1178. A Retrospective Scene

A Retrospective Scene

"And say, Thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem, Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite" (Eze_16:3).

We have before us the birth and nativity of the children of Israel. The full description carries us on through verse 5. Let us sum up some of the statements:

Thy nativity was of the land of Canaan.

Thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite.

Thy navel was not cut.

Thou wast not washed, in water to supple thee.

Thou wast not salted at all.

Thou wast not swaddled at all.

No eye pitied thee.

None had compassion on thee.

Thou wast cast out in the open field, to the loathing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born.

What a picture of Israel's nativity. The same story pictures Gentile sinners. We were born in sin. From the head to the foot there was no soundness in us. We were full of wounds and bruises and putrifying sores. From our heart proceeded adulteries, fornications, lasciviousness and all the loathsome marks of sin. There was none to pity, and none to have compassion upon us.

The sinner is like Mephibosheth, languishing at Lodebar, the place of no pasture.

The sinner is like the prodigal, wasting his substance in riotous living, and dwelling in a far country.

The sinner is like the man of Gadara, whom no man could tame; who was driven of the devil, and dwelt among the tombs.

The unsaved are children of wrath, children of the wicked one, children of darkness, cursed children.

The unsaved have altogether "gone out of the way; * * their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and misery are in their ways" (Rom_3:12, Rom_3:16).

The unsaved are in a horrible pit; they are sinking down in the miry clay; they are neither washed, nor salted, nor swaddled in their birth; they are neither loved nor pitied, nor cared for in their life; they are altogether unprofitable.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR