35<\/strong>. of the people<\/em> ] peoples.<\/strong> This wilderness of the peoples is the Syro-Babylonian wilderness, adjoining the peoples among whom they were dispersed; as that into which their fathers were brought was the wilderness of Egypt, i.e. adjoining Egypt. Isa 40:1-11<\/span> also represents Jehovah as marching at the head of his people, redeemed from exile, through the wilderness from Babylon to Jerusalem. Ezek. may follow Hos 2:14-15<\/span>, but cf. Jer 31:2<\/span> seq<\/em>.<\/p>\n plead face to face<\/em> ] With no intermediaries, no heathen people on whose fellowship they could stay themselves, absolutely cut off from men and alone with their God (Hos 2:4<\/span>). Jehovah’s “pleading” or litigating is sometimes in terrible deeds (ch. Eze 17:20<\/span>), sometimes in words of reason (Isa 1:18<\/span>; Mic 6:2<\/span> seq<\/em>.). Gathered out from the nations and far from their seductive influences Israel will respond to the discipline of her God as in former days (Hos 2:15<\/span>).<\/p>\n Eze 20:35<\/span><\/p>\n I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n The spiritual wilderness<\/strong><\/p>\n Many awful threatenings and delightful promises are scattered up and down in the Word of God. Our text seems to be of a mixed nature: the threatening and the promise are blended together, to excite a holy fear of God and a humble trust in Him.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>God often brings His people into the wilderness gradually, by little and little. The terrors and dangers of the wilderness are concealed; slight convictions are at first impressed which afterwards grow stronger; small rumblings precede the loud claps of thunder; sometimes the clouds seem to break, and promise fair weather; then they grow thicker, and wear a more formidable aspect than ever.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>The Lord brings them in with an high hand and an outstretched arm, as He did the children of Israel of old. However gently He may act, yet He acts powerfully, and the greatest mildness is attended with an irresistible energy. We may be fretful and impatient, unruly and unmanageable; but He who has taken the work in hand will not leave it unfinished. We may stifle our convictions, but God will revive them; may lull conscience asleep, but He will awaken it again.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>God brings into the wilderness with a design to bring out of it again (Isa 57:16-18<\/span>; Lam 3:32<\/span>; Hos 6:1-2<\/span>).<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>He pleads powerfully. How forcible are right words, says Job. And such are the words of God: they are founded upon truth, plain and direct, and carry with them an irresistible energy.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>He pleads convincingly. God will overcome when He judgeth. When He is opponent, no man can be respondent.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>He pleads tenderly and in love; His appeals are made to the understanding and the heart, and an ingenuous mind must feel their force (Mic 6:3<\/span>; Isa 1:18<\/span>). What has been said condemns three sorts of persons–<\/p>\n (1)<\/strong> Those who have always been in the wilderness of sin, but not in that of sorrow; who are merry and jovial, saying, Tomorrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.<\/p>\n (2)<\/strong> Those who think they are in the wilderness of godly sorrow, but who mistake every transient pang for real conviction, and every motion of the affections for the work of the Holy Spirit on the heart.<\/p>\n (3)<\/strong> Those who are in the wilderness, and struggling to get out of it before the Lords time. It is better to be in the wilderness than in Egypt; yea, it is better, unspeakably better, to be in the wilderness, though we continue there all our days, than to be in hell. (B. Beddome, M. A.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Gods tireless pleading<\/strong><\/p>\n Manton says: As one that would gladly open a door, trieth key after key, till he hath tried every key, in the bunch, so doth God try one method after another to work upon mans heart. His persevering grace will not be baffled. He frequently begins with the silver key of a mothers tearful prayers and a fathers tender counsels. In turn He uses the church keys of His ordinances and His ministers, and these are often found to move the bolt; but if they fail He thrusts in the iron key of trouble and affliction, which has been known to succeed after all others have failed. He has, however, a golden master key, which excels all others: it is the operation of His own most gracious Spirit by which entrance is effected into hearts which seemed shut up forever. (C. H. Spurgeon.<\/em>)<\/p>\n Verse 35<\/span>. I will bring you into the wilderness of the people<\/B><\/I>] I will bring you out of your captivity, and bring you into your own<\/I> land<\/I>, which you will find to be a wilderness<\/I>, the consequence of your crimes.<\/P> <\/P> There will I plead with you<\/B><\/I>] There I will be your king, and rule you with a sovereign rule; and the dispensations of my justice and mercy shall either end you<\/I> or mend you<\/I>.<\/P> <\/p>\n Bring you; <\/B>drive you; and since you think of such a course of ease to yourselves by casting me off among the nations, I will bring you among such as you shall be soon weary of. <\/P> Into the wilderness; <\/B>into the most horrid, barbarous, and savage parts of the inhabited world; into the mountainous barren parts of Media, Hyrcania, Iberia, Caspia, and Albania, and Scythia, inhospitable nations, and mortal enemies to strangers. <\/P> Plead; <\/B>debate, pass sentence, and execute it also on you. <\/P> Face to face; <\/B>not, as the rabbins dream, to conceal the dishonour of the Jews, but indeed plainly, openly, and so as my hand shall be seen. <\/P> <\/p>\n 35. wilderness of the people<\/B>rather,”peoples,” the various peoples<\/I> among whom they wereto be scattered, and about whom God saith (Eze20:34<\/span>), “I will bring you out.” In contrast to theliteral “wilderness of Egypt” (Eze20:36<\/span>), “the wilderness of the peoples” is theirspiritual<\/I> wilderness period of trial, discipline, andpurification while exiled among the nations. As the state when theyare “brought into the wilderness of the peoples” and thatwhen they were among the peoples “from” which God was to”bring them out” (Eze20:34<\/span>) are distinguished, the wilderness state probably answerspartially to the transition period of discipline from the firstdecree for their restoration by Cyrus to the time of their completesettlement in their land, and the rebuilding of Jerusalem and thetemple. But the full and final fulfilment is future; the wildernessstate will comprise not only the transition period of theirrestoration, but the beginning of their occupancy of Palestine, atime in which they shall endure the sorest of all theirchastisements, to “purge out the rebels” (Eze 20:38<\/span>;Dan 12:1<\/span>); and then the remnant(Zec 13:8<\/span>; Zec 13:9<\/span>;Zec 14:2<\/span>; Zec 14:3<\/span>)shall “all serve God in the land” (Eze20:40<\/span>). Thus the wilderness period does not denote locality,<\/I>but their state<\/I> intervening between their rejection and futurerestoration. <\/P> plead<\/B>bring the matterin debate between us to an issue. Image is from a plaintiff in a lawcourt meeting the defendant “face to face.” Appropriate, asGod in His dealings acts not arbitrarily, but in most righteousjustice<\/I> (Jer 2:9<\/span>; Mic 6:2<\/span>).<\/P><\/p>\n And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people<\/strong>,…. Into Babylon, and into captivity there, which they thought to avoid by fleeing to other countries. Some think that those inhospitable nations are meant, Syro-media, Caspia, Hyrcania, Iberia, and others, into which many of the Jews were brought, who sought to live elsewhere than at Babylon; and others are of opinion that this respects the time of their return from Babylon to their own land, between which lay a wilderness, here referred to; but perhaps the prophecy respects the present state of the Jews, in which they have continued ever since their destruction by the Romans; through whom they have been brought among the several nations of the world, particularly the Roman empire, compared to a wilderness; and represented as a populous one, as it is, and in which the beast, or antichrist, now is; see Re 17:3<\/span> and there will I plead with you face to face; judge, condemn, and take vengeance, or inflict punishment on them in the most public manner, as he now does. The Targum is, “and I will take vengeance on you face to face”.<\/p>\n He specially marks this reason here, which is a medium between rejection and reconciliation to favor: for God’s bringing the Israelites out of Chaldaea might seem a sign of favor, as if he were again their deliverer. But he here defines why he intended to bring them forth, namely, to plead with them in the desert as with their fathers. We know that when the people came out of Egypt they did not possess the promised land, because they shut the door against themselves by their ingratitude: but if there had been no hope left, it was better for the people to spend their time under the tyranny of Egypt than to pine away in the desert. For it was a kind of life scarcely human to wander in a wilderness and to behold nothing pleasant or agreeable; a mere solitude instead of cultivated fields, and nothing but discomfort instead of beautiful flowers and trees and undulating ground: and besides this, to feed on nothing but manna, to taste no wine, to drink only water from the rock, and to endure heat and cold in the, open air. Such freedom then was by no means agreeable, unless they had hoped to become possessors of the land of Canaan. But a whole generation was deprived of that advantage through their ingratitude. God therefore appositely compares them to their fathers, who had gone forth into the wilderness, and he says, I will make you pass into the desert of the nations. Here he compares the desert of Egypt to that of the Gentiles. Although the passage from the land of Canaan to Chaldaea is partly across an unfruitful wilderness, yet I do not doubt that God here metaphorically points out the state of the people after their return from exile. <\/p>\n The complete meaning is, as he surrounded their fathers throughout their whole life in the wilderness, so after they were brought back from Chaldaea their life should be as solitary as if they were banished to an obscure corner of the world, and to a miserable and deserted land. Here, therefore, another region is not intended, but the state of the people when dwelling in the land of Canaan; although he speaks not only of that small band which returned to their country, but of the liberty promiscuously given to all. He calls that state a desert of the Gentiles, to which all were subjected, whether they remained in distant regions or returned home. We must hold, then, that God would be so far the deliverer of the people that the benefit would reach only a few, since, when the multitude wandered in the desert, they perished there, and did not enjoy the promised inheritance. We now see how God established his sway over the Israelites, when he did not suffer them to be perpetually captive, and yet did not show himself appeased when he brought them back, since he still remained a severe judge. I will bring you, therefore, into the desert of the nations; this is the heat of anger of which he had spoken, and I will judge you, or plead with you, face to face. He signifies by these words, that although their return to Judea was evident, yet he was not propitious, since he met them as an adversary. There, says he, I will meet with you face to face, as when contention is rife, adversaries become opposed, and contend hand to hand: thus God here points out the extremity of rigor when he says, that he will dispute with them face to face. But he says, that he was a pleader in the desert of Egypt, and the sense extends to the future; not that it ought to be understood that God descended to plead a cause, and place himself at another’s tribunal; still it was a kind of pleading when the people were compelled to feel that their impiety and obstinacy was not excusable; and also when experience at the same time taught them that God was by no means appeased, since his wrath was again stirred up. Isaiah’s language is slightly different: Come you, says he, let us reason together, I will plead with you. (Isa 1:0<\/span>.) He is there prepared to argue his cause, as if with an equal. But the case is soon closed and the sentence passed, since it is evident that the people are deservedly punished by God on account of their sins. Thus he pleaded with their fathers in the Egyptian desert when he deprived them all of entrance into the promised land. And afterwards he often punished them for their murmurs, perverse cravings, lusts, idolatries, and other crimes. Hence, let us learn that God is pleading with us whenever any signs of his anger appear; for we cannot derive any advantage from obstinate resistance: and hence nothing remains but to accuse ourselves for our faults. It follows — <\/p>\n (35) Into the wilderness of the people.<\/strong>As in the past there was a period of probation and discipline in the wilderness, so shall there be in the future. The similarity is insisted upon in Eze. 20:36<\/span>, and the phrase face to face is taken from Deu. 5:4<\/span>, not to show that the Lord will interpose again with the same sensible manifestations, but will plead with them in ways equally adapted, in their more advanced condition, to show them His overruling hand. As this phrase is plainly to be understood according to its sense, and not according to the letter, so it is quite idle to attempt to locate <\/em>the wilderness of the people as any material wilderness, as that of Arabia, or that between Babylonia and Palestine. The phrase must mean that wilderness condition of the people, scattered among the nations, in which the Lord will plead with them as He did with their fathers. This might refer, as some commentators think, to the state of the Jews in our own time, dispersed among all nations; but there is nothing in the connection to indicate so distant a future, and it may quite as well refer to the then approaching condition of the people. Already many thousands of them had been carried captive to Babylon; others (see Jer. 10:12<\/span>; Jer. 43:5<\/span>) had been scattered among all the surrounding nations; the mass of the ten tribes had long before been carried by the king of Assyria to other regions; and the large remnant still left in Juda, influenced by their own fears, soon afterwards went down to Egypt. In Ezekiels own life-time, Israel was scattered widely among all the prominent nations of the earth, and thus brought into the wilderness of the people.<\/p>\n 35<\/strong>. <\/strong> The wilderness of the people <\/strong> The Israelites are now wandering among the nations as formerly their forefathers, because of their sins, wandered in the wilderness after leaving Egypt; but they shall yet heed the pleading of Jehovah, as did their fathers, and be brought to their own land (Isa 40:1-11<\/span>; Hos 2:14-15<\/span>; Jer 31:24<\/span>).<\/p>\n Eze 20:35 And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face.<\/p>\n Ver. 35. And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people.<\/strong> ] Into the most solitary and savage places of the world, for a fulness of misery without the benefit of any good society. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n And there will I plead with you face to face,<\/strong> ] i.e., <\/em> Solus cum solis et sine arbitris,<\/em> Having you there alone, I will punish you to some purpose.<\/p>\n the wilderness of the people. Probably another country which would be to them another wilderness in which they were tested as to whether they would hear. <\/p>\n I will: Eze 20:36, Eze 19:13, Eze 38:8, Hos 2:14, Mic 4:10, Mic 7:13-15, Rev 12:14 <\/p>\n and there: Eze 17:20, Eze 38:22, Jer 2:9, Jer 2:35, Jer 25:31, Hos 4:1, Mic 6:1, Mic 6:2 <\/p>\n Reciprocal: Job 23:6 – plead Hos 2:3 – as<\/p>\n Eze 20:35. Wilderness of the people Is a figure of speech, based on the event when they were led out from Egyptian bondage into the wilderness. (See verse 10.) The present passage applies to the history connected with their exile in Babylon.<\/p>\n 20:35 And I will bring you into the {r} wilderness of the people, and there will I enter into judgment with you face to face.<\/p>\n (r) I will bring you among strange nations as into a wilderness and there will visit you, and so call you to repentance and then bring the godly home again, Isa 65:9 .<\/p>\n And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face. 35. of the people ] peoples. This wilderness of the peoples is the Syro-Babylonian wilderness, adjoining the peoples among whom they were dispersed; as that into which their fathers were brought was the wilderness … Continue reading “Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 20:35”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20941\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
I. <\/strong>I will bring you into the wilderness of the people?<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>And there will I plead with you face to face. He does not say that He would plead against them, nor yet that He would plead for them; but He would plead with them, and that face to face, so that they should both see and hear Him. And what would He plead with them about? Perhaps the sins they had committed, and the calamities thereby brought upon themselves. He will also plead the equity of His own proceedings, and the unreasonableness of their conduct. He also pleads with them on the futility of their attempts to help themselves, and the necessity of looking to another quarter for relief (Jer 3:17<\/span>; Jer 3:31; Jer 3:36; Jer 8:22<\/span>).<\/p>\nFuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible <\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"