to their ways of thought, has consented to occupy their standpoint in order to be able to say something coinciding with the drift of their wishes. Prophet and inquirers are involved in a common guilt and share a common fate, both being sentenced to exclusion from the commonwealth of Israel.
The purification of the institution of prophecy necessarily appeared to Ezekiel as an indispensable feature in the restoration of the theocracy. The ideal of Israels relation to Jehovah is “that they may be My people, and that I may be their God” (Eze 14:11). That implies that Jehovah shall be the source of infallible guidance in all things needful for the religious life of the individual and the guidance of the state. But it was impossible for Jehovah to be to Israel all that a God should be, so long as the regular channels of communication between Him and the nation were choked by false conceptions in the minds of the people and false men in the position of prophets. Hence the constitution of a new Israel demands such special judgments on false prophecy and the false use of true prophecy as have been denounced in these chapters. When these judgments have been executed, the ideal will have become possible which is described in the words of another prophet: “Thine eyes shall see thy teachers: and thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it.” {Isa 30:20-21}
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary